"Well, this is a little funny. We have an…unexpected guest."

Yoona and Jiyong, who were sitting down in the middle of a pure white room, looked up at the figure approaching the two. Neither the angel or the elf stood up to bow in respects to their fellow Council member. 

Ok Taecyeon, the Captain of the Third Court, walked in with no weapons in his hand. They found it a little odd how he didn't have Sohee's double-sided moon-shaped axe with him. Since Sohee's execution, he had been treasuring the weapon as if it was his own. He walked in without his usual bulky army, too. Jiyong attempted to draw out his bow, but Yoona's eyes told him not to.

As Taecyeon walked closer, Yoona's smile grew wider.

"Tell me, fellow new captain: Why are you here today?" she asked in her sweet honey-dripping voice.

"I've sensed the death of yet another member of our Captains," Taecyeon said in a slightly mournful voice.

"Is that so," Yoona breathed. She gently touched her cheek and looked down. "How awful…"

"All the Captains are dropping like flies," Taecyeon said seriously. "The Captain of the Seventh Court is dead along with the Captain of the Fourth and Fifth Court. The Captain of the Sixth Court is nowhere to be found, and I'm starting to have trouble sensing him with my abilities."

"Oh my, oh my," Yoona mumbled. "That's quite a lot of problems. It appears that the Galaxial Wish is coming after all of us…"

"That's the least of my concern," Taecyeon said, surprising the two. He frowned. "What I'm afraid of is the fact that you two don't seem to care, like you guys have been expecting this." He began to growl. "Or as if you have taken part in this destruction…"

Yoona pouted. "Are you suspecting us of treason?"

"My fear is that this isn't even treason," Taecyeon replied quickly.

Jiyong grabbed his weapon again. Yoona stopped him.

"Don't," she told him. "He doesn't know anything."

"Better kill him now than have him make others conscious of what we're doing," Jiyong said bitterly. "You know how werewolves are. Once the leader decides on something, the rest of the pack will join and oppose us. We don't want to start a war with the werewolves."

"Say anything to comfort me. I'll listen," Taecyeon said. "I'm not like my predecessor, who would use violence immediately."

Yoona and Jiyong didn't say anything. They just looked at him: Yoona, trying to find out if Taecyeon was being sincere, and Jiyong, trying to figure out when he could shoot down the Captain of the Third Court. Neither wanted to let Taecyeon in on their plans, but they didn't want to make Taecyeon their enemy. 

Yoona slowly rose from her chair. Her white robes dropped graciously to the floor. She walked over to Taecyeon with calm, light steps. She placed her hand over his chest and her other hand on his broad back.

"Okay, Taecyeon." She spoke softly, as if she didn't want to scare the man. "Listen carefully."

Jiyong stood in protest. "Yoona, I won't allow you to—"

"Hush," Yoona said. 

"But—"

"Jiyong, we should let him in."

"I don't want him to know—"

"He deserves to know. He's new."

"Even, so, I just can't accept this! No, I won't accept it!"

"Dear Jiyong, don't get so riled up. If we let him in, he'll—"

Taecyeon snarled and lunged inwards, biting Yoona's hand. She yelped and withdrew her hand from his back and chest. He stared at her bloody hand before using the other hand to heal it. She flinched from the pain and gritted her teeth as she looked back at Taecyeon again. His eyes were beady red. He had wolf fur spurring from his skin, slightly changing into his werewolf form. He growled as her blood dripped from his fangs.

Jiyong clicked his tongue. He quickly drew his bow and arrow, much to Taecyeon's alarm. The werewolf crouched down, glaring at the dark elf.

"Since he noticed that you were trying to hypnotize him, why don't we go with my plan and kill him?" Jiyong asked. He pulled his arrow. 

"Don't," Yoona warned him. "He's a lot sharper than you think. A lot sharper than the previous Captain of the Third Court."

"I said I was a reasonable person," Taecyeon said. "Looks like neither of you guys are reasonable." He scoffed. "Well, what else did I expect from an angel and an elf? Angels, who think they're so pure and right, and elves, who think they know everything about the world. Too bad the world doesn't understand that you're the definition of impurity and arrogance!"

"What are you really after?" Jiyong asked.

"I just want to know if there's enough people who care about this world like I do," Taecyeon said. "Who cares about order and loyalty." He narrowed his eyes. "I need to feel assured that you will not destroy our second moon."

"The second moon?" Yoona asked.

"Why would we be after the second moon? It's what keeps you guys part of the Council," Jiyong pointed out.

"Exactly. It's what keeps us sane, even when there's a full moon," Taecyeon agreed. "It means everything to my kind. I need to be sure that the Council is prepared to make any sacrifices for my species before we are prepared to help you."

"I don't think you need to worry," Yoona said, finally done with healing her scar. "We have no interest in the werewolf kingdom."

"Good," he said sternly. He looked at them for a moment, then at Yoona. "Sorry for biting you."

He turned, and left the room. Jiyong was about to fire his arrow, but Yoona told him to stop. Bitter that he didn't get the chance to attack, he dropped his bow and arrow to the floor. Once the two were alone again, Jiyong said back down and slouched while Yoona walked over to sit down. She had a small frown on her face.

"What's wrong?" the elf asked.

"The Barrier of Wrath is gone," Yoona said. She giggled to herself. "It's funny because there was someone trying to counter my spell."

"Did it work?"

"No because Taecyeon bit my hand," she said. She smirked, "but we did take a life from someone significant."

"Who's?"

"The Captain of the Seventh Court." Yoona looked at Jiyong. "Apparently, she was alive!"

"Still alive?" Jiyong frowned. "Bora's still alive?"

"She was still alive," Yoona corrected. "Not anymore!"

She laughed happily to herself. Jiyong just stared at her as her wings turned black, showing her devilish delights for suffering and death.

"Meow."

Donghae stiffened when he noticed that the strange spell on the floor was gone. He made eye-contact with Minhyuk, who was back to being a normal cat. The cat purred for a moment, rolling on the floor before it started walking. Before it could get too far, Donghae grabbed the cat and held him in his hands.

The two were still surrounded by the laughing black pixies. They were still laughing, giggling. They didn't do anything. They were just…kind of there. The only time they would move was whenever he wasn't at the center of the circle. No matter where he was standing, the pixies made sure that he was the center of the ring. It was kind of taunting, but it made Donghae feel slightly comfortable that he wasn't attacked.

"Look, I don't know what you guys are," Donghae said, his voice trembling. "I just lost a close friend today. My friends below needs help."

"Ah, ha, ha!"

Donghae shuddered. He tried moving, but once again the pixies shifted their bodies and moved.

"What do you want from me?" he shouted.

"My master is hungry," the pixies chanted. "My master is hungry. My master is hungry."

"W-What?"

"Will you be a sacrifice? Please be his sacrifice."

"H-Huh? Sacrifice? N-No! No! I don't—"

The pixies inched closer. Donghae squeezed Minhyuk closer to him.

"D-Don't touch us!" Donghae stuttered. He looked down, making eye-contact with the cat. To his horror, Minhyuk's eyes had turned from its usual cat eyes to pure black.

For a moment, Donghae felt paralyzed. He felt the pixies creep closer to him, touching him and embracing him in the black goo. Minhyuk smiled and placed his paw on top of the elf's forehead. In seconds, Donghae felt like he was in eternal darkness, falling into nothing.

In the darkness, he could see Mino's creeping up to him with black eyes. A hysterical laugh echoed all around him as Mino his lips and placed his hands around Donghae's neck. Donghae shuddered in fear.

"Four sacrifices collected. One more to go," Mino whispered.

What's with this guy…? Donghae wondered. He felt his eyes close and his memories from that moment disappear. The pixies, laughing, vanished. Minhyuk's eyes turned back to those of a cat's.

"Meow." Minhyuk looked at Donghae, then started to curl up next to the unconscious body, resting for a moment.

"God damn it," Taemin mumbled. 

No matter what he did, the blob (or Mino—he didn't really care if it was really Mino or Mino had transformed to a slime monster) just never stopped growing. The black mess continued to grow, roaring and slamming his hands and body into anything it could.

Taemin could sense that the Barrier of Wrath was put down, but he wasn't sure why Mino was still angry or still in…this form. He wasn't sure what to make out of it. Was he conscious inside the blob? Or was he the blob? Maybe he was gone and replaced by a totally different thing.

He didn't really know what to do in this situation.

He turned his head when he heard a groan. Naeun started to wake up. Taemin widened his eyes, surprised that Jieun's power only lasted for a few hours on Naeun.. When Naeun finally pulled her body up, she finally looked at the black mess. Then, she glared at Taemin, remembering why she was in this situation.

"What's going on?" Naeun asked. She looked around her, noticing that Taemin had placed a protective fire barrier around her and Jieun. Taemin jumped closer to the barrier.

"The Barrier of Wrath is down," he told her, "but Mino's still…like that."

"It's because he's cursed!" Naeun shouted. "We got to leave! We can't stay here near him—"

"I would, but it looks like he blocked off all the entrance," Taemin pointed out. 

"Is he reacting to anything you're doing?"

"No. He's just absorbing everything."

"Why are you struggling now? Everything you do usually works your way, doesn't it?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You're the smart one. You should've seen this coming! What were you thinking? How could you bring a cursed person to our team?" Naeun cried out.

"You're still going on about this?" Taemin asked, groaning. He dodged to the side when the blob spat out a gooey black substance. He created a ball of fire in his hands and threw it at the blob.

Nothing happened.

"Of course I'm still going on about this! You endangered Myungsoo's and my life!" she claimed.

"You can't possibly blame me for everything," Taemin said. "You're the careful one. You should've been more aware of the situation. The fact that I found out before you says a lot." He rolled on the floor and glared at the blob. "Now, help me figure out how to bring Mino back!"

Naeun scoffed. "Why should I? We're all going to die anyway!"

"We're going to get out of this and save Myungsoo," Taemin assured her.

"Oh, so now you care because I know all about this cursed business?"

"What's wrong with you? You're never like this!" he yelled.

"Yeah, that's because I liked you!" Naeun confessed.

That caught Taemin off-guard for a moment. He was about to get slammed with goo, but when Naeun told him to watch out, he managed to roll on the floor multiple times, avoiding getting caught by the goo. He managed to find his way back to near where Naeun was standing. The two looked at each other through the white flames.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "You're not the one."

"Because you like Jieun, don't you?" Naeun said bitterly. Taemin didn't say anything. She scoffed. "Was that why you were quiet? Because you knew that if you kicked Mino out, then Jieun would leave with him?"

Taemin remained silent. He looked a bit guilty, as if she was nailing all the right answers. She scoffed once more before breaking into a scowl.

"Put this barrier down," she demanded. "Don't protect me and Jieun."

"But—"

"Do it," Naeun ordered. Taemin, frowning at her sudden change of attitude, did as he was told. He raised his hand and shifted it downwards, taking down the white barrier that was protecting Naeun and the unconscious Jieun. 

Naeun grabbed Jieun's hair, pulling her towards the blob. Taemin was about to stop her, but Naeun wielded out her wind sword and cut the air, blasting a strong winds towards his direction. Taemin flew to the wall, slamming his back against the wall. He groaned in pain and was about to fall until Naeun another wind, which continuously blowed him against the wall. He groaned, his skin stretching backwards and his eyes getting dry.

Naeun approached the massive blob and glared at it. Then, she raised Jieun towards the blob.

"Hey, Mino!" Naeun yelled. "Go back home! Take her back and go back home!"

"Ho…Home…" The blob moaned. It barely sounded like Mino's voice, but Naeun could hear Mino's deep voice resonating in the background.

So he's in there, she thought. "Yeah! Home! We don't want you here!"

"Unwanted…" The blob's wicked smile turned to a frown. "Un…Unwanted…!"

"What? Mino, if you're listening—"

"Naeun, watch out!" Taemin shouted.

Naeun turned around, not noticing that there was a blob reaching out for her. Before she managed to slice it, the blob got ahold of her weapon. She grunted as the black slime began to cover her from her legs to her hips.

The wind that was preventing Taemin from falling disappeared. He fell to the floor and landed in a pile of black slime. The goo started to swallow him, much to his surprise.

"Help!" Naeun screamed. She dropped Jieun to the floor as her hands were starting to disappear in the darkness. 

"I'm coming!" Taemin shouted. He tried to move, but the slime prevented his movements. He tried to create a ball of fire in his hands, but it didn't do anything. He could feel the goo cover up his face. Jieun…!

Jieun slowly opened her eyes. She felt something cold grab onto her ankles. When she looked around, she noticed that the entire room was covered in black sticky slime. She whirled her head, her eyes wide as she realized that the goo was starting to swallow her. She saw Naeun's hand sticking out of the sea of goo before it disappeared into the darkness. Feeling her heart race, she turned again and stood up. Her head throbbed, but that didn't matter. She searched through the room with her eyes, seeing Taemin nearly submerged in the goo.

"Taemin!" Jieun yelled.

"Jieun, do something!" Taemin demanded. Before he could say anything else, the goo swallowed his entire body.

Jieun paled. The man she had depended on was gone.

She looked back at the large figure in the center. The face of the slime had a wicked grin on its face. It started to rise up, like a large surf wave. Its shadow loomed over Jieun's small body.

I'm going to die.

Tears slipped through her eyes.

"M-M-M-Mino?" she stuttered, terrified. "M-Mino, if you're there, please stop!"

"Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha!" It was Mino's voice, except deep and hollow, like an echo in a cave. The slime covered her knees. She gasped, but tried to think of a way to communicate with him.

"Mino, listen! What's wrong?" she asked.

"Ah, ha, ha!"

"I can't help you if you keep laughing! This isn't funny!" she yelled desperately. "Mino, tell me! Tell me anything so that I can fix it!"

"Unwanted! Home! Unwanted! Home!"

"Home…Unwanted…?" She hitched her breath when the slime climbed to her hips. "Listen, Mino! I promise, I'll get you back home! I'll start caring, okay? I'll start helping you figure out a way to get back home!"

"Home! Home! Unwanted! Home!"

The goo covered up to her . She raised her arms, but the goo reached out to grab her wrist. She was unable to move.

"Mino, Mino!" she called frantically. "Mino, you got to help me!"

"Home…Home!"

"I get it, I'll get you home!"

"Unwanted…Home…Unwanted! Home!"

At this point, she gradually became frustrated.

"What do you mean you're unwanted?" she cried out. She glared at him. "You're always the wanted one! Back at home, you're the popular the one, the special one that everyone loves. Back at home, I'm the one who's cursed, who's always finding herself into stupid situations because of her classmates who despise her!"

The goo climbed up to her neck. She ranted on.

"You know, the whole reason why we're all here is because of you! If you didn't tell everyone in our group to scatter, then I wouldn't be in this mess! I wouldn't have been pushed in the well, and I wouldn't be in this world! If you…If you all just behaved yourselves, things would've bene better! It would've been different!"

A tear slipped through her eyes. Her face except for her eyes and mouth were covered. 

"But who can blame you? You're the perfect Mino. In fact, people probably would blame me and say that I dragged you into this world because I'm the one who fell in the well. Maybe this is all my fault. After all, you got cursed and now you're going to kill us all…"

With her last breath, she gave him a desperate plead:

"Song Mino, if there's anything left of you inside that black mess…" She gave him a pitiful smile. "Let's go home, okay?"

With that, she was submerged in darkness. The blob continued to smile, covering the room with black goo. It laughed, as if it was proud that it had successfully covered everyone in its thick layer.

A second later, the blob stood still, paralyzed. Its smile disappeared and its black eyes shifted white. Moments later, the slime began to melt, turning into pure black liquid. It pushed the doors open, washing out into the bloody field of dead vampire and creatures who had killed each other under the influence of the Barrier of Wrath. 

Three bodies managed to stay in this position in the room. Naeun, Taemin, and Jieun coughed, taking a deep breath of air so that they could breath. They had their hands around their neck or their chest, checking their pulse and seeing if they were alive. 

"Oh my god!" Naeun cried out. She began to sob. "I'm alive! I'm alive!"

Taemin looked at Jieun. "Jieun, are you—"

"Mino!" Jieun shouted, running up to the unconscious figure at the center of the room. Taemin stared at her back, slightly stunned.

Jieun bent down next to Mino, who only had his pants on. His upper body was stripped of clothing. Jieun leaned in close to hear him breath, but couldn't hear anything.

"He's not breathing!" Jieun cried out. "Mino's not breathing! He's—"

"Move," Naeun ordered, pushing her aggressively to the side. 

Jieun looked at her, startled. Nevertheless, as Naeun checked Mino's pulse and breathing, she inched closer, hoping that her classmate was okay. Taemin walked behind them, remaining silent. His eyes were on Mino, but shifted to Jieun, who had a look of concern in her eyes.

Naeun carefully placed her hand over the center of Mino's chest. Then, she used three fingers to pry his mouth open. Then, with her hand flat across his chest, she slammed air into his lungs, forcing him to breath. He coughed up the black liquid that had filled his lungs. He choked, but with Naeun's wind powers, he was able to get all the liquid out of his chest. She then moved her hands to his eyes, giving him a further examination.

"He'll be fine," Naeun said. "He's going to be unconscious for a while."

"Thank goodness," Jieun whispered. She sighed in relief, but stopped when Naeun held her sword at her neck. Jieun stiffened as Taemin readied to attack with a fireball in his hands.

"Taemin, let me kill her," Naeun said seriously.

"I won't let you do that," he said.

"She lied to us. She hid the truth. She put us all in danger."

"We got out of it safely—"

"Then where the hell is Myungsoo?" Naeun snapped, glaring at Taemin. "If we're all 'safe,' then where's Myungsoo?"

"Gone," a voice said. 

The three looked up, noticing that Donghae was coming down the stairs with Minhyuk in his arms. Jieun was pleased to see that they were okay, but was confused as to why Minhyuk was in cat form. When the cat mewed, it took her a moment to realize that Minhyuk wasn't the same as before.

Donghae’s face was awfully pale, as if he had witnessed something horrible. He looked lifeless like something had drained out all of his blood. The way he approached the two with his head hung low made everyone realize that he was mentally exhausted.

"What do you mean 'gone?'" Naeun asked. Her eyes widened. "Y-You mean, he's dea—"

"No," Donghae said. "It looks like he's still alive. It looks like that he was in a cage, but someone broke him out of the cage."

"So we have an ally?" Taemin asked.

"I don't know," Donghae mumbled. He looked around. "Where's Kyuhyun?"

"I think his body washed up at the foot of the castle," Jieun said softly. She hung her head low. "I'm sorry for what happened to him. I didn't—"

"It's…what it is," the elf said in a heavy voice. He looked at Jieun painfully. "As much as I admire your two-stoned gems, I have to say that being with you is a lot more dangerous than I thought." He gave her a small bow. "I'd like to pretend that we're strangers from this point. I will continue to explore the world with a new companion." He held Minhyuk in front of her. "Minhyuk had to sacrifice the Captain of the Seventh Court's life and his ability to speak for you. He's no longer a witch's familiar."

"Minhyuk…" Jieun was about to his fur, but decided not do. She looked at him and thanked him. "I understand. The moment you leave this room, we'll pretend that we don't know each other."

"Thank you," Donghae said tiredly. He looked exhausted, but satisfied. With Minhyuk in his arms, he started to walk out of the castle, climbing down the steps to find his dead friend's body.

When he was gone, Naeun stood up.

"Where are you going?" Taemin asked.

"To save Myungsoo." She paused. "Alone."

"Alone? You can't go alone!" Jieun cried out. "It's not safe!"

"It'll be a hell lot safer going there alone than with you two," Naeun assured them.

"Naeun, don't be stupid," Taemin said sternly.

"No, Taemin. I was stupid. I was stupidly blind for trusting you with everything. Myungsoo was right. I should've been a bit more aware of you," Naeun snapped.

"Naeun, please!" Jieun exclaimed. "Let's go and save Myungsoo together!"

"I don't trust you!"

"Naeun—"

"I risked my life for you, and what did you do for me?" Naeun asked Jieun. "Nothing! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you kept risking my life for your sake."

"That's not true!" Jieun said. "I would never use your life like that! Naeun, I'm grateful that you're here, protecting me!"

"Stay," a voice croaked. The three looked down, shocked to see Mino awake. His eyes were wide open and his voice was scratchy, but his body laid flat on the ground. It looked like he was too weak to sit up. His eyes rolled over to Naeun. "I will explain everything. You deserve it. Afterwards, you can decide whether or not you want to stick with us."

"I don't care," Naeun said restlessly. "I just want to save Myungsoo—"

"And we'll do that," Mino said. "We will save Myungsoo, and we will find a way to go home." His eyes shifted to the ceiling. "I'm not going to stay in this world any longer. This world despises me. I hate this world, too." He looked back at Naeun. "I don't know how trustworthy Jieun and Taemin are right now, either. I don't know if Taemin really wants to save Myungsoo or if Jieun really wants to go home, but I want to go home. So trust me for now because the only way I'm getting back home is through Myungsoo. He might have the answer to my situation."

"No, he doesn't. Myungsoo is in the same situation was me—"

"He told us that he came from where we lived," Mino blurted. Taemin and Jieun widened their eyes. Naeun remained still. "He said that you're in the same situation, too, but you don't remember a thing. From the looks of it, it seems like he only remembers some things and not everything."

Naeun kept silent. "I don't believe you—"

"Don't you find it odd how the five of us are the only humans in this world so far?" Mino remarked. "We meet creatures that are like humans, but they're never really humans. They have some other categories, like witches or wizards or elves or something. Everyone else just looks like human, but aren't!"

Jieun felt shocked. It was true. She didn't recall meeting any other humans, even though they looked like humans. She glanced at Taemin, noticing that he had a very still expression.

Naeun bit her bottom lip. "I still don't—"

"I don't care if you don't believe me, but I need you to just trust me," Mino said. "Trust me that we will save Myungsoo and trust me that we will leave this place."

"I don't know—"

"Please?" Mino begged. Tears slipped through his eyes. "I-I really want to go home…"

There was a pause. Then, Naeun slowly sat back down, and gave him a slight nod. He sighed in relief and closed his eyes, muttering his thanks before falling unconscious again.

"I'll nurse him until he gets better," Naeun said, "and then we'll head over to save Myungsoo."

"Got it," Taemin said. "I'll scout the area and try to find a place to hide." He looked at Jieun. "Want to come with me?"

Jieun paused, then shook her head and stared back at Mino.

"No," she said softly. "I think I'm going to stay here and think for a bit."

He was about to say something, but decided not to push her. He just nodded and left the castle, leaving the girls with the unconscious man.