Prince of The Abyss

Aether was sitting on the bed, his feet were still shaking from the shock, and he couldn’t concentrate one bit.

It was too much of a revelation he had just heard, one that made him rethink his whole plan.

He had called him his favourite Fool. And while it seemed to be just a joke, it wasn’t; he knew that very well.

J. did seem like a joker, but he was still a professional researcher, someone who, with his team, was able to unfreeze time.

The note was intended for him, and the other one had been too. All this time.

He had written it for The Fool.

But who was The Fool?

Well, he, of course, but before him. Was the person he took over The Fool, that would make the most sense. But in the note, he spoke to the person that was reading it, him, The Fool, like they knew each other, like they had been working together.

But what did that mean exactly?

If he had taken over the body of a researcher, why didn’t he have a room in the dormitory?

And what did he mean by having a way of bending the impossible?

Actually, if he thought about it, hadn’t he actually done that with the bridge?

It had been impossible for it to have ended up here, and yet it did.

Also, if he was always meant to find the notes, did that also happen in the original story?

Then, if he continued, wouldn’t his work lead to nothing in the end?

He had to change the ending, not follow it!

...

...

He didn’t know what to do. But he had to make a decision.

He got up from his bed and chuckled, leaving the room behind him.

But it also felt like leaving a part of himself with it.

”When have I ever cared about making my future self’s life easier?”

To the observation well, it was.

It wasn’t hard to find, as there weren’t many rooms.

When the doors opened, he found himself in a circular chamber, where the researchers had done their work.

A huge domed glass ceiling looked up into the bridge’s spine, now, though, it was coated in a thick crust of ice.

Beneath the dome was a circular desk, big enough for all the researchers to have their own space where they could note their research.

There were many tubes, broken and empty, which now snow and frost cling to. But there was a faint, unsettling warmth coming from them.

But of course, the most important thing in the room was a scorching black sun, big enough to almost reach the glass ceiling.

It was burning, and very intensely, and yet he couldn’t feel heat coming from it; there was even ice growing near it.

It was almost as if it was trying to burn something else.

But if he looked closer, it seemed as if it was on its last strach, of course, that stretch was probably going to be for another hundred of years, but it was dying.

But while he was examining the sun, he saw something else.

A pointy hat.

”What the...”

There was a petite woman near it, wearing a white coat just like his, just that for her it looked to be twice her size, but it did make her violet hair stick out more.

She also had a pair of goggles that masked her crimson eyes.

”And you kept your hat, really, Avrie?”

He smiled, finding her attire amusing, but his smile quickly vanished, replaced by a frown when he saw who was standing next to her.

It was a proud knight, one who looked to be taken from one of the fairy tales he had read as a child. He had that protective and honorable aura.

His silver hair looked to be graced by the gods, and looking into his eyes, you could see his whole story as if he wasn’t scared to show anything.

”Elpis.”

He was happy to see that Avrie had survived, but he wouldn’t have minded Elpis dying in the process.

Maybe he should have asked him to jump first and then do it himself.

And as much as he wanted to blab around on how he killed a harbinger, he doubted that they would ever believe him.

Aether walked to them, his footsteps echoing and catching their attention.

He approached Avrie, who, even after seeing him, was still too caught up with the sun.

”The time you came.”

Aether chuckled at her comment, thinking of how little they knew about what had happened.

”Yeah, yeah, sorry. So, what’s this?”

She glanced at his, her eyes sparkling with excitement at his question. He was very surprised to see her in such a state.

”This... this is a miracle!”

He tilted his head, not fully understanding what would make it a miracle. It was just a sun... alright, maybe it was a little fascinating.

But he wouldn’t call it a miracle, as much as he wanted to, because his mind kept going back to the first note and what it said.

’Don’t stare at the sun for too long...’

He squinted his eyes in suspicion, but he let Avrie continue; he didn’t want to ruin her fun.

”This thing is able to unfreeze time! Do you get what that means? If we learn how to do one ourselves, but on a larger scale, we’ll be able to make time move again!”

Aether raised his brows, and a big grin was born on his face at that thought. If they were able to achieve that, he would be able to get home.

”So, do you think you can do it? Create a sun to fight whatever has frozen the world.”

Avrie grabbed her chin, looking at the artificial sun with a deep hunger burning inside her; her hand almost moved to touch it, but didn’t.

”I’m not sure, it follows the same principle as how I create my cores, but I don’t have the knowledge on how to do it on such a larger scale. The update log didn’t say.”

’So they already found it... Well, great.’

But he was salty he didn’t get to read it, it would have probably talked about this principle.

”We’ll find a way. But I think it’s good if you tell me how this thing works, how to create a core.”

She blinked a couple of times, not quite getting what he meant, but her face reddened when she finally realized that she had never told him the process.

”O-Oh yeah, well it’s quite simple. Everything in this world has a core; that’s how they exist. But their cores only have themselves, only the threads; they don’t have essence. So, to give an object that essence, you have to use the blood, usually, of someone with it, and connect the threads to it.”

Aether paid close attention to her words, not interrupting her once. The information that he was getting was interesting and important.

This kind of thing was unheard of in the future, and to see it be called a simple thing was funny.

But it was actually a simple thing, though he never knew that in a core, the affinity was the essence, and the user the threads. He thought it was the other way around.

But it made sense, since there’s already a core before the affinity, it makes sense that the affinity is the essence, and you part the threads, because you and your body were the host for the affinity, just like the threads are for the essence, after all.

”Now, when it came to the cores I created for my cat, and Elpis, it’s a little different. I had to give essence to an object and put it inside the body of whom I wanted to give the essence to. If I were able to control the threads of humans, it would have been easier, but sadly, I cannot.”

Aether raised his hand, not quite understanding something.

”So you just put it inside? Don’t you have to connect the threads, just like for the object?”

Avrie shook her head.

”No, the human core and its threads do it themselves; it’s the same for when we get our affinites, they do it themselves. Now, of course, for a human, the object has to be imbued with a lot more of my blood to work, since we have more threads and need more essence.”

Now that he knew the truth, he got an idea of why the poor girl was so small; she was constantly feeding her blood to her experiments.

But now that he had gotten what he wanted, his suspicions only grew.

If Avrie had needed a ton of blood to create a core for a human, what would be needed for a sun to bring back time?

Acually, if he thought about it, wasn’t the sun itself the core?

That would be the only way for it to be able to make a whole zone where time is working.

So it had probably needed quite a lot of essence... but how much and how?

Well, he had an answer.

The forest was able to create its core from devouring humans, meaning that the researchers, too, had probably sacrificed a human life for their work.

’Don’t stare at the sun for too long... that has a whole new meaning now.’