Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1801: Meeting the Past: Part-5

A four-dimensional cube hovered silently in the centre of the chamber.

Its impossible geometry continuously folded inward before flowing back outward like liquid, as though solid space itself had become fluid. Crimson mist swirled endlessly within its transparent layers, drifting through impossible angles.

It was mesmerising.

Every face of the cube seemed to exist both inside and outside itself simultaneously, constantly shifting, unfolding, and reconstructing into new geometric configurations while suspended in midair.

^Unidentified Tesseract detected.^

Even RIN sounded fascinated.

Multiple scanner windows unfolded across Young Aether’s visor as she continuously analysed the fluctuations radiating from the object’s surface. Countless streams of data scrolled across the interface, but every calculation returned an unknown result.

After several seconds, her voice became noticeably more serious.

^Energy signature comparison complete. This object emits the same wavelength pattern as Hell’s Gate. Probability of direct correlation: 98.73%. I believe this Tesseract is connected to Hell’s Gate.^

Young Aether frowned.

Leaving the floating cube behind for the moment, he cautiously stepped farther into the laboratory.

Only now did he realise the enormous chamber had been carved directly into the heart of the mountain.

Rows of control consoles stretched across the room.

Thick energy conduits ran through the walls, pulsing with crimson light before converging toward the floating Tesseract at the centre of the laboratory.

The entire facility looked abandoned…

Yet everything still had power.

^Lifeform detected.^

RIN suddenly announced.

A yellow marker appeared inside his visor.

Young Aether slowly followed it toward one corner of the laboratory.

Nestled between several control stations stood a cylindrical glass containment tube filled with pale blue liquid.

Floating inside… Was a worm?

A Sandworm.

Except…

It was incredibly small.

Barely the size of his forearm.

Its tiny body slowly wriggled within the nutrient solution, almost like a newborn specimen awaiting further experimentation.

Young Aether narrowed his eyes.

“A baby…”

Without saying another word, he walked toward the nearest control console and placed his armoured hand upon its surface.

“Can you bypass the system and find out what happened here?”

^Beginning system infiltration.^

Several plates along the fingertips of the mech-suit shifted apart.

His metallic fingers transformed, extending ultra-thin crystalline probes that resembled precision data needles. Tiny crimson currents raced along their surfaces before the probes smoothly pierced the laboratory’s interface ports.

The entire console instantly illuminated.

BEEP.

BEEP.

BEEP.

Dozens of dormant control panels awakened simultaneously.

Holographic displays flickered to life as forgotten systems began responding after what appeared to be years of inactivity.

^Bypassing control systems…^

RIN suddenly paused.

^…Hmm.^

Young Aether raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

^There isn’t any firewall.^

^No encryption. No authentication. No defensive protocols whatsoever. Every database is completely exposed… as if whoever built this laboratory never intended to keep anyone out.^

“…Or they simply didn’t think anyone would ever find this place.”

Young Aether quietly watched countless progress bars race across his visor.

“Can you recover any files? Videos? Anything that explains what happened here?”

^Accessing archives…^

^Recovering data…^

^Downloading records…^

A brief pause followed.

^Download complete.^

Instantly, hundreds of files appeared throughout his visor.

Maps.

Research logs.

Biological reports.

Energy analyses.

Experiment records.

RIN quickly filtered the information before displaying the most relevant discoveries.

^This world has been designated Chaos-25.^

A planetary image rotated before him.

^Primary research objective: Forced evolution of subterranean worm species into high-level biological weapons.^

Several recovered surveillance videos automatically began playing.

Young Aether watched silently.

Small ordinary worms writhed helplessly inside reinforced containment chambers while energy was injected into their bodies.

Their tiny forms convulsed violently.

The creatures twisted, screamed, and expanded at an impossible rate.

Their bodies tore apart before rapidly reconstructing into the gigantic Sandworms he had fought outside.

Young Aether’s jaw tightened.

“…They created them.”

He continued watching, hoping to catch the faces of whoever had conducted the experiments.

Unfortunately… Every recording had been carefully framed.

Only equipment.

Only specimens.

Only data.

Never the researchers themselves.

Then… A familiar voice echoed through the recording.

“Its growth rate is exceeding our predictions, Master Hunter.”

Young Aether froze.

“…Snape?”

The name escaped his lips almost unconsciously.

Then… Another voice answered.

Not from the recording.

From directly behind him.

“Oh?”

The voice carried a faint amusement.

“You know that man?… Interesting.”

^Another life form detected!^

Young Aether rolled his eyes behind the mech-suit’s visor. ‘Thank you, Sherlock!’

She was supposed to find them first, not the other way around.

He slowly turned, his grip tightening around one of the Twin Eclipses. Purple energy pulsed along the weapon’s segmented edges.

Standing beside the impossible 4-dimensional cube was a woman draped in deep purple robes. The hood concealed her face entirely, yet her presence alone made the laboratory’s countless holographic monitors flicker with static.

The purple-hooded figure tilted her head toward the mech-suit.

“How did you know that man? Hmm… I am quite certain I never brought him to Terra.”

Her voice remained calm, almost amused, as slender fingers lazily tapped the floating 4-dimensional cube.

Every tap sent violent tremors through the impossible object.

Young Aether remained silent.

His armoured fingers slowly clenched around the Twin Eclipse until the weapon emitted a sharp electronic whine. Every combat warning inside his visor lit crimson.

^TARGET UNKNOWN.^

^POWER LEVEL… ERROR.^

^THREAT ASSESSMENT… CANNOT BE CALCULATED.^

“…Well,” he muttered beneath his breath. “That’s comforting.”

The next instant, both of them vanished.

BOOM!!

They collided in the centre of the laboratory with enough force to generate a circular shockwave that blasted apart walls.

She had already driven a kick toward his head.

Young Aether raised both Twin Eclipses into a cross formation, intercepting the strike. Purple sparks erupted across the weapons as the impact compressed the surrounding air into a visible white ring before detonating outward.

Without wasting a fraction of a second, Young Aether twisted beneath her extended leg and swept low. His kick struck her balance point, forcing her backwards just enough for him to propel himself forward using the mech-suit’s rear thrusters.

His body became a blur.

The Twin Eclipses spun around his wrists like crescent moons before converging into a devastating overhead strike aimed directly at her skull.

CLAP!!

She caught both blades between her bare palms.

The clap echoed throughout the laboratory like thunder.

The Twin Eclipses screamed and struggled against her grip, yet the woman stood perfectly still, almost bored.

She slowly leaned forward until her hood hovered inches from his visor.

“Arrgh… not bad for a human.”

Then her knee buried itself into his stomach.

BOOM!!

The mech-suit folded around the impact before Young Aether shot upward like a missile. He crashed through the laboratory ceiling and slammed against the cave above, scattering enormous chunks of rock.

Before he could recover, she appeared in front of him.

“You’re kidding me…”

BAM!

Her fist crashed into his chest.

BAM!

Another blow slammed into his ribs.

BAM!!

The final punch launched him through layers of stone as cracks spread across the cave ceiling like enormous spider webs.

“FULL THRUSTERS!”

^Maximum Output Authorized.^

Every propulsion unit ignited simultaneously.

PUFFFFF!!

A brilliant red energy wave erupted behind him as the suit accelerated with explosive force. Young Aether rammed directly into her, carrying both of them downward before smashing her into the laboratory floor.

BAMMMMM!!!

The flooring crumpled like paper beneath the collision.

Young Aether wrapped his fingers tightly around the slotted ring of the Twin Eclipse before driving relentless punches toward her face.

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!!

Each impact generated expanding shockwaves that shattered nearby containment chambers.

For the first time…

She struggled to react.

His fists continued raining down without pause, each strike forcing her hood farther back.

Just for a brief second…

Young Aether caught a glimpse of unnaturally pale skin.

Not fair skin.

Not light skin.

Pure white.

Almost porcelain?

And… Almost stitched together.

Thin black stitches stretched across her cheek as someone had carefully sewn pieces of flesh together.

“You… have stitches?”

His fist froze for barely half a heartbeat.

It was enough.

The air around the hooded woman suddenly became unnaturally silent.

An overwhelming sphere of condensed violet energy rapidly formed within her palm. Countless crimson particles spiralled around it as nearby debris began floating upward, pulled by the impossible gravitational pressure.

Young Aether’s visor immediately screamed.

^WARNING!! HIGH AMOUNT OF ENERGY! EVACUATE!!^

“Shi-!”

BOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!

A colossal beam erupted from her palm.

It blasted straight through the laboratory, vaporised every wall in its path, pierced the entire mountain, and erupted from the summit in a blinding pillar of red light that split the mountains apart. The peak disappeared almost instantly, replaced by a massive crater surrounded by molten rock cascading down the mountainside.

Thud.

Young Aether crashed onto the shattered summit, fragments of burning stone sliding past him as smoke drifted into the sky.

He slowly lifted his head.

The hooded woman emerged gracefully through the enormous tunnel carved by her own attack.

Not a single speck of dust had settled upon her robes.

They fluttered gently in the mountain wind as she stared at him with chilling silence.

“Did you see it?”

Young Aether immediately looked away.

“…Nope. I’m legally blind.”

“…”

“…Worst excuse I’ve heard in centuries,” she replied flatly.

With a lazy wave of her hand, hundreds of black needles materialised behind her. They swirled like a living storm. The sky itself darkened beneath the countless weapons before they locked onto Young Aether all at once.

Then, with a single flick of her finger…

Every needle shot toward him like a black meteor shower.

Young Aether tightened his grip around the Twin Eclipses as both weapons suddenly disengaged from the slotted rings. The crescent blades spun violently around his wrists, connected only by razor-thin purple energy wires that shimmered like strands of condensed light.

^Activating Violet Carnival!^

RIN announced as the combat protocol instantly took over.

The moment it activated, Young Aether’s entire stance transformed.

His body flowed with impossible precision as though every muscle, every joint, and every movement had already been calculated thousands of times before the battle had even begun.

The spinning crescent claws carved through the incoming black needles with surgical accuracy, slicing them apart like warm butter while his arms danced in seamless harmony.

His left hand never interrupted his right, and his right never obstructed his left. Every movement complemented the next, creating a flawless chain of attacks without a single wasted motion.

Even Young Aether raised an eyebrow beneath his visor before a grin spread across his face.

“…Now this is more like it.”

He had expected an advanced combat mode.

He had not expected this.

Just as its name implied, Violet Carnival transformed the battlefield into a mesmerizing performance.

Countless violet particles blossomed into the air behind every swing, forming luminous ribbons that spiralled across the summit. It resembled a master dancer performing with endless silk ribbons, except every graceful arc concealed blades capable of cleaving flesh.

The beautiful spectacle!!

Every slash painted another streak of glowing violet through the sky.

Each spinning claw effortlessly cut through dozens of thick black needles before they dissolved into drifting black mist. The few that escaped the relentless barrage pierced the summit instead, detonating against solid stone and covering the mountainside with expanding spiderweb cracks.

Hunter calmly extended one hand.

The shadows behind her condensed into several enormous black whips woven from compressed energy. They shot across the battlefield, wrapped around gigantic boulders, and violently yanked them toward Young Aether like artillery shells.

Young Aether launched himself from one shattered cliff to another.

The mech-suit’s hydraulic pistons roared while magnetic joints continuously adjusted his balance. Rear thrusters burst repeatedly, correcting his trajectory in midair as predictive stabilisers desperately struggled to keep pace with his reaction speed.

Warning indicators flashed throughout his visor as several actuators approached structural limits.

^Joint Stress: 94%.^

^Servo Temperature Rising.^

“…Hold together,” Young Aether muttered. “I just got you.”

“You cannot keep running!!”

Hunter swung another whip.

An entire section of the mountain broke free and hurtled toward him.

Young Aether landed atop a jagged rock outcrop and suddenly stopped.

The Twin Eclipses spun faster.

Their rotating edges emitted a piercing mechanical hum as they accelerated to maximum velocity.

Then… He threw them.

Sllcckk~

Sllcckk~

Sllcckk~

The spinning blades sliced effortlessly through each incoming boulder long before the massive rocks could reach him. Every mountain-sized projectile split cleanly into dozens of perfectly smooth fragments that scattered harmlessly across the battlefield.

Yet the Twin Eclipses never slowed.

Instead, they zigzagged unpredictably through the air, constantly changing direction without losing momentum as they raced toward Hunter.

Hunter hurriedly threw the boulders!

The instant a boulder appeared, they altered course.

Left.

Right.

Up.

Down.

Each sudden turn occurred so sharply that even the surrounding air produced sonic cracks.

Hunter frowned.

“What…?”

She attempted to seize them using her shadow whips.

The weapons instantly veered away.

Another whip intercepted them.

Again, they curved around it.

A third nearly caught one blade.

It twisted around the whip before accelerating straight toward her neck.

Hunter barely tilted her head aside.

Ssshhhkkk~

The blade missed her skin by less than an inch.

Instead, it sliced through the edge of her robe, sending a strip of purple fabric fluttering into the wind.

“…Why are these things acting so weird?” she muttered, genuine confusion creeping into her voice.

The Twin Eclipses continued circling her relentlessly.

Back and forth.

Higher.

Lower.

Crossing paths.

Separating.

Returning.

Their movements resembled two relentless insects refusing to leave their prey alone.

For the first time since the battle had begun… Hunter looked genuinely irritated.

She focused entirely on tracking the erratic blades.

She forgot about someone else.

Step!

Young Aether appeared directly behind her.

Perfect timing.

At that exact instant, one of the Twin Eclipses flew straight into his waiting hand, as though it had anticipated his movement long before he made it.

It wasn’t coincidence.

It was RIN.

Every trajectory… Every dodge… Every feint… Every attack… Every return path…

Every millisecond of movement had already been predicted, calculated, and synchronised by RIN’s quantum combat processor before they even happened. The weapons were not simply responding to Young Aether’s commands. They were executing millions of real-time calculations, constantly rewriting their flight paths while coordinating perfectly with his own movements.

Simply put… PERFECT!

Not a single motion had been wasted.

Not a single attack had existed without purpose.

Everything had unfolded exactly according to RIN’s calculations.

Hunter’s entire focus remained locked on the Twin Eclipse that was darting toward her neck.

She failed to notice the second weapon.

At the exact moment it shot back into Young Aether’s waiting hand, he lunged forward.

Every hydraulic piston inside the mech-suit slammed into motion.

Magnetic motors roared.

Artificial muscle fibres contracted simultaneously.

The Twin Eclipse drove toward her neck with overwhelming force, the blade wrapped in a spiralling vortex of violet energy that tore through the surrounding air.

Just a fraction of a second before the blade could sever her head…

^Life Form Detected!^

“I won’t let you!!”

Another figure burst into existence between them.

Zero.

She intercepted the attack without hesitation and unleashed a devastating kick straight into Young Aether’s chest.

BOOM!!

The collision generated a deafening shockwave that rippled across the desert, blasting away layers of sand in every direction. The mountain beneath them cracked as compressed air exploded outward like a detonating bomb.

Young Aether became a violet streak across the sky.

He crashed into the desert hundreds of meters away before violently skipping across the sand, carving a deep trench behind him as clouds of dust erupted into the air.

His second Twin Eclipse immediately curved through the sky and returned to his side, hovering protectively beside him before locking itself back into his hand.

High above the desert…

Hunter remained suspended in complete silence.

Her fingers slowly reached behind her neck.

She paused.

A tiny line on her neck.

A shallow cut.

“…Not bad, Aether.”

Aether?

Of course she knew.

The moment he had casually uttered Snape’s name earlier, everything had changed.

Very few people knew Snape.

Even fewer knew his connection to Aether.

The instant those words left Young Aether’s mouth, Hunter had abandoned her original objective and begun observing him instead.

She had connected the pieces almost immediately.

“What you said was true…” Hunter murmured quietly.

“It seems Aether really entered the Terra Empire.”

Beside her, Zero gently lowered her foot and looked toward Young Aether in silence.

Hunter smiled faintly before patting Zero’s head.

After all, it had been Zero who first reported seeing a young man with features remarkably similar to Aether’s. Hunter had dismissed the report at first, assuming it was merely someone with a similar appearance.

Now… There was no room left for doubt.

Zero calmly raised one hand.

A circular portal unfolded behind them.

Hunter cast one final glance toward the distant desert.

Far below, Young Aether slowly climbed out of the enormous crater he had carved into the sand.

“See you later… Aether.”

Without another word, Hunter and Zero stepped through the portal together.

Meanwhile…

Young Aether clutched his stomach as he staggered to his feet, grains of sand sliding off the battered mech-suit.

Warning messages immediately flooded his visor.

^Suit Integrity Reduced to 80%.^

^Hydraulic System: Stable.^

^Three Actuators Operating Beyond Safety Limits.^

^Recommend Immediate Maintenance.^

“…Fuck.”

He winced, pressing a hand against his abdomen.

“I can definitely feel that one.”

He lifted his head just in time to see the portal shrink into a tiny point of light before disappearing completely.

“…Sigh.”

“She ran away.”

He spoke with complete confidence, as though Hunter had been the one retreating from an unwinnable battle.

RIN remained silent for exactly one second.

Then…

^I beg to differ…^

^I believe she simply chose not to fight you any longer. If she and that new one had attacked together…^

A brief pause followed.

^…We would have been completely fucked.^

Young Aether stared ahead for a moment.

“…Ha…”

A tired smile appeared beneath the visor.

“Well… I can’t exactly argue with that.”

With an exhausted sigh, he rested one Twin Eclipse across his shoulder and began making his way back toward the ruined mountain, leaving a trail of footprints across the endless sea of golden sand.