Flames | NCT

Chapter 35

"Well this is different." Johnny said as they stepped out to the barren land of the clouds, the neighbourhood where the Cha Twins once resided. He watched as Jungmo swept his fingers along the broken houses, recalling what it once looked like.

"It is." Eunjung said, her arms crossed as she stood behind the males. "It's been so different since Sora came."

"Tell us what happened." Jaehyun said as he eyed the remainders. Jungmo let out a deep sigh.

"We're not sure." Jungmo admitted. "We just came back to find a bunch of dead bodies and Sora, Hwayoung, and Dongwook over them."

"Why would they do such a thing?" Johnny asked as he walked through.

"That's the question of the century." Winwin responded as he glanced around as well.

Johnny had to admit, he didn't like the place. It gave him chills down his back and it didn't help that they weren't supposed to be there.

Whatever Jaehyun's plan is, it better freaking work.

"Is there any remains here that could help us?" Jaehyun asked the twins. Eunjung shook her head.

"Do you want ashes? There's plenty of those." Jungmo told them.

Jaehyun shook his head. "I'm good."

"Now what?" Winwin asked. Johnny could tell he was getting impatient and quite frankly, he didn't blame him one bit. This place was freaking as Hell!

"Let's head to the castle." Jaehyun said. "I want to talk to Sora."

"He's gone insane." Winwin muttered under his breath but Johnny shook his head.

"He just wants his lover back."

...

"You seem stressed." Shotaro said as he sat down beside Renjun in their lounge. Renjun had papers, books, and notebooks surrounding him, filling up their entire glass table. He kept running his fingers through his hair, letting out deep breaths every five seconds.

"I am stressed." Renjun replied. "None of this makes sense!"

Shotaro picked up the paper Renjun was writing on, reading what it said.

"Build phoenix army, destroy Kitsune and Siren villages, threaten to take over the Vampire Kingdom... seems like their trying to take over the whole supernatural world." Shotaro pointed out before placing it back in front of Renjun.

"Exactly!" Renjun exclaimed. "But why now? Why didn't they do it earlier?"

"Maybe they had other things to line up." Shotaro suggested. "What needed to happen for them to get to this point?"

Renjun thought backwards from each step. He blinked a few times once he realized how one thing kept leading to another.

Hwayoung needed Sora and Dongwook. Dongwook was released by Haechan, who was possessed by the spirit of Sora's mother. Sora's mother was killed by Renjun when they were saving Jaemin and Doyoung. Jaemin was held captive when he went to investigate the shapeshifters, which were created through a combination of their solo missions, Renjun's one in Hell being one of them. And this all happened after Sora died in the battle outside of the Vampire Kingdom.

"Oh my gosh." Renjun exclaimed. "They've had this planned for a long time."

"Huh?" Shotaro said, confused. What in the world is he talking about?

"I still don't know why." Renjun admitted. "But whatever it is, the Devil has definitely been ensuring that each step was executed perfectly each time."