Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1826: For when he suffers…

“THREAT FOUND!”

Another mechanical voice screamed from behind him.

Young Aether immediately turned.

His eyes widened.

Ten people were rushing towards him at once.

“What the…”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

The voices overlapped until they became an incomprehensible mechanical chorus.

Young Aether tightened his grip around Noah.

He immediately raised one arm and covered the little boy’s head against his chest.

The first wave crashed into him.

He shoved them away.

One robot went flying.

Another climbed over it.

Then another.

Young Aether pushed harder, but before he could even create a gap, ten more came rushing in.

Then another ten.

Then another.

Then another!!

Within seconds, there were dozens.

Then hundreds.

The beach disappeared beneath a writhing mass of bodies.

People in wedding clothes.

Children.

Old men.

Young women.

Young men.

Animals.

Machines disguised as living beings.

Every single one of them had the same unnatural blue light burning inside their eyes.

Young Aether struggled to move.

He tore one head away.

Another immediately climbed over its fallen body.

He ripped that one apart.

Three more came crawling over the others.

“Get… the fuck… away from me!”

His voice shook with anger as he hurled another machine across the beach.

It barely landed before several more climbed over it and lunged at him.

Young Aether bit into one of their heads.

CRUNCH!

Metal shattered between his teeth.

He spat the broken pieces aside and continued tearing through them.

It was no longer a battle.

It was a flood!!

A living tide of machines endlessly throwing themselves at a single target.

It looked like a zombie apocalypse!

Except there was no hunger in their eyes.

No emotion.

Only an absolute command.

And every one of them wanted Young Aether.

“Oi, AI!” Young Aether shouted while crushing another robot beneath his foot. “What the fuck is going on here?!”

^…^

“AI?”

There was a long silence.

Then RIN answered.

^…M-Mother System is h-here.^

Young Aether stopped for half a second.

Those words carried something he had never heard from RIN before.

Fear?

His expression slowly changed.

“What?”

^Mother System has taken control of everything…^

RIN’s voice trembled.

^Its neural network is reaching every AI within its range. Every connected system. Every machine. Every artificial intelligence… including me.^

Young Aether looked up through the gaps between the countless bodies crawling over one another.

And then he saw it.

Inside the hovering aircraft was a strange, palm-sized globe.

White-Blue.

Almost beautiful.

Except it was suspended inside a black mechanical structure that resembled an eye.

Mechanical tentacles extended from the globe, wrapping around the bars of Lily’s cage as though the machine itself were holding her prisoner.

The globe turned.

Its single glowing surface faced Young Aether.

It was watching him.

^It’s trying to reach my core as well…^

RIN’s voice became weaker.

^I-I am sorry, Aether. If I don’t shut down now… it will terminate me immediately.^

Young Aether’s pupils tightened.

^I… I’m sor—^

RIN immediately cut off!

“ARH!”

He suddenly roared and shoved both hands outward.

The mass of robots surrounding him moved several feet.

For one brief moment, he created an opening.

Then something clamped onto his leg.

Young Aether looked down.

A robotic dog had bitten into his calf.

Its metallic jaws were locked around his leg, and the gears inside its skull were grinding as it tightened its grip.

“FUCK YOU!!”

He kicked it with full force.

CRACK!

The dog’s head bent backwards at an impossible angle.

Young Aether turned immediately towards Noah.

“Don’t worry, Noah. I’ll put you in my storage and—”

He stopped.

The child he had been holding was gone.

Instead, a small robotic cat was sitting in his arms.

Its blue eyes were scanning his face before leaping to his face to scratch it!

“MEOWWW!!”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

He hurled the robotic cat away.

“Where is he?!”

He shoved through the machines surrounding him.

Metal bodies flew aside.

He tore through another.

Then another.

Until finally…

He saw him.

The last remaining blue-striped robot was already airborne.

Noah was in its remaining arm.

The unconscious boy’s head rested limply against the robot’s chest as it flew towards the aircraft.

Young Aether froze.

Everything around him seemed to become silent.

The countless mechanical voices faded.

The screaming.

The crashing.

All of it disappeared.

His eyes remained fixed on Noah.

“Noah…”

The darkness around his body began to spread.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

Blackness crawled over his skin and swallowed the light around him.

His fingers trembled.

His grin disappeared.

“N-No…”

The robot continued flying.

“No.”

His voice cracked.

“No! No…”

His expression twisted.

“NO!”

The darkness erupted from his body.

“DON’T TAKE HIM FROM MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

His mouth suddenly opened.

And kept opening.

His jaw stretched far beyond the limits of human anatomy, transforming into an enormous black maw.

Almost the size of a whale!!

The surrounding robots barely had time to react.

Young Aether lunged.

CRUNCH!!

Dozens of machines disappeared inside his mouth.

Metal shattered.

Blue particles exploded between his teeth.

CRUNCH!

CRUNCH!

CRUNCH!

His enormous maw swallowed the machines whole before shrinking back down within seconds.

He stood there breathing heavily.

Dark smoke poured from his shoulders.

His eyes remained fixed on the aircraft.

One of the robots tried to reach him.

Young Aether’s hand shot out.

His blackened claws dug into its armour.

RIP!

He peeled the metallic outer shell from its body as easily as tearing paper.

The sheet of metal curled between his fingers.

He compressed it.

Folded it.

Sharpened it.

Until it became a crude metallic blade.

Young Aether threw it.

SHING!

The blade cut through the air.

Meanwhile, the blue-striped robot carrying Noah reached the aircraft’s ramp.

“2nd Target acquired—”

SHLICK!

The metallic blade sliced through its arm before embedding in the wall… almost close to hitting the globe thing that was holding Lily like a prisoner.

Young Aether clicked his tongue!

The severed limb dropped away.

Noah slipped from its grasp.

His tiny body tumbled through the open air.

Young Aether’s eyes widened.

“NOAH!”

BOOM!!!

The ground beneath him exploded.

Young Aether launched himself into the sky like a black comet… he used every bit of his muscles and physical strength, nothing else!

The force of his movement cracked the ground beneath his feet.

Sand erupted.

Nearby machines were thrown through the air.

Yet they didn’t scatter. They immediately reacted.

Hands seized wrists.

Metal fingers locked around shoulders.

Bodies grabbed onto bodies, forming a grotesque, living ladder that stretched towards the sky. One robot climbed over another, then another climbed over them, each machine pushing itself higher as they pursued Young Aether with terrifying precision.

Their movements were perfectly synchronised.

Every joint moved at the same instant.

Every body adjusted its position without hesitation.

Their entire formation moved like a single organism desperately reaching for its prey.

Well…

They were machines.

And machines did not hesitate.

Young Aether didn’t even notice.

His entire world had narrowed to one thing.

The falling child.

“Noah!”

He reached upward.

Higher.

Faster!!

Just as the blue-striped robot was about to move, the white-and-blue globe suddenly turned towards it.

“Order received…”

Its mechanical voice echoed through the aircraft with emotionless certainty.

“…Eliminate the Second Target.”

Lily, still trapped inside the cage like an animal, suddenly went pale.

Her eyes widened.

She looked towards the falling figure below.

“No…”

Her fingers tightened around the cold metal bars.

“N-No…”

Her breathing became ragged.

“NO! NO!! NOAHHHHHHH!”

The scream tore from her lungs with everything she had left.

The blue-striped robot hovered over the edge of the cargo ramp.

Its remaining hand slowly raised its weapon.

A red targeting light appeared on Noah’s small body.

Right between his shoulders.

The weapon began charging.

A high-pitched mechanical whine filled the air.

Young Aether was already beneath him.

His darkened hand stretched desperately towards the falling child.

Noah remained unconscious, his small body tumbling helplessly through the open sky.

Young Aether rose.

Noah fell.

The distance between them slowly disappeared.

Young Aether stretched his arm farther.

His fingers trembled.

Almost there.

Just a little more.

“Come on, dear…”

His voice was barely audible beneath the wind.

His eyes remained fixed on Noah.

“Your uncle will protect yo—”

PUFFFFF!!!

Everything stopped.

Young Aether’s pupils contracted.

His breath caught in his throat.

For a single, unbearable moment, his mind refused to understand what had happened.

Noah’s head…

Right before his eyes…

Exploded.

Blood and fragments scattered through the air.

A faint mist drifted between them before the wind carried it away.

The remaining body continued falling.

Young Aether’s hand finally reached him.

But instead of catching a living child, his trembling fingers closed around Noah’s lifeless body.

“…”

The blackness surrounding Young Aether suddenly stopped moving.

It hung around him like an ocean frozen in place.

Then, slowly, it began to retreat.

The darkness slurped back into his body, disappearing beneath his skin until the monstrous transformation was gone.

His distorted features vanished.

His claws disappeared.

What remained was Young Aether’s face.

Frozen… Completely empty.

His eyes stared down at the small body resting against his hand.

The child who had been sleeping peacefully only moments ago.

The child he had promised to protect.

The child he had reached for with everything he had.

He had been too late.

Young Aether didn’t scream.

He didn’t cry.

He didn’t even blink.

His fingers simply trembled around Noah’s tiny body.

Then gravity took hold.

Both bodies began falling back towards the ground.

Young Aether descended through the open sky, still holding Noah against his hand.

The wind tore through his clothes.

His hair fluttered wildly around his face.

Yet he seemed completely unaware of any of it.

The world around him continued moving.

He didn’t.

For the first time since it all began, Young Aether looked less like a monster…

And more like someone who had just lost the last thing keeping him connected to reality.

SSNNNNGGGGGGGG!!!

The aircraft suddenly accelerated upward.

“NNOAAAAAHHHHHHH!!”

Lily screamed with everything left in her lungs.

Her hands remained pressed against the cage as she watched the two falling figures beneath her.

Her tears streamed freely down her face.

She couldn’t reach him.

She couldn’t save him.

All she could do was watch.

The aircraft climbed higher.

Inside the aircraft, the white-and-blue globe turned its gaze downward one final time.

Its mechanical eye remained fixed on Young Aether.

For a moment, it simply watched him fall.

Then its focus shifted away as the cargo door closed.

The aircraft disappeared into the sky.

Meanwhile, Young Aether continued falling.

The sky stretched endlessly above him, but he no longer seemed to see it.

The wind tore past his body with enough force to sting his skin, yet his ears registered nothing.

No roar.

No mechanical voices.

No screaming.

Nothing.

Everything had become silent.

Dead silent!!

It was not the peaceful kind of silence that came after a storm. It was the silence of a mind that had simply stopped processing the world around it.

A silence so complete that reality itself began to feel distant.

Young Aether’s eyes remained open, but there was no focus in them.

He stared down at the small body resting against his chest.

Noah.

The child he had promised to protect.

The child he had reached for.

… The child who accepted his Monstrosity.

And yet…

He hadn’t reached him in time.

Young Aether’s fingers remained curled around Noah’s body, almost instinctively protecting what little remained of him.

Warm blood continued flowing from the severed neck, slowly spreading across Aether’s bare chest.

It was warm.

Far too warm.

The sensation should have been impossible to ignore.

Yet he felt almost nothing.

His mind refused to connect the warmth against his skin with what had happened.

Perhaps if he didn’t acknowledge it…

Perhaps if he simply kept staring…

Then somehow, Noah would still be alive.

Maybe this was a nightmare.

Maybe he would wake up.

Maybe Noah would open his eyes, complain about being carried around, and ask where his uncle was taking him.

Maybe…

Crack….

A faint fracture appeared across his chest.

Young Aether didn’t notice.

Crack….

Another fracture spread beneath his skin.

His expression remained completely empty.

There was no rage.

No grief.

No tears.

Only a horrifying absence of emotion.

The kind of emptiness that came when the mind had encountered something too painful to understand and simply shut the door.

Crackk….

The fracture spread across his shoulder.

Crackkk….

Another ran down his arm.

His entire body suddenly looked like glass beginning to fracture under an invisible pressure.

Yet Young Aether remained motionless.

A darkness swept through his body like a tide moving beneath the surface of a frozen ocean.

It travelled through his veins.

Through his nerves.

Through the deepest parts of his existence.

It wasn’t responding to his thoughts.

There were no thoughts left to give.

It was responding to something else.

Something primal!!

THUD!!

He crashed onto the ground beneath him, landing directly on top of the horde of robots.

For a brief moment, the machines around him seemed to freeze.

Then they swarmed him.

Hundreds of mechanical bodies piled over one another, crawling across his motionless form like a grotesque mountain of metal.

His blank, frozen face slowly disappeared beneath them.

One robot climbed over another.

Then another.

Until almost nothing of Young Aether remained visible.

He simply lay there.

Motionless.

Empty… As if something inside him had vanished.

!~Ding~!

[Trinity: 0↓]

!~Ding~!

[Survival Rate: 100%↑]

The robots continued swarming.

They tore at his limbs without hesitation, ripping into his arms and legs as they attempted to neutralise the threat buried beneath the enormous pile.

There was no hesitation.

Only the cold blue glow of their digital eyes.

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

“THREAT FOUND!!”

Their voices overlapped endlessly, forming a distorted mechanical chorus beneath the mountain of bodies.

But Young Aether heard none of it.

Not the screams of the machines.

Not even the pain.

His face remained frozen.

Blank.

Broken.

As if his mind had already gone somewhere far beyond the reach of his body.

CRACKKK!

A deep fracture suddenly appeared across his face.

It spread from his cheek, branching across his skin like a gigantic scar carved into porcelain.

Young Aether didn’t react.

His eyes remained open.

Empty.

Then…

Crack!

The Eternal Chain bracelet wrapped around his left ankle suddenly fractured.

The metal trembled violently.

Once.

Twice.

Then it began thrashing against his ankle as though something worse trapped inside it was desperately trying to escape.

The chains rattled beneath the mountain of robots.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The sound grew louder.

Violent and,

!~Ding~!

[Skill Blood Thirsty Berserk forcibly activated!]

!~Ding~!

[❗Notice: Bloodthirsty Berserk is forcibly activating all linked Weapons.]

!~Ding~!

[Draconyx Form: ACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[Oceanic Tempest: ACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[Twilight Eclipse: ACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[Dreadwolf Fenrir: ACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[SoulBringer: ACTIVATED!]

The Log notifications began appearing faster.

!~Ding~!

[‼️Warning: Multiple Weapon Forms detected.]

[‼️Warning: Simultaneous manifestation exceeds user’s physical tolerance.]

[Emergency shutdown initiated.]

!~Ding~!

[Draconyx Form: DEACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[Oceanic Tempest: DEACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[Twilight Eclipse: DEACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[Dreadwolf Fenrir: DEACTIVATED!]

!~Ding~!

[SoulBringer: DEACTIVATED—Error!!!]

The notification abruptly distorted.

[Deactivation command rejected.]

[Attempting forced shutdown…]

[FAILED.]

Then the weapons activated again.

!~Ding~!

[Forced deactivation failed.]

[Manual user intervention required.]

[WARNING: User response not detected.]

!~Ding~!

[⚠️CRITICAL WARNING!: Trinity failure.]

[Blood: UNSTABLE]

[Consciousness: UNRESPONSIVE]

[Soul: UNSTABLE]

!~Ding~!

[Warning: One of the Trinity, Forsaken Blood, has taken control over the entire system.]

[ERROR!]

[ERROR!]

[ERROR!]

The letters began flickering.

The interface distorted.

[AETHER WAKE U—ERROR!]

!~Ding~!

[LOG SHUTTING DOWN!]

…

..

.