[Novel] The Mirror [Chapter 6 (2/4)]

"Hi Minjoon, welcome back," greet Daesun as he sees Minjoon is the first person who awakens.

"How's the condition there?" asked Bonhwa, who just changed from the formal attire to a sweater.

"Take off that sweater, hyeong, it will be hot there. Even though Princess Sungmi said you might like the hot weather," said Hyunki, the second person who came back.

Bonhwa goes to his room again. Sikyung just woke up too, she yawned widely.

"I need a fresh drink now. By the way, we had passed the hardest part of the hiking mountain range and fought cyclops. And now you guys just need to walk on the grassland. We found no creature after the cyclops though," reported Sikyung.

"Whatever is that, that's really sound interesting," said Joochan, his eyes sparkling in delight.

"Keep that spirit high, Joochan," laughed Daesun, "I will go to the cafe tonight and will be back tomorrow morning."

"By the way, Daesun hyeong, do you know one thing?" asked Daejoon, "my little brother is working in your cafe as a barista."

"Oh, I read your profile and it said you have a little brother," said Bonhwa, who already changed his clothes into a T-shirt, "but he is working in Daesun hyeong's cafe?"

"That's right, Bonhwa hyeong."

"Wait. Who is that? Do we have..." Daesun stopped and thought hard, "no way, is he Chungmoo? Do Chungmoo? We only have one barista with Do as his family name!"

"Right, it's Chungmoo. Please take care of him well for me," said Daejoon, giving his eye-smile as he is smiling.

"He is our most popular barista so of course, I'll treat him well."

"Can I join your car, Daesun hyeong?" asked Minjoon.

"Sure, let's go. You guys better get going or the others might feel worried."

A minute later, Bonhwa and Joochan already sleep to go to the mirror world, while Sikyung and Daejoon are guarding them. Minjoon is joining Daesun to go by car, while Hyunki chooses to use the subway to go in another direction.

"So, did you overhear anything?"

It's always this dark outside of the ruined dark castle. The man in a white cloak is just talking to a black cat which just jumps from the darkness. In a sudden, the cat turns into a human, a handsome fine young man with charming slanted eyes. 

"I'm sorry, hyeong, there isn't much that I overheard. I can make sure they aren't in Myungwoo's apartment anymore," said the cat man.

"I'm sure they aren't stupid to stay in that place anymore after that failed ambush. We must find their hideout now and launch a better ambush."

"But I heard they are going to Fred Country this time."

"Fred Country... interesting. I'll do something with the rulers there then, and prepare a gift for them. And to find their hideout... I think you should follow one of them. You have seen all of them, anyway."

"Kim Myungwoo, Cho Bonhwa and Gam Hyunki, all are working in XTREME ART company," said the cat man, "Kim Minseong, an idol; Lee Daesun, the cafe owner; Park Minsook and Choi Kichul, an university student; Bang Minjoon, a model; and a photographer named Kang Sikyung."

"Two new warriors just joined them."

"I haven't seen them but I heard one of them is a skillful fire guardian."

"You're right. He is on the same level as our guardian. So beware of him. And I'm sure Sungmi doesn't have much time left. Let's suppress them more and she will use her remaining energy. We can launch an attack when she is gone. Now, do you have a plan to find out and follow one of them?"

"I will follow Lee Daesun."

"Oppa, please let me do something too."

A girl just appeared out of nowhere.

"Let me follow Kim Minseong. It's not hard to find his position."

"But you must be extra careful. His level is far beyond yours now. Please don't get hurt like last time."

"Maybe I can take some creatures with me, just in case I need their help."

"Sure. And take some absorber stones too."

"I'll report to you soon, hyeong."

And a while later, the girl in black cloak jumps into the darkness, followed by a black cat.

"What place is this?" asked Bonhwa while looking up, "and it's not that hot in this forest."

Everyone, except Sungmi, is busily looking around. They just entered a forest a while ago and the forest was lit up by a lot of fireflies. There are many little tree houses hanging up in the trees and little shining bulbs are hanging there. 

"It's an elves' village. We don't know if they are on our side or not, but usually they aren't very hostile. Hide your weapon, they won't like it if they sense danger from outsiders like us."

"The road in front is very dark, do you still wish to pass here?"

Suddenly, they can hear a voice out of nowhere. The voice is echoing in this pretty forest. 

"No matter how dark it is, we need to pass through this to save this world," said Sungmi.

Jumping down from the tree, an elf is suddenly standing in front of Sungmi. His eyes are blue and he has long blonde hair which is tied by a green ribbon. He has a pointed nose and a handsome facial structure. He is wearing a green suit with a pair of brown boots. On his back, they can see a stack of arrows and he is holding a bow on his left hand. They can feel his aura which makes them feel peaceful. It must be not an ordinary elf, guessed Kichul.

"Prince Bialaer Adwynn," said Sungmi as she bowed a little.

"I'm here to remind you about the upcoming battle. I can see death, not only one, but a lot of souls will be lost because of it," said the prince, his voice sounds so beautiful, "but the decision is in your hands. We, as elves, don't care about the outer world."

"You will start to care if the Darkness Lord is back."

"We won't. We still remember the war in the past and we won't let the precious elves' souls be sacrificed again. Even though we won the battle, the sacrifice is too big."

"It's okay, we won't beg for your help," said Sungmi, her voice sounds calm but cold, "we would be glad if you would send your reinforcements for us one day, but for now, just let us go peacefully will give us a big help."

"I know what you are after," said Prince Bialaer, "but the King won't give you their magic ball for free. And before you, we saw some people pass through this way too. They might meet the King first before you can reach him."

"Then they must be the evil guardians. So if your information is correct, we are in a hurry now. Thank you for your hospitality but we need to move now."

"I can let you pass through here, with or without a reward."

"A reward? Suddenly you offered us a reward? You said the elves won't help us."

"It's my personal reward for you, the guardians and the warriors. You will like this," Prince Bialaer takes out a bottle from his pocket, "you know this, Princess Sungmi."

Prince Bialaer is holding a transparent glass bottle which contains bright orange liquid. The liquid is sparkling as if there are fireflies inside of it. Myungwoo realized that Sungmi widened her eyes.

"Elixir of life," said Sungmi, she can't hide the surprise feeling in her voice.

"Right. Like I said, there will be many souls lost in the battle, but at least you can save one. And you will need this. So, do you accept my challenge? If not, I'll just let you pass through our village too, of course."

The guardians and Joochan are gasping as they know how important the elixir is. Sungmi turns around to the group.

"Should we accept this?" she asked them.

"Can we know what the challenge is first?" asked Myungwoo.

"I can only accept a yes or no before I give you the mission," said Prince Bialaer.

"Let's just accept it, Princess. Whatever is the mission, let's try to do it," said Kichul, followed by the "yes" from the others.

"Okay, we will do it. Now tell us the mission," said Sungmi, and she turns to the Prince again.

"The warrior leader Hwang Joochan, you are the chosen one."

"Me?" asked Joochan while pointing at his nose, while the others were gasping.

"You are the healer and the zoolinguist, we have mission for you to heal some injured animal out there, in the Morindare Grove," Prince Bialaer pointing to the North, "you will head there, heals the injured animals without being killed."

"No way. You don't send our warrior leader there. He can't fight," said Sungmi with a loud voice.

"I'm not scared to go into a forest, just give me a lantern with eternal fire maybe," said Joochan while smiling.

"It's not an ordinary forest, Joochan. That's a place where the minotaurs and dark druids are living. You can't win over the minotaurs by power, and you can't fight the dark druids' magic. It's too dangerous."

"For the sake of the elixir, I'm willing to accomplish the mission, Princess."

"But Joochan..."

"I will be okay. I promise."

"Can you choose another person, Prince Bialaer?"

"No, I have chosen him," said the Prince, "are you ready, Joochan?"

"I'm ready," said Joochan while stepping forward.

Prince Bialaer is smiling at Joochan.

Daesun is yawning widely. It's already 1 and it's time to close the cafe. The employees help with the closing of the cafe then one by one bid goodbye to him and Jung Eunkyung. Jung Eunkyung is the cafe owner alongside Daesun. She is a pretty woman with a lot of charm, but she can be really strict at the same time. Daesun already considered her as his own big sister.

"You seem so tired tonight. Are you sure you wanna drive?" asked Eunkyung.

"I will go to my friend's house but I think I'll just use the subway," answered Daesun, "noona is right, I'm too sleepy to drive."

"Do you want me to take you to that friend's house?"

"No, it's okay noona. It's late and his house isn't in the same direction as yours."

"Okay, you can just go now and let me finish up with the closing here."

"Alright. And by the way noona, I won't come for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Will you be okay with that?"

"Don't worry, I'll be here then to control the situation. Be careful on your way!"

"Thank you and see you, noona!"

Daesun stepped out of the cafe while yawning. He hasn't even gone to the mirror world yet but he feels so exhausted as if he is using his energy for useless things. I should be fit because I will go to the mirror world in the morning, Daesun thought, should I sleep at my house first and go to Bonhwa's house one hour before the time? Daesun kept thinking that he should just go home while walking to the subway station.

Eunkyung is checking everything one more time.

"Okay, I think I can close it now."

Then a phone rang, but Eunkyung realized it's not her phone which was ringing. There is a light from a phone on the bar counter. Eunkyung stepped closer to find out that it's Daesun's phone being left. Some pop-up messages appear on the screen from someone named Sikyung.

Oppa, what time will you come back here?

Can I ask you to help me to buy some spicy ramyeon?

I can't believe the spicy one is empty here in Bonhwa oppa's house.

Hyunki must be the one who eats it all... I'll kill him.

"I should give this phone back to him... hopefully he isn't far yet."

With a lot of questions inside her head, Eunkyung left the cafe locked.

"No no no... why did you change your direction?"

Daesun blinks and his brain works slowly. There is someone in black cloak in front of him. He just turned around after he finally decided to just go home with Eunkyung, to his apartment. 

"Who are you?" asked Daesun, trying to ignore the weakness he can hear from his own voice.

"Where are the other friends of yours? I wanna know their hideout. Tell me."

"Are you the evil guardian? No... I won't tell you anything."

"Then you will die here. You are alone, what can you do?"

The man is waving his spear and in between them, a big bird appears. Daesun knows it isn't just a simple bird and he has seen Sungmi turn into this animal several times: it's a griffin. 

"You forget that I can fight."

This place is quiet, Daesun feels relieved about it, that maybe humans won't see weird things happen here. He takes out his bow and aims it to the griffin. The griffin is flying high and Daesun released the arrow... but it missed the target. He blinks. Something is wrong with me, he thought.

"The more you use the energy, the faster you'll die," the man said.

Daesun can see a green aura on the man's right hand. What is that? Daesun thought, I don't know anything about it. The griffin charged downward and Daesun tried to dodge, but the griffin's claw scratched his left leg, leaving a long scratch on his thigh. Blood soon flowed out of the wound.

"My speed... I'm getting slow. What happened to me?"

"Like I told you. If you tell me where the guardians' hideout is, I might spare your life."

"I won't betray them for my life."

"Then the life of the only water guardian they have will end here."

As he waves his spear, the griffin charges again.

"ATTACKING SHIELD!"

Daesun's shield is too weak to protect him like how it should be, but at least the griffin bounced backward as it hit the shield, it screamed in pain. But the bubble quickly disappeared as if Daesun had no power to control the shield.

"Your life will end here. I'm so sad to do it to you, you were so nice to me, but you should die for the greater cause."

"STOP IT! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?"

At the end of the road, suddenly Eunkyung appears. She looks terrified after she sees the griffin and the injured Daesun on the ground.

"No, noona, run!"

"Because you witnessed it, you should die too."

"NO, EUNKYUNG NOONA!"

The griffin flies low again before charging quickly to Eunkyung.

"NO! ATTACKING SHIELD!"

Daesun tried to cast the shield to Eunkyung - he doesn't care Eunkyung will know who he is later - but he failed. He is too weak to stand up and run to protect Eunkyung. But something unexpected happens: Eunkyung screams and she uses a javelin on her hand to stab towards the griffin. The griffin was at high speed and didn't expect its target to fight back - the javelin stabs on its lower body. As the griffin screamed, it flew away with wounds on its lower body where the javelin is stuck there.

"What is that..." Eunkyung is staring at the griffin with mouth open.

She raised up her hand and the javelin was pulled from the griffin's body and landed softly on her palm. The javelin is light and warm on her palm, it has sharp pointed metal on the tip - full with the griffin's blood. 

"Eunkyung noona... are you..." said Daesun while widening his eyes.

It looks like not only Daesun who is shocked, even the man in the black cloak and the griffin is also shocked. Daesun can see a blue aura around Eunkyung as she quickly runs to Daesun's side.

"Daesun, are you okay?" she touch Daesun's thigh, "it's bleeding. Let's go to the hospital."

"Who will let you go there?"

It seems like the man is already back to his senses, so he ordered the griffin to attack both of them again.

"ATTACKING SHIELD!"

This time the red bubble appeared covering both Daesun and Eunkyung. The griffin screamed in pain once again as it bumps the shield. 

"Noona, listen, I might can't protect us too long but tell me, what else can you do?"

"I... I don't know. Who am I? What is this javelin for?"

And as Daesun looks down on his wound, where Eunkyung put her palm just a minute ago, the wound has completely disappeared. There was only his broken jeans drenched by blood, but nothing else.

"Where is the wound?" asked Eunkyung in shock.

"Noona, it means you're a healer. And your javelin means you're one of us... I think you might be a water guardian. Let's go, noona, let's fight the griffin even though I'm not sure we can win... let's just do what we can."

"You owe me an explanation... if we can stay alive."

As the shield's bubble popped, Daesun and Eunkyung were standing next to each other, both ready with their weapons.

"Alright, let me see how much both of you can do."

The man in black cloak steps into the darkness as the injured griffin once again flies in front of them. Daesun starts attacking with his arrow, Eunkyung throws her javelin and retrieves it - even though it's still missed the target, it hits the trees or wall near them, while they try to dodge the griffin as fast as they can. For her first battle, Eunkyung is doing so well, her speed is also good. Daesun is using his telekinetic power to raise a lot of stones and throw them towards the griffin, but he feels his power is getting weak.

"Daesun, be careful!"

Daesun was trying to dodge the griffin's attack but the griffin grabs Daesun by his waist and brings him flying up to the sky. 

"NO! LET HIM GO!"

"Are you sure you want the griffin to let him go? He will die if he falls from that height," said the man in black cloak while laughing.

"But he..."

The griffin's claw grabs Daesun so tight and it starts wounding his waist. Eunkyung is screaming furiously as she can't touch Daesun to heal him. She aims at the griffin with her javelin.

"Noona, just throw it! It's okay, I won't die, I can hold it! I better fall down than stay here!"

"But... but Daesun..." Eunkyung is shaking her head, her eyes are teary.

All of a sudden, something falls to the ground from Daesun's body: a black stone as big as an adult's fist.

"Ah damn it... I haven't absorbed enough energy," said the man in black cloak, "but what I get is quite enough for me to have a fight with this untrained guardian."

And there is something changed inside Daesun's body - he doesn't feel as weak as before. As Eunkyung was still frozen on her spot and the man in black cloak focusing to check on his own body, Daesun re-appeared his bow and arrow. He aimed it at the griffin's body.

"At least I won't die in vain," he said, as he released his arrow right to where the heart of the griffin was located.

Eunkyung is screaming; the man in black cloak is looking up in shock; the griffin screaming loudly as the arrow hits its heart and the blood quickly bursting out, it lets go of Daesun from its claw. He can feel he fall fast... if it's the end of his life... at least he saved Eunkyung from the griffin. Goodbye... Eunkyung noona...