Chapter 183: Denial(9)

Aether gripped his blade as he dashed forward. Avrie stepped back slightly but froze, seeing how the blade was coming for her.

But before it could hit her, the blade got intercepted by Elpis.

“You’ve got a new blade, where did you get it?”

Aether chuckled. He knew he couldn’t tell him, I mean, Voidpiercer was a Vessel that shouldn’t have existed in the original Frozen Crown, even more an illusion, plus, Elpis wouldn’t believe him.

“I got it from a Daemon.”

It wasnt fully a lie, after all. Voidpiercer, the original blade was made by the Daemon. The fact that he got the replica of his blade does kinda mean that he got it from him.

Still, the Daemon Lord of the Abyss was such a mystery to him; the effect he had on the Abyss, and the whole Voidpiercer thing, he was such a mysterious figure. He wanted to know more about him; he wanted to learn who he was and what his powers were.

“A Daemon? What is that?”

…

“Daemon.” Elpis slowly turned his head, confused as he heard a voice coming from behind. But as he looked, there was nothing there, only a small rock. So, where had it come from?

But before he could figure it out, with the corner of his eye, he saw Avrie’s body drop to the ground; she had a hole in her throat, as if someone had stabbed it with a blade… He quickly turned back, but it was too late. Looking down at his chest, he could see his blood running down his hands. He couged blood, as his eyes trembled at the black blade inside of him.

“It’s ironic that in both timelines, I am the one to kill you. Wonder if it is meant to be, for a Knight to be killed by a Fool?”

…

“I kind of miss those days…”

…

As Elpis dropped to the ground, Aether sighed, knowing very well what was about to happen next.

He turned around, and there he was.

Denial.

It stood in front of him, staring at him, or well, he thinks he was staring at him, he can’t tell since he didn’t have eyes. The same glow, the same variant of pure white, not even the black spot was on his face anymore, because that black spot was from a memory it had stolen, and now that he got it back. He didn’t have it anymore.

Denial stepped forward, wanting to start a new cycle, a new run, a new memory to try and make him go insane, but he wasn’t going to let him do it.

Aether dodged his hand, trying to slash him, to pierce him, but nothing would work. Each time he pierced, the blade went through him, as if his body didn’t exist, like it wasn’t a physical object. But then, how was it able to touch him?

He could feel the anger boil up inside of him. As all his attempts were going down the drain, he tried going faster, thrusting faster, anything he could do, he tried, all for it not to work.

He stepped back, resting his hand on his knees, as he could feel the sweat running down his face. He stuck his tongue out, exhausted from swinging around without any result. All that while the being just stood still.

Aether groaned, as in the end, the being grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up in the air.

He tried to get out of his grip, but without any luck. In the end, Denial’s other hand came closer and closer, until the light was too much.

…

…

…

“The blade was meant to pierce the Gods…

…

The world, even.”

Aether gripped his blade, weilding all his rage together in one thrust. This time, it wasnt meant for Denial, but the sky, he threw his blade, hoping that his chains were long enough.

…

The next time he opened his eyes, he wasn’t in Frozen Crown anymore.

The room was white.

Not bright, not blinding. Just white, like a thought stripped of meaning. The kind of white that did not reflect light but swallowed it, stretching endlessly in every direction. There was no floor, yet Aether stood. No ceiling, yet the space felt enclosed, as if the world itself had decided where he was allowed to exist.

His blade was gone.

No weight in his hand. No hum of Voidpiercer’s presence. Only his own breathing, slow, uneven, real.

Looking at his arm, the mark was still there, which made him sigh out of relief; he didn’t know what he would do without the blade.

Then he noticed the fractures.

They spread across the air like cracked glass, lines splitting nothingness apart. Each fracture was a wound in the white, and inside each wound, a world waited.

Closest to him was Frozen Crown.

A sky locked in eternal frost. The unmoving sun. The Queen’s domain, silent and unending. He could almost feel the cold creeping into his bones just by looking at it, the weight of five hundred years pressing down on his spine.

He knew it better than anything; he had spent months inside, so how was he supposed to forget?

Next to it, deeper and darker, was an underwater city.

Towering structures of stone and coral sank into endless blue. Light filtered from above, fractured and distant. Shadows moved between spires, slow and deliberate, as if the city itself was holding its breath. He felt pressure just from seeing it, the kind that crushed lungs and thoughts alike.

If he had to say, this was the Tides, a new place to him, but one he was already used to.

Another fracture showed a castle.

Not ruined. Not frozen. Alive.

High walls bathed in warm light, banners fluttering in a wind he could not feel. Knights moved along battlements, small but purposeful. The place reeked of order, of hierarchy, of rules written in blood and oath. A world that believed in crowns and destinies.

…

This was the castle he was raised in, the castle from his childhood.

Then there was the Withered.

A land of decay and stubborn survival. Twisted alleways clawed at a gray sky. Figures moved slowly through them, neither alive nor dead, carrying on out of sheer refusal to stop. This place did not scream. It endured.

This was his home; he had stopped refusing it. After living inside here for almost half of his life, and really, if he counted the years he didn’t even remember, the ones where he was a baby, he had lived inside The Withered for more time than he had done in his own Kingdom. It was… weird to think of.

All these fractures represented a place from his past, places where he had lived for some time. But, then why did the others…

More fractures surrounded him.

A desert of black sand under a shattered sun.

A city built upside down, hanging from chains that vanished into darkness.

A battlefield frozen mid-conflict, blades suspended inches from flesh.

A library with no books, only doors.

Each fracture pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat, responding to his presence. Or perhaps recognizing it.

He had never been inside any of them, so why were they here? He didn’t understand. Why were the other fractures memories of his past, and these weren’t…

Really, all he could put together was that maybe these were memories of the Abyss.

Aether swallowed.

“So this is it,” he muttered, his voice echoing strangely, as if the room itself was listening.

This was not Denial’s domain. There was no pressure, no force trying to crush his thoughts, no hands reaching into his mind to reset him. This place was quieter. Worse, in a way. It did not try to stop him. It waited.

Slowly, he became aware of something else.

Threads.

Thin, almost invisible lines extended from his chest, his arms, his back. They connected to the fractures, each one tethering him to a world. Some were taut, pulling. Others were loose, frayed, barely holding on.

But what did they mean? Why was he connected to them? He understood the one from his past, but why was he connected to the Abyss’s memories too? Was it because he was his Vessel? Was it really as simple as that?

Either way… Voidpiercer had done it.

’The blade was meant to pierce the Gods.

The world, even.’

His own words echoed in his mind, heavier now.

Voidpiercer had not failed. It had done exactly what it was meant to do.

It had cut him out of the cycle.

But whatever this place was, he knew it wouldn’t last long before Denial found it, and when he did, he was going to take it over and continue the cycle or something. He needed to find a way out.

Even if it meant entering some of the fractures.

Maybe even those that weren’t his.

…

He sighed.

“Alright… let’s do this.”

Aether looked in front of him. He wondered how many fractures were in this place; were there more… he could only find out.

…

…

He took a step forward.

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