Prince of The Abyss

A tragic morning... at least for the village.

Almost all the crops had been completely destroyed, smashed to the ground. Yet no one knew what happened... ’Everyone except me... that is.’

Aether looked beyond the small fence that separated the field from the home, where all the wheat had been completely destroyed. Was he surprised? Not even a little. He had watched it happen after all. And he had done nothing about it.

Watching the man that was supposed to be his father panic after seeing what had happened had been a bit funny, not that he found human agony amusing. But it had made him chuckle a bit. Before he stopped himself.

’It was the reaction, the way his face fell...’

Maeve had also been really surprised, and she had been panicking, thinking something had gone wrong, so he had to calm her down. He knew she was just scared since this was her first time, but still, he wasn’t like this when he was with his master.

’But then again, while we have barely gotten to know each other, I knew my master quite well, and trusted her with all my heart. I can’t expect her to do the same, since there’s also the fact that I had nothing to lose. She does.’

Taking a small stroll through the village, Aether saw the destroyed faces of many; they looked as if their whole life had just collapsed on them. Which probably wasn’t the case. He didn’t think it was the end. He knew that it was a deep setback, and it did hurt them a lot, especially since the size they lost was quite big.

But it wasn’t a situation they couldn’t save themselves from.

Yet at the same time, watching all your hard work go down the drain like that must really not feel nice at all, so a part of him did understand their sorrow.

’Even if I have no idea what growing wheat or corn or whatever is like.’

And more importantly, they all really had no idea what happened. Not even a single clue. Their crops looked as if they had been stomped to the ground, but what kind of animal could do that? There were no elephants in this place.

And at least someone would have seen it because of its size; it’s not like everyone went to sleep so early at night.

...

But the reason for his walk wasn’t to see the faces of the people, but rather, just to examine the village... to see what everything else was made out of... and how well it would all burn.

All the houses were made out of wood; there were the barns, which had a bit of metal, but were mostly made out of wood. Which really did make him question: have they never actually thought that a fire could come?

Naturally, let’s say in the winter, someone accidentally puts something flammable near the fireplace, and it starts burning the house, and soon the whole village. What then? What could they ever do? The fire wasn’t going to stop; it had enough stuff to burn, so what then?

He knew this was a book, and that maybe in this world, rational thinking wasn’t normal. ”And who knew, maybe they were right, and something like a natural fire would never happen.

He couldn’t know; he wasn’t from this world to know everything about it.

What he knew was that he had no intention of sticking to the rules of this fairytale.

...

...

Going back home, Aether entered the house where he saw his father with his head resting on the table. He looked really down... if he were really his son, he would have tried to help him, to cheer him up. But that wasn’t who he was, and neither did he really care to act like his child anymore.

He only needed to seem like a character to gain information; not only had he not gotten anything from it, but he had everything he needed to know, except one.

”Hey, Dad...” He smirked, putting his hands behind him. ”Do you know if we have...

Any gasoline?”

The man raised his head. His eyes widened at the question. ”Um... why do you need to know that? Gasoline is not a toy, you know?”

Aether chuckled. ”I know, that’s exactly why I want to know where it is so I can avoid it.”

The man didn’t buy it, not even a bit. ”You know what they say, you avoid things better if you don’t know about them.” He chuckled before lying back on the table.

Aether kept his smile, only letting it fall as he turned away... ’Not telling your child where the gasoline is... it’s actually good parenting... too bad I wasn’t only talking to you... and your shadow sure is a snake.’

Aether smirked, going to the attic, where the gasoline was being kept. Climbing on the ladder, Aether looked around among the many abandoned things like paintings or other tools, until he finally saw it: multiple canisters of gasoline. What reason they had to have so many, he had no idea; he didn’t work on a farm. Plus, he couldn’t know what weird things existed in this world.

”They should probably be enough...”

But he let them be for now; after all, he had no intention of starting it during the day when everyone could see him and get in his way. It was way better to do this at night, where he wasn’t going to be bothered.

Plus, if he did it now and didn’t tell Maeve and got her to a safe place, she would probably burn inside the village with the other people.

He first had to get her to a safe place, probably just far away from the farm, far enough for the Codex to take them out before it reached her, and then wait for night to come and pour the gasoline all over the village, light it, and then wait for it to do its work.

”And more importantly, watch it all burn.”