Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1880: Some Lies… Gave Birth to Love: Part-1

“Can you hear it? His heart, it’s beating faster… Haha,”

The purple flame flowed gently through the reddish-hued space, its soft light flickering like a living thing as it moved ahead, guiding Aether deeper into the endless void.

Even though he had no idea where the flame was taking him, he followed without hesitation.

He kept walking, one step after another, while the strange reddish space around him slowly began to twist. The air seemed to ripple like the surface of disturbed water, and faint images started forming within the shifting hue.

They were memories.

His mother’s memories.

At first, the images were blurry and indistinct, while the voices were little more than distant whispers. But the deeper Aether went, the clearer they became. Faces slowly took shape. Expressions became visible.

“What should we name our child?”

“What about… Aether?”

“Aether?”

“Yes… It’s like ever since he was born, he’s always had this bright, unwavering smile,”

“See… Haha… His smile is like our brightness, our little light… And I’m sure he’ll reach the heights we could never imagine, even as actors.”

Aether’s eyes trembled as he stared at the memory.

The scene was painfully ordinary. Two parents sitting together, speaking about their newborn child with the kind of happiness that asked for nothing in return.

Yet to Aether, that simple happiness felt heavier than any wound.

“Yes, our son will reach the sky, touching heights no one has ever dreamed of.”

“Aether… My dear child, Aether… Your father loves you more than your mother!”

“Hah! I love him more, you bastard!”

“So you don’t love me anymore?”

“Don’t think your acting will work on me”

“Really?”

“Fine, fine… I love you both!”

“He..heh…”

Aether’s heart seemed to stop for a moment as he stood there, staring blankly at the image before him. His mother was holding the child close to her chest, her expression soft and filled with affection.

The warmth in her eyes was unmistakable.

She wasn’t pretending.

She wasn’t forcing herself to smile.

She loved him.

Aether finally snapped out of his thoughts and forced himself to walk forward….

What was he doing?

Why would he want this?

What answer was he searching for?

Why was he looking for her consciousness?

What exactly did he expect to find at the end of this path?

An explanation?

An apology?

A reason that could somehow make all those years of pain feel less real?

Or was he simply walking toward another wound, knowing perfectly well that whatever waited for him might hurt more than anything he had already endured?

Was that what he wanted?

He didn’t know.

He just kept moving and moving… or dragging his body forward as though his legs no longer belonged to him.

Maybe he wanted to find out what had happened to her.

Why had she become like that?

Why did she come to hate him so much?

Why did she betray him?

Why did she… never acknowledge him?

Those questions had remained inside him for years, buried beneath anger, resentment, and the desperate need to pretend that he no longer cared.

Yet,

“I’m sorry to say this, but your son… he most likely has Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA),”

The words echoed through the reddish-hued space.

He had heard them before. He had lived with everything that came after them.

Aether ignored the voice and the memories surrounding him. He continued walking, following the purple flames as they drifted farther into the reddish-hued darkness.

“We’ll do whatever it takes…. We’ll learn, we’ll help him… we’ll be there for him.”

Those words seemed to halt Aether’s steps.

His fingers slowly curled into fists.

Then he forced himself to move again.

Along the way, he heard many more fragments of their past. There were conversations about his childhood, small celebrations, ordinary family moments, and countless instances where his family had poured their love into him.

They had tried to understand him.

They had stayed beside him.

For a while, the memories were warm.

Until,

“Ewww… Why are you always laughing? That’s creepy and disgusting!”

Aether’s steps gradually slowed.

Laughter that had once filled their home became something people mocked. His smile, once praised as their little light, became something others feared, ridiculed, and despised.

And slowly, the memories changed.

Love became discomfort.

Concern became embarrassment.

Embarrassment became resentment.

Resentment became… hatred.

Aether continued walking.

He didn’t stop.

He didn’t look away.

He simply watched the love disappear, piece by piece, until almost nothing remained except the pain that had followed him for most of his life.

Nothing unusual here.

Just the same plain old thing… Just—

“It’s time. We should leave now.”

Until those words echoed through the space.

Aether halted in his tracks and blinked. “Huh?” He frowned as he looked toward the newly formed visual.

His birth father was standing beside a railing, his expression unusually cold as he spoke to his mother.

His mother looked at him with disbelief before shaking her head.

“I… I cannot! I cannot leave him like that. He is my son!”

“We should leave. Now. Our duty is done!” the man said coldly.

For a brief moment, his eyes became completely indifferent, as though whatever emotions he had once possessed had simply been switched off. Then his body literally began to blur, his figure becoming distorted within the fading memory.

“N-No, I won’t. I WON’T!” his mother shouted, her voice trembling with desperation.

Suddenly, the visual fluctuated violently.

The entire scene warped as though the memory itself was being torn apart. The voices distorted, the figures flickered, and the reddish space around Aether trembled violently.

Aether stood there, confused and lost. “What are they talking about?” he wondered, his eyes fixed on the unstable scene.

“I… I won… I… I wo… I… I….”

The voice suddenly began to slow down.

The words stretched unnaturally, each fragment becoming weaker than the last. At the same time, the visual slowly began disappearing, its colours fading until everything became dull and lifeless, like the final moments of a memory belonging to someone who was about to die.

Aether frowned. Something inside him tightened.

He immediately followed the flames.

At first, he walked faster.

Then faster.

Until he was running.

The purple flames surged ahead of him, guiding him deeper into the reddish space as though they had finally found the destination they had been searching for.

Aether didn’t know what awaited him, but the weakening voice continued pulling him forward.

“I… I… I… I….”

The flame seemed to be taking him directly toward the source of the voice, almost as if it had understood what he wanted before he could even understand it himself.

They walked and walked until Aether finally saw it.

Cosmic-black smoke swirled ahead of him like an enormous storm suspended in the void. It twisted upon itself endlessly, with faint traces of distorted light disappearing into its depths.

“I… I… I… I….”

The voice came from within the storm.

Aether stared at it, narrowing his eyes as he tried to see through the swirling darkness. At first, there was nothing but black smoke, but then he saw something.

A figure?

Someone was inside there.

Aether’s breath caught.

“Mom?”

His legs moved before his mind could even process what he was seeing. Something seemed to be pulling him toward the storm, an instinct deeper than thought itself.

“MOM!”

His hand extended toward the darkness, his palm raised as though he could simply reach through the storm and pull her out.

His fingers were only moments away from touching the swirling darkness when—

“Not so soon, son.”

A voice erupted directly before the storm.

PUFF!

An invisible force struck Aether with sudden, overwhelming strength and sent him flying backwards. His body rolled violently across the ground before finally coming to a stop.

Aether groaned as he pushed himself up. He frowned, and then he saw her.

“You?”

He blinked.

Standing before the storm was… his mother.

The woman turned toward him and studied him from head to toe. Her expression carried a strange mixture of amusement and curiosity.

“Hmm… Not bad. You’ve grown into a fine man.”

Aether stared at his mother.

For a moment, he couldn’t speak.

His eyes shifted toward the silhouette of the person trapped within the cosmic-black storm. Then they returned to the woman standing before him.

Something felt wrong.

Terribly wrong.

The face was hers.

The voice sounded like hers.

Even the presence carried something strangely familiar.

Yet the moment Aether looked at her, an indescribable disgust erupted within his chest. It wasn’t simple anger.

It was a primal rejection, as though every instinct inside him was screaming that the woman standing before him was something he should never accept.

His expression hardened.

“You are not my mother. Who are you?”

The woman blinked.

Then she slowly looked at herself, as though genuinely surprised by his words.

“Oh, God… My own son forgot about his mother. What a sinful world~” she giggled at the end, her tone playful and teasing, as though she had merely been amused by his reaction.

Aether’s frown deepened.

There was something deeply unsettling about her smile.

“Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

The woman’s playful expression gradually disappeared.

She stared at him for several seconds before her lips curled into a faint, cold smile.

“Look at you… talking back to your mother.”

Her eyes slowly changed.

The warmth vanished from them, replaced by something ugly and disgusted, as though Aether’s very existence had suddenly become an offence to her.

Aether clenched his fist, his nails pressing into his palm as he stared at the woman standing before the storm.

His eyes were filled with anger, but beneath that anger was something far more painful. He had finally found the person he had been searching for, only to discover that something was terribly wrong.

“Woman… Get out of my mother.”

The woman merely shrugged, completely unfazed by his hostility.

“And I am telling you… I am your mother.”

Aether stared directly into her eyes. “Whatever you are, you may have her face, her voice, and even fragments of her memories, but you are not the woman who raised me.”

The woman stared at him for a moment before suddenly seeming to realise something. Her eyes widened slightly, and then a playful smile slowly returned to her face.

“Oh, right… I think this might jog your memory…” she said, deliberately changing her tone. Her voice became softer and more familiar, almost mimicking the warmth of the mother from his memories.

Then she smiled wickedly.

“My child is going to become the greatest person in the world.”

Aether’s expression turned completely blank.

The woman noticed the change in his expression and smirked.

“Right… Yeah… Now you remember me?” She tilted her head playfully. “Darling~ I’m your mommy~ Hahaha.”

Aether remained silent.

His gaze slowly shifted toward the person trapped inside the swirling storm.

“I… I… I….”

The weak voice continued coming from within the darkness.

Aether’s eyes narrowed. He looked back at the woman, his expression turning cold enough to strip away every trace of hesitation.

“Let her go.”

The woman smiled faintly.

Aether’s voice became louder.

“I said… let my mother go!”

Without waiting for an answer, he immediately leapt toward her.

His fist drew back, his body twisting as he gathered all his strength into the strike. The woman didn’t even move as Aether closed the distance.

His fist was only inches from her face when—

Thud!

The space around Aether suddenly froze.

His entire body stopped in midair.

He couldn’t move.

Not his arms.

Not his legs.

Not even his fingers.

It felt as though the entire world had become an invisible prison built specifically to hold him in place.

The woman looked at him with mild amusement.

“You are in my domain…”

She slowly raised her eyes toward him.

“Don’t forget that.”

With a casual wave of her hand, the invisible force released him.

Aether was instantly hurled backwards.

His body flew through the air before crashing onto the ground. He rolled several times before finally landing hard on his butt.

He gritted his teeth and pushed himself upright.

“Domain?” he muttered, his eyes narrowing as he looked around the strange space. “So I’m inside her domain?”

She slowly raised her hand and gently touched the darkness with her fingertips.

The cosmic-black smoke immediately reacted.

It twisted around her arm like a living creature. The storm trembled beneath her touch, its endless darkness folding inward around her hand.

Then she slowly pulled her arm back.

Something emerged from within the storm.

A long katana.

Cosmic-black smoke coiled around the blade, constantly swirling across its surface as though an entire storm had been imprisoned inside the weapon. Every movement of the sword caused the surrounding darkness to distort slightly.

The woman held the katana loosely in one hand.

Then she raised it and pointed the blade directly at Aether.

Aether stared at the weapon before looking back at her.

“Was this really necessary?” he asked, his voice carrying restrained frustration.

“I don’t want to fight you. I just want my mother.”

The woman’s expression became cold.

“And I’m here, dear…”

Her voice dropped into something almost affectionate.

“…because I am your mother.”

Before Aether could respond, she vanished.

Aether’s pupils contracted.

In the next instant, she appeared directly before him, the katana already descending toward his body.

Aether’s eyes widened.

Just then—

THUD!

The purple flames beside him suddenly shot forward and collided with the descending katana.

The impact exploded through the space.

Purple fire and cosmic-black smoke collided violently, sending ripples across the reddish void. The woman’s blade was forced to a halt only inches from Aether.

Aether blinked. Then the corner of his lips slowly curled upward.

He reached out and seized the purple flames with his bare hand.

The moment his fingers closed around them, the flames surged violently.

They flowed around his arm before stretching outward, extending from his grip like a blade forged from living fire. Purple light flickered along its length, illuminating Aether’s face as he slowly raised the flame sword.

“Give my Mother back”

The woman stared at him for several seconds.

Then her lips slowly curled into a wicked smile.

“Come and… get her, brat.”

Her grip tightened around the black katana.