The Extra's Rebellion
Chapter 101: Clash of Titans

Chapter 101: Clash of Titans

The snow beneath Zephyr’s boots crunched as he walked sluggishly towards north. He didn’t need to hurry to hunt points for his team, Keal has warned him about showing too much power but someone has misunderstood.

But the main reason was to conserve strength, Noctis will sniff him anyway. He always did.

Zephyr was seriously annoyed at the petty bastard, seriously didn’t he have anything better to do, other then disturbing his life.

White stretched forever in every direction. The domain’s air was weightless, but heavy with presence, like it knew he didn’t belong here. The snowflakes falling weren’t soft—they were razor-thin hexagons of pressure, each one a fractured reflection of time. And before he knew, he had crossed a considerable distance.

Then from his Spatial sence a flicker of motion.

A shadow shifted between two pale trees. Zephyr stopped, his eyes narrowing. His grip around the scythe handle at his back subtly adjusted.

A second passed. Then a voice.

"Still walking around like a sleepwalker, huh?"

From the trees stepped Nedia—shoulders squared, lips twisted into a familiar smirk that didn’t reach her eyes. One of the transmigrators. The green haired one and it was iconic that she still had green hair in this life, it was truly a dream come true.

She never appeared to be hostile towards him, but she wasn’t his friend. Qq

She stood with one hand resting on her weapon—somewhere between relaxed and ready to draw.

"I thought you’d be halfway across the forest by now. She said, her breath visible in the cold. "Or holed up in some corner scribbling on your notes again".

Zephyr didn’t respond.

He just looked at her—unblinking.

The silence stretched long enough for it to feel like a threat. Then she shrugged.

"Well, don’t mind me. I’m heading north."

Zephyr shifted slightly. "Am not really looking for a travel buddy right now". His voice while slightly coarse had the same detached air to it.

Nedia mouth twitched as she kicked a patch of snow with her boot. "My Squad are up north so whether you need a travel buddy or not, am still going north".

A pause. Then Zephyr turned around and ignored her while continuing his Journey.

She followed behind him, sure to give enough space so that his scythe won’t Rip off her head if he did attack.

"So are you gonna fight? Or you just passing through again, ’Slut’?". She tried to make small talk, a smile of michef gracing her beautiful face.

"Can we agree to not talk". Zephyr didn’t turn back while saying to her in a bored voice.

"Sure! Okay".

It was just a mask he wore. A detached, lazy mask but it seems that he had worn the mask for too long that he couldn’t tell his real face anymore. But it didn’t matter, this was how he was in his previous life— insufferable Ethan would call him.

’wait’. His thoughts got to halt. His sudden stop also made Nedia stop as her hand clenched tightly around her weapons.

Zephyr turned around, a confused expression marring his face. "Did you just call me a ’slut’."

Nedia almost rolled her eyes. ’is he just getting it now’. Then she smiled sweetly at him.

"No I said sloth". Zephyr looked at her face, suspicion marring his face. He opened his mouth to speak when his expression suddenly changed and then he refocused his graze ahead.

A knowing smile lit up in Nedia face as she said. "It seems your obsessive boyfriend is here. I will give you two time to talk". Then she seemingly merged with the shadows.

But Zephyr’s didn’t react to her words or her disappearance, instead he focused on the four figures engrossed in blackness rushing in his direction.

One of them turned back, rushing back to where he was coming from.

Zephyr didn’t move from his position as he was swiftly surrendered by the remaining three dark figures.

"Four, he seems to have gotten stronger". Zephyr muttered under his breath as he unsheathed his scythe. This dark Echoes were the products of Noctis’s second Art, and they were responsible for sniffing him out. Normally he could only produce three but he has improved to four now.

The dark figures circled Zephyr like wolves.

Humanoid silhouettes cloaked in shadow, tendrils coiling off their limbs like ink bleeding into water. There were like hounds, but intelligent, with one of them being a grade 3 Zeta while the remaining two being grade 2 and 1 respectively.

Zephyr’s fingers brushed against the sheathed katana at his hip—its hilt dull black with subtle purple carvings—and without a word, he pulled it free. The scythe on his back shifted with the motion, a soft clink of metal echoing as a glinting chain linked the two weapons, sliding down in a whisper like a serpent awakening.

This was the solution he came up with, linking his Scythe and his katana together. When training he would have surely died if it wasn’t for Hollow Breath Transition.

Clack.

The moment the katana cleared its sheath, purple etchings across the steel shimmered—glowing briefly.

Then was silence, and then.

The snow beneath the feet of the Echo’s didn’t scatter when it moved— it was as if it was a mirage.

The first Echo pounced as Zephyr blurred from his previous Position.

A heartbeat later— CLANG!

The katana cleaved upward from beneath, slicing straight through the Echo’s torso. It didn’t bleed—just split apart, black mist spilling like smoke before vanishing entirely.

The other two closed in from opposite sides, and he responded with elegance born of cruelty.

A pull on the chain—and the scythe flew forward, drawn in an arcing swing. It spun once, the curved blade gleaming, before embedding into the left Echo’s neck and dragging it violently mid-air, anchoring it mid-screech.

Zephyr leapt, twisting the chain around his arm, dragging both weapons together.

The katana flashed in a diagonal slash—crashing into the airborne Echo’s skull and rupturing it into mist.

Two down.

The third was already upon him, the Echo’s hand Peirced through Zephyr’s chest— at least it seems so.

Limbo— Hollow Breath Transition.

Zephyr responded not by turning, but by reversing his grip on the katana—driving it backward, straight into the Echo’s gut without looking.

The creature staggered, impaled, before Zephyr yanked the chain again.

The scythe, still tethered to the first corpse, ripped free, cleaving across the back of the final Echo’s neck, severing the rest of it.

Silence returned.

Snow drifted again. The chain stilled.

Zephyr slowly rotated both weapons in his grip—then with a flick, collapsed the chain between them, the katana clicking back into its sheath while the scythe curled across his back again like a slumbering predator.

He exhaled.

"Are they weaker? Or am I stronger?". He muttered to himself, brushing some snow off his shoulder.

Noctis was coming. He had already used this strategy before, using some of the Echo to hold him back while the last one reported back to him.

Zephyr begun his leisurely stroll through the snow, and before he knew he could feel Noctis’s Aura.

The snow thickened again, descending in crooked spirals like blades drifting from a broken sky.

Zephyr kept moving forward steadily.

He could feel it now—not just Noctis’s Aether signature, but the shape of it. Like oil spread thin over burning coals. It didn’t flare or surge. It seeped.

And then he saw him.

Leaning casually against a snow-bleached tree, one boot pressed against the bark, arms crossed like he’d been there for hours.

Black hair tousled by wind. Cold, obsidian eyes that shimmered faintly with Aether threads too tight to unravel. Noctis looked like a teenager from the outside—but anyone who knew what power smelled like would pause.

Noctis turned to stare at Zephyr, his expression cold as he spoke. "Today is the last day. And today is going to be different then the usual, I won’t kill you instantly, I will torture you". Despite the words coming out of his mouth, his voice didn’t hold a drop of hostility.

"I will pass on the torture. The pit is already enough to last me a life time". Zephyr voice was equally detached.

"When you leave the academy". Noctis finally straighten up. "Watch your back".

"If I would be dying in a fight, it would be while I am bringing my enemy down to the grave". Then Zephyr directly sneered at him. "But that’s impossible, because I am im—

"Immortal". Noctis finished the words.

Zephyr directly smiled at him, despite Noctis cutting into his words "So you do get it". His lips curled up as he spoke again. "Cause I am immortal".

Then Noctis blurred, darkness seeping out of his being to form a sword.

The scythe on Zephyr’s back shifted as his hand pulled it from his back, a soft clink of metal echoing as a glinting chain linked the two weapons together.

With the linked weapon, Zephyr blurred as he moved towards Noctis.

’This time you are going to die".