[Novel] The Mirror [Chapter 5 (3/3)]

Minjoon is shaking his head. He suddenly feels so sleepy. Becoming a guard isn't as easy as I think, thought Minjoon, and it's quite boring to do it alone. He chuckles as he thinks that he might be getting attached with Minsook or Hyunki, who are the human version of vitamin C.

"Is it only me, or is the weather getting hotter?"

Minjoon goes to check on the air conditioner. It's not only him who is sweating, but also the bodies of his friends. Then when he turned around, he could see smoke from Myungwoo's kitchen. Minjoon quickly runs to the kitchen, but the entire kitchen tops are on fire. 

"BUT SINCE WHEN?"

Minjoon feels it is strange how the fire is spreading so fast. He gets a fire extinguisher but the fire can't be extinguished, it's spreading faster and the fire getting bigger.

"I should teleport the bodies... maybe to my place? Let me do it..."

But before he can get back to the living room, fire blocks him and makes him can't pass it.

"No... my friends..."

"It's a hallucination. You can pass through it, if you think you can win over it."

Minjoon turned around, trying to find who was talking to him. It was a man's voice.

"Who are you?"

"It's me. I'm here to help you."

Someone passed through the fire from the living room to the kitchen. This person is a man who looks friendly... and what makes Minjoon widen his eyes is that the man is holding a long sword. Not only that, he got no wounds at all after passing through the fire.

"Let's talk later. This fire isn't hot for me, which is why I trust this isn't a real fire," said the man, "do you trust me?"

"Does it mean my friends won't be in danger?" asked Minjoon, feeling a bit of hope is here for him.

"Yes. if you trust they will be safe, then they will."

The man put his hand on Minjoon's shoulder and both of them nodded at the same time, then the next second they jumped past the fire in front of them... to the calm living room. There is no fire. Minjoon's friends are all safe. He turned around and saw the kitchen was clean, as if nothing had happened. 

"So... it wasn't real?" asked Minjoon.

"It wasn't. And we have guests. Get ready."

The man holding his long sword, all prepared. Minjoon is also holding his sword now. Suddenly the windows break open and a lot of imps fly in - Minjoon doesn't have time to quickly count it but it looks like more than 10. But he isn't alone, he has this... unidentified friend helping him. The man is standing in front of the couches and starts swinging his sword bravely. Minjoon jumps to cut off one of the imp's head as it almost stabs its trident to Joochan's body.

"They're going to attack our friends!" said the man.

"I'll protect Sikyung noona!"

Only Sikyung is staying on the bed, so Minjoon quickly stands in front of the opened bedroom's door to protect the imps from entering the bedroom. Minjoon keeps swinging his sword... more imps come... until when it will be finished?

"It will make us tired! Come here!"

The man jumps closer to Minjoon while stretching his arm towards Minjoon, "grab my hand!"

Confused, Minjoon grabs the man's free hand. Then the man lifted up his sword. Minjoon widened his eyes as he saw a transparent wave going out of the sword to the room in front of them - it was a big wave which swept around the room. But the result makes Minjoon feel more shocked: suddenly everything goes slower - at least the imps which enter the apartment from the windows are moving slower. It feels like someone is just setting a scene from the movie to play two times slower than the usual.

"It won't last long, let's finish them up before the time is flowing again."

Whatever it is, Minjoon thought, I'll find out later. It's much easier for Minjoon to fight the imps now: he can even cut off two imp's head at the same time. Soon, all of the imps turned into ash and the ash disappeared. That all happened right before - Minjoon noticed the clock in front of him moving fast - they got back to normal time. 

"Wow, that was so cool! What is that?"

"Time control. But I'm using a lot of my energy," the man smiled.

"That's not bad at all."

A woman in black cloak just entered through the opened window. She is holding a bow in her hand and quickly shoots it. Minjoon and the man rolled away at the right time to different directions.

"But I think both of you are still no match for me."

"Who knows if we haven't tried?" asked the man, holding his sword once again.

She is waving her hands and a large bird appears from the mirror in the living room: it's a griffin! Minsook had told Minjoon that Princess Sungmi is an animagus too - she can turn into a griffin, and he explained about the griffin very detailedly. That makes him know that this must be a griffin, the legendary creature.

"Let me handle the griffin," said Minjoon.

In the next second, he turns into an alpha wolf and groans to the griffin. Soon, the both of them get involved in an intense battle and make the room messed up. Realizing the situation, when the griffin is about to attack Minjoon the wolf, Minjoon runs into the big mirror, followed by the griffin. The man and the woman in black cloak were immersed by the scene they saw, and when the two animals disappear into the mirror world, they go back into their senses. 

"That was intense. But I think our Air Guardian will win over the griffin. That is much too easy for him."

"And who are you? I have never seen you in this pack before. Are you a new guardian that the princess sent?"

"You're right. I'm another one of the Fire Guardians. Your presence made me realize that it must be you who made the illusion fire just now. You must be a really strong Fire Guardian."

"Cut off the talks. Let me test your level, you untrained guardian."

"Untrained, you say?"

The man quickly jumps towards the woman while drawing his sword, but the woman jumps away to shoot her arrow. The man parries the arrow with his sword - the arrow flies to the corner of the room. Then the man created a wave of his time control to her.

"Attacking shield!" she yells loudly.

The man widened his eyes and rolled away as he almost got hit by his own ability. The man keeps jumping and dodge to avoid the arrows, staying untouched as he is waiting for the attacking shield to blink. When it blinks for a very short time, he stabs his sword into the shield, right aiming at the woman's chest... the woman parries his attack with her bow. The clash of their weapons drew them backward, each of them to the end of the room. 

"How does it feel? If you keep dueling with me, I can find a way to attack you, no matter what."

"Or both of us will run out of energy," said the woman, "I'm willing to do that."

"Or you won't win because you're alone now, and there are the two of us here."

Minjoon comes back from the mirror, all sweaty but unscratched. He is holding his sword again, beside the man.

"Damn it. Just wait for my return."

Then the woman jumped away from the window. The man let out a long sigh.

"Look at this mess," said the man, his sword disappearing, "oh, right. Sorry I forgot to introduce myself to you. I'm Do Daejoon."

"Wait! That's why I think your face is familiar! How can I not know the popular actor Do Daejoon?"

Daejoon is laughing, his voice sounds so nice, "and you're Bang Minjoon, right? The entire Korea knows you too."

"It's so weird we meet like this, but it's still nice to meet you, hyeong."

"Right. Nice to meet you too, Minjoon. Are you alright? I heard you're injured."

"I'm far better today. But hyeong... you seem like you know a lot."

"I met a woman in my dream... is she the princess that the woman mentioned? And the princess pulls out red stones from my body... and she reminds me that I'm the Fire Guardian, ever since our past life a long time ago. So yeah, she briefed me about your condition that you might be alone today, and she set me up to stand by you."

"Thanks hyeong, I might not win over her if you aren't here."

"Don't mention it, Minjoon. But... Do you know what to do with this mess?"

"We can wait until Joochan hyeong comes back... he has almost the same power as the princess, so he can restore the situation."

"I will accompany you. I don't have anything to do today, anyway. Who knows the woman will come back... she isn't an easy opponent."

"But hyeong, you're so great too. It seems like you are already being trained for so long, but in fact you're a new guardian!"

"But I'm lacking in knowledge. Can you tell me all of the story? About us?"

"Sure hyeong, I will tell you everything I know!"

Minjoon and Daejoon's focus got distracted by the slight movement of Myungwoo's body. They also hear footsteps and look across the room - Sikyung is walking lazily while stretching her body.

"Hello Minjoon and we have a guest?" asked Myungwoo as he sat down, "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PLACE?"

"Wow... was there a disaster?" asked Sikyung while looking around in shock.

"Someone should restore this..."

"We can ask Joochan hyeong to do it when he comes back, hyeong," said Minjoon.

"Please tell him to do it..."

Everyone feels very disappointed as it seems like they can't find the king and queen. They left the volcano this morning and started walking inside the forest again.

"You guys should get back by 3 AM tomorrow," said Sungmi, "I'll continue until I can find them."

"Princess, we still have 4 hours to go," said Bonhwa, "we shouldn't give up. Let's go, we will search more thoroughly."

As Myungwoo gets back to the real world almost 6 hours ago, Bonhwa will be the temporary leader. He insisted on helping Sungmi to find the king and queen before they got back. It doesn't mean he doesn't trust the princess, but she looks so pale today and makes Bonhwa worried. They keep walking forward while looking around. But suddenly, something jumped from the darkness and blocked their way.

"Oh my... are they..." Minseong frozen on his feet, "chimera?"

There is a very weird creature in front of them: it has the head and front legs of a lion, right at the top of the lion's body, there is a head of a goat, including its rear legs; then at the back of this creature's body, instead of lion's tail - or goat's tail - it's being replaced by a black snake. So they have a three-headed enemy now. And it's not only one, they're facing 5 of them.

"This is your first time meeting a chimera," said Sungmi, holding her morning star, "its element is fire, so we need you a lot, Daesun. Its weakness is the goat part, so try to attack that. But be careful, the lion head can breathe fire, while the snake has venom. The venom is as strong as the basilisks'. Stay focused, everyone."

"We have no choice but to duel with each of them, right?" asked Daesun, preparing his bow and arrow, "Joochan, stay behind me, I'll give you the attacking shield."

"I'll run behind the shield to heal you guys if you need it. And need some animals to help us?" asked Joochan.

"A few lions sounds good, hyeong," said Minsook, reading his spell book while giggling.

"Everyone, charge!" shouted Bonhwa.

A battle is happening: Bonhwa stabs his trident fiercely and dodge from the chimera's fire; Minseong is talking loudly - but no one understands what he said, they only hear he hissing - while swings his ax, not long after, they can see a snake come - it makes Bonhwa shocked before he realized the snake is ACTUALLY helping them by the communication power of Minseong; Daesun start the battle by cast a shield to Joochan, then he jump to the tree and attacking using his arrows; Minsook is attacking his enemy with big ring form by a frost; Princess Sungmi is attacking the chimera with her morning star calmly; Joochan is looking around, looking for opportunity if someone need his healing ability, while communicating with weird language to call another animal: two lions come to help them. Just as predicted, Sungmi easily cuts off the goat's head - she makes the chimera groan loudly as it falls to the ground. Bonhwa stabs his trident several times to the lion's head, he can even ward the fire from the chimera using his trident - Bonhwa hyeong's level must be increasing a lot, Minsook thought - then stabs the goat head strongly. Minseong - with help from a snake dueling against the lion head - successfully cut off the snake's head together with the goat's head - a combo. Daesun is jumping away when the snake's head almost bite him - Joochan send the lion to help Daesun - his arrow stabs on the goat's back with critical hit - it's because of the water element he has is the opposite with the chimera's - when Daesun is rolling on the ground, but the snake's head is quite fast too, so it bites Daesun's left arm before it got defeated.

"Daesun hyeong!"

Joochan quickly goes to his side - the shield automatically protects the both of them - before he puts his hand on Daesun's wound to heal it.

"Wait," said Bonhwa, "where is Minsook?"

In between the fierce battle they had, they forgot about Minsook who was gone along with his enemy and a lion which was supposed to help him. They look around in confusion, they really can't find Minsook.

"Minsook hyeong, where are you?" Minseong shouting loudly.

"We should find him quickly," said Daesun, standing up as he fully healed.

"I'm here!"

Minsook appears from another side of the forest all alone, without the chimera and the lion.

"What happened?" asked Joochan while frowning, "where is your enemy?"

"Don't worry about that, I defeated it," answered Minsook, "and I found the king and queen! They are inside the cave there!"

Without saying anything, Sungmi leads the group to follow Minsook. They enter the cave not far from their fighting spot. Using their own weapon, they light up the cave, which is not too big. After walking around 5 minutes, they found the lion guarding around two middle aged people who were wearing royal clothes which are so dirty now: there is no doubt that they are the king and queen of the Darcy Country!

"King! Queen!" shouted Sungmi, throwing her weapon away as she kneels down in front of them.

"Sungmi! Are they guardians? This Darkness Guardian said he will take you to us. I'm glad to see you," said the King, looking tired but healthy.

"Yes, King, they are the guardians who I've awakened. I also awakened some warriors to help them," explained Sungmi, "the situation this time might be more dangerous than last time."

"We know about the situation," said the Queen.

"What happened to the castle and the other people?"

"A few days ago, we got a sudden attack. We know they might come from the Darkness Lord's side because we saw the leader of the attacker is a guardian. It's impossible if he is a good guardian," said the King, "we know you won't attack us."

"So that must be an evil guardian..."

"He is a darkness guardian and he is quite strong," said the Queen, "we ran away with some of our generals. They must be patrolling around here and some of them go to another country to seek help and spread the news."

"Did you pass by our villages on your way here?"

"We did. But there is nobody in the village... It's empty. I have a feeling that their side kidnapped your citizens."

"I'm a useless King... I feel sorry for my citizens," said the King, sounding sad. 

"No, you aren't, King. We can save them. We'll find and save them. I promise," said Sungmi.

"In order to do that, I know that you will need this."

The king and the queen put their hands together and for a second, there is a bright light forming on their hands and a while later, a sparkling ball appears there, shining bright green color. 

"Keep this. You all should win over them," said the queen.

The queen put the magic ball on Sungmi's hand.

"I promise you, king, queen. We won't fail. We will lock him forever this time, along with his companions."

Bonhwa opened his eyes, he needed a few seconds to fully understand where he was, before he sat and screamed loudly, "what happened?"

"Bonhwa hyeong, you've startled me!" Minjoon screamed, almost making the cup he held fall down.

Bonhwa, Minseong, Daesun, Minsook and Joochan awakened and sat down. Their faces look tired. Princess Sungmi appeared out of nowhere, by the time Myungwoo enters the apartment - he went to buy food for others.

"You all came back earlier than the scheduled time," said Sikyung, "and why is Sungmi here?"

"What happened to my apartment?" complained Minseong as he saw the mess, "and he is..."

"Another Fire Guardian," Sungmi is the one who answered while smiling at Daejoon.

"That's right, I'm the Fire Guardian..."

"Do Daejoon, right?" asked Daesun while widening his eyes.

"Right," Daejoon smiled, "I'm Do Daejoon."

"I awakened you at the right time then. And about this mess..."

"I can do it, right?"

Like a trained warrior, Joochan waves his hand while turning around 360 degrees, and suddenly all of the mess created by the battle happened a few hours ago, suddenly turns normal. 

Myungwoo clapped his hands, "amazing... our Warrior Leader." 

"And by the way, I also think about Sikyung noona's question just now, why all of you get back earlier? And why is Princess Sungmi here?" asked Minjoon in confusion.

"We found the King and the Queen," answered Minsook, standing up to stretch his body, "and princess Sungmi sent them to our country. They will be safer there."

"Wow, finally. I'm glad they're okay," said Sikyung happily.

"And I come here because we need to keep this."

Sungmi holding the shining magic ball.

Myungwoo widened his eyes, "is that the magic ball?"

"Right. We need to keep this in a very safe place."

"Do you think it's safer to keep it in our world, Sungmi?" asked Joochan.

"No. There are safer places than that. The power of four different element's guardians and a warrior can create an empty space which can only be opened by the same people who create it."

"There is a place like that?" asked Minjoon, his eyes on the magic ball.

"Yes. That's why I'm here. Myungwoo, you can choose four guardians and a warrior for it."

Myungwoo is looking around at his friends before he nods.

"I think I'll choose Sungmi, Bonhwa, Minseong and me from the guardian's part, then Sikyung for the warrior. Doesn't that sound good?"

"Don't choose me," said Sungmi, "you know I'm getting weaker."

"So we can't choose you because you're weak?" asked Bonhwa, "you're the strongest among us."

"If something happens to the guards of space... Let's say, if they die," said Sungmi, ignoring Sikyung who just screamed when she heard the word 'die', "you can't open the space anymore. You need the guard's element stone to open it. For warriors, you need their energy. So choose the one who likely won't die easily."

"Sungmi, don't mention death that easily," complained Sikyung, "we won't die, right?"

"We might, Sikyung," said Myungwoo calmly, "but I'll protect everyone so no one will die. It means including you, Sungmi."

Sungmi is smiling, "I know you're capable of protecting everyone, Myungwoo. But again... it's better to not choose me. It's not only because I'm getting weak. Once the enemy knows we have one magic ball already, they likely will hunt us intensely. And they will think exactly the same as Myungwoo thinks: the most powerful guardians must be the space's guards."

"For choosing me, I think that's the best," said Sikyung, "who will think I'll be the guard though, I'm not that strong. The enemy might think about Joochan oppa rather than me."

Myungwoo just about to change his mind when Sungmi nods her head, "right. Sikyung is the best from the warrior's side."

Myungwoo let out a sigh, he shouldn't put Sikyung into danger, but it seems too late to change his decision now. Can he exclude Minseong too?

"Keep me, hyeong," said Minseong, "no matter how dangerous it is, I'm strong enough. We also need a powerful guardian as the guard. Right, Princess?"

"I think we should keep Minseong, Myungwoo," said Sungmi, "Minseong is right. And he is the same powerful as you now. So you can rest assured."

"Alright then. Me and Minseong will. Then the other two..."

When Myungwoo was looking around, Sungmi stared at Minsook. This time will be different, right? Sungmi thought, he is the new person now... the result will be different. Even though it might be risky, Sungmi thought again, I'm willing to trust him again this time.

"I suggest Minsook rather than Bonhwa. Minsook is strong, but the enemy might not expect you'll choose a Darkness guardian as a guard."

Myungwoo stared at Minsook who kept nodding his head, "me! Choose me!"

"Okay, I think I'll take Minsook."

"And rather than me, I suggest Daejoon. Enemy might think you'll choose Bonhwa. Bonhwa is your vice leader, but Daejoon is strong too. He doesn't need a lot of training before becoming who he is now."

Myungwoo almost chose Minjoon if he doesn't have the same element as Minseong. 

"Right! I agree with Princess!" said Minjoon, his eyes sparkling, "you guys should see how he duels with the evil fire guardian just now!"

"Evil guardian came here?" asked Daesun, shocked.

"You said it's only Imps! You didn't even tell me about evil guardian!" shouted Sikyung, feeling betrayed.

"I'm sorry, I accidentally skipped that part, noona. But again, I think it's good to choose Daejoon hyeong, Myungwoo hyeong!"

Myungwoo nods, "alright. So me, Minseong, Minsook and Daejoon... and also Sikyung. Tell us how to create the space, Sungmi."

A while later, the five of them standing in a circle while holding hands: Myungwoo, Minseong, Minsook, Sikyung, then Daejoon. They shut their eyes as Sungmi holding her morning star towards the circle - she pulls the guardian's element stone out of their chest - while from Sikyung, her bow and arrow appear in front of her. The stone and weapon clash in the air and create a big round black space, like a black hole. The magic ball flies in the air before entering space. As the space's guard opened their eyes, the space disappeared, so did their stones and the weapon.

"To open the space again, you all need to gather again like today," said Sungmi, "so make sure no one gets hurt... until the day we should lock the Darkness Lord and his companion forever."

"We'll remember that, Princess," said Myungwoo.

"And by the way," said Minsook, "tell us the story about that evil guardian, Minjoon."

"And sleep after that, before we have a meeting tomorrow morning," ordered Myungwoo.

Three more, thought Myungwoo, we just need three more magic balls then we can end this chaos. It might not be as easy as he thinks, but to see more members being added into the pack makes him feel relieved. But at the same time, he wishes Sungmi to stay healthy too. Maybe if we can finish it faster, Sungmi won't get weaker... so we should hurry, thought Myungwoo. He decided to train more and become stronger to protect his beloved people.