The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 271: THE FROZEN SOUL
Chapter 266: The Frozen Soul
The podium was cold. Not with the chill of winter, but with the utter absence of life.
Maria Frostheart and Selena Veylan lay on the adamantite, their bodies perfectly still.
The bouquets of flowers they had been holding were already turning black, the petals curling inward as if recoiling from the touch of the curse.
"MARIA!"
Deiman Frostheart’s scream from the VIP box shattered the remaining glass panels.
The Lord of the North, a man who had famously negotiated trade treaties while sitting in a blizzard without a coat, was vibrating with a rage that froze the air in the royal box. Ice spikes erupted from the floor, jagged and uncontrolled.
Beside him, King Elandor of Denmard was gripping the railing so hard the metal groaned and twisted. His Elven composure was gone. In its place was the raw, terrified panic of a father.
"Selena!" Elandor cried out, his voice cracking. He made to jump, to vault the fifty meters down to the arena floor, but Queen Lirien grabbed his arm.
"Elandor, wait!" Lirien sobbed, though her eyes were flashing with dangerous magic. "The barrier! It is cursed! If you touch it, you will feed it!"
"I don’t care!" Elandor roared, drawing his silver blade. "My daughter is down there!"
Denish William stood frozen, his face pale. He looked at the chaos, then down at his son Eric, who was staring at the fallen girls with wide, horrified eyes. Denish wasn’t screaming. He was calculating. This wasn’t a tournament anymore. It was an assassination.
"Scark!" Denish barked at the Wolf Lord. "Get the perimeter secured! If they hit the heirs, they’ll hit the Patriarchs next!"
Scark Stromfang, already half-transformed into his wolf form, snarled. "I’m not your bodyguard, William. I’m going down there to rip that winged bitch’s throat out."
The Podium
Down in the arena, the world had shrunk to a small, terrible circle.
Leon Lionheart fell to his knees beside Selena. His hands hovered over her face, trembling. He was afraid to touch her, afraid that if he did, she would shatter like glass.
"Selena?" Leon whispered. "Hey. Wake up. The match is over. We won. Remember? You hit the final shot."
She didn’t answer. Her skin was turning a translucent grey. Frost was forming on her eyelashes, a cruel mimicry of her friend Maria’s magic.
"Let me through!"
Kaelen Vance, Elara’s cousin and the team’s healer, shoved past Arthur. He dropped to his knees, his hands glowing with warm, golden restoration mana.
"I’ve got them," Kaelen said, his voice shaking but determined. "It’s probably just a stun hex. I can purge it."
He placed his hands on Maria’s chest.
HISSS.
Kaelen screamed.
Smoke rose from his palms. The moment his healing mana touched Maria, it was repelled violently. The golden light turned black and recoiled, burning his skin.
"Kaelen!" Elara gasped, rushing to him.
"It... it burns!" Kaelen wheezed, clutching his blistered hands. "It’s not a wound! It’s not physical!"
He looked up at Michael, terror in his eyes.
"Their souls... they’re being put to sleep! The mana isn’t draining; it’s freezing! If they don’t wake up before the frost reaches their hearts, they fade! They’ll be empty shells!"
Leon stared at Kaelen, then back at Selena.
"Fade?" Leon’s voice was hollow. "No. No, that doesn’t happen. Not here. Not to us."
He looked up at the VIP box. He saw the Demon General Lilith floating there, laughing.
Something inside Leon broke.
It wasn’t a clean break. It was a jagged, ugly fracture in the foundation of his being. The Golden Hero, the boy who fought for smiles and justice, vanished.
In his place, a white fire ignited. But it wasn’t warm. It was blinding, searing, and silent.
Leon stood up. He drew his sword.
"KILL."
The word wasn’t spoken. It was vomited out of his soul.
Leon didn’t wait for orders. He didn’t check on his team. He turned toward the VIP box and leaped.
"Leon, wait!" Arthur shouted, reaching out.
But Leon was gone, a streak of white vengeance charging straight into the trap.
The Mindbreaker
While Leon raged, Michael Wilson stood perfectly still.
He was looking at Maria. At the frost creeping up her neck. At the stillness of her chest.
He felt... cold.
Not the cold of the curse. The cold of familiarity.
This is the script, Michael thought. Phase 4. The tragedy. The motivation for the hero.
In the original novel, this happened. Maria and Selena were cursed. Leon went berserk. It was the catalyst for the War Arc.
He knew it was coming. He had prepared for it. He had tried to change the timeline, tried to be faster, stronger.
And it happened anyway.
"The plot..." Michael whispered. "It corrected itself."
He adjusted his glasses.
"Fuck the plot."
He closed his eyes.
[Title Activated: Mindbreaker]
[Effect: Projection of absolute terror. Allies and Enemies alike will suffer morale failure in a 50m radius.]
When Michael opened his eyes, they were no longer blue. They were void-black.
The air around him turned heavy. It wasn’t gravity; it was dread.
Arthur Pendragon, the King of Knights, took an involuntary step back. His instincts, honed by years of training, screamed at him: Predator. Run.
Eric William fell to his knees, vomiting from the sheer psychological pressure.
"Michael?" Arthur choked out. "What are you doing?"
Michael didn’t answer. He turned his head toward the VIP box. Toward Lilith.
He didn’t scream like Leon. He didn’t rage.
He simply reached into his inventory and pulled out a small, unassuming glass vial.
It was the Harmonic Disruptor core he had recovered from the basement.
"Nox," Michael said. His voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a well.
The Wyrmling emerged from his shadow, shivering in fear of its own master.
"Eat this," Michael fed the core to the dragon. "And when I give the signal... vomit it into the gate."
He drew Draken.
"We aren’t saving the day," Michael said to the empty air. "We are ending the game."
________________
The Royal Box
Lilith watched Leon charging up the stadium seating, cutting through the Royal Guards like they were paper. She smiled.
"Delicious," she purred. "Rage. Grief. Despair. The perfect seasoning."
"GET BEHIND ME!" King Thorgar roared.
The Dwarf King slammed Mjolnir onto the floor. [Divine Art: Iron Citadel].
A massive wall of rune-etched steel erupted from the floor of the VIP box, sealing the Royal Families and the Patriarchs behind a barrier that could withstand a nuclear blast.
"Thorgar! Open the wall!" King Elandor screamed, pounding on the steel. "I have to get to Selena!"
"You cannot help her if you are dead, Elf!" Thorgar barked, his amber eyes glowing. "That Demon is S-Rank! She will peel your soul like an orange!"
Queen Helmina was holding Princess Freya and Prince Dorian, shielding them with her body. Her floral armor had fully bloomed, razor-sharp petals swirling around her in a defensive storm.
"Freya," Helmina whispered urgently. "Take your brother. Use the servant’s exit. Get to the Iron-Horse."
"I’m not leaving you!" Freya cried, drawing her mace Frostbreaker. "I can fight! I’m a Stoneforge!"
"You are the Heir!" Helmina snapped, shaking her daughter. "If we fall, you must lead the Kingdom. Go!"
Freya looked at her mother, tears freezing on her cheeks. She grabbed Dorian’s hand. The young prince was clutching his wooden hammer, sobbing silently.
"Come on, Dorian," Freya choked out.
As they ran toward the back exit, the wall exploded.
BOOM.
Not from the outside. From the inside.
A gargoyle crashed through the ceiling ventilation.
"SCREEEE!"
It lunged for Dorian.
"NO!" Freya swung her mace. [Frost Nova!]
A blast of cold air knocked the gargoyle back, freezing its wing. But three more dropped from the hole.
"They’re inside the Citadel!" Scark Stromfang roared. He lunged, catching a gargoyle in mid-air and ripping its head off with his teeth.
"We are overrun!" Denish William shouted, firing light bullets from a concealed wand. "Where are the reinforcements?!"
_________________
The Gate
Back in the arena, Lilith raised her hand high.
"The appetizers are finished," she announced. "Time for the main course."
She snapped her fingers.
CRACK.
The center of the arena, where Leon had been standing moments ago, split open. The purple light intensified, blinding everyone in the stadium.
[Demon Realm Gate: Fully Open]
It wasn’t just gargoyles anymore.
Massive, hulking brutes with red skin and obsidian armor climbed out. Hellhounds with jaws of fire leaped into the stands.
The audience panicked. The stampede began.
"Arthur!" Michael’s voice cut through the chaos, cold and precise. "Form a phalanx around the girls. If anything touches them, kill it."
"What about Leon?" Arthur shouted, slicing a hellhound in half.
Michael looked up at the stands, where a white streak of light was fighting a losing battle against a tide of demons.
"Leon chose his path," Michael said. "Focus on the mission."
Michael walked toward the Gate.
Demons rushed him. A massive brute swung a club the size of a tree trunk.
Michael didn’t dodge. He simply walked.
[Sword Art: Void Cut]
The club, the arm holding it, and the demon attached to it were severed in a single, invisible motion. Michael stepped through the falling pieces without breaking stride.
He reached the edge of the abyss. He looked down into the purple swirl of the Demon Realm.
"Nox," Michael whispered. "Now."
The shadow dragon materialized and spat the Harmonic Disruptor core directly into the portal.
Michael raised his hand.
[Skill: Gravity Well - Invert]
He crushed the core remotely with gravity magic.
ZMMMMM.
The portal didn’t close. It screamed. The frequency inversion caused a feedback loop.
Lilith, floating above, suddenly clutched her head. "What?! The resonance! Who—"
She looked down. She saw the boy in the glasses standing at the edge of the pit, staring up at her.
"You like tragedy?" Michael asked, his voice amplified by the collapsing mana field.
He pointed Draken at her.
"I’ll write you a tragedy."
(End of Chapter 266)
