Path of the Extra Chapter 2: Azriel Crimson

"...Where am I?" Leo asked himself as he looked around.

Just a few seconds ago, he was inside his apartnt, and now he found himself in so abandoned city.

"Is this so kind of prank, perhaps?" he wondered.

Maybe he had beco one of those poor victims of pranksters on social dia.

"But everything looks and feels so real, though, so it's not that..."

The pain surrounding his body was only intensifying, becoming more and more unbearable with every second.

"Damn it, just what is wrong with !"

He was getting frustrated with everything, but when he checked himself, he noticed sothing odd.

"Did I get taller?"

His body ached yet felt weird as well. He couldn't feel any blood on his back but instead noticed sothing else.

"Muscles? I don't rember working out..."

He was never a fan of going to the gym or doing any sort of sport.

The only real workout he did was after his family died, and he was forced to work almost seven hours a day.

As he thought, he caught his own reflection in an old abandoned and broken car in the middle of the empty street.

When he saw himself reflected in the broken mirror, he froze.

His reflection was that of a young boy with jet-black onyx hair, so dark it seed to absorb all light that touched it, cascading over his shoulders in unruly waves.

His eyes were a striking shade of crimson, reminiscent of rubies glinting in the sun, captivating and intense.

His complexion was as pale as moonlight on freshly fallen snow, contrasting sharply with his dark hair and vivid eyes.

His features were finely sculpted—a straight nose, high cheekbones.

In short, he possessed an extraordinary handsoness that bordered on srizing—a quality that could effortlessly draw the gaze of anyone who crossed his path.

And by anyone, it ant anyone.

Leo felt like he was staring at the window for years before finally snapping out of his thoughts as he stumbled on his own feet and fell back.

"W-what the hell! How is that !?"

He definitely knew that the person reflected wasn't him in the slightest.

He had brown hair and green eyes!

He definitely wasn't that handso, as much as it pained him to admit it.

"Just what the hell is going on!?"

As he was starting to panic, his heartbeat was thumping loud against his chest again.

He didn't have ti to calm down as suddenly a piercing sensation entered his head.

"A-ARGH!"

He cried out, rolling on the ground as it felt like a knife was stabbed into his brain and kept getting twisted.

The pain was unbearable as suddenly mories started flooding his mind.

mories that weren't his.

A mature and beautiful woman with blonde hair and red eyes hugged a young boy that looked like her gently after the boy had a nightmare.

The young boy sparred on an open grass field with soone that looked like a younger version of the woman, but unlike her, the young girl had black hair like the boy and red eyes like the mother.

A handso man with black hair and eyes taught him gently how to use the sword; no matter how many mistakes he made, the man would always be patient with him.

All kinds of mories kept flooding inside his mind, rging with his.

His heart felt warm from them.

Feelings that weren't his own started to beco his.

People he didn't know started to beco known.

Experiences he didn't have started to beco his own.

The last of the mories and feelings that flooded his mind were... painful.

The handso man and the boy, a little older now, visited the border of the European and Asian continents.

But when they arrived, multiple phase 3 void rifts appeared, sending everyone into chaos.

Humans were getting sward as the father of the boy was forced to fend off the void creatures with the help of the army stationed there.

The people there started to flee as they were getting killed and eaten alive.

The boy, though, never left as he watched everything unfold before him.

The last of his mories was that of the boy's father annihilating the creatures, covered in their blood with a crazy smile on his face, before everything went black.

After a while, the pain in his head finally started to subside as the mories and feelings beca easier to digest.

"...I see," he muttered.

The blinding light that the book he was reading back at the apartnt was emitting.

Suddenly finding himself in an abandoned city out of nowhere.

The person he saw in the reflection of the car window.

A bewildered sigh escaped his lips as he realized what exactly had happened.

"I am inside the book Path of Heroes..."

He found it hard to believe his own words.

"And the body that I am inhabiting... I am not Leo Karumi anymore. Instead—"

"I am Azriel Crimson."

*********

Azriel Crimson.

A character never ntioned in the book.

Nothing was known about him, and he had no relevance to the plot in the slightest.

A re extra.

Or at least, not quite entirely.

The only reason for his existence was perhaps that the author had an excuse for the protagonist to get close to one of the main heroines: Jasmine Crimson, the next head of the Crimson clan and one of the most talented geniuses on Earth.

She was also the president of the student council in the hero academy and one of the main characters in Path of Heroes.

Yes, Azriel's elder sister who, in the book, at first seed cold to everyone after becoming depressed and closing off her heart to anyone after soone extrely close to her died.

The protagonist, being kind-hearted in nature, tried to comfort her and help her get over the loss of her important soone, and in the end, succeeded in winning her heart after many attempts.

It looked like that important soone was her younger brother, Azriel Crimson, as it was never ntioned who the close person to her was by anyone, not even the Crimson clan.

The Crimson clan was one of the four great clans that ruled the Asian continent.

The Crimson clan's current head was Joaquin Crimson, his wife being Aeliana Crimson.

As Leo, or better said now Azriel, recalled how his elder sister, whom he now had, would get into the harem of the protagonist, his face changed to one of disgust.

He already hated people who had harems, as he believed those were the ones who couldn't stay loyal or love soone enough.

Besides, the protagonist was soone equally loved and hated by the gods, attracting danger wherever he went.

"Like hell I would let him get together with her," he vowed as he got up again, stretching his body.

No brother would want his sister to be in danger constantly

Inheriting the previous owner's feelings and mories, they were now essentially his own.

He had beco that person.

"I am sorry for what happened to you ... I know this might sound like just so pathetic excuse to the both of us, but I promise I will protect our family," Azriel said, promising to the current him and the forr him.

A tear leaked from his right eye that he hurriedly wiped away.

Everything and everyone he knew from his previous life was gone.

Forever.