“Grandpa,” Tailong called the attention of his grandfather who was occupied with his calligraphy that morning. “Are you feeling well now?”

Two nights had passed without hearing the regular story from his grandfather and Tailong was unable to rest well because of that. He did not want to nag the old man about that either, thinking his grandfather might be ill. The former Emperor had not left his room yesterday.

Seeing him up and working on something gave Tailong hope that Grandfather was not sick anymore. He would hear something new from the White Knights.

The old man heartily laughed at him, causing him to quickly go outside and take a look at his reflection on the pond. He could not find something wrong with his appearance.

“Come here, child.” The former emperor gestured him to sit next to him which he obeyed. “I know what’s on your mind. The thing is I guess I have nothing else to tell you about your favourite knights.” Tailong frowned after hearing that from his grandfather. “Right after they had their first battle, the group split up with their respective group and fought separately. Sometimes they were together which was their strongest moment. There were times they divide themselves into a smaller unit of three, four, or five and they could handle it well. You know all of this already, right?”

It hurt but the old man’s words were true. The White Knights fought the strongest warriors from different countries and they could easily crash them especially when the twelve of them united as one.

He could remember his grandfather’s story about the four powerful witches. The White Knights had several encounters with them and they always swept the group away. Their last match completely wiped them off from history.

“Oh, there’s one more thing that I haven’t shared with you yet.” Tailong’s eyes lit up and his grandfather laughed at his reaction. “Let me remind you this was the last one, alright? Also, they were only five members involved in this very strange situation. Do you still want to hear it?”

With all the conditions given, Tailong nodded to his Grandfather eagerly. The old man chuckled and petted his head.

“You wait till midnight, my child. For now, I would like to see how you’re doing with this art so far.”

~*10*~

Suho, Chanyeol, Xiumin, Sehun, and Kris were assigned to a mission in the southwest part of the world. It was the hottest country in the region and they were bound to exterminate another group of witches.

This group was newly formed and had a solid mission of conquering some of Bonghuang’s territory. They were poorly armed and prepared but they bravely face the mighty knights. They had been defeated most of the time, but unbelievably, they had won once.

Even though it was a tiny territory that had fallen to them, the Red Queen could not accept it. She formed this new combination while her proven and tested trio, Baekhyun, Chen, and D.O., was preparing for another major battle.

A source told the boys, the whereabouts of the five-member witches. They must have expected that the Phoenix country would be after them, so they were hiding in a cave somewhere.

The boys made their attack the next dawn. Sehun pulled the witches from the depths of the cave with his wind power. They appeared wearing their colour-coded attires and helmet, which they were known for, and Chanyeol seemed not to like that fact about them. He instantly roasted the girls as soon as Sehun put them down.

They shrieked in pain and tried to get away from the fire that was eating them.

“Hyung, pour them water now. That’s what they wanted.” Chanyeol made a confusing command after his brutal assault, but the West Leader still did what he said.

It was not the end of the red head’s attack. He combined his flame with the water Suho threw to them, making them receive a boiling liquid.

Xiumin was vomiting as he watched 's torturous act, while Kris remained unmoved to his spot. Chanyeol’s power was indeed uncontrollable and could change him into a different person. No one could stop him from his actions, even Suho. But, Kris, for an unexplainable reason, could revert him to normal.

At this moment, he was letting the redhead do as much as he liked because his behaviour was not that extreme yet.

After pouring the hot water on the girls, their bodies became mutated. But, it was not a hindrance for them to fight back.

They had supernatural abilities too but it was way too different from the level of Knight’s godly power. Each of them faced the boys respectively. Chanyeol did not let his match take long as he beheaded his opponent and burned her.

One of them ousted to what he did, cursing Chanyeol with an incomprehensible spell. Xiumin, who was against that lady, froze her before she could complete her chant. Xiumin did not want to have a female opponent as much as possible, but if it was the Queen’s order, he had to oblige.

Chanyeol was out of breath as he growled and smashed the frozen girl down. She joined the corpse of her sister on the floor. Xiumin sighed as he looked away, could not swallow his younger brother’s doing.

It was noon when the battle ended. The girls put on a good fight but their skills were nothing compared to the White Knights.

The victors cleaned the remains of their enemies, something they got used to after doing the same thing countless times. They could even throw jokes and tease each other while putting the scattered limbs of their fallen opponents to the sacks they were individually holding.

“I don’t know if you guys enjoy killing your victim slowly or you just have gotten weaker.” Xiumin criticized Suho, Sehun, and Kris for their performance today. The three exchanged looks at each other before they gave him unamused faces.

“You’re cocky today, aren’t you? I’m certain you’ll be finishing the job by dusk if that witch did not provoke you.” Suho scoffed as he irately put a piece of hand to his sack.

“Chanyeol did the dirty work for you too,” Kris added, killing his joy more. Xiumin definitely made the mistake of going against the two leaders.

But, he was not done with his condemnation and threw insulting words, particularly at Suho. The West Leader did not let him do all the harsh talking and attempted to outsmart him with his responses. While they were barking at each other like dogs, Kris noticed that someone was missing.

“Where’s Chanyeol?” Suho and Xiumin both choked with his question, which might be due to their nonstop blabbering.

“He said that he would like to take a rest so he must be at our tent,” Sehun answered politely. This boy became friendlier to Kris after he followed Chanyeol’s advice of hanging out with him in the town.

The choking of the two died down. In the midst of recovering, Suho glances up at the sky, affecting the two tall blond boys to follow the direction of where his eyes were pointing at. Xiumin did not join them that was why he bluntly accused the missing boy of being lazy.

“Are you sure?” Suho asked, peering at a certain area in the bright sky, where a thick black smoke could be seen. “Maybe he was preparing the place to incinerate these bodies.”

When the young knights were affirmative about completely clearing out the bodies from the scene, they headed to where the smoke was coming. A huge fire was waiting for them there, but no Chanyeol to be found.

The flame was getting greedy and would like to devour the whole forest if it continued. So, Xiumin and Suho put their disputes aside and worked together to stop the violent flame. It would turn the entire location to dust if they would not take action.

This was not caused by nature because Chanyeol’s presence there was too strong. Kris knew something was off with him when he was observing him earlier. The blond saw him sit down on the floor after finishing two of their enemies while catching his breath up. He never looked tired like that before.

Kris and Sehun agreed to look for the redhead separately while Suho and Xiumin were taking care of the hungry fire.

The blond leader shouted Chanyeol’s name several times as he aimlessly ran around the woods. With all of the calling he made, he did not receive a single reply.

Amid his search, he saw something flickered from the corner of his eye. He stopped and turned his head, seeing smaller flames scattered on the path. As he approached that spot, he found footprint shape flames. It was trailing somewhere and probably would lead him to the person he was looking for if he followed it.

He went deeper into the woods, hopeful that he would see his little brother. And, he did.

His heart pounded hard seeing Chanyeol’s armour and robe consumed by his own firepower on the ground, confirming his speculation. He did not feel good seeing those.

his hand tightly, he had his eyes scanned further to the river where a lying figure could be seen there.

He cautiously walked towards the water, giving him a closer look at its situation. It was boiling and dead fishes were floating on its surface. Chanyeol was obviously the cause of that phenomenon, who seemed to pass out in there. But he made a sudden movement, lifting his face from where he lay gasping for air. He looked really sick with his skin flushed red, groaning, and has unsteady breathing. Kris hurriedly came to take him out of the water, but the younger tried to push him away, yet he was so weak.

“No, Hyung, don’t touch me!” He cried. “You-you’l-you’ll get burnt.”

Kris did not care, because strangely, he was the only one that could endure Chanyeol’s igniting power. He firmly held the younger in his hand, shaking his head, making the redhead give up struggling. His tears fell from his eyes as he closed them, and said something repeatedly.

“I can’t die. I can’t die. Don’t let me die.” He deliriously said. “He won’t exist. He won't exist. They won't exist. I can’t.”

“What are you talking about? Who are they that will not exist?” Chanyeol’s voice became softer and softer until it became so faint. Kris could not understand anything anymore. “Chanyeol! You won’t die because I won’t let you. Tell me where it hurts.”

“It’s... it’s... so hot. I can’t breathe.” He said weakly as he reached Kris’ hand and hold tightly.

The older looked at his slowly heaving chest, speculating that the witch must have successfully put a grave curse on his younger brother. He was planning to loosen his wet layered clothes, not until one of s arrived.

“What insolent action do you think you’re doing?” Suho pushed him away and snatched Chanyeol from his grasp. The other leader quickly got burnt from touching the sick boy but he did not mind. “Chanyeol?”

“He’s bewitched by one of our opponents and caused his constricted breathing,” Kris explained, rising from the ground.

“Hyung.” Chanyeol pitifully whimpered. Suho looked so worried about him while caressing his hot red face.

“Hush, I’ll help you out.” He was going to do the same thing that Kris was about to do earlier, but Xiumin came to the scene. The eldest assumed that they were taking advantage of the boy so they explained Chanyeol’s situation to him, and yet, another argument with Suho ensued.

They pulled Chanyeol back and forth like kids fighting over a toy. The younger boy would really die if they continued that so Kris attempted to get Chanyeol from their hands and saved him.

“STAY BACK!” They barked at the same time, causing Kris to freeze in his position.

All of a sudden, someone took Chanyeol from them swiftly. It was Sehun, who was glaring at them as he carried his older brother in his arms.

Somehow the three of them could not move when the youngest left with their ill member.

And a couple of minutes passed, and they heard a sound of a sword slashing something.

~*End*~

“Oh no! Did he kill him?” The old man laughed at his question and ruffled his hair. He blinked in confusion but for sure his grandfather would answer him.

“Chanyeol was not an animal who needed to be slain so that he would no longer suffer, Tailong.” His grandfather’s reply. “The three boys honestly had no clue if that sound was from Sehun’s sword, or from another member who just arrived.”

Tailong’s grandfather yawned so he thought it must be time now for bed. He wanted to know the upcoming happening so bad but he should wait until the next night.