Chapter 1836: ... ... ... ...

In the ruined, scorched Gamma City, it seemed as though the entire city had been abandoned for aeons.

Towering structures stood in skeletal silence, their once-brilliant walls blackened and fractured, while collapsed roads disappeared beneath layers of ash and dust.

A lone figure wearing a white robe stood before the only place that had somehow remained untouched by the devastation.

Ssshh~

The air flowed gently through the dead city, stirring his left sleeve as Aether stood before a small patch of land that had neither been corrupted nor destroyed.

A place where a headless body of a child lay.

Aether stared at it.

Everything else around him had been reduced to ruin. There was only the small body before him and a half-broken, rectangular device lying nearby, with not a single blinking.

Even after losing himself to whatever had consumed his mind, he had not harmed the child’s body.

His expression remained calm and indifferent, almost unnaturally so. There was no visible grief, no rage, and no trace of the overwhelming destruction that had taken place around him.

Only an empty stillness remained in his eyes as he slowly lowered himself toward the ground.

With his only remaining right hand, he began digging into the earth.

The movements were slow because his body was already exhausted, but he continued without hesitation. He dug until the shallow grave was deep enough, then carefully placed the child’s body inside it.

For several seconds, Aether simply looked down.

The wind passed over the ruined city, carrying fine ash across his white robe.

Then, without saying anything, he covered the body with the earth.

"..."

His chest rose faintly beneath the robe before he turned his attention toward the rectangular device.

He reached down and picked it up.

Without a word, he placed it inside his storage.

Then he turned away.

His body felt heavier than before as he began dragging himself toward the car they had once parked nearby.

When he finally reached the parking area, he stopped.

There were no cars left.

The vehicles had been reduced to little more than piles of ash and corroded metal. Their frames had collapsed beneath the weight of time and destruction, leaving only a few twisted pieces scattered across the ground.

Aether stood among them in silence.

His gaze slowly moved across the debris until something caught his attention.

An old, weathered black mask?

It had a white grin painted across its surface.

Aether approached it.

He crouched slightly and reached toward the mask with his remaining hand.

His fingers barely touched its surface.

The mask immediately crumbled.

Fssshhh...

It collapsed into a cloud of fine dust that slipped between his fingers and scattered across the ground.

Aether remained still.

He slowly rubbed the remnants between his fingers, watching the particles fall from his hand.

There was no reaction on his face.

Then he turned away from the remains and attempted to activate the skill that once allowed him to move faster.

St—Thud!

His body suddenly lost its balance.

He stumbled forward and struck the dusty ground face-first.

For several seconds, he did not move.

His cheek rested against the cold layer of ash while the wind carried tiny particles across his face. He simply stared at the ground before him, his remaining hand lying motionless beside him.

His skill... didn’t work?

Aether slowly pushed himself upward and dragged his body away.

There was no sound except the faint scrape of his body against the ruined ground.

He kept moving.

He did not look back at the grave.

He did not look at the ashes of the vehicles.

He did not look at the destruction surrounding him.

Most importantly, he did not look at the death he had once caused.

Guilty?

Maybe... Or maybe not.

Perhaps guilt required something within him that had already disappeared.

Perhaps the answer had become meaningless.

Aether simply continued forward.

His body ached everywhere, every muscle and bone carrying a deep, dull pain, as though he had been beaten until nothing remained but exhaustion.

He dragged himself through streets that were barely recognisable.

Buildings that had once towered over the city had collapsed into enormous piles of concrete and steel. Roads were split apart by deep fractures, while dead machinery lay half-buried beneath ash. Broken signs hung from shattered buildings, their letters faded beyond recognition.

There were no voices.

No traffic.

No lights.

... No people.

The entire city had the silence of a place that had died long ago.

Everything around him looked ancient and abandoned, as though an apocalypse had passed through the world and left nothing behind except its welcome gift.

Yet Aether barely acknowledged any of it.

His head remained lowered.

His white robe dragged through the dust behind him, gradually becoming stained with grey and black.

Until, eventually, he reached the vicinity of the half-destroyed Gamma Tower.

Aether stopped.

Something had caught his attention.

Or rather... Someone.

He did not immediately approach.

His eyes remained fixed on the figure lying near the ruins.

At first, there was almost nothing distinguishable beneath the dust and torn fabric.

Then he noticed it.

A large stomach.

Aether’s expression remained unchanged, but something within his otherwise empty gaze seemed to pause.

His body moved before his mind appeared to make the decision.

He slowly dragged himself toward the figure.

The closer he came, the clearer the person became.

A woman lay unconscious against the broken ground, her body covered in dust and dirt. Her clothes were torn and stained from the destruction around her.

She was pregnant.

Aether stopped directly before her.

For a long moment, he simply stood there, staring down at the unconscious woman.

"..." His entire body shivered slightly, as though some buried part of him were asking a question he could not answer:

What was the difference between what they had done and what he had done?

He quietly reached toward her neck and checked for a pulse.

She was still alive.

Only unconscious.

Aether noticed the tear trails still clinging to her cheeks. Her eyes were swollen and red, and several tears remained gathered along her lashes before slowly slipping down the sides of her face. It seemed she had cried until her body could no longer endure it and had eventually lost consciousness from sheer exhaustion.

His gaze slowly shifted toward her stomach.

His fingers trembled.

For a moment, he hesitated before carefully placing his hand against her stomach.

!!!

The woman suddenly jolted awake, as if some instinct deep within her had sensed the presence of danger.

Her eyes opened wide.

The moment she saw the tall, muscular figure crouching over her, her face turned pale.

Aether did not look like an ordinary human anymore. Since the illusions were destroyed, all it left was a tall, muscular person.

He certainly did not look like a human to her now!

Whatever he was, she did not care.

She had just survived one death.

She did not want to discover whether another one was waiting for her.

She desperately tried to move backwards, but her trembling body barely responded. Her breathing became rapid and shallow as panic seized her chest.

Tears immediately began pouring from her eyes.

She tried to speak.

Nothing came out.

Her lips trembled violently as she struggled to force even a single word through her throat. Her hands came together instinctively, palms pressed against one another as she desperately begged for her life.

"A... A... A... eee..."

Even crying seemed painful for her.

"..."

Aether stared at the trembling woman.

He looked at her frightened eyes, her trembling hands, and the way she instinctively shielded her stomach as though protecting the life inside her mattered more than her own.

For a moment, he said nothing.

Then he slowly lowered his head.

He withdrew his hand from her stomach, turned away, and began dragging his body forward without saying another word.

The woman remained frozen.

She watched him leave.

She did not stop crying.

She continued staring at his retreating figure until he had disappeared far enough into the ruins that she could no longer see him.

Only then did she slowly lower her hands.

Her entire body trembled as she carefully pushed herself upright, one hand immediately moving toward her stomach.

She checked it instinctively.

Her breathing remained uneven, but the realisation that she and her unborn child were still alive gave her enough strength to stand.

She could not stay here.

If she remained among these ruins, something else would eventually find her. And if she died here, so would the child inside her.

She had to leave.

As she cautiously made her way toward the Gamma Tower, something caught her attention.

A faint light flickered within the remains of the enormous structure.

Then another.

Several small beams of light moved between the broken floors and collapsed corridors.

People.

There were people inside.

Her eyes widened slightly.

Meanwhile, Aether continued dragging his body through the ruins.

The sky remained covered by enormous layers of dark clouds. There was no visible light, and no indication of whether it was day or night.

Aether continued walking through it alone.

To anyone watching from a distance, it would have seemed as though he were the only survivor wandering through a destroyed and forgotten world.

But that was not true.

At the very edge of his vision, something kept moving.

Aether never looked directly at it.

He deliberately kept his eyes forward, refusing to turn his head far enough to see what followed him.

A shadow.

No matter how far he walked, it followed.

When he stopped, it stopped.

When he moved, it moved.

When he changed direction, it changed with him.

Aether knew it was there waiting for him to notice it... He simply refused to acknowledge it.

Perhaps he was walking toward somewhere.

Perhaps he was running from something.

Or perhaps he no longer knew the difference.

One thing was certain.

Whenever the shadow began catching up to him, his eyes trembled violently.

His breathing would tighten.

His steps would become faster despite his ruined body.

And he would make absolutely certain that he never looked directly at it.

Hours passed.

Then more hours.

He had no idea how much time had gone by.

He simply kept dragging himself forward through the endless ruins until the remains of Gamma City finally began giving way to the broader region separating Gamma from Zeta.

The border of Zeta-Gamma appeared in the distance.

Aether slowed.

He hesitated for several seconds before reaching into his storage and taking out a spell scroll.

The scroll released a faint shimmer that passed over his body.

His appearance gradually disappeared beneath an illusion and continued toward the border gates.

However, when he finally arrived, he stopped.

The Zeta-Gamma border security checkpoint had been destroyed as well.

He walked closer to the ruined border gate. When he reached it, he placed his remaining hand against the damaged metal and tried to push it open.

Trrrrrssshhh!!

The moment he applied even the slightest pressure, the already-weakened gate crumbled beneath his hand. Rusted metal tore apart with a harsh screech before collapsing onto the ground.

Young Aether stepped through the opening.

He stopped.

Zeta City had not escaped the darkness either.

Young Aether lowered his eyes and drew a slow breath before continuing to drag his body forward.

Soon, buildings began emerging. They were not completely destroyed.

The darkness seemed to have stopped at a few meters distance from the border.

Young Aether continued forward.

The desperate cries of people echoed through the streets.

There were sobs. There were screams. There were voices breaking beneath the weight of terror and grief.

Yet none of it seemed to reach Aether.

His head remained lowered.

His expression remained empty.

He simply dragged his body forward.

Step after step.

A woman sat beside the remains of a building, rocking a motionless body against her chest.

A man stood in the middle of the street with darkened hands that turned charcoal, staring at them as though he could not understand where it had come from.

A child cried beneath the arms of someone who would never wake again.

Aether passed them all.

He did not stop.

He did not turn his head.

Behind him, the shadow followed.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, he reached Allen’s apartment.

Aether stopped before the entrance.

"..."

He slowly raised his remaining hand.

His fingers moved toward the door. But the door was already open.

Aether frowned slightly.

Then he noticed it.

Blood?

Dark stains covered the floor near the entrance.

Some had already dried into deep brown patches, while other streaks remained darker, smeared across the ground as though someone had been dragged through the apartment.

He immediately pushed the door farther open and entered.

The entrance was covered in blood.

Long streaks marked the floor, disappearing deeper into the house as though someone had been dragged toward the centre of the room.

Furniture had been overturned.

Tables lay shattered across the floor.

Machines and household devices had been smashed beyond recognition.

Pictures had been torn from the walls.

Everything that had once made this place a home had been reduced to chaos.

And among that destruction sat Allen.

He was covered in blood.

His clothes were soaked with it.

His head hung low, his shoulders completely motionless.

In his arms, he held his wife.

"..."

Young Aether stared at her without understanding what he was seeing.

Her body was riddled with holes.

Blood had soaked through her clothes and continued to stain the floor beneath her. Several wounds had torn through her body so brutally that it was difficult to recognise the woman he remembered.

Yet her face remained strangely peaceful.

Young Aether took one slow step forward.

He wanted to move closer.

He did.

But the closer he came, the heavier his body seemed to become.

His gaze remained fixed upon Emily.

"Sniff..."

Young Aether’s eyes slowly shifted.

Someone else was there.

Jonathan.

He was covered in blood as well.

His clothes were torn, his arms trembling from exhaustion, yet he held tightly onto another headless body.

Aether’s eyes widened.

Those clothes... Maiuri?