Aetheric Chronicles: Reborn As An Extra

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground reverberated through the dense forest, followed by the grotesque splatter of green, viscous liquid.

One after another, snake-like creatures with sinewy, plant-like bodies fell, their movements twitching before growing still. The green ichor seeped into the soil, sizzling faintly as if the very ground rejected their unnatural existence.

"Damned pests," came a low, irritated voice.

A black-robed young man stood amidst the carnage, his nearly three-meter blade retracting with a quick hiss until it reformed into a sleek dagger. With a sharp flick of his wrist, Adrian slid the weapon back into its sheath, his movements as precise as they were fluid.

A faint pulse of black light emanated from him, sweeping across his form. The green blood-like substance clinging to his clothes dissolved instantly, leaving him immaculate once more. His deep brown eyes, partially obscured by the shadow of his hood, narrowed as he gazed into the distance.

"I'm probably late," Adrian muttered to himself, his voice a mixture of frustration and unease. His hand instinctively brushed against the hilt of his dagger, his fingers tightening for a brief moment. "Then that means... it wasn't me who saved them."

He stood still for a moment, lost in thought, before glancing at the horizon where the forest thickened into a wall of shadows. His sharp features hardened as the memory of his recent encounter surfaced.

It had been shortly after parting ways with Emeric—his old, villainous companion.

Still, Adrian had no time to dwell on it.

As soon as their paths diverged, he had activated his Chrono Vision—an ability he had only recently begun to control more freely, though he rarely used it due to its taxing nature. He had glimpsed into the fabric of his own future and the main characters, planning to see where and when they would meet.

The vision had been fragmented, as always—a flicker of faces, places, and events. But one thing had been clear: he would meet Aurelius, Ren, and the others. And, most importantly, he would find Aria. Killing two birds with one arrow.

But luck had turned its back on him soon after.

The path he'd taken had led him straight into the territory of these accursed creatures. A horde of them had emerged from the underbrush, their numbers seemingly endless. He'd been forced into a grueling hit-and-run strategy, striking with precision before retreating into the shadows, only to repeat the cycle again and again.

It took him more than 15 minutes to deal with them all as he couldn't run away.

Now, as he stood amidst the aftermath, he knew the delay had cost him. The vision had shown him the meeting, but it had also shown what had already transpired.

Adrian's expression darkened slightly, his fists tightening. If it wasn't him who saved them, then there was only one possibility.

"It must be… him," he murmured, his voice barely audible over the faint rustling of the trees. His eyes sharpened, their gaze cutting through the shadows as though searching for something unseen.

"My impostor."

Tap, tap...

Adrian's footsteps were slow but deliberate as he moved through the dense forest, the heavy silence around him broken only by the occasional crunch of dead leaves underfoot.

His thoughts, however, were far from the present. Memories—visions—played in his mind like fleeting shadows, each one more vivid than the last.

It had been almost half a year since he had first begun to control Chrono Vision, the ability that allowed him to glimpse into fragments of the future, though never clearly or completely.

At first, it had felt like a blessing, a glimmer of hope in his otherwise chaotic life. But as the images grew sharper, as the truth behind them became clearer, that hope had turned to unease.

The first time he had used it, he'd seen himself falling through a dimensional crack, landing in the Academy's Colosseum. He had been elated, believing it was a sign—proof that he could go back.

Back to the world he had been torn away from. But the reality had been bitter. That fall had already happened, months before. The vision wasn't his way home; it was nothing more than a memory of a foreign moment he'd tried to forget. Discover hidden stories at empire

After that, the visions became more frequent, more vivid. And with each one, the truth became harder to ignore.

He saw himself doing things he couldn't do due to his contract. Having memory loss. Returning home. Starting his long-awaited plans. Training with strange new powers he'd never touched. Rescuing the twin princesses. Attending a grand banquet. Winning against Aurelius in the finals. And so much more.

Each fragment was disconnected, yet they painted a picture—a version of his life that wasn't his own.

A life he hadn't lived.

And then the visions had stopped. The last one had been the most haunting of all. He had seen himself again, but this time, there had been no triumph, no grand moment. Just a dark, gaping hole. A dimensional tear that had sucked him in, swallowing him whole.

Adrian's fists tightened at the memory.

He had realized long ago that the 'him' he saw in all those visions wasn't actually him. The movements, the choices, the emotions—none of them aligned with who he was, not completely at least.

At first, he had thought he was losing his mind, that the strain of Chrono Vision had fractured his sense of self. But then, slowly, the pieces began to fall into place.

The visions weren't his future. They were someone else's. A stranger who wore his face, who lived his life, and who walked in his shadow.

His impostor.

Adrian's steps faltered as another memory rose unbidden to the surface, one that had lingered at the back of his mind for months.

Evangeline.

Or the time just a bit before the incident.

She had acted as if they had met countless times before that heart-wrenching incident—the time he'd failed so spectacularly. He had dismissed it, then, after thinking for a bit, chalking it up to her enigmatic nature.

Even after the incident, she insisted on it.

But now he knew better.

If it wasn't him Evangeline had met so many times, then it could only mean one thing. She had met him.

The impostor.