"Ow, ow, ow!" Jieun wailed in pain. "It hurts! God, it hurts!"

"I don't understand," Mino said, nearly breathless. He continued to run away from the sea of sigbins that had been following them since the moment they came to the Vampire Realm. "Your powers were working before… Why is it going against you?"

"I don't know! It just hurts!" Jieun cried out. She looked down at the cat. "I think it's hurting Minhyuk, too."

"Well, I'm getting tired," Mino complained. He stopped for a brief moment. "Hold up, let me do this."

He used his right hand and slammed it against the ground. He chanted something under his breath, then continued to run with Jieun in his hands. She looked at him, confused.

"What did you do?" she asked.

She looked over his shoulders and widened her eyes. Large gooey substances rose from the ground, forming an army of black gooey monsters. When Jieun looked carefully, she could see a familiar pixie rising from the ground: Eunji.

There was a whole mob of Eunjis rising up from the slime. They all fluttered around the sigbins, laughing and giggling exactly like how Eunji would. The clones distracted the sigbins long enough for Mino to turn the corner and find a manhole. He used all his strength to pull out the cover and quickly hid inside. The moment he dropped Jieun down on the floor of the sewer, he put over the manhole cover and kept quiet.

The three waited quietly with Jieun and Minhyuk trying their best to suppress their painful cries. They heard the sigbins' cries and hisses above. Their feet thumped against the road above the trio. 

Once the sounds of the creatures' feet were gone, Mino sighed in relief and Jieun and Minhyuk continued to groan in pain. Mino quickly bent next to Jieun and looked over at her fingers. Her red strings were still glowing and they were burning.

"I don't get it," Mino murmured, shaking his head. "It's hot. Like, really hot."

"You think I don't know that?" Jieun asked, annoyed.

"First thing's first, we need to figure out how to get rid of those strings."

"I don't know how!" she screamed.

"Think about what you remember," Mino said. "This isn't your first time having the red strings, right?"

Jieun squeezed her eyes and tried her best to recall her old memories.

"I…I remember that Howon was playing a game of 'EAT IT' with Eunji the pixie…and these strings came out. These strings…ow…came out and prevented him from eating…" She hissed when the red strings glowed even brighter. "They disappeared when we arrived at his village…"

"Anything else?" Mino asked.

"No, that's all," Jieun said. She whimpered. "It hurts! It hurts so much!"

Mino paused and stared at her. "By any chance, did you make a wish while you had strings on Howon?"

Jieun thought long and hard. "I…I don't think I've made any wishes when I had these strings on Howon."

"Maybe that's why. Maybe your powers contradict with each other," Mino hypothesized. "If there are certain powers that try to fight against the host like curses, then maybe there are powers that fight against each other." He looked at the strings. "We don't know which category the red string goes into, and we definitely don't know what it really does except for it 'completes a wish.' However, Minhyuk never made a wish, so we can debunk that theory."

Jieun frowned. "I… I think I remember someone telling me about the Galaxial Wish and the Galaxial F-Fate."

"Galaxial Wish? Galaxial Fate?"

"Galaxial Wish—the power to grant wishes—and the Galaxial Fate—the powers to rewrite a person's fate," Jieun said. Strangely, the Galaxial Fate sounds more like Taemin's powers…

"So you're saying that you can rewrite Minhyuk's fate," Mino said slowly. He looked over at Minhyuk, who seemed like he wanted to say something but couldn't. Secretly, Mino softly snapped his fingers, using his cursed powers to revert Minhyuk back to a human.

Minhyuk howled in pain and clawed the floor. Jieun stared at him, shocked to see him turn back to his human form. He wasn't sure how he turned back to human, but he decided to take advantage of the moment.

"You can't use two galaxy powers," Minhyuk managed to say as his whole body felt like it was burning. "I-I remember Borah telling me that. Galaxy powers are so powerful, the user can only use it one at a time—Gah!" Minhyuk bent over and hugged his body. "Anyway, figure out how to get this string out! It burns, it burns!"

Mino glanced over at Minhyuk and Jieun. They were in great deal of pain, bloody and exhausted.

We're running out of time, Mino realized. At this rate, these two can die from the unbearable pain, physically or mentally.

"What happened when you returned to Howon's village?" Mino asked.

"The freaking strings disappeared! Oh my god, Mino! Are you even listening?" Jieun yelled. More bloody spilled from her eye as she clawed the wall. "It burns! It hurts!"

"No, like what exactly happened? Did he just arrive at the village and live his life?"

"No, he's dead!" she blurted. "He's dead, Mino!"

"Do you remember anything similar that happened in both situations?" Mino inquired.

"I only remember yelling 'Stop' and these strings would appear," Jieun said, seething her teeth. She wished that he would stop asking questions and figure out a solution. "I remember Howon said that the strings prevented him from doing something."

Mino stopped and frowned. He pondered for a few moments before slowly looked up at the two.

"What if these strings have to do something with changing a person's destiny, which leads to death?" Mino speculated.

The two stared at him with wide eyes. "What?"

"It's just a small idea, but what if Minhyuk was supposed to do something, but you've prevented that?" Mino theorized. "Think about it. Howon was supposed to play a game with a pixie, but you stopped it by shouting 'Stop.' What if Howon was destined to play the game, but you've pulled the strings and prevented him from doing so? Since we're talking about pixies, it's highly plausible that the playing the pixie's game was too dangerous and could've killed Howon. However, with the red string, you changed the way he died to your own liking."

"I didn't want Howon to die," Jieun said quickly.

"That doesn't explain my situation," Minhyuk said. "I wanted to die. I wanted to die by reading. I wanted to go insane."

"True," Mino muttered. "In that case, there isn't a relationship at all…" He snapped his fingers. "What if it's just random?"

"Oh god, Mino, please," Jieun groaned.

"No, seriously! You said that these powers of a 'mind of its own.' Maybe your desire to stop something triggers it, and from there it does something with the tied victim," Mino suggested. "What if—"

"Mino, stop hypothesizing what the strings do and figure out how to get rid of it!" Jieun roared. 

"Well, how am I supposed to figure out how to get rid of it when I don't even know what it does!" Mino yelled.

"Are you the one with broken fingers and burning in lava strings?"

"I'm the one who—" Mino stopped. "Wait. Lava strings."

"It's not really lava," Jieun said tiredly. "It just burns a lot and—"

"Strings that burn whenever you make a wish. Strings that appear at your command of 'Stop.' Strings that prevent the threaded victim from doing one particular action, but allows them to freely kill the host. I think I'm getting through something here," Mino mumbled. "Jieun, what if the strings aren't exactly your powers? What if you're just a vessel?"

"A vessel?" she repeated. She wiped the blood from her eye.

"What if someone else controls the string? It's so random and out of control, it just doesn't make sense. It doesn't do anything to benefit you," Mino pointed out. "It's clear that the Galaxial Wish is supposed to be your power, but what about the strings? Is this supposed to be your powers? It doesn't seem like it since it contradicts with the Galaxial Wish."

"What are you trying to say?" Jieun asked. 

"Whoever controls the red string is a superior being. The red strings overlaps the Galaxial Wish. When the two powers are active, they'll compete for your power. As a defense mechanism, the red strings prevents you from making any sort of wish and due to the powers' density, your eye starts to bleed and you start to feel pain."

"So how the hell am I supposed to be free?" Minhyuk snapped.

Mino looked at them. "No idea. That all depends to whoever really controls those strings. On the other hand, I think I know a way to cool down those strings."

"Oh god, finally!" Jieun whispered.

"We need to where Myungsoo is," Mino said. "It only makes sense. If you can't make your wish come true by just hoping for it, then you got to use effort to make it come true." He picked Jieun up. "It's either that or wait until whatever summoned those strings release you from Minhyuk." He looked at Minhyuk and snapped his fingers. "Back into your cat form."

Before Minhyuk could protest, he found himself shrinking as black fur grew from his skin. He turned back to a cat, only able to mutter out small "meows" and hiss in pain.

"Okay, for now, let me do this," Mino said. He touched the cat's head, watching the cat's eyes turn to pitch black. 

Minhyuk remained awfully still, making Jieun curious of what was going on. A moment later, the red strings slowly steamed out a black gas. Jieun tilted her head in confusion, but felt the burning sensation fade away slowly. When Mino was done, she could feel a tinge of pain and nothing else. She looked at how broken and bloody her fingers were, shocked to see how much self-damage she committed to herself.

"What did you do?" Jieun asked, impressed.

"I figure that if Galaxy powers contradict with themselves, then maybe curse powers will help with the situation since curse powers help cancel all types of powers," Mino explained.

"So you cursed me?"

"No. It's just a temporary black magic power. Nothing big. It'll fade in a couple of hours," Mino said. He looked over at the other end of the sewer. "On the other hand, we should continue walking underground. We don't want those sigbins to come back and chase us."

"O-Okay," Jieun stuttered. She held Minhyuk in her arms while Mino took the lead. She followed behind him, sinking into the darkness of the sewers.

As the two walked for a while, Jieun couldn't help but remember what had happened earlier with Mino's black goo. She knew that the figures were Eunji, but why? She wondered what Mino's relationship was with the pixie, but didn't dare to ask him.

For now, let's just focus on getting to the castle, she told herself. Then let's ask questions.

The three entered the depths of the sewer system, walking aimlessly and hoping to find the closest entrance to the castle to save Myungsoo.

Myungsoo lifted his eyelids. He felt hot as if he was on fire. He looked around and noticed that he was on the ground. His skin was smeared with black asphalt as rich red flames continued to grow near him. His vision was blurry and he had absolutely no idea what was going on. He was either in a great deal of pain or too numb to feel anything. He wasn't really sure how he was feeling—one second he could hardly breath, and the next second he was squirming around thoughtlessly.

Help, he managed to think. I need help…

Suddenly, he felt someone grab his arms. His forced his eyes to glance at the figure that was dragging him away from the fire. People dressed in orange jumpsuits surrounded him, picking him up on the ground and putting him on stretcher. He felt another person throw a mask over his mouth and nose, pumping oxygen. He could finally hear the sounds of sirens grow louder while the sound of the wood cracking fade away.

Myungsoo looked over at the scene. It was a car crash—fire ate up the car that carried another passenger. She was a female who resembled Naeun, except she was unconscious and bloody.

Naeun… his eyes slowly faded. Someone save Naeun…

The last thing he remembered seeing was the bush of rhododendrons near the car, burning away with the metal vehicle.

Myungsoo slowly found himself growing conscious. He opened his eyes and saw a beautiful figure with a pair of white angel wings. The angel smiled fondly at him while her hands were on his chest. Myungsoo was about to speak up until the angel softly hushed him.

"Shh, don't speak," the angel whispered. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll save you."

Myungsoo's eyes softened. He had absolutely no idea who the angel was, but he felt like he could trust her.

"Are you done yet?" a cold voice behind her asked.

Myungsoo peeked over her shoulder, noticing a shadowy elf-like figure. He squinted, but the girl lowered his chin, forcing him to only look at her.

"Don't think too much, darling," the angel said. "Don't think at all… Just believe that I'll save you…"

He managed a small nod. He continued to gaze into her eyes, but listened to their conversation.

"Hurry up," the elf ordered. "The other vampire guards might come in and attack us."

"It's okay. I casted a Barrier of Patience. They won't check on the poor boy until we leave," said the angel. "Besides, let the people of this castle experience peace for the moment."

"Being under the impression that there's peace is foolish," the elf muttered. "Your barrier only makes people foolish."

"Well, I'll leave you to your own opinions," she replied. She gently pulled her hand away from Myungsoo's chest. "There, that should do it. That should return his soul and keep him alive."

"I don't understand why we didn't kill him," the elf said.

"It was the Council Leader's orders," the angel told him. She swirled her fingers and a transparent sphere trapped Myungsoo in like a large bubble. "It was also his orders to take him off of Yoseob's hands."

"The Captain of the Fifth Court is going to be furious," the elf said.

Right when Myungsoo heard the Captain of the Fifth Court's name, he immediately recognized who his "rescuers" were: Captain of the First Court, Yoona, and Captain of the Second Court, Jiyong.

Myungsoo knew that he should panic and run, but there was something about the bubble that prevented him from having any rebellious emotions. He looked at Yoona, who gave him a sneaky smile.

"What? Did you think that we were going to just save you?" She giggled. "Aw, he's so innocent, it's cute."

"Don't forget to put down the barrier," Jiyong said.

"Oh right." Yoona put two hands above her head and made a curved motion down to her shoulder. "And now for the opposite: Barrier of Wrath." Her hands curved upwards as if she was putting a sphere in front of her. She turned to Jiyong. "We should go quickly. You wouldn't want to die under the hands of vampires, do you?"

Jiyong ignored her. He walked over to the broken wall, where the two had initially broke through and entered. He guested Yoona to step out first. She gave him a small bow and stretched her wings. The bubble that Myungsoo was in followed right behind her as she soared through the sky. Jiyong pulled out an arrow from his quiver and poked the point against his palm, dipping the tip with some of his blood. Then, he pulled the arrow and launched it on the furthest and tallest tree. A second later, he teleported to the arrow's location. He continued to do this a few times before disappearing from the realm with Yoona and Myungsoo.