Seungwoo began to look around and I could see that he was looking for someone. I grabbed his hand and he jolted as if he forgot that I was there.

“I need to find Taeyong, Chanyeol, and Johnny. We’ll be in the front line together,” he told me and I frowned, finding the first name similar but struggling where I remembered it from. It didn’t take long and I was brought back to the memory of when Seungwoo first found his powers.

“Isn’t Taeyong the dude who bullied you so much you found your powers?” I asked and he nodded, wringing his hands together. “Calm down. Breathe.” I could feel the anxiety reeking out from him as he pushed his hair back frantically.

“Yeah. He harnesses pure energy so he and Chanyeol will be passing energy to me so I can blast it to them.” Seungwoo bit his lip when the sounds of marching stopped and a yell from Euren was heard. I looked over to them, seeing that the Euren did come with a lot of creatures, the manticores, and the chimera’s roaring. Their sounds vibrating through the desert but I couldn’t see a single dragon anywhere.

Then drumming sounded. It was fast and aggressive, the chants of the people of Euren ringing throughout. I frowned, turning to ask Jin who was standing beside me, nervously. He tried to not show how worried he was, his voice cracking a bit.

“It’s a war ritual. They dance and sing, praying to the war gods,” he told me. “We have ours too. You must come, we don’t have much time.”

I my lips, seeing that everyone was beginning to go to the back of the tents where the giants were. I moved alongside Seungwoo, my brother suddenly gasping. In front of us, we saw a line of people who were wearing white cloaks, the hoods over their heads. I blinked when I recognized a familiar face that made a lump form in my throat at the same time, I heard Kyungsoo’s voice erupt from somewhere beside me.

“Ahjumma!” Seungwoo yelled out.

“Ms. Puff!” Kyungsoo was saying, running over to a white-cloaked woman to give her a hug. Mr. Puff automatically took Kyungsoo away while I stood there, my eyes filling up with tears at the familiar face in front of me.

Ahjumma saw me, walking to me before engulfing me in a hug. Her arms screamed home and she patted the back of my head, wiping away the tears from my face. I asked her why she was here and she replied simply, kissing me on the cheek.

“I’m your Sote. Everyone must be blessed before the war,” she told me, placing her hands on Seungwoo’s and my shoulder. “Both of you listen to me. If you can’t fight, do not fight, understand?” She asked, and I saw a flicker of pain in her eyes.

Even she was worried.

“You know I can’t do that.” Seungwoo sighed. “It’s my father’s land… And Wooseung’s.” He added before Ahjumma nodded, turning to me.

“I want both of you safe,” she whispered. “Now let me bless you.”

Balls of light were floating around all of us and it would have been beautiful if we weren’t doing it for war. Lanterns filled the sky, Sotes whispering to their respective families. I saw Ms. Puff pressing water on top of Kyungsoo’s and Sehun’s head. Turning back to Ahjumma, she did the same, whispering words of prayer to the deities into our ears.

When she was done, she moved her hands into a fist and whispered into it then reaching down to get a lantern. I watched as she opened her hands, a small ball of light in between her fingertips as she blew the ball into the lantern. The ball merged with the fire inside the lantern, the light brightening.

“Sending my prayers to the deities.” She said softly before letting go of the lantern. Somehow, with the prayers inside the lantern, the lantern floated until it went higher and higher into the sky—looking like it was becoming one of the dotted stars in the sky filled with the rest of the lanterns.

“It’s time,” she told me. “I will be here with the other Sotes if you need me,” she told both of us and we nodded. I caught a few people crying, peacemakers and mages all trying to give each other strength as it may be the last time they would ever see each other.

“Positions!” Kris had said and I watched as centaurs, mages, peacemakers all took their post. I saw Sehun move forward, Kyungsoo on a centaur beside him. Johnny, Seungwoo, Taeyong, and Chanyeol were now trudging forward to the front line and I let out a sharp inhale. I was told to stay back by Kris because my powers were not developed yet and I couldn’t help but feel useless when everyone was prepared to fight. So, I went to the giants, asking for help as they allowed me to sit on their shoulders.

“Why aren’t you getting ready to fight?” I asked them, shouting into their ears when they shook their heads.

“Weee fiiight wheeeen dragonss come ouuuuut. Buuuuuut we areeee veryyyyy slowwww.” Their voices rumbled and I nodded, knowing that I would have to be back on the ground very soon to help Lay.

Kris was on a horse with an echowomp on his shoulder, unlike the rest of his comrades. He rode forward, beside Sehun when the leader of Euren came closer. He had small eyes and a man bun, a scratch on his right eye. He glowered, clearing his throat before raising what seemed like a megaphone but it was made of wood.

So that was what they used instead of echowomps.

“Commander G-Dragon, Leader of the Eurenic League—I am Advisor of the Mages, Kris Wu,” Kris said into the echowomps, G-dragon clearing his throat into the megaphone.

“Advisor of Mages, Kris Wu,” G-dragon answered. “As we stand here, ready for war—I want to ask if you are certain we should proceed.”

“Blood for blood,” Kris replied and I saw Jin close his eyes, a tear sliding down his cheek. Kris must have been talking about the death of Namjoon, and I heard what seemed like a flicker of confusion in G-dragon’s voice.

“I see the past is not yet put behind us.” He replied and I tilted my head. It sounded like he did not want to fight. It sounded like he didn’t want a war in the first place and was confused as to why we were fighting. I couldn’t shake the feeling from the pit of my stomach, telling the giants to bring me down when Kris retreated after saying.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he replied, G-dragon nodding and turning to his people.

“For Euren!” His voice boomed as Kris turned to us, his face serious.

With a of his fist in the air, he yelled.

“For Exodus!”

“For Exodus!” Everyone chanted back and that was when the war started.

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[Sehun, Class of EXO]

Exodus’ side had started with Advisor Siwon’s energy shield. The male put up the shield as the manticores began to rush forward in full speed. Siwon gritted his teeth, the wall taking a lot of his energy as he urged the wall to be spread faster. Sounds of manticores and chimera’s growling erupted through the desert as the creatures began to gain speed.

“Do not move!” Kris yelled out, the peacemakers and mages still rooted on his spot. Kris had a plan, and it was a plan he had already discussed with the rest. With two harnesses attached to Suho and Chen, he clipped them on just when Baekhyun began to use his power. He merged himself into Suho, the water mage glowing.

This was done because Kris could not handle the weight of both, but with Baekhyun’s help—Suho was noticeably lighter but also stronger. They have talked about it a hundred times, and just then the shield was fully built by a Siwon who urged them to go faster.

“Faster! I don’t know how long I can hold the shield!” Siwon yelled at them, Kris shooting up in the air to fly beyond the energy barrier. Below them, they could see the creatures crashing into Siwon’s energy field as they tried to aggressively penetrate it.

“Suho, do it before they figure out how tall the shield is and try to fly over it!” Kris told Suho who was already on it as they flew over the Eurenic’s side of war. Suho busted out water from his palms, the water shooting out as a wave. The land was now wet and some of the creatures looked up to see Kris, preparing to fly and attack them.

One flew up, a Eurenic riding the chimera towards them when Chen threw an electric ball; the man shuddering at the electrocution and falling down on the ground. Suho’s ability had moistened the land, a small flood beginning to form.

“Now, Chen!” Kris yelled at Chen. Chen held on to the harness, his hand forming a ball of electricity before he threw it down on the Eurenic side. The static had reached the flooded ground and they could see people who were standing on the ground shake violently at the impact of electricity in the water.

“Yes!” Kris cheered, but he spoke too soon and a wave of fire came for him as G-Dragon ordered for everyone to go off the ground. The creatures began to fly and right there, Siwon had collapsed, the creation of the shield had exhausted him.

“We have to go back and fight!” Suho told Kris who was flying in zigzag, trying to avoid the fire of the creatures that were no in the air. “The shield is collapsing!”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The shield was collapsing, and Sehun held up a hand to mark everyone as ready. The white shield was breaking in half and it didn’t take long before the winged creatures flew in.

“Now!” Sehun yelled out, the peacemakers turning with swords in their arms, clashes of the sound of iron against iron filling the air. The wind mage blowing wind from one side, a sword on the other as his centaur held a shield to protect him.

As Sehun blasted another round of wind, Kyungsoo was making vines out of his hands to protect the people from getting burned but fire began to spread over the land. With a slam, a chimera crashed into Kyungsoo, the male bouncing off his centaur just to fall down onto the ground on his back.

“Kyungsoo!” Sehun yelled, whipping his head around to see that his keeper was struggling under the creature. The chimera huffed and opened its mouth to shoot out flames when ice shot through the air, the icicle stabbing into the chimera’s chest as it howled in pain.

Xiumin was freezing the enemies left and right, his hands going back and forth in a frenzy. Kyungsoo pushed the chimera away from his body, turning to see that Johnny was having trouble with two Eurenic who had pushed him to the ground. Kyungsoo growled at the sight, making a boulder and yelling out his name.

“Johnny!” he hollered, Johnny turning around to catch the boulder just to swing it around, cracking two skulls. Kyungsoo jumped up, his eyes alert when he saw Sehun in a sword fight, now off his centaur. The man slashed the air violently and Kyungsoo concentrated, the vines sprouting from the ground to latch itself on Sehun’s opponent.

The devil worked hard, but Kyungsoo’s vines worked harder.

The vines pulled the Eurenic to the ground, bringing him to the ground as he writhed, dropping his sword. Sehun brought his sword down and with a slice, the man was beheaded and his blood spilled on the desert ground. People were falling, left to right and everyone was sidestepping arrows.

To Kyungsoo’s right, Kai was teleporting with his javelin and he stopped when a Eurenic grabbed his armor and he was flung to the ground. Kai’s javelin stayed feet away and he struggled, teleporting towards it but bringing the enemy with him and they both wrestled on the ground. The man kicked the javelin away, pushing the tip of the sword towards