JUST A QUICK NOTE BEFORE Y'ALL START: THE ITALICS ARE THERE TO INDICATE THAT THEY ARE TALKING THROUGH TELEPATHY.

Soonyoung - Weeping Woodlands - Shadow Lands

Soonyoung heard Chan gasp behind him. He wouldn't blame the boy though, seeing three equally horrifying heads all simultaneously trying to get out from the crevice that they created on the beasts chest was beyond terrifying for all of them. The older middle grounder then, in an instinct, unconsciously tried to protect his younger brother by putting himself between Chan and the beast.

"Get back Chan." Soonyoung then said through gritted teeth. He has his back facing his brother, and he has no plans of looking back at him at all. He wanted to be brave for the both of them, and showing his fear-stricken face wouldn’t really help it. 

"Hyu-hyung" Soonyoung flinch hearing the frightened voice of Chan.

"I said get back! This isn't just some demon beast that you can fight, Chan. I don't think any of us can." Soonyoung didn't mean to raise his voice on his younger brother, but he figured he had to get his point across and that point is to get his brother to safety.

"Listen to me, if things get worse, I want you to run and take Hansol and Seungkwan. Don't ever look back and try your best to get out of this forest. We'll try to get away here somehow but I first want you, Hansol and Seungkwan to be safe." He finally looked at his brother, a look of resignation marred in his face. He wanted to believe that this wasn't the end but just looking at the demon beast in front of him made it hard to reassure even himself.

A hand then suddenly placed itself on his younger brothers shoulder. Soonyoung looked at the direction of its owner and saw Jeonghan leaning his weight on Chan. "We trust you kid." He added as he limped his way to the direction of the demon beast.

His brother only nodded then gave him a tight hug. Albeit looking hesitant and nervous, the younger middle grounder sprinted his way to where Seungkwan and Hansol were.

Soonyoung watching his younger brother run to the two unconscious boys finally turned his back to face the giant demon beast. With three sets of eyes and heads, the hideous creature let out a guttural growl as if it was asserting its dominance.

“Now what do we do? Soonyoung couldnt help but be surprised as the voice of Lee Jihoon resonated inside his head. There was silence after that and the middle grounder was starting to believe that the astral has personally spoken to him.

I really cant think of anything right now, all I know is that, that thing will only multiply its limbs the more we sever them.” Jeonghan’s voice finally filled the void, that’s when Soonyoung finally realized that Jihoon was speaking to all of them.

Finally realizing the situation and mentally berating himself for a good second for his “stupidity”, the nether finally found his voice that somehow got lost when the channeling started. 

“I think it will be appropriate if we look for its weakness.” the middle grounder suggested as he tried to dodge the muscular slimy tail of the beast that tried to smash him flat.

“And how do you suggest we look for it? We absolutely cannot rip that thing open.” Wonwoo replied, there was no sarcasm in his voice, just pure worry and fear.

“Us middle grounders are able to see the sources of energy.” Minghao spoke up whilst jumping on one of the branches of a kalypdry tree, careful not to touch even a single leaf of it with his bare skin.

“Yes, and just like that time when we searched the whole forest for the source, we can also look for the source of energy in a person or a demon beast. We just have to hold the person or the demon beast long enough to locate the energy source.” Jun added with a huff as his shoulder brushes a branch of the tree.

“So, what you mean is that any of you three can see it’s energy source so long as we distract the beast long enough for any of you to touch it?” Seungcheol finally spoke.

“Yes hyung, that’s what we actually want to suggest.” Soonyoung answered back firmly. 

There was a short silence before the oldest nether finally spoke again. “Very well then, you three try to hold it at its torso while we’ll distract it straight ahead.” 

The heroes finally made their move with the astrals throwing their bladed weapons in parts that wouldn’t trigger the beast to multiply itself. Then, with calculated slices, the nethers aimed on wounding the beast on its face, careful not to curve out any integral part of the monster like the eyes or mouth. 

Soonyoung, Jun, and Minghao on the other hand started to sneak their way to the beasts’ upper torso. The ginormous demon beast was thrashing around too much that it was getting hard for them to touch it. Jun almost got flattened down by one of the beasts slimy tentacles if not for the spell that Wonwoo placed on their eyes. Persevering their way to the monsters torso, Soonyoung heard Minghao scream as the younger middle grounder flew through the air only to be hit by the beasts tail. Minghao was thrown violently on the ground with his back harshly hitting on a number of kalypdry trees taking them down with him. Jun screamed his lungs out to the younger and dove down to where Minghao was, leaving Soonyoung by himself. With the knowledge that Jun is on his way to Minghao, Soonyoung didn’t look back and concentrated to touch the demon beast. 

Close enough to touch the demon beast, Soonyoung looked around. Looking for the energy source of the demon beast will make him vulnerable just like the last time so he made sure that the others were still effectively diverting the attention of the beast away from him before he starts.

With a deep heave of breath, the Middle grounder let the energy travelling through him to be still and aid him in looking. With his senses fully focused, Soonyoung finally touched the demon beasts slimy skin and felt the giant of an energy coursing through it. Focusing himself further into feeling the energy through every vein of the beast, Soonyoung beckoned more of his energy to pour out of him. Searching the beast for any weak spot proved to be hard for the middle grounder if he were to do it in a short time. The demon beast was very big and with such immense amount of energy coursing inside it, it felt like the beast is just one giant heap of energy. With the upper part of the beast thoroughly searched, the middle grounder decided to look for it in the lower regions of the creature. However, before he can start his search, a searing pain pierced his leg.

Snapping his eyes open, Soonyoung groaned as the tentacles of the smaller demon beast that Minghao and Jun were fighting earlier latched into him deeply. Blood was trickling on his left leg and as he was about to fight back, the demonic thing curled some more of its tentacles to the middle grounder effectively bounding him in place.

“Don’t you dare touch him with your filthy hands human.” Soonyoung was mildly shocked to hear a demon beast talking, but he was unable to ponder deeper on that thought as the limbs holding his arms tightened and thorn like bones started to appear, tearing his skin.

Soonyoung screamed from the searing pain bursting in every bit of his nerves, his vision was turning white and his limbs starting to feel numb. He was starting to lose consciousness from all the pain induced in his system when the sudden weight on his arms were lifted away. Falling cruelly to the ground with a loud thud, the middle grounder caught a sight of Jun throwing the demonic creature to the side with his large meteor hammer on hand. 

Weak and heavily wounded, Soonyoung slowly stood up on wobbly feet and started to flap his wings. The middle grounder can taste the iron running from his throat up to his mouth but he still did his best to ignore it in favor of making contact with the beast again.

With his world still spinning from the pain in his body, Soonyoung tried to focus again in feeling the flow of energy from inside the demonic creature and started to search the lower regions of it. As the middle grounder started to look into the nether regions of the demon beast, Soonyoung couldn’t help but realize that the flow of energy is much stronger compared to the upper and mid sections of the monster. 

With a spark of hope from the realization, the middle grounder looked into it harder only to gasp at what he saw. Like touching fire, Soonyoung withdrew his hands like lightning after he saw where all the power of the beast was coming from. There, between the bones that connects the tail and spine of the demon beast, lies a small green stone. Glowing and charging the demon beast to its full demonic glory. 

About to fly in a safer distance away from the still floundering demon beast, Soonyoung witnessed how Jihoon crashed into the rocky riverbanks unconscious. Without thinking twice, the middle grounder dove down in a speed of light and scooped the man into his arms before the astral was smashed into pieces by the limbs of the gigantic creature. But with his weakened body, the middle grounder missed his footing and landed badly on the other side of the river, rolling on the sharp hard rocks on the ground. Soonyoung coughed out red after softly unwrapping the astral from his hold. Jihoon has finally gotten his consciousness back during the fall, and was wide eyed the moment his gaze met the bloody middle grounder. The astral didn’t know what to say, he didn’t even know what to feel. The man in front of him has wounds in every part of his body, he was soaked in his own blood and his right wing lost almost half of the feathers from the bad landing, yet he did it all to save him.   

Soonyoung was breathing heavily as he tried to stand up only to fall again to the ground. Jihoon immediately held him in his arms and started to heal him even he himself is weak as well. Soonyoung started to feel the warmth wrapping him allover and he smiled unconsciously. Remembering the discovery he made, the middle grounder slowly lifted his hands, encouraging the other man to make contact with him.

“Speak to me Soonyoung?” Jihoon softly asked him with so much care whilst threading his fingers through the middle grounders hair that Soonyoung felt his heart skip a beat from the gesture.  

Instead of talking through the channel that Jihoon created just between them, Soonyoung took the astrals right hand and placed it on his cheeks. He closed his eyes then started to recall the image of where exactly the stone inside the demon beast was. The middle grounder heard Jihoon gasp and Soonyoung opened his eyes again. He started to reach for the astrals cheeks and smiled as Jihoon began to open his eyes.

“Please tell it to them in my stead.” Soonyoung said, and although he can still hear the repeated calls of Jihoon for him, he couldnt help himself from succumbing to the darkness that was slowly filling his vision.

Facts about the Fic:

• Kalypdry trees – is known to many as the tree of hell with its poisonous fruits. However, there was none found in any of the scriptures in the three realms that states that by touching the trunks, branches, and leaves alone can cause severe burns. The thirteen heroes had to learn this fact by themselves through the hard way as they wandered through the weeping woodlands. Yoon Jeonghan, the eldest son of the Yoon’s made sure to take notes of it by writing the things he found out through their travels beyond the realms on his leather notebook and promises to write a book and share it to the world when all of the chaos ends.       

ALRIGHT, so this chapter is supposed to be about how the 13 heroes fight and found out about the weakness of that godforsaken demon beast, BUT NO! SOONHOON HAS DIFFERENT PLANS! SOONHOON IS IN IT FOR WORLD DOMINATION I TELL Y'ALL!!! SOONHOON IN NORTH AMERICA IS LIKE JEONGCHEOL IN JAPAN! LIKE WTF! LIKE HAVE YOU SEEN THAT VIDEO OF MISTER LEE JIHOON TALKING TO KWON SOONYOUNG AND LEANING INTO HIS PERSONAL SPACE LIKE THERE'S NONE!!! THIS BASIC DIED FOR APPROXIMATELY 5 SECONDS AND WAS REBIRTHED TO THE STILL SAME SOONHOON PICTURE FLASHING ON MY PHONE SCREEN!! WHY ARE THEY LIKE THIS???!! WHY???????????!!!!!!!!

But anyways it has been a hot minute since I thanked my new subscribers. So, imma chill for a bit and shoutout to the new subscribers who signed up for this show. Thank you very much Romi-chan, raspberrysprinkles1, dangster, zeetashrabi6677, pjuelar, christalJimin, Mysticdemon2094, moonflower2445, Ineedholywater95, Sonelfsushi, Lemonzest95, Fngrl123, kakkemi, NYCTIA, NoTou258, yera_xyz. Again, thank you so much guys for following this story and I hope you stick with me till the end.

Luv y'all!!!!! <3
 

Also, I actually wanted to update last night but I still have to finish the grades of my students leaving me having little to no time in writing. So, I decided to just update today instead. January is about to end, hopefully the amount of paperworks that we need to do lessens a bit before march slaps us with more. I really want to update more than just follow my normal schedule which is twice a month, so I just hope and pray that February isn't as y as January.