The Extra's Rise
Chapter 627 - 627: Akasha’s Eyes (2)

Consciousness returned to me like waves lapping against a distant shore—first as fragmented sensations, then gradually coalescing into coherent awareness. The first thing I noticed was weight on my chest, warm and slight but undeniably present. The second was the absence of the excruciating pain that had torn through my magical pathways during... during what exactly?

'The Divine Beast bonding ceremony,' I remembered with growing clarity. 'The contradiction between my Deepdark and Purelight finally catching up with me.'

I opened my eyes slowly, blinking against soft light that filtered through what appeared to be elegant curtains. The room around me was unfamiliar yet clearly expensive—the kind of guest quarters that spoke to the Creighton family's legendary hospitality and unlimited resources.

'How long was I unconscious?'

The weight on my chest shifted slightly, and I looked down to see Luna curled up on me in her child form—the only physical manifestation she could maintain given my current power level. Her violet hair spilled across my shirt like liquid silk, and her small form rose and fell with the rhythm of peaceful sleep.

'She stayed with me,' I realized with a mixture of warmth and concern.

Before I could examine that thought too closely, familiar presences stirred at the edges of my consciousness. Erebus, my lich companion, reached out through our mental connection with the kind of careful inquiry that suggested genuine worry.

'Master,' his voice echoed in my mind, carrying uncharacteristic uncertainty. 'Your mana circuits experienced severe trauma. Are you... functional?'

'That's Erebus's way of asking if I'm alright,' I thought with slight amusement. Even in moments of crisis, my lich maintained his clinical approach to everything.

'I'm fine, Erebus,' I replied mentally. 'Shaken, but intact.'

Valeria's presence was more complex, her consciousness intertwining with mine in the symbiotic connection we shared. Through our bond, I could feel her assessment of my internal state—mana circuits still tender but stable, energy flow restored to something approaching normal parameters, no permanent damage to my core abilities.

'The balance has been restored,' she communicated through sensations rather than words. 'Though I sense external intervention. Something changed while you were unconscious.'

'External intervention?' The thought was troubling. 'What kind of intervention?'

But before I could pursue that line of inquiry, Luna stirred on my chest. Her golden eyes fluttered open, meeting mine with an expression that immediately shifted from sleepy contentment to overwhelming relief.

"Arthur!" she gasped, her small hands gripping my shirt as she pushed herself up to look at me properly. "You're awake! You're actually awake!"

'The relief in her voice is almost painful to hear,' I thought, reaching up to gently stroke her violet hair. 'She was genuinely terrified that I might not recover.'

"I'm alright, Luna," I said softly, though even as I spoke the words, I wondered how true they were. The memory of agony tearing through my pathways was still vivid, along with the horrifying realization that my dual affinities might be fundamentally incompatible.

"No, you're not alright!" Luna said, her voice cracking with emotion as tears began gathering in her golden eyes. "This is all my fault! I gave you those affinities, I made you into something that shouldn't exist, and I almost killed you because of it!"

'Here it comes,' I thought as Luna's composure completely shattered.

"I'm so sorry, Arthur!" she continued, her small form trembling as guilt poured out of her in waves. "I should have warned you about the dangers, should have told you about the contradiction, should have explained what I really am instead of hiding it from you! I almost lost you because I was too scared to face the truth!"

"Luna, stop—"

The door to my room opened with perfect timing, interrupting both Luna's apologies and my attempts to calm her. I looked up to see Isolde Creighton entering with the kind of serene composure that seemed entirely at odds with the emotional chaos filling the space.

'Isolde,' I recognized. 'What is she doing here?'

Isolde moved with fluid grace to claim the chair beside my bed, settling herself with the air of someone who belonged exactly where she was. Her sapphire eyes, flecked with gold like Rachel's but carrying a weight that made them entirely different, studied me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.

"I sent the girls away," Isolde said without preamble, her voice carrying the calm authority of someone accustomed to making decisions that others simply accepted. "Rachel, Reika, and Kali were all hovering around your bedside with varying degrees of panic and determination. When I foresaw that you would wake within the hour, I suggested they might be more useful gathering information about what occurred during the ceremony."

"That was... considerate," I said carefully, unsure how to respond to such matter-of-fact manipulation of my friends' behavior.

"Practical," Isolde corrected with a slight smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Three young women in various states of emotional distress would have made this conversation considerably more difficult."

'This conversation?' I thought, feeling a familiar prickle of wariness that suggested I was about to be drawn into something complex and potentially dangerous.

Luna had gone silent on my chest, her golden eyes fixed on Isolde with an expression that mixed recognition, fear, and something that looked suspiciously like guilt. The change in her demeanor was striking—from desperate self-recrimination to tense alertness in the span of seconds.

"I imagine you have questions," Isolde continued, her attention focused entirely on me despite Luna's obvious distress. "About what happened during the ceremony, about the nature of your magical condition, about certain individuals who may have been less than forthcoming regarding their true nature."

Her gaze flickered briefly to Luna, and I caught the subtle emphasis in her words.

'She's talking about Luna,' I understood. 'She knows something about what Luna really is.'

"Questions that deserve answers," Isolde added, leaning back in her chair with the relaxed posture of someone settling in for a long conversation. "Fortunately, I find myself in a position to provide those answers, should you wish to hear them and I wish to give them."

'Should she wish to give them? '

"Why would you want to answer my questions?" I asked, recognizing that information of this caliber rarely came without cost or complication.

"Because the alternatives are considerably more inconvenient for everyone involved," Isolde replied with dry humor. "Because certain truths have remained hidden for too long and are beginning to cause problems that affect more than just you."

Luna shifted uncomfortably on my chest, her small hands gripping my shirt as if anchoring herself against whatever revelations were about to unfold. The fear in her golden eyes was genuine and profound, suggesting that whatever Isolde was prepared to discuss, Luna understood the magnitude of it far better than I did.

"I should warn you," Isolde continued, her sapphire eyes holding mine with hypnotic intensity, "that some of what I'm prepared to share will challenge assumptions you've held about the nature of magic, the structure of reality, and the true identities of certain individuals in your life."

Her gaze shifted meaningfully to Luna again, and I felt my qilin companion tense against my chest.

'She's talking about Luna specifically,' I thought. 'Whatever Luna has been hiding, Isolde knows about it.'

"However," Isolde said, her voice taking on the formal cadence of someone making an official declaration, "I am prepared to answer any questions you choose to ask if I wish to, for as long as I wish to continue this conversation, with complete honesty regarding matters that others have found... inconvenient to discuss."

The weight of her offer settled over the room like a physical presence. Complete honesty about matters that had been deliberately concealed. Answers to questions that apparently went far deeper than I had imagined possible.

"I will answer your questions, Arthur Nightingale," Isolde declared with the finality of someone pronouncing judgment, "about Luna, about yourself, about the forces that have shaped your development, and about the cosmic game you have unknowingly become a player in."

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