Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset

Arlaine dex Val grits her teeth as she cuts apart one undead after another, unrelenting under the wave of undead trying to overwhelm the city. She and the remaining humans in Arlox have been protecting the city from the undead ever since the lich king reached them, having already cleared out the other living cities before theirs.

But she and her mercenary troop refuse to give in. Even if the leaders of the city itself have already run away to the next living city beyond the frontier of the war with the dead.

"Just continue holding your ground!" Arlaine shouts while cutting the head off of another zombie.

The undead continue pushing closer and closer as she fights on the walls before she senses a powerful undead arriving on the battlefield not far from the wall. So she narrows her eyes and jumps forwards, leaping through the air until she lands right in front of it, making the undead she quickly finds to be a blighted one stop its progress.

The creature has glowing green eyes and pale-as-snow skin with long white hair and ethereally glowing green claws. Meanwhile it is wearing a set of gray armor that covers only its waist, shoulders, forearms, and legs, with a polearm in its hand stood with the weapon\'s rear on the ground.

"A living human challenging me?" the blighted one says with a snort, only to shake his head and focus on the undead around himself and Arlaine as he addresses them, "Continue on towards the city walls. Leave this one to me."

Arlaine quickly tries to stop the other undead only for the blighted one to clash swords with her immediately, making her identify the creature and grit her teeth at the sight of its level.

{Axul de Van – Species: Blighted One – Class: Undead Champion – Level 172}

It\'s ten levels above me.

Arlaine grimaces when the blighted one instantly rushes forwards, swinging its polearm at her and making her raise her sword to block it with her right hand holding the handle and her left pushing on the blunt side of her blade. But even with both hands, the undead\'s single hand manages to push her back, sending her rushing backward to avoid a slash.

And the strength of a species advantage as well.

The leader of the Spyrefall mercenaries continues clashing with the blighted one\'s blade over and over again, losing out each and every time until she eventually is about to shout at her fellow mercenaries to retreat back to the city walls, only for silence to fill the entire battlefield. And it doesn\'t take more than a moment to realize what\'s going on as both she and the blighted one back away from each other and turn to look in the direction they sense a powerful energy source.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The most powerful energy source either of them have ever seen since the Reset.

And the sight that Arlaine finds greeting her when she spots the energy source is that of a woman appearing right in front of her. One whose appearance appears ever so slightly before her prime, possibly symbolizing her extreme youth or simply that she had some sort of magic reverse her age. But also one who has purple tinted hair and purple, glitchy eyes that send a chill down Arlaine\'s spine.

Arlaine identifies the woman after recovering from her shock.

{Alexia Knight – Quantum Reaper – Level 250}

Before she can say anything though, the woman Arlaine instantly recognizes as The Reaper speaks, asking a question that both fills Arlaine with hope, and has her both confused and afraid.

"Would you like to purchase my aid?"

But Arlaine doesn\'t have the time to think about the possible meanings that this one question may have for the entire Dimensional Block.

Instead, she answers without hesitation, "Yes, I would."

Axul feels himself fully frozen out of fear, unable to bring himself to so much as move a single dead muscle at the sight of The Reaper herself standing in front of him. A woman who he had heard was roaming around the Dimensional Block but was also told that she wasn\'t interfering with anything.

She\'s… selling off her services as a mercenary? But why to the humans?! And why now?!

"Yes, I would," the human Axul was just fighting answers The Reaper\'s question almost immediately, making his eyes widen in fear.

Damnit, I can\'t let her join this conflict!

Right as The Reaper\'s gaze is turning towards Axul, he quickly moves forwards and asks, "Wait, Lady Reaper, could we discuss this? Our Lord has been looking forward to meeting you ever since you entered our Dimensional Block and-"

The Reaper\'s eyes flare slightly as she cuts him off, "Your lord has been keeping tabs on me wherever I go and if he truly wished to meet with me so badly then he could\'ve done it whenever he wanted to." Her eyes narrow and she crosses her arms, making Axul flinch. "Right now, I\'m operating as nothing but a mercenary. If you paid me well enough then I might assist you as well, should you be the first one to reach me."

A chill runs down Axul\'s spine at those words, making him immediately begin running away, abandoning all of the undead assaulting the city.

But the words of the inferior living human echo in his ears as he runs, making him run even faster.

"I\'ll pay you whatever you would like. Just wipe out the entire undead force assaulting the city."

Then a moment later The Reaper appears in front of him, grabbing Axul\'s throat and raising him into the air as he scrambles to claw at her armor, only to not even leave a scratch.

"In that case, I\'ll take whatever magical ore you have on hand along with any Authority Shards you have," The Reaper says, her eyes not leaving Axul\'s as the corner of her lips quirk up slightly. "And if you have none of that, then I\'ll just have you bring materials across the wall to a city in Dimensional Block #108."

"Deal!" the human woman shouts.

A shout that happens to be the last thing Axul ever hears before everything goes dark.