Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey - Chapter 1553: Iskha’vel
Chapter 1553: Iskha’vel
Third Person’s POV
When Aether held the remains of the pregnant woman in his trembling arms…
When he heard the wet sound of flesh falling from her broken body and striking the ground…
When his own eyes were forced to witness that torn flesh… alive and dead at once… something inside him fractured beyond repair.
It was not grief alone.
It was not rage alone.
Something inside him made him remember… what he was… who he had always been beneath the fragile mask of restraint.
His eyes flickered violently between pure white and bottomless black, as if two opposing abysses were fighting for dominion over his soul.
His emotions were twisted beyond reason, tangled with horror, fury, guilt, and a fear so raw it tasted disgusting in his throat.
This was not the same as Sandra. Not the same as Raven. Not like the others he had lost before.
This pain carried a different weight, heavier and more suffocating…. Something about this moment felt personal in a way he could not escape.
Was that flesh… his child?
No!!
Yet it felt as though he had lost his own blood.
As though a small life that was meant to reach up and cling to his fingers had instead been crushed before it could ever breathe.
As though something fragile that should have stood at his feet had been torn from existence because of his incapability.
Incompetence!!
If he had known…
If only he had possessed his powers…
If only he had not been shackled in this fragile state.
Nothing would have unfolded like this… No one would have died like this!
Unlike other Empires, the Aurora Empire was different.
Here, people did not sharpen blades against their neighbours. There were no underground dealings, no hidden massacres, no silent betrayals festering in the dark.
Everything was plain… Everything was pure… Not a single soul would willingly raise a hand against another.
These people were not trained warriors forged by endless war.
They were simply people who believed in safety… Farmers, merchants, mothers, fathers, children.
Weaker than any other Empire, yet… kinder than all of them combined.
So why?
Why were they the ones drowning in blood.
Why was a life that had never seen the sky reduced to scattered remains before it could even… cry.
Why?
A life that had never seen the world. An innocent lif—
Suddenly, his vision that flickered between white and black collapsed into blacked out…. shut down… empty!
It was severed, as if someone had extinguished a flame with crushing fingers.
The world became silent and hollow.
The ringing in his ears continued for a few seconds longer before it stopped entirely, leaving behind a suffocating stillness.
And…
“Looks like you need my help again… No.28?”
The voice slithered through the emptiness, smooth and arrogant, carrying a haughty amusement that scraped against Aether’s nerves.
It was not loud, yet it felt as though it pressed directly against his skull.
“… Yes,” Aether replied in a hoarse voice that barely resembled his own.
Without turning around, he already knew who stood behind him…. He knew… He fucking knew that in this moment, he was powerless to protect anyone.
A black armoured figure materialised from the surrounding darkness, as if the mist itself had condensed into a humanoid shape. The armour absorbed light instead of reflecting it, and a crooked grin stretched across its unseen face.
Cold fingers gripped Aether’s shoulders, not in comfort… but in possession.
The mist on its fingers curled like smoke.
“You are… truly wicked~Hehe~” the voice whispered close to his ear like a venomous Snake, “Letting poor me handle the filth you cannot stomach…. How vile of you to hide behind righteousness while I clean your mess.”
The breath against his skin felt colder than death.
Aether did not flinch. He did not pull away. He remained still, his jaw clenched, accepting the humiliation without protest.
Sensing his silence, the voice hummed.
“Are you certain about this?” the voice continued, its tone sharpening into something more dangerous, more taunting.
“I mean… Haha… You are the noble one, the Goody-Goody guy, are you not? The gentle protector. The beloved saviour. What happens if they see you as you truly are?”
The grip on his shoulders tightened slightly.
“The real you…
Would they still love?
Would they still worship? Or…
Would they tremble before the devil they never realised they were praying to?
Hehe~”
A low, cruel chuckle echoed in the hollow space between them.
Aether lowered his head slowly, “Just… just save them,” he whispered, “Please.”
“Hehe… Heheheheh.”
The voice laughed wickedly, the sound scraping against the air like rusted metal dragged across stone.
The fingers curled around Aether’s shoulder began to dissolve slowly into his flesh, sinking beneath his skin as though they belonged there.
However…
“No.25… please,” Aether muttered, his voice unsteady yet urgent. “For your people… for our people… p-please.”
“…”
The black mist fingers that had nearly vanished into his shoulder suddenly halted. They pulled back, retracting from his body as the voice clicked its tongue in irritation.
“Tsk.”
At that very moment, a curl of white mist rose from the palm of the blackened hand, coiling upward like smoke meeting its reflection. The white mist wrapped around the black palm, gripping it as though they were polar opposites colliding.
From the darkness emerged a mirror image, white mist fingers forming delicately from the black ones, and as the white presence took shape, the black figure dissolved and disappeared.
This new figure was entirely pure white, without armour or markings, only a subtle glow surrounding its form. Nothing could be seen through it, nor could its face be discerned.
It was light, given silhouette, gentle yet immeasurable.
The white figure’s hand softly touched Aether’s shoulder. The touch was so gentle that it almost lulled him toward sleep, calming him instantly as though invisible chains had been lifted from his heart.
Every burden weighing on him dissolved in that single contact!
Aether gasped sharply when he felt the crushing weight of pain and guilt disappear all at once, leaving behind a hollow relief that made his knee nearly buckle.
“It will hurt you… a great deal, in fact… are you sure about this?”
The voice was soft as drifting air, echoing from behind him with no trace of mockery or malice.
Aether weakly smiled, though his lips trembled. “It… it already hurts.” His shoulders shook, not from fear, but from the agony that had never truly left him.
The white figure remained silent, staring at Aether’s back for several long seconds. Then the white mist fingers slowly curled into his shoulder, and the entire glowing form dissolved into him, vanishing as though it had never stood there.
!~Ding~!
[Unique Skill: Sacred Flames of Ethereal is forced to activate!]
!~Ding~!
[💀Alert: The User’s body cannot handle the Sacred Flames of Ethereal!]
****
Meanwhile, far away from him, chaos reigned over what once stood as a grand temple. Now it lay reduced to shattered debris, broken pillars scattered across the earth, fragments of mountain collapsed over its sacred grounds.
Among the ruins rested a pit the size of a human body. Embedded at its centre stood a rusted spear, pierced through a skeletal bone that hung lifelessly upon it.
Nothing moved. The air itself felt frozen, silent and unnaturally calm.
Then.
Spark~
A white spark flared from the metallic tip of the spear. It flickered once before spreading along its length like an engine awakening after centuries of dormancy.
Sshh~Sshh~
Sparks crackled across its corroded surface, running along the shaft as faint vibrations began to tremble through the debris around it.
Slowly, the spear lifted from the ground.
The spark erupted like contained thunder, and nearby rubble tumbled down as the air twisted violently around the rising weapon. The skeleton rose with it, bones clattering against one another in hollow rhythm as they hung suspended.
Then…
SSSNNNGGGGG!!!
In a fraction of a second, the spear shot toward the heavens. The skeleton impaled upon it disintegrated into fine dust midair, scattering into nothingness as the weapon blazed with a blinding white light that tore through the clouds above.
The skeletal bones turned into dust, scattering into the night as though they had never existed.
Meanwhile, back to chaos,
Sera clutched her stomach, her face twisted in pain as blood seeped through her fingers. She forced her head up and saw the metallic figure approaching Aether’s unmoving body.
“A-Aether…” she groaned, pushing herself to her feet despite the agony tearing through her wounds.
“Aether… please… Run… Aether…”
Only moments ago, they had been celebrating. Smiling. Laughing… Dancing!
Now the world had collapsed into slaughter in a single breath.
The metallic figure stepped closer. In its mechanical hand, the rotating saw spun violently, its sharp circular blade whining with a hungry metallic growl.
“AETHER!” Sera screamed, stumbling forward with everything she had left.
Behind her, Helena and a few surviving High Priests ran toward them, desperation etched across their blood-streaked faces.
They were too far.
Sera’s eyes widened in horror as the circular saw lowered and touched Aether’s back, beginning to slice through flesh—
“Iskha’vel.”
SSSNNNGGGGG!!!
DUUNNNNN!!!!
A blinding white light descended in the middle of the chaos, erupting outward like a pillar from the heavens.
The brilliance was so intense that it forced everyone to shield their eyes.
Sera and Helena squinted painfully, trying to see through the radiance that had appeared from nowhere.
The fleeing civilians halted.
The metallic hunters froze mid-motion.
The battlefield fell into stunned stillness.
As the light gradually softened, shapes became visible within its glow.
There, before Aether’s body, stood a pure white spear. Its surface gleamed with an otherworldly glaze, pristine and untarnished by the blood-soaked ground.
The spear had pierced straight through the metallic figure from head to toe, locking it in place like an insect pinned for display.
Sparks burst weakly from its frame as the rotating saw slowed and died.
Silence swallowed the battlefield.
“Heh… heh… ehe~”
A broken, chilling smile echoed across the ruined land, crawling through the still air like a whisper that did not belong to any living thing.
