Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1855: Greatest hypocrite among us is…

After 28 left the white void, 27 watched the place where he had disappeared for a moment before coldly asking,

“I thought none of you were interested in him. He’s merely another iteration… no different from any of us.”

All 24 iterations turned towards 27. Their expressions gradually grew solemn, and several of them lowered their eyes while slowly shaking their heads in disappointment.

One of them stepped forward, a faintly amused smile touching his lips.

“Before lecturing us… perhaps you should ask yourself what you’ve been doing to him.”

27 frowned.

Another one stepped forward. “You act like you own everything…”

Another stepped forward, his gaze hardening. “His soul?”

Another one added, “His body?”

“The fuck are you talking about? Hehe~” 27 shook his head.

Another iteration said coldly,

“Remember… He is the only one who received Arcane’s love…”

“As well as the only one whose bloodline ever responded.”

“A consciousness, you say? That damn consciousness owns our bloodline!”

Their voices came one after another, each carrying a different shade of anger. Some clenched their fists, while others stared directly at 27.

They didn’t like the way 27 and 25 treated 28, as though he were nothing more than a vessel they could shape, fill, and control whenever they wished.

Their anger slowly faded, replaced by sadness. One of them lowered his head, his fingers tightening against his palm as if trying to hold himself together.

“Even if he forgot us… even if every memory of us was erased from his mind… he is still one of us. Our Aether. But… But that doesn’t mean we have the right to decide his life for him.”

His voice trembled slightly, but he forced himself to continue.

“Fake reality? Let it be! If that world gives him even a moment of happiness, let him have it. It is his life to decide… not ours.”

“Not every one of us accepted our pain. Some are still grieving. Some are still wishing they could forget what happened to them. But if there is one thing we all know… it is this…”

He looked directly at 27.

“Let Aether… be Aether.”

“…”

27 remained silent for a moment. His expression did not change, but his eyes shifted slightly, as though those words had reached somewhere he had deliberately kept locked away.

Beside him, 25 lowered his head in guilt.

One of them stepped forward and said quietly,

“And if anything… The one who owns our soul and body… was him,” as he pointed toward a newborn child.

The Beginning of Odyssey… The Aether.

Iteration No. 1.

“He is our Eldest. The beginning from which every one of us came. If anyone has the right to decide what becomes of Aether… it is him.”

As they said this, they carefully took the newborn into their arms and raised him like a king, their solemn expressions carrying a strange mixture of reverence and affection.

“Waa… Waa.”

The newborn let out a cry before suddenly lifting his tiny hand and flipping his middle finger toward 27.

The only one who had the guts to do it before 27!

A vein bulged on 27’s forehead. His jaw tightened as he barely held back his anger.

“Look at these motherfuckers! When did you all grow some balls to stand before me and lecture me? Huh? You stayed hidden behind that door like fucking cowards while I was the one walking through hell, carving a path for 28!”

His voice echoed through the white void. “And now that I’ve gotten him this far, you suddenly remember how to judge me?”

“You think I don’t know what I’m doing? You think I enjoy any of this?”

He laughed, but there was no humour in it.

“Haha… Humour me, bitches.”

Among the group, a teen stepped forward with a furious expression.

“You call us cowards? Then what about you?—”

“Wait!”

Some tried to stop him, but the teen violently pulled his arm away.

“No! He needs to hear this!”

“He treats us like we’re nothing! He acts like he is superior to us because he believes he’s the only one willing to do anything to end this cycle!”

His breathing became heavier, but he refused to look away from 27.

“He calls us cowards. Hypocrites. But do you know who the greatest hypocrite among us is?”

“You.”

“You keep saying you’re protecting Aether… but you’ve never once asked him what he wants.”

“You don’t protect his choice. You protect your own idea of what his choice should be.”

His lips twitched violently as the words finally escaped him.

“So let me remind you… Your Hypocrisy”

“Our Aether. In your terms…”

He paused, his eyes filled with anger, pain, and something dangerously close to grief.

“Our… 26.”

Everyone trembled violently as fear and pain spread through their bodies. It was the instinctive terror of knowing that something they had spent so long suppressing was beginning to stir again.

Even 25 trembled, his fingers curling slightly at his sides as he lowered his head. He had seen that darkness before.

He knew what it meant.

And right behind the 24 iterations, a deep black door manifested out of nowhere within the endless white void.

Everyone slowly parted, clearing a path so that 27 could see the door he had been protecting all this time.

Thud!

The door swung open, revealing nothing but profound darkness within.

There was no light inside.

Not even the faintest trace of it.

Slucckk~

A goo-like substance slowly seeped out from the darkness. It crawled over the threshold as though it possessed a life of its own. The moment it touched the white void, cracks spread across the surface within a second, branching outward beneath it like fractures through glass.

Within the black substance, traces of bones could be seen.

The goo shifted.

A deep-black bone hand slowly emerged first, followed by the rest of the substance clinging to the bones like melted bubble gum stuck to a skeleton. It stretched unnaturally with every movement, sliding between the bones before pulling itself forward.

Slucckk~

The sound was wet and quiet, yet somehow it echoed through the entire void.

The moment the black goo spread across the white void, it instantly corrupted everything around it, the darkness expanding outward like water soaking into a sponge.

Several iterations instinctively took a step backwards.

27’s eyes became colder and more indifferent than anyone had ever seen them.

Yet beneath that coldness was something far more dangerous.

Anger?

Not the explosive anger of someone who had lost control, but the quiet fury of someone who had already decided what he was willing to destroy to protect what remained.

“GET INSIDE!!!”

His voice carried absolute authority, completely devoid of warmth.

The entire void trembled from his command.

In the next second, every iteration was violently sucked toward the door.

27 stood there blankly staring at the closed door with cold eyes.

25 quietly waited beside him, giving 27 the time he needed to calm himself. He knew better than to speak while 27 was still drowning beneath the weight of his own thoughts.

After several moments, 27’s cold gaze finally lowered slightly.

25 reached out and gently placed his hands over 27’s shoulders.

“I am not weak,” 27 said, annoyed.

He shrugged off 25’s gentle hands and stepped away from him, as though even the smallest gesture of comfort was something he could no longer allow himself to accept.

25 simply smiled and shook his head.

“Though others may never understand why you chose this path… I know you’re doing all of this so they can find peace in the end.”

27 remained silent.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke.

Then 25 continued, his voice becoming softer.

“I know you didn’t possess Aether just to hurt Prophetess…”

His expression softened as he looked toward the deep-black door.

“She only managed to push 26 back inside the vessel… It didn’t solve anything.”

25 stared at the very small crack that had appeared on the deep-black door.

It was minute, almost impossible to notice, but it was definitely there.

His eyes lingered on it.

“So you had no choice but to step in and use her to get back to him.”

27 remained silent for a moment.

Then he finally averted his gaze from the dark door and muttered,

“I pushed him too far… He became more unstable than I predicted. I needed him unstable, reckless, indifferent, emotionless… dead inside.”

He paused.

“That was the point. But… I never expected ’26’ to be the first one to react.”

For the first time, something faintly human passed through 27’s expression.

Concern?

It vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.

“Even though their connection was severed… 26 still managed to temporarily possess 28. It found the emptiness they shared and used it to bridge the gap between them… forcibly opening the seal.”

He stared at the door again.

The crack remained there.

A reminder that his plan had not gone exactly as he intended.

27’s eyes narrowed.

For all his preparation, all his calculations, and all the pain he had deliberately forced upon Aether, there was one thing he had failed to account for.

Iteration No.26.

“This is my error. So I will rectify it. There is nothing more to discuss.”

27’s voice remained unnaturally calm.

25 hummed with a frown, his eyes lingering on the black door.

“We’re running out of time… Arcane and Mother have already forcibly delayed The Beginning for him. But even they cannot hold it back forever…”

He paused and said heavily,

“And now… if 26 gets out again…”

His words trailed off.

27’s gaze turned cold and emotionless.

“Then… we erase everything.”

25 looked at him. “Everything?”

“Everything. And we start from scratch.”

25 stared at him for several seconds.

Then he smiled sadly.

It was not a smile of happiness.

It was the smile of someone who understood that sometimes survival demanded sacrifices so cruel that even victory felt like another form of defeat.

He slowly nodded.

“You selfish… for yourselves.”

“…”

27 remained quiet.

He did not deny it.

Perhaps because 25 was right.

Perhaps because, somewhere deep inside, 27 knew that everything he had done had always been selfish.

He wanted Aether to live.

He wanted the iterations to reach their end.

And if achieving that meant becoming the villain in everyone’s eyes, then he had already accepted that burden long ago.

25 looked at him for a moment before quietly adding,

“You know… one day, they may never understand what you sacrificed for them.”

27’s expression did not change.

“I don’t need them to.”

His answer came almost immediately.

25’s eyes softened.

“And if they hate you for it?”

“Let them.”

“If they curse your name?”

“Let them.”

“If Aether himself eventually learns everything you did and despises you for it?”

This time, 27 did not answer immediately.

His eyes remained fixed upon the black door.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“Then at least he’ll be alive to hate me.”

25’s eyes trembled as he leaned to hug him.

“I will be with you till the end”

“G-Get the fuck away from me!”

“Hahaha…”

Then, 25 suddenly spoke.

“Also… don’t you think it’s about time?”

“…”

27 frowned.

He glanced at 25 as though trying to understand what he meant.

Then his expression shifted slightly as he remembered something.

“Hmm…”

He extended his hand.

Instantly,

Sshhhnn~

A small, periwinkle-colored, glittering star appeared above his palm.

The tiny celestial object trembled violently, its faint light flickering like a miniature star struggling against an invisible force. For something so small, it possessed an almost peculiar presence, as though an entire piece of the cosmos had been compressed into something that could rest upon a hand.

It suddenly flew away from 27’s palm and hovered directly before him.

Purrrtttrrrrr~

The strange celestial object let out an utterly ridiculous sound.

25 laughed without holding back, “Pfftt! Hahaha!”

27’s eyebrow twitched. A vein bulged on his forehead.

He reached toward the star without saying a word.

But just as his fingers were about to catch it, the tiny celestial object instantly flew away.

Pwwweeeeeeee~

25 laughed even harder.

27 slowly lowered his hand.

His expression became dangerously blank.

“You have three seconds to stop laughing.”

That only made 25 cover his mouth harder.

“Three…”

25’s shoulders shook.

“Two…”

“Hahaha… I’m sorry.”

!~Ding~!

[Initiating Null-Return Point.]

…

..

.

Tik~

Tok~

Sitting on the beach, Young Aether’s body suddenly jerked slightly.

The sound of the waves continued peacefully around him.

Children continued playing nearby.

The wind still carried the scent of the sea.

Yet something inside Young Aether had changed.

The lifeful eyes that had been watching the children only moments ago gradually became dull.

The warmth drained from his expression.

His face became gloomy, resembling that of a man who had lost everything and had finally grown too tired to mourn what remained.

Young Aether blinked with his lifeless eyes.

His gaze slowly moved toward the children.

Lily had finished spanking Noah’s butt without mercy.

Young Aether sighed.

For a few seconds, he simply watched them.

Then he noticed someone sitting beside him.

Young Aether slowly turned his head.

A child with ice-blue eyes was sitting beside him, quietly watching Lily and Noah just like he was.

The child turned his head.

Their eyes met.

Both of them stared at each other.

Unlike before, when Young Aether had always averted his gaze whenever the child appeared, this time he didn’t look away.

He stared directly into those ice-blue eyes.

For the first time, there was no fear in his gaze.

No attempt to pretend that the child wasn’t there.

The words of his previous iterations echoed quietly inside his heart.

His lips trembled.

“First… I need to know…”

His voice was barely audible.

He mumbled something else beneath his breath, almost as though he were asking permission.

Permission to make a decision.

Permission to choose something for himself.

The child simply turned his gaze back toward Lily and Noah.

He said nothing.

Yet somehow, Aether understood.

It was not an order.

It was not approval.

It was something far more important.

You decide.

Young Aether lowered his eyes.

For a brief moment, something resembling sadness crossed his face.

Then Lily came running toward him with a big smile.

“Unc, it’s almost lunc—!!”

Her words suddenly stopped.

The smile vanished from her face.

She saw her uncle suddenly pull a sword out of nowhere.

Young Aether slowly raised the blade.

Lily’s expression turned horrified as she realised where he was pointing it.

“Uncle…?”

He held the sword against his own neck.

Chuck!

The blade passed through his neck.

His head was severed from his body.

“UNCLE—!!”

!~Ding~!

[Notice: Immediate Death Following Null-Return Detected.]

[Activating Forsaken Bloodline.]

!~Ding~!

[Rewinding 24 hours prior to the Original Save Point.]

***

**

*

Thud!

Young Aether suddenly stumbled forward.

His entire body twitched violently.

^Warning! Severe fluctuations detected within the Temporal Lobe and Amygdala.^

“…” Young Aether clenched his head slightly.

^… Are you alright?^

RIN AI’s voice echoed inside the suit he was wearing.

Her cute bunny avatar moved curiously across the visor, tilting her head as she examined him.

Young Aether nodded.

“No…”

^…^

RIN went silent.

She didn’t know what she should do.

Something about him had suddenly changed.

She could sense it, but she couldn’t understand what had caused it.

His heartbeat was completely stable.

His breathing was normal.

His neural activity was within acceptable parameters.

There were no physical abnormalities.

Everything appeared normal.

And somehow, that was precisely what frightened her.

Because Young Aether himself did not look normal.

His eyes were too empty.

Young Aether slowly took a breath and opened the portal.

Thud!

Genome Beta fell down from the portal.

Young Aether stood silently.

His lifeless eyes stared directly at her.