Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1802: Meeting the Past: Part-6

They just left… just like that?

Though he hadn’t expected that outcome, it was undoubtedly the best one for him. As of now, he was nowhere near capable of defeating both of them simultaneously. The only reason he had even managed to corner Hunter earlier was because of RIN’s impossible precision, weapon synchronising with flawless calculations that no human mind could ever perform.

“Hunter…”

“Hunter…”

“Hunter…”

With every step echoing through the ruined path, Young Aether repeated that name beneath his breath.

The word echoed inside his head.

Not as a name…

But as a key.

As if every repetition unlocked another forgotten fragment buried beneath memories.

He remembered the last time they met.

The day she casually smiled before revealing what lay beneath the table.

No… Millions.

Millions of monsters stretching endlessly beneath the table like an ocean of nightmares waiting for someone to lift the lid.

Even now, the memory sent a chill through his spine.

And after that incident…

She disappeared.

Hunter had never shown herself again.

She never attacked any of his Empires.

Never even sent another warning.

For months he had wondered why she had suddenly abandoned everything.

He had spent countless nights preparing for the inevitable invasion.

But…

But…

Not this.

“I never thought she prepared all of those things… for this.”

His voice barely escaped his lips.

Standing before him was the devastated control chamber.

Countless holographic interfaces flickered erratically before dissolving into showers of blue particles. High-energy conduits sparked violently across shattered walls.

Yet amidst all that destruction…

The cube remained.

Hovering peacefully in the centre.

The impossible four-dimensional object folded inward and outward simultaneously. Entire surfaces seemed to rotate through dimensions that shouldn’t exist. Crimson mist flowed through impossible angles inside its transparent body.

The surrounding air shimmered with gravitational distortion.

Even RIN’s scanners continuously recalibrated.

^Warning. Spatial dimensions unstable.^

He stepped farther into the chamber.

This time, nearly everything had been reduced to rubble after the battle.

A massive crack stretched across the ceiling like a wound.

Soon…

The entire chamber would collapse inward.

“Now I understand why that first Hell’s Gate felt so familiar…” he murmured quietly. “That was the place where she first showed me what was beneath the table… and those monsters…”

His voice faded.

They weren’t monsters.

Not originally.

They had once been ordinary people.

People who laughed.

People who lived.

People who had families.

Now…

Only twisted hunger remained.

He slowly walked toward the cube until the crimson light illuminated his face.

^Was that person someone you knew? Was she responsible for this Hell’s Gate?^

RIN asked curiously.

Young Aether nodded.

“She once tried to destroy every one of our Empires. I believed she had disappeared… but I never imagined she’d infiltrate yours instead.”

^Hmm… Interesting. So she orchestrated this entire war?^

Young Aether opened his mouth.

“…Y…”

But the answer stopped halfway.

A different thought emerged.

If Hunter had created every Hell’s Gate…

Then… Was she also the mysterious Arcane?

Was she the one manipulating both Empires from the shadows?

Creating hatred?

Creating endless war?

The conclusion seemed painfully obvious.

^Based on currently available evidence… probability exceeds 97%. She tried to destroy your Empires. You repeatedly interfered. Therefore, she weaponised both civilisations against each other. Efficient! To annihilate your Empires or… let them kill each other while she reaped the fruit.^

RIN too obviously concluded that answer.

Young Aether would have accepted.

Still…

Something refused to fit.

“What fruit was she trying to reap?”

Silence.

Even RIN failed to answer.

That was the real question.

What was the purpose?

What outcome justified sacrificing millions?

Take Snape, for example.

His objective had always been clear.

He wanted to create humans capable of observing both energies that were about to descend upon the world.

Everything he did served a measurable goal.

But Hunter…

What did she actually gain?

What was waiting at the end of all this bloodshed?

As he continued thinking, a circular slab of rock suddenly tore free from the fractured ceiling.

THOOOM!!

The enormous disk crashed into a cluster of control arrays.

A shockwave blasted dust through the chamber while arcs of blue electricity danced across broken machinery.

Young Aether stared blankly at the perfectly circular slab.

Something…

Something important.

Something unbelievably obvious.

Then his eyes widened.

“…FUCK.”

His head snapped upward.

“EBON STONE!”

^Question. Please explain why the words “FUCK” and “EBON STONE” were combined into a single sentence.^

Ignoring her completely, Young Aether’s thoughts accelerated.

One connection after another.

The skull monster.

The same one that had hammered gigantic Ebon Stones into the land across multiple Empires.

It had emerged from one of Hunter’s Hell’s Gates.

Why?

“…Wait…”

His breathing slowed.

“No…”

His pupils contracted.

“Was she after the Ebon Stones this entire time?”

Everything suddenly aligned.

Every missing piece.

Every unexplained movement.

Every strange attack.

“Oh my fuck…”

He grabbed both sides of his head.

“That skull monster belonged to Hunter all along?!”

The realisation hit him harder than any punch.

Then he violently facepalmed.

“Motherfucker… I actually forgot about the damn Ebon Stones…”

Honestly… No one could blame him.

After those Stones had been driven into the ground, everyone had become consumed by survival.

The invasions.

The war.

Protecting civilians.

Defending the entire Empire.

Even he had remembered his Mission…

Yet somehow forgot these.

Young Aether clicked his tongue before looking back toward the impossible cube.

His expression slowly hardened.

“Were all of these… conditions to activate those fucked up Ebon Stones?”

His eyes narrowed as countless possibilities raced through his mind.

“Was every Hell’s Gate… every massacre… every war… nothing more than a gigantic activation sequence?”

He muttered to himself as everything slowly began falling into place.

Both Snape and Hunter’s original objective had been the same.

Activate the Ebon Stones.

Begin… whatever “the Beginning” was supposed to be.

He wasn’t even sure what that word meant anymore.

Then why the fuck did she have to start a war between two entire civilisations?

“Was that simply one of the conditions… or was there something else?” he murmured, rubbing his temple as another headache crept across his skull. The more he connected the pieces, the less the overall picture made sense.

^I am still confused. Care to explain it to me?^

Young Aether ignored RIN once again.

He exhaled slowly before giving a small nod.

“I see… so that bitch orchestrated all of this.”

His expression darkened.

“I need to inform Jonathan… but would he even believe me?”

He immediately answered his own question.

“No… probably not.”

He began pacing through the ruined chamber, stepping over shattered machines and tangled cables while holographic warning panels flickered around him.

“I don’t have proof. The footage never showed Hunter’s face. It only showed the monsters evolving. After everything that’s happened… especially after I destroyed the Delta Division… my words alone won’t convince him.”

He stopped.

His gaze slowly returned toward the impossible cube.

“Looks like I really need to have a conversation with Hunter.”

There was no anger in his voice anymore.

Only determination.

Then he looked directly at the four-dimensional object.

“What exactly are you?”

^According to the database… this object is designated as a Stabilised Hypercube Spatial Reactor.^

Several translucent holographic windows materialised before Young Aether’s eyes.

Dozens of incomprehensible equations rapidly scrolled downward.

Three-dimensional diagrams folded into four-dimensional projections before instantly collapsing into impossible geometries.

^Its primary purpose is to manipulate higher-dimensional spatial intersections, allowing two disconnected locations to temporarily share the same coordinates. In simpler terms… it cuts space itself and creates shortcuts between places that should never be connected.^

Young Aether quietly listened.

^However… its energy density is extraordinary. If the stabilisation field collapses, the resulting dimensional implosion could erase this entire mountain range… possibly more.^

A brief pause.

Then RIN added,

^Also… it moves like it’s alive.^

Young Aether narrowed his eyes.

“Hypercube…”

He slowly extended his hand as if it was drawing him closer.

His fingertips approached the shimmering surface.

The instant his skin came within centimetres…

SSSHHHRRRRPP!!

The crimson vapour surrounding the cube suddenly surged toward him like a living predator.

“What the…?!”

The mist slammed directly into his fingertip.

“ARRGH!”

Pain exploded through his arm.

^Warning! Rapid elevation in body temperature detected!^

The vapor poured into him like a vacuum had opened inside his body.

Every strand of crimson energy vanished beneath his skin within seconds.

Young Aether staggered backwards.

His breathing became ragged.

His vision blurred.

It felt as though molten needles were drilling into his skull.

Something… Something was entering his mind.

“AAAAARRRGHHH—!!”

In the next second, his mind went blank and…

The laboratory disappeared.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Then…

“Waaa…”

“Waaa…”

“Waaa…”

The unmistakable cry of a newborn baby echoed through endless emptiness.

A warm voice followed.

“@#… @#%$$@… @#$TECT… #@@!@…”

The language meant absolutely nothing to him.

Every syllable sounded simultaneously familiar and completely alien.

Before he could understand…

The world shifted.

He found himself standing inside an endless crimson space.

Golden particles floated everywhere like drifting stars.

The air shimmered with waves of distorted light.

The entire place felt…

Alive?

SSSSLLLUUURRRPPP—!!

THUD!

!!!

His consciousness violently snapped back.

Young Aether stumbled several steps before catching himself against a broken console.

“Haa… haa… haa…”

Cold sweat drenched his face.

His heartbeat pounded against his ribs.

“What…”

He blinked repeatedly.

“…What the hell was that?”

His head still throbbed.

As though someone had opened his skull, rearranged everything inside, and forgotten to put it back properly.

He felt… he was about to die, like his mind was splitting apart!

He worried if he was going to die so…

“Activate Null-Return,” Young Aether muttered.

Tik~

Instantly…

Everything froze.

Falling debris stopped in midair.

!~Ding~!

[❗Notice: Do you wish to use Your Space-Time as your New Null-Return Point?]

“Yes.”

He answered without hesitation.

If whatever had just happened killed him…

He wasn’t taking any chances.

[⚠️Warning: New Null-Return Point has been successfully created and saved.]

Tok~

Reality resumed.

Broken metal crashed against the floor.

Young Aether released a long sigh.

^Warning! Severe fluctuations detected within the Temporal Lobe and Amygdala.^

Young Aether frowned.

“Wasn’t that…”

^Yes. Both regions are heavily associated with long-term memory and emotional processing.^

Multiple holographic scans rapidly appeared around him.

Three-dimensional brain models rotated while highlighted neural pathways pulsed crimson.

^Whatever entered your body induced massive excitotoxicity. Your neurons fired continuously until entering an extended refractory period. Fascinating… the synaptic connections have become completely inactive, yet the neurons themselves remain alive. Under normal biological circumstances… that should be impossible.^

Young Aether stared blankly.

“English.”

^Right…^

The holograms disappeared.

^Imagine your memories are books inside a library.^

She paused.

^The books still exist… but every door leading to them has been locked. The memories weren’t destroyed. Your emotions weren’t erased. They simply… cannot be accessed anymore.^

She hesitated.

^Actually… “locked” isn’t entirely correct either. They’re still there… they’re just… inactive? Suppressed? Dormant? Cannot be accessed? This doesn’t match any known neurological disorder. Honestly… this is beyond modern medicine.^

Young Aether stopped listening.

Only one sentence echoed inside his mind.

Someone… Locked… My memories?