---

In the isolation room, as Yerin was idly hanging out with the Golden Reaper, she suddenly heard news about the Gray Reaper appearing, prompting her to turn up the TV’s volume.

In the Deputy Director’s Office, Seoah was also carefully watching the same news.

[According to information shared from Russia, certain areas in Siberia have been revealed to be in a state where proper observation is impossible.]

The TV was detailing the mysterious object incidents that had recently occurred.

[It is said that both humans and even drones go missing the moment they cross the boundary of the snowfield.]

[Not only do they lose control, but they also disappear the moment they go beyond the border, even if tracked by satellites.]

Just listening to it made the object phenomenon seem bewildering and unmanageable.

However, the high-definition long-range photo capturing the Gray Reaper, which aired right after, showed unexpected results.

Tup-tup.

The Gray Reaper stepped across the array of objects with its distinctive tup-tup stride, not vanishing but continuing to walk across the snowfield.

The camera continued capturing the Gray Reaper, which began to reveal its current appearance.

There stood the Gray Reaper, gazing blankly at the sky with its golden eyes, completely motionless.

It gave the impression of falling into a dream while looking at the moon in the sky.

“What do you think?”

Seoah turned her gaze away from the TV, which she had been focused on, and asked the Sprout Reaper for its opinion.

But there was no sign of the Sprout Reaper, who usually lazily perched atop the monitor.

With a thought of ‘No way….’, she turned her head and saw it slightly opening the lid of the bento she had prepared, sticking its head inside.

“Stealing food again.”

Having often played with the Sprout Reaper, or maybe having shared a bond or experienced mental pollution, it seemed that the illusion that was only visible to Seoah had begun to influence reality.

The advantage was that it was quite clever, helping out with simple tasks.

The downside was that it kept trying to sneakily take things from the bento.

Unlike other mini reapers, it rarely ate snacks or pudding, suggesting it enjoyed making Seoah flustered.

Sigh.

As Seoah let out a long sigh and grabbed the Sprout Reaper’s tiny foot, the Sprout Reaper appeared with a large sausage in its mouth.

Hehe.

Seeing the Sprout Reaper smile adorably, as if caught red-handed, Seoah couldn’t help but forget her intention to scold it and broke into a smile.

*

In my eyes, I saw the figure of a man resembling the ‘Leader of the Eyeball Church’ in his youth, along with the Blue Girl.

As soon as I spotted them, I was ready to reach out with one hand and tear through space.

The target was the Blue Girl.

Upon closer inspection, she was indeed the Blue Girl, but there was no hesitation.

If it were the real Blue Girl at this time, she would surely be pursued by ninjas.

My instincts whispered that this Blue Girl was likely a fake disguised as the blackened hermit crab contaminated by the evolution liquid.

Even if I was wrong, the world would reset once more.

Further resets could be risky, but I was willing to bet on the likelihood that this Blue Girl was a fraud.

As I fiercely grasped the space, I felt the firewood in my heart gradually diminish.

It seemed that it took more than expected to generate force, and a significant amount of firewood had disappeared, but it wasn’t a big issue.

The supply of firewood from Isekai Yerin was overflowing like the sea.

The only difference was that the amount being consumed changed from a teaspoon to a tablespoon.

As I slowly tightened my grip, the space began to twist and warp.

A tremendous force surged toward the Blue Girl, as if an invisible hand clutched at the very fabric of space.

The fake Blue Girl struggled to escape that force, but under the power that grasped and crushed space itself, she was utterly helpless.

The Blue Girl began to be pressed and distorted, as if caught in a giant hand.

Simultaneously, my own hand was gradually distorting.

If it were the body of the Gray Reaper, my hand would only slightly turn black, but as a human, it was hard to bear.

Regardless, I endured the tearing pain and gripped the space again.

As I did, five scars were etched into the ground, sky, and space surrounding the Blue Girl, tearing the space apart.

Beyond the traces, it was as if a jet-black void was swaying, reminiscent of a colossal human tearing at the very essence of space.

Eventually, unable to bear the immense pressure, the fake Blue Girl shattered to the point of being unrecognizable.

“No!!!”

Amidst the fragments scattering in all directions, the Leader-like man’s scream echoed loudly.

The man, engulfed in confusion, reached out toward the blood, but his expression soon changed to that of bewilderment.

The thick scent of blood in the air transformed into the smell of oil, and the scattered wreckage began to morph into broken hermit crab shells.

“Evolutions liquid? And a blackened hermit crab….”

The man’s hands, which had seemed like they would grasp the void moments ago, slumped helplessly.

He looked around blankly.

“Was it a fake? But the hermit crab must belong to the Purple Moon’s followers, why would they do this?”

Seeming greatly flustered, the man muttered in a tiny voice,整理ing the situation before quickly composing himself.

“Then that child must be in danger.”

Realizing that the Blue Girl was being chased by ninjas, he hurriedly began to draw something colossal on the ground.

*

As the intricate drawing was sketched on the floor, the Blue Girl suddenly popped out of the air.

“Wow, that was close to death!”

The Blue Girl, who had been fleeing from ninjas just moments ago, finally felt alive and collapsed to the floor, shouting.

“Master, why were you so late? Did something happen?”

The nearly always punctual master had failed to keep the time promise?

The Blue Girl looked perplexed and asked.

The man, however, pointed silently at the broken pieces of the black hermit crab sprawled on the ground.

Yet, the Blue Girl turned her head toward the fragments of the black hermit crab and discovered a certain girl.

A girl dressed in luxurious black and white clothing.

She seemed suspicious, but it wasn’t particularly important to the Blue Girl.

The girl in black and white slowly stepped back with a very annoyed expression, but the Blue Girl dashed forward, grabbed her in her arms, and asked the master.

“Master, who is this girl? Is she a new disciple?”

The Blue Girl’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she questioned the master.

*

Indeed, as soon as the Blue Girl spotted me, she began to squeeze me tightly in her embrace.

Every time she clung to me, I found it easier to just give in and be held.

Well, Mini Yerin is indeed adorable, so there’s no helping it.

If something like an object that makes humans younger were to be discovered, I’d genuinely want to turn the real Yerin into Mini Yerin.

Hehe.

The Blue Girl, holding me close, began speaking seriously.

Of course, the man who resembled the leader had opposed me hearing this conversation.

However, due to the Blue Girl’s strong insistence that ‘this child is definitely an ally!’, I was allowed to stay with them.

The Blue Girl spoke solemnly.

“I failed again this time.”

What the Blue Girl lifted was a hefty green jade tablet.

According to her, it was an artifact made during the ancient alchemist era.

It was considered impossible to destroy by any alchemy or magical book, a relic of the ‘Cult.’

On the jade tablet were inscribed fourteen phrases, with certain segments scratched out as if done by sharp claws.

The traces seemed a bit odd for something that could never break.

One of the phrases pointed out by the girl read:
[I will bestow the wisdom to defeat ■ ■ ■ with the true power of the outsider.]

However, what exactly it was that could be defeated was damaged and unreadable.

“As I expected, the relic of the Cult mentioned a being that has been erased.”

Sighing heavily, the Blue Girl continued.

“But the inscriptions on the jade tablet that are deemed indestructible are also damaged.”

The Blue Girl hugged her head, mumbling ‘Where should I search for resources now?’

Then, she began pulling out old papers from her bag that looked quite ancient.

Starting from parchments made by objects, they appeared to be documents that had weathered quite a bit over time.

Moreover, each of those documents had a part that had been scratched out by sharp claws.

Strangely enough, as I looked at those documents, I felt a slight tickling in my chest.

*

In a different arc, just as it seemed time had elapsed for the Blue Girl to have died and begun to rewind, anomalies began occurring in the city of the Purple Moon.

Strange symbols and patterns began appearing in the night sky, growing increasingly complex and seemingly hinting at some prophecy.

Objects reflecting the moonlight began floating randomly in the air, as if gravity had ceased to exist.

Reflections of objects and people in mirrors and windows began to distort, adopting bizarre shapes.

Flowers that suddenly bloomed in the dead of night began to drip red blood and emitted a crimson glow.

Shadows stained with moonlight began to animate, behaving differently from their owners.

Under the purple moonlight, misshapen shadows were seen as a passage to another world.

The city was filled with terror and turmoil, but the Blue Girl and the Gray Reaper remained oblivious to it all.