Shattered Innocence: Transmigrated Into a Novel as an Extra

Chapter 588: Too op, needs to get nerfed

Lucavion stood before Aldricʼs ruined body, his breath ragged, his vision pulsing with the agony threatening to consume him. The headless corpse lay sprawled before him, its severed limbs painting the ground in crimson. The night air was thick with the scent of blood, heavy with the finality of what had just transpired.

Then, the pain struck.

”Urghk—!”

His body convulsed, a violent tremor wracking his frame as another surge of blood erupted from his lips. His knees buckled, and for the first time in his life, he truly felt it—pain beyond the battlefield, beyond wounds that would heal with time.

This was different.

Deep. Crippling. Unforgiving.

Like his very existence was fracturing from within.

His fingers dug into the stone beneath him, knuckles turning white as he struggled to keep himself upright. But the weight—the sheer crushing weight of what he had done, what he had pushed himself beyond—threatened to drag him into oblivion.

Then, a voice.

[Lucavion.]

It wasnʼt spoken aloud, yet it resounded through him, clear as a bell.

He lifted his head—barely—his breath shallow, his body trembling as a figure emerged before him.

Vitaliara.

She stood there, her presence stark against the moonlit ruins, her golden fur glowing faintly with an ethereal light. But there was no warmth in her expression.

Only raw, unfiltered anger.

[Why! Why did you do it!]

Her voice lashed out, sharp and trembling, her ears flattened against her head. Her usual composed tone was gone, replaced by something frantic—something desperate.

Lucavion exhaled, forcing a weak smirk despite the blood on his lips. ”Needed to be done.”

[WHY! YOUR CORE!]

Her eyes—so full of light, of something ancient and boundless—pierced through him, searching for something, anything in his gaze that could justify what he had done to himself.

Lucavion didnʼt answer.

Couldnʼt.

[Stupid bastard!]

Her voice cracked, and before he could react, she moved.

She didnʼt hesitate.

Vitaliara surged forward, pressing a small, trembling paw against his abdomen.

A rush of energy exploded from her palm, a blinding white radiance surging outward, engulfing them both in a glow so pure it almost burned.

Lucavionʼs body jerked as the energy forced itself into him, spreading like wildfire through his shattered mana circuits, grasping at the frayed edges of his being, trying—desperately—to hold him together.

[Stay like this. Donʼt move!]

Her command was absolute.

Lucavion, for once, had no choice but to obey.

The warmth pressed into his abdomen, sinking past skin and flesh, winding through his veins like a tide of fire and light. It burned—not with pain, but with something deeper, something fundamental. A force that sought to mend what should have been beyond mending.

Lucavion breathed in slowly.

The air still smelled of blood.

His blood.

It was pooling beneath him, staining the ground where he knelt, a dark reminder of what he had done. What he had forced himself to become, if only for a moment.

Vitaliaraʼs paw remained firm against him, her golden glow pulsing in time with his ragged breaths.

[Idiot.]

Her voice trembled, thick with something she refused to name.

Lucavion didnʼt answer. He simply watched her, silent as the warmth spread, settling into the deepest fractures of his being.

His core was beyond overdrawn. He had felt it the moment the fight ended, the second the rush had faded and the weight of reality had slammed back into him. It wasnʼt just pain. It was wrongness. A sensation of something in him unraveling, the delicate balance between life and death thrown into chaos.

Because he had done something he wasnʼt supposed to.

His body wasnʼt ready. His core wasnʼt ready.

And now he was paying the price.

Vitaliara let out a sharp breath, her paw pressing harder against him.

[What were you going to do if I wasnʼt here?]

Still, Lucavion remained silent.

[What if—] She swallowed, her ears twitching, her voice tight. [What if this was it? What if your core collapsed entirely? What then?]

He didnʼt answer.

Because she already knew.

His core wasnʼt stable. It never had been. It was an anomaly, a force that had no right existing in a single body. [Devourer of Stars]. [Flame of Equinox]. Two opposing forces that had barely coexisted until now, bound together only by sheer will and reckless instinct.

Tonight, he had forced them into something new.

And nearly broken himself in the process.

The glow from her paw flared brighter, her life energy pouring into him without restraint. Each pulse of her power steadied his breathing, smoothed the erratic pulse of his heart, dulled the jagged ache laced through his mana circuits.

And yet—

It wasnʼt enough.

Vitaliara knew it too.

[If it were me before Stormhaven—] her voice wavered, [—I wouldnʼt have been able to do this. I wouldnʼt have been able to heal you at all.]

Her paw trembled against his skin.

[Do you understand? Do you even realize how close you were?]

Lucavionʼs fingers curled against the stone. He exhaled, slow and measured.

He knew.

Of course, he knew.

He had gambled everything on that moment, on his instinct telling him he could reach it. The power Aldric wielded—the [Aura Body] that separated a 6-star from the rest of the world—Lucavion had glimpsed it and forced his own path to it.

Through sheer defiance.

Through will alone.

And his body had suffered for it.

Vitaliara didnʼt speak for a long moment. Her ears were still pressed flat against her skull, her tail stiff, every part of her bristling with frustration.

And something else.

Something raw.

Lucavion knew why she was like this. Why she was pushing too much life energy into him, why she was lashing out while forcing him to heal.

She was scared.

She didnʼt understand why he had done it.

And she hated that.

But more than that—

She hated that she couldnʼt stop him from doing it again.

Lucavion closed his eyes for a moment, letting the warmth settle, letting the scolding words pass over him without resistance.

She needed to yell at him.

So he let her.

He stayed silent.

Because he knew if he said anything—anything at all—he would only make her angrier.

Vitaliaraʼs glow pulsed, her energy surging into him, smoothing over the broken edges of his existence. Yet, as the light coursed through his veins, something in her aura shifted.

A pause. A hesitation.

And then—

[Cracked…]

The word came out soft. Distant.

Lucavion opened his eyes, his breath slow, controlled, even as a dull weight settled in his chest.

For an Awakened, oneʼs core cracking meant death.

Not just injury. Not just a wound to be mended with time.

Death.

Because to crack oneʼs core was to sever the link to mana itself. To lose the very essence that made an Awakened what they were.

His fingers twitched, but he remained silent, waiting for her next words.

Vitaliaraʼs expression was unreadable, her golden eyes locked onto his core as if seeing something beyond flesh.

And then—

[But… it is not that severe.]

Lucavionʼs chest rose and fell, slow and steady.

[It can be healed.]

Relief did not come. Not yet.

He only inhaled, letting her words settle, feeling the warmth of her energy as it wound deeper, stabilizing what little remained intact.

Then—

Vitaliaraʼs gaze flickered toward Aldricʼs remains. His torso still stood, blood pooling around him, his aura long since extinguished—yet the death mana within him lingered. A dense, potent force, clinging to the last fragments of his existence.

Vitaliara exhaled.

[Absorb his death mana now.]

Lucavion followed her gaze, his vision narrowing on the ruined corpse. The remnants of a 6-star warrior.

”Okay.”

His voice was quiet, but resolute.

He closed his eyes.

And reached.

—SHRRRRRK.

The air around him twisted. A pull. A shift. A rupture in the natural flow of mana.

The moment he called upon it, his [Flame of Equinox] stirred, burning in the depths of his being, seizing upon the remnants of Aldricʼs power.

And it was—

Overwhelming.

Not just raw death mana, not just the remnants of a warrior.

It was something else.

Denser. Heavier. Almost suffocating.

Like the weight of all the battles Aldric had fought, all the lives he had taken, all the victories he had carved into existence.

Lucavionʼs breath hitched. His body stiffened, his mana circuits straining as the sheer density of the energy flooded into him.

A mid-4-star warrior. That was where he had been. Stuck. Blocked.

But now—

Now, his core roared to life, the [Flame of Equinox] devouring Aldricʼs death mana, not as mere sustenance—

But as fuel.

His rank surged.

Mid-4-star—no, peak.

The barrier he had fought against, the wall that had loomed before him, shattered beneath the sheer weight of the power flowing into him.

Yet, even as his core absorbed it, another force stirred.

Vitaliara.

Her energy wrapped around him, seizing upon the excess, channeling it not into him—

But into his shattered [Devourer of Stars] core.