Extra's Revenge: Reincarnated As A Slave-Chapter 155: Cold Reminder

Warm.

The sun shone warmly over the fields of H’Trae, casting golden light across the landscape that Rey had once called home. The sky was impossibly blue, unmarred by clouds, perfect in the way that only memories could be.

Rey stood in the garden behind his modest house, watching his family with a contentment he’d almost forgotten could exist.

Aris, his eldest at eight years old, ran through the grass with wild abandon, his small dark wings fluttering experimentally as he tried to achieve proper flight. The boy’s laughter echoed across the field, pure and unburdened by knowledge of what the future would bring.

"Dad, watch! I can almost do it!" Aris called out, launching himself from a small hill with determination that exceeded his actual capability.

He managed perhaps three meters of awkward gliding before tumbling into the soft grass, his wings tangling beneath him.

Rey smiled, moving to help his son up.

"Good attempt. Your form is improving. Try keeping your wings more level during the glide."

Nearby, Myra sat in the shade of a large tree, her emerald eyes focused intently on a book far too advanced for a seven-year-old. But she’d always been precocious, her sharp wit allowing her to grasp concepts that should have been beyond her understanding.

"Mum says you used to be terrible at flying too," Myra commented without looking up from her book. "She said you crashed into trees for months before you learned proper control."

"Your mother exaggerates," Rey replied with mock indignation. "It was only a few weeks of tree-crashing."

Myra finally looked up, a knowing smile crossing her features. "Mama doesn’t exaggerate. She says honesty is important, especially about embarrassing things."

Rey couldn’t help but laugh at that.

His wife Lucielle emerged from the house, carrying their youngest—baby Elias, barely a year old and just beginning to master the basics of walking. The infant gurgled happily, his small hands reaching toward his father with the absolute trust only children possessed.

Lucielle was beautiful in the effortless way Rey had always cherished.

Her silver hair caught the sunlight, her smile warm and genuine, her entire presence radiating the kind of peace that made all struggles worthwhile.

"Someone wants his papa," she said, offering Elias to Rey.

Rey took his youngest son carefully, the baby’s weight familiar and precious in his arms. Elias immediately grabbed at Rey’s hair, pulling with the thoughtless strength of infancy.

"Gentle, little one," Rey murmured, carefully extracting his hair from the baby’s grip.

A familiar presence appeared at the garden’s edge—Ater, Rey’s familiar and closest friend, currently manifesting as a sleek jet-black feline. The creature’s form was deceptively small, betraying none of the immense power contained within.

Ater padded into the garden with feline grace, his tail flicking lazily as Aris immediately abandoned flight practice to pursue the infinitely more interesting cat.

"Ater! Can I ride on your back?" the boy asked excitedly.

The familiar’s form rippled, growing slightly larger to accommodate the request.

Aris clambered onto Ater’s back with the fearlessness of a child who’d known the familiar his entire short life.

"Don’t go too far," Lucielle called as Ater began a gentle circuit of the garden with Aris balanced on his back.

Myra had abandoned her book to join them, running alongside while Ater deliberately slowed his pace to let her keep up.

Rey stood holding Elias, watching his family with Lucielle at his side. Her hand found his, their fingers interlacing with practiced ease.

"This is perfect," Rey said softly. "Everything I could ever want is right here."

Lucielle squeezed his hand. "It is, isn’t it? Our little family, safe and happy."

Aris dismounted from Ater’s back and ran to Rey, his young face flushed with excitement. Rey knelt down, shifting Elias to one arm so he could properly embrace his eldest son.

The boy’s small body pressed against him, warm and solid and real.

"Dad," Aris said, his voice taking on an unusual seriousness. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Rey replied, holding his son close.

"You can always ask me anything."

Aris pulled back slightly, looking up at Rey with eyes that suddenly seemed older than they should be.

"Why did you let me die?"

"... Huh?"

Rey’s blood ran cold.

He looked down at what he was holding, and horror consumed him as his son’s form transformed.

The warm, living child became a writhing mass of black goo, sticky and wrong, clinging to Rey’s arms with unnatural adhesion.

Rey stumbled backward, trying to release the corrupted thing that had been his son, but it stuck to his hands like tar.

He turned toward where Lucielle had been standing, seeking help or explanation or anything that made sense—

And found her transformed as well.

Black slime where his wife should be, her features melting like wax, her form collapsing into shapeless horror.

Myra. Ater. Baby Elias in his arm.

All of them dissolving into that same black corruption, their bodies losing coherence as they transformed into nightmares.

"No!" Rey screamed, trying desperately to hold onto them, to keep their forms intact through sheer force of will. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

But they slipped through his fingers like water, like shadow, like everything precious that couldn’t be grasped or preserved.

The garden around him erupted into flames.

The warm sunlight became scorching heat.

The perfect blue sky darkened to choking smoke.

And from the burning landscape, from the melting remnants of his family, from the collapsing ruins of everything he’d loved—hands began emerging.

At first thousands of them.

Then millions of them.

Reaching toward Rey with desperate grasping motions, fingers extending from flames and smoke and corruption.

Voices screamed his name.

Not just his family, but everyone.

Every single.person from H’Trae, every friend and stranger, every soul from the world that had been destroyed.

They called out in anguish and accusation, their voices blending into a cacophony of pain.

"Rey!"

"Save us!"

"Why didn’t you do anything?"

"Avenge us!"

"You let us die!"

"Remember us!"

"AVENGE US!"

The hands grabbed at him, pulling in all directions, burning with the same flames consuming the world.

Rey tried to hold onto his children, tried to keep what remained of them from dissolving completely.

But they slipped away.

They always slipped away.

"I’m sorry!" Rey screamed into the chaos.

"I’m sorry I was so useless! I’m sorry I couldn’t save you! I... I’m sorry..."

The voices only grew louder, more insistent, more demanding.

"AVENGE US! AVENGE US! AVENGE US!"

The world burned and melted and screamed, and Rey screamed with it, his voice lost in the chorus of the dead demanding justice that could never be sufficient.

Then—

Rey’s eyes snapped open.

"A-ahh..."

He was in a cave, the familiar darkness of the Labyrinth surrounding him.

His body was drenched in sweat, his breathing ragged, his heart pounding with residual terror from the nightmare.

It took several moments for reality to reassert itself.

The cave.

The Labyrinth.

The present.

His family was gone.

H’Trae was gone.

Everything he’d dreamed about had been destroyed years ago in a catastrophe he hadn’t been present for, couldn’t have prevented, and still did not fully understand.

He only knew the ones who were to be blamed—the Archdukes, leaders of the Devils.

And the one who ruled them.

... The Ancient Chaos God.

Rey forced himself to sit up, running shaking hands through his sweat-dampened hair.

The nightmare had felt so real—the warmth of his children’s embraces, the sound of Lucielle’s laughter, the simple joy of a perfect afternoon.

And then the corruption...

... The melting...

... The accusation!

"Why did you let me die?"

"Because I couldn’t do anything," Rey whispered to the empty darkness. "Because I was too weak, and I..."

He couldn’t finish the thought.

Rey had been in the Labyrinth for several days, having left the Sanctuary to conduct systematic exploration of territories he’d already claimed.

Backtracking through known passages, cross-referencing his maps, training in isolation to refine his techniques.

He’d been planning to return to the Sanctuary today. Rest, resupply, continue the steady progression that had served him so well for three years.

But the nightmare changed something.

Rey stood, gathering his equipment with mechanical efficiency. His enhanced perception scanned the cave, confirming he was alone. The mystical wards he’d established remained intact. Nothing had disturbed him during sleep except his own memories.

He withdrew his map of the Labyrinth, studying the sections he’d meticulously documented over three years of exploration.

The known territories stretched for several kilometers in multiple directions, representing countless hours of careful mapping and systematic conquest.

And then there was the boundary.

The line where Nephilim exploration ended and unknown territory began.

Rey had been content to respect that boundary, to continue consolidating his control over known regions before risking ventures into completely uncharted areas.

But now, with the nightmare’s accusations still echoing in his mind, with the faces of his lost family still burning behind his eyes—

Patience felt like cowardice.

"Avenge us," they’d screamed in the dream.

A demand he’d been working toward for years, but never quickly enough, never decisively enough.

He was stronger now than he’d been three years ago; stronger than he’d been when he first descended into the Labyrinth.

He commanded an army of ten thousand undead Chaos Dwellers. He’d mastered Techniques at sequences that would make Category S Guards fall at his hands.

But was it enough?

Would it ever be enough?

The Prince of Darkness waited somewhere in the Labyrinth’s depths—a Tier 5 Chaos Dweller that represented an obstacle he’d been carefully avoiding.

Prudent strategy suggested continuing to prepare, to train, to consolidate power until victory was certain.

But Rey’s family hadn’t had the luxury of patience when H’Trae fell.

They hadn’t been given time to prepare or consolidate or ensure victory. They’d simply died, consumed by destruction they couldn’t prevent.

And they were screaming at him to move faster.

Rey made his decision.

He secured his equipment, checked his Artifacts, and began walking—not back toward the Sanctuary, but forward into the uncharted sections of the Labyrinth.

"I can’t wait any longer..." His whispers were harsh under his shaky breath, but his body felt as firm as the resolution in his heart.

"I must descend!"