gue Reaper was not just an experienced and intelligent monster, he also had a lot of knowledge about how the world worked, what was happening in the Dead Lands, who the Phantoms were, and what they were capable of.


    That was why gue Reaper was still alive, killing the most creatures, be it monsters or Phantoms, of any Purple Threat Level monster.


    He knew how to keep Adam and the others from getting help from the Citadel. Sure, Nessa was here, but almost no one in the Citadel was aware of XH-01''s existence, let alone the monsters living in Dead Lands.


    Thus, when he saw Adam and Katrin heading towards the Essence Scarlet Pyromancer, his eyes opened wider than ever.


    He realized that he had just been outyed, the mere fact that he hadn''t noticed that there was another Purple Threat monster from the Top-10 was already a true failure for him.


    gue Reaper realized that Katrin was out of power, they hadn''t lost yet just because Nessa showed up and Adam was able to fight against gue Reaper as equals. Read chapters at empire


    There was still some doubt in gue Reaper''s mind. He stared intently at Katrin, unsure if she had decided to go for it.


    In his many fights, gue Reaper had already encountered something like this several times, but it always ended the same way - his scythe demolished his enemy''s head.


    "Hey! Look at me! I''m your only opponent now!" Nessa eximed furiously, before finding herself in front of gue Reaper.


    Her sturdy ws, ended up in front of gue Reaper''s eyes, a little more and Nessa would leave gue Reaper blind for the rest of his life until an imminent death followed afterward.


    gue Reaper was surprised at how Adam, Katrin, and Nessa had agreed on a n in the heat of battle, it was an advantage to have Operators and fight as a team instead of alone.


    But... to survive gue Reaper had to be prepared for anything. He didn''t know it wasing, but nothing was stopping him from adapting quickly, he must act.


    Whooooooooooooosh.


    gue Reaper arched sharply, missing Nessa''s ws above him.


    Perhaps he could stab her deeply, and leave a serious wound on her chest, but it didn''t matter in this situation.


    gue Reaper should have killed Osana and Katrin a long time ago, but he hadn''t been paying attention to them because of Adam and Nessa who kept charging at him.


    Well, now he realized his mistake, and if Nessa was going to hold him back, he had to get rid of her.


    Whoooooooosh.


    gue Reaper stabbed his scythe into the ground before dropping to the ground with his back while simultaneously grabbing Nessa tightly by her wrists.


    Before Nessa could realize anything, gue Reaper partially rolled backwards, throwing Nessa over himself.


    Then, while Nessa was not yet on the ground, gue Reaper let go of her hands and ced his palms on the ground, using the firm ground as a support.


    Nessa stared in confusion at gue Reaper who pressed his legs to himself before abruptly straightening them, smashing into Nessa''s chest instead of her stomach. He used his legs like a spring.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    All this gue Reaper did was to throw Nessa as far away from this point as possible. He kicked her in the chest instead of the stomach because the chest was more solid, preventing the momentum from dissipating too fast.


    Sure, because of that, Nessa took almost no damage.


    But...


    The impact was so powerful that Nessa felt as if she had been shot out of a cannon. With each heartbeat, the gue Reaper grew smaller as he got farther away.


    Aggressive wind currents fluttered Nessa''s long crimson hair in an attempt to slow her flight, but it didn''t help at all.


    "No, no, no! Don''t you dare leave!" Nessa eximed furiously watching as gue Reaper pulled his scythe out of the ground before running towards Fume Cathedral.


    Bam.


    Only a few secondster Nessa reached the ground, falling into a pile of dust. There seemed to be an infinite distance between them, but Nessa had a duty to catch up with him or else their n would fail and it would only be her fault.


    "Shit... You decided to just get rid of me, right? Well, unfortunately for you, running fast is the first thing I learned with my new powers." Nessa said confidently, taking a deep breath.


    Hot steam came out of her mouth, sweeping over her shoulders as she leaned her torso forward. The muscles in her legs quivered, the veins swelling even more, allowing Nessa to leap.


    Ssh.


    Waves of dust rose like sand from the starting point. Before the dust could reach the ground, Nessa had already run over a hundred meters, chasing a ck dot in the distance that grewrger with each breath.


    Adam turned around, seeing gue Reaper quickly catching up to him, with Nessa chasing after him. Sure enough, gue Reaper''s target was not Adam, but Katrin who was standing next to Fume Cathedral controlling the roots.


    ''Maybe I should protect Katrin?'' Adam thought but immediately shook his head dismissing the idea. They agreed that they would follow the n, as they had to do everything quickly to not scare the Essence Scarlet Pyromancer, who was still just watching the battle.


    gue Reaper realized he was running out of time, so he raised his hand, preparing to throw a scythe, like a dark disk straight towards Katrin.


    Given the distance between them and the trajectory, Katrin had little chance of surviving.


    "Not so fast!"


    Suddenly, a belligerent voice sounded from the side as two bare feet crashed into gue Reaper''s face from the right side.


    The force and speed with which Nessa ran to catch up with gue Reaper caused her shoes to simply tear, even though they were made of reinforced material.


    gue Reaper flew off to the side, plunging into a random rock. His sturdy body stamped into the cold stone, splinters flying off to the side.


    Bam.


    His fist mmed into the rock, shattering it into pieces, gue Reaper quickly broke free going to try and kill Katrin again, but it was toote...


    Whooooosh.


    Adam jumped onto the roots quickly approaching Fume Cathedral''s roof, towards Scarlet Pyromancer.


    At the same moment, Katrin smiled bitterly and closed her eyes.


    Then, she did what she had nned to do long ago, but never thought she would be forced to do it under such strange and dangerous circumstances.


    Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.


    The ground beside Katrin trembled as green energy streams began to emerge from her chest, increasing in volume with each passing second.


    Her Evolution Tree was actively trembling to fulfill its master''s wish, but it didn''t want to do so because it had to lose its most important part - the Initial Gene.


    The green energy streams engulfed everything around it, increasing Katrin''s strength by one step before a bright star emerged from her chest that was her Initial Gene. She was saying farewell to the base of her power forever.


    Katrin voluntarily started the countdown to her death, now she only has seven minutes left before all the energy from the Evolution Tree runs out and she will die if she doesn''t get a new Initial Gene.


    She will only survive if she fulfills her long-held dream!