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The black crack gradually increased in size, and an endless void swelled within it.

And from within, the ‘Book that Killed God’ began to reveal itself.

The blue girl smiled with a hint of resignation as she witnessed that overwhelming sight.

“I can’t believe there’s a magical book of this caliber!”

The Book that Killed God twisted the world just by manifesting its form.

A truly mythological magical book.

It was a being from a completely forgotten era, entirely different from the seven moons currently upholding the world and referred to as gods.

Can we even confront such a monster?

The blue girl turned to look at the girl in black and white clothes, but there was no trace of worry or concern on her face, as always.

Boom.

At the sound of a massive tremor, the blue girl shifted her gaze again.

There stood the monster, having completely pulled its upper body out through the crack of the void.

As the upper body of the Book that Killed God landed on the ground, the earth beneath it began to change gradually.

It twisted and was stained with the same color as the monster, like fine roots tangled up and down.

Parts of the ground that kept twisting rose up like a whirlpool, shooting into the sky like sharp spikes.

It was once solid land where a city existed, but now not even traces of the city remained.

Only the grotesquely twisted ground was left, equally unsettling as the ‘Book that Killed God.’

Finally, as the monster’s two legs landed on the earth, it slowly began to raise its massive body.

As the monster stood fully erect on that twisted blackened earth, the world was utterly turned upside down.

The golden and navy-blue trees that once surrounded the area like city walls had disappeared, replaced by an endlessly sprawling twisted landscape.

The ground twisted sharply like a needle, stretching out endlessly.

The ominously holed sky and darkened clouds vanished, leaving only an unfathomable darkness in their place.

The world of the ‘Book that Killed God,’ which had never been recorded in countless alchemist’s books from ancient times to the present, revealed itself.

“This is the true form of the Book that Killed God.”

The blue girl murmured softly while peering into the unfathomable darkness.

Having completely stained the world with its color, the monster lowered its head towards the place where the blue girl and the white hungry ghost were.

Though there were no eyes on the enormous face of the monster, which seemed like it could touch the sky, it was surely looking down at the white hungry ghost.

Where the sky had once been was now an endlessly darkened void.

Where the city had stood, the ground twisted like a whirlpool, as if being sucked into the void.

And just as foreboding as the emptiness in the sky was the ‘Book that Killed God.’

But the white hungry ghost, faced with that sight, did not retreat.

The halo and golden flames bestowed by the girl in black and white clothes.

And the blue girl, holding the core, still sent unwavering faith.

Kyu!

The white hungry ghost bravely shouted and charged at the monster.

However, the white hungry ghost’s brave rush ended before it could even take a few steps.

Just as it leaped forward, its snowy white skin began to turn black and twisted like a whirlpool.

Crispy.

Its body twisted sharply like a needle, tearing through its own insides.

Kyu-ack!

Covered in golden flames, the white hungry ghost could only emit a painful scream as its body was riddled with holes.

Seeing the core of the trembling white hungry ghost, the blue girl shouted.

“Don’t!”

The sprout magical books clustered on the blue girl’s shoulder also displayed shock at the scene.

They cupped their hands over their eyes, grabbed their chubby cheeks with both hands, or covered their mouths, showcasing various reactions.

In that despairing moment, a massive golden flame began to blaze beside the blue girl.

*

After gobbling up a heap of firewood in this other world, the white hungry ghost, draped in a halo, was surprisingly powerless.

The most significant reason was clearly that an object-like phenomenon was occurring, and the halo couldn’t counteract that phenomenon.

Strangely, the halo did not perceive that ‘corrosion’ as a capability.

It indiscriminately deemed it as something as natural as an apple falling from a tree.

“Don’t!”

A voice of lament echoed from the blue girl as she watched the white hungry ghost’s body riddled with gaping holes.

An hour had nearly passed, but in its current state, the white hungry ghost wouldn’t hold out even that much longer.

There’s no helping it.

I began to ignite the firewood hidden within Yerin’s heart.

So much firewood burst forth from her skin that it looked like flames were erupting.

And I recklessly shoved all that golden flame into the body of the hungry ghost.

So much that it might die from excessive firewood consumption!

Seeing the white hungry ghost that looked about to swell up and explode, I summoned another halo atop my hand.

A halo that perfectly evaded all attacks.

I placed the halo above the hungry ghost’s head.

As a result, the phenomenon of its skin twisting and tearing itself apart ceased, but the collapse caused by the stabilizing halo began anew.

The hungry ghost’s skin darkened, and from the blood-red eyes, red tears began to flow.

Despite the overwhelming pain that prevented it from even screaming, the golden flames pouring in continuously kept its body from collapsing.

Endless pain of collapse and relentless regeneration.

In that endless cycle, the white hungry ghost’s size began to grow.

It was breaking and regenerating, continually increasing in size.

But in that cycle, the hungry ghost could not withstand it and lost consciousness.

The white hungry ghost, now comparable in size to a gigantic ‘Nameless,’ stood silently, unconscious.

“Hey hungry ghost. Just a moment, please.”

With those words, the blue girl skillfully began to control the white hungry ghost using the core.

I provided the halo and firewood while the blue girl manipulated the ghost—a perfect combination.

The white hungry ghost, controlled by the blue girl, moved freely as if performing acrobatics.

Nimbly avoiding countless spikes that shot up from the ground, it approached and unleashed a hungry ghost punch.

Of course, with the complete evasion of the halo, it might not have been very useful, but considering that it was adapting to anything, avoiding was likely the better option.

The blue girl’s movements, appearing as if she had trained for a very long time, were proving to be an effective means.

However, despite the one-sided attacks, the white hungry ghost’s physical assaults did not deliver any real damage to ‘Nameless.’

The more this dragged on, the more anxious the blue girl looked, but I was feeling relaxed.

As long as I can hold out for just an hour!

The longer this predicament endured, the closer my victory drew.

But as I reveled in my anticipated triumph, strange sounds began to reverberate in my ears.

Screech!

It was a sound as grating as fingernails on a chalkboard.

And the world began to vibrate as if space were being forcibly torn.

“Ah! I’m caught.”

Simultaneously came the bewildered voice of the blue girl.

Turning my gaze towards the white hungry ghost, I saw ‘Nameless’ gripping the ghost with impossibly sharp claws.

And slowly, the claws of ‘Nameless’ began to penetrate the body of the white hungry ghost.

‘!’

At that moment, I recognized the issue.

It was the dream itself that was the problem.

With the power of the Sprout Reapers, it was hard to maintain the connection with the halo effectively.

Seeing the white hungry ghost in a situation where it looked set to be torn apart, the blue girl was filled with anxiety.

“What should I do?”

Looking quite exhausted from having to manually control the ghost using the core, the blue girl seemed drained.

“I have one way!”

“?”

The method was to use a finishing move.

The image of the beam shot by the corpse from within the black sphere vividly flashed in my mind.

If a corpse could do it, then I could too!

Of course, if I shot a beam from Yerin’s body, it would simply disintegrate into atoms, so I resolved to use the robust hungry ghost instead.

I closed my eyes and began to concentrate.

Just then, the blue girl also closed her eyes, sending her wishes out.

‘May we be able to defeat the Book that Killed God.’

As I heard her wish, I began to shove all the firewood I had into the white hungry ghost.

The white hungry ghost stubbornly ignited, transitioning from golden flames to blue flames as it transcended a critical threshold.

The suddenly erupting blue flames were powerful enough to send even ‘Nameless’ recoiling.

“Hungry Ghost Beam!”

As the white hungry ghost floated up toward the sky, it opened its mouth and began to unleash a massive torrent of flames in response to my shout.

Though it was closer to flames than a beam.

Its power was immense enough to obliterate the altered environment around it and create huge holes in the ground.

As the flames tore through the void filled with the sky, the darkened purple moon became visible.

Moreover, all the bizarre traces that had filled the ground turned to ash entirely.

Additionally, the flames spewing forth from the ghost’s mouth didn’t merely pierce the ground; they continuously rose up from the holes, incinerating ‘Nameless.’

*

The blue flames erupting from the hungry ghost seemed to succeed in repelling the ‘Book that Killed God.’

“Did we kill it?”

The blue girl was so tense that she unconsciously began to mumble a resurrection spell.

The ‘Book that Killed God,’ attempting to escape from the flames, was engulfed in the blue fire that surged up from the pit, falling into a pit reminiscent of an abyss.

“Haha, we won.”

Seeing that scene, the blue girl collapsed to the ground in relief and began to look around.

At that moment, the sprout magical books, with their arms reaching up toward the sky, were tightly closing their eyes and struggling terribly.

Looking closely at those sprout magical books, I could faintly hear them speaking.

‘We must maintain the dream!’

‘Mom is strong!’

These magical books could speak after all.

Seeing their intense effort with furrowed brows seemed oddly cute, so the blue girl gently rubbed their brows to ease their tension.

“We did it….”

We defeated an entity from legend!

Though the blue girl felt no strength in her body, she forced herself to rise and hugged the girl in black and white tightly.

And she began to shout loudly.

“We won. We won. We won!”

If they had defeated such a remarkable being, it would be understandable to be thrilled, but the little girl only stared blankly towards the pit.

Then, suddenly, words spilled from the little girl’s lips.

“Now, I won.”

Though her pronunciation was somewhat childish, it clearly declared victory.

The blue girl found that the emotionless little girl was so cute that she started pinching her cheeks playfully.

Thud.

But at that moment, a heavy sound was heard.

A hand of the Book that Killed God burst out from the massive pit, grabbing hold of its edge.

And slowly, it began to rise.

“!!!”

In that instant, tension gripped my heart, causing it to race uncontrollably.

‘What about the hungry ghost?’

Looking back, the hungry ghost lay in a tattered state.

However, it was in such a bad condition that it couldn’t fight until it had recovered to some extent.

‘I have to fight too.’

With a determined expression, the blue girl once again drew the Alchemist’s Sword.

At that moment, her master stepped in to block her path.

And began etching a gigantic alchemical formula into the ground.

It was her master’s unique spell, walking the endless corridors.

“Take that little girl and run. I’ll buy us some time.”

The man added under his breath, “The Last Alchemist must survive.”

Protecting humanity was the alchemist’s duty.

It was something her master always said.

“…Yes.”

Unlike her master, who could put up some resistance, the powerless blue girl answered in a small voice as she tried to escape with the little girl.

Yet the little girl simply wouldn’t follow and continued staring blankly at the sky.

Following that gaze upwards, an anomaly occurred in the purple moon overhead.

*

An hour passed, yet the dream showed no signs of ending.

‘Why? Did I miscalculate the time?’

Moreover, the ‘Nameless’ that had been struck by the Hungry Ghost Beam began to crawl back up.

Could it be that Yerin’s body had distorted the sensation of time?

Caught in that unease, just as I began to think of my next move, an anomaly happened in the purple moon.

From the completely blackened moon, a viscous black liquid began to pour down endlessly.

It cascaded over ‘Nameless,’ and into the gigantic pit that had entirely erased the purple city.

As ‘Nameless’ touched the evolution liquid, its form began to dissolve in an instant, much like the black reaper.

“!!!!!!”

It wasn’t quite a sound, but a clearly audible bizarre scream.

This was the death throes of ‘Nameless,’ attempting to crawl up even while melting away.

‘I won!’

As victory suddenly arrived amid uncertainty, a smile crept onto my face.

Hehe.

So that’s why it was an hour; it seemed the collapse of the moon would happen an hour later.

Thud thud.

I slowly approached the pit and looked down.

A sinkhole the size of a city.

It bore an uncanny resemblance to the pit that had appeared in Songpa District, and evolution liquid was continuing to fill it from the sky.

And within that evolution liquid, I could see the pitiable figure of ‘Nameless,’ continuously melting and regenerating, until it ultimately dissolved away completely.

‘That should mark the end of the dream, right?’

As I grinned and turned back, the sprout reapers were bouncing excitedly, rushing in.

“Mom won!”

“Mom!”

The sprout reapers greeted me with expressions of sheer joy.