1998, Seoul

 

 

When a powerful desire indwells in things touched by mortal souls, they become goblins

 

 

A blade smeared in blood from countless battles…. was enchanted with a powerful desire bedewed with it’s masters blood

 

 

An old, worn sword sticks out of the ground, its hilt wrapped in a bloodstained cloth. On the hilt of the old sword is an engraving of a goblin’s face. As a butterfly lands on that hilt, images flash by: A screeching car. A woman’s hand. White expanse turning red.

 

 

Only the bride of the goblin would be able to draw the blade

 

 

Once drawn, everything will turn to ashes, and peace would be granted

 

 

An old grocer woman tells this story to a young woman who was browsing her wares, she bursts out laughing at the line that the immortal goblin may still roam the world even now.

 

 

“What are you laughing about?” The old granny asked in a bit of annoyance

 

 

“The goblin is looking for its bride… which happens to be me.. is that it?”

 

 

“I may not look like it, but I was a man eater in my days” the granny gave the young woman a little glare “I might not be here the next time you come around”

 

 

She gave her a smile and said “I envy you”

 

 

“I must be senile, I shouldn’t be saying that in front of a single mother”

 

 

"You're mean" The young woman replied.

 

 

“Mean? How much discount I give you on my vegetables? The man who left you is the mean one”

 

 

“That’s true” she smiled a little

 

 

The young woman finds that the idea about the immortal goblin was silly but still calls it a sad story, since the goblin has to find a bride in order for him to die. “The gods are mean,” she says while admiring a jade ring in the grannys stash of goods.

 

 

“The creator is evil. It’s always been that way. It’s selfish and envious. It’s very self centered”

 

 

“Sounds like someone I know.. I better get going now”

 

 

The woman gets up to go with a cheery goodbye, but the granny grabs her hand and turns suddenly very serious. She warns the young woman that if she comes to a life-or-death situation, she must pray earnestly “You never know when a soft-hearted god may be listening.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1968, Paris.

 

 

A well-dressed man was walking along the side walk while holding a sandwich, he looks around and stops on the entrance of a building. He leans on the staircase railing and when a teenage boy walks out with a luggage bag and a battered face, he stops him and warned him not to leave home.

 

 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. If you leave home now, you’ll live an even worse life than you have now. And you’ll never see your mother again.”

 

 

The man casually moves a planter on the steps, then advises the boy to speak up to his parents: “’You adopted me so that makes me your son. Take a good care of me.’ And ask your mother for help”

 

 

“A light wound like that won’t ever kill you” the man casually says and looks at the teenager wrist.

 

 

The boy just clenched his wrist and asked him “Who are you?”

 

 

“Look them in the eye and say it. Can you do that?”

 

 

The boy is suspicious but intrigued, asking if the man will take responsibility if the he gets beaten to death. The man replies, “That’s why I broke a couple of his ribs for you.”

 

 

As soon as he said that the adoptive father storms outside screaming at the boy.

 

 

“You little brat!”

 

 

He trips over the moved planter, which sends him flying into the street, clutching his rib case. The man hands the boy the sandwich, “This is your lunch. Go to school after you talk to them, the answer for question 17 on the math test is 4, not 2. That’s the only one you got wrong”

 

 

“Who on earth are you?”

 

 

The teenage boy stares after him, transfixed. Without saying anything the man just patted him on the back and gave him a warm smile before continuing walking down the side walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goryeo

 

 

He is water, fire, and wind, and also light and dark. And once, he was human.

 

 

Centuries ago, we meet him again on the battlefield, as the appropriately named General KIM JONGIN. Battle rages around him and bodies fall. Clutching that goblin-etched sword, Jongin stands up to face a wall of attackers without a single fear. He faced death heads on.

 

 

The people called him god.

 

 

Covered in blood, his eyes flashing, he struck down his enemies, a literal god of war.

 

 

Jongin flings himself into the battle, killing enemies brutally, blood flying everywhere as he and his sword cut down everything in his path.

 

 

He slashes his way across the battleground and locks eyes with an enemy soldier most likely the general, who was spooked and runs for his life, leaving his comrades behind. Jongin jumps on a horseback and charges after the man, taking him down readily with a single swing of his sword.

 

--

 

Jongin’s army is greeted with cheers from grateful citizens as they ride toward the palace gates.

 

 

“SALUTE GENERAL!”

 

”IT’S THE VICTORIOUS GENERAL!”

 

 

His second-in-command proudly announces their arrival “Here comes the victorious general! Open the gates!”

 

 

Only to receive a hostile reception, as they are ordered to strip off their armor. It’s an insult, but Jongin and his men grudgingly comply as it was the Kings order.

 

 

“Is that better” as Jongin throws his last piece of armor to the ground.

 

 

“You have committed high treason. Bite your sword, kneel down and receive the royal command” the castle guard demanded him to do so.

 

 

“I shall cut off your tongue! How can he commit a high treason? Are you insane? Are you crazy?” his second-in-command spat. Then guards were assemble at the top of the wall and aim hundreds of bows and arrows at Jongin’s army. “General….”

 

 

“You have committed high treason. Bite your sword, kneel down…”

 

 

Instead of kneeling Jongin drew out his sword and was ready to cut off the guard who was demanding for him to kneel down.

 

 

“I will meet his majesty. Step aside”

 

 

“Kim Jongin, you…”

 

 

“If you try to stop me, you’ll die” he said as he took his step forward to the palace gates. “Step aside” he said once again, then the hundreds of arrows pointed at them was released and hit his men. Killing a quarter of them when he stops on his tracks. He looks back in shock and saw all of the dead bodies laying there in their own blood.

 

 

“How dare you! We fought 3 days and 3 nights in his majesty’s name! We just came home from the pit of destruction! How dare you treat us like this!” Jongins second-in-command raged.

 

--

 

The gate finally opens and Jongin heads inside alone, where a young queen and king awaits him.

 

 

An eunuch whispers into the king’s ear, “Your majesty reigns over his people, and it’s said Your majesty is controlled by a divinity. Apparently this divinity refers to Kim Jongin.”

 

 

Jongin walked straight to the stairs and began climbing it.

 

 

He saw clearly his enemy’s sword, but he could not see the jealousy and fear of the young king, directed at him. That was the sharpest sword wielded at him, but he did not know it.

 

 

“The news of his victory deceives your people, and his power is continuously a threat to the royal family. You must govern strictly over this man.” The eunuch telling the King.

 

 

“Do you have to go this far?” Jongin asked the King from his place next to the young Queen.

 

 

“That’s why you should come no more. Stop. Whatever it might be, just stop. If you die now as a rebel, I will let everyone live but you. However, if you take another step, I will kill everyone.. and lay their bodies before you the moment you take that step”

 

 

The queen, who looks upon Jongin fondly, tells him to go “Go ahead General. I am fine.”

 

 

Jongin starts to protest, but she cuts him off “I know. And if this is the last, this is my fate. So go. Do not stop, and go to the king, General.”

 

 

So he continues his approach.

 

 

“This is treason! Kill everyone in his family! This is my command!”

 

 

An arrow flies into the queen’s chest. The queen falls, and Jongin doesn’t turn back, continuing forward. More members of his family are brought forward and killed before his eyes.

 

 

“Stop. What are you doing? Make him kneel down”

 

 

The treacherous eunuch orders the traitor to be brought down, so a guard slashes Jongin across the back, forcing him on his knees.

 

 

“General!” Jongin’s second-in-command runs in and screams at the king, “Do you not fear heaven?” as he kneel in front of the already dying Queen, The king smirks and said that heaven has never helped them, and Jongin glares up at him as the order is given to behead him.

 

 

“The glaring eyes of the criminal are troubling his majesty. Behead the criminal!”

 

 

A soldier starts to strike, but Jongin knocks his sword aside, “The task is not yours” telling him. Instead, Jongin turns to his second-in-command to make a final request, and gives him his sword.

 

 

“General..”

 

 

“I’d like you.. to take care of my end”

 

 

Jongins friend sobs as he takes the sword and promises to follow him soon. “I shall follow your order…. I’m sorry” He s the sword into Jongin’s chest, and he is too cut down from the back moments later.

 

 

Still alive, Jongin hears the eunuch order the traitor’s body to be unclaimed, left out for the beasts to ravage. The king leaves the courtyard without even waiting to see Jongin die.

 

 

The queen lies in a pool of blood and looks at Jongin in her dying moments. On her finger is the jade ring from Grandma’s stash, stained with her blood.

 

 

Per orders, Jongin is left out in the field, not even dead yet. Nobody is allowed to interfere with the body, so the people who do mourn his loss cry from a distance.

 

 

The sword sticks out of his chest, and Jongin lives out his last moments like that, staring up into the empty sky.

 

 

Do not pray to anybody. The gods are not listening. At the brightest time of day, by the general’s sword that had protected him, he died.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1998, Seoul.

 

 

A man in a black suit and overcoat walks into a crosswalk and is immediately hit, head-on, by a car. The car slams to a stop, its front bashed in and windshield shattered—but the man in black remains unmoved. Just standing there, upright.

 

 

The driver got out from his car and began to scream at the man in black “You little idiot! Are you blind? Do you want to die…”

 

 

The driver takes in this impossible tableau and gets nervous, “You.. what are you?” but the man in black just turns around to face him and told him simply, “You hit a wild boar.” The driver’s eyes glaze over, and the mysterious stranger literally disappears into wisps of black smoke.

 

 

When bystanders stop to help “Are you okay? Should I call the police?”

 

 

“I hit a boar…. suddenly it appeared out of nowhere” the driver explained

 

 

“A boar? In the middle of the city?”

 

 

Then other people started to scream because they discovered a body inside the trunk of the car—and a passing woman falls in horror, recognizing the body as her own. “Why am I there…”

 

 

The mysterious man appears before her to read the woman her death statistics. “Hwang Mi Young, 25 years old. Born on April 3, 1973. Died at 8:32 am on February 1, 1998. Cause of death is suffocation. It’s you right?” he crunched down beside her.

 

--

 

He’s the grim reaper, and he takes her to an odd tearoom and pours her a cup of tea.

 

 

“Drink it. It will remove your memories from this life”

 

 

The woman asks what happens if she doesn’t drink.

 

 

“You will regret if you didn’t drink it. I hope you don’t regret anything after you die” so she did drank it.

 

 

While cleaning the cup by the window he saw Jongin walk by the street outside his tearoom. Jongin pauses to look in the window. The two men lock eyes, and the reaper wonders, “Goblin?” Jongin wonders back, “Grim reaper?”

 

 

Jongin is staring at what looks like a stone wall, the window was only be visible to otherworldly eyes.

 

 

“You’re wearing a terribly vulgar hat,” Jongin says. The reaper glares, clearly offended.

 

 

--

 

 

Jongin carries a luggage bag into a large, airy house, where candles flicker on automatically and furniture covers fly away of their own accord.

 

 

An old man greets him with the antiquated word for “sir,” happy to see him for the first time in twenty years. “It has been 20 years, how have you been?”

 

 

“I’m fine, how have you been?”

 

 

“I’ve grown old through the years, you’re still as dashing as ever”

 

 

He’s with his grandson, Kim Jong Dae, who doesn’t have grandpa’s deference and says “He isn’t that dashing”, to his grandfather’s horror. “Shut your mouth, This is my grandson whom I wrote to you about. Introduce yourself”

 

 

The boy wonders who Jongin is, and Jongin replies with “I will be your uncle, your brother, your son and your grandson." He kneels down and says "it’s nice to meet you", but the little boy has an attitude and eyes Jongin suspiciously, and his grandpa apologizes for his manners.

 

 

Then Jongin is struck with a look of recognition, and explains that there was a boy born in Goryeo who is Jong Dae’s ancestor—and Jong Dae looks just like he did. “Was he good-looking?” the boy asks.

 

 

Grandpa keeps apologizing, but Jongin assures him that he’s never been let down by anybody in his family. Jongin smiles, thinking of the ancestor boy, who’d visited Jongin’s grave with his mourning grandfather a thousand years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goryeo

 

 

The grandfather speaks to the sword as though Jongin’s still alive, and introduces his grandson to take over his role in serving him, as he senses that he is nearing death. The boy asks, “Is this sword the master?”

 

 

Just then, a strange energy emits from the sword, and it rocks back and forth. A voice from the heavens declares, “The soul of your subject has saved you.” However, the god notes that Jongin’s sword has been stained with the blood of thousands—and while they were his enemies, they were also the blood of the gods.

 

 

“Live alone in immortality and witness the deaths of those you love,” the god tells him. “No death will be forgotten. This is the prize I give to you, and the punishment you receive.”

 

 

Jongin’s body revives, and the sword glows brightly, still embedded in his chest, as the god continues, “Only the goblin’s bride can pull out that sword. If the sword is pulled, may you return to nothingness and be at peace.”

 

 

The faithful servant and his grandson gape as Jongin comes back to life, looking whole a