The shrill whistle echoing his ears made him annoyed but he couldn't do anything about it as it wasn't an external sound that he could stop. It was internal, reminding him of why he left this place in the first place. He sighed and looked at the guards who had also been staring at him. 

"My name is Seonghwa and I'm here to meet the vampire lord," Seonghwa said firmly and the guards exchanged glances before one of them stepped up. 

"Why should we allow you passage? The vampire lord is not taking any visitors right now." 

"Because I seek his wisdom." 

"Unfortunately, we cannot allow you in." 

Seonghwa pursed his lips and sighed again. "Okay. Okay... Well, I've asked nicely but let's do it this way." 

The guards both brought their guard up from Seonghwa's words but the other just calmly took out an insignia from his pocket. The two guards gasped and hurriedly scuttled to the side before bowing to him. Seonghwa kept the insignia and walked right in, wondering if he should have just done that in the first place. No, he hated that. He continued down the hallway and the ringing in his ears got louder. He shook his head and sighed again. 

"You can do this, Hwa..." 

He reached the room he needed to go to and the shrill sound stopped. He made a tiny squeak and groaned before reaching a hand out to open the door. He pushed it away and headed in. Before him was a bed and a man laying in it, still and lifeless. Seonghwa felt his chest tightened at the sight of the man but gulped it down as he walked towards him. He let out a tiny sigh and looked down at the pale male. 

"Vampire lord," he whispered as if he was afraid to wake the other. "It is I, Seonghwa, here to ask for your wisdom." 

Silence. 

Seonghwa blinked and wondered if the vampire lord was really so weak that he couldn't even stay awake anymore. He frowned as he could still sense the vampire lord's life source and it wasn't fleeting. It wasn't anywhere near death to Seonghwa's confusion. He reached a hand out and touched the body. Of course, it was cold as all vampires were but what Seonghwa was looking for was something else. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly. 

Pulse. 

Breathe. 

Twitch. 

Twitch. 

Seonghwa twitched and blinked a couple of times as he moved his hand away. 

"Vampire lord... what is this...?" Seonghwa whispered and reached for his shirt button but a spark made him flinch back and he gasped. "A barrier? Who did this to you.... The Overseer? Damn it. I need you right now." 

Seonghwa tried again but the barrier kept his fingers from reaching the vampire lord's shirt. Seonghwa thought about using his ability but didn't. If someone had put a barrier there, they could have put more than just that. Seonghwa knew something was wrong but he didn't know how to fix it. 

"What do I do... I need... to know about the Archive of Knowledge... and you're the only one who can give me such information," Seonghwa mumbled and curled his fists. He shut his eyes tightly and cursed himself for being unable to do anything about this. He opened his eyes and gasped as he was no longer in the room. The lifeless male was now standing in front of him in his black robe and pajamas. He turned around and smiled, making Seonghwa flinch. 

"Ap- ah, no. Vampire lord... You're alright?" he asked in a whisper and the male shrugged. 

"Being unable to wake up is a troublesome thing," the male spoke in a well mannered tone. "I guess the Overseer has been studying a lot recently to make his prophecy come true."

"B-but this is a... crime? I mean, it's a betrayal, is it not?" 

"Not if nobody knows, right?" 

Seonghwa twitched as he heard the double meaning behind those words uttered by the other. "Who are you...?" 

"The vampire lord. Lee Soo-hyuk." 

"I know that. But I was told that you were cold and calculating... you don't seem that way to me," Seonghwa whispered and the other chuckled. 

"I suppose this works the same way as when you have telepathy open with your creations. But more importantly, you came here to seek my wisdom, did you not?" 

"I did." 

"The Archive of Knowledge. I haven't heard that in awhile but you have come to the right place, Young one." 

Seonghwa tilted his head in confusion as Soo-hyuk raised his hands and rows of books started to appear all around them in a spiral resembling the library. He jumped a little as he scanned the area. 

"What is going on?"

"This is what you were looking for. The Archive, was it not?" 

"Wait. Huh? I'm confused." Was it really that easy to find? This was it? All these books here would tell him the way to cure Wooyoung? 

"What is there to be confused about? The Archives of Knowledge is not a real place. It's the collective intelligence of living beings and only the vampire lord has access to it. Namely, me." 

"I see... does this mean I can look around?" Seonghwa asked carefully and the male chuckled again. He moved his fingers and the shelves rotated as well, startling Seonghwa. 

"Not for free, of course." 

"Of course.... What do you want?" Seonghwa asked and Soo-hyuk hummed as he thought about it. Then he snapped his fingers and smiled. 

"The necklace on your husband's neck." 

"Necklace on my who??" Seonghwa blurted out. 

"Well, as it's been recorded here, you and Hongjoong have been married for ov-" 

"Stop! Stop!" 

"-and there hasn't been an official divorce either so you are still married." 

Seonghwa grimaced at how powerful the Archives was and wished he could somehow attain the power right now to find out everything that he needed so he could go back to saving Yunho and competing for vampire lord. "Right. There hasn't been an official divorce but we aren't together right now. So you are the Archives..." 

"That's true and not at the same time. The Archives belongs to everyone and no one at the same time. Think of it as its own being and it has chosen to attach itself to me for the time being. Everything and anything that happens here can't be affected by the outside and neither can the outside affect anything here."

Seonghwa wondered why he thought to tell him that but decided now wasn't the time to be asking questions about the Archive itself. He lucked out enough by finding it already. "I just need one more proof that you're able to know everything. Tell me something I've not told anyone before." 

"You have plenty of secrets, Seonghwa. But I suppose that I should prove to you too since you've come all this way. Let's talk about your family a little." 

Seonghwa twitched and felt his breath hitch but stayed calm. 

"Your mother is a vampire who passed away when she gave birth to you. Your father was the vampire lord at the time and he shares the same appearance as me or rather, I share his appearance. You were raised rather strictly, preparing to be the next vampire lord. Am I right up until now?" Soo-hyuk said and Seonghwa nodded, feeling uneasy at how the other could casually speak about this. It took him years to get over his family matters and even now, he could barely look at Soo-hyuk without remembering his father. "Your father was very upset when you failed to use any abilities and you would endure a lot of harsh training, be it physical or mental. Until you met Hongjoong and that was when you first knew what happiness was like." 

"I wouldn't put it that way," Seonghwa whispered but he did know he had his first laugh with Hongjoong. 

"You would sneak out to play with him and eventually, your father found out. Furious, he was. That his son was off scrounging around with some nameless vampire. Oh and then, he caught him. You finally found a fighting spirit within you when your father was about to kill Hongjoong."

"That's enough," Seonghwa said softly. He knew by heart that no one else other than Hongjoong knew about that night. 

"Was that proof enough?" 

"Yes... that's enough." 

"Very well." 

It was the night he had unlocked his ability. He would never forget it. How he lifted his hand up and snapped his fingers. How he had killed his father, the vampire Lord, with just a snap. The pure hatred and anger that filled him that night would always linger at the back of his mind. Seonghwa sighed and tried not to tremble at the feeling coming back to his fingertips. He knew how strong he could become if he let himself go but he chose not to. He didn't want to. He had always preferred the calm over chaos but now the chaos had cost him his own family and he couldn't turn his back against it anymore. 

"Is there... a way for me to cure Wooyoung? A way for me to turn a vampire back into a human?" 

Soo-hyuk's gaze drifted into the distance towards the bookshelves before he turned back to Seonghwa. "Do you know what the prophecy is?" 

"You mean the Overseer's? Not entirely." 

"Once Wooyoung becomes the demon lord, the world will bleed again as it once had. Vampires will rule over the night and the day. Destroying the human world and burning them to hell." 

Seonghwa raised his brows in surprise. "How would he even do that? And why? Wooyoung is just... was human." 

"To protect is sometimes to let go. If there are no humans left for vampires to feed off, then the vampires would perish too, don't you think?" Soo-hyuk asked and smiled. "But I don't think the Overseer sees it that way. He believes that once Wooyoung becomes the vampire lord, we will rule over both sides of the world." 

"But... I still don't get why Wooyoung would do that..." 

"Maybe he would be mind controlled, maybe he believes it would be better that way. That future is not set yet but to answer your question. The answer is already with you." 

"Huh?" Seonghwa was even more confused now and Soo-hyuk pointed at him. 

"You're the answer to your own question."

"That doesn't answer my question." 

"There has not been a successful return before. No vampire can survive the humanfication process. Mainly because a vampire is an undead. You cannot bring back to life what is already dead." 

"So... I can't do anything about it...?" 

"That would depend on your own abilities. I would say there is a 0.1 percent chance of it working. But first, the necklace." 

"Why do you want it?" 

"Because it belonged to me." 

Seonghwa blinked. He had bought the necklace a long time ago so how could it be the vampire lord's? 

"To be exact, it belonged to when I was someone else... my old self. The necklace doesn't have any worth. I just want to see it." 

"Oh... you reincarnated?" 

"I did. Into your father's appearance. It's almost a joke if you think about it. Almost as if the vampire lord can only have one look." 

Seonghwa bowed and nodded. "I'll have Hongjoong come see you. Thank you for helping me." 

"You're welcome."

"If there's anything else I can do..." 

"The necklace is all I need." 

"And the Overseer?" 

"That's up to you youngsters to figure out." 

Seonghwa wondered why the vampire lord seemed to have just accepted his fate. He wanted to question more but noticed the bookshelves and the darkness started to melt around him. The vampire lord looked at him and gave him one last smile before he disappeared and Seonghwa was back in the room with the sleeping male. 

"Thank you, Soo-hyuk sshi." 

He turned around and walked out of the room.