Beginning Beyond The Horizon

Running back to the main entrance, Bong heard the footsteps of goblins behind him. Bong led U-ri who was holding the white dragon tail, running towards the door that Hajime had marked when they first entered No Man's Land. With Hajime's bright cross mark, Bong successfully guided U-rig back to Hajime's butterfly, but he couldn't see the door, or the big hole in the ground, but the glowing butterfly floating by a dead-end wall.

U-ri asked, "What's wrong?"

Bong turned and looked at U-ri with a pale face. "There's no door," he said breathing heavily.

"How is that possible?" U-ri pushed Bong aside and looked at their starting point. "Hajime... Hajime marked this." He pointed at the butterfly still floating in the air. "This is our starting point, there should be a door here."

Bong quickly touched the wall to see if there was a door behind it, but he found none. He turned to U-ri and said, "But there is no door." 

U-ri gritted his teeth, "This place is controlled by someone or something and we are not allowed to leave. Maybe we have been moved from our original location as soon as we entered the corridor."

"U-ri," Bong shouted, pulling U-ri toward the wall as he swung his dagger at the goblin flying towards U-ri.

U-ri looked to the right and saw many red eyes appearing quickly one after another. "Bong, to the right!" he shouted.

Bong and U-ri backed themselves slowly towards the wall.

Rushing toward the marked butterfly from the left are Yul, Hajime, Abrafo and Michio. Michio, who was walking in front of Yul, Hajime, and Abrafo, spotted the gathering goblins slowly surrounding Bong and U-ri. He quickly took out a red talisman and threw it to the gathering goblins. The talisman turned into a line of fire and burns the goblins.

Yul turned around and swung his sword, killing two goblins that rushed towards him. He shouted, "Why haven't you left yet?" He quickly rushed forward with Hajime and Abrafo.

Hajime tossed his bracelet forward to cover Bong and Michio. "What happened?" He asked.

"There is no door. There is a solid wall behind us," Bong shouted in frustration. 

Yul stared at the wall and said frustratedly, "This place won't let us leave easily. It intends to keep us here."

Hajime, Yul, Abrafo and Michio finally caught up with Bong and U-ri. Hajime quickly rushed to the wall he had marked, and found that his mark was still there, but the door was no longer there.

Hajime panicked and said, "How could this happen? My butterfly has never wronged me before. Something or someone must have touched my mark."

Yul looked at the goblins gathered together. the number of goblins is increasing every minute. "It's not your butterfly. This place won't let us leave. We must find another way out. If there is a way in, there must be a way out. We just need to find it."

Bong looked at the gathered goblins and said hopelessly, "How? We are surrounded by goblins. Once we step out of Hajime's bracelet, we will be torn apart."

Hajime madly hit the wall twice as tears wetted his eyes due to anger. "We were so close to bringing it back and save Tangzang Kingdom. I can't accept that when we are so close to completing our mission and end up dying here." He hit the wall again, but this time Yul grabbed Hajime's hand.

Although Yul knew that he had no chance of survival, he also knew that at such a moment, giving up hope was the last thing he wanted to do. Yul said, "It's not your fault. If we lived one more minute, there would still be hope for that minute. " He held Hajime's hand. "Although we cannot defeat fate at this moment, we can still defeat destiny." He looked at the five men. "I believe our destiny does not end here. We will never give up hope until our last breath. As long as we are breathing, we always have a chance of survival. Therefore, no matter what happens, we cannot give up. Especially now when our goal is within reach."

Abrafo clenched his sword and said, "Okay, let's fight until our last breath and see how many goblins I can kill before they kill me."

Bong looked at Abrafo and the others, he thought that Yul's little speech to boost their morale was not even necessary because they could not defeat all the goblins that grew bigger over time, but he knew that if the six of them combine their powers and become one, and some of them have a better chance of surviving. He sighed and said, "I don't accept dying here, so let's fight and see who has the last laugh."

Abrafo grabbed Bong's hand and kissed the back of Bong's hand. He said with a smile, "Well, at least I will die beside you, but before that we will try to live as long as possible." He put Bong's hand to his lips and kissed Bong's hand again.

Michio sighed, closed his eyes and prayed. After he finished praying. He grabbed his three-section staff and prepared for the final battle. Then he looked at the gathered goblins and saw the yellow monkey standing there staring at him from a distance. "Hey everyone, the yellow monkey is over there," he pointed to the other end of the corridor. He turned to look at his friends, and when he looked back at the monkey at the same spot where the monkey was standing, he saw Liling glowing face smiling at him. 

The Tanzanies and Bong looked at where Michio was pointing, and they saw Liling. She put her right hand on her left chest, smiled and bowed lightly to the Tanzanies. Thousands of rays of light began to escape from Liling's body, and the dazzling light stung their eyes. The Tanzanies and Bong quickly covered their eyes, and the goblins also covered their eyes.

By the time the Tanzanies and Bong are able to see, Liling had disappeared, but they saw a glowing child running toward the corridor to the right.

"Brother monk, this way," Ming's voice sounded. "Heh...heh... this way, quickly."

Michio said, "They... they are here to help us, so let's just follow them."

U-ri said, "Agree. We have no better option."

Bong looked at Michio and the others and asked, "Are you... sure? This may be an illusion created by this place for us to believe."

"But...Buddha taught us that if we do good deeds, our good deeds will repay us when we least expect it," Michio said.

Abrafo clenched his sword tightly and said, "Our current situation is no worse than now, so I chose the corridor led by the ghost boy."

Hajime nodded and said, "Abrafo is right. Any place is better than here."

Yul said, "Let's trust that Lady Liling will lead us out of here. She has helped me before."

Hajime asked, "When?"

Yul said, "When we fought Lan Huan."

U-ri said, "Alright, let's make a run for it then."

Yul said, "Abrafo and I will lead the way to the right. Michio and Hajime, you two protect U-ri, Meiji and the white dragon tail. Michio, you must keep a distance between us and those goblins." He Looked at Hajime. "Removing the protection of the bracelet, this is our last battle, so we must make every effort to bring the dragon tail back to save Tanzang."

Hajime took out the dagger from the sheath hanging on his waist. "U-ri, are you ready?"

U-ri tightened the belt around his waist to ensure that Meiji wouldn't fall while running. He looked at Hajime and then at Bong. He nodded and said, "I'm ready..." 

Hajime grabbed a handful of hair and cut it off. He stretched out his right hand, and a bracelet appeared on his right wrist, and then he threw his hair forward towards the goblins blocking their way. Hajime's hair quickly turned into spearheads and hit the goblins who were closer to them.

Yul and Abrafo set out to kill the goblins and try to create a safe path for U-ri. Hajime and Bong, who stood to the left and right of U-ri, led U-ri to follow Yul and Abrafo, and began to kill the goblins approaching U-ri. Michio, who was standing at the end of the team, knew that the goblins were afraid of fire, so he used fire talismans left and right trying to distance the goblins from him.

When Yul and Abrafo reached the corridor on the right and found no goblins ahead, they turned around and started killing more goblins, allowing Hajime, Bong, U-ri and Meiji to escape first. They continued fighting, making sure no goblins chased Hajime and them, until Michio reached them.

When Michio reached Yul and Abrafo, Michio quickly drawn a fire talisman using his chi energy and fired his magic fire talisman at the goblins. 

"Go!" Yul yelled, grabbing Michio's left arm and pushed him forward after Abrafo.

Yul looked back at the goblins. As he ran further and further away, the flames seemed to be still burning, but he knew that soon, the flames created by Michio would extinguish and the goblins would chase them even more fiercely. At the same time, he remained deeply worried about Eldrys.

Yul looked forward and found that everyone had stopped.

"Which way?" Bong asked, looking at Hajime and U-ri.

"Why did you stop?" Abrafo yelled from behind.

Hajime said, "There are three corridors here."

Abrafo stopped panting from behind. "Three? Well, just choose one?"

Bong looked at Abrafo and asked, "Which one?"

Abrafo looked at the three corridors. "Um...right...I mean left...how about going straight?"

"We turned right, and if we turned right again, we would probably go in a circle. If we went left, we would probably face the same fate," U-ri said.

Michio yelled, "Go straight!" He looked up and saw Ming waiving to him.

Abrafo said, "Straight it is." He looked at Bong. "You and I will lead."

Bong smiled at Abrafo. 

Hajime looked back and found that Yul was not far behind them. "Let's go U-ri," he shouted.

At this moment, a huge roar echoed through every corridor. The Tanzanies and Bong felt the ground beneath their feet shaking violently. Loud screams of different creatures began to echo everywhere.​

"Eldrys... Eldrys is awaken," Hajime said worriedly.

Yul said with a shaking voice, "Then this means that the door between our world and the demon world has been opened."

U-ri said, "If this is true, then we should leave quickly and close this door before they escape out of No Man's Land."

Bong said angrily, "This is what Lixin, and I've been warning you. This is what will happen once we remove the white dragon tail."

Michio looked to the right, then to the left, and saw shadowy figures rushing towards them. "Every goblin is coming from all directions," he said.

"Bong take U-ri away now!" Abrafo shouted, jumping to the right and started killing the goblins that were charging towards them.

Bong grabbed U-ri's hand and the two began to walk away, leaving the others behind.