[Novel] The Mirror [Chapter 7 (4/4)]

Minjoon, Hyunki, Joochan and Eunkyung are walking around nervously. They keep their eye on their friends who are still sleeping. 

"They are late," said Minjoon worriedly, "they should've come back here and changed shifts with us an hour ago."

"Do you think something happened to them?" asked Hyunki, who didn't rest for a moment since the morning.

"Where is Daejoon? Shouldn't he be here as a guard?" asked Joochan.

"Daejoon hyeong is guarding Sunsook, that evil guardian, somewhere in the mirror world."

"I hate to wait like this... I hope they are all okay," said Eunkyung while biting her nails nervously.

As Eunkyung finished her words, she screamed because Myungwoo just awakened along with loud groans.

"Myungwoo hyeong!" screamed Hyunki, quickly kneeling beside the sofa.

"Listen to me. We are in trouble. We should find a way out of a maze now. I can't debrief too much but there are many tricks in the maze," said Myungwoo in one long breath, "you can't change shifts with people in this world if you can't find the 'save spot' and I accidentally found it."

Joochan quickly kneeling beside Hyunki and put his hands on Myungwoo's wounded leg, "who can injured you like this..."

"It's okay, I'll guard here anyway. Minjoon, Hyunki, Joochan, three of you need to resume my journey. And don't get hurt," said Myungwoo while giving them his backpack, "the potions and I guess my mirror will be there now."

"Daejoon hyeong might can't join in our night shift, he is guarding the evil guardian," said Minjoon while hug the backpack.

"Then I hope Bonhwa and Daesun will be okay. Go now."

The three of them find a comfortable spot to sleep on. Now only Eunkyung and Myungwoo left. Myungwoo's leg is completely healed.

"Isn't it scary for you, noona?" asked Myungwoo.

"Well... it's unexpectedly not too scary," said Eunkyung while looking at the sleeping people, "I don't know much about it but... I feel excited that I can do something for this world, even if they don't know that I give a contribution for that."

"You're really brave noona. I'm so proud of you,"

"I'll do things that make you feel more proud of me, Myungwoo."

Hey but it won't happen, thought Minsook, as long as me, Minseong and Eunkyung noona aren't in one frame, that prophecy won't happen. Minsook is raising his staff towards hungry zombies in front of him, then casts a spell. His spell caused a ray from sky then it hit towards them. The zombies got burned by the ray. Minseong, jumping around the big hall, is having fun killing the zombies with his axe.

"Hyeong, what's that?" asked Minseong while pointing at a small pond in the corner after he killed the last zombie.

"I don't know, let's check on it."

Both of them are walking to the small pond which is shining. Minseong is about to touch it, but Minsook is holding his arm.

"No, let me check. It could be something bad."

Using his staff, Minsook touches the small pond, which is just enough for one person to stand in. The pond is reacting: it shines brighter for a while before it turns to its original form. 

"Maybe this is the 'save spot' which is mentioned by the sphinx," said Minsook, "it looks fine and not dangerous."

"Hyeong, it means you can go now," said Minseong, "go and change shifts with Eunkyung noona. I'll wait here. You know, even though zombies might appear again, I'll do fine if you're being quick."

"That's right, I'll do it quickly. But before that, I'm just curious."

"Yes, why hyeong?"

"That evil guardian. Do you know where the Princess hid her?"

Minseong is smiling, "when we fight the zombies, I communicate with Daejoon hyeong. Apparently, he is in the mirror world. He talked about a secret passage inside the castle. And I trust that as long as someone so strong like Daejoon hyeong is guarding her, everything will be fine. So don't worry about that hyeong."

"Alright. Wait here and stay safe, Minseong."

"If you happen to meet Myungwoo hyeong later," said Minseong, "tell him I'm fine."

"I will."

Minseong is walking around near the pond for the last five minutes while thinking about the others. Will everyone do fine? Has someone found the way out? Then his focus was broken by a shining pond: Eunkyung arrived with javelin on her hand.

"Minseong, I'm here as backup!"

Minseong giggling happily, "noona, you're a precious backup for me."

"So let's go find that damn way out and exit this damn maze?" said Eunkyung as she stepped out of the pond.

"Let's speed up, noona!"

Minjoon, Hyunki and Joochan stepped out from a shining pond one by one. They are being cautious as their surroundings are quite dark. 

"Joochan hyeong, please stay near us," requested Hyunki as he held his sword with both hands.

"There is no other way in front of us, we just need to march," said Minjoon.

Minjoon, holding his shining sword, leading the way. Slowly, they enter the first big hall. Soon after they entered it, the alley behind them got blocked. 

"One hundred percent the same as what Myungwoo told us," said Joochan, "then there must be an enemy here."

"I hope we'll get a light enemy, or at least only a few of them," hopes Hyunki.

"I don't think this maze will let us go that easily from what Myungwoo hyeong told us. Chimeras weren't a joke," said Minjoon, looking around cautiously.

"Oh what's that?" asked Joochan, rather sounding excited than scared, as he pointed forwards.

"Oh, not them AGAIN!" said Hyunki as he let out a long sigh.

From across the hall, eight cyclops are walking towards them. Still fresh in Hyunki and Minjoon's mind they got big trouble by the cyclops in the cave, even though there were only 3 of them last time, but this time, they got EIGHT and none of them is a young cyclops: all adult male cyclops with the size almost half of the hall's height, standing in front of them, and each of them are holding a big rock, behind them there are more rocks in store for them to throw.

"Damn it," cursed Minjoon, "Joochan hyeong, take cover while we finish up these creatures!"

"Take care and I'll try..."

Joochan has not yet finished his words, a rock being thrown at them and making Hyunki scream loudly as the three of them scatter. 

"EYE! THE EYE!" Hyunki screamed loudly as he bravely ran towards the group of cyclops.

Hyunki has been training hard these days so his speed increases a lot: rocks are flying around him but he is faster than those rocks: some rocks hit each other and break into smaller stones and some fall to his head but he doesn't bother to keep running. As one of the cyclops takes another big rock, Hyunki jumps bravely and stabs his sword towards its eye. The cyclops screamed loudly as its eye was bleeding, and it fell to the ground - creating a local earthquake.

"One fall, more to go!"

"Wow, Hyunki, level up!" screamed Joochan as he saw a big number 5 on the top of Hyunki's head turn into 6 before it fades away.

"Cool, let me showcase my talent more."

"I wanna fight too. Why did the princess not let me fight?"

All happen in a flash - Minjoon is using his teleport ability to grab Joochan by his arm then teleport again - to the other corner of the hall. 

"Please just focus on protecting yourself for now, hyeong," pleaded Minjoon, "you're our hope of safety."

"Oops, I'm sorry."

Minjoon jumps away again to slash a big rock before attacking the cyclops. Joochan is running here and there to avoid big rocks, but the sound of small squeaks distracted him. He runs to the source of the sound - another corner in the hall - where he found five small creatures - apparently it's a group of young griffins. The size of each of them is just a little larger than Joochan's palm, as he lifts up one of them, but he can feel its sharp claw. 

"Why are you guys here? Where is your mom? Outside of this hall? We can exit this hall if only we can defeat the cyclops," said Joochan to the griffin on his palm, "so will you guys help us? But don't get hurt. Even if it happens, come to me and I'll heal you."

Joochan is smiling widely as the small griffins fly high towards the cyclops and start to attack them fiercely despite their small size. 

"Hyeong, you DO fight!" complimented Hyunki as he and one of the griffins collaborate to attack one cyclops.

"I forgot at least I can talk with the animals," said Joochan while smiling proudly as one by one the cyclops defeated.

"KICHUL!"

Sungmi quickly jumps towards Kichul as he falls to the ground. Kichul is holding his bleeding arm as he quickly sits on the ground. Sungmi puts her palm on his wound to heal him. The situation doesn't look better for them: as they killed the wrong minotaur, they just duplicated more and there is almost no free space in the hall - except the rock where pale Sikyung is sleeping. 

"It is still hard for me to recognize the real minotaur," said Kichul, moving his now-healed-arm again.

"It's okay. Eventually, we can win over this. We can't just give up."

"Will Sikyung noona be okay?"

"I hope she will. Let's go," said Sungmi as she raised up her morning star, "let's combine our power and I'll lead us to find the real minotaur."

Kichul is standing up beside her and as he raised up his trident; his trident and Sungmi's morning star are forming an X form before Sungmi screamed, "COMBAT ATTACK!"

"What's that?"

Sikyung and Myungwoo are sitting next to each other. In front of them there is a pretty beach and it's dusk now. The sun is almost set and the view is so pretty, Sikyung almost can't take her eyes off of it as she leaned her sides on Myungwoo's sturdy side. But a loud voice just distracted her, so she turned her head around.

"What happened?" asked Myungwoo.

"I hear a voice. A familiar voice."

"I didn't hear anything. Maybe it's just in your head."

Sikyung frowned, "but I don't think it's just in my head."

"You just stressed out because of the war, Sikyung. But now it has ended."

Sikyung frowned more as she was thinking hard. Myungwoo's words might be true, but there is something that bothers her, even though she can't explain what it is. 

"Let me just check it," Sikyung decided before she quickly stood up.

"Sikyung!"

Sikyung ignored Myungwoo - even though her heart feels heavy to do it - and ran towards the source of the voice which she thought she had heard. She runs into a dense forest before she stops in front of a lake. She stepped forward and saw the surface of the lake - it's not water - but it's like a wide screen where the view makes Sikyung's eyes widened. She knows them: Kichul and Sungmi are fighting. Their power combination creates a powerful light which brushes the entire hall - and some creatures have fallen: minotaurs. Those fallen minotaurs have several wounds on their body, but the other minotaurs are looking fine. The old man behind them got killed by the powerful light.

"Kichul... Princess Sungmi..."

"That's only an illusion, Sikyung," said Myungwoo from behind her, "the lake is trying to deceive you."

Sikyung turned around and faced Myungwoo.

"No, there is something wrong about this place," she said, "Kichul and Princess Sungmi are in trouble, we must help them."

"You shouldn't get deceived, you must trust me."

Sikyung is looking at the lake again before looking at Myungwoo one more time. How if the lake is really deceiving her? Who will she trust: Myungwoo or the lake?

"Come on, hold my hand, and I'll take you to the castle and you can see that Princess is okay, so does Kichul."

Instead of holding Myungwoo's hand, Sikyung requested, "my bow and arrow."

"What?"

"My bow and arrow. Return them to me."

"Why would you need that now?"

"Myungwoo oppa, are you really there?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you're the real Myungwoo oppa, whether we are in trouble or not, you'll return me my bow and arrow. Why don't you return that to me? They are mine," said Sikyung, her voice shaking as she gathered up her courage, "are you the fake one?"

"Kang Sikyung! You really can't trust me?"

"Then return my bow and arrow!"

Myungwoo looks angry and he is holding his axe on his right hand, and before Sikyung could think more than she trust that no matter what, Myungwoo won't get mad of her if she just want her bow and arrow to be returned to her, she jumps into the pond. She might die. But she trusts she needs to take action, whatever is that.

"The wounded ones are the real minotaurs," said Sungmi, "now attack them!"

Two arrows just being shot right to two wounded minotaurs in front of Kichul - both of them screamed before falling to the ground - certainly dead. Kichul and Sungmi turned their heads around and found Sikyung standing on the rock with her bow and arrow on her hands - and not only that, a big number on top of her head just changed from 6 to 7.

"Sikyung noona!" shout Kichul happily.

"I'm back. What did I miss?" asked Sikyung while smiling widely, "I should attack the wounded one right?"

"That's right. Let's finish this up," said Sungmi while smiling too, "and welcome back!"

"Thank you, Princess! Let's go!"

Myungwoo and Minsook are guarding all night long, they can't rest even a blink. Myungwoo is staring at the face of his friends: some of them are sweating quite a lot, but aside from that, they don't seem wounded. But Myungwoo and Minsook are startled by the sound of the ringing bell. They looked at each other confusedly.

"It's still 2 in the morning, who might come at this time?"

"Let me find out. It won't be our enemy right, hyeong?" asked Minsook, "I mean, if they're our enemy, why should they ring the bell?"

They are laughing for a while before Minsook goes to the door. But just in case, he hides his staff behind his back. He looks at the small screen beside the door to check who is ringing the bell in front of the gate outside. There are two young men outside: they look tall and handsome. But what makes Minsook surprised is they're holding a weapon in their hands: the taller guy is holding a trident while the other guy is holding a magic staff. Both of the guys are looking confused as they stare at the camera outside.

"Myungwoo hyeong, I think... I think Princess has awakened a new guardian or warrior," said Minsook as he can't take his eyes off of the screen, "there are two of them. They don't look intimidating so I'm sure they're on our side."

"Open the gate, let them in."

The two men are looking at each other as the big white gate opens before them. They step into Bonhwa's big front yard carefully, as if expecting something would come to eat them alive. They get startled as the door opens and Minsook steps out from the house. Automatically, they straightened their hand while holding their weapon.

"Whoa whoa! Calm down," said Minsook as he raised his hand up - but the two of them staring at his staff on his right hand, "wait, I'm not here to attack you guys. Let me explain."

"We also need an explanation," said the taller guy with a trident.

"We don't know each other but we just met in front of the gate. Apparently, we dream of something weird," said the other guy.

"Did you guys meet someone pretty holding a morning star in your dream?"

"That's right," answered the tall guy.

"Welcome to the pack. Our leader is here so he will explain everything."

Once Minsook is sure they aren't the evil guardians, he steps into the house followed by the two guys.

"Hyeong, can you make sure if they're guardians or warriors?" asked Minsook as he entered the living room.

The scene before them is so messy as they see people lying down on the couch or floor, some of them not in a proper sleeping position. Myungwoo focused his eyes on their chest and he found their elemental stone there.

"Water Guardian and Earth Guardian, welcome," said Myungwoo, "I'm Kim Myungwoo, the Light Guardian."

"Oh right! The woman in my dream tell us to meet you, someone called Myungwoo," said the guy with magic staff, "I'm Jung Doyeon."

He offered to do a hand shake with Myungwoo and Minsook.

"But hey! I know them!"

Doyeon makes his staff disappear as he points to Daesun and Eunkyung.

"Aren't they the owner of CAKE AND BISTRO?"

"Right. How do you know them? And by the way, I'm Park Minsook."

"I'm the owner of Jung's Cafe."

"Oh, so the three of you are friends who have the same business..."

"We aren't friends. We are rivals," said Doyeon coldly.

"Well but now, the three of you are friends while we are fighting over these evil things," said Myungwoo, "and you are?"

"I'm Ga Doha," said the taller guy, "and apparently I know him. He is Choi Kichul, right? I'm his sunbaenim. Kichul has been helping me with sound projects for quite many times."

"Oh, so you're his sunbaenim, I heard a lot about you, hyeong!" said Minsook.

"So please give us an explanation about all of this," demanded Doyeon.

After introducing the two new guardians to the sleeping people, Myungwoo explained to them about the existence of the evil guardians and their mission.

"So now," said Doha, "everyone is trapped in the maze and we need to find the two way out in order to get the magic ball?"

"Right, that's the conclusion," said Minsook, "oh Myungwoo hyeong, look!"

As the four of them sat on the carpet, two small decorative mirrors appeared on Doyeon's and Doha's lap. Myungwoo reached out to grab the mirror.

"I think you two are supposed to join the journey shortly and I'm in charge of deciding which group that both of you should join," said Myungwoo, "but we need to wait for them to appear first before we can add you guys in."

"That sounds exciting," said Doyeon, "I wanna know what Daesun-ssi and Eunkyung-ssi can do."

"They must be stronger than you, hyeong," said Minsook.

"But sometimes new guardians or warriors can be stronger than us," corrected Myungwoo, "even you were stronger than me when you appeared for the first time, Minsook."

"Then can we check their capability?"

"That's what I want to do. I'll set up the training bubble. Doha, you can get in first. Let the power flow inside you and follow its order!"

Myungwoo stands up and with his axe, he creates a big transparent bubble. Doha carefully steps into the bubble. Soon, Myungwoo, Minsook and Doyeon are watching Doha fighting a bunch of transparent souls - ghosts. Doha looks quite skilful with his trident - he confidently stabs his trident to the ghosts who attack him fiercely. His trident is a black one, with unusual irregular three sharp ends, and an additional one small sharp stick in the middle of the right side of the trident's length. Then at one time, two ghosts tried to attack him at the same time through different directions. Doha ducked down and waved his trident on top of his head.

"Protecting Shield!"

A big blue bubble protects him from the attack and prevents the ghosts from touching him.

"Oh good! You have protecting shield ability!" shout Myungwoo happily.

Doha wins over the ghosts and they can see a big number 6 on top of his head. The big bubble disappeared as soon as Doha won the battle.

"It's good, hyeong, we don't have anyone with protecting shield ability yet," said Minsook while clapping his hands, "I'll tell you more about this ability later after we see Doyeon hyeong's battle."

"Let's get it on," said Doyeon, "can you give me a harder enemy?"

Myungwoo smiled before he said, "this is just the beginning so I'll give you ghosts too, hyeong."

Doyeon looks more confident than Doha: he doesn't hesitate to make the magic book appear on his hands before he casts powerful spells towards them and easily annihilates them. When he faces more danger, he jumps lightly to the sky...

"Wait, that's not jumping!" screamed Minsook, "he is flying!"

Doyeon flies lightly inside the bubble as he keeps casting spells, as if he has a pair of invincible wings.

"So he is the guardian who can fly who was mentioned by the Princess before," said Myungwoo.

Doyeon stretches his magic staff - the brown balls on the end of his-looking-heavy-staff shining once again - then the ghosts in front of him are slowing down - before he attacks them with a bunch of sand covering them for a while before eating the whole of them. 

"And that's time control ability!" screamed Minsook as he clapping his hands, "I saw Daejoon hyeong did that before!"

As the battle ends, they can see number 10 appear on the top of Doyeon's head.

"No wonder. Doyeon hyeong is so strong," said Myungwoo.

"I've told you the enemy is too easy for me," said Doyeon.

"You'll meet the real enemy soon, hyeong."

Myungwoo is looking around his friends: which group should he put Doha and Doyeon in? 

"Can Doha and Doyeon hyeong be here later in the morning and night? And just in case, tomorrow?"

"I have things to settle in the working hour, but I can join here at night and tomorrow too," said Doha, "let me make sure the thing will be finished today."

"For me, I can directly be here, but tomorrow I need to stay in the cafe," said Doyeon.

"Alright, so let me think..." said Myungwoo while looking around one more time, "when Bonhwa's group finds a save spot, I believe Bonhwa needs to come back and go to the company. He'll join us again at night. At this state, we still need Daejoon to take care of the evil guardian, so basically, Daesun will be alone in the morning, until we can switch Daejoon with... maybe Minjoon at night. That will be dangerous for Daesun. So, let's put Doyeon hyeong in Bonhwa's group, since hyeong is strong."

"Good thinking, hyeong," said Minsook while nodding his head.

"Minsook, I believe Minseong and Eunkyung noona will come back this morning, and you are likely to be alone tomorrow, will you be okay? I wanna put Doha in your group but I think he needs some light training first. If we need extension time tomorrow, I'll send him in with you."

"Hyeong, you can trust me. The enemy isn't that hard too in our group, to be honest. So, don't worry, I can do it alone!"

"I trust you, Minsook."

Minsook is a 9th level guardian, he will be okay, thought Myungwoo.

"So for now, I should leave first," said Doha, "I'll come back here later at night."

"Stay safe, Doha."

Minsook is sending Doha off before he comes back to the inside of the house.

"Hyeong, do you, perhaps, have sleeping problems? To go into the mirror world, except using a mirror, we need to sleep before that," explained Myungwoo.

"That's... I think I need sleeping training," said Doyeon while laughing.

"Minsook is very skillful, he will train you," Myungwoo is laughing too.

"Come, come hyeong, let me tell you how to fall asleep easily."

A while later, they all got startled by the sound of someone cursing loudly. Bonhwa awakened while sweating a lot. Myungwoo ran faster to his side.

"What happened?" asked Myungwoo in panic.

"Damn I just killed eight ogres and they were so aggressive. What time is it?" asked Bonhwa confusedly, "and who is he?"

"Now it is four in the morning and he is our new Earth Guardian, Jung Doyeon. Doyeon hyeong, this is Fire Guardian, Cho Bonhwa," said Myungwoo fast, "where is Daesun?"

"We went our separate ways and now I'm worried about him. But I remember you said we should go back whenever we can and our real world schedule is important too," said Bonhwa, "but damn I'm really worried about him. Should I get back?"

"No Bonhwa, you need to rest then go for your schedule. We have Doyeon hyeong with us, he is strong and he can find Daesun. Right, hyeong?"

"So I'll be alone until I meet Daesun? I wonder what he will talk about when we meet again. So I think I should hurry?" asked Doyeon.

Doyeon is lying down on the carpet and he tries to sleep with Minsook's help.

"Now you need to sleep, Bonhwa."

"While waiting for your shift, you also need to sleep, hyeong," said Bonhwa, "look at that dark circle under your eyes."

"I can't sleep. I'm worried about everyone."

"I know you will say that, but what's the point of you being worried all night? You need to gather your energy then go fight again and win over the maze."

"You're right Bonhwa."

"Come on, we can rest together for now. Minsook, you go to sleep too."

"I'll sleep once Kichul hyeong is here. Please, you two go to sleep first," said Minsook, "Doyeon hyeong is going now."

Myungwoo obediently goes to Bonhwa's bedroom with Bonhwa, while praying their suffering in the maze will end soon.