"But how? That can't be! I made sure you were done for." Azahel exclaimed.
"Just like she said," Yeong-ji folded his arms into the open sleeves of his kimono, "It's all thanks to Aosaki Toshirou."
The two males looked at Toshirou, one with admiration and the other with contempt.
Junhyung broke the ice between them. "How did you do it?" He asked the most pressing question on everyone's mind.
Toshirou was still in unbearable pain, but he would grant them this request, just this time. He stood up straight with his hands in a fist by his side.
"I simply healed Miss Dae over there and broke the outer layer of ice that covered Yeong-ji-san, the rest, he broke through by himself."
"But how did you cure the poison? No human alive should be able to do that." Junhyung said.
Toshirou brought his hand up, gazing at it.
"I don't know why, or how, but I figured out how my healing abilities work. It's quite simple actually. I can heal diseases, injuries, wounds, pains, and the likes, if only I know their source or their origin. It's the conclusion I came to."
"I don't know how you came to that conclusion, but one thing I do know is that no human dead or living can cure my venom," Junhyung said, still badly injured and bleeding from his chest.
For the first time, Azahel spoke, "Who is your master? Who taught you such a technique?"
He chuckled before responding, "No, no, she'll kill me if someone called her my master." Then he sighed. "Her name is Misaki Takezawa, a Slavor by origin."
The revelation caught every single person present off guard.
Yeong-ji was astounded. "A Slavor!?"
"One of the Seven Higher Beasts of Summoning? I can't believe it!" Junhyung said, becoming even more excited.
Dae on the other hand was utterly speechless. 'Aosaki, where in the world did you learn from such a being?'
"I see, so you were taught by such an uncouth creature." Azahel put up his hands in the air and executed three hand signs in rapid succession. He narrowed his gaze at them all. "Ice Creation: Imprisonment."
Giant walls of ice sprung up from the ground, encasing Yeong-ji, Dae, and Toshirou within an ice dome, in their respective positions.
The offence didn't last as all three of them broke out of the ice walls immediately and made a quick dash for their opponents.
Needless to say, they were all thinking the same thing as Toshirou headed straight towards Junhyung, and Dae and Yeong-ji moved to Azahel's direction. The burst of power by the users of divine energy in Jinhae caused the ground to shake as if an earthquake was occurring.
...
Junhyung tried.
He tried and tried and tried and tried and tried, but it was to no avail. Everything he did was being countered by Toshirou. Both of them were in similar states, their bodies were bruised, injured, bones broken, and highly damaged, but why? Why won't he go down? Why won't he just die? What was driving him? What was making him press on to live?
"Why can't I understand you, Aosaki Toshirou!?" Junhyung shouted as he thrust his staff at him. Toshirou hit the staff away with his arm and kicked Junhyung swiftly on his throat.
The hit to his throat made him stagger back, him finding it difficult to breathe, as well as speak.
"Why!!?" Junhyung strained his hoarse voice, attacking Toshirou again with his worn-out staff. Yet again, Toshirou hit the staff away and with two hands, upturned in two hardened fists, glowing bright blue, imbedded with divine energy, he bent over and gave him a devastating blow, breaking through his staff and connecting powerfully with his midsection.
The force of the blow left Junhyung shook. Loud crunches were heard as his ribs and lungs were destroyed by the impact, and he was knocked off his feet.
'This is what I wanted... But, I need to know why? Why are you so strong? Why are you so powerful? Why are you so desperate to keep on living?'
In the air, he stepped his foot into the ground, stopping his momentum, and grabbed a piece of wood in the air, which was a leftover of his shattered staff. He held it tightly and brought it down in full force, with the intent to kill Toshirou.
"TELL ME WHY, AOSAKI TOSHIROU!!!"
He did not dodge the attack, he did not block either, he accepted the stab of the piece of wood with full force on his right shoulder. The wood sunk deep into his collarbone, but that didn't stop him... from infusing a bright blue hue of divine energy into his palm and piercing Junhyung straight through his heart.
"Kūdōha."
{
It was like time had stopped for Junhyung.
His mouth filling up with blood, and his eyes becoming sleepy, he vaguely saw the figure of a little girl, stretching out her hand to him.
He responded in kind, trying to reach out to the girl, but all that met his blood-soaked hands was the nothingness in the air. His eyes began to close, with no coherent thought able to be formed in his mind, except for the question that his heart yearned for the most.
'Why?'
Everything... became black.
The fight between the feudal lords and Azahel was also coming to an end. He might have been able to take them on one on one but together, with their military might and mind combined, he was simply no match for them.
"Way of the Tiger: Act 3; Carcass!"
Silver lightning enveloped her sword entirely, all the way to the hilt, with electrifying sparks flying out of it, destroying the ground around them. Combined with the powerful waves of wind that wrapped themselves around her sword, Yeong-ji wordlessly gave the command to finish off the despicable fellow.
"I intended to do just that!"
Dae slashed her sword at Azahel, demolishing the layers of ice he set up as defences, and cutting him open on his stomach.
Lightning shot out of Azahel's back, blood spilt everywhere as he was torn into two by the sharpness of the attack, his torso and hip separated from each other.
'The end? No...' was his final thought before being hit by another attack, an attack created by the wind to be exact.
"I'm sorry it had to end this way, Azahel." The wind from Yeong-ji's hand blew apart his entire body, ripping out his arms, legs, and head, and blasting them into the rubble of a large rundown building. The crash that followed, left nothing to be desired again of Azahel.
"It is done," Dae said and placed her sword back into its scabbard that was fastened to her waist.
After four long hours, with the clouds dispersed and the enemy defeated, the sun's rays shone down on Jinhae once more.
Dae Chun-ja, and Yeong-ji Choi, had finally won the battle.
...
'Wait, where am I? Oh, that's right, I lost. Why do I hear crying? Who's that? It sounds so... familiar, but I'm dead, aren't I?'
'Junhyung!'
'Junhyung!!'
"Junhyung!!!"
His eyes shot open. The first thing he saw... was dishevelled mid-length hair and teary hazel eyes.
"Hazel," He managed to say, coughing up blood as he spoke, "you're here."
"Mm," She replied, holding up his palm in between her hands.
She was kneeling beside him. His body lay on the ground, tattered and bloodied beyond the end. Red liquid still trickled down his chest, making the fabric of his clothes soaked in crimson.
He looked up, past her, to see Toshirou standing over him, his torso bare and riddled with inhuman wounds. A large gash was formed by the side of his lower ab, revealing a wide view of red, quivering flesh. His head faced down, and his blood-stained hair covered his eyes.
"Why?" Junhyung asked yet again.
"Because I have something I need to protect."
Junhyung sighed deeply, letting out a satisfied smile.
'So that's it... That's the difference between you and me.'
Little drops of tears slid from his eyes down his cheeks. In pain, regret, contrition, for the first time in his life, Junhyung cried. For everything he had lost, he cried. For his mother and father, he cried. For his companion, Rajah, he cried. For his sister, he cried, and for himself... he cried. The pain caused by everything, for the past sixteen years, hit him and hit him hard indeed.
Hazel cried along with him, for she could not bear the look of devastation and sorrow the boy bore.
Toshirou simply turned away from the two wordlessly, giving them their time alone, the last of their time together.
"Do you remember,"— Hazel sniffed— "do you remember what you told me the first time we met?"
Junhyung brought his gaze back to her. His eyes were glossy and swollen with tears. Memories of the past suddenly filled his vision.
"Your eyes are beautiful." He said with a bittersweet smile.
"Yeah, that." She gave him a smile of her own. " Do you know how long I resented you because of that? Why would someone compliment these plain eyes of mine, I thought. Your eyes were much more beautiful than mine. They were yellow, a colour I loved so much, and they had a touch of gold in them too. I hated that. I hated the fact that someone whose eyes were so beautiful would tell me mine was. I loathed you, Junhyung."
She chuckled softly, with tears filling her eyes.
"Yet, I was happy. I was happy to be complimented, I was glad to be called beautiful. Only my parents had ever called me that, but I refused to listen. I didn't believe them. But you made me believe that, you made me see that I am worth much more than I thought, and even though it was too late for me to turn back physically, you had already turned back my heart... to yourself. I loved you, Junhyung, and I still do."
Fresh tears filled Junhyung's eyes. Gently, as one would gently stroke the feathers of a frail bird, he lifted his palm to her cheek, and touched it gently, kindly, lovingly.
"Heh," he chuckled. "They must be as blind as bats if they couldn't see how beautiful you are."
She smiled. "Yeah, I agree."
"But please, don't tell me that you love me. It'll make it harder for me to let go."
"But I don't want you to let go! I want you to live! I want you to stay with me!"
The tears that he managed to hold off, suddenly released themselves. He averted his eyes from hers and held her hand tightly.
"But I know," Hazel said, "I understand perfectly. I want you to be free from guilt, free from the burden of losing your loved ones, and I want you to be free from loneliness. We've both been broken, there's no place for us in this world anymore. But if you want to die, then let me die with you!"
"What nonsense are you spouting, Hazel? I can't allow you to go, it isn't your time." Struggling, supporting himself with his right arm, he used his left hand to bring Hazel closer to himself, hugging her head on his chest.
She let herself be pulled to him, and hugged him, laying her head on his bloodied shirt.
"I'm new to this feeling. You called it to love earlier, but I'm sorry I couldn't feel it before now. I wish I wish they had been here, to see you. I'm sure they would've loved you immensely." He smiled softly. "Live for me, Hazel. Live for the both of us, I beg you. Don't worry about me, I'll always be waiting for you. When the time comes, I'll come to get you, that much I promise you. So until then, become even more beautiful and let your eyes shine."
He spoke softly, for her ears and hers only. He let go of her, but she continued to hold onto him, sobbing into his chest.
He looked up towards Toshirou, who still had his back to them.
"Hey, Toshirou, do you think... we would have been friends if things had turned out differently?"
Steadily, Toshirou turned around and looked down on him with hurt eyes.
"Don't you know the answer? Of course we would've." Toshirou said.
Junhyung smiled and looked down. "Thanks." He said softly.
With his final strength depleted, he lay on the ground, with Hazel still on him.
Gently, Toshirou draped a dark cloak over her and detached her from Junhyung, setting her own the ground beside him.
He took up a shard of glass from his shattered sword that lay next to them and knelt over Junhyung with the steel shard in hand.
"This is what you wanted, wasn't it?"
"Yeah." Junhyung smiled.
Toshirou brought down the shard, till it hovered over the skin of Junhyung's chest.
"Please, do it."
"Yeah."
He pressed the shard into Junhyung's chest, digging it deep into his heart, till nothing except Toshirou's hand could be seen on the surface.
'It was supposed to hurt, but it doesn't. Why do I feel lightheaded? Why do I feel so warm and fuzzy inside? It feels peaceful, calm. What is this feeling?'
"It's a feeling I wish to experience myself," Toshirou spoke softly. "It's a feeling I wish to have. It's called redemption."
'I see... So that's what it is.'
Junhyung chuckled lightly, softly, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Hazel"
Toshirou lifted himself off him, and Hazel moved closer to him, resting her hand in his.
"Yes, I'm here."
"I see them... They're calling out to me."
"Go on. I'll be here, waiting for you."
"Promise?" He asked like a little kid.
"Promise." She replied, laughing softly.
"Won't you give me a kiss?"
"Gladly."
She bent her head over his and covered his lips with hers. The both of them were entangled in an innocent kiss, which signalled a final goodbye.
"I love you, Hazel."
It didn't take anyone to tell her. No one had to say anything to her. She knew, oh she knew from the bottom of her heart.
Junhyung... was dead.
She lifted her lips from his and gazed upon his lifeless face, which looked so peaceful and relaxed. She smiled through hot tears as she felt a warm hand on her cheek, and looked up at the evening sky.
"I'll see you later, Junhyung."