The Women Aether Loves (in Mondstant)

by AmericanTheoristBros

Aether comes back from Inazuma, only to be shocked with a horrific sight: Amber, forcibly deflowered and ruined by hillichurls. Aether, with great regret in his actions, makes sure she won't bear the child of a hillichurl, but gets Amber pregnant with his child. He will express his love for many of the women of Mondstant, as he meets all the women he loves after years.

8. Chapter 8

Okay, so here's chapter 8, this is going to be an action packed ride, so just read on.

Noelle looked at all 5 of us, shyly.

"I'd like to speak to… Aether." She spoke, quietly, a pinkish hue on her cheeks.

'It's been… 2 years since I've seen her, hasn't it?'

I nodded, immediately approaching her, with the consent of the girls next to me.

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?" I was less than a few inches away from her, keeping close to her, as I did all those years ago.

"Um… I wanted to ask you, if we could-"

Before she could finish her sentence, I heard a scream coming from a familiar voice.

"Noelle, save me!" I heard the shrilling scream of a young boy come from the bridge. The nightlife seemed to halt due to the thing in question that the voice. A ruin guard was near the gate, this time, it was on the bridge of the city.

'Wait… that's Timmy!'

Noelle immediately ran towards the voice, and carried her claymore out of its sheath, ready to strike at the ruin guard to protect Timmy. Without thinking, I ran towards Timmy as well, and the rest of the girls followed me behind me, as I chased after Noelle. As we all got closer, the ruin guard no longer looked so antagonistically at Timmy. He found a new target, and the ruin guard turned around, as I got close to the gate, and aimed towards Noelle, who I was catching up on.

'Oh shit.'

Several different rockets escaped from the guard, and I had to back up, as the rockets blasted the ground, some of them aiming towards me, and one of them managed to still hit me, the shrapnel cutting into my right arm. What I was more worried about was Noelle, but I heard her activate her shield, but I quickly escaped the dust cloud piling up under the gate, to try to catch up with Noelle and Timmy.

"Aether?! If you're there, please help Timmy, his leg's broken!" Noelle stood in front of Timmy, and even from the angle I saw her at, her body was on the verge of collapse.

'Noelle… your shield is broken, only seconds after you activate it.'

Her hair, usually prim and proper, lost all of its accessories, and with gash on the side of her head, her head was bleeding heavily from the rocket. I saw her shield all but gone, with her armor now cutting into her own hands and arms. Her entire body was bloody, with every drop of her blood dripping onto the floor of the bridge, and Timmy looking terrified behind her.

"Noelle… you're not okay! You need to retreat, your body is bleeding to the bone right now!" I was genuinely terrified, as was Timmy looking at her just barely standing.

Barbara escaped the cloud of dust, eventually, and made it next to me, as did Jean, Amber, and Eula, and looked at Noelle, equally horrified.

"No, this is alright, I've got to help Timmy and the rest of Favonius after all…"

She seemed on the verge of passing out, as she stood in front of the ruin guard, just about to turn around and finish the job, and kill her and Timmy. The guard clapped, and I immediately knew what it was going to do.

"NO!"

In what must have been seconds, I ducked under the swing of the ruin guard, sliding under its attack, and slicing the right arm of the ruin guard as it tried to attack Noelle. It swung again, its body turning to deliver the second blow, but I was already prepared for its second swing, and cut through the legs of the guard, before it could jump up and do its third attack. It fell to the ground, unable to stand, and I just merely stood up, my legs not giving up on me, and jumped up to slice through the core, and I plunged the iron sting through the entire body of the ruin guard. I ignored the machinery cutting into my flesh, as I removed the blade from the now dead Ruin guard.

I breathed out, my new strength from my connection with the girls giving me power.

"Noelle, are you alright?" I looked back at her, seeing her face. If I thought the back of her was bad, the front was even worse. Her clothes barely covered her body, and her armor looked lodged into her skin, which kept her from bleeding any more from her arms and legs, but which must have put her in agony. She was barely standing, her eyes looking around as if she was dizzy, and couldn't focus, as her eyes were constantly going between closing and jutting open.

"Noelle!" I ran towards her, as she nearly collapsed to the floor, her body being unable to stay up. I heard her breath out heavily, as she looked me in the eyes.

"I'm… sorry. I guess you were right, all those years ago. I wasn't really strong enough."

Noelle closed her eyes, and lost consciousness.

"Noelle? Noelle!" I thought she was dead, but Barbara came up to me and her.

"She'll be alright." She said, as she brought her hands to her. "Her heart's still beating, but she'll need to be moved out of here, fast. So will Timmy." She looked back at him, and while he was still conscious, he clearly couldn't move.

"Okay…" I took a deep breath, as I focused on what I needed to do, and looked at all of the girls, who were looking beyond me. I focused on what they were looking at, and it was 20 more ruin guards, right at the doorsteps of the city. This time, I didn't panic.

"Barbara, can you carry Timmy and Noelle back?"

"Yeah, I can!" She spoke, confidently putting her hands on her hips.

"Okay, I need you to carry both of them back behind the gate, and make sure they're both fine. Heal them as much as you can, but don't strain yourself too much."

"I won't!" She carried Timmy in her arms, as he couldn't walk, as well as Noelle, in her arms.

'I'll give her credit, she's a lot stronger than she looks…' I sweat dropped, as she ran with the two of them behind the gate.

"Eula, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." She dusted herself off, with nothing shown hurting her.

"But… you've got a lot of injuries from taking that blast for us…" Amber looked down at my right arm, my swinging arm.

"It's alright. I can use my left hand to support my blade." I held both hands on the sword. "But Eula, I need you to be able to cut down the ruin guards. Amber, you need to scale up the gate, and serve as support. Shoot the guards once they're incapacitated, like you did a while back."

I looked at Jean.

"Jean… make sure both of them come back alive. Keep the guards away with your gale blade, and make sure they get healed regularly. This will be a hell of a fight, even for you all."

She nodded. "I will."

Eula and Amber also nodded.

"I'm going to go back, and get the guards to close the gate. I don't want them to come back here."

"Yeah, keep the gate closed." Jean turned, facing the many ruin guards in front of us, and pulled out her primordial jade cutter. Amber ran back, with her Elger of the End in her hands.

'Wonder how they got their hands on that…'

Eula stood in front, with her Song of Broken Pines in her hands, which was even more surprising.

'Whatever. I need to get everyone back.'

"Lawrence! Swan! Are you two alright?"

The usually strong knights were pushed to the backs of the gate, terrified.

"Noelle… she took the blast for us… and we merely just stood back…" Swan spoke. Lawrence merely teared up, crying on his knees.

"She'll be alright! You need to protect her, and the rest of the guys here! Understand?! Be the knights of Favonius, protect your people!" I barked at them, a lot harsher than I meant to sound. Regardless, they stood up, and said, "Yes sir!" And jumped back behind the gate.

"Okay, close the gate! Make sure none of the attacks reach the inside!"

They lowered the gate, slowly by slowly, and I noticed that the ruin guards were being chipped off by Eula, with their arms being cut off by her, with Amber above me dealing the final blow to the cores of some of the guards, making the ruin guards collapse.

Then, something clicked.

'Wait… why would someone just send 20 ruin guards to the same place? They should have known that we'd be somewhat prepared for it, even if we were caught by surprise. Why send all that you have in just one day, in the same place, too? Unless…'

Horror struck me, as I knew what their plan was.

I ran off, passing by the now emptied stalls, with Miles yelling at people to evacuate, and I heard an explosion towards where I feared it was. Flora was crouching under a table in fear, as I looked at her, under the table. I gave her a small look, signaling to her that it would be alright, before taking off towards the second entrance. I ran past the dawn winery, now empty of what was a bustling place, with Patton collapsed on the ground.

'No…'

As I came upon the second entrance, I saw the horrible sight. There were 20 more ruin guards in front of me, and they had broken through the gate, to the dawn winery. I saw Hertha, bloodied by the attacks by the ruin guards, and Guy was also collapsed on the ground.

"Huffman! Please come help them!" I screamed, as I saw him running to evacuate people to higher ground.

He saw me, and made sure the remaining people were on higher ground before running toward me.

"What? Honorary knight, what happened here…"

He looked at the sight of the ruin guards, infiltrating the city, one by one.

"The attack on the front…" I looked up in horror, beyond the guards. "That was a decoy. They were staging an attack towards this area all along… to destroy it from the inside. There's less defenses here too…"

The ruin guard noticed me and Huffman, over Patton, and I noticed Shiliu also collapsed under pieces of the building that had fallen onto her.

"Please, someone help me…" She meekly said.

"Huffman, get Patton and Shiliu out of here. I'll get Hertha and Guy."

"But… What are you going to do?" The ruin guard approached me closer and closer, and started immediately swinging at me.

I caught it against my blade, preventing it from moving, then blasted him with the anemo.

"Owww!" I screamed, in pain, as the shards from the rocket blast from the first ruin guard were digging into my flesh more with my power.

"Hey, you need to get help too!" Huffman spoke, looking over the victims behind me.

I merely turned my head, to look back at him tiredly. "I'll get help. I promise."

Then, I gripped my left hand as well as my right onto the blade, and focused on the ruin guard, who recalibrated himself to focus on me, with the other 20 ruin guards following suit.

"But I just need to take down all these guys first. I promise immediately afterward… I'll go to Barbara."

Gripping the blade, I felt the blood sleeping from my wound. I felt the concern from Huffman just from the gaze behind me.

"I understand. Be careful, you're our hero, Aether."

I swallowed, as the memories of everything I've done filled my head. Amber, Eula, Barbara, Jean… all of them, I'd wronged. Mondstant, I had wronged.

"I'm no hero…" I chuckled, as I pushed Huffman away, and jumped back, as the ruin guard clapped in front of me, trying to crush me into meat chunks.

"But I will save this place. On my own grave, this place won't be destroyed!"

I started to spin around, to gain momentum, as I ran towards the first ruin guard. I whipped my body and blade around, two handing it like I was holding a claymore, and cutting through the first ruin guard it collapsed towards the floor with an ungraceful sinking. 19 left.

I spun and ran fast enough to run across the wall and jump high enough to plunge down towards another guard, and continued spinning to slice it up even when the core was destroyed. 18 left.

The spinning carried me towards the next few ruin guards, cutting their legs before delivering a swift cut through three of them. 17, 16, 15 left.

I looked at the second entrance. There was barely enough space to breathe, with every ruin guard taking up a huge amount of space, even with a quarter of them gone. They were all focused on me, about to launch whatever attack they were going to, whether that be a clap, a swing, or a rocket blast.

'I need to clear the space!' Taking one deep breath, and spinning one more time to conger the anemo needed for the whirlwind, I summoned a torrent of wind, which managed to pick up most of the ruin guards, leaving them just in the air, floating and confused with what was happening. I ran up, parkouring from the wall, up the stone walls, and plunging down on some of the carried ruin guards. 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 left.

I could breath in the place, but my gaze was now on the people who were harmed by them, as now, the ruin guards were more scattered around. I heard a child scream, on the other side of the second entrance, and my mind screamed in response.

'That's Arthur! What's he doing out there?! No, no, no!'

I saw one of the guards focusing on Hertha, her blood spilling out onto the stone floors of the entrance way. At that moment, time stopped for me. The ruin guard that was about to pulverize Hertha and the scream of Arthur stopped. But I didn't stop.

I felt anemo, gripping the blade as I did with my two bare, bloodied hands. I'd make the blade, dulling after the amount of work I put it through, into a blade capable of cutting through diamonds, let alone the ruin guards I was facing at that moment. I continued to spin around, the Anemo blast making me spin faster and faster, and I cut through the ruin guard, reducing the machinery to rubble in front of Hertha's body. 4 left.

The momentum carried me as I continued spinning towards the remaining ruin guards, time continuing to halt for me, as the blood also collectively built up as the Anemo pushed my blood away from my arms and into my whirlwind. I jumped upwards, almost dancing, to cut the ruin guard from the bottom to the top, breaking the machine in half, then to fourths, then to eighths, and eventually to pebbles. Every ruin guard that I saw here wouldn't even be seen the next day, that was my goal. 3 left. 2 left.

As I was in the air, I cut down on the last 2, from the 20 ruin guards that were previously there. This time, I carried the momentum forward, jumping and cutting through the second to last ruin guard, before plunging down onto the last ruin guard in front of Arthur. 1 left.

Zero left. All of them were gone, and I merely heard a "H… Huh?" from Arthur, before I collapsed to the ground, my blade holding me as I fell to my knees. The anemo surrounding the blade disappeared, and I felt my heart seize temporarily with time now functioning normally, and my adrenaline wearing off.

I breathed in, the air finally filling my lungs, and my blood rushing out of my body as I painted the ground red, in front of Arthur. I coughed, blood filling my throat as well, as I coughed some of it up.

"Damn… sorry kid."

Arthur merely hugged me, as I was still holding my blade.

"Thank you!" He wailed, crying against my body, squeezing me hard, as if he didn't want me to disappear. I ignored the increased blood pouring out of my body, and merely hugged him with my left hand, not as damaged as my right one.

"Don't worry… I'll be alright. I just wanted you to be alright." I started tearing up, seeing his arm bleeding as well, with his hat nowhere to be seen. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner…"

"You saved me! You were really cool! Maybe you can pull out the rusty sword, and be a hero!" I saw the wonder in his eyes, as he focused on me.

"Haha, maybe…" I chuckled hollowly, my throat threatening to dump out more blood onto the floor. I was fighting hard to not spew it on him, and disgust him, so I faced the floor, pathetically.

"But, no, you're worthy to pull out the blade. Just rest, and one day, you'll be able to pull out that sword, and be an adventurer. Just… don't do the commissions. It's not worth it."

"Thank you, Aether!" He called me by my name, something that was getting more common as time went on.

"You know my name?" I smiled, the blood dripping down my face.

"Yeah, I do! I know you're a hero, and you're an adventurer, like mommy and daddy!"

I smiled, still clutching my body, in case my throat was going to release more blood.

I looked at my own body. My gloves were torn through, shards of machinery cutting through it, my leg armor had many gashes in it, and the sash on my shoulder was torn apart with the machinery cutting through it.

"Thank you… that means a lot." I smiled, not looking at him, so he didn't have some of the blood spill on him from my mouth.

'How many organs did I rupture?'

"Too many!" I heard around me.

'Oh, I'm starting to go crazy, I'm hearing Paimon's voice in my head.'

"Oi! I'm here!" I looked towards the voice, and sure enough, there was Paimon.

"Hey, is that a floating child?!" Arthur spoke, to which Paimon got frustrated, but kept it in as she went to berate me.

"You used my power to stop time! I'm surprised you're even alive, since it's not even Paimon's domain you're using it in!"

"Haha, yay, I'm not going crazy." I laughed heartily, before coughing out more blood towards the floor.

"Your health is literally just one hit point away from you dying! And we've got none of the healing items, so we've got no food for you to feed yourself!"

'Damn it, she's right.'

I felt about to lose consciousness, the blood loss starting to affect me with my muscles being torn as well, before being tapped by someone. I looked up towards the man, and I knew who he was. It was Nantuck, the person I had gotten fishing supplies from.

"Are you alright?"

I resisted the urge to be snarky, and I simply said, "No, I'm really hungry…"

"Not to worry, I've got 3 grilled tiger fish. That should be enough to carry you over to a healer like barbara."

He held the grilled tiger fish in front of me, and I greedily ate it down, as the food filled my stomach.

"You must have pushed yourself to the limit, hero. You had taken down 20 ruin guards. I heard the commotion right away, and I tried to warn people, but the guards were already in the entrance, so I couldn't do anything." He retraced the first one, so I could eat on the second grilled tiger fish, and fill my stomach up more.

"Yeah, I did push myself…" I admitted, as I chomped down on the second grilled tiger fish, and felt the strength filling my body slowly.

"But you did good. You kept yourself safe." I said, finished with the second grilled tiger fish, and he pulled out the third one.

Paimon, from what I saw, had disappeared into the air, leaving just me, Nantuck, and Arthur as the only conscious people.

"But, you saved Mondstant! You did that just now."

I finished the third grilled tiger fish, before crying out, as my tears barely were contained.

"I didn't save anyone!" I cried, my pain releasing out into the world, making both Arthur and Nantuck back up from me. "I couldn't save Hertha, Guy, Patton, Shiliu, Amber, Eula, Jean, Barbara, I couldn't help any of them!" I looked towards the ground, in pain.

"Even Arthur still got hurt… because I didn't know this was happening. Because I was busy having fun in the front, while all this might have been going on, with eating my fill, and smiling, not knowing all this was going on!"

"You can't blame yourself for what you don't know!" Nantuck said.

"Yeah! You helped us when we were hurt!"

"But what if I was a second too late?" I looked at them, my face tainted with my own blood.

"If I was fooling around just a second more, you guys would have gotten killed!" I spoke, to which they seemed intent on listening to me. "I was having a grand old day, getting angry at people who didn't deserve it, yelling, being a pain in the ass, while you all were about to be killed! While Hertha and Guy were fighting for their lives, I was enjoying the nightlife, and eating a meal set for 2 days! What hero does that?! What hero… lets the people he cares about get hurt…"

My head nearly collapsed to the floor, to which Nantuck kept me from falling to the ground, by keeping his hand on my shoulders.

"You didn't let us get hurt. We are alive now. What happened happened, for now. You saved us. And you deserved to be called a hero because you saved us from those ruin guards. But what if nothing. You saved us."

He got to his knee, bowing down to me, and I looked at him strangely.

"I know what the knights always say and do. But there's no knight besides you that could have done what you just did. Mark my words… I bow down to you, and no other Knight of Favonius."

Arthur did the same as well, bowing to me.

"Thank you for protecting us!" He simply said, squeaking his voice as the nervousness got to him I smiled, cupping his cheek softly.

"It's my duty, as an honorary knight, to protect you all."

I felt some of my strength coming back, so, gripping the sword I had, I stood up, wobbly, and turned towards the second entrance, now empty where there used to be so many ruin guards.

"Hey, um… Nantuck, can you please carry Guy? I need to carry Hertha to Barbara, to get her help."

I felt her chest as well as her neck, and thankfully, her heart still was beating. I carried her, and maybe it was thanks to the adrenaline still being there, but she felt as light as a feather to me, and I felt her body warmth, as well as some of her blood dripping onto me. That reassured me that she was alive.

'Got to be careful not to be reckless with carrying her, I don't want her to lose more blood than she already did.'

I looked behind me, seeing Nantuck carrying Guy, despite the armor, with ease. I looked at him, slightly impressed, which he noticed.

"Fishing for quite a while will get you some strength. I've caught some big fish in my days."

I chuckled, before coughing slightly, thankfully, my coughing of blood had lowered.

"Yeah, I can see that. You're pretty strong."

"That means much coming from you, Knight."

I stopped for a second.

"... Knight?"

"Yes. You've done far more than your honorary rank has declared for you. You're a knight at the very least."

I nodded, the confidence filling me for once.

"Thank you." I nodded, swallowing, as a different kind of strength filled me.

I pushed forward, and eventually caught Barbara running down the stairs to come to me, and she noticed me carrying Hertha.

"Is she alright?" I asked of her, as she put her own hands on her, feeling her heartbeat.

"She's lost a lot of blood. She'll have to spend a few days under my care. In the meantime… How are you?" She noticed that my injuries were far more exacerbated than she remembered seeing from me just minutes ago.

"The knight, Aether. I wouldn't declare him any other way, from what he's done." Nantuck spoke behind me, carrying Guy. "Out of the blue, 20 more ruin guards had showed up at the side entrance, where these two were at, and he turned them all into merely dust, for the wind to pick up. He saved this young boy's life." He looked at Arthur, who looked inspired, as all children did.

"Yeah, there was this giant ruin guard, towering over me, and I was about to cower in fear, but not the hero Aether! As soon as I got scared, he came over, and destroyed all the ruin guards in the area."

"It's not as impressive as he's making it out to be."

"In fact, I'd say he's not entirely inaccurate. I heard the young man scream, and in the next second, all of the remaining ruin guards that were in front of him were reduced to dust. There were 5 of them there by that time, but he had eliminated all of them. It's as if time stopped, in order for him to protect that young man."

Barbara looked like her jaw fell to the floor, and she almost looked like she wanted to jump on me and kiss me then and there. But instead, she focused on carrying Hertha up the stairs, to the church.

"Thank you, hero Aether." I saw her speak with a blush on her face, and I gained a similar blush on my own cheeks.

"Follow me, Aether, Nantuck, Arthur. I'll heal you all." She spoke softly, as she walked up the stairway, and I followed her.

Eventually, though, the blood loss started to catch back up to me, about halfway up the first stairway to the church.

"Oh, Aether, I'm… I'm sorry, I should have taken care of some of your injuries…" Barbara lowered herself, and signaled for me to lean on her. So, I did. I kept my arm around her shoulder, and leaned some of my weight on her, to which she was able to keep strong while we went up the stairs.

"You're… really strong, Barbara. Both Physically and mentally. I don't think I ever told you about that..." Maybe the blood loss was getting to me, or maybe I felt like saying that at the moment, but I spoke that. She smiled at that compliment, a light dusting of a blush coming, and she seemed genuinely happy with that.

"Thank you. That means a lot." She looked at me, only inches away from kissing me. I almost felt like wanting to kiss her then and there. But, I restrained myself, as did she, from the activity. Eventually, we scaled the entire staircase, and I saw many of the knights, like Huffman, resting, until he saw me, and he immediately stood up.

"Is Favonius alright? Did you fulfill your promise?" He looked at me, battered and beaten up.

"Yes." Still leaning on Barbara, I spoke to him, and many of the knights, like Lawrence and Swan, that managed to come up here. "They are all destroyed. Not a single piece of them is left."

All the knights looked at me with awe, and all of them, simultaneously, kneeled down to me.

"Thank you for your service, Honorary knight Aether!" The knights all spoke at once, all looking down, in praise of me. "We hope to rely on your strength in the future!"

I chuckled. "You guys need to guard the second entrance more. That's it. They can't overwhelm you if you're prepared."

Barbara eventually got Hertha to a makeshift bed, and she was insisting on giving me one, but I declined.

"I need to look for Eula, Amber, and Jean. Is the gate still closed?"

"Uh, yes, it is. We'll unlock it soon, however!" Huffman ran off, and I sighed.

'There's a disparity between how hard some of the non official knights work, and how not hard some of the actual knights do… speaking of which.'

"Barbara, where's Noelle?"

"She's inside. Though, try not to be too tough, if you're going to sleep with her tonight." She said the last part under her breath, not loud enough for the patients to hear, but loud enough for me to hear.

"... why is that one of the things you've told me?" I held a deadpan expression.

"I know you love her." She looked at me, not indifferently, but more seriously, as she crossed her arms, and she continued to talk low.

I looked away. "Yeah… I do."

She then got close, to whisper in my ear. "Well, you can sleep with her once, if she consents to it, without your body being too injured. But you need to remain careful. If you want to take her armor off, you've got to be delicate."

"... Why are you first assuming that I'll sleep with her?"

"Because… I know she loves you as well, and would consent to it. Don't ask me how I know."

I looked at her, confused.

"Well, in her sleep, she was saying she wanted you to see her as strong, and she wanted to tell you, if she didn't make it, that she loved you, and missed you a lot."

Barbara felt a lot less cheerful, and much more serious. I was frankly kind of worried, but I understood the situation she and I were in.

"So, if you're going to sleep with her, give her a nice night. Okay?" She whispered in my ear, smiling. "I liked our time together earlier today, even if it was short."

"Can I ask you why you're alright with me being with other women?"

She smiled, her cheery attitude shining through.

"Because, no matter how many women you love, I will always love only you. You are my first love. And as long as I remain in your heart, I will accept you as my only love, even if your heart extends to others."

I wanted to, again, kiss her. But I settled with a deep embrace, pressing my entire body against her own, and she reciprocated.

"Thank you… I love you so much, Barbara."

"I love you too." She whispered in my ear.

"Just give her a nice night. Alright?" She smiled and waved as I went inside the church.

'I will… I promise I will.'

And that's the eighth chapter, dang, I worked a lot on this. Man, I like to write smut, but I also love writing these kinds of chapters, because I can actually write it in a lot of depth. But regardless, the more smut based chapter will show up for 9, with obviously Noelle being the next girl.