Areum’s embodied form follows Odin’s steed, as the sturdy horse mercilessly breaks through the bushes and trees, creating a faster shortcut to Langley. They speed through the dense forest, and finally arrive back to the marketplace. It’s all in utter chaos. The fragile fruit stands are smashed, the thick smell of smoke clouded everyone’s senses, and the villagers lost all of the remaining sanity they had. Like a stampeding band of animals, they charged their way past the team, making Areum and the steed stagger from the sheer pressure.

“.” Junmyeon pulls on the mane of the steed, trying to soothe the magnificent, white horse. Areum neighs with might, which alarms Baekhyun to hold onto the reins tightly as she jumps deeper into a less crowded part of the village. With another neigh, she calls the steed to follow her lead, treading through the burning village with each powerful step creating a dirt cloud along their tracks.

It was difficult navigating around, dodging people from left to right. She slightly raises her head to the left and spots a road with connecting stone bridges above the village. “Perfect,” her hooves drift against the dirt as she makes a quick left and rams up the board ramp bracketed to the bridge. Odin uses its’ godly leg muscles and springs itself in front of Areum, to which amazes them. From the horizon, Areum can see the inn and she sends a blaring neigh as she descends down from the bridge. Both parties scream and curse for their lives at the sudden course of action as their bodies float in the air for a split second. They all tumble to the ground, hitting against the burning walls or breaking their fall amidst the debris.

Minseok is the first to firmly get up on his legs and notices someone in front of the inn. He makes haste and sees an elderly woman on her knees, crying. “Please, tell me what happened.” From her side, she looks up to Minseok. He winces at the deep, purple bruise that’s taken up her entire jaw. “I-I,” she shakes uncontrollably. Minseok grabs her shoulders and she feels like she’s able to breathe. “I-I was just here, to drop off some bread to Robin, but I couldn’t find the boy. I was about to leave, when I heard Robin’s voice from behind the door of the counter. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but all of a sudden the owners started tearing off their skin like an animal’s hide and that’s when the poor boy…,” she starts to talk faster and faster. “I was so scared that I ran out and screamed.” She starts to bawl again. “Where did they go?” Minseok tries to muster up his courage and mask his nervousness. “Back to the ocean.”

Minseok becomes wide-eyed, “We have to go back!,” he runs to his friends. “They have Robin!” He yanks Baekhyun up and shoves him back to Areum.

“The ocean! We’ll catch up later!” Not wasting a minute, Areum dashes at Minseok’s order. They’re tight on time and traveling back and forth puts even more stress upon them. Leaving Baekhyun with no time to recuperate from knowing that Robin is in danger. Odin takes the lead and sends yellow crescents to slash down the trees, as the its’ sickles transforms the landscape. They all sight the nearby beach and the horses run with an insurmountable vigor.

But Areum starts to feel her legs throb, and each spasm feels like a thousand needles piercing her skin. She gazes down and gasps--her form was reverting.

“Baekhyun!” He hears in his subconscious.

Her design bursts away, while Odin gets back into Baekhyun’s bracelet. Areum furiously lunges her way towards Baekhyun, ignoring everyone else. “Snap out of it!” Her voice is panicky and squeaky.

“Come on!” Her pleas make Baekhyun even more freaked out, causing him to have a little meltdown. He starts to writhe and grabs at his face. “No! No! No!,” is all he can think about.

“Baekhyun! Hurry up and summon Odin again! Do you want Robin to die?!”

The boy nervously fidgets and repeatedly touches his bracelet, “It’s not working!” She clenches down on her teeth and drags Baekhyun along with her. Her pace is too fast for Baekhyun with his stumbling. They cross the border of the forest and onto the beach.

But Areum instinctively stops, making Baekhyun fall to his knees. He shakes his hand to regain focus and looks up. His face goes white and sick to the core as he looks at what Areum is exactly looking at.

She goes into madness and screams as loud as her lungs could. Quick flashbacks of her dream have come to life, she trips as she tries to step away. She squirms and pants uncontrollably. She covers her ears to stop the wails of the fallen, but it’s not going away.

Baekhyun tries to stand up, his hands attempting to help. He feels around the sand, then feels something cold. It feels quite gooey, he looks to see that it’s a decapitated hand. He shrieks, seeing the fresh flesh, ripped skin, and oozing blood.  Tears begin to fall from Baekhyun’s eyes, as he scans the gory scene, but his bleak eyes spot a head with familiar silver hair. “Robin…,” the name naturally slips through his lips, “Robin!” He scrambles towards his friend. Little did he know, something slithered on its way over beyond the haze.

“Robin!”

“Huh?”

“Robin!”

“Who?” Robin laid on the sand, with his body intact but in terrible pain. His clothing was tattered and his sides were bleeding from the torture. He felt someone hold up his head, fluttering his eyes, seeing who desperately called out to him, “...Baekhyun?” His vision is fuzzy, but he recognizes his dear friend’s voice, but he doesn’t understand what he’s saying. “Baekhyun...leave.” He wheezes.

“No! We’re leaving together!” Baekhyun cries and he pulls Robin’s arm over his shoulder and walks back to Areum.

Areum’s face scrunches in pain, fighting back to take control of her senses: her blood is boiling and her head pounds. She claws at the sand, her heart won’t calm down. With little strength, she looks up to see Baekhyun with someone, she squints to see it’s Robin.

A thought of relief passes by, but a pair of gleaming, yellow eyes makes her runs towards them. “Look out!” She screams as she materializes her fans to build a shield, “get out of here!” She grunts.

Baekhyun looks back, as fear makes him stupefied. “Go!,” Areum roars. Baekhyun tries to speed up, but another shadow creeps up on them. Baekhyun is slow to notice it and covers Robin for dear life, but it gets knocked away by a ringing thunderbolt. “Baekhyun!” Jongdae calls out as he arrives with the rest of the party.

Baekhyun’s face lights up, “help is here!” They get as far away as they can before leaving Robin in Yixing’s hands. Without a second thought, Baekhyun rushes back into action, followed by Kyungsoo and Junmyeon.

“Areum!” She hears Kyungsoo call her name. “Don’t come!” She grunts as her tiny body is being crushed against the pressure. Kyungsoo sends waves of sands to push back the unknown shadow back, with Junmyeon replenishing the amount of wet sand. She turns her head around, “I said don’t--!,” she sees fangs headed straight for Junmyeon and Kyungsoo. She can't think about it and she doesn’t have time to block the attack and uses herself. Junmyeon sees a shadow whiz by him and crack!

Their eyes open wide at the sound. Simultaneously, they look up and watch idly as the young girl gets chomped on. Her fresh blood spurts from her body, hitting their face and clothes.

“Ssso we meet again,” they hear slurred words. Junmyeon’s eyes scream bewilderment as he sees blue and green scales trapping them in a circle. They are paralyzed by fear as the figure hurls the unmoving Areum in front of them.

“If only you little bratsss jussst didn’t dissscover that ssstupid temple,” the figures emerge out of the fog to reveal two large snakes. A green snake with a rock spine and a blue one with fluorescent fins. “We were ssso clossse to having the bessst part, weren’t we brother?”

“Oh yesss,” the green snake laughs, “we thought you had already left, ssso we were going to devour that friend of yoursss.”

“But sssince you found the guardiansss, we wanted to get our fill before leaving.” The blue snake chuckles as blood drips from its fangs. “Now it’s your turn!” It lunges towards Kyungsoo and Junmyeon.

Baekhyun slowly embraces Areum, holding her as gently as he could. It's over, they were done for. Tears fall from his face and lands on Areum's bloodied cheek, where the blood tear fell upon his bracelet. Like a firework, it glows with such intensity and a light spiral erupts from the trinket. It envelops Areum and it gives her strength to transform into Odin once more. She splits  herself into the two horses sending them in different directions, forcing the reptiles away from the three of them.

Junmyeon tries to rack his brain for an idea, as the sight of Areum gives him hope. “The first brother was born from a bubble in the sea, while the second one was deep underneath the ground,” he remembers vaguely. “Areum! Run the one on the left to the sea and the other to the forest!” She follows his commands.

“Kyungsoo go support her, while I stay here with Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo follows Areum in a sprint.

“Baekhyun, listen to me, stay focused so that Areum can maintain her form got it?” The said boy nods, focusing to maintain rhythmical breathing.

“Go!” Kyungsoo and Junmyeon scream with might as their bracelets glow. Light explodes from their bracelets and the two halves of Odin take form.

One grows longer fur, is bulkier, and the howl sends chills to the spine. The black fur gleams and its enticing blue eyes locks on its target.  Fenrir comes and chomps down on the sea snake and the reptile struggles. Fenrir bites down and throws the snake into a large rock and it bursts into dust.  While the other elongates into a blue mist, growing beautiful fins and turns into the mighty, sea serpent: Alta. Alta shoots blasts of water, driving the green snake into the ocean. Alta quickly comes and coils around the reptile and crushes it within its grasp. Unable to maintain its form, it erodes away--the remains fall to the bottom of the ocean.

The two great beings revert back to lights, seeking homage to Junmyeon’s and Kyungsoo’s bracelet. While the amber light still lives and the two halves merge back together. The molten body of light figures into a bloodied Areum. “Areum!” Baekhyun cradles the girl fervently with Kyungsoo running back to them and Junmyeon coming last. “Areum, can you hear me!?” Kyungsoo lightly puts his hand on her cheek. She doesn’t respond. Kyungsoo puts his head against her chest, he can hear a slight heartbeat. They regroup back to where the others are and leave Yixing to heal Areum's injuries.

Robin is fast asleep lying on a large piece of driftwood. It's grown quiet within the group, as the sound of waves crash against the calm shores as it washes away the red dyed sand. The pure stench of the dead makes it impossible not to puke. The nice breeze isn’t helping either. “We need to look for any survivors on the shore, if they are dead then we bring them back home,” Kris solemnly says. It's too early in the morning, and one by one, with tired arms and droopy eyes, they bring the dead back to their village to lay them to rest.