Chapter 8. Cheating Death

Luhan's vision was blurry, he strained to see the figure in front of him and became dizzy. He felt a sudden intense pain in his shoulder and memories flooded back to him. His vision returned slowly and he saw Minseok crushing the creature's neck slowly and painfully, Luhan shook away his pain and tried to stand but it only resulted in him falling to the floor with a pained groan. Minseok's golden eyes shot to him and he dropped the carcass of the creature, he knelt down to Luhan's face and smirked, "sorry about that, nice to meet ya! I'm Xiumin, and you must be Luhan right?"

He stared at Minseok in confusion and he laughed at his expression, "I'm not your precious Minseok ok? I'm the other half of his spirit, Xiumin. I would kill you if it wasn't for Minseok so you better thank him later. Anyway, I'm his stronger form and I have only one goal when Minseok wakes me up... kill. You're an exception, plus you're pretty cute so I can't kill you, just stick with me and I'll keep you safe for Minseok."

Luhan nodded in understanding and took Xiumin's outstretched hand, he watched as he shifted into a gigantic wolf that was as tall as the vines that clung to the wall, Xiumin's wolf was different though. The huge white wolf emanated an icy blue glow and had tones of it in his long, fluffy fur, his eyes were shining golden and twinkled like diamonds. Luhan climbed onto his back and the huge beast and took off through the valley, Luhan still felt weak and buried his face in Xiumin's fur, although his fur was soft, it just didn't feel the same as Minseok's. Luhan observed the valley ahead of them and saw a huge, dark silhouette as well as a few smaller ones, "that's my friends in trouble!" Luhan yelled over the wind.

Xiumin growled in response and charged over to where the figures all stood, kicking up dirt and dust as he went, Luhan readied himself for the danger as the beast came into view.

Suho shoved Lay backwards and kept nuzzling the wolf to run, Lay refused and tried to help Tao and Kris who were distracting the creature. Suho made sure Lay was protected from danger and he watched the four headed wolf growl in irritation, "what is that!?" Kyungsoo yelled pointing towards the entrance of the hexagonal room they were in.

Suho squinted and his eyes widened as he saw the outline of a gigantic creature heading straight towards them, suddenly a deafening roar was heard and a gigantic white wolf landed on the shadow beast and it was taken by surprise. Suho watched as the two wolves clawed mercilessly at each other and was even more surprised when he saw Luhan land on the ground not far from them, "Luhan!?" He breathed with relief.

The two ran up to each other panting, "what is that thing?!" Suho stared at the giant white wolf.

"That..." Luhan said pointing at the wolf, "is Minseok."

"No way! You're serious?" Suho gasped.

"Minseok is two different people!," Luhan tried to comprehend the situation.

"Minseok is a Split Soul?" Suho felt his jaw drop.

"Split Soul?" Luhan mumbled.

Suho shook his head, "never mind that! We've got to get the others out of here, I'm sorry but we're going to have to abandon this mission."

"But Chanyeol, Chen, Sehun and Baekhyun are all in that thing!" Lay yelled behind them.

Luhan turned and saw the creature's four heads, and sure enough, on each head was each of their individual elements. "We can't leave them!" His eyes widened.

"There's nothing we can do, we're not strong enough to fight that thing," Suho sighed, "the only thing we can do is stay alive to save them another time."

Luhan looked desperately at the two giants battling, "damn you..." He gritted his teeth.

Kris grabbed Luhan's hand and dragged him away from the danger, Suho did the same with Lay and Tao, and Kai protectively covered Kyungsoo as he led him to safety. Luhan heard a huge crash behind him and spun around to see Xiumin pinned to the wall and the four headed wolf cackled, "you stupid wolf! You shall meet the wrath of my mistress!" 

Luhan could only stare in shock as the shadow beast brought his claw to Xiumin's neck and swiftly sliced it open, blood poured over the dirt and the beast laughed loudly as Xiumin fell limp and dust rose where he fell. "MINSEOK!" Luhan screamed.

The wolf turned all of its four heads to face Luhan, "your little friend is dead and there's nothing you can do about it!" It grinned and its eyes shone the colour of Xiumin's blood.

Luhan shook with hatred and rage as well as despair, he saw Xiumin's eyes turn from gold to purple as Minseok returned to his body, the huge white wolf almost looked as though it smiled sadly for a second before the purple eyes dulled to black. He clenched his fists and felt power coarsing through his veins, his voice was laced with venom, "I'll kill you..."

The beast laughed loudly, "you? A weakling like you defeating a creature like me?!"

He felt his new power strongly and conjured a long shadow scythe from thin air, "yes... You killed Minseok, so I will kill you," Luhan chuckled darkly.

The beast just stared with actual fear present in each pair of crimson eyes, Luhan smirked, "sit."

The creature sat down against its will, "don't you dare approach me human!" It growled.

"Oh but you see... I'm not human, I'm a wolf, and I'm..." Luhan took a step forward, "your..." He stood in front of the beast, "...MASTER!" His voice thundered and shook the entire valley.

The creature whimpered and fell down in front of Luhan, he pressed his scythe against the first head that belonged to Baekhyun and cut it off, he then proceeded to chop each head off until only one head remained, "never touch my Minseok again..." He whispered in its ear before slicing its final head off.

The body shattered like glass and the shadow burnt up with a deafening screech, each head seemed to melt until they became each body of the four wolves. Luhan ignored everything else and walked up to Minseok's body, "... wake up so I can tell you that I love you..."

He sat beside the giant wolf's head and it softly, "don't worry... I'll wait..."

Suho watched his friend smiling at the corpse of Minseok and felt like something was off, Kris was about to walk over but Suho stopped him, "he knows what he's doing," he sighed.

Luhan watched as the huge wolf glowed and shrunk until it became Minseok, his head was lying on his lap and Luhan smiled as he brushed some of his hair from his face. "L... Lu-ge?" Minseok smiled weakly up at him.

"Hey Minnie," Luhan spoke softly.

"Your eyes... did you get your power back?" Minseok smiled at him happily.

He lifted his hand to his head and held his breath as he felt the two silky ears on his head, he slowly moved a new area of his lower back and felt a tail that he curled around himself, his fur was jet black and his eyes were a shimmering red. "You must be... my opposite, Death Reaper," Minseok breathed.

"Death Reaper? Me?" He tilted his head in confusion.

Minseok nodded and Lay walked over to them, "as great wolves, you both have titles Luhan," Lay explained for Minseok, "for example, Minseok is known as the Great Snow Wolf, the Life Breather, the Spirit Speaker, the Guardian of Frost and the Ice Angel of the North."

Luhan nodded, "so I am this Death Reaper?"

Lay nodded, "the tree of Death has chosen you to become the next great wolf, you are Death Reaper, Soul Stealer, King of the Shadows, Crimson Eyed Beast and the Dark Angel of the South."

"Hey Luhan..." Minseok whispered.

"hmm?" He looked caringly down at him.

"Don't you need to say something to me?" Minseok grinned mischeviously.

"Oh... Oh! I love you Minnie!" Luhan laughed softly.

 He giggled and curled up on Luhan's lap, "when did you two get so close?" Lay raised a brow curiously.

Minseok flashed his gummy smile, "Luhan looks the same as when we first met, other than his fur and eye colour, I'm falling for him again."

Luhan smirked, "I'm just so hot, no one can resist this."

Minseok gently slapped him on the cheek, "shut up before I freeze you death, you won't be so hot then."

"You and I both know that I'd just melt the ice with my unstoppable hotness," Luhan posed, receiving a glare from the older.

"You two idiots can fight later, we've completed our mission and I don't want another one of those creatures showing up," Suho sneered, "can someone help carry Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Sehun and Chen for me?"

They nodded and got to their feet, Minseok stumbled but was caught by a very concerned Luhan, "you're still weak?"

Minseok shook away his dizziness, "I'm... I'm fine."

Luhan frowned and before he could protest, he lifted Minseok into his arms, frightening him. Lay smiled and gave Luhan a secret thumbs up, he saw something shining in the corner of his eye and walked over to where the beast once lay. He noticed a small circular piece of wood, it had a Moon and Sun carved into it, surrounded by stars, there were two wolves on it and each held up the sky. Lay flipped it over and studied the image on the back closely, "oh no..." He breathed.

Tao watched as Lay ran over to Suho with a panicked look and shoved a piece of mysterious looking wood into his hands, Tao tilted his head in confusion and held back the urge to see what it was. He heard something echo in his mind and even though he didn't understand, each word spoken chilled him to the core.

Time is running out...

Not even you can stop it...

The Dark Sun approaches...