[You have killed a Reader Fragment, Clone.]

[You have killed a Reader Fragment, Clone.]

'This is... getting exhausting.' It has been a while since this first started, a week or so, and he has been attacked nonstop. He had gotten some shards, but still, he didn't have the endurance to fight constantly. Not even in Frozen Crown did he fight endlessly.

He was still just a fifteen-year-old boy.

...

'Fifteen?'

It was time for the weight on his shoulder to catch up to him. He had never thought much about it, but he was three years away from becoming an adult. And yet, he felt like he did nothing but try and survive until now.

Six years...

'Six whole years, didn't even realize until now.'

It was weird thinking that he had close to living for half of his life living in this place. It would have never been expected that this day, he turned nine, that it would be his last birthday, really.

He has aged, but never celebrated it again, ever.

It made him think what it would be like when he finally goes back, would he ever be able to adapt, to remember his old ways? I mean... in this story, he had the opportunity to do something similar to that, and yet, instead of falling into pleasure like the others, he was suspicious of the world.

Would that also be the case when he got Home, would he even consider it...

His home?

The Withered wasn't a great place, and he hated it with all his heart, and yet... at the same time, it had made him stronger; who he was today, it had trained him to see the real world, to not be deceived.

Like a caring mother he used to have.

She was harsh, but she taught him many things.

...

And yet he had forgotten her name, the name of the woman who gave birth to him.

...

Actually, he didn't remember any of the names of his past life, not even his father's or sister's... just his own.

And yet, if he was challenged to say the name he learned in Frozen Crown or The Withered, he wouldn't even budge to say the all. And it wasn't like it was because they had happened recently.

But because they are imprinted in his mind.

How could he forget the names of those who had suffered with him?

...

A Godspawn, and now a titan, for someone like him to even dare do this was unheard of.

But why?

He also wondered this sometimes... yet he knew very well why, it was the same answer he would have given six years ago when he got trapped. He had changed a lot in these years, yet there were parts that remained.

That day, he had smiled, a fake smile full of confusion, but now, he didn't need to fake it. At least, not as much.

'I will burn the Blue Rose for the inside... the whole of the Serathia Kingdom at that.

Revenge was what drove him to do everything, his desperation to get back at those who had wronged him; it was what made him who he was, what made him make all the decisions he has made, both the good and the bad.

What comes after was unimportant; he was going to shape his own future, and his revenge would be the main show.

This was just one of the many steps....

Aether looked back with the corner of his eye, seeing two more priests approaching.

...

...

A paradise is never without a cost; a true place without any flaw doesn't exist. And if he had to prove that, he was going to become its flaw.

He walked through the streets, and the black steel of his blade scraped the ground. Making a shrieking sound, red blood flowed down on it, leaving a trail of blood through the streets. On his hand rested a crest, yet, for the first time in this paradise, there was...

no light.

The crest had turned completely black, and people ran as they saw him, while some gave him disgusted looks. Not even his own party wanted to see him anymore, but he understood them. After all, they didn't know what kind of world they were living in.

He looked up at the sky, the sun was gone, replaced by a gigantic red eye; the sky was completely dark, like it was covered with shadows. Speaking of those little creatures, they danced around him like they had always existed. The buildings were made out of bones and flesh, with skin placed on the roads. The fountains from bone had blood flowing from them, with the statue made out of human flesh and organs.

The green hills were burned, with the trees red and long in the sky, but with no leaves.

This was the true world they had been living inside. Not even he had been able to see this until now, until he had gone against the world, what was considered right, and chose to do what was wrong.

He now understood why the priest had sent his clones to kill him. To silence him so no one saw the true world. Yet, the most frightening of them all was how from everyone's crest, a faint glow came up, flowing towards the Sanctum, specifically the Heartforge.

There were many theories in his mind, but he couldn't prove any of them, and neither could he choose which one was more possible than the others, so he decided to leave it be. He couldn't investigate it either way. It wasn't the same for him; his mark had no light, so nothing happened, and no one would let him look at their crest; they were scared of him, and good thing that they were; it should be that way.

The only thing he could do was investigate the Heartforge itself, but it was probably not going to happen any time soon; he doubted he could beat all the guards. And he had to do something, because he was probably walking the same path his character had taken. He had his light low enough to see the castle when he first entered, so the original character would have also found the same things.

He had to change the ending, but how, when he was walking on the same path as the original character, and he didn't know what to do to get more information...

... his earring, it was something only he had, maybe he could find a way to use it, to change the ending of the book... but what would get him a high grade...

'I will destroy and reshape the Kingdom to my will, I will become its villain but also its hero.'

Kinda ironic, how he spoke about his dream of becoming a hero as a child, and here he was, planning to do exactly that. Well, he had to do the exact opposite at first, but his day was going to come.

Even if he wouldn't be the hero he read about in books, one who is righteous.

It hadn't happened before, for his past to manipulate his decisions, but he wasn't against letting this be the first.

'Let's see how much my essence can hold up.'

...

How do you destroy a paradise with false memories? It wasn't the same as doing it in a place like the Withered, that was a place that was already broken; he just worsened its tears. This kingdom... had been living in the same system for years, decades maybe, who knows. A simple memory wouldn't be able to break the will of those who have served their whole lives like this.

Even if you show the truth, letting go is easier said than done.

The things you wish to forget are the ones that stick with you until the end. He knew this best, after all, there were many things he wanted to forget about, and yet, not even now, as much as he tried, he had yet to forget them.

Walking through the crowd of people, he covered his mark, and because there was no light glowing through his cloak, it was completely hidden, making it so those who didn't look, those who didn't pay attention to him, didn't notice that his crest was completely dark.

He was trying to examine the behaviour of others, finding flaws in their facades, that he could use them to corrupt the Kingdom, one by one, at least for now.

Yet as he was doing that, he noticed someone, a normal man, yet, looking at his mark, the light inside was almost gone. From time to time, he noticed him looking in the sky, following his gaze, he was looking at the castle.

There were more like him who had decided that they wanted to see the truth. Then, were they also followed by priest clones?

But more importantly, they knew more about the world, and while he was never part of the system since he was already shown the truth when he entered, they had once been part of it.

They must know a way to bring it down.

...

'This is going to take a while.'

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