Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1854: You are… Aether.

“Yes. Other than your consciousness, what do you actually own? Huh? Tell me. What in this existence can you truly call yours?” 27 circled around 28 with cold, indifferent eyes, his gaze moving over him as though he were examining something that had already lost its value.

“You own nothing here. Not your body. Not your soul. Not your memories. All you possess is that miserable consciousness still clinging to the belief that you matter,” he said coldly, staring at him as he watched 28 slowly lower his head.

His shoulders had begun to sink beneath the weight of everything he had just heard.

“I… I didn’t ask for any of this, did I?” 28 said quietly. His voice carried no anger now, only the exhausted pain of someone who had run out of strength to defend himself.

27 said coldly, “No one is born knowing they were born… but everyone dies knowing they will die,” as he continued circling around 28, looking him up and down as if he were sizing him up.

“Replacement? Tsk, tsk… You actually thought you were something more than that? Haha… Who do you think you are?” He shook his head and said wickedly, his lips curling into a faint smile that held no warmth.

“I’ve had replacements that performed better than you” His expression twisted with disgust as he stared at 28.

“But you…”

“You’re a broken thing… Nah, it disgusts me.”

28 clenched his fist so tightly that his fingernails dug into his palm. He glared at 27, but 27 merely smirked, seemingly amused by the anger that still remained inside him.

“What? Got angry? Why? After all, these were fake, right? Why do you get angry over a fake world? Haha… Tell me, you pathetic coward.”

“…” 28’s face tightened, but he said nothing.

27 continued mercilessly,

“The moment you learned your so-called friendship was nothing more than a fabricated illusion… you rejected reality?” Huh? Haha… How funny.

You didn’t care that it was fake when it made you happy, did you?

You laughed with them. You trusted them. You loved them. You built your entire heart around something you now know never existed.

And now that the veil has fallen, you’re suddenly too frightened to look at reality? How could one be this delusional? Hahaha…

Tell me, 28… if reality is unbearable and a lie is all that gives you comfort, which one are you really afraid to lose?”

28 gritted his teeth. “I-I am not delusional! You changed all this! I know… You must be the reason they have changed. You must have done it!”

27 blinked before a faint smile slowly appeared on his face.

“Hahah… Hahaha…” He laughed loudly.

25 sighed, watching the exchange with a troubled expression.

Suddenly, 27’s laughter stopped. He stepped closer to 28 and looked directly into his eyes before muttering,

“Don’t forget… you’re just a number to me. Nothing more. If I erase you, another number can take your place before anyone even notices you’re gone. So tell me… what makes you think you’re important?”

“…” 28 bit his lips before saying, “T-Then kill me… e-erase… me… I have nothing. I hurt my wife, I… I broke her heart… I hurt people, I killed millions… I hurt everyone around me. I… I should have died a long time ago. These powers of yours never helped me… they just gave me pain after pain!”

His voice cracked at the end.

“…” 27 turned silent.

For the first time, the mockery disappeared from his face. He simply stared at 28, his expression unreadable.

25 stepped closer, his voice softening. “27, sto—”

“Then die!” 27 said as he grabbed 28’s head and slammed him onto the ground.

BOOM!

The impact shook the ground beneath them. Before 28 could even gather his breath, 27 moved on top of him and began punching him again and again, each blow landing with brutal force.

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

“Just die, you fucking weakling!” 27 said furiously. “Who do you think you are? I ain’t show mercy because I thought you were useful, but you are just… a weakling still… fucking weak!”

BAM!!

His fist struck 28’s face again. The force snapped his head to the side, but 28 barely reacted. His body remained limp beneath him, as though even pain had become something distant.

As 27 continued punching his face, 28 didn’t fight back. He simply lay there quietly, taking every blow without mercy.

“I told you you would regret it, and now… instead of regretting it, you fucking run away like a loser!”

BAM!

“Coward!”

BAM!

“Face it, coward!”

BAM!

“Coward!!”

BAM!

BAM!

BA—!!

Suddenly, the next punch was stopped.

25 caught 27’s wrist between them and held it firmly. Despite the violence surrounding them, his expression remained strangely gentle as he looked at 27.

“It’s not going to help,” 25 said with a quiet smile.

27 snorted, pushing 25’s hand away, and glared at the fallen 28, whose eyes looked broken beyond words.

There was no anger left in them, no resistance, not even the faintest desire to defend himself. It was the empty gaze of someone who had already buried himself while still breathing.

27 frowned. “What the fuck is wrong with him? Why is he acting like the whole world has been destroyed? He can still get out, fuck those motherfuckers up, make them rot in their own bodies, and yet…”

25 took a slow breath and gently helped 28 to his feet. 28 barely resisted, his body moving only because someone else was moving it.

“You don’t get it… There is nothing wrong…” He pulled 28 gently into his arms, holding him like a mother taking care of her child, one hand resting against the back of his head.

“After she left… his friends became the world he held onto. They were all he had left to believe in. And now you’re telling him that even that world… was nothing more than a lie?”

His voice remained soft, but there was pain beneath it, as though he understood something that 27 refused to see.

27 snorted. “Then what about his so-called wives? Are they not his world too?”

25 gently ruffled 28’s hair and said with a soft hum, “The person here… is not the Ruler, Husband… right now, in this world, he is Aether… The lost one. He wore ‘him.’ For this Aether… his friends were his world.”

28 remained silent in his arms. His fingers slowly curled into the fabric of 25’s clothes, almost unconsciously, as though some small part of him still wanted something warm to hold onto.

“…” 27 frowned as he stared at 28 before glancing to the side, where he saw… a small child standing there, watching them with ice-blue eyes.

The child had not spoken a word. He simply stood there, small and silent, staring at 28 as though he were looking at someone he had been searching for in the darkness.

“Fuck this!” 27 grabbed 28 from 25’s embrace. “Hey… Look at me.”

28 looked at him with broken, emotionless eyes.

27 raised his hand toward him. A deep, dark blackness floated within his palm, twisting silently like something alive. It seemed to swallow the light around it, and even the air felt heavier near it.

His lips curled into a devilishly wicked smile.

“I give you this deal… Take it. Take all of it. The soul will be yours. Everything that belongs to me will be yours and yours alone… No one will be able to question you. No one will be able to take anything from you ever again.

Here… take it. Become someone. Become something that no one can ever discard again. How about it? Don’t you think it’s the best deal you’ll ever get?

If all of this is fake… then create something real. Create a new world. A world that belongs to you… and you alone.

You own your soul, everything… and erase those who hurt you. Recreate everything with new, real ones!

No mercy. No forgiveness… Just death. Give them what they deserve… Hehe~”

28’s empty eyes reflected the blackness in 27’s palm.

For a moment, he simply stared at it.

Then something inside him moved.

He could feel it… a strange closeness, something that seemed to call out to the deepest part of his existence. It felt almost familiar, yet terrifyingly foreign at the same time. If he accepted it, then he would become one with its soul and body… He could become someone.

He could become… New.

No memories that could tear him apart every time he closed his eyes.

Even more… if this were fake, he could change it all. He could return to the time when he laughed with his friends, bring those moments back again, and protect them for eternity. He could make sure no one left.

No one betrayed him.

No one would ever take those precious moments away again.

He could fix everything.

For the first time, the impossible did not feel impossible.

With this power, he could do anything without worry anymore… He could rule the universe. He could reshape reality itself until there was nothing left capable of hurting him.

His trembling hands slowly rose toward the blackness.

27 grinned, his lips curling up wickedly as he watched 28 choose him. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

Just as his hand was about to touch the blackness, something happened.

Drip… Drip…

Tears fell.

No, not from 25… 27… or even 28.

Then?

28’s trembling hand froze in midair.

His breath caught in his throat.

He slowly turned his head.

The child had stepped a little closer. His ice-blue eyes were filled with tears, and his lips trembled as though he were struggling to hold back a pain far too large for such a small body.

There was no hatred in those eyes or anger.

Only sadness.

A sadness that somehow felt more painful than any accusation.

28 stared at him, unable to understand why the sight of that child hurt more than everything 27 had said.

The child looked directly into his eyes.

Then, in a tiny, trembling voice, he mumbled, “Are you going to abandon yourself… again?”

His childish voice trembled through the silence, shaking not only 28 but also the other two.

27’s pupils contracted. “What’s going on here? He is just a phantom of this bastard’s thoughts… so how is it affecting me?” He touched his chest, feeling a strange pain spreading beneath his chest.

It was faint at first, but it was real enough to make his expression tighten.

25 smiled gently as he touched his own chest and looked between the child and 28 before muttering, “I see… Why haven’t I ever thought of it before? How foolish of me.”

One should know… 25 had an emotional heart that connected him to millions… while 27 didn’t, so there would always be a difference between them.

25 could feel what was happening.

27 couldn’t.

“We kept pushing him to choose which side he wanted to be…” 25 mumbled.

27 frowned.

25 looked at 27 and gave him a pitiful smile. “But… we forgot one thing.”

27 frowned. “What is it?”

25 held 28 gently. “I’m sorry, Child… I should have realised it sooner.”

He lowered his gaze for a moment, his expression filled with quiet regret. They had spent so long trying to make 28 choose between them that they had forgotten the simplest answer of all.

Then, with the most humble and pleading tone he had ever used, he said,

“I am not asking you to become the best of me… or him…” He smiled softly,

“Become… better than all of us.”

In the next second, something began to gather within the white void.

Tiny particles of light and dust drifted through the emptiness, slowly gathering together and forming figures.

Not just one.

Not two.

Twenty-four figures.

27 looked around, slightly surprised to see the other iterations appearing one after another.

From the newborn Aether… to the Aether who had reached the age of twenty-four.

Every single one of them had arrived.

They stood scattered throughout the white void, each carrying a different face, a different age, a different expression… yet somehow, they all felt unmistakably the same.

They looked at the trio.

No…

They looked only at 28.

28 blankly stared at each one of them… He never thought he would see his past iteration directly. And now they came?

Why?

How come?

Even the newborn Aether was looking at him, its tiny face somehow carrying a strange awareness, as though it recognised the person standing before it.

“…”

For 28… the others had always been nothing more than a movie he watched.

He never felt them.

He never understood them.

He never accepted them!

They were lives that belonged to him, yet somehow had never truly felt like his own.

Every memory had been something he observed from a distance.

Every emotion had belonged to someone else.

Every version of himself had existed…

And he had simply refused to call them himself.

The twenty-four Aethers looked at one another.

Then, slowly, they smiled.

One by one, they walked toward him.

Even the newborn crawled across the white void, tiny hands pressing against the ground as it struggled toward him. When it finally reached 28, it grabbed his clothes and pulled with all its tiny strength.

28’s eyes widened.

The newborn somehow managed to pull him away from 25 and 27, pushing him forward.

They separated him from 27 and 25.

28 looked back at them in confusion.

The twenty-four versions of himself stood behind him.

They simply smiled.

Then everyone shouted together, one by one.

“Go.”

“This is your life!”

“Live for you!”

“Waa! Waa!”

“Decide how it ends.”

“Don’t be ashamed of yourself.”

“Kill all those fuckers… Hehe~”

“WaaWaa!”

“…”

“Accept yourself.”

“Be good.”

“Be bad.”

“Be angry.”

“Cry when it hurts.”

“Laugh when you’re happy… Hehe~”

“Don’t pretend you’re okay.”

“Survive.”

“Love.”

“Lose.”

“Fall.”

“Get back up!”

“Protect Mom.”

“Find a better future.”

“Even if there isn’t one… make one.”

Their voices overlapped within the endless white void, each one different, yet somehow carrying the same warmth.

And finally, all 24 together:

“So go.”

“You can go through this.”

“We are your past.”

“You are our future.”

“We were you.”

“We are you.”

“And you… are us.”

“”””””””””””””””””””””””You are… Aether.””””””””””””””””””””””””

“…” 28 blankly stared at them… though he wasn’t sure why, but something inside his stired a bit.

After that, their eyes slowly shifted toward the child with ice-blue eyes standing beside him.

They could see him too… after all, they were Aether, right?

Their expressions softened.

Their eyes became gentle and teary as they spoke together in unison.

“Give him… the love he deserved.”

Their voices were quiet this time and lovely.

Their eyes turned soft and teary as they watched 28—

No, it’s….

“AETHER!!”

Everyone shouted together. Even 25 called him with his name rather than his number.

Everyone… Except 27, who stood behind them with his arms folded, wearing an annoyed expression as though he wanted nothing to do with this sentimental spectacle.

28…

No.

Aether’s body suddenly fluttered.

Tiny fragments of his existence began dissolving into the white void, drifting away like dust carried by an invisible wind.

He remained silent.

His eyes stayed fixed on the group standing before him.

They were smiling.

Some waved at him.

Some simply stood there.

None showed remorse.

None showed pain.

None showed jealousy that he was the one who would continue living while they disappeared.

They looked at him…

Not as someone separate from them.

But as though they were looking at themselves.

Their smiles were not fake.

Their hope was not fake.

Their love… Was not fake.

“…”

For the first time, his eyes slowly filled with something they had been missing for so long.

Life.

Though subtle, but… It’s coming back.

His lips trembled before curling into a small, gentle smile…. confused… yet a smile?

He didn’t know how to express it… this feels weird. Looking at them… cheering for him.

Why were they doing it?

As his body continued to disappear, Aether looked at them one final time.

And for once…

He did not feel like he was watching someone else’s life.

He was living his own.

His figure finally dissolved into the white void.

And the last thing that remained was that faint smile.