Chapter Text
Jin-Woo stared down at Sillad’s body for a bit longer until he felt the soul fully slip into the Void. He’d tried to take it for himself, but he wasn’t surprised when Sillad’s strength of will resisted him like a brick wall. Jin-Woo looked at the staff that had kept Sillad from escaping, remembering the description from the Grand Nightmare.
“Sliver, the Realm Weaver: A now awakened staff of Yggdrasil that can create and sustain tears in the fabric of reality. Be warned that improper or careless usage can cause a portal to divert to the core of Yggdrasil and is strongly discouraged.”
He’d gotten the staff months ago now as a gift when the Demons accepted him as their Monarch but it had never actually done anything, with the exception of using a part of it as a potion ingredient. Apparently all he needed to do was resurrect himself and take on the full power of the Ashborn to ‘awaken’ the staff and gain access to its power. He still wasn’t sure how it worked, but he figured that smacking the thing against an already formed portal counted as ‘improper usage’, though he hadn’t expected it to be quite so effective.
The staff and Yggdrasil as a whole was a mystery to him, but that would have to be a discovery for another day. He leaned back against the frozen wall and took a couple minutes to regain his bearings before sinking into a nearby shadow and coming out in the middle of the ravaged street.
Wind whipped by him and stirred up the motes of fog coming off of the remaining ‘snowdrifts’ of frozen air. The city had been reduced to little more than rubble, corpses, and ice as far as the eye could see. He set his shadows and his newly created zombie(?) army to work collecting the bodies of those that hadn’t been resurrected and brought them to a nearby park. Any souls that wanted to return to the Void went along with them, writing their names in the dirt and laying down in orderly rows before re-embracing death. It felt like the least he could do to respect the countless dead and ease the burden of the first responders that would be trying to find and identify the bodies.
Once the armies of undead got moving he walked over and knelt by his father’s side. He pressed two fingers to his father’s neck, a massive weight lifting as he felt a steady beat. He would live. Against all odds his dad would make it. The wound in his chest was closed along with the various cuts and bruises he’d gotten throughout the fight. Jin-Woo would need to move him quickly though, the air was still thin here and the temperature was beyond arctic levels, which was certainly not helping his recovery.
As he leaned down to pick him up he noticed a gold colored crystal on the ground under his father’s neck. Jin-Woo hadn’t been sure that the Elixir of Life would remove the essence stone, leaving him with both relief that it was out and rage at the monsters that turned his father into a weapon. He supposed his own magic wasn’t much different or kinder, twisting the souls of the dead and forcing them to fight their allies. But now wasn’t the time to worry about the morality of necromancy, he needed to get his father somewhere he’d be safe and wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else.
After a moment of thinking it over he decided the best thing for his father was to just bring him home. He’d been calm around their family and hopefully being around loved ones would help keep him calm and prevent any lashing out. Of course, he shouldn’t be mind controlled now that the essence stone was out, but he wasn’t about to assume that his father would be totally fine after everything that had happened to him.
He picked up his father, wincing at the feeling of his dad’s aura of light magic biting into the shadows that were holding him together. He ignored the pain and focused on flying him home as fast as he could before either his dad woke up or Jin-Woo fell apart. Luckily his father was a sturdy passenger and ‘as fast as he could’ meant they were little more than a streak across the sky before he flew through the broken kitchen window and gently laid him down on the couch.
He took a couple steps back so the seams that kept his head attached would stop deteriorating and looked around the apartment. He let out a breath of relief when he didn’t see any sign of the freezing spell reaching their home. Jin-Woo paused as he realized the breath of relief was the first time he’d exhaled since coming back into his body. He didn’t have much time to consider his new status as undead though as Jinnah’s voice filled the damaged apartment.
“You’re both back! You really had me worried this time. No one could tell what happened other than the fact that it was probably really bad. Everyone's live streaming cut off at the same time and we were-” She came to a sudden stop and took a few unsteady steps backwards, almost tripping over Song-Yi and his mother as he turned around to face her.
“I know I look not-so-great right now, but I’m okay.”
“Uh huh, cool story. What’s my favorite animal and why?” Well, that was an innocent sounding but truly heartbreaking question. Song-Yi’s reaction wasn’t any better, quickly tapping out the code for the shadow guarding her that there was danger; a shadow demon rose up at her command and took up a defensive position while looking around for the danger.
“Right now it’s the sloth because you watched a compilation of them doing their little dance while they poop because you’re a child who thinks poop is hilarious. And the last time you asked because you thought I was an imposter it was rabbits. It’s me. I was… hurt really bad, but it’s still just me.”
Jinnah took a few tentative steps forward, clearly still nervous. “And dad?”
“He should be fine physically, but I can’t promise how he’ll be mentally, he’s been through a lot and it’ll probably take him time to recover.”
His mom had just been staring at him with wide eyes since he’d landed, not saying anything. After a moment of silence in the room she rushed forward and pulled him into a hug. Her hold was gentle, like she was worried he might fall apart at the slightest touch. “My sweet baby boy.” She moved back slightly and held his cold and pale face in her hands and looked him over. “My poor boy, always getting so hurt protecting others.”
She pulled him close again when the girls ran in and joined the hug. Song-Yi held back for a brief moment as she tried to stealthily put away the knife she’d been hiding behind her back. “Let me just say, I’m loving the new aesthetic. Very mindful, very demure, very room temperature. Big fan of your head being visibly reattached, totally doesn’t give a ‘died and got possessed by the Ashborn’ vibe.”
His mom scowled at her. “Song-Yi! Watch your language. He’s clearly been through a lot and doesn’t need you cracking jokes.”
He wanted to play it off as her just making jokes, but he could hear the undertone of genuine fear. He’d died and his body showed it, he couldn’t blame her for feeling uncomfortable when her father figure turned into a walking corpse.
Jinnah looked up at him with tears building in her eyes. “You have to go again, don’t you?”
He nodded somberly. “Yeah, everything is probably a mess back at the conference and I need to take charge and give them some direction or things are just gonna get worse.”
Song-Yi gave him a shaky smile and tentatively punched his arm. “You better come back soon. You can’t just show up ice cold and all corpsy without giving us a better explanation than ‘hurt real bad’.”
He gave her a slight chuckle and nodded. “Fair enough, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With that he pat Jinnah on the head (making her scowl and pout at him), and walked into the nearest shadow and emerged from Jin-Chul’s in their hotel room. It was a minor enough change, but he seemed to have gone from switching with his shadow creatures to being able to exit any shadow they were stationed or that he was already familiar with.
He was worried that Jin-Chul would be panicked or afraid like his girls were, but was pleasantly surprised to see his boyfriend sitting in an armchair waiting for him while drinking a glass of wine and Princess laid across his feet. At his arrival Princess jumped up and ran over so she could sniff/lick him like the good dog she was.
His joy at seeing his partner was undercut slightly by the stern look in his eye. “I’m very cross with you.”
That was admittedly not the response he was expecting after getting back from a harrowing battle. “Oh, uh, I’m sorry? Also, I’m not sure what I did?”
Jin-Chul looked down at Princess who just tilted her head in confusion, “Can you believe this? He doesn’t know what he did?” He looked back up at Jin-Woo. “I discovered something was wrong relatively quickly because Princess started panicking and refused to calm down. Luckily, I was able to catch up with the American Hunter’s Director and piece things together. He gave you alarming news about your father. You then proceeded to leave without telling anyone or bringing even the slightest backup against an enemy that was almost certainly tailor made to defeat you. So I was left behind to run around like a headless chicken as we all tried to find out what the fuck was happening.
“Even once we figured out where you were, the most information we could find was a video someone had taken in the battle. Then, in the time it took me to find more up to date information you somehow manage to get into a fight with not one but two Denizens, who I’m assuming were monarchs. So I got to stand in the middle of panicking world leaders trying to get live footage when Princess started to dissolve in front of me. And it seems I was correct in my assumption that you’d died?” Jin-Woo gave a tentative nod in response. “We both knew that resurrection was on the table, but that does not mean you should test it! Leaving me to only know you’re safe when she reformed and calmed down. Which leads to me spending the last half an hour waiting for you to come back now that you’re not dead.”
Jin-Woo was a bit dumbfounded and just stared at his partner. There were very few times, if ever, that Jin-Chul had gotten upset like this. He could admit that he’d been reckless and had left his lover in the dark when he really shouldn’t have. “I’m- I’m sorry I worried you so much. I-”
Jin-Chul’s shaking hands placed the wine glass down with enough force to unintentionally send cracks throughout the glass. “Oh, this is well beyond worried. Was I, and am I, terrified at the thought of you dying where I can’t be there to save you? Of course. But that doesn’t matter. Because it’s not about me, and it’s barely about you. I almost lost you today, but more importantly, this planet almost lost its only chance at survival. If you died, what would come next? Do you really believe we’d be able to choose a new leader before we’re attacked? And even if we did, who could possibly measure up in terms of both the knowledge and strength needed to stand up to the Monarchs and Rulers? You are the Commander of Earth. You can’t just run off to the front lines the moment things are bad. If something needs to be done, then send someone, and if you truly are needed, bring a truly excessive amount of backup so that nothing like this ever happens again. And before you even try to say something about being the strongest, look me in the eyes and tell me the fight wouldn’t have gone better if you’d had Thomas Andre and a handful of the other Nation Ranked.”
Jin-Woo looked down in shame. He really hadn’t thought of it from that angle. To be honest, he hadn’t thought about it much at all, he’d just thought his family was in danger and went running. However, he couldn’t deny that the fight would have been easier if it had started with Andre dropping a black hole on Sillad. Part of him wanted to push back, deny the idea of bringing others with him; even if he’d only brought Nation Ranked hunters, they would have lost people. But that was the job, wasn’t it? To make hard calls that were better for the planet even if his orders got them killed.
“I’m sorry, I can’t say I like it… But I get it.”
He was still looking off to the side when he felt arms wrap around him and a gentle kiss to his lips. Jin-Chul’s words coming out as barely a whisper “Thank you. I love you so much. Thank you for coming back to me.” He looked into his boyfriend’s eyes. “Now, I’d like nothing more than to just hold you and help you unpack everything you dealt with and give you time to recover. But everyone who’s vaguely important is deeply concerned right now and you need to talk to them and give them direction.”
“I know I do, but how? I have no idea what I’m doing, as you just made very clear.”
“Stop with that. Am I furious that you were impulsive? Yes. However, that doesn’t change that I trust you. So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to go take a nice warm bath and get all the dirt and blood off of you. Then I’m going to send up someone to do your outfit and makeup, that way people will focus on you being strong and inspiring rather than undead. After that you’re going to give a brief speech on who you are, your new job, the attack that happened, and finally some words on unity. Yes, I’ll put together the general talking points and get everything set up.”
He felt more than a bit overwhelmed but felt a lot more sure knowing his partner would be at his side. Jin-Woo gave him a quick kiss and touched their foreheads together. “Thank you for being amazing. I don’t think I could manage any of this without you.”
He got a light chuckle in response. “I’m well aware. I wasn’t kidding about that bath though, you smell terrible.”