WARNING: THIS CHAPTER MAY BE A LITTLE BIT BLOODY THAN BEFORE!

'Father...why do we have to serve the kingdom's political strategist when there's no war starting?' A small innocent boy asked his father, with curious eyes. His tone of expression was much of annoyance rather than of excitement.

The man, who was busy reading a thick book on his working desk turned to the little boy. With a slight sigh, he replied:

"My Jun Hyung-ah, being a strategist itself is also part of leading a country to safety and from harm. Even if there's no war, there are still people who loath the ruling system, that's why our family, who are specialised in creating tactics, are appointed as strategists, to protect and to turn the country to a peaceful one."

"Just like heroes from storybooks?" Jun Hyung asked as he stared at the pages that his father was reading.

"Well, more like chess for example, it requires thinking and time managing skills to remove each and every chess pieces," his father explained, "and by the time two kings meet, it'll be checkmate."

"We finally met, Yong Jun Hyung, the son of political strategist," Skull said as two voices could be hward when he spoke. One sounded crooked and old while the other sounded manly and mature.

By just hearing the crooked voice, Jun Hyung's lips were curved into a smirk.

"So, this is where you were hiding all along, Skull...no, the royal advisor, Pierre Hong, who murdered the previous royal strategist, my dad," Jun Hyung taunted as he finally found what he had been seeking for after all those years of grudges he had been holding on.

"Oh, you have figured out so much in such a long time...my, my...you really are as naive as your father..." Skull said as he walked closer to the group. "As what you have said, yes, I am the murderer of your precious daddy who was so naive that he tried to eliminate me before I managed to bring down the house."

"Wait...are you that old man who led the rebel group, the Wodahs? He was actually the playing the role of an advisor of the royal family to secretly snatch the throne..." Du Jun asked as he was eyeing Skull with a hint of suspiscion.

"Smart boy, you just found out the identity of mine but before you ask any further, you shall be my prey," he snickered as he stomped on the floor with his foot, which caused a pedestal to rise up. Just ontop of the pedestal, lies a magical cage that is filled with something alive. It was filled with organs, specifically the hearts.

"Inside this barricaded cage is actually each and everyone of your hearts that I created through cell multiplication by using your hair strands that I took from you guys on purpose during the times that I got involved with you guys before you were banished from your homes," Skull explained as he unlocked the cage and took one of the hearts out. "Hearts are fragile beings and by just one poke onto one of it's chamber..." he abruptly poked the heart and who knew, someone actually reacted to what had happened. It was Yoseop.... He clutched onto his chest and breathed heavily as he was experiencing a sharp pain on his chest.

"Yoseop!! What did you do to him?!" Jun Hyung exclaimed as he approached to his friend while loosing his cool. But Skull just continued poking the organ deeper until he even tried to make a dent on the chamber. This caused Yoseop to cough up blood, while breathing alot more heavier.

"I'm okay, I can heal myself..." Yoseop assured everyone as he struggled to stand up. "I will fight along side with you guys even if it costs my life!"

"Oh that's your resolve, kid? But I bet your resolve will disappear in a blink of an eye if I show you this!" Skull said as he throw a black glob in front of Yoseop. The black glob just popped right infront of him and right after that, Yoseop just groaned in pain while putting both hands of his on his head.

"Yoseop-ah! What's wrong with you?!" Du Jun asked as he tried to calm him down but was being pushed away by him.

"Get off me, you villain! How dare you hurt my sister like that?!" Yoseop exclaimed with his soulless eyes.

"Yoseop?" Yuri asked as her eyes looked like as if she just seen a ghost.

Jun Hyung's POV
Right now, Yoseop looked like he was under a spell of darkness, that causes the victim to hallucinate whoever they cared and will see their allies as enemies. Basically, it's just like being controlled by the caster themselves. We'll need to focus on the caster itself before Yoseop was fully controlled by him!

As the son of a political strategist, I, futuremind shall now go berserk with my powers! I activated my inner power and immediately, I'm on berserk mode. I moved swiftly towards Hyun Seung, Du Jun and Yuri to give them orders on what the caster might to next. After that, I will remain hidden in stealth mode(a mode where I can conduct tactics secretly eithout anyone, even the caster from knowing ONLY in berserk mode).

"Oh...the wretched brain is on fire," Skull commented as he was holding the still alive artificial heart. "Well, it's getting alot more interesting than everr!!"

Before Skull could go for another brawl, Du Jun used his shadow binding technique on Skull and Yoseop. This made Skull laughed hysterically as he knew that shadow affinity powers won't work in dark places. Suddenly, just behind Skull was Yuri! She wield the sword galiantly albeit it was her first time. She somehow suceeded but failed as Skull disappeared into the thick miasma. Great, he's going toplay hide and seek...well, that sucks, which was not what I was about to say.

Yuri ran her way to Yoseop while swaying(?) the sword since it helps to destroy the things that it touches especially the evildoer miasma. By the time she reached Yoseop, she chanted something while pointing the sword towards the crimson sky. A tiny ball of light formed at the tip of the blade as she focused her incantation on the sword. All of a sudden, my vision showed me a scene where Skull might take another artificial heart out of the cage and destroy it in the process. But after that, it blacked out...that's weird.... Right now,Du Jun was still using his technique but at the same time, he was trying to hold Yoseoo down from hurting Yuri while Hyun Seung was trying to find a way to freeze the cage before Skull makes his move on it again.

As the ball of light shot into the red sky, it blasted the dark clouds away and allowing light to pass through the ground in the process. That's when Du Jun's power worked as the shadows of his power started to bind Yoseop's movements but not Skull's as he was still hidden somewhere. If only I had Geu Rim's telepathy...

"Jun Hyung, that's so not like you...aren't you always prepared before any significant events unfold? What about this time?" A voice said as it rang through my ears. Don't tell me...Geu Rim-sshi? "Yes that's me and the other two members of Beast!"

"Well, we are really glad that the army of globs were being surpressed by the villagers and even the Wodahs faction are helping us!" Another voice said, which sounded like Gi Kwang's.

"And do you remember the book that you gave to Yuri a while ago? We need to ask her to recite one of her poems that she had made in order to weaken the inner system of the Core," A voice that sounded like Dong Woon, explained. "But right now, your first priority is to get to Yuri whilr the three of us will be bait for Skull."

"No, it's too risky for you guys especilly Geu Rim, wasn't she still under Skull's spell?!" I asked as I was at the same time, focusing on what thr others were doing.

"A while ago, I had a dream of Skull, he lifted up the spell and told me that I need to assist the others and fight him to stop this menace," Geu Rim explained. "I know it sounds absurd but I really saw him, even Aunt Kan said so!"

"Aunt Kan also told us that the Utopia absorption was about 54.5% and in 0.5% it's going to be a total darkness. But somehow the absorption slowed down after a beam of light had blasted from the inside of the Core, which is how we managed to communicate and will be in action!" Gi Kwang said.

Great! Reinforcements are here, I guess it'll be change of plans. With my still berserking powers, I rushed to each and every of them and told them about the plans without the usage of the telepath yet. Du Jun will continue stopping Yoseop's movrment while Yuri will regroup with Hyun Seung beside the cage of hearts. As for the other two, they will deal with a surprise attack from the outside when Skull was sighted. Next Geu Rim will deal with the telepathy alongside me since she will be the main piece to return Skull back into his senses plus she wouldn't back off even if I told her to.

And so, the newly planned strategy had commenced as I quickly hid with my stealth mode while waiting for Skull/Pierre to make his appearance. While we were still busy waiting for him, Yoseop suddenly reacted with a loud yell as he was coughing up more crimson liquid on the floor. Du Jun who was still holding on with his powers was forced to see his friend heavily injured and was about to let his powers off but he was forbidden to do so.

"Du Jun...kill...me...I-I-I can't face...her...," Yoseop stuttered as he looked at his friend with a sad frown. He was fighting with himself all along! "Skull...was controlling me....I can't be saved..."

Du Jun looked at his friend with his angry eyes. He looked like he was about to tell Yoseop that Yoseop was an idiot for asking Du Jun to so such a thing but instead, he forced Yoseop to look at him in the eyes. There he began hypnosizing Yoseop to sleep and forget about what Skull had did to him. Well, that went according to plan. I asked him to do that if Yoseop was back to himself.

"I can't kill you for that, pabo..." Du Jun mumbled as he put his friend on the floor. "Skull...no, PIERRE HONG! Get your ass down here and fight us fair and square!!"

"Ohohoho...you idiots are forever idiots afterall. Why woulf I fight you if I have a pawn right under my control?" Pierre(Skull) scoffed at us as he appeared beside Yoseop but suddenly he was shivering somehow while groaning in pain. "Geu...Rim...En Crest...Jac...Frost...kill me now before I loose control of him..."
"Hyung?! You are my brother right?" Hyun Seung asked as he stared at Skull from his position.

"Seung-ah...it's not the time for...idle chat...so please, do it..." Skull pled but soon Pierre took over his body again and laughed at us wickedly. "You fools, it won't be easy to destroy me!"

He then swiftly scurried to the cage and blasted Hyun Seung and Yuri away from it, making Hyun Seung and Yuri flew away to a certain distance. Pierre(Skull) opened the cage with his magic and took out another heart and quickly moved away from his current position with a soaring jump.

"I'm going to do this, Geu Rim so please trust me and after that, disconnect our telepathy and expand it to everyone's," I said as I was about to leap of from my current position to catch up onto him. "After that, the rest is all up to you, with the remaining words that only you can help me to reach them."

"Be careful, Jun Hyung-oppa...the plan you came up with is pretty risky," Geu Rim said. (Currently, GK & DW's telepathy with Geu Rim and Jun Hyung is disconnected)

And so, I leapt towards Pierre as he was still in his leaping zone in front of me. I quickly forced a punch onto him. It hit of course but didn't do any damage to him. Instead of counterattacking, he jabbed the organ as hard as he could, until it took effect on me. I felt like as if my right ventricle is about to burst from the push he did onto that artificial organ. With that, I counterattacked him with my other punch from behind but instead, he used the artifical organ as a shield. Unfortunately, I caused myself to get injured. But that never stopped me from hitting him. Even though I may not be a good close combat person, I actually had good reflexes.

"Damn you, getting all that cocky for nothing!" Pierre commented as he grabbed the collar of my shirt. "I guess I'll end your life once and for all!"

After hearing that, Hyun Seung, who didn't obey my instructions, came rushing with his ice power but it was too late. Pierre had crushed my heart into smithereens with his fist as soon as we were about to land. I could feel that my mouth was pouring out warm red liquid as my conscious slowly faded. Is this game over for me?

"Jun Hyung-oppaaa!!!!" Yuri shouted my name as my hearing had completely diminished. That last word from her before parting to a new world...somehow, I felt like a loser.

-to be continued

I know that I'm really bad at writing fighting plots and strategies. Please bear with me. And I'm really grateful that some of my readers are still in this story. I'm really happy!