The Unrecorded Extra

"Fuck!"

The battle against hundreds of unknown creatures had finished. The side that came out as the winner was the Spectres.

The unknown creatures had been eradicated in just one battle. Thanks to that, the underground ruin was now clear of them.

However, the battle had left the Spectres crippled. They lost two of their members. The Scientist, Jade, and the Brute, Albus.

"We should go, Boss."

"Those things did not even leave their corpses alone."

"..."

Newcomer stared at Boss, no one knew what his expression looked like behind the mask. Was he sad? Was he sad that he lost his comrades? No one knew.

Meanwhile, Boss got into his knee, searching for any remains his comrade had left, but there were none. Everything was devoured and got melted inside the creatures' liquid form. Their bodies, their weapons, everything.

They did not survive.

Boss gritted his teeth, promising their souls that he would definitely complete this quest and return to the past. Clenching his fist tightly, he rose to his feet, his gaze flashed with raging determination.

Turning around, Boss nodded at Newcomer, and Newcomer nodded back.

"Let's go."

Boss tapped Newcomer's shoulder as he walked past him.

Newcomer stood still, unmoving. He did not immediately follow after Boss. Instead, he glanced at the area where Boss' palm contacted his shoulder, rubbing it off with his hand.

Then as he was done, his gaze fixed on the earring hung on his right ear, finding himself smiling unconsciously behind his mask. But, rather than a warm smile, it was more like a cold, dark smile.

"Are you coming or not?"

As Boss called him, he shook away the thoughts in his mind. Returning to his usual cheery and carefree self, Newcomer shouted cheerfully, making his voice echo throughout the isolated underground room.

"Wait for me, Boss!"

They walked silently, putting their guards up as they finally reached an underground cave.

The size of the cave was massive, with the ceiling up high and stalactites hanging menacingly. Around him were rubbles and remains of what seemed to be a majestic palace.

Despite the mess of this ancient ruin, one building — a broken structure of once a great clock tower — stood out the most from the rest.

In one glance, even someone with <E> Intelligence could tell that the broken clock tower at the other side of the cave was their supposed destination of this ruin. The place where they could find a strong artifact that could turn back time.

However, they needed to cross the great bridge connecting two plateaus of the cave. The land was separated by a great valley more or less 500 meters wide.

"Don't you think it's weird?" Newcomer spoke suddenly.

"What is?"

"I mean. How come a place like this exists under the desert? More importantly, just how far are we from the surface?"

Boss shrugged. "Who knows?"

Stopping at the start line of the bridge, they observed the path ahead. The bridge, just like the other structures of this underground cave ruin, was not in its prime shape. There were so many broken parts of the bridge, as well as debris scattered throughout the path.

"Hmm. I have a bad feeling about crossing this bridge…" said Newcomer abruptly.

Looking at him, Boss said:

"Did you see something?"

Newcomer narrowed his eyes as he inspected the bridge and the great valley stretched out before his eyes.

"I'm not sure… It doesn't work. Just like how I can't see the danger of the unknown creatures back then."

Boss closed his eyes, bit by bit leaking his mana outside consciously.

"There must be something here blocking your sight."

"Maybe…"

With utmost care, they ventured to cross the bridge. Their gaze never stopped to look for the danger that might lurk around. Maybe there was another unidentified creature creeping under the bridge? Or a colossal monster emerged from the deep of the valley?

Fortunately, the danger they expected never came. Even so, they didn't let their guard down. Not until they reach the other side of the bridge.

"For some reason, I felt disappointed because there was no surprise even though it would be a perfect place for that."

Boss could only shake his head upon hearing Newcomer complained about the wrong part.

Arriving in front of the broken structure of what seemingly a clock tower, Boss placed his hand on the ground.

He drew out his mana from the core gradually, consuming a total of 200 mana units with a consistent consumption of 10 mana units per second. Adhering to that information, Boss surveyed the area for a solid 20 seconds using his surveying skill.

"You know, Boss, why didn't you use your skill earlier when we were about to cross the bridge?"

Unmoving from his position, Boss replied:

"I was preserving my mana for the worst."

"Preserving? Really? For the worst?" Newcomer said. "You have like a huge pool of mana! How much is it again?! 8888 mana units! With a fvcking 2.5% mana regen per 30 seconds!"

Newcomer sighed, then continued. "30 seconds after you use this skill, your mana will be at full capacity again."

"No. There's a delay before the core could regenerate the mana lost. And it won't regenerate until your body cooled down."

"Oh! Thanks for the lecture, boss!" Newcomer rolled his eyes. "So, what did you get from the survey?"

"Jackpot…" Boss replied, his voice sounding a bit shaky.

After the death of their comrades, the situation between the two of them had gone awry. Newcomer wouldn't usually act like that to Boss. 

The same happened to Boss, he was usually quiet and calm. But somehow after the unfortunate incidents, he became restless and paranoid.

If we tried to look at a more positive perspective. Maybe they were just excited because they were so close to their goals. The artifact. An ancient artifact of the old God, in fact.

Boss stepped away from his initial position, entering the ruined clock tower.

Looking at him entering the tower, Newcomer made a moment to take off the earring on his right ear. He inspected it for a while before crushing it with his palm.

As soon as the earring was broken, Newcomer stumbled forward, memories were flooding his mind. His face was in constant change of expression within 10 seconds of reliving the memories.

As the last memory finished being played in his head, Newcomer took off his mask, throwing it on the ground.

"Haa… I'm just doing my job…" he said as his gaze fixated on the ceiling of the cave.

…

Stepping his foot inside the tower, Boss strode deeper into the building until he found a stairway leading to the top floor. There was an elevator for sure, but it was out of service due to there was no electricity to revive the dead building.

Once he arrived at the top floor of the tower, he walked toward the elevated floor, only to stop in front of the hourglass mark carved on the small board under the great clock formed from a pool of bluish energy.

Stretching his hand forward, he seeped in his mana on the mark. Soon after, it glowed a radiant blue light along the mark's lines. The light then separated itself from the board, floating in the air.

Its hourglass form gradually turned into a symbol of 'infinity' but vertical. But, it was not long until it rotated, becoming the 'infinity' sign.

As the light disappeared, a badge — a watch pocket of some sort — revealed itself, landing on Boss' palm smoothly.

A wide, wishful smile plastered on Boss' face the moment his skin touched the artifact's cold material. 

"Finally—?!"

He couldn't finish his word. Not when he felt a sudden ticklish feeling around his chest.

Glancing downward, he found a blade blanketed with fresh blood, his blood, sticking out from his chest.

"Guhak!"

Suddenly, his mouth was covered with fresh blood after one cough. In the part where the blade sticking out, piercing his heart, a stream of blood already blanketed his body with red color.

Glancing over his shoulder, his eyes widened as he caught Newcomer standing behind, his hand stretched out, stabbing Boss in the chest with his sword. Another hand was holding another sword. Without the mask on, Boss could finally see what his face looked like.

"You… Why…"

"Not so fast, Sabit."

Boss' eyes widened again. Never once in his life did he think he would finally hear his name called by someone else. Unfortunately, it was coming from his grim reaper.

Not giving Boss a chance to counterattack, Newcomer shoved another sword in his hand in the exact same place as the previous stab, adding more burden and power to crush Boss' heart, as well as his core.

"Kuh…!"

Boss chuckled before the light left his eyes. Before the flame in his heart went out. Before he could attain his goal.

Thud—!

His body dropped like a ragdoll, now laying lifeless on the ground.

Sheathing his swords, Newcomer stole the artifact from Boss' hand. After inspecting the artifact, he shoved it into his coat pocket behind the robe.

"Don't hate me for this, Sabit. I'm just doing my job as the Keeper. I can't risk the whole timeline for your goal."

Turning around, he ran a hand through his jet-black hair. Pulling out a hand mirror, the black-void eyes stared back at him.

without guilt and remorse, he flashed a smile innocently.

Storing the hand mirror back to the spatial storage, his hand reached for the artifact in his pocket. He looked at it solemnly.

Newcomer glanced over his shoulder, looking at Boss' corpse lying on the ground.

"I can't risk the whole timeline for your goal… but I can do it for my goal."