Archive of Our Own ^beta

aether holds his sword firmly in his palms. the sweat and blood covering his palm is not helping. he uses all he has left in him and lunges forward, trying to slash through the abyss lector in front of him. but aether barely leaves a cut on him. he grunts in frustration. he wants to give up aether knows he isn't able to hold up much longer; he would have avoided this whole fight if he had a choice. heavily wounded from another battle a week ago, aether has yet to fully recover when he unexpectedly got caught by the abyss lector fourty five minutes ago.

aether is breathless and his head is starting to spin. he starts to see double and the lector can tell that aether is not seeing things clearly from the amount of times he missed and failed to make a proper slash with his sword.

“traveller, your time has finally come,” the lector's voice rings through aether's ears.

“you wish to find lumine, that i know. and today i will bring your dead body back to her and you will be reunited”

as the tension of the fight rises, paimon's anxiety rises as well. she is scared. she is helpless. aether is losing the fight and at this rate, she might even lose him too. there is nothing she could do, no one she could turn to for help, nobod-

a face flashes across paimon's mind. xiao!
paimon remembers the adeptus telling them that should they need him, they'd simply have to call his name. usually, paimon would have hesitated. as careless as she is, she knows that xiao is a busy man and she would rather not bother him for trivial matters. but this was definitely not trivial. aether was at the point of coughing up blood; he cannot even stand upright anymore.

“please, if you are there, xiao!” paimon tries.
“XIAOOO” paimon tries again.

aether realises what paimon is trying to do and immediately calls out to her, “paimon don't!” he pants. “don't bother xiao with-”

“you called,” a familiar voice sounds.

in front of aether stands a figure that aether recognised all too well. xiao's back faced toward him, shielding him away from the enemy.

“xiao you-” aether's words were soon cut off when xiao pushes him away from the abyss lector.

aether falls to the floor, fatigue suddenly catching up to him. he tries to pick himself up again, but the strength in him is simply gone. he could only watch as xiao rained plunging attacks after plunging attacks on the poor abyss lector. he finally stops after the lector drops to the ground motionless.

“xiao,” aether starts off.
“im sorry, i really didnt mean to bother you with this,”

xiao says nothing, but shakes his head. you would assume that the yaksha was unhappy from his silence, but there is softness in his eyes that no one has ever seen before. no one, except for aether at this very moment.

“go,” xiao's voice is low.

aether looks at him in a confused manner.

“im not done with this guy yet.” xiao stands up and plunges his spear into the ground firmly. “he'll get up anytime soon, so go now,”

“we can leave together, just leave this guy be,” aether protests.

but it was all too late when aether's eyes widen in shock as he watches the shadow behind xiao emerge larger; the lector is indeed getting up from the ground.

aether tries to warn xiao. he shouts xiao's name. but the abyss lector has already struck lightning through the yaksha's chest.

xiao's eyes widen in pain and shock. he hits the ground with his spear one more time, and the flooring beneath aether's feet start to crack. with no time to react, aether could only free fall through the gap down below until his wind glider deploys automatically. paimon could only grab onto aether and go with him. aether stares blankly at the sight above him. he sees xiao falling to his knees as he tries to support his weight while holding onto his spear. aether's mind is blank. he doesnt know what he is supposed to do, what he is supposed to feel. the only thing running through his mind now is that one split second before xiao broke through the ground for their escape. all that is mind is replaying, is the smile that xiao wore on his face while he says his last words to aether. a smile so genuine, he thought he would never, ever, see xiao make such an expression. the only thing aether could hear in his head now is xiao's last words before he sent them falling through the ground:
“you fool, hurry up and go,”