Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1041: You dare call me pathetic?

”Pathetic”

A cold voice echoed inside Aetherʼs head.

Aetherʼs entire body froze mid-step. The word struck a nerve, and within a breath, veins began to rise on his forehead. His muscles tightened. His jaw clenched.

He didnʼt need to wonder whose voice it was.

He already knew.

Aetherʼs suspended foot touched the marble floor again. Slowly, mechanically. His frame trembled as he turned back, his expression frozen in eerie calm, eyes burning with barely-contained rage.

”...What did you just say now?” Aether muttered, his tone detached.

No answer.

The chamber remained dead still.

His lips twitched. Aether tilted his head slightly, his eyes narrowing.

”What? Gone silent now?” he growled, a low snarl coiled beneath his voice. His teeth clenched tighter as a storm churned behind his eyes. ”Youʼve got some nerve.”

He could feel it. That burning anger, bubbling in his chest like molten lead.

The abandonment.

The betrayal.

The years of screams that went unanswered.

The oceans of blood that had been spilled.

The faith was crushed under silence... And all of it was crashing through him now.

The echoes of the past—the boy who once believed.

”You dare call me pathetic?” His voice trembled, not with fear, but fury. His hand balled into a tight fist, nails digging into his palm until they bit through skin.

”You know whatʼs really pathetic? Itʼs not me. Itʼs you. Itʼs this entire fucking charade. Itʼs how the people who trusted you... who bled for you... who loved you... were cast aside like garbage,” he spat through gritted teeth, chest heaving.

”You know... for someone who abandoned everyone, you sure love to judge,” he muttered, voice shaking, ”You left when we needed you most. You turned your back on those who cried for you, fought for you, died for you.”

He could feel the ache from those past selves clawing at his chest... The man who made a deal with a goddess he thought was just.

”You stood by while your empire was torn apart. You sat on your stone pedestal and let believers burn,” he hissed through gritted teeth, taking a step closer, fury making every step thunderous. ”And now you want to judge me?”

He spat near her base.

Still, no response.

Just silence.

”You know... the previous me—the version who made that goddamn deal with you...” Aetherʼs voice cracked with emotion, ”He believed in you. He gave everything to protect this Empire in your name. He trusted you like a child clinging to his motherʼs hand in the dark... and you betrayed him? Bitch really?”

His eyes shimmered, but not from tears. From the fire that refused to go out.

”Are those people... were they really that worthless to you?” he demanded, stepping closer, each footfall heavier than the last. ”You abandoned them like they meant nothing. And now... You have the nerve to call me pathetic?”

Still, nothing.

Aether let out a dry laugh—empty and bitter.

”Suit yourself, woman,” he hissed, voice shaking. ”I know... Iʼve seen the truth now. I know exactly what kind of twisted thing you are.”

He turned to leave again... But just as he took a step, something echoed.

Ting!

Aetherʼs ears twitched. He stopped mid-step, frowning as he glanced down.

”...Was that from below?” he muttered, confused. His brows furrowed deeper as he crouched, placing his left hand on the white marble floor. His fingers brushed the surface gently, trailing slowly.

It felt... familiar.

Cool. Vibrating. Alive.

He leaned closer, eventually pressing his ear against the polished ground.

Ting!

The metallic echo was sharper this time.

Aether flinched back, eyebrows raised. ”Yup... thereʼs definitely something down there,” he whispered to himself, curiosity slowly overtaking his rage.

Then—again.

”Pathetic.”

This time, it wasnʼt subtle. It was deliberate... And it set his blood ablaze.

”...”

Aether closed his eyes tightly, grinding his teeth together before turning back toward the statue once more. The fury he held no longer simmered—it exploded.

”FUCK YOU, BITCH!!!” he roared, the chamber shaking with his voice. His boots slammed against the floor as he stormed toward the statue, every step fueled by pure, pulsing hatred.

Reaching the massive root structure beneath her divine figure, Aether grabbed one of the thick roots at her base with his only usable arm. His expression was twisted into a wicked grin, eyes glowing with defiance.

”Letʼs see who the real pathetic one is!” he growled, and with that, his body flared with wild, unstable purple energy that cracked along his frame.

”ARRRRRGHHHHH!!!” Aether screamed as he yanked the root with every ounce of strength he had.

His palm tore open from the bark. Blood gushed down his arm, staining the sacred floor. His muscles began to split inside his flesh. Every nerve lit up like wildfire. His entire arm felt like it was being devoured from the inside out, bone grinding against joint, skin threatening to peel off. His ribs strained under the pressure, as if his very skeleton wanted to break apart just to stop him.

But still—he pulled.

His body was shuddering, teeth gnashing in unbearable agony—but he pulled harder.

”COOOMMMMEEE... OOOONNNNNNN!!!” he screamed, purple lightning bursting from his spine and crackling into the marble.

His legs shook violently. Blood poured from his nostrils, his lip, even his ears. His vision blurred. He couldnʼt see straight, but his fingers refused to let go. Every moment felt like hours.

Every heartbeat was war.

This wasnʼt a strength.

It was desperation.

It was madness.

It was one broken man raging against a god.

And then—

Crack...

The deep sound of stone giving way echoed through the temple. Aetherʼs heart raced. His hand trembled, knuckles bloodied, but he grinned through the pain.

A thick line cracked through the root.

”Haha... pathetic, huh? Letʼs see whoʼs fucking pathetic now, bitch!!” he roared with triumph, madness gleaming in his eyes.

He yanked harder, purple energy surging violently from his feet into the ground as he pulled the root with a savage, unrelenting force. The marble base began to fracture, hairline cracks spidering outward from the point of tension.

The divine root—the one supposedly unbreakable—was beginning to snap.

Aetherʼs entire body trembled, not just from pain, but from a shivering, numbing shock. His muscles were screaming. His vision barely held together. But still… he didnʼt let go. He refused. His breath came in ragged gasps, blood bubbling past his lips, dripping down his chin.

He was really doing it.

He was going to teach this goddess bitch exactly who he was.

His body was on the verge of collapse. His heart felt like it would explode from overexertion. His skin peeled with each pull, his hand shredding against the bark. His mind was flickering—moments away from snapping entirely.

He was at the edge.

Just one more pull—

”Stop it!”

The command ripped through the air.

But it wasnʼt her voice... It wasnʼt the Motherʼs.

No…

It was his.

Aetherʼs voice—yet not Aether.

His eyes widened just in time to see his own hand jerk backward, as if pulled by an invisible force.

Thud!

His body was flung backwards, flipping through the air like a broken doll before crashing into the marble ground with a hard thud. He didnʼt move. Not at first.

Then—

Thud!

He stood.

Just like that.

His body rose with unnatural grace, eerie and calm... His eyes, once flickering with pain and fury, had turned pitch black—so dark they looked bottomless, like gateways to another time... another self!

His gaze swept the room slowly.

”To think... I would see this again,” he whispered—or rather, someone else whispered through him.

Aether lowered his gaze toward his right hand. The one wrapped tightly in bandages.

Slowly, deliberately, he began to unwrap it.

What was revealed beneath was grotesque. Twisted. blacked.

His entire arm was black—tainted, pulsing faintly, warped like it no longer belonged to this world.

It was not just injured... It was wrong!

”...I always thought I was reckless,” he murmured with a crooked grin, voice layered with anotherʼs essence, ancient and amused. ”But it seems my future self is just as insane... Ahaha...”

Scclcciiickckkkk!

A sickening sound echoed as flesh began to mend itself and bones reversed their break. Aetherʼs arm began to heal—no, rebuild, as if time itself was being rewound.

His fingers straightened, cracks vanished, and the pulsating black slowly faded into smooth skin.

Not only the arm—his whole body.

The cuts. The bruises. The blood. Everything disappeared, wiped clean, as if none of it had ever happened.

He flexed his fingers, curling his hand into a fist. Testing it.

”Hmm...”

His head turned toward the Motherʼs Root statue again.

”You… still good at playing your games, little girl,” he muttered darkly, his voice edged with both mockery and... Pitiness?

”I am honoured.”

Aetherʼs face twisted in disgust, ”Ha? Honoured?” he repeated with a harsh snort.

His pitch-black eyes began to fade, shadows evaporating into a cold mist as the familiar ice-blue returned... His knees gave out.

He collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been severed—unconscious once more.

Just then—

CLACK!

The big doors opened.

Sera burst in, breathless, her face tense with worry.

Her eyes scanned the room, locking on Aetherʼs crumpled body.

Her heart skipped a beat. He wasnʼt lying where she had left him. He had moved.

... Or been moved.

Whatever... But his hand—

It was healed.

Perfect!!

A soft gasp escaped her lips, tears welling in her eyes.

”Thank you… Mother… I am forever grateful to you!” she whispered, falling to her knees before the statue. Her voice cracked with emotion as she wept in relief.

Carefully, lovingly, she gathered Aether in her arms, cradling him like a treasure, pressing his face gently against her chest.

Then she stood, holding him tight, and walked out through the towering doors as they closed behind her with a resonant clunk.

The room returned to silence.

Darkness crept in once more.

Except—

Crack…

Thud!

A single thick root—the very one Aether had torn with his bloodied one hand—snapped off from the statueʼs base and fell to the floor.

Behind it, one of the Forbidden words carved into the stone and hidden for who knows how long… ʼBlessed.ʼ

Just then,

”Shall I, Mother?” A voice echoed in the empty hall.

Ssslll~

Just then… a strange white smoke appeared, curling out of nowhere like a ghost... It slithered in silence before the Mother root statue.

And from within the white smoke, a long, slender leg stepped out.

The figure was cloaked entirely in a deep purplish-black hoodie... They stood still for a moment as they stared at the Mother Root statue and took the fallen thick root.

And then, with a subtle flicker of light, the purplish-black hooded figure, along with the thick root, swallowed into thin air as if they had never been there.