The End of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 4) (60 page)

“We have been waiting a while for this battle, haven’t we, Tae Hyun?” Ji Hoon asked coolly, kicking a sword-holding cadaver over to Tae Hyun. It was his wordless prompt to Tae Hyun to pick up the sword.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for five years now,” Tae Hyun answered, ripping the sword from the corpse’s hand. “I can’t wait to finish you tonight.”

A smirk edged Ji Hoon’s lips.

“Funny,” he murmured, expertly twirling his sword in his hand. “I was thinking the same thing about you.”

Tae Hyun smirked. Whereas Ji Hoon’s smirk was calculating and mocking, Tae Hyun’s was filled with deadly promise.

“When I kill you, I will make sure to line this floor with your blood while your head falls beside my feet. We’ll see then if you still have your sense of humor.”

Fury morphed onto Ji Hoon’s visage. He tightened his grip on his sword and looked at Tae Hyun with fire in his eyes. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Clank!

Akin to two bulls finally being released from captivity, Ji Hoon and Tae Hyun charged at one another at full force. Their swords clanged together, causing sparks to fly in the air as the fight between them commenced.

As this occurred, Yoori and Young Jae were still circling one another.

Young Jae’s eyes were filled with bloodlust while Yoori’s eyes rippled with regret for the situation they found themselves in. She knew that he had been waiting for this moment with great anticipation—the moment to finally bring his revenge to fruition. For Yoori, this moment could not be more heart-wrenching. Despite how much guilt she harbored for killing his wife and unborn child—and despite how much love she still had for him—in the end, she saw the unforgiving truth behind their story. She was not a fool. There was no chance for reconciliation. Not after everything they had been through and especially not after everything they had done to each other. Although every part of her agreed that his thirst for her blood was justified, in the same token, every selfish cell within her body found this justification to be inconsequential. She would not give him an easy fight; she refused to die by his hands tonight. She had too much to live for to die without a fight. It was inevitable that one had to kill the other to make it out alive, and for her own survival—and more importantly for Tae Hyun’s survival—Yoori hoped that she would be the sibling who came out alive before the hour was up.

“The first Lord of all the Underworlds,” she began, still circling him with her sword held high in her hand. She was ready to battle him within a moment’s notice. “Your dream has come true.”

“A bittersweet dream to the nightmare you bequeathed to me,” he replied coldly. Hatred bled through his stare. “You should’ve listened to your boyfriend and stayed away.” A cruel smile outlined his lips. “But I’m glad that you came. I would’ve
never
been able to live with myself if I did not make you pay for what you did.”

A bloodthirsty mask crept onto his face at this very statement. As though this was the very catalyst he needed to summon all his strength to destroy her, he did not delay the inevitable any longer.

Swish!

Young Jae initiated the battle by swinging his sword in the air. The metal blade sped for Yoori’s neck. It was an inch away from connecting with her flesh before Yoori proficiently blocked the attack with her own sword. A loud clang surfaced over the arena as Yoori used her sword to wield his away. Once their swords parted ways, she maneuvered her weapon around his. There was no longer any hesitancy weighing her down. He was not going to go easy on her, and she planned on doing the same. Family no longer existed in this arena. All that existed was survival.

Rallying together all her strength, Yoori swung the sword across his chest. Her blade cut through the fabric of his suit jacket and would have sliced into his skin had Young Jae not back-pedaled in time.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Her plan to spur forward to wield another attack came to a standstill when she heard the bullets come her way. Her instincts taking over, she spun the sword around her. Her talented hands dexterously manipulated the weapon to serve as her shield. She threw the sword behind her to cover her back from flying bullets and then flipped it forward to veil her face. As another wave of bullets came storming into the onyx stage, she threw the sword in mid-air to block a bullet that was coming for her neck. In the same moment, she also performed a quadruple backflip to evade ten consecutive bullets that chased after her like shadows.

Gasps flooded the amphitheater. Yoori’s effortless demonstration of her God-like skills held the Underworld audience in absolute awe.

Excited whispers poured from the upper levels of the arena. 

“Holy shi
t,
that was a bomb-ass move!”

“No wonder she’s the Queen, right?”

“What a
f
ucking great show.”

Yoori landed on her feet, grabbed a sword, and quickly looked up once the snipers momentarily ceased with their shooting. Above in the highest echelon of the arena, where the 1
st
layer heirs and heiresses sat, she could see their eyes glow with amazement. They were in awe of the unparalleled skills she displayed in protecting herself with a simple sword. In that instant, everyone in the arena was reminded of why she would always be the Queen of legends in their world.

Yoori took her eyes off the 1
st
layer Royals when she felt seething eyes lay upon her. Her eyes rested on her brother, who was watching her with composed rage. There was fury in his eyes because she had gotten the better of him in front of their society. This was a travesty that he would not permit again.

Yoori gazed at the bullets that rested beneath her feet and examined the spotless ground around Young Jae’s feet. There were no bullets surrounding his immediate proximity. Sans the piece of his jacket that she cut through, Young Jae had no other maladies on him. A slow realization dawned in her eyes. This time, unlike the previous bullets that hit everything that moved, the last bullets fired were not shot without discrimination. It was fired with extreme prejudice.

She smirked to herself, knowing how this game would be played now.

The bullets were
only
deployed when it looked like Young Jae or Ji Hoon were about to lose their fight and needed assistance. It was used as a surefire way to ensure that the show would go on until the hour was up. More importantly, it was used to keep Yoori and Tae Hyun from defeating Young Jae and Ji Hoon.

Cowards
, she thought disgustedly. Only in the Underworld would this callous technique be looked upon as entertainment rather than a cowardly act.

“You ungrateful
b
itch,” Young Jae growled, breaking her out of her reverie. The composure he held melted away from the heat of his anger. He was not happy that she nearly sliced his chest open. If looks could kill, Yoori would be dead with her heart ripped out of her chest. 

Yoori held the sword tight in her grasp, ready for round two with her brother.

With an inferno blazing in his eyes, Young Jae did not disappoint her anticipation. He spurred forward and charged at her, expertly swinging his sword in the air. This time, he was ready to give her the fight of her life.

Yoori met his sword with hers and poured her own anger into their fight.

Battling one another with unmatched rage, they simultaneously jumped in the air, punched one another, kicked one another with bone-crushing force, and nearly destroyed one another while their swords violently clanged together.

“Spoken by the ungrateful bastard who killed his own father,” Yoori spat out moments later, responding to his earlier remark. She bequeathed him with an uppercut to the chin that nearly took his head off. Unfortunately for Yoori, Young Jae was quick to recover.

Speeding back to her, he bestowed her with a powerful punch across the face. The force of the punch weakened her legs and caused her to fall on one knee. Darkness edged her vision as she tried to see past the pain. All the injuries she incurred while fighting with Tae Hyun in the business district sprouted to life, reminding the nerves of her once healing body that the same treatment was coming again. Her body begged Yoori to remove herself from this situation, warning her that it wasn’t physically strong enough to go on.

She heard all of this, but chose to ignore it. Instead, she chose to listen to her heart. She would not leave Tae Hyun here. She would stay with him until the very end.  

Not long after this resolution, Yoori felt her instincts spark to life when she heard the snipers rustle up above.
They’re getting ready to shoot again!
Placing her pain on the backburner, Yoori blindly groped for something to aid her while the darkness dissipated from her vision. Her hands grazed over the harnesses in the arena and she gratefully clung to the one closest to her. With an impromptu plan in mind, she propelled herself up onto that harness and speedily removed herself from the incoming gunfire. In that same second, seven sequential bullets came at her while she hung in mid-air, nearly causing her to crash to the ground. Refusing to fall, she tightened her grip around the harness and swung her sword about, shielding herself from the random bullets that were still coming after her.

“Ah!”

Yoori screamed when her grip nearly failed her. Aware that it was physically impossible for her to hang onto the harness any longer, especially given her injuries, Yoori changed her tactics. Using her body as the catalyst to move the harness further along, she swung like a pendulum. Giving herself one powerful push with her swinging body, she finally let go of the harness. With wind running through her hair, Yoori soared through the air with the grace of a bird. She braced herself, easily landing in a crouching position on the foundation of the six-foot-marble wall that embraced the arena.

Yoori caught her breath. She slowly realized that by landing on this marble ledge, she had not only given herself a moment of reprieve, but she had also inadvertently given herself a close-up view of the international Royals visiting from other countries’ Underworld. From what she could see in her immediate vantage point, these Underworld Royals descended from countries such as Italy, Russia, and the United States.

Sitting regally in their thrones on the first ascension of rows behind the marble wall, the various international Kings, Queens, and future heirs all had smiles on their faces. Many had crossed continents to witness the legendary King and Queen of the Korean Underworld fight for their lives. From the impressiveness in their eyes while they gazed at her and Tae Hyun, who was still fighting Ji Hoon in the opposite end of the arena, Yoori knew that they were not disappointed in the fighting abilities displayed. The four Underworld Royals on the onyx stage had far exceeded the reputations that surrounded them. The very battle that was occurring right now made their trip well worth it.

Behind their impressed gazes, Yoori could also see disappointment. Disappointment for her that she wasted her gift and disappointment that it was likely her legendary status would die with her tonight.

“Such a waste of a powerful God,” she heard one say. Concurring voices streamed through the row of thrones before someone glanced at Tae Hyun and said, “What a waste of
two
powerful Gods.”

Done with her momentary assessment of them, Yoori gave no more attention to the spectators behind her. She had someone more important to look after. Using the international Royals’ proximity to her advantage, as she was certain no sniper would dare fire a bullet in fear of hitting a protected Royal, she stood atop the ledge of the marble wall and freely looked ahead. Her eyes landed on Tae Hyun and Ji Hoon, both of whom were battling one another in the distance.

They were on the marble ledge as well, jumping and twisting themselves in the air while doing such groundbreaking and out-of-this-world moves that she knew they fascinated the world on that end of the arena just as she had. A relieved breath escaped from her when she could see that although Ji Hoon was one of the best fighters in the Underworld, Tae Hyun was slowly but surely overpowering him.

Kick his ass
, she silently encouraged Tae Hyun, feeling energized from seeing that he was winning his battle. It only served to remind her how crucial it was that she did her part as well.

For them to survive this night, she had to win her own battle too.

Empowered by witnessing Tae Hyun’s fight, she tightened her grip on her sword and returned her attention to the world below her. Young Jae was now making his move to follow her up the ledge of the marble wall. With his predatory eyes on her, he grabbed a nearby harness and easily propelled himself up by walking his legs up the marble wall. Within a moment’s notice, he was on the ledge with her. His dark expression was hungry for retribution.

“After all I’ve done for you, you little
b
itch,” he went on, the bitterness still present within his voice. He wasted no time going after her as he went on with his words—as they alternated between wielding their swords and maintaining their equilibrium on the marble ledge. “After all I’ve given you. After giving you the leading position in the gang, after taking care of you, and after spoiling the hell out of you . . . you do this to me? You betrayed me, and if that’s not enough, you decided to take it upon yourself to destroy everything I love?!”