Chapter 551: Warning from the Future

Walking through the halls of the Academy... it felt unreal; after all, he saw the faces of people he had not long ago considered dead. Some he had seen die personally; some he’d only heard of, as their poster got taken down from the wall.

Hearing their chuckles again, he couldn’t believe it... after all, it felt as if he was dreaming. But he wasn’t; he had pinched himself hundreds of times since he woke up again, standing back in his dorm room.

And he felt it all.

This was reality.

And yet nobody remembered anything.

The school day had ended, meaning he was free... not that he cared all that much about academics; he had only come for himself, to finally get his head out of the sky. ’The world is going to fall in one year, if nothing happens. Failing some Anchor class won’t matter."

Walking towards the exit, Aether wished to go to the castle, to have a little conversation with Silas himself, the only question, which was another reason he had gone to school, to ask Avius to announce his wish to the King, he couldn’t just barge in into the castle, what if he got caught? The guards were going to be mad, even more if they saw the Blue Rose on his uniform.

One of the most important things to do was to prevent the expedition at all costs.

It was their first mistake last time; he couldn’t let it happen once more.

Walking over to the castle, he noticed Iris coming out of it. She stopped in her tracks as she saw him; her face... was slightly changed, not like he remembered. She didn’t have that soft expression on her face anymore; she looked confused.

"Hello?" He said, smiling.

But she didn’t respond; she just walked past him, as she quickened her step like she was in a hurry.

He turned to look at her, surprised by her reaction. ’Huh, would you look at that.’ He wondered: did she... remember what had happened? Was that why she was so confused, and probably surprised to see him there, alive?

It must be a true shock for her if that was the case... but why would she remember? ’Praise, there’s no doubt in my mind, but, at the same time, I doubt she has enough power to do it; after all, she can’t use her full powers, I did with the Abyss, and definitely didn’t survive... So maybe she remembered fragments of what happened?’

Aether put his hand on the knob of the door, but before he opened it, he thought of something. Did the Abyss remember what happened? I mean, by what he knew, everyone had lost their memories, and that should have included him.

Well, actually, he shouldn’t even exist anymore. His existence should be a mystery, but it wasn’t; people knew him, they remembered him. But even if he didn’t die, he also shouldn’t have remembered, since he had also worked on his shadow, and since he shouldn’t remember, the Abyss shouldn’t either. That was why he wondered if the Forgotten had his memory.

After all, he still had his, but he had it for another reason.

...

’And... It’s probably because of the Angel.’ Their conversation had been eventful, really; it had given him a lot of information, a lot of early questions he had... and revealed some harsh truths to him.

He wanted to choose to believe he was good, after all he’d done in his past, and even now, bringing him back to life out of nowhere, which he had no idea how he had done.

But at the same time, he just couldn’t be didn’t believe his words, everything about him made him paranoid... and plus, he seemed fake. There was also the part with the soul, the so-called part of him from a time when he had problems.

But what problems, and what might have caused them, since that part of his soul was quite a handful; after all, it had almost killed Alexis, silenced all the shadows in the cave, and then the Abyss, and last, it killed Xavier, without his wanting, but with his powers.

He just couldn’t believe him.

But that was for another time.

Pushing the door open, Aether walked into the castle as he walked to the room where he had first gone when he came into the Blue Rose, where he had his first talk with the King.

Opening it, he saw Silas talking to some other people who seemed to be nobles; seeing him, he frowned, sighing, as the others turned to him, disgust hitting their faces as they saw his uniform.

The King got up from his seat, excusing himself, as he took him out of the room, closing the door behind him. "Did Avius not tell you that I didn’t have time today to talk? That bastard. Now, sho, I’m busy."

He said, gesturing for him to leave, almost like he was a dog. He should be mad, and he was... but the difference was that before he would have just walked away, not warning the King anymore, out of pure spite.

But not now.

He frowned. "You know, for someone who leads a whole Kingdom, you don’t seem the wisest of them all. A Vessel chose your audience, one that hates your guts and wishes not to speak to you, and you decide to decline? Do you think I’m here to ask you about anything ordinary?

The world is at risk; every single person, not one, is safe. So you better swallow your pride and listen to me."

Silas stared at him for a good while, not expecting his reaction... but at the same time, he could see interest in his eyes; he was intrigued by his words.

Chuckling, he opened the door again, walked to the edge of the door, and not long after, he saw all the nobles getting thrown out. Walking back in, he saw Silas standing in his seat, the room now empty...

Just for him.

"Please, sit down." He said, smiling as he waited for Aether to take his seat. Aether hesitantly did so, finding his personality not like him. He had given up too easily. But maybe he was just making things up due to Wonderland affecting him.

"So..." He said, not knowing how to say his mind without seeming stupid or absurd, and there wasn’t a good way, after all, this was something that has never though he was going to ear, definently not spread it around.

...

"The world is going to fall."

Silas looked into his eyes, surprised by his comment, but at the same time, he didn’t seem to fully believe that he was telling the truth, which was to be expected; after all, things were going just fine so far for them.

At this time, the Wonderland expedition was almost here, and it looked amazing. Making discoveries in that place would be big, and it had been; they had found a lot of things from the past, him included, but it came at the cost of their lives.

...

It made him wonder just how many people would still join the expedition, knowing that doing so would lead to them losing their lives and never coming back to the real world. The answer was probably nowhere close to what it was now.

"And why is the world going to fall exactly?" Silas said, his tone made it obvious that he didn’t believe what he was hearing, but it seemed that at least he was interested enough in him.

"The Wonderland is home to hundreads, thousand of civilizations filled with people from other stories, or the past, a fewer and rare, but are some, but more importantly, they hate us, their only wish being to kill us.

If the expedition happens, the team will be trapped inside Wonderland, without the Codex or a way out, while the real world has to fight waves of attacks from the people of Wonderland daily."

Silas chuckled, finding his words amusing; he didn’t seem to believe him, but it made sense why, after all, there was no reason for him to trust his words, no way for him to learn, just the question of why he would lie about this; it was the only thing that kept Silas from just stopping the meeting.

"Oh yeah? How can you know that, huh?"

Aether took a deep breath. When coming back from the future, this was one of the most annoying things to do: to fill in the present about the future.

"Because I am from the future, I’ve already been inside Wonderland, with Lilith. I was part of his team, but he sadly died early on due to a monster, since they also inhabit your planet."

Aether smiled as Silas seemed to be slightly in thought, thinking about everything; after all, he needed to figure out if believing him was the goal, and if he was dangerous to them.

...

"You don’t have to believe me; you will see in a few months and realize I was telling the truth. Until then, if you want to make a chance, up the training for everyone, and focus on getting your people as strong as possible.

It’s the only way we can survive."