The Extra's Transcension-Chapter 62: The Chivalry Attack (6)

Lyrium’s breath came in slow, measured gulps as the chamber pulsed with an eerie glow.

His hands were trembling, his muscles still tense from whatever that had been.

The weight pressing against his mind had vanished, but its presence lingered like an afterimage burned into his soul.

He exhaled sharply, rolling his shoulders.

"Alright. No more cryptic bullshit. Talk. What the hell just happened to me?"

The robed figure did not move.

They stood still, wrapped in the same strange twilight fabric, their glowing runes shifting across their robes like living things.

Their voice remained neutral, neither cold nor warm.

"You were seen."

Lyrium let out a sharp, bitter laugh.

"Yeah, you said that already. Seen by what? Because whatever that thing was, it wasn’t just looking. It was..."

He hesitated, the words catching in his throat.

"It was inside my head."

The figure inclined their head slightly.

"Correct."

Lyrium clenched his fists.

"And? You’re not going to explain what that thing was?"

A pause.

Then—

"It does not have a name."

Lyrium let out an incredulous scoff.

"Oh, come the hell on. Everything has a name. Even gods."

The figure’s markings flickered.

"It is not a god."

That made him pause.

"...Then what is it?"

"It is what exists beyond existence."

Lyrium gritted his teeth.

"That doesn’t mean anything."

The figure exhaled, the sound rustling like dead leaves.

"Does the sea explain itself to the fish? Does the sky tell the bird why it stretches endless above?"

Lyrium rolled his eyes.

"We’re not doing this again. Just give me a straight answer!"

For a moment, there was silence.

Then—

"You glimpsed something beyond the veil. And now, it has glimpsed you in return."

Lyrium’s breath caught.

"...You mean it’s still watching me?"

The figure did not answer.

And that silence was somehow worse.

A chill crawled down his spine.

He felt it again—that creeping sensation in the back of his skull, like a whisper he couldn’t quite hear.

His pulse quickened.

"So what now? Do I just live the rest of my life with some nameless horror breathing down my neck?"

The figure took a step forward, their movements eerily smooth.

"You stand upon the threshold, Lyrium Blackwood. You have a choice."

Lyrium’s eyes narrowed.

"Yeah? And what are my options?"

"To embrace what you have seen... or to be consumed by it."

He exhaled sharply.

"That’s not much of a choice."

The figure’s hood tilted.

"Few choices are."

Lyrium rubbed his temples, trying to fight back the headache forming at the base of his skull.

"Alright. Let’s say I embrace this. What does that even mean? Do I have to worship the damn thing? Let it invade my thoughts whenever it wants?"

The figure’s lips—if they even had lips—curled slightly.

"No. It means you must understand."

"Understand what?"

"What was, what is, and what must be."

Lyrium groaned.

"You’re doing it again. I swear to the gods, if you give me one more riddle, I’ll—"

"You will what?"

The figure interrupted, a note of amusement in their tone.

"Strike me? Kill me?"

Lyrium scowled.

"If you keep talking in circles, I might just try."

A chuckle.

Dry.

Hollow.

"You would not succeed."

Lyrium crossed his arms.

"Try me."

The figure’s glowing runes pulsed in what almost felt like amusement.

"Your defiance is intriguing."

"Yeah, well, I find this whole situation infuriating. So why don’t you just tell me what I need to do before I lose my damn mind?"

The figure was silent for a long moment.

Then, they raised a hand.

The runes on the walls blazed once again.

The chamber also shuddered again.

Lyrium stiffened as the air thickened again, pressing against his skin.

The stone walls once again twisted, the reality of the room bending, warping—as if something was pushing against it from the other side.

"You asked for answers,"

The figure murmured.

"Then look."

Lyrium felt it before he saw it.

A ripple in the air, a distortion—like the fabric of reality itself was peeling open.

A void stretched before him, dark and infinite, a space that should not exist yet was there all the same.

And within it—eyes.

So many eyes.

Shifting, watching, blinking in and out of existence.

They weren’t attached to anything.

They were the void itself.

And they were focused on him.

Lyrium’s throat closed.

His knees locked.

His mind screamed at him to look away, but—

He couldn’t.

"Do you see now?"

The figure asked.

Lyrium swallowed thickly, his mouth dry.

"...What the hell am I looking at?"

The figure’s voice was quiet.

"The thing that has seen you."

His breath hitched.

"It’s still watching me."

"Yes."

Lyrium’s fingers twitched.

"And you expect me to just... accept that?"

The void pulsed.

[System warning !!]

[An unknown entity has tried to enter your body]

The eyes shifted, focusing, converging—

"Eh?"

Lyrium murmured

Then—

A whisper.

Not from the figure.

Not from the chamber.

From it.

Lyrium’s pulse skyrocketed.

His vision blurred.

His thoughts—weren’t his.

[Force Nullifying has been activated, the Unknown Entity has been cleared by the system!]

The voice slithered into his mind, foreign yet familiar.

You are not ready.

A sharp, searing pain lanced through his skull.

He gasped, staggering back, his breath ragged.

The void lurched, the eyes receding, the space collapsing in on itself until—

It was gone.

Lyrium collapsed to one knee, panting.

His skin was damp with sweat, his body trembling.

The weight had lifted, but the sensation lingered—like fingertips tracing his soul.

The robed figure watched him.

"Now, you understand."

Lyrium let out a breathless, bitter laugh.

"I understand that I never want to see that thing again."

The figure inclined their head.

"And yet, you will."

A shiver ran down Lyrium’s spine.

"...What does it want?"

"To see."

Lyrium scowled.

"That’s it? Just watching me?"

The figure’s voice softened.

"For now."

His fingers curled.

"...And if I don’t embrace this?"

The figure’s glow dimmed. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Then it will take what is owed."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Lyrium slowly pushed himself to his feet.

His legs were weak, his body protesting, but he forced himself upright.

His breath steadied.

His hands stopped shaking.

He met the figure’s unseen gaze.

"Then tell me."

A pause.

Then—

"Tell you what?"

Lyrium squared his shoulders.

"How to embrace it."

The figure’s runes flared once more.

The chamber shifted.

The threshold had been crossed.

*****

The world shattered around them.

Silas barely had time to react before the entity was upon them—no sound, no warning, only the oppressive weight of its existence crashing into reality like a tidal wave.

Ren moved first.

Instinct overrode thought as he surged forward, his body twisting mid-step to intercept the oncoming force.

His fist, wreathed in crackling energy, lashed out with all the power he could muster.

But the moment his strike neared the shifting void—

—It was gone.

The entity did not dodge.

It did not counter.

It simply ceased to be in that instant, reappearing elsewhere as though the very concept of space had failed to contain it.

Ren staggered, eyes wide as his momentum carried him forward into nothingness.

"Shit!"

He spun on his heel, scanning frantically—too late.

The thing moved again, reemerging behind Lily.

Silas reacted on instinct, his body already lunging.

Mana surged through his veins, burning like wildfire as he reached for her, yanking her away just as the air twisted violently where she had been standing.

A split-second too slow.

The unseen force grazed them.

Silas barely managed to twist his body, taking the brunt of the impact as an otherworldly pressure slammed into him.

A deafening silence roared in his ears, a paradox of sensation—like drowning in a void where sound and touch no longer obeyed the rules of existence.

His body was flung backward.

He hit the ground hard, rolling through the fractured terrain, his nerves screaming in protest.

Lily landed beside him, gasping for breath, her hand clutching at her chest where the oppressive force had brushed her.

Her entire body shuddered violently.

"I—I don’t..."

Her words faltered, her expression one of sheer disbelief.

"I can’t... feel my mana."

Silas forced himself up, his muscles protesting every motion.

He knew what she meant.

The moment that thing had touched them, even for a fraction of a second, the mana circuits within them had gone silent—like a candle snuffed out by an unseen hand.

Ren gritted his teeth, forcing his mind to focus.

"We can’t beat this thing."

The words tasted bitter, but there was no denying it.

"We need to move."

Silas exhaled sharply.

His hands curled into fists.

He didn’t like it.

Every part of him screamed to fight back, to resist—but he wasn’t an idiot.

That thing—whatever it was—was beyond them.

Lily’s trembling fingers fumbled at her wristband, trying desperately to recalibrate it, but the device was useless.

"No readings,"

She whispered, voice hollow.

"It’s like... it doesn’t exist."

A deep, reverberating hum filled the air once more.

The very world groaned under the strain of the entity’s presence.

It had not moved.

It did not need to.

It was waiting.

Watching.

And somehow, that was far worse.

Ren clenched his fists, his gaze flickering to Silas.

"Say the word."

Silas swallowed hard.

He didn’t want to say it.

But he did.

"Run."

They moved.