Prince of The Abyss

Night had come.

Aether sighed, throwing the last canister away while wiping the sweat off his face. He had finished pouring all the gasoline; it wasn’t enough to get to all the houses, the village was too big for that, but it was definitely going to make a fire big enough to get to them. It had enough stuff to burn.

He had also moved Maeve far away; she had been confused since he hadn’t told her about his plan. He didn’t have a reason for not telling her; he just didn’t. If she asked, she would have, but she hadn’t.

The only thing remaining was for him to light it. But... with what? Well... as funny as it was, they used... lanterns to light things up. It was better than torches, since at least they were kept in a small box and couldn’t really burn anything.

That is, if someone didn’t intentionally use them to light a fire.

Walking over to his house, Aether picked up one of the lanterns, staring right into its flame, before opening it. He smiled before throwing it into the gasoline.

Fire burst out, making him step back as it quickly started spreading. "Well, that’s my sign to quickly get out." He said, smirking as he ran far away from the fire, where he had left Maeve.

Getting to the woman, she looked really worried; after all, it wasn’t hard to see the fire from here. He had left her on top of a small mountain, or hill rather, one that didn’t have any trees around it, but was big enough to see the outcome...

’Wow...’ He thought, staring at the raging fire.

"Did... you do that?" She said, afraid.

Aether nodded. "There’s nothing to worry about, trust me." He winked before an explosion happened back at the village, big enough for the shockwave to get to them.

His eyes widened. "Did not expect that..."

[You have changed the ending of "Failed Harvest"... your reward will be granted soon... do you wish to leave now, or see the epilogue of the world you created?]

"Yes," Aether said. Seeing him, the women followed him.

Only to stagger once the world started to disappear around them. As white enveloped them, Maeve started to panic, getting close to Aether, who chuckled. "Calm down; this is probably the safest place on earth; nothing will happen here. This is the place where you get your sync."

The woman nervously giggled, but it was clear she still wasn’t fully calm.

[Measuring the amount of sync given]

...

...

[You have let the monster haunting the Village live]

[You have personally destroyed all the crops in the village and brought doom to the village]

[You have burned down everything in the village]

[You have killed every person in the village.]

...

[You have... Authored a Reader Echo book... You shall be rewarded with 0 sync.]

Aether stuck his tongue out. He had failed to get the Canonized rank, which broke his streak; he was annoyed, but not mad. He had no idea what else he was supposed to do to get it, so he knew that more time would probably not have helped. After all, outside of destroying everything, he had no idea what he was supposed to do to get a good rank while also not destroying everything.

’Plus, I would have gotten 0 sync either way.’ Looking at Maeve, she looked shocked, but also, her eyes seemed to sparkle...

She smiled. "... We... really did it... I gained sync... and an Ability."

Aether chuckled; he knew that for her, it didn’t matter what rank they had gotten. "Cool, isn’t it?..." He stopped, realizing something. "Wait, you gained an Ability?"

The woman turned to him, nodding. "I did... is it rare?"

Aether crossed his arms. "At your sync? Yeah..." If he did his math right, she should be at thirteen sync, so getting an ability so early was rare... even if he had gotten his at nine, but that was not the point.

It was impressive... and he was happy for her.

"Did you get anything?" Aether shook his head. "You don’t know? If you are a class or above the class of the book, you don’t get any sync." Was this really not known throughout the Withered... well, thinking of it, it made sense. He knew it because of his master; she was a Seeker, so she knew.

But because of how rare Seekers are, of course the people of the Withered would not know, since you have to ascend to know or be told by someone who ascended.

...

...

Arriving back in the Library, Aether saw Maeve’s son, looking around the place. Aether chuckled as he saw him, which made the boy instantly turn to them, holding four notes in his hands.

Walking up to him, Aether knelt down a bit. "Can I see them?" The boy quickly nodded. He had no way to tell if he had gotten them all, so this moment mattered a lot for the small boy.

"Looks like you’re still missing one. But don’t worry, you will have more chances, alright?" He said, grabbing the boy by his cheek.

Getting back up, he turned to Maeve. "How do you feel?" She smiled, turning to him. "I... feel good. Though at the same time, this all feels... a bit sudden."

"Do you want to take a break? Maybe we can start again after your child’s birthday comes." He said, resting against some shelves of books.

She sighed, relieved. "Yes... that would be amazing."

’A break it is... I don’t mind it... I get to rest a bit... and I do need to do something.’ He turned towards the boy, who was still trying to find the last note. ’I can’t come to a birthday party without a gift, can I?’

He was going to have to look around for a gift for the boy... the only thing was that he had no idea what he liked. And he didn’t want to ask Maeve, since she would just say that he didn’t have to.

’Who do I know that is good with kids...?’