The End of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 4) (66 page)

“Yoori, it’s okay.” The hoarse whisper from Tae Hyun coursed over her. His injured eyes stared down at her to assure her that everything was going to be okay. “It’s almost over—
Augh!
”

Tae Hyun did not get to finish his sentence when someone kicked him at the back of his neck.

His breathless groan tore at her, making her feel as though someone was stabbing her relentlessly with a million different knives. She shook with violent sobs as she watched the life fade out of Tae Hyun’s eyes.

Hysteria came over her.

“Stop it! Stop it!”

But no one stopped.

No one stopped hurting him. No one stopped hitting him. And no one stopped tearing her heart apart.

The entire time as they hit him, he stared down at her, his eyes holding so much love even when pain plagued his face.

“I love you
,” he breathed out, his voice barely above a whisper. He hardly had the energy to breathe, let alone talk.

Those three words were what caused her soul to rip apart.

Bam!

“Augh!”

And then, when Tae Hyun took that
one last,
painful
gasp
that people exerted when their body was ready to give up on them,
Yoori lost it
.

Her right hand reached out blindly, desperate to find something around them to end all of this. A tsunami of relief bathed over her when her hand found a dead body. In the pant pocket of that dead body was a gun.

She ripped the gun from the dead body and positioned her finger on the trigger. With a wrath that could rival a thousand suns, she lifted the gun in the air and allowed her rage to consume her.

She was going to make them pay for this.

They were all going to pay.

“YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!”
she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Her wrathful eyes aimed on the bastards standing above them, the bastards who were still assaulting Tae Hyun.

As she felt Tae Hyun’s embrace on her loosen from the enormous bout of pain rippling through his body, she lifted herself up. An unstoppable rage blinded her and she began to pull the trigger, unleashing her own hell on earth.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

One by one, bullets swam through the foreheads of the bastards standing above them, and one by one, they all fell lifelessly to the floor with a loud thud. Their bodies landed at the feet of the enraged Queen who now had bloodlust in her eyes. She gently pushed her fallen King off of her and locked eyes with the two bastards she wanted to kill the most.

Ji Hoon was already dead, courtesy of Tae Hyun.

She was hell-bent on giving Young Jae and Ju Won the very same ending.

The first one to know her wrath—the first one she wanted to kill—was her brother.

Bang!

Young Jae wasn’t able to react fast enough when the hungry bullet dashed towards him, its ravenous jaws lodging itself above his chest. He screamed out in pain after he plummeted backwards from the sheer force of the hot bullet. He did not get to stay down long when he realized that Yoori wasn’t done with him. Her gun aimed at his heart, Yoori pulled the trigger without any hesitation.

Bang!

Just as a cowardly Ju Won was preparing to run in the opposite direction to save himself from Yoori’s wrath, an opportunistic Young Jae saw his ticket for survival. Clutching onto the bullet wound in his chest, Young Jae propelled to his feet and grabbed the collar of Ju Won’s neck. With quick reflexes, he hoisted Ju Won in front of him like a shield, allowing the bullet that was meant for him to plunge into Ju Won’s heart instead.

Gasps of outraged fury dispensed throughout the amphitheater.

They could not believe what had occurred before them. They could not believe that Young Jae had used their eldest Advisor as a shield for himself.

Fury burning a blazing trail through her soul, Yoori continued to shoot in Young Jae’s direction, watching as he stumbled to the floor. He dragged Ju Won’s dying body with him and made sure that the old man’s body took every hungry bullet that was meant for him. Ju Won coughed out blood and gasped for air as his blood stained the arena floor.

It was a despicable sight to watch her brother drag Ju Won like he was a worthless piece of meat, but it was a tactic that worked for Young Jae as he was able to make it to the exit. Safe from Yoori’s gunfire, Young Jae abandoned Ju Won’s body and ran to the exit hall of the arena. When his eyes met Yoori’s, a satisfied expression danced in his gaze.

It was at that moment, as she scrutinized the look in his eyes, that Yoori realized it was never in Young Jae’s plans to kill her tonight.

He had something else in mind for her,
something more cruel and more painful
. He wanted her to feel the
exact
pain he felt. He wanted her to live the rest of her life remembering how it felt to have the love of her life die in her arms. He wanted to bequeath her with the same misery that he had to live with for the rest of his life.

With that satiated expression marked on his face, he silently told her that he was
done
with her. He no longer cared about killing her. There was no need because he got the exact revenge he wanted to inflict upon her.

He killed her in a way that was even more unbearable for Yoori.

Wanting nothing more than to see him die for merely existing, for being so cruel, Yoori aimed the gun at him one final time. She pulled the trigger just as he was about to disappear. However—

Click.

Click.

Panic rocked her when Yoori discovered that she had no more bullets to shoot. She had no more bullets to kill Young Jae with, to make him pay for everything he had put them through.

Alas, killing Young Jae proved to be the least of her worries when a red laser light suddenly flashed before her.

Her eyes raked over her chest and her entire body. A circular formation of red lasers marred her black hoodie, aiming directly at her heart. The now chaotic and wrathful Underworld finally had enough of her. They were determined to execute her once and for all.

And just as the snipers were about to pull their triggers to take her life—

Beep. Beep.

The beeping sound of an alarm went off, indicating to the amphitheater that the most eventful hour they had ever witnessed had finally passed.

Yoori and Tae Hyun had done the impossible.

They had won.

They had made it out of this battle alive.

The red laser lights on Yoori dispersed into oblivion at the knowledge that the hour was up. All around her, a sweeping silence came over the 17,500 people in attendance. They could not believe what had taken place—what had just transpired.

Their eyes roamed over Ji Hoon’s dead body, Ju Won’s dead body, and then ran over the countless Underworld soldiers who had been slain during the one-hour battle. Then, their disbelieving eyes rested on their former King and Queen.

Yoori dropped the gun when she realized that their hour was finally up and crawled back to Tae Hyun. She kneeled beside him, no longer caring what the Underworld wanted to do with her. The only one she cared about was Tae Hyun.

“Tae Hyun?” she called. She gently touched his face while he rested his head against the marble wall. His forehead pressed into the cold wall as he tried to keep himself awake.

“Sir,” one of the subordinates spoke to Min Hyuk, who was now the interim commander of the Underworld after the deaths of Ji Hoon and Ju Won. In the background, the whole Underworld listened in on the conversation as the subordinate announced, “The police are close. We have to leave now.”

Although the authorities were harmless to the Royals of the Underworld, they were considered to be a nuisance nonetheless. The last thing the Underworld wanted was to waste their time and effort with the legal “authorities”. Rather than waiting at the arena like sitting ducks, it made more business sense to vacate the premises and get on with their busy lives. The show was over. There was nothing left to keep them here.

“Very well,” Min Hyuk replied. He rose from his throne and enacted the orders to end the summit. “Commence the evacuation plan.”

“What about An Soo Jin and Kwon Tae Hyun?” Jung Min questioned angrily, getting up from his throne.

“Leave them,” Dong Min chimed in, painfully gazing at them from afar. His tight voice did its best to conceal his emotions. “They have already received their punishments.”

“I’ve seen enough,” another female Royal stated. Her face was disgusted by the weakness exhibited by Yoori and Tae Hyun. Considering that they were supposedly such great legends, she expected more from them.

“The children have been entertaining enough,” another elder nonchalantly dismissed. He got up from his seat in weariness and put on a black coat. “Give them a bone.”

“They’ve been through their hour,” Min Hyuk stated, showing no hint to the fact that he had been one of the Royals who locked eyes with Yoori during the final minutes of the hour—that he was one of the people who shed tears for them.

As the rest of the Underworld surged to their feet, Min Hyuk continued to stare down at them with pity in his eyes. He took one last glimpse at Yoori and Tae Hyun before giving his mandate to the entire Underworld.

“The agreement given to them is binding for everyone in this world. They made it through their hour. In turn, they will receive full immunity as part of the agreement. Anyone from this world who breaks this agreement will be executed without exception.” He expelled a breath as everyone rose up from their seats and began to evacuate the premises. “Now let’s leave before we have to waste our time dealing with cops who think they have the power to incarcerate us. The summit ends now.
Vacate
.”

Buttoning his jacket, Min Hyuk turned away from Yoori and Tae Hyun and began to descend out of the arena with the rest of the Underworld in tow. The amphitheater that was once filled with life and divine power was becoming more and more hushed.

Soon, all that remained were the two humans below.

As the seconds passed and as the chaotic world around them receded, all that was left in the amphitheater were dead bodies . . . and Tae Hyun and Yoori.

“Tae Hyun,” Yoori whispered, gently stroking over his face. Her once heavy heart expanded as she smiled with relief. “We made it through. We’re done. We’re done. They’re leaving us alone.”

“Yoori . . . ” Tae Hyun whispered slowly, his voice barely audible. Even in this type of condition, Tae Hyun still exhibited more strength than she could see any one person have. Instead of lying limply on the floor, he remained in a sitting position. The side of his body was now resting beside the marble wall. He continued to breathe softly, his eyes opening and closing slowly for a few moments before Yoori called out to him again.

“Tae Hyun . . .”

His once heavy eyelids opened at the call of her voice. His tired eyes looked at her as though she was his anchor for staying awake. Yoori paused when she saw how much pain he was still in. Her smile of relief vacated. In its place came mounting concern.

“Tae Hyun?” she called brokenly, terrified at how weak Tae Hyun was becoming.

Tae Hyun briefly closed his eyes to subdue the pain with his labored breathing. When he opened them again, his eyes were filled with worry and concern. He knew why the Underworld was leaving, and he wanted her to leave for the same reason. He didn’t want her to get arrested by the police.

“D-don’t . . . don’t stay,” he breathed out painfully. It was clear that it was taking everything he had to speak, to protect her as much as he could. “Go . . . go now. Just . . . leave me.”

Yoori shook her head, refusing to leave his side. 

She
wanted
the cops to come. She
wanted
them to distract the Underworld, and in the end, she
wanted
them to take them to the hospital and save Tae Hyun—save them both. It was a plan that was a long shot, but a shot of a chance nonetheless. It was a plan that she hoped would work as she sat there with him, trying to keep Tae Hyun talking and awake before they arrived. However, sitting there and talking to him was proving to be more difficult than she could ever anticipate.

It was so hard for her to see him like this.

Sitting parallel to him, Yoori took in the sight of his bloodied and completely broken state. Fresh tears bubbled in her eyes. She prayed to the fates to have the cops come faster, so that they could save him from the pain he was experiencing. She wanted them to save her from the pain she felt as she sat there helpless, wishing she had the ability to heal him instead of just watching the blood drip from his assaulted body.

“I’m not leaving you,” she assured, agonizingly wiping the blood from his face. She struggled to not sob uncontrollably and struggled to not accept the reality of what was occurring before her very eyes. “I’m
never
leaving you.”

He swallowed tightly. Pain immersed his eyes as he drank in the very vision of her. He appraised the sword cuts on her skin, the bullet wounds on her body, and the bruises and blood covering her from head to toe. Summoning all the strength he had, which seemed to be diminishing with every progressing second, he slowly lifted up his hand and began to wipe away the blood and tears from her face.