From here on, until the next time Yun Seung is introduced, the story will be in the 3rd POV.

It has been a few days since they were freed; a few days since everything they lived for was finally in their grasp. It felt good to take revenge on the world that had betrayed them and belittled them. 

They had already conquered the town Yun Seung had been born and raised in; and using the map Yun Seung had shown them, they began plotting their next move on a town just a few hundred miles away.

The twelve of them had given themselves assignments; Chen and Chanyeol were to destroy whatever buildings stood on the ground, no matter what significance they had to the town's history. The only building that had been spared was the castle Kris was found in, because they knew that was where Yun Seung was raised; and instead, they planned to make it the center of their rebuilt world. Baekhyun and D.O. were tasked with building up from all the demolition caused in Chanyeol and Chen's wake. Tao and Sehun were bringing civilians to the underground bunkers in order to keep them safe. Yixing and Jongin were bringing supplies to the underground bunker to keep everyone safe and well fed. Luhan and Minseok themselves were working on fortifying the town with barriers so no one else could think of invading. Finally, Joonmyun and Kris were plotting their next move, or at least trying to.

Did they have any regrets? Of course they did; the regret of making the decision to become mages in the first place, and the regret of hurting and chasing away the only person to make them feel human once more. But if you ask them, they'd be more than willing to make the same decisions; the decision of becoming mages because that led to meeting the one person that made them feel human once more and the decision of hurting and chasing away the one person that made them feel human if only to keep her safe.

It's just that for mages like Minseok, even being trapped in a ring was better than losing Yun Seung. Unable to eat or sleep since Yun Seung's disappearance, the other mages had no choice but to walk around the frost mage. His eyes were glossy, and his gaze was distant; his lips were curved into what seemed to be a permanent frown, and his complexion had grown paler.

"Min?" Joonmyun had grown worried of him even though no one else was in a better condition. Each of them had felt the weight of Yun Seung's disappearance, and each of them had wished a million times over that they could fix what they had broken.

Minseok didn't bother to force a smile as he looked at all the younger mages. They all lost the brightness Yun Seung had introduced into their lives. Minseok himself felt like a mere puppet as they continued to plot; merely to do as they were told.

"I'm going to go look for her."

It hadn't been the first time someone had said this out loud, though it was the first time Jongin had offered. Earlier, it had been Tao to suggest this, and then Sehun; both had been shot down, and Minseok knew he would be no different. It didn't mean he wouldn't try, though, because Minseok knew Jongin had grown overly fond of Yun Seung.

"We don't even know if she's still alive." Yixing's voice was quiet, but it was the same point he always made when someone offered to find their former master; and it brought out the same reaction it always did from the other mages.

"Does that mean we shouldn't at least try to find her?" Chen demanded, his eyes dark and sparks of electricity dancing on his fingers as a threat, "She could be bleeding, or starving! She could-"

"Not want to see us." Luhan cut in, though his voice was defeated and his shoulders were slouching as he took in a deep breath, though tears were dancing in his eyes, "Don't you remember what she said to us?"

Scoffing, Baekhyun brought attention to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair. His own expression was of defeat, but the difference between him and Luhan was that Baekhyun wasn't crying, "I hate to say it, but Lu has a point. I don't think we can afford to disappoint her again."

"We wouldn't have disappointed her at all if we..." Tao trailed off, but they all knew what he was going to say. If they had just done what she hoped for them to do, if they had just moved on, they wouldn't have disappointed her at all.

When D.O. spoke, there was anger hidden deep in his tone, but they could tell he was forcing himself to stay calm, "Do you hear yourselves? You would give up on everything we had planned for centuries for a mere mortal?"

"That mortal saved our lives!" Sehun didn't bother to hide his anger, and he even jumped out of his seat as he spoke, the chair knocked backwards and a gust of wind blowing around the room and pushing the other mages away from the table they were sitting around.

"Keep throwing around, Sehun!" Chanyeol had gotten so angry that fire engulfed his fists as he readied himself to jump over the table and attack the youngest mage, "I've been itching to hit someone for a while."

As the mage of fire and the mage of wind got closer to start fighting, a loud and clearly upset voice cut between them and silenced the entire room, "Sit down! All of you."

No one had to be told twice as they picked their chairs back up and sat down again, because an angry Kris was not to be trifled with. Minseok had half the mind to just return to his room because it wasn't like anyone could stop him, but as long as their conversation involved Yun Seung, he wanted to be a part of it.

"Look, I know we've all been affected by Yun Seung, and there's no point of denying it." It was obvious Joonmyun was referring to D.O., who still seemed to have a hard time trusting in Yun Seung, but the other mages just watched as their first leader paced back and forth, "But this is not the time to be fighting! While we sit here and jump at each other's throats, Yunso and Yunjee are rallying more troops so they can find and destroy us! We have no time to fight if we want to restore balance to this world!"

As Joonmyun pulled up the map Yun Seung had given them, the other ten mages noticed the map had been cleaned of all the markers that had once filled it and was instead marked in just a few places, "With Kris' power, we were able to locate all the areas in which soldiers are readily joining the Government's plight to get rid of us."

"If Kris is so powerful why can't he just find Yun Seung?" Jongin didn't mean to speak loudly enough for anyone to hear him, but with such a deafening silence, it was inevitable.

If looks could kill, Kris would have killed Jongin using a thousand different methods, "I have already tried several times. Something is keeping my Malthorian powers from reaching her."

That could prove to be a problem, as nothing could stop Kris' powers. Whatever was out there was stronger than Kris, and the mages didn't want to imagine what it could be.

"So, there's nothing we could do for Yun Seung?" That was the first thing Minseok had said in days, and as his raspy voice choked out the words, the other mages dropped their shoulders as an answer, and no one spoke for a few moments.

"You can stay away from her." Jinki and the rest of SHINee walked into their meeting room with so much confidence that the anger Chanyeol had subdued was quickly brought back to the surface, "Trust me when I say it's best for her."

A moment later, the usually peaceful Chanyeol had Jinki by his collar and off the ground. Jinki didn't struggle, but levelled Chanyeol with a calm grin, and Chanyeol put him down just as swiftly as he had him up.

"Don't you dare tell us what you think is best for her." Everyone turned their attention to D.O., whose anger could easily outmatch Kris', "We know how terribly she's been treated in this town."

"You're right, and as her guardian, I should have been able to protect her better." The mages looked at Jinki in confusion, but the warrior had already turned around and walked to the door he had come in from, "I let her chase after a group of mages thinking she could change their hearts. Look at where it got her now."

Jonghyun had chosen to stay even after his leader left, though it didn't look like he wanted to, "It's true that we didn't treat her well. Ever since she was young, Yun Seung had slow reaction times and was slow in battle. In this town, you're nothing if you don't do well in battle; and everyone thought she was just a burden they had to carry. If Yun Seung chose to let their actions and words drag her down like you let your past drag you down, I don't know where she'd be right now. However, Yun Seung lived with hope for the future- that someday, everything would change for the better."

"It's because of that hope for the future that she went out to find the twelve of you."

With that, Jonghyun left as well and the twelve mages stood looking at each other to see who would make the first move. In the end, it was Minseok. He couldn't stand it anymore; the guilt of being the one that stabbed Yun Seung, the fear of being ripped away from the men he thought of as brothers- it was all too much.

"I'll find her, Min." Kris' voice had taken on the kind of softness he only ever used when he was scared; and Kris wasn't scared of most things, "No matter what it takes... but please, don't leave. It's taken centuries for all of us to get together. We were brothers then and we're still brothers now."

Kris was right and they all knew it; that's why even the most rebellious of the mages had chosen to keep quiet at that moment. They'd do whatever they could to find her, but until then, they couldn't afford to let anything drive them apart. This would be what the sorceresses wanted from them so they could be destroyed. Even though they were only disappointing Yun Seung further with the destruction they were causing, and they knew they were, it was necessary to destroy everything before building on top of it.

After all, Minseok thought as he returned to working on the town's barriers that evening, it was more than just revenge for them. Sure, they could just defeat the sorceresses that cursed them and be over with it, but it was a lot more than just defeating the sorceresses. It was so much more than twelve boys with a grudge and the immaturity to take the grudge out on everything around them. 

For Minseok, at least, it was for his brothers; who were ripped away from their lives to grant the wish of two demented sorceresses and what he still believed was an innocent scientist. For Minseok, it was about the family he had to watch from the shadows as they wept over the son that they thought was lost on the frontlines. For Minseok, it was about all the lives that had been lost trying to fight off what they didn't know. For Minseok, It was about the world he wanted to blanket with rebirth; and make it into a world without destruction.

For Minseok, it was about the girl who had hope for the future.

I think I actually started this out pretty decently. There's a nice mix of emotions and even without putting it in 1st POV, I was able to focus on one person like I did for Yun Seung. I plan on doing this for the rest of the chapters in Part 2, though the perspective will change from person to person. So not many questions have been answered, but you get to see a little more on how the mages feel about everything. Now I'm hoping to make this part as similar in length as Part 1 was, but I might have a few less chapters in this one, so you'll have to forgive me. I don't really want the story to exceed 100 chapters by much, especially as I'm doing a prequel for this as well; and maybe even a sequel featuring BTS. I don't know, that one's a bit iffy.

Speaking of person to person, my question today is this; whose perspective do you want the next chapter to be in? You got to follow Minseok this chapter, so you get to choose who's next!

As always, thanks for reading, subscribing, upvoting, and commenting! I really appreciate the support and I honestly love all of you! A huge shoutout goes to my co-author DaltheBadassHijabi! She's been editing my chapters so all the mistakes I forgot to fix is checked over by her, and she's really a huge help in giving me ideas, as are most of you. I know this story is far, far, far from perfect, but I really am grateful to all of you who read this piece of work. Please enjoy this chapter and have a wonderful day!