[Novel] The Mirror [Chapter 8 (4/6)]

"March!"

Daejoon screams excitedly as a new alley has opened. Daesun is smiling: he is glad Daejoon and Doyeon are accompanying him now. He can see how powerful these two people are, even no one got injured after they fought several manticore in their latest battle. But our energy is drained out, Daesun thought, so we should find the way out quickly. 

"I'm getting sick of this maze," said Daesun as they're running forward in darkness. 

"How long have you guys been in this maze?" asked Doyeon.

"As you can see hyeong, I just joined this in the night shift," said Daejoon, "I have a task to guard the captured evil guardian before this."

"I joined this yesterday. But originally, we entered the maze two days ago," explained Daesun.

"Gosh, that must be stressful. Imagine being in this darkness for several days," cursed Doyeon.

"Myungwoo hyeong has been here since we first entered the maze," reported Daejoon, "he just rested for a shift, that's even night time in our world."

"We should find the way out quickly," said Daesun as they entered another big hall.

"What's next? I'm excited to meet a new creature," said Doyeon while getting ready with his staff.

"So far, the creatures I meet are always the tough ones."

"Come and get us. It won't be that easy anymore, ever since we are accompanying you, Daesun hyeong," said Daejoon while smiling widely. 

"You look so motivated, Daejoon."

"Maybe hyeong doesn't know this," said Daejoon, "so before I come join in the maze, I go back to the real world for a while and I meet two new warriors."

"Another new warrior after me and Doha?" asked Doyeon.

"Right. Both of them are females. They are Bonhwa hyeong's sister and another one is... my sister," Daejoon smiled widely as he explained this.

"Wait! To know that Bonhwa hyeong's sister is joining us is already surprising! And now your sister too?" asked Daesun, who couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes! And I hope somehow my younger brother will join us too. I have one more younger sibling."

"Well, who knows? I heard Princess Sungmi always makes surprises? I haven't met her in person," said Doyeon.

"I hope you can meet her soon, hyeong. She is so amazing. She is our shield. You should see when she is fighting with her morning star... and when she is transformed into a griffin!"

"I really can't wait for that moment."

"And here he comes... our next opponent," said Daesun, getting ready with his bow.

In front of them, three tall creatures appeared. Daesun and Daejoon know it so well that their opponent is a demon, but there is something different about them this time: their horns, which are usually white, are now in gold color, so does their trident in gold color. 

"Brief me about this creature. But don't they look like demons?"

"They are demons," answered Daejoon, "but I don't like the fact that they have golden horns now. They might be upgraded or what."

"Since the usual one has a light element as weakness, we never know this one now."

"Let's take one each," decided Daesun.

"Don't get hurt. I mean, let's have fun!"

Doyeon is flying to the farthest corner followed by a demon. Since Doyeon never fought against a demon before, he got surprised as the demon teleported behind him and stabbed its trident to Doyeon's back. 

"Doyeon hyeong!" screamed Daejoon.

But before Daejoon or Daesun could check on Doyeon's condition, the other two demons teleported in between them, and both of them stabbed their trident too. Daejoon rolls to dodge the trident, while Daesun, even a bit late, manages to only get a scratch on his arm before successfully dodge away. Now each of them have their own opponent. Daesun tries to look at Doyeon again, but before he could do that, the demon is attacking him again - with a high speed. Daesun didn't have time to aim his arrow - just one arrow being shot - but it didn't hit the teleporting archdemon. Luckily Daesun rolls away from the arch demon. 

"Try to gather them and I'll cast time control!" screamed Daejoon from another corner.

"But they keep teleporting and it's so annoying!" replied Doyeon, it seems like he doesn't get hurt a lot.

"And your energy, Daejoon! Do you have enough energy?" asked Daesun, shot two arrows towards the archdemon - and it missed again. 

Daejoon is blinking once and the blue energy bar appears: it shows 42/100. His energy shouldn't be under 10 if he still wishes to attack with his sword. But since I might have no need to do any telepathy, I can do the maximum three times time control, Daejoon is doing a quick count in his brain, I know we don't have chocolate anymore but I can take this risk to save us. 

"I can do it three times!"

"And three more times also from me!" screamed Doyeon.

"Oh right, Doyeon hyeong can do it also, you might not know it yet!" said Daesun as he finally shot an arrow which injured the archdemon's shoulder.

"Good to hear that! Let's trick them now!" ordered Daejoon.

As Daejoon says "now": Doyeon flies towards the center, Daejoon is running towards the same direction while Daesun rolls on the ground avoiding the fierce stab from his opponent. The three of them almost bump into each other but with a good reflect, Doyeon hold one of Daesun and Daejoon's arms with both hands and pull them away - flying to the mid-air - and the archdemon gathering in the center of the hall - certainly too late to understand the guys' strategy.

Daejoon thrust his sword forward and screamed, "time control!"

The transparent wave hit the archdemons perfectly: their movement became slower.

"This is the perfect time!" screamed Daesun as he quickly aimed and shot three arrows.

One of the arrows hit Doyeon's archdemon on his chest, the other two hit his archdemon on both legs. Daesun spots smoke from the scar on Doyeon's archdemon, while his archdemon only has a normal scar - his legs are bleeding now and he looks angry.

"I think I know something. Maybe this upgraded demon now has an element as their power. I bet that Doyeon hyeong's demon has fire as the element since my attack create a bigger damage."

"Then your demon is only bleeding not much, hyeong?" asked Daejoon as they landed on the ground.

"Then maybe its element isn't fire, and the other one, we also don't know about its element," said Doyeon while thinking hard.

"I'll attack your demon, hyeong, since I'm a water element guardian. Both of you try the others... run!" screamed Daesun.

It looks like they were discussing too much and forget that the effect of time control has finished and the archdemon chases them angrily. There is no time to trap them again, thought Daejoon. He swings his sword towards his original target but the demon is teleporting again. Daejoon cursed loudly. Doyeon is now fighting over Daesun's original archdemon. He try to cast a powerful yet shining bolt towards it, but it manages to dodge it with its trident - but the bolt hit Daesun's archdemon and made it got electrified for a while. Daesun laughed and easily hit his archdemon with two more arrows. Daejoon saw that Daesun is hitting his archdemon again, now trying to attack his archdemon again.

"Time control!"

His archdemon is hit by his ability and he swings his sword - it hits the archdemon's stomach - but the damage isn't that big. The attack only leaves a long scar without making it bleed too much.

"Damn it, it mustn't have a water element."

"Then this one must be a demon with the water element that you're looking for!"

Doyeon just attacks his archdemon with an ice bolt, it hits the archdemon perfectly, but it doesn't leave any scar on its body. 

"Exchange opponent and try that archdemon which we don't know the element with your magic spell again, hyeong!" suggested Daesun.

But Daesun's archdemon just stabbed his trident towards Daesun's face. Daesun dodge, but not too fast, so it leaves a long scar on his cheek. 

"Daesun!" screamed Doyeon after he flew away from the archdemon's attack.

"Don't worry hyeong, it's just a little scar!"

Daejoon is jumping to attack Doyeon's archdemon with his sword - it almost hit it if the archdemon didn't ward it with its trident. 

"I'm getting sick of you," cursed Daesun.

He turned around and shot three arrows towards his archdemon. But he missed it as the archdemon is teleporting further. Daesun is screaming in frustration. Doyeon is searching through his spell book quickly.

"Let me try the earth element spell now... quicksand!"

Luckily, both his archdemon and Daejoon's archdemon are standing quite close to each other, so his spell hits them. The ground under them suddenly melted and sucked their feet slowly. Doyeon has a feeling that the archdemon might escape since they can teleport, but it seems like it's hard for them to teleport as they are being sucked inside. As they're being sucked until their waist, the situation is being a chaos: Daejoon's archdemon is teleporting to behind him, but Daejoon is fast and he turned around to swings his sword - it hit the archdemon's chest - but it also stabbed its trident towards Daejoon and it's being stabbed on his healthy arm; Doyeon push his archdemon's head with his staff while screaming "you die!" and after a while, his archdemon sinked and the ground turns to normal again, leaving no trace of a quicksand a minute ago; Daesun wards the archdemon's attack with his bow before thrusting its chest with an arrow - it creates smoke from the scar. Doyeon is checking on Daesun and sees his archdemon fall to the ground and change into an ash then quickly turns to Daejoon. Daejoon falls to the ground while holding his sword with his left arm to parry the archdemon's trident - but his arm is shaking because it's bleeding; Daesun aiming his arrow towards the archdemon.

"Time control!" Doyeon casts the time control one more time.

As the wave hit the archdemon, Daesun shot his arrow perfectly into his hand. It doesn't cause any injury but it sure makes the archdemon shocked and his trident got thrown away. Taking advantage of this moment, Doyeon throws three fireballs in consecutive directions and it makes the archdemon burn. It screams until it turns into ash. Daesun and Doyeon sit tiredly on the ground, then the three of them are looking at each other. Daejoon got injured on both of his arms; Doyeon got injured on his back; Daesun got a scratch on his left arm - this isn't much, but the scar on his right cheek looks deep and keeps on bleeding. 

"It's a tough one, finally," said Daejoon while laying on the ground.

"It's not stopping..." Daesun let out a long sigh and tore up the hem of his shirt to wipe the blood on his cheek, "the effect of the opposite element."

"I can cast a heal spell. It won't work much but at least it can stop the blood, I think," said Doyeon as he steps closer to Daesun.

"How about everyone's energy?"

"I can heal Daejoon a bit too."

"Don't waste your energy too much, hyeong."

"My energy is 31 now... and my health is still 77... it's okay Doyeon hyeong, don't do anything to me. We can rest for a while here before we advance," said Daejoon then he shut his eyes.

Daesun is checking on his condition as Doyeon casts a light healing spell on his cheek, "My energy is still 70 and my health is 69..."

"Mine is 21 now and for health, it's 87," said Doyeon, ignoring the stings on his back.

"Let's rest for 30 minutes and save our healing potions for later," decided Daesun.

His cheek has now stopped bleeding and now that they decided to take a rest for a while, the three of them are laying on the ground. They hope that they can find the way out as soon as possible.

Joochan just woke up from his long nap. He blinks his eyes to see his surroundings. Half an hour ago, Minjoon already left since he said he should become the evil guardian's guard. Then he, Myungwoo and Hyunki march forward - the fought five manticores - Hyunki gets injured here and there but he has healed him before they found the next save pond. He will have an important schedule in the morning and after he makes sure Hyunki and Myungwoo will be okay ("Of course I'll be okay, Myungwoo hyeong is with me," said Hyuki), he uses that pond to get back to their world.

"Joochan hyeong, you're back."

Kichul is the first person who greets him with his bright smile while bringing a cup of chocolate to him.

"Thank you, Kichul."

Joochan is looking around, hoping that he could see Sungmi. Because it has been 3 hours since Sungmi left the maze. But he can only see Bonhwa, Minseong, Kichul, Eunkyung, Doha and a young girl he doesn't know.

"Are you looking for Princess Sungmi, hyeong?" asked Minseong, "she is still resting on the bed. We forced her to rest a lot."

"Is everything going well in your place?" asked Eunkyung, looking worried.

"Yes, since we have Myungwoo hyeong there," answered Joochan, "but is princess okay? He promised to get back to us soon."

"He doesn't look well, to be honest," said Bonhwa, followed by a long sigh, "so just like Minseong said, we forced her to rest a lot."

"Then that's okay. And... who is this girl?"

"Oh, she is our new warrior, Do Mijoo," said Doha, who just know her too, "she is Daejoon's little sister."

"Annyeonghaseyo, I'm Do Mijoo," said Mijoo as she bowed to Joochan.

Joochan is smiling and introducing himself, "I'm Hwang Joochan. They said I'm the warrior leader."

"Well, he is. He has almost unlimited energy to heal us," complimented Kichul.

Joochan is giggling, "that's Princess Sungmi's power. Oh by the way I should leave soon. I have an important appointment tomorrow."

"But it's still 4 in the morning, don't you wanna rest first, hyeong?" asked Minseong.

Before Joochan could answer Minseong, the door's bell rang. Eunkyung is approaching the small monitor. She can see Sikyung's bright face from the small monitor.

"Sikyung is here!"

"Oh good, she can use the pond that I just used. I trust that Myungwoo and Hyunki are still resting by now," said Joochan.

Sikyung cheerfully gets into the room.

"What did I miss?" she asked as her eyes fixed on Mijoo.

"For a fast recap, Princess Sungmi is now resting in my room, she looks unwell so we want her to be fit before goes to mirror world again," explained Bonhwa, "apparently in the maze, Myungwoo hyeong's group meet her group, and Joochan just get back, so you can use his pond now and join Myungwoo hyeong's group."

"And this girl is our new warrior, Do Mijoo, who is Daejoon's little sister. And another new warrior is Bonhwa hyeong's little sister," Doha continued explaining.

"Oh, welcome to the pack! I'm Kang Sikyung," said Sikyung, "I hope I can meet Bonhwa oppa's sister too. Does she look like Bonhwa oppa?"

"She is... stronger," said Minseong while giggling.

"Wow, that makes me so curious..."

And suddenly, the door is opened again, and for the second time, Moonhye appears through the front door. She looks as if she was running for a mile.

"Oh what happened noona? You just left around before midnight?"

Moonhye is looking around, she certainly in panic, before pointing to Joochan.

"You, I'm sorry I don't have time to have an introduction for now. You just got back from the mirror world, right?" asked Moonhye quickly.

Joochan blinked before nodding.

"And you," she is now pointing to Sikyung, "you will go soon?"

Sikyung blinked too, "right. But how do you know..."

"Will she meet another two guys once she goes to the mirror world? These two guys... one is using a broad sword, and the other one is... shirtless? And he is using an axe?"

"Wow Moonhye noona, you describe Hyunki hyeong and Myungwoo hyeong really well," said Minseong while clapping his hands.

"But how do you know? Is she capable of prophecy?" asked Sikyung.

"Right, she is."

"That isn't important now. So you guys will soon meet three guys from our pack too."

"Three? Do you see one of them holding a bow?" asked Bonhwa.

"Right, oppa. They don't look good, I mean they are handsome, but they got several injuries but they still can move fast, and one of them is holding a bow."

"That must be Daesun hyeong, Daejoon and Doyeon hyeong. What do you see next?"

Moonhye goes to Sikyung and grabs her arm tight, "don't let them go into the same big hall together."

"What? Why?" asked Sikyung in confusion.

"The next opponent they will fight against each other until three of them are defeated."

"What do you mean by defeated?" asked Bonhwa, his voice trembling.

"I don't know," said Moonhye as she held her head, looking furious, "that shirtless man is fighting the bow guy, the guy with a broad sword will duel with you (Moonhye pointing to Sikyung), that guy who can slow the object around him will fight with the other guy with magic staff. Then I see... the bow guy, you and the wizard are defeated."

"No... that shouldn't happen. It means Daesun hyeong, Sikyung and Doyeon hyeong are defeated?"

"Then we should change it. Let's just change the squad," Eunkyung suggested, "didn't Princess ever say that we can make prophecy not happen if we change some things?"

"Tell me what's the plan?" asked Moonhye, "because I didn't only see one prophecy."

"No way!"

"Just tell us what's the best from the prophecy you saw," suggested Bonhwa.

Moonhye is thinking hard, "from all the prophecies I saw. What's best is... since there will be 6 people in the maze... the scenario is sacrifice 3 people to have a duel inside the maze, then the rest 3 will go to the opening exit."

"Do we still need to sacrifice someone?" asked Doha, can't believe his ears.

"Maybe we can heal that person later with a healing potion? Or heal spells, since we have Doyeon there," suggested Bonhwa.

"The person actually needs to really die. One out of the three. So the thing that I can suggest is," said Moonhye as she turned her head to Joochan, "the elixir of life."

"Oh right! We have the elixir. We can revive the person who died," said Joochan, "and how about they just do it quickly so they can join the rest soon?"

"It's a win-win solution then," said Kichul.

"I don't really agree we use the elixir of life. Don't we need to keep it for a really urgent situation?" asked Bonhwa, "Princess Sungmi looks as if she is dying."

"Oppa, you don't think Princess Sungmi is really going to die, right? She will be okay with enough rest," answered Sikyung, "no one can beat Princess Sungmi."

"Excuse me," said Mijoo softly, "I think I agree. Princess Sungmi looks so reliable."

"Alright. Let's just decide it like that then?" said Minseong, "we shouldn't discuss for too long."

Bonhwa is letting out a long sigh again before he finally nods, "Sikyung you should go now. You can discuss with Myungwoo about the group. We should trust Moonhye's prophecy for now, since we also have no other option. Tell him to stay safe."

"I will," Sikyung nodded her head.

"Here is the elixir of life," Joochan gives the bottle containing orange liquid on Sikyung's hand.

"I'll make sure everyone is safe. We're almost at the end of this damn maze's trick. Let's finish it up."

With one last gaze, Sikyung lay on the empty sofa - which was previously occupied by Joochan - and as she sleeps, the elixir of life on her hand is also disappearing.