Chapter 188: Denial(14)

Aether ran, trying to catch up to Denial, yet each time he got in range to attack, the damn guy just disappeared and apeared furher away. And to make it worse, from what he figured, this place was infinite.

Or rather… but he wasn’t so sure of this theory.

Maybe just maybe, there was more to it. Then, just this place being infinite.

It seemed as if he hadn’t moved at all. So his theory was that there was a certain point where the world ended, starting some sort of loop where you just walked into the same world but smaller each time.

Really, he wasn’t so sure, since shouldn’t he have seen the original fractures disappear, and new one apear, but these were the same ones from before.

Maybe it was something else, something he hadn’t considered yet.

But he didn’t have time to figure it out; it would be useless either way.

Though if you were to look at the fractures, you would see some of them were missing.

And there was a reason for that.

Aether continued to chase after denial, yet suddenly a fractured apeared in front of him, one that belonged to the Abyss, yet before he could fully enter, his right arm, which was already inside the fracture, summoned Voidpiercer and threw it at the world to break it.

And it worked, yet something strange happened each time because of it.

His clothes, even his body, sometimes changed, as if it was trying to make him look like he would have looked if he fully entered, just like his clothes had changed inside that desert.

He looked down at himself. Seeing that he was wearing a black cloak, yet with the corner of his eye, he could see… wings?

Aether staggered for a moment, stopping in his tracks to see, and really, he wasn’t hallucinating.

And that wasn’t the only weird thing; all his limbs were chained, the chains going up in the sky, yet not attached to something, just floating, as if they couldn’t accept freedom.

Patting his head, he felt somthing piercer his palm, to the point it bled.

’What the hell…’

After some patting, he recognized it to be a horn, and there wasn’t just one but two…

’But… huh?’

If this was a memory of the Abyss, why would he have wings and horns… wasn’t that a Daemon thing?

Aether shook his head, gritting his teeth.

It was not the time.

He started running again, saying that the reason for that break was to catch his breath.

Aether watched as, with each fracture that went, the whole place began to get more and more disordered, as if it were becoming more unstable.

…

…

He ran, but his small legs were slowing him down.

Of course, the bastard had to throw in the fracture where he was a kid; in this form, he also couldn’t run nonstop, so he stopped many times to catch his breath.

This… wasn’t going anywhere. He couldn’t catch the bastard.

’Damn it, why do I always have to run!’

He wiped the sweat from his cheek.

Since running wasn’t doing anything, he had to find a plan.

And the first thing, of course, would be to get out of this form.

So he suddenly turned to one of the fractures, entering before Denial could figure out what he was doing.

…

Aether found himself in a Library, one quite big by normal standards, but when compared to something like the Infinite Library, it was nothing.

Aether looked down at himself, yet, for the first time, there was… nothing wrong. He was wearing a tunic, and he didn’t have an extra limb or a horn.

He sighed, relieved, looking around the place.

There were no bookshelves, no stacks of worn pages, no whispers of ink and paper. Instead, the space stretched endlessly in pale, dim light, a hall of doors, rows upon rows of doors, some tall and grand, others narrow and delicate, all polished to a dull, unreflective sheen. The air smelled faintly of varnish and dust, of emptiness curated.

Each door hummed with possibility, yet refused to speak. Some bore carvings too intricate to decipher; others were plain, yet felt weighted, as if holding secrets too heavy for words. Aether ran a hand along the nearest doorframe, feeling the smooth wood vibrate under his touch, like a heartbeat. He wondered: did each door lead to a story that never was, a memory that never happened, or a future that refused to arrive?

He walked slowly, the sound of his footsteps swallowed by the quiet, the doors standing like silent sentinels. Every now and then, one would creak slightly, as though breathing, as though noticing him, but when he looked back, nothing had moved. His reflection was never in the polished surface, never behind him.

Aether reached out to a door carved with spirals that seemed to twist deeper than the wood allowed. When he pressed his palm against it, the air shifted, warmth, cold, laughter, crying, everything and nothing at once, a pulse of worlds compressed into the grain. And still, the door stayed shut.

This place was strange, and really, normally, he would be intrigued to wander around and see what was so special about it. This was a memory of the Abyss, so there had to be some interesting things.

But it was not the right time.

Aether didn’t waste anymore time, throwing Voidpiercer into the sky, breaking it, breaking the world, and bringing him back into the white room with the fractures.

Seeing Denial again, he didn’t rush to attack him again.

He knew this wasn’t the place to do it.

Sighing, he clenched his fists.

“This is either my best or worst idea.”

…

“Let’s see how this world holds up…”

Aether clenched Voidpiercer, holding it tight, feeling as if his skin was eaten by the hilt. Something that hasn’t happened since Frozen Crown.

He looked above him, arching his back, and bringing Voidpiecer back.

His plan was simple: if breaking Voidpiercer illusion got him here, then if he somehow broke this world, there wouldn’t be anywhere to go but the real world.

So he was going to try to break this place.

…

But Denial realized that, and before he could throw Voidpiercer, he got hit in the face by Denial Fist. Falling onto his back.

’Damn you…’

The punch wasn’t powerful, he had just been caugh of guard, so he quickly got back on his feet.

But Denial wasn’t going to wait for him to get up, so as he got back on his feet, his fist was already close to his face.

…

His mind didn’t have time to process it. When he saw the fist, it was already a second away from hitting him.

… and yet.

His body did.

Aether ducked and dashed forward, into Denial’s body, knowing he would just go through him.

Really, he didn’t know how his body had calculated this sequence of events… but if this was the doing of ranking up, then he didn’t care about being called a murderer.

He chuckled slightly, seeing Denial turn to him, not confused, but surprised.

That guy definitely never had someone do something like that to him. It must be humiliating.

Aether pivoted on his left foot, dashing towards denial, Voidpiercer already drawn back and ready to pierce.

It was a sorry attempt to hurt the being, one that the Denial could even laugh at, after all, didn’t he just see that his body didn’t have a physical state, the blade would just run through him.

So for what reason would he attempt this sorry attempt of a thrust…

…

Except that… it wasn’t meant to pierce him.

As Aether got close to Denial, moved his arm forward to pierce the being, but… suddenly,

As the blade was about to get to Denial, Aether’s pivot foot that had not yet left the ground, since with the small distance between them, his lunge didn’t require him to get it off the ground, turned to the side, causing him to fall, yet… this wasn’t an accident.

Just after his balance got destroyed, Aether twisted his body so he would be looking up slightly, but enough for him to throw the blade into the air.

Seeing these events, Denial tried to catch the blade as it was moving up, but to no avail.

The blade had hit the sky, and he fell to the ground, finally feeling the pain come from that twist in the air.

But no pain could stop him from smiling, as the sky began to crack.

…

When Aether opened his eyes again… he was back, he was back inside the palace, on the last floor.

Yet… the place… seemed different.

Almost as if the white room hadn’t fully disappeared, plus…

’This guy is still here.’

Looking in front of him.

Aether saw Denial, standing confident as if he hadn’t just escaped his little trick.

“So does this mean I proved myself?”

…

“I guess not.”

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