The Unrecorded Extra

A man dressed in black robes stood in front of the remains of a mid-sized shop. Somehow, its windows were safe from destruction, unlike the building itself, reflecting his image.

At first, his face appeared devoid of emotion, but now it seemed brighter, as though he had discovered a newfound sense of purpose in life.

His odd eyes stared at his own reflection, and it stared back at him with intensity. A few seconds later, his eyes relaxed.

His long, unkempt hair danced in the wind as he pulled the hood. His hair color was like two separate worlds — one half was white, while the other half was black — much like his eyes, although the light was absent in one of them.

"Boss!"

Boss.

He was called 'Boss' by his comrades because none knew his name even though the groups had been together for years.

It was not like the others didn't care about his name. But, they had given up on guessing his blurred and censored name.

Speaking his name out loud and clear still resulted in blurred, or sometimes becoming a shrill shriek in people's ears. Meanwhile, writing his name with perfect writing and calligraph resulted in ugly, unreadable text in people's eyes.

The system didn't let them hear or read his name. The world deliberately isolated his identity from people. The world removed all living creatures' senses when it came to Boss' identity.

Although, they could still see his appearance just fine.

How painful it must be when no one could learn your name.

In the end, they just called him 'Boss' because he was the leader of the group.

Turning around, he found his comrades gathered behind him.

Among them, only Newcomer wore a mask. It was a plain white mask which accidentally decorated by the crack stretched out from its eye socket to the top, pasting the crack with transparent duct tape.

They were all wearing beautifully tailored and stylish dark robes.

On the left chest side, adjacent to the heart, and on the back side of the robe, a pattern of Chrysanthemum was embedded. It was sewn using white thread for the most part, yellow thread for the stamens located in the middle, and green thread for the leaves. The pattern on the back side was larger than the one on the front chest.

Walking past them, Boss pulled the black fabric connected to the robe, covering half of his face.

"Let's go."

The sky hung in darkness, not due to the absence of the sun. The sun and the moon were doing their job as intended. Sadly, malevolent magic had shrouded the earth's expanse, blocking the beauty of the moon in the night, and the bright star in the day.

The world had descended into an eternal night. No one knew. No one cared anymore about the natural cycle of day and night. It had been like that since the demons' first invasion and occupation.

As the demons spread their influence, the sky grew progressively darker, casting a somber veil over the land.

Wars raged ceaselessly across the world, and the countless deaths of the earth's inhabitants seemed immeasurable. More accurately, no one could be bothered to write the census.

With each new land claimed by the demons, humanity's last refuge dwindled to a single stronghold, besieged by sorrow and fear.

While the majority of humanity resigned themselves to their fate, awaiting their inevitable demise within the safety of their final stronghold. A small group defied the demon's army, despite their resistance going largely unappreciated by their kind.

The mere mention of their name, the 'Spectres,' struck fear into the hearts of both demons and humans alike, for they were feared by both sides.

…

Standing on the high cliff, a boy with dark violet hair scanned the vast open desert area. His green emerald eyes glowed despite the darkness of the world.

In his hand was a sniper rifle about the same size as him. Surprisingly, he held it as though it was made of light material such as wood.

"Targets found! 10 o'clock direction from your current position!"

— Kill them all.

"Aye, aye, Boss!"

Putting himself on the ground, his sniper was placed in a convenient position to hit targets kilometers away from his position. It should be impossible to shoot a target farther than two or three kilometers, but his attributes made it possible.

"One, two, three… 11 targets locked!" the boy said, grinning.

As he placed his finger in front of the trigger, a large amount of mana gathered at the rifle's muzzle, creating a sphere made of mana.

Bang—!

A gunshot echoed in the air.

The mana sphere in front of the muzzle was released. While flying toward its target, the mana was reshaped, and condensed into a magic bullet that glowed white-blue light in the darkness.

Toward reaching half of the distance upon launch, the bullet dispersed into pieces of magic bullets, their speed increasing so that the bullets would reach and kill the 11 locked targets in 5 seconds.

— Bullseye!

Listening to a cheering and excited voice coming from his communication tools, Boss smiled.

"Good job, Nate!"

— Hehe! Thanks, Bwoss~

Arriving at the marked location on the map, where the 11 creatures were guarding the place, Boss and his comrades entered the great ruins in the desert.

"Fuaaaa… It's so hot…"

The man in the owl robe hood loosened the black cloth and removed the hood that covered his face.

The wind washed away the sweat that was pouring down his forehead, and his messy black hair was blown by the strong gust, making him hold the mask on his face.

Kring—!

Boss' ears twitched as he heard a bell-like sound ring out in the air. He scanned the round vicinity in search of the sound's origin, which turned out the sound came from the earring worn by Newcomer.

Looking at it, Boss was astonished by how beautifully crafted the earring was. 

It was a crescent and little stars-shaped earring, even though the metals were already rusty, one could tell that the star ornaments were previously blue.

Unfortunately, his observation of the beautiful earring would soon be broken by the voice of his other comrades.

"Everyone, come here!" someone shouted.

Once this low, pleasant voice entered their hearings, they turned in the direction of the voice at the same time. If any of them noticed how synchronized their motion was, they made sure not to mention the little detail.

What they found in their line of sight was a female scientist or alchemist. She was crouching on the part of ruins looking like an altar. The platform was slightly elevated, creating a small circular stone stage where a stone, much like a tomb, filled with carvings and murals rested atop.

Gathering around the altar ruins, Newcomer carefully examined the carvings on the stone, not wanting to trigger traps that might be installed around the stone.

"A human— no. A titan, numbers, monsters, machines, and..."

Fixing his eyes on the somewhat looked like a watch pocket, Newcomer narrowed his eyes. A moment later, he snapped his finger as he recognized the obvious carving.

"A watch," he said.

"What does it mean?"

The white-haired man asked. He was the most clueless of the four.

Usually, that was what people called the 'all brawn, no brain'.

His strong body, broad shoulders, and well-trained muscles made him a reliable person when it came to physical activities. However, it was advised not to come to him for solving a puzzle, ever.

Taking another look at the altar, Newcomer said:

"If my guess is correct. It tells a story about the history of an ancient God, a God who can manipulate space and time, maybe?"

Surprised, the female alchemist said, "Is it the same as I thought?"

A smirk played on Newcomer's face.

"Chronos."

Both of them snapped their fingers at the same time.

Pulling his conventional device around his wrist close to the murals and carvings on the stone, he took some pictures and sent them to one of his comrades.

"Via. Take a look at these."

— Oh, what is this?

"We found this in the ruins. My guess is that this is related to Chronos. Can you confirm it?"

— OH!! CHRONOS?!! IT WILL BE DONE IN A FLASH!

…

After receiving the report from Via about the carvings which were indeed about the old god, Chronos, the four of them continued their search for Chronos's artifact that could turn back time.

They found the entrance leading to the underground ruins. 

It was a spiral staircase leading underground, they didn't know how long it took them to descend the stairs. The place was dark, cold, and damp, the only source of light was coming from Boss who used light magic even though he wasn't a wizard.

"Just how deep is this underground? I'm sure we've spent over an hour descending these stairs!" The white-haired man snapped.

"If you want to know, why don't you just jump straight down there, Albus?" Newcomer said, his finger pointing down at the void beneath them.

"Shut up, dude!!!"

Newcomer's smirk widened. It was always fun to tease the muscle guy.