After hours of sneaking in and avoiding the soldier's eyes, the three had finally arrived in a particular tower in the castle. When they had arrived, Taemin scowled in disappointment and looked around, frustratingly running his fingers through his hair.

"Alright. We're in. How the hell do we get to the bottom floor when there's no stairs?"

"Maybe there's a pressure plate or something."

"Are you kidding me? This place is made of gold. Gold." Taemin stomped his foot against the golden floor. "Do you not see the gold below us?" He looked over at Jieun. "Will you stop looking around and come over here?"

"I'm sorry, but this place is just too beautiful," Jieun whispered, staring at the palace in awe.

The exterior was made of stones carved into a perfect rectangular prism, and they were stacked high enough so that invaders wouldn't be able to jump over the walls and attack the palace. Although it looked like any ordinary princess palace on the outside, the interior was filled with shimmering gold that gleamed in the sunlight, which poured down from the gentle glass frames high up on the walls. The only strange part was that there was no one inside the building. She had seen a couple of soldiers on the outside, but no one was in the inside.

It's like a museum exhibit, she thought. 

"It's too weird, though," Taemin muttered, looking around. "Everything is made out of gold. We're just in a circular room filled with gold. There's no stairs or anything." He squinted his eyes. "The soldiers aren't here, either. This isn't normal."

"So what do you want us to do? Go back?" Mino asked him. He brushed his fingers against the smooth golden wall. "It'd kind of hot."

"Well if you're in really hot weather and there's metal, then it's bound to be hot."

"Let's look around for a trigger," Jieun suggested. "Maybe there's something that should be different about this room."

Taemin's eyes were attached to a window. "That window looks strange."

"Why?"

"Light doesn't come through it. It's shining, but light doesn't pass through it," he pointed out.

It was true. All the windows had light shining down and touching the floor, but the particular glass that Taemin was talking about only gleamed without having any light pass through its frame.

"But how do we reach that?" Mino asked, frowning at it.

"The real question is how to use it as a trigger," Taemin said. He made a small ball of flame with his hands. "What do you think will happen if I burn it down?"

"We might get caught," Mino said. He scowled at him. "Didn't you say not to use any magic or something?"

"I never said that. I just said that the Emperor can detect magic."

"So why are you using it?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that Jieun can wish something that will have my magic go undetected," Taemin said.

"Did we forget that I don't know how to control my powers?" Jieun asked him.

"Did we forget that the trigger was to make your heart race?" Taemin countered. He looked at Mino. "Do that thing you did with Jieun."

Mino gently reached over for his neck. "Um, I don't know if it'll work anymore…"

"What? You just need to make her heart race. That's an easy job," Taemin said.

"The same thing isn't going to work twice."

"How would you know that?"

"Because… Because she won't be surprised anymore," Mino said, making up an excuse.

The fire died out from Taemin's hand. He gave Mino a disappointed frown before looking at Jieun.

"Really? We're going to play that game? Then what's the point of us staying here and trying to save Myungsoo and Naeun?" the leader pointed out. He groaned. "Let's just get out of here. There's no reason for us to save them if we're doing this."

Jieun soon found herself staring at the strange window while hearing Mino and Taemin quarrel in the background. She looked at it for some time, frowning at the way it gleamed. It was unnatural, something different and unexpected in a world where magic was forbidden. She narrowed her eyes, then widened them when she saw specks of gold drizzle down against a wall. It made a very thin waterfall until it touched a particular crack between the wall and floor, where it seeped in and disappeared from her sight.

"Um, Taemin?" Jieun called him.

Taemin scowled. "What now?"

"Is it normal for this place to be magically powered or something?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think there's magic running through this place," Jieun said, staring at the crack. She slowly reached over to touch the golden specks. "I can see this line and it—"

In a blink of an eye, she had disappeared. The boys widened their eyes and scrambled over to the crack. They stared at it for a long time, trying to dig their fingers through it.

"Jieun? Jieun! Jieun!" Mino shouted, slamming against the ground. "Jieun, what the hell happened? Jieun!"

"I heard voices inside!" a soldier yelled out of the room.

Taemin clenched his teeth. "Damn. Okay, new plan. We're running from this place."

Mino glared at him. "How could you run when we're in a freaking room with no other exits? There's only one exit, and that's from the door we came from!"

Taemin heaved a sigh. "Then there's only one thing we can do…"

Before Mino got the chance to hear what Taemin's plan was, the soldiers had started coming in. They pointed their spears and sword at the two, glaring at them and shouting at them to put their hands up.

Mino, panicking, looked at Taemin to see what he was going to do. To his surprised, Taemin was slowly doing what the soldiers said. Once he had his hands in the air, the soldiers started looking at Mino. They started yelling at him to do the same, and that's what he did.

However, the moment Mino started raising his hands, Taemin smirked and quickly put his hands on fire. Everyone—including Mino—started yelling and panicking at the sight of his fingers burning with white flames. Taemin rolled his eyes and quickly threw a barrier around Mino.

"Follow me!" Taemin ordered, charging ahead. The soldiers, shaking, still didn't budge. With his fist, Taemin made the flame grow until it threatened to fill up the tower. The soldiers finally reacted and parted ways, allowing Taemin and Mino to escape. While the two were running, Mino was able to catch the guard calling for back-up and to report the situation to the Emperor.

"T-Taemin!" Mino called him, as the barrier dissolved into Taemin's fist. "By 'one thing we can do,' did you mean attack them and run?"

"That's the only thing I can do," Taemin said, quickly turning at a corner. He looked at Mino for a brief moment before continuing his words, "and that's fighting and watching them burn."

"What about Jieun?"

"We'll meet her somehow." A dark grin appeared on his face. "She's one teammate that I wouldn't want to leave behind."

Jieun gasped for air and shivered. She looked around the new area, noticing that it was much colder than above. Rather than gold, it made made of marbled floor and iced bricks of stones. She rubbed her arm and looked around. There was a gate in front of her, open and loose as if it was telling to go inside. She glanced at the wall she came from, only to notice that the golden specks had disappeared. 

Where did Mino and Taemin go? she wondered. She sighed, but quickly closed when she heard footsteps. She hid behind a large vase and kept still.

"This room is supposed to be colder," someone said. "The third floor should be colder. It's made of magical ice, for crying out loud!"

"We're sorry, Emperor! The gold on the first floor must be heating up this floor. There are people who are working to bring the second floor back to it's normal temperature. Once that's done, then this floor will be cold."

Jieun's eyes widened and she crowded closer to the vase. The Emperor! What if he senses my power?

There was an odd pause that followed after her thoughts.

"I sense something," the first voice murmured.

Jieun hitched her breath. They found me! Oh gosh, they found me!

"I sense two things," the same voice said. "I'm going to see what's happening on the first floor. It seems like there's someone who's using a large amount of magical force there."

"What about the second power?" the second voice asked.

"I might be mistaking it for the hidden passage way I created with my own power. I'll find out once I get rid of the massive power up there. Let's go!"

"Y-Yes!"

Jieun held onto her breath until the sound of footsteps disappeared. She let out a huge sigh and checked the area. Once she confirmed that the area was cleared, she started creeping around, trying to find another exit.

Okay, so I'm onto the third floor, Jieun thought. I need to get to the fifth floor.

She wandered around some more, but stopped when she heard a small moan from a certain room. She quickly scurried off, trying to go away as far as she can from the moan.

"He…lp…" Jieun flinched at the sound, but stopped her tracks. She slowly turned her head to the direction of the low pleads. "Get me…out of…here…" She closed her eyes shut and was about to leave until the voice said something else. "If you don't help…I'll scream for them to come…"

Jieun bit her bottom lip. Suddenly, I have a whole new weight on my shoulder.

She turned around and followed the direction of the voice. She soon found herself standing in front of prison bars made of dry ice. She looked down at saw a man a few years older than her. The man shuddered, but his red, saggy eyes were glued to her.

"Help me…" The man continued to plead.

Jieun looked at him for a long time. "Why should I help you? What would I get from this?" She looked at the bars. "How would I help you?"

"I can help you hide your magic…!" the man exclaimed.

Jieun stared at him. "You can tell?"

"I look like a humanoid creature, but I have dragon in my blood," the man revealed.

Damn. Do I know anything about dragons? she wondered, giving him a skeptical look. 

"Dragons are very sensitive to magic," the man continued. "If you leave me like this, the Emperor will summon me and beat me until I reveal that there's a magical creature lurking around the cells."

"Well what about your magic? Wouldn't the emperor discover that you have magic, too?" she asked him.

"Dragons can hide their own magic," the man said. He frowned at her. "Don't you know anything about dragons?"

"U-Um, well, I don't know anything about half-dragons," Jieun muttered.

The man chattered his teeth. "W-Well, for that, I won't blame you."

Jieun looked at him once more. "How do I know that I can trust you?"

The man kept very quiet. He looked around for something to give, but he saw nothing useful. With a very shaky sigh, he bit hard on his hand until it started to bleed. Jieun gasped and widened her eyes as the man dripped some blood on the floor.

"I will make a contract with you," the man said. "A temporary one, of course."

"Why does this world have to do everything with blood?" Jieun murmured under her breath. She looked at the man. "What do I have to do?"

"Nothing. I will tell you my name and all you have to do is put your hand out in front of me." The man started to smear the blood against the floor until it made a unique wing mark. He pressed his thumb against the center of the mark until there was a faint glow. "Nommus Em, Hoya!"

The man looked up at Jieun, who understood the cue and stuck out her hand. She gasped when the light started approaching her, wrapping itself around her fingers and hand. She wanted to pull back, but there was something about the man's power that kept her from doing so. The power was intense, but something about the man's eyes told her that she could trust him—for now.

The light soon took form of a glove. The gleam dimmed, and the same wing-shaped mark that the man made on the floor appeared on the back of her hand. She looked at him in alarm.

"T-This isn't some kind of curse, right?" she asked, examining the mark.

"It's not. How did you feel when I was giving you that contract?" the man asked.

"It…was just strong. It didn't hurt at all," Jieun murmured. "It was a little scary, but comforting…"

"Exactly. If it was cursed, you would be feeling pain," the man pointed out.

"So what do I do now?" she asked him.

"Agree to what I say," the man said. "Esimorpi: As long as you get me out of here, I will obey one wish of yours."

"Um, I agree?"

"No, you have to say: 'Esimorpi.'"

"Oh. Um, Esimorpi."

The glove illuminated once more, then dissolved into little light particles. The mark had disappeared from her hand. Jieun stared at her hand for a while, then looked at the man.

"Is that it?" she asked him.

"Yep. Now, get me out of here," the man said.

"I don't even know your name," Jieun said, scowling at him.

"I just told you my name."

"I didn't hear anything."

The man let out an annoyed sigh. "Hoya. You can call me Hoya. Okay? Now get me out of here!"

"How?"

"You have a ton of magic in you. I can sense that. You obviously have a way of getting me out of here," Hoya said with an annoyed expression.

Jieun her lip. "I don't know… I kind of need this power—"

"Just do it!" Hoya demanded, raising his voice. 

Out of fear, Jieun quickly clasped her hands together and shut her eye. I wish I can get Hoya out of his prison cell! I wish I can get Hoya out of his prison cell! I wish…

As she continued to chant her wish, small specks of gold trickled down from her hands. Hoya's eyes widened as he saw the gold approach the cell. It started to climb up the bars, wrapping it around and decorating it until it became a beautiful golden rod. In a blink of an eye, the golden dots started to eat up the bars. Hoya examined the situation with amazement, shocked at how easily the ice was destroyed.

It wasn't just regular dry ice either, he thought. That thing had the Emperor's magic in it, and if there's someone who can easily eat up the Emperor's magic like this…

"Are you Dimensional or Devil?" Hoya asked her, interrupting her thoughts. She opened her eyes, and the magic disappeared. Fortunately for the two of them, there was enough space for Hoya to escape.

"W-What did you say?" Jieun asked.

"Are you Dimensional or Devil? Which power do you have?" Hoya repeated.

Oh dang. Do I tell him? Can I trust him? Jieun wondered.

"Well?" Hoya asked, clearly impatient.

"Y-You know what? I got you out of here. Now you need to help me!" Jieun exclaimed, changing the subject.

The man looked at her, then sighed. "Fine. We made a contract, after all. What do you have to do?"

"I need to go to the fifth floor—"

The man gasped. "What? Fifth floor? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

"My friends are captured. I don't know where my other two friends went, but two of my friends are in the fifth floor and they can be beheaded any minute now—"

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. Let me get this straight," Hoya said. He took a deep breath. "So you came here with two other friends, but you lost sight of them and now you're continuing the mission to find two other friends. Correct?" Jieun nodded. "How the hell did you lose your two friends? This place isn't very complicated as long as you stick together."

"W-Well, it's a long story," she murmured. "I saw this gold trail and I touched it and—"

"You saw a gold trail?" Hoya repeated. Jieun nodded while he frowned. "Impossible. The only one who can see the gold trail is the Emperor or any other magic-detecting creature—" He stopped himself and snapped his fingers. "Oh. I get what you really are. I get it now."

She paled. "Y-You do?"

"Definitely." He grinned at her. "You're like me, huh? A half-dragon, half-something else? Your other half must've been a very powerful creature. Okay, since you're my kind, I'll help you around."

Jieun forced a smile. "U-Um, yeah! Definitely like you. Definitely like a half-dragon, half-other thing. Yep! Definitely!"

She let out a fake laugh as the boy started to lead her to somewhere else. Behind his back, Jieun let out a shaky sigh and looked around in worry.

I hope Taemin or someone else comes soon…