Aether’s POV
There was a saying in this world... In war, the ones who truly get hurt are never the rulers, never the ones who command from above.
It is always the innocent!
No matter what na that war carries; Protection, Revenge, Reclamation, Salvation, Justice... whatever noble mask it wears, war itself never truly needs a reason.
All it needs is a path.
A path carved by ambition.
A path paved by greed.
And along that path, the ones trampled beneath are those who had nothing to do with any of it.
They break... They cry... They run without direction, without protection, reduced to at shields, to toys, to disposable pieces in a ga they never agreed to play.
In the eyes of war, they are not even considered human.
Their laughter turns into screams in a single second... Their warm hos collapse in a single snap... Their love, their future, their promises are severed by a single blade.
Everything shatters because of just one thing... one fucking war.
Today was supposed to be a grand day.
A day of blessing.
A day where hope filled every street and every heart.
It was ant to be happiness.
Y-Yet... yet that happiness shattered.
"Arrrhhhh!!"
"S-Stop— please, stop—!"
Chucckk!
"NO!! Don’t—!"
The white ceremonial clothes people wore only monts ago were now soaked in red, stained by the blood of their own friends, their own families.
Screams tore through the streets as tallic figures advanced without hesitation. Their forms were sleek and terrifyingly refined, structured with a precision I had never seen before.
PUFFF!
Their chanical hands gripped tallic guns that humd with a low, vibrating nace. The barrels lifted smoothly, almost elegantly, toward a man desperately trying to flee.
"N-No, please, I beg you— NO—!"
BOOM!
His body exploded into p-pieces, flesh and bone scattering across the bloody ground.
"..."
I... I stared blankly at the nightmare unfolding before .
It felt distant and yet suffocatingly close, as if the world had narrowed into this single scene of slaughter.
My entire body froze. I could not move even an inch. It felt as if... as if death itself had locked its gaze onto , pressing down on my chest until I could barely breathe.
I had died before.
Many tis.
I believed I understood death.
I believed I had grown accustod to it.
But this... this was different.
My eyes trembled uncontrollably. My heart pounded so violently it hurt.
A freezing sensation spread through my nerves, crawling beneath my skin, filling from the inside as though ice had replaced my blood.
Those tallic figures dragged my people like animals. They shoved them, kicked them, played with them before pulling the trigger.
To them, this was nothing more than a task.
M-Motherfuckers!
"Hu... hu... ha..."
My breathing turned ragged as I forced my body to move, my vision burning red with fury.
Yet before I could take a step—
"Aether!"
Helena grabbed from behind and held tightly. I tried to wrench free, but her grip was stronger than I expected.
"Please, don’t move," she said, "You’re wounded. If you go out there like this, you’ll die. Please... just stay here."
Her words never reached my ears, as the ringing in my ear drowned everything out.
I turned to her slowly.
"Helena... let go," I said painfully, "I-I can’t stay here... I can’t hide while they’re dying out there.
I won’t be a c-coward."
She tightened her grip instead of releasing . Her hands trembled against my shoulders.
"No," she whispered, shaking her head.
Why?
WHY?
I looked into her eyes.
All I saw was... fear!
God damn Fear and Weakness!
The once fearless girl who could defeat anyone now looked cornered, like a hunted animal trapped with nowhere to run.
Tears stread down her face, mixing with streaks of blood that stained her cheeks.
She was terrified... Not of the enemy.
Of losing !
"HELP US, ARCHPRIEST!!"
The desperate cry cut through the ringing in my ears like a blade.
I flinched violently.
They need .
T-They need their Archpriest!
They are calling for !!
"I am their Archpriest," I muttered, my voice breaking. "Helena, they need ... They need us. We can’t just watch this happen."
She shook her head harder, tears kept coming from her eyes as if she was scared to let go even for a second.
"Please forgive ... please forgive ... please forgive ..."
She kept whispering under her breath, guilt and desperation etched across her face.
I could not hear every word clearly, but I understood enough.
Enough...
She did not have a choice.
She was trying to protect what little remained of .
But I was already broken... Already half useless.
Y-Yet... I couldn’t possibly stay here? Hide myself!
"They were calling ," I said quietly, "Even if I’m in pain... I have to stand for them... I am their Archpriest!"
Helena clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white. She nodded weakly as she cried harder, blood and tears mixing together, yet she still refused to release .
I looked at her for a few long seconds... The chaos behind her blurred.
Then I made my choice.
In the next instant, I vanished from her arms, using the only skill I could still command.
Helena stumbled forward in shock as her hands grasped nothing but air.
Thuck!
My face slamd into the blood-soaked ground. The impact sent a sharp pain through my skull, and the tallic scent of blood filled my nose.
Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself up from the slick surface. The stone beneath was covered in a thick layer of red, warm and sticky against my palm.
When I lifted my head, I saw them.
People running in every direction, their faces twisted with terror, hunted relentlessly by those cold, tallic figures advancing without rcy.
"S-Stop, you fuckers!" I shouted as I tried to stand, pulling my sword from storage and forcing myself upright, using it as a walking stick while gritting my teeth against the pain tearing through my body.
"A-Archpriest? What happened to you?"
A woman noticed and rushed to my side, trying to support as I struggled to balance.
I gave her a weak smile.
"Y-You need to leave..." I told her, urging her to escape, but she only smiled painfully in return.
"Look at you... You’re so hurt. Is it painful?" she asked, her voice trembling with worry, even though her own body was badly wounded, blood soaking through her torn clothes.
I could barely hear her clearly through the ringing in my ears, but I could see it in her eyes. She was more concerned about than herself.
"..." I had no words. My vision blurred as tears gathered in my eyes.
I nodded faintly.
"Y-You need to leave—"
BOOM!
PUFFF!!
"..." Warm flesh and blood splashed across my face. The woman who had been standing before a second ago was gone.
Erased!
Strands of flesh slid down from my forehead as I slowly looked at my hand.
A piece of her hand still rested there... Just flesh.
Nothing more.
Yet I felt its weight.
A painfully heavy weight.
Suddenly, my world tilted violently.
BOOM!!
The ground where I had stood exploded into fragnts, stone and blood scattering into the air.
I blinked and then noticed... I... I was in Sera’s embrace, who saved before the beam would hit and burst into pieces.
She stared at with cold, furious eyes.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she shouted.
I could not hear the words clearly, but I saw them in her expression, in the way her lips moved sharply.
She moved swiftly while holding , her body just as heavily wounded as everyone else’s. Blood stread down her arm, yet she did not slow down.
"S-Sera? Let go... I need to... I need..."
"What can you even do?" She shouted at ; those words pierced through the ringing in my ears.
I... I blinked... Yeah... what can I do?
Soone had died in front of , and I could not protect them.
What could I possibly accomplish like this?
Sera looked at more gently then, pain softening her features as she bit her lip.
"Y-You did your best to protect us..." she said sothing more, but none of it reached my ears through the relentless ringing.
"I told Helena to hide you... fuck that bitch!" Sera shouted angrily as she leapt away from a collapsing beam, rolling across the blood-soaked ground while still keeping secured in one arm.
All I could do was lie there in her hold, useless.
Everything we had built was crumbling.
And I could not do a single thing.
A useless man.
A nobody.
As Sera carried through the chaos... sothing entered my mind... sothing that made realise... how fucking weak we were,
I watched people being blasted apart without rcy.
None of them possessed any power capable of resisting these tallic monsters.
They ran only to survive, abandoning everything else.
"..."
"... What did they do, Sera?" I asked weakly. "What sin did they commit to deserve this punishnt?" I asked her painfully... painfully pain!
These people had never hard anyone. Compared to other Empires, they were gentle.
They would not even crush an ant without reason.
Yet... now they were hunted like animals.
Sera kept running.
She smiled at painfully and said sothing, but it did not reach my ears.
My gaze dropped as she tried to take sowhere safer. Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw her.
The pregnant woman stumbled forward, one hand gripping her swollen stomach, the other reaching blindly for help that was not there. Her breathing was ragged, her steps uneven, blood trailing behind her like a nightmare.
Behind her, the tallic figure advanced without haste. In its chanical grip, the rotating saw spun with a violent whine, teeth glinting coldly as it aligned perfectly with the curve of her abdon.
"N-No... she’s not going to make it!" I shouted in horror.
Without thinking, I shoved Sera away with what little strength remained in . My wounded body crashed against the ground, pain exploding through my ribs, but I forced myself up.
Sera collapsed beside and shouted, "Aether!!"
Step.
My left leg trembled violently as I pushed down on it. Veins bulged beneath torn skin. A sharp cracking sound echoed as bone strained under unbearable pressure. The ground beneath my foot fractured from the force I poured into that single motion.
STEP!!
Every nerve in my body scread in protest... My vision blurred. Blood dripped from my chin.
The world narrowed into a single line between her and .
The saw was inches away.
Ti seed to stretch, the spinning blade reflecting the terrified widening of the woman’s eyes.
The rotating saw was inches from her stomach.
Sssshhh...
Like a violent gust tearing through the battlefield, I swept her into with one arm and pivoted entirely on that single right leg.
"Arhh!"
The torque ripped through his hip and spine, a raw, tearing sensation that nearly made black out.
With only one leg to stabilise, it was so much pain that I almost stumbled and broke my thighs... but sohow... freaking sohow I managed to halt before falling down or even let her fall down.
We finally stopped.
"Ha... ha..."
My breathing burned like glass in my lungs. My right leg trembled violently, barely keeping upright as I pushed myself up enough to look at her face.
She was pale.
Too pale.
Yet she smiled.
A faint, fragile smile.
"A-Archprie..s..t..."
Her trembling hand rose toward my cheek.
"You... ca..."
Before her fingers could touch , her arm fell limp.
Her eyes turned lifeless.
"O-Oi... Oi, are you alrig—"
My voice cracked. I shifted her slightly, trying to support her better.
That was when I felt it.
Too light... There was sothing wrong.
My gaze dropped slowly...
... A-A clean, rciless cut divided her body at the waist. The lower half had not moved with them. It remained several feet away, collapsed where the saw had claid it.
My mind refused to understand.
"I was fast enough..." I whispered, breath hitching. "I was fast..."
I had moved before the blade touched her. I had reached her before it could carve into her stomach.
But... I-I was late!!
O-OH MY—
Sluccckk...
From the torn remains of her body, sothing slipped free.... Sothing small. Sothing slick and red.
It hit the ground with a wet sound that echoed louder than the explosions around .
Ba-dump!
My heart skipped violently. My entire body trembled. Every instinct scread at not to look down.
Do not look.
No matter what, DO NOT LOOK!!
My vision blurred with tears. My breathing turned ragged. My single standing leg shook uncontrollably.
My jaw rattled so hard my teeth clattered together like a typewriter striking keys without rhythm.
P-Please...
No...
No... please...
I tightened my eyes for a second, but they would not listen.
Slowly... painfully... they moved downward.
As if sothing inside commanded it.
Look at it!
SEE THIS!!
As if my own eyes betrayed .
As if they wanted to carve the truth into my mind forever.
And then—
I saw it.
My breath stopped completely.
The world narrowed into that single image on the blood-soaked ground.
"Ar... AAARRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The scream tore out of . Not from my throat alone. It ripped from my chest, my lungs, my spine, from the deepest pit of my existence.
It felt like sothing inside split open as the sound erupted.
Sothing inside kept screaming even after my voice broke.
This was a nightmare.
A nightmare layered upon another nightmare. If I-I just woke up, this would end.
It had to end.
T-This had to be a dream, right?
I must be dreaming.
I must be...
I must...
My vision drained of colour, turning black and white like a flickering television screen losing signal.
The small, bloody flesh on the ground flickered between dark and pale. Black. White. Black. White. Over and over again, painfully, violently, like reality itself was glitching.
The screams around distorted. The light warped. The edges of everything trembled.
The image kept flashing.
Black.
White.
Black.
White.
Until—
Thud!
Everything went dark.
No sound. No color... No pain.
Just nothing.
Empty.
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