Chapter 138: Soul Reaper
Evan had spent the last few hours leveling like a madman, making sure that the majority of the ESS went to his clones.
Normally, he would’ve hated the idea of taking the smaller share.
But couldnt advance for the moment.
Until he completed his advancement mission, all the extra ESS he earned would be practically meaningless.
So whether he liked it or not...
His clones had to take priority.
’And to think I’d fallen behind them because of this stupid mission,’ he thought.
Right from the beginning, while he had been trapped inside the manor, Shadow had always stayed ahead of him in terms of progression.
That changed completely after Evan gained his freedom.
From that point onward, he quickly overtook his clone, widening the gap until he reached 100% of D-Rank long before Shadow did.
But now that advantage had been wiped out by the system’s advancement mission, which had delivered yet another slap to his face.
That said, this ordeal was finally over, and he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
[Ding! Your clones have met the requirements for advancement to the next rank.]
[Initializing advancement process...]
The moment those notifications rang out in his head, he watched his two clones vanish, withdrawing in his Soul Space where the advancement process began.
[1%][4%][7%]...[69%]
The advancement process was completing remarkably fast, faster than the last few times, in fact. Evan was curious why, but unfortunately, Bruce was still nowhere to be found.
He waited a few more minutes, and finally the process completed.
[100%]
The moment it did, the differently colored cocoons that had formed around his clones’ avatars began to tremble, just like every time before, cracking and bursting open before slowly revealing the figures of his two clones.
"Wow, would you look at that," Evan remarked, letting out a whistle as if he’d just spotted a gorgeous woman, except the gorgeous woman in question was standing right behind him, watching him with a distinctly judgmental expression, while he stared at two versions of himself with unmistakable fascination.
The first was Shadow.
The dark energy surrounding Shadow gradually dispersed, revealing his new appearance.
Gone was the imposing black knight clad in heavy armor.
In his place stood a tall, slender figure draped in tattered black robes that seemed less like fabric and more like shadows given form. The countless ragged strips hanging from them drifted without wind, dissolving into wisps of darkness before reforming moments later, as though refusing to obey the laws of the physical world.
His face remained almost entirely concealed beneath the hood. Only the lower half of his pale jaw could be seen, while deep within the darkness beneath it, two cold violet lights slowly flickered into existence.
They weren’t eyes.
They felt more like two flames burning within an endless abyss.
Resting casually in one hand was a massive scythe nearly as tall as he was. Its jet-black shaft looked worn by countless years, while the curved blade shimmered with a faint violet glow along its edge. Wisps of deathly aura coiled around it, distorting the air wherever they passed.
Shadow no longer gave off the feeling of a warrior.
He resembled an executioner.
---
[Name: Shadow]
[Rank: C]
[ESS: 20%]
[Title: Soul Reaper]
[Bloodline: God of Death]
[Synchronization: 30%]
[Soul-Points: 0]
[Skills]: 6 (New!)
[Description]: Once a mere creature of death. Now an existence that walks among the fallen, claiming the souls that no longer belong to the living and forging them into its undead legion.
---
The figure standing before him had already been terrifying on its own, but reading that description, Evan couldn’t help but think about the ability to summon the dead, one that presumably scaled with rank. If it had been a squad before, it was very likely a small army by now.
That said...
’Soul Points? What’s that supposed to be?’ Evan couldn’t help but notice that among the various changes, there was an entirely new section, Soul Points. What was it for?
He had no idea, and right now, he had no way to find out.
’His strength’s already jumped close to the peak of the Early Stage’s,’ he thought, noticing Shadow’s ESS already sitting at 20%.
Just like him, his clones tended to stockpile ESS, and given the hundreds of creatures they’d killed for the advancement missions, it made sense they’d have set aside enough ESS to make a significant leap right out of the gate.
Which naturally led Evan to another thought.
’Then I should’ve gained even more.’
He was certain of it.
After all, he had fought alongside his clones throughout the entire hunt, earning his own share of ESS from every kill.
On top of that...
He had personally killed two B-Rank Forsaken. Those alone had granted him a massive amount of ESS.
He still didn’t know exactly how much ESS was required to reach thirty percent, the threshold generally considered the peak of the Early Stage.
But seeing Shadow already sitting at twenty percent immediately after advancing...
He was certain his own percentage had risen even higher.
With that in mind, he wasted no time and immediately opened the skills section.
[Skills]: [Stealth], [Death Sense], ... , [Death’s Grasp] New!
’Death’s Grasp?’ The name sounded as dramatic as ever, and considering how powerful Shadow’s previous skills had been, Evan couldn’t help but feel a surge of anticipation.
He wanted to check the rest of the skills as well.
But the new one naturally took priority.
---
[Death’s Grasp]
Rank: C
Description: The authority of a Soul Reaper extends beyond flesh, reaching directly into the soul. Upon activation, all enemies within [Death Domain] have their souls bound by the authority of death, continuously suffering Soul Damage while all attributes are reduced by 10%. Souls successfully reclaimed are automatically converted into Soul Points.
By consuming Soul Points, the user may strengthen Death’s Grasp, increasing all of its effects by 1%.
...
[N/A: To avoid filling the Chapter with a lot of information, I’ve moved the complete skill description, along with all its effects and limitations, to the author’s note.]
---
’Well, now this is a game changer,’ he thought, caught somewhat off guard by the effect of this ability.
He finally understood what those Soul Points were for, a brand new addition, one directly tied to this ability. He noted that the section wasn’t listed directly on the skill’s own screen but rather on his clone’s status page, which told him these Soul Points were likely meant for far more than just powering this one new skill.
He also noticed that the skill could only be used in conjunction with [Death Domain], an ability that was already terrifying on its own.
In other words...
The System had introduced an entirely new combat mechanic.
One he couldn’t wait to try out.
Thinking that far, Evan immediately opened Death Domain to see how it had changed after Shadow’s advancement.
---
[Death Domain]
Rank: C
Description: Summons a domain under the user’s command within a limited area, inspiring nearby allies with renewed courage while enhancing their strength and endurance. Enemies within the domain feel a constant oppressive pressure weighing on both body and spirit. While the domain is active, the user’s energy regenerates at a greatly accelerated rate.
[Effects]:
> Deathborn Strength: +20% → +30%
> Deathborn Defense: +10% → +20%
> Range: 10 m → 50 m
> Duration: 60 seconds
---
The description itself hadn’t changed.
However, Evan immediately noticed that the buffs granted to creatures of death had increased considerably.
Even more noticeable was the range. It had expanded from just ten meters to fifty.
The domain’s duration, on the other hand, stayed the same, which made him wince a little, though he could understand why.
This ability was already terrifying as it was; extending its duration any further would make battles almost too easy. Not that he’d mind that, but it seemed the system had other plans.
That said, when combined with his new skill, the effects it could produce were anything but insignificant.
While he kept examining a few other things, Seraphine, who hadn’t said a word since the start, studied his clone’s new form with a peculiar intensity in her eyes. It wasn’t clear what she was thinking.
Even so...
It was obvious that something about Shadow’s evolution had caught her attention.
"To think he’s been cultivating the divinities of previous cycles," she murmured, noting how closely the new Shadow resembled Silas, the being Evan had seen in that dream back at Branleaf.
Every cycle gave rise to a few new Gods, and by the end of each cycle, those Gods ceased to exist. She alone had remained, surviving to the very end, or so it had been, until one of the new Gods managed to stay alive all the way through the fourth cycle, the one just before this one.
Seraphine had already formed a vague theory regarding those ancient gods.
But now...
Watching Evan’s clones evolve, seeing them resemble the divinities of past cycles more and more with every advancement...
Several of the doubts she had held since the beginning were finally confirmed.
His unusual physique...
The reason it was capable of assimilating so many different divinities...
None of it was a coincidence.
’I wonder if that guy has something to do with all of this...’ she thought, as another entity came to mind. Not the one who had started the cycles, but someone who had once stood close enough to both of them to be remembered.