Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1879: She is calling only for you

Young Aether stared at his mother without blinking, as if his mind was struggling to process what had just transpired.

There was something inside his mother… something that felt as though it was staring back at him with a coldness that did not belong to a human being.

“Are you alright, darling?” Lia asked with a worried tone, gently watching his pale face.

Young Aether nodded before slowly shaking his head. “What’s wrong with her?”

Lia looked at the woman lying before them and frowned. “I don’t know… I’ve never felt anything like this before.”

Lily, too, was taken aback by what had happened. She still could not understand why he had suddenly screamed or why he was now staring at his mother with such a troubled expression.

Young Aether stood up again. He wanted to know what had happened to her, and more importantly, what was hiding inside her.

He needed to know what was inside her. Something so powerful that it had forcibly pushed him out when he tried to reach her soul.

How could something like that exist within a mere human?

She was human, right?

“Did you see something, dear?” Lia asked worriedly as she wiped the cold, drenching sweat from his forehead.

“I… I saw something,” he said, his voice unsteady. “Something was staring at me when I tried to reach her soul. It wasn’t just a feeling, Lia. It felt like… something knew I was there.”

Lia frowned deeply.

“Her soul, you say… Hmm.” She paused, thinking carefully before continuing.

“If something is happening to her soul, then that might explain why I couldn’t enter her mind. Was there something else inside her soul? A protection layer, perhaps? Or something deliberately keeping others out?”

She fell silent for a moment. She understood the mind far better than she understood souls, and whatever Young Aether had encountered was beyond anything she could confidently explain.

“The only person who might be able to understand what is happening to her… might be Nyx,” Lia said thoughtfully.

“If there is something hidden within her soul, Nyx may be able to recognise it.”

Young Aether blankly stared at his mother.

There was definitely something wrong with her soul. He needed to find out what it was.

But Nyx wasn’t here… so…

He immediately went to his twin domains.

***

Upon arriving, he noticed that his twin domains were still breaking apart.

For a moment, he stood silently, staring at the destruction before shaking his head and walking toward the cage.

He reached the cage and opened the door.

Grace frowned as she looked at him.

“I need your help.”

“…” Grace didn’t react. Why would she help him after everything he had done to her?

He was the one who had caged her for all this time and deceived her when she had trusted him.

Aether remained silent for a moment before lowering his gaze. Then, in a voice far quieter than usual, he said,

“I… Please, I beg you.”

Those words made Grace tremble slightly.

She glanced at him again. His eyes were still dull, almost lifeless, yet there was something reflected within them… something struggling to break through that emptiness.

She sighed. Her tiny wings fluttered as she flew out of the cage and hovered before him.

“If I leave this domain, I will be forcibly sent back to my void. So, I will have to manifest in reality instead, just as I did in Eternal Prison.”

Aether gave a weak smile and nodded. “That’s enough. I only need you to see her. If there is something inside her soul, you might be the only one who can recognise it.”

Grace stared at him for a moment before turning her gaze away. “You’re asking me to help the person you love, even after everything you did to me.”

Aether’s expression barely changed, but his voice became quieter. “I know.”

As he was about to leave, Grace suddenly flew over the top of the cage and sat there haughtily, her tiny legs dangling over the edge.

“But… don’t forget. I haven’t forgiven you for what you have done to me.”

Aether stopped for a moment. He looked back at her, his expression carrying a faint trace of guilt.

“I know,” he said quietly. “I’m not asking you to forgive me.”

Grace’s expression softened for only a moment before she looked away.

Aether nodded and disappeared from the collapsing twin domains.

***

Suddenly, a gentle fluttering purple glow erupted around Young Aether, spreading through the air like a cloud of glittering stars. The tiny particles drifted around him before gathering together, their soft purple light illuminating the room.

Lia and Lily’s eyes widened when they saw it. From within the glittering particles, a pair of tiny, delicate wings emerged.

They fluttered furiously for a moment before a cute little fairy manifested from the purple starlight.

“What the…” Lily was utterly taken aback.

Lia was initially surprised as well, but the moment she sensed the familiar feeling and presence coming from the fairy, her eyes widened as realisation struck her.

Beads of sweat immediately formed across her face.

‘Fuck! So she’s been with him all this time? Oh, fucking hell! Fuck!’

Grace appeared in the real world and stretched her little body, flexing her tiny arms and wings.

“It’s been so long since I’ve manifested…?!” she murmured as she looked around.

Her eyes instantly caught Lia.

Grace frowned.

Lia gulped while continuing to sweat nervously.

Young Aether motioned toward the woman lying on the bed. “Check her soul…”

Grace stared at Lia for a few more seconds before moving toward Young Aether and looking at the woman.

Her tiny wings fluttered as she flew toward her, leaving a faint trail of purple glittering particles behind her. She stopped beside the bed and carefully examined the unconscious woman.

“Hmm…” Grace studied her closely. “Interesting…”

There was something about the woman that only Grace seemed capable of seeing. She gently placed her tiny hand against the woman’s forehead, and the frown on her face deepened.

“What? You know something?” Young Aether asked hurriedly.

“Something about… her familiar…”

Grace hummed thoughtfully before glancing at Young Aether. “First of all… who is she?”

Young Aether hesitated slightly before answering, “She was my mother in the previous life I had in this Terra Empire.”

Upon hearing the name Terra Empire, Grace suddenly became silent.

“Oh… I see…”

Her eyes turned dull for a brief moment before she slowly nodded.

“Your mother in a previous life? What do you mean? Care to explain?”

“Is it necessary?”

“It is…” Grace’s cute face suddenly turned deadly serious. “After all…”

She paused, looking at the woman lying motionless on the bed.

“A mere human soul and vessel can’t bear… the blood of an Ether’s soul.”

Grace nodded as her tiny body settled near the edge of the bed.

Upon hearing that, Lia’s eyes widened as she looked at Young Aether.

‘B-Blood of an Ether? He…? How come… Morgana never mentioned this?’

She stared at him in utter shock, as if another piece of the puzzle had suddenly fallen into place, only for it to reveal an even larger mystery about his existence.

Young Aether frowned. “What do you mean?”

Grace simply motioned with her hand. “Tell me… what happened?”

She already knew that he had been travelling through time, stealing souls from the path of Samsara and attracting ‘Those two things’ in the process. But she was unaware of his past or anything concerning the specific circumstances surrounding the time travel he had undergone.

Lily, on the other hand, simply blinked. She felt like a lost lamb standing in a field, surrounded by a conversation that made absolutely no sense to her.

Young Aether took a slow breath before explaining what had happened. He told Grace about Mortimer, how he had been forced to move to this world, how he had been reborn here, and how, upon his death, he had returned to that world.

He did not explain the previous iterations or anything beyond what concerned his current life. He only told her about this life.

Lia was genuinely taken aback by the story. Even though she had already witnessed many strange things surrounding Young Aether, hearing the truth about his life left her struggling to process it.

Lily was even more confused by the sheer amount of unbelievable information she had just heard.

Meanwhile, Allen’s grandmother remained under Lia’s control, sitting blankly on the bed without moving an inch.

Grace hummed after hearing the details, her expression becoming increasingly thoughtful.

“I see… Hmm… That explains this familiarity…” she murmured, as though several scattered pieces of a puzzle had finally begun falling into place.

She reached toward the woman again and gently placed her tiny hand against her forehead, closing her eyes as she tried to reach her once more.

“Did you find anything?!” Young Aether asked impatiently.

His heart was beating faster for some reason, each beat strangely heavy inside his chest.

Grace suddenly fell silent. Her expression changed as she felt something resisting her.

“She’s rejecting me…”

A faint purplish hue gathered around Grace’s tiny hand, flickering for a few seconds before gradually fading. She opened her eyes and looked at Young Aether with an unusually serious expression.

“I think… she is calling only for you.”

“Huh?”

Grace looked at him carefully. She could see the emotions threatening to spill from his otherwise dull eyes. He was trying to suppress them, but they were there, buried beneath the emptiness of his expression.

She glanced at the woman lying motionless on the bed before speaking again.

“Hold her hand,” Grace said softly.

Young Aether glanced at his mother’s hand for a moment. His fingers remained suspended in the air as though some invisible hesitation had seized them.

Then he slowly raised his hand and gently touched hers.

He wondered… why was he trying so hard?

These were the same hands he had once wrapped around her neck.

Hands that had been ready to kill her.

He could still remember the feeling of them.

Then… why did his heart ache more and more the closer he came to her?

Why did touching her feel harder than hurting her?

Young Aether gently held her hand. Her fingers remained slightly spread.

Grace watched the subtle change in his expression before speaking.

“Instead of looking for her soul… look for her consciousness.”

“How could I…” His words trailed off.

Then he remembered.

He remembered how Grace had once taught him to push his consciousness deeper into his own soul, how he had learned to move beyond the surface and perceive what existed within.

Then all he needed to do was reverse the flow that’s all but…

But that was only something he could do within himself, right?

Grace noticed the uncertainty in his eyes and smiled faintly.

“You can do it. Don’t think about reaching her soul. Think about reaching her.”

Young Aether looked at her.

“Only you can reach her,” Grace continued quietly. “She is calling for you. Whatever is buried inside her, it is responding to you and rejecting everyone else.”

She glanced at the woman again.

“So don’t force your way in. Feel for her consciousness. Find the part of her that still knows you… and whatever you do, do not touch her soul.”

Grace’s expression hardened.

“Just… her consciousness.”

Young Aether’s lips trembled slightly as he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. His fingers tightened gently around his mother’s hand, and he focused on the faint sensation beneath his fingertips.

He pushed his consciousness inward, carefully searching for something deeper without disturbing the soul itself.

!~Ding~!

[Echoes of Souls Activated]

The next second, Young Aether felt his consciousness suddenly being pulled downward.

Deeper.

The sensation was almost like falling into an endless abyss, yet instead of continuing downward, he abruptly halted.

His consciousness stopped just before it could descend any further into her.

He found himself standing before an endless void filled with a deep reddish hue.

The space seemed to stretch forever, without walls, without a horizon, and without any indication of where it truly began or ended.

His real body trembled slightly as he struggled to maintain his concentration.

Grace gently touched his hand.

“Remember… do not touch the soul under any condition.”

As she spoke, she tapped her tiny finger against his hand.

Instantly, Aether’s palm within his consciousness began to glow.

He looked down at it.

A small purple flame flickered above his palm, gentle and strangely warm against the oppressive emptiness surrounding him.

“This flame will guide you toward what your heart wants,” Grace said softly. “Not what your mind thinks it should find… what your heart truly wants.”

She paused.

“And when you become lost, trust it. Sometimes the heart remembers things the mind has buried.”

A gentle purple flame erupted from his palm. It drifted forward like a living ember before slowly flowing deeper into the endless reddish void.

Aether stared at it for a moment before following.

As he moved, he began to hear something murmuring around him.

The voice was faint at first, distant and distorted, as though it were coming from somewhere buried beneath layers of memories.

He continued following the purple flame.

The voice gradually became clearer.

“Look what we have here? You’ve given birth to a healthy boy, darling~”

Young Aether’s eyes widened.

His entire body froze.

That voice…

Meanwhile, outside, Grace watched Young Aether, who had become completely silent and motionless. His body remained still, but the faint movement of his fingers around the woman’s hand told her that something had happened.

Grace slowly turned her head.

Her eyes settled on…

Lia.

Lia immediately flinched.

Grace stared at her for several seconds without saying anything.

Then she calmly crossed one tiny leg over the other and hovered beside the bed, her cute appearance contrasting sharply with the coldness that had settled over her face.

“Why would the Bloody Mary herself disguise herself as her daughter?”

!!!

Lia’s face turned pale.

For a moment, she forgot to breathe.

“W-What are you talking about? I don’t know who you are…” Lia said innocently, forcing herself to maintain a composed expression.

“…”

Grace stared blankly at her… A cold judgment lingered within them.

Lia’s forced innocence slowly began to crack under that gaze.

“…”

She continued sweating profusely, unable to find another word to say.

Grace finally tilted her head slightly.

“You do know who I am, right?”

“….”

“Mary”

“PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!! PLEASE DON’T TELL MY BABY!!”

Lia went to her knees immediately!

“???”

It was Grace who was horrified to see this… The proud, haughty Mary… kneeling before her without her orders?