Steve screamed, voice echoing through the chamber, "What the hell are you doing, Hwan?!"
But Hwan only laughed first quietly, then louder and louder, like something inside him had finally broken.
His eyes wild, he looked at Steve and said coldly,
"I didn't come all this way just to die. If I didn't do it... someone else would have."
Lee Hyun, silent, stepped in front of Steve without a word shielding him. He reached for his sword.
But his hand found nothing.
"Looking for this, leader?" Hwan sneered, raising Lee Hyun's sword in his hand.
Steve's breath caught, but then he stepped forward, pulling something from his jacket
"Leader," he said, calm but firm, "take this dagger. The same one you gave me before."
Lee Hyun locked eyes with Steve. Then he nodded, accepting the dagger without a word.
The two clashed in a blur steel against steel, footwork quick and explosive. Lee Hyun fought with precision, but the dagger was small, and every strike required double the effort.
While dueling, Hwan slowly take Lee Hyun away from Steve, step by step. Then, in a sudden burst of speed, hwan turned and charged at Steve like lightning.
"Steve!" Lee Hyun shouted, pushing himself forward.
Just as Hwan's weapon came down, Lee Hyun moved in between taking the blow in Steve's place.
He dropped to his knees, breath catching, pain in his eyes.
Hwan's expression twisted. "Why protect someone with no power?"
Lee Hyun didn't answer with words. He clenched the dagger, and with the last strength in his body, moved faster than anyone expected.
A sharp, swift move and the fight ended in a single decisive blow.
Hwan fell back, stunned, losing his grip on the stolen sword.
Silence.
Then Lee hyun dropped beside steve, grabbing his arm. "Leader... are you okay?"
Lee Hyun, breathing hard, gave the faintest smile.
Lee Hyun, blood on his lips, struggled to breathe as he knelt. He looked at Steve not as a subordinate, but as someone he believed in, even in his last moments.
"Don't… call me leader," he whispered, voice shaking. "Call me… Lee Hyun."
He gripped Steve's arm tightly.
"I wasn't born strong either steve... I built myself with pain, failure, and sacrifice."
His eyes glimmered not with fear, but with purpose.
"You… you still have time. Be strong, Steve. Not just with magic or blades. Be strong here" he tapped his chest, just over the heart, "because only the strong survive in a world like this. But the ones with heart… they lead it."
His hand loosened.
"Live… for all of us…"
And with that, his breath faded leaving behind not just silence, but the weight of everything he had protected.
Steve's eyes widened in disbelief as Lee Hyun's hand fell limp.
"No... no, no, no"
His voice cracked, trembling with rage and grief.
Then the scream tore from his chest, raw and full of pain.
"LEE HYUNNNNNN!!"
His voice echoed across the obsidian chamber, bouncing off the cold stone wall.
Steve gripping Lee Hyun's blood-stained hand.
His breath shook, his fingers trembling.
"I wasn't supposed to lose anyone... not like this... Why....why I wasn't powerfull enough to save anyone why..."
He looked up his expression no longer the scared, quiet boy who entered the portal.
Steve gently wiped his tears with the back of his hand. He lowered Lee Hyun's head to rest softly on the stone floor, his movements slow, respectful.
"Rest now, Leader..." he whispered, voice barely audible.
Then he stood.
His body was shaking not from fear anymore, but from the weight of what he had to carry now.
Step by step, he walked ahead alone.
"I have to live… for them."
The chamber beyond was vast. Cold. Silent.
And at the very end, standing proud in the dim red glow, was a throne.
Beside it, a table old, carved from the same obsidian stone. On it… a plate.
Steve approached cautiously. The plate held a dark red liquid, thick and still.
He stared at it.
"It looks… more like blood," he muttered.
His eyes shifted to the throne. Right in the center of its backrest was a small circular gap like something was missing.
Suddenly, the locket in Steve's jacket pocket began to burn with intense heat without thinking, he yelped and grabbed it, then instantly threw it onto the ground.
The locket dropped and landed with a soft clink on the stone floor.
Steve froze. Slowly, he bent down, picking it up carefully, his breath shallow.
He looked at the throne. Then the locket. Then the gap.
"From my perspective..." he whispered, "this locket should be under here."
He took a breath.
"Let's see what happens."
With steady hands, he raised the glowing locket… and slid it into the gap in the throne.
END OF CHAPTER.