Aether’s POV
... It felt heavy.
Sothing pressed against my chest, crushing and suffocating... so painful!
Why was I feeling this?
W-Where was I?
I... I could not feel a single thing properly.
My body, my eyelids... even my fingertips felt distant, as though they belonged to soone else.
Everything seed unbearably heavy and...
Pain?
Why was I in pain?
What had been taken from ?
I... I don’t get it... What these pains were...
BO....!
"AARR...."
"RU...."
Did I... hear sothing?
"SO..."
"ARH..."
Why did those voices hurt?
Why did each feel pain and loss?
Why?
"Arh.."
A weak groan escaped my lips.
I felt them part, dry and trembling, they were still there... though I still could not open my eyes or command my body to move. My limbs refused to respond, as though I had been nailed into place.
I... I did not understand where the voices were coming from.
I... I did not understand... where I was.
I... I did not understand why the pain kept spreading.
I... I did not—
What... was that?
Revenge? What was it talking about? Who was "they"?
Where was I?
Why were these words seeping into as though they belonged inside my head?
W-What was ant to be theirs?
What are you talking about? Stop speaking in riddles and tell what the hell was happening.
"WAK—"
What was this bitch talking about? Creators’ Beginning? Creations’ Ending? Creators.... What the fuck...
I... I don’t know bitch... how the fuck I know if you keep treating us like a little rat in your whole damn experints, fuckers!
"WAK—"
Just tell us already—
"WAKE UP, AETHER!!!"
The scream shattered everything.
"GASP!!"
I gasped violently as air tore into my lungs. My chest convulsed, and I sucked in breath after breath as though I had been drowning for hours. My vision flickered, blurred shapes swimming before .
I shook my head a bit as the blur disappeared, revealing,
"H-Helena?" My voice cracked, disbelief tightening my throat.
Her face was streaked with blood. It ran from her hairline down her cheek, dripping from her jaw.
Her breaths ca in ragged pulls, and tears clung stubbornly to her lashes before spilling down.
She pulled into her arms with desperate strength as her body trembled against mine.
"I-I th... thought I lost you," she choked, her voice breaking apart between sobs. "You weren’t breathing. You wouldn’t move. I kept calling you, and y-you just... You just lay t-there.... I... I..."
Was she... talking? Because all I could truly hear was the high, relentless ringing screaming inside my ears.
BBEEEEEEEEEE!!!
It felt as if sothing had exploded in my ears, and that kept ringing!
Still, her cries made my heart clench... sothing definitely happened.
I forced myself to look around.
We were crouched behind what looked like a shattered wooden slab, splintered and blackened.
In front of stood rows of trees, their trunks swaying violently... Leaves scattered through the air as if sothing was going on here.
Sothing they are trying to tell ... sothing deadly was happening around .
"W-What... What happened?" I managed to ask her, "Helena... why does everything look like this? Why can’t I hear properly?"
She tightened her hold on , her fingers digging into my shoulders as though afraid I would vanish again. Her lips moved quickly, urgently, but the ringing swallowed every word.
BBEEEEEEEEEE!
The sound in my ears would not stop. I gripped my head, teeth clenched as pain flared sharply behind my eyes.
My thoughts scrambled, searching for the last clear mory.
We had been standing together... There had been lights, voices, and celebration.
O-Our official engagent?
Right!
I rembered Helena smiling at , radiant and shy despite the crowd. I rembered reaching for her hand and dancing...
Then...
Then...
My eyes slowly shifted from a tight frown to widening apart in utter disbelief, the haze clearing just enough for reality to sink its claws into .
We were under attack?
"W-What’s going on here, Helena?!" I shouted as I tried to stand up, forcing my single arm to push against the shattered ground beneath .
"ARHH!!"
A violent scream tore from my throat when a savage shiver shot up my spine from my leg.
Fuck!
I looked down.
My eyes widened in disbelief when I saw... My right leg was gone.
For a mont, my mind refused to understand what my eyes were seeing. There was no blood spraying, no dramatic horror.
Torn flesh, charred edges, and nothing below my thigh.
W-What?
My face drained of colour as my trembling hand instinctively reached down, trying to feel what was no longer there. Before I could touch the ruined flesh, Helena caught my head in both of her hands and gently forced my gaze upward.
Her smile was soft, painfully soft, as though she were trying to hold the world together with it.
"A-Aether... look at ," she whispered, "Look at , darling... p-please."
I... I did not hear what she was trying to say.
Yet she was crying in pain...
I could not understand why she was so desperate to keep my eyes on her. Her fingers trembled against my skin, her grip firm yet tender, as if she believed that if I looked away even for a second, sothing inside would shatter beyond repair. She pulled into her chest, pressing my head against her shoulder, her body shaking with silent grief.
PUEEEEEEEEEEE!!
A blinding blue beam shot into the sky, piercing through smoke and debris like a falling star in reverse.... It was breathtakingly beautiful~
For a fleeting second, I found myself srised by it.
Wait... I... I saw this before.
Clickk...
Sothing sharp pressed into my right hand.
I glanced down and saw dozens of fractured crystals and shattered transparent bottles scattered across the ground beside .
Those crystals... Weren’t they Origin crystals and Healing potions?
What’s going on here-
Under the blue light, I saw my reflection in the polished surface of a crystal.
Half of my face had been burned black and red, hair crisped into brittle strands. Skin had peeled away in places, exposing raw flesh streaked with darkened blood that slowly dripped down my jaw.
I stared at that ruined stranger with hollow eyes.
mory returned like a blade sliding back into an open wound.
In the final second before the explosion swallowed the stage, I had activated my skill and pushed everyone away. Helena... Sera... The High Priests... The four children who had been standing too close to the edge.
I had moved them all in less than a heartbeat.
I had saved them.
"Right... I took the hit when I tried to save the last one... right," I muttered, my voice distant even to myself.
Looking at the empty bottles and cracked crystals, I understood. Helena had used everything she had to keep alive.
She had not had enough to restore my leg.
"H-Helena... are you hurt?" I asked quietly, ignoring my painfully burned-up face.
She nodded quickly, her lips trembling into a broken smile. "I-I am fine..."
I could not hear her, not truly. The ringing swallowed her voice, but her expression said enough.
She was lying.
Still, she was smiling at ... what a wonderful soul you are...
"Move," I said quietly, "I need to see what’s going on."
I tried to shift forward, but Helena shook her head furiously.
"Helena."
My voice turned colder.
She swallowed painfully, biting her lower lip until it bled, still shaking her head as if refusing to let see sothing unforgivable.
This was not working.... I needed to know what the hell was happening.
I tried to push her aside, but even injured, she held down with surprising strength.
"Helena!!" I shouted at her for the first ti in my life with a furious expression.
She flinched as if struck, her eyes squeezing shut, tears slipping past her lashes while she continued shaking her head.
W-Why?
For so reason, I started to feel... sothing deep.
My heart began pounding violently against my ribs.
Every ti she refused sothing, it made more anxious... and more fearful.
"W-What’s going on... Hel, please..."
Before I could finish my words... A flicker of bright flas caught the corner of my eye.
I turned despite her grip, and what I saw froze my heart...
A man stood engulfed in blazing fire, his body writhing as flas devoured his clothes and skin. The fire glowed bright orange against the smoke-filled air, crackling violently around him.
He seed to be screaming in agony, yet no sound reached .
His mouth opened wide, his eyes wild and desperate.
Yet none of them reached ... The ringing in my ears swallowed his agony whole.
Through the flas, his eyes found mine.
He walked towards in pain, as he shouted... for help?
He began stumbling toward , each step slow and tortured, as if he were trying to reach .... Trying to say sothing.
Then his knees buckled.
Thud.
He collapsed as the flas swallowed him completely.
Helena released and rushed toward him without hesitation, trying to smother the flas with her bare hands. She ignored the way the fire scorched her palms, desperately patting at his burning body, trying to save what could not be saved.
The flas did not lessen.
The man lifted his head one final ti. His scorched eyes found mine again... His lips parted again, forming words I would never hear.
But I saw the faint curve at the edge of his mouth... At the very end, He smiled?
Then the fire consud his face completely.
I did not move. I did not think. I simply stared at that final expression carved into my mory.
What did he say?
WHAT THE FUCK DID HE SAY?!
My breath grew shallow as anger replaced the emptiness. It spread through my veins like poison.
My eyes burned as I looked toward Helena, who still fought the flas even though there was nothing left to save.
The man was already dead, and yet she kept trying.
He was dead... And he had died smiling.
I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood, and with clenched teeth, I forced myself upright.
With my remaining leg, I stood.
Pain scread through my body, but I ignored it.
I leaned forward, peeking over the shattered remains of the stage.
and... and the sight that greeted stole what little breath I had left.
"Oh... oh my god..."
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