We set off as soon as we were all awake; just like I said we would. When I had awoken and descended the staircase into the living room to wait for the other four mages, I found that the group was already there waiting for me. They were hunched over the coffee table, where I knew we had left the map, and were speaking in soft voices as if they were afraid to wake me up from my sleep.

Silently, I picked up my pistols and placed them in their holsters; I had left them out because they had once told me my pistols probably belonged to their leaders and I wanted to let them make sure. It looked as if they hadn't been touched, so I assumed the group was too busy figuring out how we were to get to the next mage to inspect my weaponry.

Finally, I made my way over to the table and carefully got in between Sehun and Kai, alerting them for a moment at my presence, while I was focusing on the map. According to the map, in order to get to the frozen lake, we had to go through one of the few remaining towns. I hadn't heard anything about an invasion of the town we had to go through, but I knew it would be dangerous. If my town had been breached, then it was only a matter of time before the rest of the towns also would be breached.

"Yun Seung," that was Tao calling, and I looked up to see him looking back at me with an apology written on his expression, "Are you set to go?"

I nodded, but I was still hesitant. I knew these boys had powers, but would they be enough against them? I had never seen these boys in combat, so I wouldn't know for sure, but considering the fact that they couldn't use their powers against each others', would they even stand a chance?

"Is something wrong?" Sehun seemed worried and leaned over the map once more to see what I'd been so hesitant about, "What's wrong with the map?"

"Oh? It's nothing." I shook my head quickly and grabbed my backpack on the way to the door, "Let's go so we can come back before the sun sets this time."

"She's just worried she won't be able to get enough beauty sleep later." Kai's voice was light and teasing, and I laughed along with them, because that was a better explanation than that I was worried we'd die on the way to finding the new mage.

"Are you kidding?" Chen snorted lightly and then jogged forward so that we were walking side by side, "She's already beautiful."

I almost choked at the compliment because one, it was Chen. Also, it was the first time anyone had ever complimented me in such a way and I wasn't sure of what to make it. I turned and narrowed my eyes at him because it was him, but I could see Sehun and Tao a few feet behind us sending death glares over to Chen.

"I'd suggest showing him some of your beauty secrets," Kai walked forward as well and shoved Chen to the side, "but Chen is beyond help."

Did Kai just call Chen ugly? What? Did I miss something, or did the two of them started to bicker again like children?

"At least I don't look like a girl." I don't know why Chen had to mutter that, because to me it just seemed like he wanted to pick a fight; and it was working.

"Shut it, both of you." That was Tao speaking as he also jogged forward and made sure to keep the two of bickering mages away from me, "If you keep this up, she's going to think we're all as annoying as you."

I heard Sehun snicker at that, and I admittedly had to hide my smile so Chen and Kai wouldn't think I was also ganging up against them. Thankfully, I was spared from an argument directed towards me, but that led the four mages to argue amongst themselves. I wanted to hush them in order to think, of course, but I doubted they would listen to me at that point. But you know what? Even though hearing the four of them argue was annoying, my heart swelled in joy. They were alive and certainly well, and that's what mattered to me.

We continued on like that until noon, which is when we caught glimpse of the town we'd have to pass. My heart was covered in fear and doubt, because I was afraid of what we'd meet inside of that town. I allowed the four to move ahead of me, my fingers grazing over my holsters as we neared the border, and once we stopped, I almost gasped in fear.

I could see them even from outside the border. There were people like me who were trained to fight them in there, though I already knew their efforts were futile. Those things were much stronger than any of us.

"Let's find another way around." My voice was wavering, and I didn't look away from what I could see, but I knew I had already caught Sehun's worried gaze.

"This is the only way." Kai shook his head and let out a sigh of resignation before turning back to me and widening his eyes.

Tao was the first to reach my side, pulling me into his chest and covering my sight of them. I winced as I held onto Tao, because I didn't know why I was so frightened of those things. Deep down, however, I did know why I was frightened of them; because something about them was off. The fact that they saw us and didn't leave the borders to get us; the fact that the mages with me didn't seem to be worried.

"Yun Seung, we have to go in there." Chen walked over to Tao and I and slowly pulled me away from Tao so he could look at me, "We'll be able to fight through them, but you need to stay with one of us. We must separate in order to use our powers."

"The other way would take us at least a week to get to the lake." Sehun muttered to me, though his full attention was on the town and the impending dangers it would bring us.

"She'll stay with me." Kai quickly got between us and put an arm around my shoulder to squeeze it protectively, "If anything, I can teleport her to somewhere safe."

I looked over at Tao, since he was the only one I'd ever been out with when in a real battle. Tao looked down at me before glancing back at Kai and giving him an unsure nod, "Keep her safe."

Kai gave him a stern nod before holding his hand out to me. I knew I had been able to teleport on my own before, but I knew why he was holding his hand out for me now; he was going to protect me. Taking a deep breath, I latched onto his hand, and then we were running into the border. When I glanced behind us, Tao, Sehun, and Chen were simply standing there and watching us.

"Don't turn back. They'll be fine." When I looked over at Kai, a smirk graced his lips, and it felt like he was pulling me even faster, "I don't have a combat skill like Sehun's or Chen's, but I'm a force to be reckoned with."

He was right. I pulled out one of my pistols with my free hand and was firing as quickly as I can at them, but it was as if Kai was invincible. He just ran through those things and broke them apart like they were made of paper. I might have gotten whiplash, as well, since he teleported so often, but he didn't even seem to notice he was holding onto me. It was almost as if he was overjoyed to be fighting again.

I was a little more frightened of Kai than I was of them.

"I was a streetfighter before they turned me into a mage." It seemed he felt my gaze on him and turned to give me a reassuring grin before returning his full focus to defeating them.

"Before they turned you into a mage?" I was confused by that knowledge, but I didn't get an answer. Perhaps Kai hadn't meant to let me know that, but I knew, and I wanted to know more about the mages I was trying to free.

"Ten o'clock." Kai said simply, and then his focus was again on the creatures he was fighting. I shot in the direction I was told, but my aim was off and I wished I had more power to .

Suddenly, after wishing for myself to be able to defend us better, my pistols started to glow and after a brief period of shock, I fired. What should have been an average bullet wasn't fired; in it's place, a little ball of what seemed to be energy flew out, as if it were a small ball of wind. It hit the creature I was aiming at perfectly, but the impact affected that creature and all the creatures around it.

I was taken aback; when did my pistols start using the mage's powers? I turned to Kai to tell him what happened, but Kai was preoccupied with the creatures he was fighting, and I aimed my pistol at the creatures he was facing off against. When I fired the pistol, the bullet made of wind energy was replaced with a small shape... that looked like an hour glass flew out. It froze all of the creatures in front of Kai. Kai looked back at me for a moment before ripping through the rest of the creatures. I didn't even know where we were, since we just continually blasted through creatures and running straight to find the next border.

Just as we got to the border, Kai and I found ourselves surrounded by them, and when I shot at them, more just popped up behind them, and I stood back in horror as Kai kept fighting. Kai was more than happy to be pummeling them despite their numbers, but I could see his body shake in exhaustion and knew I wasn't too far behind. We were going to be in trouble if we stayed there. I started inching towards the border and Kai was pulled along as well. Like earlier, it seemed that less of the creatures grouped near the border, for some reason.

"Kai, let's go!"

Kai looked at me with a small grin and nodded, and then the two of us broke into a sprint, our feet pounding towards the border with Kai looking behind us several times. I don't know how it happened, but suddenly, an arm reached out for me and pulled me away from Kai, and the next thing I knew was that my vision was starting to fade.

"Yun Seung!" It wasn't Kai calling me, but Sehun. I tried to look up to see where the voice was coming from, but I knew it wouldn't be wise to move on my own. The rings on my fingers were glowing again, and though I was worried, I couldn't do anything about it but wait until I was possibly saved.

Which I was.

"I got you." It was Sehun's voice, gentle and full of worry. I knew he had lifted me off the ground, but I couldn't check to make sure since my eyes were heavy, "You'll be alright."

His voice was starting to sound thick and slow, and I guess I finally lost consciousness after that. I don't know how long I was out for, but I knew that eventually, I had started to dream again. I was alerted by the dream because we still hadn't found the fifth mage, but it was still the same picture I had been given when I first dreamt of the fifth mage.

I was falling backwards; I remembered this part of the dream only too clearly. I had just gotten the velvet box out of the iced prison it was in, but had lost my breath as I did so, and was currently falling backward into the water. The box was held tightly in my grip, and I couldn't help but feel devastated; I couldn't even let this mage see the light because I was going to die. I wanted to at least let him go and see the sky again; and who knew? Maybe he'd be able to save the both of us. So, I fumbled around with the box as my vision started to fade and eventually opened it.

I didn't stop to look at the symbol or the difference in this ring compared to the others that I've found. Instead, I jammed it on my right hand's middle finger and hoped that it would work. There was no white that time; nothing to blind me temporarily, but I found myself staring at someone's blurry face. I think he was speaking or something, because he looked completely fine underwater, unlike me. The next moment, I had felt my vision clear. I was going to look at my savior's face, but he had grabbed my hand and we were swimming deeper under water.

Where was he taking me? I tugged on his hand, since shore was up and shore was where the other mages were waiting for us, but he just kept diving deeper into the water and I had no choice but to try and figure out what he was trying to show me.

Apparently, it was a large oyster that he was trying to show me, and though I tried to look at him, he had pointed to the oyster and then to the box in my hand. I knew what that meant immediately; there was a box in that oyster. I was amazed at how well preserved the oyster was, thinking it certainly had to have been years for the box to have been put inside it.

A part of me was frightened, because two of them in one place didn't smell like a good thing, but it was too late, and I was already opening the oyster's shell to claim the box. As the mystery mage pointed out, I had found the sixth mage's ring inside of the oyster, it's silver lettering shimmering under the water.

I gasped as I sat up, now awake and a little terrified of my dream. The fact that in that lake was not one ring box but two hit me. Why were two of them in there? It felt like going after the fifth ring was a trap of some sort, though I didn't know why anyone would by trying to trap me.

"Yun Seung?" I turned my head to the side to see Chen sitting just a couple of feet away from me. It looked as if he had been sleeping too, and I felt a little guilty for waking him up, "You're awake."

"She's awake?" Sehun's voice came from elsewhere, and then suddenly, he was sitting down next to me and pulling me into his chest, "Idiot. You worried me."

I looked around Sehun to see both Tao and Kai standing there silently, and though I wanted to ask them what was going on to make them so somber, the dream I had was still vividly moving through my head.

"Let's get going." I slowly pushed Sehun off of me and got up, grabbing my backpack, "The sooner we leave, the sooner we find them."

It had slipped out of my lips and I was left biting my tongue as I scolded myself for making such a slip up. Kai didn't say anything but grabbed the backpack from me and continued to walk ahead of me, but Tao had asked the question I was dreading to be asked.

"Them? Is there more than one ring?"

My lips never uttered a response, because the answer was already obvious.