Hazy, large, and black.

The dark skeletal figures rose from the ground and loomed through the air, slowly trudging their way to the center of the world. Their heavy swords glided against the floor. Anyone who came in touch with it obliterated. The towns were several yards away, yet Jieun could still hear everyone screaming. She could hear their cries, their agonies—she could feel their pain and despair.

Jieun stared at Taemin. Hate was the only word that could describe the gaze she gave to him.

"What's going on?" Jieun asked in a low voice.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll finish things up."

"Taemin. I want answers," she said. "Did you trick me?"

Taemin didn't answer her. Instead, he suddenly began to float in the air, heading towards Mino, who was still on the ground.

A ritual mark appeared around Mino. The mark took form of a star inside a circle. Mino, confused, felt paralyzed. He began to mutter out words that he couldn't quite keep up. 

"My five sacrifices. Rise," Mino said. At each point of the star, a pool of black puddle appeared. The first to appear was a black goo that took the appearance of Naeun. The second was the pixie, Eunji. Third and fourth were the appearances of Minhyuk the cat and Donghae the elf. The fifth puddle rose for a few minutes, but stopped and fell down into the pool of goo.

"Fifth sacrifice. Rise!" Mino repeated. He continued to repeat, but nothing happened.

Taemin stopped walking. He widened his eyes, realizing that the fifth sacrifice wasn't summoned properly. He quickly whipped out a ball of fire, but Mino managed to regain consciousness after his cursed mark kept trying to summon the fifth sacrifice. When Taemin threw the ball of flames at Mino to burn him, Mino regained control of his body and pulled himself out of the circle, nearly dodging the attack.

Mino gasped for air. His black eyes turned back to normal. He turned and noticed Taemin staring at him.

"Who was your fifth sacrifice?" Taemin whispered. "Was it Myungsoo?"

"Are you the Creator?" Mino asked.

"Did you put the curse on Myungsoo?" Taemin repeated.

Oh, Mino suddenly thought, so he doesn't know that it was Myungsoo because Myungsoo was human.

Mino tried to summon his dark powers, but he realized that nothing was coming out. His arm was no longer taking shape of the black gooey crab claw. No matter how many times he swung his arm, nothing appeared.

Taemin scoffed.

"Yes, I am the Creator," Taemin said. "The one who creates. The one who sees all."

Taemin was about to strike Mino again until a spear was thrown in his direction. Taemin dodged the spear and turned to his side. Changmin was glaring at him.

"So it was you!" Changmin yelled. "You are the one who wants to strip away my purpose!"

Taemin smirked. "Purpose? You didn't have a purpose. You're only purpose was to play a role, but anyone could've done it, you see."

"You killed several of my people!" Changmin shouted.

"Your people aren't real," Taemin told him in a cold voice.

"I should've known that it was you… It was weird how no one paid any attention to you," Changmin muttered. "They should've suspected you, doubted you, but you made them all act like you weren't important, that you weren't a threat…"

"Don't you think that you should consider yourself lucky? I'm giving your people a story, a reason why they're going to be destroyed. I could just…snap my finger and have them gone, but I'm not. I decided to treat them as humanely as possible," Taemin told him.

"You're playing with my people! You're toying with them!" Changmin accused.

Taemin sighed. "Well, I don't need to listen to you." He looked up. "In fact, I've given you quite a nice story."

Changmin turned. He noticed that one of the towering skeletal warriors was heading towards him. Changmin quickly summoned back his spear and flew up in the sky. Taemin followed the angel with his eyes.

"It's a story," Taemin continued, "of a righteous angel, serving to protect his people and his world, rebelling against the Creator because the Creator would cause destruction and pain for the people he loved…" Taemin watched Changmin miserably fail. The skeleton swatted him as if he was just a mere fly. The angel quickly fell to the ground and lost conscious. "…but failing because he was weak."

The blades of the skeletal sword touched the angel's foot, causing the angel to burst into flower petals before burning in white flames.

"Did you get all that, Jongsuk?" Taemin asked. He didn't even turn.

The wizard, who was writing the book with a pen, smiled softly. "Yes I did, Creator."

"Good," Taemin said. "We shall add that book to the next world."

"Wonderful idea," Jongsuk said.

Taemin turned. "Now, for the other three—"

He stopped. Mino and Jieun were gone. He looked around and found that Naeun was still unconscious. He turned behind his shoulders and made eye-contact with Jongsuk to leave. Jongsuk nodded and the wizard disappeared with a swift movement of his wand.

Taemin took a deep breath. He pulled out a medical herb from his pocket and waved it right below Naeun's nose. She began to stir, growing conscious once again. As she started to open her eyes, Taemin began to tremble.

"Tae…min?" Naeun asked.

"Naeun!" Taemin shouted. He had his hands on her shoulders. "Thank god you're not dead!"

"What…" Naeun looked around. When she realized that everything was black and red, she widened her eyes and gasped. "What the hell? What's happening?"

"I don't have time to explain," Taemin said, "but we need to run!"

"W-What about Mino? Jieun?" she asked.

Taemin clenched his fist. "I… I don't know."

"What?"

"I was unconscious for a second. I woke up, and those two were gone. I don't know if they're dead or alive… I-I think I saw Mino running, but he had Jieun in his arms. I-I…think they ran away," Taemin stammered. He looked miserable, heartbroken. Tears slipped through his eyes. "I…I really liked her…"

Naeun stared. "What do you mean that they ran away?"

"Maybe they tried to wake us up, but we didn't? I-I don't know," Taemin said. He pressed the palm of his hand on his forehead. "God, I don't know! I can't believe she'd ditch me like this!"

Naeun couldn't believe him, but at the same time, Mino and Jieun were nowhere to be found.

"So what's all…this?" Naeun asked.

"The Apocalypse," Taemin said. "You know that Mino was cursed, right?" She nodded. "It seems like his curse finally revealed its true form. The world is ending."

"What?" Naeun cried out. She began to panic. "Oh my god, oh my god! I don't want to die yet—"

"Hurry up, get up!" Taemin yelled. "We need to find a safe spot!"

Naeun nodded, but screamed when she saw the black hazy skeleton towering over them.

"What the hell is that?" Naeun asked.

"I don't know! They popped from the ground! The Council Leader tried to fight them, but the skeleton obliterated him with just a touch of the sword. We just need to be careful," Taemin insisted.

"Myungsoo… Myungsoo…!" Naeun started to cry. "I want Myungsoo to be here!"

"Come on!" Taemin yelled. He grabbed her by the wrist. "You still have me, don't you?"

Touched, Naeun nodded her head. Then, he began to run with her, taking her to a safe place and hoping that Jieun and Mino didn't run too far.

While Jieun would've used her wishing powers to wish them out of the area, Mino had hurriedly urged her not to use her powers and to just run. As the two continued to run, they made a brief stop when Mino was sure that they weren't follow and were far enough from the skeletons, who were slow but growing in numbers.

As they took a break, Mino wiped off his sweat and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I knew it!" Mino exclaimed. He smiled. "I knew that he wasn't trusted! I can't believe that Taemin was the Creator all this time! No, I knew that he was! He just had to be! Everything went so smoothly for him, it was insane! You'd think that he'd get caught once or twice, but nope! He always had his way of getting things and that's because he could literally force his creation to bend to his will." He started to turn to face Jieun. "See, I told you that he wasn't trustwor—"

Mino stopped smiling. Jieun was crying. Tears fell from her cheeks. She grabbed her shirt over her chest, feeling heartache. Mino's expression softened as she fell on her knees. He quickly kneeled down in front of her.

"I thought I fell in love with a hero," Jieun managed to say, "but instead, I fell in love with the villain…"

"Oh, come on, Jieun," Mino started, "it's not like that."

"Then what is it?" Jieun asked angrily. She covered her face. "I defended him…I trusted him!" She narrowed her eyes. "And yet, he stabbed me in the back. He stabbed all of us." She looked ahead in horror. "What do you think happened to Myungsoo? Do you think he just vanished?"

"Naeun and I theorized that if you're human, then you're not the Creator's creation," Mino explained. "I don't know what happened to Myungsoo, but I just hope that he's safe."

Jieun looked a little bit ease. "Good…" She stiffened. "What about Naeun?"

"We…left her," Mino said.

"How could we leave her? We need to go back!" Jieun exclaimed.

"I couldn't carry two people at the same time! You were too shock to run, remember?" Mino exclaimed. "Besides, we can't go back! I'm pretty sure either the skeleton monsters killed her or something. You don't want to touch their swords. Just one touch, and you're dead."

Jieun wasn't sure what else to do. Mino, seeing her conflicted expression, sighed.

"I know we owe a lot to Naeun, but we need to leave her," Mino said. "We need to get out of this world."

"I-I get it. I get it, but…" Tears spilled down once more, "b-but at the same time, I don't get it!"

"I don't get a lot of it, either, Jieun, but I do know that we need to get out of here as soon as possible," Mino said. 

"But how?" Jieun cried out. "We can't get out of this world. I'm pretty sure Taemin knows, but he's obviously not going to tell us."

"If only there was someone who's on our side and has been here for as long as him," Mino muttered.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance."

Mino and Jieun gasped. They whirled around and took fighting position. Jieun hitched her breath, recognizing the old wizard.

"You're…the guy who gave me the golden bracelet!" Jieun cried out.

"Wait. This could be a trap. I'm pretty sure through him, Taemin will know where we are," Mino said. "We need to run."

"True," the wizard said. He changed his form from old to young. "But I've been instructed to…explain the situation."

"Explain?" Mino asked.

"Yes," the wizard answered. "You also don't need to worry about Taemin. Taemin trusts me to the point where he will not use his powers to appear here at this moment. In fact, he's currently working on his second plan if his initial plan doesn't work out."

"The Creator doesn't need to plan things. The Creator can just create the situation for himself," Mino retorted. He protectively stood in front of Jieun.

"Well noted," Jongsuk said, nodding, "but the Creator cannot control those of his own kinds: humans. To him, the behavior of humans are very…odd, unpredictable. He can only create factors and situations in hopes to lead his own kind to follow his plan, but other than that, it's entirely up to the humans themselves to decide how to react."

Mino kept awfully quiet.

The wizard gently smiled and extended his hand. "Well, then, miss? Will you follow me to a safe place?"

"B-But what about Mino?" Jieun asked.

"He can follow, too," the wizard said.

Jieun looked at her classmate. "Should we?"

"I don't trust him," Mino said bitterly.

"Well, do you prefer to talk here, when the skeletons are literally heading towards our direction?" Jongsuk asked.

"Can't you tell Taemin to change the skeleton's paths?" Mino asked.

"He has no intentions of doing that. Everything is set in motion," the wizard said. "It's your choice whether to follow me or not." The wizard turned. He made a circular shape with this staff, opening a portal to what looked like a luxurious tree house. The wizard smiled back at the two. "Like I said, your choice."

He entered the portal, leaving it open. Jieun and Mino exchanged glances.

"I'm not going in," Mino said.

Jieun looked at the portal. "…I think I'm going to go in."

"Jieun, are you nuts?"

"Mino, I want answers—"

"Do you want to die? What happened to finding home?"

"Maybe I can find home through him—"

"He's Taemin's creation. He is not going to side with us!" Mino exclaimed.

Jieun gave him a painful look. "I know exactly what you mean. I know where you're coming from and everything, but…" She took a deep breath. "There's still a small part of me that wants to know what's going on. The truth, the story."

Mino gave her a bitter expression. "You don't need to know anything, Jieun. He… He abandoned you."

"And I want to know why," she said quietly.

Mino kept silent. "Fine, but I'm going to find a way to go back myself."

"I'll return to your side soon," she insisted.

"I don't think you can."

With a grunt, he turned at the opposite direction and started running to find an exit to the world. Jieun sighed. Promising to find a way to meet Mino, she took a deep breath and entered the portal, followed by a brilliant flash of white light.

When she opened her eyes, she noticed that she was in an entirely different room. The room, made mostly out of wood and leaves, gave an air of peace and knowledge. The portal behind her closed as if it was already expecting Mino not to enter.

Jieun paused and looked around. She had absolutely no idea where she was. All she could see were tall shelves that reached the height of redwood trees. The scent of wood and books filled the air, along with the smell of minty leaves. She could sense an immense magical power around the room, but she wasn’t exactly sure where the source was coming from.

“Welcome.” Jieun whirled around, and saw Jongsuk sitting in a wooden rocking chair. He rocked back and forth slowly with a book and feather pen in his hand. He smiled at her softly. “I’ve been expecting you, Bride of the Creator.”