Chapter 8 - Getting Closer

Su Ho stood at the edge of a lake in Lotis. His hand clutched his teardrop emblem as he let his eyes gaze at the water refracting under the sun. He knelt down by the edge and tapped the surface as it created ripples from his fingertips. He heavily sighed and closed his eyes.

After enjoying the tranquility, he heard a twig snap in the forest behind him. He shot up and turned around. He was greeted by Chan Yeol and he was alone.

“Here again?”

Su Ho relaxed and looked out at the lake. The pyrokinetic lounged by the edge beside Su Ho, who sat down and played with the ripples again.

“Man, I can hardly sleep with those three having fun in the residence. You sure know how to find good spots to take a nap.” He tried to lift his mood but failed. Su Ho didn’t laugh. In fact, he couldn’t.

“He never left your mind, hadn’t he?” Chan Yeol asked.

“Every day, I wonder whether he’s still alive. I remember my brother disappearing before my eyes that day.”

He opened one of his eyes. “You’re still hoping. That’s a good thing.” They were in an awkward silence. Su Ho and Chan Yeol rarely talked to each other. They were practically polar opposites. Su Ho controlled water and Chan Yeol controlled fire. Su Ho was uptight and mature while Chan Yeol was playful but lazy. The latter knew that the water user was suffering and he wanted to help him. The only thing that stood in his way from doing so was Su Ho’s pride as an Argent and as a man.

He got up and yawned. “I’m gonna go check up on Lu Han and Baek. Guess I don’t really need that nap anymore, huh?”

He didn’t respond.

“Have faith, Su Ho. Don’t lose that faith.” He disappeared back into the forest and Su Ho stopped the ripples. “I wish it were that easy.”

D.O skid back on the ground after Yin gave a good punch through his wall of earth. He panted and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He smirked and said, “C’mon! You could do better than that!”

He wanted to take back his words when Yin leapt over the destroyed wall and slammed another strong punch by his feet. He gasped as the ground started to crumble. He jumped backwards and breathed a sigh of relief.

“That was better,” he sarcastically muttered.

Yin retracted her fist from the ground. “C’mon, D.O. You could do better than that!” She mimicked him. His eye twitched from her mockery and scowled. “Okay, that’s just playing dirty.”

“Nope, that’s just the insult you needed,” Kai disagreed from the sidelines. D.O pointed his finger at him in retaliation. “Shut up, Kai! Don’t in unless you’re actually gonna in!”

“I wouldn’t turn my head from the enemy if I were you,” Kai cooly looked away and his best friend had a look of confusion. He didn’t have time to react when she managed to finally kick him in the face and send him flying (and spinning) into the wall.

“Yin, three. D.O, zip.” He announced with a monotone.

“What the hell is with you guys? Stop bullying me!” He complained as they laughed at Kai’s joke. 

The three Argents left the training facility in lighter moods. Their injuries from their trip in Faria completely healed and their friendship grew deeper. Kai was pleased that Yin was smiling more often and the subtle violent nature was starting to grow on her again. Whenever he or D.O were making fools out of themselves or out of each other, she would have the chance to pound both of them on the head to settle them down.

“Man, D.O. Are you sure you’ve been practicing your skills in Caladron?” Kai raised an eyebrow.

“What’d you expect? An earthquake at a magnitude of nine? Heck no! I would’ve destroyed the entire town!” He argued.

“Exactly, because you can’t do that.” Kai added fuel to fire.

“What did you say? You sound like you’re better than me.” He stuck his nose up.

“Actually, I am.” D.O was about to jab him in the gut but Yin beat him to it by colliding their heads together. They yelped at the sudden smash as they held their sore heads. Yin innocently walked ahead of them and they fearfully watched her.

“You know, I’ll never know what she’ll do next.” D.O whispered.

“She’ll kill all our brain cells before we will.” Kai responded.

Yin stopped in front of a window with a good view of the society. She looked up at the sky and remembered one of Tao’s words of wisdom.

“The sky is the standard you must always reach. No matter how small you are, one day you will touch the heavens with your hands.”

She looked at her hands, one of them bandaged again. She recited his words in her head again and her face became calmer and lighter. It always gave her confidence and hope for tomorrow. Ever since Ying Jie and Xiang Hua returned, she had been more at ease than before. After some rest, Ying Jie started to work on his abilities with Chan Yeol while Xiang Hua needed to wait about a year to start learning.

Before she kept walking, her eyes perked up to the view in front of her. Her Origin Arm twitched again just the slightest. She thought, ‘That’s strange, I could have sworn that there was something there.’

Shaking it off, she left the window and continued walking. As she went past a forbidden room, her head started to ache in sharp pain. It was another memory. She saw herself walking with Lu Han, Baek Hyun and one other person. She couldn’t see him. “You just have to touch it and attach it, but I have to warn you. It will try to resist you unless you release your life force into that arm.”

Yin blinked out of her memory. She ran for the washroom down the hall and locked the door. She roughly took off her gray three-quarter sleeve shirt and removed the bandages. The attachment scar was no longer there. The metal had literally morphed with her skin as if the Origin Arm was never detached before. Her fingers trailed along the combination of the skin and metal, feeling the warmth and the coolness at the same .

Putting her shirt back on, she unlocked the door and opened it, forgetting to bandage her arm. As soon as she stepped out, a broad chest and a cold demeanor welcomed her. He glanced at her right hand and narrowed his eyes at her face. Yin warily stepped back but he grasped her arm tightly and dragged her away.

Lu Han and Baek Hyun were in the main meeting room with the television giving a report. Just as they feared, the massacre at Nomun Orphanage was true. Both of them were a bit more relieved when they saw her feeling more alive. With hearts at ease, they started to plan their strategy to save Lay. 

“If Lay was captured, then what about Tao? Any word from him?” Baek Hyun asked.

Lu Han shook his head.

“It’s strange. They would have made their move on him by now.”

“Unless he was able to intercept them.”

“It’s impossible. That party of Daemens were powerful enough to kill him.”

“If he was dead then we’d know it.”

“We can only have hope for him.”

"We have to hurry though. Lay's Crux, Kirin, had already turned back into its crystal and Lay needs to get it back before it shatters."

"That will depend on his willpower to live."

Kai opened the door just when the conversation ended. He had a confused look on his face.

“Did Yin come in here?”

“No, it was just us. Why?” The light-user asked. Kai cocked his head to the side wondering, “Weird, she was with us a while ago.”

He closed the door. Lu Han and Baek Hyun looked at each other and wondered too. It wasn’t like her to disappear on her own without telling other people. They heard the door open again this time, Chan Yeol came in. “I heard Su Ho came back to the residence. Did he come here?”

“No. Wasn’t he at the lake again?”

“He was, but I felt his presence in the building.” He lazily reported.

Lu Han processed what Kai and Chan Yeol asked and put two and two together. He closed his eyes and searched for their presences. His mind trailed the hallways for them and he began to worry. Su Ho was catching onto Yin’s secret and if he found out, Lu Han wouldn’t know what to do.

“Find them! He mustn’t be alone with her! Get as much help you need but no other Argent must never know of this!”

Su Ho led Yin to the lake in the clearing of the forest at the edge of the realm. He roughly released his grip and she nearly fell in. She suddenly clutched on her arm from a familiar surge of power but she didn’t say a word.

“You’re not who you think you are, aren’t you?” He asked.

“I don’t understand.” She answered.

“That arm,” he stopped and she froze. “Where did you obtain it?”

She didn’t answer.

“What are you hiding from us? Why do you remain silent?”

“What do you want from me?” She countered with her own question. He smirked.

“Only the truth. That night, when Kai and that foolish heroine left the society to save those imprisoned Argents, I wonder who they saw.” She clenched her jaw in fear. “I wonder if they saw that person who killed her, when he pierced her flesh and left her for the dead. I hope that you may have recovered that memory, haven’t you?”

Before he could continue, she whipped around and slapped him on the cheek with her full strength. He only staggered to the side. “I suggest not to tell me what I need to know. Unlike many of you, I want that heroine to return.” She snuck her hand to her back pouch, reaching for one of the runes.

“That heroine was no heroine. Little to none of the Argents returned. She only created a bigger army for those wretched Daemens.”

“Then tell me, what made you despise both Argents and Daemens?”

He paused.

“She let my brother get away.” Her eyes widened. “My brother was captured and transformed into a Boundless Daemen. I’ve seen with my very own eyes the day he was attacked and taken. None of the Argents from the society could help.”

“Why are you a member if you hated the society so much?”

“Because I aim to become the most powerful Argent the society had ever had.”

“Do not let vengeance blind you.” She gripped on one rune.

“Vengeance? This is justice, Zhang Yin. Perhaps you did not understand it.” He scoffed. She pulled out the Origin Rune of Light and equipped it onto her arm. She projected two orbs of light towards him but he blocked it easily with his shield of water.

“Naive!” He barked and a stream of water shot towards her. She covered her eyes as it splashed on her. The moment she opened them, Su Ho sent a kick in her stomach into the lake. He dove in after her.

Yin realized that she was underwater and remembered not to breath. She was caught unprepared so she emitted a flash of bright light to distract him. She swam to the surface and took a deep breath before he dragged her down again.

Su Ho had an advantage because of his abilities to manipulate water. He could breathe in it freely. He started to strangle her so that she would run out of energy. She used her free arm to jab him in the chest as hard as she could. He let go for one second and she swam away. She was about to go up the surface again, but her arm felt like a magnetic pull. Her thoughts clicked when she realized that an Origin Rune was hidden in the lake. That explained the sensation she had.

Yin ejected the Rune of Light and reequipped the Rune of Time to stall her air supply in her system. She only had five minutes at most.

She let her arm lead the way while trying not to get within Su Ho’s reach at the same time. She went deeper and deeper because she could feel the pressure building up in her ears. The magnetic pull stopped in front of an underwater cave. With nothing else to lose, she went inside.

It wasn’t as easy as she expected because there were very vicious sea creatures waiting for her such as man eating clams, poisonous piranhas and electrocuting jellyfish. She quickly avoided their attack range thanks to the Rune of Time. When she reached the end of the cave, a beautiful glow of blue welcomed her with a teardrop symbol embedded in the middle.

The Origin Rune of Water.

Yin felt her energy depleting and the Rune of Time’s duration was almost ending. She grasped it and pulled as hard as she could. The overwhelming energy caused her to cough out her remaining air and the Rune of Time lost its purple glow. With the last of her strength and tears coming out from her eyes, she finally broke the Rune free. When she was pulled back, one of the jellyfish’s tentacles made contact with her back and it electrocuted her. She screamed in the strong tingling pain and she accidentally breathed in a large amount of water, drowning herself.

Su Ho, who was in the middle of all the sea creatures, felt a burst of ancient energy. The cave started to collapse and he had no choice but to escape. He knew that Yin was still in there but his pride couldn’t allow him to rescue her. When he swam out of the cave, he witnessed the underwater structure collapsing at the raw power within seconds. He wondered whether the power she could control was that strong. He thought for a second that he was wrong but he didn’t want to believe it.

Su Ho emerged to the surface and stood up on water but his eyes widened. At the edge, he spotted a drenched Kai and a motionless Yin in his arms. She had a new Rune in her hand. He was panting from the lack of air and he tried to shake her awake.

“Yin. Yin! Open your eyes!” He pressed on her chest a few times before resorting to CPR. He plugged her nose and opened . He pressed his lips on hers and blew air into her. He pumped her chest a few more times and blew air into again.

Yin coughed out all the water she drank and could taste a wrenching feeling in . She blinked her eyes and saw Kai cradling her.

“What the hell were you doing?” He scolded through his anger. She winced at the dull pain from the electricity. She held up the Rune in her hand and struggled with her voice. “I was looking for this.”

Kai bit his lip. “Did you know how worried everyone else was when we realized that he was with you‽ He could have killed you, even if he was a member!”

“Kai,” She called his name. He stopped rambling on and looked at her.

“We... need to... save... his...” She drifted off to unconsciousness and let her head fall back before she could finish.

“Yin! Yin! Pull yourself together! Don’t pass out on me now!” In fury, he teleported with her back to the society and took her to the medical clinic in the building. While waiting with a towel over his head and shoulders, he fisted his hair in his hands. He was going to confess to her today. Even though he knew she was the girl he loved, but he ended up falling for her reflection too. He had hope that Hong Ja Young would return but at the same time, Zhang Yin made him think about the choices he needed to consider. He wished that when she regained her memories, she would still have some qualities Yin had. He was attracted to her courage and her personality. It was different than Ja Young but he loved both sides of her nonetheless.

The infirmary opened and one of the healers stepped out with a light smile. “She’s alright. The electrocution didn’t damage her system severely but she only needs rest for the next day.”

“Thank you,” he bowed. 

“She’s awake if you want to see her.” Kai looked at the open door and went in without hesitating.

When he saw Yin, she was all dried up and in warm clothes. Her blankets were thick and bandages covered her arm again. The six Origin Runes were sitting on the bedside table. Yin turned her head.

“Kai,” she said.

He didn’t say a word but sat down on her side of the bed. “What happened?” She closed her eyes and collected her thoughts.

“I remembered something.” Kai leaned closer to hear her scratchy voice.

“I remembered being in this building and how I obtained this arm.”

“How did Su Ho find out about you?”

“It was my fault.” His eyes softened. “I forgot to cover this arm but he didn’t give me the chance to escape. He took me to the lake and told me something.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that he hated the society for not coming to save his brother from Daemens. The only reason he joined Faction Twenty Four was to become a legend.” Kai looked away.

“It’s not true, about his brother I mean, is it?” She cautiously asked. Kai sighed.

“It’s true. I know who his brother is. He was one of the two Boundless Daemens that killed you.” He knew that Yin remembered how she nearly died.

“I see.”

“So then, what happened next?”

“We fought and I was led by my arm to the cave that housed the Rune of Water. I managed to retrieve it in time, but one of the creatures inflicted damage on me and that’s all I knew.”

Kai scowled. “You’re a really silly girl, you know that?”

She was taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“You practically attract danger to yourself. How can I relax when you can’t keep yourself safe?”

“I don’t understand Kai. I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”

“I’m saying what I should have said that day when you asked me what I am trying to say.” Yin’s eyes widened at his memory. She felt very guilty for lashing at him. She was only upset that her sword was broken.

“I’m going to say this once so listen carefully. That girl I knew, she looked exactly like you. When I saw you jump down and save D.O from the mines that time, I kept seeing her. Before she died, she opened and changed me, but now I know, because she could be lying in bed here for all I know. I knew for sure that I really liked her,” he whispered the last part.

Yin lightly blushed at his confession. She inhaled deeply and said, “There was that voice in my memory that kept on telling me “Don’t be afraid”. It always helped me get back on my feet every time I fell.” She shyly took his hand with her bandaged one and said something that made Kai’s heart soar.

“I wanted that voice to be yours.”

They kept on gazing at each other for a few moments before the teleporter reached out to touch her cheek. They instinctively leaned in and continued to share the personal moment for a little while longer.