Extra is the Heir of Life and Death

The moment Croft left, the classroom detonated into noise—chairs scraping, people shouting names, half the class suddenly acting like they were assembling a team for world domination.

Nora and I didn't bother joining the stampede. We simply moved one desk forward, stepping into the territory where Kent and Annalise were sitting.

Kent looked like he'd already aged five years just thinking about group politics. While Annalise looked like she was silently calculating every possible combination of team members and trying to decide which one would ruin her life the least. Nora just leaned onto her, draping herself over Annalise's shoulder like she was her childhood friend, which, to be fair, she was not. As if a vixen like Annalise could have childhood friends.

And me? I sat right on the desk in front of Kent, arms crossed, surveying the battlefield like a man ready to conduct an intervention.

I took a slow look at each of them, letting the silence stretch.

Then I said the cursed sentence aloud.

"So… we've got four people already."

They all nodded stiffly. "That means we can only add one more."

More nodding.

"Which leaves the million-thalgar question… Lillith or Xavier?"

The collective existential dread hit immediately.

Kent winced like I'd just asked him to pick which limb he wanted amputated. While the two girls just stared into the void, their smiles wavering at the edges, the delicate expression of someone reconsidering the existence of friendship.

I sighed dramatically. "Look, we're all thinking it. One of them will cause problems, the other will also cause problems. But at least we're choosing our preferred brand of suffering."

Kent opened his mouth, probably to suggest the safest option—

SMACK.

He lurched forward like someone had slammed a brick into his spine.

I didn't have to look to know who it was. But I did anyway.

And there she stood.

Lillith.

Purple hair cascading down her back like she'd styled it specifically to make people jealous. Purple eyes glinting with enough charm to turn a monastery into a nightclub. Outfit short enough to make the dress code commit seppuku.

A seductress through and through.

She rested a hand on her hip, giving us that smile she'd perfected over years of breaking hearts and stealing resistances like a kleptomaniac Cupid.

"Hello, boys~ Girls~" she purred.

Nora rolled her eyes. Annalise just smiled a smile that looked friendly but was... not friendly . Kent was trying very hard not to whimper.

While the humble and great me just kept my face completely neutral.

Unfortunately, my eyes betrayed me.

They dipped.

Just a little.

Very slightly.

Pure reflex.

And of course, because the universe hates me, I caught a perfect view of her very deliberately exposed cleavage.

I internally choked and snapped my gaze away so fast I nearly sprained my neck.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Not doing that again.

I am a humble human. A good human. Not some sinful demon whose soul melts at the sight of breasts. I started reciting my mantra, which I just made, 'Breasts are powerful, but so am I. I am immune. I am unshakeable. I am absolutely not sweating, shut up, Sacha.'

Sacha's cute little voice echoed in my mind 'What did I do Papa', I ignored her.

Lillith's smile faltered into a frown, clearly spotting the exact millisecond my attention fled. Then she pouted, full lower lip sticking out, eyes wide in dramatic disappointment.

She looked like a seductress denied her prey. Which, to be fair, she was.

"Well," she said, leaning forward just enough to test every male in a fifty-meter radius, "what were you all discussing?"

Annalise glared holes into her chair. Nora looked like she was mentally chanting Don't punch her, don't punch her. And yes, you guessed it, Kent was still whimpering like a kicked puppy.

I just sighed.

Deeply.

Because I knew, without needing prophetic vision, that whatever came out of Lillith's mouth next…

Yeah.

It was going to cause problems or maybe give solutions.

Lillith blinked at our collective misery, tilted her head, and then let out a breathy scoff as if we were the most pathetic creatures she'd seen all week.

"By the stars, stop acting like abandoned pups," she said, waving a hand at us with theatrical disdain. "I'm not here to fight for a spot in your tragically indecisive little group."

That got everyone's attention. Even Kent stopped pretending to be in pain (He actually was in pain).

Lillith straightened her posture, hips shifting, hair falling perfectly around her shoulders like she'd rehearsed this moment in front of a mirror and delivered the bomb with a smirk sharp enough to slice egos in half.

"I'm making my own group."

Silence.

Actual silence.

The loud, heavy, wait what the hades kind.

Nora blinked once.

Annalise blinked twice.

Kent blinked so fast it looked like he was sending Morse code for help.

Meanwhile, I just exhaled slowly, because honestly? Yeah. I saw this coming from a kilometer away.

"So that's what you were doing yesterday," I said, leveling a look at her, "when you screamed at me through the phone and nearly murdered my eardrum."

Lillith froze mid-smile. The seductress façade cracked like thin glass. Color crawled up her neck and painted her face a bright, traitorous shade of red.

She coughed. Very delicately. Very falsely. Very, please forget you saw that.

Behind her, Annalise burst into laughter, actual laughter, the kind she doesn't allow herself unless someone else is making a fool of themselves.

She slapped a hand against her knee, leaning forward as she tried to breathe, which only made Lillith snap her head around with a death glare sharp enough to decapitate goats.

Of course, instead of glaring at Annalise (the true culprit), she turned the glare on me, because why take responsibility for being embarrassed when you can blame the nearest man?

I raised my hands in defeat in the most "I'm innocent, please don't curse me" gesture I could manage.

Lillith sniffed, tossed her hair, regained her composure with the speed of someone who had way too much practice, and announced, "Yes. That was what I was doing yesterday. I was busy arranging a group of capable, competent individuals—"

"Who can tolerate you," Nora muttered under her breath.

Lillith pretended not to hear her, which was generous of her, because the truth was she definitely heard it.

"Anyway," Annalise said, wiping a tear from her eye and recovering from her laughter, "if Lillith's making her own group, that means Xander'll probably end up being our last member."

The reaction was immediate.

Lillith turned her head toward Annalise with the slow, deliberate motion of a predator spotting movement in tall grass. Her lips pulled into a wide, too-sweet smile, one of those smiles with so much energy it felt physically dangerous. It was the kind of expression made specifically to annoy someone into questioning their life choices.

My eyebrows twitched; it seemed that I had underestimated the impulsiveness of a certain purple-haired woman.

I leaned back on the desk, watching the social explosion forming like a man front-row at a fireworks show he did not pay admission for.

Because if Lillith was smiling like that, and Annalise was staring back like that, and Nora was cracking her knuckles behind Annalise like a protective older sister about to commit violence

Yeah.

This excursion into Hollowveil?

It was going to be a disaster.

A hilarious disaster.

A dangerous disaster.

A why-do-I-even-bother kind of disaster.

But a disaster all the same.

And unfortunately… I was definitely going to be in the middle of it.

---

"Well," she said sweetly, "there's no need to argue, because Xander already agreed to join my group."

I just nodded like I expected that this was gonna happen. Spoiler, I didn't.

Nora seemed to be about to say something, but Lillith cut her off.

"Anyway," she said, striking a pose that absolutely nobody asked for, "I didn't just recruit Xander. I gathered a few other… talented individuals for my team."

There was a beat of silence.

Then Kent, sweet, delusional Kent, pushed his glasses up and asked, "Who?"

Poor guy. He really thought this was going to be a simple answer.

Lillith opened her mouth, probably about to introduce them with a title like The Elite Trinity of Perfection or some nonsense—

—but she never got the chance.

Because the universe apparently wanted this to be theatrical.

Footsteps echoed behind her. soft, synchronized, confident. The kind of steps people make when they know they look cool and are absolutely leaning into it.

Three shadows stretched across the floor behind her.

I didn't even see their faces yet, but I already knew.

This was a power entrance.

A dramatic reveal.

And of course, Lillith had coordinated it.

Of course.

Lillith grinned like a villainess unveiling her final form.

Kent made a faint squeak not fear exactly, just the spiritual sound of a man watching his chances of a peaceful excursion die a violent death.

I sighed and dragged a hand down my face.

"Fantastic," I muttered. "She formed the Avengers."

And Lillith, hearing me, gave me a confused look. "The what now?"

"Never mind."