by Con Template
This made Soo Jin laugh. For the first time in days, she genuinely laughed. The Cobras telling her that they wanted revenge was akin to hearing a child tell you they were going to beat you to death. It was too comical. “Oh, so you want revenge? Is that it?” she teased.
Offended by her laughter and her flippant demeanor, the sternness in their faces darkened.
“Our boss would be pleased if he finds out the assassins he trained were able to kill such a celebrated Queen,” the male leader spoke, pride already reveling in his voice.
The blood in her veins seared at the knowledge that they were doing this for Ho Young. It was never a good idea for someone to bring up Ho Young to her, and it was a far worse idea for anyone to challenge her.
Soo Jin would be lying if she said she also wasn’t pleased. It had been so long since she last challenged a group of highly trained fighters, and she had missed it so. The thought of what she had to do with the “57” scar entered her mind while her eyes assessed each of them. It would be fun to mix work and play together.
“Let’s play then,” she cajoled, cracking her neck in preparation for the fun she was about to have. Planning a war against her brother aside, Soo Jin lived for the thrills that came with fighting skilled soldiers and conquering them. It was sustenance to her pride and stimulation for her entertainment. It was wonderful, it was magical, it was distracting, and it was fun as hell. She couldn’t wait.
“One on one?” the female leader spoke. Despite the enthusiasm they all shared, she also wanted to be fair. This was a quality that Soo Jin respected; it wasn’t enough to convince Soo Jin to go soft on the little snakes, but it was enough for her to view them as formidable opponents.
“Let’s be fair,” Soo Jin proposed carelessly, knowing that her skills far exceeded theirs. “Ten on one.”
The battle that ensued between Soo Jin and the Cobras was one that she didn’t anticipate to be so . . . enjoyable. As she lurched over tables, broke chairs apart to use as weapons, jumped onto balconies while fighting assassins in midair, An Soo Jin had never felt more exhilarated and challenged in her life. She performed backflips and spin kicks that left some opponents flying into the air while simultaneously head-butting and throwing some down on the tables with force.
The Cobras were no match for her, but they were the best group of assassins she ever had the pleasure of fighting. They were so skilled, so full of agility, and so strong that she actually had to double the effort she usually used whenever she fought with her opponents. The ones she had fought rarely, if ever, had the same fighting abilities as her. She was thoroughly impressed that these Cobras lived up to their reputations and more. The joy it brought her was drug-like.
Soo Jin gave them a break from her beatings and crouched on a nearby table. She watched them writhe on the floor, still trying to gather their inner strengths to fight her again. In that second, it was evident to her that Ho Young wasn’t the master who trained these skilled killers. She knew how Ho Young fought, and it wasn’t possible that he was the one who trained them.
It was someone else who was more skilled and powerful.
“Ho Young wasn’t the one who trained you,” Soo Jin stated, looking at them shrewdly. Curiosity marked her features. She wondered who this formidable person could be. “Who trained you?”
When they spoke the name, Soo Jin saw the light at the end of her once dark tunnel.
Though many were trying to regain their strength and their breaths, one gave her a hostile look and said, “The Prince.”
Life invaded her body and her eyes broadened in delight.
“Kwon Tae Hyun,” she thought out loud.
In every society, there are always individuals who are gifted with the ability to anticipate the future before anyone else. In that select group, there are also elites who could orchestrate future events. For Soo Jin, as she scanned the group of the best and most skilled assassins she had ever had the honor of fighting, she saw in them the God who created them.
She now understood what Ju Won meant when he said that Young Jae, Ho Young, and even Ji Hoon did not have what it took to be a Lord. They simply weren’t legendary enough. Despite her love for Ji Hoon and the bias she wanted to have for him, this was a statement that she not only agreed on, but also one she finally understood.
Only a legend can foresee the future of another legend.
This quality was exactly why Ju Won chose Soo Jin to be his first advisee; this was why he chose to personally train her. As a revered legend, he saw the indescribable quality that he knew would lead her to everlasting greatness.
The revered Queen understood it all too clearly as the Prince of Serpents invaded her mind.
No matter his current station in life, no matter how unknown he was compared to the rest of the Kings, and no matter how distant he seemed, Soo Jin knew as easily as she knew the wonders that awaited her future that he was going to turn this world upside down. Ji Hoon may stand beside her, Young Jae and Ho Young may be casualties of her war, but Kwon Tae Hyun would be the last thing standing between her throne and her immortality as a legend in this world.
Because he was it—he was the one she spent years training for. He was that one other mountain who was meant for the same greatness as her, and he was the one who would give her the fight of their lives when their confrontation came to a head. Soo Jin smiled, feeling remnants of her human side fading under the touch of competitiveness that was overtaking her body, reminding her again why she had to be a God in the face of human limitations.
Her biggest enemy in the future became her biggest savior because the prospect of his greatness reminded her of her own. Her smile grew wider as she felt the vitality of life return to her, the pathetic human emotions leaving her.
The duel of the century, she thought with excitement before she fought, overpowered, and sliced the number “57” onto his beloved Cobras’ cheeks. For good measure, she even killed the youngest Cobra to set off the hatred she needed the future King to have for her. She wanted him livid, at his deepest rage, when they would finally meet face to face and battle one another.
Soo Jin was so delighted that she had finally met her match that she couldn’t even focus. Adrenaline and excitement revved up inside her as she carelessly dumped the young girl’s corpse from her grasp. She strode out of the club feeling like a God again. Her heart was pumping erratically, and she had never felt more alive, more ready to do what she needed to do to get the Siberian Tigers’ throne and finish Young Jae off. She was more than ready to face the one King who would give her the battle she had been dying to have since she was ten—a legendary duel.
Eager to set something else in motion, Soo Jin dialed the number to one of her associates in the States once she got into her Lamborghini.
“I want Kwon Tae Hyun to come home,” she told the man. Although she couldn’t see him, she knew he was furrowing his brows in bewilderment. He was thrown off by her unexpected orders.
“By force?”
“No,” Soo Jin answered with a cunning smile. She already knew what to do to get him to come home on his own will. “Get your associates and start the whispers in America: Kwon Ho Young has been raping his baby sister. Spread it, make sure it floats over to him, and Kwon Tae Hyun will come running.”
“Why do you want him to come home, boss?” her associate asked curiously.
The memory of her father and how he died flashed in her mind. Young Jae was going to receive the same betrayal from her. And Ho Young . . . Ho Young needed the same betrayal, and she wanted his younger brother to be the one who bequeathed it upon him. She was killing two birds with one stone because she also wanted to ensure a future for Tae Hyun.
“I want him to kill Ho Young,” she said blithely. She additionally added in her mind: And I want him to be the new King of Serpents.
She wanted him to get this position.
She wanted him to rise to power.
She wanted him to be the candidate to become the Lord of the Und
erworld, and when everything was ready, she wanted to fight him for it.
Soo Jin laughed to herself, thinking about the irony of her life as she went back home and finished recording the tape to commemorate this wonderful turn of event.
In the face of human emotions, how ironic was it that Kwon Tae Hyun, someone she had never met, was the only one powerful enough to make her want to fight through all of this turmoil and become a God? How ironic was it that he was the only one who was able to save her life when she was about to be consumed by human emotions?
An Young Jae.
Kwon Ho Young.
Lee Ji Hoon.
None of the current Kings had ever given her such a reason to live, to want to fight for the throne.
But Kwon Tae Hyun . . . Kwon Tae Hyun was different.
Kwon Tae Hyun was going to be epic.
He was going to be powerful, and he was going to be a force to be reckoned with in this world. He would give her the battle of a lifetime, and he was going to make an immortal legend out of her—for conquering him and killing him would be the gift she gives herself when she stands amongst the heavens alone, without another towering mountain to overshadow her.
Soo Jin’s calculating smile became lethal. She was going to enjoy meeting Tae Hyun, she was going to enjoy fighting him, and she was going to enjoy killing him.
Soo Jin had no idea as she finished her recording, imported the file into the USB stick, and returned to the Siberian Tigers’ estate to hide it, how much her life was going to go astray after that night was over. She had no idea how wrong everything was going to turn out. That her brother had anticipated her betrayal because he was tipped off, that Ho Young had somehow saved her and hid her, and that she would get amnesia and forget all about Ji Hoon, all the while (much to her own horror) allowing her human counterpart to finally come out and breathe in the world for the three years to follow.
Everything after that night went wrong for her.
Everything went wrong except one thing: Tae Hyun.
The one she had never met, the one she didn’t know, and the one who would become the most prominent person in her life . . . nearly everything she anticipated for him happened.
After hearing the rumors about his brother raping his younger sister, Tae Hyun did return home. He did kill Kwon Ho Young, and he did succeed the Serpents’ throne. And just as she had predicted, he did become one of the most revered Kings in the Underworld. Not only that, but he also became the biggest contender for the Lord of the Underworld throne—the very same throne that she sought and the very same throne she was willing to fight to the death for.
“Future King of Serpents, I can’t wait to meet you, conquer you, and kill you,” she stated elatedly, reveling in the thought of being exposed to something so fun, so exciting, and so thrilling in the near future.
Soo Jin inhaled expectantly, turning off the camera and setting the next three years of her life into motion.
“We are going to give each other the once-in-a-lifetime duel that only Gods could dream of.”
“Once you’re in, the only exit is death.”
31: Welcome Back to the Underworld
Before the changing of tides, there is always silence.
A prolonged silence to warn people about what’s coming, an insufferable silence that promises pain, and an epic silence that guarantees an event that will carve itself into history.
This particular silence was one that washed over the brothers as they stood outside in the apartment hall.
It had been a couple of hours since Tae Hyun kicked them out of his gang, and it had also been a couple of hours since they waited for Yoori to walk out of the apartment with her bags in hand.
The silence that moved between the brothers was a somber one.
After Tae Hyun walked out of his apartment, his face cool with impassiveness, they tried to reason with him. They tried to convince Tae Hyun to allow Yoori, and themselves included, to stay in Korea. Their pleas fell on deaf ears. The stubbornness that emitted from Tae Hyun was a decisive one. It was well-known that once the King of Serpents made a decision, he stuck with it no matter what. This was a trait that the brothers were more than aware of.
Yes, the silence was somber . . . that was until a sudden change in atmosphere occurred.
The temperature didn’t change, no one spoke, and no one was in their presence. Even so, they felt that change, that familiar feeling they only received when they were in the presence of one of the most important people in their lives.
The door to Tae Hyun’s apartment swung open, revealing the catalyst for the changing of tides.
Stepping through the door, as expected, was Choi Yoori. She was dressed simply in black jeans, boots, and a black hoodie. Yet, an unexpected emanation of power streamed from her. It was the aura of an entity who could move mountains, and with the absence of Tae Hyun, there was only one other person who could evoke such power.
Jae Won and Kang Min’s eyes enlarged. Their bodies froze in shock. They stared at her, their eyes unblinking as she walked down the hall. All that could be heard was the sound of her boots stabbing into the ground while she approached them. Her face was shrouded with determination, sternness, and reserved excitement.
The breath escaped their chests when she finally stood across from them. She thawed the once cool expression on her face and assessed the shock that consumed their eyes. Then, she smiled in a way that only their boss could give them.
“It’s been a long time,” she whispered, looking between Kang Min and Jae Won. She took in how tall they were and how much they had grown in her absence. “You two have grown.”
Shocked gasps escaped their lips.
Disbelievingly, they said, “Boss?”
She didn’t say anything, but when she extended her hands out, palm first, they knew who this woman was.
It was An Soo Jin.
An Soo Jin had finally returned.
Smiling uncontrollably, both in happiness and disbelief, the brothers whipped her beloved weapons out from behind their backs and placed the gold guns in the palms of her awaiting hands.
A wide, blissful smile danced across Soo Jin’s beautiful face. She closed her eyes in delight, luxuriating in the feel of her guns after three years of absence. She inhaled deeply before staring down at the black hoodie she wore. The hoodie still had remnants of wet tears that had yet to dry up.
“I think it’s time for me to be welcomed home at the party everyone seems to be at,” Soo Jin began with much amusement.
The competitive blood inside her veins pumped ecstatically when she held the fabric of the black hoodie in her hand.
Her smile became vindictive.
Her long-awaited homecoming brought back a war, and there was only one Underworld King worthy of it.
“And I think it’s time . . . for me to officially meet Kwon Tae Hyun.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Con Template currently resides in California. When she is not outside with her DSLR capturing reality, you can find her in between realities when she is writing about a “King,” a “Prince of Hell,” an “Architect,” an “Ancient,” and a “Titan.”
She is working on the final book of the Welcome to the Underworld novels and introducing a new series, An Eternity of Eclipse.
You can follow her at contemplate13.wordpress.com or twitter.com/contemplate13.