Seunghyun walked through the woods with Jiyong in tow, his perspective on everything Jiyong had changed, and he couldn’t fathom what he was going to do now. He looked at Jiyong and wondered how he was feeling, and his heart clenched at the story that Jiyong had told him. What on earth were they going to do with a such a gentle soul? Seunghyun sighed, and he wondered how in the world he would be able to help too? He wasn’t powerful, he didn’t know much about the new world he was living in, and he wasn’t sure he and Jiyong could stop it.

He believed that Jiyong needed some kind of belief in himself to move on, because with a war between hell and earth upon them, he couldn’t have Jiyong believing that he was nothing, and could nothing.

“Jiyong,” Seunghyun spoke cautiously, thinking about all the things that were going to start happening now that they knew what was coming up in the world.

Jiyong’s eyes flitted over to Seunghyun briefly and looked back in front of him, “Yes?” his tone wavered a little, wondering what Seunghyun could want to speak with him about, he hoped it wouldn’t be something too hard to talk about.

“What are we going to do?”

Jiyong sighed, and lowered his eyes, “What brought that question on?”

“You know what did,” Seunghyun stopped walking and looked up at the sky. The sun was shining lending it’s rays to the trees around them. It looked beautiful, but Seunghyun knew nothing beautiful was happening in this world, “Where are we even going?”

Jiyong took a few steps and stopped, looking around at the wilderness like he was trying to figure out where they were, and let out a deep sigh, because he didn’t, “I don’t know.”

“So what are we going to do? What am I going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

Seunghyun threw his hands up in the air and leaned against a tree. His eyes drifted up to the sky once more, and whispered up to whoever was watching them, “Why me? What can I do? Can’t we get a hint?” he groaned in frustration ready to tear his hair out, “Jiyong! You’re supposed to be the one with the answers.”

“And how do you figure that?” Jiyong wanted to be angry, but he could understand where Seunghyun was coming from. Seunghyun didn’t belong here in this mess, so how could Jiyong get mad at him for that.

“I’ve seen what the Death himself could do, and you have that power. He said you could do it.”

Jiyong let out a little noise and rolled his eyes, “It’s an exaggeration, I have no power. I’m nothing, I’m just a regular demon trying to live this lowly life.”

“I have a hard time believing that, and we can’t win this if you don’t start trying. You know what we need to do, don’t you,” Seunghyun waited for Jiyong’s answer, and it never came, at least Jiyong didn’t want to tell him that he was right. The silence proved that Seunghyun was on the ball, and the way Jiyong looked away from him, told him that Jiyong was hiding something big, “You want us to fail, don’t you?”

“No! How could you say that?”

“Then what’s the next step Jiyong?”

Jiyong knew that this was going to happen soon enough. What did he expect, that Seunghyun was going to keep walking with him and never ask what the next step was? All Jiyong wanted to do was collect souls and go on with his life, if you could call it a life. Of course, he wanted to stop being a demon, but at this point he wanted to give up, and just not do anything, but he knew it was wrong, and he needed to step up, “Fine, we have a lead, and I’ll tell you.”

“You have a lead!”

Jiyong raised a hand, “Now calm down, I’m telling you now aren’t I? We have to go to the demon world, but I’ll have to warn you that we might not come back alive. Your soul is a little bit different since your body is technically still alive, you’ll soul will just be released and you’ll face judgment, but me, I’ll be gone forever, like I never existed. So there’s that,” he looked away and clasped his hands together, “So, you ready?”

After what Jiyong just told him Seunghyun wasn’t so sure that he wanted to go through with it, “Uhm,” Seunghyun cleared his throat, “Uhm, can I prepare a little?” his voice shot up a few octaves and it seemed like he was slowly inching away from Jiyong, “I mean like a stretch or something?”

“Sorry, no, we got to do it now,” Jiyong turned around, facing away from Seunghyun and knelt on the ground, carving a pentagram on the forest floor. The tell-tale glow surrounded Jiyong, and once again Seunghyun was mesmerized by the very air that surrounded Jiyong, and it made him reinforce the idea that he didn’t belong here, not with Jiyong, there wasn’t anything special about Seunghyun.

Seunghyun took Jiyong’s hand and let himself step into the glowing circle. He had closed his eyes once he felt his body leaving the very plain they were in and enter a new one, a very dangerous one. Though when Seunghyun opened his eyes he was surprised to see beautiful hills covered in flowers and towering castle among the green hills, “Where are we?” he looked over at Jiyong with a confused look on his face, he was expecting something a bit different.

“Don’t let the look fool you, we’re not anywhere good,” Jiyong took cautious steps and ran a hand through his hair angrily, “I’m surprised we got here in one piece, this domain isn’t an easy place to infiltrate, so that means we must be expected.”

“Expected?”

“Yes, no matter what you must remember this man is vile, and he loves to see things, well, go to hell.”

Seunghyun gulped audibly, “Who, who is he?”

“Abaddon.”

Jiyong didn’t say another word and started heading for the castle, the castle that now looked a lot more menacing to Seunghyun than it had only a few minutes ago. Once they reached the grand steps, Seunghyun looked above him and noted that the castle was a lot bigger up close. It was the biggest thing he had ever seen actually.

“Come on,” Jiyong grabbed Seunghyun’s hand and brought him up the steps, he seemed to be walking with a determined look on his face, but deep down he was shaking in his boots because he didn’t know what he was going to do when he faced Abaddon. he pushed open the giant double doors without much difficulty and looked around at the foyer. The fact that they were even able to get in was a sure sign that Jiyong was right when he said they were to be expected.

He walked up the steps that led to a thrown that towered over everything in the room and stood in front of it. The chair was facing away from them and Jiyong waited with his arms crossed for someone, or something to turn around. It wasn’t long before he saw a hand shoot and snap for some servants. Jiyong narrowed his eyes at some imps that flew over and turned the chair around, revealing Abaddon grinning in the thrown.

“I’ve been waiting; I’m surprised you didn’t come the second you heard.”

Jiyong rolled his eyes, taking a glance at how Seunghyun was visibly afraid, which was not a good thing at all, “Maybe I didn’t want to see you.”

“You are funny little demon,” Abaddon stood up and walked over to Jiyong and looked him over, “Do you think a scrawny demon such as yourself can stop me from doing what I want?” the grin never left his lips, it seemed that he thought it was funny that Jiyong even showed up to begin with.

“Well I thought I was going to ask you nicely, but it seems doing that wouldn’t mean anything to you,” Jiyong didn’t know what was going to happen, he wasn’t sure if he needed to mentally prepare for an all-out brawl.

Jiyong’s eyes narrowed when he heard Abaddon’s melodic laughter escape his lips. Apparently he thought that engaging in a fight with Jiyong was hilarious, “You, little demon, are the funniest thing that I have ever seen,” but the smile on his lips didn’t stay for long and he glared at Jiyong and Seunghyun as well, “You should be cowering like your friend over there. I don’t think I really like your insolence.”

“Look, you know that I really don’t want to fight,” Jiyong rested his hand on his chest and smiled, “Frankly, I like to call myself a pacifist.”

Abaddon scoffed, “I don’t care,” he turned and walked back over to his thrown, “I didn’t plan on dealing with either of you.”

“What do you-” before Jiyong couldn’t finish his sentence the ground beneath he and Seunghyun seemed to turn into a black hole that them in. he internally cursed and should have known that there was going to be a trap.

There was a loud cry when they fell, but it came after the initial fall had passed. Jiyong looked to his side and noticed Seunghyun in a pile of glue, and the angriest look he could muster on his face, “Oh, you got a little somethin’ on your-

Seunghyun slapped Jiyong’s hand away from his face and rolled his eyes, “Yeah I know I got a lot of something everywhere,” Seunghyun climbed out of the puddle of goo and grimaced, “What the hell is this?”

Jiyong shrugged, “Could be anything,” He looked around, it seemed they were in some type of tunnels, and Jiyong hoped it wasn’t the type of tunnels he was thinking of, “So don’t panic.”

“What! What do you mean don’t panic?” Seunghyun started looking around for something that he should be panicking for and he kept itching at his back, to see if there was anything crawling on him.

“Stop, you look ridiculous,” Jiyong held Seunghyun’s hands together, “So here’s the good news, he didn’t kill us, but here’s the bad news,” Jiyong looked around and frowned, “I don’t know how to get out of here, and we might die trying.”

“What?”

“This tunnel system is built to keep whoever enters in, it’s kind of like a jail cell except there're monsters that you can never imagine here, or if we’re lucky just imps pretending to be monsters; imps are low-level demons, nothing to fear.”

Seunghyun nodded slowly, “Jiyong you got teach me some defensive maneuvers or something.”

“I got a good one for you.”

Seunghyun braced himself for whatever Jiyong was going to say, “Go on lay it on me.”

“Whenever something bad happens, run.”

There was a long pause before Seunghyun smacked Jiyong upside the head, “And if I’m caught?”

Jiyong shrugged, “Let’s go,” before Seunghyun could say anything else Jiyong set foot down the long tunnel prepared to find his way out or die trying.

The walk was long and tedious as the tunnel wasn’t flat, but rocky and sometimes steep instead. There were twists and turns that Jiyong kept taking at random without a word from Seunghyun because it seemed Seunghyun had nothing to say about the situation anyway. Jiyong knew that ended up in the tunnels was one of the punishments that no demon ever wanted, Just for the fact that eventually it’ll drive you insane, waiting for the monsters to jump out and devour your soul or try to convert you into one of them, Jiyong didn’t know what was worse.

There was one thing that Jiyong was sure that would happen before anything, that he would surely go inside before they ever found and end. No matter where he stepped there seemed to be n incessant dribbling on his forehead, a substance that Jiyong could not figure out what, or where it was coming from. He batted at what seemed to be a sludge dripping from the ceiling and grimaced at the nuisance.

He huffed in annoyance and kept walking, whatever it was he would ignore the inanimate substance and not let it get the best of him. Jiyong only took a few more steps before he angrily stopped and looked up at the ceiling, there was nothing there that he could see, and that didn’t mean much because he could barely see anything in the tunnels, and if Seunghyun holding on to his sleeve for dear life meant anything, then Seunghyun couldn’t see either.

So Jiyong continued to walk, while grumbling about the drip that was now running down his nose after piling onto his forehead. He blew up, causing the slime to move off his face for only a second before slamming back onto his cheek. Jiyong was glad that Seunghyun couldn’t really see what was going on because he knew he would have been made fun of instantly. He concluded that this form of torture was a torture that no man should ever have to go through. Jiyong huffed audibly and crossed his arms over his chest before taking another glance up at the ceiling and squinting his eyes.

There was a tiny squeak that escaped Jiyong’s lips when he finally noticed what was the cause of the dripping. He was slightly disgusted, but mostly he was trying not to freak out for he didn’t want Seunghyun panicking either. Jiyong held his arm out, keeping Seunghyun from moving any further, as he stared up at the ceiling. He his lips ever so slightly and pressed he and Seunghyun up against the tunnel wall.

What had been dripping on his forehead was not just a disgusting slime from the ceiling, but was slime coming from an all-seeing eyeball that blinked slowly after Jiyong finally noticed it. Jiyong moved from the side and cringed as the pupil followed him wherever he moved. He didn’t know if there was another eye not far behind or if maybe there were some giant hands that were attached to that eye, but Jiyong hoped that it was an imp or a watch guard following him instead.

He squeezed Seunghyun’s shoulder to get his attention and exhaled slowly, “Now don’t be alarmed.”

A deep scowl formed on Seunghyun’s face and he didn’t dare to move, searching wordlessly with his eyes around the tunnel with his limited vision, “Now when you say don’t be alarmed, do you think I’m not going to be alarmed?”

“Point, but uh, there’s a giant eye staring at us,” Jiyong inched down the wall, “No need,” his eyes darted to the left and right, trying to figure out what turn to make, “To be,” he chose the left and grabbed Seunghyun’s hand tightly, “Alarmed!” Jiyong made a mad dash down the tunnel, heavily aware Seunghyun’s stumbling and the fact that eye followed him like a shadow, keeping up with his every move and turn.

The more he ran the more the tunnel seemed to get bigger and longer and the walls seemed to stretch far beyond his reach, indicating that something was coming. He stopped abruptly, causing Seunghyun to bump into his back and make him stumble a bit from the impact the. The walls and ceiling continued to stretch ad he knew that no matter how far they ran, the inevitable would happen.

“What’s going on?’ Seunghyun whipped around, not sure if he really wanted to find out what was happening and why Jiyong’s breathing had sped up significantly.

Jiyong didn’t say anything, only watched as the eye disappeared and the ceiling of the tunnel seemed to open with a loud crack. With a loud shake, a foot slammed down into the tunnel, causing both of them to brace themselves or else they would fall. Jiyong’s mouth fell open when the second foot landed in the tunnel and out came a giant. His eyes drifted up the legs back to the gaping eye in the center of the monster forehead, and his breath hitched when he looked further, staring at its gleaming black hair.

He stared dumbfounded when he looked at the lips, the eyes, the nose, it all seemed so familiar. He backed up slowly while a hand came up to cover his mouth in shock, and his throat clenched in complete unadulterated pain.

“Jiyong?” Seunghyun couldn’t understand what was going on, the thing in front of them looked mostly human, but the eye on his forehead told Seunghyun that it wasn’t, but he couldn’t wrap his head around Jiyong looked like he had just seen a ghost.

A choked sound came out of Jiyong’s throat and reached forward, entranced in what was standing before him. Gargled and almost incoherent the monster uttered two words making Jiyong drop to his knees, unsure of what to do and how to handle the situation, “Help me,” it said as it walked closer, it steps clumsy and slow.

Seunghyun reached for Jiyong’s arms and tried to pull him off the ground, “What are you doing? We need to go!”

But Jiyong could not hear Seunghyun as he was trapped in his own thoughts and he yanked his arm out of Seunghyun’s grip and crawled toward the monster instead of away, “B-bae?” his eyes became blurry as the tears he tried to hold back streamed down his cheeks and stained the shirt he was wearing. A small cry escaped his lip and he reached forward trying to touch the monster before him.

“Bae?” Seunghyun was visibly confused, and he grabbed Jiyong by his waist before he could get any closer and lifted him off the ground, sure that he need to carry him away before he got himself hurt. It was hard carrying Jiyong away as Jiyong was squirming and screaming, yelling things Seunghyun didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, and the shake of the giant’s feet as he ran as fast as he could with Jiyong in his arms only made it worse.

He ran as far as he could before he knew his legs were going to give out and found a crevice in the wall that looked like it would fit he and Jiyong. He shoved Jiyong in first and crawled after him before a large hand could swipe at his legs. The giant missed, hitting the wall instead and making the small cave shake with tiny pebbles raining from the ceiling.

“Jiyong,” Seunghyun called to Jiyong, cradling his face in his hand's and trying to make Jiyong look at him, but it seemed like he was lost to the world, “Jiyong please, I need you. What’s wrong?” Seunghyun didn’t know what to do in this situation, he was at a complete loss and needed Jiyong to be okay because he was the only one that eve had an inkling as to what to do.

Jiyong only stared past Seunghyun at the hole to the outside, his eyes distant and watery with tears. His lips parted in an attempt to speak, but he couldn’t, his brain was turning to mush with what was in front of him, “Bae,” was all that came out in a hushed whisper and his sore throat that was closing with every breath he took.

“Who’s?” Seunghyun’s eyes widened in understanding and he took a quick peek at the monster outside of the little cave, “That isn’t Youngbae Jiyong, it’s a trick, remember you said there would be tricks,” Seunghyun tilted his head, trying to get Jiyong to look at him, but it was to no avail as Jiyong was steadily concentrating on what was outside, “Jiyong,” Seunghyun’s voice broke in a whine, he was getting desperate, “What can I do?”

He cradled Jiyong’s face in his hands again, this time making sure that the only thing Jiyong could see was his face, and only his face, “I can’t do this without you, I can’t do anything without you. I need you, Ji.”

Jiyong’s eyes which had been downcast only moments before flitted to look at Seunghyun when he heard the nickname that he had adorned so many years ago. He almost expected Youngbae to be in front of him, but it was Seunghyun, and the hold on his heart eased just a little when he saw how desperate and alone Seunghyun looked.

“I’m sorry,” Jiyong whispered, he had let Abaddon’s tricks get the best of him and he felt foolish for it. He placed his hands over Seunghyun’s and removed them off his face, “I’m sorry,” he said it again because he felt he had let Seunghyun down, and that if he went out there again he might let Seunghyun down once more because he didn’t if he could face that again.

Seunghyun could only utter Jiyong’s name once more before enveloping him in a bone-tight hug, because seeing that must have hurt, hurt more than Seunghyun could ever imagine, “It’s okay.”

Jiyong was stunned and he wrapped his arms around Seunghyun, holding him just as tightly, and rested his head on his shoulder. He hadn’t felt this type of kindness in a very long time, and it felt good, “Thank you,” even though the hug was the best thing he had ever had in a very long time, there was still the matter of the giant growling angrily and banging on the walls outside.

He pulled back and looked at Seunghyun, “I, I don’t know what to do.”

“You can do anything, I know you can,” Seunghyun ran a shaky hand through his hair, indicating that he was just as nervous, and looked outside the cave opening, “It has to be you, I don’t know anything,” he sounded almost apologetic when he said it, almost ashamed that he didn’t have a clue as how to help Jiyong overcome this situation.

“I know,” he crawled toward the entrance, and looked over his shoulder back at Seunghyun, then took a deep breath and exited the cave.

Jiyong stood in front of the giant, staring up at the face that he knew so very well, and the eye in the middle of the forehead that dripped steadily of slime; it looked as if he was crying from it, “I can take your pain away.”

There was a loud cry coming from the giant and he took a swing at Jiyong, causing him to jump out of the way before getting smashed against the wall.

“I can do this,” he said to himself, and tried to channel as much energy as he could within himself to help, but it was hard because his emotions were going haywire and breathing was erratic. How could anyone expect him to get rid of his best friend? Jiyong stepped, forward, the air around him sizzling and snapping as he tried to concentrate, “I can do this,” he repeated in an attempt to get going, but was interrupted with another swing at his side. This time, he jumped too late and it clipped him, making him grown against the floor in pain, but it wasn’t too much, at least not enough to keep him from trying again.

Yet the giant was looking at Jiyong anymore, it was staring at the cave entrance, and instead of hitting Jiyong it started mercilessly wailing at the wall till Seunghyun had no choice but to escape, or else be crushed by the falling debris inside the tiny cave.

“No,” Jiyong ran toward Seunghyun, the giants hand was coming toward the wall again and he knew Seunghyun wouldn’t make it if he was hit. The frozen look on Seunghyun’s face told Jiyong he wasn’t going to move out the way and he ran as fast as he could, trying to save the only person that had shown even just a bit of compassion in the thousands of years he had lived as a demon. Jiyong flung himself in front of Seunghyun, in an attempt to save him, because he would rather get hurt than have something irreversible happen Seunghyun.

Seunghyun flinched, bracing himself for the impact, but when it didn’t come, he opened one eye and awed at the sight in front of him. Jiyong was standing in front of him with his shoulders braced, and an odd aura around him. He stepped to the side and a got a good look at Jiyong, his jaw went slack when he looked at Jiyong’s eyes, they were black as a moonless sky and glowing with a type of power Seunghyun couldn’t begin to imagine.

He looked at the giant seemed to be struggling in Jiyong’s grip. Jiyong’s hand was placed upon the fist of the giant and he was immobile as white spider like tendrils went up the beast’s arm and atop its skull ending in a blaze of light as the being burst into a white glitter, sprinkling to the tunnel floor.

Seunghyun slowly turned to Jiyong and watched as the glow faded from his skin and his eyes turned back to normal. He gulped, and in a split second, he wrapped his arms around Jiyong, kissing sloppily on the lips, and pulling back with a sloppy grin on his face.

A surprised breath escaped Jiyong’s mouth and he brought his hand up to his lips with a dazed look on his face, “You kissed me,” he said incredulously before falling into Seunghyun’s arms, exhausted and confused.