"To be honest,"
"You and your sister are both ridiculously unlucky."
Looking at that gentle glow gathered in Aether's palm,
Taro could not help feeling a little emotional.
"Celestia has gone all-in on your sister Lumine,"
"and the Abyss has gone all-in on you."
"Tsk tsk… at this rate, who knows if the two of you won't end up killing each other one day…"
All they had ever wanted was to find a new home.
How did it come to this?
The answer seemed almost too simple.
Taro remembered a certain man-eating fellow who had once said something:
All misfortune in this world comes from the lack of ability of the person involved.
That sentence was right, and also not right.
In an ordinary world, it did not fully apply.
But in a world with transcendental powers, it fit frighteningly well.
The strong are revered.
Those four words laid bare the truest face of any world that contained "transcendence."
In a world with a transcendental backdrop, if you were not strong, that itself was your sin.
If you wanted to hold on to something, protect something,
even if all you wanted was to live a peaceful, steady life…
You still had to possess… power.
It wasn't that people were "wrong."
The problem lay in the rules of a world that followed "the strong are revered."
Some words sounded wonderfully pleasing to the strong,
and fired up the blood of those who already had the ability.
But once you shifted to a different point of view…
Under a transcendental world's backdrop, that slogan was stripped down to two bloody words:
Eating people.
If you did not want to be eaten, you had to become strong.
If you did not want to be one of those countless ants wiped out by a single glance from a powerful being,
then you had to grow strong.
Unfair?
There is no fairness in a transcendental world.
If you must blame something, blame the world.
Right now, Lumine and Aether, this pair of siblings… were exactly like that.
They could not control their own destiny at all.
All they could do was struggle desperately in this surging wave of manipulation.
"I'm very clear-headed."
The wound at his waist had already finished healing. Aether slowly raised his head.
"I know what I have to do, and I know what I'll be facing next."
"I might fail… but I still have to do it."
There was no special reason for it.
He simply wanted to do it.
"Is it worth it?"
The smile on Taro's face faded as he stared at Aether before him.
"Even if it means losing your own blood-related family?"
"Even if she doesn't… what about you?"
"You should know that it's usually the one who survives who suffers the most."
"That kind of pain—you can't let it go, you can't smooth it over. It's a wound that never heals for a lifetime."
"…"
Aether fell silent for a moment.
After a while, he raised his head again.
"My sister is very strong."
"If I fail, she'll carry my blessing and keep going forward, strong as ever."
"Bullshit."
Taro's brows knit together. "That's just wishful thinking on your part."
"Have you ever asked her?"
"You're okay with sacrificing yourself—does she want you to?"
"Maybe so~"
Aether shook his head slightly. A faint smile drifted onto his face.
"Strictly speaking, I ought to thank you."
"My sister has grown up a little."
"I'm very happy about that… but it hurts too."
Humans grow by falling and getting back up, over and over again.
Growth was something worth celebrating.
But the pain of falling… really hurt.
"Come on then. Take whatever you want—anything is fine."
"If I can't give it to you now, I'll give it to you in the future."
"But you should already know what I want."
"You agree to it, and I'll stop resisting."
Fight?
There was no fighting to be had.
Just from that brief clash alone, Aether understood very clearly that he could not win.
Since he could not win and could not change anything, then negotiate—make a deal.
While he still had the chance, he had to seize it.
Otherwise, he might as well die for nothing.
While there was still something on him that the other party wanted,
he only needed to name a condition the other side could easily accept.
As long as the other party agreed…
no matter how things turned out, he would have gained something.
"Two lives."
Taro pondered for a moment, then raised two fingers.
"Buy one, get one free. You can't afford a higher price anyway."
"Deal!"
Aether's eyes lit up. He agreed without the slightest hesitation.
It was only paying a small price.
In exchange, Lumine would have two chances to survive a desperate situation.
Worth it.
"All right then. Offense intended."
Taro narrowed his eyes, his right hand lifting into a sword-finger stance.
His body turned into a blur as he shot forward,
raising his hand and gently tapping at the center of Aether's brows.
In Aether's perception,
that less-than-half-meter distance between them—
Taro's sword-finger seemed to take a thousand years to finally reach his brow.
Thud—
A dull sound rang out.
It was clearly just a light tap,
yet in Aether's ears it was like two suns colliding head-on.
Deafening noise and blinding light exploded together,
instantly drowning out his consciousness.
A speck of divine light
was born from the depths of the universe.
That gentle glow lit up the endless darkness.
The "colors" hidden within the blackness all turned to stare.
Countless incarnations of will, each with a different form,
struck out one after another, trying to smother that dazzling light.
Within the radiance,
a consciousness holding a book slowly took shape.
Facing that overwhelming attack capable of annihilating everything,
it merely flipped a page in calm indifference.
Between the turning pages,
it was as if an entire world descended.
Crack—
The blinding light, like a supernova erupting,
used time itself as its scale,
igniting everything within an endless distance.
The brilliant glow vanished in an instant.
The divine light slowly dissipated.
The figure holding the book faded away with it.
In the next moment, a terrifying tide swept sideways out of the pitch-black deep space.
When the tide passed, this scarlet-black universe once again returned to its eternal darkness,
as if nothing had ever happened there.
"Tsk…"
Taro frowned slightly and withdrew his sword-finger from between Aether's brows.
Judging from his expression, he seemed fairly satisfied.
"Wake up~~"
Seeing Aether's consciousness still sunk in chaos,
Taro snapped his fingers. Healing and purification unfolded together,
pulling Aether's mind back from that muddled state.
"…"
Looking at Taro in front of him, Aether shook his heavy head.
He… didn't seem to have lost anything?
Just felt a little dizzy.
Had he really not taken anything away from him?
Aether did not believe it.
Yet there was indeed nothing wrong with him.
Baffled, he could not help asking, almost on reflex:
"You… got what you wanted?"
"Mm."
Taro nodded calmly. "I did."
He had indeed obtained the "thing" he wanted.
But it was not what Aether imagined—nothing had been taken from Aether himself.
Aether… had only been the vessel Taro chose,
or rather, the bridge.
"Right, you might feel a bit mentally drained over the next few days."
"But don't worry, just rest for a bit and you'll be fine."
"And don't worry that I'll pull any dirty tricks on you."
"I'm not that bored."
"…"
Aether stared at him expressionlessly, then finally shook his head.
"Anything else, I don't really care about."
"You got your thing, and I got my guarantee."
"As long as it's a win-win, that's fine."
As for all the twists and turns hidden in there…
Aether neither wanted to understand, nor had any way to.
He would just treat it as if nothing had happened.
What else could he do?
Even if he grew suspicious and paranoid, what would that change?
He had at least some confidence when it came to dealing with the Heavenly Principles.
But this guy in front of him…
Forget it. As long as Lumine remained safe, that was enough.
"Have them fall back."
"Forcing the formation open with brute force might backfire."
"All right."
(End of Chapter)
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