Reaper looked down on his opponent like a god of death upon his herd, ready to cull her for the sake of the flock, or rather, his own power. He raised his hand and a storm of darkness expanded outwards from it, creating a zone of night within the area, similar to how the forest during the monster hunt had been constructed. A bright light flashed from above, and the arena was revealed to all of the viewers, but it seemed that Melissa was still inhibited by the darkness. She fumbled around in the cloud as Reaper stalked her and eventually he chose to strike.
Some minute detail, perhaps the air moving in an unnatural way or the click of a shoe on a stone alerted her to his presence, and she vaulted backwards. As his fist fell down with a sword of death energy clutched within it, her maneuver turned certain death into a long cut down her abdomen. She groaned in pain and landed with a thud, fighting to stop herself from collapsing.
Reaper advanced towards her with a dark look on his face, and then stopped. Banishing the dark energy, clearly not aware that the System had already removed it for the audience, he lashed out with his sword, cutting deep into his opponent’s face. Gurgling, she tried to call for mercy, but she could not, as most of her lower face was gone, ripped clear off by the blade.
With a whoosh of air, he severed her head, letting it drop into the sands below. Raising his hands up high, Reaper pulled some sort of energy out of the woman’s corpse, consuming it entirely. Sickened by the spectacle, Sam saw that it was her soul. It had the same feel as his own one, and as the man, no, monster, devoured it, his aura signature spiked in power. Reaper howled, an inhuman, bestial sound erupting from his mouth, infused with his aura. Many of the people in the stands were pressed back into their seats, both from the power and from a primal urge to distance themselves from this monster. Then he walked out of the arena, still clad in his armor. Behind him, there was only silence.
Sam was worried now. That had not been what he was expecting. If Reaper now possessed a Dao, Sam was afraid to see where he was on the leaderboards. Surprisingly enough, many of the top ten people lacked a Dao, with only Sam, the Overlord, Lao and now Reaper having one. It was abundantly clear that Jeffrey had been talking from personal experience when he said that most people did not form a Dao for months. Even without the advantages that Sam had, it required a certain raison d'etre, a certain connection to a concept to first form the basis for your Dao. Then one must find the willpower to actually form the Dao within them, which seemed to take a fight to the death to trigger. In the rest of the Multiverse, it was likely that people formed Daos simply by meditating on various concepts until they found one that stuck. That was a worthwhile method in a much safer part of the Multiverse, but not on a frontier planet and universe such as Earth. Indeed, fortune truly favored the bold.
ON THE PLANET KANTARI IV
Thousands of universes away, in a branch headquarters of the Minorian Sect, one of the local leaders rubbed his hands together. Salvinious Relk, of an aquatic species of humanoids, had carved out his niche for himself through displays of utter ruthlessness and sadistic evil. Originally bound to the water, after having killed off his entire tribe, he had gained enough power to leave the seas of his planet and take to the stars. Over the years, he had dealt with some of the worst scum to roam the universe, but he had never encountered something quite like the Minorian sect. Of course, he had attempted to join them immediately.
Entering a competition between millions of hopeful applicants, he had risen to the top of his E Rank bracket through sheer brute power and bloodlust. So impressed with him were his handlers that they had installed him in a probationary period within this universe, as one of its junior administrators. He had been in that position for centuries, and he needed something drastic to change that. He had been idly watching the feeds from one of the new universes, and something had caught his attention. It was from a planet known as Earth, quickly becoming famous in the local universal cluster as an incubator for prodigies of the highest order. He had dismissed them as potential assets to the order, both because of their tendencies for justice and the fact that none of them were suited for the sort of numbness that allowed one to kill millions. However, there was a new challenger to the hegemony of these unworthy candidates, and his name was Reaper.
Over the last few days, Salvinious’ subconscious, an apparatus more powerful than the active minds of people of a lower rank, seized all of the information about the fighters without his input. Now that he had reason to use the information, he dug up some details on Reaper. He had been somewhat of a joke before this match, stepped on by the strongest fighters. Then the monster hunt had happened, which Salvinious had thought was an inspired piece of manipulative cruelty, and he had ascended to the leaderboards. Now that he had formed a Dao, he was the perfect foothold into the universe. They would have to do this carefully, but if they were able to poach him from the Butcher properly, he would not be able to retaliate, as the Sect was a B Rank force, and his own group was only C Rank. He would rage about it for years to come, but in the end nothing would come of it. He had not expected for the universe that he had purchased to be such a hotbed of potential power, and thus had not planned for the eventuality that others would try to take some of that power for themselves.
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The offers that the Minorians could give Reaper were far more tantalizing than anything that Tantalos could give, not that he was offering anything more than a quick death anyway. In fact, it would be child’s play to claim Reaper as their own.
Gulping, Salvinious rang up his supervisor on the hologram transmitter on his table. If his idea was not suitable for the Sect, then he would die a painful death for daring to talk out of turn. There were so many applicants for his position that it would likely be filled immediately. Perhaps he would even see his successor enter the room as he breathed his last.
Opening the plastic cover that was over the big red button on the hologram transmitter, he steeled himself and then pressed it. A new star blossomed into life in the room, and Salvinious shut his eyes. His master liked to project his full power at all times, and gazing upon the unfettered energy of an High Enlightened Tier cultivator would cause him to go blind. Of course, he had no idea that there was a force amplifier built into the transmitter just so that his supervisor could shock and awe him with his presence. Salvinious had never met the man in person, and thus believed him to be a Peak D Ranker, while in reality he was only a low D Ranker.
Many cultivators liked to lord it over their subordinates, and out of those quite a few did things like this. It was petty and pathetic, but for them it was the height of entertainment. There was even an information sharing network set up on the Multiversal Interweb that was reserved solely for videos of such things. The only explanation for this was that millennia of life made for an extremely bored cultivator.
As soon as the light seared his retinas, Salvinious dropped into a kowtow, making sure to hit his head off of an intentionally placed spike. The Minorians took the idea of debasement to the next level, and their method of showing respect was to harm oneself in the pursuit of that goal. The nebulous figure that hovered above the transmitter was appeased by this gesture and he addressed his charge.
“So, worm, you have dared to contact me. Why have you done so? I will grant you one subjective minute to explain, one minute to me that is. Start now.” The task that the man had given Salvinious was an extremely unfair one, as a subjective minute to a D Rank cultivator was akin to a mere second for an E Rank. Still, he was able to answer the question in time. Those classes that he had gone through in precise speed enunciation were spying off now. He had thought that the multimillion credit cost was quite extreme for such a basic skill, but it was saving his life right now.
“This one has found a possible asset in the new universe on the far reaches of the Sentani Cluster, venerable Sect Elder.” The man was not actually a sect elder, barely even a Sect assistant, but he liked to be addressed as such and his subordinates had no grounds on which to refuse him. This statement piqued the man’s interest and he started rubbing his chin.
“Hmm, you tell an interesting tale, maggot. I will give you time to explain. Do not test my patience.”
“Of course, wise and most generous Elder. The man of whom I speak is one of the humans from the planet known as Earth. That planet has become infamous as a breeding ground for geniuses, but the universe is under the thumb of the Butcher.” The other man paled at this, but tried to hide it with a quick scratching of his cheek. Salvinious was not as stupid as his supervisor thought and he caught the move, internally adding that to a long list of reasons that he would depose this man for. Miraculously, most of them had been formed before he had even personally met him.
“His name is Reaper, and he is a powerful Death cultivator. He recently acquired a Dao and has jumped up the leaderboards as a result. If we can harness his potential, then we might be able to catapult our branch to the head of the sect’s special sector.”
The face of the supervisor lit up with greed.
“There is no we, filth, but your proposition is promising. I shall think upon it. For addressing me in the same context as yourself, I command you to punish yourself in a way that you see fit. Farewell.”
The oath that Salvinious was under forced him to start beating himself viciously with a barbed club. As blood ran down his face, Salvinious plotted his revenge.