The Extra's Rise

As soon as Luna's revelation shattered the stunned silence of the tribunal chamber, the world exploded into chaos around me. The first explosion sent shockwaves through the ancient stone walls, and I knew with crystalline certainty that this had all been orchestrated.

I sprinted from the defendant's table as debris rained down from the ceiling, my body moving on pure instinct even as my mind raced to process the magnitude of what was happening. The tribunal chamber's defensive barriers—wards that had protected imperial proceedings for centuries—cracked like glass under forces that shouldn't exist in normal reality.

Luna's adult form flickered and vanished as the strain of maintaining her manifestation hit me like a physical blow. My Sword Heart hammered against my ribs as the toll of sustaining her revelation without her power coursing through me became apparent. Even that brief display had pushed my current capabilities to their absolute limits.

"Grandmaster!"

A flash of pure astral energy sliced through the air beside me, and the suppression cuffs that had bound my magical abilities for days simply disintegrated. I turned to see an Imperial Knight in full combat gear, his face grim behind his helmet's visor. Without a word, he tossed my spatial ring through the chaos—somehow, impossibly, they had prepared for this exact scenario.

"Go," he said simply, raising his weapon as a group of hooded figures burst through the chamber's main entrance. "We'll hold them as long as we can."

I caught the ring and felt the familiar weight of access to my equipment settle back into my soul. Finally. The suppression that had made me feel half-blind and powerless lifted like fog before sunrise, and my full magical capabilities flooded back through my system with overwhelming intensity.

My sword materialized in my right hand—the blade that had been crafted specifically for my techniques, its metal singing with contained astral energy. The familiar weight of my combat armor settled around my torso and Seraphim's Embrace boosted my senses as the Ancient-grade artifacts recognized their wielder and activated automatically.

Both of my Gifts flared to life simultaneously. My enhanced physical capabilities merged with spatial awareness that transformed the chaotic battlefield into a three-dimensional map of threats and opportunities. Every enemy position, every trajectory of incoming attacks, every possible escape route crystallized in my consciousness with tactical precision.

'Arthur, you need to run,' Luna's voice echoed urgently in my mind, carrying an undertone of fear that I had never heard from her before. 'The power signature I'm sensing... it's not just cultists. There's something else here. Something much more dangerous.'

I followed her implied direction and felt my blood run cold. Through the gaps in the crumbling chamber walls, I could see Emperor Quinn engaged in combat with something that made every instinct I possessed scream warnings about immediate mortal peril.

A demon. Not some corrupted human or summoned familiar, but an actual demon. The creature moved with predatory grace that made Quinn's imperial combat magic look clumsy by comparison, its blade cutting through the Emperor's defensive spells like they were constructed from paper and wishful thinking.

A Demon Duke. The realization hit me with the weight of absolute certainty. This wasn't just some random incursion—the Order had somehow managed to summon one of the greater demons to Earth, and it was systematically dismantling one of the most powerful humans alive.

'How dare they,' Luna snarled, her voice carrying harmonics of rage that made the air around me vibrate with barely contained fury. Through our bond, I could feel echoes of ancient pain—memories of battles fought millennia ago, of losses that had shaped the very foundations of her existence. The presence of demonic forces in this realm was more than just tactically problematic for her; it was personally offensive on a level that transcended rational thought.

'Not now, Luna,' I reminded her as gently as possible while dodging a blast of miasma that turned the stone floor where I had been standing into a crater of twisted metal and melted rock. 'Despite everything we've built, we're still nowhere near strong enough to face something like that.'

Her agreement came with reluctant acknowledgment of our limitations, though I could still feel the pure hatred radiating through our connection. The demon's presence was like a constant itch she couldn't scratch, a wrong that demanded correction but currently lay beyond our power to address.

My blade erupted with astral energy as I charged toward the nearest group of cultists, my enhanced speed carrying me across the battle-torn chamber in heartbeats. Priests fell before me like wheat before a scythe, their protective wards and defensive spells simply inadequate against my power properly applied.

The Bishops presented more of a challenge, their magical training evident in how they coordinated their attacks and supported each other's defensive positions. But even their enhanced capabilities felt manageable compared to the existential threat represented by the demon currently toying with the Emperor of the Slatemark Empire.

One Bishop separated herself from the group, her spear beginning to glow with the kind of corrupted astral energy that spoke to training from sources that violated every principle of legitimate magical education. Her Spear Heart's rhythm was visible through her enhanced aura—fast, aggressive, designed for overwhelming offense rather than sustainable combat.

She thrust forward with technique that would have been impressive under normal circumstances, miasmic energy coating her weapon in patterns that made the air itself recoil from contact. But she had made the critical error of facing someone whose capabilities operated on an entirely different level.

I prepared my response with the kind of calm precision that came from years of training under Luna's guidance.

The First Movement of my Grade 6 art: God Flash.

Purelight coated my sword in layers of concentrated radiance that seemed to burn away the very darkness surrounding us. My Divine Miracle, Aureate, activated at full intensity, transforming my movements into something approaching divine intervention made manifest. Valeria, my Bone Symbiote, stirred to full consciousness within my skeletal structure, her presence boosting my physical capabilities while providing the kind of intimate coordination that no external equipment could match.

'Master,' Valeria's voice whispered through my consciousness, her power flowing through my bones like liquid starlight. The Deepdark and Purelight energies that could have torn me apart from within were held in perfect balance by Lucent Harmony, creating a synthesis that multiplied rather than merely added my various capabilities.

My speed transcended anything purely human as I flowed around the Bishop's spear thrust like water around stone, the God Flash technique carrying me past her defenses and through her protective wards as if they simply didn't exist. My blade found its target with surgical precision, ending her threat in a single, perfectly executed strike.

But I couldn't afford to pause for even a moment. The Wings of Eclipse spread from my shoulders, each dark feather responding to my will as I used them to redirect my momentum and avoid the incoming spells from her companions. Featherstep carried me through patterns of movement that made targeting me nearly impossible, while space magic provided short-range teleportation that kept me consistently where my enemies least expected.

Through the chaos, I caught sight of my objective—the emergency exit that would lead me out of the palace and toward where my family was hopefully taking shelter. But between me and that goal, I could see Jack Blazespout cutting through the Imperial Knights who had tried to intercept him, his own Peak Ascendant-rank abilities proving more than adequate for dealing with soldiers trained for conventional threats.

He moved with the kind of focused intensity that spoke to personal rather than merely strategic motivation. This wasn't just about completing the Order's mission—he was coming for me specifically, and the fury in his expression suggested that Luna's revelation had shattered whatever careful emotional control he had maintained throughout his long deception.

I gathered astral energy for what would probably be a futile attempt to fight him off when the sharp crack of a gunshot cut through the ambient noise of magical combat. The magic bullet—crafted from materials that could harm Peak Ascendant-rank targets—struck Jack squarely in the chest and sent him tumbling backward through the air like a discarded toy.

"Go," Commander Matthias said as he materialized beside me, his Peak Immortal-rank power radiating authority that made even the chaos around us seem temporarily manageable. The twin revolvers in his hands were clearly artifacts of significant potency, their barrels still smoking from the shot that had just saved my life.

I recognized him immediately—the same Imperial officer who had helped me during my first major crisis four years ago, when political necessity had forced me to navigate dangers I hadn't fully understood. His presence here felt like divine intervention, though I suspected it was actually careful planning on the part of people who had been anticipating exactly this kind of emergency.

His covering fire cleared a path through the remaining cultists between me and the exit, each shot precise enough to disable threats without unnecessary collateral damage to the palace structure or civilian nobles still trapped in the combat zone.

I sprinted for the final warp gate, my enhanced speed carrying me across the remaining distance while Matthias held off pursuit with the kind of professional competence that reminded me why the Imperial military commanded respect throughout the known world.

The spatial magic activated under my hands, reality bending to create a passage that would carry me away from this battlefield and toward whatever slim hope remained of protecting the people who mattered most to me.