By the fields of flowers, the group buried Mari. Lu Han had one of his knees kneeled before the tablet that they had made for her. He stared blankly at the soil which Mari was buried under while his fingers dug deep into the earth. Hae Ri stretched out her arm and vines emerged from the ground, forming a border around Mari’s grave. Hae Ri’s arm shook and she coughed, blood spluttered onto the ground.

“Don’t be reckless,” Baekhyun warned. He placed his hand on Hae Ri’s shoulder worriedly. They had met with much resistance upon leaving the club and they were all in bad shape. Hae Ri turned to him and shook her head gently with a weary expression. Baekhyun frowned but Hae Ri simply looked towards Mari’s grave and concentrated: buds popped out from these vines and beautiful white flowers blossomed all around.

“Thank you…” Lu Han whispered. He stood up and looked at the sky: dark grey clouds loomed over him ominously. The sun could not be seen and they were shrouded in semi-darkness. Hae Ri looked around. The once glorious fields of flowers were now withering. The vibrancy of their colours were gone and replaced by dull shades. Hae Ri felt her stomach lurch even though she had already gotten used to the reek in the air. The brightly lit Soldier Town was now dark and unoccupied. Corpses were rotting everywhere – both that of the soldiers and the Bloodsuckers. It was the remnants of a battle. The soldiers had fought back when the Bloodsuckers from the Lotus Club had emerged but the former was taken off guard. The main troops had evacuated, leaving a few teams of soldiers to deal with the trouble. Both sides have gone all out but the Bloodsuckers had the upper hand. In the end, Hae Ri and the gang had come face to face with the undefeated Bloodsuckers and gotten rid of them. The area was now barren.

It was funny how much things could change in such a short time.

The sensation of hell fire burning in his gut jolted Lay awake. His heart was pounding so quickly that his breaths were coming out in rasps. However, his senses quickly realised that he was safe and completely fine.

“You’re finally awake,” Baekhyun commented.

Lay’s eyes adapted to the lack of light in his surroundings and he turned around to see Baekhyun smiling at him. It was raining and they were both sitting down with their backs against a tree trunk.

“Where are we…?” Lay asked hesitantly.

Baekhyun patted his dear friend on the shoulder while Lay simply looked at him quizzically.

Lay and Baekhyun walked towards the other three. The trees that they were taking shelter under had such dense leaves that it was as if a big canopy was above them. Hae Ri, Lu Han and Chanyeol were seated some distance away from each other. The former two were deep in thought whereas the latter was sleeping. However, when the duo approached them, Hae Ri and Lu Han came forward to meet them.

“Lay, you’re awake,” Hae Ri greeted with a lethargic smile whereas Lu Han gave Lay a one-arm hug with a grim expression. Chanyeol woke up soon after he realised that Lay was awake.

“I’m sorry…” Lay began and he bowed deeply.

“I guess I was feeling very lonely-”

“You were under an illusion,” Hae Ri rationalized.

 “I was…but-“ Lay cut back in.

“If you had seen how Madame really looked like, you would never have dared to go near her,” Baekhyun interrupted cheekily.

Lay sighed but his dimples showed because he was smiling despite himself.

Baekhyun put one arm around Lay’s shoulders and mock-strangled him.

“We forgive you!” Baekhyun exclaimed.

Hae Ri smiled and nodded.

Lay looked towards Chanyeol expectantly and the latter simply said,

“At least everything is fine now.”

Reluctantly, Lay brought his gaze to Lu Han. His friend was looking on the ground. Lay’s heart fell.

“I should have known…” he thought to himself. However, after a few moments, Lu Han looked up at Lay straight in the eye.

“What’s done is done. We just have to move forward. We have a mission to accomplish,” he replied sincerely.

Lu Han stretched out his fist and Lay knocked fists with him. All was well again.

“But there are still many unresolved issues aren’t there?” Chanyeol piped up, his demeanour dark.

Everyone turned towards him, surprised by the sudden question. Hae Ri frowned for Chanyeol was acting out of character.

“Why can Lay access our telepathy channel?” Chanyeol asked dryly.

Silence ensued and the atmosphere turned gloomy again.

Baekhyun his lips nervously.

“Why does it matter?” he replied.

“At least it’s more convenient now and we can keep Lay in our loop-”

“Fine,” Chanyeol interrupted.

“Then what are we going to do now after receiving the last clue?”

Baekhyun thought that Chanyeol was being rude but he kept mum.

“The far east of the East Sea, where things are made out of nothing,” Lu Han recited the combination of the 2 clues.

“If we go any further east, it would be the ocean...” Chanyeol mulled.

“Nothing...?” Lay had no idea what the last clue meant.

“It would really help if we had a map right now…” Hae Ri thought aloud.

Lu Han snapped his fingers.

“We don’t have a map…but we can contact someone who would have access to one…” he suggested.

He sat on the ground and closed his eyes tightly to concentrate. However, a few minutes passed and there was still nothing. Lu Han opened his eyes, lethargy evident on his face.

“I can’t find a connection to the Park couple…” he murmured.

“Let me try,” Lay offered. He knew that he was the one with the most energy among them and it was a fact that he had managed to feed recently. Though Lu Han was reluctant to let Lay try, for he was still new to the whole telepathy thing, it was their best bet. Lay sat down next to Lu Han and focused. For a moment, there was only pure emptiness in everyone’s minds but then slowly, a connection to somewhere far away was formed.

Lay was the first to test it out,

“Mr Park…?”

“…-ay?! Lay?...Everyone…My son,”  Mr Park finally replied.

Hae Ri felt her heart warm upon hearing Mr Park’s voice and she threw a glance at Chanyeol. She saw something flicker across his eyes when Mr Park mentioned ‘my son’.

“Thank goodness…I have been trying to contact all of you for so long…But I believe that you guys have been too exhausted. But Lay…why are you able to use telepathy?” Mr Park asked.

“I don’t know…sir,” Lay replied politely.

“You must be the fourth one…” Mr Park mused.

“What do you mean, sir?” Lay questioned.

“I do not know much but…as a Keeper, I was told that apart from the royals, I have the duty of protecting a certain key vampire. I believe that this vampire is of great importance to the vampire kind and he has some link to the royal family but I have not been able to identify who he was…It must be fate that the five of you have embarked on this journey,” Mr Park explained.

Lay became thoughtful for a moment. All his life he had always believed that he was a normal vampire. It was a little difficult to register Mr Park’s words.

“Sir,” Lu Han began.

“We have gathered the 2 clues but we are having troubles deciphering it…”

“Go on,” Mr Park urged.

“We have gathered this: ‘the far east of the East Sea, where things are made out of nothing’ and we are currently in Donghae,” Lu Han explained.

“where things are made out of nothing …If I do recall properly, it is said that in the past there was a beautiful island of pristine waters and nature. There was no level ground on this place and there were either basins or cliffs. There were no thieves, pollution or snakes and all was good. The place was Ulleungdo Island and it was also known as the island of the Three Mu and Five Da, symbolising that it has nothing and yet it has many at the same time. Regarding its geographical location, do give me a few minutes to check it out…” Mr Park became silent for awhile.

They were finally getting something and Hae Ri nodded gratefully at Lay.

“In the past, this island used to be directly east of Donghae and it lies in the Sea of Japan. However there were many sea conflicts between our country and Japan within the past decade and I am not sure if Ulleungdo still exists. However, it does seem to fit the 2 clues. Dae Won has been anxious about all of you and I’m sure he would be able to send a private jet over so that we can speed up the journey to Savant,” Mr Park offered.

“Thank you very much sir,” Hae Ri replied.

“Is everything going well for you over there?”

Mr Park sighed,

“It is hard for me to return to NSA with the top security and the fact that they are so defensive now that we are in a war…I have been at Lamia, trying to use our resources to help as many people and vampires as possible. Dae Won and Sang Hun have been by my side helping out and I can say we are doing quite well…Sorry for not being able to let you know how your Appa is doing, Hae Ri.”

Hae Ri’s expression darkened.

“And my son…how are you holding up?” Mr Park asked affectionately.

There was a slight change in Chanyeol’s demeanour and his voice wavered as he replied,

“I-I’m doing well…”

An awkward silence followed and Hae Ri knew that Mr Park must be feeling disappointed as he would have expected more words from his son. She was about to urge Chanyeol to reassure his Appa some more when the said man sent a telepathy,

“We don’t have much time to lose, we will move to the shore to await the jet.”

There was momentary silence due to Chanyeol’s sudden attempt to end the conversation.

“…Of course. We have already sent the jet over… But my dear children, do not let your guard down.” Mr Park replied calmly for he could understand Chanyeol’s impatience.

“There are still many uncertainties in your path.”

Another update~ We are approaching the last third of the 2nd arc :D 

And so one and a third arc more to go before I can finally close this story :)

ohmigosh the number of tragedies that are happening this year are seriously...

#prayfortheworld