The Extra's Rise-Chapter 199: Seraphina Zenith (7)
My past life wasn’t peaceful.
Not even close.
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I was an orphan. No family, no connections, just another kid dumped into an orphanage that barely functioned as a place for raising children and more as a warehouse for unwanted lives. They sent us to public school, though—because even warehouses needed upkeep, and an educated product was worth more than an uneducated one.
For me, studying wasn’t just something to pass the time. It was hope.
Knowledge was power. And power was the only way out.
So I worked hard. Harder than anyone else. I got perfect grades, memorized textbooks until I could recite them in my sleep. The teachers thought I was a prodigy. The other kids thought I was an easy target.
I didn’t care.
They bullied me, shoved me into lockers, stole my books, whispered words designed to cut deeper than any knife. But none of it mattered. Because studying was everything.
Then Emma came into my life. And suddenly, for the first time, I wasn’t alone.
The bullying stopped. Not because I got stronger, but because suddenly there was someone standing beside me, and that changed the equation. Emma was my first friend. My first real person.
And I thought that meant I had won.
I was wrong.
The biggest crime in the world was being weak.
Because I was weak, I lost everything. Because I was weak, I went hungry when the caretakers decided some kids deserved more food than others. Because I was weak, I was kicked around like an unwanted stray, bullied, ignored, forgotten.
Because I was weak…
Emma died.
"What a lonely feeling, Master," Erebus said, breaking the silence.
I was sitting at the edge of a cliff, staring down at the distant sprawl of the world below. It wasn’t much of a view, just the view of nature and endless expanse of the world below. I had just come back from two weeks of starvation, a training exercise that Master Li had apparently thought was a fun idea. Seraphina wasn’t in the sect right now, so I was alone.
Or, as alone as you could be with a sentient Ancient Undead hanging around.
"Lonely, huh," I said, leaning back on my hands, letting the cool night air brush against my face.
Maybe.
Erebus wasn’t like Luna. Luna was a guiding presence, a whisper of light and wisdom, always careful, always composed. Erebus, on the other hand, felt human in a way Luna never did. He had emotions, thoughts, opinions. And unlike Luna, he didn’t seem to mind talking about the things I didn’t want to admit out loud.
He was also the only person I could trust with things I wouldn’t tell anyone else. Because he was bound to me. Because he would never betray me.
"I now understand Master’s will to get stronger," Erebus said. His voice was smooth, his words deliberate. "For Master, power is hope itself."
"It is," I said simply.
If I had been stronger, Emma wouldn’t have died. If I had been smarter, I could have saved her. Because in my past life, intelligence was power.
Here, power was… well, power.
Raw strength. Mana. Fighting ability. The ability to make sure no one could ever take anything from me again.
"I will reach the top," I said, stretching my arm towards the sky. The stars were dull here, drowned out by the glow of the city below, but I reached anyway. "So I can protect them all."
"I will assist you in every way possible, Master," Erebus said, his voice steady.
"I know," I smiled slightly. "And thanks for letting me use Bone Armor on you. I know it’s annoying."
"No need to thank me for performing my duty, Master," he replied.
I let out a small chuckle. "Of course you’d say that."
The night stretched on, and for once, the silence wasn’t so heavy.
My time at the Mount Hua Sect was coming to an end.
June was creeping towards its final days, and with it, my departure. I had learned a lot here—more than I expected, more than I probably should have in such a short time—but now it was time to put more pieces into motion.
For the future.
"Arthur."
A familiar, mellifluous voice cut through my thoughts.
I turned around, Erebus shifting beside me, his skeletal form casting long, sharp-edged shadows in the dimming light.
Seraphina.
"You’re back," she said, her golden eyes flickering between me and Erebus. There was something unreadable in her gaze, something guarded.
"Return, Erebus," I said. Without hesitation, he bowed and vanished into the swirling void of his spatial rift, his presence dissolving like mist.
Seraphina stepped forward and, without waiting for an invitation, sat down beside me at the cliff’s edge.
For a while, she just stared out over the landscape—Mount Hua’s towering peaks stretching endlessly into the horizon, the neon lights of distant floating cities blinking like artificial stars. The wind tugged at her hair, making it ripple like liquid silver under the moonlight.
"What were you doing here?" she asked finally.
"Thinking," I said.
She hummed, as if that answer was expected. "Was the training hard?"
"Yes, but fulfilling at the same time," I replied, a small smile tugging at my lips.
"I’m glad," she said, then paused before adding, "I like helping you."
I didn’t reply.
Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but because I could feel she wasn’t finished yet.
"You might think I’m close to my father," she said suddenly, her voice quieter now, almost detached. "But I’m not."
I, of course, already knew this. The novel had laid it out in excruciating detail, but I didn’t interrupt. This was her moment to speak, not mine.
"My father… doesn’t see me," she continued, her hands resting loosely in her lap. "He doesn’t see Sun, either. Not really. And I suppose I just… gave up on that."
Her voice was even, but there was something bitter underneath, something worn-out.
"All Sun wants is to suppress me, and I can’t do anything about it regardless."
I tilted my head. "Why can’t you?"
She let out a humorless chuckle. "My adopted brother is more talented than me," she said simply. "He’s a monster."
Sun Zenith.
The youngest person in recorded history to reach Ascendant rank. He had done it at nineteen, setting a standard so high that most people couldn’t even comprehend it. His talent was the kind that made the world take notice.
But I knew the truth.
Sun Zenith was a genius. An absolute freak of nature, a once-in-a-generation prodigy.
But Seraphina?
She was better.
She didn’t believe it, not yet. She had spent so long looking up at him, convinced he was unreachable, that she had never thought to turn around and realize she had already surpassed him.
The seven in Class 1-A were beyond prodigies. They weren’t just the best of their generation—they were the kind of people who redefined what "the best" even meant.
And Seraphina was one of them.
She just didn’t know it yet.
’I wonder… if that’s possible yet.’
The thought drifted through my mind as I studied her. My brain ran through calculations, threading together probabilities, checking variables. It wasn’t a habit I could turn off. Every fight, every encounter, every moment—I was always running simulations in the background. And now, the question was: ’Could we do it?’
Only one way to find out.
"Seraphina," I said, leaning back on my palms. "Come on a trip with me tomorrow."
She blinked. "A trip?"
"Yeah, just for a few days," I said. "I want to show you something."
Her gaze sharpened slightly. "What do you want to show me?"
"Surprise," I grinned. "But it has to be just the two of us."
She tilted her head. "Just us two?"
"Yep." I smirked. "But don’t get too excited."
Her eyes narrowed. "I think you’re forgetting who the staring pervert was."
I blinked. "I—That was an accident."
"Was it?" she said, utterly monotone, staring straight into my soul.
I coughed. "Anyway—do you want to come with me or not?"
Seraphina exhaled, long-suffering, before nodding. "Yes."
"Good," I said.
"Let’s talk about this tomorrow," she said, standing up and brushing off her robes. "It’s late. Let’s turn in for the night."
I watched her for a moment before following suit.
Tomorrow, we’d find out just how possible this really was.
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