Reaper's Resurgence: A System Reset

B3 | Chapter 29 - The Story of a Friendly Reaper

A Random Cavern within Dimensional Block #97

Thrain Stone grits his teeth as he blocks the spell sent his way by one of the batfolk with his axe before pulling back and swinging widely with the axe, using a skill to send a large arc of stone straight at the creature. The arc slams into it, sending the thing flying through the air and through several of its brethren.

He's been busy fighting all day alongside his fellow dwarves of his settlement, Stone Haven. A place he absolutely did not name after himself, unlike what most people who visit assume.

But the war is starting to look a little grim, even for him. Because they're almost being backed into a corner with nowhere else to retreat to.

There are no more openings to the cavern, no more routes to get reinforcements from other settlements, and little morale amongst his fellow dwarves as they all fight.

He continues sending one attack after another at the batfolk as he waits for his communication ring – a device crafted by one of the other settlements in the Block who had apparently specialized in the communication devices before the Reset – to link with any other settlement. But even that has been failing him for hours now.

Until he finally gets an answer.

"Thrain?! Are ya there?! How's yer situation?" a familiar voice shouts through the communication ring, making Thrain let out a sigh of relief.

"It's complete shite, Nori, please tell me ya can send reinforcements soon," he answers before grunting as he blocks another spell and then sends an attack back at the source.

But the answer he gets from Nori – the leader of one of the neighboring settlements – isn't the one he's looking for.

"I'm sorry, Thrain, but we can't," she answers, almost crashing Thrain's own morale to the level of his subordinates.

"Really?!" Thrain shouts, barely holding onto his temper since he knows it's not her fault. "We're backed into a corner at tha edge of tha Block! Is there really nothin ye can do?!"

"Wait, did ya say the edge of tha Block?" Nori suddenly asks, confusing Thrain. And when he replies in the affirmative, she mutters, "Give me a sec to check yer location…"

He frowns at that but waits all the same as more and more attacks are sent his way, with the enemies focusing more on him than his subordinates.

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Eventually Nori's voice comes back, saying, "Good news, old pal." Immediately raising Thrain's spirits again, only to confuse him with her next words, "Looks like ye'll be getting a path soon 'nough."

Thrain almost looks away from his current enemy to glance at the ring, but he manages to stay focused on the battle as he shouts, "What d'ya mean?!"

"Ye'll see soon enough," Nori says, sounding as if everything's alright again despite Thrain's situation. Something that both pisses him off and makes him wonder what she's talking about. "I'll see ya next settlement meeting, aight? Have a good night, Thrain."

Thrain opens his mouth to say something, only for the connection to cut out before he can. Leaving him feeling incredibly pissed off.

So pissed off that he almost roars out his anger at the enemies.

But before he can do that, a strange warping sound echoes from the cavern, making him and all of his enemies and allies turn towards a portion of the cavern wall that's suddenly beginning to glitch out. And in seconds, the glitching cavern wall slowly disappears, with some parts breaking into strange purple and blue particles.

Revealing a woman pretty much everyone in the cavern recognizes.

One wearing a slightly rugged looking purple cloak over a set of red and black scale armor, with long black hair tinted heavily with purple, and little to no emotion on her face.

But what is most revealing about her identity are her apathetic and glitching purple eyes. Almost as if he were looking at a bugged computer screen.

And just the mere sight of the woman has him and everyone else in the cavern, both dwarf and batfolk, freezing in place. Frozen in terror.

But the woman in question just looks around for a few seconds before her eyes land on him, making Thrain's heart just about jump into his throat. A feeling that only intensifies three-fold when she glitches out and disappears, reappearing immediately in front of him.

"Would you mind giving me directions to Dimensional Block #94?" she asks, her voice seemingly radiating throughout the entire cavern amidst the silence.

It ends up taking Thrain an entire five seconds to bring himself to answer. And when he does, all he manages to do is point his finger towards the stone cavern wall that is just barely covering the Dimensional Wall.

The Reaper glances at the wall, then at him. Then she nods her head and tosses something at him that he barely catches without even looking at what it is.

And without another word, The Reaper teleports away, reappearing right in front of the wall before she raises her hand and begins spewing some sort of strange, glitchy purple flame out at it. Making the wall begin to glitch apart just like the previous wall as it reveals the Dimensional Wall, surprising The Reaper briefly.

Until she casually opens the wall and steps through it, leaving the Block without so much as looking back at them.

Silence continues to fill the cavern for a while before Thrain finally manages to look down at the item in his hands, which look to be a pair of gray and black gauntlets.

Gauntlets he quickly find to be Tier 2.

And so, the story of how The Reaper herself intervened in their war began to spread throughout the Dimensional Block before years from now, the dwarves, all of whom were helped when the woman dropped in on their respective caverns and tossed items at them, began to revere The Reaper. Long after they win the war against the batfolk.