The End of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 4) (62 page)

“You really shouldn’t have done that, Tae Hyun,” came Young Jae’s icy voice from behind them.

Tae Hyun wheeled around to find Young Jae standing three feet away from him, brandishing a sword in his hand. Young Jae’s face did an excellent job of conveying his dissatisfaction in Tae Hyun’s intervention.

Alerted and in combat mode again, Tae Hyun held his sword and stood back up. He pushed the dead bodies off of him and faced Young Jae. He strategically stood between Young Jae and Yoori. His protective stance said it all: Tae Hyun would not prohibit Young Jae to get near Yoori again.

“Stay the
f
uck away from her, Young Jae,” Tae Hyun warned, his steel voice unforgiving.

Young Jae smirked before raising his sword. He harbored no qualms about battling Tae Hyun to get to his sister. Challenge throbbed in his composed voice as he got into his fighting stance.

“Try and stop me then.”

Like a lion on the attack, he charged at Tae Hyun and jumped into the air. Wielding the sword over his head, he swung the blade down with the intention of burying the sword into Tae Hyun’s skull. His attack was thwarted when Tae Hyun lifted his own sword up and blocked it just over his head.

Once Tae Hyun was able to deflect this attack, he maneuvered the sword onto his opposite hand and swung the weapon from side to side, effectively slicing into Young Jae’s shoulders.

“Ahh!”

Young Jae let out a scream and tumbled backwards, clutching onto the blood that was beginning to seep from the new flesh wounds.

As Yoori watched this, she felt vigilance consume her when she saw Ji Hoon running in from the side, ready to take advantage of Tae Hyun in his distracted state with Young Jae. Having regained much of her energy, Yoori reflexively lifted the female corpse that lay beside her and threw the corpse at him with both hands. The lifeless body hit him like a cannon ball, stopping him in his tracks while giving her a split second opportunity to charge for him. Utilizing her speed as her momentum, she slid on the tiles using the side of her body. Once she reached him, she spun herself up in a diagonal motion. With her right leg extended out, she kicked him clear across the jaw in mid-air. As she landed gracefully onto the balls of her feet, she jabbed a hard elbow across his face. Far from done with her assault, she used the heel of her palm to strike his nose. A loud crack rung through the arena, indicating that she had successfully broken his nose. Her adrenaline still pumping through her at lightning speed, she swept the floor with her left leg. While he fell toward the floor, she used her full body weight and kicked him across the stomach with both her feet.

Boom!

The attack left Ji Hoon to hurtle across the tiles, crashing into dead bodies while slicing his own skin with the rogue swords that were still lying on the floor.

Breathing heavily, Yoori stood several feet from Ji Hoon’s fallen body. Although she conquered him in this fight, it was clear that she was not ready to give him such a merciful end. For the moment, the Queen was back in action, and she wanted Ji Hoon’s head on a stake.

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Tae Hyun,” Young Jae breathed out from the opposite end of the arena. He straightened his back and stood upright, his energy regained. His expression implored Tae Hyun to be practical. “This doesn’t have to play out like this.”

“You going after the woman I love will
always
result in this,” Tae Hyun retorted sternly. His furious eyes fastened on Young Jae as he walked in a predatory circle around him.

Bang!

Tae Hyun’s trail around Young Jae came to an abrupt halt when a bullet shot down, hitting Tae Hyun’s sword and landing so close to his hand that the heat seared the tip of his skin off. Tae Hyun released a pained hiss and inadvertently dropped his sword, allotting Young Jae the chance to take advantage of a now weaponless Tae Hyun.

Meanwhile, on the opposite point of the arena, the fight between Ji Hoon and Yoori was just getting started.

Ji Hoon smiled as he raised himself up after her sudden attack.

“Let’s not do this,” Ji Hoon whispered. He began towards her as though she hadn’t just physically assaulted him. “I don’t want to fight you.”

“Really?” Yoori asked critically, clenching her fists together. She was eager to beat his ass down again. “Because I can’t wait to fight you.”

An agonized expression morphed on his face. He continued to walk with his hands clutching his injured hip. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby,” he assured through a pained breath. “I never want to hurt you.”

His words were sweet like honey, but his actions embodied spinelessness when he suddenly grabbed a sword from the ground, ran to her, and swung it in the air. Though Yoori was quick enough to evade the attack to her shoulder, she wasn’t quick enough to avoid the sidekick that followed. He propelled his foot right into the problem area of her left arm, leaving her to topple to the side and sink to the ground.

“I loved you. God, did I love you,” he lamented, staring at her with manufactured pity. He perched his foot on her neck, displaying no reluctance to hurt her as he applied pressure on it. Her chest constricted as her flow of oxygen instantly halted. Violent heaves raked through her body as she struggled for air. He pressed down, deepening the pressure. His next words were spoken with pure bitterness. “I was ready to give you the world, but you just had to choose Tae Hyun over me, didn’t you?”

Yoori did not bother to say anything. She simply closed her eyes and struggled to free herself from his clutches. Although this silence infuriated Ji Hoon, it did not dissuade him from trying to get her back on his side.

“It’s not too late, Soo Jin,” he provided. His voice was gentle as he stared down at her in remorse. “I still want you more than anything; I’m willing to forgive you for all the mistakes of your past.”

Queasiness infiltrated her stomach. His bullshit words were the last straw for her. Fed up with listening to his voice and keen to kick his ass again, Yoori summoned all the energy at her disposal. As she felt the last of her strength rally together for her, she flipped herself out of his hold. And then, with the utmost untrained, but highly useful, tactic to use against a guy twice one’s size, Yoori stood up and kicked him hard in the balls.

“Augh!”

While a scream poured from Ji Hoon as he doubled over to the floor and pathetically tended to his wound, the battle on the opposite side of the arena was still going strong.

“I do not want to kill you, Tae Hyun,” Young Jae expressed, his voice sincere. Though Tae Hyun was weaponless, Young Jae did not use the allotted opportunity to attack him. Instead, he used it to try and reason with him. “It’s Soo Jin that I want; she’s the only one I want.”

Tae Hyun clenched his fists in preparation for any sudden attack from Young Jae. Even without a weapon in hand, he did not plan on backing down. He would kill Young Jae with his bare hands if he had to.

“What difference does it make if you kill me or not?” Tae Hyun inquired suspiciously.

“You must think I’m heartless,” Young Jae went on, flickering his focus to Yoori, who was preparing for another round of battle with an embittered Ji Hoon, “that I’m inhuman for harboring this much hatred for my own sister, but you must remember what she ultimately did to me and what she took from me.” He turned back to Tae Hyun with genuine respect in his eyes. “I’m not irrational. I don’t go after people who haven’t done anything to me, Tae Hyun. I try to avoid that as much as I can in my career.”

Boredom mounted on Tae Hyun’s face. He had never been the one who enjoyed listening to roundabout points. “What does that have to do with you not wanting to kill me?” he asked, swiftly picking up a sword from the ground.

“Ji Hoon and I are working together, but he does not have my respect,” Young Jae shared. “You have no idea how far people’s reverence of you extends, Tae Hyun.
You
are the God this Underworld wants.
You
are the God I want to stand beside when we take our respective Underworlds to new heights, and you are the God that every other future Lord wants to stand beside when we change this world.” With a smile gracing his face, he finally enlightened Tae Hyun on a secret that was only reserved for the few top elites of the Underworld. “We’re Gods in our respective countries, but we can become Titans in this world.”

Tae Hyun furrowed his brows, puzzled with what Young Jae was implying. “What are you talking about?”

Young Jae’s voice became softer. He only wanted Tae Hyun to hear this secret, not the rest of the Underworld. “I’ve seen it, Tae Hyun—another society that is bigger than ours, older than ours, and more powerful than ours; a society that would unite all the future Underworld Lords together. And in this grand order, the individuals within it want you to be the Lord of Korea’s Underworld. Some of the members, they know you, Tae Hyun. They’ve heard great things about you and they want you to be a part of this grand order. We want you there . . . to be a part of something bigger.
That’s
the prize that’s worth fighting for. You’re not only getting the Underworld throne, but also a piece of the world.” He tilted his head, his expression urging Tae Hyun to stop adhering to the foolish desires of his emotions. “Work with me, Tae Hyun. Work with me, and I will kill Ji Hoon right now. I could end his life this instant, and you will be able to regain your rightful throne again. You can lead the life you were always meant to lead—a great, historic, and legendary one.”

“And in exchange for all this greatness, all I have to do is sit back and allow you to kill Yoori?”

Young Jae was quiet, and that was confirmation enough for Tae Hyun. Albeit he showed curiosity in this “other society” that Young Jae was speaking so cryptically about, he displayed no further interest in seeking out that type of power, especially not when it involved hurting Yoori.

He pointed the sword at Young Jae. “You’re not touching her, Young Jae,” he stated decisively. “I’m not turning my back on her.”

Disappointment cloaked Young Jae’s eyes. His grip on his sword tightened and he slowly raised it. He was not happy with Tae Hyun’s answer, and he intended on letting Tae Hyun know that.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Harboring no further inhibition, he lunged forward with his sword outstretched. Bloodlust was present in his eyes as he went after Tae Hyun, intent on making him regret his decision.

While Tae Hyun defended himself against Young Jae, Yoori wasn’t having any luck as she continued to fight with Ji Hoon. The pain rummaging through her battered body wore her down as their swords ate away at each other. It was taking everything she had to lift that sword to simply defend herself. Under any other circumstances, it would be a simple task for Yoori to hold her own against Ji Hoon. However, as the weight of her mounting injuries congregated in her body, she slowly found that her strength was dwindling by the second. Instead of feeling like a revered Queen who was fighting a rival King, she simply felt like a defenseless woman fighting a man twice her size. It was a hard fought battle that she was afraid she was losing.

“You’re not going to make it out of here,” Ji Hoon sneered after he blocked her incoming sword. He looked down at her, urging her to be rational. “Come to my side. Stop this foolishness, and I’ll take care of everything for you. I’ll get rid of Young Jae for you.”

Yoori smirked, elbowing him across the face.

“You really have no loyalties, do you?” she asked critically, unsurprised that Ji Hoon was more than willing to betray his biggest “ally”.

“My loyalties are flexible,” he replied shamelessly, temporarily placing pressure on his newly assaulted jaw. He issued a careless shrug. “I do what’s best for me, which is something you should endeavor to do as well.” He gazed at her intently. “What do you say? Come back to me, get rid of Tae Hyun, and you will be well on your way to getting the power you’ve always wanted.”

Yoori manufactured a fake smile that would do stage performers proud. “I’d rather die than go back to being with you, you disgusting pig.”

“You shouldn’t be so rash,” he cautioned, his face tightening in annoyance. His growing impatience signaled that he was at his last straw with her. “Such rashness will be the death of you.”

Eager to teach her a lesson, Ji Hoon abruptly pulled out of the scuffle with Yoori. He lifted his sword up and strategically angled the metal blade towards the lights hanging above them. When the right angle of light landed upon it, the reflected light danced in a blinding motion—a silent cue to those up above to commence chaos in the amphitheater.

In a synchronized sequence, a multitude of blaring drums swarmed the arena, compromising Yoori’s senses. The deafening sounds penetrated her ears, leaving her discombobulated. She tried to command her hearing sense to be mindful of incoming bullets. Unfortunately, she heard nothing under the distracting sounds. Next thing she knew, bullets were firing every which way, and before she could even attempt to hide behind a shield, a bullet got to her.

Bang!

“Augh!”

A tortured gasp ripped from her when the bullet plunged into her right shoulder. A conflagration of heated pain coursed through her already battered body, nearly putting her into shock. It was so agonizing that tears actually formed in her eyes as she struggled for breath. Unable to withstand the shock, she collapsed onto the floor. While shudders overtook her weakened body, several pairs of feet hit the floor right after she fell down.