Path of the Extra

The sound of water splashing beneath Azriel was barely audible as he moved forward with light, careful steps, his eyes fixed on the tablet in his hands.

On its surface, a map shimmered to life. Azriel adjusted it with his fingers, zooming in and out, shifting it across the screen. It was a three-dimensional visualization of everything. With a simple touch, he moved through the terrain as if it were a living thing. Two red dots sat close together.

Celestina and Jasmine.

’It looks like they’re inside some kind of large dome…’

His fingers moved again, drawing the map back to another red dot—his own location, exactly where he stood now.

The map Azriel was using was the same one the Second Authority had given him. It was strangely futuristic, but useful enough that he had not even bothered asking Dame Selene where they had been taken. He already knew where every participant in this world was.

Which meant he knew where Celestina and Jasmine were being held as well.

“Perhaps I said too much.”

The thought came back to him as he mulled over his confrontation with Lumine. Frustration lingered in his chest, tangled with embarrassment and regret. But after a moment, he shook his head.

“What’s done is done.”

All that remained now was to see whether his words would hold true. He had not lied to Lumine. Everything he had said had been the truth.

’No looking back.’

Eventually, Azriel came to a halt. He turned to his right, where a hole had opened in the wall—a new path.

The path that would lead him to the two princesses.

Without hesitation, he dismissed the tablet, raised his lantern, and stepped into the narrow passage, barely wide enough for a single person to pass through.

With every step he took deeper inside, the water grew shallower. First it dropped below his ankles, then to the soles of his feet, until at last he was trudging through mud. The passage remained tight and suffocating, refusing to widen. Soon even the mud gave way to hard stone beneath his feet.

Azriel walked through the dark cave in silence. The air was thick and damp, heavy with the smell of wet earth and old stone. The farther he went, the more the tunnel began to widen.

Gods knew how long he walked.

But at last, he stopped.

For a moment, Azriel’s eyes widened in astonishment. He staggered back a few steps, struggling to take in what he was seeing.

He had entered a massive cavern.

Dozens of crystals glowed with a cold white light, embedded deep in the ground and walls.

’Mana stones…’

The term passed through his mind in an instant as his gaze brushed over them. They rose like jagged teeth from the earth, some as tall as pillars, others broken and half-buried beneath stone and dust.

But the mana stones were not what truly caught his attention.

His eyes were drawn far beyond them.

Far beyond.

At the very back of the cavern stood a colossal ancient gate of stone, so enormous it dwarfed everything around it. It had to be at least two hundred, perhaps four hundred feet high. Even from this distance, Azriel could make out the strange, haunting symbols carved across its surface, along with metallic veins running through it as though the gate itself had been torn straight from the heart of the earth.

A sudden wave of horrible discomfort spread through Azriel’s head the longer he looked at the symbols. Gritting his teeth, he instinctively tore his gaze away.

’Dammit…!’

This gate…

It looked so familiar.

’No… it can’t be…!’

His breath quickened in time with his heartbeat. Fighting the rising unease, Azriel forced himself forward, step by step, toward the gigantic gate.

His pulse spiked with every step.

And when he finally stood before it, he slowly raised his hand and placed his palm against the cold, ancient stone.

“God Runes…” Azriel muttered.

If it were not for Soul’s Crucible, merely looking at them would have filled him with agony.

A second later, something pulsed within the gate.

It felt like a heartbeat.

Then a wave of mana washed over him.

Another second passed, and the symbols beneath his palm began to glow, one after another, flooding white across the surface of the stone. A divine radiance spilled outward, pouring over Azriel like light from another world.

This time, the glow lingered for several long seconds before dimming, leaving only the symbols illuminated.

Then came a low rumble, like distant thunder rolling through the cavern.

The gate trembled.

Slowly, it began to open, splitting in two as dust rained from its ancient frame and fell over Azriel.

And then—

Azriel saw something both familiar and unfamiliar.

He stepped through the massive gate, his expression hardening as he looked ahead.

He felt upset.

Then angry.

And with each step he took, that anger only grew.

Because what lay before him was an underground colosseum.

Azriel stopped walking.

Then he pursed his lips.

Then he let out a long breath.

Then he closed his eyes.

And then he understood.

…This colosseum…

Old. Abandoned. Ancient.

This was the same colosseum where he had spent the better part of more than a year.

As Subject 666.

Another shaky breath slipped from Azriel’s lips as he opened his eyes. He was still standing inside a tunnel as wide as the colossal gate itself—though perhaps tunnel was no longer the right word for it.

Far beyond its end, illuminated by silver ghostly fire, he could see the grand colosseum.

He recognized it instantly.

’I don’t remember this gate, and I don’t remember the colosseum being this large…’

But Azriel was certain.

This was it.

This was the colosseum where he had endured battle after battle against void creatures. The place where he had fought his first clash against the Iron King.

As he walked down the path lit by silver flames, the pounding of his heart did not ease.

And with every torch he passed, another realization struck him.

This colosseum—this place that now stood abandoned, somehow, someday buried within the Void Realm—was the same place where Azriel had once suffered as Subject 666…

Azriel cut off the thought.

He had reached the end of the tunnel.

And resignation spread across his face.

“Ah… it really is the same…”

Yes.

The circular tiers of stone stands rose around him, towering in silence and shadow. Massive pillars, scarred and battered, held up the ceiling far above like ancient trees bearing the weight of countless battles. Flickering torches lined the walls.

It was different.

But in the end, it was still the same colosseum.

Only much larger.

And perhaps not nearly as old as it had been in the Void Realm.

Dismissing his lantern, Azriel felt sick. He lifted both hands to his face and rubbed it slowly.

’I should have realized it when Nol told me about his experience…’

He had been wrong.

So, so wrong.

’Leonardo? Lia?’

This scenario had never been in the book. Azriel understood that much. He had assumed that somehow, his presence had created a butterfly effect and changed the story.

But now he realized that was not the case.

This scenario…

All of this…

It had never been meant for Jasmine, Celestina, Caleus, Lioren, Lumine, Yelena, Anastasia, Nol, Vergil, or anyone else for that matter.

It had never been meant for anyone except Azriel.

All of this…

Was because of him.

The original scenario changed because of Azriel—

No.

That was not true.

That was not true at all.

Azriel’s heart skipped a beat.

A cold, horrible fear washed over him as the thought took shape.

This world…

This scenario…

It had been made specifically for him.

Everyone else…

Was an extra.

Everyone was an extra aside from Azriel.

That was why the proctor had come so late.

That was why, for so many months, Azriel alone had borne the worst of it while the other participants survived on crumbs of the scenario. Only Azriel had ever truly been able to move it forward, while the rest were forced to follow behind just to remain relevant.

But none of that mattered.

Because all of this was about Azriel.

All of it.

All of it was meant to break him.

…The gods were trying to break Azriel.