Chapter 548: Sovereignty

Months have passed, good months, enough for him... to turn eighteen.

He was an adult now. Officially not a child anymore; what a big achievement. He lived to tell the tale; you could say he almost lived a whole year inside Wonderland, which might not seem like a long time.

...

But it was longer than everyone else.

Staring at the bounties on the wall, there was only one that remained, one that had a very big reward. Fallen Eden was written under it, his self-proclaimed title, really.

...

Everyone else had died. It was hard to think of, but between every single person inside the expedition, the only one that survived was him. He heard news about what happened to Keres’ party; they came across a Breaker Demon, one they weren’t able to handle, and... were killed by it.

Including his sister... it had hurt a lot. He found himself not being able to sleep for days straight, not having the energy to do anything. He even died, but Gravewalker brought him back.

It was a dark period of time... but he remembered Keres’ words; he knew that if he just continued to cry about it, nothing was going to happen... he needed to find the castle and the Queen.

And really... he wasn’t sure if just freezing time was enough.

After all, the world had lost a lot of its warriors, and he was sure it had also suffered a lot in the real world, not having anyone to warn them to prepare for what’s to come.

Every day he stumbled upon abandoned towns, even whole cities, civilizations, all transported to the real world.

Meaning that the merge had happened already, bringing with it the monsters and people from the Wonderland, as each day it chose a region to corrupt. It was hard, it really was, especially for his home kingdom and the Blue Rose... after all, they had lost almost all their strongest soldiers, and to have to fight against waves of enemies you had no idea where they would attack from, when, or how strong they were.

It was not fun.

He wondered if the Kings had stepped down from their thrones and joined the fight themselves.

Freezing the merge would be... good, but at the same time, could the world really recover from it? After all, if that were to happen, all the people who weren’t awakened would just freeze, along with the other consequences of the war they were fighting at the moment. Was it even possible to come back?

But what else could he do? What other solution did he have? I mean, this wasn’t even a solution for him to get out; it was just a way for him to try and save the world from inside, to give himself some time to find a way back. What even was the reason if he wasted his time searching for a way to make an exit, and then once he came back to the real world, it was destroyed already, and much worse than the Wonderland.

Plus... he still had the Abyss’s warning at heart; the Abyss, who had yet to speak, and even more... he couldn’t enter Voidpiercer’s world anymore; it was as if something stopped him. There was something horrible going on, and the only clue he got was what the Abyss said.

And he was going to follow his words.

Staring just a little longer at the almost empty wall, Aether took his own poster down... after all, he didn’t know what was going to happen next... the castle was here, just outside of town; he just stopped to prepare himself.

Ripping it in half, he let it fall to the ground as he headed outside the city, where, near it...

He was it...

The same castle he had seen in Frozen Crown. The memories that flew into his mind... they weren’t all great, actually; a large majority of them were bad memories. After all, Frozen Crown was the first book where he had suffered a lot, and had been tortured that much.

’It’s crazy to think five whole years have passed; I was a kid... thirteen years old... and yet here I am, sitting in front of it again at eighteen.

He chuckled, not wanting to waste any time, as he headed inside it, into the same halls that he had in his past, walking to the same room where he had fought the Queen... hoping with all his heart that she would be there.

...

But she wasn’t; the room was completely empty, without anything inside it.

He stood still, his heart broken into pieces; without her around here, there was really... no hope. No one had the sheer power to use whatever she had used to freeze time with the help of the Abyss; he had neither the power nor did he know how.

Walking over to the throne she should have been sitting on... Aether noticed a crown, a black one. He found it interesting; picking it up, he put it on his head, almost mocking himself.

But as he did, he suddenly felt his soul hurt once more, yet this time... it was more as if something was being pushed out. It didn’t last long, not close to how it had felt all those months before.

"Finally... that bastard is gone." Aether’s eyes rose as he heard the Abyss.

The crown... was it what the Abyss was after when he told him to go to the castle? Did he know the Queen wasn’t here, and that maybe this crown would be here... but what were its powers, what was it even used for? To strengthen the Abyss?

Not that it really mattered to him that much at the moment.

...

...

"Hey... Forgotten, do you think with enough power, I could rewind time?"

...

’Rewind time? You’re crazy, aren’t you? It is possible; shadows are bound to their owners, and since you have control over them, with... a lot of power, you could do something like that... but your body won’t ever be able to handle that kind of power.

You barely survived after pushing yourself to Harbinger; you’re going to have to be on the level of Sovereign for that. Only a God could ever help to do such a thing. Your soul and body will be broken to pieces and erased from history; there’s no way you would ever be back from it.’

...

"Then let’s do it," Aether said, walking over to one of the windows as he watched over Wonderland.

’Did you even hear what I said! I’m not giving you no power, if you die, I die, and I’m not letting myself die for something like the lives of everyone else’s.’

Aether scoffed. "And if you don’t do this, then I will continue to just wander Wonderland, and by the time you take control of my body, if you even find a way out, the world outside will be destroyed?

...

You would rule a ruined world, without meaning. How nice."

’You know I can just build another world, right? That’s not something that matters to me that much. If I rule over this world or the next, it makes no difference.’

Aether didn’t respond; he just stared into the distance, waiting. After all... the Abyss might say he didn’t care about which world he wanted to rule... but he wouldn’t have tried as hard to gain control over this one if he didn’t care for it.

...

...

’Don’t you dare die... alright?’