kingdom falling | gyuricky

thirty one.

"A tracking sigil? Like, the enchantment?"

"Yes. Do you know how to nullify it? Just temporarily."

"I suppose there can be a way, but why are you asking this?"

"It's too long of a story to repeat now," Gyuvin answered, a little desperate. "Something happened, and I need to deactivate this sigil so I can fix it before something even worse happens. Just tell me if you know how to, please?"

"Gyuvin, I'm assuming the sigil was put on you for a reason. In that case, I don't think you should be trying to deactivate it."

"Dad, please. I need to do something before it's too late. You don't understand how important this, I-"

"I know how important it may seem, but I don't think breaking the rules is right. Hanbin is at the camp with you, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Then sleep on it, and ask him for help tomorrow. He'll have a better idea that doesn't involve trying to nullify the sigil. In the meantime, don't do anything rash. You always jump into things headfirst."

"...I know."

"Okay, good. Go to sleep, Gyuvin."

"Okay. Goodnight."

The next time Gyuvin registered that he was awake, it took him a second to get his bearings. His head was spinning like he'd just tumbled down a tall hill, and he had to blink hard to keep the blurriness out of his vision so he could see even his own hands in front of him. There was something heavy soaking his thoughts, weighing him down like rainsoaked cotton, like he was wading through waist-deep water. He stood still for a long minute, trying to keep himself stable.

Where was he? This was an area he didn't quite recognize at first glance, but he knew he couldn't be far from the camp grounds. As his hand came up to brush his hair out of his face, his fingers loosened around Yuexi's hilt, and he realized he'd been holding his polearm in his hand all along. Dropping Yuexi from his grip, the holy weapon dissipated back into nothingness, and Gyuvin stared at his hands, his mind still spinning, trying to make sense of everything.

His hands were stained red, covered in the remains of thick, drying blood.

"Gyuvin..."

His head snapped up suddenly, registering the low voice from afar. He could see a silhouette appear from behind a wall, and before he could decide whether to fight or run, he recognized the silhouette.

"Hanbin hyung?" he called, his throat a little dry.

"Gyuvin, what are you doing out of the grounds? We're not allowed to leave..."

Hanbin came closer, and Gyuvin backed away out of instinct. He couldn't let Hanbin see the blood on his hands. But more importantly, he had yet to figure out why exactly he was standing out in the- he recognized where he was just then. They were just outside the Peak grounds, and the walls in front of him were the outer walls of the camp.

"Hyung, don't come any closer," he said slowly, backing away as much as he could, hiding his hands behind his back, even though it was dark enough he didn't think Hanbin could see anything anyway. "Please..."

"Gyuvin, let's go back," Hanbin urged gently. "You're going to get in trouble. Let's go."

"Hyung, I-"

Gyuvin didn't remember blacking out again, but the scene in front of him was slightly different the next time he opened his eyes, and he was dizzy again, like he was balancing on a small boat in choppy waters. He rubbed hard at his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to figure out where he was again. He was still outside the Peak grounds, he recognized the patterns on the outer walls, but this time he was a distance away from where he was before.

His foot caught on something as he moved, and he managed to stabilize himself just in time before he tripped. In the dimness, he could register that there was something at his feet, but the moonlight that usually illuminated the Peak was behind cloud cover, and he couldn't see what it was. Gyuvin drew a light talisman and a burst of golden light erupted, lighting the immediate area around him, and his eyes widened.

"Hanbin-hyung?"

He could recognize Hanbin's robes, even as it was now, stained deep red with blood. He reached out with one hand to turn Hanbin onto his back gently, trying to locate the source of the blood that was soaking into his clothes all over, seeping into the dry earth beneath him. As he turned over, it became obvious; there was a gaping gash sliced diagonally across Hanbin's chest, so deep Gyuvin could see the glinting white bones of his ribcage inside of him.

Gyuvin fell to his knees, his hands trembling, trying to figure out how to stop the bleeding and get Hanbin to wake up again, but he was in such deep panic his mind was in overdrive, and nothing came out clearly.

 Who had attacked Hanbin out here, in the middle of nowhere, in the dead of night? Who was so much stronger than Hanbin that he could defeat him, one of the top youth cultivators if his generation, so easily? And why had he, Gyuvin, been left out here completely unharmed when the attacker was vicious and clearly striking to kill? There was no way a wound so deep and so brutal could have been made by accident.

He drew a healing talisman quickly, his hands flying through the air to finish the strokes, golden light blooming in the darkness, but Hanbin was losing blood faster than he could draw, and the talisman didn't seem to have any effect on the wound at all.

Spiritual talismans...have no effect on wounds inflicted by a holy weapon.

Had whoever it was came for Hanbin with a holy weapon? If he did, it meant that all the talismans in the world couldn't save him. Holy weapons and spiritual power both came from the same source, the heavenly realm, and couldn't work as antidotes to each other under any circumstances.

Gyuvin felt his eyes glaze over with tears, as he shook Hanbin by the shoulders out of desperation. "Hyung, please..."

Hanbin's eyes did not open. His pallor was so deathly pale from the blood loss that, under the dim moonlight, he almost looked like he was already dead. Something fell out of Hanbin's open palm just then; a small bottle of a glimmering green liquid, spilling out of its uncorked top. Gyuvin leaned down to look closer, swiping the tears out of his eyes.

Soul-Cleansing Elixir? Why had Hanbin been holding something like this in his hand right before he was murdered?

He reached out to pick up the bottle and a deep, stabbing pain reverberated through his head, like someone had pushed a knife through his skull and was twisting it around. Gyuvin fell back, his breath catching in his throat, his mind blanking out from the pain.

The last thing he registered was the deeply unsettling scent of blood from all around him and warm tears pooling in his eyes, before he lost all consciousness entirely.