*Note - Ugh I'm so demotivated QQ somehow while I was typing I hit a weird combination of keys simultaneously that closed all my tabs which deleted my work for this chapter X.X I need to make a habit of saving. Don't remember everything which meant I had to rewrite most of it fml.

Karen had been having memory loss and a killer headache for the past two days. It was like something was trying to take over her from the inside out, which was impossible since she was employed currently to over see the Reaper's Chosen. No one, not even the bravest of the brave, most foolish of the fools, or even the most angry and powerful god would dare pick a fight with the Lord and his Lady. They were absolute existences, something even gods cannot even stand up to, the difference was like that between an flea and a dragon.

EXCEPT someone was that suicidal to do something that angered them, or at least the Lady. Karen could not fathom why Lilith would ever risk doing something that would anger the Lady nor could she think of anything that Lilith could have done to anger the Lady unless Lilith tried to kill her. Even then the anger the Lady had towards the succubus was extreme... wait, succubus?.... there was no way right? The only possibility that Karen could think of was that Lilith was trying to seduce the Lord, a thought that was so inconceivably impossible and traitorous that Karen thought she would be taken away to the Lady's personal torture chambers just for thinking it.

Well either way, what happened to Lilith was unknown to Karen as she woke up in the isolated room that she was in now not unlike the one she was in prior except this one had no exits or entrances. The only connections she had to the outside was through the various monitors giving her access to the views around Shin Kagerou and the one monitor that gave her access to her helper abilities. It was also the monitor that allowed her to communicate with Shin, one that she hadn't touched in two days time due to her... problems.

Sudden murderous intent drew her out of her thoughts and back to the screen, where Shin was looking right at her... That can't be possible right? There is no way Shin would know which direction she was looking from, but he was indeed staring at her eyes.

"You're there right? Karen...", There was something distinctly different about him, "Did you enjoy the show?" What sho- then she saw the carnage around him. While most of that damage was not done by him the most cruel and destructive wound was definitely done by him. His mouth twisted into a cold smile almost as if he could tell she just saw the scene.

Who are you? You... are not ShinKage.

He made a hurt expression, "I'm insulted, we are one and the same. I'm just the stronger part of him." His smile returned, "You know who I am, after all the one chosen wasn't Shin but me; I noticed the Exp difference." That attitude and those words brought a name to the forefront of her mass of confused thoughts.

Reaper...

His laughed out loud, the sound chilling, "Correct, although I guess it would be weird for you to call me that won't it? You may call me Kage, rather it would be more convenient if you did so."

As she had expected when she first saw him in the game ShinKage and Kage were not in fact two different people but two entities sharing a single body. But even if he was a different entity with a different personality there was no way he should be capable of the carnage before her eyes after all his stats would not allow it. Wait his stats?

Status WIndowNameKageLevel30ClassNoneEXPN/ASub-ClassNoneRaceHumanTitleHidden ShadowHP2200/2200MP2500/2500Stamina2100/2100AlignmentN/AStrength110Vitality100Endurance90Agility140Dexterity100Luck100Intelligence130Wisdom100

Sense Magic (Passive): Mastered, 100m radius.

Spectre Vision (Passive): Mastered, 100m radius.

Language of the Dead (Active): Mastered.

Aura of Death (Active): Mastered, 100m radius, 0.5 Mana per second.

Chosen of the Reaper (Passive): Mastered.

Undead Endurance (Passive): Mastered, Stamina costs reduced by 100%.

Walking Dead (Passive): Mastered, 100% Reduced Stamina costs for walking.

Dreamless (Passive): Mastered, No sleep required.

Ashen Taste (Divine Passive Curse): Mastered.

Death Defiant (Passive): Mastered.

Rejected by Life (Divine Passive Curse): Mastered.

Soul Reaper (Passive): Mastered, 100m for all eternity.

Create Soul Vessel (Active): Mastered, Costs X Mana to make a vessel capable of storing limitless amounts of souls.

Heart Breaker (Passive): Mastered, Attacks aimed at the heart deal 200% more damage.

Soul Chains (Active): Mastered, Creates chains of dark magic that attack the soul directly.

Berserk (Passive): Mastered, Upon the consumption of blood gain 100% increased attack speed, movement speed and reaction speed until all life is dead around you.

Summon Demon (Active): Mastered, Summon demons using various sacrifices to do your bidding.

Advanced Summoning Master (Passive): Mastered, All summoned beings gain +200% Power and Health.

Sadist (Passive): Mastered, Inflicting pain on others increase your strength by 200%.

Vigilante (Passive): Mastered, When fighting someone with negative affinity you double your stats.

Avenger (Passive): Mastered, When fighting someone for vengeance you triple your attack damage.

All Seeing Eye (Passive): Mastered, You have perfect vision of all details and actions around you.

Nothing Get's Past me (Passive): Mastered, Your reaction speed is increased by 100%.

Permanent Damage (Passive): Mastered, Damage you deal will be extremely difficult if not impossible to remove, heal or revert.

Limit Break (Active): Adept 6, You may remove some of your bodies natural inhibitors giving you a massive boost in physical and mental power. Raises all stats by 400% for up to a day, receiving up to 99% reduced stats for a week depending on amount of time activated.

Enslave Soul (Active): Mastered, Costs 1 soul.

This is... impossible, even if you are two identities there should be no way for you to have such vastly different stats and skills.

Kage laughed, "You said it yourself, this is reality with a system like that in a game to help us players more easily adapt, it also gives us superhuman power. How is it then that it's impossible that if two identities exist within a person and one of them is stronger, than wouldn't the game stats reflect it in an even more exaggerated way?"

I.. do not know. The system was implemented by the Lord Reaper and being a lowly soul Karen has no access to that information but it did seem odd. No one should be able to improve at the speed players do that is biologically impossible, but because of the experience stat every time they level up they get 5 free stat points which if placed all into strength drastically increases their physical strength over the course of seconds. If the stats represent the power of that person then if that person suddenly gained an increase of strength several times over then it logically should be plausible that the stats multiply as well...

But then you can enter the realm of gods...

"That was the point wasn't it? This is like a battle between gods without the gods putting themselves at risk, we are just throw away pawns to fight in their place. Of course I doubt they would actually let us get strong enough to kill one of them. It is just like a game minus the infinite resurrections."

Even... even if you are correct what do you intend to do about it?

"There's nothing I can do about it except win and I will be there to make sure Shin wins. I am after all an existence made solely to protect him. The question is what you intend to do now that I know of it." Murderous intent was transferred through the monitors and completely surrounded Karen, if she had intended to kill him, he would fight to the very end using every resource he had. And Karen was not entirely sure she was safe, in addition there is no way for her to find out if what he said was true or not. Wait, why do I even care... all I'm here to do is assist him in his journey, there is no reason to care about anything else. She is just a lowly soul and this was her job and she will not mess it up due to some unknown emotions or questions.

Nothing... I am here to assist as much as the system allows not to question you or your actions. If I was ordered to I will do everything possible within my power to eliminate you but as it stands my only orders are to observe and help as the system dictates.

She intended to do just that, but this man, Kage, was dangerous. What he had said was rousing and stirring up the emotions that have been starting to appear recently and within her Karen felt a shadow of doubt about what she was doing.

Karen had been silent for some time and there was no point in waiting longer, especially since five people were rapidly approaching. To be brutally honest while it seems that Karen does not have much power especially compared to him, she has the support of a god. And from what he could tell the Reaper was a really powerful one, he had not relished the thought of fighting her or his patron, at least not yet. Kage's mouth twisted in a crude savage smile, he was feeling frustrated and Vampire Hunters were the best way to let off steam. Turning to his left where the closest approaching Hunter was he pushed off the ground moving at incredible speeds towards it, justice is coming and justice was screaming for blood.

Kent Draken was from a long line of vampire hunters and he was a veteran of the war against them years ago. Even now there were many blood suckers hiding away among humans and they need to be exorcised. Reports about a small caravan that a vampire attacked had led to his deployment with five other hunters. Among them was David Sanguis son of a famous pair of vampire hunters who was undeniably insane; while Kent was a fervent vampire hunter David derived pleasure from torturing them. He also had a tendency to look down on the vampires and normal humans alike, which seemed to have finally ended his life as he can no longer be sensed. So he and through his magic he sense the others moved in on David's last location, he just hoped that the vampire did not run from there. It would be a pain to hunt him down. Suddenly something moving twice as fast as him went by in a blur of motion and the next thing he saw was his own body falling towards the ground, headless.

Half an hour had passed as the hunters fell one by one to Kage before they were able to even react to his presence, it was really quite disappointing; were the pure blood vampires just that weak or had these hunters grown dull over years of peace? Either way there was just one more to clean up, but that one was at the site where Mary was... Letting her die would be rather unfavourable as Shin currently depended on her for most of his combat abilities, and Kage's time was running out. So he moved back towards his starting location moving this time at a speed twice his previous speed.

Liliana Moonhowl was a newcomer to the vampire hunting group who had yet to kill anyone never mind a vampire in the 20 years of her life. She had of course went through the training against her will because both her parents were hunters and it was expected of her, but she really wanted nothing to do with this bloody business. Vampires had not done anything except for a few isolated cases here and there for over a decade and she saw no reason why the ones who haven't done anything should be punished for a crime they never committed. Nevertheless she was moving towards the last known location of a fanatic hunter named David along with probably the others. She was not adept enough at magic yet to be able to sense their locations, the only reason she knew David's location was because another hunter had sent her a guide in the form of a hawk.

Arriving at a road that was connected to Kane a trading city she saw a scene that made her gag and almost threw up on instinct. Body parts of bandits turned zombies were scattered everywhere in a bloody mess, a girl with a silver bolt through her pack and a chunk of her hand missing - pinned to the ground a bit away from where she was lying with another silver bolt - seemed to be breathing just barely. Two other bodies hit by bolts were not so lucky, besides them a girl around the age of 12 was crying. So much unneeded pain and misery, the culprit of this was lying on his back with a gaping hole in his chest.

Liliana having got over her horror first stopped by the wounded girl and applied basic first aid and a healing spell then walked towards the grieving girl. Hearing her approach the girl momentarily looked up from her parents corpses and screamed in fright, backing up against the wagon. It's no wonder she's afraid, I'm wearing the same clothes as the one who murdered her parents. She felt sick that she was in the same line of work as someone like David and as terrible of a thought it is she was glad he was dead.

"It's all right, I won't hurt you." She slowly approached the girl hands held out palms up to show her sincerity who kept sobbing while shaking her head hands outstretched as if to ward Liliana away. It was then that Liliana heard a rustling sound from the forest to her right and barely managed to draw her sword into a defensive stance before a blurred image crashed into her.

It was honestly quite impressive that the hunter that was standing there trying to appeal to the crying girl managed to block his attack. He had meant to take her heart out but instead bent her sword and launched her back against a tree on the other side of the road. She was groggily rising to her feet, sword bent, her dark red hair let loose from the white hood, before she could recover Kage charged forward and slammed her by the throat into the tree. Hands and feet flailing she tried to pry his grip lose but is failing to do so, her azure eyes wide in fear and wet from the pain. She struggled to speak, Kage caught some words here and there but nothing comprehensible. As much as he wanted to enjoy her suffering he was really running out of time so he tightened his grip.

"Wait," a weak voice cried out from behind Kage; turning around he saw Mary slowly stagger to her feet. "She- she could be useful to us."

"And what makes you think I would listen to you, or that I won't kill you too?" Kage was certainly surprised Mary managed to get up that fast, even more so she spoke to him while looking him in the eyes. He was sure he had intimidated her thoroughly before she fainted.

Mary gave a small wry smile, "If you had planned to do it, I wouldn't be living right now. You have me bound by your spell right now so my body and soul are yours... I want information that she has, if you would do that and help me hunt down the hunters I will give my heart to you willingly."

"Or I could order you to do so anyway, there is no merit for me to hunt down these Hunters." There was no real reason for Kage to do that though, Mary was not a real threat to Shin and it seems she had figured out that if Shin dies so does she, there really was no merit in going through all the trouble.

"But you could increase our fighting force if you place her under the same spell, the hunters also hold a powerful weapon that the one who led the vampires once wielded; you can have it." Mary seemed really desperate to get a hold of the girl and her information, "She also healed me earlier I owe her one," Mary held up her hand which was fully intact when there was a hole in it before.

Liliana could barely breathe, she stopped struggling a while ago and was just now trying to conserve as much energy and air from the small gasps she can manage. Buying every second she can of life, from what she heard if she lived she was going to be a slave, and that the girl she healed seems to be a vampire. But any chance she can get to live on she'll take, she never even wanted this job in the first place and she sure as hell wasn't going to die because of it if she had a choice.

The man holding on to her sighed and released his grip. Falling to the ground knocked what little breath she had out of her but then blessed fresh air filled her lungs as she gulped it up greedily. She looked up still gasping for breath to see energy collecting in the air in front of her, the girl that was bargaining for her life had an apologetic look on her face, "Sorry, it's going to hurt... a lot."

Then chains snaked out from the white energy, wrapped around her and seared itself into her her skin, she was only conscious for the first three seconds before passing out into painless nothingness.

*Note: Excuse me now as I take a nice long rest from writing.