Warning: triple update. Start from 28. Sudden Attack.

                  It was my first time confronting someone with imitating ability. It seemed that for Ara, this wasn’t her first to fight a Stealer like me. Her pupils dilated a bit, and she hastily took a few steps back, her hands stretched to the side widely. She was ten times more experienced than me in the battlefield, but I had a very good teacher who taught me the skills I needed.

                  “Just give up. You’re on the losing end. There are only three of you, and the Winter King wields the Durandal,” Ara said to me, her eyes blazing wildly, “Do you know what will happen once your Lord is pierced with that sword?”

                  I halted my steps and looked at her hesitantly.

                  “His soul will be shattered into pieces. Immortal or not, your Lord will die and wither. He wouldn’t be able to come back no matter what.”

                  I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists, “Then I shall at least, kill you first before that happens.” I charged forward and swapped onto her face with a heavy swing, but she closed her eyes, and I could almost see the determination before I jumped and kicked her in the stomach. There was no way I would let her imitate my precious ability.

                  On the other side, not far away from me, Baekhyun was fighting his worst enemy, the Winter Prince Kyungsoo. Their relationship was bittersweet. Sometimes Baekhyun hated him with passion. Other times he was grateful that the Winter Prince was at least kind to him during his stay.

                  Both of them were barehanded, their hands were moving around so fast to wield the power of nature. The ground shook, the wind blew. It was a combination of a sandstorm and earthquake together. The pair was quite formidable when they were just a Prince and the Knight. Baekhyun was shouting at the Prince, and the later yelled right back at him,

                  “You swore to me! You swore to be my Knight! How could you break that and not die?”

                  Baekhyun snickered and somersaulted back while avoiding the split ground the Prince was causing. As someone who was trained directly under the King to be the best fighter, Baekhyun was almost on par with the Winter Prince. After all, Kyungsoo’s Knight was meant to be at least of the same strength as the Master.

                  “I am a half-werewolf. I can lie right through my teeth. My loyalty was not sworn to you! I had already given it to someone else!”

                  Me. That momentarily distracted me.

                  “How could you?!” Kyungsoo howled and pounced onto Baekhyun. The two struggled on the ground while trying to keep the damage to an extent. Both of them fell into the pit that Kyungsoo created, and I swore I could hear a voice screaming out the Prince’s name in agony, “Kyungsoo!”

                  I couldn’t scream. I forced myself to run towards the direction they fell into. I could hear the loud beatings in my heart, could feel the aching that was spreading in my chest. No, not Baekhyun! Not him! He promised me he wouldn’t die before me. He never went back on his promise.

                  My judgement was clouded in the moment. I didn’t look left and right and charged towards the front like a mad bull. I could feel sharp metals wounding my waist and thighs, but I didn’t care. My mind was in chaos, screaming things that I couldn’t say out loud.

                  “No!!!” I cried out loud, stopping at the pitch-black bottom. Baekhyun couldn’t be found anywhere. I couldn’t see him, couldn’t hear any sign that he was still alive. Not Baekhyun! Baekhyun, Baekhyun, how could you leave me now…?

                  Ara was equally frantic. She could hear Taeyong’s loud scream piercing on her heart, but she paid no heed and almost jumped into the hole if the Knight didn’t hold her back. She struggled and cried miserably, forgetting that there was a war happening right now. All the emotions she tried hard to suppress just exploded in that moment.

                  Even Kris, the Fallen had appeared, trying to stop Ara from killing herself. She was an emotional wreck now, and most of the warriors became distracted by her loud sobs. The scene in front of me was so surreal, like everything was slowed down in a motion picture. I swore something died inside me when I looked at my right hand, holding the Sanguis, my one precious sword.

                  As if it understood what had happened, Sanguis slowly melted down in my hand, knowing that the creator had died. The power Baekhyun had chanted into the sword also vanished, and the once prideful frost had dissipated into water. I couldn’t grab onto it anymore. I couldn’t even protect that one last gift from Baekhyun.

                  Very slowly, someone crawled out of the hole. His hand was holding onto the wall as if his life was depended on it. And indeed, it was. I held back a choke that was resurfacing. That hand was not Baekhyun’s. I knew.

                  Ara stopped crying.

                  Prince Kyungsoo survived.

                  Baekhyun died.

                  I had nothing to grab onto. All I had left right now was my mate. I grabbed onto the hope that there was still someone there for me. I was about to turn around, but the Lord had shouted at my direction, saying something incoherent while rushing towards me madly. I couldn’t register what happened next.

                  Pain.

                  I looked down.

                  Pain that was not mine.

                  The Lord’s hands grabbed onto my shoulder tightly for support. I turned around and paled. More and more warriors came to stab him. I moaned in pain. He vomited blood. I choked. He smiled and held my face.

                  Pain.

                  What was this unfamiliar pain? My eyes blurred in the middle of a loud sob that came out from my mouth. Tears. I hadn’t cried for a long time, so why was I crying? I looked at the wound on Lord Chanyeol’s body. His stomach was cut open from the numerous swords that had planted themselves on his body. It was horrible.

                  Pain, pain, pain.

                  It hurts. God, it ing hurts.

                  It was as if someone had taken out the heart from me and squashed it until it bled dry. I couldn’t hold back the pained howls that came from my mouth, sounds that were so foreign I thought it didn’t belong to me. Out of nowhere, snow fell onto the ground. A figure appeared. He was holding a sword so sharp. The edge of it shone like no other. He ed the sword into the Lord’s chest.

                  I groaned. The world had become black and white. I knew his time was up. And he was still smiling despite of the pain. I had stopped sobbing. No more sound. I couldn’t even comprehend what was happening before me.

                  “Sora…” The name that rolled out of his tongue sounded so strange. As if he had spoken for the first time. His eyes were still the same; still the gentle, kind eyes that I fell in love with. His hands were still his hands; but they were cold. They were so, so cold that I was afraid; if I didn’t hold on longer, he would be gone. He would vanish. He would leave me. I would be nothing without him.

                  “Don’t,” I tried to silent him, but he didn’t seem to hear. “Don’t you dare…!”

“I'm... sorry…”

Gone.

The world faded away.