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ni-ki woke up in a cold sweat. he glanced to his side and jungwon was nowhere to be found. he tried to feel him but he wasn’t in the room. he immediately got a bad feeling. he can’t feel jungwon’s aura.
“invenietis amica mea… (find my love) ” he chanted, a spell to find his solace.
he couldn’t feel jungwon anywhere in the kingdom of sanguis. this is bad.
“hyung!” he banged on sunghoon’s door, panicking.
“ni-ki? why? what’s wrong?” his brother answers, evident that he was woken up abruptly.
“jungwon is missing!”
“what?!”
“i can’t feel him, hyung… i can’t feel his aura or emotions! he’s not in the kingdom!”
sunghoon immediately felt alarmed, a warrior and a solace’s bond is the strongest of them all, if ni-ki could not feel jungwon, that means he is nowhere to be found.
at four am in the morning, a search party for jungwon was launched. they called all the palace witches and warlocks for all the help.
“i can’t feel him….”
“we’ll find him ni-ki. we will.” jay reassured, also awoken by the chaos.
“your majesty, we need your blood to trace his whereabouts, you’ve been officially bonded, right?” a palace warlock asks.
“yes, we are. please do. take as much as you need.”
ni-ki soon draws out blood from his wrist into the crystal ball, showing jungwon sleeping peacefully in what seems to be an abandoned castle.
“fuck! how can he be kidnapped? who passed our blood wall?” the young prince said angrily.
“it’s possible that they didn’t… they got a hold of jungwon’s aura and casted a spell.” the warlock answered.
“track them down, we’ll prepare for battle.” sunghoon commands.
“ni-ki, feed on a blood maid. you need energy for this.” sunghoon adds.
ni-ki would normally object, but he knew his brother was right this time. all the three princes and heeseung went to feed blood on their willing blood maids. being royal vampires meant that their power was limitless, but their energies weren’t.
thankfully, the palace warlock was able to locate jungwon immediately as they were officially bonded, making their blood one.
“jungwon is in the secluded palace of the ghouls. my suspicions were correct, they got a hold of his aura and casted a spell to teleport him, they never entered our blood wall.”
“fuck!” ni-ki cursed and immediately went to grab his special sword. his sword was blessed as it was a gift from the moon goddess, it had the capability to sentence someone to death. no reincarnations or second lives, immediate death.
his brothers didn’t object, they understood that ni-ki was acting as a warrior who’s worried about his solace and not as a royal vampire.
once they were ready, they casted a spell to be teleported to jungwon’s whereabouts. it was an abandoned castle, full of traps for vampires.
“fucking hell! this is a planned attack!” ni-ki said as soon as he noticed the vampire traps meant to drain all of their energy.
“can you feel jungwon?” jay asks.
“faintly. they’ve must have done something to block our bond.”
sunghoon and jay looked at each other, this was bad. a warrior and solace bond can only be faint if one is dying. they were certain jungwon couldn’t block their bond.
“lead the way. follow your bond.” sunghoon says, masking his fear.
“everyone, step back.”
“what are you going to do, ni-ki? don’t use all of your energy.” jay worries.
“it’s just a simple spell… revelare!”
suddenly the abandoned castle was now see through to everyone’s eyes, making them spot jungwon immediately at the top of the castle, chained up.
“fucking hell!” ni-ki cusses and immediately teleports.
“ni-ki!” his brothers and heeseung followed, the guards surrounded the castle and fought the ghouls patrolling the area to protect the royal family.
“who dares to—” ni-ki couldn’t even finish his sentence, he found jungwon bleeding magic, a sign that they were draining his aura.
“jungwon!” he immediately goes to him, releasing him from the chains.
“hyungs! find the person responsible! they’re draining him of his magic!” ni-ki panics, now holding jungwon in his arms, his body almost lifeless from all the magic drained from him.
“jungwon… wake up.. jungwon… please…”
“he’s not going to wake up.” a voice suddenly spoke.
“who’s there?!” heeseung prepares for a fight.
“he’s not going to wake up, his body is weak.” the voice continues.
“show yourself!” jay commands and draws out his sword.
“well well…” the voice finally shows himself.
“jake?!” sunghoon exclaims.
“it was so easy to get his aura, shame you are bonded to such a weak solace, your highness.” jake says with a grin.
ni-ki was too busy trying to feel jungwon, but his aura was faint.
“jungwon.. please.. please.. wake up. excitare, amica mea (wake up, my love)”
“what a sad sight.” jake continues to grin.
“how dare you? how could you betray the royal family?!” heeseung shouts.
“how dare i betray the royal family that did absolutely for me? how dare i! if i can not be happy in your kingdom, no one should be!”
“you’re crazy!” heeseung says and draws out his sword, wounding jake in his abdomen.
“you really think you can kill me?” jake says, laced with venom.
“black magic!” jay says and casts a protection spell.
“ni-ki, the protection spell won’t hold long, go back to sanguis.” jay says.
tears were now streaming down ni-ki’s face as he could finally feel jungwon’s pain, he feels as if his heart was slowly being torn apart.
ni-ki tried to teleport, but something was blocking him, “fuck hyung! jake is blocking us!”
“i bound jungwon to this castle using his blood. you can’t leave with magic.” jake said grinning, but voice weakening as he was already injured.
heeseung took the opportunity to injure him again by slashing his arm.
“why are you doing this, jake?! i trusted you! you were my assistant captain!”
“well that was your first mistake!” jake said and threw a black magic ball with the remaining energy he had left.
“heeseung!” sunghoon said and went immediately to heal him.
“you can’t leave this castle, even if it’s the last thing i do. if i can’t be happy, none of you can be!” jake cursed.
“jungwon… wake up… wake up…” ni-ki was already feeling jungwon slowly losing his life. despite being turned to a vampire, they can die by draining their magic and aura.
“my love… my solace… i’m here…” ni-ki pleaded, holding jungwon’s almost lifeless face.
“is there anything i can do? please, hyungs… he’s dying. i can feel it…”
“we have so much years to spend with each other…. you can’t do this to me, jungwon…”
the three had no choice but to watch ni-ki slowly lose his solace as jake used the darkest magic of all to execute his plans, and no amount of royal vampire magic was a match.
suddenly, ni-ki let go of jungwon and stabbed jake in the neck with his special sword.
“you may have succeeded in your plan, but your soul will never see the light of day again!” ni-ki cursed and removed the sword from jake’s neck, immediately killing him.
tears were flowing non-stop from ni-ki’s face, he knew he had to do something, his solace was dying.
“jungwon… i’m here, my solace, i’m here… you have me, your prince. please, wake up…”
sunghoon and jay wanted to do something but they knew it was too late, they knew they were going to return to the castle without jungwon.
ni-ki couldn’t feel jungwon anymore. he’s gone. the young prince knew what he had to do.
“forgive me, brothers. forgive me sunghoon, jay, heeseung, and sunoo, and the whole kingdom of sanguis… i will always be with you..”
ni-ki held jungwon’s hand and placed it above his heart, closing his eyes and casting the most powerful spell of all, “suscipe me tecum in morte!” (take me with you in death!)
“NO! NI-KI!” sunghoon could only fall to his knees as he watched the aura and energy of both ni-ki and jungwon disappear like ashes.
“he… he… joined jungwon in death…” jay could only say, tears streaming down his face. he couldn’t believe that they were going home today without their youngest.
suddenly, the moon shined brightly, almost blinding them. after a few moments, it turned into two small black moons, causing what they call dark moon , a sign of powerful sacrifice.
“he sacrificed himself for jungwon…” sunghoon said.
“i will always be with you… are his last words… he sacrificed the both of them to be together in the afterlife…”
ni-ki kept his promise to his brothers, as ever since that night, the kingdom of sanguis had two black moons, recognizing it as the
dark moon: jungwon and ni-ki.