Chapter 1835: Even if the world refused to accept you… I would, Aether.

"So... you chose HIM."

"The one who will bring destruction upon this world."

The chain tore through the ruined landscape as she moved away, continuing,

"The one who will finally end this place for you."

"The one who does not hesitate when blood must be spilled."

"The one who is willing to carry every accusation placed upon his shoulders."

The chains suddenly changed direction.

She barely avoided them.

"The one who will allow the entire world to hate him so that you never have to admit how much you hate it yourself."

The black armour disappeared and appeared directly before her.

She barely had time to raise her staff.

The black armour’s hand seized her throat.

His fingers tightened around her neck as he lifted her effortlessly from the ground.

Her feet kicked helplessly above the broken earth.

His ice-blue eyes stared into hers.

"Talking will not get you anywhere."

Prophetess merely looked at him through the pain, her breathing ragged from the countless deaths she had already endured, yet her voice remained strangely calm despite knowing exactly what would happen to her next.

"L-Look at you... Y-You deceived yourself so completely that you cannot even tell whether you are merely acting anymore, or... whether you have actually become one with him."

The black armour’s neck twitched.

"You even hurt your own wife, the woman you once swore to protect with everything you had."

A faint sadness entered her voice.

"And you felt nothing when you did it. Not hesitation, not regret, not even the smallest tremor of guilt that might have reminded you that she was someone you once loved."

"How long do you honestly think you can keep going like th—ARH!"

Before she could finish, the black armour’s hand tightened around her head.

He twisted her neck with the same casual brutality as if someone opened the water bottle cap.

CRACK!

Her neck twisted as she died in his arms again.

Yet,

A new manifestation appeared at the intersection of the ruined roads several metres away, her wooden staff already resting against the ground.

"You became a vessel for everything that touched your life."

Her eyes remained fixed upon him.

"Every person you admired, every person you feared, every person you loved, every person who hurt you, and every person you desperately wanted to become worthy of..."

She tightened her grip around the staff.

"You carried pieces of all of them inside yourself."

Her voice became quieter.

"And yet, after carrying so much of everyone else, you slowly became almost nothing of yourself. Forgotten and lost of your inner child!"

His boots slammed into the ruined ground.

BOOM!

Reality itself folded beneath his foot as though space had suddenly become soft enough to bend.

The next instant, his body disappeared.

Prophetess’s eyes widened.

The black armour reappeared directly before her.

His fist was already moving.

BOOM!

She crossed her staff in front of herself just in time.

The impact sent her flying backwards.

The black armour did not give her time to recover.

The chain tore through the air.

Prophetess spun sideways.

BOOM!

The road exploded.

Prophetess used the force of the explosion to propel herself upward.

She flipped through the air, planted one foot against a floating fragment of stone, and changed direction.

The black armour’s fist passed beneath her.

She landed behind him.

But before she could strike, his elbow slammed backwards.

CRACK!

The impact caught her across the ribs.

Her body folded around the blow and was launched through the remains of a ruined building.

The entire structure collapsed around her.

The black armour walked through the falling debris.

"You think your tricky words will change anything?"

Prophetess emerged from the rubble, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"No."

She slowly raised her staff.

"I know words cannot change what he has already done. But sometimes the truth does not need to change the past."

She planted the staff against the ground.

"It only needs to survive long enough to reach the person who has been running from it."

The prophetess stared into his glowing eyes.

"Yes..."

She looked directly at him.

"The world demanded far too much from you."

"All you ever wanted was to find some forgotten corner of existence where nobody demanded anything from you."

She stepped forward.

"You wanted somewhere quiet enough that nobody would ask you to perform."

Another step.

"You wanted to laugh without wondering whether you were laughing correctly."

Another step.

"You wanted to love without fearing that your love is not fake"

Her voice became increasingly painful.

"You wanted to be just happy."

She looked at him.

"And yet nothing ever goes the way we need it to."

"That is how these worlds work."

"That is how life moves, whether we understand it or not... We are just pawns of the universe."

The black armour suddenly disappeared.

He appeared behind her.

His hand closed around her head.

CRUSH!

He cursed her head into paste!

Yet another Prophetess appeared several metres away.

She took a slow breath.

"A-And y-yet... You still don’t understand what you became."

"You were never truly afraid of becoming a monster."

"You... were afraid that the monster was the only part of yourself that was honest!!!"

This time... his expression changed as if those last words hit him deeper than he thought.

She raised her staff.

"Tell me..."

Her voice echoed through the ruined world.

"Who are you?"

Two mirrors suddenly appeared on either side of the black armour.

The first mirror reflected a radiant figure.

White robes... Aether surrounded by holy light.

His expression carried warmth as he protected people beneath his power.

The second mirror reflected something entirely different.

Aether stood surrounded by darkness.

His expression was cold.

His hands were stained with blood.

Around him lay the remnants of the people he had annihilated.

Prophetess shouted,

"Are you the one who protects the lives of everyone?"

The white reflection showed Aether shielding people from destruction.

"Forgives the betrayer, heals them when they are wounded, stands before them when danger approaches, and accepts their gratitude even when he secretly believes he does not deserve it?"

The radiant Aether stood among people who worshipped him.

"Or are you the one who takes the lives of everyone?"

The dark Aether walked through a world drowned in blood, leaving destruction in his wake. Cities burned beneath his feet. Bodies lay scattered across the earth.

"No forgiveness, no betrayal, no hesitation, no regrets and no more pain. Because if there is no one left to betray you... If there is no one left to disappoint you... If there is no one left to lose... Then you will never have to suffer again. And perhaps that is what you truly wanted all along. To stand above everyone."

"To become something no one could ever judge... no one could ever abandon... no one could ever hurt."

"Which one are you, Aether?"

"..." The black armour turned silent as if he already knew the truth.

And that silence was enough for the prophetess to nod,

"Indeed... Both of them belong to you."

"I know you are in there listening to me."

Prophetess struck the ground with her staff.

BOOM!

The two mirrors expanded.

Their surfaces rippled.

Then the images multiplied.

The radiant Aether protected his people.

He healed them.

He stood between them and destruction.

He received their gratitude.

Their prayers.

Their blessings.

Their worship.

Then the other reflection appeared.

The dark Aether walked through burning cities.

He destroyed everything standing before him.

People screamed.

People begged.

Some prayed for mercy.

Others prayed for his death.

The images overlapped.

Blessings collided with screams.

Worship mixed with hatred.

Gratitude collided with fear.

"..."

Suddenly, the black armour’s breathing became heavier.

His hands slowly lowered.

He stared at them.

The blackness surrounding his body had begun moving.

It slowly retreated from his fingers.

Darkness started to crawl backward across his armour like living ink before sinking into his body without any command from him.

The black armour stared at it.

"Tsk"

He understood... his time had reached!

But this bitch didn’t seem to stop.

"How long do you think you can keep wearing that mask?"

"All of this happened because you never accepted your darker side."

"You accepted the part of yourself that wanted to protect."

"You accepted the part of yourself that wanted to save people."

"You even learned how to call that side righteous."

She stared directly at him.

"But whenever you looked toward the darkest part of yourself, you treated it like something filthy that needed to be hidden."

"You felt disgusted by it."

"You refused to touch it."

"You refused to understand it."

"And eventually, you created a mask that allowed you to pretend that the darkness belonged to someone else."

"..." The black armour remained silent... Those were indeed true.

Prophetess stepped forward.

"You wanted him to commit those disgusting acts so that you could blame everything on him."

"You wanted him to carry the sins that you were too afraid to acknowledge as your own."

"You wanted him to become the monster so that you could continue believing that there was still something pure left inside you."

She stared into his eyes.

"But tell me something, Aether."

Her voice softened.

"If you cannot even love yourself completely..."

She paused.

"...then who do you think will ever be able to love you?"

"..."

Then Prophetess smiled faintly.

"Oh... Right. There is someone."

She paused.

"Actually..."

Her smile became strangely sad.

"There are two."

The mirrors suddenly changed.

The radiant figure disappeared.

The dark figure disappeared.

In their place appeared two children.

Two small figures standing beside Aether.

Ba-dump... Ba-dump...

His heart beat faster.

"Do you remember them?"

"They never asked you which side you belonged to."

"They never asked you to become someone stronger, kinder, purer, or more useful."

"They simply accepted the person who stood before them... even after seeing who you are."

The black armour’s fingers slowly curled.

Prophetess looked at him with sorrow.

"And perhaps that is why you cannot look away from them."

The blackness around his armour flickered.

"These children... accepted you exactly as you were, yet you kept running from that acceptance, desperately wearing an ugly mask to hide the parts of yourself you could never bring yourself to own."

Prophetess’s voice trembled with anger and disappointment as she stared at him.

"You kept pretending that those parts of you belonged to someone else, as though separating yourself from them would somehow make you innocent."

Her eyes narrowed.

"How pathetic..."

"Tell me, Aether... who are they to you?"

She glanced toward the two children reflected within the mirrors.

"Are they the ones who loved you for who you are?"

"Or are they the ones you wished to protect because they were the children of a friend you could never bring yourself to abandon?"

"..."

Aether did not answer.

The black armour surrounding his body began vibrating faster and faster, the plates trembling against one another as though something beneath them was struggling violently to break free.

Prophetess watched the armour carefully.

"Did you forget that there is still one life waiting for you to come back and see her?"

Her voice became quieter.

"Or did you simply stop caring because, for once, you finally felt free?"

The mirrors changed.

The image of Lily appeared.

She was curled up inside the cage, her knees pulled tightly against her chest as tears streamed down her face.

She looked frightened and utterly alone.

Prophetess looked at Aether.

"You know what she is waiting for, don’t you?"

"..."

The black armour continued vibrating.

The Prophetess slowly removed her hoodie, revealing her ugly face. She felt ashamed and disgusted showing her face before now... Yet despite it all, a small, gentle smile appeared upon her lips.

"Yes... I am ugly, but I didn’t wear a mask. This is me. I can say it. What about you? Who are you, child?"

Ba-dump!!

Aether’s heart beat faster.

Her lips softly trembled, "And even if the world refused to accept you... I would, Aether. Because I know you."

She lowered her gaze for a moment.

Then, in the next instant, he appeared directly before the Prophetess.

She instinctively stepped backwards.

The black armour stood silently before her.

His ice-blue eyes burned beneath the helmet.

"Make sure you run the next time we meet."

Before she could respond, the black armour’s hand shot forward.

CHUCKKK!

His arm plunged directly through her chest.

His fingers pierced through flesh and bone before closing around her still-beating heart.

He pulled his hand backwards.

The heart came free in his grasp, fresh blood running hot between his fingers. Its surface was already crawling with hundreds of pale, bloated worms, writhing and twisting over one another as though the organ had been left to rot in some forgotten grave for years.

They burrowed into the pulsing flesh, disappearing beneath it before emerging again, their tiny bodies glistening with blood and rainbow fluid.

The Prophetess’s body staggered from the sudden wound.

Blood spilled from her mouth.

Her staff slipped from her fingers.

A faint smile appeared through the blood staining her lips.

"T-There..."

She coughed, blood spilling down her chin.

"...won’t be a next time."

Her body began breaking apart.

"... I hope"

Then she disappeared completely.

The heart in the black armour’s hand dissolved into particles before vanishing.

He stared at the empty space where she had stood.

He gave a quiet snort.

The black armour covering his body began losing its shape.

The dark plates trembled before flowing backwards, sinking into his flesh.

Aether’s unconscious body emerged from beneath the armour.

His skin was burned in several places.

Deep wounds covered his body.

There were marks across his arms, shoulders, chest, and back where the armour’s power had apparently torn through him from within.

His body swayed.

Then his knees gave way.

He collapsed.

But before he could strike the ground, Prophetess appeared once more.

She caught him in her arms.

For a moment, she simply looked down at him.

The terrifying figure who had killed her countless times now looked almost unrecognisable.

There was no overwhelming presence.

No murderous aura.

No black armour.

Only an unconscious man whose body had paid the price for the power he had forced through it.

Prophetess gently touched his burned skin.

A soft white light gathered around her fingertips.

She slowly moved her hand across his wounds.

The light spread over his body.

The damaged flesh began repairing itself.

Burned skin gradually regenerated.

Once she was certain that he would survive, Prophetess stared at his sleeping face for several seconds.

Her expression became difficult to read.

Pity?

Sadness?

Perhaps even regret?

She gently pulled a clean white robe over his body, covering him before standing.

Then she raised her hand.

SNAP!

Reality split open.

Prophetess carefully pushed Aether through the opening.

His unconscious body slipped through the fractured space.

Then the reality sealed itself behind him.

Aevum’s voice echoed through the empty realm.

"Is that all?"

Prophetess stood alone within the ruined world.

She looked toward the place where Aether had disappeared.

"Yeah... Now the nature will take its course."

She lowered her staff.

"Whatever happens next is no longer something I can choose for him."

With those words, Prophetess slowly fell down as she took a deep breath...

"Let me rest... ah.."

***

**

Meanwhile...

Thud!

Aether’s body landed heavily upon scorched ground.

Dust rose around him.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then his fingers twitched.

His chest suddenly rose.

"GASP!!"

Aether inhaled violently.

His eyes snapped open.

His ice-blue eyes stared blankly toward the sky as he struggled to breathe.

His lungs burned.

His entire body felt unbearably heavy.

He slowly pushed himself upright.

"..."

His expression slowly changed.

He recognised this place.

He remembered what had happened here.

He remembered the power that had erupted from his body.

He... He... remembered the destruction that followed.

The unbearable silence that came afterwards.

Aether slowly began to rise to his feet when something caught his attention.

A child was standing beside him.

"W-What are you... ah..." Aether’s voice faltered. "What are you doing here?"

He reached toward the child,

"L-Leave this place. You shouldn’t be here."

But the moment his fingers touched the child’s leg—

Sshh~

His palm passed straight through.

!!!

Aether froze.

Slowly, he lowered his trembling hand and stared at the child.

The child remained completely still.

Then Aether saw his face.

That familiar face.

Those deep ice-blue eyes.

Eyes that stared directly into his own with a coldness far beyond anything a child should possess.

Aether’s pupils contracted.

His lips parted, but no words came.

His entire body began to shake.

Not from fear of the child.

From recognition.

He knew those eyes.

He knew that face.

And somewhere deep within his soul, something he had desperately tried to bury began clawing its way back into his memory.