Chapter 20

Baekhyun was ready to leave this world again. He accepted it. Maybe it should have been time for him log ago. But he felt incredibly sorry to Sehun. He was one of his closest friends, he didn’t deserve to die. This time Luhan could be really blaming him. It was obviously that Kris was here to kill him and not Sehun. It just happened that Sehun was with him and there was nothing Baekhyun could do.

He expected the Dragon to burn his flesh very soon and his body began to feel tense because of the expected pain that never hit him. All he could hear was a loud bang and all he could feel was hot wind. When the blonde dared to open his eyes a little he saw a familiar tall silhouette in front of them, a smaller one was standing next, he’d put his hand on the stretched arm of the tall one.

“You dare to come here?!” Baekhyun heard the angry voice and smiled. Now he knew everything was going to be alright. “If you ever touch him again, I will dig your grave personally.”

Kris growled. His plan seemed to get out of control. Baekhyun should be dead by now, he hadn’t planned to meet the rest of the bunch. “Chanyeol.”, Kris said calm. “Long time no see. How have you been?”

“Go to the deuce!”

“Tz…is this how we greet old friends?”

“You’re not my friend. You’ve killed him long time ago!”

“What? Oh dear, I did nothing to him.”, Kris laughed and tipped against his head. “He’s in here. Screaming. It hurts him to see what his body is doing to you. He cried while I almost killed his friends. Shame on me that it’s only almost. It’s a mistake I have to correct I guess.”

“I won’t let you!” Chanyeol was about to form a Fireball in his hands when Jongdae next to him sank down on his knees. “Chen?”

“it’s okay. I just…can’t give you more power. You have to use yours.”

Chanyeol nodded and took a deep breath. “Then mine have to be enough.”, he mumbled and continued building his fireball.

Kris watched all this amused. “You know…Why do we always have to fight? You should let me kill Baekhyun and then you should handle me your half of the tree. I don’t have to hurt you Chanyeol. I’ve always had a soft spot for you.” The red force laughed. “See. We’re the same. You have this red eye. It symbolizes me perfectly. I would even say I appreciate you more than this body here. You’re really well made.”

“Stop talking bull. I’m going to burn you now!” Chanyeol hissed and threw the hot ball at Kris. The other eluded the huge ball and jumped behind Chanyeol. When Chanyeol turned around he grinned wide and ran to Sehun who’d Baekhyun still in his hands. “Boooh~”

Baekhyun clinged more to Sehun. He’d never been afraid of the red force or Kris, but for now he was.

“Forget it!” With some accurate hand movements Chanyeol changed the direction of the fireball and threw him again at Kris.

“CHANYEOL!”, Sehun screamed as he saw the fireball fly into their direction. He pressed Baekhyun at his body and narrowly avoided the huge orb. “Are you insane?!”

Next to them were a huge hole and burned grass. This could have been Sehun and Baekhyun.

Shocked the redhead looked to Sehun who held Baekhyun in his arms. “I’m sorry. Sorry…”

“You could have killed us!”

A loud laugh was heard. Kris stood on the hence again. “I thought it would be really funny to let you kill them yourself. But Sehunnie really has improved his reflexes.

“You little-“ Chanyeol was about to jump to Kris, but he let himself drop over the back. When Chanyeol reached the edge of the fence and looked at the other side beneath the hedge no Kris was seen. “Escaped…”, Chanyeol cursed.

“Cha…Chan…” Baekhyun wheezed.

Hearing the broken and weak voice of his boyfriend Chanyeol immediately turned around and ran to him. “Baekhyun…I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I felt something wasn’t right. I came as fast as I could…”

Baekhyun smiled lightly. “Stupid Yoda…”, he whispered feeble. His eyes were so heavy, it was hard to hold them open.

“Stay with me…I bring you to Lay but you have to stay awake…” Chanyeol took the fragile young man out of Sehuns arms and brought him back into the villa. “Where’s Lay?!”, he screamed as soon as he entered.

“What’s wrong…?”, Minseok asked and looked out of the living room. As he saw Baekhyun totally pale in Chanyeols arms he gasped. “D…down the basement…” He followed the redhead who went to the basement quickly. “What happened? Jongdae said you came back early because you insisted to.”

“Kris happened.”

When Chanyeol reached the tree of life he found Lay sitting in front of it. “Lay!”

“What happened?”, the black-haired asked and stood up.

“He got stapped in the belly. You have to heal him. He’s already very weak.” Chanyeol put Baekhyun down next to the big root of the tree, where Lay wanted him to be. As soon has the body reached the ground, Yixing began to heal the guardian.

“What exactly happened…?”, Minseok asked again while Lay was doing his best to help their friend. Baekhyun himself began to drift into the shadows slowly but when he thought it was the end, there was a small ray of light and wonderful warmth hugged his soul. Lay… He still could hear his friends talk.

“Kris blind-sided us. We were practicing in the backyard when an arrow flew right into Baeks direction. I could snatch it away. But it only got worse. At a point where we thought Kris broke through the red force and was back in his body, Baekhyun went to him and tried to give him hope. I don’t know if this was a trick or if we really were talking to Kris but…the red force was suddenly there again, and he hurt Baekhyun. When Chanyeol wouldn’t have come, I don’t know if we would still be alive.”, Sehun explained who’d followed them to the basement.

“is he going to be okay again…?”, Chanyeol asked worried not paying attention to the story Sehun was telling.

“He will be okay. But this could have went the wrong way. When we wouldn’t have been here, Baekhyun wouldn’t have made it.”, Yixing explained and sighed.

Baekhyun felt the warm body that was embracing him. He would recognize those arms out of thousands. Chanyeol was holding him tight, he placed a soft kiss onto his hair. “I will have a better look upon you from now on. He won’t be able to hurt you again, Sun.”, he whispered into his ear and kissed him there.

“It’s not your fault.”, Baekhyun whispered and opened his heavy eyes. “It’s only my fault. I was too naïve to believe I could save Kris with no more than my words…”

“You’re good at talking. It could have worked. Don’t blame yourself…”, Chanyeol smiled lightly.

“Is Sehun okay…?”

“I am fine, Baek. You don’t have to worry.”

Baekhyun nodded lightly and tried to sit up. It still felt like a bunch of idiots had played football in his stomach, but it got better slowly. “Thank you Yixing.”

“I’m always here for you.”, he said and caressed his blonde hair a little. “But I rather would like to see you save.”

It didn’t take long until everyone in the villa knew what happened. One by one they came down to the basement and again and again Sehun explained to them what happened. Chanyeol didn’t seem interested in the conversation. His whole attention was on Baekhyun who recovered slowly in his arms. The first and second time when Sehun had finished talking, Baekhyun apologized for what happened but after Suho and Chen said that only a stupid guy would apologize for something like that, he hasn’t done it again.

They were talking over what happened. And they all were aware that they had to find the other half of the tree as well as the splinters the red force was hiding soon. They couldn’t lose more time, it was only a matter of time when the red force would come to their house and took the other half of the tree.

While they were discussing how they should find the splinters of the red force Kyungsoo seemed to be absent. He wasn’t focusing on the conversation as usual. He was looking around weirdly and