A Reaper's Philosophy-Chapter 76: It’s Just Us

"It’s like a miniature city in here!" Elda exclaimed out loud.

The muscular man then led them to a machine much like the ones stationed in the streets. The machine then teleported all 3 of them into a spherical building that seemed isolated from the rest.

They then felt a dizzy sensation overcome them and were suddenly within a spacious hall. Many hosts were within this hall going in and out with mission tubes in hand. At the very end of the hall were three large chairs that stood out.

2 of the chairs were empty, and in the middle sat a woman clad in silver armor. She had golden wings that looked like they were brimming with energy. Unlike the other cultivators, her wings were not transparent. The muscular man then led us to the woman sitting on the chair.

"Welcome to our Golden Sect, my name is Evgenis. We normally would not accept outsiders into our city, but the situation is dire. The other elders were against me when I suggested we call on you for help, but fuck them.

I wish I could show you better hospitality, but it would be best to begin the mission immediately. We’ve managed to get by with the the city wall’s turrets, but the next few nights will be much more tough than the past 2 months.

Yesterday our scout had confirmed the existence of 12 Legendary Beasts at the very least. We originally sent 20 scouts...but only one came back heavily injured, missing an arm and a leg. He was able to survive long enough to report this before he too died due to the excessive blood loss. Wounds from a Legendary Host are not so easily healed.

There are probably more Legendary Beasts out there, are the rest of you waiting outside?" Evgenis filled them in on the situation.

"No, it’s- it’s just us." Elda said feeling a little embarrassed.

’How the hell are we going to pull off this mission?’ Elda thought to herself.

Evgenis then stared at them deeply then breathed out a heavy sigh.

"An Ascended Host and a Legendary Host. I suppose this will have to do. I’m willing to accept almost any help." Evgenis said with a little disappointment but quickly accepted the situation then led them out of the city. Any help for her was better than nothing.

The muscular man went back to his station and Evgenis led Grayson and Elda out of the sect, about half a kilometer outside the city walls.

"Here is where the barrier should begin. The city turrets will protect you during the day, but in the night, they won’t be enough. I will try my level best to protect you as you inscribe the array around the city." Evgenis said looking at Grayson.

She assumed he was the array master and Elda was the one tasked to protect him.

"I am the one inscribing the array, Elda, grand array master. Sorry for the late introduction." Elda said with a bow, introducing herself.

"Grayson, I’m ready to complete the mission." Grayson said, introducing himself as well. Death then appeared through a dark cloud and landed on top of Grayson’s head.

"This is Death, he will be fighting with us as well." Grayson said.

Evgenis then looked like she was about to cry. Initially, she assumed that Elda would be the one fighting and Grayson would be inscribing the array. She thought, perhaps having a fellow Legendary Host fighting alongside her would increase their chances of victory and saw some hope in that. Turns out it was actually the other way around.

"We’re doomed!" She said underneath her breath, but not so low that the rest couldn’t hear.

Nonetheless, she still chose to fight to protect her city, even though her hope was now greatly diminished. Elda felt absolutely ashamed and embarrassed. The first time that the Golden City has asked for help and this is all the Hardon sect had to offer.

"Please begin inscribing the array, the sooner you are done, the better. If you are as good as your sect has said you are, then we need not fear even Legendary Beasts attacking our city. How long will you need?" Evgenis asked Elda.

"Judging by the size of the city, I’ll need 3 days. Once I’m done, even a Heavenly Beast will find it difficult to break my barrier." Elda said with confidence.

Evgenis felt defeated thinking how they would have to hold back the beasts for 3 days, but Elda’s confidence in her skills made her feel hopeful...but first, they had to get past these 3 days alive.

Elda then began to inscribe the protective array going all around the city. The Golden City was much smaller in size compared to Madsus City, with a population of only 1 million people.

The entirety of The Golden City was surrounded by a green plain field running 10km on all sides. Beyond the green field is a thick forest. Deep within the forest were beasts lurking.

Because of the city turrets, the beasts were no longer attacking as much during the day. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Is there a reason why these beasts are so hell bent on attacking the city?" Grayson asked Evgenis before she left.

"The Golden City uses exousia to power just about everything and most of the population are hosts, the concentration of so much energy attracts beasts from time to time...but never like this." Evgenis said then seemed to be in deep thought by the time she finished speaking.

She then left Grayson and Elda to their mission and said she would be back by nightfall. As Elda continued with the protective array, Grayson then let Death loose to hunt at the edges of the forest, not daring to go too deep.

Although Death was powerful, there was no way Grayson would be so confident as to say he can wipe out the beasts and take down over 12 Legendary Beasts on his own. Grayson then sat cross legged, nearby Elda, and began absorbing exousia from his surroundings.

The exousia around The Golden City was more pure than in Madsus City. Madsus City was built on top of a rift. The most pure exousia is within the palace. That’s the only place exousia leaked out freely.

Absorbing such pure exousia could expand Grayson’s paths and reinforce his body, as well as strengthen the force of his exousia.

Grayson only had this knowledge because he was actually present when Evnoia was created. Due to an accident, he and Death had to go into hiding. Grayson was a fail-safe he implemented a long time ago, but he needed time before fully joining his consciousness.

With Death’s help, he was able to fix the flaws in his soul and fully come back. Normally, only Legendary Hosts or higher are capable of absorbing exousia from their surroundings.

However, Grayson’s body transformed after merging with Death and with the help of the eyes of Samsara, he was able to comprehend the laws of exousia and do things that an ordinary Ascended Host could not.

As he was purifying the exousia in his paths, evening quickly approached.

"Master." Death called out to Grayson.

"Yeah, they’re earlier than we expected." Grayson said as he opened his eyes, reveling a pair of beautiful scarlet colored eyes.

{Eyes of Samsara (Lv. 1). (Active)}

"Seems like Evgenis won’t be able to join us on time." Grayson added as he saw creatures one after another coming out of the forest.

The weakest amongst them was in the Ascended Realm. Elda, who was still inscribing the protective array a few dozen kilometers away, was also watching the creatures approaching with absolute despair. Seeing so many Mystical Beasts, she couldn’t help but sigh solemnly.

"We just might die here, but I still have a job to do!" She said to herself.

"Death, you go and protect Elda. Do not leave her side!" Grayson commanded.

"Yes Master." Death said then quickly ran to Elda’s side.

As he ran, he transformed to his beast form and continued to grow in size. By the time he reached Elda, he was as big as a two story house. Seeing Death’s massive, intimidating size, Elda nearly ran away. If she didn’t watch Death transform with her own eyes, she would have mistaken him for a powerful beast that would kill her in a heartbeat.

"Focus on the protective array, don’t turn back and don’t stop inscribing!" Grayson shouted at Elda.

Elda quickly woke up from her stupor and did as Grayson said. Whatever was happening behind her, she decided to leave it to Grayson and Death. She at the very least had confidence in Death protecting her as she had already seen him kill Mythical Beasts.

Grayson then summoned his scythe, ready to face the horde of beasts.

"I miss my old scythe." Grayson said to himself with a sigh.

He then swung his scythe towards the beasts approaching then a blade made of the dark cloud flew through the air and beheaded a couple dozen beasts in the frontline.

(SKRIIII)

The heads of beasts flew into the air accompanied by deathly screeches. Elda continued to inscribe the protective array despite the roars of hundreds of beasts coming from behind her.

Even though she was worried about Grayson, she didn’t dare to turn around, fearing that if she saw what they were truly up against, her spirit would be crashed and that would affect the quality of the protective array.

Arrays were forged using the array master’s exousia, as a manifestation of the master’s will.

If that will was to falter, then so would the array. Elda quickly gritted her teeth and hardened her heart.

’I am a grand array master. I won’t let this tarnish my name or the quality of my work. If I die, I will die doing what I do best!’ Elda said in her head coming to a conclusion.

Grayson continued to kill off the incoming beasts as transparent messages kept appearing.

{You have killed a Mythical Beast: Scaled Caracal}

{You have killed a Mythical Beast: Black-feathered Griffin}

{You have killed a Mythical Beast: Swamp Golem}

{...}

Grayson did not pay the messages any mind and continued to kill the beasts like a killing machine on auto pilot. Grayson conjured numerous weapons in this process, all the while, using the scythe as his primary weapon.

With the eyes of samsara activated, the beasts looked like they were moving in slow motion, making it easy for Grayson to kill them. Everything was within his vision. They couldn’t even harm a hair on his body.

He could see their muscles twitch even before the beasts moved. The flow of exousia within their bodies was laid bare before him. His eyes allowed him to control the battle and the movements of the beasts.

When it looked like he was going in one direction, his body would twist and turn to another direction, fooling the beasts surrounding him. This was the advantage he had when fighting so many beasts. It was easy to direct their movements.

Of course, he alone could not hold back the assault of hundreds of beasts. Plenty of them were able to get past him. Whenever any of them attempted to approach Elda, Death would sweep his paw at them, killing dozens of beasts instantly. None of the beasts were his match.

The few of them that were far from Death were quickly shot down by the automatic turrets on the city wall. Upon hearing the powerful turrets firing yet again, everyone in the city quickly became alarmed.

Evgenis, who was busy trying to get the favor of the other two, proud elders, heard the turrets firing. She quickly became alarmed then disappeared. She then reappeared next to Elda and saw a giant, fierce, draconic beast protecting her.

She then looked up ahead and saw Grayson laying waste to hundreds of beasts. Each time he swung his scythe, he would claim the lives of dozens of beasts. He saw the mountain of corpses and became genuinely surprised.

However, what surprised her even more was why the beasts had arrived much earlier than usual. For the past 2 months, the beasts would always show up at 8:00pm without fail and not a minute before, but today, they got here before the sun had even set. What was even more worrisome was the absence of the night crawlers.

"Something is wrong!" Evgenis said analyzing the situation.