Chapter 1635: "Blood should be paid by blood!"
Very Next Day,
Ssshhh~
The portals shimmered open across the skies of the Pyra Empire, tearing through the clouds like burning wounds.
"The invaders have appeared!! Get ready for battle!"
ROAAAARRRRR!!!
The deafening cries of monstrous creatures echoed across the battlefield as thousands of soldiers rushed toward the defensive walls.
Two Days Later,
Ssshhh~
Another portal opened.
This time, the air itself distorted above the Zephyra Empire.
"The fluctuation of energy has been identified near the Second 25! All divisions, move immediately!"
Three Days Later,
Ssshhhh~
Like that... an entire week passed beneath endless chaos and bloodshed.
Within those seven days, the Terra Empire launched four separate invasions against the Empires.
Yet unlike the first overwhelming attack, this time their forces appeared in fragments instead of descending everywhere at once.
It was obvious they had changed their strategy.
They were being cautious.
Rather than sacrificing enormous numbers of soldiers recklessly, they had begun sending smaller forces toward different Empires one after another, slowly testing defences while adapting to every battlefield.
With the help of Vesperine, every Empire managed to prepare for battle without delay. Communication lines remained active day and night.
Even then, exhaustion had already begun consuming everyone.
Victor and the others barely had time to rest.
Meetings replaced sleep.
Strategy replaced laughter.
The pressure hanging over the Empires felt suffocating, as if the sky itself had become heavier.
Every single day turned into the same brutal cycle.
Battling.
Training.
Preparing.
Surviving.
The soldiers trained endlessly with the gun artifacts, learning how to stabilise their aim, conserve energy, and fire accurately under pressure.
Many soldiers collapsed from exhaustion before dawn even arrived.
Still... the situation remained terrifying.
Unlike the other Empires, the Terra Empire possessed a completely different time flow. That single advantage made the war horrifying beyond imagination.
People had barely recovered from one invasion before another began.
Citizens prayed every night with trembling hands while families slept beside emergency shelters, afraid the portals would appear again before sunrise.
According to the recordings after the second war initiation, one month in their world was equal to one entire year within the Terra Empire.
Which meant...
One single day here was approximately equal to twelve days there.
And that truth changed everything.
"They have more time than we do," Aether muttered quietly. "More time to recover... more time to adapt... more time to create new strategies."
His voice carried exhaustion rather than panic.
Inside the study room of the Naiadae Empire, silence lingered heavily between the group.
Aether sat across from Sera, Aqualina, and Aria while countless reports covered the massive table between them. Some documents were stained with blood, others marked with casualty numbers and destroyed territories.
The faint blue light from the crystal lamps illuminated their tired faces.
None of them looked rested.
"We suffered heavy losses during the last wave," Aqualina finally spoke. She slowly lowered another report onto the table before continuing,
"The casualties have risen to three hundred and fifty."
Aqualina turned toward Aria, whose pale expression already revealed the answer before she even spoke.
Aria exhaled tiredly and rubbed her eyes.
"Our side wasn’t spared either," she said softly. "One hundred and twenty-two casualties confirmed so far..."
Sera leaned back in silence while Aether stared at the casualty reports spread before him.
Every new invasion increased the number of deaths.
Every battle became harder than the last.
And worst of all...
Those metallic figures were evolving.
Learning from every single encounter.
"It won’t be long before the death toll passes one thousand..." Sera said grimly as her eyes remained fixed on the predicted numbers written across the report.
The projected casualties for the next week alone were enough to make her fingers tremble slightly.
It felt as though those invaders were slowly chipping away at them piece by piece instead of launching a complete massacre immediately.
Or perhaps...
They were waiting.
Waiting for that person to appear again.
The one who had destroyed thousands of their soldiers with a single spear.
They were being cautious now.
Aqualina quietly added, "There have also been reports of memory loss incidents again. It seems the other side is trying to gather information once more."
As she spoke, she pushed several victim reports toward Aether.
The papers slid across the table softly.
Meanwhile, Aether simply stared at the documents with an indifferent expression. His eyes scanned the pages, yet it almost looked as though his mind was somewhere far away.
The others noticed it immediately, but none of them disturbed him. Instead, they continued the discussion among themselves in low, serious voices.
"Has there still been no appearance of Terra’s Arcane King or Arcane Queen?" Aqualina asked calmly, though a cold sharpness lingered beneath her tone.
Aria slowly shook her head.
"No," she answered. "I personally observed several battlefields. There hasn’t been a single trace of them appearing anywhere."
Sera crossed her arms and leaned back slightly.
"Indeed. There hasn’t been any incident involving the spear since the last encounter, either." Her brows furrowed slightly.
"Could it be they abandoned the mission?"
"Hard to say..." Aqualina muttered quietly while biting her lower lip in frustration.
A moment later, she pulled another report from the pile.
"What about the artifacts? How many units have already been used?"
She glanced at the numbers before continuing.
"Out of the two million units we received... approximately five thousand have already been consumed."
Sera and Aria immediately raised their brows.
"That many?" Aria asked in disbelief.
"Why so much already?" Sera added with a frown.
After all, compared to the Naiadae Empire, the Aurora Empire had only used around one thousand five hundred units, while the Zephyra Empire had consumed barely one thousand.
Aqualina let out a tired sigh before rubbing her temple.
"Well... how should I put this..." she muttered awkwardly. "Our soldiers’ shoulder aim is... slightly inaccurate."
The room turned silent for a second.
Even Sera looked speechless.
Most of the energy beams had been wasted because the soldiers still struggled to properly adapt to the gun artifacts.
In theory, the weapons looked simple enough. Pull the trigger and fire.
Yet reality proved otherwise.
The recoil, positioning, timing, and precision were far more difficult during actual combat, especially against fast-moving enemies with the same guns, too.
Who would have thought using those strange weapons would become this hard?
Unlike the Zephyra Empire, whose armies were filled with elite archers trained since childhood, many of the other Empires lacked that level of natural accuracy.
The Zephyra soldiers rarely missed.
Every beam struck exactly where it was intended to.
However...
That wasn’t even the worst problem anymore.
Aqualina’s expression darkened further.
"There’s another issue," she said quietly. "Before, a single shot was enough to create a hole through their metal bodies."
Her fingers tightened around the report.
"But now... it takes at least four or five shots to inflict the same damage."
The moment those words fell, complete silence consumed the room.
Just as the Empires were adapting to the battlefield...
Those metallic figures were adapting as well.
Faster and more efficiently.
The monsters they had captured and modified to fight against the invaders were already beginning to lose effectiveness after only a single week.
One week.
A single fucking week!
Everyone’s expressions slowly turned grim.
At this rate, it wouldn’t take long before the gun artifacts became useless again.
And if that happened...
They would return to zero.
No defenses.
No advantage.
No way to stop the invasion.
And when that moment arrived...
Another nightmare would begin.
A cold shiver ran down everyone’s spine, leaving behind a bitter sensation in their throats as if they had swallowed something sour.
If only... Arcane energies still existed inside the barrier.
If only those metallic figures had appeared outside the barriers instead of directly within their territories.
If only...
Those words now sounded like distant fantasies that could never be reached again.
Sera finally broke the silence.
"What about Void?" she asked while lifting her gaze toward Aria. "They brought an entire container filled with artifact weapons, didn’t they?"
Aria exhaled slowly before nodding.
"From what I heard from Nyx," she began, "Void was attacked once during the past week as well."
"It seems the situation was eventually brought under control, but there weren’t any detailed reports regarding casualties." She paused briefly. "The only confirmed information was that Mary personally forced the invaders to retreat."
Everyone quietly hummed in response.
Yet none of them looked relieved.
Honestly...
For the first time, many of them had begun wondering something terrifying.
Even with overwhelming power...
Could they truly win against those things?
If even Void was struggling to hold them back, then what hope did the others have?
The question lingered heavily inside everyone’s mind.
Were the people of Terra truly that terrifying?
Was that the reason the ancient world had once collapsed into chaos beneath their invasion?
Humans without Arcane energy...
Humans without Magic...
Yet somehow, they had nearly placed all Five Empires beneath their feet.
If someone had spoken such nonsense before the war began, everyone in this room would have laughed without hesitation.
"Humans without Arcane energy could destroy us?"
"What kind of daylight dream is that?"
But now...
Nobody could laugh anymore.
The reality standing before them was too cruel.
Finally, Aqualina cleared her throat softly before turning toward the one person who had remained mostly silent throughout the discussion.
"Aether..." she called carefully. "We need to negotiate with them."
Aether slowly lifted his gaze from the table.
For a brief moment, silence lingered between them.
Then he frowned slightly.
"Negotiate?" he repeated quietly before letting out a cold, humourless laugh.
"You really think that’s possible?"
"They are hell-bent on destroying our lands. They want to take everything from us. There is no negotiation."
His ice blue eyes darkened further.
"And even if there was..." his voice dropped lower, colder, "I would fucking annihilate half their Empire first."
A heavy silence followed immediately.
Even the air inside the room felt frozen.
Sera, Aria, and Aqualina instinctively swallowed as they stared at him quietly.
They knew something inside Aether had changed.
No...
Perhaps it was more accurate to say something inside him had broken.
He wanted revenge.
Not politics.
Not diplomacy.
Blood for blood.
Soul for soul.
And honestly...
None of them could blame him for it.
He was a ruler too.
He had watched his people die.
Watched cities burn.
Watched fear consume the eyes of countless innocents.
Yet despite understanding his anger, reality remained merciless.
At this rate, it wouldn’t take long before the Empires collapsed completely.
The casualties continued rising every single day.
And once the armed soldiers died...
Who would stand on the front lines next?
Civilians?
Children?
Ordinary people who didn’t even know how to hold a weapon properly?
And if they died too...
Then what would remain?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing!
Everyone bit their lips uneasily while exchanging worried glances with one another.
Something was going wrong with their husband.
Ever since the second wave of the war began, it felt as though something deep inside Aether had snapped apart completely.
Through their connection with him, they could feel it clearly.
That hatred.
That terrifying hatred.
It wasn’t ordinary anger anymore. It felt violent, suffocating, endless... as if he wanted to burn the entire world alive with his own hands.
As if he wanted to drown the lands beneath oceans of blood and crushed flesh until nothing remained standing.
And that was what frightened them the most.
Why were they feeling this from him?
Why?
No matter what hardships Aether faced in the past, he had always maintained control over his emotions. Even during despair, he smiled calmly and carried the burden alone.
Yet now...
That control was slowly disappearing.
The worst part was that they had already tried speaking with him several times during the past week. Sometimes they managed to calm him down and pull him back from those dark thoughts.
But the moment another invasion began...
The moment more soldiers returned carrying corpses and destruction...
It was as though everything reset again.
As though something inside Aether kept breaking further every single day.
Aqualina quietly took a deep breath before gently holding his hand across the table.
"Aether..." she called softly.
"It’s alright, okay? We’ll keep fighting until the very end." She squeezed his hand lightly, trying to soothe whatever storm was raging inside his chest.
"I’m only saying we should prepare ourselves for the worst possible outcome."
Her expression weakened slightly.
"Even Void, despite still possessing Arcane energies, is struggling against them. I only meant... just in case things don’t go as we expect."
For a brief second, Aether’s eyes turned frighteningly black.
"So you’re saying we should give up?"
The temperature inside the room seemed to drop instantly.
Aqualina quickly shook her head.
"That’s not what I meant," she replied softly. "I said we should be prepared if things stop going according to our expectations."
Aether stared at her without blinking.
"And what if they don’t?" he asked quietly.
His voice sounded disturbingly calm.
No anger.
No shouting.
That calmness alone made everyone uneasy.
Aqualina opened her mouth slightly, yet no words came out immediately.
Then suddenly...
"Then surrender."
It was Sera who answered.
Her lips trembled slightly after saying those words.
She stared directly at Aether with a painful expression, forcing herself not to look away.
If things truly reached the point where survival became impossible...
Then surrender was the only option left.
Sera hated the idea.
Absolutely hated it.
More than anyone, she never wanted Aether to suffer through such despair ever again.
NEVER!
But...
What other choice would remain if the Empires completely collapsed?
If possible, she took him away and hid from the world.
She couldn’t care less what happens to the rest!
For her, he was the god! Seeing his breaking apart because of it... How could she control herself?
The moment those words left her mouth, the atmosphere changed violently.
"Oi..."
Aether’s voice echoed softly through the room.
"What did you just say?"
BOOM.
An immense pressure suddenly descended upon the table like a mountain crashing down upon them.
The crystal lamps trembled violently.
Documents scattered across the floor as a dark aura spread from Aether’s body.
Everyone froze instantly.
His eyes...
They had turned completely black.
Like an endless void swallowing light itself.
Surrender?
After everything that had happened?
After watching countless people die?
After watching the unborn dead in his hand?
After fucking losing everything?
He had to kneel before those bastards?
Before those motherfuckers?
Sera instinctively flinched backwards.
For the first time since meeting him...
She felt Aether’s killing intent directed towards... her?
"How dare you say those words while sitting before me?"
His cold voice sent chills crawling through everyone’s spine as he slammed his hand on the table.
Nobody dared speak.
Nobody even dared breathe too loudly.
The women stared at him in shock.
Because for the very first time...
Aether looked at them not with warmth or love...
But as though they were enemies.
And that had never happened before.
Never.
The gentle smile they loved so much had completely disappeared.
Everyone’s hearts trembled as they found themselves unable to even look directly at his face.
The pressure pouring from Aether felt suffocating.
It was cold.
Violent.
Unfamiliar.
And unbeknownst to all of them...
A sly voice suddenly echoed behind Aether’s right ear, whispering softly like a devil hiding within the darkness.
"That’s it..."
"That is how a Supreme Ruler should act."
The voice chuckled quietly.
"You should never bow before anyone."
"You should never allow others to dictate your actions."
"Blood should be paid by blood!"
A cold grin seemed to curl around those words.
"You are... the Emperor."
"The one and only Emperor~"
Aether’s right eye flickered violently as the whispers echoed through his mind again and again.
Suddenly, an illusionary black armoured hand slowly emerged behind him.
The fingers crawled upward from the back of his head before sliding across his face like living shadows. Dark metallic fingertips slowly covered part of his vision as though something was trying to consume him completely.
As if trying to drag him deeper into the darkness inside his heart.
As if-
SLAP!!
The sharp sound echoed throughout the room.
Aether’s head jerked toward the side as a stinging sensation spread across his right cheek.
His ice-blue eyes flickered violently before gradually returning to normal.
The darkness inside them faded little by little.
Slowly, he turned his head back.
And there she stood.
Sera.
Tears shimmered within her eyes while her trembling hand remained half-raised from the slap.
Yet the pain on her face looked far greater than the pain she had caused him.
"I..." her voice cracked softly, "I love my Aether."
Those words entered his ears gently.
Painfully.
Warmly.
Sera slowly reached forward and touched his reddened cheek with trembling fingers, caressing it carefully as though afraid he would break apart completely if she used too much force.
At that exact moment, it felt as though icy water had been poured over Aether’s mind.
The whispers vanished instantly.
The illusionary armoured hand shattered into darkness before disappearing completely.
Aether blinked slowly.
Confusion filled his expression.
Before he even realised what he was doing, he suddenly pulled Sera tightly into his arms.
"I..." his voice sounded hoarse and shaken,
"I’m sorry, dear."
The words left him quietly while guilt clouded his face.
Meanwhile...
Far within the depths of his mind...
An annoyed voice clicked its tongue in irritation.
"Tsk."
