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In the pale blue mist, a blurry silhouette was beckoning me.

[Brother.]

“Um… how?”

The man began to walk slowly toward the direction of his sister’s silhouette, as if entranced.

The sound of his footsteps stretched out toward the silhouette.

And he was moving slowly, following those footsteps.

‘It must be a trap.’

Having witnessed his sister’s demise, the man was thinking with suspicion in his mind.

His sister was already dead; it has to be a trap.

But no matter how much he repeated this in his head, his instincts were arriving at a different conclusion.

Regardless of the blurry silhouette or the eerily identical voice, he felt that it was undeniably his sister.

So he couldn’t stop his feet.

Squish, squish.

The sound of walking on the sticky mud.

The man walked slowly, retracing the steps that were already imprinted in the mud.

And with every footstep he took, the imprints vanished, revealing the smooth surface beneath as if no one had ever stepped there.

The closer he approached his sister, the more the world around him began to mutate.

Still a world where butterflies became chrysalises, and footsteps were reversed, but the content was undeniably changing.

The refreshing and faint smell of the mist turned into an irritating odor of rusty metal.

The once beautiful blue butterflies transformed into ornaments carved from red, rusty metal sheets.

The fine mud that filled the ground morphed into a churn of decaying metal powder.

And his sister, who he met as he advanced through the mist, was the same.

Though it was a blurry image of her, rusty metal glinted through in spots like a doll with peeling paint.

Moreover, rough, loosely twisted, rusty wire was entwining her body.

[So you’ve come this far.]

[I expected you to arrive at this place I once came to.]

[I wished you wouldn’t come.]

The man asked his sister over and over if she truly was his sister, but she seemed not to hear him, continuing with a lonely smile, only saying what she wanted to say.

[How’s Italy now? How many days have passed? Or is it years? Time is strange here, so I’m not sure.]

As she spoke in a nostalgic manner while gazing at the sky, red rust fluid trickled down from her eyes.

Trying to smile, she wiped her tears and looked straight at the man.

[You must have asked this.]

[Why on earth did you come here?]

[Since there’s no time, I’ll get straight to the point.]

[I want to end the blessings of the stars, and while searching for a way, I ended up here.]

And she stretched her hands out as if trying to push him away.

[So please, never come here again.]

But her hands couldn’t reach the man; they merely passed through in the opposite direction.

Looking down at her own hands with a bitter expression, she told the man.

[Hurry and run.]

[Before the sun sets.]

She then looked up at the sky through the deep fog.

Interestingly, the sunlight was piercing through the thick mist and striking the ground.

*

As the Attached Human began to look up at the sunlight descending from the sky, the Purple Reaper was instead glancing at the ground with unease.

A terrible presence was emanating from beneath the sticky ground mixed with red, rusty metal powder.

Just before entering the fog, he had felt confident enough to face the blue giant, but not now.

So strong!

It looked so powerful that he didn’t feel capable of properly fighting while protecting the Attached Human.

‘Mom!’

‘Mom!!’

The Purple Reaper roused its antennae and called out desperately for its mother.

Yet, perhaps due to the fog, the Purple Reaper’s will couldn’t reach the Gray Reaper at all.

‘Mom!!!’

As the presence of the giant drew ever closer, the Purple Reaper emitted a purple light and sent a signal, but it was answered, not by the Gray Reaper, but by the Blue Giant.

Boom!

Countless wires erupted from the ground.

And numerous beings entangled in those wires began to be sucked into the rusty muck.

[Already? Why?]

The Attached Human’s sister wore a very flustered expression as she was dragged by the wire.

She yelled for the man to run away.

That monster possesses a power akin to that of a god.

No weapon on earth, no object, is capable of matching it, she shouted.

‘!’

But the man had already begun to sense the unusual atmosphere before his sister’s shout and had started to be on guard.

And while watching his sister being pulled toward the ground, he fervently wished, in a small voice, to meet her again someday.

Just as he got into position, a titanic giant began to rise from the ground as if it were about to touch the sky.

A giant glowing in blue.

The form of the giant, previously only visible to beings of Purple Reaper caliber, was now also seen by the man.

Just giving it a glance warped the surrounding space, and due to that distortion, wind began to whip inside the fog.

A monstrosity so immense it couldn’t possibly be harmed by a single shot, just a look at it bent the space.

From the perspective of an ordinary human man, who couldn’t feel the class difference, this monster looked unbeatable.

“What the hell…?”

Moreover, the prosthetic eye lodged in one of his eyes displayed a flow of power invisible to others.

The flow of power from the giant’s body seemed identical to that of the ‘Selector’, yet its magnitude existed on an entirely different level.

Its scope extended across all of Southern Italy!

But even such a remarkable monster didn’t seem complete.

The sunlight pouring down from above.

The blue light that constituted the giant’s form scattered the moment it touched the sunlight, revealing the rusty skin beneath.

As if a vampire that would melt upon contact with sunlight.

As sunlight poured down, the metal rusted, turning into powder and scattering.

Yet due to the giant’s unbelievable size, it didn’t appear as threatening relative to the speed of its crumbling.

The giant that reverberated through the world of fog finally completely lifted itself from the ground and stood slowly.

Its size reached up to the sky, enough to distort the perspective of everything around it.

And as the giant looked down at the Purple Reaper, it swung its massive foot as if kicking a pebble by the roadside.

‘!’

The Purple Reaper gathered all the energy it had amassed to unfurl the curtain of shadow, but the giant’s kick instantly shattered the veil.

And the giant’s foot sent the Attached Human and the Purple Reaper flying like a golf ball.

“Ugh.”

The man groaned softly as he rose.

He had been flung as if hit by a high-speed train, yet his condition was better than expected.

Seeing this, the Purple Reaper couldn’t help but smile faintly.

‘I got you!’

But just as it smiled, red-dyed metal powder gushed from the Purple Reaper’s mouth.

As if it were spitting out blood.

The golden firewood located in the center of its torso shook as if it would go out at any moment, and its purple skin began to change into rusty red metal.

‘The shock absorption isn’t working…’

And with a very regretful expression, it began to look up at the Attached Human’s face.

‘I wanted to keep protecting you.’

‘I wanted to stay with you.’

The Purple Reaper spilled a will that the Attached Human would never hear, straining to keep focused on the Attached Human through its fading vision.

*

In the late afternoon after lunch at the Sehee Research Institute.

As I brought a somewhat anxious Hungry Ghost Reaper out to the backyard, the thing I had instructed to prepare began to come into view.

A Super Giant Cloud Whale!

It was a colossal amalgamation of the Cloud Fish controlled by the Orange Reapers.

It was a Cloud Whale designed to transport a large quantity of Mini Reapers and Objects.

Standing before the whale, I looked down to see Mini Reapers gathered like grains of rice.

They were all the Mini Reapers except for those who had gone to find the Attached Human or those guarding the Sehee Research Institute.

The Mini Reapers seemed to find it enjoyable just to be gathered together like this, rolling around and hugging one another in chaos.

I emitted my will toward those Mini Reapers.

“Let’s go kill that harmful object!”

In response, the Mini Reapers became even more excited, shouting, “Let’s go!”

It felt like a family picnic atmosphere.

A cheerful and uplifting mood.

With the gigantic white Hungry Ghost body and Jelly Pig carrying the hospital also present, the Mini Reapers fell into a frenzy of anticipation.

However, the Hungry Ghost Reaper had a look that read, “What kind of strange thing is this again?” so I provided additional explanations.

“A while back, one Mini Reaper sensed something like the aura of the Color Universe.”

Nodding.

The Hungry Ghost Reaper seemed to have understood my simple explanation and nodded.

“So we decided to go kill the object that came from that Color Universe.”

Nod. Nod.

Sure enough, the Hungry Ghost Reaper fully grasped my clear explanation.

“So if we kill it, that attached object will be resurrected.”

‘?’

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite grasp the last part.

Anyway, I commanded it to follow and loaded it onto the whale.

The Hungry Ghost Reaper looked bewildered but had no choice but to get aboard the whale with a resigned expression.

And after I finished all preparations, I walked over and embraced Yerin warmly.

Yerin, who had been pulled out of work, looked simply happy, thinking of skipping out.

“Now, let’s go!”

As my will spread, the enormous whale began to soar.

And I started counting the number of kids I brought along.

“Mini Reapers gathered on the Cloud Whale, confirmed.”

“White Hungry Ghost and Jelly Pig, and the glowing Tyrannosaurus inside the whale’s belly, confirmed.”

“A Hungry Ghost Reaper sitting on top of the whale’s head with a slightly gloomy expression, confirmed.”

“And the Sugar Flamingo and Hamster released from the Mini Reaper Garden along with other objects, confirmed.”

“Three types of halos resting on my hand, confirmed.”

“And the Unchanging Sphere slowly following behind the whale, confirmed.”

Then I turned my head and poked Yerin’s cheek.

Yerin appeared puzzled, but when I smiled slightly, she smiled back at me.

“And the most important Yerin is confirmed.”

Perfect.

The beings of the Color Universe were no joke, so flawless preparation was crucial.

Even if we couldn’t unfold the Mini Reaper Garden, or if we couldn’t use space movement, or summon halos, it would be alright!

It was as if I had brought the entire Mini Reaper Garden atop the whale.

With these kids by my side, I feared no enemy at all.

Hehe.