He… he really did it?

Aether’s breath was shallow, almost as if his lungs weren’t able to get much air inside them. And it wasn’t just his lungs that were like this… really, it was his whole body. His ribs felt as if they were hanging inside of him, broken and barely not falling and puncturing an organ.

He finally opened himself, seeing Denial on the ground below him, with a small coral glowing where Voidpiecer had pierced his face. It was frightening. Denial was in no way weak, yet at the same time, the Tides had already started to devour him. To think that for the Tides, the guy he had trained months to barely win, is just another person.

Though there was one thing.

As much as he wanted to say, he hadn’t defeated the Tides Denial.

Denial is the final level of the Tides trial. Everyone who wants to get their life back has to fight him. So even if he just killed him, when the next comes, Denial will be here.

Because the one he had defeated had been himself, really, well, not really. But rather, he had fought his own Denial.

It made him wonder, was the Tides evil? Was the Demon of Dread evil?

He didn’t want to admit it, but this battle had helped him… a lot when it came to his own dread, that being the fall of the rebellion. As much as he tried, he couldn’t stop denying the truth, even if it was just a small part of him. It was where, deep inside him.

Yet now…

No part of him denied the reality that his Rebellion was dead.

And he was the cause, the only reason.

But… as much as he knew that… he couldn’t help but be mad.

Now that he stopped fully denying it, there wasn’t that small hope that clung to him, and made him not burst in anger because there might have been a way they were still alive.

But now… he knew that hope was a lie, and in no way was he happy about it.

…

He gritted his teeth, feeling the rage that had bottled up inside of him come over him… but then he sighed.

Reminding himself of what his sister had said.

He had already let anger control him when fighting Denial. He couldn’t do it again. She had told him not to. It wouldn’t help him.

He had to find a way to get control over it.

‘Now… what do I do?’

Aether thought while looking around. But then he heard a weird sound coming from the lift.

He tilted his head before walking towards it, and the moment he stepped on it, it started going up.

But wasn’t Denial the final floor? Was there another? No…

It’s something else.

When the lift stopped, Aether found himself on top of the palace, watching the light with his bare eyes.

Denying it would be hypocritical; he was scared. Shaking in his boots even. But he stepped towards the light; he didn’t know what was going to happen if he did, but he was.

He stopped right as he was about to touch it, looking up, seeing how it broke into the sky.

‘Well… this is it.’

He looked over at the city; he could see all of it from here, even beyond it. There were probably so many things in this place he had missed, maybe things that could help him get more powerful. But he wasn’t going to try and get them, not now. If time came and he was, for some reason, back in this place. He would.

He smirked. “Alright, let’s do this.”

Aether said while taking a step forward.

…

…

[The Demon of Dread has taken a liking to your ember. When the time comes, when it’s at its strongest form, he would come to crush it himself. In exchange for clearing the trial and defeating your own Denial, you shall be given another chance; don’t waste it.

…

…

Aether woke slowly.

Not suddenly, not with panic, but as if his mind was being pulled back into his body piece by piece. Sound came first. Wood creaking somewhere below him. A low murmur of voices, distant and muffled, blended together until they became background noise rather than words.

Then the smell.

Old wood. Smoke that had soaked into the walls over the years. Something faintly salty, clinging to the air in a way that reminded him of water he could never fully escape.

His eyes opened.

A wooden ceiling greeted him, darkened with age, beams crossing above him in uneven lines. A lantern hung nearby, its flame small and steady, casting a soft orange glow across the room. The light didn’t flicker. It felt calm. Too calm.

An inn.

The thought settled without resistance.

He breathed in. His lungs expanded, then contracted. The motion felt normal. His body felt heavy, sore in a dull, spread-out way, like everything had been strained past its limit and only barely put back together. But nothing screamed. Nothing felt broken.

He pushed himself up, slow and careful. The bed creaked beneath him, straw shifting under thin fabric. His hands rested on his legs, fingers trembling just slightly. He watched them for a moment, grounding himself in the sight.

He was wearing different clothes. Simple ones. Rough fabric, clean enough to notice. Someone had changed him. The idea registered, then passed. He didn’t have the energy to care.

A narrow window sat across the room, barred with iron. Pale gray light filtered through it, weak and distant. Rain tapped against the glass, slow and irregular. Outside felt far away, like something he wasn’t part of yet.

He stood.

The floorboards were cold under his feet. The room itself was small. A bed, a stool, a table pushed against the wall. Nothing decorative. Nothing welcoming. Just a place meant for people who passed through and didn’t stay.

To think that after so many months spent, he would finally be back at the start. He could have used those months to progress in the story, but I guess not. The world had to hit him with reality, that a trial doesn’t favour its challenger.

Plus, if he had to say, it was probably… a good thing that he had been killed when he entered the trial, and sent to the Tides, because if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have gotten over denial. He wouldn’t have been able to see the truth behind this world.

Now, even if this world feels right and happy.

Even if he saw happiness in the faces of many on his journey, he would never truly fall to it, because he knew that below them, or somewhere, there was a place of pure sorrow. Where people suffer constantly, trying their best to be human again, and in return, they go insane.

Really, when he had fought Denial, he felt relieved, happy; it had felt like a true ending. Like he had done what he needed to do, like he had finished the trial. But now, it came back to bite him, the truth.

This was in no way the end.

But rather the start.

…

Aether opened the door and walked on the floor of the hallway, which was weirdly damp, strange, but not something important enough for his mind to wander around.

He walked down the hallway, noticing many other rooms around the way. This place was a lot bigger than the one inside the Tides, to the point that he had to walk quite a lot to finally get to some stairs.

Walking down on them, he was careful not to fall, since they, too, were slightly wet.

Reaching the first floor, he noticed a man standing near the exit of the building, who didn’t have a door. Made him wonder just how safe this place is. If they didn’t have doors, anyone could walk in.

And there were bandits in this world.

The man looked surprised to see him.

“Finally awake, eh?”

Aether rolled his eyes, walking over to the man. He didn’t like him. He didn’t know why; he just got a weird feeling from him.

“Yeah, yeah, where am I?”

The man scoffed.

“Really, what is it with every person who gets out of the Tides? You guys are always angry. Either way, you’re on the beautiful island of Veyr, you were found by a fisherman, who was just around with his boat trying to catch something, when the water started to glow, and you appeared. Also, you owe us five embers for your stay.”

Aether squinted his eyes. “Wait, how do you know I’m from the Tides. And what do you mean, embers? What even are those?”

The man squinted his eyes.

“Damn, how long have you been inside the Tides, kid? Embers are the universal currency. And I guess we can overlook your debt, since you definitely don’t have the money, and a job either. And as I knew, didn’t I tell you? The light thing?”

Ah… makes sense. Kinda ironic that the currency in this world was called ember, when one’s ember is the most valuable thing in the world.

…

“If I may ask, since I like to ask everyone from the Tides… what are you going to do now? That you finally got your life back.”

Aether’s eyes widened at that question. He knew what he had to do, which was to make an ending for the book. But… he didn’t know what he was going to do next.

What to do now.

…

…

He smirked.

“I’ll just kill the Demon of Dream, nothing special.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep