Glossary

Jonghyun shuddered as his eyes met with those intimidating golden irises and a crisp voice address him. He saw Shiraen gracefully adjust his posture, pulling on his restraints so that he could move his arms more freely.

“I’ve waited so long to meet you and I am not disappointed,” Shiraen smiled as he gestured to Jonghyun. “I heard you last night, begging for your life, begging to those measly humans and it hurt me so much,” he looked with such sorrow towards Jonghyun, “but now you are here and you will never have to beg anyone anymore.”

“Jonghyun, what do we do next?” Jinki asked, raising his sword moving closer to Jonghyun.

“I see you’ve brought along your friends with you,” Shiraen said glancing to the others beside Jonghyun, “But you don’t need them, they don’t even know how truly powerful you are; treating you like a mere whisperer, how disrespectful,” he shook his head gently.

“What do you mean by that?” Jonghyun asked as he saw Jinki step in beside him, his sword raised in front of him.

Shiraen chuckled, “I see the gods still like to be ambiguous, not letting everyone in on their secrets. Did the gods ever tell you that I am an immortal being before they sent you out to kill me? Did they ever tell you the depths of your powers?” he smiled.

“You were defeated once, left on the verge of death; you can be slayed.” Minho said as he stood on Jonghyun’s other side.

Shiraen rested his wrist on his knee elegantly, watching them, “I was only defeated because I wanted to be defeated; all those men couldn’t even scratch me, couldn’t even come close enough to land a blow on me.”

“Why did you give up then? Why are you still chained?” Jonghyun asked, trying to continue the conversation, having an intuition that Shiraen would give away something.

Shiraen looked fondly at Jonghyun, “Out on that battlefield I had a premonition, a vision of the future, a vision of the gods crafting your soul, a soul so pure… so powerful and I definitely knew you were being created for me, to rule by my side; and I had to meet you. These chains,” he raised his arms, “are not restraining me at all; even though they were enchanted to prevent me from healing myself, I could’ve easily gotten out of them whenever I pleased. But I decided to let them be; I enjoyed seeing those humans think they had an advantage over me as I hurted and cried for them; as I slowly corrupted their souls, after all, we will need subjects to rule over,”  he laughed lowly.
“You are so powerful Jonghyun,” Shiraen inhaled, “I can feel it, I know you can feel how powerful you are too; after all, the gods granted you one of their own powers.” He smiled seeing the astonishment on Jonghyun’s face. “Yes they did; they blessed you with their own power of manipulation, that is why you can so easily lend your power to others, manipulate their powers, make them stronger, make them your own if you want. Imagine how powerful we both can be,” Shiraen said as he gently separated the restraints around his feet, “Together we could rule this world, and if you reinforce my power with yours we can easily overthrow the gods themselves; all I would want is your loyalty,” Shiraen stood up in one swift motion and he broke the restraints around his hands too.

Jonghyun saw Jinki step in between him and Shiraen as he slowly walked in Jonghyun’s direction. Jinki, he’s right. We won’t be able to harm him. Jinki looked back at him, his face paling. No matter what, please trust me Jinki. I won’t be able to relay anything further more, he’s trying to get inside my head, but please have faith in me, Jinki.

Jinki felt his heart drop, what was Jonghyun going to do next? What was he supposed to do next? How were they supposed to defeat Shiraen? He could feel how strong, how intimidating Shiraen was with each step he took to get closer to them. If they couldn’t harm him, how were they going to kill him…? Unless… his eyes trailed to Jonghyun beside him as he tightened his hold on his sword; he was sure that Shiraen was going to die, but what if his death wasn’t in their hands. He pulled out a small dagger and handed it to Taemin behind him, “Can you enchant it with a similar spell that prevents healing?” he whispered to Taemin.

“I… I can,” Taemin said, trying to understand what Jinki was planning to do. “But I will need some time, brother.”

Jinki nodded, he would try to buy as much time as he could. “Kibum, Minho restrain him,” he shouted.

Kibum guided the many plants growing in the cave around them to encircle the beast, tighten around him, restricting his movement. Shiraen smiled at their attempt and easily turned those vines to dust. “How foolish,” he said, “Don’t you understand you cannot stop me?” he flicked his finger, crashing Kibum into the wall behind him.

Seeing Kibum's attempt fall apart, Minho pulled all the water flowing through the cave with his powers and created a wall of ice in front of them, trapping the beast behind it. He held onto his power with all his might, keeping the wall erect as long as possible but he could feel it slowly give away. His magic was colliding with the beast’s, he could feel it slowly overpower his own. He staggered, his body trembled, but he resisted Shiraen’s force and kept the wall standing. But he knew he would not last long, his wall would break despite his efforts, under the force of their colliding magic. It had begun to show. He could see the fissures grow in it bit by bit, spreading all over the surface, the edges of it melting, crumbling, the walls barely intact.

“Brother!” Jinki heard Taemin call out to him, kneeling beside Kibum as Kibum enchanted the dagger too. Once he was done, Taemin flung it towards his brother as he helped Kibum up.

“Jinki, I cannot hold on longer,” Minho groaned, straining himself to keep the ice up. A few seconds later he felt the energy, the power on the other side of the wall increase immensely, destroying it, the force of destruction flattening them all out.

Jinki quickly got up, the dagger in hand as he helped Jonghyun up, quickly passing the dagger to him. They heard Shiraen chuckle as he approached them. Jinki immediately lunged at Shiraen, his sword raised, trying to land a blow. He saw Shiraen dodge each move of his gracefully despite being unarmed, a smile on his face as he stepped out of Jinki’s way. Jinki felt the frustration of not landing a blow get to him, he gave up following the tactics he had learnt and blindly landed a blow with all his strength, with all his power, his sword glowing a dark red.

Jinki put all his weight and focus on his next aim, getting as close to the beast as he could. He saw Shiraen side-step him one again, but this time he turned his sword in the nick of time, opening a huge cut along Shiraen’s arm.

Shiraen hissed at the pain, he healed himself immediately and held out his palm in Jinki’s direction; restraining him. “I know you are fond of your friends, Jonghyun, but I can’t let them get in our way. Especially him,” Shiraen looked at Jinki and the sword in his hand. “I can feel that the gods have given him their own power of vigor and carnage; as no blade has ever pierced my skin. The only way he can stay alive is if I take away the power from his soul; but death would be better than that, don’t you agree?” he smiled as he twisted his fingers, beginning to separate the power from Jinki making him scream. He caressed Jonghyun’s face with the other hand, “Don’t resist me,” he said softly, “You have nowhere else to go to, if the gods had cared so much they would have been here to oppose me, not sent you.”

Jonghyun flinched at the cold fingers touching him. Blood, he heard that faint whisper again, and he looked at Jinki, seeing the pain he was in, hearing him scream, seeing his power… seeing the red radiate off Jinki’s body, as Shiraen slowly destroyed his soul.

“Sto-stop,” Jonghyun said, looking Shiraen in the eyes, “Don’t hurt them. I… I will join you. I will swear my loyalty to you,” he said gripping onto the dagger tightly, as he felt his mind… his consciousness be invaded by another.

“I can let the others live Jonghyun,” Shiraen tucked Jonghyun’s hair behind his ear, “But not him. I will give you the opportunity to choose, death or a fate worse than death itself?” He let Jinki go. “I see you deeply care for him,” he smiled at Jonghyun, “Then killing him would be easy wouldn’t it, Jonghyun?” he said, pleased when Jonghyun nodded, obeying him, opening up his conscious more. “Prove it to me Jonghyun.” Shiraen whispered, “Prove your loyalty to me, kill him.”

“No, don’t listen to him Jonghyun,” Taemin exclaimed. “Don’t let him get to you.”

“Shh,” Shiraen said, “You are only alive because you healed me,” He held up his hand, trapping the other three against the cave walls. He chuckled when he saw them struggle, screaming against his  piercing hold on them. He dodged a bolt of lightening Minho sent his way, “Be still, it will all be over soon, unless you want to join your other friend. He moved closer to Jonghyun, still restraining the three against the stone walls.. “Come on, go ahead Jonghyun,” Shiraen commanded Jonghyun, overpowering his will.

Jonghyun swallowed as he knelt down beside Jinki, he could hear how strained Jinki’s breathing was. He could sense the immense pain Jinki was in from when Shiraen had tried to separate his magic from his soul.

Jinki saw the desperation in Jonghyun’s eyes, his hand that held the dagger trembling, his eyes met with Jonghyun’s and he realized that Jonghyun was not