Prince of The Abyss

Aether took a deep breath, watching as some kind of black boar walked through the ash. He hadn’t seen this species in his life, but at the same time, it wasn’t hard to realize it probably had been specific to this world. Or maybe, just a natural-born Wonderland animal; after all, animals existed everywhere in Wonderland.

He closed one of his eyes, aiming towards its chest. It was a medium-sized target, but it was pretty far away; still, he had gotten good enough with the bow. Nothing special; if you asked him to shoot something directly on target from very far away, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

His accuracy when it came to hitting a specific spot wasn’t actually that good, but he was great with timing.

’Well, it doesn’t really matter where I hit it; I just have to hit it. After all, this is the last bit of essence I have in me; after this arrow, I will be out... It’s annoying I can’t do anything about my reserves without ascending or ranking up.’

Holding the string of the bow carefully, he waited until the perfect moment. As the boar’s head leaned down to eat some of the ash from the ground, that was when he unleashed the arrow, which pierced right through it, coming out the other side, before dissolving back into its original form.

”Since when did you learn to use a bow?” Lilith asked, surprised... but at the same time, he also seemed impressed... probably because his archery skills were only known by Sena.

Getting up, Aether didn’t turn to face Lilith; he walked towards the boar as he answered. ”I had the time; after all, my Trial did require me to get strong to survive. So it was just another thing I picked up along the way.”

Kneeling near the boar, Aether started skinning it with Voidpiercer. It was harder to do with a rapier, but luckily, because of how weak the boar was, he could use the edges of the blade, not only the tip. He could cut it instead of continuous thrusts.

”This solves our hunger, but what do we do about water? I’m really thirsty.” Aether said, not turning back towards Lilith, who had grabbed his chin to think.

”I didn’t see anything around us. We will be wasting energy if we continue searching for it, but do we have any other way... can’t you ask the shadows about it?”

Aether shook his head. ”Not really; there aren’t any. The sun is bright in the sky, and this is a field, even if filled with ash and in no way a normal one. I’ve seen some shadows of the trees we walked by, but they only know what they saw, and since there isn’t a river in their sight, they can’t know.”

He stopped for a second. ”Though, if we wait for some time, I might have an Idea.”

Lilith crossed his arms, sighing. ”Sure, I don’t mind, not like we can do anything else.”

As Aether finished skinning the boar, he cut some chunks of meat from it. Growing his hair long, using some of the essence he recovered, he cut it off with Voidpiercer, twisting it so he could improvise a rope to carry the meat in.

”This is the best I can do.” He said, shaking his hands to get the blood off.

But while they had meat, they lacked any way to start a fire without a relic.

He personally hadn’t prepared with anything; he didn’t think he would need to bring anything with so many people with him, all a lot richer than him, and he had probably been right, after all, Elise was part of the richest family; she probably bought a lot of relics to prepare.

But she wasn’t him; only him and Lilith, but to his luck, Freedom had prepared, and for a good reason: he was the captain after all. But all the food he had, he had already eaten, as well as the water, and since he had been preoccupied with Cain, he hadn’t managed to get any special-made relics.

But what mattered was that he had a relic for fire, which was probably one of the most important things at the moment; that way they could actually cook their food.

Lilith nodded at Aether before walking over to a tree that was hollow of any leaves, and the wood itself was already burned, charcoal, so it wouldn’t burn properly with any normal fire, but this wasn’t a normal fire.

Charging his marks, he punched the tree, making it fall to the ground.

’Getting wood with your fists... reminds me of something.’ Aether chuckled and ripped some of the branches off that he couldn’t reach before.

Coming back to him, he threw them on the ground before summoning two weird rocks. Kneeling down, he struck the rocks hard, enough to make them spark and slowly start the flame.

...

...

Aether sat on the ground as the fire slowly cooked the meat. After regaining some essence, he had sent Inky to look for some water while they waited.

It was pretty silent... no one said a word... it was awkward, so he decided to break it.

”So, um... what’s your goal?” Aether asked Lilith, who turned to him, surprised, tilting his head.

”My goal?” He chuckled, but... then he surprisingly turned really serious. ”I want to create a world where no one has to fear others, where everyone can be happy.”

...

Aether frowned. ”But how does that make any sense?”

Lilith’s eyes widened. ”What do you mean?” Lilith asked.

”You say you want a world where everyone can be happy and not fear, and yet you are against the Freedom of the Withered? So how does that make sense?”

Lilith laughed, which only made Aether frown even more. ”You don’t get it, do you... not at all.”

He got up and walked in front of Aether. ”I want the best for my people, as everyone does. When I say I want what I want, I refer to my people.”

...

...

”Just like you care about the people of the Withered, I care more about the Blue Rose.

It’s as simple as that, really. You would kill for the Withered, would you not?”

...

...

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