Path of the Extra

Azriel’s heart could not take this anymore.

No, seriously.

Forget the gods. Forget this world. Forget the participants. Forget his mana core syndrome. Forget the fact that his sanity was slipping away from him second by second.

At this point, the thing that would actually do Azriel in might genuinely be a heart attack.

Gazing at Celestina, who was still looking down, he opened his mouth to answer.

Then he closed it.

He fell silent, because he did not even know what he was supposed to say.

Eventually, he asked,

“How long were you pretending to be unconscious?”

Celestina did not answer immediately.

“You are just a hypocrite, aren’t you, Azriel?”

She murmured the words Pollux had spoken.

“From there on…” she said quietly. “Until the end… where you shot her…”

She sounded as though she was not entirely sure whether that last part had truly happened.

Azriel closed his eyes.

“…What do you want me to say?”

“The truth would really help.”

She let out a soft, empty chuckle.

Azriel looked away.

“Would you believe me if I said those were simply the dying words of a delusional child?”

A moment of silence passed.

“No.”

Celestina finally looked up.

By then, her eyes seemed to have adjusted fully. And as she took in the sight of Azriel before her, they began to tremble.

Then they widened.

Her gaze trailed from his face down to his bare upper body. The cracks. The blood. The ruined skin.

Her eyes went as wide as they possibly could.

“G-Gods, Azriel… What… what is this!? What have you done!?”

She shouted the words in a voice thick with worry. She pulled herself forward, only for the chains to stop her.

“Sorry,” Azriel said. “I can’t break those chains. We’ll have to wait until Sir Felix arrives. Or, if he died, someone of equal level. These chains are blocking your mana too.”

“Forget the chains! What happened to you!?”

Her face betrayed the full weight of her worry.

Azriel glanced down at himself, then shrugged faintly.

“Well, I might have used a bit too much mana to get here.”

“This is from your mana core syndrome, isn’t it!? You fool! Why did you use your mana when you knew it would worsen it!?”

Azriel’s lips twitched.

Vexation stirred in his chest.

“Take a wild guess, Celestina. It’s not as if I had much of a choice, with two princesses going missing right under my nose, an incompetent rescue team saddled with me, and Lioren missing as well. Why would I ever bother using my mana then, huh?”

Celestina gritted her teeth.

“That…” Her gaze dropped. “I had no choice but to comply. Jasmine… she suddenly fell unconscious, and then a group of ten masters surrounded us. I… I would have fought. I would have done anything else, if Jasmine’s safety hadn’t been at stake.”

As if furious with herself, she looked down.

Then Azriel saw the indignation flare in her eyes.

“If Lioren is missing… how did you get to us? Sir Felix alone wouldn’t have been enough to get through everyone. They mentioned that there were actually even more than ten masters here, so then…”

“Caleus is with him,” Azriel said. “And a few others. Yelena and Lumine too. I lied to them and said I would create a distraction. But the truth is, they were the distraction. While they fought, I planned to get to you and Jasmine quickly, then leave as fast as possible.”

He paused.

“Until, well… it seems I got ambushed.”

Celestina looked up, confused.

“Caleus? And what do you mean you got ambushed? Just… don’t tell me you fought against a master. No… you fought against several masters? A-and you won?”

Azriel scratched the back of his head.

“Well. More or less.”

“More or less?”

“I entered through a back door. It led me to the arena of this colosseum, where I found myself surrounded by Prince Dorian and about thirty other masters.”

Celestina went still.

Azriel continued.

“Oh, and Caleus was apparently the one who colluded with Prince Dorian—a royal of this kingdom—to have you kidnapped. Only the bastard had to help us after realizing Jasmine had been taken too.”

His expression darkened.

“I killed them all. Then I made my way here, and… yeah.”

If Celestina had been angry before, she was livid now.

Azriel took a small step back at the sight of her expression. Her pupils narrowed into slits, and her grey eyes began to glow silver.

“That purple-haired piece of shit..!”

Her voice came out low and deadly.

“He went too far this time! I’ll kill him! I’ll really kill him!”

“…Uh-huh.”

Then, as if the rest of his words had only just reached her, Celestina froze.

Her silver, fox-like eyes snapped back to him.

“T-thirty masters…?”

She looked as though someone had slapped her across the face.

“E… excuse me? You’re joking, right?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

“…No.”

She swallowed.

“You definitely don’t.”

She shook her head slightly, her lips pressed into a thin line.

“How… did you manage to kill more than thirty masters and come out… alive? I thought dropping a floor on top of my head while falling with a demon-ranked void creature you had just slain was already the peak of your insanity…”

Azriel wanted to fake a cough at the mention of how he had dropped a floor on her head back at the containment facility.

Instead, he accidentally coughed for real.

Blood slipped past his lips.

He moved to hide it, but stopped when he realized Celestina had already seen.

“…I honestly don’t remember,” he said quietly.

“I just… killed them all.”

She did not look convinced.

But Azriel did not know what else to say.

Pollux must have known Celestina had been pretending to sleep. He must have known there was a high chance the proctor and the others of the god race were watching. Or at least listening.

And yet he had still said what he said.

But then Azriel wondered why he should bother putting in so much effort at this point.

Why care?

Everything had already gone to shit.

He glanced at Jasmine, who was still sleeping peacefully.

Then he lowered his knees to the ground.

But…

Azriel did not want the gods to gaze upon Jasmine.

Or Celestina.

He looked at her.

She seemed to have already realized that he was debating something inside his head. And from the seriousness in her eyes, Azriel knew that if given the chance she would not let this go.

Not now.

Not ever.

Not even if he only had hours left to live.

“There’s simply too much to say,” he admitted.

Celestina frowned.

She was about to speak, but Azriel continued before she could.

“So here’s the abridged version. The scenarios, also known as the Theogenies, are fake realities constructed inside a self-made realm by a race the ten gods themselves belong to. They claim it is meant to ’judge’ humans, but in truth, they use us as entertainment. They reward participants based on performance and completed objectives, like this is all some divine game.”

Celestina stared at him.

Azriel’s expression did not change.

“But this specific scenario is different. It was never meant to judge any of you. It seems to have been designed specifically for me. As if I am the only real participant here. And its purpose is to break me in very specific ways, toward some end the gods want. I’m still trying to figure out what that end is.”