“I assure you, princeling.” The dark mudang spreads his hands in a benevolent gesture. Coming from him, even the false benevolence is sacrilegious. “If you stay with her, you’ll be laying the path to the destruction of your kingdom—the destruction of the Realm of Four Kingdoms. I’ll be granting you a great mercy by killing you tonight.”
He’ll be laying the path ... to what? The destruction of the realm? What does staying with me have to do with any of that? Why would I destroy the Realm of Four Kingdoms? The white-hot light pulses in my chest. I shake my head. The Shinbiin might be assholes, but I would never hurt those people. Jihun said I didn’t kill the villagers. He said ... he said ... Panic threatens to overtake me.
The dark mudang is just trying to distract me and Ethan. He’s toying with our heads before he destroys us. I have to focus. I have to find a way to stop Daeseong. Ethan bares his teeth in a snarl and takes a step toward him. But I stand rooted to the ground, desperately studying every inch of the dark mudang. We were able to kill his monsters by stabbing them in the mouth. Where ishisAchilles’ heel? Even if Ican’t kill Daeseong, I might be able to hold him back long enough for Ethan to escape.
“I wonder if you told her. Does she know you are destined to end her, princeling?” The dark mudang laughs with chilling delight.
Maybe I should just stab him in the mouth. It might not be his weak spot, but at least it’ll shut him up. While I deliberate, Ethan rushes the mudang and slams his silver axe into his shoulder with enough force to cleave a tree in half. Daeseong staggers as the axe cuts through bones and sinew.
Ethan somehow found the mudang’s weak point in a single strike. Or maybe Daeseong isn’t so strong without his dark beasts. Either way, hope sparks inside me as Ethan buries his golden axe into the dark mudang’s other shoulder.
Daeseong groans and falls to his knees, his hands latching on to the axes in a desperate attempt to pull them out. But his grimace of pain slowly shifts into a demented smile that distorts his face.
“Shall I assist you, Your Highness?” the mudang croons as he pulls the blades deeper into his body.
Oh, gods. Daeseong is like his monsters. He’s absorbing the axes.
“No, Ethan.” I wrap my arms around his waist from behind and tug him back with all my might. “Let go of your axes.”
The dark mudang is a creature of the Amheuk, as his monsters were. Even the legendary axes can’t hurt him. No, Daeseong wanted Ethan to strike him with the axes so he could absorb them into his darkness. His death and unholy reincarnation haven’t changed his appetite for magic and magical items.
“Let. Go.” I grit my teeth as I try to pull Ethan back, but he doesn’t budge. “He’s going to absorb you if you don’t let go.”
“He’ll die before he lets go of the axes. Isn’t that right, princeling?” Daeseong rises to his feet, the axes falling deeper into the depth of his darkness. “Because who will believe him to be the King Foretold without the axes? Without his crown? How else will he claim his birthright?”
“Don’t listen to him, Sunny,” Ethan rasps. “I can’t let these axes fall into his grasp. He will twist their magic and rain down death and destruction on the Realm of Four Kingdoms. The Mortal Realm too. Help me. Help me stop him.”
His grip has slipped to the very ends of the axe handles. Soon, his hands will be absorbed. Then his arms. Inch by inch, the darkness will swallow him whole. He won’t die and move on to Underworld. He will cease to exist. Ethan will be ... gone.
Instinct forces my spirit eyes open with a suddenness that makes me gasp. The gi of Mount Baekdu and Heaven Lake blinds me with its power. I raise my hands and cringe back as green fire flares around me. I can’t see anything beyond it. My breath comes in harsh pants as panic slashes its claws at me.
Then I feel it. The rhythmic pulse of Mountains in my veins, in my heart. I breathe in time with it and hear my own heartbeat match the gi of Mount Baekdu and Heaven Lake. The wall of green flames banks into a smooth blanket over the landscape. Then I see Ethan. His green-and-silver gi feels like the rush of a waterfall, powerful and pure.
Tears sting my throat. Life is so beautiful. I willnotlet darkness win.
I turn my spirit eyes on Daeseong. Black fire consumes him in a never-ending cycle of destruction. He is born again from the ashes only to be scorched by the flames. His existence is twisted and torturous. His suffering will never stop. That was the price he paid the Amheuk for his resurrection. Foolish, foolish man. Then I see it. A tiny point of stillness in the inferno of pain. I sense a speck of sanity in the depth of his mind.
“Ethan, I have to let you go.” I tighten my arms around him for a single breath, then let go. “You need to hang on.”
I don’t second-guess whether destroying the last of the mudang’s sanity is a good idea. I know in my gut that this point is his only weakness. I spin out from behind Ethan, pulling back my hwando in a double-handed grip. Without pause, I rush toward Daeseong and plunge it into his forehead.
A monstrous roar rips out of him. He stumbles and swats Ethan away with a sweep of his hand, sending him flying like a rock catapulting out of a slingshot. Ethan crouches and digs his axes into the ground, skidding to a halt inches before he slams into a tree.
“It worked,” I say in a stunned whisper. Ethan and his axes are safe.
Now we need to get far, far away from the dark mudang. I yank my sword out of him, praying that he isn’t sucking it into nonexistence. I nearly land on my ass when it pulls free without resistance.
“Shit,” I hiss. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Daeseong isn’t bleeping out like his monsters. A small part of me hoped he’d die even though I didn’t stab him with a sword of light. But when am I ever that lucky? Never. The answer is never. Instead, I opened the floodgates to hell. Those horrible nightmare creatures are coming out from the black gash in the mudang’s forehead. Inlegions.
Ethan is by my side in an instant, his axes flashing. Back to back, we cut down the monsters as fast as we can swing our weapons. But they keep coming. Ethan crosses his axes across his chest and sends a pulse of energy bursting from his body. A horde of dark creatures drops to the ground and disappears.
“What was that?” I breathe.
“I’m ... not ... sure.” He collapses to one knee, gritting his teeth. “But I don’t think I can ... manage ... another one.”
My heart sinks when a fresh army of nightmare beasts seeps out of Daeseong’s forehead. I swing my sword wildly, piercing through as many red holes as I can. I stumble to my knees with a cry of pain. They cut me faster than I can heal. I would be able to last longer against their assault as my gumiho, but my teeth and tails aren’t good for stabbing shadow monsters in their mouths.
