fifty-two

When Jisung arrived back home, he decided to use the quietness to practice his magic since he was very interested to learn it. He ended up sitting on his bed, staring at his palm with furious intensity, wanting the magic to come to life.

Scrunching his nose, he glared and glared, but nothing happened. Releasing the magic suddenly felt harder now that he didn't have any assistance. At one point, he became so frustrated that he just wanted to give up, but he didn't want to rely on Jeongin's help all the time...

He gnawed at his lower lip, getting lost in his thoughts. If he remembered it correctly, calmness was the key for his magic to appear, so he should try to concentrate. While he was sitting on the bed, Mochi snuck into the room and jumped up to lie next to him.

The small demon seemed to sense what Jisung was trying to do, tilting its head as it waited for something to happen. Jisung smiled at the cute sight and relaxed his body, calming his thoughts to focus on the flow of the magic within him.

He closed his eyes and stopped trying to force it, instead feeling its familiar warmth as it coursed through his body. Now that Felix wasn't here to suppress it anymore, its flow felt stronger than usual, like a river that was only waiting to turn into a whirlpool.

Curiously opening his eyes, he saw a glowing orb floating in front of him. It gleamed beautifully, and he found himself getting hypnotized by its otherworldly shimmer. It was warm and made him feel fuzzy inside.

Then, tiny stars shot from his fingers, and Mochi watched them with wide eyes. The cat soon jumped after them and attempted to catch them in its paws. Jisung smiled while he observed the mischievous demon and let even more orbs appear around it.

"Do you want another one to play with?" He grinned. Tiny spheres of light floated through the air, and the cat couldn't get enough of hunting them down. He soon lost track of time, playing with the demon for longer than he should have.

A strange burning manifested in his fingertips, and whenever he tried to calm the magic in him, it intensified. At first, he didn't notice, but when his hands got shakier and his fingers began to tremble, he looked at them in shock.

"Did I... overdo it?" He uttered, eyes widening when the burning began to spread, moving up his arms, reaching his chest. He took a deep breath, and then another and another. The ache intensified further, and now he began to panic.

"Damn it, stop!" He hissed, clutching his shirt right where his heart was. It was pounding harder, the strain of controlling the magic was too much for him. He had to turn off the flow of the magic somehow, but it was like a wild river, impossible to stop.

Panic grew within him as he stared at his hands that radiated blinding white light. Why did it always go out of control? It was supposed to be a part of him, not turning against him. He gritted his teeth, trying to get himself together.

The pain was overwhelming him so much that his senses began to fail him. He hardly heard Mochi's frantic meows, didn't even feel its paws rub his thigh. There was only one thought within his mind: He had to get the pain to stop.

The magic was ripping him apart - he needed to do something if he didn't want to die. However, his emotions were playing against him. The more nervous and scared he became, the more untamed his magic became.

Whatever he did, it wasn't enough to stop the raw force he was dealing with. Sitting on his knees, he hunched with pain, curling himself into a ball. The magic was draining him to a point where he almost lost consciousness.

His body glowed brighter until he only saw white. "This... can't be it," he breathed tiredly. "Come on, calm down. You can't... die yet..."

"Jisung!" A voice screamed at him from somewhere in the distance. It was familiar, but his hazy mind couldn't remember where he had heard it before. The loudness of his heartbeat easily drowned the voice out, snuffling the sound.

And before he could even lift his head up to look at who the other person was, he collapsed, giving in to the strong force which was slowly killing him.

To be continued...

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