Reaper's Resurgence - Book 6 - Chapters 56-59 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

This is four chapters in one post, and I'm still writing more today most likely.

I'm currently in a push hoping to finish the series today or tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy!

Click the following link for Chapters 56-59:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1trnZnfAJPdJCAmlXHDyEw6b4u52cC1G6cdS9NN4UThc/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Chapter 56

Alexia

I keep trying to limit the Corrupted One’s fighting ability with my Ascendant Tier skills one after another. Restricting his ability to perform numerous types of powers, stealing his actions every now and then to make him miss or not attack the Quantum Beings around me at all, and even forcing events to take place with Wavefunction Collapse. Which works on other people too, not just making my own actions work.

And yet, despite all of this, the Corrupted One gradually eliminates one Quantum Being after another. He even manages to corrupt some of them. But only the ones without roles. And the corrupted ones are all cleansed immediately by the Quantum Cleaner, who is watching on the sidelines without fighting himself.

At this point, quite a few of the Quantum Beings with roles are doing just that. The non-combat focused ones, to be specific.

All of the corrupted creatures in the universe are rushing to our battle, only for me to harvest them like power banks while shooting my level up along with my stats. So there’s no reason for them to not participate.

The Scribe is trying to write out scenarios in our favor, while the Archon is giving out orders to the Quantum Beings based on what he sees and believes will happen.

The Cleaner is cleansing anyone who gets corrupted during the battle, and the Architect is restricting the area to make sure none of the damage from the battle spreads too far or destroys the foundation of the universe itself.

Meanwhile the Ruler, Vanguard, and I all fight against the Corrupted One directly alongside the Quantum Beings without roles, and the creatures and objects created by the Builder and Creator to help us.

We all work together for the first time in history, only for the Corrupted One to gradually reduce our numbers bit by bit.

The number of Quantum Beings without roles helping drops from several dozen to just two dozen within just a few days of the battle. And even the Quantum Builder ends up being injured too badly to continue helping, forcing him to retreat away from the battle.

I grit my teeth while watching the Corrupted one glitch apart before reappearing before one Quantum Being after another, slamming its fists into them and kicking them to the side. All with its body glitching every now and then, sometimes even glitching straight into the flesh of the ones it’s hitting. Making their body burst apart from where it hit them.

The Corrupted One barely gets injured throughout all of this. And, to make matters worse, when it is injured, all it does is glitch before returning to normal. Which isn’t saying much when the being’s ‘normal’ is a glitchy mess in a human shape.

I only see one actual visible effect from its injuries, and that’s a reduction in the total energy within the Corrupted One’s core.

To make matters worse, the vast majority of the hits I manage to land are all from Universal Judgment. Not from my regular attacks.

Overall, one thing is very clear so far.

This battle is going very poorly.

And that fact doesn’t change over the next few days as the rest of the Quantum Beings without roles assisting us are all either killed or injured badly enough they’re forced out of the battle. Leaving just the Quantum Beings with roles left, along with my mother, who had apparently snuck into the battle with a disguise. One that was dispelled at some point, likely due to exhaustion.

Of course, I teleport her far away from the battle when I notice she’s running low on energy herself. Straight to Dad, where I have him keep her there. Because I know she’s just going to come back even though she’s too weakened now to be of any assistance and would probably just end up dying.

Dad should be able to handle her now.

The Corrupted One looks at the ones still left here, with his energy still being at around seventy percent full. Which is utterly ridiculous considering how many Quantum Beings he’s been facing.

It would’ve been a lot worse if I didn’t have Potential Harvest, since he would have the numbers instead of us in that situation.

I grit my teeth at that thought before glancing at the Quantum Beings still left in the battle.

The Quantum Creator was knocked out of the battle at some point just like the Builder, and so was the Cleaner when the Corrupted One seemed to notice what he was doing and targeted him for a while. Leaving just me, the Vanguard, the Ruler, Zal, and the Scribe left.

Even amongst us, while I am still in pretty good shape with my energy being completely filled thanks to Soul of the Reaper and me constantly harvesting energy from the corrupted creatures rushing to attack, not to mention Universal Balance decreasing the total damage done to me a bit, the others are all down to around half of their total energy. Which doesn’t bode well for the future of this fight.

And, to make matters worse, the energy around us and even in the Quantum Realm is starting to take on a corrupted status. Not enough to harm the mortals in the Quantum Realm, but enough that I’m the only one who can use it. Since Potential Harvest includes a power that lets me convert corrupted energy into regular energy.

Normally, Quantum Beings with roles are all immune to corruption. But that’s only to a degree, and if they try to use or even just are in a place filled with corrupted energy for too long, they’ll start getting corrupted themselves.

Like how the former Quantum Reaper ended up in his current state.

Thanks to this, the other Quantum Beings don’t have an easy way to recover their energy anymore. So I’ll likely be left fighting the Corrupted One on my own once they run out.

Which doesn’t bode well for any of us.

At least, not unless something changes. And that change comes suddenly in the form of a massive pressure appearing and pressing down on the Corrupted One using the energy of the System itself.

Then a single System Notification rings out all around us accompanied by a loud dinging sound. Like the bell heard when someone receives a message on the internet.

Oh?

Now this changes things.

Chapter 57

All Around the Universe

Every single corner of the universe with any life in it holds their breath as the shockwaves of the battle for the universe’s survival continue shaking the very foundation of reality. And when those shockwaves die down for a brief period, no one shows any relief. Whether they’re the few remaining mortal creatures created by the Quantum Creator outside of the Dimensional Grid, or the users of the Dimensional Grid currently inside of the Quantum Realm. Because silence isn’t always a good thing.

But, right as reality begins to tremble a little big again, a loud dinging sound echoes throughout the entire universe. Then notifications and messages begin to appear right next to a large screen. One showing a wasteland in space where numerous Quantum Beings, including the Quantum Reaper, can be seen in a tense standoff facing one single corrupted being.

ACTIVATING THE ANCHOR PROTOCOL…

ANCHOR PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.

ALL USERS WITHIN THE SYSTEM MAY NOW SEND ENERGY TO THE QUANTUM REAPER AND THE OTHER QUANTUM BEINGS FACING OFF AGAINST THE CORRUPTED ONE.

ALL ENERGY SENT WILL CREATE A DEBT WITH THE SYSTEM THAT WILL BE PAID BACK THROUGH LEVELS GRANTED BY THE SYSTEM IN THE MONTHS FOLLOWING THE SUCCESSFUL ELIMINATION OF THE CORRUPTED ONE.

PLEASE HELP THE QUANTUM BEINGS SAVE THE UNIVERSE.

FOR IF YOU DON’T, THERE WON’T BE A UNIVERSE LEFT TO SAVE.

A brief silence spreads across the universe before the vast majority of the users within the Dimensional Grid all begin to send as much mana and other types of energy as they can through a System feature that appears in their vision. Instantly refilling the energy tanks of the Quantum Beings shown on the screen.

The Quantum Beings then all begin to resume their attack on the Corrupted One, with the Ruler rushing forwards to slam his fist into the symbol on the being’s face, and the Vanguard moving with his sword to slash at the being’s back. Then the Quantum Reaper rushes with her scythe to slash at the being’s legs while the Scribe writes furiously on a pad, and the Architect continues to manage the reality around them. Occasionally grabbing parts of reality and throwing them at the Corrupted One when an opening appears.

Meanwhile the Corrupted One itself struggles for a moment to handle the sudden barrage of revitalized attacks before beginning to counter them all one by one. It kicks the Vanguard’s sword away, blocks the Ruler’s punch with its forearm, and glitches its other arm around to manifest a strange sword that it uses to parry the Reaper’s scythe. All in seconds.

Then the Corrupted One begins to counter attack, spinning around once and slamming its strange sword into the Ruler’s side to send him flying before kicking away the Vanguard and reaching to grab the Reaper. Only for the Reaper to teleport out of the way at the last second.

But not even the Reaper can dodge fully as the Corrupted One sends a wave of corrupted energy out to slam into her, knocking her far away but not doing too much damage.

The beings all across the universe watch as the battle continues just like this, with the five Quantum Beings facing off against the Corrupted One and trading blow after blow. And for every blow the Corrupted One takes, the Quantum Beings all take several in exchange. All for them to heal themselves in various different ways afterwards, including the Corrupted One.

Tension continues to rise across the universe as everyone watches the battle and contributes their mana and energy. Trying desperately to turn the battle in the favor of the Quantum Beings.

Despite that, however, things take a turn for the worse when the Corrupted One manages to break through and tears the Quantum Scribe in half. Forcefully knocking him out of the battle for now as he recovers from his injury using an immense amount of energy. Far more than what the injury should require thanks to the traits of the Quantum Reaper still maintained in the Corrupted One’s body.

The Corrupted One tries to attack the Scribe again while the Scribe is recovering, only for both the Reaper and Architect to work together to teleport the Scribe away from the battlefield.

Decreasing the number of Quantum Beings down from five to four. With one of those, the Quantum Architect, helping from outside of the barrier separating reality around them for support and as a method to protect their universe from collateral damage.

The three combat Quantum Beings inside of the barrier quickly try to attack the Corrupted One again, only to find their attacks less effective than before now that the Quantum Scribe is no longer helping guide their battle.

All of the people watching feel more and more anxious at the sight. Especially those connected directly to Alexia.

Astrid clenches her fists so hard that her nails dig into her palms, leaving blood trails down her hands to drip onto the ground.

Lucas simply glares at the screen as his eyes rapidly go bloodshot.

Luna, who was originally helping the Reaper fight the corrupted creatures but was kicked away the moment the Corrupted One appeared, repeatedly tries to break her way out of the Dimensional Grid. Showing genuine, extreme panic for the first time in her life as she tries to rush to the battle to help.

And Crystal, who was helping in the battle but was sent away, sits quietly in a room of Lucas’ mansion. One that is wrecked by her anger, with all of the furniture torn to shreds.

Yet, regardless of what the viewers within the Dimensional Grid think, the battle continues with the Reaper taking the most hits out of the three thanks to her lacking experience. But, at the same time, she recovers from all of the injuries at the fastest pace as she continues to refill her total energy supply with the energy from the corrupted creatures still spilling in from outside of the universe.

Eventually the viewers across the universe feel their worry and anxiety growing when the Vanguard is taken out of the fight as well when his body is split into four sections by the strange blade created from the Corrupted One’s energy. Leaving him forced to flee while he recovers.

Silence soon spreads across the universe as everyone watches the last three Quantum Beings continue to face off against the Corrupted One, who still has forty percent of his energy remaining.

Chapter 58

Alexia

I let out a brief cry of pain before gritting my teeth when both of my legs are cut off by the Corrupted One’s blade. Forcing me to use a significant amount of energy to restore my legs to their past version as I teleport away from its follow-up attack. With the Quantum Ruler rushing in from behind to attack while the Corrupted One is focused on me. Only for the Corrupted One to glitch in place and vanish before reappearing in front of Zal outside of the barrier before attacking him and knocking him out of the battle as well.

My eyes go wide at this as it’s never left the barrier thus far. Which means that, either Zal was running low on energy, or the Corrupted One has been holding back from attacking him this entire time to make us let our guards down.

Of course, it’s also possible that the Corrupted One just didn’t see him as a threat until seeing him helping me send away the Vanguard.

I feel like that is the more likely answer, considering the intelligence shown by the Corrupted One so far.

It looks like it has no intelligence, but an incredibly powerful instinct. Likely drawing on the instincts of the body it’s using, even if the body is nothing like its original.

It’s using the former Quantum Reaper’s combat skills against us, along with the greater strength that the Corrupted One has.

If it weren’t for the System’s intervention, letting the users across the universe donate their energy to us, we’d be dead already. There’s no doubt about that.

Or, to be specific, the other Quantum Beings would be out of energy and dead or kicked out of the battle. I would probably still be hanging on by a threat thanks to the energy I’ve been draining from the corrupted creatures, along with my immunity to my own energy.

Because the biggest threat this Corrupted One is posing towards us is the Quantum Reaper’s energy it’s using that’s directly attacking the soul and making it harder for its targets to recover.

I’m completely immune to this thanks to the immunity I created towards my own energy, but the others aren’t.

Fortunately, Zal isn’t critically injured. But just knowing that the Corrupted One can ignore the barrier is enough to push Zal far away in order to build distance between us. All while he continues keeping up the barrier. He also switches from being an active attacker to a defender, putting up barriers in-between us and the Corrupted One when it looks like the Corrupted One is about to hit us.

After trading several more blows, the Ruler and I back away, leaving the Corrupted One tilting its head in apparent confusion.

I share a glance with the Ruler before nodding. Then we both begin using energy manipulation to gather massive amounts of energy all around us. And when the Corrupted One tries to counter this with its corrupted energy, I activate Causality Severance, Potential Reaping, and Wavefunction Collapse all at once to alter the outcome of its attempts.

Which works enough to stop the Corrupted One’s attack for a moment, bringing some of the energy buildup to our side instead for that period. But after that, it just works to slow down the Corrupted One’s energy buildup.

Right as our energy attack is reaching its peak, I teleport directly up to the Corrupted One before activating another Universal Judgment. Except that this time I pour in all of the energy I’ve gathered from Quantum Vampirism into the skill’s usage, turning it into a sort of superpowered use of the skill.

And thanks to that, I manage to completely cut off the Corrupted One’s arm that it’s using to hold its sword. Which also disrupts its corrupted energy gathering as I teleport away again.

Then we launch our partnered attack at the Corrupted One before teleporting far away again. Outside of the barrier.

Seconds later, a massive explosion brighter than multiple suns fills everything around us. Nearly blinding me in the process.

But I don’t shut my eyes. Not while we’re facing the Corrupted One.

And that turns out to be a good idea when I see the Corrupted One suddenly appearing in front of me with its sword raised, its arm reattached, and the many burns across its body already rejuvenating before my eyes. All while it’s ready to bring its sword down on me.

I teleport away while activating Charybdis Shell, forming a thick shell around my body. Only to hear a loud clang, followed by a crack moments later as I sense the Corrupted One teleporting after me and still striking me.

Whether its teleportation interrupted its strike or not, though, the strike barely breaks through my barrier and cuts into my arm before I manage to teleport away again. Then the Ruler appears and strikes the Corrupted One in the back as the explosion back at the original battlefield finally begins to fade.

Zal quickly begins to rebuild the barrier around us while dispelling the previous barrier before the Ruler and I continue our assault on the Corrupted One. With the Corrupted One finally being down to about a third of its total energy.

Okay. Things are starting to look up.

We have a chance now. Even if it came through a lot of sacrifices.

I grit my teeth at the thought of all the Quantum Beings who died during this battle despite never knowing any of the ones that died.

If we can just destroy the Corrupted One-

My thoughts fall apart completely when the Corrupted One’s face symbol suddenly twitches before the square spiral suddenly opens up into some sort of abyss of darkness. Then numerous Corruptors begin to spill out as the energy inside of the Corrupted One begins to plummet.

At first I feel a faint excitement at the idea of the Corrupted One burning its energy, but that excitement is short lived when the Corrupted finally finishes releasing Corrupted but doesn’t close the spiral symbol again and instead suddenly grows sharp fangs along the spiral going into its head and takes a bite out of reality itself.

I feel my jaw dropping open as the Ruler and I both freeze in place, only to watch the Corrupted One’s energy supply beginning to soar back upwards again.

Well, fucking dammit.

This just got a lot harder.

Chapter 59

Alexia

After the Corrupted One takes a bite out of reality, corruption begins to pour out of the hole left behind. With corrupted insects following after that. And while I do harvest the energy from most of them, the Corruptors that make it out are too strong to be eliminated simply by Potential Harvest.

The Ruler and I quickly get to work fighting the corrupted creatures and the Corrupted One once more, but their numbers begin to wear away at us faster than expected. And, before long, the Ruler ends up getting pushed into a corner with the Corrupted One rushing straight at him as he’s surrounded by Corruptors.

My eyes widen in horror as the Corrupted One opens that abyss in his face wider, almost like it’s about to take a bite out of the Quantum Ruler.

Then another surprise shows up in the form of the Quantum Vanguard returning and slashing his blade straight through the Corrupted One’s neck. Cutting its head off and letting the Quantum Ruler break away from the Corruptors in the process.

I let out a breath of relief, even as the Corrupted One’s head reattaches to its body.

To my further surprise, the Vanguard looks like he’s largely recovered at this point.

Is it because of the energy pumped into us from the beings of the universe? Was it enough to push past the soul damage and fully heal again?

Either way, he isn’t alone in his return as other Quantum Beings begin to arrive again behind him. But it doesn’t take me long to realize that they aren’t actually fully recovered. They’re only recovered enough to handle the Corruptors the Corrupted One is releasing. So they do just that. They take all of the Corruptors with them, far away from the battlefield.

Leaving me and the Ruler behind to face the Corrupted One once again in a two-on-one. Not including Zal, who is currently focused on helping the others take away the Corruptors.

Then the battle resumes, just with the Corrupted One trying to take a bite out of reality every now and then to recover.

I share a glance with the Ruler while wondering how exactly we’re going to stop this from happening. Only to see the Ruler making a resigned face for some reason.

Almost like he’s going to do something he wishes he didn’t have to do.

And that doesn’t bode well.

I open my mouth to say something, but he’s too fast as he rushes forward with a large crown appearing over his head and a sword in his hand. Neither of which I’ve seen this entire battle. Or, ever, really.

He slashes down with the blade, cutting straight through the Corrupted One’s sword in the process and into its head. But it doesn’t just stop there as the blade continues to sink down to the being’s core before a bright flash of light shines out from them. One so bright it almost blinds me.

Almost being the key word as I still manage to see the Corrupted One’s head quickly reforming before it moves its head forward and takes a chomp right out of the crown above the Ruler’s head.

What’s more surprising is that the Ruler doesn’t move out of the way. He even moves in the direction of its head as if to let it take a chunk out of the crown without biting his head.

Even more surprising is what happens after that.

Instead of growing stronger, the Corrupted One lets out a horrified shriek of pain. One that’s louder than the Quantum Ruler, who screams in agony himself from having whatever that crown was eaten.

Then I see changes beginning to happen in the Corrupted One’s body and core.

For one, the corruption in it grows more limited. Almost like some of it was sealed away. But the bigger matter is that the abyss-like mouth made from that symbol is sealed shut, with the symbol half fading.

And the Corrupted One isn’t the only one weakening as I see the energy in the Quantum Ruler rapidly depleting as well. With it losing its purity too.

My eyes widen at the sight of them both weakening, and it doesn’t take me long to realize just what that was the Corrupted One ate.

Quantum Beings with roles all seem to have some sort of item that acts as a symbol for them. Something that dramatically enhances their power.

There’s the Quantum Archon with his book, the Quantum Scribe with his pen, and the Vanguard with his sword and Zal with his terminals.

Then there’s my scythe.

This crown must be the Ruler’s symbol of power.

And he just sacrificed it to the Corrupted One.

The shocks don’t stop there, though. Not when I see the Corrupted One shaking its head a few times and slowly bringing its hands to its head.

Then it punches itself in the head. Like it’s having some sort of fight with itself.

The Ruler’s brother?

I narrow my eyes as I scan the Corrupted One a bit closer before realizing exactly what happened.

It looks like the Quantum Ruler’s symbol has significantly diluted the corruption in the Corrupted One’s body. Which has both weakened it, and loosened its hold on the former Quantum Reaper a bit.

They’re still completely intertwined with no way to separate them, but doing this gave the Ruler’s brother a chance to come out and interfere.

The Ruler pants while turning to me with his skin as pallid as a ghost. Then I hear his voice echoing in my head, “Do not hold back. My brother is already dead. Do whatever you can to destroy it.”

It looks like the Ruler has already come to terms with it.

“Understood,” I declare as I refocus my full attention onto the Corrupted One with my grip on my scythe tightening.

After shaking its head a couple more times, the Corrupted One turns its symbol-gaze back towards me and the Ruler.

I rush forward with my scythe raised at the same time as the Corrupted One lets out a screech, and the Ruler pushes forward with his sword despite his obvious pain. And, despite the Corrupted One’s attempt to raise its sword to block my strike, the Ruler slices through its sword again and into its hand. Giving me the opportunity to strike directly at the Corrupted One’s shoulder and into its core once more.

Chopping down another large chunk of the being’s energy in the process.

Right when my mood is beginning to rise again, the Corrupted One’s form glitches, and it appears next to the Ruler with swords appearing all over its body. A third of which manage to pierce into the Ruler.

“No!” I hear what sounds like Zal shouting from a distance, but the Ruler just smiles before coughing out a mouthful of reddish purple glitching blood.

I quickly kick the Corrupted One while tearing my scythe out of its body, which had dragged my scythe with it when teleporting. Meanwhile Zal appears and grabs his father before teleporting him outside of the barrier to recover.

Leaving me and the Corrupted One completely alone in the process.

The Corrupted One slowly turns its gaze towards me while its body reforms, and I back away to build some distance between us. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the being suddenly begins to glitch.

Once, then twice.

Then the area around us begins to glitch as well, only for everything to suddenly disappear.

The other Quantum Beings I could vaguely sense fighting Corruptors in the distance, the universe around us, and even the System.

Everything just vanishes.

Or rather, we enter a strange space disconnected from everything.

The only thing I can feel now is my bond with Luna, who I left in the Dimensional Grid for her own safety. Not to mention to protect my family, since she is pretty strong too.

Then a standoff occurs with a strange silence filling the unknown space around us.

A very uncomfortable silence at that.

The question now is simple.

Can I finish this battle on my own?

Or is the universe going to fall?