Chapter 383: Frozen Wonderland
Aether stared at the sky, his arm extended almost as if he was trying to grasp the moon, as he played with some grass between his fingers, letting it fall onto his face. It was night, and yet he was not tired at all... After walking all day yesterday, he was still wide awake. Maybe it was the fact that he was sleeping on the ground, near a small fire.
Sena made it; it surprised him that she knew so much about survival, not that it mattered to him; he wasn’t going to be cold with his mantle, so he didn’t need it. But it was relaxing, hearing it burn in his ear.
His first day in the Wonderland had been... pretty underwhelming, maybe because of how much harder it is to find stories; that was where the Infinite Library was so much better, but at the same time, or maybe because it felt too close to Stormfell, and he had gotten too used to it.
It was still amazing, beautiful, but he wasn’t looking for beauty.
...
Yet... as beautiful as it was, he felt something was terribly wrong.
...
When he had first heard about the Wonderland, he thought its name reminded him of something, but he couldn’t remember what, after all, with all he had been through, remembering every small thing was almost impossible. He hadn’t thought much of it, just continued to wait for summer to come. But he had spent some time trying to remember where he had heard it from.
He knew he wasn’t making stuff up; he knew he had heard of it, but he just couldn’t figure it out...
That was until now.
He had been thinking of his time in Frozen Crown; he couldn’t believe just how much time had passed since; it felt unreal: Avrie, Elpis, Azel, he... remember them. He wanted to say miss, but that word didn’t fit right anymore. After all, with how many deaths he’s had to say, if he missed every single person, he would be a mess... ’Well... that was just the me before the end of Demon of Dread.’
Frozen Crown was a complete mystery to this day. Nothing about it made sense. It was filled with things he didn’t understand: a Godspawn book that took place in their world, one with the Codex, and with the Gods. A book that had the power to take his Affinity and Path and give him another.
One where the Abyss, Praise, and everyone else existed, yet it felt as if only Praise was still fighting back against the Abyss; all the other Gods, even if he knew they were alive, never did anything, only Praise.
How did the people there even ascend? The Infinite Library didn’t exist, and at the same time, so did that mean the events took place before the Gods gave it to humanity, but if so, where did Frozen Crown exactly fit in the history of the world?
What happened?
Was there a battle? Between the Gods... and it resulted in the Abyss winning and freezing the world? But why? And what made it weirder was that the description of Frozen Crown didn’t make it seem like a way, or anything like that.
Another mystery was his own blade, Voidpiercer. He had no idea what the blade was. How it existed, not even a Godspawn book knew it had existed; it was as if something had placed it inside for him, to guide him, but how did that make sense? How would he have known he would enter it, and more importantly, how?
Thinking of it, he had been pulled to it... so was he meant to enter it? Was it fate?
There were so many questions about just this one Book, and yet there was no answer to any of them. And now one of the many mysteries was coming back.
At the end, when he had finished the book, when the Codex examined his doings, it had said something that... made no sense to him at that time. Something that was just... confusing. But at the same time, important enough for the Codex to note.
...
’You have let the Wonderland merge with the real world....’
There it was... the place he remembered the Wonderland from... but what did this mean?
Was the Wonderland... the same as the one the Codex talked about? But if that was true, didn’t that mean that it had come before the Infinite Library? But wasn’t it supposed to be a substitute for Seekers for that very same Library? It made no sense.
How could it have been created to replace something that came after it?
And just what the heck did it mean by it merging with the real world!
...
You are usually able to make a vague idea of what the original story was supposed to be like, but in Frozen Crown, he had no idea. The only thing he knew was that the Queen was never meant to die. That was something he had done differently. But if that was so... then his killing it and letting the World live again let the Wonderland merge. But why?
’I desire eternity,’ the Queen said to the figure. With his eyes filled with darkness and shadows, it stared at her with a wicked smile on its face. "Very well, may the evil of the world be eternal...’ That was the description of Frozen Crown... and to this day it made no sense. Even more now. Was it Wonderland the evil, was humanity the evil... what was the evil? And why did the Queen truly desire eternity?
...
And something that he only wanted to admit now... the Queen from Frozen Crown... seemed awfully similar to the woman he had seen all the way before his master had died, when the Abyss had taken him over, and he tried to get home, the time had frozen, and he had seen this Queen, saying for him to come home... ’She had also called me Promise Child, the Path I gained with Voidpiercer...’ And the pain that came after it was close to the one he had felt that day.
But it made no sense. If Frozen Crown was really related to her, what did it mean? He knew that Frozen Crown took place in the real world, and the Queen hadn’t died in the original story... so what was she still alive? But then why was he the Abyss’s Vessel, and not her?
And how did she know about the Promise Child path? He had only gained it after touching Voidpiercer, a blade that she had no idea about and didn’t exist in the original story.
...
’Nothing makes sense. If giving back time to the world let the Wonderland merge with the world, how was it not merged now, after all they have had time for ages now? And yet nothing has happened. He wasn’t even sure if they had really had time frozen, as much as he wanted to believe it; Frozen Crown made no sense; it couldn’t have actually existed.
And yet, it wasn’t the first time something that wasn’t meant to exist... well, existed. He had just talked about his blade.
He knew too little of the world, and it was annoying, really annoying, because he felt as if he also knew things the world didn’t know. There was a big chance that Frozen Crown was something, a period, that wasn’t documented, a time no one knows about but him, who knows what danger was inside and was warning them, but at the same time, that he hadn’t noticed, or just couldn’t know of because of his lack of knowledge.
And he had tried getting information in the Academy, in the library, but there was nothing inside about the past; the King and his people had really worked hard to cover up everything about the past.
And the older nobles didn’t want to talk to him, and it wasn’t just because he was from the Withered, because they were hiding something.
...
It reminded him of someone who knew a lot, yet never told him anything. His own blade.
Voidpiercer knew a lot, but he couldn’t tell him anything, because of its creator... but who was its creator? Wasn’t he supposed to be its master? Shouldn’t it listen to him? And more importantly, its creator- how had it put it inside Frozen Crown, inside a book?
...
Aether sighed, putting his hand over his face, looking at the sky through the cracks of his fingers.
’This is why I stay away from Frozen Crown and all its mysteries; I just come to the same conclusion over and over again, that I know nothing, and get frustrated...’
The world was filled with mysteries... And as much as he hated it, they weren’t going to reveal themselves to him; he wouldn’t learn everything about the Abyss and everything else if he just stood still; he had to keep going forward.
Even if he had no clue where.
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