Beginning Beyond The Horizon

When Yul reached Hajime, Abrafo, and Michio, the ground above and below began to shake more violently, and debris began to fall.

Yul looked to the left, right and behind and found more and more goblins gathering together. He knew in his heart that the only person who could lead them through the River of Sorrow was Hajime, so Yul grabbed Hajime's shoulders and said, "No matter what happens, don't look back, you must move forward. Your mission is to bring whoever is still alive back to Tanzang."

Hajime lips trembled, "Yul..."

Yul looked at Hajime and asked firmly, "Do you understand?"

Hajime nodded. "I understand," he said sadly.

Yul kissed Hajime's forehead and whispered, "Christmas..." He broke away from Hajime. "Now, let's go." He pushed forward.

Hajime looked at Yul, turned around and walked away wiping his tears. At that time, Yul and he were new acquaintances, so he randomly made up the meaning of Christmas to fool Yul. Until now, when Yul said this to him, he had forgotten it. In his universe, the word Christmas means nothing to him, but here, the word Christmas means "I love you more than any words can express." As he wiped his tears and continued walking, he found that heaven was pretty kind to him. Even in his universe, no one cares about his life or death, but here, there are people who are willing to risk their lives to protect his.

Abrafo and Michio looked at Yul, and they could tell from the way Yul looked at them that this was their last standoff. The time has come, they must protect Hajime at all costs, even giving up their own lives. Abrafo and Michio smiled and nodded at Yul, then turned to face the thousands of goblins standing in front of them.

The goblins know they have cornered the humans, so they are in no rush to kill them. They decided to slowly kill the humans to avenge their dead brothers and sisters.

Yul said, "May heaven be on our side, just this once, and let Hajime take them out and save Tangzang."

Abrafo smiled and said, "Well, everyone... it has been quite an interesting journey." Abrafo looked at Michio. "Let's see who kills the most goblins."

Michio gripped his three-section staff tightly and said, "Whoever kills the most must treat the winner to a meal of his choice."

Abrafo laughed and his laughter echoed. He said with a smiled, "Deal."

Yul looked at Michio and Abrafo and said, "Burn them."

Michio sighed and murmured, "Heaven forgive me." He took out the last fire talisman, threw the three-sections staff on top of his right foot, clasped his hands together, and the talisman suddenly turned into ten fire arrays and rotated in different directions. The fire arrays spinning forward burning the goblins that stood in front of them.

Abrafo swung his sword to the left, killing three goblins, and continued to push the charging goblins. He shouted, "Three."

Michio thrust the three-section staff, piercing the abdomens of the three goblins. He pushed the three-section staff through the goblins' abdomens, jumped over the goblins, grabbed his three-sections staff and swung his three section-staff, knocking two goblins to the ground.

"Five," Michio said, knocking two goblins down.

Abrafo's body suddenly turned forward, and he slashed at the two fallen goblins with his sword, cutting their throats.

Abrafo chuckled, "Eight."

Michio screamed, "Arrg... that's cheating. You stole my kill." 

After Yul killed the last goblin, his right hand was shaking badly. When he heard something coming toward him, he looked to his left to see what Abrafo and Michio were doing. He looked and believed he saw an ox charging toward him. As he crossed his arms over his chest, when the creature's head struck him, causing him to fall backwards several yards and fall to the ground. He stood up quickly and stared at the seven-foot-tall, two-horned demonic creature with long black nails.

Yul quickly stood up as the red demon lunged at him with its long black claws. Yul blocked the demon's black claws with his sword. He pulled out the dagger from the scabbard at his side, dodged sideways, and landed on the ground. He swung the dagger towards the back of the red demon's left calf, stood up quickly, and cut off the red demon's tail. He quickly turned around, jumped forward, and slashed the red demon's neck with his sword.

Yul watched the red demon's head slowly fall to the ground. He looked towards the corridor on the right and found that there were more red demons coming towards him.

Yul yelled, "Abrafo! Michio! Let's go!"

"Go Michio," Abrafo shouted, swinging his sword forward. A wave of fire went straight towards the goblins, and Abrafo quickly chased Michio. As Abrafo ran down the corridor on the right, he was frightened by the sight heading towards them. "Hurry, something bigger than those goblins is chasing us."

When Hajime catches up with U-ri and Bong, they now face a more difficult situation. In front of them stood two stone doors and a floating key. U-ri walked to the two stone doors and looked at the ancient words carved on them.

"What does it say?" Hajime asked.

U-ri said, "The door on the right says: return to the beginning."

Bong asked, "The one on the left?"

U-ri said, "Return to the front."

Hajime said, "Return to the front? Does this mean returning to the front of the door?"

U-ri said, "Maybe it is, maybe it's not."

Bong stepped forward and said, "We're going back to the front door." He reached out and was about to grab the key but was stopped by Hajime and U-ri. Bong looked at the two of them. "Why are you two stopping me?"

U-ri said, "Think carefully, returning to the front. Who knows if returning to the front mean we are returning to the inside of the front door or outside of the front door. If we go back to the inside of the front door, we will face those thousands of goblins again."

Hajime looked at U-ri and said, "Return to the beginning could also mean returning from when we enter No Man's Land."

"Hajime!" Yul shouted, running towards Hajime with Abrafo and Michio. He stared at the two doors and the two other corridors to the left and right.

Hajime said, "There are two doors, one said return to the front and the other is return to the beginning. The other option is to run to the corridor on the left or right."

Yul said, "We can't keep running. Soon Eldrys will catch up with us, and now we're being chased not only by goblins, but also by demonic creatures."

U-ri said, "Let's vote quickly. Which door?"

Bong said, "I choose to go back to the front." He looked at Abrafo.

Abrafo said, "Well, I guess I have to go with Bong, but Hajime is our mage." He looked at Hajime. "You pick. Whichever door you pick, we will go with that one."

Michio said, "That's right... we wouldn't have gotten this far without you. If both doors lead us back to the front of the door, we'll have to fight our way out again."

Yul turned around quickly and knocked away a trident. A red demon flew out of the dark corridor at the Tanzanies and Bong.

"No, you ugly thing," Abrafo said, firing a dart at the red demon.

Abrafo's dart hit the red demon's left eye, and the red demon screamed in pain and rolled on the ground. Yul rushed forward, grabbed the red demon's trident, and stabbed the red demon's trident into the red demon's chest, pushing him away from the crowd.

Seeing that the situation was getting worse, Hajime grabbed the key and inserted it into the keyhole of the right door. The stone gate suddenly turned into sand, and a hot wave of heat rushed through the long bright tunnel. Hajime grabbed U-ri's hand, and they ran forward together.

Michio soon followed Hajime and U-ri into the tunnel.

"What are you still standing here for?" Abrafo said, grabbing Bong's hand and running forward. He turned around. "Yul! Come on!"

Yul let go of the trident and quickly chased the others into the unknow tunnel.

When Hajime and U-ri, who were walking in front of everyone, approached the opening, they felt a warm wave of heat rush into their bodies, and then they ran from the entrance of the tunnel into the desert. Hajime turned to see where the others were, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Abrafo, Bong and Yul running towards the exit.

"Hajime..." U-ri said, looking around at the familiar surroundings. "We are..." 

Hajime turned around and turned his head from side to side. "This is...this is..." Hajime chuckled. "U-ri..." Hajime shouted happily.

U-ri smiled at Hajime, "We're home." He hugged Hajime. "We're back home."

"What the hack?" Abrafo frowned. "Why can't it be the other side of the damn river?"

Yul walked forward quickly and said, "You should be glad that we are not in front of the gate of No Man's Land. Hajime take us across the river."

"Whatever you need to do, you have to do it now. We're not the only ones walking out of that door," Bong said.

The Tanzanies looked back to see the red demonic creatures and goblins already beginning to rush through the open gateway.

Hajime took out the white dragon scales and threw the white dragon scale into the River of Sorrow. The white oracle boat appeared, and Hajime climbed onto the coracle boat. Abrafo helped U-ri and Bong on the boat, then he stretched out his hand and pulled Yul.

The Tanzanies and Bong turned to looked at the open gateway and heard a loud stamping sound coming from inside the gateway. They saw Eldrys rushing out of the open gateway. The two-winged dragon roared loudly at the open sky.

Yul grabbed the white dragon tail out of U-ri's hand, jumped off the boat, and pushed the boat away from the shore with his right foot.

"Yul!" U-ri said. "What are you doing?"

Yul said, "Abrafo, you protect them." He looked at Hajime and smile. "Summon your eagle. I need him to take me to Eldrys."

Hajime pushed the others out of his way and looked at Yul. "It's my job to kill Eldrys," Hajime said firmly.

Yul smiled and said, "Your job is to ensure that everyone safely crosses the River of Sorrow to the other side. Once Eldrys is dead, the eagle will bring the white dragon tail back to you." He stood on the riverbank, watching the white coracle boat drift away slowly. "Summon your eagle."

"Yul..." Hajime murmured as tears wetted his eyes.

"Summon your eagle," Yul said. 

Hajime closed his eyes, rushed past Yul, took the white dragon tails from Yul's hand, and stood behind Yul. Yul quickly turned around and found Hajime already standing in front of him, holding the white dragon tail in his hand and smiling.

"Hajime... what are you doing?" Yul murmured.

Hajime smiled with tears in his eyes and said, "Only I can kill Eldrys and destroy the black hole."