The Extra is a Genius!? Chapter 617: Noel vs Roberto [IV]

Roberto remained quiet, yet the atmosphere between them had shifted. An oppressive weight now rested between every clash of steel and every stride across that white expanse, as if Noel’s remark had struck a nerve Roberto desperately wanted to shield.

Their weapons collided once more at close quarters. Noel shoved the Revenant Fang against Roberto’s defense, pivoted his wrist, and lunged with his shoulder to disrupt his opponent's center of gravity. Roberto compensated with grace, retaliating with a quick jab toward Noel’s ribs, followed by another aimed at his throat. Noel ducked away from the second strike and, for the first time since entering this dimension, chose to create significant space rather than remaining pressed against his rival.

Roberto noticed instantly. "What do you think you are doing?"

Noel provided no reply. He extended his empty hand toward the white sky above, and mana spiraled into existence. It started as a tiny, dark speck, easily missed by the casual observer. But then, it began to swell. Slowly, with an unstoppable hunger. Black flames curled inward around a singular center until the object no longer resembled a mere spell, but a sun birthing itself into an alien reality.

In that moment, the dimension underwent a transformation.

The eternal whiteness overhead faded by degrees. The horizon surrendered its sterile perfection. Illumination was no longer the sole master of this realm. An intruder had manifested, asserting its existence, claiming a domain in the sky where shadow had been forbidden.

Roberto gazed upward, and for the first time since trapping Noel, a genuine, naked flicker of doubt crossed his features. The dark entity continued to ascend, growing larger and heavier, its surface churning with dense black flames until the white sky felt smothered beneath a cosmic eclipse.

"Such a thing should be an impossibility."

Noel finally leveled his gaze at him. "Eclipse Sun."

The words were whispered, yet the black star climbed higher, and with every passing heartbeat, it became more difficult for Roberto’s fabricated world to pretend it functioned under a singular law.

Roberto hesitated this time. Not entirely—his blade remained drawn and his stance guarded—but his focus had drifted upward in a way Noel hadn't witnessed previously. The dark sun continued rising through the white dimension, its flames folding inward, stripping away the authority of the false sky with every second of its ascent.

"How?" Roberto demanded. The query sounded strained, almost forced. His eyes locked back onto Noel. "How are you channeling tangible shadow into this domain?"

Noel kept the "Eclipse Sun" suspended overhead and advanced, driving forward with the Revenant Fang before Roberto could regain his composure. Their blades met in a flurry of sparks; Roberto parried by instinct while his mind remained preoccupied elsewhere. Noel glided along the guard, swept low, and disengaged before a cleaner counter-attack could land.

"I encountered Noctis," Noel revealed.

That revelation caused Roberto to falter. Only for a fraction of a second, but the hesitation was undeniable.

"When I first reached Manacode, I stepped into that realm. I saw him there." Another exchange of strikes erupted, the ringing of steel louder and more aggressive than before. "I also saw Elarin."

Roberto’s expression tightened into a grimace. "What do you mean?"

Noel pressed the assault, leaving his opponent no choice but to listen while on the move. "He appeared trapped in that prison Noctis constructed. Motionless. Severed from his power. It was as if he were completely neutralized." Noel twisted his wrist, shattered the angle of Roberto’s blade, and forced him back another step. "That was when I started to grasp how such spaces truly function."

Roberto offered no immediate response. His sword lashed out, his body reacting with precision, but the silence within him had shifted once again.

"So, from that point forward," Noel continued, "I experimented. I tested. I failed. I thought, then I tried a new approach. I bridged what I observed there with what I already understood here." His eyes remained locked on Roberto’s. "It required months of effort."

Roberto’s jaw tightened visibly.

"This was not a matter of luck." Their weapons clashed again, and this time, Noel shoved forward with enough force that Roberto was pushed into a retreat. "There are no absolute boundaries, Roberto."

Roberto’s face hardened. "That shouldn’t be achievable."

His voice was softer now, devoid of the icy calm he usually wore like armor. He looked up at the artificial sky of his own creation, and in it, he saw a world he no longer recognized. The blinding white was being devoured—not by a sudden explosion, but by the slow, inexorable rise of that black sun. Darkness rippled through the expanse until the horizon blurred, turning the once-brilliant landscape into a desolate wasteland shivering under an eclipse.

Noel maintained his gaze. "Why not?"

Roberto remained silent.

Noel took a single stride forward, the Revenant Fang steady in his grip, his voice ringing with a conviction that made the words land with finality. "I believe every individual writes their own boundaries. Much like how you cultivated this dimension, I discovered a way to impose my own laws upon it."

The silence returned, but it now belonged to Roberto, not the space surrounding them. The white floor was still beneath them, but it looked pale now, stripped of its absolute authority. The suffocating brilliance that had denied Noel any path of shadow had vanished, replaced by an atmosphere much closer to his own realm.

Roberto raised a hand, and a tiny spark of light flickered over his fingertip. It was not a weapon, merely a pale glow intended to push back the encroaching shadows. He pivoted, attempting to catch Noel within that feeble circle of light.

He failed. Noel was no longer where he had been.

For the first time since their confinement, Roberto’s dimension had become a place where vision could no longer be trusted. The darkness hadn't just covered the area; it had become an ally to Noel.

Roberto flicked his light, searching in vain. Nothing.

Then, Noel’s voice drifted from somewhere ahead—near enough to feel menacing, yet distant enough to make the spacing impossible to gauge.

"It seems I am reclaiming my stride."

A beat of silence followed.

"I think it’s time to conclude this, Roberto."

The small light on Roberto’s fingertip trembled almost imperceptibly as the void around him remained absolute, and somewhere within the blackened core of his own dimension, Noel had already begun to move.