Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1426: I... I love you... A-Aether

Drip...

A warm drop slid down onto unconscious Delphine’s eyes, carrying a sickening heat that did not belong to water. The sensation tugged her from the dark, her lashes twitching as awareness clawed its way back.

She stirred weakly, and as her eyes finally opened, another heavy drop fell directly onto her gaze, thick and unmistakably warm.

Her vision swam as her eyes fluttered violently, a sharp burning sensation stinging them.

”Arh!”

The sound tore from her throat as she blinked furiously, breath coming in ragged gasps while the blurred shapes before her began to sharpen.

”AETHER!!”

She screamed his name with everything she had left, her voice cracking as the sight before her carved itself into her mind.

Aether held her tightly in his embrace while expression twitched into a strained smirk, faint yet defiant, as though he had finally accomplished something he once believed impossible.

Except... his left arm was gone, severed cleanly up to the elbow.

Aether himself was not entirely sure how he had done it.

The instant he sensed danger, his body moved on its own, his arms rising just enough to block the thing that had been moments away from ripping Delphine’s head apart.

The strike struck the thing, but the thing sliced through his arm with a horrifyingly clean cut as blood sprayed into the air.

His body started to adapt to the situation.

And thank goodness he had almost reached the shrinking portal, its unstable glow barely strong enough to light the space around them.

If he had been even a few seconds later, he knew the truth without doubt... Delphine would be dead, and he would have followed her straight into the dark.

”W-We need to stop this,” Delphine said in a rushed, trembling tone as she pressed her hands against his mangled arm, trying desperately to slow the blood pouring between her fingers.

She looked toward the portal, watching helplessly as the light continued to recede.

Aether’s eyes turned hazy, fatigue dragging heavily at his consciousness as the world tilted around him.

”W-We need... move.... D-Del,” he muttered weakly, his voice barely holding together as pain etched itself across his expression. He tried to stand, but his strength betrayed him, and he collapsed forward.

”Aether!” Delphine cried as she caught him just in time, her arms trembling violently under his weight.

She gritted her teeth and pulled him closer, fear and resolve tangling in her chest. ”I-I will take you,” she said, forcing the words through shaking lips as she began dragging him toward the portal with everything her weakening body could give.

The light continued to fade as she pushed herself to move faster, though her legs trembled with every step. Tears streamed freely down her face, blurring her vision as despair threatened to swallow her whole.

”C-Come on... please... arrh!” she cried, pain and desperation merging into one raw plea.

She dragged him with frantic determination, her eyes shaking violently as the portal shrank further. The air around them felt heavier, darker, as unseen presences crept closer.

..h...

..h...

Not just one... Delphine felt many of them now, their presence closing in from every direction, as though they had been waiting for this exact moment.

Her lips trembled as she clenched them tightly, refusing to let her sobs slow her down as she dragged him inch by inch toward the portal.

What next then?

The portal was not letting them in.

It rejected them.

What were they supposed to do now, when hope stood so close yet unreachable?

Either way, she was only prolonging the inevitable.

”Oh god... please...” Delphine muttered with teary eyes.

In that moment, she felt reduced to nothing more than a weak woman standing at the edge of annihilation. She could not even use her future visions.

How useless could one be, she wondered bitterly as her thoughts spiralled inward.

Compared to Aether’s other women, she had always felt lesser, always standing in their shadow, no matter how hard she tried to deny it. And now, faced with death itself...

She was utterly useless when it mattered most.

When she finally reached the shrinking portal, Delphine gently lowered Aether onto the ground, her hands trembling as she tore her skirt without hesitation. She wrapped the fabric tightly around his severed arm, pressing down with desperate care to stop the bleeding, even as her fingers became slick with his blood.

She brushed his cheek softly. Her gaze locked onto his hazy, barely conscious eyes, and she forced a fragile smile through trembling lips.

”I-I too could protect you, you know?” she whispered.

Aether weakly tried to stop her, his hand twitching as his lips parted to speak, but Delphine stood up before he could finish. She turned toward the darkness surrounding them, her posture stiffening as she faced the unseen horrors.

She knew they were there, watching from within the shadows, waiting patiently like predators circling wounded prey.

Delphine clenched her fists tightly, ”You fucking assholes... if we had our powers, you would be nothing but freaking meat paste!” she spat furiously.

”D-Del... s-stop...” Aether’s weak voice reached her back.

She glanced back at him and smiled weakly, ”Just... stay there,” she said quietly, forcing calm into her tone.

”I will take care of it. I promise.”

.h....!

Delphine flinched sharply as she felt something draw closer. No matter how hard she looked, there was nothing she could see, only the suffocating black that swallowed everything.

As the light dimmed lower and lower, her body seemed to sink into shadow itself, the darkness crawling over her like a living thing.

Delphine clenched her fists again, her voice breaking as she shouted into the void, ”F-Face me too!” She threw punches wildly into the air, striking at nothing.

Her eyes darted violently from left to right as she tightened her hands into fists, ’I will protect him... I will definitely protect him. My love is no less than his!’ she told herself repeatedly, clinging to that truth as she tried to bury the fear growing relentlessly inside her chest.

H....!!

Her body froze completely when she realised the thing was standing directly in front of her, hidden only by the darkness.

Her eyes shook violently as tears rolled freely down her face. ”I-I...” she tried to speak, but the words dissolved into sobs before they could form.

”D-Del...”

That painful voice reached her from behind, weak yet filled with concern, and it shattered the paralysis gripping her body. Something snapped inside her, fear giving way to raw, uncontrollable fury.

”FUCK YOU ALL!!!” she screamed, pouring every ounce of despair, love, and defiance into her final cry as she threw her last punch with everything she had left.

Fla—

Just as something lunged toward her head, her eyes suddenly burned bright. For a single heartbeat, her aqua gaze glowed with an unnatural light, forcing the thing in the darkness to halt its movement in shock.

THUD!

Delphine’s fist connected with full force, her strike slamming into the creature with everything she was, everything she believed, and everything she refused to surrender.

Delphine blinked in stunned disbelief, her breath catching as she stared at her own trembling hands. ”I-I hit it?” she whispered.

She could not understand how it happened, unaware that her eyes had glowed moments ago, unaware of the force that surged through her at that instant.

Yet confidence sparked briefly in her chest, and she straightened as if ready to face any monster if it meant protecting Aether.

H....!!

Another presence emerged from the darkness, heavier and closer than before. Delphine reacted without thinking, throwing a punch blindly into the air as panic and determination collided within her.

But,

Chucck~

”Arrrh!”

Pain exploded through her body as she collapsed to the ground. Her hands instinctively clutched at her legs, fingers shaking violently as they brushed against torn flesh.

Warm blood coated her palms, where chunks of skin and muscle had been gouged out.

Delphine panted heavily, gasps tearing from her chest as she struggled to push herself upright. Her vision blurred with pain and confusion, thoughts spiralling chaotically.

What the fuck changed now?

She was confused.

All this time, those things had always gone straight for her head, ending everything in a single brutal move.

Now they had crippled her legs instead?

As she struggled to rise again, her gaze snapped toward the portal, and her heart lurched violently. It had shrunk to nearly the size of a ball, its light barely flickering, no longer reaching Aether’s body fully.

Her eyes widened in horror when she saw the darkness shift, the things no longer circling her.

They were moving toward Aether instead.

”W-Wait... I am here!” Delphine screamed hoarsely, her voice breaking as she dragged herself forward. ”OI!! FUCKER!!” she shouted with everything she had left.

She could feel them passing by her, brushing past her presence as if she no longer mattered, and yet none of them attacked her.

Why?

Her eyes trembled violently as she watched Aether’s still body being slowly surrounded by those shapes in the dark.

”N-no... no, no,” she rambled brokenly as she crawled toward him.

Tears streamed down her face as she clawed forward like a wounded animal. ”Aether... wake up... please... no...” she begged, her voice cracking as the final spark of light from the portal threatened to fade completely.

The darkness closed in as she crawled, her body scraping against the ground, her strength nearly gone. She felt small, shattered, crawling like a broken bug toward the man she loved while death gathered around him.

Then—

”AETHER, I MANAGED TO SAVE A FEW DROPS!”

A loud voice echoed through the dark void.

Delphine flinched violently and turned her head, eyes wide as she saw a streak of purple light racing toward them at full speed.

It was Grace.

Grace’s shimmering body glowed fiercely as she flew forward, wings beating with frantic intensity. Her tiny hands clutched a broken half of a crystal, its fractured surface still holding small amounts of pure white liquid, tainted with a few drifting black specks.

When the crystal had fallen earlier, it had shattered, half of it wasted on the ground. If not for Grace’s quick thinking, the remaining portion would have been lost forever.

Her wings fluttered faster as she closed the distance, her sharp eyes immediately locking onto the nearly vanished portal.

Her expression shifted in an instant, ”Eternal chains?” she muttered under her breath, awe and excitement mixing as her eyes widened with sudden hope, as if she had finally found a way out of this hell.

Without hesitation, Grace surged forward, her small form becoming a streak of light as she zoomed straight through the hordes of gathering darkness.

She twisted left and right as she zigzagged through the unseen things lurking within the darkness, her movements frantic and uneven as she narrowly slipped past shapes she could not see.

”Faster... faster!” she screamed through clenched teeth.

Her wings flared wider, burning brighter than before as a violent burst of purple particles exploded around her body.

THUD!

Grace slammed directly into the portal, and in that instant, her form shattered completely. Her body burst into countless glowing particles that scattered and vanished without leaving even a trace behind, as if she had never existed there at all.

The broken crystal slipped from her grasp, its remaining liquid spilling out midair and dripping onto the portal’s surface, spreading slowly like oil across water.

For a single heartbeat, nothing happened at all... Then the portal drank it in.

Sssssnnnngggg~

The portal shuddered violently as it shimmered back to life, widening with ferocious force that sent ripples through the surrounding space. The once-halted black and golden chains surged forward again, no longer restrained, as sharp cracking sounds echoed throughout the void like breaking bones.

Light flooded the area in a sudden rush, and the things lurking within the darkness recoiled instantly.

Delphine’s eyes widened in shock when she saw the chains wrapping tightly around Aether’s body... They coiled around his torso and limbs, dragging him backwards toward the portal without hesitation or pause.

”D-Del...” Aether muttered weakly, his voice barely holding together as his fingers scraped helplessly against the ground. He clawed at the surface desperately, trying to stop himself from being pulled away.

Delphine tried to move, tried to scream, tried to reach him with everything she had left. Her body trembled violently, but her legs refused to obey her will.

The distance between them felt cruelly infinite, impossible to cross no matter how much she begged her body to move.

Clang~

The chains tightened further and yanked him back without mercy, dragging him into the portal.

Delphine smiled softly through trembling lips, forcing warmth into her expression despite the storm tearing her apart inside.

”I will be fine,” she whispered shakily, trying to sound strong as she watched the chains pull him completely into the portal, her heart cracking with every inch of distance that grew between them.

”DELP—”

His voice was cut off abruptly as the portal began shrinking once more, its swirling white and black surface folding inward as if its task had already been completed.

Delphine stared at it blankly, unable to move, unable to look away, even as her vision blurred. A single tear slipped down her cheek as her lips trembled uncontrollably, fear and longing twisting together until she could no longer separate them.

”I-Its fine... I-I will be fine... I... I...” Her words caught painfully in her throat as she finally broke down, sobs shaking her body.

How long would she stay here like this, trapped in endless darkness with no way out?

Alone.

No friends.

No principal.

No support.

No warmth to cling to.

And worst of all, no him.

The thought struck deeper than any wound, making her world tremble violently as horror seeped into every corner of her heart.

Maybe it would be an eternity before she saw him again, or maybe she never would.

”I... I love you... A-Aether,” she whispered through broken sobs as the darkness began swallowing everything once more, closing in around her with suffocating finality-

Crack!

Just then, at the very moment the portal was about to close permanently, something small and bright forced its way through.

A thin pink rope wriggled out from within the portal, trembling violently.

The rope cracked apart like splintered cords!