"So that's where everyone is..." Taeyeon mumbled to herself, after she pieced together the image of the entire forest through all the information gathered from fragments of her soul that she had sent out for reconnaissance. "Gwang Soo and Jaesuk are closing in on our position. Sunny be careful not to believe anything Gwang Soo says, cause if we end up fighting each other, Jaesuk can take the opportunity to take both of us out."

"Got it! I trust you ByunTaeng, cause I know you love only me!" Sunny replied happily.

"Oh really? Then why do you always wake up in the middle of the night and realise that Taeyeon is gone? Don't you know she's always taking a midnight stroll with Sooyoung, while you're sleeping?" A voice whispered.

"Sunny... That's Gwang Soo... Don't listen to him..." Taeyeon warned.

However, Sunny was getting suspicious for it was true that she had woken up in the middle of the night to find her partner gone. "Tell me... Is it true that you always go on a midnight stroll with Sooyoung?" Sunny asked without bothering to mask her jealousy.

"It's because I'm worried about all of us and I want to discuss with Sooyoung how to train ourselves so that we can get stronger... Believe me!" Taeyeon begged.

"Prove it! I always wondered why Sooyoung acts so loving towards you... So it's because of all those midnight strolls you two went on, isn't it? You never ever went on midnight strolls with me!" Sunny retorted, changing back into her human form and glared at her partner, her arms folded, her tongue in her cheek.

"This is Gwang Soo's power! SNAP OUT OF IT!!!" Taeyeon shouted at Sunny.

"You've never shouted at me before... Now because of Sooyoung you dare shout at me?!! Looks like I really loved you FOR NOTHING." Sunny yelled back, before turning away from Taeyeon.

Taeyeon was taken aback and quickly took a deep breath before apologizing: "Sunny Bunny... Sorry for shouting at you. I didn't mean it! Really! This is all Gwang Soo's fault, I'll get rid of him, right out! Way of th-"

Taeyeon's words were cut short as Sunny turned around and gave Taeyeon a tight slap across her left cheek. "So now you're going to kill an innocent demon to cover up the fact that you've been cheating on me with Sooyoung? You've really changed... I don't know you anymore... GET OUT OF MY SIGHT RIGHT NOW!!!" Sunny screamed into Taeyeon's face.

However, Taeyeon did not hear anything after she was slapped. That was the last straw, she could take Sunny yelling at her but giving her a slap? That was totally intolerable and Taeyeon just snapped as she could not believe that her Sunny Bunny had just slapped her.

Her eyeballs turned completely black and an ominous black glow engulfed her body. She couldn't be bothered to mask her soul's presence anymore and the full force of her soul was released. The force was so strong, it knocked Sunny back five metres into a tree, completely knocking Sunny unconscious. Jaesuk who was just about to strike Taeyeon with his claws was blown back ten metres and Gwang Soo who was a few metres away got knocked off his feet, landing painfully on his a good eight metres away.

The assassin in her was fully awaken and her murderous intent could be felt by everyone single living being in the forest, causing all of them to shiver uncontrollably in fear for a second. The Swift Assassin then uttered the words: "Mark of the Assassin. Russian Roulette."

The whole forest was placed in a stasis as the souls of Taeyeon and the eight demon rose out their physical bodies to form a circle in the sky. Three marks appeared on top of three of the souls' position and the group of souls started spinning around under the marks. When they finally came to a stop, the souls of Jaesuk, Suk Jin and Gwang Soo were underneath the marks and the marks branded themselves on their souls. Finally, everything returned to normal and the souls returned to their respective bodies.

Taeyeon, still in assassin mode, then shouted: "Mark of the Assassin. ACITVATE!!!" Once those words left , her soul split into three and each part teleported to each mark, passing through the physical bodies, ripping out the souls of those marked at the same time, before absorbing them and returning back to Taeyeon's body. The bodies of the three unlucky demons fell onto the ground, dead.

At that moment, Sunny woke up and being freed from Gwang Soo's power she managed to whisper: "I'm sorry for saying such hurtful words to you and slapping you... I'm such a bad girlfriend... But promise me you'll never use that attack again... I don't want you to risk your life. What if one of the marks landed on you?"

Upon hearing Sunny's voice, Taeyeon returned to normal and ran over to her to check if she was fine. "I promise. Now let's go find Tiffany!" Taeyeon told Sunny, who nodded in reply as she transformed back into weapon form. With renewed determination, the pair warped away towards Tiffany's location.

Meanwhile the three demons who had just fallen were now with those watching the test and they complained: "Aish... It's not fair! Why is it always us that get killed first?!!"

"Tough luck, guys! Live with it! You guys have always been the first three to be out for the past few centuries, whenever the Vanguard of Death goes through this test..." Sooyoung laughed as she recalled how her boyfriend, Soojin and her had also defeated the three right at the start of the test, when they took it ten years ago.

Now let's look at what Tiffany has been doing all this while...

"Argh... My favourite pink dress is ruined..." Tiffany whined as she woke up to find that she was in pile of dead leaves. "Sooyoung unni is SOOO gonna get it from me for teleporting me here..." Tiffany muttered under her breath.

"Yah!!! I'm your weapon! Not your tool to help you stand up!!!" Jessica, who was in her weapon form, shouted as Tiffany stuck her into the ground, tip first, to aid her in standing up.

"I love you SOOO much!!!" Tiffany exclaimed as she hugged her spear and kissed it, in an attempt to calm down her pissed off weapon. Jessica, as always, completely melted immediately and forgave Tiffany, while still pretending to be angry.

After the two were done flirting, Tiffany looked up and saw Haha, who turned tail and fled once he knew he was spotted. He knew he was no match for Tiffany without his Jong Kook hyung. Tiffany knew that as well and started to chase down the fleeing demon.

"THIS IS SPARTA!!!" Haha yelled at the top of his lungs, when he saw that Tiffany was gaining on him, since she was riding on a horse that she had created out of her flames. There was a flash of black light and Jong Kook appeared right in front of Tiffany, blocking her from getting to Haha, who was now cowering behind the stronger demon.

Once Jong Kook appeared in Tiffany's line of sight, his aura of fear immediately took effect and Tiffany started seeing bugs swarming towards her. With a scream, she realised that she somehow could not move and the bugs started crawling up her body. In reality, she was just staring blankly to the front, locked in the illusion of her deepest fear.

Weapons retain their sense of sight even when they are in weapon form and Jessica was no exception, so she too was locked in an illusion of her deepest fear. In her case, she was held down by cucumbers and being force fed cucumbers by even more cucumbers. In other words, the pair were in deep trouble if Taeyeon or Seohyun doesn't arrive quickly enough to save them.

"Looks like you're OUT!" Jong Kook stated with an evil laugh as he raised his claws, ready to rip Tiffany apart. In one swift motion, he swiped his claws through the air in the direction of Tiffany, but to his surprise, she remained standing. Instead, he heard he yelp of surprise from behind him and saw that his strike had somehow ripped Haha apart instead.

"My dongsaeng!" Jong Kook exclaimed, cradling the dying Haha in his arms.

"My hyung... Avenge me!" Haha replied weakly, before he breathed his last.

"I will, I promise." Jong Kook whispered as he finally registered the presence of another soul in the vicinity. "I should have known... Kim Taeyeon, The Swift Assassin, able to mask her presence almost as well as Jaesuk hyung. And also able to warp space so that I was facing my dongsaeng at the point when I attacked and instantly warping space back." Jong Kook stated as he turned to face Taeyeon, who warped the space around her back to normal, revealing her presence by sight.

"I would like to see how you fight me with your eyes closed!" Jong Kook smirked as he raised his claw, prepared to attack again.

"You've already lost..." Taeyeon told Jong Kook calmly, before she spoke the words: "Way of the Assassin. Path of No Return."

"Strike One. Soul." Taeyeon whispered as her soul dashed forward, out of her body and passed through Jong Kook physical body, ripping his soul out simultaneously.

"Strike Two. Nightmare." Taeyeon whispered as her soul looked into the eyes of Jong Kook's soul, locking him in a never ending nightmare of the billion and one ways she could kill Jong Kook by.

"Strike Three. ." Taeyeon whispered as her soul Jong Kook's soul into hers, absorbing his soul completely.

"Final Strike. Death." Taeyeon whispered as her soul returned to her body and Jong Kook's lifeless body collapsed to the ground, dead. Once Jong Kook was dead, Jessica and Tiffany were released from their illusions. They both heaved sighs of relief and sincerely thanked Taeyeon for saving them.

Just then, Seohyun arrived and together they set off in the direction of Sooyoung's shadow according to the reconnaissance reports by the fragments of Taeyeon's soul that were still stationed all around the forest. They knew that Ji Hyo, Gary and Joongki were closing in fast and it was a matter of time before the two groups clashed, so as they walked, they formulated a plan to defeat the three.

In the clouds above, Haha and Jong Kook could not believe that they were defeated so easily by Taeyeon. In fact, the five demons were all surprised that Taeyeon had single‑handedly taken all of them out. "That's my Taetae for you! The cutest and the strongest leader of a Vanguard of Death for all eternity! Even better than my husband!" Sooyoung proudly told the defeated demons.

"You're married?" Krystal asked, puzzled that Sooyoung suddenly had a husband.

"Did I say husband? I meant boyfriend... I guess I want to marry him sooo much..." Sooyoung replied hastily, blushing slightly. Hyoyeon who knew the truth just smiled to herself.

Lets get back to the test...

Sooyoung's shadow was finally in sight, but the three remaining demons were guarding the shadow. The three girls took care not to look directly at Ji Hyo, for they did not want to get affected by her aura of fear. For Taeyeon, it wasn't a problem since she could keep her eyes closed and probably still be able to take out all eight demons at once. Members of the Kim assassin family, took out their targets by ripping out their souls, they had no need for sight, all they needed was to know the location of their target's soul. For the other two girls, however, it was a pretty big problem.

"Let's start with Plan A." Taeyeon told the other two girls.

"What if Plan A fails?" Seohyun asked to make sure Taeyeon had some backup plan.

"Then we go straight to Plan P." Taeyeon replied, calmly.

"What's Plan P?" Tiffany asked, completely puzzled.

"Plan P stands for Panic." Taeyeon answered, straight-faced.

"You must be kidding..." Both Seohyun and Tiffany exclaimed, expressions of incredulity written all over their faces.

"No I'm not... Just trust me... It'll be the first time I have ever used this technique, what could possibly go wrong?" Taeyeon told Seohyun and Tiffany, flashing her dorky smile and a thumbs up sign.

Seohyun and Tiffany stared at their maknae leader for a few seconds and wondered if Taeyeon had lost her sanity or if she was even sane to begin with. Nevertheless, without any other better plans, they had no choice but to obey their leader's plan, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.

First, Tiffany created a phoenix out of her flames and climbed on it with Seohyun before taking to the skies, in order to be out of the way of Taeyeon's attack. This was also to act as a distraction so that Taeyeon could unleash her attack before she was spotted.

The second she saw that Seohyun and Tiffany were out of harm's way, she closed her eyes and concentrated to detect the precise locations of her targets and all the fragments of her soul that were still scattered all around the forest. Once done, she unmasked her presence and let the full force of her soul be felt, unleashing a wave of murderous intent in all directions, once again causing the demons to be petrified by fear for a second.

During the precious one second, Taeyeon went into assassin mode and uttered the words: "Way of the Assassin. Final Path. Path to Hell. Complete Massacre." The forest was placed in a stasis again and all the fragments of Taeyeon's soul converged on the targets, passed through their physical bodies while ripping out parts of their soul, absorbing them and finally returning to Taeyeon.

When the forest came out of the stasis, the souls of the three demons had been mercilessly ripped into shreds and absorbed by Taeyeon, killing them instantly at the same time. The deed done, Taeyeon returned back to her normal self and happily waved to her two unnis on the phoenix and shouted: "TOLD YOU GIRLS I COULD DO IT!!!"

Seohyun and Tiffany were truly shocked by the extent of Taeyeon's power and reminded themselves never to underestimate their leader, even though she looks like a harmless little kid who will not even hurt a fly. Everyone else up in the clouds were slightly taken aback as well, with the exception of Sooyoung and Taeyeon's parents. They were the ones who helped Taeyeon awake the assassin in her, unlocking a whole new array of techniques for her to use.

What was even more surprising was the message the three girls got from Sooyoung's shadow...

To my dearest baby Baby Taeng <3 and the Vanguard of Death,
It's with great delight that I would like to inform you girls that I'm five months pregnant with my third child.

With Love,

Choi Sooyoung, Blade of the Shadows, Goddess of Death