"WHAT?!!" The other girls and the other trainers shouted at the same time. They were visibly shocked and all they could do was stare at Sooyoung in utter disbelief as they slowly digested the fact that there was actually a goddess standing right in front of them.

"And we're temporary Goddesses of Sleep..." Yuri and Yoona announced together.

"WHAT?!!" The other girls and the other trainers shouted together again. They were even more shocked as they tried to process the fact that there were another two temporary goddesses in front of them.

Seeing the expressions of complete shock on her fellow trainers and trainees faces, Sooyoung proceeded to explain what had happened. Slowly, the rest recovered from the shock and congratulated the newly appointed goddesses.

"Anyways... Are you all ready to set off?" Sooyoung questioned. Everyone else nodded their heads, indicating that they were ready. "And stop staring at me like that! I'm still the same old Sooyoung..." Sooyoung added on. Immediately, everyone else looked away, afraid to offend a goddess. Sooyoung could only shake her head and sigh, before calling the group to set off.

And so the group of thirteen set off in search of the castle of the evil mastermind...

As they searched, they trained and day by day the girls got stronger, but the enemies they faced grew stronger as well...

Now, it's the first day of the twelfth month and the girls were engaged in a battle once again, just like in the past four months and they still had no clue where the evil mastermind resided...

"Hell's Fury!" Tiffany shouted, as she shot flames out of her palms and in multiple directions. Flames of black, white and blue were unleashed upon the enemy, each having a slightly different effect on the enemy. Black flames engulfed the enemy, sending them straight to the deepest depths of hell. White flames cause the enemy to feel excruciating pain as they got incinerated. Blue flames turned the enemy into even more blue flames.

Not letting the enemy have anytime to regroup, Tiffany picked up her spear that she had left lying on the ground while she unleashed her flame and unleashed Absolute Zero unto any enemy unfortunate enough to be in the attack's range.

"Don't you ever leave me lying on the ground again!" Jessica shouted at Tiffany.

"Sorry..." Tiffany replied, kissing her spear on its shaft and gave her spear an eye-smile.

"Fine, you're forgiven. Now let's get back to battle." Jessica replied. Tiffany nodded and summoned a flaming tornado before charging back into battle.

This group of enemy were animals, infused with demon blood and covered in runes to allow the evil mastermind to control them from afar. The runes also let the animals be able to teleport, have high regeneration, able to regenerate into a whole new animal from any part cut off from another animal, immune to pain and resistant to fire and ice, which was why Tiffany could not use normal flames to burn them. Hell flames were a different matter.

Meanwhile, Taeyeon was having fun killing of the demons, since her short sword's Dissonance ability killed any enemy easily. Taeyeon had also mastered the ability to see and hear far beyond the normal range of any human, which allowed her to hear and see a pin drop at a distance of ten kilometres. With this ability, she could easily scout large areas for signs of enemy and inform her comrades early.

Seohyun, however, was not having such a good time, since whenever she sliced of a part of the enemy, it grew into another one and she had no other way to kill the animals, besides soul resonating with her weapons. The animals seemed to oblivious to pain and her swords could only unleash R.I.P. once every few minutes. The animals were also smart enough to never make eye contact with her blades, so she could not use her weapons' Sleep ability on the enemy.

"A little help here!!!" Seohyun shouted, as she was getting hit from every angle and was getting overwhelmed. Thankfully, her regeneration rate was high enough to keep her alive. Besides her increased regeneration rates, Seohyun had also mastered the skill to heal her comrades from a distance away by sending her blood through the air to her injured comrades.

Unfortunately, both Taeyeon and Tiffany were busy fighting to fend off the enemy from attacking the village that they were staying at and if they were to help Seohyun, some of the enemy would be able to enter the village and wreak havoc. Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and the rest of the trainers were busy eating and chatting at an inn in the village, trusting the Vanguard of Death to be able to handle the enemy easily. More specifically, Sooyoung was eating, while the rest were chatting...

"SeoBaby, we'll take care of them for you." Yuri and Yoona told their dongsaeng as they revealed their true forms. With their demonic and angelic powers, respectively, they locked the enemies in eternal nightmares or eternal sweet dreams. Loud thuds were heard as the demonic animals fell on the ground, fast asleep.

"That was quick... Why didn't you two do that in the first place instead of making me waste my energy and fight them?" Seohyun asked her unnis.

"Well... You need the practice, don't you?" Yuri and Yoona replied.

"Hmm... I guess so..." Seohyun answered, accepting her unnis explanation. By that time, the other girls had already managed to defeat the rest of the enemies and Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and the rest of the trainers had just arrived at the scene of the battle, which was located about a kilometre away from the village.

"Good job, girls! You guys have improved tremendously since the last battle!" Sooyoung praised the girls before she transformed into her goddess form. Once the transformation was complete, she sent the sleeping demonic animals straight to hell before transforming back to her human form. "Now it's time to move on! We need to keep moving so that we can stop the evil mastermind before it gets any stronger." Sooyoung continued.

"But we don't know where the evil mastermind is and frankly I find that blindly searching is a waste of time..." Seohyun stated.

Sooyoung looked at Seohyun and smiled, before patting her head. "Well, I'm the Goddess of Death, so nothing can ever escape my grasp, not even the evil mastermind. I know where it is and when its time is up, I'll make sure it goes straight to hell. For now, just follow me and I'll lead you girls there. Is that okay?" Sooyoung told Seohyun and the rest of the girls. The girls just nodded in acknowledgement and the group of thirteen went back to the village inn to collect their belongings before setting off again.

As they were about to leave the village, there was a lady with a sharp, pointy hat, eyes of a snake and wearing a black, hooded cloak waiting for them. "So this is the current Vanguard of Death... Let's see if you're as strong as the rumours say..." The lady announced. "I hope the trainers won't interfere... That's the way it is supposed to be, right? Oh and I'm Sslassara, witch of the snakes." The lady added on.

"Bring it on!" Taeyeon shouted, as Sunny transformed into her weapon form. The other weapons followed suit and the three weapon users pointed their weapons at the witch, showing that they were ready. Sooyoung teleported Hyoyeon, the other trainers and herself up into the clouds, where they could have a clear view of the fight.

"ekans, ekans, kesna, kensa, serpenta, snake!" Sslassara chanted and many snakes of various shape and colour started slithering out of every nook and cranny. "My precious babies, it's lunchtime! Feast upon those girls in front of you!" Sslassara commanded.

Upon hearing the command, the snakes started moving rapidly towards the three girls, fangs bared, venom dripping. The girls found themselves unable to move as they looked into the eyes of the witch. "Did I mention that I have a weaker form of Medusa's eyes? Oops, forgetful me!" Sslassara sniggered, as she maintained eye contact with the girls.

"Aish... At least we didn't get turned into stone... But if we don't do anything quick, we'll be lunch for the snakes... Think Seohyun THINK!!! We can't open our mouths, so we can't unleash our weapons powers... So what can we do?!!" Seohyun thought.

Just as the snakes were about to reach them, Seohyun thought of an idea, it was risky as hell, but she could not care less at that point in time. Seohyun willed a wound to open on her wrist and she sent a huge amount of blood into the air, temporary blocking Sslassara from the vanguard's vision, before it rained down onto the ground. As soon as eye contact was broken, the girls immediately jumped back from the advancing line of snakes.

"Not bad... This will be interesting..." Sslassara commented.

"Unnis... Sorry but I can't fight... I'm dangerously low on blood..." Seohyun told Taeyeon and Tiffany, in a weak voice, before she passed out. Yuri and Yoona immediately transformed into their true forms and carried Seohyun to a safer place, with Yoona immensely boosting Seohyun's regeneration rate.

Taeyeon and Tiffany turned to face the witch and the snakes, careful not to make eye contact with the witch. Immediately, Taeyeon unleashed Lightning Dissonance and attempted to pass through Sslassara with it, however, the witch was immune to the attack, for she could align her soul with the attack. Nevertheless, Taeyeon still managed to kill off many of the snakes.

Tiffany knew she could not unleash Absolute Zero, as they were fighting too close to the village and innocent people may get caught in the range. First, she unleashed her hell flames, which incinerated the rest of the snakes. Then, as she was about to use her weapon's 'Freeze' ability on the witch, Sslassara whispered: "ekans, ekans, kesna, kesna, serpenta, snake! May the hell flames turn into snakes!"

"Have a taste of your own medicine, little girl!" Sslassara smirked, as the hell flames formed snake shapes and turned back to engulf Tiffany. Luckily, Tiffany was immune to her own flames and she just absorbed them.

"Trying to burn the Wielder of Flames? How ironic!" Tiffany questioned, as she unleashed her weapon's 'Freeze' ability. Sslassara evaded the attack easily and was about to laugh at her, when Taeyeon suddenly appeared behind her and attempted to stab her in the back. Mildly surprised, Sslssara rolled forward to dodge the attack.

As she stood up, she laughed as she saw Taeyeon angrily stabbing the tree behind at chest level. Her laughter was abruptly cut short, when a short sword pierced through her chest; in from her back and out through the front. "How?!!" Sslassara asked as she coughed up a lot of blood.

"Simple, I was always in front of you. I just warped the space so that you though that I was behind." Taeyeon replied, pulling her blade out of the witch.

"I see... Looks like you girls are as good as the rumours say... But you girls still aren't good enough to defeat my master..." Sslassara told the girls, before cackling madly for the last few seconds of her life.

"Good job, Taeyeon!" Sooyoung praised Taeyeon, as she, Hyoyeon and the rest of the trainers landed on the ground amongst the dead snakes and the dead witch. By then, Seohyun had recovered fully from her blood loss and had already rejoined the group. everyone else joined in to congratulate Taeyeon for thinking of such a good method to trick the witch.

"Thanks, everyone! But the true hero is Seohyun, she was the one would saved us from becoming snake food. Without her, I wouldn't be able to kill the witch." Taeyeon praised Seohyun, who started to blush due to all the attention being shifted to her.

"It was nothing... Let's just continue on with the journey..." Seohyun mumbled softly.

"Yeah, let's go!" Sooyoung agreed and the group set off once again after Tiffany had incinerated the remains of the witch and her snakes. "Let's try to find another village before the fifth day of the twelfth month, then we can celebrate Yuri's and Yoona's birthday at an inn, instead of in the middle of a forest!" Sooyoung added on.

The rest nodded their heads in acknowledgement and they continued on their way with smiles on their faces. Stepping into the another forest, they were chatting happily, while admiring the scenery, until they spotted a figure leaning against a tree, with a dagger in his hand.

"Remember me?" The figure questioned...