Aetheric Chronicles: Reborn As An Extra

The storm quieted, the fierce bolts of lightning she had summoned finally dissipating into silence. Evangeline stood unmoving, her gaze locked on Aurelius, who had slipped into unconsciousness beneath the relentless trial of aether and lightning. What she was about to do required her complete concentration.

"Hmm..."

She let out a slow breath, feeling the crackling energy recede until only a low hum lingered in the air. Her thoughts, however, were consumed by something far different, a resolution that had settled like iron in her bones.

Her fingers traced the edge of her blackened eye, feeling the void where it merged with her flesh. No more games. No more manipulation. With precise, ruthless determination, she dug her fingers into the socket where the "gift" resided.

The pain was immediate and searing—like molten metal being poured directly into her skull. Yet Evangeline only grit her teeth, refusing to give voice to her agony. Blood trickled down her cheek as she worked the ethereal organ free, each movement sending fresh waves of torment through her head.

With a final, brutal twist, she ripped the black eye from its socket.

Holding it in her trembling palm, Evangeline's lips twisted into a pained, victorious grin. The eye lay there, perfectly round and impossibly dark, like a drop of midnight given form. Finally, she was free of its prying gaze. But just as she prepared to cast it away—

The eye blinked.

"H-Huh?"

Her breath caught, shock cutting through the pain as the eye looked back at her, its depthless pupil focusing on her with an intelligence both haunting and uncanny. She blinked, instinctively tightening her grip, feeling its strange, slick surface almost pulse under her hold. Then, just as quickly as it had opened, the eye closed, falling lifeless in her palm.

But something was wrong.

"W-Wait..."

The pain in her empty socket vanished abruptly, replaced by a strange, unsettling warmth. She took a step back, the realization settling uneasily in her chest as her hand went limp, the blackened eye slipping from her grasp and landing on the floor.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, she opened her left eye, expecting the dark world of her vision to be halved by blindness. But she saw… everything.

A stab of dread lanced through her as she took out a small mirror, snapped it open, and lifted it up. What she saw in its reflection made her blood run cold.

Reflected back at her was not an empty socket but an exact copy of the black eye she had just torn out. The dark pupil flicked to meet hers, not following her movement, but looking directly at her through the mirror.

Before she could fully grasp what she was seeing, a familiar voice echoed, dripping with mocking amusement, cold as winter steel.

"Did you really think you could rid of my gift so easily, human?"

Kalin's voice echoed inside her mind, calm yet laced with venomous delight.

"You are-"

"Shut up-!"

Evangeline didn't hesitate. With a snarl of defiance, she plunged her fingers back into her socket, blood streaming freely down her face as she ripped out the second eye. The pain was just as intense, perhaps worse, knowing what would come next. Sure enough, even as she held the pulsing black orb in her trembling hands, warmth bloomed in her empty socket once more.

Her remaining eye snapped to the mirror, confirming her fears. Another obsidian eye stared back at her, its pupil moving independently, mocking her efforts.

Kalin's laughter rippled through her mind like ice water down her spine. "Go ahead, keep trying. Each time you tear it out, you're only inflicting more pain on yourself." His voice dripped with cruel amusement. "And I must thank you—your... moment of idiotic rebellion has made my work considerably easier."

Evangeline's natural eye widened, her blood running cold as the meaning behind his words sank in. She whirled around, looking to the floor where the two extracted eyes should have been lying.

They were gone.

Horror seized her as her gaze snapped to her masterpiece's direction. There, in the dim light, she saw it—one of the black orbs, slick with her own blood, crawling across the surface of the coffin. It moved with an unsettling, purposeful grace, inching closer to where her creation's head lay.

"N-No-!"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Pure instinct took over.

Evangeline blinked, attempting to materialize right next to her masterpiece, ready to destroy the crawling eye before it could reach its destination. But in that crucial moment, her vision plunged into absolute darkness. A cold chuckle echoed through the void of her mind.

"Haha."

"That's not going to happen," Kalin's voice whispered, satisfaction evident in every syllable.

"!" Evangeline's mind also went blank, she could only listen and stay silent.

"It's truly exquisite, you know," Kalin continued, his voice savoring each word like a fine wine. "Watching hope bloom in someone's heart, feeding them ideas, letting them believe they've outsmarted fate itself..." A pause, weighted with dark satisfaction. "Only to watch them struggle when they realize the depth of their delusion."

In the darkness that entombed her vision, Evangeline continued to listen, each word striking like a physical blow.

"Did you genuinely believe you were safe? That my benevolent assistance came without a price?" His laughter echoed through her mind, a sound like breaking glass. "Oh, sweet, naive human. Your fate was sealed the moment your soul graced that contract. Everything since then—every death, every sacrifice, every step closer to retrieving your sister's essence—has been nothing but a dance to my tune."

He chuckled again, the sound dripping with malicious glee. "And what a beautiful dance it's been! Watching you lose pieces of yourself, staining your hands with the blood of so many... all for your sister's essence and this 'gift' of mine." His laughter grew louder, more maniacal. "Hahaha!"

The darkness in her vision seemed to pulse with his mirth, a living thing that coiled around her consciousness, suffocating any hope of resistance.

"Ah, right, about that darling of yours..."

"Do you wanna hear something interesting?"