The Extra's Rise

"Surprise~"

The playful voice that rang out across the grand ballroom carried with it a chill that seemed to freeze every conversation, every breath, every heartbeat in the massive space. The great doors had opened without ceremony, without announcement, and from them descended a figure that made every enhanced sense in the room scream warnings about power that transcended normal classification.

She wasn't just any ordinary threat. This was one of the three living Popes in the world, an enemy of all humanity whose very existence represented a fundamental challenge to the order we'd been fighting to preserve.

Alyssara Velcroix, the Crimson Dancer.

And she had chosen to appear here, in the heart of the Western Continent's power, surrounded by the strongest individuals our world could muster. To most observers, such an action would seem like suicide—walking into a gathering that included seven Radiant-rankers, myself fresh from killing a Calamity, dozens of powerful Immortal-rank combatants, and Lucifer whose own transcendent abilities marked him as beyond normal classification.

But as I watched her descend the grand staircase with unhurried grace, I understood with crystalline clarity that her confidence wasn't misplaced arrogance.

It was simple fact.

Because she was Alyssara Velcroix. And she alone possessed the right to walk into this gathering like she owned it.

I felt the mana signatures of everyone around me beginning to flare as combat instincts kicked in, the assembled rulers and warriors preparing for a battle that would likely level the entire palace. My hand shot up immediately, the gesture carrying enough authority to make even the continental leaders pause.

"Stop," I said quietly, but my voice carried across the suddenly silent ballroom with perfect clarity. "This isn't a fight we can afford."

'Her power...' Luna's voice trembled through our mental bond, carrying notes of genuine fear that I'd never heard from my ancient companion. 'Arthur, I can't even believe this level of existence is possible.'

I had to agree with her assessment. Even without engaging my enhanced senses fully, Alyssara's presence was overwhelming in ways that defied easy description. Currently, I was strong enough to defeat any Calamity that might emerge, confident enough in my abilities to face even the legendary Heavenly Demon of the past. But looking at Alyssara now, I could feel that she had transcended even those bounds completely.

'Master,' Erebus whispered through our connection, his ancient consciousness carrying uncertainty that chilled me to the bone. 'Her power signature... it operates on principles that exist beyond my understanding.'

Even Valeria, whose bone symbiote nature usually provided confident analysis of any threat, seemed to shrink within my shadow as she processed what we were facing.

Alyssara wore a crimson dress that complemented her jade-green eyes and pink hair perfectly, her physical beauty undeniable even in this moment of extreme tension. But I wasn't focused on her appearance—I was analyzing her essence, that overwhelming sense of being that radiated from her like heat from a star.

"Come on, I missed you Arthur," she said with cheerful casualness that made the temperature in the room seem to drop by several degrees. Her arms folded behind her back as she approached, the gesture pushing her chest forward in a way that might have been unconsciously provocative if everything about Alyssara wasn't calculated for maximum effect. "It's been a long time since we saw each other, right?"

"So what?" I responded with as much neutrality as I could manage, acutely aware that every person in the ballroom was watching this exchange with the kind of intensity that came from witnessing something that would reshape their understanding of global power dynamics.

"How cold," she replied, her expression shifting through what looked like genuine hurt before settling back into amused satisfaction. "I even helped you against Gideon, didn't I? That crimson thread that saved your life when you were about to fall?"

"You also held back Valen," I reminded her, noting how several of the assembled rulers tensed at this revelation. The idea that she had been manipulating the Calamity battle from behind the scenes was clearly news to most of them.

She shrugged with elegant dismissal, as if preventing one of the world's strongest fighters from intervening in a continental-level battle was merely a casual favor between friends. "Details. The important thing is that you succeeded, and now look how strong you've become!"

"Anyway," she continued with the kind of bright enthusiasm that made her seem like an excited young woman rather than one of humanity's greatest threats, "I actually came here for another reason, not just because I missed you."

With a flourish that bordered on theatrical, she produced an elaborately decorated cake from what must have been spatial storage. The confection was a masterwork of culinary art, decorated with imagery that celebrated my recent achievements in ways that were both beautiful and deeply unsettling coming from her.

"Congratulations Arthur!" she announced with genuine joy that made my skin crawl. "Congrats on becoming Rank 1! Congrats on killing a Calamity! Congrats on reaching Radiant-rank!"

The casual way she catalogued my accomplishments, as if she had been following my progress with the devoted attention of a proud parent, triggered every combat instinct I possessed. My fist shot forward, compressed astral energy flowing through the strike with enough force to shatter stone.

The cake vanished into her spatial storage before my attack could connect, and her delicate hand caught my fist with casual ease that completely negated the tremendous force behind the blow. Before I could react, she pulled me closer with strength that made my enhanced physique feel like that of an ordinary human.

"Aw, do you want your present?" she asked with playful mockery, her jade eyes sparkling with amusement. "How did you guess that it was me~?"

My response was to drive my knee upward toward her midsection, channeling Grey energy through the strike in patterns that should have been impossible to block. But she intercepted the attack effortlessly, her free hand catching my leg while her grip on my fist never wavered.

"Come on," she whispered, leaning close enough that I could feel her breath against my ear. "You know you can't touch me at your current level. Even if you manifest that beautiful Crown of yours, there's simply too much difference between us."

The casual certainty in her voice was more terrifying than any threat could have been. She wasn't boasting or trying to intimidate—she was simply stating an observable fact about the relative scales of our power.

And she was right. Grey wasn't invincible, despite its incredible properties. The fundamental limitation wasn't in the energy itself, but in how much I could produce and maintain. Converting Purelight and Deepdark into Grey was incredibly inefficient, requiring massive amounts of both base energies to create relatively small quantities of the transcendent force. Beyond that, my application of Grey to combat techniques was still rough, limited by my current mana rank and the fact that I was still learning to properly utilize such unprecedented power.

"Come with me," she whispered with intimate intensity that made my blood run cold. "Just like the good old days we had when I was Emma."

The mention of Emma's name triggered something primal in my consciousness. My mana began to flare involuntarily, the Crown of Twilight beginning to manifest above my head as Grey energy prepared to cascade through my system regardless of the tactical futility.

But before the transformation could complete, reality twisted around us. Space folded according to principles that my enhanced perception could barely track as Alyssara's teleportation magic activated with effortless precision.

The grand ballroom vanished, replaced by what looked like a moonlit garden that existed in some pocket dimension removed from normal geography. Ancient trees surrounded us, their branches heavy with blossoms that seemed to glow with their own inner light.

"Hands off!" I shouted, allowing Grey to flow through me as the Crown of Twilight blazed to life above my head. The transcendent energy cascaded around my form in patterns that had been sufficient to kill a Calamity, reality itself bending to accommodate forces that operated beyond normal limitation.

"Cute," Alyssara said with genuine fondness, though her jade eyes sharpened with something that might have been professional interest.

Crimson threads materialized from the air around her like living things, each one pulsing with power that made my enhanced senses recoil in recognition of something fundamentally superior. The threads pressed against my Grey energy with casual force, and I watched in growing horror as my transcendent power—the same force that had carved through a Calamity's defenses—simply shattered like glass.

The Crown of Twilight flickered and died as the Grey energy supporting it was overwhelmed completely. My enhanced physical capabilities, my connection to Luna, even my basic mana manipulation—everything that defined my current level of power was suppressed as effortlessly as an adult might restrain a struggling child.

"But not enough," Alyssara said with gentle finality as her fingers pressed against my chest.

The impact drove me backward with force that compressed my enhanced physique against the garden's soft earth. Before I could attempt to recover, she straddled me with fluid grace that spoke to absolute confidence in her dominance of the situation.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded, though my position made the question somewhat rhetorical.

"Stop using Grey, Arthur," she said, her voice taking on a warning tone that made the air around us seem to thicken with potential violence. More crimson threads appeared, hovering in the space around us like suspended lightning waiting for permission to strike. "I'd rather not hurt you, but I will if you keep pushing against power you can't hope to match."

I considered my options with the cold calculation that had carried me through countless impossible battles. Fighting her here would be not just futile but potentially suicidal. The gap between our capabilities was so vast that continued resistance would likely result in injury or worse, with no meaningful chance of success.

Reluctantly, I exhaled and allowed the Grey energy to dissipate completely. The transcendent power that had redefined my existence retreated back into whatever space it occupied when not actively channeled, leaving me feeling suddenly ordinary in ways I hadn't experienced since achieving my breakthrough.

"Good boy," Alyssara said with approval that carried notes of affection mixed with something far more complex. Her jade eyes studied my face with the kind of intensity that suggested she was memorizing every detail, cataloguing micro-expressions for some private purpose I couldn't begin to guess.

The moonlit garden around us was beautiful in ways that spoke to powers that could reshape reality according to aesthetic whim. The glowing blossoms cast everything in soft light that made even this tense confrontation seem somehow romantic, as if she had chosen this setting specifically to create atmosphere for whatever came next.

"You've grown so much stronger," she continued with genuine wonder, her fingers tracing patterns across my chest that made me acutely aware of our current position. "The Arthur who fought Gideon was magnificent. Transcendent. Everything I hoped you could become."

"Then why are you doing this?" I asked, genuine confusion mixing with frustration at my helplessness.

Her expression shifted, jade eyes reflecting depths that carried emotions too complex for easy interpretation. For a moment, the playful confidence that defined her public persona cracked, revealing something underneath that might have been genuine vulnerability.

"Because," she said quietly, her voice carrying weight that made the garden around us seem to hold its breath in anticipation, "I truly love you."