CHAPTER 37: REAPER (2)

He gritted his teeth and stepped forward.

"No magic," Mira said, voice tight. "It’s suppressing direct casts."

"I noticed," Lucen said.

Senna didn’t stop.

She sprinted forward with full momentum, sword dragging behind her, sparking off stone.

The Reaper tilted.

Then blinked forward.

Senna swung.

The blade hit, barely and cut through part of its midsection. But not clean. Not deep.

The Reaper spun and raked its arm across her back.

Blood sprayed. A shallow cut, but wide. She dropped to one knee with a hiss.

Lucen was already moving.

His fingers snapped through a reconfiguration.

[Hold Point – Denied]

[Error: Local Drift Field Unstable]

’Seriously? It’s jamming the core layer of the drift?’

He growled and rewired.

Old spell. Dirt simple.

[Unstable Kinetic Point – Activated]

He slammed it forward.

The pulse hit the Reaper dead in the shoulder and knocked it back two steps.

Just two.

But it opened space.

Mira launched another shot. It curved wide, hit a pillar, and exploded into a flare burst.

Senna staggered back, blade reversed again.

Lucen moved in.

Close. Too close.

The Reaper turned.

Lucen ducked under the arm and planted another Kinetic Point, this time angled low.

[Cast Confirmed]

The pulse sent the Reaper staggering back again.

Lucen exhaled hard. "Still works. Barely."

Callen crawled into range and flung a half-charged mana shard. It hit. Shattered across the Reaper’s torso like glass against metal.

Not much damage.

But enough.

Senna lunged in from the side and struck the Reaper’s leg.

It stumbled.

Lucen’s system lit again.

[Form Integrity: 61%]

[Threat Tier: Moderate+]

’If this is moderate, I want a refund on every threat warning I’ve ever gotten.’

The ground cracked again.

Only this time, it didn’t stop.

The chamber walls pulsed.

Runes lit along the far arch.

Senna froze mid-motion.

Lucen blinked.

The Reaper was gone.

Just gone.

Mira called out, "Up!"

Lucen looked.

The Reaper was on the ceiling.

Its cloak curled outward like bat wings made of shadow and silk.

It dropped.

Lucen didn’t think. He just threw himself sideways and lit a glyph mid-fall.

[Gravitic Snap – Active]

The air detonated. The Reaper hit it mid-descent.

And this time, it reeled.

Its arms bent inward like something had snapped. The face cracked wider. That same spiral light poured out like white smoke.

Senna drove her sword up and through its ribs.

Lucen screamed, "Now!"

Callen pushed off the wall with a last-ditch shield slam, hit the Reaper full force.

It broke.

The Reaper cracked.

Not shattered. Not vanished.

Cracked. Like porcelain under pressure.

The spiral light at its core flared once, then curled inward like it changed its mind about being seen.

The mask split clean through.

White smoke hissed out between the seams.

Lucen didn’t move.

Nobody did.

Then, soundlessly, the thing folded.

One blink it was upright.

Next blink, gone.

Like it had been erased instead of killed.

Lucen stayed crouched, glyph still lit under one palm.

His breath caught in his throat, chest tight.

Nothing moved.

Then—

[EXP Gained: 193]

[Drift Sync +38%]

[Level Up - Level 5 Achieved]

[System Update – Spell Design Node Expanded]

[+1 Spell Slot]

[+3 Attribute Points Earned]

[Status Window Updated]

Lucen let out a breath that sounded more like a dying balloon.

’Level five. Okay. Sure. Only had to nearly die twice. Totally fair system.’

He blinked open the new status pane in the corner of his vision.

Just a glance.

Not a deep dive.

Enough to confirm he wasn’t hallucinating it.

Lucen Ivara

Class: Spellcraft Sovereign (Hidden)

Public Class: Spell Tracer

Level: 5

Mana: 63 / 63

Recovery: 1.5/sec

Unspent Spell Slot: 1

EXP to next level: 0 / 400

His fingers twitched.

’One free slot. Which means I get to design again. Just not now. Not here. Not when I can still smell whatever the Reaper left behind.’

He stood slowly.

Every part of his body creaked like it had been used as a stress ball.

Senna was already checking her blade. The blood had mostly dried along her shoulder, but she didn’t flinch when she moved it. Just wiped the flat edge clean and nodded once to herself.

Mira leaned against a cracked pillar, eyes half-lidded, the light gem on her bow guttering low.

Callen was breathing. That was the nicest thing Lucen could say about his state. His shield was bent at the edge and his ribs were definitely not in the same arrangement they started in.

Lucen rolled his neck and took one cautious step forward.

The chamber didn’t collapse.

Nothing screamed.

No new boss spawned out of spite.

’That’s a win. I think.’

Mira broke the silence first. "What even was that final form? That wasn’t just a phase shift. It warped the entire anchor."

Senna murmured, "That wasn’t the boss."

Lucen stopped.

Then slowly turned toward her. "Sorry. What?"

She didn’t look at him. Just stood there, eyes locked on the far end of the room.

At the door that was starting to just magically appear.

Tall. Iron-wrought. Built into the wall like it had always been waiting.

Lucen felt it now.

The pressure.

Not heat. Not mana.

Weight.

Like something huge was breathing behind the stone.

He muttered, "Cool. So that was just the gatekeeper."

Senna nodded once. "We’re close. One more."

Lucen didn’t answer.

He just opened his status screen again.

Looked at the empty spell slot glowing faint blue at the edge of his vision.

He didn’t fill it.

Not yet.

Whatever was waiting past that door?

He’d need something better than clever geometry.

He’d need something new.

—

Lucen crouched against the side of the archway, fingers pressed to the cold stone.

The air hadn’t changed, but something else had.

Somewhere beyond the next threshold, the Reaper waited. Not the one they fought earlier. The real one. The source.

He could feel it like a low-grade fever behind his eyes. Humid. Old. Too quiet to be natural.

The others were still catching their breath.

Senna was pacing, tight, sharp steps, like her body didn’t know how to rest. Mira leaned against the wall with one arm braced, eyes scanning the corners of the corridor like they might shift when she blinked.

Callen was sitting now, shield across his lap, face pale under the bruising. Still conscious. Still quiet.

Lucen exhaled slowly and opened his system.

It responded instantly. A quiet pulse in his peripheral vision.

[Spell Slot Available – 2]

[Begin new design?]

Lucen tapped the first.

A clean slate unfolded in front of him.

Blank glyph grid. No prompts. No suggestions. Just silence.

’I need something else...maybe Ice,’ he thought. ’I want control. Field denial. Slow it down.’