The Gamer's POV

The short boy suddenly appeared a hundred meters away from the lord, clinging tightly to Roben and breathing heavily.

Since his ability allowed for him to jump to places he could see, he teleported again, appearing at another hundred meters away.

When he reappeared, the boy, Jesper, immediately dropped on all fours and began coughing. After which, he began puking onto the sand.

His eyes were clouded with terror, and the case was the same for Roben, who was frozen as he had just seen his life flash before his eyes.

"Th-they are all dead." The boy stammered as he finally pushed himself up, then turned to look at the direction they had jumped from.

After a few seconds, he turned to Roben, then asked, "Are you okay?"

It was only then that Roben snapped out of it and turned to him. "Huh? Th-uh... yes, thank you, thank you."

Roben then bent down and held his knees to steady himself. At that moment, his bond suddenly manifested beside him. She was a slender lady with long, dark hair and green eyes.

She turned to Roben and said with an unreadable expression, "What do we do now?"

Roben straightened and turned to her. He thought for a bit, and as he did, his expression grew somber.

After a brief moment, he said, "I uh..."

He paused and looked at the distance they had jumped from. Then he looked back at his bond and finally replied, "We-we’ll uh... we’ll use our bonded ability."

Her unreadable expression suddenly twisted to one of horror. She quickly shook her head in disapproval and blurted out, "No! No, Roben. We can’t use A Life for a Life. You know our cost demands we sacrifice someone in order to use it."

"What else do you propose?" Roben looked really scared and his hands were trembling. "That lord will come for us. Then he will go after the other units. What else can we do, Zoya?"

Zoya looked lost when she heard those words, but then her face hardened and she quickly retorted, "Who among the cadets do you think is going to be willing to sacrifice themselves? Huh? You cannot just—"

She was still speaking when Jesper interrupted, "I’ll give my life."

Both Zoya and Roben paled, then turned to him. He looked really scared too, but after taking a look at the chaos in the distance, he turned back to the two leaders. Then he looked down for a moment to steady his heavy breathing.

When he took the next breath, he exhaled and looked up with a smile. "You said it yourself. The lord will come for us, then he will go to the other units. The other units probably already have their own lords to worry about. If we can help the others by taking down this one lord... then..."

He halted and muttered something under his breath, presumably to his bond.

A few tense seconds passed, then he said, "You can take him out if you have a sacrifice, right? Take us as the sacrifice."

"It won’t work," Zoya whispered. "That lord is two grades above us. Your sacrifice won’t be enough."

Roben stared at the sand like a man in a trance, then he exhaled hard and said, "Then... I’ll give myself as a sacrifice too."

Zoya’s eyes widened and she choked out, "Are you sure?"

Roben nodded slowly... and as the tears began to roll out of his eyes, he whispered. "I’m really sorry, Zoya."

Zoya closed her eyes, then bit her lips as the tears which were welling up began to spill over too.

And for a moment, the three people just stood in silence.

Despite the chaos of the war raging all around them, the world became quiet for them, especially for Roben and Zoya.

"Life is cruel, Roben," Zoya said as she opened her eyes and stepped closer to him.

"It has always been that way for us," he replied as he held her head to bring her closer. He leaned his forehead against hers and smiled. "Maybe the next life will be better."

Zoya sniffed and smiled to hide her own fear. "I will find you again. Just like I did in this life. I promise."

Roben rubbed his thumb over her cheek and whispered, "I’ll be waiting for you."

There was a saying that he and his bond had heard a while back, and it went like this:

"Life is a dream from which we must wake, so that we may dream again."

At this moment, their only wish was that their next dream would be a better one.

One without the bridges that took away their childhood.

One without the constant threat of the Lords.

And one where they could simply exist without being weapons.

"A better dream," Zoya whispered as she gripped his sleeves.

Roben closed his eyes and rested his weight against her. "A better dream."

For a short moment that felt like an eternity, both of them held onto each other.

When they finally let go, they turned to see Jesper holding the hand of a young girl. She was just as short as he was, with long, flowing green hair that shielded a part of her face from their view.

She too was crying, but when their eyes met, she gave a small nod.

Zoya and Roben returned the nod, then reached out their hands. Jesper and his bond stepped into the circle, and they each held the others’ hands.

It was at that moment that Roben activated his bonded ability:

A Life for a Life.

***

An angry Min-hyuk began walking from his position with his eyes darting around in a frantic manner.

As he moved, he shouldered past a naga that was in his path before spinning his blade and plunging it into the chest of a hollow one that had been fighting the creature.

Then, he continued walking through the chaos until his eyes landed again on the targets who had run off. They were holding hands and staring back in his direction. When he saw them, a wicked smile crossed Min-hyuk’s face and he began taking fast strides toward them.

However, after barely a few steps forward, he suddenly felt a jolt like lightning shocking his entire frame. He halted as a deep frown crossed his face. In the next few seconds, that frown changed to a look of horror as he saw his body slowly drying out like old wood, starting from the hands he could see in front of him.

He began to panic and let go of his blades as his hands began to tremble and crack. But before he could even understand what was happening, his eyes ruptured as thick, white flowers and gnarled branches burst out of the sockets. As he opened his mouth to scream, another cluster of thorny vines grew out of his throat.

His entire body stiffened into a rigid trunk, and in a matter of seconds, a large willow tree stood where Min-hyuk had once been.

***

At the spot where Roben and the others had been standing, all that could now be seen were clothes piled on the sand. Their bodies had turned to pale green leaves, which were now drifting away on the beach.