The Extra of The Lunerra
Chapter 51 Volume II - 17: First Step to the End

Chapter 51 Volume II - Chapter 17: First Step to the End

"We're leaving."

With the sound of footsteps following behind me, I headed for the secret passage built to escape possible attacks.

There is a strange emptiness inside me. I don't know what to do now because I won't have to deal with anyone for a long time.

Should I visit Clara while the academy is on break? Although there will definitely be an award ceremony after what we accomplished in the preliminary.

I was lost in thought, but then I slowed down my steps and stopped walking. The guards also paused, as did I.

Something was... wrong.

"Huh?"

Before I knew what was happening, I suddenly felt a tremendous pressure coming from behind me. I couldn't move a muscle, I just froze in place.

The room suddenly felt cold, like I was standing in the middle of the poles. Every single one of my hairs stood up, one by one. I started to shiver.

"Aahh!"

I heard screams coming from behind me, but the only people standing behind me were the 'A' grade bodyguards.

I forced myself to turn around, momentarily relieved of the pressure, but then I stiffened again.

The screaming had stopped and I could feel something warm seeping into my shoe. It wasn't hard to figure out what it was.

'Aiden! You have to ru-'

I heard Sith's voice in my head, and a weary silence fell over the room. The slight darkness in the dimly lit room enveloped my body.

Even though he had told me to run away, now not a single word came out of Sith. It was as if his entire existence had suddenly... vanished. It was as if there was a parasite blocking the connection between us.

"Ai... den..."

A strange, wheezing sound, almost unidentifiable, echoed through the room. Fear took root in me to such an extent that I could not even move a muscle, let alone think.

Yet one of these thoughts suddenly became clear in my mind, a memory. I thought of something described in the game.

Suddenly my eyes widened.

No... No, no, no, no...!

It... It shouldn't be here! Impossible, not possible in the slightest!

I forced my stiff body to move.

I must get away from here no matter what... I can't let that thing come near me, no matter what!

I have to run... I have to run!

I have to fucking move!

"Teneb... ra?"

Strange noises started coming from behind me. It was disgusting. It sounded like a slimy, leech thing moving.

I forced all my senses, almost all my energy, to move my body, but then I felt a tremendous pain, right where my heart was.

I stopped shaking, the world was silent for a moment. My eyes slowly shifted to my chest, denying reality. Then I saw something purplish, a sharp thing that looked like a mixture of liquid and solid, protruding from just above my heart.

My vision blurred as blood began to seep from my chest onto my clothes, and then I stared blankly at the wall of the dark room.

Am I... going to die here?

I collapsed weakly to my knees, vomiting blood.

The whole world was spinning. I was hurting, and cold.

"Ai... den?"

I heard that ugly voice again, but this time it didn't come from behind me. It was like...

'Ai... den...'

He was calling me from my mind.

The purple-colored pointy thing coming out of my chest slowly started to melt. Then it retreated back into my body, entering my wound.

I watched with horrified eyes as this happened beyond my control.

"Hah... A-ahahahah..."

That's it...

I felt a warmth radiating from right where my heart was.

I'm going to die, because of something that shouldn't have happened.

I felt a pain as if all my organs were being ripped out and put back in, and I vomited even more blood. With pain as if my throat had been torn open...

How long have I been in this world? Thirty-seven days? Thirty-eight?

Eventually, my knees lost their strength and I collapsed on the floor. My vision was almost completely gone, I could only make out a few things.

I thought about the things I'd been through.

Me and being smart huh... I was always an idiot.

Even now I'm dying purely out of my own greed, just because I want to punish that man with my own hands...

There's no going back from where I am. The moment that thing entered me, my fate was sealed. I... will be erased from this world.

More than erased, I'll never be the old me again.

I paused for a moment.

My time was limited, yet I was thinking so fast that thousands of things went through my mind in a matter of seconds.

I closed my eyes but I didn't surrender myself immediately. I wanted to stay 'me' at least until the end.

A tear fell from my eye.

I couldn't change anything. I'm still pathetic, I'm still clinging to life and I'm alone even in death.

I... guess I shouldn't have existed at all...

I thought and thought and thought. Seconds aside, in my last breaths as 'myself,' I thought so much in mere seconds that my head was throbbing.

Then memories slowly filled my mind, mostly memories from this life.

I saw my sister, her smile. I saw the day Adrian and I talked, the day we became friends. I remembered the times I trained with Julian. I saw how I was drawn into Lucia's eyes when I was talking to her in the library, the strange encounters with Celine...

And then... myself.

I was happy, I had a smile on my face in most of these memories.

Ah... I've experienced more happiness in this one month alone than in my old life, right?

So the memories I saw were all from this world...

The world was still blurry, maybe I was even unconscious because the room was dark, but I clenched my fist.

I... I'm not going to die.

Not when I've changed so much in this world, not when I'm at the beginning of my journey.

I clenched my fist even tighter and I don't know if I did it, but I bit my tongue forcibly to maintain some semblance of consciousness.

'Sith...'

I... I don't want to die again.

'Sith... if you can hear me...'

I have to think fast because I don't have much time. But... I can think of a way that might work.

'Merge with my mana, like we did before, but this time you have to merge with my soul too.'

My voice was getting hoarse... I was getting further and further away from this world.

'This thing is attacking my mana and my soul. It exploits it and transforms it, but it doesn't last long. Once you have merged with my mana and my soul, you have to snatch the pieces you have from it. Whatever happens, don't let it take them away from you, cut my soul in two if necessary, but do it.'

Under normal circumstances, there is no escape from the situation I am in, but I am different.

I have Sith. Sith with the greatest potential of all spirits.

'I believe in you Sith... You are my only chance... Please...'

No odor or presence, no sensation of cold or heat, just pure and infinite darkness surrounding me...

I'm not dead already, am I? My voice reaches Sith, doesn't it?

This feels like nothing but a wasted effort.

Still... I want to live, I don't want to leave this world.

'Help me...'

After those words, I felt something.

A warm feeling that spread through my whole body. No... I was burning as if I had been dropped into lava, but I never screamed.

On the contrary, I smiled and cried for the second time since the day I came into this world with hope blossoming inside me.

*******

It's there, I can feel it.

"Aahhh!"

The last of them died on my sword.

They pushed a little, they even managed to leave a wound on me, but that was it. I am the victor, they are all dead and there is nothing in my way now.

I looked at the big purple door a few meters in front of me and squinted.

There, that disgusting thing is there.

Even if it feels strangely stranger than it should... I'm certain of it.

Without thinking twice, I smashed the door to pieces with my sword and slowly entered.

It was a very dimly lit room. Except for the table in the center and the countless holographic screens on it, there was nothing else in the room, but then I realized something else.

This place... It stinks of blood.

I quickly sharpened my senses and gripped my sword tightly. I walked forward with slow steps, trying to see where the holographic screens were blocking, and then my eyes widened.

The three men in suits were dead instantly, with a hole right through their hearts. There was another corpse with a crumpled body and both arms cut off, but that was not the reason for my surprise.

The real reason for my surprise was that there was something else in the room besides these bodies.

A young man with black hair, who I was sure was alive because his chest was rising and falling, was lying on the floor, his face hidden from my view. Looking at the state of his clothes, it was clear that his heart had been pierced just like those in suits.

I took a step toward him without letting my guard down, but the moment I did, the young man's body trembled slightly. After only two seconds, the shaking stopped and then, very slowly, the young man sat up from where he was lying.

His back was still facing me. So I couldn't see his face, but I had already pointed my sword at him.

It felt stranger than it usually did, but he was one of them, one of the bastards who had made my life miserable.

"I, the Guardian of Diligenc-"

My words were interrupted when the young man turned to face me. I froze where I was.

His eyes widened when he saw me, but it was not an expression of surprise. His big eyes, completely focused on me with a smile on his face, reflected pure madness.

Normally both eyes should be purple, but unlike his kind, this young man only had one purple eye. This alone was something I had never heard of in my entire life and something I was seeing for the first time, but none of this was the reason for my reaction right now.

The real reason for such a reaction was that I knew the young man.

"Professor... Calvin?"

Aiden fixed his eyes on me, one a colorless gray and the other a bright purple, and widened the smile on his face.

"Oh... hello!"