Reaper's Resurgence - Book 6 - Chapter 4 (Patreon)

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Alexia

I grit my teeth in pain when I feel orbs of various different elemental magic types slamming into me from every direction. Practically drilling holes into me despite my armor. And even when I try to teleport out of the way, they just follow me. As if predicting which direction I’ll go.

Over and over again, the attacks continue coming.

Never ending.

All while I fail miserably to even figure out which one of the attackers is the Quantum Balancer.

Despite my current situation, I manage to send attacks of my own back at the different potential bodies the Balancer could be in. Wiping them out one after another and decreasing the number of attackers assailing me through Quantum Bolts, Quantum Breaths, and Quantum Paradox Blasts.

But even after killing quite a few of them, the attacks just never seem to end, and I eventually feel my soul dropping almost completely. And when it reaches the point I’m about to die, I feel time itself slowing down. Giving me a moment to think thanks to Temporal Perception.

During that moment to think, I take in everything I can amongst my surroundings. Trying hard to see if I can actually find any signs of the Quantum Balancer’s presence in these bodies.

No matter how hard I try, though, I can’t find any signs whatsoever.

Damnit, this asshole is so unfair in his methods to fight…

Right as I feel I’m about to die, I just begin throwing some skills out there to see if they work. Including Quantum Collapse.

And I find a rather unexpected surprise when I do that.

Quantum Collapse actually works on these bodies regardless of their current health.

Huh?

Even the bodies themselves stop attacking in surprise when I end up erasing three of them in a row with Quantum Collapse. All with minimal energy usage and with none of the three bodies having much of any damage.

Wait a second, is Quantum Collapse not actually based on the state of one’s body?

I quickly pull the skill up to look as the different bodies in the rifts continue looking surprised.

{Quantum Collapse: Allows the user to force a target into a state of absolute death across all realities, probabilities, and existences. This skill cannot be blocked, healed from, or avoided. Attempts at resurrection in any manner are impossible. This skill cannot be used unless the target is considered to be considerably weakened.}

Hmm. It never actually says that they have to be on the verge of death or anything like that.

All it says is that they must be considerably weakened.

Interesting.

Maybe the fact that these people are all either braindead, considering how he’s controlling them all, or they’re in a state of weakness while being controlled like puppets, makes them all vulnerable to Quantum Collapse?

That could be very useful to know.

I purse my lips at that thought before using it a few more times, only for the enemies to all regain their senses and finish me off soon after. Leaving me stuck back in the first part of the trial again.

Okay, at least that attempt wasn’t a complete waste. Since I know how to deal with them now.

I just have to spam Quantum Collapse on everything I can see. And if things go according to plan, the one who the real Quantum Balancer is in probably won’t die to it.

Or maybe they will die and he’ll just swap bodies or be kicked out of that body?

Either way, I spend my time in the first and second parts of the trial trying rather hard to figure out any specific signs unique to the Quantum Balancer when he’s possessing someone. But I don’t figure any out other than the quantum energy, which doesn’t say anything when all of the bodies he is using in the combat portion of the trial are quantum magic users with quantum energy.

So, after a while of what feels like wasting my time in the first two parts of the trial, I reach the third part again. Then I immediately begin using Quantum Collapse on everything here. Shocking the bodies right off the bat this time around in the process.

I can’t help but notice something as I do this though. Specifically that the bodies I’m erasing this time around seem different from the previous attempts.

Almost like the previous ones were genuinely erased by Quantum Collapse and have been replaced.

Hmm. I’m guessing it’s because Quantum Collapse erases them from ‘all realities, probabilities, and existences’? Granting absolute death.

Their deaths might just extend to the other trial attempts too.

That’s an interesting thing to learn about the skill. It even works across trials.

It’s a more absolute skill than I was expecting.

I purse my lips as a thought comes to mind about its use, but then I shake my head, deciding that it doesn’t matter right now. Instead, I just continue erasing the bodies one after another. Dramatically reducing the number of enemies attacking me.

Of course, I still take immense amounts of damage due to not really being able to dodge their attacks well. The only attacks I can dodge are the ones I teleport extremely far away to dodge. So far away that the enemy is out of sight.

Which isn’t all that helpful since they’re, well, out of sight. Meaning I can’t exactly attack them myself either.

Also, the rifts move seconds after I teleport away. Following after me and continuing their onslaught in seconds.

But since there aren’t anywhere near as many of them attacking me as my last attempt at the trial, the damage is a lot more manageable now.

Still. Despite doing a lot better this time around, my goal isn’t aiming for victory during this trial attempt.

No, my goal is just to find signs of the Quantum Balancer himself. Since he refuses to show himself.

With that in mind, I continue erasing the bodies one after another until an anomaly finally occurs.

One of the bodies doesn’t get erased.

Found you.