The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 307: THE TRAITOR’S DAUGHTER

Chapter 303: The Traitor’s Daughter

​The sky didn’t just turn black; it screamed.

​Five hundred arrows, each etched with high-elven wind-runes, accelerated as they descended. They didn’t fall like rain; they fell like a collapsing ceiling of silver light.

​"Warning: High-Energy Mana Signature detected!" Leon’s Nova AI shrieked from his wrist, its blue holographic interface flickering into a frantic red. "Impact in 2.1 seconds. Survival probability: 0.004\%. Recommended action: Absolute Shielding."

​"Maria!" I roared, my voice tearing in my throat.

​Maria Frostheart didn’t respond with words. She didn’t even blink. Her matte blue eyes remained fixed on the trajectory. She raised her palm, her fingers stiff and crystalline. The [Tear of Gaia] had turned her into a conductor of the world’s coldest logic.

​SNAP.

​A barrier of diamond-ice erupted ten meters above our heads. It wasn’t a wall; it was a geometrical dome, perfectly angled to deflect the kinetic energy of a siege volley.

​THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

​The sound was deafening. The arrows struck the ice and detonated. Fire, lightning, and corrosive acid washed over the dome, turning the world into a kaleidoscope of lethal colors. The ground beneath our boots groaned. The Iron-Horse’s hull, already brittle, began to crack further from the sheer pressure.

​"Mana reserves: 8\%... 5\%..." Maria’s Nova droned. "User vital signs dropping. Structural integrity failing."

​With a sound like a mountain shattering, the dome gave way. The last few dozen arrows struck the snow around us, missing Leon by inches.

​Maria collapsed to one knee, her white hair swaying in the sudden gust of heat from the fire-runes. A trickle of blue blood leaked from her nose. She looked at her hands—they were translucent.

​The smoke cleared.

​Commander Valerius sat atop his massive stag, his porcelain wolf-mask reflecting the flickering fires in the snow. He didn’t look surprised. He looked disappointed.

​"A Hero’s aura and a Saint’s frost," the Commander said, his voice amplified by the wind. "To think such potential has been so thoroughly rotted by the Abyss."

​He raised his hand. The archers on the wall reached for a second quiver. These arrows were different—they were tipped with black obsidian. Anti-Mana shafts.

​"Wait!" I stepped forward, stepping past Leon. I held up the leather scroll case I had retrieved from the Arborist’s skeleton. "I am Michael Willson! We have proof of the rot within your own Council! This diary contains the testimony of High Arborist Elandra!"

​The Commander’s head tilted. "Elandra? A name from the scrolls of the dead. You speak of heretics and ghosts, boy."

​"She was murdered!" I shouted, my [Quantum Analysis Mind] frantically scanning Valerius for a weakness.

​[Target: Commander Valerius]

[Rank: S- (Knight of the Night’s Watch)]

[Condition: Absolute Hostility]

[Probability of successful negotiation: 0.02\%]

​"She found the Rot!" I continued. "Your High Council accepted Abyssal Mana to keep the Tree alive during the Silence! You are executioners of a lie!"

​Valerius didn’t argue. He didn’t even look angry. He looked at me with the pity one reserves for a rabid dog. "The Truth is a privilege of the Crown, Human. Not a toy for a child covered in dungeon filth."

​He flicked his wrist. A bolt of white lightning shot from his finger, striking the scroll case in my hand.

​BOOM.

​The diary—the only proof we had—disintegrated into grey ash before I could even flinch.

​"The evidence is gone," Valerius stated. "And now, for the cause of this tragedy."

​He pointed his crystal sword at Selena.

​Selena was huddled against the train’s frozen wheels, her hands clutching her head. Her Nova AI was repeating a loop: "Error: Biological signature fluctuating. Primal genes detected. Alerting High Council..."

​"Come forward, child of the Abyss," Valerius commanded.

​"She’s a student!" Leon roared, gripping the [Breaker’s Hammer] so hard the metal groaned. "She fought the Beastmaster with us!"

​"She is the daughter of Malakor the Usurper," the Commander’s voice boomed, silencing the wind.

​The air in the valley seemed to freeze. Even Leon staggered back a step.

​Malakor. The name was a curse. The Elf who had tried to drink the World Tree’s soul and had been executed for high treason eighteen years ago. The one who had nearly caused the extinction of the Northern Elves.

​"My father..." Selena whispered, her vertical pupils trembling. "My mother said... he was a diplomat. She said we were exiled because of... of a mistake."

​"The mistake was letting you live," Valerius said. "The blood of a traitor never runs clean. It only waits to rot the next generation."

​He looked at the five hundred riders behind him.

​"The Quarantine is secondary. The high-value target is the Usurper’s seed. Capture her alive for the ’Purification Rites’. Kill the rest."

​The archers on the wall drew their strings to their ears. The riders drew their silver sabers.

​"Michael," Leon whispered, his golden aura pulsing in a desperate, last-ditch rhythm. "What do we do? We have no proof left. They don’t believe in the Hero. They don’t believe in you."

​I looked at the ashes of the diary. I looked at Selena, who had just saved our lives in the carriage. I looked at the Commander, whose ’justice’ was just a different form of rot.

​"They don’t want the truth, Leon," I said, drawing the silver dagger I had taken from Ren. "They want a scapegoat."

​I looked at my System.

​[Mana: 42 / 4800]

[Health: 12\%]

[Current Objective: Survive.]

​"Leon," I said, my voice hardening. "Formation Omega."

​"Omega?" Leon blinked. "We’ve never practiced that. Nova doesn’t have a record of it."

​"Nova is a machine," I spat. "Omega is simple. We don’t negotiate. We don’t surrender. We survive by becoming the monsters they think we are."

​Leon looked at Selena, then back at the silver riders. He stood up, his battered armor clanking. He raised his shield—what was left of it—and blocked the path to the girl.

​"Try it," Leon said, his voice dropping into a register that made the Elven stags shift uncomfortably.

​Commander Valerius lowered his sword.

​"Loose."

​The sky vanished again.

​The screen fades to black as the sound of a thousand arrows cutting the air fills the silence.

​ARC 5: THE IRON WILDERNESS — COMPLETED.

(To be Continued)