When the grand finale arrived, Jongho let go of Yeosang in case he had any last words or support he wanted to gift to Seonghwa. The cave's cold air was thick with anticipation and disbelief that it would finally end. Right here and now, they would witness the closure of a horrible time that had left them and the generations before them with scars that ran as deep as the canyon that divided the cliff.

"I won't stop you. Prove your worth. Take the throne from your father." The king grinned a pale and bloodstained smile. Seonghwa cocked the weapon.

"Don't think that tripping me into thinking I am just like you will stop me. You talk about protagonists and fantasy stories a lot. Now, since you already told me that I am not one, allow me to interrupt you right here and leave the rest of your ugly talk unheard."

Without another warning, Seonghwa pulled the trigger.

Hongjoong's arm was there to support his shoulder immediately when the recoil hit it and travelled through his body.

The metal of the king's head wasn't able to withstand the pressure. It burst right beneath Seonghwa's feet, where the man stood above the king victoriously. The glow of the nethicite gave out altogether as nothing of worth remained of the dead king. Like the pieces of a broken fruit, the metal and only partly human compartments laid strewn over the ground. A single shot, such a little gesture. It had been enough to end two centuries of pain.

No celebrations or cheers filled them. Jongho stood just as grim as before, and the faces of their friends were pale and tired. Exhaustion pulled on all of them, and they weren't done yet. While the antagonist had fallen, they still had to resolve the social and political discord. Compared to hunting down a sick old man, that task sounded far more burdensome.

"Here. Let's leave him and send a few automatons later to collapse this cave and bury him deep within the earth."

Careful, Hongjoong took his weapon back. It slipped onto his belt as if it had never left the place.

Jongho didn't bother to throw another glance at the king. The curse had lifted off them, and he wouldn't have to spend another second of his life despising the man. Finally, his father and all of Zey were avenged.

"Allow me to take the lead from here. I will make sure to get us through the palace safely and retain the angry people." Yunho respectfully bowed his head in front of Seonghwa.

At once, all tension fell from the prince. The mood relaxed the second that he staggered. His fatigue caught up with him as he stumbled into Hongjoong's arms and had to shield his eyes faintly for a moment.

They all lunged to support him in the first second, but Seonghwa managed to raise his second hand defensively.

"Please do so. I fulfilled my duties here, and I will gladly leave this to you. Once it's time for me to initiate another step, I'll have recovered."

No one could argue with that. Yunho motioned Wooyoung to join his side up front as he led them the way back that they had come. Hongjoong held Seonghwa around his waist for support as they went next. A few steps behind, Yeosang and Jongho ended their procession to oversee all their tired and bowed heads as the weight of fate and responsibility showed on them all.

Seonghwa especially had finally won the struggle of about a decade of his life. No wonder he needed rest.

Uncharacteristically quiet, Yeosang walked along Jongho. Not that he was extraordinarily talkative usually, but Jongho didn't know how to interpret his silence.

"Are you alright?"

His careful question echoed in the cave even over the conversation that Yunho and Wooyoung had in front. Nobody minded, though. They all were either busy nursing their own thoughts or not minding their private talk enough.

Yeosang sighed.

"I don't know. I don't know what to feel. I know this was the right decision. But I can't help but think that there might have been a way that wouldn't have required a victim. Call me a dreamer; I don't mind it."

"Why would I call you a dreamer?" Jongho's gentle voice visibly grounded Yeosang and helped him to breathe deeply. As they ascended through the caves with Yunho and his nethicite light leading them, the colour returned to the librarian's face. The nightmare was over, and while the two princes especially would suffer more within the next few days and the memories of their deeds, the future was an uphill road.

"I don't know... I did nothing here. You guys did all the work, and here I am, still making demands." Sad, Yeosang chuckled to himself. When Jongho reached out his hand to hold Yeosang's fingers with his shyly, the man timidly let him and wrapped his digits around Jongho's.

"In dire moments such as these, people like you hold onto the respect and morals that we humans should have. If Zey had decided upon these things, they would have slaughtered everybody in Asora without questioning who they were. I believe that given his madness, this was the best option. And you did a lot guiding us through it. Don't think that heroic risk-taking is required to do something good and show your dedication to your cause."

The whirring of the tiny cogs in Jongho's shoulder was so familiar and soothing in the dark. Soon, however, it got blocked out by the loud hammering and working of the machines in the distance. Unbeknownst to their king's death, the castle still functioned. Once it learnt that its very core had disappeared, it would crumble from inside out.

"Don't you think that you helped Seonghwa a lot? And that you showed much more strength than expected from a little librarian boy?"

That had Yeosang chuckle. His eyes found the ground shyly.

"Mingi or San or I wouldn't be here if you hadn't activated us and brought motivation for your cause. And Yunho might have escalated the situation if we hadn't been able to plan it out so well. You played your role; everybody did. And frankly, I am glad that you weren't the one who steered his airship into a solid wall twice."

At those hushed words, Hongjoong playfully glared over his shoulder at the couple. Jongho gave him a grin.

"I did get further than I expected. I always considered myself just to be the ballast you all dragged along, but I suppose I also thought a lot of that by myself."

"Yeah, you did."

Yeosang sighed, but this time he sounded more at peace. After another moment, he straightened his shoulder to look up ahead with an increased will. Life returned to his eyes and beat the fear of the future as he found himself surrounded by his friends.

"I might not have much time to write these days with the upcoming duties upon our way. I might need to interview you again because the main love interest in my book resembles you. Pure coincidence, I think. I should project some of our adventures and problems onto them, so they sound more vivid."

Like a cogling who was still excited about the first time he was introduced to a steam engine, he babbled on and filled the downtrodden mood with his cheerful words and good mood. At his colourful explanations about his book and about the plot he imagined for his heroes, all of them found something else to look forward to.

The payoff. The time in which Yeosang would write again. Jongho would work on his gadgets. Hongjoong would fly the skies. Now finally, it was near. And they all yearned for it more than ever before.

The tunnel lit up soon when they returned to the grand hall. Still, nobody acknowledged their presence, and Jongho also didn't care to alert the workers down here of the newest developments. Instead, he shot his grappling hooks up the hole that they had come through and made sure they were secured before he ushered his friends up. As they left the heated and steamy metal hell beneath the palace, the earlier coldness of the weather that had settled in the entrance hall like a thick layer greeted them. When it bit at Jongho's face, he looked around for the way up, grumbling.

Several bodies in different states of health littered the floor and winding staircase. Some of them still twisted and groaned on the ground, while others laid completely calm. There was no way to tell whether the men belonged to Yunho's team or the palace, but either was fine as long as they didn't slaughter blindly. Some people of Asora had also found their way inside to patch up the wounded, and they didn't mind the group of rebels even when they quickly sprung up the moving stairs.

"We'll need to go back to the throne room to restore the power," Seonghwa reminded them all of their current goal. As they ran through the corridors, any fighting had ceased already. The battle of the king's men and the rebels had moved to another place.

"We should split up. I'll check on my men. May I take Hongjoong and Wooyoung with me?" Yunho's tall figure threw flickering shadows over the walls as they hurried past the lamps above them. Seonghwa nodded at him.

Once they had made sure that the path leading to the throne room was clear of any traps, Yunho and the other two ran off. Seonghwa remained with Yeosang and Jongho. As the two princes teamed up to stick close to each other, Jongho entered the large hall first to look around.

More men on the ground and two destroyed Bishops. Everybody here was completely silent and either unconscious or dead.

"Stay clear of the bodies in case somebody comes to life again," he muttered as he beckoned the two men closer. Sticking together carefully, they reached the side of the hole that Hongjoong had created here a few days prior. The cables from the ground had disappeared, but Jongho had no issues detecting where they hid under a wooden covering over the wall. Seonghwa and Yeosang set up the energy core while he searched his belt for the right tool to rip the sturdy nails from the wall that held them at bay.

Had the king figured out that they would redirect the power? Maybe he wanted to attempt to keep the huge machine that powered him as well as the breeding ground beneath alive. With every nail that Jongho dropped on the ground, his satisfaction rose. The steps towards their purpose were slow and gradual, but they proved their worth.

As Jongho fumbled with the cables and Seonghwa tried to get behind his notes that he had made about how the sphere needed to be connected and what its requirements were, Yeosang's eyes found the fallen ones. The hurt in his eyes conveyed a deeper story than just casual worry. Despite the cruelty that the palace had subjected him to for years, he still treasured the lives of people and their meaning in this fight. Thankfully, he didn't attempt to run over and help somebody only to endanger himself possibly.

Jongho scaled the wall with the help of his grappling hook as he gradually freed the cables and wires from the wood. A dozen of them freely hung down towards Seonghwa and gradually uncurled as Jongho undid their loops and knots. Like the spindly legs of a giant spider, they spread through the room.

"We'll need more cables. Ask Yunho to get some once they return. The power must connect all through the city and towards the canyon."

Yeosang nodded and kept watch on the door to be able to react swiftly. Seonghwa's fingers were still busy adjusting the dynamics and angles of the core.

"Maybe later we can make use of the king's tunnels. If everything goes as planned, we could direct the power through the ground and connect it within the canyon. San's people probably have an idea of how to build another section in there that keeps it up." Seonghwa's suggestion urged a nod from Jongho as he dug his feet into the wall. Right now, he missed the spiked shoes they had worn in the canyon.

"Good idea, yeah. We can ask them to-," He twisted his head around when he heard steps coming down the corridor. A whole troop of people was on the move, and while it was likely just Yunho and his squad, he still reached for his blunderbuss to direct it at the door. Tense, Yeosang and Seonghwa stared up ahead, too.

Unexpectedly, Yunho turned the corner in the company of a man Jongho hadn't anticipated here. As he walked into the throne room to view their progress, a broad smile lit up his face under the mess of black curls.

"We found him in the east wing. All happily commanding my men." Yunho cheerily laid a hand on his shoulder as Jongho put his gun away with a huff. Then, he went back to work.

"Speaking of the devil. Good to see you join us, Yongguk." Seonghwa waved him over to get him to aid his attempts.

As the room felt with men ready to protect them and ensure their success, Jongho also felt another fresh wave of energy fill his tired bones.