Aetheric Chronicles: Reborn As An Extra-Chapter 565: The False Victory

Her breath hitched.

His domain.

It was the one thing she had no knowledge of. The final mystery surrounding him.

He had never revealed his domain and had never used it in any previous battle, event. He was a four-star awakened, maybe even near peak level, and yet no one—not even the most trusted aides of his knew the full extent of his power.

A cold realization gripped her.

We may have already walked into his trap.

Her fingers clenched at her side as she sent a silent order through the communication link to her forces.

'Overwhelm them. Now.'

They had no time to waste. If there was even a chance that he was playing them, they had to end this as quickly as possible.

Even if it meant sacrificing the brainwashed ones.

'They aren't my people,' she told herself, a bitter truth she had long accepted. This wasn't their world. These weren't her citizens.

She knew how hypocritical she sounded.

But she didn't care.

She had already lost too much.

Her throne.

Her city.

Her people.

And the one who had taken it all from her now stood before her, unmoved, unbothered, still carrying that infuriating smirk.

Not for long.

Today, it would end.

Either him, or her.

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Only one would remain.

—---

Sia stepped forward, her red eyes gleaming with cold determination as she closed the distance between them.

"Why do you still stand there, you fake?" she asked, voice sharp as a blade. "Your people are falling. Your constructs are dying. Your darkness is fading. Shouldn't you be running by now?"

His crimson eyes flickered, amusement still dancing in their depths. "Running? From you?" A soft chuckle escaped his lips. "Sia, Sia, Sia… I thought you were smarter than that."

Her jaw tightened.

She hated the way he said her name. Casual, almost affectionate, as if they were old friends sharing an inside joke instead of sworn enemies standing on a battlefield soaked in blood.

"I am not an idiot," she said coolly. "That's why I know you're stalling."

A pause.

Then he let out another laugh, shaking his head. "And yet, here you are, still playing right into my hands."

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

He tilted his head, studying her like one might a particularly interesting puzzle. "Tell me, Sia," he murmured, voice almost gentle. "Did you ever stop to wonder why I let you get this far?"

Her breath caught for a fraction of a second.

No.

It was impossible.

She had taken every precaution. Accounted for every variable. She had planned for this.

Hadn't she?

"Think about it. What if I was the one who allowed you to corner me?" he continued, stepping closer, his presence an unsettling force against the air itself. "That I allowed you to slaughter my forces? That I chose to stand here while you brought your little relics and your precious counters?"

Sia's heartbeat quickened, but she refused to step back.

"I don't bel—" she began, but he cut her off.

"You should," he said simply.

The certainty in his tone sent a chill down her spine.

And then—

Then she saw it.

Just the faintest flicker in the air around them, like a curtain shifting in an unseen breeze. A shift in the battlefield that was too subtle to notice unless one was looking for it.

A trap.

No.

A domain.

Her stomach dropped.

He smiled.

And whispered—

"Checkmate."

Sia barely had a second to react.

Darkness erupted from the ground, rising in a massive dome that swallowed the battlefield in an instant.

The sky disappeared.

The castle grounds—once illuminated by the fires of war—were drowned in pure, suffocating blackness.

And then—

They came.

A hundred—no, hundreds—of figures emerged from the shadows, moving like phantoms through the suffocating dark.

Hunters, the Black Star Lord's elite force, clad in obsidian attires that shimmered like liquid night. They appeared from every side, forming a circle around Sia and her forces, their weapons gleaming with malice.

A trap.

A perfect trap.

Sia's breath hitched as her forces instinctively pulled back, forming a tight defensive line with her at the center.

Her hands clenched into fists.

'H-How…?!'

They were supposed to be trapped at the base.

Delayed for at least six hours!

The moment her people lured them into the base, the barriers were activated—layers of reinforced spells, enough to keep them locked away for half a day, at the very least!

So how were they here?

Then a loud, mocking laugh echoed through the darkness.

The Black Star Lord.

He stood a few paces away, his crimson eyes gleaming with wicked amusement.

"Why are you so shocked?" he taunted, his voice laced with cruel satisfaction. "Weren't you so smug and confident just now?"

Sia gritted her teeth, forcing herself to take in the battlefield despite the overwhelming shift in their odds.

Was there no choice but to use the End Plan? But it was still early for that to happen. They haven't finished it yet.

Her gaze flickered across the battlefield, searching.

And then—

She saw it.

That grin.

That damnable, knowing grin stretching across his face.

A slow, sinking dread crawled up her spine.

"Sorry, Lord Sia."

"!"

Could it be—!

Her eyes snapped toward her highest-ranking subordinate.

A veteran, a trusted individual who had fought by her side for years.

And yet—

He was already walking away.

Sia's blood ran cold.

She couldn't do anything.

His steps were unhurried, unbothered, as if he had no reason to fear what came next. And then—without hesitation—he came to a stop beside the Black Star Lord.

And knelt.

"Reporting to Master. All of your orders have been executed flawlessly."

"Haha, good job." Black Star Lord smiled and patted the man on the shoulder while giving a glance to Sia.

Sia felt the breath leave her lungs.

Betrayal.

'H-How?!'

'From when?'

'...The beginning?'

'Was I being played by him till now?'

A slow, sickening horror clawed at her chest as she stared at the man she had trusted. The man who had helped her build their strategies. The man who had known everything.

"..."

Her lips parted, but no words came.

The Black Star Lord chuckled.

"Sia," he said smoothly, spreading his arms as if welcoming her to his stage. "I believe you've already met my most loyal subordinate."

Her stomach churned.

No.

No, no, no—

The enemy forces hadn't escaped her trap.

They had never been trapped, to begin with.

After all, it was Veyron who suggested the plan to trap the enemy at the base and she tasked him to oversee it.

The Black Star-Lord had already known about it. He had planned for it.

He has planned everything.

Sia's heartbeat pounded in her ears. Her vision blurred at the edges as realization slammed into her like a tidal wave.

They were the ones trapped.

The suffocating darkness of the Black Star Castle's barrier pressed in, as if distorting space itself. The once familiar castle grounds had transformed into an endless abyss of shifting black. The walls had vanished, the sky had disappeared—there was nothing but them, surrounded by an army of enemies with no escape.

She forced herself to breathe. Forced herself to think.

The enemy had outmaneuvered her. Again. And so easily. She was fooled, from the beginning.

And yet, she couldn't afford to hesitate.

'Think. There has to be a way out. No, there should be. But… was this the fate of all prey caught in a predator's jaws?'

'Urgh...'

Her fingers twitched at her side, ready to summon her power at a moment's notice.

But first—

"Why?"

Her voice was quiet, but it carried through the still air like a blade.

The man who had betrayed her—Strategist Veyron—didn't even look ashamed.

He stood beside the Black Star Lord, his stance relaxed, his expression devoid of regret.

"You already know why," Veyron said simply.

Sia clenched her jaw. "Enlighten me."