The End of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 4) (63 page)

It was clear that another stage of this one-hour battle had started, and it was even clearer that this third round would not only include Ji Hoon and Young Jae, but also their people.

The remaining assassins had been on
standby for the grand finale
this whole time.

Like sharks, six brand new masked assassins formed a circular formation around her. They reveled in her fallen state before they participated in this battle of the Gods.

Yoori had anticipated the attack, but there was little she could do when Ji Hoon kicked her body, his shoe puncturing mercilessly into her flesh. A teardrop slipped from her eyes when she squeezed them shut in agony. A fear that she had not felt in years came rushing back to her, paralyzing her even further—fear of losing a battle; fear of an inevitable death. She had not felt such terror since she was a teenager. To be wrought with this type of horror now was crippling to her sensibilities. She was not accustomed to being in this pathetic state, to lying at her enemy’s feet and being at their mercy.

Get up
, her desperate mind screamed through her pain.
Get up!

The order fell on deaf ears. She could hardly move a muscle without convulsing in pain. Her body was officially broken. There was nothing she could do but lay there and endure Ji Hoon’s punishment. It was a punishment that she knew he would give without mercy, and it was a punishment that was about to become even more intolerable.

Ji Hoon motioned a hand over to his assassins for them to come forward.

“Show her how you treat a fallen Queen in this world,” Ji Hoon said simply, amusement dancing in his voice.

That was the only cue they needed to partake in this beating. With sounds of grunts and laughter emanating from them, they kicked her across the face, nearly causing her neck to snap. They moved on to her chest, kicking it so hard that Yoori had to bury her face into the ground to mute her screams. What occurred next was a kaleidoscope of pure torture. They simultaneously kicked her spine, her skull, her legs—essentially every inch of her body—so hard that it made her feel like she was falling down an endless tunnel filled with jagged rocks.

She couldn’t breathe.

It hurt to breathe.

Throughout the duration of this assault, all she could do was attempt to open her eyes. Through the storm of pain ravaging her, she laid her eyes on Tae Hyun as he fought with Young Jae in the distance. He was unaware that Yoori had lost her fight and that she was simply waiting for death to take her.

Don’t look at me,
Yoori pleaded in her mind. She did not want Tae Hyun to run over to her to save her. She did not want to endanger him.

She bit her lips to prevent herself from crying as the beating became more unbearable. The beating she was enduring was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She had trained her entire life—had been in countless fights—yet it felt like those years did not amount to a fraction of the agony she was in right now.

Yoori buried her face further into the tiles, muffling her growing screams. She hated herself for not being strong enough to fight through the pain, for being weakened by her own debilitating body. Most of all, she hated that she knew as soon as Tae Hyun saw her in this state, he would abandon all rationale. He would be distracted, he would run to her, and in doing so, these barbaric bastards would bring him down as well.

Please don’t let him look at me,
her tortured self begged the heavens.
Please don’t let him see me like this . . .

“Augh!”

Yoori’s heart briefly stopped beating when one of the assailants kicked her beneath her stomach, shifting her so that she was flipped onto her back. Once this occurred and once she felt the steel-like feet jab into her ribs, she felt herself fading. It would only be a matter of time before this was over for her; it would only be a matter of time before she took her last breath . . .

“It seems,” Young Jae prompted tauntingly, looking over Tae Hyun’s shoulder, “that even
you
can’t control the inevitable.”

Staggered by this prompt, Tae Hyun turned around mid-fight. His eyes enlarged when he saw Yoori across the arena with blood sprouting out of her body. She lay under the mercy of Ji Hoon and the masked assassins’ assault. She was being assaulted in every direction, and it was clear that she could not withstand it any longer.

“Yoori,” Tae Hyun breathed in pain.

Young Jae was no longer his priority. His only priority was saving Yoori.

Turning his back on Young Jae, he ran to the other side of the arena.

“Lee Ji Hoon!” he roared at the top of his lungs, his voice eclipsing over the drums and the cheers from the crowd. “Get the fuck away from her!”

Yoori lifted her head up when she heard his scream. An onslaught of fear enveloped her when she saw what was happening behind him.

“Tae Hyun!” Yoori screamed after Young Jae appeared behind him. He was getting ready to raise his sword, his aim on Tae Hyun’s back. “Behind you!”

Before Tae Hyun could come any closer to Yoori, Young Jae used his moment of distraction against him. Rolling forward and moving his sword left to right, he sliced into the skin of Tae Hyun’s back and outer thighs. The ambush crippled Tae Hyun, leaving him to crash to the ground right before he reached Yoori.

Bang!

Shortly after, a bullet sprung from the ceiling and buried itself into Tae Hyun’s thigh, further incapacitating him.

“Tae Hyun!” Yoori cried miserably, wishing with all her might that she could rally her strength together to save him.

To her horror, she could only helplessly watch as several more assassins entered the arena. She could only helplessly watch as the same type of beating she was receiving was bequeathed onto Tae Hyun, whose blood was beginning to mar the onyx floor underneath him, just like her own blood was polluting the tiles.

“Ahhh!”

Screams emitted from Yoori when someone grabbed the locks of her hair. They yanked her head up and viciously slammed it against the bloodstained floor.

Bam!

An explosion of pain rocked her world, hurtling her into a hell she had never experienced. Watching the love of her life fight for breath whilst his attackers bestowed their fury onto him was torture, and being unable to help him—for she was too crippled by her own pain—was excruciating for Yoori. Darkness blackened Yoori’s vision as her head throbbed excruciatingly. She was certain that her nose was bleeding, but she could not see it through her momentary blindness. The pain inside her multiplied; she could no longer breathe.

Once the darkness lifted from her eyes, the first thing she did was lay her sights on Tae Hyun.

She expected to see Young Jae administer the attacks on Tae Hyun. She was stunned when she discovered that it was Ji Hoon who was administering the assault.

Her eyes bloomed in shock.

If Ji Hoon was there, then that only meant—

“Ah!”

Her pulse jolted to a stop when someone wrapped their hand into the locks of her hair and brutally heaved her head and upper body up. She looked up, and sure enough, there Young Jae was, crouching beside her.

A cold smile adorned his lips. Cruel, taunting words began to filter from his mouth. “Did you really think Ji Hoon and I would allow you to make it through your hour without taking extra precautions? Were you really that stupid to think that you’d ever make it out of here alive? This isn’t a battle, little sister. This is your death trap. This is where your story will end.”

Laughter poured from him when he eyed Tae Hyun, who was now being beaten ruthlessly by Ji Hoon and five other masked assassins. While he was getting beaten, Yoori could see Tae Hyun open his eyes. Fear filled the brown eyes she loved so much when he saw that Young Jae was crouching beside Yoori. It was evident in Tae Hyun’s gaze that he wasn’t afraid for himself. He was afraid for her.

“This is the perfect view for the two of you, isn’t it?” Young Jae voiced heartlessly. “The perfect view for the two of you to see how the other is doing—how the other is suffering.”

Yoori silently cried to herself, seeing now that this was what the Underworld had planned for them all along.

They were
never
meant to win.

They were only meant to be given false hope, they were only meant to be entertainment for their cruel society, and they were only meant to lose as they watched the other get annihilated. They were only meant to be an example to the younger generations that love would
never
conquer all in the Underworld.

This entire hour . . . had been useless.

They had given everything for it . . . all the energy they could give . . . all the strength they could give. They gave everything, but it all amounted to nothing. All they had to show for it were two humans who realized that there was no more hope for them.

And now, as they lay in the trap that had been set for them since the beginning of the night, this world was going to show them the consequences of becoming human in this world—of choosing love over power.

“Enjoy the show, little one,” Young Jae instructed. “And enjoy the show I’m going to make out of you for him.”

Bam!

An explosive fire raked her nerves when Young Jae slammed her head against the floor three times, causing blood to start free flowing from her mouth.

“Yoori . . .”

Even through the sound of drums monopolizing the senses in her ears—and even with the chaos of everything occurring around her—Yoori could hear Tae Hyun’s voice.

When she looked past the blood streaming down her swollen eyes, she could see him with blood seeping from his own mouth. They were still beating him without mercy; they were still torturing him without an end in sight. And throughout his ordeal, Tae Hyun kept his pain-filled eyes on her.

There were tears in his eyes. Tears that Yoori knew he wasn’t shedding for himself, but for her. For the pain she was going through. As a result, she felt the tears bubble in her own eyes. She began to cry for him.

“Tae Hyun . . .” she whispered brokenly, slipping over her own blood as she tried to crawl to him.

She no longer cared about fighting.

All she wanted was to be with him during their last moments, before this world killed them.

She just wanted to be with him again.

Using all the strength she had, Yoori crawled on her elbows, ignoring the pain shooting through her body every time she used her aching muscles. No longer caring about anything but sliding herself across the tiles and moving herself closer to Tae Hyun, she fought through the pain while her eyes rested on his.

“Ah!”

She had scarcely made it a foot away before a soldier grabbed her by the locks of her hair and tugged her back, dragging her inside the angry mob again. Once she returned to the center of their brutality, the mobs’ beating became more violent, more unforgiving.

“Yoori!”

Tae Hyun jolted upward to run to her. He was promptly immobilized when a smirking Ji Hoon ripped a harness hanging from the ceiling. He haughtily strode over to Tae Hyun and proceeded to loop it around Tae Hyun’s neck. Ji Hoon jerked the harness back with an entertained bout of laughter, tugging Tae Hyun back to him like he was an animal.

“Your end has come,” he told Tae Hyun, pulling him backwards and throwing him right into the center of the murderous mob. “You are never walking out of here.”

At the same moment, Young Jae leaned down towards Yoori, whose heart was breaking at the sight of Tae Hyun in this state.

Young Jae’s voice was dark and calculating when he announced, “Now I will show you the very consequences of going against me.”

The next series of events were an agonized blur to Yoori. There were no martial arts and there was no hand-to-hand warrior combat involved. There was nothing. It was just the simple beating of two fallen Gods. It was just the simple beating of two dishonored Royals, and it was just the simple beating of two human beings who were considered to be worthless.

They
had
lost.

They had
lost
.

Yoori could feel it in her dying body. She could feel it as the blood cloaked over her eyes, as her tears began to swim free, and as her eyes tried to glance at Tae Hyun for one last time. She could feel her body worsen as she watched Tae Hyun endure the wrath of Ji Hoon—as the mob brutally pulled on the noose around his neck . . . torturing him, stepping over his wounds, and beating him senseless. She could feel herself dying as Young Jae and his people did the exact same thing to her, as they beat her to death.

Agony tore through her when she was able to lock eyes with Tae Hyun’s broken ones amidst the chaos. Their hearts continued to yearn for the other and their bodies continued to work every last bit of its strength to keep them alive for each other.

The pain . . . it was excruciating.

It was unbearable, and it was everything that embodied hell.

At long last, as she inhaled softly and felt her deteriorating body start to shut down from all the beating . . . the anarchy stopped.