The Extra Who Shouldn’t Exist

A low, unhinged laugh escaped Alex's lips, echoing through the warped space alex Domain.

"Death," he muttered, his voice trembling with mania. "Yes… a gruesome, painful one. Yes, that will be fun. I'll give you a death just like that."

The ground beneath his feet cracked like glass, his aura rippling outward like waves of living flame. His gaze fell upon Grambell's broken body.

"I know you can't truly be killed that way," Alex said coldly, flicking his fingers as Grambell's body began to reconstruct. "Now get up, pest. Alex flicked his finger."

A moment later, the mangled corpse twitched. Grambell's shredded neck pulsed, and from the ruined stump, his head began to regenerate—flesh writhing back into place.

His voice came out as a furious snarl, filled with disbelief beyond anything he had ever felt.

"How is my body fine?! How… How… How can you manipulate the Law of Pride?! How can your existence outshine mine?!"

Alex stepped closer, smirking faintly. "Shut up before I piss on that ugly face of yours. You really think a crawling pest like you, with your inflated ego, can hold a candle to me?"

Grambell froze. His mouth hung open slightly, disbelief radiating from his eyes.

'This bastard radiates narcissism stronger than any I've seen in my centuries of life… Did he amplify his narcissism itself, turning it into his pride?! My own Law of Pride—it's… acknowledging him. Bending to him?!'

The paradox made Grambell's strength falter completely. His self-space of pride collapsed under Alex's presence.

Around them, the six remaining Sins tried to move—but their limbs trembled. Something primal inside them screamed a warning, and even they realized it: they were afraid.

Then Alex's voice came again—darker, heavier, almost demonic.

"You all enjoyed one against seven, didn't you?"

He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.

Reality shattered.

From the fractured fragments of his domain, forty-nine figures materialized—Echoes of Alex, each radiating his aura and carrying the same killing intent. Their eyes glowed, shadows pulsing beneath their skin.

"In this domain," Alex said, smiling faintly, "I can create anything… or destroy everything. Now it's seven against one—the other way around."

The seven Sins backed up a step, disbelief flashing across their monstrous faces. Their breaths hitched as they sensed the overwhelming power emanating from each echo; every one of them felt real, divine, and lethal.

Alex tilted his head. "Let's see if you can survive the same hell I just did."

The echoes moved first.

Seven of them descended upon Grambell like executioners.

"Fools!" Grambell roared, his pride flaring as golden light engulfed him. "No copies can overpower me!"

He unleashed his full might—his subspace shimmering with divine light—but it faltered immediately. The moment Alex's aura brushed against it, the fabric of his domain unraveled.

A fist slammed into Grambell's ribs, followed by a kick that cracked his spine. The air filled with the sound of beating flesh. Another Alex raked his blade across Grambell's chest while a third forced him down by his throat.

Blows came from every direction—fists, blades, and energy spheres of light, fire, void, water, and wind. Dozens of elements collided in an explosive symphony, hammering him endlessly.

Grambell's arrogant laughter turned to agonized screams.

"STOP! STOP! I YIELD—!"

But mercy did not exist in Alex's eyes. They tore his limbs apart, ripped his wings into ribbons, and finally plunged a blue‑white spear through his heart.

The mighty incarnate of Pride fell silent, burning away into ash.

'That's one,' whispered Alex calmly in his mind.

Meanwhile, Drathos stood surrounded by seven more of Alex's incarnations, his molten body seething with power.

He grinned through cracked lips. "It's futile! Ten, twenty, a hundred of you—it doesn't matter. Every attack fuels my wrath! The more you strike me, the stronger I become!"

The clones did not react—they simply attacked.

Blades of black aura cleaved through him from every angle—cutting, burning, piercing.

Drathos laughed shrilly. "Yes! Give me everything! I'll devour your strength until—"

He stopped.

His molten veins flashed white for a moment, then gray. Each wound he tried to heal refused to close. His body began to shake violently as the heat in his chest turned cold.

'No… this can't be…' he thought in horror. 'These blades… they're absorbing my strength! That dark energy—they're releasing it into my body! It's eating me from the inside!'

Before he could react further, the seven Alexes charged again—silent and merciless. Their blades of raw dark aura tore through him until even the Sin of Wrath collapsed into molten dust, drowned in his own overflowing fury.

Gorath, the Sin of Gluttony, rose next—a monstrous vortex of mouths and shadows. Every motion devoured space itself.

"I consume all!" he gurgled, thousands of voices overlapping. "You cannot escape me!"

He opened his endless, abyssal maw to consume everything—Alex's echoes, the domain, even existence itself—but before he could swallow, an even darker void bloomed behind him.

From Alex's hand poured waves of black essence—denser, older, infinitely hungrier. The air warped. Stars outside the plane dimmed.

A chilling voice echoed. "Don't think you're the only one who can absorb in this place," Alex said. "Here, every law bends to me and for me. Copying your law and improving on it is nothing."

The shadows around Gorath began twisting violently as they turned inward—his own body consuming itself. One by one, the countless mouths screamed and imploded, dragged into Alex's darkness.

His final scream shook the Astral Domain before silence reclaimed it completely.

Valen, the Sin of Greed, smiled.

"So you killed them. Impressive, but futile," he hissed. Golden light flared as countless phantom treasures spiraled around him. "Numbers mean nothing. I will take your desire to fight, your will to stand, your very essence of defiance and feeling! All of it will belong to me!"

He stepped forward, energy reaching toward Alex. "Give me everything—you don't need such burdens."

Before he realized it, one of Alex's echoes had moved closer.

"No," the echo said softly. "I'll give you something else instead."

The echo grabbed Valen by the throat, forcing open his jaw. His palm glowed with blue light.

"Here," he said coldly. "Take a taste of something only I can wield. Let's see if this essence can satisfy your greed."

A stream of shimmering energy shot into Valen's chest. The greedy Sovereign gasped, his veins turning black as cracks spread across his golden armor.

Boom!

Valen exploded, reduced to shards of magic and ash.

Before anyone could blink, Alex flicked his fingers once more—and the body reassembled instantly, trembling in horror.

"Wha—what did you—"

But Alex didn't let him finish.

Again, he forced Cosmic Essence into Valen's body. Again, it detonated.

Boom!

And again.

Each time, the Sin of Greed was reborn in agony only to explode once more. The realm echoed with Valen's desperate pleas, his distorted voice screaming through the void.

"Stop! PLEASE STOP!"

Alex tilted his head. His tone was cold, almost detached. "For someone who craves eternity, you sure can't endure it."

Another flick of his fingers. Another explosion lit the horizon.

One by one, the remaining incarnations of sin realized the horrifying truth.

The boy they'd cornered—the mortal they'd dismissed—was no longer human.

He had become the very chaos they once claimed to rule.

Maria, the Sin of Lust, staggered backward as the ground beneath her feet trembled. All around her, seven versions of Alex stood in silent formation, their gold and crimson eyes locked directly on her. The air inside the Astral Domain was suffocating, charged with power that shredded reason itself.

Her trembling voice cracked as she raised a shaking hand.

"P‑Please… forgive me," she said, desperation bleeding into every word. "It's not my fault. I… I was forced to fight you!"

Alex's expression remained cold, his tone detached.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "You got in my way. That's all that matters."

Maria bit her lip, fear flickering into defiance for one final time. She gritted her teeth and channeled her law—the Law of Lust.

Her beauty intensified to an impossible degree. Every flick of her crimson hair, every shift of her hips, radiated supernatural allure. Her eyes turned into twin galaxies of desire, capable of enslaving even the strongest minds. The air shimmered, and her illusions formed instantly—labyrinths of pleasure and temptation where even the divine could lose themselves.

But Alex didn't move. Not even a flicker passed across his expression. The illusions burst like bubbles before they could take form.

'Why?' she thought frantically. 'No one can resist me! No one!'

Each time she tried again, it was useless. Her beauty, her charm, her power—none of it reached him. The realization struck like lightning. The Sin of Lust felt fear again—the kind of fear she hadn't known since her creation.

Then Alex broke the silence, his voice colder than death.

"You like illusions, right?" he said softly. "Let me show you one you'll never forget."

Before she could react, his hand shot forward and clamped around her head. The world snapped away.

----

Maria opened her eyes to find herself somewhere else entirely.

She stood inside a dark cavern, wet stone glistening around her. The air reeked of decay and sweat. Behind her, cruel, rhythmic laughter echoed from the depths.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of figures emerged from the shadows. Misshapen goblins and towering orcs drooled as their cruel eyes locked onto her.

Maria froze, horror spreading through her veins. She knew what this was—a twisted reflection of her own sin.

"Wait… no…" she whispered, stepping back, trembling. "Anything but this. Please. I'll do anything—just not this!"

The creatures laughed louder, closing in, their heavy footsteps shaking the ground.

She turned to run, but the cave stretched into infinity. Desperation turned into a scream.

"STOP!" she cried, her voice breaking. "PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU!"

Her pleas vanished under the echo of grotesque laughter. The illusion did not fade. It did not relent.

When she finally opened her eyes again, her real body lay crumpled on the battlefield—her gaze hollow, her mind shattered beyond repair.

Only two remained standing—Lysandra, the Sin of Envy, and Linnea, the Sin of Sloth.

Linnea's hair drifted like mist as she stared at the devastation before her. Her voice shook when she finally spoke. "It's useless," she said quietly. "He's not normal. We should surrender now before he—"

Lysandra gritted her teeth, fury distorting her beautiful face. "Surrender? Never! You think I'd beg him for mercy?"

But before she could act, all seven Alex surrounding her moved as one. The air rippled, reality bending under their combined pressure. Lysandra raised her hand, summoning her Law.

The Law of Envy allowed her to mimic the power of her enemies. Her body glowed emerald, and instantly seven copies of her appeared, mirroring Alex's clones. The battlefield trembled as her illusions screamed toward him, blades shimmering with deadly light.

The clash lit up the sky. Energy waves rolled across the domain—but within seconds, it was over.

Black smoke cleared, revealing the truth: the seven copies of Lysandra lay broken, torn apart, while the original was pinned beneath the heel of one of Alex's echoes.

Her screams echoed as her arm snapped, then her leg. The other echoes joined in, their laughter low and cruel. They dragged her across the ground, their blows rhythmic, measured, deliberate. It wasn't a fight anymore—it was punishment.

"Stop!" she sobbed between screams, her pride stripped bare. "I yield! Stop!"

But Alex's voice came from above, distant yet absolute.

"I will show you real chaos. Didn't I promise?"

The echoes stopped only when her voice fell silent, leaving her broken and unconscious amid the shattered remnants of her power.

Linnea was the last.

She trembled, her eyelids half‑open as usual, her movements sluggish but deliberate. Her mind raced despite her calm exterior.

'My Law of Sloth weakens minds, breaks wills, bends desires to manipulate… but not him. It won't work on him. This entire domain follows his will like a god. What kind of domain is this? Every domain has limits—but this one reshapes reality itself, as if declaring him a god. Who can control laws that aren't meant to be controlled by mortals?'

Her only choice was submission.

Taking a deep breath, she dropped to her knees, bowing until her head pressed against the ground.

"Please," she whispered. "Let me live… and I'll tell you how you can destroy the others."

The nearest Alex stepped forward, placing his foot firmly on her back. She let out a cry as bone cracked under the pressure.

"Speak," he ordered, his tone emotionless.

Linnea coughed blood but managed to answer, her voice trembling. "Our… cores. As long as our cores are safe, we can be revived—even if it takes centuries. Take them, destroy them, and we'll all fall."

Her words barely left her lips before Alex vanished.

A blink later, he was behind Kyle.

Kyle gasped, freezing as he felt a sharp impact in his chest. Alex's arm burst through his ribcage, his hand gripping something that burned and pulsed.

When Kyle looked down, he saw seven glowing crystals in Alex's grasp—each one radiating the essence of the Sins.

For a moment, all sound stopped. Then Alex pulled his blood‑stained arm free and held the glowing cores up for Kyle to see.

"Now," he said quietly, his voice echoing through the dying world, "the battlefield is even. No interference. Just you and me."

Kyle staggered backward, clutching the hole in his chest. His mind screamed, panic consuming him.

'Impossible… he defeated them all… he's beyond reason…'

His breath shortened as dread clawed down his spine. Every instinct begged him to flee.

'I… I need to escape,' he thought frantically, taking one step back. 'There's no option left now.'

Then, as Alex turned and the light of the crimson moons caught his face, Kyle froze.

Those eyes—darkening from blue to black—didn't belong to a man anymore.

'He's not human… What the hell is he?'