Chapter 159: One Step Between Life and Death

Aether felt his feet tremble, which in this kind of situation was lethal. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. The path was very narrow, to the point where he had to walk on his toes just to have enough space. Plus, the edge was broken, and rocks were falling down with each step.

And even more terrifying was that there was no sound of them landing, meaning that below him was a hole without end, or just an unnecessarily deep hole.

’Seriously, couldn’t they have built this path a little wider?’

His body was practically glued to the wall, feeling the hard stone brush against his chest. It also didn’t help that the wall didn’t have any cracks, meaning he couldn’t use his hands for extra support.

The amount of time his heart beat continued to rise with each of his slow steps. He had just arrived in this book, and he was already one wrong step away from dying, like seriously, did the Codex have something against him?

Looking down, he felt his stomach groaning in a weird way. He had fallen down from high places many times, like in Frozen Crown, where he jumped off an infinite staircase, but he had done it because he had no choice, and the shadow had told him that it was the only way to survive.

Which in the end was true.

’But if I fall now it’s over!’

He could feel his hands shaking, but at the same time, if he had to calm them too, it would take too long. So he just continued, even with the bad feeling burning inside his chest.

Even after what felt like an eternity, somehow, he was still so far away, he could see the land; it was there, yet so far away. He wasn’t even halfway done…

He had to speed things up.

Taking a deep breath, he started moving, his feet hurting like crazy from standing on his toes for so long, and now that he was moving even faster than before, they couldn’t help but burn, but he pushed through it. If he stayed there for too long, it wouldn’t do anything.

But while rushing to the other side, he accidentally stepped on some small rocks that were about to fall, causing him to fall.

Feeling his body suddenly go down, he panicked, as his heart fell to the ground. And while his brain had frozen, his had not, instinctively catching the edge of the path.

It had taken him a moment to realize what had happened. He breathes heavily, realizing he had escaped death. Yet, he had no idea how he had done it. He never thought he had these kinds of instincts.

But at the same time, he was an Echo now, and your instincts getting better was one of the things that happened when you ascended in class. Yet he hadn’t seen them in action so clearly before. It was… so strange… seeing the difference… it made him wonder what happened when at the Beast rank, after all, Echo was the last rank that prioritized human instinct, after it, Beast and Monster were all about killing instinct.

And if ascending in rank changes so much, then the difference between Classes…

Aether shook his head. It wasn’t time for that now, after all, he was tangeling with one arm in a hole that probably led only to the void. So… not the best place to contemplate rank and class or whatever.

Aether took a deep breath, raising his other arm up and placing it on the edge of the path to help himself up. Only once he was out of the danger did he finally exhaled, he had wanted to let go, to collapse, but if he did that… I mean, it’s pretty obvious what would happen.

But to break it down.

He would probably die.

…

’No rushing… slow and steady.’ Saying that to himself, he slowly made one step every five seconds. It was taking a long time, but at least he could see where he put his foot, so he didn’t have any surprises. He learned from his mistake.

…

…

After an agonizingly long time, he had finally reached the other time. The moment his feet touched the ground, he rested his hands on his knees, breathing as if he had just arrived from a place where it didn’t exist.

He almost wanted to kiss the ground, but he decided against it; after all, he had no idea what it was exactly. He looked behind him, questioning himself how he could have possibly walked on that path.

But what mattered wasn’t how he had done it, but that he had done it.

…

’Um, what now?’

…

’Back to following the wall…’

Aether sighed, continuing his wander. He had almost forgotten what he was doing and what he was supposed to do while on the path, maybe because he was too focused on not falling and ending his life. But now, it felt disappointing, after all, he had done all that just to continue following a wall that he didn’t even know if it led to anything…

Except it did.

After having to find a way around corals blocking his path, and having to navigate through many holes that had the same mysterious and endless fall. He had reached a gate.

…

He slowly walked over to it, where there were two guards standing on each of its sides.

Because of past experiences, he had expected them to attack him, so he had summoned Voidpiercer, except they didn’t; they hadn’t even moved, not even after he had taken his blade out at them.

Yet, he didn’t put his blade back; he still didn’t trust them. He slowly walked to the gate, passing by the guards. Their eyes were covered, covered by a big helmet which had two rectangular holes for their eyes, and a line going down the middle.

The tridents on their back made him paranoid; after all, with their long reach, it was easy to stab someone from behind. But in the end, nothing happened.

…

“You’ve got good instincts, kid.”

Aether stopped, glancing over to the guards who had said that.

“What do you mean?”

The guard laughed through his helmet.

“Many souls come here to The Tides, from normal people, to bandits, guards, and even adventurers who think they can change the world, that they can help the world survive, clinging to the little hope they have… yet only a few of them have the instinct not to just trust a guard.”

Aether’s grip on his blade tightened. “You mean that you wanted to kill me when I wasn’t looking, or something like that?”

The guard chuckled, but this time it was more of an ironic laugh, like he knew something he didn’t.

“No, don’t worry about that, that’s not our job, after all, most die in this place either way. I just wanted to congratulate you, after all, that instinct of yours is going to get far?”

…

“Is that… all?”

…

“No.”

Aether took a step back. Not fully trusting the guard yet, after all, he was acting too suspiciously to bat an eye.

“I just wanted to ask… about your eye.”

Aether lowered his blade in confusion. It wasn’t a question he was expecting, after all, from all he knew, there was nothing wrong with his eye.

“My eye?” He tilted his head.

The guard nodded.

“Yes, your eye… I’ve never seen that kind of black color. Plus, why is it only one that way?”

…

His eyes widened, rushing to look in the reflection of the guard’s spear, where in fact, he saw that one of his eyes was pure black, to the point his iris was darker than his pupil. Which was in no way normal.

He lifted his shirt, where he saw that around his heart and core, there was a small hint of black under his skin.

’What the heck.’

The guard’s eyes widened, also noticing the hint of black.

“I… I’ll let you sort your things out.”

Saying that, he turned back to the position he was normally in.

Aether swallowed, before walking inside the gate, he didn’t even look around to see where he was, he instantly took a left, into a dark place where no one would see him. Waiting.

And in the end, he finally appeared.

The Abyss.

Aether turned around as the Abyss manifested out of the shadows, like he was always there. It dared come back after failing him before, and plus, he knew this was its doing. The bastard had tricked him.

He clenched his fist to the point that blood escaped through the cracks of his fingers. His eyes were wide open, staring the Abyss right into its eyes with a deep hatred burning inside. The kind of rage that could make one kill.

All while the Abyss stared back with a big and cocky smile on his face, it almost made to challenge his patience.

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