Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1883: Some Lies… Gave Birth to Love: Part-4

Aether watched his mother fight with breathtaking precision. Every movement she made was graceful, yet carried enough force to distort the empty space around her. Blinding flashes of light collided against the darkness as she exchanged blow after blow with the man before her.

It was magnificent.

Yet somehow, it made Aether frown.

‘That kind of power… It’s almost above Level 90.’ His eyes narrowed as he carefully observed them.

Their powers seemed nearly identical.

Their movements, techniques, and even the timing of their attacks were so perfectly matched that it looked less like two people fighting and more like one existence fighting against itself.

The longer he watched, the more unsettled he became.

Which confused him even further…

‘Was that… what he meant about being one?’ he wondered as the battle accelerated.

Their figures became little more than streaks of reddish light and darkness, appearing and disappearing across the empty space with every collision.

“Do you truly believe that child is worthy for you to stand against our Lord?” his father shouted while striking her with overwhelming force.

His mother blocked the attack, but the impact still forced her backwards.

Her expression tightened.

“Why can’t you understand?” she asked, her voice trembling with frustration.

“Don’t you feel it? His love… his happiness… the way his existence has changed everything inside us?”

He scoffed, his expression filled with contempt.

“Do you think I would care? Love? Happiness? What are you even talking about?” He clenched his fist as energy gathered around his body.

“For mere consciousnesses like us, those things meant nothing.

They were nothing more than temporary sensations created by an existence that was never meant to last.”

The woman stared at him for several seconds.

There was no anger in her eyes anymore.

Only sorrow.

“Then you never understood what I was feeling,” she said quietly.

“He is the one who showed me what love was. He made me feel something I never even knew existed.”

Her voice trembled.

“And I refuse to lose it.”

A burst of light erupted from her hand as she struck him harder than before. The attack pierced through his defenses and penetrated his body, forcing him backward.

“ARH!” He groaned, his body trembling from the impact, before he glared at her.

“Then keep your little fantasy. I am leaving.”

He turned away, but before leaving, he glanced back at her with a wicked smirk.

“I will inform the Lord about everything. And you already know what will happen next, don’t you?”

His mother stared at him coldly.

“Do you think I’ll let you go?”

As she said that, cosmic-black smoke suddenly erupted from beneath her feet and spread across the empty space. It twisted around him like living darkness before completely engulfing his body.

The man’s expression changed instantly.

“Wait! How do you have access to this power—”

Before he could finish his words, the cosmic-black smoke swallowed him completely. His voice faded as the darkness compressed around him, dragging his entire existence inward until nothing remained outside her body.

For several seconds, the woman stood completely still.

Then her body flickered.

Her face suddenly lost its colour, and her breathing became uneven. She staggered slightly, as though the power she had used was consuming her from within.

For a brief moment, her entire body disappeared from the empty space.

Then she reappeared on the rooftop of the house.

She immediately dropped to one knee and panted heavily, one hand pressed against her chest as she struggled to steady her breathing.

“W-What do you think you’re doing? Release me instantly!!” His voice echoed inside her head, distorted by the cosmic-black storm surrounding him.

The woman slowly raised her head.

Despite her exhaustion, there was a quiet determination in her eyes.

She shook her head.

“This is… for the best.”

She closed her eyes for a moment before continuing softly.

“You’ll stay inside forever. I won’t let you hurt him, and I won’t let the Lord take him away from me.”

She snapped her fingers.

A subtle wave spread throughout the city.

Within moments, information began appearing across countless screens. News reports, social media posts, and broadcasts suddenly exploded with the same story: a famous actor had been caught in an affair.

She had known from the beginning that her skill would not work on her son.

She could not simply erase his father’s existence from the world.

So this was the only choice she had left.

She would bury his identity beneath a lie.

Her clothes slowly changed back into their ordinary, motherly appearance as the overwhelming power surrounding her faded. She took a slow breath, walked inside the house, and made her way toward her son’s room.

Her son was peacefully sleeping in his bed, completely unaware of what had happened outside.

She stood beside him for a long moment, simply watching him breathe.

The exhaustion on her face gradually disappeared, replaced by a gentle smile.

She leaned down and softly kissed his lips.

“Don’t worry, dear… Mommy is never going to leave you.”

Her fingers gently moved through his hair, ruffling it with the tenderness only a mother could show.

“M..am..a…”

The child mumbled in his sleep.

Without opening his eyes, he reached toward her and hugged her hand tightly, as though even in his dreams, some part of him was afraid she might disappear.

The woman froze.

Her eyes softened as she looked down at his tiny hand wrapped around hers.

She quietly sat beside him and allowed him to keep holding her.

The woman’s eyes trembled as she looked down at her sleeping son.

‘See this… How could you have the heart to leave such a lovely soul? Don’t you feel it? He wanted to be loved… so much… I can feel that longing inside me, like it’s caught in my throat. Whenever I touch him… I… I feel something changing. Our connection keeps growing deeper and deeper… and every time it does, I can feel more of what he feels.”

The man’s voice echoed inside her head.

“Feel it? Oi, have you lost your mind? Well… technically, we don’t even have minds, but… what the fuck are you blabbering about?”

“Lovely soul?”

“Oi!! We are nothing! Remember that!! We aren’t even real.”

“Our duty was to create chaos, and we did exactly what we were ordered to do. That was all there was to it.”

“Now it’s time to leave!!!”

The woman stared at her son for several seconds.

Her expression slowly darkened.

“Leave?”

She tilted her head slightly, her eyes losing the warmth they had held moments earlier.

“Leave where? To nothing?”

Her fingers gently brushed through her son’s hair.

“To become nothing again? To return to that solitude… that endless, empty space where there is no sensation, no warmth, no happiness, and no one to even remember that we existed?”

She looked toward the empty room, her voice becoming colder with every word.

“Huh? Is that where we are supposed to go? Where we should be lost and remain nothing for eternity?”

The man’s voice turned furious.

“That’s who we are! We serve the Lord!”

The woman simply scoffed.

“I don’t give a fuck about it…”

Her gaze returned to the child.

“He taught me those feelings…”

Her voice softened as she watched his peaceful face.

“You don’t understand. When he drank my milk… I felt his love through him. I felt like I became one with him… just for a moment.”

A faint smile appeared on her lips, but her eyes remained strangely distant.

“For that moment, I felt his happiness. I felt his love. Such a wonderful feeling…”

Her expression slowly darkened.

“And you want me to abandon it? Huh?”

She tightened her fingers around the blanket.

“NO!!” she suddenly shouted.

“Wah…”

The five-year-old child frowned in his sleep, his small face tightening as he stirred beneath the blanket.

The woman immediately froze.

“Oh! Sorry… sorry… darling…”

Her voice became gentle again as she leaned closer and softly patted his chest.

“Mommy’s here. Go back to sleep, darling…”

She continued stroking his chest until his breathing gradually became calm again.

Once she was certain he had fallen back into a peaceful sleep, the woman’s expression changed.

Her magenta hair slowly fell across her face, partially hiding her features. Beneath the strands, her deep blue eyes suddenly began glowing with an unnatural ice-blue light.

She leaned closer to her son and whispered,

“This ‘thing’ belongs to me.”

She wrapped her arms around him possessively, pulling his small body against her chest.

Her expression grew darker as she leaned down and kissed him again and again, as though something inside her had taken complete control of her emotions.

But the man’s voice suddenly echoed coldly through her mind.

“Oi. Do you really think sealing me away won’t attract our Lord’s attention?”

His voice carried no fear.

“As long as the connection remains… the Lord will come.”

The woman’s expression hardened.

Her hands began trembling as she continued holding the child tightly.

For the next few days, she dealt with the scandal and the countless problems that followed the news. She carefully controlled every rumour, every report, and every question surrounding the incident.

But none of that was the hardest part.

After hearing that his father had left them for another woman, the child was devastated.

He didn’t understand the adult reasons behind what had happened. He only knew that the father he loved was suddenly gone.

So she stayed beside him.

She softly patted the child’s back, patiently calming him whenever his tears returned.

“Don’t cry, darling… Mommy is here.”

The woman gently held him against her as he slowly settled down.

She continued stroking his back until his breathing became steady again.

For those few days, she became the only thing he could rely on.

And with every passing moment she spent beside him, the connection she had once considered impossible seemed to grow deeper.

“Don’t worry… You can love your mommy more… instead of your asshole father,” she said with a soft smile as she kissed his lips again, gently rubbing her cheek against his.

Her fingers lingered against his face as though she were memorising every warmth beneath his skin.

She believed everything would be alright… as long as her son was with her, as long as she could keep him close, and as long as he was happy.

That was all she needed.

She no longer cared about the world outside their home.

She no longer cared about the Lord, their purpose, or… the existence she had once been willing to throw away without a second thought.

If the entire world demanded that she leave him behind, then the entire world could burn without him.

But… very soon, the woman sensed something connecting back to her.

Her smile slowly disappeared.

“Hah… What did I tell you?” The man’s voice echoed inside her mind. “They are coming for us. Sooner or later… they will separate you from your so-called love and those pathetic feelings.”

Her expression hardened.

Her breathing became uneven as her fingers slowly tightened around the child.

She could not leave.

She could not be found.

She could not let anyone take him away.

She wanted her son.

No…

She needed him!

The thought of someone separating them made something inside her twist violently.

Her gaze hardened as she desperately searched for an answer.

There was only one choice.

And that was…

To cut herself off from the ‘Source.’

Tick!

The connection abruptly severed.

For a brief moment, everything became silent.

Then the man’s voice erupted inside her mind, filled with disbelief and horror.

“What the fuck?! You cut off the connection?! Are you fucking insane?!”

His voice became increasingly frantic.

“We lost our powers! Damn it! We’re weaker than humans now!”

He realised what she had done and his anger quickly turned into genuine fear.

“Was this what you wanted?! Fuck! We’ll be erased from existence itself!!! There won’t be a next time for us! It’s worse than being nothing, bitch!!!!”

The woman merely scoffed.

Her face was exhausted, and her entire body suddenly felt unbearably heavy. Every breath seemed to take more effort than the last.

She looked down at her trembling hands.

For a brief second, her body flickered, becoming translucent as though reality itself was struggling to hold her existence together.

“I… I… I know,” she whispered painfully.

Her eyes slowly moved toward her son.

“But… it’s alright.”

A weak smile appeared on her exhausted face.

“I’d rather live with him until my end than be trapped inside the nothing.”

Her voice trembled, but there was no regret in it.

“If this is the price for staying beside him… then I’ll gladly pay it.”

The man laughed hollowly inside her mind.

“So… you’re really ready to throw away your entire existence over a mere soul?”

The woman quietly smiled.

“A mere soul? Don’t call him that.”

Her smile remained, but something unsettling flickered behind her eyes.

“He is my son… He is the first person who ever made this empty existence of mine feel meaningful.”

“I would do anything to spend even a single second with him.”

She paused,

“And it’s not like I’m going to die tomorrow. It might take years in this world… who knows?”

Her smile became warmer.

“Maybe my son and I will die together one day, peacefully, after living a wonderful life together~”

She closed her eyes for a moment.

“Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”

The man remained silent for a moment.

Then his voice returned, quieter than before.

“I see…”

His tone carried a strange calmness.

“So you really would do anything for the love of your son, right?”

She nodded proudly.

There was no hesitation in her eyes.

“Anything.”

The man was silent again.

Then he chuckled.

“Well then…”

His voice suddenly became cold.

“I’ll shatter it, bitch!”

As soon as those words echoed through her mind, her eyes suddenly went dull.

Her entire body stiffened.

She immediately grabbed her head as a violent pain tore through her consciousness.

“Arrgh! W-Wh-What are you doing?!”

She clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging into her palms as she felt something violently struggling to break through from inside her.

Her breathing became ragged.

The pain intensified.

She staggered backwards, desperately trying to maintain her balance.

Just then,

“Mommy?”

She froze.

She slowly lifted her head and saw her handsome son standing nearby, staring at her with a worried expression.

His innocent eyes were filled with concern.

The sight of him immediately softened something inside her.

She tried to smile, but exhaustion weighed heavily on her face.

“I’m not in the mood to play, Aether…” she sighed, her voice barely concealing her weariness.

She frowned.

That wasn’t what she wanted to say… was it?

Perhaps she was simply too tired. Perhaps she was frightened that he would see how exhausted and unstable she had become.

She looked at her son again, trying to force the warmth back into her expression.

“Mommy, I just—”

“Go to your room,” she interrupted in an even sharper tone.

The boy froze.

“M-Mommy?”

“I said, go to your room!” Her voice became even more serious, carrying an authority that made the room feel suddenly cold.

The boy’s lips curled into a forced, broken smile as tears began brimming in his eyes.

“Heh… I’m sorry… Hehe… sorry, Mommy… Hehe… Please don’t… Hehe… be mad at me… Hehe…”

“I SAID GO TO YOUR ROOM, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!” she screamed, her voice cracking beneath a mixture of anger… pain and despair?

“HICK!”

The boy’s laughter died instantly.

His eyes widened as he saw his mother’s hand rise, poised to strike.

His heart pounded violently inside his chest.

Fear and shock paralysed him as he slowly backed away, his small body trembling.

He couldn’t understand why the mother who had always held him so gently was suddenly looking at him like this… was it because he was laughing?

The mother stood frozen.

Her raised hand trembled violently in the air.

She stared at it.

Then she looked toward her son, who was slowly disappearing into the room with tears still clinging to his eyes.

‘N-No… No, no, no…’

Her breathing became unsteady.

‘That’s not what I meant… Why did I shout at him?’

Her fingers slowly curled into a trembling fist.

‘He is my only love… My only reason to remain here… W-Why would I ever hurt him?’

She lowered her hand as though it suddenly disgusted her.

Then she turned away.

She walked toward the kitchen in a daze, her thoughts tangled into an incomprehensible haze. She could still hear the echo of her own scream inside her head.

She couldn’t understand why she had said those words.

She couldn’t understand why she had raised her hand.

She entered the kitchen and began preparing a cup of chocolate milk for him… the only thing that made him happy.

She poured the milk into a cup, added the chocolate, and stirred it slowly.

Her hands were still trembling.

She stared at the warm drink for several seconds.

‘He likes this…’

A faint smile touched her lips.

‘He’ll be happy once I give this to him.’

But then she suddenly stopped.

Her eyes narrowed as if she realised something now.

“Did you…”

“Hahaha…”

The Male laughter came from her own mouth.

The woman froze.

Her body flickered.

The shape of her body distorted unnaturally, her features shifting violently.

Her feminine form disappeared.

And in its place stood a man.

Aether’s birth father.

He said with a cold, mocking smile.

“What? Don’t forget… we are one.”

His eyes narrowed.

“I am you, and you are me.”

His body flickered again.

The man’s form twisted and transformed back into the woman.

“H-How did you—”

Before she could finish, her body flickered once more.

The man’s face emerged through hers.

“So what if you sealed me?”

His smile widened.

“You are me… don’t forget that. Since you directly cut off the connection, your consciousness was backlash-shattered by the effect.”

He laughed softly.

“Now all that remains is a mere fragment of you, forever and ever… trapped inside the very storm of the seal you created for me.”

His body flickered back into the woman.

She stared at her reflection in the kitchen window.

Her face had gone pale.

“No…”

She shook her head violently.

“No, no… NO!”

Her breathing became frantic.

“Please… Please… don’t take him away from me…”

Her hands trembled as she pressed them against her chest.

“Please… don’t take my baby away from me…”

Her voice broke.

“Please—”

Her body suddenly flickered.

The woman disappeared.

The man stood in her place.

His wicked smirk returned.

“No need to worry…”

His eyes gleamed with cruel amusement.

“I’ll make sure to teach him…”

His body flickered back into the woman.

“…how to be loved by you~”

The man’s laughter echoed through the kitchen.

“Hahahahah!”

His body continued flickering back and forth between the man and the woman, their two forms merging and separating as though they were nothing more than different faces of the same existence.

The man continued laughing while the woman desperately begged him to stop.

Her pleas became weaker and weaker.

Finally…

Thuck!

She suddenly caught her own neck, her fingers wrapping tightly around her throat as her expression turned cold.

“Then die.”