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Thunder rumbled and the earth shook. Jeonghan succumbed to the weight of his wounds and Seungcheol took his eyes off the spell to stare at him. Jeonghan tried to look him in the eye, but the blood pooling from the top of his head made contact with his left eyebrow and he closed his eye to prevent it from becoming infected.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked as he tightened his grip on his broken sword. It was no longer as white and smooth as it had been at the beginning of their adventure; it was just like Jeonghan, broken and worn. "You betrayed us.”
“I didn't. I just did what I had to do to save my people."
Seungcheol was not like Jeonghan and everyone else in their mission group. He was a sorcerer. One of the last on Earth. His kind had begun to disappear when a great and powerful king had developed a taste for hunting sorcerers, and then only a handful had remained on Earth when a majority had fled to a parallel dimension.
"They are dying there," he told Jeonghan one night when he could not sleep. "There is no sun and all the magic they use to stay alive poisons the air."
Jeonghan had asked him how he knew all this and Seungcheol had told him about his nightly visions; all those nightmares that made him wake up in tears. When they had started sleeping together, the visions had become fewer and shorter and the deep rings under Seungcheol's eyes had lessened.
They had been happy for a while. Until they approached Mount Etawheii and Seungcheol became distant. Jeonghan had thought that Seungcheol was just stressed at the possibility that they might fail their mission, and he had worried when he told the other eleven members of the king's mission team that the forest would only accept the two of them. He had never doubted Seungcheol, however. He had not thought for a second that Seungcheol would not want to destroy the Orb that encouraged the forest to attack the kingdom of Chyrres, but to use it to save his own people.
Jeonghan would have helped Seungcheol if the opening of a new dimension and its inclusion in theirs would not destroy all traces of life within fifty kilometers.
He had tried everything to stop it, but the Orb had sided with the sorcerer and Jeonghan had been unable to do much against them. He had been left in the middle of the forest surrounded by monstrous beasts, each more bloodthirsty than the last. That he had arrived at the Orb Shrine was a miracle.
That he won against Seungcheol would be another.
"You betrayed us!" he shouted this time.
"I told you not to trust anyone," Seungcheol accused, frowning.
"I thought you would be the exception. You have been for a lot of things."
Moonlight kisses, tender whispers and quiet laughter. Eyes that sparkle and lips that adore every bit of skin. Hands caressing, grabbing and gently leaving each other. A reluctant heart that opens and warm, reassuring arms. “I love you's" and a long awaited future.
A happiness that was already in the past.
Seungcheol smiled sadly and returned his attention to the orb. He resumed his incantation.
Jeonghan drew on his last bit of strength and climbed the few steps that separated him from Seungcheol and the altar. He raised his weapon toward his lover. An invisible force swung him aside.
The sword bounced with a sharp noise and ended up at the foot of the altar. Jeonghan fell to his knees, exhausted. He had no breath, the air was far too thick with magic; it was as if it had turned into a thick invisible liquid. It was almost painful to breathe in. Jeonghan probably couldn't speak anymore. Seungcheol approached him, kneeling down so that their gazes were level.
"You're tired, Jeonghan," he said gently. "You deserve to rest. You've been so brave." He stroked his hair, soiled by ash and blood.
Jeonghan tried to push his hand away, but it was as if something was stopping him. Seungcheol's eyes darkened and all his sadness weighed on Jeonghan's heart. The sorcerer leaned forward and wrapped his muscular arms around the knight.
There was a time when Jeonghan would have melted in the embrace.
"I'm sorry. Promise me you'll take care of yourself after all this."
Jeonghan couldn't answer, but Seungcheol felt all his reluctance to comply. Seungcheol wanted to abandon him and to get even, he was going to do the exact opposite of what he asked;
Jeonghan was going to let himself die.
"We will meet again one day. Everything will be more beautiful and sweeter.”
“What are you talking about?! How can I still love you after this?!"
Jeonghan actually wanted to ask "how can I not love you anymore?" because love is not something that disappears with a snap of the finger; it's something that takes as much time to build as it does to destroy. And although Jeonghan wanted to hate Seungcheol with all his being, he could not. His heart was helpless in front of the eyes so black and bright of the one who only the day before called him the love of his life.
If Seungcheol could bring the two worlds together, then Jeonghan probably would be, since the one who cast the spell had to lose his life.
"Not in this life," Seungcheol began, pulling the knight even closer to him. He put his mouth to Jeonghan's ear and continued, more gently, "I saw it. You were so cheerful and strong. You had no sword and no stupid prophecy. I know we’ll find each other again and we’ll finally be happy."
He placed a kiss on the knight's temple and pushed him off the altar steps. Jeonghan rolled to the rocky mountain floor. Vines crawled toward him like hungry snakes and wrapped around his waist and neck; just enough to keep him from getting up.
He looked for his sword, ignoring his breathing which was accelerating due to panic. Fighting against the strength of the vines, he grabbed the weapon with his fingertips and sliced through some plants.
The thunder rumbled again and he froze for a moment, the fear far too intense for him to ignore. He vaguely heard Seungcheol continue to recite the incantation toward the sky.
I have to stop him, he thought as he resumed his fight against the vines. They eventually curled in on themselves, their intense green quickly turning brown. Seungcheol tired.
Jeonghan turned to the altar.
The earth shook again, the ash from the other dimension grew denser and the sky changed color. The threatening gray clouds turned ochre and the lightning took on a violet hue, both characteristic of the other dimension.
There was very little time left before the catastrophe.
"You're going to kill us both!" Jeonghan shouted as he rushed toward Seungcheol.
The sorcerer pushed him with his fingertips and Jeonghan fell on his butt. He wanted to throw himself against the sorcerer again, but he ran into an invisible barrier. Or rather a shield. He was trapped in a sphere that he could only see because of the ashes sliding across its smooth surface.
Seungcheol stepped down from the altar slowly, his beautiful black eyes now filled with the same yellow as the sky and his blue lips, his complexion sallow and his gait unsettling.
"I will never hurt you," Seungcheol said, resting his forehead against the shield.
Jeonghan scrambled to his knees, tapping the surface in despair.
"No! Seungcheol! Don't do this!"
Seungcheol closed his eyes for a moment. A shaky sigh crossed his lips and Jeonghan began to cry.
"Please. Please stay with me. I love you!" he begged, pressing his forehead to the sphere as well. They would have touched if it weren't for that damn shield.
Thunder rumbled and lightning broke the sky.
Seungcheol stepped aside, a fragile smile on his face. He pushed the shield with his fingertips and it rolled away. Jeonghan moved away unwillingly, his cries of despair no longer coming through the wall.
"I love you too, Jeonghan," Seungcheol confided as he climbed back onto the altar.
"Seungcheol!" shouted Jeonghan one last time.
Then the sky split in two again, the earth shook one last time and the altar exploded.
Driiing Driiing Driiing
"Hey, my sweet deadbeat... Wake up."
Jeonghan grunted.
"Tired." he replied, rolling onto his stomach to bury his head in the pillow. A small laugh tickled his ear and a kiss was placed tenderly on his temple.
Thunder rumbled and the large bedroom window vibrated.
Jeonghan suddenly opened his eyes. His heart jolted.
"Seungcheol?"
His fiancé hugged him, the smell of his shower gel so familiar to his nose.
"Yes, my love?”
“I… had a strange dream.”
Despite his disturbed expression, Seungcheol kept smiling and cuddling him.
“What about telling me all about it over breakfast?” he asked, kissing Jeonghan again.
“Yeah..."