Chapter 341: Reunion With the Dead
A world built on humans denying their own death, that was what the Tides were, a place after death, where people could ’live’ as if they never died in the first place. If you were to ask anyone in this place if they were alive, most would answer yes. It was rare to see anyone accept their own death.
Ironic, when only those who don’t try to live can have a chance to get their lives back. The Trial, a tower that the City of the Drowned had been built around, was the only way that he knew to get back to layer 0. To enter, you must have a Will to live strong enough to challenge the world. But it’s highly dangerous, as if you enter, you either get back to the real world or fail and lose your will, completely becoming a hollow shell.
Most just... end themselves, seeing no reason why they should continue living in a hell like the Tides.
Living in this place was in no way easy.
Monsters were all over the place, and they weren’t weak; no, most were really strong, stronger than most could ever get to in their lifetime. Plus, there were many in the City too; it was impossible to kick them out, but since they didn’t want to destroy anything, just kill humans, the people of the Tides learned to live with them; they just needed to survive. The City itself wasn’t in danger; they were.
...
But that has changed.
The monsters were after the City to destroy it, their reason no one knew; it just suddenly happened, as if something had commanded it, and if you were to think of it, there was a big chance that someone had really done so.
And who else than the Demon of Dread, the ruler of the Tides, the evil of the world. The one that caused everything to happen.
It’s because of him monsters started to appear in the real world, and because of him humanity was fighting against their extinction, and losing the war with each year, even with people being born with Wills to fight against the monsters, there were too many, too strong.
The only advantage humans had was that if they died, they could come back through the trial. This was probably the reason for the attacks on the City. The Demon of Dread wanted to eliminate the safety net of humanity.
...
"Though if you were to think about it, he has to have a reason for why he wants to do it now, right?" Lucien said, after hearing Aether’s explanation.
Aether glanced at the boy, thinking about it.
He was right... If he just wanted to eliminate the safety net, it wouldn’t make sense why now, why hadn’t he done it way before, when he first saw that humanity had started to take advantage of it?
There was a reason, and the most plausible answer would be an attack... the Demon of Dread wanted to end the war; he was going to eliminate the trial, attack the real world, and kill every human in the real world, taking them all into the Tides without a way to get out.
And really, it was pretty genius, since after so much time, humanity has gotten used to having the trial, a second chance. It’s in their nature to fight with risk, because they know they can just come back. And it’d take a lot of time to change, time the Demon of Dread would not give them.
Kade leaned towards Aether. "Do you think all of this is somehow connected to you, on your arrival to our world?"
Aether grabbed his chin, shaking his head.
"I can enter two types of worlds, one with an ending already created, which I have to change, and another with no ending, and I have to create one.
If this were the first case, it would make sense, since I would enter at the time of all the conflicts happening. But your world doesn’t have an ending; it falls in the second case... plus, I entered your world a while ago, this might just be how things would have naturally played out. Nothing related to my coming."
Aether explained while they passed through the gate of the City... yet a guard stopped them.
"Hey, I remember you, the two eye color freak!... Wait, how are you here? I’m sure I saw you enter a good time ago, and I definitely know that you haven’t left since. So, how are you outside again? And who are these guys?" He said, glancing at Kade and Lucien.
Aether chuckled, looking at the guard who had welcomed him the first time he arrived in the Tides. "Well, I cleared the Trial and went back to the real world, but then I died again." He stuck out his tongue. "And these two are my friends."
The guard’s eyes widened, impressed. "I see, well, I would say good to see you again, but that would mean I’m happy that you died again, so I’ll just stick to hello."
Aether chuckled. "How’s Abygail?"
The guard scoffed. "She’s just like before, she hasn’t changed a bit since the last time I saw you. The war hasn’t seemed to affect her at all. Aether smiled then fell, as he remembered the war. "Has it affected you?"
The guard groaned. "Of course it has, don’t you see that now only one guard is at the gate, the other guy was killed. And no one else wants to take the role; everyone wants to join the army and fight against the monsters instead of standing by a gate all day."
Aether hadn’t noticed it before, but it was true, the other guard was in fact gone... with how things have been going so far, he would have forgotten that there was a war, but there was, and there were consequences. It was something that no one in the Tides could deny; there was a war, and they could really die, forever.
Waving goodbye to the guard, Aether entered alongside the magician and Kade.
"Weird guy," Lucien said. And Kade replied. "Really weird."
"You will get used to it... Well, visit the Inn, that way we can get somewhere to sleep, then we’ll see where we can get some information about the army, to join and fight. And I think there’s someone at the Inn who might know, and it’s quite good that she’s a good friend of mine."
...
The Inn, it had not changed one bit, it was still probably the best kept building in the whole city, probably all thanks to Abygail, that woman would never let her home fall, probably because it wasn’t just her home, it was the home of all people in the Tides, an Anchor for most, including her.
...How long has it been since he last talked about Anchors? It felt like an eternity; he almost forgot how it worked. He wondered if his Anchor had changed at all, now that he had gotten to a party with Kade and Lucien... Probably, but not because of them.
"Inn inside the Tides? Could they have been more uninspired?" Lucien said, a bit disappointed, which surprised Kade. "I think it’s quite good, simple, and it doesn’t make you think and try to figure out what it is.
Lucien rolled his eyes. "But that’s the whole fun part."
Aether sighed, not getting into their conversation, and before they could ask him on which side he was, he opened the door.
...
’This really feels like a second home.’ He smiled, since the place was as full as before, it really seemed as if it had not been affected at all by the war; it was good to see... a hollow atmosphere would never match the Inn.
He stood in the doorway for a good minute before someone saw him.
"Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that Aether in the flesh and bones?"
Then the whole Inn stopped, which was a bit embarrassing for him. But the silence was never going to last. As the whole Inn started to cheer. "What are you doing here, boy? Didn’t you clear the Trial?" One of the questions. "It doesn’t matter why, just come here and drink." One said, wrapping his arms around his shoulder, trying to take him to a table, but before he could, a woman’s voice stopped him.
"Let the boy go, you know he was never fond of drinking, plus, I think it’s obvious why he’s here. To protect his friend, right?" Abygail chuckled while cleaning the inside of a glass.
Aether looked over at Kade and Lucien, waving for them to come in.
"And looks like he brought friends." The women chuckled, watching as men approached the two boys, dragging them to their tables, and putting drinks in front of them.
Aether sighed while laughing, walking over to Abygail.
"And here I was scared this place would have been affected by the war."
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