“You all really thought you could do something, didn’t you?”

The imugi’s voice was smug in its apparent victory. Eunha struggled in its grasp, her fire at the scales futilely. Sowon and SinB had been stripped of their weapons and forced to kneel, surrounded by guns pointing at their heads. Sowon gritted her teeth, furious. There had been too many of the cultists. Ten, maybe even twenty she could deal with, since she still had SinB to back her up.

But when a good fifty of them had swarmed out of that elevator shaft, left with limited ammo and with SinB injured, Sowon couldn’t fight them all off on her own. She might have been able to escape alone if she really tried, but she would never leave her team behind.

“You poor fools. Mere mortals can’t fight with us. We are superior in every way.” The imugi’s gaze swept over the pinned Sowon and SinB. “Humans are only fit to grovel at the feet of their gods.”

“You’re no god, you scaly bastard.” SinB spat, earning a kick to her back that sent her sprawling. The gunslinger writhed in pain, the stabbing pain in her ribs making her wheeze. Sowon tensed, wanting to spring to her side, but the cold muzzle of a rifle pressing into her head was enough warning for her to stay still. It was maddening, but she had to bide her time for now.

“Perhaps not right now, but I will be, after I devour your little friend here.” The imugi studied Eunha like an interesting little specimen, heedless of how Eunha kicked and fought despite her captivity. “Amazing, you’ve completely assimilated father’s orb. How did you do that? It should have been impossible for a mere human.”

“Or humans just aren’t as weak as you thought,” Sowon growled defiantly, quietly assessing her surroundings. Her guns had been stripped from her, and the soldiers had tossed her vibro-blade to the side, probably unaware of the true value of the weapon. It was too far out of reach, at least not without a decent distraction. SinB was still half-sprawled on the ground, pushing herself up with one elbow, but her wheezing breaths spoke volumes about her current condition. Sowon glanced over to where Yuju lay forgotten in a motionless heap. There was no soldiers around her, but why would they bother? The shaman looked to be knocked out of action entirely.

Or was she really? Sowon saw a finger twitch, and the telltale signs of muscles tensing. It was a spark of hope, if Yuju could wake up in time to turn the tables. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one who noticed. The imugi cocked its head, turning around to look directly at the stirring Yuju.

“Oh? She broke through the illusions?” The imugi tsked in annoyance, waving the stump of its hand at Yuju even as the shaman struggled to raise her head. Sowon winced as Yuju jerked upwards, pulled half upright as thorns ripped into her already broken body, binding her in a cage not unlike the one in her dream state. The shaman’s eyes were wide open and bloodshot, but she didn’t make a sound even when the barbs tore through her wrist and ankles, wrapping around her neck in an approximation of a noose. She glared fiercely at the imugi, who seemed unimpressed.

“Be a good girl and stay still, won’t you? I won’t even kill you, you’re far more useful to me alive.”

Sowon noticed that the thorns seemed to be feeding off Yuju’s blood, and the shaman was already starting to turn deathly pale as the seconds ticked by. There was no resignation or even fear in her eyes though, only a cold calculation as the trapped shaman took in the current state of the room. Sowon’s breath hitched. This was not the look of someone beaten. Yuju had a plan.

But how? Sowon couldn’t imagine what options they had left. A mixture of anger and regret roiled in the leader’s chest. She should never have rushed into this. They were trapped. Eunha was visibly weakening, her fire dimming. The imugi had returned its attention to the fire mage, confident that the cage of thorns would do its job in restraining the shaman.

Sowon looked back at Yuju, wondering what the girl had up her sleeve. It seemed impossible, but Sowon couldn’t help but feel that Yuju wasn’t quite done yet. The thorns appeared to be sapping her energy, but the shaman’s head remained unbowed. The imugi had turned its back to her, focusing on Eunha. Sowon clenched her teeth together, eyes fixed on Yuju’s. The shaman looked back at her, and very subtly, nodded.

Be ready. Sowon glanced over at SinB, who was still resting on all fours, both elbows propping her body up. There was about ten soldiers around her. Twenty more were around Sowon herself, and a couple others scattered around, guns levelled at Yuju. Professional enough, at least.

If only, of course, they knew what was to come. Yuju’s eyes rolled back upwards, the whites of her eyes showing again. Except, a creeping red was starting to seep through from the bottom up, until her sockets were filled with a solid crimson, glowing from within with an eerie radiance.

One of the soldiers noticed, his rifle shaking as he jerked nervously, evidently unnerved by the sudden change. There was a sudden darkening around Yuju, as if someone had adjusted the colour filters around her, emanating a black radiance that seemed to draw inwards with a negative energy.

“The more you struggle, the more energy you feed me, you know.” The imugi didn’t even look back. The stump of its hand was regenerating, as if the energy it had been leeching from Yuju was finally doing its job. It probably was. Eunha screamed as the imugi plunged its newly regrown hand into her stomach, static electricity arcing all around her as she thrashed futilely. Sowon gritted her teeth, wondering if she could move fast enough to escape the dozens of guns pointed at her.

Yuju finally spoke, her voice strangely layered, as if multiple voices were echoing from within. Her eyes were bleeding into solid black, ominous and distant.

“I will not be held.”

The nearest soldier to Yuju suddenly spasmed, dropping his rifle. Next to him, others did the same, the effect rippling outwards in a sudden wave. Sowon had been waiting, and she immediately rolled out of her spot as the soldiers around her suddenly started shaking uncontrollably. The mercenary quickly swiped a dropped rifle, swivelling to make sure that no one tried to get the drop on her, then halted suddenly as a sudden cold feeling punched through her gut.

Dark red lines ran raised beneath the exposed skin of the soldiers, pulsing with a sickly glow as they writhed like live worms underneath suddenly bulging flesh. Sowon looked around quickly. It was happening to all of them, though she and SinB were completely untouched. The imugi itself had a shimmering shield surrounding it, and was thus unaffected. She glanced back at Yuju, whose eyes were now solid obsidian orbs. Sowon had a sudden, terrible premonition, her hands starting to shake as she tightened her grip on the stolen gun.

The imugi seemed taken equally offguard. “What are you doing...no, you can’t! ”

A slow, almost cruel smirk curled Yuju’s lips.

“Yes, I can.”

Everything exploded in a blinding flash of black light. Sowon flinched, closing her eyes instinctively. Something sprayed across her face, and something else wet and sticky slapped against her cheek, sliding warmly down with a slick viscosity not unlike goo.

Sowon shook her head, wiping her face with the back of one hand as she cracked open her eyes. It came away bloody, and more. A sudden nausea rose in as she realized what it was. As she realized what had happened.

It was the scene out of a nightmare, no, a slaughter. A good half of the soldiers that had been there earlier simply weren’t anymore. Gore painted the cracked marble, and a gob of bloody flesh plopped off her hand from where she had just wiped it off her face. Blood and bone scattered around like the aftermath of a mad cannibal’s feast, a recently exploded heart rolling to a stop at Sowon’s feet.

Sowon threw up, the gun slipping from her sudden nerveless fingers. She wasn’t the only one. SinB was gagging in a corner as well, draped in recently exploded entrails like a bizarre piece of abstract art. Sowon didn’t even dare to look at herself. She was probably no better right now.

What had Yuju done? Sowon heaved weakly as she looked back up. Yuju was no longer bound, and was rising slowly to her feet, swaying like a reed in the wind. She looked as if she were dipped in blood, and Sowon’s eyes widened when Yuju raised her head, tongue slipping out from between parted lips to at the blood that had sprayed across her face like war paint. The solid black of her eyes had faded into a rich red instead, and with the carnage all around her, the shaman resembled a demon stepping out of hell.

“Blood mage…” The imugi’s shields had held up against the blast, but they were no more now, and Eunha slid helplessly from its grasp at it turned to face Yuju. There was uncertainty in the imugi’s voice, bordering on fear.

“What have you done? ”

Yuju ran a thumb over her lips, her face an impassive mask. There were still some soldiers that hadn’t been exploded like crushed juice boxes, but they were frozen to the spot, held in place by some unseen force as they writhed in unspoken agony.

“What I had to.” Yuju’s gaze was cold as she took in Eunha curled into a ball at the imugi’s feet, bleeding from where the serpent had hurt her earlier. The newly awakened blood mage bared her teeth, hissing threateningly at the imugi, who took a step back. Yuju growled, low in .

“You’ll pay for hurting my friends.”

The imugi’s eyes glittered. “Friends? Really? Do you really think they’ll still be your friends after this?” It gestured at the spread of blood and gore. “Do you think you can go back after this? I don’t know where or how you learned how to do this, but you really think anyone can trust you after this?”

The imugi sneered. “You, who can pull the life out of others without ritual or sacrificial knife? Even I cannot do that, and I have devoured the souls of humans long before you were born.” There was a wary respect in its tone.

“You are powerful. I have misjudged you. You deserve more than the company of mere mortals. Join me, and with your strength, we can take over the world.”

Yuju spat on the ground, eyes hard.

“Begone, serpent. I will not hear your lies.” Again, that strange echo in her voice. Behind the imugi, Sowon inched closer to the fallen Eunha, heart in . There was something terrifying about this standoff, and the imugi seemed to want to recruit Yuju? What was this madness? Something had gone awfully, terribly wrong. She couldn’t let things go further.

Yuju was advancing with a slow deliberateness, and the imugi actually seemed threatened, morphing into its serpentine form and abandoning its human guise, rearing high into the air.

“Foolish human. Why won’t you listen? ”

Yuju looked up at it, raising her chin confidently.

“I don’t negotiate with one soon dead.”

The beady eyes of the imugi narrowed, and it bared its fangs with a hiss, striking with a speed that was nothing but a blur to human eyes. Yuju raised a finger almost casually, and yet another soldier exploded behind her, a blood red shield forming up around her in an instant. The imugi collided with the force of a wrecking ball, seemingly unstoppable…

But it did. Stop, that is. The fangs sank into the crimson shield and was caught like a fly in a honey trap. Yuju smiled slowly, and snapped her fingers.

The shield shattered in an outward explosion that rocked the giant serpent back, ripping fang and scale with a concussive force that shredded the air and shattered the ground around her. Sowon dove quickly to grab the wounded Eunha and pull her out of the blast radius. She watched with a rising horror as Yuju practically toyed with the imugi, who was apparently more exhausted from the battle earlier than it had let on. Without a source to leech from, it was helpless to retaliate against a fully powered Yuju.

Every wound that the imugi had inflicted on her and her team, Yuju returned a hundredfold, drawing ruthlessly from the trapped soldiers still standing to fuel her magical assault. There was a madness in the mage’s eyes, a deeply repressed fury as she lashed out without care, draining the enemy soldiers dry with a single thought as she battered the imugi into submission.

Eunha had nearly passed out earlier when the imugi had torn a hole in her stomach. Sowon slapped a medpatch on it to stop the bleeding, and the fire mage stirred, struggling to focus on the scene before her. Her irises contracted sharply as she took in the dark swirl of energies that raged chaotically around Yuju, invisible to others who could not see on the astral plane.

“She needs to stop…” Eunha whispered raggedly, leaning against Sowon weakly. “It’s...driving her mad. She might lose control.” And kill us all,she didn’t add. She didn’t have to.

Sowon nodded, worrying at her lip. Yuju was entirely focused on the imugi now, ripping scales out with a terrifying, precise cruelty. Sowon never thought she would sympathize with her enemy, but in this moment, she did. Death would be a mercy for it now.

The vibro-blade was right there. The imugi was wheezing, a scale-less snake with its remaining talons torn off. The stubs of its malformed horns had broken under the assault, and it was a bloody, pathetic mess as Yuju stood over it, casting a long shadow.

“You can’t kill me,” the imugi hissed, curling into itself. “You’ll lose the protection from the pact. You’ll die. ”

“Everyone dies.” Yuju’s voice was flat. The imugi writhed, trying to slither away. There was genuine terror as it tried to bargain for its life.

“As long as I live, you can’t die. Why would you give that up? You could have an eternity to do whatever you want!”

Yuju’s eyes darkened, a slow fury rising within ruby red orbs.

“I don’t need eternity. You have taken someone precious to me. What would I need eternity for? ”

“You could live forever!” The imugi sounded panicked. “Please, I’ll do anything, don’t…”

“No one lives forever.” Yuju’s tone was cold. She raised a hand, and the imugi shrieked as another layer of skin was flayed from its flesh. Another fingersnap, and one more soldier imploded, showering them with fresh gore.

“Yuju, that’s enough.” It took all of Sowon’s courage to interrupt, but she did. Blade in hand, she walked up behind the helpless imugi, pinned with bloody bone spikes that had been encased in living flesh only shortly before. There was only a couple of soldiers left alive at this point, the rest spent in Yuju’s blood-fueled rage.

Yuju turned almost mechanically to look at Sowon. Her eyes were dead, a raw despair buried deep in them, something Sowon could see now that she was closer. The shaman was mourning. The loss of Yerin had hit her harder than anyone had anticipated. Sowon tamped down her fear, not wanting to agitate the grieving girl.

“We came here to kill it, remember?” Sowon was practically walking on eggshells at this point. At the very least, Yuju had never hurt any one of them in her rampage. That had to count for something, right? Sowon was uneasy, however. She had no practical defense if Yuju suddenly decided to turn on her.

“Yes…” Yuju blinked slowly, as if there was a heavy fog clouding her mind. Sowon breathed out slowly, speaking gently to her as if she were addressing a child. A child that could explode her where she stood. No, it didn’t make her feel better at all.

“I need you to work with me here, alright? We need to kill the imugi for good. So that it won’t hurt anyone else.”

Yuju nodded slowly, lowering her hand. The imugi struggled harder, as if sensing its impending doom. Sowon exhaled, heaving the heavy blade with both hands.

“On three, with me, okay?”

Yuju nodded again, almost like a child. Sowon breathed in, and counted out loud. Yuju cocked her head, waiting.

She swung.

And just like that, it was over. Sowon watched almost numbly as the imugi’s severed head bounced across the bloodstained marble. It should have felt like a victory, but was it really? The tall mercenary looked over at Yuju, who was still staring, frozen, at the imugi’s corpse.

Then, like a puppet with its strings cut, the shaman collapsed, falling over the dead body of the imugi. Sowon stood over them, and, for a moment, considered putting Yuju out of her misery as well. Her sword hand trembled.

Yuju had crossed a line. There was no knowing if she would lose control at any time. Yerin was gone. What was there left to hold her back? Sowon had never encountered a blood mage personally before, but she had heard the stories. Death and destruction came in the wake of such forbidden magic, and after seeing what Yuju had wrought earlier, Sowon believed it.

SinB limped cautiously over, holding a hand to her ribs. Her other hand was gripping the knife she had retrieved from her captors earlier. There was fear in her eyes as well, as she looked at the currently unconscious and thus, helpless, Yuju. Sowon met her eyes, and saw the same indecision there.

“She’s our friend.” Sowon murmured, uncertain. SinB’s hand tightened around the hilt of her knife.

“She’s dangerous. ” Sowon couldn’t deny that. They had all seen what Yuju had done, could do. She was a ticking time bomb. It would be so easy to stop it right now. The shaman was defenseless for now. They could end it here, before anything else could happen.

Eunha had crawled over, heedless of her injuries. She had seen the spiking auras of her teammates, and feared the worst. She had watched Yuju strike the death blow on the astral plane, almost devouring the imugi’s soul whole even as Sowon struck its head off on the physical plane. She hadn’t thought that was possible. But Yuju had challenged the realms of possibility more than once tonight. What was one more?

Was she afraid? Yes. But Yuju hadn’t hurt them. Even in her rage, she had left them untouched. That meant something. It was everything they had to work with.

Eunha could see the shape of her puppy’s soul. Streaked in blood and madness, but it was still her. She would never hurt them. Eunha believed.

“If you won’t do it, I will.” SinB was staring at Sowon, a penetrating gaze that brooked no question. Sowon flinched. Eunha threw herself over Yuju, glaring up at her childhood friend.

“She never did anything to us.”

“You heard the imugi. You saw what she did. She could kill us all.” SinB argued, trying to drag Eunha off. Eunha batted her hand away, stubborn.

“You can’t sentence her to death over a maybe, SinB. She saved us all tonight.”

“But…” SinB would have continued, but a sudden roar of wind above caught their attention. Sowon looked up, and saw a chopper weaving cautiously through the hole in the ceiling. A familiar face poked out from the side.

“It’s over already? ”

Yerin rappelled down from the descending helicopter and hopped gingerly onto the ground, frowning at the carnage all around them. Her eyes fell on the slain imugi and the unconscious Yuju, taking in Eunha’s protective stance over the fallen shaman as well.

“What is going on here.” Her voice had gone cold.

“You’re alive!” Sowon exhaled sharply, relief creeping onto her face. “I thought…”

“It was a close one.” Yerin was still eyeing SinB suspiciously. From above, she had noticed the argument earlier, though she hadn’t been near enough to hear it. The roar of the rotors made them raise their voices to be heard, and Sowon moved around to clap a hand on SinB’s shoulder, preventing her from doing anything rash.

“We need to get out of here.” Sowon met SinB’s eyes, shaking her head. The gunslinger tensed, then looked away, annoyed. Eunha was breathing shallowly, pale from blood loss. Yerin knelt by the two magic users, checking on first Yuju’s condition, then Eunha’s.

Umji finally managed to land the chopper. Yerin lifted Yuju easily in a bridal carry, carefully stepping past the puddles of blood and entrails as she moved towards the chopper. Her lips were pressed together tightly, but Eunha thought she noticed the worried frown on the assassin’s face when she had been checking on them earlier.

Out of all of them, Yerin would know what blood magic looked like. She had faced it before. And yet, without question, she had still picked Yuju up without a moment’s pause. Eunha was suddenly reminded of their conversation before. I trust her. Yerin had meant what she said back then. It put them all to shame. As it should.

Sowon knelt by Eunha, carefully picking her up to avoiding jolting her wounds. SinB hobbled over, and Eunha reached out, grabbing SinB’s arm.

“Promise me you won’t hurt her.”

SinB frowned. Eunha tightened her grip.

“SinB, please. She hasn’t done anything.”

SinB closed her eyes, exhaling sharply.

“One wrong move, Eunha. One. ”

Eunha sighed, knowing that was the furthest she could push SinB on this. SinB would never let anyone threaten them. Sowon nodded at them both.

“If it comes to that, I’ll take care of it myself.”

“I’m holding you to that.” SinB stalked off. Sowon sighed deeply, and Eunha with her.

They had won, but at what cost?