Island: The Legend

Chapter 22

There was this turmoil inside of her, something that kept pulling her towards a certain point but at the same trying to push her as far away from it as possible. She saw Baek riding through the sky on his ridiculous snake dragon. It felt unreal, too unreal for her to compromise.
Her hand grabbed the broken frame of the huge glass window that shattered into million pieces when Baek dashed through it. Some of the shards that were still sticking to the frame cut into her hand, she felt the pain but she didn't pull away. The warm blood was dripping to the ground and her feet. What the hell was going on? She felt like she had no control over her body at all, the darkness outside kept calling her, calling her to take a step forward and just-

''Noona!''
The strong gush of wind that blew away all of her hair and Yohan's sudden scream made her snap and she turned around.
''Hurry, you have to close the rift.''
''Yohana..... There isn't only one rift.''
Yohan's hand grabbed hers a second later and he simply pulled her back into the room. His other hand was already wrapping a small piece of cloth, she had no idea where he took it from, and wrapped it around her cuts.
''I know, but we have to take care of this one first.''
Mi-Ho took one deep breath and closed her eyes for a second. She knew what she had to do, it was obvious but she somehow just wanted to follow Baek and, yes, what did she want to do when she caught up to him? Kill him? How? They were no step closer to a solution. It seemed more like Baek was actually getting what he wanted by dropping his bomb that he might be able to control them and that he simply wanted to turn all humanity into demons and rule this run over planet. What great prospects.

She and Yohan hurried back over to the secret room which no longer was a secret room. The air changed in it, it was colder, more foreboding in a way. Still, Mi-Ho knelt down next to the growing rift and placed her hands slightly above it. It felt always strange doing this without actually saying any kind of chant or prayer, Van always used his sutras and Yohan used his Christian prayers but Mi-Ho... She simply imagined the power in her mind and then it did the works, after all this time she still had no idea what she was doing exactly. Still she kept going, she had to. This was her home. As much as she loved living on Jeju, Seoul was still her home. But it wasn't just Seoul, it was the whole world if they didn't do anything fast. This was a small first step and she would take it.

The magic started radiating from her hands, it was a strange feeling like something was being drained of her but it still felt good, like the magic was engulfing her and putting a thin layer of warmth over her skin. She knew, although her eyes were closed that by now a second circle must have formed above the first. She still remembered how they looked when she first performed the ritual on the day she lost Van. The circles had the colors of the elements, she drew her powers back then from the elements but what exactly was she drawing them from now? When she had Wonjeong's powers and her conscience inside of her body this whole thing felt different. Now it felt more draining, probably because she used her own energy now instead of somebody else's.

The coldness slowly seemed to disappear, just like her strength. The more she closed the raft, which was by the way the biggest one she ever closed or placed a barrier on, the more she felt worn out.

When her eyes slowly opened she could see how the raft slowly faded away. This was kind of new. Normally the places where she put up barriers didn't disappear they just were wrapped up in her barrier. Before she could worry about that more she felt her consciousness slip for a brief moment and she fell to the side holding her body up with her hand.
''Are you okay?''
Van's calm voice was close to her and she didn't know if she should be worried about the calmness or simply accept it and think that she must not look so bad if he wasn't nervous about her well being yet.
''All's fine.''
Against her protest, Van still helped her up to her feet again, steadying her a bit when she swayed slightly. She could feel his hand around her upper arm tightening this time a slight worry ran over his features.
''I'm fine, really.''
''The rift was pretty huge, it must have stained you.''
Yohan, always there to explain the situation. What would they do without him?
''Thanks.''
Mi-Ho smiled shortly at Van before she took a step to the side so they formed a small circle.
''This is bad. There are rifts all over Seoul. I don't know if I can close them all.''
''I can also try to close some but I don't know if my barriers will be as strong as yours.''
''Still it would help.''
''What about Baek?''
Both Mi-Ho and Yohan turned towards Van after he spoke out his words. It was an obvious question, probably the most important one. They had to do something about him but what? For now Baek seemed to be indestructible. And facing an opponent who was invincible made her worry, she couldn't lie about that. After everything she already saw and had to fight there were still things that could worry her.
''For now, closing all the rifts is more important.''
''But he will continue to open new ones if we don't stop him.''
Yohan crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his head back. That was this one pose she knew he only took when he was deep in thought. And when he was doing that it was better not to disrupt him. She could already hear Van sucking in a breath and how he wanted to say something but she tugged at his sleeve to get his attention which worked. He looked at her confused but she only shook her head and placed her finger over her mouth indicating him to be quiet and to her contentment he didn't say anything.