Chapter 545: The Fragment Within

Waking up as the light graced his eyes through the window, he sat up, looking at Alexis, who looked to be preparing breakfast. He didn’t even remember falling asleep; he had been too caught up in all his thoughts last night.

After all... it was hard for him to digest that there was another intruder inside his body, and this one wasn’t just inside of him, like the Abyss was, another soul fighting for his body.

But rather, it was inside his soul. It really was a weird feeling, knowing that. It also made him wonder how many of his feats were really his own. He had a pretty good resistance to soul attacks, he gained it from his chains that constantly put him under that pressure, attacking his soul, but after so many years, he didn’t even feel it anymore.

The question was whether his soul... was normal, whether the fact that the Angel was also inside it made it stronger, and whether it gave him special qualities that he didn’t know. Was it the reason why he was able to make Eden and surpass the Abyss in one of its own skills? Well, probably not surpass, but rather evolve the skill in a way the Abyss wasn’t able to. To remove a limit it couldn’t.

...

Was this fate even his own? Coming back to his thoughts, if his connection to the future was because of the Angel, then was that future really his own? Had all the events leading up to today really been his choice?

Clenching his head, he sighed, getting to his feet before walking towards his grandmother; he needed to clear up his mind with other stuff,

Seeing him approach, she chuckled as she plated the food. "You don’t look like you’re in the best of moods?"

"You could say that." He said, resting his hand on his shoulder. "You know, I never got to ask; it’s ironic, I know, but what is your family name? I mean, what was my mother’s last name before she married my father?"

Alexis’ eyes widened as she heard him ask that question, stopping to look at him. Before she burst into laughter. "You never knew? That guy Alar really wanted to cut any connection between us and you. How annoying.

...

Apeiros"

Aether tilted his head. ’Weird name.’ But at least he finally knew something about his mother now. "You said you wanted to show me another place today... can that wait a bit? I want to go back to the cave."

"Sure, go ahead. I will be right here when you get back."

Aether smiled, thanking her before leaving.

He still had some things to do. Things he wanted to try.

...

...

Reaching the cave once more, Aether took a deep breath as he entered.

He didn’t have a lot of time until the Abyss started to annoy him, so he was going to have to be quick. The first thing he thought of doing was using the rock, seeing if it had any effect, but nothing. The rock did nothing.

Unless he was supposed to cry, just like the description of its ability said, it had no effect, and no, he wasn’t going to start crying.

So if that didn’t work... he was going to try and find the Soul Energy once more.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath as he went back to an old method of his, diving back into the river that was his soul, before going off track into the darkness. Even if, theoretically, he was just using Eden, the same principle, doing it manually might let him see things better.

He swam through the darkness, wondering around, lost, trying to find something.

But the more time he took, the louder the Abyss got, trying to make him leave the cave already. Aether tried not to let it get to his head as he continued... until he noticed something small, white, floating in the air; it was similar to how his soul essence looked... he wondered if this was it. The Soul Energy, it really was here... though he was surprised to see how it looked.

It wasn’t what he expected.

He stared at it for a second before preparing to take a closer look.

...

But before he could, it lashed out towards him. Opening his eyes, Aether clenched his chest as he fell to the ground in pain, his soul seeming to be mauled, as if something was trying to forcefully enter it. His fingers dug into the ground as he groaned in pain, tears flowing down his eyes and onto the ground.

As his body slowly felt like losing its powers, making him fall limp to the floor, as his soul continued to fight against something.

...

It didn’t last that long... but he was sure something had happened, pushing himself up, his arms almost giving up as he tried. He looked at his chest, which looked to be glowing slightly, the light getting dimmer and dimmer with the seconds.

’In no way did I expect it to just attack me... but why? Was it trying to reunite with the rest of the soul? Was that why it came for me?’ But if that was it, then he had done nothing but feed the Angel, without getting any more valuable information.

’Damn it!’

He sighed as he lay back down on the floor, resting a hand over his forehead.

... ’There isn’t anything here anymore... I’ll have to see what other things Alexis has to show me, to help me get more information.’

Pushing himself back to his feet, he felt himself limp from the pain that his soul had been through, his body hardly having any power to support him or move. But he needed to continue, to get back.

As hard as it was now, and as much as his body just wanted to collapse and rest, he needed to keep going; and he did.

...

...

Returning, he couldn’t help but feel happy, at least until he saw the town.

In no way did he expect to see it in this condition.