Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1254: It’s me. Your boyfriend, Aether.

Aether blankly stared at Lia’s retreating figure... what had she just said now?

She didn’t even know his name?

What the fuck was going on?

Aether tried to move his body, to hold her and talk first, but his fucking puppet frame felt like stone, stiff and unresponsive, not even an inch obeying him.

”Lia!” he shouted, but Lia didn’t even turn back.

Not a single glance.

Did they do something to her?

What the fuck happened to her?

Aether’s gaze darted toward Snowflake, her eyes following Lia’s back with the same confusion twisting inside him.

”Snow... you remember me, right?”

Snowflake nodded without hesitation. ”Of course, Master... Puppet.”

Aether sighed in relief, forcing his one remaining hand to rise, the limb twitching with faint sparks of movement.

Snowflake’s tail lifted to support him, wrapping around his weakened frame before she gently placed him on her back. Adjusting his grip with care, she slithered forward, carrying him toward Lia’s cold silhouette.

When he finally caught up,

”Lia, listen to me... It’s me. Your boyfriend, Aether. Did you really forget that?”

Each word trembling, reaching out like hands desperate to catch her before she slipped away completely. But Lia... she just turned her head slightly, her indifferent eyes brushing over him as if he were a stranger.

Just like the day they had first met... that same frost, that same wall.

She turned cold on him, as though he no longer mattered, as if he had never mattered at all. Her lips curled in disdain, ”Next time you say something ridiculous... I won’t hesitate to slit your throat.”

The disgust in her tone made him flinch.

Aether’s face drained of colour, ”What’s going on here...” he muttered under his breath, his voice carrying both fear and disbelief.

He turned slowly to the remaining metallic figures, prisoners now bound in the grasp of those who had once been captives themselves.

”No, don’t kill them!” Aether shouted before blades and fists could fall. His voice cracked, but it stopped them.

They frowned at Aether, rage twisting their faces.

How dare he tell them to stop?

These filths had kidnapped them, broken their wills, and treated them as nothing more than slaves.

Snowflake slithered between them, and Aether raised his voice again, this time edged with grim authority. ”I’m telling you... Those guys, we need to understand what’s going on here. The rulers need them alive.”

For a brief second, they frowned, then nodded reluctantly, realising their rulers might grant them a greater reward if they managed to bring captives back alive.

Those few metallic figures trembled as they were dragged and shoved into the cage, the same prison where those who had captured them once suffered.

The cycle had reversed!

Lia, on the other hand, only snorted, ”Look at them now, acting all mighty... when you hid like a coward.” Her snarl lashed out at the once-captives, each word a dagger.

Aether turned back to her, ”Where were you when you woke up?”

He needed to know... He needed to understand what had happened to her, what they had done to twist her so far away from him.

Did they remove her memories?

But why?

Lia turned to Aether for a second, frowning, but she didn’t say anything.

But Snowflake knew where. She carried Aether there.

Lia frowned again, reluctantly following them.

As Snowflake entered the tent, she motioned toward the inside, explaining what had happened here and how she had first met Lia.

”So... Lia was already here before you...” Aether muttered with a worried tone.

Had they done something to Lia before Snowflake arrived?

Worse—had they planned to do the same thing to Snowflake?

”But she called my name though?” Snowflake added with a frown. If Lia’s memories had truly been erased, then how could she have spoken her name so naturally?

Aether’s frown deepened as his eyes slid toward Lia. She stood at the entrance, watching him coldly, her face twisted with the same frown.

Aether sighed... An emptiness spread through him. She looked at him as if he were a stranger—like some intruder rifling through her things, nothing more.

”Also... we saw maps of our Empires and a few documents with weird words in them,” Snowflake continued, her tail pointing to the table.

Once, it had been covered with scrolls and maps, but now... everything disappeared, leaving only emptiness.

”Maps and weird words?” Aether repeated as his frown deepened.

Why the maps of their Empires?

What were these people up to?

First of all... who were these people?

They came and they took, then... disappeared.

Something about this didn’t make sense.

”What kind of words were seen?” Aether asked, turning to Snowflake.

She tilted her head, her expression growing slightly thoughtful.

”It’s like this.”

Lia, who had been silently watching, finally spoke. With her crimson sword, she bent down and drew across the ground.

When Aether’s eyes fell upon the letter, his face froze in shock. ”That’s... ’B’...”

Lia frowned. ”What?” She hadn’t caught his whisper.

Aether’s face grew paler. ”Any more letters?” he pressed.

”I know,” Snowflake said, her tail sliding across the dirt to scribble another shape beside Lia’s.

Aether’s breath caught. His face drained even further. ”We...?”

Snowflake tilted her head before nodding with certainty. ”I knew it... these words are similar to yours, Master! The same kind you learned with Aria.”

Aether’s eyes widened, his stare fixed blankly on the letters carved into the earth.

Lia frowned, narrowing her eyes as thoughts swirled behind them. ’Does he know these words? If he does... maybe he could be useful in this situation.’

Just then,

”OH GOD!”

”Please, have mercy!!”

Suddenly, voices and screams echoed from outside. Snowflake immediately slithered out and... they saw the sky itself beginning to vanish, the horizon unravelling into nothingness.

No, it wasn’t turning into dust or scattering into particles... it was disappearing, as if some unseen hand was erasing this world line by line.

Aether’s face turned grim.

His head snapped toward the golden portal... the only possible path to escape.

But to his horror, the portal shimmered, flickered weakly, then shrank into a single spark before vanishing completely. In just a matter of seconds, nothing remained.

”Master?” Snowflake’s face twisted with worry as she glanced back at him. Aether was gritting his teeth.

He didn’t know what to do. The very lands they had walked, the mountains they had crossed... everything was collapsing into oblivion, the void creeping closer and closer.

”Grap them!” Aether snapped, pointing toward the kneeling metallic figures. If there was any way to find answers, it would be through them.

Yet—

Their heads suddenly exploded one after another, bursting apart as if triggered by some invisible trap. Their bodies fell lifelessly to the ground, strings cut loose from puppets.

The erasure was getting closer.

Panic rippled through the survivors. Everyone scrambled in terror, running blindly like bees fleeing smoke, desperate to escape an end that could not be outrun.

Aether didn’t stand frozen. Snowflake coiled tightly around Lia, seizing her, and immediately slithered away at full speed.

Lia, though flinching from the sudden movement, clung to Snowflake with all her strength.

Snowflake surged forward, faster and faster, while Aether and Lia glanced back.

The people who were running only a moment ago were simply erased on contact with the void.

”NOOOOO—”

”Arhh—”

”KYAA—”

Their voices shattered, swallowed whole as if they had never existed.

Aether’s face hardened, his expression grim. ’Fuck, fuck!!’ he cursed inwardly, grinding his teeth.

Lia’s expression turned grim, too.