Reincarnated as a Trash Extra To Kill The SSS-Rank Villainess-Chapter 61: His Bleeding Core

Raziel opened his eyes.

The ceiling of the St. Celeste infirmary was white and cracked, a map of imperfections he already knew by heart.

"Finally," a hoarse voice murmured.

Lucian was slumped in a chair next to the bed, his head thrown back and dark circles under his eyes that looked like bruises.

He straightened up suddenly, his green eyes fixed on him.

"You’ve been unconscious for two days. I thought that..."

"I’m fine," Raziel lied.

Just at that moment, Brother Thomas, the academy’s head healer, approached the bed.

His face, usually serene, was tense with worry.

"No, you are not, boy," Thomas said. "Your superficial wounds closed, but the main one... the one on the chest... is not responding."

Thomas raised a hand over Raziel’s chest.

A soft greenish light, the energy of the Healer’s Path, flowed from his fingers.

But instead of soothing the pain, the light seemed to sizzle and fade upon contact with his skin.

"It’s like pouring water into a bottomless pit," the healer explained, frowning. "There is a residue of dark mana anchored to you, it is something that devours healing energy before it can take effect and I have never seen anything like it."

While Brother Thomas spoke, a blue window flickered in Raziel’s vision.

[ALERT: ANOMALY DETECTED IN SPIRITUAL CORE]

[Shadow Parasite: Level 2]

[Effect: Devours vital and healing energy. Causes progressive Soul Corruption.]

’Shit,’ he screamed inside.

’Shit! A parasite? Did the Shadow leave this crap inside me?’

On the outside, he kept his mask of a confused novice.

"I just need to rest, Brother Thomas, this is just... exhaustion."

The healer didn’t seem convinced, but he nodded with resignation.

"Rest, then, I will return in a few hours."

When Thomas left, the infirmary door opened again.

It was Lara.

She brought a small bowl of broth, but she stopped dead a few steps from the bed.

"Raziel," she whispered. "What is that cold?"

Lucian looked at her, not understanding.

"Cold? The room is warm."

"No... it’s not a normal cold," Lara insisted, without taking her eyes off Raziel. "It is... a void, I feel it in the air around you."

Raziel clenched his jaw.

Lara’s ability was a damn complication because she could feel the corruption he was trying to hide.

He ignored Lara’s question and sat up in the bed, holding back a stab of pain that stole his breath.

"The pain is temporary," he said, more for himself than for them.

Lucian stood up with a jump, his patience finally broken.

"Stop lying."

Raziel looked up, surprised by the harshness in his tone.

Lucian stared at him, and for the first time, there was no arrogance in his eyes, only certainty.

"You are dying and you know it."

Lara stifled a scream, bringing a hand to her mouth.

Lucian’s accusation hung in the air.

The silence that followed was broken only by Lara’s choked sob.

Raziel felt his blood freeze in his veins.

’How the hell does he know?’ he screamed in his mind. ’He can’t know!’

On the outside, he forced a grimace of annoyance.

"You are being dramatic, Lucian."

"No, I am being the only one who doesn’t swallow your lies," Lucian replied, taking a step forward, his shadow covering the bed.

"You are pale as a dead man, you are sweating cold and the best healer in the academy, a guy who can regenerate an arm!, says he can’t do anything for you. And I am supposed to believe the story of ’exhaustion’?"

Raziel squeezed the fabric of the sheet.

"It is Shadow magic, Lucian. It is corrosive by nature and interferes with sacred healing, it rejects it. It just needs time to dissipate, that is all."

It was a good lie.

It sounded technical, credible.

But Lucian was not in the mood for technicalities.

"Bullshit!" he snapped, hitting the bed post with his fist.

The wooden frame creaked. "I saw you in the Chapel! I saw how that... thing skewered you! It wasn’t a cut, Raziel, you were impaled! You should be dead!"

Every word was a hammer blow against Raziel’s facade.

"You don’t understand how it works. It is a Church matter, just go back to your fencing lessons, this is none of your business."

It was a desperate attempt to put Lucian back in his "spoiled noble" box.

But it didn’t work.

"I don’t give a damn if it is a matter of the Church or the Luminar himself!" Lucian roared, leaning over him.

"You are my friend, idiot! And I am not going to stand by with my arms crossed while you fall apart pretending everything is fine!"

"Enough!" Lara intervened, her voice trembling but firm.

She took a step forward, although she kept a safe distance, as if she feared Raziel’s cold would infect her. "Lucian is right, what I feel is not a residue."

She fixed her big eyes on him, and for a second, Raziel felt she could see directly through his skin, straight to the parasite writhing in his soul.

"It is something... alive," Lara continued, with a broken voice. "It is inside you, Raziel, and it is feeding."

Lara’s confirmation was the killing blow.

Raziel’s denial shattered against her raw empathic truth.

He couldn’t lie anymore.

"Get out of here," he ordered.

"We are not going to leave you alone," Lucian protested.

"I said get out!" Raziel shouted, an explosion of anger and fear that made them both step back.

His control was crumbling.

If they stayed, they would see the truth.

They would see the monster he was becoming.

Lucian looked at him with wide eyes and then grabbed Lara gently by the arm.

"Let’s go."

Lara didn’t look away from Raziel, her eyes full of a pity he couldn’t stand.

Lucian practically dragged her out of the room.

Raziel was left alone.

The relief lasted less than a second.

Then, the pain returned with a renewed fury, an icy claw squeezing his chest from the inside.

He doubled over, gasping, while sweat soaked his forehead.

And then, he felt it.

THUMP.

It was a foreign pulse, slow and deliberate, emanating from the center of his wound.

A heartbeat of pure darkness.

The parasite was waking up.

In the darkness of his mind, a voice whispered.

It wasn’t the cold and mechanical voice of the System.

It wasn’t his own frantic thoughts.

It was something new.

’You remember me.’

The whisper slid through his consciousness like cold oil, intimate and possessive.

’You let me in.’