He... was alone. Again.

Aether sighed, walking through the night. He had almost forgotten how it felt to truly have no one around him. This hollow feeling, hearing only your footsteps, reminded him of his past. When Avrie and Elpis died, and he had to go to the Second Ring and fight alone, how similar was his situation right now?

Well, pretty different. Both Lucien and Kade were still alive, but not with him anymore; they had decided not to follow him.

While the reason was different, the outcome was the same.

He stopped walking for a second... at that moment, there was silence, for a long time, it was silence. If he had stopped like this before, he would have been questioned on why they were stopping all of a sudden.

But now, there was no one to ask.

’It was the right decision, I had already put them in too much danger, plus, I don’t want them to die... not again. I’m tired of watching the one I care about die. And if I’m the reason it happens, then I want them as far away from me as they can get.’

No matter if that detached him even more from society.

’In the end, whether they come with them or not, I will get the last shard, and go to the Tides, if they came with me, and I know that they would not have let me go alone, and there was a high chance they died there.’

...

’It’s better this way... I can handle it by myself.’

But could he? Was it the first time he had actually doubted himself about this whole plan? Could he really take the Tides on and fight in the war alone? Sure, he wasn’t truly alone; there were others, without Kade and Lucien, which was what he meant.

When it came to surviving a dangerous situation, he might be better than both of them, after all, he has been doing it for almost half of his life, but the enemies he would be fighting aren’t Reader-ranked; some might actually be Harbinger, even. And this time, he didn’t have Praise to heal him, Voidpiercers’ poison to kill his enemies, or his Promise Child to help the poison do more damage.

This time, he was really going to be a Reader fighting battles against people much stronger than him. So could he even help? After all, he needed help himself when fighting a Reader Titan, and also back when he found the first shard, a minotaur that beast, which was a lower rank than the Orc King.

’Either if I can help or not, it’s not like I have a chance, I have to go, no matter what. To get out of the trial, I have to have some impact on the story; only then will the Codex consider that I was the one to make the ending, and if this war definitely has great importance to the story.’

But before that, he needed to find all the shards, and if he had to say, he needed one more.

After all, he had gotten the third.

Aether clenched the blade, which cut his palm, making it bleed.

He only had the lower part of the rapier’s blade, unfortunate, but the blade had been shattered into two pieces, or at least he hoped it was two pieces, for all he knew, he still had five shards left, but if he had to say, there was most probably, and he was almost certain of it, only one shard left.

The silver-white blade retained an almost unnatural beauty, so flawless that it barely resembled forged steel at all. It made him wonder what material it was made out of, maybe if Lucien were here, he would have known... either way, it was one specific from this world, one that they didn’t have back in his world; he would have known it if there were any in the real world.

Its surface reflected light softly, not with the cold gleam of a weapon, but with the quiet radiance of polished marble beneath moonlight. It was a blade crafted with great precision; the blacksmith had put a great effort into making it. It was sad to see it broken off, but it wasn’t going to be long until he got the last piece... after all, now that he was alone, he could push himself to reach the last shard fast, without having to worry about anyone else.

Still, the blade was growing to be as beautiful as he had imagined back when he got the first shard... though, none of the pieces were relics, which made him think the blade itself wasn’t going to be a relic, which was sad. Maybe he would have been able to use it. Of course, Voidpiercer was going to be hard to replace, after all, even if it was only a Seeker class, which was enough for him now, even as a Seeker, it was enough for most. But what was great about it was the amount of its abilities, even if most he couldn’t use, only when fighting someone with a God’s influence, it was still a great blade to have, and who knew, maybe the time for its other abilities will come.

...

After all, he still wished to get his revenge on someone.

Faint veins of white gold flowed through the center of the blade in delicate branching patterns, resembling frozen feathers trapped beneath crystal.

And yet, the most unsettling part was where it ended.

The fracture was impossibly smooth.

Not chipped. Not shattered.

Just... absent. It made him wonder just how it had been broken, after all, if he were asked, he would have though that it had been broken in battle, while fighting with all its honor in the war, but now, it made more sense that its master had been defeated, and it had been shattered in another way, how, he really did not know, and neither did he have any way of getting to know.

The upper half, including the elegant tip meant to complete the rapier’s slender form, was completely missing, leaving behind only this incomplete fragment. It was unusable for now. You could fight with it, after all, the sides were still sharp, and you could try to stab with the end of the blade, but it was highly impractical, and you would probably lose most, if not all, battles with it.

Near the broken edge, traces of pale blue shimmered beneath the surface of the metal, moving slowly like distant currents beneath frozen water. The closer those lights drifted toward the fracture, the brighter they became, as if something within the blade was endlessly reaching toward the half it had lost.

’How sad, it wishes so much to be complete.’

Even incomplete, the rapier radiated overwhelming elegance.

No ordinary weapon could carry such presence while reduced to ruin.

And strangely enough, despite existing as only half a blade, he felt as if it would still be sold for a lot of money and be put on display in a museum. After all, with its beauty, there was no way you could neglect it.

Aether got the other parts and watched as the blade magically fused with the other two.

Slashing with it, he remarked that it was quite fast, though rapiers are fast. Though, of course, slashing with one... wasn’t such a great thing, which again was why the blade was so impractical at the moment, for a rapier, the tip is the most important part of it.

’Still... not bad. The blade is thinner than Voidpiercer, and the material is also a lot lighter. It’s like I’m not holding anything in my hand. It’s really fast, which is great... but I prefer Voidpiercer, I feel, even if the material is hard to break, it still has a high chance because of how thin it is, plus, you have to have more precision.’ He chuckled. ’And even if its design was beautiful, it’s not my thing.’

Aether put the blade back in his backpack.

When separating from Kade and Lucien, he had taken one sleeping bag, the backpack, and three hundred embers. He didn’t get all the money because he knew that Kade and Lucien still needed money to survive, and he didn’t want them to start from scratch. He had also given Kade his boat... in case he wanted to go home.

After all, his goal was to get strong enough to be able to gain money and provide for his family. And he had done just that, alongside the money he had, he had also gained the ability to kill, plus, he had Lucien with him, whose home was gone. So he could take him with him, and Lucien could help him with getting money, after all, the magician was in no way weak.

Aether took out his compass and sighed, as it looked like he was not close. He had been walking for a while, and he thought that maybe he was going to be lucky and this time the shard would be close.

But no.

...

He still had some days to go...

Days that will be pretty quiet now.

...that he was alone.