Lightside Realm

The reflection from the clear waters of the stream showed Jaejoong his own familiar face. A green three- leaf-shape marred his left cheek. Dara had burned that mark on his face when she claimed him as her husband last year. It announced to the world that he was married to her.

Jaejoong touched the leaf. Memories of how he lost consciousness after Dara had marked him came rushing back to him. Being marked as the Dara's husband was a painful experience.

"Are you thinking again of the Andaryad, Jaejoong?" admonished the voice of Archangel Tae-hee.

"She is my wife," he replied.

"No she is not. Your marriage to her was never sanctioned by Lightside. And according to our laws, a full-blooded angel cannot marry a Siesmyre. And she is a Siesmyre. Unworthy even to touch our feet!" her voice rose.

Jaejoong didn't correct her about Dara being a Siesmyre. Though Dara protected the Siesmyres and considered them her family, she and her ancestors were unique beings and direct descendants of Mother Nature.

"This marriage only happened because she tricked you. And she was only able to seduce you because you still have WonBin's demon blood in your body. That is no longer true, Jaejoong. You have been purified. You are now a pure-blooded angel and whatever connection or relationship you had with Dara is now over. Your becoming an angel has invalidated such a marriage." She took out a golden dagger.

Archangel Tae-hee looked so much like Jaejoong's mother, Archangel Na-young. Like his mother, Tae-hee was also a fierce and powerful warrior. He was now unsure what she planned to do with the dagger. Did she take it out to challenge him or to give him the dagger? Carved on the dagger's hilt was the family crest of their family. Three stars inside a circle of light.

Archangel Tae-hee handed him the dagger.

"If you don't believe me, then check your blood. You do remember that when you were still half-demon and half-angel the color of your blood was green, right? Pure angels have golden blood."

Jaejoong took the dagger and cut his left arm. The blood that seeped out of the wound before it closed and healed was gold! He had indeed become a full-blooded angel!

"Forget the Andaryad, Jaejoong," Archangel Tae-hee ordered him.

"You also need to rest. You must get your strength back so your training could begin."

"Training?"

"I will teach you all the fighting techniques I know so that when you face Kim Soo-hyun again, he wouldn't be able to defeat you."

The memory of his fight with Soo-hyun came rushing back to him.

"He has found me?"

Archangel Tae-hee nodded.

"He met with the Board of Directors a few days ago. He insisted that you have to face and fight him because that was your agreement. Even though you accepted that duel when you still had demon blood in you, the agreement remained valid. Your acceptance of that duel cannot be disregarded. And we at Lightside must always keep our word. If we don't, we would become no better than those from Midnight.

"You have to fight him, Jaejoong. But the board was able to negotiate an extra three weeks so that you could regain your strength. Soo-hyun agreed to wait until you are ready. He believed that those three weeks wouldn't matter and that you wouldn't be able to improve your strength and powers. He mistakenly believed that he could still easily kill and defeat you."

Archangel Tae-hee placed a hand on his shoulder.

"But we will prove him wrong, Jaejoong! We will show him that you had become much stronger after you had gotten rid of that awful demon blood! You will be fighting for the Light this time. So it would be impossible for you to lose. Good always triumphs over evil!"

"Is Kim Soo-hyun really evil?" he asked.

"He is worst than all the Dark Council! Because he is a false god. And all false gods must be destroyed because they would only fool and use innocent humans for their selfish needs. We have now discovered that he was the one responsible for all those gruesome deaths during ancient times. Because of him, a lot of innocent people died. They were sacrificed in his temples!

"You will punish him, Jaejoong! Show him that creatures like him no longer have any place in this world!" declared Archangel Tae-hee with righteous confidence.

Jaejoong remained silent. Something was wrong with his memories. Some of them remained fuzzy while others, he couldn't really remember at all! Among those he had forgotten was the means to defeat Kim Soo-hyun. He had learned that in Athenaeum, but that information was now gone from his mind!

Maybe he needed to return to that realm.

"Lady Tae-hee," he said in a respectful voice.

"Before I fought with Soo-hyun, I went to Athenaeum. I discovered there the way how to defeat Soo-hyun but I have forgotten it. Maybe I need to go back-"

Tae-hee shook her head.

"Jaejoong, the only reason you were able to come and go into that place was because you were half-angel and half-demon. You are now a pure angel. You can never get past the gate to that world. Just prepare yourself for training. As a true angel, you would be able to use Na-young's crossbow as well as your own weapons."

"You are going to give me my own weapons?" He was surprised by this.

"Of course, because only Lightside weapons could destroy an evil creature like Kim Soo-hyun. You need those weapons to champion Lightside's causes."

When Tae- hee left, Jaejoong found himself staring at the stream's clear waters again. He was now a pure angel. But Dara's mark remained on him. His feelings for her remained intact. But he needed to keep those emotions a secret. It was against Lightside rules for an angel to love someone like Dara.

Jaejoong awoke with a start when he felt someone pulling his head. More specifically, his horns. He soon discovered the culprit.

"Dara, what do you think you are doing?" he growled.

"I do not like these horns, so I am taking them off your head!" she said firmly. She was currently sitting on his stomach while still trying to pull out the two horns on each side of his head.

He pried her hands off his horns.

"Stop it! These are the proof that I am a prince of the Midnight Corp."

"I don't care! I don't want a husband with horns and tail!" She once again tried to grab his horns.

Jaejoong caught her hands with a vise grip. What had possessed him to marry this woman?!

His eyes found themselves looking at her body displayed before him. He remembered the intense pleasures he enjoyed when he used that body to satiate his lust repeatedly today. He began to have an idea why he married this woman. Or why she was able to convince him to marry her. She was very, very good in bed or in this situation in this grassy place in the middle of the forest.

"If you don't want to look at them, I can make them disappear." He concentrated. His ho