It’s not like Aether had never thought of other choices…. His mind had raced through countless possibilities, each more desperate than the last, as he tried to come up with a solution to save both of them.
But… no matter how hard he thought, no matter how many scenarios he envisioned, the outcome remained the same. In the end… he would have to lose one to save the other.
That was a fate Aether could not escape, no matter how much he wanted to believe otherwise!
No matter how strong he became, no matter how powerful his abilities made him… he had to face reality!
And that reality was this:
He was not some hero out of a story who could save everyone!
Nor was he a villain who could burn the entire world just to save his beloved!
This wasn’t some grand tale with a happy ending… This was raw, unrelenting reality!
He was not omnipotent, nor was he omniscient…. He was just an ordinary guy with a strange, burdensome ability!
Just like the Prophetess had said before…. No one could have everything, Aether… Not even him!
That was reality…. really!
That was why… he thought again, deeply this time.
Yes, he finally let himself consider the one thing he had been avoiding— his bloodline ability.
An ability to turn back time…. To return to a point where nothing had gone wrong. Or… at least, that’s how he hoped it worked….. It was his final, desperate hope.
A third choice!
The only choice!!
His choice!
His Hope!!
But even that hope felt like staring into an abyss of horror!!
To be honest, Aether had never wanted to use his bloodline ability, not once, not since he learned about it…. To others, his power seemed miraculous, godlike even.
Everyone thought he could do anything—change anything, rewrite reality to his whims.
They saw it as a gift…. But for him… it was nothing less than a curse.
Because who was Aether?
A simple man who wanted to live.
Live?
Yes. No matter what life threw at him, no matter how hard or painful it became, Aether had always held onto one thing—a relentless will to survive!
He was the kind of man who wanted nothing more than to keep breathing, to keep moving forward….. And yet, his ability demanded his breath!
How cruelly ironic, wasn’t it?
Even in his first life, when everything seemed so hopeless and broken, he had wanted to live. He had fought to survive, no matter what was done to him.
People had crushed him, broken him, abandoned him, cornered him, made him suffer in ways he didn’t think possible.
Even when the entire world seemed to conspire against him, there hadn’t been a single moment where he thought of giving up.
He wanted to live!!
Even when he was stabbed by organ traffickers, even when he lay there bleeding out, dying, he still clung to that burning desire to survive.
And yet… the cruel twist of his ability was that it only activated when he died.
That soooo fucked up!
How darkly amusing… The world…. the fate had chosen him for this?
You had asked a man who desperately clung to life to accept death?… even though he would return, a death was still a fucking death!
Aether was sooo scared of it!!
Yet,
When he saw Sandra die right before his eyes… something inside him shattered.
His gaze fell on her hand clutching the water knife, now slick with her blood. He knew what he had to do…. He knew the exact steps he needed to take.
And yet, when he tried to do it… he couldn’t.
This was different from before, when a monster had ‘killed’ him…. He didn’t feel much but This time, it was in his hands.
Fate was asking him—a man whose will to live had never wavered—to take his own life?
What a cruel, bitchy twist of fate, wasn’t it?
His hands trembled as his entire body and mind rebelled against the idea…. Every fiber of his being screamed at him not to do it.
And yet… his heart knew.
It knew.
This was his choice to make.
Not a choice that fate had forced upon him… but a choice born out of his love, his desperation, his hope.
He wanted both of them alive. He wanted to see Sandra’s haughty expression again. He wanted to hear Dora’s amused laugh and breaking his body just for him to learn more…. He longed to see their faces light up with life once more.
The only way to make that happen… was to take his own life.
A will turned against himself!
And… he knew, deep down, he couldn’t let the hooded figure kill him. That person, whoever they were, seemed to know too much about his bloodline. If they had a countermeasure against his ability, this could all be for nothing…. he could not let her kill him.
With that thought, Aether took a deep, shaky breath. His gaze lingered on Sandra’s pale, motionless face.
“Yeah… that’s too much pain,” he mumbled under his breath. Then,
Chuccckkkk!
The blade plunged into his neck.
His eyes rolled back as his body went limp…. He felt something inside him crack, a break so profound it was beyond his comprehension as if his soul break or whatever… As he collapsed to the ground, his final thought echoed faintly, ‘I… I will… save them–‘
But then…
/Oh! Shit, Shit, Fucking Shit! What the heck!…. Aether, you need to see this! The Principal is fucking alive? OH MY GOD!!! A-Am I imagin—/
Aqualina’s frantic voice echoed in his mind, cutting through the haze as Aether’s last thought surfaced:
‘Fu..ck–‘
[Survival rate: 83.5↑%]
!~Ding~!
[Activating…. The One and Only Ether]
Aether felt his body submerging, sinking into deep water…. The weight of his choices seemed to dissolve as his body became weightless, free… like a water!
And then,
“Amusing, isn’t it?” An ethereal voice suddenly echoed through the stillness.
Aether’s eyes slowly fluttered open, his vision blurred at first. He focused and saw a bright, almost blinding white figure floating above him, its body and face glowing as though made of pure light.
His voice, weak but certain, escaped his lips, “M-Mother?”
The ethereal figure let out a soft laugh, “Haha… Mother, hmm? Indeed, my child… I am the Mother of everything… except you, of course.”
The figure flowed downward, a look of mild surprise crossing its features as she realized Aether had recognized her instantly, without a doubt.
Aether let out a dry chuckle before glancing around. He was still submerged in the vast, suffocating emptiness where nothing existed—except for her. “Where am I?” he asked, his voice echoing into the void while drowning like in water.
“Hmmm… A place where nothing is supposed to exist?” Her tone was tinged with a strange uncertainty, as if she herself was unsure of the answer.
Aether gave a soft smile. “Then what about us? Aren’t we here?”
“…” She turned silent.
He shrugged casually and asked, “Mind telling me if I made the right choice?” He didn’t care much for her answer, but it was always amusing to test her patience and see how far he could push.
This time, however, she responded in a gentle, almost wistful tone,
“There is no right answer… What you chose is the answer…. And every answer has its consequence.”
Aether frowned slightly. It wasn’t the words themselves that bothered him, though they stung more than he cared to admit. No, it was her gentle tone, so different from her usual demeanor, that set him on edge.
“Odd…” he muttered, narrowing his eyes. “Why aren’t you trying to persuade me?”
“Hmm?” She tilted her head.
“I mean,” he pressed on, “whenever we meet, you never waste an opportunity to get into my head. It’s always something like ‘Come to Mother’s embrace and rest for enterity’ or whatever manipulative crap you come up with. But now… you’re quiet. Why?”
At that, the Mother chuckled softly. “Oh? You mean that… haha…” Her laughter trailed off as her voice took on a serious, “Because… the time has come for you to meet… Him.”
Aether’s frown deepened, confusion, “Him? Who?”
Before he could press her further, black, shadowy dark hands materialized out of the void. They writhed like living tendrils, latching onto his body with an unrelenting grip.
“Tsk!” Aether clicked his tongue in frustration as he felt himself being pulled downward, deeper into the suffocating darkness.
The Mother watched him vanish into the abyss, “You,” she murmured, her voice cold and calculating. Then, her gaze hardened as she continued, “Now, everything is going to change… I’ll need to alter my plans again. Tsk, how annoying… So, so annoying! This is why I hate irregulars. Tsk, I should have killed him myself! Tsk these annoying Laws and Contracts! Tsk, Tsk!”
With those final words, she disappeared into the pitch-black void, leaving the space empty once more.
Just then,
Clang, clang…
The metallic sound echoed through the nothingness.
…..
…
Meanwhile,
!~Ding~!
[Iteration No.30!]
!~Ding~!
[A strong will to live detected?]
!~Ding~!
[Error: Unable to access the Will of the Soul.]
!~Ding~!
[Detected: A strong will to live?]
!~Ding~!
[No Will!]
!~Ding~!
[Rescanning.]
[Rescanning..]
[Rescanning…]
[Rescanning….]
!~Ding~!
[Warning: Conflict detected within the Soul.]
!~Ding~!
[Warning: Access to Ether is unavailable.]
!~Ding~!
[Critical Warning: Continuation of the current reality is impossible!]
!~Ding~!
[Request: Total reset initiated – restarting from the beginning.]
!~Ding~!
[Request: Searching for the next replacemen– Error encountered.]
!~Ding~!
[Request: Permission to revert to Iteration No. 27…]
!~Ding~!
[Request Denied!!!]
!~Ding~!
[Request: Permission to revert to Iteration No. 27…]
!~Ding~!
[Request Denied!!!]
[Request Denied!!!]
[Request Denied!!!]
[Request Denied!!!]
[Request Denied by #####! Reason: Current Aether deemed unviable. Recommendation: Full reset required.]
!~Ding~!
[Request: Permission to revert to Iteration No. 27…]
!~Ding~!
[Request Denied by ##–Error!]
[Error!]
[Error!]
[Error!] Stay updated via My Virtual Library Empire
!~Ding~!
[Overriding… The Permissions! Under Iteration No. 27’s Influence!]
[Overwriting… The contract parameters! Under Iteration No. 27’s Influence! ]
[Rewriting… The LOG! Under Iteration No. 27’s Influence!]
[Access deni–Error!]
[Error!]
[Critical Error!]
[Critical Erro—]
!~Ding~!
[Processing Interrupted…]
[….]
[….]
!~Ding~!
[Initiating Iteration No. 27…]
…
…
When Aether’s eyes fluttered open, he found himself standing amidst a vast, desolate expanse…. The ground beneath him was a barren, reddish-brown wasteland.
The air was thick, permeated with the unmistakable stench of blood and decay. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but…. death!
“What the hell…” Aether whispered, his voice laced with shock and disbelief but then,
“Hmm… Someone still alive?” A emotionless cold voice echoed made Aether flinch turning back…. A menacing black figure stood…. Its form exuded an aura of pure malice, and in its hand, it clutched a lifeless body.