Chapter 36: Reaper (1) - SSS Rank: Spellcraft Sovereign - NovelsTime

SSS Rank: Spellcraft Sovereign

Chapter 36: Reaper (1)

Author: BeMyMoon
updatedAt: 2025-07-13

CHAPTER 36: REAPER (1)

The Reaper moved.

Not a twitch. Not a jerk. Just gone from standing to gliding forward without bothering to step. His cloak dragged behind him like it had a mind of its own.

Lucen shifted left, breath caught halfway in his chest.

’Okay. That’s fine. Humanoid form. Probably less freaky than a floating mask, right?’

The Reaper raised its arm.

Not the scythe this time.

A hand.

Pale. Bone-white. Wrapped in thin fabric like something half-mummified, half-ceremonial.

Lucen’s instincts screamed.

He dove sideways.

The air behind him folded. No noise. No impact. Just vanished. Like part of the world had been erased.

He rolled to a crouch, boots scraping stone.

"Cover!" he shouted.

Mira dove behind a half-fallen column. Senna didn’t move. She was already in motion, sword cutting low with a clean sweep at the Reaper’s legs.

The blade passed through again.

No blood. No hit. Just a shiver in the air, like the space it touched disagreed with reality.

Lucen planted a hand and lit a glyph.

[Tension Mark – Active]

The sigil burned wide this time, anchored hard. Dual behavior. Split sequence.

The Reaper turned.

Looked at him.

Lucen froze.

The mask was gone now.

Its face wasn’t a face. Just smooth metal, cracked down the middle from before, light bleeding through like a bad omen.

Then it stepped.

No blink. No phase. Just... a step.

Right through the glyph.

Lucen swore under his breath.

The Reaper reached for him.

Mira loosed a shot from behind the column. The arrow sparked as it flew. Split midair. One hit the arm. The other struck the ground near Lucen’s boot and detonated in a weak shockburst.

The Reaper flinched.

Lucen didn’t ask questions.

He moved.

Dropped to one knee and carved hard into the stone.

[Gravitic Snap – Active]

The air reversed. A hard pressure burst snapped in, folding the Reaper’s limbs awkwardly for a half-second like it forgot where they went.

Senna didn’t wait.

She spun in again, this time swinging for the shoulder.

Sparks.

Sparks and something worse, friction against a body that shouldn’t exist. Her blade carved through something solid this time. Just a little. Just a taste.

The Reaper hissed.

A real sound. Wet. Alive.

Lucen blinked.

’You’re not a phantom. You’re just fucking cheating damn it.’

The system pinged in his vision.

[Form Stabilization: 78%]

[Critical Phase Approaching]

Lucen muttered, "What does that even mean."

The Reaper straightened. The crack in its faceplate glowed brighter.

Senna backed up, sword raised. Blood beaded on her knuckles. "It’s adapting."

"No kidding," Mira called from the back. "It’s tracking spell types. It’s logging our cast patterns."

Lucen hissed between his teeth. "Weird flex for a corpse in a cape."

Callen groaned behind them. He was awake again, but not mobile. One arm clutched his ribs. "I’ve got one hit left in me. Maybe."

"Then save it," Lucen said.

The Reaper twitched. Once. Then launched.

Straight at Mira.

Lucen’s blood ran cold.

He sprinted.

Not for the Reaper. Not for Mira.

For the spot between them.

He dropped flat and slapped the floor.

[Hold Point – Activated]

The spell lit the stone. A sharp anchor flare pulsed upward like a spear of light. The Reaper clipped it mid-stride and jerked backward like a dog on a chain.

Mira rolled aside and snapped off a point-blank arrow.

This one was heavier.

It hit the mask.

Cracked it further.

A splinter line broke across the face.

The Reaper reeled.

Lucen felt the glyph strain.

[Hold Duration Remaining: 1.4 seconds]

"Senna!" he yelled.

She was already on the move.

Two steps. Leap. Blade reversed in her hand.

She drove it into the Reaper’s chest. Deep.

The Reaper screamed.

This time, real sound. No echo. No illusion. Pain.

Lucen’s vision lit up.

[Form Stability Disrupted – Critical]

[EXP Gained: 104]

The Reaper didn’t fall.

It didn’t vanish.

It laughed.

A low, broken chuckle.

And the mask fell off.

What lay underneath wasn’t bone.

It wasn’t flesh either.

Just endless teeth. Spiraled like a drain. All of them smiling.

Lucen’s brain gave up for a second.

He just stood there, eyes wide, hand twitching.

Senna shouted, "New phase!"

Lucen blinked.

"Oh good," he said, dry as sandpaper. "Because that was going way too well."

The Reaper raised both hands.

And the ground cracked open beneath them.

It cracked under them in four directions at once. Not like stone breaking. Like reality letting go.

Lucen barely managed a step before the ground under his feet dipped a full half meter and buckled sideways. Senna skidded. Mira caught herself on the wall. Callen dropped to one knee and braced, breath tight and ragged.

Lucen hit the wall with his shoulder.

Hard.

"Status?" Senna barked, sword still raised.

"I’m vertical," Mira snapped.

Callen wheezed. "Still here. Can’t guarantee that in five seconds."

Lucen said nothing.

His fingers were glowing faint blue, system light flickering across his wrist like static.

The Reaper stood at the center of the chamber.

Still grinning. Or whatever the hell counted as grinning when your mouth was just a spiral of knife-shaped teeth.

Its form was taller now. Not by much. But enough to be wrong.

The cloak had unraveled at the edges, dragging behind it like tendrils soaked in ink. Its hands no longer had fingers. Just elongated bone ridges. Sharp. Tapered. Meant for carving instead of holding.

Lucen’s system chimed once.

[Hostile State: Evolved Phase – Spectral Anchor Loosed]

[Passive Anchoring: Disabled]

[Environmental Drift Hazard: HIGH]

’Yeah. No kidding.’

Lucen dragged a finger along the wall and lit a prep glyph. Didn’t cast it. Just let it charge slow in his palm.

"I’ve got thirty-seven mana," he muttered. "Anyone else feeling good about this?"

Senna didn’t laugh.

The Reaper raised both arms.

The air bent.

Not like wind. Not like heat.

Like glass.

Lucen’s teeth vibrated. His nails ached. Every spell in his archive pinged once, then went dark.

He felt it in his skull.

[Stability Pulse – Disruption Field Active]

’What is this, a field trip through every banned spell in the library?’

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