The Extra's Rise - Chapter 1089
1089: The Sovereign’s Answer 1089: The Sovereign’s Answer I gasped, ripping the VR-like headset of memory from my mind.
The transition was violent.
I fell to my knees on the floor of the Akashic Records, dry heaving.
My brain was vibrating, overloaded by the sheer density of the life I had just witnessed.
I hadn’t just watched a movie.
I had lived it.
I had felt the crushing gravity of the Abyss, the heat of Tiamat’s fire, and the terrifying, bottomless hunger of the entity known as Tenebria.
“She…” I wheezed, wiping sweat from my forehead.
“She is…
complete.” “Yes,” Akasha whispered.
I looked up.
The Library was in ruins.
The black ink-Tenebria’s corruption-had advanced significantly while I was in the simulation.
The shelves were dissolving into static.
The ceiling was gone, replaced by a void that looked suspiciously like Tenebria’s eyes.
Akasha sat on the steps of the central dais.
She was translucent now.
Her golden light was flickering, struggling to maintain the resolution of her own existence.
“I am the Librarian,” Akasha said, her voice hollow.
“I possess every spell ever cast, every martial art ever invented, every strategy ever conceived in the history of the universe.
By all logic, I should be invincible.” She looked at her fading hand.
“But I cannot beat her.” “Because she has the Gifts?” I asked, struggling to my feet.
“Because she has seven Authorities?” “No,” Akasha said, shaking her head.
“Because she is the Sum.
I am Knowledge, Arthur.
Knowledge is passive.
It is a record of what has happened.
Tenebria…
she is Will.
She dictates what will happen.” She stood up, walking down the steps to meet me.
The library groaned around us, the structural integrity of the dimension failing.
“She took the chaotic, unfair, contradictory powers of the universe and forced them to make sense through sheer force of personality,” Akasha continued.
“She is a closed loop of perfection.
Magic bounces off her.
Physical force is absorbed by her.
She has solved the equation of violence.” “Then we lose,” I said, the despair of the Dragon Realm still clinging to me.
“If Tiamat couldn’t beat her…
if you can’t beat her…” “The System cannot beat her,” Akasha corrected.
“Because she conquered the System.
She plays by the rules better than anyone else.
But you…” She stopped in front of me.
Her eyes, usually filled with the infinite distance of a god, were suddenly focused, present, and desperate.
“You are not part of the System, Arthur.
You possess The Grey.” “I used The Grey against Alyssara,” I argued.
“I used it against the Demon Lords on the Moon.
It’s strong, but Tenebria has seven powers that are just as strong.” “You are still thinking like a mage,” Akasha snapped, her voice sharp.
“You think The Grey is just a different color of Mana.
You think it’s a sword you swing.” She reached out, grabbing the lapels of my coat.
“The Grey isn’t a power within the universe, Arthur.
It is a power that surpasses all.” She pulled me closer.
“Tenebria is Everything.
She is the accumulation of all Sins, all matter, all energy.
To defeat Everything, you cannot use ‘More Everything.’ You must use Nothing.” “I don’t know how,” I admitted, frustration rising.
“I tried to train it.
I tried to shape it.
But it slips through my fingers.” “Of course you don’t know how,” Akasha said softly.
“I don’t know how either.
It isn’t in the Records.
It has never been done.
There is no manual for being the void.” She looked at my chest, where my Sword Heart beat with a rhythmic, grey pulse.
“But the problem isn’t just your skill, Arthur.
It’s your limit.” “I have no limit,” I said.
“I broke the Radiant barrier.
I reached Divine.
The seal you put on me when I first awakened The Grey…
it shattered years ago.” Akasha smiled.
It was a sad, tragic smile.
“Did it?” She reached up, her fingers tracing the line of my jaw.
“You broke the physical shell, yes.
You accessed the mana reserves.
But the Safety Lock?
The conceptual barrier I placed on your soul to keep you from accidentally erasing yourself and the solar system every time you sneezed?” Her eyes searched mine.
“I never took that off, Arthur.
Because I was afraid.
I was afraid that if you fully became The Grey, you would stop being Arthur.” My eyes widened.
“You…
you handicapped me?” “I protected you,” she whispered.
“I wanted you to be a hero, not a phenomenon.
But now…” A massive chunk of the library collapsed behind her.
The roar of Tenebria’s approaching influence shook the ground beneath our feet.
“Now, we don’t need a hero,” Akasha said, tears forming in her eyes of starlight.
“We need a Sovereign.” She reached into the folds of her robe.
My eyes snapped to the object she revealed.
It was a small, crystal vial sealed with ancient runic wax.
Inside, a dark, viscous liquid swirled-black, yet shimmering with seven colors.
I froze.
“That…” I stammered, patting my own dimensional storage ring.
“That’s the Blood of the Overlord.
I stored that away after the Moon battle.
I have it in my vault.” “Do you?” Akasha asked enigmatically.
“Or did you just think you did because the story required you to feel safe?” I stared at her, stunned.
She had pulled it directly from my inventory?
No…
she had pulled it from the narrative itself.
“Akasha, what are you doing?” I asked, a sudden panic rising in my chest.
“That blood is raw Authority.
It’s poison to anyone but her.” “To a human, yes.
To a mage, yes,” Akasha said.
She uncorked the vial with her thumb.
“But to a Void?
It is just coordinates.” She didn’t hand it to me.
She brought the vial to her own lips.
“Akasha, no!” I shouted, reaching out.
She tilted her head back and drank.
She swallowed the essence of the Demon Overlord-the most toxic, potent substance in the universe-in a single gulp.
Her golden light immediately turned violent.
Veins of black corruption shot up her neck.
Her eyes dilated, turning entirely black as the foreign Authority warred with her existence.
She groaned, her knees buckling, but she forced herself to stand.
She dropped the empty vial.
It shattered on the floor.
She looked at me.
Her expression was no longer just sad.
It was determined.
Ferocious.
“To kill the Beast,” she whispered, her voice layered with a terrifying, distortion-heavy echo, “you must taste the Sin.” She stepped in.
I tried to pull back, but her hand snapped to the back of my neck.
Her grip was iron.
“Forgive me,” she breathed.
She smashed her lips against mine.
It wasn’t a kiss.
It was an injection.
Akasha forced her mouth open, and a surge of power-hot, metallic, and tasting of absolute corruption-flooded from her into me.
She was feeding me the blood.
But it was more than that.
CRACK.
I heard it.
Not in the air, but inside the deepest foundation of my soul.
A sound like a chain snapping.
A sound like a dam breaking.
The “limit” I hadn’t even realized was there-the subtle, subconscious safety lock she had placed on me years ago-shattered under the pressure of her will.
The Grey surged.
The Blood of the Overlord burned.
And as Akasha held me there, pouring the catalyst of the apocalypse down my throat, the world turned white.