The Extra's Rise-Chapter 195: Seraphina Zenith (3)
"We can also swim together sometime," Seraphina suggested, her voice as composed as ever. "That waterfall you used before… it’s private. No other disciple—except those with the surname Zenith—can come near it."
I inhaled sharply. ’So only four people in the entire Mount Hua Sect have access to it… and I was allowed to just waltz in?’
Swimming with Seraphina sounded… nice. For purely practical reasons, of course. The cold water was excellent for training resilience, and water resistance helped with movement control. Absolutely nothing to do with how she looked in a swimsuit.
Nothing at all.
"It will be nice," she urged, though her tone remained as flat and unreadable as ever.
I sighed. "Alright. We’ll swim at night."
She turned away, but I caught it—just the barest twitch of her lips curling upward.
’Cute.’
Eventually, she led me to my room—a giant bedroom, complete with my own bathroom, modern amenities blending seamlessly with traditional aesthetics. The whole place felt more like a luxury retreat than a sect disciple’s quarters.
After freshening up, I went to see Master Li.
He was waiting for me outside, standing with his arms crossed, the mountain breeze rustling his robes. "Alright, Arthur," he said, exhaling as if bracing for something. "This is going to be… difficult."
I nodded. "Figured as much."
"I’ve never created a Grade 6 art either," Li admitted, which was rare for him. "So we’re both going to be stumbling through this."
Well. That was comforting.
"For now," he continued, "we need to find which emotions resonate with you the most. The stronger the resonance, the stronger the foundation for your second movement."
I nodded again.
"Tell me your most memorable experiences—positive or negative. While you focus on one at a time, coat your sword in aura. I’ll observe the fluctuations and determine which emotion might be best suited for your second movement."
I took a deep breath and gripped my sword.
Memories.
I let my mind wander, pulling up old moments, old feelings, old pains.
Happiness—the rush of triumph when I first won a real fight. The quiet warmth of sitting with my family. The thrill of standing on the Sovereign’s stage at Mythos Academy.
Sadness—the moments of loss, of failure, of disappointment.
Anger—the sharp, unrelenting fire of injustice, of being underestimated, of struggling against fate itself.
I poured each one into my blade, letting my aura shift with them. The blade hummed differently each time. The air around it changed.
But nothing clicked.
Nothing burned.
Then, finally, I reached that memory.
I didn’t even need to think too hard. It was always there, lurking in the quiet spaces of my mind. The time when I had starved.
When I had nothing.
No food. No warmth. No one to help me.
I had curled up, body aching from hunger, stomach twisting into itself. I remembered the gnawing, the sheer helplessness of it. How the world didn’t care. How people passed by without a second glance.
That moment, that feeling—of pure, relentless survival—poured into my blade.
And something changed.
The air around the sword shook. The aura didn’t just coat the blade—it wrapped around it like a second skin, clinging to it. The energy felt hungry. Desperate. Unyielding.
Li’s eyes sharpened. He felt it too.
I exhaled, my grip tightening.
Li stepped closer, observing the way my aura flickered around the blade, how it wouldn’t fade immediately like before.
"This is it," he said finally, his voice quiet, almost reverent. "This is the resonance."
He looked at me, his gaze unreadable.
"You are strongest when you remember hunger."
I swallowed.
It made sense.
Hunger wasn’t just an absence of food. It was an absence of power.
It was the thing that drove people to claw their way forward, to fight for survival. It wasn’t anger, or sadness, or even ambition. It was need.
And it never, ever left.
Li exhaled, stepping back. "We’ll begin shaping it into a technique tomorrow."
I let go of my sword, but the feeling remained. The quiet, unrelenting hunger.
This was going to be a long road.
But I had never been afraid of hunger.
’I never imagined you felt something like that,’ Luna murmured in my mind, her voice laced with quiet surprise. ’With how well off your family is.’
I paused.
Of course, she wouldn’t have known. For some reason, Luna couldn’t read my thoughts when I recalled my past life. It was the one thing that remained completely mine. That was why she hadn’t realized I was a transmigrator.
Arthur Nightingale had lived a comfortable life in this world—a stark contrast to my life before.
That hunger…
It wasn’t just about food. It was the absence of something essential, the crushing weight of knowing you needed something to survive, but the world refused to give it to you.
I had only survived because of Emma.
And then she…
I shook my head, shutting the thought down before it could pull me under.
I couldn’t cling to the past.
I wasn’t that weak.
I had beaten Lucifer Windward.
I needed to move forward—not backward.
I returned to the living quarters for a well-earned break. Given that it was the first day, I allowed myself the rare luxury of an early night.
Dinner. A hot shower. A plan to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
And then—
Seraphina burst into my room.
Wearing a bikini.
I blinked. Then I blinked again, rapidly, because my brain had completely short-circuited.
Silver hair, ice-blue eyes, and that impossible elven beauty—combined with the fact that she was standing in my doorway, looking ethereal in the worst (or best) way possible—there was no way I was going to sleep after this.
"Swim," she said simply, tilting her head.
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Then finally managed, "Yeah, I’ll be out. Give me five minutes."
She nodded.
But she didn’t leave.
We just… stood there. Staring at each other.
The silence stretched.
I sighed and went into the bathroom to change.
When I stepped back out, Seraphina gave me a once-over, then nodded in approval.
Then, suddenly, she reached out and touched my hand.
"Come with me, Arthur," she said.
And for the first time, there was the slightest waver in her voice.
"Are you that excited?" I asked as we stepped away from the main buildings, out into the open. She simply nodded as she continued to lead me
The cool night air hit my bare skin immediately, sending a sharp shiver down my spine.
Mount Hua Sect was high. And it wasn’t just high—it was located north in the Eastern Continent, where the cold was an old, familiar thing, creeping into your bones if you weren’t careful. The sect itself had an advanced temperature-regulating array that kept the grounds comfortable, but the waterfall?
The waterfall wasn’t included in that.
The two of us moved through the foliage, weaving past ancient trees and softly glowing mana-infused stones. Unlike me, Seraphina didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all. If anything, she was enjoying it.
I, on the other hand, had no interest in freezing to death tonight.
’I should use a bit of mana,’ I thought, channeling a controlled flow of fire-element mana through my core. A subtle warmth spread through my body, balancing out the chill just enough to keep me from feeling like an ice sculpture.
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We continued walking, the distant roar of the waterfall growing louder with each step. The air became sharper, tinged with moisture.
And then, finally, we arrived.
The waterfall cascaded down from the cliffside like a silver ribbon unraveling beneath the moonlight, its waters crashing into the pool below with a force that sent mist swirling into the air. It was untouched, pristine—isolated from the rest of the sect. A place that felt suspended in time.
Seraphina stepped forward, releasing my hand as she neared the edge.
"Doesn’t it look nice, Arthur?" she asked, glancing back at me.
And then—she tucked a stray strand of silver hair behind her ear.
And my breath caught.
Because at that moment, under the soft glow of moonlight, against the backdrop of the waterfall’s endless motion, she looked completely, perfectly picturesque.
Like something out of a dream.
