“What answers?” Byung Hee mumbled, ready to ignore my advice. I grabbed his hand and hissed.

“Don’t reveal your blade!”

“Somebody certainly revealed theirs with you.”

Yuri punched him before I could. She huffed and flipped her hair, ready once more to burn those bastards.

“Let me handle this!”

“NO!” Daesung and I exclaimed at the same time. We grabbed her from both sides and made sure she wasn’t going to do anything stupid. Even if I was supposed to have more power than Yuri, she struggling around and elbowing us was enough to let go. Jung Min on the other hand knocked her off with a single blow to the head. He caught her before she’d hit the ground. That gave us some time to put a plan up and working before she’d wake up and ruin everything.

“I’ll slow them down, you guys figure out something.” Byung Hee mumbled. He didn’t draw his blade as we had agreed. Instead, he went full on the reapers. Punches, kicks, lock downs, you name it, Byung Hee was doing everything at high speed and it kept the funny looking reapers busy. We could had left, but, you know, I was stupid enough to propose we stay and capture them.

“Okay, okay, plan, plan...” I covered Changmin’s eyes and frowned, not exactly sure what to do. Daesung on the other hand stared intensely in my direction, mouthing something before he finally spoke up with confidence.

“I have one!” he pointed to his head “Read it and tell to everybody else.”

I had done so. Oh no, that was out of cartoons.

“It ain’t gonna work.”

“Sooyouuung!” he whined and almost kneeled to beg “tell them first!”

I sighed.

“Fine, fine.”

I pressed my free hand to my head and waited for the message to be spread around. A headache blasted my brains for a few seconds. Dizzy and disoriented, I fell on the snow and only when I couldn’t hear Changmin’s wailing voice and see his distressed face did I acknowledge how weak I had become.

“That won’t work,” Jung Min mumbled and dropped Yuri when she finally woke up. The brunette screamed and kicked Jung Min in the knees without success. Our new gang member, Yoona, ran to her side and made sure Yuri wasn’t bruised anywhere. They exchanged looks again before Yoona helped her get up on her feet.

“I heard it too,” Yuri groaned and shoved Yoona off her “We can try.”

Daesung crouched near me and massaged my back. Changmin grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let go. That plan better work because I felt like Hell.

“Just... do it!” I cried out and tried hard to get back to my senses.

“Yoona!” Daesung got up and pointed at the snowman. I’m sorry Changmin, but we need as much snow as possible. I could feel the little boy squeeze my arm tighter when the fairy used her powers to lift the snowman in the air.

Yuri smirked and waited until Jung Min flew behind the snowman. She made sure her rage wouldn’t make her burn too hard. She sent enough heat to melt the snowman. It was Yoona’s turn again as she firmly held the water in midair.

“Now!” the fairy commanded once she positioned each drop of water in their proper place. Jung Min’s wings materialized behind him, wider than ever before. His eyes flashed ruby red as he sent his warning in the reaper’s tongue towards Byung Hee. The Keeper left the battle and their new enemy frozen on spot when Jung Min flapped his wings and sent those droplets towards them. They didn’t look worried.

I smirked.

Yoona snapped her fingers and the droplets transformed in hard-rock ice which penetrated their spiritual bodies, forced them to the ground and thus, when the ice kissed the land, they became earthbound. Those reapers weren’t going anywhere.

“I still don’t understand the point in this...” Byung Hee lamented, landed at my side, tapped my shoulder twice and my vision came right away. I stared then at Changmin and blinked confused. Actually, how had I seen everything so clear?

The boy smiled back and let go of me.

Whoever said their kid is a wonder, they didn’t meet mine. All the images had been filtered through Changmin’s eyes and then sent in my brain. That prankster tricked me into believing I was the one seeing those things.

“We need to know what they know,” I answered, picked myself off the snow and watched Changmin his finger and dash to Yuri’s side. Guess he finally understood that it was a grownup’s land.

“But we know what they know,” Byung Hee snickered “Why do you think I’m personally here? C’mon, I don’t love you and you don’t love me, reason a little.”

I could fee Yuri, Yoona and Jung Min’s glares aimed at my neck. Daesung sent a ‘meh’ feeling, he was probably proud that his plan actually worked. And I had to admit it wasn’t that bad in the end. He abused what everybody could do best to our advantage.

“Okay, then tell me everything, bird brain!”

“What about the whole ‘do not insult birds’ thing?” Daesung muttered behind me and I ignored him. If I wanted to call the idiot a bird brain, I shall!

“They are after the priests and priestesses.”

We all shut up. Alright, messing with the Other World? I get it. Demons that want to take control of the world? I get it. Reapers that want to mess things around? I get that too. But why in the world would they want to go after us? There only a couple of them left... I guess. Yuri and Daesung are the only other priests I know of.

“What for?”

“The Dragon has been born,” Byung Hee paused too much after he said those words, contemplating the gravity of that title. My instincts went straight to Changmin as he peeked from behind Yuri’s dress. “No, it’s not him,” Byung Hee assured me. “But Death knows where he is and he is keeping that a secret.”

“Then what’s the deal?”

Byung Hee sighed.

“Look, there are three creatures in this world – pure spirits as in ghosts, spirits that need a body as in humans and any other creature and spirits powered by the Other World, that’s us the reapers.” We nodded, though I could hear Yoona puff her chest and feel unjust for being degraded as to just a spirit possessing a corpse. “Then there are the Chaos born, they created everything.”

“Waaaait!” Daesung waved his hands “You don’t mean THE Dragon from the legends, do you?”

Byung Hee nodded. Jung Min looked paler than usual – if that was possible – and Yuri frowned as she brought Changmin from behind to her front. Yoona nodded as well, biting her lip and crossing her arms above her chest.

“You lost me,” I admitted and waited for more details.

“Okay you snail,” he started in a not so fancy way “anything that comes from Chaos cannot be born into something material, you get me? They are on a whole new level. But this thing did and it only happened once before and that was when the Other World was created to maintain balance after everything that Dragon had done.”

“So, it’s the end of the world?”

“Kind of.”

“But shouldn’t you guys feel it? It gives away enormous power, right?”

“That’s the catch,” Byung Hee mumbled.

“The only creatures that can feel the Dragon...” Jung Min cut in, eyeing the struggling reapers “...are humans with special abilities.”

“Ohhh...” I grinned “I get it now.”

“Where’s Death?”

Byung Hee didn’t like Jung Min’s question one bit, yet he answered anyway.

“The Royal Palace---”

“WITH THE QUEEN?!” I squealed in excitement.

“Yeah, yeah, with that .”

SLAP.

PUNCH.

KICK.

“YOU DO NOT CALL THE QUEEN A , NOT IN MY PRESENCE!”

“Erm, Sooyoung...” Daesung tried to take me off the Keeper before I’d sent him back to the Other World.

“We need to get there too,” Jung Min looked around at the black clouds gathering above “...only Death can keep us away from these reapers.”

“What about the ghosts?” Yoona inquired before she snapped her fingers and hardened back those icicles.

“We’ll take care of it,” Byung Hee finally drew his shining blade and winked at us “I’m a Keeper after all.”

“Then you better keep that mouth of yours open and tell us how to get to the Palace.”