Warning: Contains mentions of violence and blood.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Enter the Crown Prince of Yang."

Right, the Crown Prince of Yang. Taehyung's coronation had been a grand ceremony, one which he was certainly not interested in, especially since it was just three years after his mother's death.

However, duty called, and as the King's only son and next in line for the throne, he had to be crowned as the heir as soon as could be done. Hence, the coronation. Hence, the title, and hence, the authority and power—something that scared the blond beyond his wit's end.

The Prince strode through the open doors, grace and power radiating immensely with every step he took. His robe flowed around him mysteriously, with unknown power and grandiose, successful in establishing his dominance over the entirety of the court. Everyone present in the room got onto their feet and tipped their heads as a greeting to the young Prince, who spared them only a short glance, continuing swiftly towards the thrones.

His eyes fell upon the lean figure of a lady standing beside the thrones, whose ever-as-sharp, light purple eyes stared at him, twinkling with several emotions, making him tear up a little.

She was wearing a pretty red gown, the color of her kingdom, one that fit her perfectly and made her look like the Queen that she was. Her silver hair had been put up in an elegant and intricate bun, with a few loose strands, a style that suited her almost too perfectly. The tiara atop her hair was as beautiful as ever, the rubies still burning with the same fire as they had for all the years that have gone by.

Taehyung simply continued walking towards her, until he was wrapped in her embrace.

Even though he was taller than the absolutely gorgeous lady, it did not stop him from laying his head on her shoulder, breathing in her sweet, motherly scent. They stayed like that for awhile, and it made the Prince realise how much he had missed her.

Ever since his mother's death there had been this void in his heart, cold and ruthless, unrelenting, and it made him feel dead from inside. It was only the love from people like Jihyo, Yeonha, Jisung and of course his own father, that he had been able to take a leap past the void—into light again.

Standing upright once again, Taehyung said with an almost sad smile, his deep voice even deeper with overflowing emotions,
"How've you been eomma? Been awhile, hasn't it?"

Queen Jihyo didn't reply for a moment, just scanning the face of the Prince as if familiarising herself with his features, smile dimming a little, and eyes saddening as she took in his almost blank face, and emotionless eyes.

And though she knew the blond wasn't really emotionless, it hurt her to see him caging himself. She desperately yearned to go back all those years, just so things could go back to how they had been. Afterall, who didn't? However, such notions held no meaning or value, and thus, she regarded them to be simply useless and shook them off.

"I've been fine, my angel. I'm sorry for not visiting more, I've been really busy.", she replied, sighing a little. "Forget that, look at how handsome you look, darling! Who are you trying to woo, huh?", the Queen continued, looking at Taehyung with a lopsided smirk, and was glad to see the dark blush that crossed his face.

Taehyung looked away, away from the teasing eyes and taunting smile, shyness and embarrassment painting his features.

"No one! Of course not. Don't ask things like that out of nowhere.", he whined recovering from the sudden embarrassment.

Chuckling heartily, the Queen replied, "Alright, alright, you know I was just teasing you, sweetheart."

The rest of the court watched their love-filled interaction with happiness and awe, however, there was also a tinge of nostalgia, sadness and relief in their features—

Nostalgia for the bittersweet memories of a similar relationship between the rulers of the two kingdoms before the demise of Queen Yeri and King Hyunwoo; sadness, for the loss faced by the kingdoms and of course, the Royal Families after the attack, and relief, because they were once again able to witness their once bubbly Prince let his concealed emotions out, even if wasn't nearly as much as it used to be, as was to be expected.

The doors to the throne room swung open once again, as the guard announced the arrival of King Daehyun, who paced through the pathway, as if he owned the Palace, which technically, he did. Daehyun kept walking at the same pace and power until he came upto his son and Queen Jihyo.

He slowed down a little and let the littlest of smiles grace his face.

Father and son greeted each other with a sweet, refreshing hug, while the two old friends reunited the same way they had every year at the ceremony—with the King bowing down to Queen Jihyo and kissing the back of her hand, to which she offered a small, sad smile.

The King and Queen talked a bit, discussing the happenings in the kingdoms, as the whole room awaited the arrival of the priest. This year, the head priest had asked the King to allow his apprentice to take his place at the ceremony, someone, who had not been introduced to anyone in the entire court, before now.

Surprisingly, the doors opened once more after mere minutes of wait, and in came the priest, as the guard announced his arrival.

Every step that the seemingly young man took, had the audience bedazzled, having never seen a priest this young, handsome and unbelievably charismatic. One could almost see his powers flaring out of his body, forming a spiritual halo around his figure.

The Prince observed that the priest seemed to be around Jisung's age, with messy silver hair, and sharp, and in a way, cruel, black eyes, perfect nose, pale skin and cherry lips.

He had on, the sacred attire of the highly revered clan of the priests—a simple white robe that flowed down to his toes, with golden decorations, and a belt that held it firmly and beautifully around his thin waist, accentuating it.

The priest also carried a staff almost as tall as he himself was, a staff believed to be made by the gods themselves and to be purely of gold. There were beautiful stones embedded into it, the top opening in to a disc, over which, the gold was carved into the shape of a huge droplet, also decorated with stones and jewels.

"Aren't you a bit too early, your holiness?", boomed the voice of the King of Yang, cutting through the dense silence like a knife through butter.

"Oh. Greetings to you too, my Lord, and would you prefer I come again later then?", came back the reply from the young priest, who looked at the King with a sly smile.

The whole courtroom that had gone terribly silent, breathed in a sigh of relief at the playful nature of the scary priest and then suddenly burst into their usual plethora of chatters and murmurs and chuckles. The King himself allowed a smile to flutter onto his face.

"Of course not.", said Queen Jihyo, "Besides the earlier we start, the faster we can finish and move onto the celebrations."

And so started the age-old ceremony under the guidance of a new and young priest, who called forth a bunch of servants, carrying the same sacred banner that had been used since the beginning of this ritual. He proceeded to wrap the cloth around the joint hands of the Queen of Yin and the King of Yang, muttering silent incantations all the while.

It had been quite awhile since the Queen of either kingdom took part in the ceremony directly.

Oh yes—being the progressive, rapidly-developing, open-minded territories that they were—both the rulers had always been treated equally, and every once in a while, when the Royal Family was blessed with a daughter, the citizens all celebrated their possible future Queen's arrival with grandiose, rather than being reproachful, believing in a meaningless taboo.

Taehyung had his eyes on the ongoing ceremony for a few minutes, and then let his eyes scan over the audience gathered in the room, watching the huge variety of people present, from different walks of life and contrasting positions in the social hierarchy.

However, they all had common grounds—being the loyal citizens of the kingdom of Yang.

The blond's eyes flitted over from the elegantly dressed noblemen standing along with their similarly dressed wives and children, to the Royal guards prancing around the room, vigilance decorating their faces as perfectly as the uniform that decorated their bodies.

He noticed the Supreme Commander looking at him with a smile, bowing his head lightly in greeting. Taehyung did not return the smile. Neither did he let his mask fall. So with his now well-known and extremely saddening blank face, the blond returned the greeting with a humble dip of his head and averted his eyes.

His blue-rimmed irises fell next, upon the cutely interacting couple that had recently taken a step further, from the stage of lovers to that of fiancés—Jisung and Yeonha.

Two of his most favorite people.

Jisung was casually leaning on Yeonha, one arm around her with his palm hovering just above her head, a lovesick grin plastered on his face, while the other was trying to shake him off, pouting and sulking.

Taehyung understood at once what it was about, and it automatically made a tiny smile spread across his face, as he thought about Jisung's teasing habit of reminding Yeonha about their supposedly humongous height difference by standing extremely close to her and measuring and comparing with his hand.

The blond decided to let the cute couple enjoy themselves without him watching them intensely.

So he let his eyes wander around again, settling upon a new target. And regretted it the very next second, for his eyes fell upon a group of pretty ladies—the noble's daughters to be exact, and as much as he wanted to yank his eyes away from them, he couldn't since they were already looking at him, expectantly.

He could hear their giggles haunting his mind and couldn't help but feel unnerved, even though they stood at the opposite side of the hall and wouldn't be able to cause him any harm—at least not physically.

Poor Taehyung had no choice but to look at their 'supposed to be seductive but actually looked quite repulsive' sort of sultry smiles directed at him, for a hot minute before he sharply turned away. Perhaps he wanted them to never even look at him again, much less, with those creepy smiles.

He wondered if he would have to marry one of these women in a few years, to maintain his power on the throne. The thought didn't sit well with him, maybe because he never had time to think about secondary aspects of his life, like marriage. Or maybe it was because he believed he would, perhaps someday, find true love and happiness, much like what his parents had. And who's to say? Maybe, he really would.

It took a while for Taehyung to realise he had spaced out, and the first thing he noticed as soon as he was conscious again, was a sly smile sent his way. He frowned, looking up, and into the soulless eyes of the new priest, the latter keeping eye contact for a moment before dropping his eyes, resuming his duties.

"....May the Gods be with you and your lands for eternity, and may the empires be blessed to carry on the cordial and heart-warming relationship it has now, for all the generations to come.", prayed the priest, his rich voice resonating in the room and in the hearts and minds of the onlookers.

"Or perhaps it's time we find new Gods for ourselves, huh? Since, there does not seem to be one that actually exists at this moment!" The sudden remark, and the snarl that accompanied it, involuntarily coaxed gasps and murmurs from the crowd, many wondering if it was a slip of the tongue or perhaps just wrongly worded, waiting for an explanation.

"What is that supposed to mean?", demanded the King, his voice almost causing the knees of everyone in the room to buckle, and fall at their King's feet.

"It simply means, O great King, that I am challenging your throne."

The message hadn't even completely sunk in yet, before dozens of arrows flew in, shattering the glass of the large windows.

It seemed as though history was repeating itself, as the court shifted to a state of panic, everyone trying to push their way out of the warzone. Taehyung's eyes scanned the place, trying to pinpoint the source of the rain of arrows showering upon them, and he didn't have to look for long as the attackers made their way into the empty gallery.

Grey bodysuits. Shredded scarves. Eerie masks. Dangerous-looking weapons. The very group responsible for the murder of his beloved mother and the King of Yin.

The blond's eyes flared—in rage and destructive sadness. He would kill them all. He would avenge his mother's death.

He could see his father and Queen Jihyo trying to protect themselves, backs against each other's, looking out for attacks from anywhere.

He looked at his hands, watching, as they began glowing an icy blue just like his eyes, and raised his right palm experimentally.

One of the trained assassins seemed to notice his development, and wasted no time in charging at him with full force, sword glinting maliciously. He remained in his place, calm, calculating, and with a simple flick of his wrist he let his powers flow, smooth and powerful, creating a few shards of ice that zapped through the air speedily—piercing right through his opponent's chest.

The assassin never stood a chance, and this very thought seemed to reflect in his eyes as they closed slowly, and he fell onto the floor, dead.

All eyes turned to look at him, their fights momentarily forgotten, hands frozen midair, either in attack or defence, and a twisted, evil sense of pride flowed through him.

He had killed one of the people responsible for his mother's death, and although, the fact, that he didn't feel even a single drop of remorse after having killed another person, scared him, it also brought an odd sense of satisfaction alongside—a feeling that made him feel powerful for the first time.

'One down, eleven to go.', he thought, letting a smirk slip into his face.

Three of the assassins recovered from the shock and instantly broke away from their fights, running towards the blond, twirling their weapons.

'Shit!', thought Taehyung, 'If only I had brought my bow and arrow with me.'

'You dummy! Just mould your stupid powers into one!', shrieked Vera into his head.

Taehyung did think of correcting her, because, she did technically, call herself stupid, but shook that thought away as soon as it entered his head, for the three were closing up on him. Closing his eyes, and scrunching up his eyebrows in concentration, he let his powers out, carefully moulding it into a particularly intricate bow, and a quiver full of bows that slung itself on his back.

'You didn't have to design it so well!', complained Vera, but the Prince knew only too well that he had skillfully managed to impress her along with everyone else present in the Hall.

Taehyung, despite the grave circumstances, gracefully pulled out a glowing blue arrow made from ice crystals from his quiver and slotted it onto his bow, two fingers pulling the bowstring to the maximum. He aimed carefully and let the arrow whiz from beside the temple of his head towards the leftmost attacker.

Said attacker dodged the arrow with ease, but that was only what the Prince had expected of him.

Coyly, he pulled at the invisible string of his powers, turning the arrow midair and creating it's copies.

So, before anyone could assess the incoming danger, a shower of arrows rained upon the three from behind. One of them was wounded in several places unable to move, the second, dead, with an arrow right in the centre of his forehead, and the last, on the ground alive, but with an arrow piercing his thigh and another crushing his ankle.

"You coward!", he screamed, "To think someone like you would attack from the back. Pathetic coward."

'He's just trying to rile you up, Tae. Don't listen.', said Vera.

'I wasn't planning to, don't worry. Oh and, four down, eight to go'

"Coward?", the blond replied calmly, " That's really rich coming from you."

All around him was chaos. Bodies dancing around each other, cruelly, swords connecting, blood splattering, colouring everything gruesomely.

No one seemed to notice, but there was a steady haul of arrows coming in through the shattered windows—meaning there were more groups of enemies waiting outside. As if just to prove him right, a few dozen more attackers entered the courtroom, dressed all in black, and began killing anyone nearby.

Five of the grey-suited assassins, charged towards the blond, and he realised using the bow and arrow for close-ranged combat, against trained killers, would be an act of stupidity, and definitely result in his defeat—possibly even death.

A simple closing of his eyes and a mere command in his mind, dissolved the beautiful bow and arrow into a flare of blue until it disappeared completely.

He opened his eyes, irises glowing—figuratively and literally—and in the blink of an eye, lunged for a medium-sized dagger that was lying on the floor a few paces away from him.

He raised it right in front of his face and defended himself against the chains hurled his way—a weapon used by one of the assassins. His defence wasn't all perfect though, considering the very limited time he'd had to brace himself, and the chain deflected from the blade towards his right gashing his cheek, a few drops of his blood tinting the floor.

Taehyung recovered quickly from the minute blow, taking up a defensive stance, right hand clutching the dagger hovering in front of his face, and left outstretched towards his side, glowing with his powers of ice.

The first attacker pounced at him, sword clashing against his dagger, and he couldn't but think how absolutely foolish the other's attack was. The blond rapidly raised his left hand onto the temple of the attacker's head and sent a surge of power through his palm, watching as his opponent dropped to the floor.

He didn't have much time to look around his surroundings before two more of the assassins leapt at him, fiercely punching and kicking him, managing to make him fall, using the ground to their advantage. One particular sharp kick to his head had him reeling, eyes unfocusing, body draining.

When he was almost at the brink of losing consciousness, and fighting to keep his eyes open, he felt the two getting dragged away from him and a figure kneeling down next to him, saying God-knows-what.

"Tae...hyung.... Taehyung!" All of a sudden his eyes became clear and his head stopped feeling like it had been chopped in half, the loud din in his mind and ears, lowering.

'Vera!' He tried to call the fox, but instantly understood what had happened, when he received no reply.
'Shit! She took all the damage for me.'

The Prince sat up, watching Jisung battle against one of the grey-suited men, his golden katana dexterously cutting through air, obviously at an advantage at that moment. By his side sat Yeonha, checking him for any harsh injuries, and on the floor away from her, lay the two assailants that had managed to overpower him.

'Damn, hyung, you've become stronger too. But, I won't let you beat me.', he smiled, thinking of the way they always bickered and fought to decide who was stronger among the two.

Jisung's katana sliced through the chest of his opponent, as Taehyung stood up, ready to continue fighting despite Yeonha's reprimands. He moved forwards until he was shoulder to shoulder with his teacher.

"Not bad at all, hyung.", he teased, eyes twinkling.

"Oh shut up. I did much better than you ever will.", huffed Jisung, a frown etched on his face, yet his eyes shone with relief, seeing the other standing back on his feet, and a glint of, perhaps, pride.

The four remaining assassins all ran at them together, two each on the teacher-student duo. Jisung just remained in his position, poised and calm, katana raised above his head, while Taehyung charged at the assailants, dagger glinting dangerously.

The two that came for Jisung didn't stand long, and no, it wasn't just because he was a great fighter, rather, because he had an amazing fiancé who just so happened to have found a metal rod lying at a corner.

Yes, Yeonha bashed the skulls of the attackers from behind, with the metal rod.

Yes, it was technically unfair, but from what angle would whatever was happening in the room, classify as a fair fight? So, Yeonha didn't see past the fact that her beloved fiancé was getting pounced upon by two skilled warriors, and jumped to helped him, without deeming the act wrong.

Taehyung, on the other hand, didn't have a crazy fiancé that used a metal rod as a lethal weapon. He did although, have crazier magical powers, and the craziest magical being as the one responsible for his powers.

'I'm...n-not crazy, you....nitwit.', says a tired voice in his head.

'Vera! Are you okay?'

'Mm, the...very best. I'm s-sorry you...can't use your p-powers because...of me.'

'It's okay, just relax. And watch me win without your help.', he smirks inwardly.

And so Taehyung rushed onwards, a plan formulating in his mind as he took in the positions of the two attackers and tried to predict their attacks. His speed had forever remained unmatched by even the most skilled members of the Royal Guard, and so, he used that as his advantage to slither swiftly across the floor, appearing directly behind one of the attackers, dagger at his neck.

He made eye contact with the other assassin, while gracefully slitting the throat of his comrade, quickly moving back to reassemble his thoughts and plans, letting the corpse fall onto the floor.

Apparently, he was successful in making the last of the grey-suited murderers become red with rage, and blindly attack him, forgetting his professional moves, only trying to kill the Prince, who only gleefully managed to dodge every one of his sloppy attacks.

A dagger to his heart, and Taehyung felt his own heart bloom with pride—pride for having successful avenged his beloved mother and his second father.

He turned on his heel, eyes instantly locking with evil black ones, their owner smirking widely at him. All of a sudden, the blond felt his body being gripped by someone, and he turned around, only to find no one standing behind him. He could hear voices echoing in the distance, his vision blurring. The Prince could feel himself losing control over his body, feel like he was floating in air, and drowning in water simultaneously, all the while watching the blurred figure of a silver-haired male smirking dangerously.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Imagining Taehyung's fighting scenes in this chapter seemed soo cool to me! :')
Also Jeongguk's gonna be here soon, yay!

^Taekook 💜

^Smile ;)

^Prince Taehyung :)

.......

Heyy, I'm back with another chapter, yay! I hope you like it, thank you for reading. Sorry for the mistakes!

Any thoughts on the story? Questions? Suggestions?

Goodbye! :)