Extra's Revenge: Reincarnated As A Slave-Chapter 88: Regaining Life

Rey’s hands moved with desperate precision, tearing through packed containers and enchanted bags.

His enhanced perception scanned each item in milliseconds—Grade 3 healing amulet, discarded; Mid Sequence Spirit Art scroll, useless; crystallized Moonlight, irrelevant.

The treasures that others would kill for meant nothing if he couldn’t stop the Chaos corruption devouring what remained of his essence.

’There has to be something. The Desgarrons accumulated knowledge for centuries. Techniques for every conceivable situation. There must be—’

His hand closed around a scroll case he’d overlooked before.

The containment was different from the others—sealed with multiple layers of protective enchantments, the kind reserved for Techniques so dangerous or valuable that even possessing them was a crime.

Rey ripped through the seals with Chaos Energy, not caring about the damage. Inside, he found three scrolls, each one inscribed with complex Null Art formulas that made his eyes hurt to read directly.

"Null Art Erasure Techniques," he whispered, reading the labels with growing desperate hope.

"Sequenxw 3: Concept Collapse."

"Sequence 4: Identity Loss."

"Sequence 5: Concept Suppression."

His mind, even corrupted as it was, immediately understood what these represented.

Null Art wasn’t just about canceling other Arts or disrupting mystical effects. At its highest expressions, it could erase fundamental aspects of reality itself.

Memories.

Identities.

Even abstract concepts.

’Identity Loss,’ Rey thought, his hands trembling slightly as he examined the fourth scroll. ’If I use this on myself, on my current state as a Soulless...’

The theory crystallized in his mind with beautiful, terrible clarity.

He was currently defined as "Undead"—specifically, as a Soulless.

That identity, that classification of his existence, was what allowed the Chaos Energy to inhabit and corrupt him. It was the framework that made his current state possible.

But what if that identity was erased?

What if the very concept of "Rey as Soulless" was negated from reality?

The Null Art would create a void where that identity had been. And nature, reality itself—all abhorred voids. Something would have to fill the space.

’It could kill me,’ Rey acknowledged coldly. ’Erasing my current identity might simply unmake me entirely.’

He felt the Chaos Energy surge deeper, consuming another fragment of his core essence.

’But I’m dying anyway. This is the only chance.’

Rey pulled out Ether Stones from the supplies the Sunlit Order had gathered—high-grade crystals that pulsed with concentrated energy.

He’d need external power for this.

His own corrupted Ether was too tainted to fuel such a delicate operation.

He arranged the stones in a circle around himself, following the geometric patterns inscribed on the scroll’s margins. Several stones, positioned at the vertices of a heptagon, each one aligned to specific Ether flows.

The scroll went in the center, unfurled and ready.

Rey knelt within the circle, his mind focusing despite the Chaos clawing at his thoughts. The Technique required absolute clarity of intent.

Any hesitation, any doubt, and the Null Art might erase the wrong thing—perhaps his entire existence rather than just his Undead state.

’I am Rey,’ he told himself, establishing the core identity that must survive. ’Everything else is negotiable.’

He placed his hands on the scroll and activated the Ether Stones simultaneously.

Power flooded into the circle, drawn from the crystals’ reserves rather than Rey’s corrupted Ether. The scroll’s symbols blazed with light that seemed to absorb all color from the surrounding space.

The Technique activated.

’Null Art... Erasure Technique #4: Identity Loss.’

Reality bent around Rey as the Null Art reached into the fundamental nature of his existence and began to erase.

Not his body, not his memories, but the ’concept’ of what he currently was.

The identity of "Soulless" started to dissolve.

Pain exploded through Rey’s being—not physical pain, but something far worse. The agony of having your fundamental nature stripped away, of existing in a state of impossible contradiction.

He was Undead, but the Technique was making him ’not-Undead’, and both states tried to be true simultaneously.

The Chaos Energy recognized the threat. It surged, trying to maintain its hold, to reinforce the Undead nature that allowed it to inhabit this vessel.

But Null Art was absolute.

The erasure continued, undeterred by the Chaos Energy’s resistance. Wherever the Null Art touched, reality itself rewrote—not to say Rey had never been Soulless, but to make his current Soulless state simply... not exist.

The void opened.

For one eternal moment, Rey existed in complete absence of definition. He was neither alive nor dead, neither human nor Undead, neither real nor unreal.

The void began to collapse.

Reality rushed in to fill the impossible space, and it brought with it the only identity that could logically occupy this particular vessel—the identity of a living being.

Life force, absent since his death in the Coliseum, suddenly exploded back into existence.

His heart, dormant and still, spasmed once, twice, then began to beat with steady rhythm.

Blood, stagnant in his veins, suddenly flowed.

Lungs, unnecessary to his Undead state, expanded as he drew in a gasping breath of air.

Rey’s eyes snapped open—no longer the empty, ancient orbs of the Soulless, but the living eyes of a young man.

The Ether Stones cracked and shattered, their reserves completely depleted.

The scroll disintegrated into ash, the Technique having served its purpose.

Rey collapsed forward, catching himself on his hands, breathing heavily.

Breathing... he was breathing.

His heart pounded in his chest. Blood rushed through his veins with each pulse.

He was alive!

’It worked,’ he thought, barely able to believe it. ’It actually worked.’

Rey had returned to his living form.

’I am revived!’

But even as relief flooded through him, Rey felt something else. The Chaos Energy that had been corrupting his Undead form—it hadn’t disappeared.

It had transformed.

No longer inhabiting an Undead vessel, the Chaos Energy had become something different. It circulated through his living body like a second bloodstream, separate from but parallel to his natural Ether.

Rey examined this new state with careful attention. The Chaos Energy no longer threatened to consume him.

It was his now, truly his, integrated into his living form in a way that should have been impossible.

But it was excessive.

’I’m alive, but I retained this much Chaos Energy,’ he realized. ’This... this is unprecedented.’

He stood, testing his body’s responses.

Everything worked—better than worked. The Chaos Energy enhanced his living functions, granting strength and perception beyond normal human limits while no longer threatening his essential identity.

He had become something new.

’Perfect.’ Rey’s lips curved into a smile, glancing around him.

The night’s work wasn’t finished.

HIS gaze swept across the grand entrance hall, taking in the bodies scattered among the treasures.

Dozens of corpses—Sunlit Order members, Desgarron household staff, patrol guards. And elsewhere in the manor, the bodies of the Desgarron family themselves.

Fresh corpses.

’This is a good opportunity...’

Rey searched his memories for the power he sought at that exact moment.

It was a Low Sequence Technique.

Nothing too special.

But... It belonged to the Hollow Technique.

And with the Excessive Chaos Energy swirling within him at the moment, he felt an increasing curiosity at its potential.

"Hollow Technique #8: Dead Command."

This was a Technique that allowed a practitioner to raise and control Undead.

Normally, such a Technique would require tremendous amounts of Chaos Energy and careful preparation to execute.

But Rey had tremendous Chaos Energy.

And he had corpses in abundance.

Rey worked quickly.

Chaos Energy erupted from his body, flowing through the carved channels and igniting the pattern with purple-black light. The energy raced through the manor, seeking out every corpse, every dead body that had fallen during the night’s massacre.

Rey felt each one as the Technique made contact—fifty-eight Sunlit Order members, scattered throughout the building. The Desgarron family: Dreyfus, Beatrice, Augustus, their bodies cooling in the courtyard. Household staff: Mariam, Fernand, Kilian, dozens more. Guards, servants, everyone who had died tonight.

The Technique seized them all.

Dead flesh began to move.

In the entrance hall, corpses twitched, then rose with jerky, uncoordinated movements.

But as the Chaos Energy settled into them, the movements became smoother, more natural. These weren’t shambling zombies—they were Undead that retained their life’s muscle memory and physical attributes.

Unfortunately, they could not use Ancient MajiK since their Ether Pool was gone.

Still... this was enough!

Throughout the manor, the same process repeated. Bodies stood, animated by Chaos Energy but controlled by Rey’s will.

Rey felt them all in his mind—a network of presences, each one distinct, each one absolutely loyal.

He could sense their positions, command their actions, perceive through their dead eyes if he chose.

The Sunlit Order members, who had fought so desperately to survive just an hour ago, now stood as his soldiers.

The household staff, who had served the Desgarrons faithfully unto death, now served a new master.

Even the Desgarron family themselves—their perverse state anyway—were now bound to Rey’s will.

’An army of the dead,’ Rey thought, watching as the Undead filed into the entrance hall at his silent command.

The sight would have terrified anyone who witnessed it—dozens of corpses, some freshly killed, others bearing the wounds that had ended them, all standing in perfect formation and awaiting orders.

Rey examined his new forces with clinical interest. The Undead required no food, no rest, no payment.

They couldn’t betray him or question his commands. And unlike living servants, they could operate in conditions that would kill normal humans.

’They’ll be the perfect means of concealment I will use to escape smoothly,’ he noted.

Since he couldn’t exactly march an army of corpses through city streets without causing panic, he would use their presence to cause chaos and escape thanks to this calamity..

The night was almost over.

Dawn would come soon, and with it, the discovery of what had happened here. The fall of a Noble Household would send shockwaves through the Realm of Nether.

Investigations would begin in earnest.

Rey needed to be far away before that happened.

’But... not before one final stop.’

His smile broadened.

"Automatons," he commanded. "Load all treasures onto the prepared wagons. Undead, assist them. I want everything ready for transport within ten minutes."

The combined forces moved with eerie efficiency—machines and corpses working side by side, neither questioning nor hesitating.

Rey watched them work, his mind already planning next steps.

He was alive again, with power beyond what he’d possessed before.

He commanded an army of Undead and a force of automatons. He possessed treasures worth an entire Noble Household.

These were far more gains than he expected.

The Desgarron Family was destroyed. The Sunlit Order was also eliminated.

No one was left that knew he was still alive.