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The tattooed woman was in a hurry, sweating cold, racking her brain.

‘Can we win?’

Is it really possible for a ‘Guardian’ created by humans to reach that level?

“I don’t think we can win. Get ready to run away.”

At the woman’s small voice, her younger sister gulped nervously and nodded slightly.

The woman clenched her fists in frustration.

If only she had a sword, she wouldn’t feel this disadvantaged…

The woman quickly scanned her surroundings, checking for any useful objects.

Being an alchemist’s workshop, there was a good chance something useful would be there.

Then, she spotted a display cabinet placed in the reception room.

“Ha.”

The woman let out a faint laugh at the absurdity of it all.

There were indeed things she could use.

Of course, there were samples she couldn’t find on Earth, and countless specimens that were hard to find even in her hometown were lined up like exhibits.

Moreover, there was a rather high-quality sword for alchemy on display.

It was as if everything was prepared for her to deal with that Guardian.

As the woman looked around with a suddenly serious expression, her anxious sister asked in a small voice.

“Sis? Is something wrong?”

“No, there’s no problem.”

The woman slowly approached the wall, lifted the sword hanging there, and said.

“We don’t need to run away now. I will win.”

The tattooed woman turned back to her younger sister with a confident smile.

*

She raced between the giant hearth and the towering bookshelves, chasing the mini reapers.

Little faces popped out between the bookshelves, and whenever I lunged at them, the mini reapers scattered in all directions with excited expressions.

‘Run away!’

‘Mom is coming!’

Realizing I had no real intention of catching them and was just playfully chasing, the mini reapers were joyfully evading my half-hearted attempts like it was a game of tag.

What started as a fierce chase to pull out teeth had now turned into a simple, fun game of tag.

‘!’

In the midst of this, I unexpectedly caught one golden reaper in my grasp.

Considering the golden reaper’s agility, it should have been impossible to catch it, but in the thrill, it got caught!

The golden reaper, probably not believing it would actually be caught, tensed up and was watching my every move from the corner of its eye.

As my finger slowly approached the golden reaper’s face, it squeezed its eyes shut and clamped its mouth shut.

If I really pulled out its teeth now, the fun atmosphere would be ruined.

But seeing the golden reaper trembling with its eyes closed made me want to tease it.

After all, it would regenerate, so one or two molars wouldn’t be too much trouble, right?

I was kind of curious to see mini golden teeth…

Should I really pull one out?

I extended my finger and gently patted the golden reaper’s head.

‘Now, you’re it.’

As I tapped its head with my finger to convey my intention, the golden reaper blinked its tightly closed eyes open with a puzzled expression and gave a shy giggle.

Luckily, I was able to suppress the mischief bubbling inside me and continue playing tag.

Now, the players were just me and the golden reaper—two against all!

‘Alright, let’s go!’

Upon conveying my intention to the golden reaper sitting on my shoulder, it nodded vigorously, showing a spirited expression with its hands clenched tight.

The other mini reapers looked on with envious expressions.

It was as if they were saying, ‘I want to team up with Mom too!’

Not surprisingly, what started as a bizarre atmosphere quickly ended with the seekers claiming victory.

At first, they pretended to be caught, but eventually, mini reapers were tumbling over on the ground, unable to keep their balance.

Bouncing around, a mini reaper would suddenly fall flat on the bare ground, turning its head to look back at me.

With its face on the ground, it seemed to be pleading for me to catch it quickly.

For some reason, that expression felt annoying, so when I pretended not to see, it would crawl up to me with a disappointed look, moving to the spot where it fell right in front of me.

Thus, all of them ended up as seekers in this game of tag.

As the game wrapped up, just when I was about to head towards the iron gate,

Boom!

A loud explosion echoed from beyond the massive iron gate.

The ground shook violently from the powerful blast and tremor.

In a normal cave, it would be no surprise if it collapsed after such a powerful explosion.

Startled by the explosion, the mini reapers stared wide-eyed at the iron door like meerkats.

There was a strong and unsettling feeling coming from beyond the iron gate.

It felt different from an object.

It radiated a sensation similar to the ‘Eye’ used by the leader.

We felt like we shouldn’t just stand still, and I hurriedly walked towards the iron gate with the mini reapers.

*

In what had already turned to ash, the tattooed woman reached out into the air and repeated her wishes.

Every time she infused the name of a sample with her wish, countless specimens hanging in the display cabinet transformed into powder of light and were drawn into the sword.

‘White flower resembling the sun. Mirror reflecting the underside. Blue leaf that melts the magical book.’

The mirror that seemed detached from space, the white flower, and the blue leaves mixed together, igniting blue flames on the blade of the sword.

As the blade ignited, a great explosion erupted as the blue flames spread from the slash she swung.

A relentless flame that burned fiercely and never extinguished.

If it were a butler hungry ghost, the attack would have been brutal enough to leave it to burn in agony until it lost all its regeneration.

But the flames that seemed about to scorch the hungry ghost merely flowed around without reaching it, missing entirely.

Again it missed.

No matter the attack, it could not reach the hungry ghost.

This was a phenomenon the tattooed woman, who often read magical books, had never seen before.

For alchemy, which had advanced for hundreds of years to kill magical books, to be completely ineffective—it must be on the ‘Moon’ level.

“Ha. Ha.”

As she panted heavily, the hungry ghost began to crumple its body.

“!”

And then, it swiftly bounced away.

It was as if it used its body like a spring, charging at an incredible speed.

I hastily dodged, but the attack was too fast to properly evade.

The arm of the hungry ghost, transformed into a sharp blade, slashed away one of the woman’s arms and part of her torso.

Cough cough.

Blood spewed from her mouth along with a cough.

Though her injuries were healing rapidly, it was a desperate situation as there was no escape in sight.

Even if she tried to flee, she wouldn’t stand a chance against such a fast hungry ghost.

It was a moment where a clever strategy was necessary.

There were still quite a few samples left, but all the alchemy she could use had failed.

The white flames that prevented regeneration, the blue flames that kept burning, and the red flames that caused explosions were all useless.

If things kept going like this, she wouldn’t survive.

At the very least, she had to save her younger sister.

There was only one remaining option.

She had no choice but to draw attention and flee with a powerful blow that packed all the remaining samples.

‘Steel of the blue mountains. Transparent flower that contains time….’

Every time the woman wished, samples began to disappear one by one.

Unlike before, when she used only two or three samples, she stuffed over ten different samples into the sword, causing the alchemist’s sword to vibrate as if it would break.

And the sword, filled with samples, was growing darker.

The most useless yet most extravagant alchemy was being created.

The woman gritted her teeth and raised the sword high.

Then, with all her strength, she brought it down.

At that moment, brilliantly colored flames spread in all directions, filling the surroundings.

A flowerbed made of illusions grew on the ground, and a blue sky filled in for the ceiling.

With a loud noise like a grand fireworks display, bright light obscured her vision.

“Run!”

The woman grabbed her sister’s hand and began to run, gritting her teeth.

With ingredients that were enough to build several houses stuffed into the fireworks, it would at least buy them a few seconds.

Whoosh.

But hearing a strange sound, when she looked back, she saw the hungry ghost before her, now with both hands transformed into a gigantic great sword, swinging down.

The woman pushed her sister out of the way with all her might, away from the sword’s trajectory.

Slash.

With a sound that was hard to believe was tearing into a person’s bones, the upper half of the woman’s body was severed from the lower half.

“Sis!!!!!”

Her sister’s voice reached the woman’s fading consciousness.

“Run away.”

Through her blurred vision, she struggled to open her mouth, telling her sister to flee, but her words scattered without a proper sound.

*

Using time acceleration and ghosting, I arrived at the location of the huge explosion, where the doll-head younger sister was in danger.

Some object was approaching slowly, wielding a gigantic sword dripping with blood, while her younger sister was hugging the half-smashed corpse of the doll-head, shedding tears.

The figure with arms turned into a colossal sword looked disturbingly unpleasant.

It resembled me, yet its face looked like that of a hungry ghost, making it even more uncomfortable.

Please tell me it doesn’t have grotesque teeth while keeping its mouth shut?

If so, they should all be pulled out.

And then, I locked eyes with the hungry ghost.

The silly-looking hungry ghost scrunched its face like a walnut the moment we made eye contact and opened its mouth wide, screaming.

“Kyaaa!”

Looking extremely angry, the hungry ghost charged at me.

As I watched the foolish hungry ghost attempt to engage in hand-to-hand combat, I grasped the space tightly.

‘Huh? Why is this happening?’

But the black sphere I could always create appeared in an entirely wrong location and missed completely.

At the same time, a massive slash divided my body horizontally.