The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 330: DRAKEN’S FEAST
Chapter 328: Draken’s Feast
The remnant of the Parasite King was pathetic.
Stripped of his Administrator crown and his stolen mana, he was nothing more than a sentient oil slick, dragging himself across the grey mud of the Spirit Realm.
He left a trail of glitching, purple code behind him as he clawed toward the edge of the abyss—the deep, dark pit beneath the World Spirit’s throne that led back to the Nether.
"I... I will return..." the blob gurgled, its voice sounding like a drowning radio.
"The Abyss is infinite... you cannot kill a concept... I will regrow... I will eat your world..."
I sat on the ground, my chest heaving. The Elixir of the Archmage had worn off, leaving me with a mana deficit that felt like a hole in my gut. I couldn’t lift my finger, let alone my dagger.
"Michael," Selena whispered, clutching the stump of her missing avatar arm. Her form was flickering, turning transparent. "Target is escaping. Probability of recurrence: 100\% if he reaches the Abyss."
"He’s not going anywhere," I wheezed.
I closed my eyes and looked inward. Deep in the architecture of my soul, beneath the layers of the Gamer System and the human memories, there was a sleeping giant. I had carried the Soul of Draken since the Dragon’s Tomb, a dormant passenger that fed on my mana scraps.
But today, I wasn’t offering scraps. I was offering a main course.
"Wake up," I projected the thought with all the force I had left. "Draken. It’s feeding time."
The Predator
The air in the Spirit Realm grew heavy. Not the crushing weight of the Parasite King’s malice, but a different kind of heaviness. The weight of an apex predator entering the room.
The shadow stretching out from my feet began to boil. It didn’t just darken; it expanded, flooding the grey mud like ink.
The crawling blob of the Parasite King stopped.
"What... what is this?" The King’s voice trembled. "This vibration... it is not Abyssal. It is... Ancient."
Two massive, burning gold eyes opened within my shadow.
GROWL.
The sound was low, vibrating through the floor and into the bones of the World Tree itself.
Slowly, terrifyingly, a head rose from the darkness of my shadow. It wasn’t flesh and blood. It was spectral—a skull of translucent violet bone wrapped in ghost-flame, with horns that curved like the crescent moon.
[Entity: Draken (Soul Form)]
[Rank: ???]
[State: Starving]
The spectral dragon opened its maw, revealing rows of teeth that looked like jagged shards of the void.
"HUNGRY..." Draken’s voice wasn’t a sound. It was a compulsion.
The Parasite King shrieked. He recognized this. Demons were creatures of the Abyss, but Dragons? Dragons were the monsters that hunted in the dark before the Abyss even had a name.
"A Void Dragon?!" The King scrambled frantically, trying to throw himself into the pit. "No! You are extinct! You cannot be here!"
"He’s not extinct," I whispered, a cold smile touching my lips. "He’s just been on a diet."
I pointed at the fleeing blob.
"Eat."
The Consumption
Draken didn’t hesitate.
The spectral dragon lunged. He didn’t move like a snake; he moved like a strike of lightning. He closed the distance in a microsecond, his massive jaws snapping shut around the Parasite King.
CRUNCH.
"NOOOOO! I AM ETERNAL! I AM—"
GULP.
The scream was cut short.
Draken swallowed. I saw the lump of the Parasite King travel down the spectral throat, thrashing for a second before dissolving into raw mana.
Draken let out a long, satisfied huff of violet smoke. He licked his chops with a tongue made of shadow.
"DELICIOUS."
The dragon turned his massive golden eyes toward me. For a second, I felt a spike of fear—would he eat me next? I was empty, weak, and right there.
But Draken simply lowered his head, nudging my chest with his snout. It felt cold, like dry ice.
"GOOD... HOST."
Then, he dissolved back into my shadow, returning to his slumber to digest the massive influx of S-Rank spiritual energy.
[System Notification: Soul Bond Strengthened.]
[Draken XP Gained: Critical.]
The Collapse
With the Parasite King gone—truly gone, digested and erased—the Spirit Realm began to shake.
The chains binding the World Spirit disintegrated into dust.
The giantess stood up. She was blindingly beautiful, her skin glowing with the light of a thousand suns. She looked down at us—at the broken boy and the glitching girl.
She didn’t speak. She didn’t need to. She simply placed her hands over her heart and bowed.
A wave of warm, white light washed over us.
"Healing..." I murmured as the pain in my veins faded.
"Michael," Selena said. Her avatar was stabilizing, her missing arm reforming from the light. "The server is resetting. We are being ejected."
The world began to turn white. The grey mud, the static sky, the ancient city—it all dissolved into pure brilliance.
"We did it," I whispered, closing my eyes as the light took me. "We actually pulled it off."
___________________
GASP.
I woke up screaming.
My lungs filled with air that smelled of ozone and ancient wood. My eyes snapped open, blinded by the sudden sunlight.
I was back.
I was standing on the dais in the Hall of Verdicts. The massive crowd of elves was exactly where we had left them—frozen in shock, staring at the root-gate.
To my left, Selena stumbled, catching herself on her scythe. She looked whole. The Life Dew and the World Spirit’s blessing had restored her physical body.
To my right, Leon and Maria were holding the line against the Silver Guards, who had their weapons drawn but hadn’t attacked yet.
"They’re back!" Leon shouted, his voice cracking with relief. "They made it!"
The crowd gasped.
"He returned!"
"The Human returned from the Spirit Realm!"
"The Legend is true!"
I stood up straight, shaking off the vertigo. I looked at my wrist. Only an hour had passed in the real world.
I looked at the Root Gate behind me. The swirling grey mist was gone. In its place, the roots were glowing with a healthy, vibrant golden light.
And then, I looked at the evidence.
On the table where Valen had displayed the "corrupted artifacts"—the journal, the dagger, the vial—a change was occurring.
The black sludge on them hissed and evaporated. The "corruption" dissolved into harmless steam.
But the most miraculous change was on Professor Lysandra.
The glowing green vines that had been binding her wrists, sucking her life away, suddenly bloomed.
White flowers—Moon-Lilies, the symbol of absolute innocence—erupted from the vines. The thorns retracted. The bindings fell away, leaving her skin unblemished.
The World Tree had spoken.
I walked to the edge of the dais. I looked at the crowd, then I turned to look at Elder Valen.
He was pale. Ghostly pale. He stared at the blooming flowers on Lysandra’s wrists, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly. He looked at the Golden Light of the gate. He knew what it meant.
The Parasite King was dead. His power source was gone.
"The Tree has judged!" I shouted, my voice booming across the silent amphitheater. "The accused is Innocent!"
The crowd erupted. Cheers, gasps, and prayers filled the air. The narrative had flipped. The Gods had sided with the humans.
"Trickery!" Valen shrieked, his composure shattering completely. "Dark Magic! They bewitched the gate! They are using illusions!"
He pointed his staff at me.
"Guards! Kill them! Kill the heretics before they spread more lies!"
The Silver Guards hesitated. They looked at their Captain (who was still frozen in the banquet hall), then at the blooming flowers, then at the raving Elder.
"Do not listen to him!" Leon stepped forward, his sword raised. "He is the traitor! We heard the voice! We saw the Rot!"
"I am the Voice of the Council!" Valen screamed, veins bulging in his forehead. "I am the Law!"
He didn’t wait for the guards. He raised his staff, the crystal at the tip glowing with unstable, violet energy—the last remnants of the Dark Mana he had stored.
"If the Tree will not kill you," Valen hissed, "then I will!"
He fired a bolt of dark lightning straight at Lysandra.
CLANG.
A shield interposed itself.
It wasn’t Leon.
It was Maria.
She had encased herself in Frost Armor. The lightning bolt struck her chest plate and scattered harmlessly.
Maria lowered her staff, her eyes glowing with that terrifying, matte-blue light.
"Finally," Maria whispered, a cold smile spreading across her face. "A target-rich environment."
She slammed her staff into the ground.
"Civil War it is."
The dais froze.
(To be Continued)
