Path of the Extra

That name.

The name Nol had just spoken.

That very specific name belonged to a girl who, once upon a time, had been part of the Hero Academy. A girl who had shared the same class as Lumine, Azriel, Celestina, and Yelena.

A girl who had died during the void dungeon incident.

”What is wrong with you two?” Nol asked, tilting his head as he looked at them.

Neither Lumine nor Yelena answered.

They simply stared at him, as though their minds were still struggling to assimilate what he had just revealed.

Kanae.

Their classmate.

Her cause of death had always been a mystery. No one had ever received a proper answer as to how she died.

In the end, it had been blamed on Neo Genesis.

They had all assumed Neo Genesis had done something to her.

’But now... now that I think about it...’

Lumine’s eyes trembled.

’It was Nol who finally showed himself after she died.’

A sword appeared in Lumine’s hand.

His fingers tightened around the hilt as he glared at Nol.

”Does Azriel know about this?”

”Master?”

Nol blinked.

Then, after a moment, he shook his head.

”Master had a lot going on back then, so there was no need to burden him with something so trivial. And afterward, there was no point mentioning it again.”

”...Trivial?”

Lumine’s glare sharpened.

Beside him, Yelena’s expression darkened as a bow appeared in her hands.

”Nol...” she said quietly. ”Can you stop talking like that? It is sickening.”

”You two are really sensitive, huh...”

”Yelena, I...”

Lumine’s eyes reddened with anger. Veins bulged along his temple as his grip tightened around his sword.

”Yeah,” Yelena said, her voice cold. ”I feel the same.”

Lumine took one step forward.

”Surrender, Nol.”

”Surrender?”

Nol tilted his head.

”For what?”

”For what?” Lumine shouted. ”You killed Kanae! An innocent cadet of the Academy, in cold blood!”

He took another step forward.

”And your lack of morals, your disregard for life, your obsession with Azriel... all of it has to stop.”

Nol lowered his gaze.

For a moment, he looked unbearably sad.

”...Why is it that you assume I have no empathy?” he asked softly. ”Why is it that you assume I am obsessed with Master?”

His voice sank lower.

”Yelena thinks I am bad. You think you understand me. And now both of you think I am so weak that you can defeat me as well?”

”There are two of us,” Lumine said, ”and only one of you.”

Nol slowly looked up.

”Aren’t you getting a little full of yourself?”

The air changed.

Lumine felt it at once.

Something cold passed through the arena, crawling over his skin like frost.

Nol’s eyes had changed.

No, perhaps they had always been like that. Perhaps Lumine had simply never noticed.

”Why do you think she is looking at me with so much fear?” Nol asked.

Lumine shivered.

Nol raised one hand while still sitting cross-legged.

Lumine immediately tensed. His stance shifted, sword lifted, every muscle in his body preparing for whatever Nol was about to do.

Yelena drew her bow. A green arrow formed from her mana, resting against a glowing string woven from the same light. She aimed it straight at Nol.

Nol smiled.

”Lumine, you are the type who likes to fight,” he said. ”But you lack proper experience against void creatures and humans who are...”

His fingers twitched.

”Well, simply superior to you.”

”Agh!”

”Ugh!”

Lumine and Yelena’s bodies stiffened.

Their weapons slipped from their hands and clattered to the ground.

For one horrifying second, Lumine did not understand what had happened.

He gritted his teeth, panic flashing across his face as he tried to move.

He could not.

Not an inch.

Yelena was the same.

Then he saw it.

A faint gleam in the air.

Threads.

Thousands upon thousands of threads.

They surrounded him. Wrapped around him. Coiled over his limbs, his torso, his wrists, his throat.

They had bound both him and Yelena completely.

”H-how...”

His eyes widened in pure confusion.

All around them, the threads shimmered faintly in the ruined light of the arena.

”How did you... when did you do this?”

Nol’s smile turned cold and mysterious.

His raised hand remained suspended in the air, fingers curled around the unseen network as though holding the strings of a puppet.

”I can make my threads so thin that no one on my level can see them with the naked eye,” he said.

”The drawback is that they become fragile. A mere touch can snap them.”

His fingers shifted slightly.

”But I can also make them thick and strong enough that most people on my level cannot break them. Of course, when they are like that, they can be seen.”

His smile deepened.

”And at the same time, I can control them with such fluidity, no matter their state, that neither of you realized I had been manipulating them every time you moved closer to me.”

”But there is no way you still have this much mana after using such a large spell!” Yelena shouted.

Her eyes darted across the threads.

Nol would still need to maintain them with mana. Otherwise, someone as strong as Lumine should have been able to break free.

And yet, she could sense it.

Nol was still pouring mana into every thread.

”Ah.”

Nol suddenly looked embarrassed.

Then he laughed, bright and happy.

”I regenerate mana quite quickly. Hehehe. You can see my silver hair, can’t you?”

”Silver hair...?”

Yelena stared at him while Lumine continued struggling, unable to move even a finger.

Nol pointed at her.

”You are, like, reaaaally smart, right, Yelena? So you know what it means when someone has silver hair, don’t you?”

Yelena’s face went still.

”...You are loved by mana...”

It was a phrase used for those born with silver hair.

People like that absorbed mana far more easily than others. Their talent bloomed faster. Their spells formed quicker. Their reserves recovered at an unnatural pace.

Nol beamed.

”That I am.”

Then, without warning, his eyes narrowed.

”But you know, compared to a certain someone, it is nothing.”

His smile thinned.

”She has both silver eyes and silver hair. She even has an affinity for the most powerful element in the universe.”

Yelena froze.

Nol watched her reaction with delight.

”Have you already learned the difference between chaotic and orderly mana?”

Lumine and Yelena both reacted.

Nol noticed.

His smile widened.

”The human superior to everyone else, the one with the purest and highest quality of orderly mana, is Celestina.”

”No, but...” Yelena said immediately. ”She has grey eyes, not silver.”

Nol shook his head.

”Hehe. She is a princess with many secrets. Ask her, and she might even answer.”

Nol laughed mischievously.

Yelena’s curiosity flared despite herself. For a brief moment, she looked as if she wanted to ask more.

Perhaps she also wanted to buy time.

Time for Lumine to figure out a way to break them free.

But Lumine had finally had enough.

”Let us go, Nol!”

”Eh?” Nol blinked. ”Why would I do that? You are planning to hurt me, right? Isn’t it better if I keep both of you contained for my own safety?”

”You...!”

Lumine clenched his jaw.

No matter how much strength he poured into his body, the threads did not loosen.

He could not break them.

He could not break Nol’s threads.

”...I can’t destroy them, Yelena,” Lumine whispered.

Yelena’s expression tightened with disappointment. Then she turned back to Nol, her face hardening.

”What now?”

”Now?”

”Are you going to kill us?”

”H-huh!?” Nol’s eyes widened, as if the very idea offended him. ”Why would I ever hurt you two? You are Master’s most precious friends. He would be sad if the two of you died. So I will simply keep you imprisoned here until the scenario ends!”

Nol beamed, clearly proud of his own solution.

Yelena did not look nearly as pleased.

”Then what are your goals?”

”Goals?”

”You can’t fool me,” she said. ”I know you are not what you pretend to be!”

”That [Instinct] of yours really is troublesome...” Nol muttered, looking at her with a faint tilt of his head. ”And it will grow into an even bigger problem, won’t it?”

His smile returned.

”My goals are actually very simple...” he said. ”But I won’t tell you.”

He giggled and pressed a finger to his lips, his expression almost jocund.

Yelena continued, while Lumine stood helplessly beside her. For now, he decided to let her speak. She seemed to have a plan.

”Where did Azriel find you?” she asked. ”From what I heard, you came from the void realm, but why were you there to begin with? Did a void rift pull you in? Why don’t you have a last name? Who exactly are you, Nol?”

Nol opened his mouth to answer.

But before he could, Lumine’s eyes narrowed.

He had seen something strange.

Right behind Nol, there was another figure.

It sat cross-legged, just as Nol did, with its back turned to them.

But that was not the truly disturbing part.

The figure’s entire body was black.

Not dark-skinned. Not covered in a cloak.

As though a shadow had torn itself free from the ground, taken the shape of a person, and settled there in silent meditation.

Lumine did not know why his pulse suddenly quickened.

He did not know why his pupils dilated, or why the veins beneath his skin seemed to fill with ice. The hair across his body stood on end. Wave after wave of horripilation crawled over him, cold and instinctive, as if his body recognized something his mind did not.

He had never seen that figure before.

He had never heard of it.

He did not know its name, its nature, or its origin.

And yet, when Lumine spoke, the word left him with terrifying ease.

It came out in a voice so calm, so fluent, so natural, and yet filled with such detestation and repugnance that it seemed to rise not from his throat, but from the deepest and most ancient part of his soul.

For a moment, even Lumine wondered if he had truly been the one to say it.

”...Demon.”

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

”...What did you just say, Lumine?”

””...!””

Lumine and Yelena both felt the threads tighten.

Not merely around them, but into them, biting with a sharpness that made pain flare through their bodies.

Nol’s face had fallen beneath a veil of shadow.

When he spoke again, his voice was low and dusky.

”You can see him?”

A faint smile touched his lips.

”...So you are just like Kanae.”

The threads tightened further.

”How funny that it all happened at once. Do you think it is a coincidence, perhaps?”

At the same time, Lumine heard a whisper.

No. Not heard. Felt.

It brushed past his skin and ears like wind dragging itself over bone, carrying words he could not understand.

Nol’s gaze shifted slightly, as though he were listening to someone standing right behind him.

”No... you will only make it too painful. They are Master’s friends, after all. They do not deserve that.”

Lumine’s blood ran even more cold.

Nol was answering someone.

Answering the shadow seated behind him.

”L-Lumine...” Yelena whispered, her voice trembling. ”What... what did you say? Why did you say the word... demon?”

Her eyes darted toward him.

She did not understand.

She could not understand.

Because she could not see it.

But Lumine could not look away. His gaze remained fixed on Nol and the being behind him with a terror so deep it felt almost reverent.

”I take it back, Yelena.”

Nol turned toward her with a radiant expression.

For one fleeting, foolish moment, it almost looked reassuring.

Until he spoke again.

”It seems I will have to kill the two of you after all.”

”Wh—”

Yelena never finished. Lumine never moved.

Nol clenched his hand around the threads. And the threads passed through them.

There was no struggle.

No scream.

No final, desperate attempt to resist.

Only a brief flash of pain, too absolute to become a sound, and the sight of Nol’s smile, along with that of the scenario’s proctor, who had finally appeared, lingered in their final moment before they died.