“W-Why, Aether? Why?” Aria’s voice trembled with anguish, her eyes overflowing with tears as she clung desperately to vision Aether’s legs, refusing to let go, “I thought you loved me… Is this how you betray me?” Her sobs came in waves, wracking her body as she held him tighter as if letting go would mean losing him forever.
Real Aether was frozen in place, utterly flabbergasted, but it wasn’t over.
“Why, Aether?… Why?….. Why?….. Why?…..” Aqualina’s voice quivered like a broken record, her expression shattered, like a doll that had been irreparably damaged. Her eyes were hollow, reflecting an abyss of betrayal and disbelief.
“I thought… I thought you were my one and only world.” Delphine’s voice cracked her tone a mixture of shock and sorrow, “Am I not good enough for you, Aether? After everything?” She looked at him as if the ground beneath her had vanished, leaving her in free fall, grasping at nothing.
“I… I… I didn’t mean to—” Real Aether stammered, feeling the weight of their gazes pulling him under, suffocating him with the accusations.
Helena stood there, her eyes vacant, her voice barely a whisper, “I worshipped you, Aether… like a god. P-Please… forgive me if I ever hurt you… But this…. I cannot believe it” Her emptiness sliced through him like a knife, the hollowness in her gaze breaking what was left of his resolve.
“N-No… you… I—”
But before Aether could finish, another voice, heavier, more sorrowful, broke through.
“Aether… I trusted you,” Maelona said, her voice low, trembling with disappointment, “How could you cheat on my daughter? Betray her like this?” Her eyes, once warm and welcoming, now regarded him with utter disdain, “I thought we were family… But now I see you’re no different from the others. All men… are the same.” Her words echoed, each one like a hammer blow to his chest.
“….”
Aether was speechless. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. The weight of their disappointment, their pain, was suffocating.
Then, the softest voice of all, barely audible but piercing him to his core, reached him.
“Aether…”
Turning toward the source, he saw… Stella, kneeling on the ground, her hands clasped together as if in prayer, “I love you… for eternity,” she whispered, her voice eerily calm as she pulled a small, sharp knife from her pocket.
Aether’s heart lurched, his breath catching in his throat, “Heh…S-Stella… wait—”
Chuccckk!
Aether’s eyes widened in horror as he watched Stella drive the knife into her own chest, blood spraying from the wound.
His heart stopped for a moment, the world around him slowing to a crawl.
He couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t move..
He couldn’t believe…
Stella’s face twisted in pain, yet somehow, she still smiled…. a gentle, forgiving smile that cut deeper than any blade.
Even in death, she loved him!! She wanted to make it clear!
“No…Hehe no, no, no!” Aether’s breath hitched as panic flooded his senses, his body trembling uncontrollably.
His eyes were wet with tears, but the nightmare wasn’t over.
[The result of your actions… The Betrayal~ Witness it to the end.]
“Heh… No… please, no… Heh…hehe…” Aether’s voice broke into a frantic mumble, hysteria bubbling beneath the surface.
“I loved you, Aether. Truly… whether you were a slave or not,” Aqualina said, her voice soft yet filled with finality, “I was ready to stand by you… even to defy my mother for you.” Her words were laced with regret as she turned away, her silhouette slowly fading into the distance, disappearing into a void that Aether could never reach, “But now… I will never see you again.”
Disappearing from his life.
She would never look back..
She would never see him again…
“Heh…A-Aqua… Hehe…. I-I am s….” The words lodged in his throat, choking him.
Thud!
Helena collapsed to the ground, her body limp and cold, her empty eyes staring up at nothing. She had lost herself completely, her soul shattered beyond repair.
No word needed just lifeless eyes was enough…
Aether’s knees buckled beneath him, and he fell, the ground beneath him unforgiving.
“N-Never show your face to me again!” Delphine’s voice rang out, sharp with fury, her eyes red with unshed tears, “Never come near our—no, MY child!” She rubbed her slightly bulging stomach with tender hands, her expression a mix of fury and heartbreak, “Your father is dead to me!” Her shout echoed as she vanished before his very eyes, leaving nothing but silence in her wake.
Aether slumped forward, his shoulders shaking as the emptiness inside him deepened. His eyes, once filled with fire, were now vacant, dry, void of hope.
“I couldn’t hate you, Aether… no matter what you did. My love for you is real, even now… even in death.” Aria’s voice was a low murmur as she approached the vision of him, her hands trembling as she gripped a knife.
With a twisted smile, her face contorted with madness, she drove the blade into Vision Aether’s heart again and again. Blood sprayed across her body, covering her from head to toe, but she didn’t stop. With each stab, she whispered, “I love you, darling~” in a sickeningly sweet tone.
She pulled his severed head into her arms, hugging it tightly to her chest.
“I love you too much darling~ I hope you don’t forgive this wretched woman” she whispered sweetly as she raised the knife to her own neck. In one swift motion, she sliced through her throat.
Spulurttt!!!!
The sickening sound of flesh tearing apart filled the air as Aria’s head rolled to the ground.
His breathing became ragged!
His heart breaking with each passing second, shattering beyond repair!!
His hands shook uncontrollably as sobs wracked his body!!!
He couldn’t take it anymore!!
For what felt like an eternity, Aether remained motionless, his mind barely clinging to sanity.
Finally, he opened his eyes, his gaze distant and hollow. The vision before him was a nightmare…. a hellish scene of carnage.
Aria’s head lay beside vision Aether’s shivered head, her body mutilat–
“VoooW!” Real Aether vomited.
“Heh…P-Hehe…Please… He… S-Stop…” he whimpered, his voice breaking into sobs, “‘Sob’… Hehehehe…” His mind unravelled, and with a broken laugh (cry), Aether’s sanity crumbled.
His laughter echoed through the empty, blood-soaked void…
However, it wasn’t enough. The words taunted him… echoing in his mind as if they were alive, sneering at his pain.
[What’s this? Laughing at their deaths… How delightful. Oh, wait—Silly me! I forgot. You only know how to laugh, right?
Hahaha]
Aether’s laughter(Cry) persisted, but it was laced with agony, “Hehe… I did… Hehehe… because I was… Hehehe… forced… Hehehe…”
[Forced?] The Words were dripping with mockery.
[Oh, come on now! Forced? Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night? These were the results of your actions. Own it!!!]
“…Hehehehe…”
[Manipulated or not, these were YOUR actions. YOU are the only one responsible. Stop pretending to be innocent.]
The words turned sharper, crueller as if breaking him even more,
[You’re just like your stepfather.]
“NO!” Aether’s voice cracked, “Hehe… I AM NOT!!!”
[Yes, you are. Just like him, you manipulate everyone around you to get what you want.
And worse, you’re just like your biological father, who betrayed his wife.
You’re nothing but a twisted blend of both of them.
The way you toy with the emotions of those women, the way you make them love you… You’re filthy.]
[Those girls were too innocent, unlike your mother.
You… You are just filth.]
[A disgusting, repulsive…. defective, filthy product!]
“….”
Suddenly, Aether’s level bar hit its peak, ‘😈’
[Tell me, if you claim to be innocent, then what about your mother? What if she was just manipulated by her husband? Would you forgive her?]
“…”
[Well? Would you?]
“…”
[WOULD YOU FORGIVE HER?!!!]
The words roared, demanding an answer.
“…. N..hehe.. No”
[Hmm, interesting. Yet, you expect these women who loved you to forgive you for your irresponsible actions?]
“…”
[Ah, Gentlema—no… defective product. I have many more interesting futures to show you. Do you wa—]
Words just about bring more despair when,
BBBOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Suddenly, the world around Aether exploded into chaos.
!~Ding~!
[(Resumed)Remaining Time: 279 days 23 hours 60 minutes 01 seconds]
Flesh, blood, and debris rained down like a grotesque storm.
Stones and bodies fell as if a mountain of decayed flesh was collapsing upon him.
Aether lay beneath it all like a broken doll, unable to move.
The weight of it pressed down on him, but it wasn’t the debris that crushed him—it was the words. They lingered, whispering relentlessly inside his mind, refusing to be forgotten. Discover stories with empire
His leg was disfigured, his hands broken, his body buried deep beneath the rubble.
‘Hehe… A-Am I just…’ His thoughts swirled in the darkness. He stared blankly at the mud and flesh around him with vacant eyes, his actions crashing down on him like the very debris that buried him.
And as he thought about it more, he realized, in the desperate scramble to…. survive in this new world…. he had become exactly like the person he despised most.
His eyes fluttered shut, overwhelmed by the weight of his own self-hatred. He couldn’t bear it. The thought of what he had done… of who he had become… tore him apart from the inside.
Never… not once! did he think that his choices would lead to such destruction, to so much harm to the people he… claimed to love.
Did he love them?
Aether’s lips curled into a pained smile as a single tear rolled down his cheek, “Y-yes… Hehe… I loved them… I really did… hehe… B-Believe me… I di…” His voice faded, and with it, he lost consciousness.
…
….
“…..r”
“….R!!!”
“….THER!!!!”
“AETHER!!!!”
“I AM HURT, AETHER!!!”
Aether’s eyes snapped open. The force of the familiar voice dragged him back from the brink of oblivion.
His blue eyes flickered with life…. no, with something more.
A deep, dark indigo hue flared within them, burning like fire.
SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Indigo flames engulfed his body as he shot up from the debris, propelled by an unseen force. Thousands of crimson swords rained down from above, slicing through the decayed bodies surrounding him.
Aether’s breath hitched as he moved faster, rising through the grotesque mountain of flesh, blood, and bone.
SH!
He burst through the surface, gasping for air.
His eyes darted around, wide with disbelief.
“What the hell…?” he mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper.
Before him lay a scene of utter chaos. The entire Empire was ablaze, a battlefield drenched in blood and violence.
Everywhere he looked, there was fighting—flesh and steel clashing, lives ending in brutal, merciless fashion. And then there were the creatures. Snake-like monsters, with rainbow-crystal on their forehead… moved with deadly precision, cutting through the masses with terrifying efficiency.
Above, in the blood-red sky, the Dragon Emperor and the Principal were locked in a vicious battle with something enormous, their power shaking the very heavens.
“Aether!!” A voice cried out, piercing through the cacophony.
He turned, his heart stopping when his eyes fell upon her—Aria. She was barely standing, her body riddled with wounds, but behind her… desperately protecting Kaelen’s motionless form.