Fifteen minutes later, Jieun found herself at an unfamiliar floor. The ground was made out of gold again, but this time, there were actually doors and stairs leading the area to places. She scanned the room, but yelped softly when she heard footsteps running towards her way. She quickly hid behind a large statue and kept quiet. The sound of metal shackles echoed in the golden room.

"Stay in here!" a guard ordered. Jieun could hear the victim panting loudly in fear. "We need to send back up to Emperor Junsu. Don't even think about leaving."

With that, the door closed again. Jieun slowly took a peek at the new guest. She gasped when she saw that it was Mino looking worn out and exhausted.

"Mino!" Jieun whispered. The boy slowly glanced up, then weakly looked back down. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to keep himself in control. Jieun frowned, thinking that he had not heard her. "Mino! Over here!"

"I hear you," Mino whispered back. He squinted his eyes and groaned.

Jieun's excited expression faded. "Mino, are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine," Mino said, barely breathing. "Where is everyone?"

"Myungsoo is severely injured and he's with my new friend on the surface," Jieun explained. "I don't know where Taemin is, but Naeun is currently fighting the Emperor." She took a quick glance at the door. "Come over here! If I go to you and if someone opens the door, then I'll get caught. It's best if you come here so I can untie you while I'm hiding."

Mino bit his bottom lip. "I can't move."

Jieun frowned. "What?"

"I can't move," he repeated. She furrowed her eyebrows even further, but widened her eyes when she saw Mino's eyes shift from pure black. She almost screamed, but managed to cover with her hands. His eyes turned back to brown. "I can't move, Jieun, and I don't understand why!"

"Mino, your eyes," Jieun breathed.

"I'm getting the same feeling again," he said. "I'm feeling anxious. I want to kill."

She looked around. "A-Are you going to kill me?"

"I don't know, Jieun," he said with tears threatening to spill from his eyes. "I don't know what's happening to me." He shook his wrists a bit. "These shackles might be affecting the curse mark. The Emperor did something to my neck, but he claimed that it was for suppressing the powers. I wasn't feel this way until the guards placed these shackles on me."

"W-What do I do?" Jieun asked him in a shaky voice.

"I don't know, but don't open that door," Mino muttered. "If you open it, and if I see people again, I might go crazy." She noticed beads of sweat trickling down his head. "It's really hard to convince myself that death isn't the answer. The voices inside—The voices keep echoing. It's like they're singing. Yeah, singing. A beautiful, death song."

His entire eye colored black, then shifted back to brown. Jieun froze at her spot, unable to think of a good solution to the situation.

"I-I remember your powers before," she stuttered. "B-But I don't know what to do…"

"Jieun, just run away," Mino told him in a shaky voice. "J-Just come for me last."

"I can't just come back for you later! It doesn't work like that!" Jieun hissed. "I still don't know where Taemin is…" Her eyes scanned across the room for some ideas. "I have to save you, no matter what's going to happen right now!"

Mino hitched his voice. "T-Then Jieun? If you really have to save me now, do me a favor."

"What?" she asked.

He nervously glanced at her. "O-Open the door."

"What?"

"Open it," he repeated. "Just open it and look away. Hide behind something with life."

Jieun noticed a vase holding a few small trees. She looked back at the door, then calculated how fast she had to open the door and run towards the vase. She took a deep breath.

"Mino?" she called him.

"Yeah?"

"You ready?"

Mino closed his eyes, then opened them. They shifted to black.

"Ready," he said with full confidence in his voice. Jieun nodded then looked at the door.

"Here goes nothing…" Without a single thought of hesitation, she ran towards the door, opened it, and hid behind the vases, covering her eyes and ears to avoid seeing whatever tragedy that would strike the next person who would walk through the doors.

The Emperor perked up when he noticed an immense dark energy surrounding the castle. He scowled for a moment.

The curse is being recharged, he thought. I need to get rid of him as soon as I can before his powers trigger the end of the world.

Before he had the chance to think of the next sentence, he felt the wind graze against his arm. He looked down and noticed a deep wound gushing out of his skin. He looked back up and saw Naeun wave the sword in the air.

"You should focus on the person you're fighting with," she said. She threw another blast of wind towards him, but this time, Junsu managed to dodge it.

He gave her a frown. "I'm sorry, but I got a whole empire to deal with right now. You are the least of my worries."

"Oh really? Aren't you afraid that you're going to die?" she taunted.

"I don't need to worry," Junsu told her. "I'm not going anywhere."

She glared at him. "Where's Taemin?"

"I don't know."

"Liar!" she yelled, her eyes burning with fierce passion. "I know that you know where you put him—"

She let out a scream when Junsu pointed his fingers and sent out a yellow beam of light. Fortunately, she managed to avoid the attack, but she kept her guard up when she realized that the beam was able to melt through the golden walls.

This guy is seriously trying to kill me, she realized, biting her bottom lip. 

"Let's get this over with," the Emperor said. He was about to send out another beam of light until he felt an odd presence behind him. Recognizing the dark energy, he quickly whirled around and pointed his beam to the shadowy figure behind him. 

"Run!" Howon, who managed to dodge the beam, shouted to Naeun. "Get out of here!"

Junsu gritted his teeth. "How could you get out of my cell so easily? I had you starved and miserable for years!"

"Jieun found one of her friends, but he's unconscious," Howon told her after approaching her side. "It's best if we move out right now."

"Did she rescue Taemin?" Naeun asked.

"I don't know, but let's get out of here quick!" Howon shouted. He grabbed Naeun's wrist and started to pull her away from the Emperor.

"Get back here!" the Emperor shouted.

"This way!" Howon told her. He released his grip and started running. Naeun blindly followed behind, trying to avoid the Junsu's attacks.

The two managed to find a room that led them out of the castle. They climbed up several stairs until they made it out into the open. Naeun widened her eyes when she saw Jieun standing behind a random tree with two unconscious boys leaning against the castle walls. Jieun anxiously looked up at them.

"They won't wake up!" Jieun said.

"We have to drag them," Howon said.

"Where's Taemin?" Naeun asked them.

"I checked the fifth floor, but he wasn't there! I saw a hole in one of the cells, so I assumed that he was out," Jieun explained.

"Then where the hell is he?" Naeun cried out, getting frustrated at her.

"I don't—"

Before Jieun had the chance to finish, a yellow beam grazed between Naeun and Howon's face. The two froze and turned around, where they saw Junsu glaring at them. Naeun quickly positioned her sword in front of herself, while Howon bent his fingers into a claw-like shape.

"Stay back, Jieun!" Naeun ordered. "Hide the boys!"

Jieun's lips started to tremble. "B-But what should I do—"

"Just hide the boys! Run! Stay back!" Naeun yelled.

"But I—"

"Jieun, just—"

The Emperor managed to catch Naeun off guard. He quickly pointed his finger at the hilt and knocked it out of her hand. Naeun gasped and stumbled backwards when the blade almost cut her arm. She fell on her bottom and tried to reach back for the hilt until the Emperor stepped on her foot, preventing her from escaping. Naeun's eyes only grew wide at the sight of her approaching doom.

"Finally," Junsu breathed. "Now, I can get rid of you."

"Naeun, no!" Jieun cried out, her eyes wide with utter fear.

"Goodbye," he whispered, pointing his two fingers at her chest.

BOOSH!

The Emperor stopped and looked behind him. His eyes widened when he saw a part of his castle burning in white flames. Naeun forced out a smile when she knew exactly who was coming to her rescue.

It's Taemin! she cried out.

BOOM!

Naeun frowned when she saw that the second explosion erupted into red flames. The Emperor's eyes were still wide. He clenched his teeth and his fist.

"I kept my guard down!" Junsu grunted. "The enemy is attacking us!" He turned to Naeun. "If you and your little friends can leave here before I'm done with this war, then you shall all be spared."

She only kept quiet and watched him leave. Once he disappeared back into the castle, Naeun quickly scurried over to Jieun's side. Jieun started to sob uncontrollably.

"Stop crying!" Naeun shouted. "We need to go and find Taemin as soon as possi—"

"I'm right here."

The girls looked up and beamed when they saw Taemin holding a dented spoon in one hand and a ball of white flame in the other. He gave Jieun a brief look of relief before looking at the rest.

"Taemin, if we escape this place now, then we won't need to go through all this," Naeun told him.

"Jieun, you heard her, right?" Taemin said. He kneeled down in front of her. "I need you to to concentrate. Wish a place that you want to be in right now."

Jieun looked at him with tears streaming down her cheeks. She glanced at the fire and smoke rising up in the castle. She looked at Myungsoo, who was probably going to die any minute if she didn't think of a safe place for them. There was too many blood, too many people unconscious, too many fighting—

I wish we could all go to some world where there's no violence!

A burst of gold shot out from the tear that fell from her eyes. All Jieun could remember was seeing the light absorb Taemin, Naeun, Myungsoo, Mino, and Howon in its glow, and blind her vision momentarily, draining away her energy until she gasped for air and fainted.

Jieun woke up, groaning to herself and feeling exhausted. She tried to push herself up from the ground, but only collapsed right back down. She weakly opened her eyes and examined everyone, who seemed to be regaining their consciousness. They groaned and moaned in pain, pushing themselves up from the ground successfully unlike Jieun.

Taemin rubbed his head and glanced over to see if everyone was okay. He quickly looked at Jieun before rubbing his eyes.

"God damn it, Jieun," he muttered. "What the hell was that?"

Jieun tried to open , but she couldn't do anything. She was too tired to speak, and even if she gained the little energy she had to speak up, she couldn't find her voice.

"Ow, ow, ow… My head!" Howon grumbled, and rubbed his head. "Uh, it hurts! It hurts so bad!"

"At least it looks like we got away," Naeun said weakly. She looked around, then scurried over to Myungsoo's side to check on his pulse. She let out a small sigh of relief. "Okay, he's alive. He's just unconscious." She turned to Taemin. "I need you to burn his wounds. The blood hasn't stopped pumping out."

Taemin groaned. Despite his desire to slack off, he made a small fire ball on the palm of his hand. He took a deep breath, then started frowning.

"Sorry, Myungsoo," Taemin muttered. Without wasting another second, he started spread the white flames against Myungsoo's open wounds.

Jieun wasn't sure if it was because of the fire's temperature or if it was because of the pain, but she saw Myungsoo's eyes shoot wide open. He started to scream and tried to run away, but there wasn't enough adrenaline to give him the extra boost to escape Taemin's flame.

It's still beautiful, Jieun thought, admiring the white sparks. Why is it so beautiful?

"Okay, that's enough!" Naeun said, raising her voice so that she could hear him. With one simple motion, Taemin whipped away all the flames and watched Myungsoo's wounds turn to scars. Myungsoo heavily gasped for air, clenching and unclenching his hands as he struggled to move.

"Ugh…" Myungsoo moaned in misery.

"Anyone got something to cover him up?" Naeun asked.

"Mino's got a scarf," Taemin said. He reached out for the scarf. 

Jieun's eyes widened and she tried to tell him not to take it off, but held herself down when Taemin started unwrapping the scarf. Fortunately, Mino was lying down in a position where the curse mark was facing the ground rather than the sky, and Taemin didn't notice.

"Here," Taemin said, handing Naeun the scarf. She accepted it and started to tie it around Myungsoo's chest. Myungsoo groaned, but weakly smiled at Naeun.

"Thanks," he barely managed to whisper. "You were brave."

"I'm always brave," Naeun said, smirking with Myungsoo. 

"Can I get up?" he asked.

"Slowly."

Myungsoo followed her direction. He carefully sat up from the ground, putting one hand over his chest.

"Ugh, that hurts a lot," Myungsoo muttered. "I almost died back there."

"That's why you don't risk your life for other people," Naeun told him. "You'll only end up losing your own life."

"So who's this guy?" Taemin asked, gesturing his chin at Howon.

"We can ask Jieun when she wakes up," Naeun said. "It doesn't look like he's ready to talk."

"Jieun is already awake," Howon said, pointing to the fact that her eyes were open. Jieun tried to smile, but she couldn't give them the gentle expression she planned to give them. Taemin sighed and helped Jieun sit up.

"Can you talk?" he asked her. She opened her lips and tired to speak. Nothing came out. She shook her head. "Great. So you can't talk. Amazing."

"Wait a minute," Naeun said. She clasped her hands together, then slowly parted them open. A small sphere of wind that was about the size of a golfball appeared between her palms. She gently sent the sphere to Jieun's lips. "Swallow it."

Jieun obeyed. She swallowed the sphere, which dispersed and dissolved in . She started coughing and rubbed her neck.

"Ow…" she muttered. "That kind of hurt…"

"Good job, Naeun," Taemin said. "You got her to speak."

Naeun blushed. "I-It was nothing…"

"So who's the guy?" Taemin asked, ignoring her reaction.

"He helped me out," Jieun mumbled.

"Okay, but who is he?"

"He's Howon. He's half-dragon and half-human. I made a contract with him so that he could help me out"

"Oh, is that so—Wait a minute." Taemin stopped his tracks. He gave her a deep frown. "Dragons? Did you just say dragons?"

Jieun turned around. "Yeah. Dragons."

"Like those large lizards with wings?" Taemin asked.

"Yes, I believe those are dragons. At least, in my world, it is."

"And you made a contract with this guy?" Taemin asked, pointing at Howon.

"I don't see the problem," Jieun said, still keeping a smile. She turned to Howon. "Oh, since I got you out of here, I'm sure that the contract is done, yes? We're out of the Emperor's grasp, so don't worry about the Emperor chasing after you, okay? This is the end of our contract."

Taemin widened his eyes and started to catch up to Jieun.

"Jieun, hold up! You can't—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Jieun felt a sharp pain stabbing through her heart. She gasped, wheezing for air until she found herself collapsed on the ground. Her body was paralyzed and she couldn't feel anything. She could only numbly listen to her teammate rushing over to her side.

"Jieun!" Taemin exclaimed, gently picking her up. "Jieun are you okay?"

"I-I-I'm fine," Jieun stuttered with a hoarse voice. Tears started springing out of her eyes. "W-What's happening? Am I going to die?"

"I was afraid of this," Taemin muttered. He looked at Howon. "You. You're a Devil user, right?"

Howon blinked his eyes. Then, a wide smirk appeared across his face. 

"What makes you say such a terrible thing?" Howon asked him.

"Because dragons don't exist," Taemin said. "And even if they did exist, there would be no way that a dragon and a human could come together and create a half-breed."

Howon grinned. "Indeed, you're right. I'm a Devil User—I'm a Contractor."

"Dang it, Jieun," Taemin muttered. "Of all the Devil Users you teamed up with, you ended up teaming with one of the most troublesome kind." He looked at Howon. "Step closer."

Howon did so. When he came closer to Jieun, she was slowly able to feel her own body. She gasped for air and started to feel her nerves kick in. After a few minutes, she managed to get on her two feet with Taemin supporting her arms.

"W-What's a Contractor?" Jieun asked.

"Contracts are Devil users who specialize in making contracts," Taemin started. "Each side has something they want, and they must complete the task given to them."

"In this case, you asked me to obey one of your wishes, which was to help you rescue your friends," Howon said.

"What was your part?" Taemin asked.

"To have her get me out of 'here'," Howon said, putting quotations.

Taemin scowled. "Such a vague part. Only a fool would sign something like that."

"I'm sorry," Jieun mumbled.

"It's okay, Jieun. You didn't know," Myungsoo said, giving her a small smile.

"So where is 'here'?" asked Taemin.

"I want to go back to my realm," Howon said. "I was deported to the Emperor's realm."

"Deported? You must've have done something terribly bad if you were deported to a whole different dimension," Myungsoo commented.

"I committed a small massacre on my village," Howon revealed, much to everyone's surprise. "I wish to go back."

There was an odd silence. Taemin looked at Howon with looks of grudge, but only bit his tongue and nodded his head.

"Fine," Taemin said. "We'll take you back to your realm."

"Taemin, no," Naeun quickly said, grabbing his shoulder. "If we get caught, we can get into trouble."

"They won't find out."

"The Council will find out."

"Then we'll have to shut up about it and do this as quietly as we can," he reasoned.

"That was our plan last time, and look how wonderfully that turned out," Jieun mumbled, pointing at Howon.

"You shouldn't even be talking. You got us into this mess," Taemin told her. He looked at Howon. "Where's your realm?" Taemin asked. "I'll get this girl to transport you."

Howon smirked. "That can't happen."

"And why not?"

"I told you, the girl and I have a contract. If we're too apart from each other, then she will have another seizure and die. If she wants to transport me, then she needs to come with me," Howon reasoned.

"So we all have to go?" Naeun asked tiredly. She glared at Jieun. "Why do you keep dragging us into unnecessary situations?"

"I'm sorry," Jieun muttered quietly.

"It's not her fault. She's only a stranger in this world," Myungsoo defended.

"We'll leave tomorrow when Jieun restored her energy," Taemin said, ignoring Naeun's comment. "After all, she's the only one who has the ability to take you back to your realm."

"That sounds charming," Howon said. He looked around a bit. "But where are we?"

Everyone finally took a look at their surroundings. There was no sign of plants or life anywhere. The ground consisted of thick clay-like sand that molded only when enough force was applied to it. It was like a moist desert, except it was quite cold and dry.

"Jieun," Taemin said, looking at sand hills after sand hills, "I hope you know where you teleported us."

"W-Well… It's a world with no violence," she mumbled. She bit her bottom lip and glanced at Taemin, who face-palmed himself with sheer disappointment.