Prince of The Abyss

One day until summer. Crazy to think just how fast time had passed. It didn’t even feel real. He hadn’t expected Academy life to be like this. He had done a lot of stuff, and he wasn’t joking. He had spent a lot of that time with friends, since yes... he had actually managed to make some... well, he was a bit scared to call them friends, after everything in his past, but that was at the beginning; he was done being scared. After all, if he still was, what did he do everything inside Demon of Dread for? He hadn’t expected the kids of the Blue Rose to want to be his friends, but he was wrong.

Some still hated his guts that he knew, but some approached him themselves; he didn’t have to be the one doing it. It was strange that there were more girls approaching him than guys, but he didn’t think that much of it; he had both male and female friends.

He had... had fun. Whether it was sparring... letting them hang out in the Merchant ward, because he had no money, or just spending time to chat or in class. He had made a name in the Academy... we would say he was kinda accepted. The teachers even knew him, and he had gotten in quite a good relationship with some of them.

And Avius was the best of them; at first he tutored him, but once he realized he really wasn’t interested, he switched to other stuff, and it was nice talking to him, maybe because he was so much wiser and older than him. He had even opened up about the emotional hardship he had faced after the rebellion and in his Trial, which also revealed to him how he had survived Lilith... and he had probably also told the King everything they had talked about, which was a bit bad, since the King did want to tame him or whatever, and knowing his hardship was a bit bad.

He had even spent some time with Iris and her group; interestingly, it wasn’t Iris who had come up to him, but her female friends, which was unexpected; he had just thought that Iris was shy, but no. Still, he felt as if he had established a good relationship with her, which was good... since he really didn’t want to be on Praise’s bad side.

Even if Iris at the moment only had abilities that allowed her to help others and nothing that made her stronger, it was still good not to be against her.

Sena was always on his ass for some reason; he was forced to hang out with her. Well... it wasn’t like he hated it that much; it was strange, but he had gotten used to it. And she wasn’t a bad person... sure... her ability allowed her to control the mind of others through mind attacks, but still...

’Kinda crazy that there are so many types of attacks; you would think there was only one, but there were more.’

He started to list them on their on his fingers. ’Physical attacks, Mind attacks, Core Attacks, and Soul attacks... the latter is a bit stranger; never heard of something like that outside of Voidpiercer.’

Orion was also quite the nice guy once you got used to him; they trained a lot together, and had gotten pretty close; he never would have thought after their first meeting, when he showed him around the Blue Rose.

He had also surprisingly met Keres... they didn’t talk; the bastard just smirked at him every time, which angered him.

...

The Theory season had been better than he had expected; sure, he did want the practice season to start... ’Yes. I haven’t gotten any stronger at all... and while I don’t know if I still have to get stronger so that the Abyss doesn’t take over my body now that I became a Seeker, but I don’t want to try.’

Though, it did make him wonder who he would end up being paired with... who knows what fate has in store for him... ’It’s weird saying this... with Sena around.’

Aether looked at his window as the sun set, and summer finally came.

Will he miss the Academy life a bit? Yeah, he hadn’t had this much fun in ages, and it felt like he was back home if he thought about it, and instead of being royal, he was a noble, well, more like a noble with a bad reputation; that’s how it felt.

Though at the same time... he still felt as if he didn’t belong for some reason; he didn’t know why, though; after all, this is the closest thing he had to home... and yet... it was nothing like what his inner self considered home to be.

The Withered... he had no idea... but after all the hardship he had endured, all the connection and deaths he had faced... it felt more home than anything; it was real, it showed its true face, and more importantly, he was just another person, suffering like any other; he shared their grief; maybe that was why.

He was also a bit scared... actually, that’s not the right word; nervous fits better; he had no idea what the Wonderland was going to be like; it was quite beautiful when he was inside of it, but who knows what was beyond that beauty; after all, beautiful things hide the most.

’I could argue that going into a bad path is better than going into a path that seems good and only to realize later that it’s bad.’

Aether groaned, going and lying on the bed; he needed the rest. After all, who knew when the next time was going to be; he had a bed so good to sleep in.

So he closed his eyes and waited for summer to start.

...

...

...

Walking inside the Academy, the halls were pretty empty; only some remained... all going to one place: the field, the same place where the Manifestation training went in, so they could all line up. Though... funny, he was a bit late, just like everyone still in the halls.

Waving and smiling to those he passed, he finally reached the field, where everyone else had started to create their parties; some went in groups of five, while some went beyond it. Five is the best number, while you can go above it, the Codex and the story have a hard time with a high amount of awakened, since you have to take the role of others in the story, so sometimes, you might end up in a situation harder than you would have if you had gone in with fewer people. There was also the chance that some would be disadvantaged, just like his Rebellion had been.

It’s also harder in general to change the ending in a book with more people, at least in his opinion, not harder to get through it, but to get a good result. After all, the more important people you take over, the less you have to change the story.

Let’s say this: while alone, you go inside a book and quickly find someone that you later let’s say kill, and that person is important to the ending; the Codex will keep that in mind, but if you enter with another person, and he gets put in the body of that character, you can’t do that anymore.

That’s why some students had decided to go in groups of even fewer students.

Iris seemed to have gotten her group... though it was strange; Lilith wasn’t there, and it’s strange because he hadn’t reached Enlightenment yet, so he needed the sync... ’Strange, very strange.’

And it wasn’t just Iris; all his other friends were already in groups. Orion was also with Iris.

Aether sighed. ’I guess it’s my fault I overslept.’ Sucks, but he was going to have to team up with the other students that had been left out-

”BO!”

Aether staggered, quickly turning back... to see... ’Sena...’

She smirked at him, a smile that told him everything he needed to know. ”I see you don’t have a party, how sad.” She said, while her smile didn’t change a bit, and in her voice there was no sign of remorse.

”Shut up, you’re happy about it.” She quickly nodded. ”Of course I am... though, I also don’t have a team; want to team up?” She said as if it didn’t mean anything... was he really going to team up with the Vessel of Fate?

He knew he was capable of... but he was still skeptical.

”Quick, before some random girl leaves her team to come with you!” Aether looked confused at her, but didn’t question it. He had learned not to.

He sighed. ”Fine... let’s do this.” He extended his hand, a hand that Fate quickly took.

...

”Good, I’ve been dying to see what the Eden is all about... and my God too.”