After that talk, Aether let them rest. He didn’t want to disturb them, and surely the ladies were interested in what Selene said about his language and all. They seed to be going to have mat ti talk... well, it was bedti, but still, they were lying on the mat, so it’s mat-ti!
Anyway, Aether stood on the balcony as he stared at the darkening sky. "Auto Mode Engaged," he muttered those words again as his hand clenched the gun.
It’s not like it was his first ti hearing his language, after all. That one book in the Elven Empire did ntion his language. At that ti, he thought soone from his previous world might have appeared in ancient tis and written it. After all, it’s not like it’s impossible, right?
He was the proof!
But then again, to think that the Sixth Empire was speaking this language?
What a coincidence?
But if it was the Sixth Empire, how co he hadn’t heard it before? After all, he had been with them once and even fought them, mingled with them to trick them, but he never heard their words.
’What if... the voice ca from the suit, and since Raven’s sword pierced its eye piece, maybe the sound leaked from it?’ he thought, considering that might be a possibility.
And considering it was monotone and emotionless, he could understand that it ca from the tallic suit.
"So after all this ti, that Empire was actually Earth?" he muttered with mild shock, thinking it was possible.
"Or... this place actually is Earth?" he muttered as he looked at his own Empire—not just his Empire, his entire world...
He stared into the vastness beyond the balcony, lights flickering in the distant towers.
That actually made sense. After all, the advanced technology in that book was almost similar to the tis before his death... Those technologies were there in the book...
"Does that an sothing happened to Earth after my death?" he muttered as a cold shiver ran down his spine.
"Sothing altered its geography and everything?... What the fuck is going on here?" he muttered with a lost and slightly fearful expression.
Not sure why he felt this fear, but... sothing dreadful was slowly rising in his chest.
All this ti, he thought that book was written by soone like him, but now... everything was collapsing.
"Earth... Earth... Origins... Did scientists create all of this?" he muttered with a lost tone, looking around the space and dragons... those were mythological figures in the books.
What if scientists on Earth actually created sothing after his death and... which led to the current situation here?
Geography changed, humans mutated, a variety of creatures created... so many things!
"Origin... Now that fits their na, doesn’t it?" he muttered with a sarcastic tone, thinking Earth humans were the start of everything, so that’s why they had the na Origin...
Then what about this Mother and Arcane?
"Maybe... just maybe, they were test subjects too?" he muttered, as if connecting invisible threads in the dark.
What if... Mother and Arcane were actually once human, forced to undergo so twisted mutation because of the scientists?
It’s not like it’s impossible, right?
Even back then, when he was alive, he rembered—so scientist had created a fucking virus that wiped out millions of people.
He was there, scraping by, barely surviving each day, never enough food, and always that gnawing fear. He never took the vaccination, afraid it might be just another sche by the sa scientists.
So to his eyes, anything was possible after that!
Those fucked-up scientists and those greedy business emperors could’ve done sothing monstrous, sothing that led to the creation of Mother and Arcane.
"After all, the video of that scientist terrified of Arcane... and those gunshots echoing in the dark... sigh, now everything makes sense," Aether sighed, feeling the puzzle pieces slowly snapping together in his mind.
If so... does that an the people he loved, the ones he used to love, were here once too?
Wait... Arcane and Mother did ntion his soul had been brought to another world.
What if—what if it was right here, before everything changed?
After all, he could move through ti, right?
Does that an... his friends, his family... his ex—were they here before?
What happened to them?
Did they die?
Did they suffer?
Aether’s chest tightened, sweat beading on his brow, a clammy chill running through his veins.
Everything was possible... so maybe this was too.
Manipulation?
But... What if... what if he was the one being manipulated?
A cold chill ran along his spine. He rembered... he’d been kidnapped by organ traffickers, right?
What if they’d decided to put his brain into so kind of experint... made him their test subject?
What if none of this was real?
Aether’s pupils dilated as he stared at his trembling, damp hand. His body shook... For an instant, he felt sothing shift around him... the air flickered, reality seed to peel away.
His eyes widened in horror as the world snapped into the harsh, sterile glow of a laboratory.
He couldn’t move an inch, but he could see everything.
Figures in white coats, drifting past, their voices muffled, their laughter echoing off tile and glass. They moved between machines, checked charts, poked and prodded as if he wasn’t there, as if none of them noticed him trapped inside.
And then—
Bubble~
A bubble floated into his vision, strange and clear. He blinked, trying to focus, and as he moved closer, he saw it—the curved, cold surface of... glass?
He stared into the tank beyond the glass.
He saw... a brain, suspended in a tube of pale, swirling fluid, dozens of wires snaking out from the tissue, pulsing with light, feeding sowhere deep into the shadowy machinery.
Aether felt a suffocating pressure, as if he’d been subrged in that fluid tube for decades. His senses trembled, nerves screaming—pain... suffering... and the terror of being utterly lost.
Suddenly, the room where the people stood was swallowed by red alarm lights. Sirens blared!!
Everyone was panicking, their faces turning toward him—Just then, Aether’s vision froze in cold fear when he saw... that man—
[You’re dreaming a lot, aren’t you?]
"GASP!!!"
Aether suddenly gasped, dragging in a breath as if he’d been drowning, holding it for a lifeti... no, for a thousand lifetis.
He panted, chest heaving, eyes darting around—he was still on the balcony.
Not inside a tube... Not a helpless test subject.
Everything... looked and felt normal!
Yet,
"T-That felt so... vivid." He muttered, voice cold and shaken as he stared at his fear-drenched hand, legs still trembling.
How could he rember that man after all this ti?
W-Why?
What’s going on here?
[You keep dreaming and soon you’ll beco a 🤡🫨]
Aether blinked, hearing that voice again in his mind. He shook his head, annoyance flickering across his face. "Look who decided to talk..."
But the voice gave no reply. Aether’s lips twisted into a smirk. "Log... If you were a real person, I swear—I’d spank your ass until it turned into a peach!" he snapped, half furious, half exasperated.
[🫰]
Aether snorted, shaking his head. Maybe he was just lost in his thoughts, chasing too many possibilities, too many what-ifs.
He took a deep breath, glancing at his hand, still clenched tight around the gun. "Terra Empire, Void Empire... and Rosavere. All three are connected," he muttered, eyes narrowing with resolve.
He couldn’t visit the Void Empire anymore, and Terra—he still hadn’t managed contact.
No choice left except Rosavere.
She was the only key to these endless questions, to all the things he’d lost.
He tightened his grip on the gun. He needed to act—especially about this woman. But he didn’t know her true weakness... except for one possibility.
"Maybe I should’ve talked to that receptionist," he muttered, a serious edge to his tone, glancing up at the sky where strange changes moved through the clouds, numbers shifting softly in the dusk.
But sothing deep down told him... this was going to be the fucking countdown for all of them.
Aether drew in a steadying breath before shrugging off the chill. "Let’s put those things aside... Can’t have my wives worrying about all the ti," he thought. After all, his anxiety and confusion were starting to show, and that was why his wives always tried to steady him. He needed to control his—
"Hmm?" Aether frowned, catching sight of Thalia walking across the yard with a determined, almost grim look—hauling a punching bag over her shoulder.
"What’s she doing out there?" he muttered.
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