Observe

Summary: Jee Han gets attacked (again).

The attack this time was mediocre.

The fact that this person (or these people) got exposed definitely shows signs of it being a mediocre attack. No one would possibly want to announce their entrance and allow their enemy to prepare for battle. This was almost going to be nothing compared to the last major kidnapping attempt, yet it would still be tedious and troublesome for Jee Han to handle.

One of his scouting clay cats had run back to him to notify him that his security perimeters in the Northwest direction have been breached, but some of the golems have already been dispatched to go handle the attackers. The security measures within a 100m of the house have also been reinforced, and more golems have been ordered to surround the reinforced area.

Jee Han pats the small cat on its head with a finger, sighing as he stood up from the sofa.

"Inventory." He quickly gears himself with his mana accessories and grabs his staff from the inventory, then casting his passive skills and activating the prepared runes and traps around his place with mana.

"Activate Tower Defense Mode." A small screen pops up in front of Jee Han, showing the enemy as a red dot on the map coming from the northwest, and his three golems heading in that direction. Only one? That's odd. The map often shows the number and type of enemies heading towards him, but one red dot indicated that there was only one unidentified being.

Jee Han quickly summons another six golems around the perimeter of his place on standby, and then reinforces them with a spell to increase INT and resistance.

"Gnome!" The elemental pops up beside Jee Han, eyes wide and looking at Jee Han expectantly.

"What do you want me to do, Jee Han?"

"How far is the enemy?"

"About 80m away. It feels like the enemy is commanding your golems."

What. The hell. Jee Han frowns. Being able to control golems is no mean feat, and that meant that the person he was going to face is definitely going to be skilful. Furthermore, this person was able to control his golems, not just create them and control their own. Was it on purpose that they broke in so that they could manipulate his defences? Damn, his enemy is sure as hell going to have even more tactics.

"Gnome, bury all the golems around the reinforced perimeter up to waist height and ensure that they cannot escape."

"On it!"

Gnome disappears in a flash. Jee Han then flies up into the air to scout for his enemy's position. Not far away, he can see the three golems he sent out moving back towards his place, lined up to form a circle, and in the centre of it all was a woman. Jee Han focuses on his golems in an attempt to gain control over them again.

"Soul. Magic. Amplify. Possess. Control. Artificial soul re-possession!"

The balls of light merge together into glowing orbs, zooming down to target the golems. Jee Han can suddenly feel a connection between him and his golems again, but it was now a struggle to maintain full control over them, like there was something stronger pushing his spell out of the golems and breaking the connection. He strengthens the spell by putting in more mana, but he suddenly loses connection with the golems, as if a wave crashed into him and washed away his connection spell.

Flinching from the disconnection, the woman suddenly turns her head abruptly to face Jee Han, her eyes flashing red. A red aura surrounds the woman, flaring up, and Jee Han can feel a rush of dark spirit energy penetrate the barriers around his fortress.

"Soul. Light. Magic. Amplify. Control. Magic energy control."

Light emanates from Jee Han's spell, revealing the dark energy that entered into the protected space. The rays slice through the dark energy, dispersing it then propelling the energy away, the light energy taking over the space.

The woman doesn't seem to be affected, only summoning even more of the dark spirit energy - as if she was pulling them from outside towards her. Jee Han takes the offensive, casting a net made of mana ropes to capture the golems, at the same time casting for a mana spiral bomb.

Before he could react, the golems suddenly disintegrate into pieces of rock, levitating and spinning around the woman, then hurling at Jee Han at a high speed. They break through the net, the magic disintegrating and the rocks charging towards Jee Han.

"Endless spinning mana arrows!"

The burst of arrows manage to break the rocks into smaller pieces, deflecting them back to the woman, but she holds her front, the golem pieces now floating in mid-air between Jee Han and her as both sides continue with their casting.

"Dual cast, spiral energy bolt, binding magic net!" The mana around him morphs into a golden net and gathers the rocks around while Jee Han holds out the spiral of mana in front of him, the ball of mana in front of him expanding as it absorbs the mana from its surroundings. It crackles and glows before Jee Han releases the bolt, crashing into the rocks with a bang as they shatter and fall.

The woman seems unfazed, and the golems reassemble themselves, their shapes reemerging from the earth and the shattered chunks of enchanted rock.

"Jee Han, I have completed your task, is there anything else I can do?"

"Thanks Gnome. Just make sure none of them escapes," Jee Han orders, gaze focused on the woman.

"Observe."

Name: Puppet Queen
Title: Animator
Job: Contract-bound talisman
Sex: N/A

LVL N/A Next Level: N/A
Age: N/A Race: Spirit
Attributes: Animation, Spirit Link, Control over Dark Spirit Energy

STR: N/A
AGI: N/A
VIT: N/A
INT: N/A
WIS: N/A
LUK: N/A

Status: Spiritbound

History: An ancient spirit that controls inanimate objects, can be controlled by creating a spirit-bound contract with its master using blood as a medium to activate the talisman. However, this contract often erodes a person's spirit.

Emotions: N/A

What is this witchcraft? This is some high-level stuff.

Jee Han's mind starts to spin. How is he going to defeat this spirit that is bound to another person through a contract? This reminded him of the time which he battled the minions from the Church of Mask, except that this was one spirit. Not to forget, this spirit specialised in the animation of inanimate objects - which meant that anything without a living, unartifical soul would come under the control of the Puppet Queen.

There must be something he could do. The description mentioned about it being a spirit link to someone outside of this barrier, and that the Puppet Queen was definitely able to make use of dark spirit energy to animate the objects. In order to defeat this spirit, he would need to sever the spirit link between the master and the spirit, as well as remove the blood from the talisman that activated it so as to effectively cut off the connection by eliminating the medium.

But first, he needed to figure out how he could cut off the flow of dark energy to the Puppet Queen.

"Soul. Light. Magic. Amplify. Control. Magic energy control."

Jee Han wills the energy to spread out into a sheet and coat the insides of the barrier, creating an impermeable layer, cutting off the dark spirit energy that could enter the barrier from outside.

The red aura around Puppet Queen turns dark, and the dark energy instead now emanates from her, black tendrils of energy waving and stretching out around her. Jee Han suddenly feels like his clothes gained a mind of their own, tugging him down towards the ground.

"Magic energy control!" He imbues the magic into his clothes then sends out a new wave of light energy, repelling the dark energy away from him. He grows the spell, allowing it to fill up the space within the protected barrier and consume all the dark energy within.

The Puppet Queen does not falter. In a flash, she flies right in front of Jee Han, her dark energy concentrating to form a cocoon around Jee Han, suffocating him inside. Her eyes glow an eerie red before it becomes a black void, her red robes flapping around her as she continuously summons a crushing dark energy, wrapping around Jee Han.

Unable to breathe, Jee Han starts to feel lightheaded from the lack of oxygen, his mind beginning to wander and Jee Han starts to lose control over his own soul. The insistent efforts of the dark energy to enter and corrode his soul was starting to gain some ground as he let down his defences.

Is this how I will lose my soul?

"Focus, Jee Han. Focus your Ki into your magic to strengthen it."

The familiar voice calls out to Jee Han, and it pulls him back to the immediacy of the situation.

Jee Han does as imaginary Sun-Il tells him to, and the action intensifies the spell from within him, allowing Jee Han to break free. He continues with the intensification of his spell as he uses the energy around him to identify the source of the Puppet Queen's energy.

Right within the skull of the spirit was a Western talisman, an orb framed with gold engraved in a foreign language. The talisman was charged with the force of its master through the blood it held in the orb and was also the source which the dark energy came from.

That's right.

With a swoop of his hand, he pulls the talisman out of the body of the spirit, draining the blood from the talisman and destroying that blood with a quick mana power attack.

Everything suddenly falls silent. The body which the spirit inhabited sways - its eyes now just empty sockets - before it falls from the air, the body disintegrating into ash along with its descent.

Jee Han holds the talisman in his hands, about to observe it, but he feels his vision getting blurry, his mind becoming clouded.

"Yeon... Hon Recovery - "

Jee Han wakes up with a groan, and Sun-Il immediately shot out of his chair to move closer to Jee Han.

"Han Jee Han!" Sun Il-calls out, putting a hand on Jee Han's forehead and brushing the wild strands of hair back.

"Are you ok? There were parts of your spirit that were corroded, but we managed to undo the effects," Sun-Il explains. "I got a notice from one of the little cats that you fainted after a battle with a spirit. That's why you're here."

Jee Han furrows his brows in confusion and squints at Sun-Il. It doesn't seem like he had regained his focus. Doesn't help to confuse him with more information.

Sun-Il sighs. "Okok, I get that I'm rambling. I'll stop. Do you need anything?"

The boy shakes his head, closing his eyes slightly. It was a few seconds later that Jee Han opens his eyes, gaze much sharper and focused.

"How are you feeling?" Sun-Il asks, sitting down on the bed next to Jee Han.

"I'm fine. I only remember trying to heal myself but I blacked-out instead."

Sun-Il gazes at his friend sadly. This must have been another attack. He didn't know if it was because Jee Han was careless, or if it was because the spirit was too powerful for Jee Han to handle, but seeing his friend get hurt made him really sad.

As sad and as painful if he was the one that got hurt instead.

He didn't ever want Jee Han to know about the abyss, or become part of it. Sun-Il would have protected his friend from all this darkness and watch Jee Han continue to have fun with his games and go on and on about his most recent achievements in-game.

Now that Jee Han's life has instead become a game, one that was tangled with the abyss, Sun-Il felt the need to then protect his friend from all this. He felt bad that he was unable to do anything, and he really really didn't want to lose Jee Han at all.

Unable to hold himself back, he pulls Jee Han into an embrace, holding on to him, feeling Jee Han's heartbeat against his own. "Don't be stupid, Jee Han. Tell me if you need help ok?" He berates his friend softly, burrowing his face into the crook of Jee Han's neck.

Jee Han returns the hug, wrapping his arms around Sun-Il tightly. No words were exchanged, but there was an unspoken promise between the two of them. They would protect each other no matter what, or at whatever cost. It was too difficult, too precious to lose Jee Han - ever - and it was as if Jee Han also shared the same sentiments.

The silence stretches between them, as if there was something that both of them wanted to say but did not dare to. Something that they really wanted to tell the other but there were too many what ifs.

I love you.

Don't ever leave me, please.

A/N: btw my hand slipped and i wrote another one shot for just sun-il (still sun-il x jee han!) and i feel like would really need a beta reader for all these fics. interested betas pls pm me uwu