Aether's POV

Blank…

That might be the correct word that could explain my current situation… when I opened my eyes… I saw nothing but darkness as if I was still closing my eyes.

I didn't understand what was going on here. I kept rubbing my eyes again and again, not out of habit but desperation, trying to see if I was missing something… or if my visions were completely lost.

Every blink felt heavier, as if the dark wanted to pull my eyelids shut forever.

"Hello? Is anybody there? Del?" I shouted, my own voice sounding small, swallowed by whatever void surrounded me.

The moment her name left my lips, a hollow weight filled my chest. I remembered everything. I had gone back to the moment when my heart cracked in Delphine's hands.

And… I saw many things… like possibilities?

"I am not sure." As I shook my head, confusion rose like fog around me… but one thing felt certain.

She held me... I remembered the warmth of her arms, the way her breath trembled against my neck.

And now… I was here.

Alone.

How?

Was it like… the time I was pulled into that weird twin house?

Was this something similar to that twisted space where nothing followed logic?

I had a lot of freaking questions, but "Hey Log, where am I?"

I asked… yet there was no answer.

"Come on, Log, now is not the time to play around… this is serious," I said, my tone sharpening despite the uneasy tremor in my chest.

I didn't want Log to be mysterious about this situation when I was stuck here with no sense of direction or escape.

Yet… the Log remained silent.

My frown deepened… I called my Log Profile to see if any kind of effect had changed… but nothing responded.

I tried teleportation and even summoning fire… but nothing. Not even a spark. Freaking nothing was happening.

/Guys, can you hear me?/

Not even my connection with my beloveds was working. Their warmth, their presence, the threads that tied us together… gone.

It felt like someone had cut them with a single cruel swipe.

"What the fuck did I get stuck in now?" My voice cracked, not with fear but with frustration rising in my throat like a bitter taste.

I couldn't even use my powers… everything felt weird and… for some reason I could smell a foul smell… as if something was decaying.

Shit hit the fan, it seems…

Sigh…

My hands slowly rubbed the ground… I could feel the ground… something rough yet soft… like grains but not sand. The pieces slid between my fingers in uneven layers, shifting like they were alive.

Where was I?

"Did that old woman put me somewhere?" I muttered with an annoyed expression as I slowly stood up in the darkness.

"That's not funny, Prophetess… if you're still there laughing at me." I shook my head. "Come on… If this is a lesson or punishment or whatever twisted ritual you enjoy, just tell me." My voice trembled more than I wanted.

I hoped all this would be nothing but a prank or her punishment for breaking up with her daughter or something far less terrifying than what my mind started imagining.

But… no.

There was no response again.

Nothing but darkness.

I slowly started to walk through the darkness… not even sure if I was actually moving, but my legs kept stepping forward into the void.

Every step sounded muted, like the ground absorbed the noise before it even formed.

"Hello… is anybody here?" I shouted as I kept walking… walking… and suddenly my body started to feel heavy.

As if my body had reached its limit or something.

"W-What?" I panted… I didn't even walk for hours… but I… I was already tired?

My chest tightened, my breath stuttering out of me in short, broken bursts.

My ribs felt like they were being squeezed from the inside.

"The hell… why am I getting tired so fast?"

My breath started to itch and burn… every inhale scraping my throat like razor-dry wind.

Why… what's happening to me?

I muttered with a painful expression… my insides were screaming, tightening under pressure and pain. It felt like something inside me was twisting, pushing against my ribs as if trying to tear its way out.

"Anyone… seriously… anyone at all… answer me," I whispered.

Yup... No response!

"L-Let's take rest," I muttered as I sat down there and… took a breath… and slowly the pain and pressure started to disappear. It faded unnaturally quickly, as the darkness released me the moment I stopped moving.

I sighed before standing up and… started to walk again while shouting.

"Prophetess… I am sorry if I disappointed you, and I know it's my fault, but just let it go… I will talk to Del!" I shouted as I kept walking on the ground that felt like grain but was not sand.

Weird… place. I have never been here before.

"Is this really your doing?" I asked, "Did you build this to punish me? To scare me? Because if so… it's working."

However, this time, it wasn't even 100 steps… I started to feel the pain and pressure again.

"W-What?" I muttered, my throat getting heavy and painful… dry to the point it felt cracked inside. I swallowed, but nothing eased the burn.

It felt like no water had touched my body for years.

"What the fuck is happening to me?! Why does it hurt just to move?!"

My mind screamed as I sat down and breathed hard to calm my nerves… but the air barely entered my lungs. My heartbeat hammered against my ribs, frantic and uneven. I needed to think… I needed to remember what happened exactly… what the freaking happened?

"Somebody… just tell me where I am," I whispered, "I don't like this… I really don't like this…"

The darkness did not answer.

"That old hag told me… something ah… fuck. Why can't you just give me the truth already, FUCK YOU?!!!" I shouted furiously. My voice tore through the darkness, loud enough to hurt my own ears, yet the void swallowed it whole.

Nothing echoed back.

Damn it, I need to calm down… this place was weird, and somehow, it's making me tired more than necessary.

My chest trembled with every breath, each inhale thinner than the last.

I took a breath and tried to remember her last words… she told me to pick, right?

Choose Delphine if I wanted to die… or leave her for eternity, right?

"Why the hell would she say something like that?" I muttered, "Is that a warning or some sick prophecy? Old woman, you better not be playing with me again…"

And what she meant by divergent…

Fuck. All of it was confusing, along with this shitty place…

"But she didn't mention anything about this place though… and… wait… if I remember… Iteration No.27 appeared and… told me I am not ready, right? And… I am using something I shouldn't be…" I nodded slowly, trying to force my mind to sharpen. "So what did I use? What did she shove into me this time? And why would No.27 freak out about it?"

The old hag gave me something again, and this time it caused me to do something that I am not aware of… and… somehow it pissed off No.27 and… now I am here.

… Yeah, nothing fucking makes sense!!

"But if I had to guess… maybe it's about the versions of possibility that appeared… maybe that triggered something… maybe that pushed me here…" I rubbed my forehead, fingers trembling.

"Maybe I am trapped in… possibilities?"

"Damn it… even my words don't feel correct," I mumbled, frustration and fear twisting tighter. My voice felt small, thin, like it didn't belong to me. I tried to think of a way to get out of this freaking place when,

…h…

My head snapped to the right side… I definitely heard something.

My skin crawled as I squinted into the black void, trying to catch even a single shape in the endless dark.

..h.…

I immediately turned to the left side… the sound moved, sliding through the darkness like water down a pipe.

"No… no, no, no… don't fuck with me now," I whispered, my breath hitching. Something was approaching me… faster.

My throat gulped audibly as I clenched my fists, ready for anything to appear. My fingers twitched with instinctive fear, searching for power that refused to answer me.

.h…..

I turned back immediately, almost tripping over my own feet… my hands clenched tightly. My voice shook as I growled, "Wanna play hide and seek, fuckers?"

"Come on… show yourself… don't just breathe on me like some damn creeper."

My heartbeat started to increase faster and faster, pounding against my ribs like it wanted out, each thud sharp enough to hurt.

"Say something if you're there!" I shouted, the panic finally cracking through. "Stop hiding in the dark!"

H...!

The sound exploded behind me, louder, closer, almost inside my ear.

The ground beneath my feet trembled.

And the darkness… for just a moment… felt like it moved.

I flinched… I was… before me… I could feel it… something before me… but I couldn't see anything, nor could I move my muscles… just blankly staring at the darkness.

My breath was stuck in my throat like a fist was squeezing it shut.

…..!

I wasn't exactly sure, but whatever the thing was… it was definitely standing before me… definitely freaking standing before me!!

The air thickened, pressing against my face, cold enough to sting my cheeks as if something huge leaned close enough to inhale me.

I clenched my hand… or tried. My fingers twitched helplessly. I couldn't believe I was frozen… by an unknown thing... something I couldn't even see. My teeth began to chatter without sound.

"Aether?!"

I flinched at the familiar cry.

"Del? Is that you?" I rasped, shock and hope tearing through my panic.

Her weak voice came from somewhere to the side.

"Aether?!"

"That's… that's definitely Delphine's voice," I muttered, breath shaking. "Del! Keep calling me!"

I forced my body to move, legs stumbling as I turned and ran toward the sound. The darkness felt thicker the faster I moved.

"I am here… Del… I am here! Follow my voice!" I shouted, desperation cracking loudly in my throat.

"Aether?!"

"Aether?!"

"Aether?!"

As I got closer and closer to the sound… as I reached the place where her voice echoed strongest…

"Del, I am here! I am here, dear—"

When,

Flapp~

Chuckkk!

Crack!

My head forcibly twisted, snapping my neck!!.. My head tore of-

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