Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1845: One last time…

Young Aether’s POV

Splash….

A burning sensation suddenly spread across my face. The cold water struck my bloodied skin hard enough to sting, then trickled down my cheeks and jaw, carrying the metallic taste of blood toward my lips.

It didn’t hurt nearly as much as it should have. Instead, the sensation dragged me out of the darkness that had swallowed my consciousness.

I… I haven’t died yet?

Water dripped from my chin while my blurred vision slowly adjusted to the dim room.

Then I saw her.

Lily was unconscious, strapped tightly to a metallic chair directly in front of me. Her head hung limply against her chest.

“Li… Ly…” I barely managed to force her name through my cracked throat.

Why haven’t I died yet?

The question repeated itself inside my head. I wondered… and I kept wondering, even though some part of me already knew the answer.

Just then, the child with ice-blue eyes appeared before me.

There was something terribly wrong about those eyes. The moment I saw him standing there, staring at me without a trace of emotion, I understood why I was still alive.

“…”

I lowered my eyes in silence and prayed that, somehow, whatever this thing was would simply disappear.

Just then—

Thud!

The door suddenly flew open.

I barely had the strength to react. Slowly, painfully, I turned my neck toward the source of the noise.

A mech-suit entered the room.

The metallic figure moved with mechanical precision, its armoured footsteps striking the floor with heavy, deliberate impacts. A huge ‘1’ was etched across its chest.

Something was dragging behind it.

My eyes widened.

Jonathan.

His body was covered in bruises and blood. His clothes were torn, his face swollen, and dark streaks of dried blood ran from his forehead down his cheek. One of his legs was being dragged across the floor without the slightest hint of mercy.

His fingers twitched weakly against the ground.

He was still alive.

The mech-suit grabbed him by the leg and hauled him across the floor before throwing him into the metallic chair beside Lily. The restraints snapped shut around his wrists and chest with a series of cold metallic clicks.

What are they going to do to us?

What do they still want from us?

I couldn’t understand it. My thoughts were becoming sluggish again, drowning beneath exhaustion.

I don’t get it… I…I…

My vision began to darken at the edges.

Just as my consciousness was about to fade, something seized a fistful of my hair and violently yanked my head backwards.

Tang!

A metallic sound rang through the room.

I glanced down through my blurred vision and saw one of the Twin Eclipse weapons lying on the floor before me.

Then a cold, merciless voice whispered directly behind my ear.

“You choose… One dies. The other walks out alive.”

“…”

For a moment, I could only stare at the weapon.

Then a weak laugh escaped my throat.

I almost burst into laughter.

What a cliché torture.

Was this why they hadn’t killed me?

Did they really want me to choose which one I wanted to kill?

But why?

Maybe it was revenge for what I had done to their people.

Was that all this was about?

The lives… I took.

They wanted me to feel it.

They wanted me to understand what it was like to watch someone important die because of me. They wanted me to choose which of my own people would die, then live with the memory afterwards.

Me?

Haha…

What a fucking lunatic.

My lips curled into a faint, bitter smile despite the blood coating them.

“Fu…ck… off…”

The words barely left my mouth.

“…”

The voice behind me fell silent.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then the person holding me released my hair.

The figure stepped around me and finally came into my view.

The tailed mech-suit.

She stood there silently, her armoured body towering over me. Her golden visor eyes stared through me with such coldness.

Then she turned away from me.

Toward Jonathan.

Then Lily.

Splash!

Splash!

Water suddenly struck their faces.

Jonathan jerked violently against his restraints.

Lily’s head snapped upward as water streamed down her face and neck.

Gasp!

Gasp!!

Both of them gasped desperately, their lungs dragging in air as they awakened from unconsciousness.

Confusion lasted only a moment.

Then their eyes found me.

Their faces changed instantly.

Horror.

Jonathan was the first to shout.

“Aether!”

I could see the fear in his eyes as he took in my condition. The blood running down my face. The bruises. The torn skin. The way my body could barely remain upright.

He looked at me as though he were seeing something that should never have existed.

The tailed figure walked toward Lily.

She stopped directly in front of her and repeated the same words she had spoken to me.

“You choose… One dies. The other walks out alive.”

Lily flinched. Her entire body shuddered against the restraints.

For a moment, she said nothing.

She knew they could be lying. She knew this could be nothing more than a cruel attempt to turn us against one another.

And yet…

There was something else in her eyes.

A tiny glimmer.

Hope.

A hope born after everything else had been swallowed by darkness.

I knew that look.

I knew exactly what she was feeling.

And I already knew who she was going to choose.

Her eyes slowly moved toward Jonathan.

Just as I expected.

After all, she hated him.

The hatred had been buried inside her for so long that it had become inseparable from the pain. The trauma he had caused her ran deeper than he could ever understand.

Jonathan noticed where she was looking.

His expression hardened.

“The fuck do you want, bitch?” he snarled, his voice hoarse from exhaustion. “This all happened because of your fucking father! How dare you look at me like that?”

I slowly shook my head.

No.

I didn’t want this.

Not right before my eyes.

“L-Lily…”

Her eyes immediately turned toward me.

I swallowed, tasting blood in my mouth.

“Kill… me…”

The words came out barely louder than a whisper.

“Kill me.”

My body felt heavier with every passing second.

That’s the perfect answer for the situation. Kill me… and end this suffering nightmare.

Lily stared at me.

Her eyes trembled.

Then she began shaking her head.

“No…”

Her voice broke.

I could see tears mixing with the water still clinging to her face.

‘Oh, child… what should I do to deserve you?’

Even now, she still refused to abandon me.

Even after everything.

Even after seeing what I had become.

I lowered my eyes.

I am… nothing but a monster.

A monster that needed to die.

That was the truth.

“Oh… this is interesting.”

A haughty voice suddenly interrupted the silence.

I slowly lifted my head.

The mech-suit marked with the huge ‘1’ had stepped beside Jonathan. –

Jonathan looked up, his face turned pale. “I-Iron Marshal?”

“You remember me now? Hahaha… I was beginning to think all that beating had shaken the memory out of you.”

He laughed audibly.

Jonathan immediately began begging him.

He swallowed hard, his voice breaking.

“I’ve never asked you for anything, sir. Not once. Please… I’m begging you. Don’t leave us here.”

His voice trembled with desperation.

I shook my head inwardly.

There was no use in shouting.

They had come here prepared. That meant… everyone was involved in this. Everyone had come here knowing exactly what they were going to do to us.

But that still didn’t answer the question that had been gnawing at me.

Why hadn’t they killed us?

What were they waiting for?

Iron Marshal slowly nodded.

“Well, you did help me save my ass many times…”

His gaze shifted toward Lily, and the corner of his mouth lifted.

“So how about this?”

He paused deliberately.

“You choose… One dies. The other walks out alive.”

He said the exact same words that woman had told me.

“…”

Jonathan’s face turned solemn.

I didn’t even need to think.

I already knew who he was going to choose.

His eyes slowly turned toward Lily.

Lily flinched in shock.

“B-But… I thought I was supposed to choose?”

Her frightened gaze moved back and forth between the two mech-suits, as though she were staring at two monsters casually playing with our lives.

They weren’t even treating us like people anymore.

We were pieces on a board.

Toys they could move whenever they pleased.

I knew they were laughing inside.

And I…

I…

My consciousness began to slip again. The room seemed to stretch farther away, the voices becoming distorted beneath the heavy pounding in my ears.

“Ms. Alpha… why don’t you let me have the first turn? I promise I won’t take all the fun for myself.”

Iron Marshal spoke with an amused tone.

The tailed mech-suit, Alpha, stared at him for several seconds.

Then she slowly nodded and stepped away.

Iron Marshal unlocked the restraints around Jonathan’s limbs and motioned toward the weapon lying on the ground.

Jonathan didn’t hesitate.

He leaned forward and grabbed the weapon.

Without another word, he began walking toward Lily.

“N-No… no, please! Let us go! Please!”

Lily’s voice rose into a desperate scream as Jonathan came closer.

The restraints rattled violently around her wrists as she struggled against them.

“Jo… Jonny… Kill… me…”

My voice was barely audible.

Jonathan stopped.

His foot remained suspended for a moment before slowly touching the floor.

He turned his head toward me.

“Kill you?”

His expression twisted with disbelief.

“Kill you? Have you fucking lost your mind?”

His grip tightened around the weapon.

“If someone has to die, it should be her! This entire fucking mess happened because of her father. He betrayed us! He even tried to kill his own daughter!”

He stared at me in disbelief.

“And after all that, you still want to protect her? Why the hell would you do that?”

His grip tightened around the weapon.

“No.”

The final word came out cold and absolute.

Hearing those words, Lily’s face slowly turned solemn.

Something seemed to break inside her.

Perhaps she had finally realised it.

This had all happened because of her father.

And if someone had to take responsibility…

It should be her.

Right?

She bit her lip until it trembled, trying desperately to keep herself from crying.

Then she nodded through her tears.

“Y-Yes…”

Her voice cracked.

“You’re right… I-I should be the one.”

A tear slipped down her cheek.

“It’s my responsibility that Noah died, and… now…”

“N-No, child…”

I struggled to speak.

“It’s not… your…”

I swallowed painfully and tried again.

“It’s not… your fault…”

Jonathan ignored me and continued advancing toward her.

I tried to stand.

My muscles screamed as I forced my body forward, but the restraints held me firmly against the chair.

“N-No… J-Jonny… K-Kill me… instead…”

I tried to shout at him.

What came out was barely a broken whisper.

I was already standing at the edge of death.

Even by simple logic, I should have been the one to die.

Not them.

Not Lily.

Not Jonathan.

Me.

I had already accepted it.

So why…

Why did watching Lily prepare to die hurt so much more than my own death?

[+4000 AP]

Lily suddenly smiled.

It was a broken smile, trembling through bloodied lips and tears.

“Thank you… for being my Uncle.”

She gave a small, breathless laugh.

“It’s weird calling you Uncle… ahah…”

Her laugh faded almost immediately.

She looked at me again.

“It sounds strange, doesn’t it?”

Then her smile returned, smaller this time.

“Aether…”

She looked directly at me.

“Thank you for everything. Even if it was just two days… I really enjoyed playing with you.”

Her eyes glistened beneath the tears.

“I had fun with you. So… if there’s a next time…”

She smiled.

“Can we be best friends?”

“N…N…”

I tried to answer.

I tried to force even a single word through my throat.

Nothing came.

My lips moved uselessly.

My chest tightened as I desperately fought against the darkness swallowing my consciousness.

Jonathan stood before her.

Lily slowly looked up at him.

There was no fear in her eyes anymore.

Only disgust.

“I hope you rot in hell.”

Jonathan raised the weapon.

His arms trembled as he prepared to bring it down.

My head lowered.

My fingers trembled against the restraints.

One last time.

Just one fucking last time.

COME ON!!!

We cannot let these assholes play us!

I refused to let her die by my friend’s hand!

I screamed inwardly.

Ba-dump

Something inside me moved.

The bruised fingers of my hand slowly tightened.

The sensation was almost imperceptible at first.

A tiny movement.

Then another.

The wounds across my fingers began closing.

Meanwhile, inside the Twin Domain—

Grace stood inside the cage and slowly looked around.

Trrrrrr!!

The entire Twin Domain suddenly trembled.

The vibration ran through the entire domain. The cage rattled violently around her, its metallic bars screaming beneath the pressure.

Grace frowned.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

The two domains were colliding at their borders.

The boundary between them fractured violently, spreading outward in jagged cracks, like an earthquake splitting an entire road apart.

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

The fractures continued spreading.

Pieces of the surrounding structure broke apart and disappeared into the empty below.

Everything trembled.

One side was trying to devour the other while simultaneously destroying itself in the process.

The entire domain was becoming unstable.

Even Grace’s chains could no longer hold themselves steady.

They rattled violently against the prisoners.

The blood and flames under her chains thrashed wildly, twisting and recoiling as though they were living things desperately trying to escape an invisible pressure.

Something was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

This wasn’t merely a battle between two Domains.

Something deeper was happening.

As if the very existence of the person sustaining the Domain had begun to fracture.

Grace stared into the trembling whiteness and darkness.

Her expression slowly changed.

“Is he… Is he doubting his own existence?”

She couldn’t understand it.

It should have been impossible.

A Domain shouldn’t collapse like this unless the person sustaining it had begun to reject the very foundation of their own existence.

But the signs were right before her eyes.

The more Aether doubted his existence, the more violently the Domain collapsed.

Grace’s expression softened.

A faint sadness appeared in her eyes.

“What is going on with him…?”

She lowered her gaze.

“Aether…”

Meanwhile—

Jonathan raised the weapon above Lily.

Lily clenched her eyes shut.

Her entire body tensed as she waited for the inevitable.

She could hear her own heartbeat.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Each beat sounded louder than the last.

Jonathan’s hands trembled.

The weapon shook above her.

For one final moment, Lily opened her eyes and looked at Aether.

Their eyes met.

She smiled.

A tiny, trembling smile.

Then she closed her eyes again.

The blade descended.

Chucckk!!

“Arhh!”

Lily screamed.

The blade cut through…. her thigh?

Her body jerked violently against the restraints as blood immediately spread across the fabric around the wound.

“S-Sorry… I-I can’t do that.” Jonathan said with a broken voice.

He lowered the weapon slightly.

“I can’t…”

Alpha and Iron Marshal both frowned and were just about to reach when—

“One last time…”

A cold, menacing voice echoed through the chamber, making everyone’s eyes turn toward the person sitting in the chair.

Me.

“”…

“”…