Lady Midday took a deep breath and gave Seunghyun a hard look then she turned to look at Lilith who was poised to strike any second, “We knew you were coming,” she smiled softly, it was the kind of smile that sent chills down someone’s spine, “We didn’t get as much done as we had wanted, but just enough,” she her teeth and looked up at Jiyong from her eyelashes,  “You my dear, how does it feel to finally have someone who wants to be with you, but you can never truly have them?” she chuckled at the angered look Jiyong had on his face.

“I don’t need to touch him to be with him,” Jiyong said stubbornly as she just gave him a patronizing smile.

“How noble of you. I wonder when you’ll get tired of repeating that. You probably won’t, you won’t even survive this war. I do admit that you’re strong, but numbers can weaken your strength, and boy do we have numbers.”

Seunghyun was growing impatient and he didn’t like how she was mocking Jiyong, “Get on with what we want to know.”

“Now was that about the war, or about you my dear? Or was it both?”

Lilith rolled her eyes, “Oh please don’t start speaking in riddles, just give it to us straight.”

Lady Midday sighed heavily, “Your presence really makes me uncomfortable.”

“I could say the same to you, but we don’t have time for this.”

“Fine, since I suppose I don’t have any other choice,” she tried to think about the little information that she did know. Midday wasn’t that high up in rank so she didn’t know much about who was in charge and most the of the plan. Though she did know about Seunghyun, she was well adept in the knowledge of angels. She believed in knowing the most about your enemies, especially the most powerful of the bunch.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked at Seunghyun, she didn’t understand why it had been this man that was chosen for such a task. Lady Midday looked between Jiyong and Seunghyun, if they wanted to know more than she knew they would have to take it up with the spirits, but she would fill them in on the little she knew, but she had one question of her own first, “How did he come across that power of his?” she looked at Seunghyun pointedly to make her point that she was speaking about him.

Jiyong pursed his lips and laid an annoyed hand on his hip, “You should know, through the ritual.”

“Huh,” she said quietly, “So that’s why he still smells human,” she turned up her nose at Seunghyun, “He’s not truly dead yet,” she raised an eyebrow in intrigue, “I’m surprised he even survived the ritual.”

“Yeah, it’s a miracle,” Jiyong said sarcastically as he waited for this woman to get on with it.

“He’ll die,” she spoke curtly as she searched their faces for shock, but instead all she got was disbelief and maybe a little anger.

“That’s not true,” Seunghyun didn’t feel sick so he knew she had to be lying. There was no way he was going to die, “You’re lying.”

“I’m not, you’ll die. No human should be able to harbor the power you possess, you’ll body will deteriorate and you’ll die.”

“In theory,” Seunghyun spoke stubbornly, he didn’t want to believe a word she said, “This is all just theory.”

“Maybe, except what’s placed in you was meant for an ethereal body. Some humans can control the power within them if they survive the ritual. You, on the other hand, I don’t think so. You’re meant for greater things.”

Seunghyun was flattered and peeved at the same time, “What do you mean?”

She shrugged, “Of course you’re here for a reason, we all are. We’re all just pawns in the battle between good and evil,” she looked at Jiyong, “You’re supposed to be evil. Why do you stray?”

Jiyong could admit that it would be easier to indulge in the sins that plagued the world, but he was stronger than that, and it would never help him achieve his greater goal, “Because unlike others I stand for what’s right. I’ll never have a chance for my rightful place in this world if I succumb like the scum you are.”

“Funny,” she looked at Lilith, “And you?”

“I was never the one to live up to anyone standards but my own. Also, if you demons take over I won’t much fun. You all are so crass, I hate it.”

Midday scoffed, “Coming from the one who has lain with the evilest of them all.”

“Let’s not speak of my past conquests. That was such a long time ago,” Lilith didn’t want to show that it affected her in any way. To respect for her no one spoke about where she had come from in the beginning, but Lady Midday had always been disrespectful. She had been a woman scorned all those years ago, and she didn’t want to be reminded of her more reckless days. She’d liked to think she was a bit more dignified today.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Seunghyun furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he looked at Lilith.

Jiyong sighed if Seunghyun were to find out about Lilith’s not so sweet past he wasn’t sure what would happen.

“Nothing of your concern,” Lilith clenched her jaw in irritation. She knew what Lady Midday was doing. The purity of Seunghyun’s heart wouldn’t be able to accept what she had done, whether it was in the past or not. She only wished she was able to control Seunghyun’s actions at the moment, but whatever it was that was inside him kept her from even being able to touch him, let alone control him.

Seunghyun took a deep breath, “Let’s not stray from what we came here for,” he knelt down to Lady Midday’s level and spoke slowly and clearly, “Stop stalling, what’s inside me?”

She sneered, “You are a gateway for the divine,” she frowned, “All I know is I know an angel when I see one,” she smiled slowly, “Your wings are showing.”

That was the second time that was mentioned to Seunghyun, and he couldn’t grasp his head around it. He couldn’t tell if it was a figure of speech or if really had some wings sprouting from his back that only certain people could see. He sighed, this wasn’t going anywhere, “What is it with everyone not giving straight answers?”

Jiyong shrugged, “Demons are difficult,” he turned his gaze to midday, “How far along is this army?”

She smirked then let out a small laugh before containing herself, “Oh honey we already have an army,” she glanced up at Seunghyun, “Too bad your body is going to deteriorate before you even get to see it,” she made sure that Seunghyun was looking straight at her when she said that and chuckled at his annoyed face, “I can only sense what’s inside you, it’s a powerful one. If you want more you’ll have to consult the spirits, and that’s an even bigger trial to go through. I wouldn’t even do it if I were you.”

Jiyong threw his hands up in the air, “Why can’t we ever find someone that magically knows everything?”

Midday sighed, “It’s about listening to the right information, and not trusting everyone you see,” she raised an eyebrow and let a devilish grin spread on her lips, “You never know who could be screwing you over,” she looked at Lilith, “You never know who you can trust,” she looked up at the ceiling, “And you never know-

Lady Midday didn’t get to finish that sentence, not once her head was separated from her body and rolled smack dab at Seunghyun’s feet. Seunghyun’s eyes widened and he jumped back and let a disgusted look swallow his handsome features, “Lilith!” he cried out in an outrage, she could have waited for the woman to finish her sentence.

Lilith simply shrugged and wiped the blood of the scythe she was holding, “I was tired of her bull,” she dropped the scythe on the ground and grimaced at the serene look on Lady Midday’s face. Even with her head severed from her body she still looked smug.

“I would have liked a little more information than she gave us, though,” Jiyong stared dismayed at Lady Midday’s body.

“What? Seunghyun’s going to die and they already have an army ready wasn’t good enough for you,” she snapped out of sheer annoyance. It wasn’t supposed to be directed toward Jiyong, but it had been, and it had Jiyong clutching his pearls in disbelief that Lilith just snapped at him. She ran a shaky hand through her hair and took a deep, “I…apologies,” she whispered quickly as she made her way out of the room, seemingly not caring that she hadn’t a dress to wear out now.

“What’s wrong with her?” Seunghyun asked curiously as he followed Jiyong out of the room while stepping over dead or unconscious demon bodies. He smiled, he had helped with maybe one or two.

“She doesn’t like her past being brought up,” Jiyong shivered just thinking about it, Lilith had been ruthless, but he guessed it was revenge in her heart that made her do it.

“And that is?”

Jiyong hesitated before sticking his arm out and hoping that Seunghyun stopped before he bumped into him.

Seunghyun almost didn’t see Jiyong stop and had to quickly stop before he bumped into him, “What’s up,” he asked confusedly.

“I just don’t want to talk about it with Lilith in listening distance,” he turned toward Seunghyun and made sure they were in a secluded corner. He knew Lilith would start looking for them soon, “If you must know Seunghyun, Lilith is a very old demon-

“I know that,” Seunghyun interrupted Jiyong and received a look from him.

Jiyong rolled his eyes and held up a finger, “Don’t interrupt, please and thank you. Anyway, she’s the first female demon that has ever come into existence. She may seem, a little immature sometimes, but it’s all just a little façade. They get uncomfortable when she’s serious.”

“Who’s they?”

“The other demons, she had been human once, just like all of us first, but she was the first woman.”

Seunghyun’s eyebrows furrowed, “Lilith? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not very biblically adept, but I don’t remember hearing about Lilith.”

Jiyong leaned against the wall, “Of course you wouldn’t, she rebelled and became a demon, unable to bend to a man’s will so she spoke the ineffable name and from that, she flew away, sprouting wings that no one had seen before then. She took a lover then, Samael, and had many children with him, but the gods were still angry with her. So, they vowed to kill a hundred of her children a day until she came back. This angered her, and in return, she took the lives of baby boys born into the world. It became too much, and so they stopped killing her children, and in return, she left the lives of human babies alone.”

“Oh,” that was all Seunghyun could utter because the weight of information was heavy, and he didn’t know how to feel about that. He wondered if deep down Lilith was a lot colder, a lot more calculated than Seunghyun thought, and he wondered how much anger was still in her heart, “Who’s Samael?”

“A more notable name would be Satan,” Jiyong said with a sigh as he watched Lilith coming their way. It seems their talk would be cut short.

“What are you guys doing?” Lilith asked in an irritated tone as she glared at the two boys.

“Nothing Lilith, we were just going.”

“Oh okay, because we need to go. Don’t forget we need to take it up with the spirits and I’m in the mood to do that tonight.”

Jiyong sighed, he wasn’t in the mood for anything else, but he wasn’t about to talk Lilith out of it.

“How do we do that?” Seunghyun asked as they walked toward the exit.

“We jump off a cliff,” Lilith said as she waved her daughters over to bring the carriage. She didn’t enlighten Seunghyun with any more details besides that and just preceded to sit in the carriage like what she said wasn’t a big deal.

“Am I the only one freaking out about this?” Seunghyun questioned a few minutes after they had gotten situated in the carriage, “You know I could die, right?”

“I’m aware of that,” Lilith continued to look out the carriage window, still in her white slip and her hair slightly disheveled.

Seunghyun took the time to look over Lilith’s features. He noticed she looked a lot harder than he had ever seen before. Her face was stoic as she stared out of the window and Seunghyun noticed that it seemed she had a lot on her mind. He wondered if she had always been this way or if this was something new? Seunghyun was used to Lilith chattering away, but now she was sitting quietly as the carriage took them to wherever.

His thoughts went back to what Jiyong had told him and he almost shivered thinking about what Lilith was capable of. Yet somehow, he still figured he didn’t know the whole story and that he never would, at least not from her.

“Ready to jump off a cliff?” Jiyong broke the silence as he smiled mischievously at Seunghyun.

“Uhm, is there any other way. I’m highly afraid of heights.”

“Even better,” Jiyong said before exiting the carriage and walking calmly toward the edge of the cliff.

Seunghyun was the last to leave, thinking that there must be some catch that had to with this, but Lilith and Jiyong’s lack of words were making him doubtful. He looked over the edge and watched as waves crashed over the rocks and washed away whatever dare land in the sea. Seunghyun gulped and took a step back, “I don’t think I want to do this.”

“We have to jump together Seunghyun, and you have to make the decision to do it yourself,” Lilith put a hand on her hip as she waited for Seunghyun to make the decision.

Jiyong saw the apprehension on Seunghyun’s face, he didn’t want him to be too scared, “You can take my hand if you want, it’ll only hurt a little,” Jiyong offered so Seunghyun could feel just a bit better. He didn’t want him to feel alone in this.

“No I couldn’t,” Seunghyun took a deep breath and glanced down again. He felt like he was going to throw up.

Jiyong stretched out his hand toward Seunghyun, “Here, take it, and we’ll jump together.”

Lilith rolled her eyes and cleared .

“You too,” he stretched out his other hand toward Lilith which she quickly took and then waited for Seunghyun.

“Fine,” Seunghyun said quickly before his mind screamed at him to go run and hide. He took Jiyong’s hand, trying to ignore the slight wince on Jiyong’s face and nodded for them to quickly jump before he ended up wasting everyone’s time and went back into the carriage.

They ran toward the edge and all jumped, Seunghyun closed his tightly and waited for the impact with the rocks below. He almost got the wind knocked out of him when he fell on something hard and smooth. For a second Seunghyun thought this was where he was going to die by being swept away by unforgiving waves, but that never happened. Instead when he opened his eyes all he saw was white, a vast amount of white above and below him and no one else.

Jiyong got up and tried to catch his breath, it had been a hard fall and he wasn’t expecting it to be that hard. He looked around and noticed that no one else was even around him. He cursed under his breath when he realized that they could be anywhere at this moment. Jiyong folded his arms over his chest and waited for anything really, spirits were unpredictable.

Lilith gasped and crawled onto the rocks as the waves tried to take her away. She was drenched, and the boys were nowhere to be found. Lilith sighed, she guessed she wasn’t supposed to be a part of this one. She sprouted her wings and flapped them a few times to get the water off them before ascending the cliff. Luckily, she couldn’t feel the cold from the icy waters below her, though wet hair was a nuisance to her.

There was a long moment of silence before something started happening on Jiyong’s end. A loud crack filled the white void that he was standing and he had to balance himself as the ground below him split creating a large canyon with what seemed like a bottomless pit. Jiyong squinted and noticed a bridge in the distance, it was wooden and swayed in the wind. He paused, where had this wind come from?

Jiyong started walking toward the bridge. His feet started picking up speed when he noticed someone was sitting in the middle of the bridge, petrified of moving forward or backward. Jiyong’s heart pounded, he called Seunghyun’s name thinking that this was some sort of cruel test. Seunghyun had just told him he was afraid of heights. He ran toward the bridge and didn’t think twice crossing to get to Seunghyun.

When he got to the middle he found Seunghyun hugging his knees and rocking back in forth with his eyes squeezed shut, “Seunghyun?” Jiyong called as he knelt on the wooden planks of the bridge, “Hyunnie?” he said softly, trying to get him to look up at him.

“Jiyong!”

Jiyong’s head snapped up and he looked at a small figure waving frantically on the other side of the bridge. He squinted but couldn’t make out the figure and turned back to Seunghyun who was now looking him, except, it wasn’t Seunghyun.

Jiyong fell backward onto his when he noticed the black eyes staring back at him. The thing that looked like Seunghyun smiled widely revealing sharp teeth in its mouth. Jiyong crawled backward as it stood up towering over him and seemed to grow as the seconds passed by. The bridge creaked under the weight and Jiyong scrambled to run to the other side. He threw a half hazard look behind and almost let out a petrified scream as the thing got on all fours as it chased him on the bridge.

When he looked forward again it felt like the bridge had gotten longer, but was scarier was that boards were now falling and he almost tripped on one and fell off.

Seunghyun was glued to the edge of the canyon. He was petrified at even taking a step on the rickety bridge, but also afraid of what would happen to Jiyong as well. He had tried to warn Jiyong when he noticed that thing posing as him, but it was too late. Seunghyun took a hesitant step onto the bridge and jumped back when he felt it sway under his foot.

He couldn’t help Jiyong by just standing there, but he also couldn’t help Jiyong if he fell to his death trying to save him. Seunghyun tried to stop his beating heart from pounding out of his chest, but it defied him as it just beat faster.

His gaze traveled over to Jiyong and he saw the terrified look on his face. He took a deep breath, Jiyong was more important than his fear, way more important. Seunghyun ran on the rickety bridge toward Jiyong, he didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, just that he at least needed to get to him. Except for the fact that there was a giant monster with his likeness in between them.

The bridge creaked even more and Seunghyun gasped when the rope holding them up was slowly breaking. He had to get to Jiyong in time, he was so close.

There was a snap.

He was too late.

Seunghyun jumped, in reflex as the back of the bridge fell behind him. He grabbed the back of the creatures as it grabbed Jiyong by one leg as well.

Jiyong looked below him, he was holding onto one of the wooden boards as tightly as he could, but his grip was slipping and the board was cracking. He needed to get rid of all of this weight, but the creature was clawing at his leg with all its might, and…

He looked harder and noticed a terrified yet determined Seunghyun hanging below him, “Seunghyun!” he called, this was a lot worse than he thought. He couldn’t let go, not if Seunghyun was there too.

“I have it Ji, just get him off you and then climb up.”

Jiyong thought about that, if he kicked it off of him it would fall, but Seunghyun would fall as well and he didn’t want that at all, “No! You’ll fall with it.”

Seunghyun thought about the situation they were in, Seunghyun was going to fall no matter what, Jiyong could at least save himself if he got free. He looked up at Jiyong and took a deep breath, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if it’s going to be one or both of us, I’d want you to have a chance.”

Jiyong has lived many years by himself wandering this earth alone and he wasn’t about to do it again, not knowing that he had a chance to go with Seunghyun and into the beginning of a peaceful eternal slumber. He watched as the board cracked and made his decision, “I don’t know if this is some sort of test that we failed miserably, all I know is if I save myself and let you take this fall by yourself, real or not I wouldn’t be able to live.”

“Jiyong no!” Seunghyun shouted all too late as Jiyong’s fingers slipped from the breaking board and let them fall. His stomach dropped when he felt the weightlessness of the air around him and closed his eyes waiting for the hard sting of death. Instead, he felt the soft press of fingertips grabbing his wrist, he still felt the whoosh of the air around him, but he was comforted when he opened his eyes and noticed that Jiyong was right there with him, holding his wrist and ready to accept whatever happened to them.

When they got closer to the ground Seunghyun realized that it wasn’t going to stop, they were really falling, rushing fast past everything, and when they hit time seemed to slow down blanketing them in downy feathers and engulfing them in a blinding white light that seemed to the very breath out of him.

Yet they weren’t on the ground, they were standing up hand in hand and Jiyong didn’t seem like he was in pain. They were back where they started, this time together staring at the emptiness in front of them, and Seunghyun was more than confused. He was shaking because he could have lost everything for being too slow, too afraid, and he felt like he failed Jiyong the most, he felt useless.

“Test one complete, passed.”

Seunghyun looked around, the voice had come out of nowhere interrupting his thoughts and making if someone had been watching them the whole time. He looked at Jiyong who seemed just as confused and squeezed his hand gently.

One of his questions were answered when a figure started walking toward them seemingly out of nowhere. Their skin glowed, and Seunghyun immediately could tell they weren’t human. Their skin was a deep gold and eyes the color of the night sky. As they got closer Seunghyun could now tell it was a woman dressed in a long white gown taking slow practiced steps, but he also noticed that her feet didn’t even touch the ground as she walked toward them. Seunghyun believed she was a goddess.

“No one has ever passed the first step before,” she spoke as she stared the two down, “At least not in a long time.”

Jiyong tried to distinguish the woman’s voice, but it sounded like it was coming from all around him, bouncing off walls and then finally reaching his ears, “What kind of test is that?”

“All will be revealed soon. You must be proven worthy of my information.”

Jiyong tried not grit his teeth, for all he knew if he irritated this woman she could destroy him with the flick of her finger, “I see,” he looked at Seunghyun who was marveling at the sheer beauty of the woman in front of him and then pursed his lips, “How many tests will we have?”

“As many as I see fit,” she spoke with finality and turned away from the two and started walking away. She stopped, and then looked over her shoulder at Seunghyun before bending down and drawing a jewel encrusted golden sword from the very ground itself then tossed it to him as if it weighed nothing, “You’ll be needing that,” then disappeared.

Seunghyun let the sword clatter to the ground, not daring to try and even catch it and then picked it up. It had a lot of weight to it and glinted even though there was no sun for it to shine off of, “What do you think she meant by that?”

“I don’t know.”