Walking to the Withered... made him regret signing up to be a knight. Why couldn’t he just take his father’s company and live his life? After all, he was a pretty high-ranking noble in the Blue Rose; he could have lived a good life, an easy one. But no, he had pride; he had to do something by himself, and more importantly, something that would serve his kingdom.

He groaned, but his higher-up noticed, giving him a disapproving look.

Stiffening, he quickly looked away. He and some of the other guards have been given a job inside the Withered, to clean up all the marks the Rebellion had left on the walls, and the Abyss too... since apparently it had also appeared... he only knew this because he heard the King eavesdrop.... but hey, the King probably didn’t mind it that much, he had to have known he was listening, a Wall won’t stop a Breaker from noticing if someone was around.

Though still, even if they weren’t doing anything serious, he was still a Reader, and most of the others on this mission were also, even the one who was here to supervise them; he was a newborn Seeker, and young, younger than him.

Well, that actually was a plus, young and a Seeker, lucky him...

But still, he had heard many stories of the Withered, and none were fun... plus the rain was really annoying, he had to say.

How did people live in these conditions... though living might be a bit too much for this place.

And to make it worse, the looks he got from the people terrified him; it was clear they didn’t want them here. But at the same time, they knew they could never go against the Blue Rose; they knew what would happen, after all, the Second Rebellion still lingered in their mind, even now.

... Though to his surprise, nothing really happened, heck, they had reached the last mark left by the Abyss, and still nothing. It was located in a really small alleyway that just led to a dead end. Nothing special, so he just let the other, not entering himself, though it wasn’t such a big deal, he could reach them in three seconds maximum.

Though watching his people clean the marks with a special relic, a person approached him.

"Spare change?" He stared at the small child. If it had been any other person asking, he wouldn’t have, but how could he say no to a child? Well, the more probable went to his parents, who most definitely had put him up to this, but still. So he gave him ten bronze Blue Rose coins, enough for him.

...

Yet, when he went to check back on the others....

...

They... were all dead. And in the middle of all the dead bodies stood some teenager... he looked weird... he had never seen many Withered people, but he definitely looked nothing like one.

He had this... blonde hair, and a pair of beautiful blue eyes... he looked more like a prince than anything...

... But then they suddenly made eye contact.

"Shit!" He said running away for a while... but looking back, the boy... hadn’t followed him?

...

...

...

Enlightenment is the point where an awakened has reached the maximum amount of sync; it was considered the most powerful state of an awakened at that class. Most knew this; he doubted there was more than 1% that didn’t know this.

However, there was another point that was more unknown.

Rebirth.

After an awakened finishes their trial of salvation, and ascends, the moment they get back into the real world, they aren’t fully adapted to their body, and their powers... so for a short time, they enter a state, where their mind and thoughts are slowed down, and their insticts take over, that way, if they are in a dangerous position, they could surive.

...

Aether tilted his head slightly, almost feeling it fall down. Why were so many people here... and why were they all staring at him...

He... was back into the real world... the Withered... and by what it seemed... these were... guards.

...

Danger.

...

He instinctively summoned his blade, dashing forward with a speed so great that the first pair of guards couldn’t even react, as their heads got cut off... He stared for a second at his rapier... he had actually cut something with it... interesting.

And his speed... it was insane, he had never thought he would be this fast... he didn’t really know how to compare it, but he was even stronger than when he was in full darkness, and by a lot. So the difference between his speed now and as a Reader without the darkness... was quite noticeable.

The other guards, seeing him, staggered, trying to run away.

...

It would be a hassle to run after them.

...

’You have gained the ability to manifest your affinity,’ Aether repeated something that the Codex had told him.

Then raised his left arm, Abyssal matter appearing from his fingertips, and piercing the back of the guards who had run away.

Only one remained, one that had stayed, and not run away.

...

Normally, a battle between newborn Seekers would last and be quite hard... However, this time there was a big difference... one was in their Rebirth state... and on top of that, the Aether rank... was beyond the rank that any Seeker had had when they awakened.

... It was far less exciting than anticipated. Aether let Voidpiercer fall back into his arm calmly. Though that was when he saw another guard... he was already far away, and started running the moment their eyes met...

It would be tiring to run after him. So he just let him run away.

...

...

...

After the danger was gone, the Rebirth process was finally finalized, Aether regaining full consciousness.

He blinked twice, staring at his surroundings.

’Huh?!"

...

...

Resting on his throne, the King sighed. He hadn’t had anything interesting in a while. The war had been going in their favour, but at the moment it was on a standby, because some recent weird reports with the Wonderland. Iris has been caught with her Academy life, and his son was busy trying to find his truth; he had nothing to do. But this was the fate of a King, he couldn’t do anything a normal Reader can do.

Though as he was dying from boredom, a guard ran to him.

"Y-your majesty!" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The King tilted his head, confused. "What is it, and who are you?" He said, frowning.

"I’m sorry to intrude, I’m just a lowly guard, I shouldn’t have, but its very important, me and some other guards had been sent to clean up the Withered from all the marks remaining from the Rebellion... and the Abyss, but as we were about to take care of the last, all the others im my squad were killed while I wasn’t looking."

The King scoffed... what a story. There were some options when it came to it. There may actually be a killer inside the Withered, but there had been few, plus, there was a seeker on that team; the killer would have to be above that, which was beyond rare in the Withered, after all, not even the Abyss had reached that point yet.

And the other option was that this guard might have found a way to betray and kill his team.

Though he was going to hear him out. Maybe he was wrong.

"And how did this killer look... did you see his face?" The King said, uninterested.

The guard nodded fast, knowing the King probably didn’t believe him. And he had every right not to do so, after all, he was just a lowly guard. "Y-yes, sir... he had blonde hair, and blue eyes, he also looked quite young, around the same age as your daughter, your highness."

...

The King’s eyes lit up for a second... then fell. "Alright, I will take care of it, leave."

The guard didn’t waste a second, rushing out.

...

After hearing the door close...

A wicked smile appeared on his face.

"Well, look at that, who would have thought... I definitely didn’t expect you to survive your battle with Lilith, even more after the boy told me what he did to you... But I guess I should have expected it from you... Aether Moiroi, it’s not the first time.

The King stood off from his throne, his boredom from earlier completely forgotten; he was entertained, really entertained.

He walked over to his giant window, staring at the city from his castle.

"And if I had to guess, you have also... ascended. Since you were able to kill a Seeker... though, by what it seemed, you were able to win in a very short time... terrifying, truly.

But when has the Abyss not been a monster?"

...

Though with everything going on inside the Wonderland, was it the right decision to try to kill him away?

He could take a risk...

...

...

Was taming the Abyss possible?