#weeee!

Zoey and Mira decide to rip open the very barrier they were supposed to protect and strengthen alongside Rumi. They need to 'save' her from those demons. They know she's terrified of them, but according to them, she's in danger with those Saja Boys who took her.

The ripping of the Honmoon was very violent, alerting Celine. She confronts them, tells them that it's better to leave Rumi be for now. She's terrified and traumatised. Zoey and Mira argue that she won't get any better with those demons either. After a while of back and forth, Celine reluctantly agrees.

Knowing how stubborn and guilty the two are right now, they are prone to making bad decisions, which might hurt Rumi even more. She needs to be there to do what she couldn't before: protect her daughter, in case her mentees misread something or take the wrong decision.

She lets them go only on the sole condition that she goes with them. They agree, thinking it would be good to have an experienced and far stronger hunter with them since they're literally going into the demon realm.

Jumping in, the Honmoon closes between them. After what seemed like a few minutes of free fall, they touch down. The demon world was not dark, flames, and ashes, as they expected it to look like. Rather, it's clear skies, green fields, children with iridescent patterns running around chasing each other, demons with iridescent patterns helping each other out and planting saplings.

One of the many pack elders sees the hunters and greets them, slightly afraid. Mira and Zoey try to summon their weapons, only to find no response from the Honmoon. The elder explains that the Honmoon no longer hurts demons because they're free from vile intentions and Gwi-Ma's evil mark.

Mira asks for proof. How can they believe that he isn't a liar, like the demon he is? He says that if the iridescent patterns and clear skies are not proof enough, he's willing to take them to the pack that oversees their growth, well-being and development. The Saja Pack.

Mira is getting angrier by the second, seeing how calm he is being in front of hunters. Zoey feels anxious when he mentions the Saja Boys. Seeing this as an opportunity to find Rumi, Celine kindly requests that the elder take them to the Saja Pack in her most professional voice.

Mira turns to argue, but is silenced by Celine with just a look. Mira bites down on her tongue to hold in the vitriol she wants to spew at the demon. Zoey's fingers entwine with hers, calming both her anger and Zoey's anxiety down.

Walking towards what seemed to be a cosy house in a field of flowers, the hunters look at their surroundings in awe despite themselves. This 'demon realm' seems much better to have a life in than theirs. The elder explains on the way that Gwi-Ma was just another Jeoseung Saja. A guide for souls after their mortal death.

But he consumed one instead of guiding it to this realm and grew power hungry, taking more and more souls with the facade of guiding them, and soon became the demon king they all knew. The demon realm changed along with his growing power, becoming lifeless and constantly engulfed in flames and ashes. Other Jeoseung Saja tried to stop him, but were tortured in his flames. Many died in the rebellion they started against him. The surviving few pleaded to live, only given the chance to do so in exchange for eternal servitude. That is how it was for more than 400 years.

The Saja Pack and their Hunter packmate had done a blood ritual to forever erase Gwi-Ma's existence. Doing so had rid the demon world of his vile essence and the demons of his corruption. The demon world healed and returned to what it once was. A peaceful realm for souls to live in their afterlives until they decide to either be reborn or complete their cycle of rebirth and stay here.

Mira, Zoey and Celine (though she wouldn't show it) were listening very intently. None of this was mentioned even in the Hunters' oldest manuscripts and books. If what this demon is saying is indeed true, it would forever change the way Hunters fight. Before it was to kill anything with patterns because that being was Gwi-Ma's underling.

Now, though, seeing all the demons around them with iridescent patterns, they realise they'll have to change the Hunters' goal. Their thoughts come to an end when the elder tells them they've reached their destination. He knocks on the door three times, after which a familiar voice responds from the other side and asks him to come in.

It was Jinu's voice. Jinu? Jinu. Mira and Zoey are fuming with rage, blinding white-hot rage at hearing his voice. The very demon whom Rumi was supposedly working with, the one who betrayed her. Celine is barely able to tell them to calm down before the door is opened, revealing the Saja Boys in their half-demon forms.

Jinu and Mystery with their wolf ears and tail; Abby with his horns and hooves; Romance with his fox ears and tail, and Baby with whiskers and flippers for feet in a pool. Rumi is cuddled up to Abby, sleeping against his chest, ears flat on her head and tail wrapped around her ankle, holding Coco in her hands against her chest.

Abby picks her up and teleports away quickly before coming back empty-handed. Mira demands to know where Rumi is. Zoey threatens to slice them in half if they don't give Rumi back right this second. Celine, being the only calm person here, looks Jinu dead in the eyes and tells him they're here for Rumi.

Jinu responds sarcastically, asking them if they've come to finish Rumi off. That they've done enough damage to her well-being already, and can leave before they're thrown out of this realm. Mystery and Romance guard the hallway down which Rumi's room. Baby and Abby are growling at them, ready to protect their fellow omega.

The verbal fight escalates, jabs and words thrown from one team to another (minus Celine, she's more focused on Rumi). The soft thumps of feet cause everyone to go silent and look at the source. There stood Rumi. Hair in a loose braid, Coco in one arm, the cuff of her hoodie in her other hand, loosely rubbing the sleep away from her eyes. A bandage wrapped around her shoulder and calf.

....

A bandage wrapped around her shoulder and calf?

She looks up to see Celine, Zoey and Mira, her chest tightening immediately, her eyes blown wide in panic, her breath coming out in quick succession. Zoey and Mira move to comfort their leader, never having seen her so shaken. Rumi takes several steps back, falling back as her injured leg gives out, shaking visibly, causing the two to stop dead in their tracks.

Abby and Romance rush to her side, Abby pulling her against his chest while Romance blocks her view of them. They guide her to her room, staying there with her to calm her down.

Mira, Zoey and Celine are in shock. They've never seen Rumi so terrified other than when she'd come to the Hanok with Abby. Terrified of them. Jinu tells them, guilt dripping from every word, that this is his fault as well as theirs. Gwi-Ma had gotten to his head, which made him expose her in front of the whole world as the demon impersonating Zoey and Mira ripped her jacket off while singing Takedown to Rumi's face.

He thought that their bond was strong enough for them to not attack Rumi, to understand her. He spews vitriol at them, saying that she was right to not trust them with her secret, and so was Celine. They nearly killed her, left bone-deep burns on her, causing severe nerve damage as they attacked her. Had her fear not caused her to teleport away, she would've died. Hell, she even asked Celine to kill her.

Zoey and Mira's blood ran cold as soon as he said that. Celine hadn't mentioned it before because she herself couldn't speak about it. It scarred her. Celine had tears in her eyes, ones she refused to let fall. She had to stay strong, or everything would go to hell. Her tears were enough for Zoey and Mira to know that he was speaking the truth.

Zoey and Mira collapse on the floor, feeling bile rise up to their throats at the words that left him. Rumi thought she deserved to die because the first thing they did after seeing her patterns was tell her that they were never truly together, and then proceeded to attack her, nearly killing her in the process.

Just then, Romance appears from the hallway, telling Jinu that the panic attack exhausted her and she'd fallen asleep. Abby, Derpy and Sussy were with her in case things go south.

It breaks them even more. They were her soulmates. Her friends. How much damage had they done that the only ones who could comfort her were the very things they had been taught to kill? Demons? How badly had they traumatised her? Would she ever forgive them?

The Sajas feel sorry for the two, but they also feel satisfaction. Jinu sighs and summons one of the elders, telling him to show the Hunters their quarters.