Decimation
The first thing I felt was my hand. Which I figured was a good thing, because it meant it hadn’t been blown off. It took a few seconds for me to regain feeling in the rest of my body, and actually force my eyes open. There was smoke everywhere, and I was surrounded with rubble. I wasn’t exactly sure what’d hit me, but I knew I was in some serious pain. Geulimja’s healing capabilities were probably the only reason I wasn’t dead right now. I forced myself up to my feet, scanning the area around me. I didn’t see much in terms of new or different scenery though. Everywhere I looked, I saw rubble, and smoke floating up into the sky, which was also visible. We’d been just outside the castle, which meant we’d probably avoided a good amount of what I had to assume was an explosive. A huge, glowing white one. I forced myself to move forward, while feeling Geulimja very slowly stitch together some of the open wounds on my body. Cho-hee had been in the process of healing some of the wounds I’d received from Chung-ho, and the more serious ones, like broken ribs, seemed to have been handled, but I still had a few annoying scrapes and cuts across my body.
As I walked, I saw a few bodies. From what I could see, it didn’t seem like anyone had actually survived, which was very concerning, to say the least. I stumbled across the young male medic who’d been with us, stopping to stare at his corpse. It was badly burnt, which was strange, because I hadn’t felt any real heat from the explosion.
‘We gotta keep moving, kid.’ Geulimja said, his tone unusually gentle. I just knelt down, looking over his body again, before pressing two fingers against his neck. No pulse, as I’d expected. Had to check, though…
‘I feel bad. I didn’t even know his name.’ I muttered back to him, standing up and continuing on with my walk. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, maybe looking for survivors? I had no idea where that aerial attack had come from, and I had no real way of finding out.
I’d already confirmed one of the people I’d been with was dead. I had to find the rest of them, hopefully alive, and move them somewhere if they couldn’t fight. I had a very bad feeling that this day was only going to get worse.
‘Some kind of light missile, I think. Or just a massive explosion. It was fired at the centre of the castle.’ Geulimja explained, while I continued to walk past dead bodies. This was all very jarring for me. The count of corpses I’d seen in my life had gone from one to double digits in the course of an hour. I just did my best not to look at them, if I could.
‘Guess the Light King doesn’t care that much about his property.’ I said back, climbing a hill of rubble to give myself a better vantage point over the whole of the destroyed castle. All I could see was bodies, and smoke and rubble. I didn’t see a single person moving, but I also didn’t see any of my fellow X-Men, or any of the people I actually knew the names of from the resistance, so that was probably a good thing.
“Hey there, you little shit!” I heard someone call out from above. Someone who’s voice I recognized, and really did not want to hear right now. Upon looking up, I was greeted with the sight of the Light King himself, descending slowly on a cloud that looked to be made of light. Standing next to him were Seo-yun’s sister, Yeong-ja, and the second one was somebody I only recognized from a picture, the King’s sixth seat, Sang-wook. His black hair looked to be buzzed, and there was a grin plastered on his face. He was wearing similar armour as what Chung-ho had been wearing, although there weren’t holes in the back for wings to poke through. If we had to fight, he’d be my first target. Seo-yun had said he wasn’t anything special in close quarters fights. I could handle him, then I’d have to fight the Light King and his girlfriend at the same time.
“Whatcha thinking about down there, squirt?” The Light King questioned, peering down from his cloud at me. I didn’t reply, opting to just glare at him silently.
“Oooh, I’m gonna piss myself, I’m so scared! Aren’t you guys scared?” The King asked, not even glancing at the people sharing the cloud with him. Sang-wook grinned, while Yeong-ja simply looked unimpressed.
“I don’t like how he’s looking at you, it’s disrespectful.” Yeong-ja hissed, prompting the King to laugh and pull her closer to him, his arm around her waist.
“Oh you! Always so protective of little old me! No need for that, I’m gonna stomp this jackass, and then we can all be on our way.” He assured Yeong-ja, who smiled when he pulled her in.
“Do you want me to blow him up?” Sang-wook questioned, hefting what looked like a massive bazooka onto his shoulder and aiming right at me. The Light King waved him off though, looking almost bored.
“No no, don’t waste your ammo. It’ll be more fun if I get to stomp him myself.” The King assured him, before leaping off the cloud to stand in front of me. The ground was unsteady, considering the fact that it was a hill made mainly of rubble. Some stones slid down the hill when he landed, but he seemed to have no trouble finding his footing.
“You two just handle it if anyone comes in and tries to interfere. Otherwise, let me handle this.” The King told his underlings, a grin on his face. He materialized his staff from before out of thin air, then stood before me, slamming his staff on the ground and forcing a straight face.
“This is how you look right now, dude. So serious for no reason. It’s not like you can beat me. Might as well crack a smile in your last moments, you get me?” He asked, his tone infuriatingly smug, and his grin reappearing.
“How come you want to fight me, specifically?” I asked him, trying my best to sound casual. The King lifted an eyebrow at me, his grin disappearing quickly.
“What, do you think I’m fucking stupid?” He asked me, spinning his staff around.
“You’re a host. I saw it in your fight with Chung-ho. I mean, I can’t believe you hid that shit from me when you first popped up. Guess I should give you some credit, though, I totally would’ve killed your ass if you’d told me. Smart decision, but I’m a bit offended.” He admitted, his grin quickly reappearing. It was a bit jarring how quick his facial expressions changed, like he wasn’t quite sure how to feel at any given moment.
“Why the hell did you use your powers to take over a whole kingdom? You could’ve used them to do like, actual good things.” I argued, but he just shrugged.
“Being all powerful is more fun. I got a hot, princess girlfriend out of it, and I get to rule a whole kingdom, like you said. Plus, everyone does what I tell them to, because I’m stronger than them. That includes you, by the way.” He said, pointing the staff at me. I shook my head, making sure to properly stretch my legs.
“How old are you, anyways? You sound like a fucking child.” I growled, trying my absolute best to sound nonchalant and completely failing. The King just shrugged at me.
“I’m eighteen, kid. I’m older than you! I can tell!” He shouted, to which I nodded.
“Yeah, I guess so. I just can’t believe a god would pick someone as childish as you as their host. Guess it says more about him than you, though.” I said, smirking slightly when he became visibly angry.
“Alright. Fuck it, I tried to be polite, but I’m gonna just go ahead and kill you now.” He said, forcing a chuckle out, before launching himself at me.
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Kwannon had ignored the shaking of the walls and the ceiling. While everybody else freaked out, she and Bufo continued their fight with Beezel. He was a bit tricky, because his range was much longer than their own. That being said, it wasn’t as if this fight was unwinnable. Bufo’s men, and some of the freed prisoners were running around and taking the telepaths out of their stupor. Everytime one of them was pulled out from it, Kwannon could feel Beezel become weaker, and even better, she could feel her powers coming back. Really, all she needed was to have a few more taken out. Then, she’d be able to properly engage him in telepathic combat. Or, even easier, just slip into his mind and shut it down for long enough that she could shut him down. Then, she’d be able to locate Quentin and Scott, and add them to their forces. She also wanted to know why exactly the whole room had been shaking for a few seconds not too long ago, but that could wait a little bit. The moment, and that was not an exaggeration, that she felt her telepathy get to a level she was happy with, assuming that a few more telepaths had been dealt with, she reached into Beezel’s mind. His defenses were strange. She was in some sort of swamp, except all the scenery was bright orange. The water, the trees, the lily pads in the water, literally everything. There was nobody around though, not even a manifestation of Beezel’s mind. Frankly, she doubted he was that capable of a telepath. She was probably stronger than him, and even then, raw power wasn’t the strength of her telepathic capabilities. She was much more like a well sharpened knife.
She manifested a sword for herself within his mindscape, cutting through dense foliage to reach what she assumed was the centre of his mind. Except, when she reached it, she didn’t find Beezel, but…
“Quentin?” She asked, genuinely confused. Quentin was standing in the centre of a small clearing, being restrained by bright orange vines. He looked up when she walked in, sighing.
“Oh God, I’m never living this one down…”
“How’d you even get into a mess like this?” She asked, using the psychic sword to cut through the vines restraining him. The moment she did, he let out a sigh of relief, manifesting a shield of pure telepathic energy, before letting it dissipate.
“You have no idea how nice it is to see your face right now.” He told her, a slight frown on his face as he looked around the clearing, probably for some kind of exit.
“Never thought I’d hear that come out of your mouth.” Kwannon admitted, making her way towards a different set of tangled vines and beginning to cut her way through, while Quentin followed.
“So, you didn’t answer my question. How did you get into this mess?” She asked him. He just shook his head.
“I honestly don’t know. I mean, I went through the portal. I think I got spat out with Scott, we were in this creepy ass castle. Well, that weird, tentacle faced guy trapped me in his head, somehow. No idea where they put my body, or where Scott is. What’s the situation, did you guys find Jared?” Quentin asked, prompting Kwannon to nod.
“Yes, but the situation as a whole is quite complicated. We’ve found a problem that requires the X-Men’s attention, so we could really use you, and Scott. Everyone else is accounted for.” She told him, as they reached a cliff, with orange waters forming a whirlpool being visible to them off the edge. Quentin nodded, glancing at her before looking over the edge.
“Do we jump?” He asked. Kwannon nodded, and without another word, leapt down into the whirlpool. She could only hope Quentin followed her. The whirlpool pulled her down, down, down…
She woke back up in her own body, fully capable of using her telepathy. She could hear Quentin shouting at her in her head, as well as Scott’s voice when she listened carefully, although he was more quiet than usual. That was concerning. Beezel’s unconscious body laid off to the side. She wasn’t even sure how she’d knocked him out. Perhaps cutting through the swamp? Either way, he was dealt with. She needed to free her teammates, then go help the rest of them as soon as possible.
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I was honestly convinced that I sucked at fighting. The funny thing though, was that so was this Light King idiot. Y’know, for somebody who bragged about how powerful he was, he was a bit useless when his powers got cancelled out.
So, here’s the thing about light and darkness. They’re essentially opposites. So, when two gods, who also happen to be brothers, are using their powers, through hosts, they kinda just… cancel each other out. I could hit him with as many blasts as I wanted to, but it wasn’t gonna do anything, and vice versa. I could make the whole space dark, but he could just as easily fill it back up with light. So, since none of our powers worked, that left us fighting with our hands.
‘Why didn’t you tell me this was gonna happen?’ I asked Geulimja, while the two of us essentially took a break from fighting each other, just staring at each other from across the pile of rubble we’d started fighting on top of.
‘This has never happened in fights between hosts before. I mean, when we fought directly, it happened, but that happens with all the godly siblings. Our hosts could use our abilities on other hosts though, this is incredibly strange.’ Geulimja told me. There was that, not to mention the fact all the other light based powers from other people had worked totally fine. Still though, I couldn’t really complain, because now we were fighting hand to hand, and he seemed to have about as much experience as me, which to me, just meant it’d be a battle of who could outlast the other, since his little friends were sitting out like they’d been told, at least for now. He was a little taller than me, and more muscular, considering the whole malnourishment issue I had, but I didn’t really feel outmatched. He was sloppy, and much less coordinated than Chung-ho, or even Kwannon when I trained with her, and she was actively holding back.
He ran right for me, aiming for a swing of his fist, but I managed to narrowly avoid it, and connect with a knee directly to his midsection. I quickly followed that up with a punch directly to his face, which drew blood for the first time in the fight. He gritted his teeth, shoving me away.
“You stupid fuck! You came all the way out here, and now I can’t even use my powers! Why are you even doing this! You could’ve just killed that Seo-yun bitch, and gone home!” He shouted, as blood dripped down his forehead, reaching his nose and mouth.
“You’re a dictator. Why would I do your dirty work? Besides, I couldn’t kill her if I wanted to, she kicked my ass.” I pointed out, leaning down and placing my arms on my bent legs, trying to get my breath back in our brief break. My comments seemed to anger Yeong-ja, who was still standing up on that cloud, watching the whole thing.
“Oh please? You lost a fight to my sister? How pathetic are you?” She sneered, crossing her arms over her chest. I just grunted, standing back at my full height and staring at her.
“Well, I’m not pathetic enough to betray my entire family for some dick, I’ll tell you that much.” I grinned, while Geulimja chuckled. I had to pat myself on the back, that one was kinda good-
‘Alright, don’t hype yourself up too much, kid. It was an acceptable joke. Not hilarious by any means.’ Geulimja told me, to which I just shook my head.
‘Whatever, man. Let me have that one.’ I replied, while the King seethed in front of me.
“Alright, I’m gonna fucking stomp your face in.” The King snarled, to which I just shrugged.
“Well, get over here and do it, then.” I teased, beckoning him forward with both hands. I had found that, when fighting, at least with some people, just talking shit and being annoying made fighting them easier. They got angrier, and thus, sloppier.
Well, I’d only ever tried it on this guy, but I was feeling pretty confident it could be applied to other people as well. Anyways, the self proclaimed king rushed forward, and I sidestepped, but he actually managed to reach out and grab me. He hoisted me up, before throwing me directly into the ground, bouncing my head off some rubble. Well, fair play, I guess. He grabbed me by my shirt, which was quite raggedy at this point, then kneed me in the face, totally ringing my bell.
Alright, maybe I should watch the trash talk.
“Not feeling so smart anymore, are you? ARE YOU?!” The King shouted, this time connecting with a kick to my skull. It wasn’t nearly as hard as Seo-yun kicked, which was barely any consolation, considering it felt like my brain was being knocked around the inside of my skull. At this point, I was bleeding from my nose, it felt broken. So both of us were dripping blood all down our faces and onto the rest of our bodies, and the ground. As I tried to get back onto my feet, he hit me with a kick to the face again, knocking me back down.
“Powers, no powers. It doesn’t fucking matter. Do you want to know why it doesn’t matter, huh, do you?” He asked me, seemingly having reached a point where he was genuinely angry.
“I want you to shut up.” I grunted, earning me a kick to the side, which moved me a decent distance. It reminded me of how my uncle kicked me.
My uncle had kicked harder.
“It’s always idiots like you! You always wanna ruin things for people like me! I don’t get it! Why won’t you just let me FUCKING HAVE THIS!” He shouted, getting progressively angrier as he spoke. The blood continued to drip down his face and down the rest of his body as he screamed. He went for another kick, but I managed to roll away. I got to my feet this time, but he was ready, connecting with a punch directly to my chin, jerking my head back, and prompting me to stumble backwards. He moved forward, connecting with another kick to my head.
‘You need to stop getting hit in the head.’ Geulimja snapped, sounding stressed as I stumbled backwards even further, wiping blood off of my face. He was right, but I already knew that. Most of his hits had been to my head at this point, and I was definitely feeling them. He went for another kick, but this time I managed to get my arms up and block most of the damage. Definitely less force than Seo-yun had hit my arms with previously. He wasn’t really all that strong. I was only losing because I kept getting hit. He kicked at my head again, and I managed to block it, but I still stumbled. Due to the limited space on the pile of rumble, I slipped backwards, sliding down the pile of rubble to the ground.
“You get it? That’s where people like you belong? Beneath people like ME!” He shouted the last word, thrusting both of his hands into his chest.
“Yeah? Good people belong beneath shitty dictators. Sure.” I grumbled, standing up. Him knocking me down had been a blessing in disguise, since I’d had time to stand up. Although, there had been some glass and sharp rubble that I’d cut myself on, so I had a few more wounds that were actively bleeding, which I could feel Geulimja slowly closing up. He slid down the pile of rubble, and went for another kick, but this time I actually reacted properly. I managed to catch his leg, and yanked him forward, clotheslining him and dropping him to the ground. I had a feeling that his durability was rather low. I was pretty sure we were in similar positions, in that neither of us had been in a fist fight before. I assumed he’d been in a few fights while in this dimension, but in most of them, he’d probably been able to rely on his abilities as a host to win. Not this time.
He grumbled something to himself, forcing himself back up to his feet, blood dripping out of his mouth as he spoke.
“I’m not even a dictator. I made things better here. Not that you’d understand.” The King snarled, before moving back in and throwing a punch. I took it head on, before connecting with one of my own. He stumbled backwards, before rushing me and gripping what was left of the front of my shirt. He tried to heft me upwards, but he didn’t seem to have the strength to do so anymore. I managed to push off of his leg, and put some distance between the two of us.
“I don’t understand, you’re right. From how I understand it, you showed up in this kingdom, forced the ruling group at the time out of power, and then took the throne for yourself, before imprisoning anyone who opposed you. Honestly, I think if there’s a resistance group as large as the one that exists here fighting against you, you probably aren’t doing a great job as a leader.” I argued, as we took another brief break. The King just shook his head.
“Whatever. You’re a dumbass, kid. You just don’t get it-”
“Kid? You’re two years older than me, idiot. I hardly think you’re classified to call me a kid.”
“Yeah, well I hardly think I give a shit what you hardly think.” The King snapped, picking up some rubble from the ground and flinging it at me. I had to avoid it, and that gave him an opportunity to close the gap. He punched me. I punched him. It reached a point where we were both just throwing punches back and forth, some of them connecting, some of them whiffing. I broke this chain eventually, lunging forward and tackling him into the pile of rubble. I started throwing punches wildly, mainly with the intention of hitting him in the face if possible. Initially, he was blocking a few of the punches, but he couldn’t throw me off, and ultimately, that was the difference maker. I just kept punching, and I didn’t stop until I was stopped. Something hit me in the side and blasted me off of the King, while Yeong-ja leapt down to grab him, shaking his shoulders while he slowly blinked his eyes. His face was seriously bloodied, which caught me off guard a bit. I hadn’t even realized I’d been doing that. I hadn’t even really been paying attention, I’d just been hitting the thing in front of me. That being said, when I looked around, I could see Sang-wook staring at me, aiming down the sights of his bazooka. I had to assume he was the one who’d fired at me. The more I thought about it, the more it hit me how much it hurt. It was like someone had pressed a clothing iron against the side of my body at a hundred kilometers per hour. I was forced into a sitting position, gripping my side, which definitely had a painful burn forming on it. Geulimja was likely working on healing it, but he’d need time for that. Yeong-ja glared at me, looking at the King’s battered face, before turning back to me.
“You will pay for this.” She hissed, pulling a small blade out of her pocket. I attempted to sort of crawl backwards, but she was on her feet, and thus, faster than me. She was walking towards me quite slowly, though. In fact, if I really wanted to, I could probably just skewer her with some spikes-
“No no. This one’s mine, Jared.” A female voice spoke, seemingly from nowhere. Yeong-ja seethed, looking up and launching her dagger, which just blew away, like a leaf in the wind. I looked up as well, seeing Seo-yun descend from the sky. She was wearing a new uniform, it was the exact same one she’d been wearing before, just cleaner and fresher.
She gently descended to the ground, touching down next to me.
“Are you alright? Where’s the Light King?” She asked me, gently placing her hand on my shoulder, while her sister just stared at her and seethed.
“Laid out behind your sister.” I grumbled, trying to get to my feet. Seo-yun smirked, helping me up to my feet.
“I had faith in your ability to win.” She assured me, patting my shoulder, before stopping when I visibly winced.
“Sorry, I guess you’d be hurt after that.”
“It’s fine.” I grumbled, trying to maintain my footing. Yeong-ja just continued to seethe, glaring at Seo-yun.
“I see you’ve learned nothing, sister. Running headlong into a situation that you are wholly unprepared for, just like always. Your friend here isn’t in the best shape for a fight, his adrenaline is wearing off. You’re at a numbers disadvantage.” She sneered, a foul smirk crossing her lips. I glanced at Seo-yun, but she seemed unconcerned.
“Oh, am I? I hadn’t noticed.” She replied, looking around innocently. Out of nowhere, a beam of red energy slammed into Sang-wook, sending him hurtling off the cloud he’d still been perched on. Yeong-ja looked around, confused, and that was when Seo-yun closed the gap on her. What was noticeable to me, right away, was that they were about evenly matched. Seo-yun was a bit shorter, and she seemed a bit quicker, but otherwise, there was no clear leader in terms of ability. Seo-yun seemed to favour fighting with kicks, and occasionally grappling, while Yeong-ja’s attacks mainly came from her upper body.
“I don’t understand why you aren’t on my side, after everything!” Yeong-ja snapped, after they’d traded blows for about a minute. They had pulled away from each other, and both of them were just taking a second to pause. I knew Scott was around somewhere, and probably some other X-Men members, but they weren’t approaching yet.
“You can’t just put your boyfriend in power! I don’t care if he’s the host of a god, you can’t just do things like that! It doesn’t matter how mad our parents might make me!” Seo-yun replied, seemingly frustrated. I got the sense they’d had this conversation before.
“They were corrupt, and they were foolish! You can’t deny it!” Yeong-ja screamed, just as frustrated as Seo-yun, who was shaking her head the whole time.
“Don’t give me that! We both know you were just jealous because Soo-min was going to get the throne instead of you. Pull your head out of your ass!” Seo-yun snapped back, prompting Yeong-ja to rush right for her in a rage. Seo-yun was much too smart to overreact in response though. Instead, she waited, and kicked perfectly, snapping Yeong-ja’s head back and dropping her to the ground, unconscious as far as I could tell. Once Seo-yun had confirmed she was out cold, she walked back over to me, offering her arm so that I had some support to stand with.
“Sorry you had to witness that.” She grumbled, but I just shrugged.
“Yeah, just remind me never to let you kick me again. That Light King idiot kicked me like, seven times to the head, and I’m still standing.”
“You are barely standing, Jared. I think we should have Cho-hee check that out.” She murmured amusedly, helping me walk towards where the red beam had come from. Once the people gathered there saw us approaching, many of them came running over. Many of the foot soldiers ran past us, likely to restrain Sang-wook, Yeong-ja and the king in some way. That being said, I was happy to see all the X-Men gathered, including Scott and Quentin, and they all approached me.
“Holy shit, dude! You got your ass kicked.” Quentin observed, looking me over. He wasn’t wrong. Geulimja was doing what he could to patch me up, but his work was slow. I was pretty sure that was the reason I hadn’t heard from him in a little bit, actually.
“You should see the other guy.” I joked, readjusting my posture to try to lean on Seo-yun a bit less. She was also noticeably injured, although probably less so than me. She just side eyed me and readjusted herself so that I was leaning on her more again.
“Oh yeah? You kicked ass, huh?” Cain asked, a grin on his face. I just nodded tiredly.
“That I did, Cain, that I did. Think I did a decent enough job, for someone who doesn’t know how to fight.” I sighed, trying to keep my eyes open. I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness. Yeong-ja was right. The adrenaline that had been fueling me was starting to dissipate, and as a result, I was close to passing out from exhaustion and pain.
“You alright?” Idie asked, leaning slightly forward to get a better look at me. I nodded slowly, as my eyes blinked shut.
“Yeah, I’m uh… I’m fine-”
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“Totally fine.” I mumbled, blinking my eyes open. I was not on the battlefield anymore. I was in what I had to assume was some sort of infirmary. There were people laying in hospital beds all around me, and there were medics running around healing them. There were three people sitting at my bedside.
“Rise and shine, kid.” Illyana grinned, standing up from her seat the moment she saw my eyes open. Instead of wearing her typical black costume, she was wearing more loose fitting, black and blue clothing, which fit the overall theme of the resistance’s clothes. My only response was a grunt. It was like my body had given me a quick grace period. Nothing hurt for a few seconds, and then suddenly, everything really hurt.
“Gah. Shit.” I hissed, as John stood up and walked away from the group after Kwannon whispered something to him.
“John’s going to go find Cho-hee.” Kwannon told me, giving me a frown.
“Where’s the worst of the pain?” She added soon after. I just sighed, trying to let myself relax. I was wearing what was essentially a black and blue hospital gown, and I didn’t like how airy it felt. At least they’d kept my underwear on. Although, I really needed to get home and change clothes.
“My head.” I replied simply, trying not to move it anymore than I had to. I was smart enough to know that’d probably just make it hurt worse. Kwannon nodded, looking around the medical bay. All over, people were laid out, different people standing around and talking, while medics rushed around to different stations. Even though people were wounded, the overall mood was quite happy.
“This is the reward for a successful job.” Kwannon told me, noticing me looking around.
“Seems like it’s worth it to me.” I said with a grunt, shuffling in bed to try to make myself more comfortable. Kwannon nodded along, as John returned, with Cho-hee by his side.
“Morning, hero.” She joked, her hands already glowing a faint blue colour, as the pain I felt in my head started to dissipate.
“Just a really rough headache. We already treated most of your wounds earlier. You should be fine, can you stand?” Cho-hee asked. I shrugged, I couldn’t say for sure. Admittedly, the pain in my head had pretty much gone away. I tried to stand, and found it was actually not all that painful. I managed to do it quite easily, although the hospital gown made it a bit awkward.
“Can I get some normal clothes? You guys got anything to spare?” I asked Cho-hee. She nodded, and John handed me some things. They were blue and black, just like what everyone else was wearing. I was given pants and what was essentially a tunic. I had everyone look away so I could change, even though we were in a very public, open space, and I wasn’t getting naked. Once I gave them the okay, they all turned around to look back at me. I clapped my hands together.
“Alright! So, we’re going home now, right?” I asked. This place was alright and all, and I’d met some pretty cool people, like Seo-yun and Cho-hee, but I was more than ready to leave. Kwannon and John just exchanged looks, while a frustrated expression crossed Illyana’s face.
“Unfortunately, no. We’ve been invited by the royal family to attend a banquet in our honour. Scott has suggested that we attend.” Kwannon explained, her tone incredibly diplomatic, probably considering the fact that we were surrounded on all sides by the people of this kingdom.
‘Blech.’ Geulimja complained, finally making his presence known in my head.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” I pointed out with a shrug, stretching my right arm over my head, before moving to my left. Illyana scoffed in response.
“Trust me kid, these things always suck. So stuffy.” She told me, with a wave of her hand. I lifted an eyebrow at her, a smirk gracing my face.
“Oh, you’ve had many banquets in your honour, have you?” I asked, to which she grinned.
“More than you can imagine, brat.” She replied, her tone friendly. John moved closer, patting me on the shoulder.
“We should get you looking a bit nicer. You kinda look like shit, kid.” He said, prompting me to frown and glance at Kwannon, who simply nodded in confirmation.
“Alright.” I grumbled, allowing John to escort me away, while Geulimja chuckled in my ear.
Well, at least the god I was hosting was just an asshole, and not a wannabe dictator. You had to take the good with the bad, sometimes.