Paro felt the eyes peer down on her, staring at her with eyes completely different from the curly haired. Chaima’s eyes were gentle and warm. Paro had always been met with a soft motherly look, whereas the eyes of this girl, who resembled the girl she adored so much, were cold as ice. Cold enough to make her soul freeze. It took Paro a while to completely acknowledge the words she had spoken seconds before. But when the realisation stabbed her in the gut, the girl immediately released the stranger in her arms and took cautious steps back. Paro folded her hands tightly in her chest, taking countless more looks at the girl in desperate hopes that she was mistaken. That this girl was indeed Chaima and that she would take her back home. But the voice leaving the girl’s lips caused her hopes to shatter in pieces.

“No.” Saenan spoke. “I’m not the Chaima you speak of.”

Paro retreated a few more steps, although she wasn’t sure she could ever be at a safe distance from these cold and harsh eyes. The table behind the girl prevented her from backing away more. As the girl’s fingers wrapped around the edge, she kept her intense stare on the girl in front of her, afraid of any movements she’d make. To Saenan the fear in the girl’s eyes were obvious. This girl in front of her resented her, hated her and wanted to get away from her as soon as possible. Maybe Paro did, but the truth was that the girl was curious as to how this girl, who looked so much like her beloved friend, had that look in her eyes. What had this girl seen and been through, to have eyes denying her own soul. Not being able to take the painful view anymore, Paro tore her eyes off the girl and instead focussed on the ground.

“Saenan, that’s enough.” Paro heard Seonil’s warm voice tell her.

“Why? I was simply telling the truth.”

Paro flinched upon Saenan’s words. They stabbed her like cold icicles, making her grip on the table tighten. Paro could feel her nails bend with the pressure she put on the wooden surface. Saenan’s eyes were still on her, she could feel it, she knew it. Paro felt her legs growing numb as slowly the feeling in her hands also started to fade. Her mind was dazed and she was slowly driving herself into a state of panic. Upon the tapping of heels against the marble, Paro was instantly thrown back into an alert state. The girl flinched under the harsh sound of the door falling into its lock. Her eyes slowly lifted, first capturing a pair of pumps and afterwards another set of shoes, this time the pair of feet was of a male. There were new people who had arrived. Although she lacked the courage to face the newcomers, Paro lifted her head anyway and came eye to eye with a girl with soft brown curls, visibly shorter than Saenan and a man about as tall as Saenan. For some reason, Paro immediately turned away from the man’s face. The eerie feeling that bubbled in her stomach told her to. Something we would recognise as instinct.

“Saenan, if she panics it’s your life that will be in danger, not hers.” Saenan heard Hana tell her and Paro noticed the concern in the girls voice.

“Silence,” the man demanded.

From his feet, Paro could she that he turned to his right to convey this to the young women. Right after he took several steps towards Paro and the alerted girl gave in to her curiosity and looked up. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her as slightly fell open. She knew this man, but from where? His eyes bored into her, driving that nostalgic, yet unfamiliar feeling through her whole system. She knew this man, Jae, but only his face and voice. She didn’t know anything about him. Her whole life she had been staring at this man from behind the glass. She recalled his proud face and boyish smile as her first memory ever. Her last memory of him, however, was a distant look in his eyes, almost disappointed and lost at what to do from now on. What to do with her, she realised.

“My beautiful jewel, welcome back home.”
 

Paro’s eyes widened even more and she became completely astonished and froze.
 

“Welcome home, Seon.”

* * * * *

When a scream filled the minds of the group of 10, everyone halted whatever activities they were engaged with. Alerted the group listened, to see if they could recognise the voice. That one scream turned into a series of shouts and more screams. Soon enough Yoseob felt a stinging pain in his head. A sharp bolt going from one temple to the other. The spellcaster grabbed his head and wa brought down to his knees by the force of the mental pain. He had recognised the voices. The scream hadn’t come from any of the 10. Yoseob could not identify the screams and instead focussed on finding out how many connections there were in their spell. If the voices weren’t theirs, then something or someone must be interfering with his spell. He had to find out, he had to know who was distracting them.

“Who is it?!” Baeri cried out.

“Yoseob is working on it everyone, calm down.” Doojoon assured the group.

“Meanwhile, Junhyung is everything fine over there?” Hyejoon asked.

“Everyone is okay. We’re actually alone right now, resting for a while.” he responded. “What about Dongwoon?”

“We’re okay. We just faced some Vexes.” the youngest of the men explained.

“There are new kinds though. If the one’s we faced previously were the weaker ones, these are definitely a grade higher.” Chaima pitched in.

“Be carefu-” Doojoon was interrupted by another scream.

This time he was sure it didn’t belong to the members.

“Vexes, got to go.” Dongwoon let the leader know before another scream whailed through their minds.

“Found it. There are two … things interfering with the spell. I located them.” Yoseob finally managed to speak out.

The pain in his voice worried Gikwang. “Yoseob-ah, don’t overdo it.”

“They’re near you guys. And they’re closing up on you.” the spellcaster continued, ignoring the concern of his friend.

“Don’t worry, we got this.” Junhyung assured him.

And Yoseob had been right. Two Vexes approached the group of four within the span of a minute, lunging directly at them. These had been completely different from the four-legged creatures from before. These beasts were walking on two feet, had two arms and while their lower bodies were lean, their upper bodies were built like gorilla’s. Only their faces were shaped with a dangerous snout and even scarier fangs. Junhyung eyed his group mates. Gikwang was still pretty exhausted and Baeri was a close range fighter. Hyunseung was an illusionist, so he was probably their best chance at defeating these things. Gikwang summoned two mountain gorilla’s twice his own size by his side, while Baeri had her hand planted on his back, probably providing him with a stamina boost. Hyunseung had grabbed several daggers from his pouch. Junhyung changed the shape of his arms into dual blades, ready to attack.

* * * * *

“There is no end to them!” Chaima exclaimed while catching up on her breath.

“Brace yourself, a new group is approaching.” Dongwoon warned the girl.

The brunette glanced around at the several shattered Vex corpses, that hadn’t completely dissolved into dust yet. Although they do a short while after their cores being shattered. That meant that these dozens of corpses were newly defeated. There were enough to completely blacken the barren land around them. Even Chaima was surprised at the flood of these creatures that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The girl slowly dropped to the end of her stamina and although Dongwoon didn’t show it, she knew he must be the same. The new approaching group consisted of almost 40 of the creatures. Dongwoon raised his hands and took a deep breath while facing the palms in front of him. Once his hands were raised he lifted more than half of the creatures, only to drop them harshly with the movement in the opposite direction. Sickening cracks were heard even from that distance of at least 10 metres. The ones that came closer got engulfed by Chaima’s flames. The girl stared into the horizon, behind the few left overs that were still approaching them at high speed. The land in the distance was covered by a completely black blanket approaching them at a fast pace.

“We have to get out of here!” Dongwoon shouted as he jumped into the air.

Once floating with his abilities, he grabbed Chaima’s arm and raised her towards an unapproachable height right on time for the Vexes to miss their attack. Chaima swallowed the lump in upon trying to count the amount of foes that were the next to attack them. What Dongwoon didn’t expect, was the flying beasts that appeared to look like the crossing between a giant bat and a vulture. His eyes widened and he grimaced in disgust as the gravity manipulator sped up to make their escape. Unfortunately for the two of them, the flying Vexes caught up to them easily. Chaima flicked Dongwoon’s  grip off her, to the latter’s shock, and twisted in the air to create a blazing tornado around her. She guided it with a boost towards the Vexes and flailed in the air as she made a drop pummeling back to the earth. Dongwoon caught the girl by her legs right on time and let out a sigh in relief.

“At least warn me next time!” He demanded, while still trying to overcome the shock of Chaima’s recklessness.

“And take spoil the element of surprise? Yeah, right.” the pyrokinetic responded with a grin, making the floating agent shake his head at her.

“Let’s get out of here.” He cut the conversation short.

* * * * *

“Did it work? Were you able to break the connection?” Hyejoon asked the Spellcaster in worry.

The screams were petrifying and she would do anything to make it stop. But breaking the spell was not an option, even if it caused her a migraine.

“Yes. I just need them to destroy those Vexes and we can move on.” Yoseob informed.

“Good.” Doojoon reacted while patting the shorter’s back.

“They’re doing this on purpose though.” Yoseob suddenly noted. “I almost located Paro.”

“And they knew?” Doojoon wanted to confirm. He pursed his lips once Yoseob nodded.

“Doojoon hyung!” the leader heard a familiar voice ring in his mind.

“What is it Dongwoon?” he asked.

“Are you okay? You sound tired.” Hyejoon noticed.

“Well… we’re fleeing and…” he paused.  “I’m carrying Chaima.”

“I’m not that heavy! And I can fly myself!” the Pyrokinetic protested.

“And risk you making that deadly drop a second time? No thanks, I’m good.” Dongwoon countered.

“Fly? What?” Yoseob pitched in.

“Well… the North is completely crowded with Vexes. I couldn’t even count how many. The hills and meadows were filled with them. So we fled.” Dongwoon explained.

“The only catch is, that these bastards fly too. So Dongwoon is flying and I attack.” Chaima added.

“They’re coming from Shunkan and heading towards …. well all over the world.” Dongwoon noted as he looked around.

“We’re out of options here, Doojoon. Some help would be great.” Chaima appealed.

“Regrou-”

“Found her!” Yoseob’s shout rang through all their minds.

“You did?” Hyunseung carefully asked, just to confirmed.

Yoseob nodded. “I know where Paro is.”