THE alchemist couldn’t keep calm especially with the news of invaders and a lot of stuff have been worse ever since the prophecy was stated by his significant other, he can’t help but pray for his safety especially when he’s been busy with his work— his hard work has been paid off as he kept on travelling because of the neverending requests from other countries.

He was granted an award as one of the best alchemist in their generation, even earning a job on the headquarters of their country's alchemist association with a good ranking— even surpassing the other alchemist that has been there for years.

And just like what his significant other have promised, he was there. Smiling proudly at him all the time and making the alchemist so happy as he shower him with affections and praises during the time that they’re alone, making him feel loved and appreciated.

“Dear, make sure that you’re resting well.” the prophet kept on running his hand on the alchemist’s dark locks, “I know that you’re already in your dream job but please take care of yourself.”

“I know, my beloved.” the alchemist smiles as the prophet kept on playing his hair, “I just wish that we could have a lot of time to be together.”

“With our country’s situation, I’m afraid but I have to be around the palace all the time. I have to tell them what will happen in the future so I can protect everyone,” the prophet sadly stated as he let out a sigh, “I miss you too, you know?”

“I miss you so much,” the alchemist hugged the prophet so tight as he nuzzles on his neck, “It’s been a while.”

“I know.” the prophet laughs, “You’ve been busy with the requests so I expected that we won’t be seeing each other frequently.”

“Indeed! There are other alchemists in our headquarters but I’m the one that is requested most of the time!” the alchemist blurted out, pouting in annoyance “I want to spend time with you but I can’t because of those jobs.”

The prophet ruffled the alchemist’s hair as he smiled, “I’m proud of you.”

“Of course, you are!” the alchemist agreed, nodding furiously as he grinned “And you’ll be proud of me until I can be on the top! Until the moment that I’m the best alchemist on this world!”

“Indeed.” the prophet agreed without even thinking about it twice, “But remember that too much power means more load of work.”

“I know.” the alchemist groaned but his grin never disappeared as he kept on looking at his beloved one’s face “That’s why I’m working hard.”

“Ah. You’re such an amazing person. I’m really proud of you,” the prophet stated as he caressed the alchemist’s face with both of his hand, looking at him with such loving eyes, “I love you so much. I want you to reach your dreams and continue living with your bright persona. I want you to know that you’re the best thing that’s ever been mine.”

“You’re being sappy right now, darling~” the alchemist teased as he put his hands above the prophet’s “And as I kept on being better, you’ll be there for me. You’ll be watching over me, right?”

The prophet seems to flinch at what the alchemist have said, making the younger male tilt his head in confusion. The prophet took a deep breath before looking at the alchemist once again with such loving eyes, his fingers tracing on his cheeks.

“I’ll be watching over you,” the prophet muttered, “I promise.”

“Thank you,” the alchemist replied, smiling at him “Thank you for everything.”

“I already told you that I’ll be here for you,” the prophet said, grinning at him this time.

“If only I could be here for you too,” the alchemist said, pouting once again.

The prophet lets out a chuckle, “It’s alright. By the way, I've heard that you’ll be away for a few days again?”

“Ah. Yes.” the alchemist frowned as he rolled his eyes, “It was one of the major quest and they’ll be needing a powerful alchemist. Unfortunately, I was chosen so I’ll be with them for quite a long time.”

“How long will it be?” the prophet asked.

“Around ten days?”

“Make it eleven.” the prophet said which made the alchemist hummed in confusion.

“But why?”

“I want you to buy me some gift? A trinklet? A necklace? Or even just some delicacies? It’s been a while since I've ate something tasty!” the prophet's sudden change of mood made the alchemist wonder, “How about that country's chicken? You know how I love chicken!”

“Hey. Hold your horses, sweetie.” the alchemist stated as he giggled, “I’ll buy you chicken and an another gift then.”

“Good.” the prophet stated as he leaned in front of the alchemist, “I should thank you now for that.”

“What are you doing?” the alchemist asked.

The prophet giggled once again, “Loving you.”

The prophet closed their distance as their lips met, letting the alchemist fall on the mattress with the prophet on top of him. They pulled away from each other quickly as they embraced each other, the prophet singing a lullaby for the alchemist until Hypnos is able to cradle him.

Staring at the alchemist’s sleeping figure, the prophet lets out a sigh as he embraced him once again. Remembering the warmth that the alchemist provides whenever they’re hugging each other then smiling sadly as he kissed his forehead.

“I’ll do everything to put you into safety,” the prophet mutters, staring at the alchemist’s face, “I won’t be breaking my promise with you though. I’ll be watching over you.. no matter what.”

°===============°

       WOOYOUNG and Yeosang walked through the main hall of the library, looking around as the younger one stayed alert in case that a blackened one might jump out of nowhere. Yeosang opened his flashlight as he kept on looking around until he saw the book filled with guides for the shelves.

“This must've been the one that the librarian is carrying around then,” Yeosang mutters.

“You wanna know a surprise, traitor?” Yeosang looked at Wooyoung as he tilted his head in confusion, “I am the librarian.”

“Really?” Yeosang asked in awe.

Wooyoung nods, “It’s just for a part-time job since I’m in college now but most of the time, I'm the one in night duty.”

“That’s wonderful!” Yeosang gasped as a small smile crept on his face, clasping his hands “We both love to read books ever since we were young! You really wanted to be a librarian aside from being a performer so I wasn’t expecting that you’ll—”

“Enough.” Wooyoung's cold tone made Yeosang shut his lips, “I am not here to reconcile with you. Stop wasting our time and let’s go upstairs.”

“Oh.” Yeosang looked down as he nodded and Wooyoung would be lying if he'll said that the sudden change of expression made him feel bad.

Wooyoung faked a cough, “The books about history is in the third floor of the library. On the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth shelf in this library.”

“I see.” Yeosang tried his best not to react that much on Wooyoung’s statement but it really amazed him that the younger male remembered all of it.

As Wooyoung was leading the way while Yeosang was following him, they kept on looking around as they reached the emergency exit with the stairs in it as they silently climbed until they’re at the door that will lead them to the third floor. Wooyoung silently opened the door to take a peek and saw some blackened ones walking around the floor and silently closed it again as he looked at Yeosang.

“There are some blackened ones around so we’re going to get rid of them as soon as possible,” Wooyoung whispered as he took his guns out of his hand, “Make yourself useful and help me out with your worst choice of a weapon.”

“Worst choice?” Yeosang asked but shook immediately, “I’d like to ask about that later but for now, okay.”

“Here goes nothing..” Wooyoung muttered before opening the door silently as they entered the third floor and hid behind the shelves.

“How many are they?” Yeosang asked.

Wooyoung took an another peek before hiding again, “We’re outnumbered. They're around ten or probably more?”

“Why are there a lot of blackened ones here when there isn't a single one on the ground floor?” Yeosang groaned.

“You know what happens to horror movies, monsters tend to guard the area or the stuff that can exterminate them.” Wooyoung commented as he gripped the guns, “I’ll jump out of here to shoot them, swing that axe of yours to whoever that will manage to get near us.”

“Alright,” Yeosang agrees.

“J-Just remember that I’m just doing this because Hongjoong-hyung wants me to cooperate with you..” Wooyoung was furiously blushing as he frowned, “Even though I hate you so much.. I-I..”

“What?”

“I trust you on this, Yeosang.” Wooyoung mutters as he kept on looking away to the older male.

The brunette can’t believe what he was hearing right now and grinned because of the intense warmth that he’s feeling that he might cry “Thank you. You don’t know how those words made me feel so warm. I won’t let you down, Youngie.”

“In a count of three, we’ll jump out of this shelf. One.. two..” Wooyoung took a deep breath as he took a glance at Yeosang before looking away, “Three.”

As Wooyoung jumped out of the shelf, he immediately fired as three of the blackened ones dropped on the ground with holes in their head. It immediately took the attention of the other ones, Wooyoung immediately fired as he kept on hitting them while some managed to evade and run to his direction. This is the time where Yeosang run beside Wooyoung, energized with the fact that he was trusted by Wooyoung. Maybe if he kept on doing these kinds of stuff for Wooyoung, he might be able to win their friendship back.

Yeosang swung the axe so hard towards the blackened one's neck that its head fell off and hit the floor, making its black and blue blood splattered on it. The two kept on running and attacking until most of the blackened ones are at the floor and Yeosang realized that there are around eleven of them, some of them are dead while some couldn’t stand up.

“Good grief.” Wooyoung took a bottle of gasoline and poured it on the ones that were barely alive.

“No. Not that. Anything but that..” Yeosang was surprised with the blackened ones’ pleas.

“Why?” Yeosang mutters.

“D-Don't set us on fire. Please. We beg you. Slice us in half. Stab us. Crush us. Kill us in any way except that.” one of the blackened ones cried out.

“Who are you to demand such a thing?” Wooyoung snarled, “You've killed a lot of my townspeople.”

“Y-You won’t understand our reason. You won’t understand our pain!” one of them cried out.

“Well, all of you never even told us why you have to kill everyone. You just kept on attacking again and again! Kill and kill! And now, you are going to reason out that we'll never understand your pain?” Wooyoung was definitely boiling in anger, holding the gun tight.

“We just wanted our Eden back,” one of the blackened ones sobbed, black tears pouring out of its eyes.

“We don’t even know what that Eden shit is.” Wooyoung growled as he took a lighter out.

“No!”

“Please don’t!”

“Anything but fire!”

“Please!”

“We’re begging you!”

“I don’t want to feel that again!”

Yeosang thought that it’s unreasonable to feel bad for these creatures but there must've been a reason why they hate fire so much, “Why are all of you afraid of fire?”

“Don’t talk to them. They don't deserve your concern,” Wooyoung snarled at him.

“But they looked so scared of it..” Yeosang mutters.

“Scared?” Wooyoung asked before smirking at the blackened ones in front of them, “I won't kill all of you with fire but in exchange, I’ll be asking you some questions. If you’re lying to me then I’ll burn all of you into crisps. How does that sounds?”

“A-Alright..”

“Okay then. Tell me where is the book that tells about the histories of these town and all of the books that can provide us information about it,” Wooyoung stated, “You're all here to guard it, right? Then tell me where it is or all of you will die slowly with fire.”

“I-It’s in the eighteenth shelf. One on the first row on the left with the title of Arceana’s mythology, an another one is on the third row on the middle with the title of History of Saavedra Town.” one of the blackened one muttered and it seems to hesitate on continuing it.

“What's the matter? Talk!” Wooyoung snarls.

“T-Third one is on the nineteenth shelf with a title of Utopia in it.” the blackened one said, clenching its jaw.

“Hey, Yeosang. You've heard them well, right? Take those books,” Wooyoung said as Yeosang nodded, running to the eighteenth shelf to take the books.

Yeosang felt like something is wrong and decided to take a glance between the books and saw that there’s a blackened one that is about to attack Wooyoung from behind and all he can see is red as the blackened one is a few steps away from Wooyoung, he ran with all his might and swung the axe on the blackened one, splitting its body into half as it lets out a pained cry.

It tried to kill Wooyoung. It tried to kill my bestfriend. It tried to stab my bestfriend with a knife. I cannot forgive this. Unforgivable.

Yeosang can’t control himself as he kept on swinging his axe again and again, cutting the blackened one into bits and hitting its face again and again despite it being as good as dead. Wooyoung was surprised with the brunette’s action and saw that he was killing a blackened one yet he felt that something's wrong when Yeosang isn't even stopping even when the blackened one’s flesh is already splattered on the ground.

“Yeosang.” he tried calling him once yet he wasn't responding, “Hey!”

He started to worry when Yeosang kept on swinging the axe again and again, “Hey, Yeosang.”

Once again, he was ignored so he immediately ran towards Yeosang and held his arm tight, “Yeosang! Enough!”

The brunette stopped on his actions as he faced Wooyoung which made him gasp on the sight, the older male’s eyes was shining with two different colors. His left eye was as blue as the seas and the right one reminds him of the sun, as yellow as the stars.

“Yeosang..” he called him again and Yeosang suddenly gasped, the weird colors on his eyes disappeared.

“W-Wooyoung?” he asked then looked at the ground before letting out a despaired expression, “I-It was about to kill you so I-I did my best to prevent it. I-I can’t remember what happened next..”

“It’s alright. Go get the book so we can get out of here.” Wooyoung said, trying his best not to react on what he saw.

Yeosang immediately ran to the shelf to take the book then both of them opened it, reading the contents to make sure that the blackened ones aren’t lying to them and to their surprise, it actually contains the information that they needed. Yeosang seems to focus on what he’s reading as if he doesn’t overkill one of the blackened ones as blue and black blood have stained his white oversized sweater and his pair of black jeans.

“So this is it,” Wooyoung mutters as Yeosang walked around for other books then looked at the blackened ones, “I want to ask you an another question, who is the Eve?”

“Eve.. our precious Eve.”

“Our Eve..”

“..is the key to Eden.”

“We must give the Eve to Monsieur so Monsieur can give us our lives back. Our utopia. Our Eden.”

“Monsieur?” Yeosang asked as he put some books on his bags, “What are you talking about?”

“Monsieur is our master.”

“He is our God.”

“Whatever Monsieur wants, we provide it to him.”

“He gives us his blessings in return.”

“He should've gotten Eve if it weren’t for Adam.”

“Adam ruined our ceremony and burned all of us to death.”

“We’re coming back to get our Eden back.”

“Adam? Eve? Eden? Why is it all related to the holy book?” Yeosang asked curiously.

“Who fucking knows?” Wooyoung replies as he looked at the blackened ones, “All I can understand is that they died once and returned to cause shit.”

“We kept on killing so we can get our citizens back.”

“The citizens of Eden.”

“We rose from the dead to retrieve them back by killing the humans that is existing their shell.”

“When we kill them, we extract the soul and send it to Monsieur as we kept on getting our citizens back.”

“Okay. I've heard enough..” Wooyoung immediately threw his lighter towards the blackened ones as the fire immediately grew.

“Why?!”

“You promised!”

“Fire! No!”

“Not again!”

“Ah shit. Here we go again.”

“Me? Promised?” Wooyoung lets out a laugh as he grinned, “I don’t make promises anymore. I only made one with a specific person.”

“Wooyoung?” Yeosang was confused on everything that he heard.

“Yeosang, let’s go.” Wooyoung mutters as he grab the brunette’s hair and they ran towards the emergency exit.

As they arrived on the ground floor, they can heard the blackened ones from the other floors’ screams and how the fire scares them so Wooyoung smirked. He immediately poured gasoline in front of the stairs and took a match, letting a fire ignite in it and lets it fall to the ground as the fire started. Every single blackened one that is trying to run down the stairs stopped when they saw the fire approaching them from the first floors’ stairs.

“Let’s get out on the back door.” Wooyoung stated.

As they managed to get out through the back door, they managed to surprise the three guarding it. Mingi shrieking in such a loud voice that San wanted to smack him because it definitely attracted attention from those disgusting monsters.

“Glad to know that both of you are safe,” Seonghwa said.

“We should get going!” Mingi said as he saw some shadows approaching their direction.

“Let’s go!” San screams as they ran towards the entrance.

“Hongjoong!” Seonghwa called their captain.

Hongjoong looked at them, “Hwa.”

“We’re done, Hongjoong-hyung! We have to get out of here now!” Wooyoung screams with all of his might.

“Hush! You might attract the blackened ones!” Hongjoong scolded him.

“Too late for that!” Wooyoung screamed again.

“Okay.” Hongjoong took a deep breath before screaming with all of his might, “Run for your lives!”

The boys, except Yeosang kept on screaming as they kept on running. Wooyoung was letting the gasoline pour behind him then when he emptied it, he threw an another lighter which caused an another fire that probably took the blackened ones’ attention for now. The reason for him bringing lots of lighter would make him look like an arsonist but no. He isn’t one.

When they’re about to arrive on the factory, Jongho sensed something wrong in it that he stopped on his tracks, making the others stop too. When they looked at their youngest member, he seems to be scared of something.

“Jongho?” Yunho asked.

“No way..” Jongho mutters, “I’m sure that I’ve attached a lot last night..”

“What’s the matter, Jongho?” Yeosang was the one who asked this time and Jongho looked at him in fear, “What’s happening to you, Jongho?”

“Yeosangie-hyung..” Jongho whimpered as he immediately ran towards Yeosang, “W-We shouldn’t go inside. Something’s wrong.”

“Hey there, Jongho. Calm down.” Yunho calmly said as he hugged the youngest from behind, “I won't let go until you’ve calmed down or smile.”

“What’s wrong?” Seonghwa asks.

Yunho seems to sense like something is wrong, “Wait a minute..”

“Let’s try to have a peek then.” Mingi mutters.

“Mingi, no!” Jongho screams but it’s too late when Mingi opened the gates.

What they saw made them pale, Seonghwa was expecting something to happen when he decided to leave for his friends’ safety. But still, the sight made them take a step backwards.

“Mingi!” Yunho hissed in anger, “You fucking donkey!”

“What?!” Mingi screamed back.

“You shouldn't open it! You should've waited for Hongjoong’s signal or something, bitchstick!” Yunho screeched.

“Hey! What are we supposed to do now?!” Wooyoung is panicking and looking at all of them.

“Run?!” San screeched back.

“To where?! This is our only safety zone! The blackened ones are about to head this way!” Seonghwa screams in worry.

“Oh my god! We’re gonna mcfuckin’ die!” Mingi screeched, pulling his hair.

“And it’s your fault, bitchstick!” Yunho hissed at him again.

“Stop attacking me, Yunho!” Mingi whines.

“Everyone, calm down!” Hongjoong screams at them.

“How?!” Most of them screamed at Hongjoong.

Yeosang along with Jongho covered their ears and with the youngest male getting done with their shit, groaned in annoyance. He took a deep breath as he let himself out of Yunho’s grasp, walking in front of Mingi as he faced the factory where every single survivor that they’ve kept were nothing but a bunch of blackened ones right now, even the children have turned into something so hideous that it wants him to puke.

“I don’t know what happened but I’m quite sure that I’ve applied protection on the whole area before leaving,” Jongho sternly stated as he clenched his fists, “I’m sure that the whole area will be safe and I’m not expecting this at all. Well, I'm one to blame for not making sure of it well so I guess that I have to do this.”

“Jongho?” Yunho asked.

“Hyungs.. you love me, right?” Jongho suddenly asked, surprising them.

“Of course, we do.” Seonghwa responded without a second thought.

“Can you promise me that you’ll still love me after all of this?” Jongho asked, looking at them with scared eyes.

Most of them nodded in which Jongho lets out a pained smile, “Sorry if I’ll be scaring all of you. I never wanted to be something so hideous.”

They saw how Jongho’s eyes turned into bright yellow as bright spheres have appeared beside him, floating around. The others gasped at what Jongho have done as San literally gritted on his teeth, masking his expressions despite the slight pain that he’s feeling from the light energy surrounding the youngest.

“I’m going to put all of you in peace,” Jongho stated as he launched himself towards the blackened ones.

“Jongho!”

---

AN ANOTHER UPDATE AND I’M NOT EVEN EXPECTING MYSELF TO WRITE SOMETHING IN A FEW DAYS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I HOPE THAT YOU’RE ENJOYING THIS STORY ;; SORRY IF IT’S GETTING LAME OR SOMETHING. 😭 I'M AWARE OF HOW IT SUCKS ;;  IT'S 5AM HERE IN PH AND I SHOULD BE ASLEEP BUT THEN AGAIN.. WHAT IS S L E  E P-

i also posted a new ATEEZ fic. it’s an angsty seongsang fic and i can assure y'all that i’ve written it in exchange of all of my remaining braincells. u w u

also, thank you for the votes and comments! 💕 i really appreciate all of it! thank ya kindly!~ ó w ò