Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1450: You lose control of your emotions so easily when it comes to that pathetic thing you call love

”Are you sure he woke up?” Xara frowned as she stared at Aether’s unmoving body.

Emberlyn nodded, her expression tight and serious, fingers curling into the fabric of her sleeve. ”I am sure. Believe me. I saw it clearly. His fingers moved, not just once... they reacted, like he was trying to pull himself back.”

Xara hummed softly. Her eyes traced his form, lingering on his arms, his shoulders, the faint lines of muscle beneath his skin. She pressed her fingers gently against him, searching for tension, for resistance, for even the smallest involuntary twitch that might confirm Emberlyn’s claim.

But there was nothing.

No tremor or stiffness.

Only Aether’s steady breathing.

Xara straightened slightly, her gaze returning to his hand. ”Are you absolutely certain it moved?” she asked quietly.

Emberlyn clenched her fist, ”I told you, I saw it with my own eyes. It was not my imagination. His fingers twitched, just like someone struggling to wake up from a deep dream.”

Xara hummed again, her expression growing more thoughtful. It was not that she doubted Emberlyn’s honesty.

It was simply that bodies did strange things when pushed too far. Muscle spasms could appear after prolonged immobility, especially when the body had been stretched or stimulated by others.

She exhaled slowly, then reached out and gently slapped Aether’s cheek, careful not to be rough. ”Aether... can you hear me?” she asked, leaning closer. ”Are you alright? If you are there, give us something. Anything.”

Only Silence.

Xara straightened and shook her head, turning as if to leave. Before she could take a step, Emberlyn moved in front of her, blocking her path.

”B-But I saw him. Please believe me. We cannot just walk away. We have to do something.”

Xara met her gaze and shook her head slowly, ”His body is fine, and his soul is not damaged. There is nothing more we can do right now. If he is unconscious, or trapped somewhere beyond our reach, only he can find his way back.” Her eyes softened as she spoke, but the truth did not change.

Emberlyn bit her lip, struggling to hold back the fear that threatened to spill over. ”But when?” she whispered. ”How long are we supposed to wait?”

Xara did not answer immediately. She turned back toward Aether, ”That... depends on him.”

In the end, that was all they could do. They had no technique left, no hidden method to force him awake without risking something far worse.

They were already afraid of what might happen if they interfered too much. His hand still shivered faintly, refusing to heal, as if caught between existence and loss. The sight alone was enough to keep them from acting recklessly.

They did not fully understand the magic involved, but from Delphine’s words, one thing was clear. When Aether tried to save her from those unknown creatures, something had gone terribly wrong, and his hand had been taken.

They believed that his hand still existed somewhere, alive and bound to him, but kept with that unknown creature.

The only way to retrieve it, or destroy it completely so that his body could finally heal, was to find it.

But how they were supposed to do that?

They had no records, nothing that could lead them forward.

They knew almost nothing about the Eternal Prison, not even in the Elven Library!

And even less about the creature that now carried a part of Aether with it.

Xara and Emberlyn stared at Aether, neither of them speaking.

[The view] seemed to slowly draw closer toward Aether’s forehead, passing through skin, flesh, and bone, slipping beyond the limits of the physical. It descended deeper, into a space overflowing with raw, shifting energies that did not belong to no living being could hold it.

Clusters of tiny, sparkling colours collided and separated, breaking apart and reforming like unstable stars. They were connected thin thread of light that pulsed everywhere like neurons.

They surged forward, crashing into one another like fragments of creation itself, as if existence were constantly tearing down and rebuilding in the same breath.

As the view pushed further inward, the colours thinned, their brilliance fading.

One by one, the clusters vanished, swallowed whole, until nothing remained except endless darkness.

”Arrh!!”

Aether groaned, his ghostly body twisting violently as he struggled to move. Every part of him felt restrained, as if invisible chains pressed him down.

Moments earlier, his body moved a bit... Now his body tightened abruptly, gripped by something unseen, as though massive hands had closed around him without mercy.

Aether clenched his teeth, staring into surroundings filled with nothing but void and suffocating silence.

”Fuck! I need to go! She would be alone!!” Aether shouted as he struggled again.

But No... His ghostly body was not moving anymore.

He exhaled sharply and forced himself to steady his breathing. Panic would not help. He needed to think. He needed to understand what was happening to him.

After losing consciousness, he had awakened here, alone in ghostly form. That could only mean one thing.... This was his soul.

But then why was his hand missing?

If it’s soul, then why?

Wait... his real hand was cut by those things, right?

His expression twisted as dread settled in. ”Don’t tell me... that creature took my soul hand too?” he muttered.

The thought alone sent a violent shiver through his ghostly form.

”How am I going to hold my loved ones?” Aether whispered, his voice trembling. The image of their warmth flashed through his mind, and the pain of knowing he might never feel it again crushed his chest.

”Is that what you are worried about?”

An indifferent voice echoed through the darkness. Aether flinched sharply, turning in every direction, scanning the void, but there was no one there.

Only endless blackness!

His expression hardened as he spoke coldly, ”Iteration No.27.”

”...”

”...”

After a brief pause, the voice echoed again, calm and detached.

”27... ah? Tell me, No. 28. For what reason are you moving forward?”

Aether frowned, the question stirring something deep within him. He lifted his head and answered without hesitation, ”Of course, for my women. For the ones who placed their trust and love in me.”

He clenched his remaining hand, ”I move forward to find a better world for them. That has never changed.”

”Haha...” The darkness suddenly laughed, the sound spreading through the void like a hollow echo.

Aether’s frown deepened as he muttered coldly back, ”Is it funny, No. 27? If it truly is, then I do not see why I should be laughing with you.”

”Ha... a thing that believes itself intelligent never laughs,” the voice replied, sharp and dismissive, its tone dripping with quiet superiority.

Aether’s expression slowly hardened, whatever trace of warmth remained draining from his eyes.

”Women this... women that...” the voice continued, ”Were your thoughts filled with nothing but Lust-”

”Love,” Aether corrected immediately. He stared into the endless void as if daring it to look back at him.

”Do not twist it into something lesser.”

”Love? Is that so? Hah” The voice let out a slow, humourless chuckle, tinged with disappointment.

”Then I suppose that explains everything.

That is why you are weak.

That is why you are pathetic.”

The voice stopped for a second before, ”Even lust would have been better. Lust burns, lust drives, lust consumes.” Another faint laugh echoed.

”But love... love hesitates. Love breaks.”

Aether fell silent for several seconds.

”Are you... inside my body?” he finally asked.

”... Don’t know.”

Aether’s frown deepened further,

”Are you trying to take over my body?”

”... Don’t know.”

”... Then what the fuck do you know?” Aether growled, teeth grinding as frustration surged through his ghostly form.

”Haha... I know one thing,” the voice answered, its tone suddenly absolute, cold enough to freeze thought itself.

”If you continue like this, you will never reach the end. Not this time.”

The pressure intensified as the voice continued,

”You have not been hammered enough.

You have not been steeled enough.

You have not been broken enough to abandon comfort.

YOU ARE WEAK!!”

Aether clenched his fist.

The voice said indifferently, ”And why you reek of having been shaped and played by those filthy hands of self-proclaimed gods.”

”...What do you want?” Aether’s body trembled with anger. He was getting angry as if those words... those fucking true words were hurting him!

”You already know what I want...”

Aether lowered his head and parted his lips,

”End this maddening cycle, and... The happiness I will find for ME.”

”End this maddening cycle, and... The happiness you will find for YOU,”

The voice echoed at the same time, perfectly synchronised, stripping the words of their individuality.

”...”

”...”

Aether stared back at the void and... void stared back at Aether. For a second, a tensed suitation appeared.

”Then why do you want me to break?” Aether asked, ”I am already happy. I have what matters to me.”

”Have you ended the cycle?” the voice asked calmly, without mockery, without emotion, as if stating an undeniable law.

”...”

”...”

A dead silence followed as Aether lowered his eyes, the question sinking deep, tearing at something he did not want to face.

The void seemed to watch him cower.

”No words? Haha... I thought so,” the voice mocked, its bitterness sharp and precise. ”You lack force, No. 28. I have been watching you longer than you realise.”

The darkness pressed closer as the voice continued, each sentence colder, heavier, impossible to ignore.

”You do not take steps without a path carved for you.”

”You do not take actions, only the mistakes that made you different”

”You do not move forward unless someone pushes you from behind.”

The final words settled like a verdict, indifferent and absolute, leaving Aether standing in the void with nothing but the chilling weight of truth pressing down on his soul.

”And... You lose control of your emotions so easily when it comes to that pathetic thing you call love,” the voice said,

”Strip that away, and you are nothing.

Absolutely nothing without your so-called emotional support holding you upright.”

The darkness pressed closer as the voice continued, ”So tell me now... what are you?”

A brief pause followed, heavy and suffocating.

”What... is you?”

Aether didn’t answer just... lowered his head, yet his eyes trembled with anger and frustration.

The voice shifted, disappointment seeping into it like cold rot.

”The day will eventually come,” it said quietly, almost matter-of-fact.

”The day I will no longer be able to protect you like I did this time.

The day I will fail to stop your soul from being dragged fully into the Eternal Prison.”

Aether’s brows lifted, ”What do you mean?” he asked. ”I escaped... didn’t I?”

”Oh?” The voice let out a low, unsettling chuckle.

”Leaving a piece of yourself behind is not escaping, No. 28.” The scrutiny in its tone felt invasive, ”Of all possible choices... You had to enter the ’IT’S’ Domain?”

The laughter that followed was hollow and cruel. ”Hahaha... how amusing. How endlessly amusing it is to watch the iterations always meant to met it... hahaha.”

Aether stood frozen, staring blankly into the endless void.