The End of Days
Fire burns everywhere. Rivers run dry. Trees wither. The earth hardens and cracks. The very life forces of Mountains, Sky, Water, and Underworld feed the fire. Together they are infused with all the colors of light, and a blinding white gi—full and wild—is born.
The goddess of Light stands in the midst of the fiery ruin with her arms spread wide. Her snow-white hair billows around her head as though she’s floating in water. Her eyes are closed, her expression serene, as though she is soaking in the warmth of the winter sun.
Suddenly, she opens her eyes, and white fire burns in them. Her face hardens even as tears stream down her pale cheeks. She clenches her fists and screams, a piercing sound of sorrow and defeat. White light bursts from her chest, wrenching her arms and legs apart in the shape of a star.
“Sunny,” the King Foretold yells as he runs toward her. “I’m here.”
“Is everyone gone?” Her voice echoes through the air as the fire lights up the night with an eerie white glow.
“Yes, we evacuated everyone to the Mortal Realm.”
“Good.” She closes her eyes once more, and the king sees a glimpse of the female he loves. “That’s good.”
“It’s only you and me here.” He struggles to swallow. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore. You won’t hurt anyone.”
“Are you no one?” She pins him with her blazing white eyes.
“I am your fated love.” He closes the gap between them. “Our love is destined by the heavens. If you die, I die. I am not no one. It’s only that you and I are one.”
The deafening silence stretches on until cold sweat slides down his back.
“No,” she whispers. “That’s not how it’s supposed to happen.”
“How what is supposed to happen?” the king asks.
“I can’t control the Cheon’gwang, Ethan.
” Her eyes shift to a warm brown, her despair plain for him to see.
“The prophecy of the End of Days . . . I am meant to be the End of Days, and you are supposed to be my salvation. I die, and you live. I die so everyone lives. That’s how it’s supposed to happen. ”
“I will never kill you.” A tear rolls down his cheek. “I love you more than life, Sunny.”
“If you love me, then you will never let me become the End of Days.” White fire consumes the brown of her eyes again.
“But there is no one left in this realm.” He spreads his hands. “You won’t be hurting anyone.”
“You don’t understand.” She breathes fire in her helpless fury. “I will not stop at destroying the Realm of Four Kingdoms. My powers will reach the Mortal Realm. Everyone will burn at my hands. You will burn.”
“I don’t care if I die as long as you live,” the king shouts.
“But I am an immortal goddess.” Her voice turns pleading. “You are asking me to kill you, and everyone else I love, and continue existing on my own in the ruins of my destruction. You are asking me to live with that unbearable pain. Alone.”
“Please, Sunny.” He sobs. “Please don’t ask me to do this.”
“Ethan, I don’t want to be alone again.” She falls to her knees, fire burning around her, within her. “You promised me that I would never be alone again.”
“Why does it have to be me?” He kneels in front of her. “Why, Sunny?”
She recites:
The true heart of the righteous shall
Shatter the light that reveals all paths.
“You are the righteous one. I know you are.” She cups his face in her burning hands. “You are meant to shatter the Yeoiju. That is the only way to stop this.”
“What heart?” He takes her hands from his face and presses them against his heart. “My true heart is not the one inside me. You are my beating heart. Sunny, you are my true heart.”
“I . . . am your true heart?” She blinks, her eyelids fluttering like butterfly wings. She opens her mouth to continue, but a scream emerges instead.
She crashes to the ground, and the skin of her arms and face undulates like a snake is swimming through her veins. She kicks her legs and claws at her throat as though she cannot breathe.
“Sunny.” The King Foretold frantically runs his hands over her body, not caring that his hands burn and blister. “What can I do? Tell me what to do.”
Her eyes roll back into her head as she convulses, and her prone body levitates off the ground. And no matter how hard he holds on, the goddess of Light is ripped from his arms and raised into the sky.
The King Foretold takes flight after her, but a force, more powerful than him, slams him back. Even so, he tries again and again until he plummets to the ground, his body too battered to move.
It’s okay, Ethan. I will come back to you.
The voice inside his head is warm and at peace. But the scream that rips from the goddess’s lips is pure agony, and her body trembles violently from head to toe.
“Sunny!”
It’s okay. She catches his eyes with her warm-brown gaze, blood dripping from one corner of her mouth. Don’t be afraid.
Then she raises her arms, and the Shin’gwangdo appears in her hands, the blade pointing down . . . at her.
“No, Sunny,” he pleads, struggling to get up only to collapse again. “Please. Don’t do this.”
The goddess of Light raises the sword high above her chest, then she plunges it deep into her heart.
“No!” the king cries.
Her back arches on a choked gasp, and tears leak out of her wide eyes, then . . . she goes still. One by one, her fingers slip from the hilt of the sword until her arms drop to hang past her sides.
The King Foretold bows his head, pounding his fist on the hard ground, and weeps soundlessly with grief that penetrates the depth of his bones, his soul. By the time the sun rises, he is spent and motionless. Then . . . a calm settles over him.
He will be with her again. He will soon become untethered from this life, with his fated love gone. Before long, his heart will give out, and he will follow her into the next life. He will not need to be alone for long.
“Good,” he murmurs as he closes his eyes for the last time. “I love you, Sunny. I’ll see you soon.”