Myungsoo continued to scrape the wall with his plastic spoon. While he declared that he made some sort of dent, Naeun continued to tell him to quit the attempt. The two had been quarreling for hours until a guard appeared in front of them. The guard quickly opened the gates and had two other guards go in to pull them up on her feet. One of the guards had no trouble ing Naeun to stand up, but the other guard found it difficult to even touch Myungsoo. He kept conducting static all over his body, temporarily shocking the guard every time he reached in. The boy playfully snickered while Naeun rolled her eyes.

"Hurry up and grab him," the guard who opened the gate ordered.

"He's shocking me!" the second guard protested.

"Haha, ers," Myungsoo uttered, smirking. He gasped when the guard got fed up and bashed Myungsoo's head with a brick. Myungsoo stumbled over his feet and fell to the ground, groaning in pain while Naeun widened her eyes in horror.

"Myungsoo!" she cried out. She tried to run to his side, but she was dragged away from her friend.

"Take her to the fourth floor," the first guard ordered. "This guy will go to the second floor."

"You can't think of separating the two of us!" Naeun shrieked. "Myungsoo! Myungsoo, damn it! Wake up!"

Before she could do anything else, the guard starting pushing her to a certain direction. Every time she tried to look over her shoulder, the guard would poke her back with his sharp sword, threatening her that he would stab her if she did not look forward. She clenched her teeth and continued to walk with a bitter expression.

If we get separated, then it's going to be harder for Taemin to save us! she thought. Her heart pounded with anxiety. Oh gosh, I just hope someone comes to save us fast…!

"This is all your fault."

"My fault? Okay, who was the one who decided to run and attack them? We could've just disguised ourselves as lost travelers who found our way inside the palace for no apparent reason!"

"Why didn't you tell me that plan sooner? See? This is your fault."

Mino rolled her eyes in bewilderment. He continued to frown as the soldiers started to circle around the two. He tried to look down at his hands, but he couldn't—they were already tied up behind his back.

"How did you even get them to touch you?" Mino asked.

"My powers are pretty unstable. It's not my fault that I ran out of fuse. Besides, I didn't have a lot of energy. Usually Naeun is here to enhance my powers."

"How would that work?" Mino asked.

"Fire and oxygen. Put them together, then the fire should grow bigger," Taemin said. He started rubbing his fingers. "Now if I can just flick some flame on my finger tips, then I can burn this stupid rope…"

"You can't do that," a voice said. A golden circle appeared before their eyes. From there, a man dressed in rich gold came up from the ground, sprouting out like a brilliant flower. Mino stared at the figure in awe, while Taemin clenched his teeth.

"Damn," Taemin cursed. "It's him."

"Who?" Mino asked.

"The Emperor."

Mino's eyes widened. "Does that mean we're going to die? Are we going to die?"

Taemin rolled his eyes. "As if I'm going to die. There's no way that I'm going to end my life with just this."

When the man's full body appeared, the circle had faded. The soldiers all around kneeled, while one stepped over next to the Emperor and cleared his throat.

"Introducing: Emperor Junsu, the emperor of the fifth generation!" the soldier announced.

"Silence," Junsu quickly ordered. The soldier quickly kneeled with the rest. Junsu stared at the two boys, then frowned. "This wasn't the magic I was sensing. What is this? They have very puny magic."

They? Taemin wondered. He made a mental note to talk about this to Mino later.

"These two were the only ones we saw," the soldier stated.

Junsu looked around. "There was a greater magic somewhere else in this palace…" Junsu looked at the two. "What are you? What are your powers?"

"What happens if we don't tell you?" Taemin asked. The spears suddenly pointed at their necks. Mino gasped and held his breath, trying his best not to move his neck. Taemin looked at the spears in amusement. "Okay, you got me there. Get these things off of me and I'll speak."

"No. Speak now or forever remain silent," Junsu demanded.

"I'm an Elemental," Taemin slowly revealed. "On the other hand, this guy has no power."

"Do not lie to the Emperor. If I can sense powers from him, he has powers," the Emperor stated.

Taemin looked at Mino with wide eyes. "You have powers and you didn't use it?"

"I swear, I have no idea what he's talking about!" Mino exclaimed.

"We'll talk with this one in private," the Emperor said, pointing at Mino. "Meanwhile, take the Elemental into the fifth floor."

"Understood!" the soldiers exclaimed. One quickly grabbed Taemin and placed a magic-nullification chain on his wrist. Taemin scowled, but silently went with the others.

When Taemin disappeared with the soldiers, Mino felt completely lost. Was he going to die? He wasn't even familiar with the area. How was he going to escape from now on? Especially with the lack of power—

"Remove the scarf," the emperor ordered.

Mino's eyes widened. "Wait, wait, wait! Don't! I'm serious, don't—"

Before he had the chance to utter another word, two soldiers forcefully removed the scarf. He closed his eyes, fearing that the mark would do something. However, it only throbbed at the presence of the Emperor's magic. He slowly opened them, then gasped when Junsu hovered his hand over the mark.

The mark suddenly felt icy cold, stinging his neck. Mino cried out in pain, but watched the man wiggle his fingers in the air, absorbing the black dots that started to float in the air. Every time the emperor released a golden speck of light, it would eat up the black specks, then disappear. Mino stared at the process, amazed, until the emperor dropped his hands to the side.

"This still isn't the power that I sensed," the emperor said. He frowned. "I want this guy deported as soon as possible."

Mino dropped his jaws. "W-Wait! I can't do anything all by myself! I need my friends!"

"But I don't want you here," the emperor said. "In fact, I want you to go far away from here. I'll open another dimension for you."

Mino was just about to protest until he remembered about his home. "Can you take me back to the place I originally came from?"

The emperor looked at him. "You mean the place you were before you came here or the place you actually came from?"

"The place I actually came from," Mino answered.

"Impossible. That goes beyond my powers or any powers in this world," Junsu said.

"Why?" he asked.

"The powers that exist here and the powers that brought you here are completely different." When Junsu looked at Mino's confused expression, he sighed. "Let's say that there are two round spheres: one sphere represents our world, and the other represents yours. Naturally, there is some kind of law that prevents our worlds for intersecting. However, your world must have opened a source that can bring your world to ours. Something from your world must've triggered the key to opening our world."

"So it's like dimension crossing?" Mino asked.

"No, not exactly. You see, each sphere contains their own amount of dimensions. Our world contains several dimensions that allow us to travel the different parts of our worlds." Mino continued to frown. "Hm… Let's just say that within the sphere, it contains several dimensions. Therefore, we can't say that the connection from your world to ours is a dimension because it's not within one sphere. Does that make more sense?"

"Not really," Mino answered honestly.

"Well, it's not very important. I just need to send you back and forever close the doors to our dimension," Junsu said. However, he muttered, "But I did that before, too, so I don't understand how you even managed to come here…"

"What did you do to my neck?" Mino asked.

"I temporarily delayed the curse mark's true intents," the emperor said. "I have no idea when it's going to release it's true powers, so I delayed it long enough to go to another world."

"These things aren't just to make me suffer?"

"Of course not. Curse marks are only there to be beneficial for the Devils. A Devil user wouldn't give you a curse just to make you feel bad. It's to help the Devil spread some kind of mischief by acting as a parasite."

"So what is this mark's true intent?" Mino inquired cautiously.

The emperor gave him a quick look before he snapped his fingers. The guards grabbed Mino by his arms and forced him up on his feet.

"Take him to the first floor," the emperor stated. "He will be deported as soon as possible."

Mino's eyes widened. "Wait! Can't you at least deport me with my friends? And what's this mark's purpose? Can you at least tell me that?"

Junsu gave him another look before his expression darkened. Mino gulped nervously as he felt cold beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"The cursed power given to you," Junsu said, "is the power that will trigger an apocalypse."

After ten minutes, Jieun found herself feeling exhausted over the amount of rooms she and Hoya had gone through. Sometimes the two would spot some trickling gold and use it to jump from floor to floor. However, the two soon figured out that using the magical pathway to teleport consumed most of their energy. Eventually Hoya had suggested to stop using the hidden pathway in order to conserve enough magic to hide Jieun's abilities, to which she agreed after feeling worn out herself.

"Why is it so difficult to get to the fifth floor?" Jieun asked, panting for air. She looked up and noticed that her vision was getting blurry.

"Normally there's a secret passage that the non-magic users take, but we need keys for that to open the rooms to the floors. Besides, this pathway is only used by the Emperor. He knows exactly which passage to go to," Hoya explained.

"I expected you to be an expert on this. Did you learn nothing while you were in that cell?" she asked him.

"I was starved and beaten. How do you expect me to learn when I have other things to worry about?" he pointed out.

"How did you get here in the first place?" she asked him.

"I came here by mistake," he said. He didn't continue on. He only stopped and sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?"

She was about to tell him that she couldn't until she remembered how he thought that she was his own kind.

"Um, yeah. Totally," she murmured.

Hoya scowled. "This scent is too familiar. We're on the third floor."

Jieun's eyes widened. "Third floor? How the hell did we come back here? Last time I remember it, we were at the fourth floor!"

"We must've taken the wrong pathway," Hoya muttered. "We'll just have to figure out a way to go down—" He stopped when he opened a room and saw golden dots trickling down between the wall and the floor. "Looks like I found ourselves a way down."

"Okay, but now what? I thought we agreed that we weren't going to use this," she reminded him.

"We don't have to. We can just go and find the stairs and knock out some guards. You know, be in combat."

"Are you in any shape to fight?" she asked, pointing at his ribs hiding underneath the thin layer of his skin.

"Of course not," he said.

"So you're saying that we should still use this path, even though our magic might be exposed?" Jieun asked him again.

"That's the plan." He looked at her for a brief moment. "Your friends have magic, too, right?" She nodded. "Well, then we might be lucky if the Emperor doesn't catch us and mistaken our magic to be theirs."

Jieun bit her bottom lip. "I don't know about this…"

"Trust me," Hoya said, giving her an unfamiliar look.

She somehow knew that she should not trust him. Getting a contract with him without Taemin's consult was already enough harm. She had no idea what he would do and what troubles he would bring to her. She had absolutely no clue how this world worked and whether "trust" was a valid option. She didn't know, but—

I need to save them, she thought dutifully. She took a deep breath, then nodded her head. The two quickly reached down and touched the golden specks. In a blink of an eye, they had disappeared to another floor.

From above, the Emperor's eyes widened. He quickly turned to his soldiers, who were ready to bring Mino down in the chambers.

"Stop!" he demanded. Everyone halted. Mino gulped again and turned around.

"I-Is there a problem?" Mino asked softly.

"You didn't tell me that you had other friends scampering around the area," Junsu said. He slightly gritted his teeth. "I can sense that a prisoner has escaped…!"

Did Jieun do it? Mino wondered. Did she save someone?

"Do not put him in the chambers," Junsu ordered. "Rather, bring him to my throne. I will hold him captive until the one with the greater power comes."

Mino widened his eyes and gulped loudly as the soldiers pushed him to the opposite direction.