Chapter 1921: Getting Lily to Safety

Sssssnnnngggggg!

Alpha’s thrusters surged forward as she tore through the sky, her body leaning into the pursuit as her visor remained locked onto the tiny figure desperately weaving through the city.

The air distorted around her from the sheer force of her acceleration, while the buildings below blurred into streaks of steel and concrete.

Grace’s wings fluttered furiously, scattering trails of purple light behind her as she zigzagged between the buildings. From a distance, she looked like a streak of glittering purple cutting through the city.

Alpha tried to close the distance, but every time she came within reach, Grace shifted sharply to one side, then immediately changed direction again, making it nearly impossible for Alpha to predict her movements.

Alpha groaned with an annoyed expression. She had never encountered anything like this before. There were no records of a creature with such characteristics, nor any known biological or technological explanation for how something this small could move with such speed and agility.

Was it some kind of mutated creature?

Or a new evolution of humans?

Whatever it was, she needed to capture it at any cost.

Meanwhile, Grace continued flying with a dead-cold expression, her wings beating faster as she thought of all the ways she could torture that boy who had thrown her like fucking bait.

She?

The Goddess of Death?

How dare he do that?

Without even asking for her permission, he had grabbed her like a fucking toy and thrown her away as bait.

Oh, God… she was pissed beyond words. Every time she remembered what he had done to her, the irritation inside her only grew stronger.

She had just helped him, and this was how he repaid her?

He had used her like fucking bait.

Anyone would be pissed, right?

And she was rightfully so.

‘Just wait, you son of a bitch. I’m going to fuck your life up!’

She thought with a cold expression, the murderous intent in her eyes enough to send a shiver down the spine of someone who was running away.

BOOM!

Suddenly, something tore past her from behind before blasting into the sky.

Grace clicked her tongue and immediately dove toward the tall, old buildings ahead. Her tiny body slipped into the narrow cracks between them, her purple wings folding slightly before opening again as she threaded through the confined spaces.

Alpha still followed without hesitation. Her suit easily calculated the structural weaknesses of the deteriorating buildings, and its enhanced strength allowed her to break through the weak walls like cardboard.

Concrete shattered beneath her hands as she continued pursuing Grace without slowing down.

The debris rained toward the streets below, fragments of concrete and glass scattering under the force of her movements. Yet Alpha paid no attention to the destruction around her.

Her entire focus remained fixed on the creature ahead.

Her hand extended, her fingers stretching toward Grace, and for a brief moment, it seemed she was finally within reach.

But Grace’s wings suddenly fluttered harder.

She shot forward again.

“Tsk!” Alpha clicked her tongue in annoyance. “It’s way too fast.”

This thing was not simply fast. It was changing direction with almost no loss of momentum.

Her suit immediately began calculating its movement patterns, analysing the creature’s current speed, direction, acceleration, and possible trajectories.

[Analysis… Prediction Module… 20%… 50%…]

A series of projected trajectories appeared across Alpha’s visor, highlighting several possible vector points and marking the locations Grace was most likely to reach based on her current speed and direction.

Alpha’s eyes narrowed.

Instead of following Grace directly, she suddenly changed course.

The prediction system had already calculated where Grace would be.

Alpha shot toward that position.

Grace continued weaving through the buildings, her tiny body wriggling through narrow gaps as she moved from one broken room to another. She slipped through shattered walls, crossed abandoned interiors, and twisted through the remains of the old structures with remarkable ease.

Then, just as she emerged through a broken window—

Two pairs of hands caught her instantly.

“Caught you.”

Alpha spoke with a faintly amused tone as her hands closed around Grace. The sudden interception nearly threw Alpha off balance as the force of Grace’s momentum transferred into her arms.

Alpha quickly stabilised herself before looking down at the tiny creature trapped between her fingers.

Grace didn’t even bother looking at her.

She simply stared ahead with an expression of complete boredom, as though the entire chase had already become beneath her notice.

After all, this was nothing more than her manifestation.

It wasn’t her true body, nor was she actually trapped here.

With a mere thought, she could return to Aether’s Domain no matter how far away she was.

That was precisely why Aether had used her as bait.

Even if someone managed to capture her, she could simply return to the Domain whenever she wanted. There was practically no real danger to her.

She knew that.

She understood exactly why he had done it.

And somehow, that only pissed her off even more.

Because knowing that he trusted her enough to throw her into danger without hesitation did absolutely nothing to make her feel better about being treated like fucking bait.

She gave Alpha a mere glance and muttered,

“Not bad… for a soulless.”

As she said that, her body shimmered before—

Clench…

Alpha’s hands clenched around empty space.

Alpha blinked in surprise as she stared at her hands. A few glittering purple particles drifted through the air between her fingers before slowly fading away.

“What… was that?” Alpha muttered in utter surprise.

Then her eyes widened as realisation struck her.

“Fuck!”

Her thrusters fired again, sending her surging through the sky.

By the time she reached the old house near the bridge where she had initially found Lily, however, there was no one there.

She hovered silently above the street, staring blankly at the empty house.

Then—

“ARRHHHH!!!!”

Her scream echoed through the surrounding buildings as fury erupted across her face. Every weapon mounted on her suit activated simultaneously, their mechanisms unfolding with mechanical precision before unleashing a barrage of firepower.

Within a matter of seconds, the old building was reduced to rubble.

Meanwhile,

Step!

Step!!

Step!!!

A shadow moved furiously through the slums, his cloak fluttering behind him as he moved through the narrow streets like a passing breeze.

Aether held the unconscious, cloaked figure securely in his arms as he moved from one place to another without stopping.

His legs continued carrying him forward at an almost unnatural pace, while the armed men scattered throughout the slums barely noticed him.

He passed directly in front of some of them, yet to their eyes, he was nothing more than a sudden gust of wind.

By now, he had already left Allen’s territorial jurisdiction, but Aether continued moving without stopping for even a moment.

He was already running out of time.

He needed to reach the Beta Tower before Nova woke up.

He didn’t slow down, even though his legs were beginning to strain beneath the additional weight in his arms. His breathing gradually became heavier, sweat soaking through his clothes, but he refused to stop.

After nearly a few hours of continuous movement, he finally reached the end of the slums.

Covered in sweat, Aether panted heavily as he cradled the figure even more securely in his arms. He lifted the cloth-like wall that concealed the passage and carefully moved through it, finally reaching Beta’s coastline.

The morning light struck his face.

Aether clicked his tongue.

‘Fuck,’ he groaned inwardly before moving again.

Using the same path he had taken earlier, he carefully made his way back while keeping the figure securely in his arms.

He retraced his steps through the narrow passage.

Just as he finally escaped the security measures and began walking along the narrow path, the figure in his arms stirred.

Lily’s eyes fluttered before slowly opening. A low, painful sound escaped her lips, and the moment her vision cleared, confusion and alarm flashed across her face.

“W-What? W-Where am—?!”

Thud!

As she instinctively moved her head, it struck the wall beside them because of the narrow space.

“Ouch!”

Lily groaned as she rubbed her head, her face twisting in pain.

Aether chuckled from behind his cloak before muttering in an indifferent, almost robotic mimicry of a voice,

“Don’t move… if you want to live.”

“H-Huh? What’s going on here?”

Lily blinked rapidly, completely taken aback. Slowly, fragments of her memory began returning to her.

She remembered what had happened just before she escaped from Alpha.

She had been struck by this man.

“I am your Saviour, little girl,” Aether said in a childish, almost robotic mimicry of a voice.

Lily blinked.

“Saviour?”

“Correct… Without my intervention, Alpha would have killed you. I am the one who saved you.”

Lily slowly digested his words, confusion settling across her face.

“Why would you—”

Before she could finish, another memory suddenly surfaced in her mind.

The reason she had gone to the Slums.

“P-Penelope? Where is Penelope?” Lily asked as she struggled against the man’s tight grip, trying desperately to wriggle herself free. Her face had gone pale, and her breathing became increasingly frantic.

If Alpha had gotten Penelope, then everything she had done, every risk she had taken to reach the Slums, would have been for nothing.

However, her supposed saviour merely chuckled and replied in his strange, robotic voice, “Don’t worry… she is safe.”

Even though Aether maintained his calm expression beneath the hood, he was actually more confused than Lily.

‘Penelope? What the fuck is going on here? Did the timeline change because of some of my actions, or what?’

Lily frowned, her anxiety only increasing.

“Safe? What do you mean, safe? Where is she? I need to get her first! Let me go!” she shouted as she continued struggling against his grip.

Aether groaned inwardly. Her constant movement was becoming irritating, especially when every second mattered.

He tightened his hold on her and spoke in a deadly cold tone, “Shut up, you little shit.”

Lily immediately froze.

Her eyes widened when she saw two crimson eyes glowing from within the darkness of his hood. Whatever strength she had been using to struggle suddenly disappeared as fear took hold of her body.

Aether noticed the change and nodded with satisfaction.

At least she had finally stopped moving.

Once he emerged from the alley, he glanced down at her before speaking in the same emotionless voice.

“Cover your eyes and mouth.”

“Huh?”

“Just cover it!”

Lily immediately obeyed. She tightly closed her eyes and covered her mouth with both hands. She barely had time to wonder why before she suddenly felt an immense force of air slam against her body.

Her cloak snapped violently behind her, and her hair whipped against her face as the surrounding air screamed past them. It felt as though she had been thrown onto a bullet train moving at full speed, except there was no steady sensation of a vehicle beneath her.

There was only movement.

Fast, violent movement.

Lily struggled to breathe properly against the pressure. Her stomach lurched, and every muscle in her body instinctively tensed as she clung to Aether.

Curiosity eventually overcame her fear.

She cautiously squinted her eyes open.

Everything around her was nothing but a blur.

She thought she didn’t see correctly, so… she slowly opened them fully and,

“OH MY GODDDDDDD!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”

Lily screamed in horror when she finally realised just how fast they were moving. Her entire body felt strangely weightless, yet at the same time, every bone seemed to tremble from the acceleration.

The world around her had practically dissolved into a rushing stream of colours.

Aether sighed inwardly.

‘I told her not to look…’

There was nothing he could do about it now.

He simply covered her mouth with one hand before she could scream again and continued running without halting his steps. His breathing remained controlled despite the tremendous distance he had already covered, while his footsteps struck the ground in a steady rhythm.

Step!

Step!!

Step!!!

After what felt like an eternity to Lily, his footsteps finally came to a halt right in front of the pawn shop.

Yup.

That old man.

Lily immediately wriggled herself out of Aether’s arms. The moment her feet touched the ground, she stumbled forward, her face turning red as she hurriedly crouched down.

“Wwaaahhhhh!!”

She vomited.

“Fuck… Oh my God… wwaaahhhhh!”

She vomited again, coughing between breaths as her stomach revolted against the insane journey. Her hands trembled against the ground, and she desperately tried to steady herself.

It felt as though her insides had been twisted into knots.

A moment later, she flinched when a hand gently rubbed her back.

Lily panted heavily, wiping the corner of her mouth before slowly glancing back at the cloaked figure standing behind her.

“W-What… What was that?”

Her voice carried genuine disbelief.

She couldn’t believe that someone could move that fast. Her first assumption had been that he must have been wearing some kind of advanced mech-suit beneath the cloak to conceal his presence.

Yet even that explanation didn’t make sense.

She had never heard of any C-Class, or even a Commander-Class individual, being capable of moving at such a speed.

Then what exactly was he?

A Governor?

Aether didn’t answer.

He simply turned toward the pawn shop and entered through the door, gesturing for her to follow him.