Of all the scenarios she had imagined, this was probably the least likely Yerin had expected to have to deal with.

Eunha was...not quite herself. As an experienced negotiator, Yerin knew she would have to tread carefully. Leaving aside the incredibly obvious problem of what the hell just happened , Yerin needed to get Yuju to safety. Eunha might not be hurting the shaman right now, but that was no guarantee of anything. The scales the fire mage was sporting did not inspire a lot of confidence. In fact, it took a lot of self control on Yerin’s part to not shoot the mage in the face right now.

“Are you two...alright?” Yerin stepped forward slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements or appear in any way hostile. Her gun was down, though she could fire off a shot in a split second should the need arise. The smell of burning flesh was mildly nauseating. Yerin didn’t think she would be able to even look at barbeque for the next few weeks at least.

Eunha didn’t move, staring unblinkingly at her. The fire mage’s eyes were glowing still, and the scales on her face writhed as if they were alive, trying to cover more of her face. Yerin swallowed nervously. What had gone wrong with the ritual? Why was Yuju covered in blood? So many questions, and the only one conscious to answer them was currently unresponsive.

“Eunha? It’s me, Yerin…” No harm trying to get a response. Yerin slid forward some more, carefully stepping around some of the unidentified puddles that used to be human. It helped that some of them were still burning. At least she had enough light to see in the darkness.

At the mention of her name, Eunha blinked for the first time, visibly struggling to focus. Yerin halted just beyond the circle of flame that was still dancing around the pair in the center, watching as the scales receded from the mage’s face, retreating to just below the neck. Eunha coughed, spluttering for a few moments as her grip on Yuju tightened. Yerin tensed, ready to leap into action if Yuju were threatened.

As it turned out, her caution was unnecessary. Eunha looked up again, looking considerably more normal than she had earlier, if one discounted the still present scales on her arms. The circle of fire ebbed when she recognized Yerin waiting outside of it.

“Yerin? I’m...what did I do ?” Eunha seemed confused, gaze flickering around as she tried to process the result of her handiwork. The fires burned merrily, heedless of their creator’s rising expression of horror. Yerin edged closer, taking in the amount of blood on the ground and noting the rise and fall of Yuju’s chest with every breath. Alive, at least. That was good.

“You protected Yuju and yourself. That’s great.” Yerin tried to soothe the distraught mage, with somewhat minimal sincerity as her attention was less on Eunha’s distress and much more focused on Yuju’s condition. She was now within arm’s length of the the pair, and knelt down to check on her puppy. Yuju was pale and smeared in blood, but there were no visible wounds on most of her body. Eunha was still clutching Yuju’s hand while most of the shaman’s upper body was in her lap, and when Yerin reached forward to try and separate the two, Eunha jerked back visibly, baring her teeth.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Either of you.” Yerin was taken aback by her reaction, but tried to sound as calm and soothing as possible. She even her glamour to project as unthreatening an image as possible, hoping to not trigger Eunha in any way. Eunha’s eyes remained wary however, and Yerin sighed.

“Let me help. You want Yuju to be okay, right?”

That seemed to work a little better. Eunha was almost docile, allowing Yerin to prise her hand off Yuju’s wounded one, though the fire mage immediately wrapped both arms around Yuju’s shoulders right after, as if worried that Yerin was going to steal away her favorite toy.

Yerin said nothing, inspecting the deep cut right in the middle of the unconscious shaman’s palm. It didn’t account for the amount of blood directly around them. Nothing accounted for the amount of blood seeped into the ritual circle. If it all came from Yuju, logically the shaman should have died from blood loss at least three times over.

But if it hadn’t, where had it come from? Yerin dismissed the attackers as a possibility after a moment’s thought. Eunha had clearly been responsible for their demise, and fire that intense didn’t tend to make people bleed. If anything, it was more likely to scorch it all to nothing. The still glowing piles of charred ash bore silent testament to that.

All of it was suggesting something Yerin sincerely hoped Yuju hadn’t resorted to. Blood magic was taboo for a reason, and even in Latin America or parts of old Scandinavia where there existed such a tradition, it was all executed under strictly controlled circumstances. The raw power of blood magic was seductive , and it had tempted many a mage into a darker path. When one got reliant on sacrificing the life force of another to infinitely power their spells, it changed them. There was a reason why blood magic was forbidden and persecuted in five out of seven continents. If Yuju hadused it, the mark it left on her aura would make her a target to anyone with the magical Sight to see it.

Not that it would change how Yerin felt about Yuju. She would kill to protect her puppy. The thought made the veteran runner pause. Time had changed her a lot. It wasn’t that long ago when she had turned away from someone she thought she loved when magic had changed them beyond recognition. Or had she simply not loved them enough?

It was an important question, but Yerin brushed that away for now. Did it still matter? Yuju was priority now. When Yerin reached to try and pick Yuju up, she was suddenly seared by a tongue of flame that made her curse aloud, falling back onto her from surprise. The burn mark was an ugly red on her hand. Eunha continued holding Yuju close, her eyes dangerous. The scales on her neck were starting to twitch again, as if in warning.

Yerin bit back a nasty comment, cradling her burnt hand carefully. She should probably be glad Eunha had only chosen to warn, and not turn her into a cinder at a moment’s notice. Damn mages .

Yerin was still wondering how best to convince Eunha to let her carry Yuju to safety when SinB came into sight lugging a still knocked out Sowon awkwardly. The height difference and additional weight from the enhancements made it challenging for SinB to carry their leader properly. The speedster looked mildly panicked, eyes darting backwards from where she had come from.

“More enemies?” Yerin read the look on the younger’s face easily. SinB nodded, then did a double-take when she finally noticed Eunha’s current state. Yerin hid a smirk at the immediate reaction to reach towards her gun. Guess she wasn’t the only one to have that response.

“I haven’t been able to reach Umji this whole time,” Yerin continued, deflecting SinB’s attention from Eunha’s transformed state. They could panic about the fire mage later, after the current crisis. Even with a burnt hand, Yerin was still the most experienced runner on the team, and even if Yuju hadn’t been on the line here, professionalism demanded that she stepped up to take charge since Sowon was out of commission.

They needed to all get out in one piece, find Umji, and then go to ground. There were too many missing pieces regarding what had gone down, and in any case, evacuating was their first priority. Yerin assessed the odds, then laid her eyes on Eunha. The fire mage was a wild card, but if they were going to make it out of this chamber, she was going to need Eunha at her lethal best. The gears were whirring in her head, and Yerin looked over at SinB, gesturing the younger to come over.

Keeping a wary eye on her transformed best friend, SinB heaved her heavy burden (Sowon) and shuffled over. She was acutely aware that they didn’t have much time until the roaming squads outside discovered the path to this chamber. SinB had tried her best to make the trail vague, but there were limits to what she could do while also having to move Sowon around.

“I need you to tell Eunha about those people out there. She’s the only one who can buy us time to retreat. Remind her that they’ll hurt Yuju, and be careful, don’t upset her. She’ll trust you more; you grew up with her.”

Yerin briefly explained their situation and her proposed solution to the young gunslinger. SinB nodded grimly, understanding the gravity of the situation. She handed Sowon over to Yerin carefully before making her way slowly to the still defensive Eunha. Yerin had accepted that Eunha wasn’t going to let her carry Yuju, but might just trust her childhood friend enough to let her bring the shaman to safety. Yerin’s hand stung at the very vivid reminder of Eunha’s warning. No, she would be no good to anyone in ashes.

It was going to be challenging to lift Sowon with an injured hand, but Yerin could ignore pain when necessary. Over by Eunha, SinB seemed to have much better luck with the mage than Yerin did -- unsurprising, since the bond of trust between the two childhood friends was not so easily shaken even in Eunha’s unsettled state. Enough of it lingered for Eunha to let her guard down, and SinB was able to convince the girl that Yuju would be safer out of immediate danger.

The heavy tromping of boots echoing down the tunnel was like a countdown to action. SinB lifted Yuju in a fireman’s carry, leaving one hand free to use a gun if necessary. Yerin resorted to piggybacking Sowon to avoid straining the burnt skin of her hand and wrist. Even then, the flesh was raw and angry whenever it brushed against fabric, making Yerin wince. Warning it might have been, but it still hurt .

Eunha was finally standing on her own two feet, tongues of fire tickling her soles with every step as she made her way forward. Ghostly wisps of crackling blue flame popped into existence and winked out all around her, with no seeming pattern to them. It lent her an ethereal glow, which matched the low luminescence emanating from her eyes.

Yerin let SinB ascend the emergency stairway first, one eye still turned to watch Eunha move to block the single entrance to the chamber, the mage’s tiny figure seeming almost too small against the yawning mouth of the tunnel that fed into this place. It almost looked like she was going to be swallowed by the darkness, but Yerin knew better.

Eunha was easily the most dangerous thing in the Underground tonight, and woe betide anyone who sought to harm what she aimed to protect. Yerin almost pitied the coming soldiers; if nothing else, at least they would be properly cremated.

Burn everything , Yerin whispered. Nothing could be left behind, especially not with this much of Yuju’s blood scattered all around. Eunha had understood that much. There would be no mercy.

Only fire would greet them.

Eunha did not feel like herself.

A part of her was numb, sinking back into a familiar darkness she hadn’t had to face within herself in years. Not since Sowon took them away from the gang, where her fire was as much a gift as it was a curse. She had almost forgotten what it was like to make everything burn.

The smell of charred meat made her ill in its utter familiarity. SinB had never really known what it was that she had always been called away to do, and Eunha had never wanted to talk about it. How was she going to tell her best friend about that anyway?

Oh I burned people alive, and enjoyed it?

It was a guilty secret Eunha kept buried within herself. Shame at what she had been called to do, shame at her own response to flaunting her power. And she had felt powerful, letting the fire run wild and do as it pleased. It felt good to not hold back, to indulge in the whims of her inner flame. Free, and unfettered.

Eunha felt sick. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, but the fire was always there, whispering, and it was always a struggle to keep under control. With Yuju around, it felt easier, the shaman exerting a calming influence just by being present. It was part of what had drawn her to the other magic user, before Yuju’s natural charm eventually won her over. It was easier to remain in control when there was someone who understood .

A different, darker part of Eunha strained against what remained of her conscience. Hurt. Burn. Kill. It was heavily encouraged by her residual horror over finding Yuju covered in blood and fallen next to her. She wanted very badly to hurt whoever was responsible. No one hurts my Yuju. No one.

There was a hidden streak of possessiveness that the tiny voice of reason Eunha still had that found this whole line of thought deeply disturbing. Yuju wasn’t hers -- yes she is -- and she had no right to be so possessive over someone who wasn’t even her girlfriend or anything. Deep down, Eunha knew that it was wrong , but she couldn’t help but remember the dream she had experienced -- or was that a memory of days long past? -- where Yuju was most definitely hers to claim as her own.

The struggle to separate dream from reality grew stronger when she was under threat. Eunha knew her mind had totally fogged over from rage when they had been surrounded earlier. The memory of being helpless in the face of Yuju’s death -- but she’s not dead now, alive alive alive! -- ignited a flame she hadn’t even known she was capable of wielding.

She felt her skin hardening as an unfamiliar power welled up from within, insulating her from the crackle of electricity that sizzled with her native flame. Something was deeply wrong , but her rage had erased everything in its path. It had taken a while for her to come to her senses, but even then the rage bubbled just beneath the surface, ready to spark to life at any moment.

SinB’s appearance had definitely brought her back to reality somewhat. It reminded her of who she really was, and reluctant as she had been to be separated from Yuju, she knew that it was important that all of them got away so that the shaman’s wounds could be attended to.

Now that she was alone without having to worry about hurting anyone she actually cared about, Eunha bared her teeth into a savage grin. It had been too long since she had gotten to let loose.

The little tin men were a-marching into the hearth, and Eunha was going to keep it nice and warm just for them . She couldn’t wait already.

They were all going to have so much fun together.

Sowon was dreaming.

That in itself shouldn’t have been shocking, but she hadn’t dreamt in a long, long time. Not since she started augmenting herself, cutting off her connection to the otherworld. Sleep felt like a system reboot, a time of utter darkness until her internal clock roused her, or deeper instincts warned her of danger. Such trivial things as dreams had long since been abandoned, and there were times where Sowon wondered if she weren’t more machine than human at this point.

But now she was dreaming, and she knew it was a dream, in a peculiar clarity that allowed her to watch as an impartial observer despite being in her own body. It had to be a dream, because she didn’t remember any of this.

Or could it a memory? In a way, it felt familiar, all gunfire and explosions and senseless violence. People were dying all around her, and she couldn’t save anyone. More than a dream, it was a nightmare. Her deepest fears playing out in a theater of agony.

She hadn’t felt so weak in ages. Years of honing her skill in battle seemed to fall away, her dream self mere flesh and bone, and all the more fragile for it. She didn’t even remember being that vulnerable in over a decade. Or had it been longer?

Time was a fickle mistress. Sowon knew she was unusual even in a world where magic existed. The others hadn’t been with her long enough, but Umji knew, or at least guessed at it. After all, she had saved Umji when the younger girl was just a child. It had been almost ten years since, and Umji had grown into a lovely young woman by now.

But Sowon remained the same, untouched by time. She had been alone for a long time before Umji, deeply insecure in the fact that she wasn’t aging normally . She had kept to herself for years before discovering Umji, feeling drawn to the young girl when she first laid eyes on her, huddled in a corner of the broken laboratory the mercenary had been sent to infiltrate and destroy from within. It was an unexplainable feeling, but Sowon had felt an odd kinship with Umji from day one.

That same kinship led her to spare SinB and Eunha, taking them into her life instead of simply letting them go as she had with other people she had rescued over the years. It was the same instinct that drove her to recruit Yuju and Yerin, and when all six of them were gathered, Sowon felt...complete . As if the missing pieces of a puzzle had come together, that which was once broken made whole. It felt right , and Sowon had never been able to put a name to that feeling.

She sees them again in that dream, older and more haggard, but closely knit. SinB and Yerin were goofing off and getting in trouble, Yuju and Eunha were discreetly flirting, and Umji was tagging along behind her dream self a lot. They were laughing, playing, training, getting hurt and getting up again. It felt like a family, seeing all of them together like this, so similar yet so different.

Abruptly, the dream changes, suffused in a vibrant red glow that seemed eerily familiar. Sowon gasps, suddenly awash in a lingering sensation of suffocating pressure, flashes of resurgent memory raking across the edge of consciousness. She was holding something, and through it, a single inhuman eye stared unblinkingly, marking her as its own.

Sowon lost all track of time in that glow, floating in a cocoon of weightlessness that gave her no reference to left or right, up or down. It was timeless, eternal and unchanging. She could not know what happened, or what changes it wrought within her, but when that moment finally shattered, it broke through more than one of the chains that bound her in servitude to that unknown power.

As she broke back through to reality, surfacing like a drowning man in search of air, she grasped too at the straws of her old identity, something once thought lost. Precious scraps, barely enough to salve old wounds, but enough to ground her once more.

How could she have forgotten? All this had begun with the dragon, and all would end with it.

Sowon, no, Kim Sojung , smiled grimly to herself. There would be time enough to count the debts owed. Till then, she needed to recover from the magical backlash caused by the shattered dragon orb. Who knew how tightly it had her bound over all these years? That was yet another score to settle.

When the time came, she would not forget. Every life lost to the dragon, every year stolen from the grave, she would settle it all. It was the least she could do. To honour the memories of the fallen, and to protect the ones now here.

To that end, Kim Sojung would dare challenge a dragon, even if it meant her life.

A finger twitched, sending a puff of dust and ashes crumbling off a partially melted wall. The accompanying stab of agony cascaded like a wave across the section of exposed skin.

Eyes remained tightly shut, as if fearful to present the howling flame with fresh fuel. The temperature was still on the cooler side of broiling, and it was difficult to breathe, much less smell the scent of charred meat that would no doubt be permeating the air.

The fire ate everything . If the earlier burst had come as a wave, it had been nothing compared to the sight of the very air igniting all at once. Sharp instincts and razor reflexes had saved his eyes from being charbroiled in that moment, though he doubted that any of his hair or clothing survived the inferno. The scales which were the sign of his divine blessing was the only reason he had survived the conflagration. Even then, it had felt like he was being cooked alive. Had it lasted any longer, he might just very well have been.

Everything burns, if the fire is hot enough. Molten metal laid in slowly hardening piles, still glowing red from the intense heat. Walls and floors were blackened and sunken in at parts. The monster responsible for the blaze was gone, hopefully . He no longer felt the oppressive threat of overwhelming magic at least.

An arm came free of the wall where he had been flung into earlier. It had probably minimized his wounds and maximized his chances of survival, ironically. There were broken bones, but those were trivial compared to the vaguely human stains on the walls, appearing hauntingly like nuclear shadows.

The battered lizardman fell onto his knees on still heated ground, thanking his God for his continued survival. But perhaps it was fated, for he had important news to bring.

There was another of the Chosen. Before he had closed his eyes earlier, there was no mistaking the mark of divinity that covered the fire-bringer. It was unlike any of his brethren, who had been bestowed the Gift for their loyalty and servitude.

The mighty dragon would decide her fate. He was but a humble messenger, ready to serve. It might even soothe His wrath for the failure to reacquire the orb. His God was not known for mercy, but there were always exceptions.

A servitor could hope.