Chapter 1706: A One from the Past: Part-1
Chapter 1706: A One from the Past: Part-1
When Young Aether saw the familiar figure, his body instinctively tensed. It was the same being that had driven the Ebon Stone into the earth, the same existence that had triggered the awakening of Mother’s energy. Yet now, that terrifying figure was truly here, seated atop a grotesque mountain of corpses as though it were a throne built from death itself.
"Is it... observing their blood?" Young Aether murmured under his breath.
His eyes narrowed as he studied the creature. At first glance, it resembled a tangled mass of colossal tentacles, but a closer look revealed something far more disturbing.
Its body was an amalgamation of dead flesh, twisted roots, exposed bone fragments, and pulsating organic tissue. Thick root-like tendrils extended from its back and disappeared deep into the mountain of corpses beneath it. Soft crimson pulses travelled through those roots in rhythmic waves, resembling a living energy-conduction network harvesting something from every corpse it touched.
Young Aether quietly hummed and shifted his gaze toward the skull-head resting atop the monstrous body.
It remained motionless.
The creature appeared dormant, almost as if it were sleeping.
He slowly looked down at his hand and clenched his fist.
’*Can I beat it?*’
The question surfaced naturally, accompanied by a thoughtful expression.
Even at the peak of his former strength, fighting this thing had never been easy. If he initiated a battle now, would he even survive the encounter?
’That’s highly unlikely...’
The thought came quickly.
He could feel it.
The creature had grown stronger.
The atmosphere around it seemed distorted by an invisible force. Dense pressure saturated the air, causing nearby debris to tremble while faint spatial ripples occasionally appeared around its massive body.
The energy leaking from it was approaching the upper limits of the power he once possessed.
"And here I thought I could use this thing against those mech-suits," Young Aether muttered with a disappointed sigh. "Looks like that idea was dead the moment I arrived."
Remaining here was a terrible decision. If the creature woke up, there was no telling what kind of catastrophe would unfold.
"P-Please... help me..."
The broken plea drifted through the air.
Young Aether turned toward the source and saw a teenage girl partially absorbed into the mountain of flesh. Root-Flesh tentacle had wrapped around her body, slowly pulling her deeper into the pulsating mass.
Her face was pale from agony.
His expression instantly turned cold.
Watching them suffer ignited a strange sense of satisfaction within him.
You all deserved it!!
Every single one of you!!!
Without another glance, he turned to leave.
!!!
Then his ears twitched.
A faint mechanical hum echoed from above.
Young Aether raised his head toward the sky.
Several red-striped black mech-suits streaked across the clouds.
Crimson stripes ran across their armoured frames while clusters of anti-gravity stabilisers glowed beneath their limbs.
"They actually sent reinforcements?"
His eyes widened slightly and,
Step!
Reappearing farther away within the cover of the forest, he concealed himself among the trees and watched silently.
The battle ended before it truly began.
The advanced mech-suits unleashed every power attack.
None of it mattered.
One mech-suit after another was ripped apart as if they were toys. Armour crumpled instantly. Drone swarms shattered into burning fragments before crashing into the forest below.
"Damn... good thing I didn’t piss it off," Young Aether muttered, releasing a slow breath. His expression carried visible relief.
Even humanity’s most advanced combat units hadn’t managed to fight back.
They were simply erased!
Within moments, every unit had been destroyed... except one.
A heavily damaged mech-suit marked with the number ’2’ remained partially intact among the wreckage.
"Hmm..." Young Aether watched carefully as root-flesh tentacles began slithering toward the fallen machine.
"Should I intervene?"
It wasn’t because he wanted to save someone.
Far from it.
He needed information.
He had to find a way out of this place and understand exactly what had happened here.
Still, helping carried its own risks.
If he revealed himself, questions would follow.
And from an outsider’s perspective, his existence alone was suspicious.
The strongest mech-suits had been annihilated within seconds, yet somehow an unarmored human had survived this nightmare for so long.
No matter how anyone looked at it, that story would sound impossible.
Even an idiot would doubt his survival... and if they did a background check... he so fucked up!
Just as he was pondering what kind of character he should play, Young Aether found himself searching for someone who embodied a pathetically cowardly victim, the sort of person who would sacrifice others without hesitation for his own survival.
"Fredo? Nah..." he muttered thoughtfully. "Even I hate his character."
Meanwhile, the Commander painfully clutched his shoulder inside the wrecked mech-suit. Warning symbols flooded his visor while crimson emergency alerts flashed across the damaged display.
Reflected on the cracked surface of his helmet visor were the incoming root-flesh tentacles slithering toward him.
The suit’s shoulder actuators barely responded to his movements. Hydraulic systems hissed constantly while smoke escaped from multiple ruptured weapon ports. Nearly every subsystem had suffered critical damage.
"I... fuck..." he breathed heavily. "M-My comrades..."
His fist clenched tightly.
The mech-suit emitted a deep mechanical hum, resembling the final breaths of a dying beast.
"If I’m going to die..." His voice trembled with fury. "Then I’ll take you with me, you bastard!"
"Activate Energy Reactor Weapon."
[Activating Energy Reactor Weapon.]
Instantly, targeting reticles flickered across the damaged visor and locked onto the mountain of flesh.
Deep within the mech-suit’s chest, armoured plating shifted apart with a series of metallic clicks. Layer after layer of reinforced material folded backwards, revealing a weapon no larger than a human palm.
It resembled a bullet.
Countless glowing red circuitry lines surrounded its surface, forming intricate energy-conduction patterns. The projectile vibrated violently as power surged into it. The surrounding air distorted while visible streams of energy gathered from the atmosphere itself.
The weapon wasn’t merely charging.
It was consuming energy.
Far away, Young Aether suddenly froze.
The surrounding energy had changed.
Every instinct in his body screamed at him.
"Huh?"
His eyes narrowed.
"What’s that?"
The energy fluctuations were becoming increasingly violent. The natural flow of power throughout the environment had fallen into complete chaos.
Without hesitation, his vision shifted.
The world instantly turned black and white.
Only energy remained visible.
Countless streams of colored energy converged toward the projectile. Red, blue, gold, violet, and silver currents collided violently against one another while being compressed into a single point. The various energies were breaking apart into microscopic particles before being forcibly reconstructed.
Young Aether’s face instantly changed.
"Shit!"
He turned around and ran.
Step!
Step!
Step!
Step!
Immediately.
Without looking back even once.
Even the root-flesh tentacles sensed the danger.
The creature’s appendages abruptly accelerated, surging toward the Commander with unprecedented speed. The mountain of flesh visibly stirred as though the sleeping monster had finally noticed the threat.
But it was too late!
Inside the suit, the Commander saw everything.
And smiled.
"Fuck you all, you bastards."
His gaze remained fixed on the targeting reticle.
Then clenched his fist as if he pulled the trigger.
Thud!
PUFFFFF!!
The projectile launched from the mech-suit’s chest like a crimson meteor.
A brilliant trail of red particles stretched behind it as it tore through the air. Its sharpened tip pierced directly through the incoming tentacles, slicing through layers of flesh and roots with effortless precision.
Chunks of severed tissue exploded apart.
The projectile continued forward.
Thuck!
It embedded itself deep within the mountain of flesh.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
The bullet trembled.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then every red line across its surface lit up simultaneously.
BBOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
A catastrophic eruption of energy engulfed the battlefield.
Young Aether, who had already fled a considerable distance, suddenly felt an overwhelming shockwave spread across the land. The force nearly launched him into the air, but he quickly stabilised himself and continued running at full speed.
Behind him, destruction advanced like an unstoppable tidal wave.
The earth cracked apart.
Entire sections of forest disintegrated.
Trees were reduced to glowing particles before vanishing completely. Massive fissures spread across the landscape while compressed waves of energy tore through everything in their path.
Young Aether didn’t dare stop.
Because the expanding wall of destruction was still chasing him from behind.
"Shit! Shit!!!"
Young Aether cursed repeatedly as he forced his exhausted body to move faster. He sprinted through the collapsing forest while the destructive wave expanded behind him, leaping over shattered roots, sliding down steep slopes, and weaving between falling trees that were being reduced to glowing particles by the rapidly approaching energy storm.
Every instinct in his body screamed at him to create as much distance as possible. The terrifying weapon had unleashed a level of power far beyond anything he had anticipated, and even without looking back, he could feel the chaotic energy tearing apart the landscape behind him.
After several desperate minutes of running, Young Aether finally burst out of the forest and onto the open plains.
Unfortunately, the shockwave reached him before he could properly escape.
THUPUFFF!!
A tremendous force slammed into his back and launched him nearly a hundred meters through the air.
Thud!
Roll!
Roll!
Roll!
Young Aether lost all control of his balance and tumbled across the grassy field, rolling repeatedly before digging his hands into the soil and forcing himself to a stop.
Breathing heavily, he slowly lifted his head and looked back toward the forest.
What greeted him left him completely speechless.
A colossal mushroom cloud towered over the horizon, stretching high into the sky while countless glowing particles drifted through the air like embers. Massive streams of unstable energy crackled within the cloud, illuminating the smoke with flashes of crimson and blue light.
The entire forest that had existed only moments ago had completely disappeared, leaving behind a vast scar of destruction that stretched farther than his eyes could see.
For a brief moment, he simply stared.
"Motherfucking goodness..." Young Aether muttered while staring at the catastrophic scene. "These bastards actually have weapons comparable to nuclear bombs?"
His expression became increasingly complicated as a troubling realisation surfaced in his mind.
’Then why the fuck were you people holding back?’
If humanity truly possessed weapons capable of producing this level of devastation, then his people should never have stood a chance. A few direct strikes from weapons like that would have erased entire armies from existence without leaving enough remains for a funeral.
The more he thought about it, the less sense everything made.
Before he could continue dwelling on the matter, a dark object suddenly shot out from the centre of the mushroom cloud and rapidly descended toward the ground.
THUNGGG!!
The object struck the plains with tremendous force before rolling across the terrain and carving a deep trench through the grass. Metal scraped violently against stone as showers of sparks erupted behind it.
Eventually, the object lost momentum and came to a complete stop several dozen meters away from Young Aether.
Young Aether blinked.
It was the mech-suit.
Or rather, what remained of it.
The advanced combat machine had been reduced to little more than scrap metal. One arm was completely missing, both legs had suffered catastrophic damage, and large sections of armour plating had been torn away from the frame. Through the shattered shell, Young Aether could clearly see portions of the person’s body.
The fact that it still existed at all was impressive.
"Sigh..." He shook his head while looking at the wreckage. "At least that motherfucker managed to di--"
Thud!
Unfortunately, fate seemed determined to prove him wrong.
Before Young Aether could finish speaking, a heavy impact echoed across the plains as another figure landed directly behind the wrecked mech-suit.
The skull-headed monster.
The creature stood there calmly as though it had merely taken a short walk instead of surviving an explosion powerful enough to erase an entire forest.
Young Aether stared at it for several seconds before his lips began twitching uncontrollably.
"..."
Not a scratch.
Not a single fucking scratch!
The monster’s body remained completely intact.
Meanwhile, the forest behind it no longer existed.
"What kind of bullshit is this...?" Young Aether whispered.
The creature slowly lowered its gaze toward the fallen commander. Its hollow eye sockets radiated a chilling sense of malice as it reached down and grabbed the damaged mech-suit by the helmet.
Then it spoke.
"Pathetic worms," it said coldly. "You dare disturb my rest?"
Young Aether’s eyes narrowed.
The fact that the monster could speak was surprising enough.
But what truly caught his attention was the voice itself.
It sounded familiar.
Very uncomfortably familiar.
’Why does it sound like Kai?’
A frown appeared on his face as he continued observing the situation from a distance.
Meanwhile, the monster tightened its grip around the commander’s helmet. The reinforced material immediately groaned under the overwhelming pressure, and cracks rapidly spread across the visor as though the armour were made of fragile glass rather than military-grade materials.
Immediately, the plates began groaning under the pressure.
The helmet is visibly deformed.
Warning lights flickered desperately across the cracked visor.
Crack...
Crack...
The commander’s head would likely be crushed along with the helmet.
Young Aether carefully took a step backward.
Then another.
This wasn’t his fight.
And that guy was dead as fuck anyway.
There was absolutely no reason to stay here.
Just as Young Aether prepared to activate his movement skill and disappear once more, a trembling voice escaped from the damaged helmet.
The commander was clearly moments away from having his skull crushed.
Young Aether slowly stepped backwards while carefully assessing the situation. There was no reason for him to become involved, especially against a monster that had just survived what amounted to a miniature apocalypse.
That man was dead regardless.
At least, that was what Young Aether thought.
Just as he prepared to activate his movement skill and leave the area entirely, a trembling voice suddenly emerged from the damaged helmet.
"P-Please... I-I was wrong. I-I-I... I’m sorry..."
His ears twitched the moment he heard the desperate plea.
Something about that voice felt painfully familiar.
It wasn’t merely the words being spoken.
It was the tone... the cadence... and the faint tremble hidden beneath the fear.
The sound struck something buried deep within Young Aether’s memories, pulling on a thread he hadn’t touched in years.
For a brief moment, he froze.
Then his mind instinctively began searching through countless memories, diving deeper and deeper until it found the source.
A face.
A voice.
A person he had once known.
His eyes widened as realisation slowly dawned upon him.
"No way..."
Young Aether immediately turned his head back toward the mech-suit.
Shatttt!
At that exact moment, the commander’s visor finally gave way under the monster’s crushing grip. Reinforced helmet shattered into countless fragments that scattered through the air like glittering shards of ice.
Time seemed to slow.
The broken pieces reflected the surrounding light as they spun through the air, briefly revealing the face hidden behind the helmet.
!!!!
The instant Young Aether saw it, a cold shiver raced down his spine.
His ice-blue eyes locked onto a face he knew all too well.
A face he had never forgotten despite the passing years.
A face that had remained buried within his memories even after everything that had happened.
His breathing stopped.
His thoughts came to a halt.
For several seconds, he could only stare in disbelief.
"J-Jonny?"
The name escaped his lips almost involuntarily.