“Hello, Arthur. How…how are you feeling?”

  Arthur sighed and walked up to the log he was on without a word. As the knight stuttered and tried to find his words, he sat down beside him and looked at the broken sword on the ground.

  “I was just taking a quick look at the, uh, the cut here. It is terrible, I must say. It will not turn out well even with repairs.”

  Vil picked up the sword and showed it to Arthur, placing it in his hands and gesturing at him to take a closer look at the chip on the blade. The knight wasn’t wrong. It looked pretty bad. Even with the best repair techniques, it wouldn’t fix itself. And by now, even his skills would not do anything to it.

  Or, maybe…

  “Do you know the funny thing about science, Vil?” Arthur asked, “I often tell this to my students, but might as well tell you too. It is not something we think of very often, so…it’s interesting.”

  Arthur lifted the sword and then glanced at the skill section of his HUD. Sure enough, the transparent space at the top of ‘Time Reversal’ had been taken up by the bottom of the words ‘Object Reversal’. He just thought about moving the text down, and it did. He was now back to using his first skill. And just as it should have been, the skills had individual timers, which meant he could still use this one.

  “Go on…”

  As he spoke, Vil shook his head and blinked his eyes multiple times, as if he had caught something in them. Arthur left him to handle that as he continued.

  “Time…and all of physics, really, is all in our minds. You might think that it is a stupid idea, considering that gravity gets us all in the end. It can’t be stopped. Not even by love.”

  “Ha! That is good. Very good.”

  “But gravity would work just as well, even if it wasn’t called gravity. Time would still be the natural forward progression of things if we did not call it time. You get my point, right? Atoms would still exist even if they weren’t called that. Our version of physics is all in our own minds. That’s why I was thinking about what concepts even meant, and I think I might figure it out soon.”

  “It seems…you are on the verge of a breakthrough. That is very nice. We must all…push our brains to their absolute limits to figure things out. That is the answer to all questions!”

  “Yeah.” Arthur smiled and nodded, “There is no up and down in the universe. No left and right. By all means, there is no backwards and forwards. There is just decay. Entropy. Things break all the time and cannot be put back together, but…there is no time. Nothing such as time, at all.”

  Vil laughed, still trying to get whatever it was out of his eye, “You are losing me now, my friend. I am a great listener and an even better learner, but I must apologize. Philosophy is not something I am very good at. It has always been a weakness.”

  “Oh no, don’t worry. I won’t keep going on and on. Here, take this.”

  He handed the sword back to the knight, and he took it at once. Holding it with one hand, he kept rubbing his eyes with the other.

  “Is something wrong?” Arthur asked.

  “Oh no, I just can’t…keep going, though. I’ll figure it out.”

  “Well, then.” He put his hand forward and aimed it at the sword, “The east is the east, and the west is the west. Up is up, and down is down. But if just for a second, just a simple second, what if the previous day was not the previous day, but the next day instead?”

  “Are you…sure you do not need help, new Arthur?”

  Arthur laughed, “Honestly, even I don’t know. But I want you to do something. Think very hard about destruction. About death. About how we must all lose everything we have ever earned in our lives. About how…this sword can never be put back together, no matter what you do. It is broken, now and forever.”

  “That is…a dark path you are going down.” Vil laughed, “Now, why would I think that?”

  “Vil?”

  “Yes, friend.”

  “Just do it. Please. Think it, go on. Focus on how this sword has become a victim of the universe. You know a lot about swords, so...think about why this sword cannot be put back together.”

  “Alright. I shall entertain you.”

  Vil looked at the sword and started speaking. As he did, Arthur closed his eyes and moved his hand from the sword to the knight instead. For a second, the man stuttered, but then kept speaking. One. He spoke about temperatures, steel quality, and how swords worked. Two. He started speaking about blacksmithing and why it was such a difficult art to master. Three.

  Arthur held his breath.

  Skill Activation

  Object Reversal

  “Bless the Lord!”

  The knight screamed and stood up. Arthur opened his eyes, and a massive grin spread across his face. Shining in the little bit of moonlight that was shining through the leaves of the tree, the sword was back to its original look. In fact, it looked sharper than ever. Vil’s tangent on the many ways blacksmithing could go wrong had helped a bit too much.

  Arthur laughed and stood up too, giving the knight a pat on his back and taking the sword to check it out too.

  “That is wondrous. How did you manage that, friend? I did not think that was possible. Even Elle’s skill only allows him to manipulate organic elements, as he says. You have no idea how happy I am. This sword was…Celia’s gift to me!”

  “Oh, just…” He thought about what to say, but then somehow found exactly the words that were circling his mind, “Changing the way you think.”

  “That is certainly,” Vil paused and looked at the ground. Then, he looked at the canopy above them and blinked multiple times, “Gone…”

  “What?”

  “I do not see the letters or numbers in front of my eyes anymore. They are…gone.”

  Arthur put the hand with the sword down. Of course. The parasite was not in Vil anymore. The fact that he could use Time Reversal was proof of that. He had eaten the parasite and gotten all the energy that once belonged to the knight. And now, he was left without any parasite in him. All he had was himself.

  “It is…”

  “Vil, I’ll need you to listen calmly.”

  “It is a blessing!” Vil exclaimed.

  “What?”

  “It has tortured me forever. To have such a cowardly power has caused me endless pain. But now, it is gone. Vanished. I do not need to be afraid of wielding such pathetic powers ever again.”

  “Vil…”

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  The knight smiled and looked at him with his arms outstretched, “I have been blessed. There is no luck better than mine. It is true!”

  There would be no point in delaying it anymore. Perhaps it was inappropriate to say something like this when he was so happy, but he had no other choice. Keeping it a secret would only make things worse. And if he told him what had happened right now, then he would also get the chance to tell him some other things. Things that had been on his mind every second that he was in that laboratory. Even before that.

  “Vil, you died.”

  “What? Oh, you jest, but it is not very effective. You must learn how to time your jokes from Dee. He often surprises you in the most unexpected of times.”

  “No, Vil. You died. You…went through with it. What you were planning on doing…you did do it. I used my powers to bring you back.”

  “I…no. I was not planning on…anything.” He looked at the sword and then sat down, “I wasn’t planning…”

  Arthur felt a weight in his chest. He felt horrible for doing this, but it was necessary. If he did not find out, he would not change. Well, he wouldn’t change after finding it out either. But he could start changing. He could take the first step. Arthur stuck the sword into the dirt right in front of the knight.

  “Why? I know that you haven’t known me for long. But I’m the only one who’s here. So…why?”

  The knight moved his hands around, caressed the blade of the sword, and then struggled to put his thoughts into words. It was only after a minute-long consideration that he finally spoke up, “I don’t know. I can’t remember. I really, really can’t. It just felt right. Celia’s dead, my friend. She’s never coming back, so what’s the point? Your…your Celia is right. She’s not the same person. We…we are also not the same person.”

  “Yeah, well.”

  “I mean, I am an incredible, gracious knight. And you are…a peasant. It is destiny.”

  Arthur stifled a laugh and nodded. Vil did not say anything after that. He just picked up the sword and put it back in his sheath.

  “Well, she rejected me.”

  “Ha! That is to be expected. Why would she be in love with a peasant? It would be hilarious.”

  “There’s that, yeah.” Arthur wasn’t sure if he wanted to console the knight or kick him in the face, but he controlled himself and decided on the former option, “But, uh…I’m sorry. I’m pretty bad at this.”

  He sat down beside the knight once more and picked up a rock. Starting to fiddle with it, he spoke, “I mean, I’ve never thought about ending it all. I’ve just been too busy thinking about science to let other things enter my head. Except Celia, of course. But that’s an exception. There is, however, something I have thought of before. The meaning of things, that is.”

  “That is something all who live must ponder upon at least once in their lives, so it is not particularly exciting. It is to be expected.”

  “Yeah, just…let me say it, alright? Like, come on. This is for your sake.”

  “Fine. I shall let you go on.”

  Arthur threw the stone in the dark forest. As soon as he did, a shriek echoed throughout the entire forest. Vil immediately stood up and put a hand on his sword. Noting that the cooldown on Object Reversal was still up, Arthur switched to Time Reversal and also stood up, hand ready to point.

  “Calm down. Oh my god. Who just, like, throws a whole goddamn stone in the forest in the night? What if I was just, like, a tiger or something!?”

  Elle stepped out of the dark, rubbing his right arm, which was where the stone must have hit him. He groaned and leaned against the tree closest to them. Vil shook his head with disapproval and sat back down. Arthur sighed with relief, but decided to stay as he was.

  “Why are you here?” He asked.

  “I was just…worried. But please go on, I beg. Let us know what was on your mind.”

  “It is not that purposeful anymore, Elle. Do you not understand that he was trying to build up to saying something? You have ruined it now!”

  “Vil, shut the fuck up. You’re the one who shoved a sword in his throat, not me. So, you know, maybe we should not be listening to what your brain has to say.”

  “That is…highly insensitive, and absolute disrespect. How dare you say something so vile about a decorated knight like me?”

  “Oh, look at the decorated knight. A little bitch who killed himself because a girl said no. Holy shit, how stupid can a human being be?”

  “Elle, just…” Arthur stopped him from continuing.

  For a few seconds, they remained in silence. Elle stared at Vil with a mix of sadness and anger, while Arthur wasn’t sure how he wanted to put his words together anymore. But the more he thought about it, maybe it was for the best that Elle was here, too. Ideally, maybe Dee should have also been with them, but he was probably the sanest member of the team, so he did not necessarily need to hear everything.

  “The day I first met you.” Arthur looked at Elle, “You told me something that made me eat that parasite. About how we were alive, and that was that. Celia told me something like that once. I was, uh, slightly burnt out with the job and thinking of quitting. But then she convinced me not to, because apparently this is a very noble profession or something like that. Anyway, that wasn’t it, though.”

  “It is indeed a noble profession. To spread your knowledge is-”

  “Yeah, yeah, Vil. We don’t need commentary for everything. Just…keep it yourself, alright? Let the man have his pace.”

  The knight waved him off, and Arthur smiled. Without letting anyone continue this bickering, he continued.

  “She told me something that I, as a science teacher, have never actually thought of. About how it takes so much luck for us to be born, and that we then all have unique experiences, and all that. Eventually, she said that there was no other Arthur Cross in the world who was teaching science at Middling High. It was just me. And that’s how boring and unlucky I was.”

  “Tough.” Elle nodded, “Maybe, you know, that should’ve clued you in on not…confessing. But sure, yes, keep going.”

  Another name added to the ‘need to kick in the face once’ list.

  “Celia…told me that even if that was boring, it was who I was. If I did not do this right now, nobody would. Nobody could replace how I taught or how I connected to those kids. For good or for worse, I was myself. And even if I was boring and meaningless and small and whatever other term, I could think of…she had decided to sit down and have a conversation with me rather than anyone else.”

  This time, nobody replied. A silence spread over them. Elle looked at the sky and put his sunglasses on once more. Vil, looking at the ground, felt like he was going to break at any moment.

  Arthur decided to finish what he saying, either way, “So, you know. When I thought that someone was thinking of killing me, I got rightfully angry. Because I really, really suck as a person. I’ve got bad luck, and I’m stuck with a teaching job I never really wanted. And I complain about it all every so often, yes. But I put in a lot of hard work to get where I am. I’ve spent countless nights preparing tests for those kids and making presentations to help them understand better. You know if I died…all that would’ve been for nothing. That conversation with Celia would’ve been for nothing.”

  “That’s pretty cool.” Elle nodded, “But you’re telling me your entire reason for living is based on, like, sunk cost fallacy?”

  Arthur laughed. He had never heard it put like that. He was sure Celia would find it hilarious, too. But Elle was right. Maybe he was right. After all, what was so bad about it anyway?

  “What is this…sunk cost fallacy? What does it mean?” Vil stood up in confusion, now that Elle had also joined Arthur in laughing out loud, “Are you trying to hide information from me? How dare you!? Me? You just explained why I am such a great human being, and I agree, new friend. So, why would you not explain this?”

  “Ahh…” Arthur sighed, trying to control himself, “Well, yeah. Yeah, sunk cost fallacy.”

  Looking at Vil, he tried to put it the best way he could, with a bright smile on his face, “We’ve spent so much time living a shitty life…that it would just be annoying to see it end without something changing. It’d just be a bad joke without a punchline, I guess. Something like that. I’ve wasted so much time and effort living every moment that I don’t wanna die just yet. Might as well see it through to the end.”

  “Maybe there will be something interesting on the way…” Elle added.

  “Maybe the ending will be worth it.”

  Vil nodded, “I guess…I understand. Yes, I do. That is indeed funny. Ha! But…now it is way past the time to lau-”

  Skill Activation

  Sin

  Even Arthur moved without thinking too much. His hand was already outstretched by the time the rock wall created by Elle was broken by the massive blast of blue energy heading towards them. Two.

  It was coming from the direction that Dee and Celia had been in. Another enemy attack? Three.

  Skill Activation

  Time Reversal

  The blast stopped midair and started to reverse. Once it left the radius of the ability, though, it would probably come back. It could not go back more than five meters. But then again, Arthur hadn’t checked if that radius needed to be still or if it could move. So, he started running forward as the blast moved back.

  “How the hell did you do that? What are you doing!?”

  Elle asked as he and the knight also started running behind him, heading back to the clearing where they had left the other two.

  “I’ll explain later. As for the running, well…”

  As he moved with the blast, it kept reading back. It was working. The radius could be a moving boundary. This changed quite a lot of things. Elle and Vil were waiting for him to keep going, so he spoke as he would with his students once more,

  “Just the scientific method.”