Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1255: Oops... you found me

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

Lia’s expression turned grim, too.

But running wasn’t enough. The tents, the cages, everything around them was dissolving into nothingness, erasing even the memory of their presence.

Then, to Aether’s horror, the other side of the horizon began vanishing too. The collapse wasn’t creeping anymore... it was closing in from every direction.

Snowflake flinched, her voice trembling. ”M-Master...”

”Just keep moving!” Aether barked.... He shut his eyes tight, mind spinning, trying to think of some way—any way—to get out. Out. Out. Out!

And then, an image struck him.

He remembered Mary’s head... severed.

Aether frowned as he turned to Lia and asked, ”I heard you have the Primordial Vampire Bloodline, right?”

Lia flinched, instinctively about to shake her head, but Aether’s face hardened, his eyes sharp. ”I have only one option... You have to tell me the truth. Otherwise, we’ll all be erased once and for all!!”

Lia bit her lip, worry pricking her skin. She didn’t want to give such information to a stranger.

Thud!

”Master, hurry up!!” Snowflake shouted as the erasure nearly reached her tail.

Lia flinched, her body trembling, before she gave the slightest nod. ”Yes... I have it.”

Aether pressed immediately, his voice iron. ”If I stab your heart... would you regenerate instantly? Or die? And if you die... how long would it last?”

Lia’s teeth sank harder into her lip. Telling this was almost suicide. ”I am not as strong as my mother...”

”Just answer me!” Aether barked.

Lia flinched, then hurriedly blurted, ”Stabbing my heart would make me die for a minute before my bloodline kicks in and regenera—”

Chuucck!

Before she could finish, an ice sword erupted into her chest, piercing straight through her heart. Her words broke off as her eyes dulled, colour draining from them.

Aether’s expression was grim. He immediately lifted her limp body with shards of ice and barked, ”Snow... swallow her!” He flung her into the air, yanking her higher with a sweep of his hand.

Snowflake hesitated only a breath before her tail coiled like a spring. Launching skyward, she opened her maw and swallowed Lia whole.

Gulp—

Her body vanished down Snowflake’s throat without hesitation, and fell back down... her face turned grim as she saw...

The ground was almost erased completely... However—

”Activate... Umbra Sanctum,” Aether muttered as he unleashed every shred of energy he had saved.

A dark portal tore itself open before Snowflake, pulling her inside just as Aether pushed her through.

The portal snapped shut. The ground beneath collapsed entirely. Aether’s puppet body vanished too... swallowed by the void.

Like ink erased from paper, all of it was gone.

Yet...

Aether’s connection to his puppet did not sever immediately.

His senses flickered, dragged into something beyond.

His awareness filled with light... blinding, searing, infinite.

Something huge... Something very fucking huge.

Aether’s bare feet pressed against something solid. The sensation spread across his skin—it wasn’t ground.

It was a hand... A colossal hand holding him.

”Hehe...”

A soft giggle echoed through the light, playful.

Aether’s consciousness faltered, his vision trembling, but his brows shot upward in shock. He recognised that tone.

”Arcane?”

”Oops... you found me~”

That was all. His consciousness shattered, cut off completely—

”HAA!”

—and in the next instant, the real Aether jerked awake, his body snapping upright in bed. Sweat clung to his skin as his chest heaved, panting heavily. His blurred vision cleared just enough to see them standing over him.

Nightfire.

Nyx.

And... Mary.

*****

A few moments ago, while Aether was busy saving Lia, meanwhile, back in the Void Empire,

In Nyx’s house,

His real body lay on the bed.

The connection with his puppet was so thin that he needed to pour every ounce of focus into it. That strain caused him to lose his own consciousness, leaving him sprawled on the bed, completely unmoving, as if lifeless.

Two entire days had passed in this stillness.

Mary had been pacing endlessly before the bed, her steps sharp and restless. As much as she wanted to slit the throat of this bastard while he was weak and helpless, this was the only chance she had to reclaim her daughter.

Nyx stood silently at Aether’s side, not moving even an inch. She had waited with him for those two days as well, though worry gnawed at her just as it did Mary.

Nyx finally broke the silence, her eyes gentle yet steady as she turned to the woman pacing like a storm. ”Your Majesty... please calm yourself. My husband is trying his best.”

But Mary didn’t hear her, or perhaps she refused to. Her teeth dug into her nails, her mind spiralling with frantic storms of thought, every second birthing a new, dangerous possibility.

What if something happened to her daughter?

What if she died out there, alone and forgotten?

What if she returned... but no longer remembered her own mother?

What if they used her in some kind of experiment?

Too many thoughts flooded her like poison, twisting inside her skull until she wanted to kill someone—anyone—just to release the suffocating dread.

For every cruel possibility that threatened her daughter, bloodlust surged within her veins.

Nyx sighed softly, her gaze drifting to Mary, who remained deaf to reason, locked in her torment... Then Nyx’s eyes shifted further, to the shadow by the window.

Nightfire stood there, half-hidden, peeking in and out nervously, like a thief afraid of being caught. That was all she had been doing these two long days—hovering at the edge of the room, never daring to fully step inside.

No way in hell would she walk straight into the presence of the Empress.

The woman who nearly killed Aether, who glared like a predator waiting for prey to stumble closer... Nightfire knew too well. The very instant she entered this room, the very second the Empress realised she was Aether’s wife, it would be over. Nightfire would be torn apart like raw meat.

Better to leave it all on Nyx’s shoulders. Better to stay quiet, hidden, and... most importantly alive!

’Come on now... It’s not like she’ll kill you just for that!’ Ashara’s voice chimed in Nightfire’s head.

But Nightfire snapped back instantly, ’The fuck are you talking about... that bitch will annihilate us in seconds! Haven’t you seen the wreckage outside?!’

She turned her head back, and the sight nearly made her choke again—the whole palace lay in ruins, jagged stone and scorched earth spread across the horizon. Entire wings of buildings reduced to rubble, entire fields charred black.

Their Empire had been shattered like a toy beneath her fury.

Ashara’s voice faltered. She didn’t fully grasp the weight of the situation, while Nightfire had already come to a bitter conclusion.

She was truly considering leaving this Empire behind... abandoning it once and for all before its Empress buried her in the ashes with it.

”Why is it taking so long?!” Mary suddenly shouted, her voice cracking like a whip. She clenched her fist, nails biting into her palm, and her killing intent leaked so heavily into the room that even the air seemed to shudder.

’Shit!’ Nightfire crouched instantly, lowering herself, hiding her body against the wall like a child caught in a nightmare. Her heart raced, the primal instinct of prey curling her into a shadow.

Mary’s eyes burned as she glared at Aether’s still body. Her lips twisted into fury. ”Just what is he doing... was he fucking around while my daughter’s life is on the line?!!”

Nyx drew a heavy breath, forcing her calm against the storm.

”I may not fully understand what’s happening between my husband and Your Majesty,” she began, ”But if one thing is certain, it’s this... he loves your daughter. He loves her the way he loves me... perhaps even more.” She paused, shaking her head slightly, before continuing, ”The truth is... he came to save me once, no matter the danger. So please... believe in him, if only for this moment.”

Mary’s lips curled into a cold snort, ’Believe this fucker?’ she spat in her mind.

With a groan of frustration, she turned her sharp gaze on Nyx. ”Right... you are his wife, aren’t you? Then tell me this—” her words cut like a blade, ”where is the Grenthollow?”

Nightfire, who overheard those words, went pale instantly. Her lips parted, but no sound came out. ’Shit, shit!!’ she cursed inside.