Chapter 41: The Fool’s Descent

“Hope you know how to swim.”

Said Elpis with a gentle smirk written on his face, while looking at Aether’s shocked face.

Gripping the tilt of the silver blade, he forced his will upon it, enveloping it in a pure silver flame, with no inconsistency, and plunged it straight into the ice.

’Shit.’

Cursed Aether, feeling himself plummet into the water, he waved his arms and legs around like a fish on land, desperate to get back to the seas, except it was the opposite for him.

He had never learned to swim; his home kingdom was surrounded by others, meaning it had no water access, so he never had where to learn. That was why he was panicking so much, because he was drowning.

If he could, he would have asked questions about why the water was acting like it wasn’t frozen, but since there was a bunker under it, the answer was quite obvious: there was another sun.

Either way, it didn’t help much.

He was swallowing water, trying to stay at the surface, but his movements were desperate, and disorganized, making it almost impossible for him not to descend.

He cursed Elpis with all his remaining power, as he started failing to pull himself above the water’s level. Seeing this, he took deep breaths each time he was out of the water, in order to have enough oxygen when he was back inside.

But as his struggles continued, his lungs started getting filled with water, making him choke, but more importantly, heavier, and soon, the way up became too long, and the oxygen he got from above was starting to not be enough.

And soon enough, his struggling was for nothing, as he found himself unable to reach the surface anymore. He felt his heart rate rise to the roof, his hands and legs too fatigued to have the power to ascend.

He kept his breath for as long as he could, until his skin started to turn pale. Around him was only darkness and the water. He didn’t know what to do; he tried thinking of ways to survive, but there were none.

He had survived a battle against a Harbinger, and yet was drowning. He felt pathetic, to die like this when he had achieved so much. At first, when he came into the world of Frozen Crown, a part of him had expected him to die, but now, he wanted to survive; he had sacrificed too much of himself to perish.

He had expected Praise to help him, like it had done until now, but as time continued to pass, well, not literally, he found himself unable to hold his breath, panic washing over him once more.

The water was cold; it had a layer of ice above it after all, not too long ago. His body started losing its heat. As the waters roared into his ears.

When it came time for him to exhale, he braced himself for what was next.

As the air escaped his mouth, he tried grasping for air, but couldn’t find anything. He tried to scream for help, but his words were muffled. His chest screamed in agony as he inhaled the water, his throat burning.

With no oxygen, he found his vision becoming blurrier. His arms were heavy, too heavy to move, and so his body descended slowly, without stopping.

He had also lost all sensation, not feeling the freezing temperature of the water anymore, which only made it more evident that he was dying.

After his vision had started to become blurred, it wasn’t long until he lost consciousness.

…

…

As he opened his eyelids, Aether found himself inside an unfamiliar room.

“Huh?”

He looked at his hands, only to see they were much smaller, like those of a child. And it wasn’t just his arms, it was his whole body that had become much smaller.

Getting off the bed he had been sitting on, he looked outside the window, where he saw a large town full of people far below him. This room was very high up, like a castle.

But as he was looking outside, he heard the door open, and a woman enter. Seeing her attire, he realized that she must have been a maid.

’Just where the heck am I?’

The last thing he remembered was that he was drowning, and the next thing he was here.

When the maid saw him close to the window, she seemed horrified, rushing over to him and picking him up into her arms.

“Young lord, you shouldn’t get that close. What if one of the windows falls? That would be terrible!”

Walking far away from the window, she put him down and continued cleaning the room, not paying much attention to him anymore.

Seeing this, he stealthily walked past her to the door that was cracked enough for him to crawl through without making a sound.

As he left his room, he found himself in a massive hallway, with windows all around to gaze at the sun and the people below.

’…how long has it been since I saw the sun like this?’

He had no idea where he was or what had happened. But more importantly, who he was. The maid had called him the young lord, which, paired with this whole place feeling like a castle in terms of size, he thought of himself to be a prince.

Walking down the grand hallway, he found a gate at the end of it.

Pushing on it with his small body had been a hassle, requiring much force and making him tired, but in the end, he had opened it enough for him to get through.

The room he had entered was the throne room. He knew this because of the throne made out of pure gold sitting at the end of the room, a little higher than anything else.

With not knowing what else to do, he walked to the throne and climbed on it.

He felt a little joyful, after all, he had never gotten the chance to become king, even if he was a prince.

How much he wanted to go back home, to see his family again, it almost made him forget about his revenge and the fire burning inside his soul to destroy and craft his own path, not letting anyone, not even the gods, decide it for him.

This place actually reminded him of his home, from the room he had awakened, to the throne. It was just like the one his father used to sit on.

Aether blinked twice, dumbfounded. This whole place didn’t just look like his home, but was exactly like it; it was the same castle he had been raised in.

But how? How did he end up here?

Had everything been a dream, had he never awakened and been trapped in the enemy kingdom, had he never entered Frozen Crown in the first place?

No, that was too stupid. Everything had felt way too real to be a dream. He had experienced all kinds of pain, survived through even more, and even caused some himself.

It couldn’t be a dream… instead, had he gone back in time, to a day way before everything happened?

That was unheard of, but maybe it did happen. Praise was the most powerful out of all; if there was one who could do it would be the God of Praise.

And something felt off about that idea. Would it really do that? It didn’t answer him, it didn’t help him. Even if it needed him to defeat the Abyss, it didn’t help. So why would it do this? It was ridiculous.

He had gotten too desperate, hoping that he had really returned home. But he now knew it could never happen. It wasn’t real.

And as he realized that, the world around him started to crumble and be devoured by utter darkness.

Yet, deep down in that darkness, he saw a little light. His eyes widened as he saw it.

He looked down at himself and noticed he was inside his own body.

Hoping for one more chance, he ran toward the light, breathing heavily, as it seemed to dim little by little.

He was going as fast as he could, but it didn’t feel like it would be enough, as the light was hardly visible.

Realizing he won’t reach it, he jumped forward, extending his arms to reach it, and as it was about to die completely, his fingers grazed it.

…

…

Aether jolted up, choking hysterically, trying to get all the water out of his lungs.

Looking around, he saw Avrie standing a little away from him, frightened and pale.

And near him was Elpis, who smiled as he noticed that he had awakened.

As he calmed down, he smiled, realizing he had survived. He almost wanted to kiss the ground, but he didn’t.

He never thought he would miss seeing that knight’s charming face.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep