Reborn As An Extra In My Own Novel

The embrace of death was rather peaceful, but Kai knew he had to wake up.

Kai stirred, a cold dampness seeping through his clothes as his eyes fluttered open.

"It seems I'm not dead yet," he muttered under his breath, scanning the hall he found himself in.

The floor beneath him was made of carved stone, web-like cracks running across its surface.

The air was damp, touched by the scent of ancient iron and something older. The walls felt as though grief and sorrow had seeped into them.

Around him stood towering statues of knights, armored figures hewn from obsidian and marble, their swords piercing the ground.

They were just statues, but Kai couldn't help but feel their oppressive gazes weighing down on him.

Slowly rising to his feet, he rubbed his aching neck and turned, noting the sheer size of the chamber: high, arched ceilings with crumbling buttresses, all lit by flickering, eerie torches.

At the far end of the hall, directly ahead, stood a knight.

Kai didn't need to be told that it wasn't a statue.

Its size was different to begin with, and unlike the others, it wasn't made from crumbling marble but a strange type of steel.

He, if it could even be called a person, stood nearly as tall as Kai, clad in shimmering white armor that gleamed like moonlit steel. It wielded a blade of the same brilliance.

Its posture was still, yet not entirely lifeless.

"Alpha..." Kai called out, but as his intuition had warned him, she didn't answer. "My luck..."

Kai was certain now. This was inside Star of Ruin, and the knight over there was—

The Demon Slayer. The true form of Star of Ruin.

Kai took a step forward, inching closer to the center.

Then,

The knight's helm shifted ever so slightly.

Behind its visor, a blinding light flared, two focused points, crystalline and emerald green, as if its eyes were forged from condensed gemstones.

Kai's body tensed instinctively.

He immediately backed away, summoning the new sword he had taken from Reni into his palm.

If what he had gathered was true, then whoever was behind that helmet was once someone who stood at the peak of Prana.

Sparks of light shimmered around him, and in an instant, the vestige formed in his palm.

A sleek black katana of unknown grade.

'Will this be enough against it?' Kai questioned inwardly.

Star of Ruin was, without a doubt, a transcendent-grade vestige. That meant if its power was truly equivalent to such a grade, then he was more than screwed.

The white knight raised its sword with a soft mechanical hum. A straight-edged longsword with golden prana danced along its blade like sunlight reflected on ice.

Kai's heartbeat quickened. 'What am I going to do?'

He unsheathed his blade, leaning the sheath against the bone of his left arm to serve as secondary defense.

Before he could fully adopt a stance, the knight lunged.

In a blur of white and silver, it closed the distance faster than Kai could react.

However, Kai wasn't ready to go down in a single blow.

He raised the katana to block the attack, but the knight dipped low, slamming the edge of its blade into his ribs.

Before Kai could even spit blood, his entire body flew upward, crashing into the wall near the ceiling of the dungeon.

His vision blurred as blood dripped from his side, now shattered from the strike.

The air trembled, and in an instant, the knight vanished, reappearing directly in front of him.

Kai barely managed to form a proper ability using weaving. Still, it was enough for him to blink.

As the knight's blade smashed into the wall he had been embedded in, sending debris and dust flying, Kai vanished, reappearing meters away.

Steel met steel as Kai, who had snuck behind the falling knight, struck its back, but not even a dent was made.

Kai gritted his teeth and cursed inwardly as the knight twisted its head unnaturally to face him.

Kai groaned as the weight of the knight's prana pressed down on him, forcing him to the floor as if gravity itself had multiplied tenfold.

It was excruciating. His body was breaking, his heartbeat slowing, and everything around him faded into obscurity.

Kai struggled to raise his hand and muttered, "Come forth."

At his command, a thousand saints materialized from the threads spiraling through the air, led by his generals: Gumiho, Tank, Shiki, and Gobo.

Gumiho ran to him, stopping time for a second or two, then removed him from the crater formed by the gravity spike.

"Damn, it hurts," Kai muttered as Gumiho fifty-time released.

However, before time could fully unfreeze, the knight broke free from the ability, slashing both Gumiho and Kai, who lay atop her.

Kai stumbled to the ground, struggling to breathe through the gaping hole that now filled his lungs. He raised his head from where he lay face-down.

The moonlight knight advanced toward him with each step.

His strides were cold and deliberate. The knight swung the blade sideways, then muttered, "Demon... Weak."

"I'm not a demon, you damned blade," Kai struggled to reply.

The knight bent to one knee and raised its head. Its eyes glowed even brighter, and as Kai looked directly into them, floods of memory surged into his mind.

A child, no older than eight, running barefoot through green grass, laughing.

A princess who once lived a beautiful life.

Then that world shattered.

A battlefield strewn with the broken bodies of knights and citizens of her homeland.

The corpse of her father, a righteous king. And several demons feeding on his remains as he died in agony.

A young woman screaming as demons tore through the final gate of their empire.

Blood.

Fire.

Grief.

The anguish of a nation forsaken by the gods.

The agony of being devoured by demons. The sorrow of abandonment.

Tears streamed down Kai's cheeks. "What the hell...?"

The pain in his lungs dulled, perhaps because it was nothing compared to the torment the young woman behind the helmet had endured, or perhaps for another reason.

Kai's gaze darkened. 'So this... is what reality truly looks like?'

The knight, seeing his expression, dropped her sword. Kai looked toward her with his one functioning eye.

A voice rang out. A voice filled with joy, yet cold. A voice musty, yet clear. A voice carrying the weight of the world, unmistakably feminine.

"I have to kill all demons. All those who took away my... my people," she held her helmet as if she wanted to claw her face off. "I killed them. I was the one who killed them. I killed them all...!"

She almost yelled at the top of her lungs. "And not just the men, but the women and the children, too. I slaughtered them like animals. It was for the people! It wasn't my fault!"

Kai didn't know what to say.

This person, who had fought her entire life to protect her people, was someone Kai knew he could never become, no matter how hard he tried.

A true hero. One who, even after giving her all, still carried the burden of every death. Kai had no response.

He let out a cracked, humorless chuckle.

"Do you think you're Anakin?" he muttered, voice rough. "At least wear a dark suit next time you want to cosplay."

Using the katana's sheath for support, his eyes briefly glanced at his fallen saints. Kai stood tall despite the pain in his bones, his grip on the katana tightening.

"I can't say I completely understand what you felt, nor can I sympathize when I don't even know what it's like to lose the people you love right before your eyes."

Then, he lowered his blade slightly, assuming a proper stance. "But as the one who has become my blade, and who I will walk with," his expression turned solemn, "I want to carry those burdens with you. And I want you to help me too, so neither of us will ever witness such a tragedy again."

He drew a deep breath. "That is why," he said slowly, each word heavy with resolve, "I, Kaiser Vanguard, disciple of Elizabeth Roswell, formally request a duel."

The dungeon held its breath.

Then, the knight slowly rose to her feet.

Her stance shifted, regal, composed, and purposeful. No longer the chaotic, battle-hardened style she had refined over countless wars. She raised her sword again, but something in both her blade and demeanor had changed.

She wasn't raising it as a Demon Slayer.

No. This was a knight's blade, prepared for a true duel.

And then she spoke. "I, Leona Onazatella, daughter of King Arthur and Captain of the Holy Knights," she locked eyes with him, her glowing gaze dimming slightly, "accept your duel."

The dungeon stood still as the two figures faced each other.

The fight was a literal death sentence for Kai, but still, he wanted to do it. Even though he didn't want to die here, he still wanted to appease the soul of Leona Onzatella.

She had fought many battles, and he needed her to stay by his side while he fought his own—not just so he could save his world, but also so she could see the end of her thousand-year-long battle.

So the least he could do to earn her trust was fight till the end.

Kai dismissed his saints and stood tall. He was going to give everything he had.

Not as a tricky fighter or a strategist, but as a knight.

An honorable knight.