Chapter 1833: An Empty Vessel.

The small wriggling thing... was nothing but a worm.

Its pale-grey skin was horribly wrinkled, folding over itself in wet, uneven ridges as its elongated body twisted between the black armour’s fingers. It stretched desperately toward the wound from which it had been pulled.

Its mouth was impossibly small, yet rows of circular, razor-sharp teeth were packed within it. They rotated faintly as the creature opened and closed its jaws, grinding against one another with a delicate, nauseating clicking sound. From between those teeth, a rainbow-coloured liquid slowly dripped.

The worm writhed violently between the black-armoured man’s fingers, its body tightening and snapping back as it desperately tried to bite the hand holding it.

It was seemingly the same creature Delphine had encountered within the Eternal Prison.

Only this one was impossibly small.

The black-armoured figure held it between two fingers. Then his gaze shifted toward Prophetess.

The place where he had pulled the worm from deep within her skin had changed.

For the briefest moment, the dark-brown patches covering her cheek receded.

The swollen mould-like flesh beneath them softened.

The dark-brown patches surrounding the wound faded away, revealing a patch of healthy, delicate skin beneath.

A rosy cheek.

A glimpse of what her face might have looked like before whatever had invaded her body.

Then something moved beneath her skin.

A thin, unnatural bulge travelled slowly beneath the flesh beside her cheekbone. It twisted once, then again, as though a living creature were crawling beneath the surface.

Instantly, the rosy colour vanished.

The flesh darkened again, spreading into the same sickly brown patches as before. Pus seeped from several ruptured pores while something underneath her skin writhed slowly.

The black armour watched her for several seconds before finally speaking.

"What did you do to deserve this?"

He sounded genuinely curious.

Prophetess remained silent.

The black-armoured man tilted his head slightly.

"Hmm... You seemed to be brave."

His fingers tightened around the worm, just enough to stop its frantic movements.

"Was it a façade?"

He paused.

"Or was it real?"

The worm suddenly began writhing again.

"...shall we find out?"

The black armour lifted his free hand toward his helmet.

Prophetess’s eyes widened.

He removed the helmet.

Sshh~

The surrounding air stirred immediately.

Pure white hair slipped free and danced around his face, strands moving gently through the air as though caught within an invisible current. The darkness of his armour only made the contrast more striking.

Aether’s face emerged from beneath the helmet.

Ridiculously handsome.

Almost unnaturally so.

His dark lips parted slightly as he raised the worm toward them.

Prophetess’s composure finally shattered.

"W-What are you doing? Have you completely lost your mind?! That thing is not some ordinary parasite!"

Aether continued bringing the creature toward his mouth.

The worm suddenly began thrashing violently. Its tiny mouth opened. A strange rainbow-coloured light gathered within its throat.

"STOP—!!"

His teeth closed around the creature’s head.

CRUNCH!!

Prophetess froze.

Aether bit down again.

The worm’s body spasmed violently between his fingers before going limp.

Aether merely continued eating.

There was no disgust in his expression.

He chewed slowly, calmly, as though he were consuming something utterly ordinary.

Rainbow-coloured blood leaked from the corner of his lips.

!!!

Prophetess stared at him in horror.

The thing that had tormented her, the creature she had feared would eventually consume her completely, was being eaten by a man who did not even seem to consider it dangerous; for a fleeting moment, she thought she might faint.

Aether smirked as he slowly parted his lips, revealing a mouth stained with the rainbow-coloured liquid that belonged to the worm he had just devoured.

The unnatural fluid glistened against his teeth before slowly trailing from the corner of his mouth, and the wicked grin that followed made the sight even more disturbing.

"Yeah... They were indeed tastier than their parents, weren’t they?"

He spoke with such a cold and menacing tone that there was not even the slightest trace of disgust in his voice.

!!!

Prophetess squirmed violently as she stared at the rainbow-coloured liquid dripping from Aether’s lips.

The worms beneath her skin suddenly began writhing even more violently.

Their movements became frantic, twisting beneath the infected flesh as though they were desperately attempting to burrow deeper into her body and hide themselves from the man standing before them.

Aether noticed the sudden movement beneath her skin almost immediately, and the corners of his lips slowly curved upward once more.

"That’s more like it..."

Aether stared directly into her eyes.

Even though the blindfold remained firmly over them, his gaze seemed to penetrate through the fabric as though it were completely transparent.

"The pain... the suffering..."

His voice became quieter as the amusement gradually disappeared from his expression.

"I know exactly how it feels to suffer until you no longer recognise yourself."

For the briefest moment, something unreadable passed through his eyes.

"But tell me something, Prophetess. Was all of that suffering truly enough to justify ruining my plan?"

Before she could respond, Aether’s fist moved with frightening speed.

BOOM!

His armoured fist slammed directly into her face, the impact violently snapping her head to the side.

"Argh!"

Blood immediately smeared across the metal plates covering Aether’s knuckles.

"Or perhaps you simply felt sorry for him because he killed so many innocents?... No. There are no innocents here. This is war, Prophetess, and war has never cared about the purity of the hands holding the sword."

"War demands blood because victory cannot be purchased with sympathy and love, and anyone who believes otherwise is merely pretending that slaughter becomes righteous when their own side is the one doing it."

He raised his blood-covered fist once more.

"There are no innocents or sinners here. There are only people who survive long enough to call themselves victorious and people whose corpses become the price that victory demands."

His fist tightened.

"Only victory matters when everything else has already been sacrificed.

And I want that victory."

BOOM!

His fist struck her face again with enough force to send another burst of blood from her mouth.

"Argh!"

Yet despite the pain, she forced herself to lift her head.

"I-I know you are the one who corrupted his mind..."

Aether suddenly stopped. Then he slowly raised one hand and pointed toward himself.

"Me?"

His expression became almost incredulous.

"Hahahaha..."

He gently patted Prophetess’s cheek, almost tenderly.

"Oh, sweetie... It’s true that I played a few parts recently, and I certainly won’t deny having influenced certain events."

"But that was all I did... I ain’t the only one who talked to him."

"That fucking asshole simply talked to himself and then convinced himself that I was the one speaking to him."

Aether chuckled again, his expression filled with genuine amusement at the absurdity of it.

"Hahahah... He blamed everything on me because it was easier for him to believe that he was the good man who had been corrupted by someone else."

"..."

"He needed a monster to blame for everything he had done because accepting responsibility for his own choices would have meant admitting that the darkness had always belonged to him."

"Ahahaha... hahaha..."

Then, just as suddenly, it stopped.

"But do you know what?"

He looked directly into Prophetess’s eyes.

"I don’t give a shit whether he blames everything on me."

"As long as he accomplishes what I wanted him to accomplish, he can paint me as the devil himself for all I care."

Prophetess became silent... again, she didn’t expect this as well.

"I take all the blame that this world wants to place upon me."

His voice carried an unsettling certainty.

"I own every accusation, every curse, and every hateful word that they throw at my name because I stopped caring about whether anyone understands why I did what I did."

"This is no different from everything else. I paved the path. He chose to walk it."

"That is all there is to it."

Prophetess stared at him.

Aether’s eyes gradually hardened.

"And now you ruined it."

His fingers seized her head.

Prophetess’s eyes widened beneath the blindfold.

He simply twisted.

CRACK!

The sound of breaking bone echoed.

Thud!

Her lifeless body collapsed onto the ground.

He looked down at Prophetess’s motionless body without remorse, satisfaction, or even the slightest trace of regret.

Aether stared at the body lying before him for several seconds before slowly straightening himself.

Above him, the helmet that had remained suspended in the air suddenly moved on its own, snapping back into place over his head with a sharp metallic click.

In the very next instant, her corpse began to crumble.

Collapsing into pale ash that scattered across the ruined ground. The chain wrapped around her body lost its tension and fell loosely beside the remains, striking the ground with a hollow metallic sound.

Only the wooden staff remained.

Then it suddenly shot through the air toward the black armour with enough force to tear through the surrounding atmosphere.

The black armour just tilted his head.

The staff passed behind him with a violent gust.

The black armour slowly turned his head toward it.

"Tsk... The blood of an Ether."

His voice carried a trace of irritation as he turned around completely.

Standing several metres away was the Prophetess.

She was dressed in the same white robes as before, her wooden staff firmly held within one hand.

There were no wounds upon her body.

She simply stood there, perfectly intact, as though the previous death had never occurred.

The black armour stared at her silently.

"It makes sense now how this one got out from its sealing"

His gaze then shifted away from Prophetess and settled upon a particular point within the ruined world.

"Did he find me?"

Aevum’s voice suddenly echoed within Prophetess’s mind.

"I did."

The black armour answered immediately, making both Prophetess and Aevum freeze.

The black armour tilted his head slightly,

"This primordial is capable of bending reality..."

His voice became thoughtful as he observed the unseen presence he had sensed.

"Interesting. Well, in my time, I simply didn’t care to unseal it... just nailed you with an Ebon Stone."

He paused as though recalling something from memory.

"It wasn’t exactly some grand battle, but it was still my first primordial kill."

Aevum frowned, "Fate... What is he talking about?"

His attention returned entirely to Prophetess.

"I can keep doing this no matter how many times you borrow another time."

He slowly raised his hand.

"But eventually, you will reach your limit. And that limit will arrive long before this body ever reaches its own."

Prophetess’s expression tightened. Then her head suddenly separated from her body.

There was no warning.

No dramatic movement.

Her head simply rolled across the ruined ground before coming to a stop.

Thud!

Another death.

Another Prophetess appeared.

The black armour killed her again.

Thud!

Thud!

Then another.

And another.

Prophetess kept appearing.

The black armour kept killing her.

Within mere fractions of a second, he had killed her dozens of times.

Yet the Prophetess continued returning.

Her body was torn apart!

He drove her body through the ruined earth!

Her bones were removed from her body alive!

Yet, there was no rage in his movements.

That was what made them terrifying.

At some point, Prophetess stopped trying to fight.

She simply stood there.

"Fate! Lost your mind?" Aevum asked.

"..."

Prophetess remained silent as the black armour continued killing her again and again, yet her mind was no longer focused on the pain, the countless deaths, or the black-armoured figure standing before her.

Something else had begun unfolding within her consciousness.

A memory?

No...

Not a memory she had experienced herself.

It was a past she had never seen before, a history she had never considered, and a truth she had never been willing to examine until this very moment.

The more she witnessed, the more the pieces began falling into place, until the person she had once thought she understood began to look like someone she had never truly seen.

Prophetess slowly lowered her gaze.

"I-I see... I u-understand now..."

By that point, the black armour had already killed her 100,000 times.

Another manifestation appeared before him.

The black armour moved without hesitation, his hand reaching toward her head as though preparing to end her once again.

But this time, Prophetess reacted.

She raised her wooden staff and slammed its end against the ground.

BOOM!!

A violent wave of power erupted from beneath her.

Transparent rectangular mirrors suddenly burst from the ruined ground around the black armour, rising rapidly in every direction.

The black-armoured figure slowly turned his head.

"Hmm? Do you actually believe these things are capable of controlling me? I have seen nightmares...

I AM NIGHTMARES!!"

Prophetess dropped to one knee under his pressure.

Blood escaped from her mouth as she coughed, staining her white robes.

She wiped the blood away and slowly raised her head.

A faint smile appeared upon her exhausted face.

"No... It did not. I know nothing could stop you. But... He will."

For the first time, something changed within the black armour’s expression.

The mirror directly before him suddenly shimmered.

Its empty surface rippled as though something had disturbed an invisible ocean.

Then an image appeared.

A boy with black hair was sitting in front of a television. And trying to mimic what that character was doing.

Ba-dump!

For the briefest instant, his heart skipped a beat.

"I remember something you always used to say..."

"The actor must deceive himself before he can deceive others."

She tilted her head slightly.

"Isn’t that right, Aether?"

The black-armoured figure reacted immediately.

The chain shot towards her.

CLANG!

They swept through the surrounding space with terrifying speed, striking the mirrors one after another.

CRASH!

CRASH!

CRASH!

The transparent structures shattered simultaneously, their fragments dissolving before they could even touch the ground.

The black armour turned toward Prophetess.

"What are you talking about?"

His chain shot forward.

Prophetess’s body was severed cleanly in two.

Blood scattered across the ground.

Yet another manifestation appeared behind him.

Prophetess merely shook her head.

"I am not talking to you."

The black armour slowly turned around.

"I am talking to the one who deceived himself so completely that he began believing..."

"...that he was No. 27."

Prophetess raised her staff.

"How does it feel, Aether? To discover that everything you believed yourself to be... was merely something you learned to become?"

The staff struck the ground again.

BOOM!!

The surrounding reality flickered.

The entire world seemed to lose stability for a fraction of a second.

Then the mirrors appeared.

Not dozens.

Not hundreds.

They emerged everywhere.

Across the ground.

Above the ruined landscape.

Within the sky.

Behind the black armour.

Every mirror displayed the same black-haired boy.

The child sat before a television, watching other people.

Watching actors.

Watching characters.

Watching their expressions.

Watching how they spoke.

Watching how they reacted to happiness, anger, sadness, fear, affection, and love.

The chain erupted again.

They tore through the mirrors.

CRASH!

One shattered, maybe dozens.

But it made no difference.

Every destroyed mirror was immediately replaced by another.

They were not being created from somewhere else.

They were being born directly from reality itself.

"Tsk. What an annoying ability," He mumbled as he stared at the particular point in reality... Where Aevum flinched.

The prophetess appeared before him,

"Forgive me, child..."

Her voice carried something the black armour/Aether had never heard from her before.

Regret?

"I should have understood this from the very beginning. He is never truly one person."

Prophetess’s fingers tightened around her staff.

"He is... an empty vessel."