Outside the Barrier of the Zephyra Empire, a trembling sound of something breaking and cracking echoed as the ground trembled by the force of impact, and the air flowed furiously by the impact that shattered the air itself.

BOOM!!

A shockwave burst outward, scattering loose stones and splintered bone fragments across the blood-soaked land.

Stood in the bloody ground, covered in the blood of the monsters… Aether.

He stood motionless amidst the carnage, a lone figure drowned in crimson, as if the battlefield had sculpted him out of gore and silence.

His entire body was covered in blood as if he didn't care for the elegance… just a brutality.

The blood clung to him like a second skin, thick, warm, and steaming, dripping from every curve of muscle. He showed no sign of discomfort, no sign of disgust… only a cold acceptance.

The monsters were dead around him… their flesh was ripped out from their body, their heads were smashed into a paste… they were torn in half.

Limbs lay scattered like broken tools, entrails stretched across shattered stones, and the ground smelled of iron and death.

This was nothing but barbaric.

Drip… Drip….

Blood dripped down from his once black hair, now bloody, his ice-blue eyes stared at the monster that was a big Porcupine, its body trembled in fear seeing Aether, who killed everyone like nothing.

The monster wanted to run away… escape from this bloody hell, but Aether's indifferent gaze just made it stay here, neither running nor struggling for life.

His hand rose slowly, fingers stained red, curling slightly as if inviting the creature closer. Confusion and terror collided inside the monster's mind... It didn't understand it was this man who came towards them, appeared out of nowhere and started to hunt them without hesitation, and those monsters were nothing but a paste before him… no way the monster would go toward death, right?

Why would a human walk into a den of beasts only to slaughter them with bare hands?

The monster growled before swirling inwardly as its sharp quills shot towards him. In a snap of a second, Aether disappeared as the quills stabbed where he stood, before he appeared and punched the monster Porcupine with his bare hands into the quills without a hint of pain.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!!

His hands punched through the quills; some were shattered, others sliced through his skin, splintered through his fingers, yet he didn't flinch. The blood leaking from his wounds mixed with the monster's as though the two no longer mattered separately.

But he didn't care as if… this pain didn't exist at all!

He couldn't feel anything… any pain at all!

Only a hollow numbness filled him!

Each impact crushed more bone, burst more flesh, until the creature's final scream wilted into silence. Even then, Aether continued, driven by something unspoken, something empty and merciless.

Chucckk!!

Wet chunks of flesh tore loose.

Chucckk!

Chucckkk!

The blood and flesh pulled out as they smashed and splattered on the bloody ground…

"That's quite a way of expressing your internal pain."

A voice, both old and feminine, called out from behind, carrying a tired heaviness, as if the speaker had witnessed countless broken souls before him and recognised the same pattern in his trembling shoulders.

Aether halted for a second before saying with a cold tone,

"I am not in the mood to talk."

His voice felt hollow, scraped raw from everything he refused to show. He didn't even care to see who it was… because… he didn't fucking care right now.

Right now, provoking him was the same as asking for a death warrant.

Chucck!

He just kept punching, covering his loss and grieving expression under the blood. Each hit landed heavier than the last, as if he was begging the pain to distract him from something far worse inside.

"Is that so? Why? Did my daughter hurt you deeply, child?"

Aether flinched as he snapped out of his thoughts and finally turned back and saw… a pure white-clothed figure, fully covered by the cloth, not even the face visible, half crouched as it held a stick in its hand and stood at the edge of the bloody ground.

Prophetess.

Aether was surprised to see her after she had disappeared out of nowhere.

"What are you doing here? Wait… are you fine?" Aether was confused, seeing the Prophetess actually manage to walk outside the barrier without getting blasted.

The Prophetess just started to walk around the bloody ground's edge as if she didn't want to touch the blood while saying, "I could ask the same thing… What are you doing here? Killing those will make you feel better?" Her tone carried a soft accusation, as if she could see through every excuse he might try to make.

Aether blankly watched her stepping slowly with her stick… her expression still hidden under the hoodie.

"Look at you… covered in bloody red to hide your grief… You remind me of someone I hate."

"Would that blood hide the tears in your eyes or… just hide the fact you're broken?"

The question hit him harder than any blade.

Aether's face turned cold and indifferent, a small tear from his eye mixing with blood as it flowed to his chin as if the blood was dripping… not his tears!

He clenched his fists tighter,

"What do you want?"

The Prophetess halted her steps as her gaze turned to him under the hoodie, "What do I want? Shouldn't it be… what do you want?"

Aether's frown deepened, "What are you talking about? You went and disappeared for months, and now you appear out of nowhere… and ask me what I want?"

"Haha…" The old woman laughed loudly as she continued to circle around the bloody ground,

"What can I say? I saw a divergent… I saw a possibility… so I had to interfere, child… I had no choice but to reveal myself again."

Her laugh felt strained, trembling under the weight of decisions she never wanted to make.

Aether's frown deepened… confused by what she was talking about.

Possibility? Divergent?

Just then, Aether remembered she had an ability to see timelines, his eyes widened, "What caused a divergent? Did something change the future that was meant to happen?"

Prophetess kept walking,

"Future is ever changing… Mr. Aether. There is no stillness in water that keeps flowing." As she stopped again and turned her gaze to him, "Except, the end… the ocean.

The destiny."

As she tapped her stick on the ground, the blood and flesh on the ground instantly disappeared as if they had never been there before.

She slowly walked towards him while saying,

"Fate is something that is made the moment one is born… when the soul gains its vessel… the fate written for them.

Paths may bend, time may tremble, but fate… fate eternal!

The fate always and shall remain the same."

As she stood before him with her stick, lifting her head enough to see his indifferent yet broken expression that was covered in blood, she muttered coldly,

"No one could escape from it.

Not Monster, Not animal, Not tree, Not human, Not elf, Not dragon, Not vampire, Not me, you, Not Sovereign nor Primordial…

Not even Ether."

Her tone made each word feel final, like a verdict carved into stone.

Aether was confused. Prophetess raised her stick and tapped—almost stabbed—on his chest as the blood that covered his body disappeared into particles and his body returned clean and fresh.

His eyes were dark and muddy… he was broken. A void lingered behind his gaze, like something precious inside him had been crushed beyond repair.

"Oh, sweety," she mumbled as she raised her slender fingers hidden under the white glove and touched his cheek, "Fate is hard on you, doesn't it?"

Aether's eyes trembled as he stepped back. Her voice was so soothing, almost like a mother's embrace, and it made him lose himself for a second. That one second terrified him more than all the bloodshed behind him. But he controlled it; he knew if he let that feeling in, he would break completely.

He made a mistake and… this was his punishment.

Just like Delphine said… this was his fucking punishment.

He deserved it for breaking her heart and trust… something he himself could never forgive if it were done to him, much less to his beloveds.

How could they accept it?

How could they ever look at him again without seeing the betrayal he caused?

Aether clenched his jaw, shaking his head. Delphine chose her path; nothing was going to change it now. Before slowly trembling, he muttered,

"Why are you here? And what do you mean, a divergent appeared?"

But instead she said, "I didn't expect… no, I never believed she bore the mark for such a burden… Of all souls, she was chosen?… how cruel the fate could be… Oh child… oh child…" Her voice trembled with sorrow, like she was mourning a destiny she wished she could stop.

Aether blinked, confused by what she was talking about, "She?… You mean… Delphine?"

Prophetess continued, "That poor child… blood is what unites us, and it is what gives us the pain too…"

As she raised her staff again and stabbed it on the ground, instantly, both she and Aether were standing on a mountain's cliff.

Aether was utterly surprised. The world below stretched vast and silent, the wind cold against his face, almost cleansing.

Facing the orange sky, the soft breeze caused her clothes to move as she whispered,

"Tell me, child… do you seek the truth of your fate?"

Aether's heart skipped a beat.

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