Chapter 27: The First Reaper
The city trembled beneath the weight of an unnatural silence.
Ryo stood still atop the ruined cathedral tower, his cloak whipping behind him like a phantom's wing. The world below shimmered, a haze of corrupted mana rising from the cracked streets. After the chaos of Data Overload, the Shadow Protocol's influence had begun leaking into the fabric of reality, twisting more than just dungeons—it was warping the very world.
And something had crossed through.
A red alert pulsed across Ryo's retina:[PROTOCOL WARNING: CLASS UNKNOWN – ENTITY DETECTED]
The message repeated, each time with a more urgent tone.
"What the hell are you?" Ryo muttered, squinting down into the center of the Void Zone.
Then he saw it.
A silhouette, cloaked in an obsidian robe, stepped from the static fog, its figure warped and glitched like corrupted code. A massive scythe dragged behind it, scraping sparks across the broken ground. Shadows bent toward it, kneeling in reverence—or fear.
The Protocol identified it with one name:
[ENTITY: REAPER 01 – "XARION"]Threat Level: ABSOLUTESurvivability: 0.3%
Ryo's heart slammed against his chest.
"So this is what the Protocol was hiding…"
He activated his Shadow Blink and reappeared several meters closer, perched on the edge of a shattered rooftop. Xarion didn't even glance his way.
Then it moved.
In a flash, Xarion appeared behind a group of elite hunters stationed for zone lockdown—cutting through them in a single arc. Time bent, shadows screamed, and code fragmented into the sky.
"They didn't even have a chance," Ryo whispered.
This wasn't a monster. It wasn't even a hunter. Xarion was something outside the system.
Something born of broken rules.
[ACTIVATE: SHADOW ARMOR - GHOST FRAME][ACTIVATE: BLACK CODE - SOUL SPLIT]
Ryo dove from the rooftop, launching two shadow blades mid-air. They struck Xarion's back—only to pass through as if slicing smoke. Xarion turned, his face hidden beneath a hood that only revealed a fractal glitch where eyes should be.
"Protocol User," Xarion said, its voice like shattered glass across his mind. "One of the Firstborn."
A heavy weight dropped on Ryo's shoulders. It wasn't just power. It was recognition. Xarion knew what he was. What he had become.
"You knew Kael," Ryo said quietly.
Xarion didn't answer. It raised the scythe high.
"Then come and finish what you started," Ryo whispered, spreading his hands as the Shadow Protocol surged through his veins.
They clashed.
Steel, shadow, and code collided in a maelstrom of impossible force. Xarion moved like a ghost, each strike erasing fragments of space itself. Ryo bled from his mouth, ribs cracked, but still—he fought.
Because this was the first Reaper.
And if there was one… there would be more.
Hours later, Ryo collapsed behind the collapsed ruins of the clocktower, breathing heavily, half his systems down, internal data scrambled. Xarion had vanished, leaving behind only a single, cryptic line etched in Protocol code:
"The Harvest begins with the Firstborn."
Ryo stared at the message.
Then his system pinged a notification:
[New Shadow Skill Unlocked: CODE BLEED][Shadow Level Increased – LVL 42 ➝ LVL 49]
The fight had nearly killed him.
But it also gave him a glimpse of what lay beyond the Protocol.
"So it's not just dungeons anymore," he muttered. "It's gods. Reapers. Shadows that even Kael couldn't stop…"
He stood, gripping his blade as the horizon dimmed, and the winds whispered Xarion's name.
"I'll be ready next time."
End of Chapter 27