Outside the flat topped house the moon and twinkling luminaries radiated a tranquil light, as if to guarantee the inhabitants below with a sure promise of a peaceful tomorrow. Inside the house existed a whirling nebula, a misty and opaque space wherein answers were fickle and uncertain particulars that existed in constant flux. In this opaque quarter stood alone the Sanritem woman as if frozen in time. She was a congealed substance that resembled humanity only in form. There was a polarizing dynamic between her and the man who lounged with total freedom on the bed.

She awaited his answer, hoping against all signs of his apathetic heart, that he would lend his strength to rescue the abducted queen. He answered with a mocking sneer.

 "Am I a common errand boy? You want me to waste my time saving the queen of a foolish nation? What of the mighty army you promised? Can't they save her?"

 She drew in a sharp breath of air and replied, "Not against these foes..."

Myungsoo crossed his legs with an appalling torpidity and rested his chin on his palm. There was no trace of sympathy in his eyes that scanned the woman with disdain. It was a fleeting curiosity, a whimsical urge that prompted him to ask, "So who, which of the neighboring nations stole her away from the throne?"

She wagged her head with a sigh of worry. "She was stolen away by the Bugmen-"

 An excited jolt of energy shot down his veins. He got up with a sudden start, as though charged with a black fear. It was unbelief that worked his impulses with an electric exertion."You lie! I killed them all!" His arm flailed with an impatient wave, "Those hardy bastards killed more than three-fourths of the battalion I led against them, but I made sure I killed every one of them!"

The woman intertwined her smooth fingers and appropriated a more formal stance, no longer allowing her shoulders to droop but standing with a more erect poise. It was a preamble to her next words because judging the manner in which he reacted, she knew she had now gained a secure source of interest. "As you know, they make their homes underground in these labyrinths- I'm sure you did your best, but apparently one escaped, and they're an aual reproducing species..."

 Myungsoo interjected with a scoff. "I'm sorry, but go find yourself another savior. I have a more wicked devil that needs slaying."

 With his back turned to her, he got up and dipped his torso to grab hold of Dongwoo. He was more than ready to leave. In his mind he had no debt to pay, no real reason to save the queen of Diciar. He could care less if the whole nation was swallowed up by death. What was on his mind was to go to Laroo. 

 "Maybe you'll atone for your soul if you save her," she said.  

His eyes immediately swerved to the stout speaker. "What?!"

An arrogance was mingled with her almost whispering voice. "That's why your sister is haunting you because she knows you'll go to hell with the road you're treading on."

It was a daring thing she had done, to act with a presumptuous spirit, but she deemed it necessary. She wasn't dealing with a typical person, she was dealing with the former general of Oscuridaon's army. She knew his sister was his only weakness, so she figured she should use this playing card against him.

 The corners of his mouth crept up into a grin. This woman has more gall than all the men I've met! Once he lowered Dongwoo on the bed, he swiveled his neck to meet the glinting eyes of the woman. "What is your name? I don't know you woman."

 "Sujeong," was her succinct reply, uttered almost as a hush.

 "Well, Sujeong, what makes you think her ghost is haunting me? Is this tactic your final and desperate attempt to enlist my help?"

 As he came within close distance again, she took a step forward to meet him. "Am I wrong?"

 "Yes! You are, because it's not a ghost- it's just my head. Her soul is in heaven while mine own wastes away here till I kill Oscuridaon."

 "Why didn't you kill me then?"

 Myungsoo stammered, "What does that have to do with anything?! I showed you mercy-"

 "No, it's only because of her being there. But if you save the queen, then you will have an army to war against Oscuridaon. You can't fight him alone. You need us. Once we kill him, then you will finally redeem yourself and lay her spirit to rest."

 "That sounds stupid!"

 "But I have your interest now, don't I?"

 Myungsoo growled and bared his teeth against her. His chest heaved and the veins in his neck became thick, knotted cords. She was right, her suggestion roused a nagging curiosity.

His hands became constrictors as they seized her soft throat. Then just as soon as they wrapped about her neck, his hands were drained of all their strength. Pushing her away, he observed the minute creases in his hands with disgust. He couldn't even kill a helpless Sanritem woman and it was all because of the phantom that now mocked him. The transparent likeness of his sister stood behind Sujeong, scowling at him.

 "She appeared again, didn't she?" Sujeong said with a wheezing breath. "That's why you couldn't kill me."

 "How can I kill Oscuridaon like this?"

 "His soul is not innocent. You'll defeat him, I'm sure. You can't kill me because my hands are free of bloodshed. Your sister has testified of my honesty, that I am for the freeing of this world, not only the Adamah race."

 His fingers balled themselves up into fists and his whole body became a tense bundle of fierce emotions as it convulsed with confusion, rage, and frustration. "What do you mean?"

 "I think it's time to have this evil king dead and away moldering in a grave. But you can't do it alone! Your golden sword could never slash through blasts of magic!"

 "You sound ridiculous now! To hell with your queen, I could give a rat's arse about her," he swore as he whipped his hair to the side. "Those Bugmen gave the survivors I fought with nightmares for decades! And I? Don't think I am by any means afraid! They aren't dragons! They're hellspawns who simply take too much effort to kill. Why should I waste my precious energy on saving your queen?"

Sujeong clenched her tiny hands out of a feeling of impotency. Myungsoo was the only real shot at the queen being rescued, and without him the queen was as good as dead if she was not devoured already. The men of the kingdom, though virtuous and braver than most, would fare poorly against the Bugmen.

 These monsters were the incarnate children of occult fantasies, the consummate goal of demented rogues. Their sole purpose of existing was to torment the living. It was largely due to their rampant destruction that the planet was conquered by Oscuridaon. Myungsoo's might was established when he came back from eradicating them after they had turned against the despot. Besides him, only a handful of Sanritem men, doused in blood and misery, survived the ordeal. That is why Myungsoo was the hero the kingdom of Diciar needed, because he had defeated them once before.
 
 In her mind, she quested for any sort of bargaining chip that would convince Myungsoo to save the queen. It struck her to share the nation's secret, to divulge their possession of mythic treasures. She hesitated, unsure of possible repercussions, but the queen smiled to her in a window of beautiful imagination. She broke the silence, "The army will support you with the magic relics we have found! That's the only way you can counter his magic!"

His ear perked up. "Found? Magic Relics?" He began to ask himself if the people of the kingdom had perhaps unearthed ancient and powerful technology, but could it be possible? He grunted as a peculiar sense of a quickening tugged at him, the notion of the fatalist. Why was it that all of a sudden, forgotten relics of his extinct civilization began to pop up as though it were a bargain sale? Before he could think any farther, Sujeong cut in.

 "Yes, but I won't tell you any more unless you save the queen!"

With that final booming, imploring voice, Dongwoo arose from slumber. His eyes failed to immediately recognize the woman off to the side, but he successfully recognized Myungsoo even though the room was a vague pool of darkness lit only by the scant light of the moon. His imposing figure was limned by a ray of the moon's illumination and it rippled like a small wave on his long hair as he turned to meet him. "You finally awoke! You sleep too much!"

 Dongwoo grasped at the bed and his fingers trembled a little from his inability to fully recognize his current location. "I was hit on the head...I think. But did I hear someone needed saving?"

Myungsoo grunted and spoke with an impatient haste, eager to leave the kingdom. "You're the one that needed saving! I told you to leave that fool alone. I was just about to take you back from your captors. Let's go to Laroo, Dongwoo."

With the introduction of the sleeper, Sujeong found perhaps another route to reach Myungsoo. From the short conversation she had with Dongwoo before kidnapping him, she discovered the two held a friendship. She tensed her arms as she balled her hands into fists again. Knowing the two were friends was something she could use to her advantage.

Frantically throwing herself on Dongwoo's knees, Sujeong dismissed her composure and pled with a desperate tone, "Tell your friend to save our queen from these monsters!"

 Dongwoo jerked up and nearly bopped his head on the wall from the sudden action. Although he failed to ascertain the full features of the girl on his legs, he found her cantor familiar. "Wait, weren't you the one who hit me in the back of the head~ where am I? Where's Sungyeol?!"

 "Don't worry about him, he's safe with the elder shaman who's treating his leg. I'm sorry for hitting you, but I knew that was the only way of getting Myungsoo to come here!"

 His eyes became narrow slits with his vision glued to her sight. "You used me? I was excited to finally meet a girl, and the first one I meet has already betrayed me?"

 With her nails nearly piercing the skin on his thighs, she apologized profusely. She was conscious of her trespass, but by her life, her deception was a just means of seizing the attention of the only one capable of saving the queen. "I'm sorry. I had to," her words sounding like the of gentle night-breezes, "I had to."

Despite her blood carrying the power to work wonders, in this world to which her kind are simply intruding aliens, she is nothing but a mere mortal with an extended lifespan and enduring youth. If she could, she would've been riding on a steed, hellbent on saving her dear friend, the queen, but she knew her own faults, her own inherent weaknesses. She did not have the means to save her by her own strength. But Myungsoo did, and that's why she appealed to Dongwoo who she was convinced could curtail his apathy.

 Peeking up at Myungsoo's dim figure, Dongwoo saw him gesture with his hand to leave. But he couldn't. Sujeong's crying head was too heavy for him to stand. He sighed and gently pulled the hair behind her ear while subtly smiling. "I forgive you. Can you get off now?"

 "Will you save the queen?"

  "Is she pretty like you?" he asked with an almost shy voice, "I thought you were pretty before you smote me on my noggin." 

 Myungsoo scoffed and his brows twisted in disgust. "She's a Sanritem woman! The hell is wrong with your brains to find even a shred of beauty in her? You sicken me!"

 "She is!" Sujeong cut in, "She's the most daintiest of women whose grace pacifies even the most fiercest of wrath!"

 Dongwoo's cheeks were tugged upwards while he chuckled, "Hear that, Myungsoo? This girl might even settle all that anger you carry."

He grumbled in reply while picking up Dongwoo's armor and tossed a leer at his direction. "I have had enough of this vulgar humor. Let us go."

Dongwoo was enamored, taken captive by his own imagined interpretation of Sujeong's description of the queen. His head was afloat above the clouds and his heart's pounding made a greater ruckus than the hammers of blacksmiths slamming down on heavy black anvils. "We have to save the queen!"

 "No!" Myungsoo expostulated.

 "Myungsoo, by Nesher! I have to! It's by his will that I've been brought here. Let us go! I don't want to stand idly by while a person dies..."

 Myungsoo, rubbing the bridge of his nose sighed. "People die everyday. Everyday they get damned. What is one more?!" His voice, without his noticing, increased by a distinguishable leap in volume, "And Nesher? You told me that he needs the two of us, so that means that you must stick with me! Now let us cease this folly."

 "I thought you hated him, friend. Why are you so interested in what he said now?" Dongwoo snapped.

Startled by Dongwoo's rebuttal, Myungsoo grunted with the ember of rage sparking a small fire inside him. He dropped Dongwoo's armor to the space in front of him and blasted a breath of hot air from his nose. With his chin lifted up and arms now crossed, he spoke with a tone resembling the low growls of starving tigers, "The hell with all this, just tell me where the jungle you hail from is and I'll go there myself. I don't need you."

 "Why should I tell you? Come with me, Myungsoo! It's in Nesher's will for us to save the queen."

 Myungsoo scoffed, "You filthy liar! Your innate lust lashes at you without restraint! You just want to save the wench because this woman here told you she was pretty."

He wasn't entirely wrong, but Dongwoo hated the thought of not extending his hand to help in someone's time of need. "Forget that! Let's save her."

Impatient and fed up, Myungsoo grunted and walked past the wooden door that concealed the features of those in the house. 

 "Where are you going?" Dongwoo asked as he patted on Sujeong's arm, indicating for her to move.

 "Away! I'll leave you to do your bidding while I will continue my own journey. With or without you, I'll make my trip to Laroo."

 "Can't that wait?" Sujeong interjected, "No one travels to that forsaken jungle of Vitah!"

 Myungsoo swiftly turned to look back at Sujeong who stood under the door's lintel. Before his thoughts could be shared, his rejection of the two jungles being in actuality a single place, the girl whom he met at the first ran up to him and tripped before reaching his hand.

Not in the mood for games, Myungsoo propped the girl up by her armpits and scolded her for not being asleep. Their eyes met and the distinct fire in them that marked an infernal rage vanished. Her soft arms in his rough and calloused hands brought a nostalgic sentiment to the forefront for him. Her downy hair that was sullied by street dust and indistinct chaff was combed by his hand as he cleared away the trash. This action was a practised instinct, one that was branded into his black heart long ago during happier times.

 "My dad's knife?" she asked with a strained voice, one laden with the pain of having her soft knees scuffed.

Getting back up from his one knee, he exchanged a smile. It was a smile that he could not prevent. "What? The knife? I decided to keep it. I'm sure your father has more of them, now go!" he answered with a spanking of her .

 Too young to find herself able to directly contradict an adult, the crying girl nodded and slowly walked back home, glancing at Myungsoo every other couple of steps. During the final glance, just as she entered her shadowy home, he waved and called out "Avaunt! Sleep now!"

She nodded as she wiped away her tears.

 "Your father- your mother will be disappointed to know you're still awake! Away with you and sleep, child!"

 Both sources of his former choler were now by his side. Sujeong, tugging at his harness, pulled him aside a few feet and shared the details of the child.

 "Her dad is gone..."

 "Yes, away to fight the Bugmen with all the other men of the city, correct? That's why there is a lack of guards, right? And why I was able to sneak my way in without a hitch?" With a puff of air he continued, "I assume only the women, children, and the elderly were left behind?"

 She groaned, half-guilty after realizing the fallacy in leaving the kingdom without any real defense. "Yes, the sickly are here too. All the men ran roughshod to follow the trail the Bugmen left behind..."

 "So, you are a fool. This whole kingdom is laden with idiots. That great is this queen? That every damned one puts her life over theirs? Loyal or stupid?"

 With another groan and her eyes cast to the ground, she replied with a sigh, "The girl's father isn't off fighting, however. He's dead. He got killed by the general of Oscuridaon's army." Her eyes quickly peeked at Dongwoo and then met with Myungsoo's, "He died when he was a part of a group set on overthrowing Oscuridaon."

 His arms folded over each other, the sound of a small grunt betrayed his otherwise stolid indifference. But he had already been stung by a certain subtle emotion. Unaware of it, this sting's "poison" was filtering into the recesses of his heart.

 On her tiptoes, she whispered into his ear, "He doesn't know who you actually are, right? Sungyeol was stupid enough to not recognize your golden sword, but Dongwoo doesn't actually know, right? That you worked for Oscuridaon as his envoy of terror?"

 "What does that have to do with anything?"

 "He wouldn't travel around with a killer who shows no remorse, I think. Not that kind and innocent soul."

 "So?" he said with anger limning his countenance.

 "I'm saying you should atone for your sins some. Then, like I said, maybe your sister's spirit will be able to finally rest."

 Myungsoo pushed down on her head with his index, causing her to stand on her soles rather than her toes. "You say a lot of things, woman." He found her suggestion to be a jest.

 "Please! At least, consider this girl you made an orphan and redeem yourself."

 With a renewed irritation fomenting in his brain, he glared at her with eyes that seemed to poniards down . "Not. My. Problem." With this last remark, he swung his body around, his head now facing the rampart through which Dongwoo had once entered.

 "She has a brother!" Sujeong exclaimed. "She escaped my supervision and ran to wait for him at their home! He went to fight! If you go, you can save him before the Bugmen kill him!"

 His feet became like magnets and the street like a broad and shining metal; a gravitational force pulled down at his feet and forbade him from taking a step forward. He tried. He tried with all his might to rip his feet out of this invisible force, but he couldn't. This thaumaturgic force was uncompromising and spurred him into a pit of toxic anger and other emotions, namely an emotion he had bypassed for so long: guilt. Guilt began to rap at his heart's door that had long since been colored by varying degrees of patina. Guilt was the poison he had long become unaffected by, but its vitality was strengthened by Sujeong's words. 

 "Why aren't my own members heeding to my will? Why do my legs not budge?"

 He pounded at his thighs and calves, but that was all for naught. His feet could not move even an inch. When he attempted to take another step, he stumbled and fell to his knees. He felt weak, sapped of all his strength, wherein he compared himself to a single plume that had no weight. He gulped down his spit and lay himself supinely on the dusty street. Brushing some stray hairs aside and with his vision fixed to the black ether above him, he laughed. He laughed at his own weakness and cursed himself for not even holding power over his own body. 

 "First a fair waif in the form of my sister binds me with her simple gaze and now my own body is bound by a silly sentiment. What then? What then shall I do?"

He sighed and began to muse the opportunity he had been given. If this kingdom did host a bevy of magical instruments like Sujeong said, then maybe it could be of some help to him later on. He told himself, however, that even if such was the case, that he still had to go to Laroo- simply because he felt a mysterious need to go there.
 
He smiled warmly as that very specter he called waif materialized, stooping over his head with her hands on her knees and a beaming smile delineating her joy. Stretching out his hand to squeeze the specter's cheek, the groping hand at once became a solid fist. The only thing it grasped was air. Again he became aggravated, but his mind was already made up. Just this once would he listen to a cry for help. It came to pass, as he resolved to rescue the queen and stop the Bugmen, that the mysterious force that restrained his feet disappeared.

Standing erect, he shouted for Sujeong and Dongwoo to meet him. The two, most notably Dongwoo, were standing as if lost in a dream. The scene they had witnessed was one of hypnotic appeal wherein they knew not whether to laugh or be afraid. To the two of them it was apparent that Myungsoo was entreating something otherworldly. Sujeong had before only guessed he saw a ghost, and his response to her suggesting it propelled a sort of conviction regarding the enigma. Yet she was not entirely sure until now. Dongwoo only knew of supernatural beings, those forgotten ones that meander the world, by means of his mother's mouth. In the Scriptures he had read, no such phenomena were discussed.

Their mouths held open by a persisting confusion, they looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.