I'm ready have bad time...

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Chapter 24: Even Death Falls

The Reaper fell from the sky.

Wings of shadow burst open behind him as he descended, a blur of black slicing through the glitch-filled air. His scythe gleamed like moonlight twisted by broken code.

The monster didn't care.

Tentacles of crimson and void lashed out. Reaper's blade swept through them—once, twice, five times—each strike leaving behind trails of severed limbs and corrupted sparks.

But it wasn't enough.

I stood frozen, clutching Alrin's broken glasses in one hand, the other stained with his blood. My mind screamed for me to move. To run.

To help.

Reaper roared as a tendril wrapped around his leg, yanking him down. Another pierced through his wing. A third grabbed the shaft of his scythe and crack—

The weapon snapped in two.

Time stopped.

Even the creature hesitated, as if stunned by the sound. The Reaper—Death incarnate—looked down at his broken blade in disbelief.

Then he laughed. A dry, empty laugh.

"Not even I belong here," he muttered.

The beast slammed him into the ground. Once. Twice. Bones shattered like twigs underfoot. Blood painted the white void like spilled ink.

His hand reached toward me.

I didn't move.

"I'm... sorry," he whispered, and his voice vanished beneath the scream of the creature that should not exist.

The Reaper was gone.

And I was alone.

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