Extra is the Heir of Life and Death

Everyone was still staring at me.

The air in the room felt heavy. Like all their emotions, their relief and confusion were pressing down on me from every side.

I let out a slow breath and sat up straighter on the bed. "Alright," I said quietly, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "That's enough staring for one day."

Their heads lifted slightly, their expressions caught between worry and hesitation.

"I'm fine," I added, forcing the words out with a small, tired smile. "So… go. Rest. I'll be fine."

No one moved at first.

Xavier exchanged a look with Nora, who looked like she wanted to argue but bit her tongue. Kent sighed, running a hand through his messy hair. Alectra frowned at me, clearly wanting to protest but holding it back.

I met each of their gazes, one by one. "Please," I said softly. "Just give me a bit of quiet."

That finally did it.

They started leaving one after another, each glance lingering a little too long. Alectra was the last of the group, pausing at the doorway. For a moment, she looked like she wanted to say something but instead, she just sighed and walked out.

Only Belle remained.

She stood by the side of my bed, her expression unreadable. The faint violet tint of her eyes, those strange, shifting colors, looked dimmer than before, like the light had gone out of them.

For a long time, she didn't move.

Then she finally said, her voice quiet, "If you feel… off again, call me. Immediately."

I nodded. "I will."

She lingered another heartbeat, then turned and walked away, her footsteps light and even. When the door clicked shut behind her, the silence that followed felt almost deafening.

I stared at the ceiling for a while, the faint hum of the mana conduits filling the air. My chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm, the calm finally seeping in now that everyone was gone.

Then I let myself drop back onto the bed, arms and legs spread wide, sinking into the sheets.

For a while, I just breathed.

The chaos in my mind had dulled. My thoughts, which had been nothing but noise before, were finally forming coherent threads again. My emotions were still rough around the edges, but at least they were mine again.

I stared up at the faint patterns in the ceiling, my fingers curling slightly as my thoughts began to drift.

That black void.

Why had I woken up there?

It hadn't been the first nightmare I'd had… but this one... this one had been different. More vivid. More real. I could still feel the darkness clinging to me, the weight of it pressing against my chest.

The fear. The emptiness. A life that didn't belong to me.

I swallowed hard.

There had to be a reason for it. Something behind it all.

And those messages the ones that had flashed in front of me.

"Level of insanity climbing: 35% → Level 2 threshold approaching."

The words replayed in my head, sharp and cold.

Level two.

What had that even meant?

What would happen if I reached it?

Would something change in me? Or would I just… break?

And then there was the other one—"Bloodline lock weakening."

Bloodline.

Just hearing the word made something deep in my chest twist, like an instinctive warning.

I didn't understand any of it.

Not the void. Not the messages. Not why I kept having these nightmares in the first place.

Just questions.

Always more questions.

I exhaled, long and quiet, my gaze unfocused on the ceiling above. "So many questions," I muttered under my breath, a faint, humorless chuckle escaping me, "and not a single damn answer."

My voice faded into the stillness of the room.

I lay there staring at the ceiling, my mind foggy but restless. I didn't know how long I'd been awake before I heard a voice, faint and familiar, curling at the edge of my thoughts.

{You're finally awake, huh?}

My entire body went still. That voice. That damned voice.

'You've got to be kidding me,' I muttered through the link. The irritation hit instantly. 'Where the hell have you been?'

{Busy.}

'Busy?' My teeth clenched. 'You disappear for days, leave me to lose my mind, and all you've got to say is busy?'

{More or less.}

That did it. The anger that had been sitting quietly somewhere deep inside me snapped free.

'You think this is funny? I was losing it, Bastard! I couldn't sleep. I couldn't think straight. I was actually going insane and you were just gone!'

{You didn't die, did you?}

That little spark of humor in his tone made my vision blur red.

'You smug piece of shit, do you even care what's been happening to me?'

Silence. Not the kind that comforted, either. The kind that made the room feel smaller, tighter, like even my own thoughts were pressing in on me.

I sat up, dragging a hand through my hair. My heart was racing, the anger bleeding into something dangerous underneath.

'I was begging for it to stop,' I said quietly. 'The nightmares, the voices, the emptiness—everything. You were supposed to help me. You said we were in this together.'

For a moment, I thought he was gone again. Then his voice came back, softer, heavier.

{You're an asshole sometimes, you know that? You talk like I didn't notice. Like I wasn't trying.}

'Trying? By doing what? Vanishing?'

{By finding a solution.}

That made me pause.

'What are you talking about?'

{I found something,} he said, each word deliberate. {A temporary fix. It should keep the nightmares at bay… and maybe stabilize your emotions for a while.}

'A fix,' I repeated slowly. My anger hadn't completely faded, but confusion slipped through the cracks. 'You're telling me you left me alone in that mess because you were working on a solution?'

{Exactly.}

'You could've said something! Anything!'

{And what? Distract you while I worked? You were already coming apart, Sebastian. I didn't need to make it worse.}

I let out a shaky breath, my hands balling into fists. The anger still burned, but exhaustion was starting to drown it.

'You always do this,' I muttered. 'You make choices for me like I'm some experiment. Like I don't get a say.'

{Because you'd only argue. And right now, you can't afford to.}

'You really think you can decide that for me?'

{Someone has to,} he said simply.

I stared at the ceiling again, the fight draining out of me, leaving nothing but a dull ache in my chest.

'You're such a bastard,' I said.

{You named me that, genius.}

Despite everything, I let out a short, bitter laugh. 'Yeah. I guess I did.'