The Unlimited Ascension: Reborn as an Extra

Chapter 104: The Illuminati

As her severed head fell heavily onto the hard ground, lifelessly, the surrounding ground was quickly covered with a growing pool of spilled blood.

As L’s silver sword dripped thick droplets of her blood, Alen looked at him with utter shock.

"Hey. What the f*ck did you do just now? Why did you kill her?..."

L remained perfectly still for a few long minutes before finally answering.

"She said she was a member of the Illuminati..."

Alen looked confused and frowned at the unfamiliar name.

"What is the ’Illuminati’ thing?"

L turned to look at him and answered conspiratorially, lowering his voice.

"It is a highly secret organization which works against the established world... Only high-ranking people know about their true operations. They are the exact organization which almost took over the entire world in the distant past. But after the main alliance sent their absolute strongest Awakeners to fight them, the attack was suppressed, and they backed away..."

"They are considered the strongest organization in history. They work in the shadows and manipulate the world from the dark. No one knows if they even exist currently, as there is no proof of their existence left behind. They work so secretly that it is near impossible for their true identities to be found out. No information will ever be available about them in any official guild..."

L tightened his grip on his weapon. "Every single member of the ’Illuminati’ gets a ’Genesis Force’. Through this, they receive a bizarre, unpredictable power which defies any normal power generated through mana..."

Alen’s eyes widened at L’s answer. It was the very first time he had ever heard about such an organization’s existence. He thought the outside world might have been peaceful, but it seems the troubles of this universe have no end.

Even the outside world possessed massive problems, which were probably never going to end.

’If such an organization exists, then it means there are much stronger Awakeners out there in this universe than the known ones... It seems I am really lagging behind them... I haven’t even reached stage 2 yet...’ Alen thought to himself.

As L and Alen both stared at the severed figure lying on the ground, suddenly, dense darkness swirled around the severed part of her neck. The shadows floated outward like dark strings and attached to her fallen head.

As if the dark threads were a natural part of her body, they attached to the severed part of the head and started to pull. The head was dragged across the ground toward the body and pulled over to the neck again. It stuck back into place, sealing the wound as if the head had never been severed in the first place.

She opened her emotionless eyes once again, acting exactly like nothing had happened.

L narrowed his eyes. He spoke with a freezing cold voice as he clutched his sword tightly. The silver light swirled around the blade in rotation as he prepared to attack her once more.

"So you really are one of the members of the Illuminati..."

She looked up at him with emotionless eyes, acting as if her neck was never severed. She didn’t look offended or angry toward him, reacting as if she had already expected the attack to happen.

"Yes... I was..."

L moved again to swing his sword, coating the sharp edge with even more of the dangerous silver light. But before he could swing it a second time, a hand wrapped firmly around his wrist. Alen stopped him from attacking her.

"Hey, move away. She needs to die now,"

"Stop it. Let her tell the whole story before you do something reckless..."

L stopped his immediate protest and snapped his hand away from Alen’s grip. He didn’t step forward, but he also didn’t back down from his combat stance.

Ava glanced at Alen for a long moment. Then, she spoke to both of them.

"I arrived here in the Year 2350, according to the Asterion timeline... I had come with my trusted teammates to attempt the Trial of the 4th stage of the Ascension realm... and what we faced in that trial was completely unexpected and beyond anyone’s comprehension.... There were thousands, maybe ten thousand Experts present in that trial... But only a few dozen people survived..."

Ava looked down at her pale hands. "The trial was not a battle. It was not about completing some task or surviving the elements. If anyone did not do anything, then they were fated to die. The trial was originally about Sacrifice... And for the greater good, they all forced me to be the sacrifice to open the dimensional gate so they could leave..."

"I don’t know what happened after they left me inside the Ascension realm... I don’t know what happened to my body... I don’t know if I am still truly alive or if this is just an illusion. I don’t know if I can escape this place anymore or not. I don’t know if I even deserve to live anymore or not. I don’t know what is going to happen to me... I don’t know... I don’t know... I don’t know..."

Alen looked at her trembling form. He didn’t try to step forward and comfort her. He pitied the fact that she had to suffer alone in this dark place, but if she didn’t have clear memories of the horrors that happened here, then it was at least best for her own sanity.

L looked at her coldly, but he didn’t attack her yet.

"You look quite young. When you last attempted the trial, how old were you?" Alen asked.

She tilted her head and answered calmly.

"I was 105 years old when I last attempted the trial..."

Alen stared at her, opened his mouth to say something, then quickly closed it and looked away.

"Forget I ever asked that..."

She looked at him with minor confusion but didn’t comment on his reaction.

Alen then turned toward L, who was still looking at the woman with heavy suspicion.

"Hey, are you okay?..."

L calmed down, and his glowing sword disappeared into the air. He looked at her while folding his arms across his chest.

"Why did you reveal that you were from the Illuminati? There was no way we would have ever found out that you were one of them on our own, so why reveal it now?..."

She didn’t answer immediately. After a pause, she spoke.

"It is because... I wanted to be honest for the very first time in my life, or my death..."

She turned her pale eyes toward L. For a brief second, there was genuine vulnerability in her gaze before it vanished behind a wall of ice.

"I lived my entire life in lies and foretold beliefs. I trusted their thoughts without question. I followed their teachings blindly. At one point in time, I had even forgotten my own personal goals. I became a simple puppet and only lived for them and their grand goals... Now, when I think of the past, I can clearly see I was completely blinded by greed and arrogance... I did many wrong things in life. Now that I realize this... it was deserving for me to be betrayed by my own companions..."

As L listened to her tragic story, he remained silent. The freezing coldness in his eyes receded slowly as he turned and asked Alen.

"Then what should we do with her now?..."

Alen looked at L, shrugged his shoulders, and said honestly.

"Well... I don’t actually know."

He looked back at Ava and continued.

"As she said, she was once a former member of the ’Illuminati’, but she got betrayed by them and has been stuck here for centuries..."

He turned toward L again.

"Then who are we to punish her for whatever crimes she might have done in the past? We can consider that she has already died once by staying in this ruined hell. What happened to her in here remains completely unknown... But now that she has finally gained her consciousness again... we can consider that she practically gained a brand new chance at life..."

"I don’t think we should harm her. Not that we actually can harm her with her unusual power... If she had wanted to, she could have just killed us on the spot when she woke up, but she didn’t..."

"It only means that she still has a will for living, even though she was broken once before..."

Alen stepped forward toward her and leaned down to her eye level.

"Tell me, what are you going to do now? If by any chance you get to leave this place, will you return to your familiar allies again? Or will you choose to live independently and stay out of their control?"

"I don’t know... I don’t know what I want to do... I don’t even know if I return, whether they will welcome me back or kill me... And I don’t want to live that old life again.... If I really get a second chance then... I want to live far away from them..."

Alen looked deeply into her eyes, trying to find any hint of falsehood. He found none. He backed away while casually dusting off his jacket.

"Okay, it is final then. You will be coming with us... But know that I can’t guarantee you will definitely be able to leave the Ascension realm..."

She looked at Alen and nodded gratefully. She tried to stand up, almost stumbling over her own feet, but quickly regained her balance.

"It is alright... If I can’t leave this place, then I will consider it my fate or a justified punishment for my past deeds... And if I am able to leave this place... Then I will no longer be my past self. I will no longer live my life in blind belief. I want to live not because someone else wants me to be alive, but because it is my own will and my own path. I want to feel genuine emotions once again, something which I seem to have lost..."

Her facial expression didn’t waver, but her pale eyes shined brightly, looking as if she had already forged her path forward once again.

[Ding! You have successfully helped the other person to forge their path again.]

[Ding! Your understanding about your own path has increased slightly!]