The End of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 4) (40 page)

His reluctant expression told her that it was highly improbable given the time limit. “I . . .”

Refusing to accept “no” as an answer, Yoori dramatically slammed her credit card onto the counter. With her personal assistant salary from Tae Hyun, Yoori had more than enough money to spend. She would spare no expense for her BFF’s birthday gift.

“Money is no object,” she stated firmly, sliding the credit card over to him.

While Kang Min rolled his eyes at her dramatic exaggeration, the chubby shop owner’s eyes swelled wide in exhilaration. Even if the timeframe was close to impossible, he made sure with the “money is no object” credit card that anything was possible.

“What do you want to inscribe on the inside?” he asked, handing the ring to her for assessment.

“A trail of duck footprints.”

Kang Min and the man stared at her as though she was high on drugs.

“The hell,” Kang Min stated dubiously. “What does a trail of duck footprints mean to boss?”

Yoori grinned, handing the ring over to the man so he could finish up Tae Hyun’s perfect birthday gift. She knew out of everyone, it only mattered that Tae Hyun understood its significance.

“It means that I really love getting attacked by ducks . . .”

The air escaped Yoori as she stared at the ring, or more specifically, the trail of duck tracks hidden in the interior of the ring. It now rested innocently on his chest, arresting her attention as she held a knife to his throat.

Her heart had never felt heavier.

“Where did you get that?” she breathed out in disbelief. 

She was never able to give it to him. She had forgotten it at the diner, tried to get it back, but Chae Young was raped, and Yoori had been through hell since. She hadn’t had the time or the recollection to go back to the diner to get it for him. It didn’t make sense to her as to how he came into possession of this ring.

“Chae Young gave it to me.”

Yoori then sighed knowingly. She recalled Chae Young and Tae Hyun going to the back of the diner several days ago. She was making her getaway from the diner and Chae Young had stopped him from chasing after her, telling him that she wanted to give him something. Chae Young must have given him the ring then.

Do not waste time,
a soft voice in the back of her mind urged. The presence of the ring only reminded her of what she needed to do.
Finish this now.

“Kwon Tae Hyun,” she called with a broken voice. Her control was fading. It took everything she had left to maintain her composure. “Stand up and fight me.”

He shook his head. “I’m done.”

“Fight me back,” she ordered through clenched teeth. 

This was not how it was supposed to happen.

He was supposed to fight back.

“Kill me now,” he urged her weakly. “Do it before they start shooting again. I don’t want you to get hurt anymore.”

This was when she lost it.

She could no longer camouflage the truth. She could no longer conceal what she had decided to do since she burned his hoodie and met him at the park.

“Fight me back! Why aren’t you fighting back?” she shouted, pushing him in frustration. Tears brimmed over her eyes. “Fight me back! I’m giving you this throne! Just fucking kill me now, and they’ll kneel before you forever!”

Shock blazed in his eyes. He looked absolutely stunned. “Was this your plan the entire time?”

It was.

After she told him that she loved him at the lake house, Yoori knew there was no going back. Her society revered them, but it was also a sadistic and vicious world. The fact that they pitted her and Tae Hyun against each other spoke volumes about how they viewed the relationship. The Underworld did not want two humans to rule over their world together. They would never allow their first Lord to set such a terrible example to the future heirs of the Underworld.

Although Yoori wanted the throne, she wanted Tae Hyun to be alive more. She wanted him to be a God, and she wanted him to live a long and prosperous life. This was why she wanted to fight him. She wanted to give the Underworld the epic battle it wanted. She wanted them to see what a true God Tae Hyun was; she wanted them to see him kill her, because only in her death would Tae Hyun be back in the good graces of the Underworld. And only in the good grace of the Underworld would he live forever.

“They’ll kill you if you don’t kill me,” she continued, aware of how cruel her world was. “Hurry and kill me! Get it over with,
please
.”

“Does it look like I’m capable of killing you?” Tae Hyun asked incredulously. His tormented eyes locked with hers. “It nearly killed me to attack you the way I did for the cameras, so they could see I wasn’t going easy on you. I did all that so you would be viewed as a legitimate God in this world, and now you’re telling me to kill you? Just like that? Like it’s so easy for me to do?”

“Can you imagine what a legendary God you’d be if you killed me?” she whispered, her entire body trembling from pain. “You’ll live forever in this world. No one would dare to touch you again.”

He laughed self-deprecatingly. “You think I want to live forever knowing that I killed you?”

Yoori bit her lips. Her eyes begged him to be logical. “Please kill me, Tae Hyun. I’ve been ready to die the moment I allowed all my memories to come back. I was ready to die under your hands when you thought I killed your mother.” She placed the knife in his hand. Her tear-filled eyes held his in despair, in utter desperation. There was no other option left but this. “I’m ready. I’m ready to die now—”

“Aw, how sweet.” A callous, mocking voice sprang through the room, jarring Yoori and Tae Hyun from their conversation. “I guess the coldblooded bitch of the Underworld has a heart after all.”

Yoori jerked her head in the direction of the voice. Her eyes bloomed when she saw Young Jae standing in the corner of the office. He wore a black suit and had on a cruel, venomous smile on his face. As Yoori and Tae Hyun tried to make sense of his sudden appearance, Young Jae wasted no more time.

He raised a black gun and trained it directly on Tae Hyun.

“Your end has come,” Young Jae said sadistically. “Welcome to your new war.”

He fired the gun at Tae Hyun, effectively ending the battle between the King and Queen, and commencing a war of the Titans.

“Thank you for being with me until the very end.”

21: War of the Underworlds

Bang!

“Tae Hyun!”

Yoori rushed to shove Tae Hyun out of the way. She gasped for air when a blast of pain ricocheted through her, searing every nerve in her body. The scorching bullet penetrated her left arm, plunging deep into her flesh. The pain was so potent that she nearly blacked out from it.

“Yoori!”

On instinct, Tae Hyun grabbed her around the waist and protectively pulled her against him. With the swiftest of speed, he pulled out one of his silver guns and shot at Young Jae. Young Jae ducked out of the way, leaping behind a cubicle before another swarm of sniper bullets infiltrated the room. This time the bullets were not aimed with the intent to injure them; they were aimed to kill them. The new sniper shot with such precision that the bullets actually grazed several parts of their bodies. Maneuvering around the bullets while holding onto Yoori, Tae Hyun navigated through the office floor before ducking them behind an empty cubicle.

As they hid in silence, it did not take Yoori long to deduce who had replaced Ju Won’s snipers.

“Ji Hoon is back,” Yoori whispered, her voice barely audible in the darkness.

Tae Hyun nodded, gently tending to her bullet wound. He had also gathered that Lee Ji Hoon was the new sniper shooting at them. “I know.”

“Soo Jin, Tae Hyun . . .” called Young Jae’s taunting voice. The distant voice moved around the room, gradually coming closer to them. “I told both of you that I’d bring a war unlike any other, didn’t I?” He laughed, his voice circling the area they were in. “You two are disappointing me. The entire Underworld is watching this fight and you hide from me like cowards? You were raised to be stronger than this.” His laughing voice came closer to them. “Well then. Since you’re hiding like animals, it is only right that I hunt you down like one.”

Bang!

A bullet flew through their cubicle, gliding right over their heads and missing them by a mere inch.

Tae Hyun gently unwrapped himself from Yoori and leapt up in the direction the bullet was fired. He shot across the room, aiming at Young Jae who was diving away from the bullet. He crawled on his hands and knees as Tae Hyun’s bullets chased after him. Displaying amazing alacrity, Young Jae rocketed upwards and ran into one of the cubicles, concealing himself from sight.

“At this very moment, my Scorpions from Japan and Korea are occupying this building with Ji Hoon’s Skulls,” his disembodied voice told them loftily. “It’s only a matter of time before you find yourselves completely surrounded.”

Yoori could no longer suppress her rage. Battling with the love of her life proved to be the most difficult thing she had to endure; the last thing she needed was for her bastard brother to show his face. The fact that he was putting on this show for the entire Underworld was sickening to her. She could tolerate them seeing her weakness with Tae Hyun, but not with Young Jae—not with anyone else. Young Jae was going to pay for everything he had done to her.

She took out her gun and made a move to go after Young Jae. Before she could get up, Tae Hyun was already on the floor with her.

“
Don’t,”
he said firmly. “This is what he wants. He’s goading you.”

“It’s working,” she said through clenched teeth.

“You can’t go out there.” His gaze moved over to her bullet wound. “Not like this. Not when you’re this hurt.”

Yoori pressed her head against the cubicle in frustration. She was prepared to acquiesce with his words before Young Jae demolished the last of her control.

“You two are never leaving this building! By the time we’re done with you, you’ll be eating bullets as your last meals.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Yoori screamed, fed up with this bastard. He killed her father. He convinced her second older brother to help him kill their father and now he was looking to kill her. He was the epitome of everything she hated in a human being. She couldn’t sit by and allow him to taunt her anymore. “Just shut the fuck up! I’m tired of listening to you, you piece of shit!”

She whipped one of her gold guns out before Tae Hyun could stop her. She stood up and fired two shots at the cubicle his voice originated from. As she watched Young Jae’s silhouette circumvent the bullets, another succession of sniper bullets fired through the glass window, nearly plunging into her head before she dodged them in time.

“Come out here and say that again, lil sis,” Young Jae mocked, eager to give Ji Hoon another opportunity to shoot at her.

“Yoori!” Tae Hyun shouted, pulling her back down to the ground. More concerned with getting Yoori to the hospital than killing Young Jae, Tae Hyun wrapped her close to his body as he prepared their exit plan.

“What are you doing?” Yoori moaned, finally feeling the fatigue that came from her fierce battle with Tae Hyun. It did not help that she had lost a substantial amount of blood from her fresh bullet wound. She had always had a high tolerance for pain, but this one was taking the cake for being one of the toughest ailments that she had to endure. “W—we have to fight him!”

“No,” Tae Hyun told her quickly. “You’re in no condition to fight right now. That’s why he’s here, because he knows that we’ve depleted our energy. He knows that now is his best chance of killing us.”

“I don’t care,” she grunted through the pain. “I want to kill him!”

And then, just as more sniper bullets invaded the room, Tae Hyun reached for a stapler on the office desk. He wheeled towards the elevators and threw the stapler at the elevator switch. The stapler collided with the bottom switch button. The switch glowed for a few seconds before the elevator door beside it slid open.

“No!” Yoori screamed. She wanted to stay and battle it out with Young Jae. She wanted to stay to kill him.

Without another word, Tae Hyun wrapped himself around her like a shield, picked her up, and sprinted across the office at lightning speed. While evading bullets that were firing past him, he shot at Young Jae, who was running across the office floor in an effort to get to them. Although Tae Hyun missed, he did succeed in slowing Young Jae down with his gunfire. Once they reached the elevator, Tae Hyun threw Yoori into the metal box and spun around to fire two more shots at Young Jae.

Young Jae easily avoided the two bullets. He let out a laugh as he watched Tae Hyun join Yoori in the elevator.

“There’s nowhere to
runnnn
!” he taunted in a singsong voice. The elevator door slid shut while Tae Hyun pressed a random floor for them to descend to. “You’re surrounded, and your heads will be mine tonight!”

Immediately after the doors closed and the elevator began to descend, Tae Hyun pushed the emergency button and locked them there momentarily. His frantic eyes swam down to Yoori. Concern blanketed his features once he saw her sitting in the corner, shaking while she held a hand over her gunshot wound. She was doing her best to put pressure on the wound to minimize blood loss.

“God, Yoori,” he uttered, ripping his shirt off and revealing his bruised and assaulted body. He bent down and looped the black shirt around her gunshot wound. He tied it tight to slow the flow of blood. “Why’d you have to do that?”

Yoori pressed the back of her head against the wall. Too prideful to be viewed as a weakling, she merely rolled her eyes and answered, “Bad reflexes.” She paused to regain her steady breathing state before adding, “And I’m not a damsel in distress. I can take care of myself.”

Tae Hyun laughed, looking down at his naked upper body. He briefly glanced at the bruises and large sword wound on his arm. “I’m well aware that you can take care of yourself.” He sighed and crouched down before her, trying to get her to see reason. “But we need to get you to a doctor. I don’t know about you, but I’m completely fucked up from our fight. I can’t imagine that bullet in there is making you feel better.” He gestured at the elevator door with his index finger. “Now once we get out there, stay close to me. As the first five floors would more than likely be filled with Scorpions and Skulls, we’ll start at the sixth floor. After we reach the sixth floor, we’ll use the stairwell to get to the ground floor. By then, our Serpents and Siberian Tigers should be in the lobby fighting them. There’s going to be a lot of Underworld soldiers coming after us, so you’ll definitely have to take care of yourself.”

Yoori smirked and nodded. Kwon Tae Hyun would never cease to amaze her with his quick thinking. If she had to conjure up an escape plan, she would have come up with the same plan as his.

He stood tall and freed the elevator from its “emergency” state. “You ready?”

Adrenaline pumped through her. She held a firm grip on her gun. She was more than ready to show these Underworld soldiers why she was the Queen of their world.

“Yes.”

The elevator doors glided open, and the King and Queen came through. Blasting out with Yoori in one arm and his silver gun in the other, Tae Hyun began to fire rounds upon rounds of bullets at the Skulls and Scorpions who had filtered into the sixth floor of the building. He fired with precision and one by one, they began to crumple to the floor as Tae Hyun ran with Yoori in his arms.

Never content with being the dead weight—even though her arm was killing her—Yoori started shooting as well. Every shot she fired met its intended target, leaving behind a trail of bodies as they swept through the floor.

“Oomph!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Ugh!”

Yoori and Tae Hyun raced through the office floor by jumping across walls, punching, kicking, and sending gang member after gang member flying across the room. Many either crashed into the walls or flew out the windows of the high-rise building. Alone they were powerful, but together, they were an unstoppable and untouchable force.

They separated when a big meeting table appeared in their path. A sea of Underworld soldiers swept through the room, heading straight towards them. Displaying amazing dexterity, Yoori easily slid underneath the table. As she slid over the floor, she took out her second weapon and pointed her two gold guns out. Yoori began to shoot at the gang members on either side of the table. While those gang members buckled to the ground with screams of pain, Tae Hyun jumped onto that same table. He ran on it for a fleeting second before launching himself in the air. With his guns outstretched, he began to fire at the sea of Underworld soldiers as well.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

They converged at the same time when he jumped back on the ground and when Yoori slid out from underneath the table. Tae Hyun wasted no time in reaching down to help her up. Once their hands connected, they sprinted towards the stairwell, both dodging and avoiding the bullets that were chasing after them like shadows.

“Nice move,” he commented in amusement, referring to her sliding under the table.

“You too,” she lied, even though she didn’t even see what he did while she was underneath the table.

Although the adrenaline was pumping through her, she could also feel her body throbbing. It was begging her to stop fighting and rest. Never one to give up during a fight, Yoori pushed back that temptation and punched a Scorpion. The sound of his skull cracking resonated in the air as she ran past him with Tae Hyun.

Once they arrived at the entrance of the stairwell, Tae Hyun kicked the door open and inadvertently sent six men plunging to their deaths. Yoori used this moment of distraction to shoot at the rest of the soldiers in the stairwell. The onslaught of bullets jumpstarted a domino effect that sent men upon men tumbling down the stairs.

They used the fallen bodies as doormats, jumping on their chests and running over their faces without any regard to their injured groans. Tae Hyun held on tight to Yoori, who was starting to become woozy. She looked like she was about to pass out at any second.

“Stay with me, Brat,” he encouraged, holding her closer against him.

They continued to dash down the stairs, shooting at gang members and skirting around bullets that were flying all around them. To their great fortune, the further down the stairwell they ran, the more the Skulls and Scorpions began to decrease in number. In fact, the more they ran, the more they could feel the presence of Serpents and Siberian Tigers. Yoori and Tae Hyun were no longer the only ones fighting against the Skulls and the Scorpions. The entire Serpents and Siberian Tigers army had united to defend their King and Queen.

This was no longer an ambush.

This was war.

A war of the Underworlds.

The biggest Underworld war in history was currently taking place as Yoori and Tae Hyun sped down the stairwell. Chaotic sounds of gunshots, screams of agony, and the scent of death reverberated across the stairwell, chasing after them as they finally arrived at the first floor lobby. Eager to finally get out of this godforsaken stairwell, Yoori kicked the door open while Tae Hyun killed the men behind him.

“Ugh.”

Spots of darkness began to edge Yoori’s vision. Pain pulsated throughout her body. The aftermath of being shot at and battling Tae Hyun had finally taken a powerful toll on her. The ground beneath her feet no longer felt solid. She could hardly maintain her equilibrium, let alone see straight.