Secret Nemesis | Aether x Reader

XVIII

“Who in the world-” the herald grumbled to himself as he summoned a portal behind him after looking at you with a glare. “After I finish this, I’ll come back to get you and you will regret every single thing that you did.”

A smile replacing the frown you had before, his threats suddenly didn’t matter to you anymore. Aether’s existence was all that mattered to you. He was alright and that was all that you needed to know. You could die happy now. After all, you had kept your promise and done your part. You had protected him.

~~~~~

Enemies coming after him one after another, Aether summoned white and golden wings that lifted him into the sky. Following him up, Paimon started at him starstruck and confused about how he could fly.

“How-” Paimon questioned, confused with what was going on.

“I regained my old powers and memories,” Aether explained to Paimon with an excited smile. “Let’s go rescue y/n and save my sister now.”

Confident with his newfound abilities, Aether flew towards the castle with Paimon tailing after him. A golden sword similar to one that Lumine had fought him with appeared in his hands. Looking like a powerful guardian, Aether shone with power and radiated the energy that had blasted all around the Abyss.

“Wait for me y/n,” Aether whispered to himself as he pushed himself to fly faster, Paimon somehow easily keeping up with his gradually increasing speed. “I’ll save you.”

Hands tightly holding his blade, he swung it full force towards the wind barrier that he had vaguely remembered was there. A golden light the height of a three story building appearing from his slash, the once invisible wind barrier could be seen as it was broken and a pathway towards the castle opened up. Making his wings disappear in a quick flash of light, Aether fell down and plunged as save himself from possibly getting injured.

Now running, Aether could feel the presence of a growing number of enemies surrounding him. Calling anemo energy from him, he jumped up and summoned a tornado two times larger than the past anemo tornados he had summoned before. As the wind from the tornado swirled around in rapid succession, enemies left and right got sucked into it.

Aether continued on his path as the tornado distracted a good number of enemies. The moment he made it to the wall of the castle, he stomped his foot to the ground and a powerful thundering noise came as a meteor of geo energy fell on the wall breaking part of it before disappearing into light particles.

“Y/n!” He shouted in hopes of you hearing him and possibly replying.

After hearing nothing, Aether spread his power throughout the castle in hopes of at least feeling some form of your presence. After a while of waiting, he suddenly felt a spark of familiar power that emitted from below him. Without a doubt, he recognized that power as yours.

Sword in both hands, he pushed the sword down with full strength as he stabbed the ground. Cracks of golden light appeared from the floor and they continued to grow until the place that he was standing on fell down in pieces. Expecting the fall, he summoned his wings to get some stability before slowly descending to the basement of the castle. Cells for prisons appearing in his view one after another, he immediately recognized you chained to the wall in one of the cells.

Running to you as anger filled his heart, he instantly broke the cell with his blade. Right after, he broke the chains that forcibly held you up. Looking at your body that was blemished with dirt and marks from the chains, the traveler clenched his fists. 

How in the world could he have let this happen to you?

“Thanks, Aether,” you leaned against the wall as you could feel your body aching from the chains and the discomfort that you had gone through. 

“I’m sorry,” Aether whispered tearfully as he continued to look at how soiled you looked.

Softly smiling at him, you placed your hand on his cheek, “Don’t worry about it Aether. I did this because I wanted to save you. Don’t blame yourself for my decision.”

“But-”

Placing a finger over his lips, you continued, “If you really want to apologize, let’s get out of here after saving Lumine and get some good food. I expect you to treat me to some top-quality food.”

Laughing as he wiped a small tear that had escaped his eye, he nodded, “Ok let’s do that.”

Out of the blue, you felt the familiar presence of the herald from before and summoned your claymore to your hands. Lifting up the heavy sword, you slashed downward putting your weight into the attack. As a result, a fairly powerful strike of icicles appeared in sequence just as a portal had appeared.

With a large aura blasting all the icicles that you had summoned to the side, the herald who fumed with anger appeared from the portal. The sharp-nailed hands of the herald clenched into a fist as he ran towards you to enact revenge for attacking him the moment he had entered the room.

Aether immediately reacting pulled up his sword to block the hit of the herald. Fist and sword hit each other as there was a silent battle of trying to overpower the other. Auras releasing and relapsing all around the room, the two continued to glare at each other in communication of who would win the attack.

The two let out one other burst of energy that pushed each other back.

“Aether,” both you and Paimon shouted in unison worried about the traveler.

Raising his arm, the herald summoned portals that progressively grew in number around the basement. Hordes of monsters appearing one after another, Aether clicked his tongue wondering how he would be able to fight while protecting you and Paimon.

Looking at his face of frustration, you quickly understood what he was thinking. Smirking, you cracked your knuckles before leaning on your claymore, “Go ahead and fight that herald. You can leave these to me. I may by exhausted but that doesn’t mean I can’t defend myself, I’m strong enough to fight these guys without you worrying. Just focus on fighting that guy.”

Aether smiled at your confidence as he knew that he could trust you. Taking your hand, he let some of his energy flow into you. Feeling the warmth that you had felt earlier, your body started to get lighter and the injuries that you had received from earlier times started to heal. 

“This won’t last forever but it should help,” Aether told you as he summoned his wings to fly up to the sky. “You still have to tell me what you were going to tell me before and I still need a reply to what I wrote to you.”

Chuckling, you took your claymore and focused on the hundreds of enemies in front of you. Feeling the bursting energy in you that strengthened you, you took your claymore and ran forward ready to fight everything head on.