Chapter 150: Escapist Aether

Night here wasn’t a real night. It was something deeper, heavier, like the darkness had weight, and it pressed down on you until you forgot what light looked like.

When the torches outside were finally put out, the world didn’t just dim; it disappeared. Everything slipped into this pitch-black void where even your own hands felt like strangers. Aether blinked once, twice, but it didn’t matter. His eyes could have been wide open or shut tight, and the world looked exactly the same either way.

It wasn’t just the absence of light. It was the kind of darkness that swallowed sound too, as if the air itself thickened. Every breath he took felt muffled, like he was inhaling something stale and velvety. He couldn’t even see the outline of the bars, usually faintly visible when the torches flickered through the night. Now? Nothing. Not a silhouette. Not a shimmer. Just… void.

He lifted his hand in front of his face.

He saw nothing.

Not even the faintest suggestion of motion.

If he didn’t feel the shift of air against his palm, he wouldn’t have known he moved at all.

Sometimes the darkness made the cell feel bigger, stretching out into endless space as the walls melted away. Other times, it felt so small he swore the shadows were pushing inward, squeezing the room until he could barely breathe. Tonight, it was both—an impossible mix of claustrophobic and infinite.

And this was the hour prisoners broke. When the world was erased, and only your thoughts remained. When your heartbeat suddenly sounded too loud in your skull. When even the memory of light felt unreal.

Aether lay there, staring into the nothingness.

If Voidpiercer didn’t come… if he failed to act…

He would dissolve into this darkness just like everything else.

It was so dark that even if he knew his cellmate was inside with him, he couldn’t see him, like he was dissolved by the shadows… or a better word, eaten by those monsters. It also didn’t help that he had gotten used to seeing the difference between shadows, and now, he couldn’t.

Between shadows with masters, the Lost, and the one who had to be, combing with others to be something, they all looked the same in his eyes, but he knew that in reality, they weren’t; they were three different stages.

From having an identity, a cause, and an appearance, to wandering the world, without even knowing where you might end up next, but knowing that soon, everything would collapse, and you would become just another shadow in the masses of shadows.

Yet he didn’t need to see anything; if he was precise enough, it all came down to sound, and he waited patiently for one of the guards who stood at their cell to yawn. While it might not seem like anything special, the dungeon had two phases, with another pair taking over the night.

This specific guard usually waited until he was tired to switch, which was when his first yawn came. Aether quickly rushed to the gates and put his arms through the bars. The key attached to his pants, if he paid enough attention, and if he didn’t mess it up already. Then he should be in a position where the guards just walk by the bars, the key falling right next to his hand.

He waited patiently, hearing the steps of the guards, and suddenly, with the tip of his finger, he felt something cold, something metallic. He had wanted to just snag it right away, but that would just give it away, so he took it slowly, almost too slowly, getting it on the last second.

Aether finally exhaled, releasing the air he had been holding inside for a while, trapped. He couldn’t breathe; they would hear him. So he took a deep breath and started moving his hand along the cell bars, trying to find the keyhole. And after an embarrassing amount of time, he got it.

He slowly put the key inside, trying not to make any sound. Once inside, he twisted it until the door opened. He was done with it; he had escaped his cell, yet, at the same time, the hard part had only really started.

Aether looked down. He couldn’t see anything, but he knew they were there. His boots, the boots that have been with him for so long, he had been there for him in the Withered, Frozen Crown, and more… they have been here when he needed them.

He bit his bottom lip as he took off, becoming barefoot. They made too much noise, and he couldn’t make even the slightest of sounds, even more so when it was a footstep. He had to leave them behind, that was it…

…

Or he could just carry them with him.

Aether picked them up with his other hand, leaving his hand with Voidpircer free, so that he could summon it. It was a fear of his that he picked up the boots with the wrong hand, and when he tried to summon the blade, it would just pierce them, maybe even get stuck in the process.

Now that he was out, he just needed to get to the stairs that led to the outside. Walking through the darkness, he closed his eyes. It was the same thing; it was just that his head had started to hurt from staring at the shadows for too long, something that didn’t happen with his affinity. Or maybe, it was these shadows specifically, maybe another effect of the King’s Truth.

In the end, he didn’t have to stare at the shadows for too long, since there were lanters at the end of the hallway, where the stairs were, and the torches were lit. But sadly for him, it wasn’t a good thing. There was a specific reason why they were lit, so people like him couldn’t just sneak out.

If he got too close, the guard was going to see him. He needed a way to distract him…

…

There was a loud thud. In the middle of the lights, something was thrown; the guard frowned under his steel helmet. “Hey, who was that? Do you really think I’m going to fall for the cheapest trick in the book? Show yourself, I won’t be distracted by a coin-”

With the corner of his eye, he saw that in reality, the so-called coin was in fact a pair of boots. Not one he would ever wear, after all, they looked to have seen more nightmares than he.

But wait, didn’t he say he wasn’t going to get distracted?

Aether finally saw it, the crack between his helmet and armor. He didn’t waste a second, summoning Voidpiercer through its rage to bypass the Truth of the King. He lunged forward, and the guard had tried to turn his head in time, but it was a little too late. As Aether had already driven his blade through the crack.

Yet while he was able to do damage, he hadn’t killed him yet.

The guard groaned in pain as he put his hand on the back of his neck, and then looked at the blood flowing on his hand. Aether panicked for a second before realizing that the wound was still quite damaging, and even if he didn’t die, he couldn’t chase him, and to be sure…

Aether tensed the muscles in his, kicking the guard right in the croatch, it had also hurt him, since he basically hit straight steel, but he just endured it, the guard falling on the ground for the pain.

He walked up the stairs, waiting impatiently for what was going to come next, his escape. With his trusty boots in hand, which he really didn’t regret bringing along, he finally reached the hatch.

Opening it, he found himself outside, after so long… he was finally out. The night sky and the many stars, the… tents of the Blue Rose soldiers who wanted to kill him… he really missed it, being… free.

Yet it was a little weird and funny, after all, no one had escaped from that dungeon, by what he heard of, and yet here he was, already outside.

’It wasn’t that hard, guess I’m… that smart.’

Aether smirked as he was about to take another step and go back to his party. But before he could do that, out of the shadows, many guards appeared, cornering him. Not leaving him any escape.

…

’I think I know why no one has escaped this yet…’

Yet, there was something that he didn’t consider: that he was outside, he wasn’t affected by the King’s Truth anymore, he had all his powers, including his earrings.

Aether chuckled as the guards got closer; he cracked his fingers.

“Right, right, are you… Sure that you saw come out of the dungeon, and the one that you caught that day in the first place, looked like me?”

…

There was a long pause before one of the guards suddenly punched another, with the others also helping him attack the one guard. Not paying him any attention as he walked away.

He had successfully escaped.

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