"He is a cursed child."

Delphine blinked as she looked up at the white mist that was swirling faster.

"It's not what we wanted from him… No! I never needed anything from that child. I swear on my name, Delphine," Mother said with a cold tone, "I have never needed anything… but he is the key."

"K-Key?" Delphine whispered.

"Indeed… the cursed key… the one everyone wants to get their hands on," Mother murmured. "He was meant to die from the very beginning… but fate slipped into the wrong hands. They found him curious and unique, so they took him. They hid him, and they protected him from every eye that wanted him gone.

And now the child has grown.

The cursed key is slowly awakening.

Its strength is rising, preparing to fulfil... what it was born for."

Delphine blinked in confusion, "What… what are you talking about? They? Protected? Fulfil what? Mother, none of this makes sense."

Mother didn't answer. Instead,

"Aether… or Ether… is the child who bears the curse. A curse meant to break him bone by bone. A curse meant to carve away his heart. A curse... crafted to drain every colour from his soul until he feels… nothing."

"That curse will do anything to make him numb to pain and suffering."

Delphine's body visibly shook.

"I tried… child," Mother's faint quiver broke through her controlled tone.

"I tried to stop him. I tried to keep him away from this, away from everything… but they refused. They wouldn't allow him to stay quiet.

They want perfection.

A weapon sculpted by agony. Until they reach that vision, they will not stop… and we cannot stop them either.

Until then, he has no choice but to carry the burden of his birth curse."

Delphine's eyes turned misty in horror. "I… I don't get it, Mother… Who? Please, just tell me what you mean. Please… tell me the truth."

"Did you not understand why you were brought here as well?"

"Huh?" Delphine blinked.

"Because… the curse has started to affect you too."

Delphine's eyes widened.

"You and the other women… all of your fates have begun converging toward the boy," Mother continued softly, almost with pity.

"And now… those who share their fate with him, those who carry even a drop of his blood… shall be burdened by his curse."

Delphine's throat tightened. "Y-You mean… I'm stuck here because… of his curse?"

"Indeed. Your life until he appeared—how was it?" Mother asked with a calm and haunting tone, as if she already knew the answer.

Delphine blinked as she thought about her past… her days before all of this.

Her life was… fine.

Even though she had some mishaps with her brother, some arguments with her father… everything still felt grounded, manageable.

She was living.

She was laughing.

She was doing what she wanted without fear or hesitation.

She breathed freely.

But… as soon as he appeared…

Delphine gulped as the image of Aether killing her flashed through her mind.

His eyes, Black Emptiness!

She immediately shook her head and staggered back a step, "N-No! You are lying. It's just a—"

"Coincidence? Haha… Delphine, the one who could see the future… You should know by now… he was nothing but a curse.

A pain meant to avoid.

A pain meant to suffer.

A pain meant to sto—"

"ENOUGH!!" Delphine shouted with a panting, furious face as she bit her lips until warmth coated her tongue.

"H-He is not like that! He is not a curse to me!!"

Mother turned silent.

The white mist curled tighter, swirling faster, gathering as though answering Mother's breath.

"Avoid as much as you want… like the time you believed he was loving you, telling you the truth, making you feel you were the one. Hah… such fragile lies hearts create for comfort. But the truth remains the same… those who stand close to him shall bear the burden of his curse.

He is a forsaken child!"

Delphine clenched her fist... Rage twisted inside her. It burned like something sacred being trampled on. She wanted to strike this woman, this cold voice, this entity speaking as if she knew every corner of fate.

Yet… her words made sense.

Only after he arrived at her side, everything began to change.

The pain.

The loneliness.

The horrors.

The suffering.

Everything that carved scars into her life… all of it came after he stepped into her world. Before that moment, she lived simply. She breathed freely. She woke without fear. She slept without trembling.

Her world was quiet.

Sensing her silent trembling form, Mother said with an amused tone, "See? You understand—"

"He is the one who made me feel like a woman," Delphine interrupted, the words escaping before she could think, trembling with truth.

"…?"

"He is the one… who showed me that life was more than just being a professor. More than books, more than lessons, more than routines meant to keep me safe from my own emptiness."

"He is the one… who made me feel things I thought I would never touch in this life. Things I thought belonged only to others. Desire... Joy... Warmth... Belonging."

"He is the one who made me the happiest woman alive when he proposed to me… when he gave me his mark… when he said my name as if it meant something."

"He is the one who understood what I am, who I am, the parts of me I hide from everyone… yet he never looked down on me."

"He is the one who smiled whenever I smiled at him… ahah… ah…" Her voice cracked as her eyes turned teary, and those fragile, soft moments filled her chest to the brim.

She nodded a few times as she looked up into the pale mist, her voice soft, shaking with truth.

"Sure… he gave me pain. But he also gave me the love I needed and the care I wanted. He saw me even when I could not see myself. Compared to that… this pain feels like nothing.

A curse? No. It feels more like… a blessing in disguise."

Her lips trembled into a tearful smile.

Mother turned silent. The swirling white mist froze mid-motion, every wisp suddenly still as if time had halted.

Both the white mist and Delphine stared at each other in a quiet tension until Mother finally said,

"It seems he managed to get it from her. What a pain.... sigh.. He is coming for you."

"Huh?" Delphine blinked and turned back.

But there was nothing.

Mother added, "Follow the chain. You will meet him soon. And do not get separated from it, otherwise… sigh… just do not move away from the chain or you will never see him again."

Delphine gulped as she glanced at the big chain travelling into the darkness, "W-What about those things?"

"They won't touch you unless you stop holding the chain."

She took a breath before nodding her head, her voice faint. "T-Thank you."

"Hah…" Mother chuckled, but it wasn't warm. It carried dust, age, and a strange loneliness.

"I should be thanking you, dear… it has been a very long time since I spoke to anyone. Go on…

May Ether bless you, child."

Delphine frowned at the strange blessing, but she shrugged and gripped the big chain… feeling its freezing touch seep into her skin.

She took a slow breath and stepped into the darkness, her hands gliding along the chain's edges, rough and cold, yet she held on firmly.

The white mist swirled slowly, its movements softer now, almost mournful, as it watched Delphine disappear into the dark.

"I tried… I tried to stop it again, but… sigh." Mother muttered with a defeated tone, her voice fading like a dying echo.

Meanwhile,

Delphine slowly walked forward, her hand tightly gripping the chain while her eyes scanned the shadows in fear, every breath cautious and thin.

But… nothing moved.

Nothing followed her.

Delphine sighed in relief, whispering, "I really hate this place—"

"Del?... Is that you?"

Delphine flinched. That voice... She knew that voice.

And considering Mother said Aether was coming… that meant it had to be him.

"A-Aether!" Delphine shouted with a happy expression as she almost lifted her hand from the chain… but she stopped midway. Her grip tightened again in panic. "Aether… are you really… Aether?"

"… Del?"

Delphine gulped as she stepped back, "Tell me… why are you doing this to me?!"

"… Is that you?"

The voice grew closer.

Delphine's face trembled in horror as she slowly stepped back, clenching her jaw, squeezing her eyes shut, gripping the chain as if her life depended on it.

As long as she held it, nothing would happen to her…

That's what Mother said... As long as she didn't let go of the chain, nothing would happen—

Tuck!

Delphine's eyes widened as she stumbled back when her foot stuck on something—rigid, and strangely smooth, like the spine of some dead creature hidden beneath the endless dark.

"NO!" She shouted as she fell back…

Thud!

Clang~

…The big chain snapped tight, jerking upward, its links rattling with a metallic groan that echoed through the void. The whole chain trembled from the pull, rising and falling in a slow, heavy sway.

Yet,

Grip!

Her hand was still gripping the chain. Somehow, her fingers had locked around the cold iron even as her body dangled.

She groaned, her teeth clenched so hard her jaw trembled. Her entire body weight hung from one arm.

"I-I didn't fall…" she whispered, half laughing, half choking on her relief as she tried to regain her balance and stand—

But when she looked up…

Her breath stopped.

Her hands… let go of the chain!!

She didn't even feel her fingers loosen. She didn't even choose to release. They simply opened on their own, as if her body refused to obey her mind.

Because above her…

She saw an enormous, gaping maw... a wormhole shaped like a monstrous mouth carved into reality. Jagged teeth... if they could even be called teeth—lined the edges. They were made of cracked, broken shards of space itself, bending light, dripping with a shimmering, rainbow-coloured liquid that hissed as it hit the darkness.

NNNGGGGGGG!!!!!

A furious rainbow beam burst from the monstrous mouth, exploding downward. It pierced through her sight, through her soul, drowning her entire body in blinding radiance.

Delphine's eyes turned blank instantly.

Her irises vanished into the white of her eyes...

Everything inside her shut down as if the beam switched off her entire existence.

Her body lifted slowly... The beam wrapped around her, drenching her in impossible light, lifting her higher and higher until she rose to the height of a towering building.

NNNNNGGGGGGG!!!

Another rainbow beam erupted behind her, shooting upward like a second cosmic mouth opening. It struck her back, holding her in place, trapping her between two beams of ancient, unknowable energy.

The beams hummed with a strange vibration... deep and primal.

NNNNNGGGGGGGG!!!

A third beam burst open above her.

Three beams... front, back and top, caged her in a prison of radiant agony.

She hovered there, suspended like a sacred offering about to be devoured.

Her lips parted.

No sound came out.

Her body shook violently, twisted by unseen forces. Her fingers curled, uncurled, her limbs jerking as if she was drowning in air. Her spine arched unnaturally, her bones trembling under the crushing pressure.

Plop…

Something appeared from her white eyes... like bubbles coming out from the water.

Plop…

Plop…

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