Aether quickly rushed outside, watching as around him, islands started to fall. The screams echoed through the sky as people died from the fall. Leaving for their essence to be absorbed. Even if they held believers, the tower had broken its rules. It consumed everything.

Just so it could survive. Even if it had been born to help humanity survive, it had defined its own purpose and killed every single person. They were all gone...

’Damn... if I hadn’t told Kade and Lucien to leave... they would have died." Aether watched the now hollow sky in front of him, feeling the weight of something missing. He did feel a little guilty... but he shouldn’t, he had no reason to be sorry. After all, everyone knew what was going to happen, but not when.

The only reason he felt this was that he wasn’t able to save anyone else; he was the only one who had survived. But how was he supposed to know that all the islands were going to drop and only the main one would remain? It was a complete coincidence.

...

’But what now?’ He was technically stuck. Not actually, after all, he could jump, but at the same time, if he jumped, and Erosion was too much for him to handle, he might faint and be crushed by the island... well, actually, that wasn’t really plausible with how much energy it had devoured... still, who knows what was going to happen while he was not awake? And if Kade and Lucien didn’t come to save him, he could easily be killed. Even after all his training, Erosion was not a skill to mess with; he wasn’t able to always stay awake. The last time, for example, when he had to do something like this, the sky put him to sleep, and if the Abyss wasn’t there to protect them, he would have been dead.

Using Erosion while the main island was falling was a way better idea; that way, he didn’t have to worry about being crushed by anything from above, which was good to know. Plus, he would rather fall with the island than alone. And it was true that if he used Erosion while falling with the island, it could be the same outcome... so really, it was time to come and tell the truth. He was not going to die; he had Erosion, but even with Erosion, he definitely wasn’t immune to fear. It was frightening, after all, with how many things that could go wrong, how could he not be scared?

Ironic, isn’t it, since he had jumped from things higher up in the sky. But those were out of necessity; this wasn’t.

So was he just going to wait? But if he did, he was probably going to have to wait a while, after all, the tower had just gotten a lot of food.

’No...’

Aether turned back towards the tower.

This thing has already betrayed its creator and the people it cherished so much before. Everyone and everything it knew were gone... so what reason did it have to live anymore? After all, at the moment, the only ones still here. No one else. Who would even care if it was gone anymore? It didn’t care that they were going to die, so why should he?

Well, at least he thinks that it did care, after all, towers aren’t usually that expressive in expressing their emotions. How the heck was he supposed to know if a building was sad or didn’t mind the deaths it caused?

Aether summoned Voidpiercer, the grip brushing against his fingers, devouring little bits of the skin on his fingers. To think that he would have this blade for so long now. It made him wonder what would have happened if he had never entered Frozen Crown; would he ever be here where he was today?

Not only would he not have gained that much sync so quickly, but he wouldn’t have Voidpiercer, or the relic he had gotten from the Queen, which allowed him to trick people, and was the only reason the rebellion existed.

Plus, he would have never had the confidence to challenge that Reader Titan book he had done with his rebellion. And neither did he think he would have survived until then. After all, he wasn’t the strongest before he got Voidpiercer, and with his sync was still low. And his Rank also, it was definitely not going to be the same as how he did it in the current timeline, where he entered Frozen Crown.

Without the rebellion, who knows what he would have been, but what he did know was that there was a good chance that he would have died in one of the books he would have tried so that he could reach his trial. Plus, even if his trial wasn’t that bad, if it wasn’t near the Titan level, he doubted he was going to be able to complete it either way. It might seem as if the strong have it the hard way, after all, the two books he had challenged in the present would be harder than any of the other books he would have instead of the two. But at the same time, he wouldn’t have been as strong, I wouldn’t have all the equipment, and so it was going to be a lot harder to clear an easy mission. Even if he had been stronger, it might have looked like an adult trying to kill some small bugs.

So much would have changed if he had not entered Frozen Crown.

Aether smiled... who would have thought that he would be proud of that place?

He gripped his blade, going inside the tower... and thrusted his blade into the crystal.

[You have killed a Reader Titan, Devourer of Islands] Aether stared at the message... but if he though about it, it made sense, after all, with how many people it had killed, there was no way its rank wouldn’t be absurdly high with how many islands it had devoured. But still, this marked his second Reader Titan, whom he had killed. It was pretty interesting, but also just not normally possible. Well, nothing is technically impossible, just highly implausible. The only things that are truly never going to happen are those times, as time doesn’t wait for anyone. Or those where you don’t have a say in, like falling when you’re in the sky, it’s impossible to stay in the air, of course, if you don’t have time to prepare, which again, leads to how time really does have a big influence in if something is impossible of it.

’But wait... should I be running?’

The ground started to shake beneath him, Aether curshed, as he rushed out of the tower, watching as it started to fall, and it wasn’t the only one falling, the island was going down with him.

...

...

...

"Aether is still not back... do you think something happened to him?" Lucien asked Kade, who was unnaturally quiet at the moment, it was true, that he hadn’t been here before; he had only recently joined them, even if it felt like an eternity. He didn’t know the boy very well, but enough to know that at the moment, he was acting very out of place.

Kade sighed. "I... don’t know. I really want to think that he is fine, after spending so much time behind him, I know what he is capable of, he is built for survival, but at the same time, I’m scared of what Stormfell has got to offer... I wanted to go to him... to be sure that I can help him if something happens..." He turned to Lucien. "Do you think I said the wrong thing?"

Lucien’s eyes widened before grabbing his chin in thought. "It’s hard for me to say, after all, I’ve known Aether for even less time than I’ve known you. I don’t know him as well as you know him, so if you don’t know. Then I really have no idea."

He sighed. "But I guess I could say my opinion."

Turning to look at the islands, he stared with a bit of worry in his eyes.

"Aether is a very mysterious guy. I feel like he’s hiding so much from us. Yet at the same time, I don’t think he does it to hurt us. Plus, the whole thing with his strength, while not being a Will user. Sure, I have heard of the sword styles that were able to challenge the Will users, but even then, they failed, and the Will users have only gotten stronger. People forgot about the styles for a reason. And yet here he was."

...

"I feel like for Aether... you asking to help him, and insisting on doing so, was an insult."

Kade’s eyes widened. "I mean, I get why you would want to help him just like he helped you... But you know him, do you think he’s the type of guy who needs help, or that asks for help whenever he does something? Since I see the opposite, someone who likes doing everything alone. So when his own student asked to help, he felt insulted."

Kade started with his jaw open, before he let out a small giggle, "I guess you’re right-"

But before he could finish, the ground began to shake.

...

And to their terror, the city had begun to fall.