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In an apartment complex in Seoul, the master bedroom of a family of three was so dark that one couldn’t see a hand in front of their face.

The lights were off, and thick blackout curtains covered the windows, letting in not a single ray of light.

It was as if the space were cut off from the outside world, and it seemed someone had dragged a bed to block the entrance of the master bedroom.

Boom!

A powerful shockwave surged from across the river.

The apartment shook under the shockwave, and the sound of debris falling echoed through the air, reminiscent of a building being bombed in a movie.

“Mom….”

The voice of a terrified child echoed in the dark room.

“It’s okay. It’ll be fine.”

The mother, holding her child, gently patted their back, but her expression was filled with anxiety.

Had the dense darkness in the room not concealed her face, the child would have been even more terrified.

The rampage of the association doll, which had been so assured of safety, and the intense shockwaves that had begun just a few minutes earlier.

Unlike the mother, who trembled with unease from the various incidents, the child’s father was peering outside through the gap in the blackout curtains with a telescope.

“Got it.”

The father’s low voice rang out in the room.

The dolls that had filled the street had disappeared without a trace, prompting his exclamation.

In reality, the situation outside that the father was observing through the telescope did not show any signs of resolution, but alongside the shockwaves erupting from across the river, the situation began to slowly change.

The change was heralded by a rapid increase in the numbers of the Black Reapers.

The Giant Black Reapers had initially eaten a lot of the dolls during the beginning of the incident and had simply stopped moving.

With their bellies distended from consuming all the dolls, they just sat there.

Yet, at some point, the Black Reapers that had paused sprang to their feet and walked swiftly southward through Seoul.

When they returned, their bellies were lean again, and they began to devour the dolls once more.

As the dolls dwindled rapidly at the hands of the Black Reapers, the activities of the other Mini Reapers intensified.

The Golden Reapers, who appeared to have barely enough to handle all the dolls, began scouring every corner as if searching for something, and other Mini Reapers also peeked out and wandered around.

‘Indeed, the companion object must be the Mini Reaper. The association dolls were troublesome from the start.’

The father blotted out the fact that he had purchased the doll, which had now taken over the living room, from his mind and began to praise the Mini Reapers.

‘At this rate, the doll rampage will be resolved soon enough!’

While the father was caught up in the feats of the Mini Reapers, a Giant Golden Reaper’s face suddenly filled his entire field of vision.

Hehe.

The Golden Reaper wore a somewhat playful smile.

‘!!!’

Startled, the father took his eyes off the telescope to find the Golden Reaper dangling from the end of it.

The warm scent of the sun filled the room.

Golden light spread gently throughout.

Perhaps it was due to the lack of light in the room, but the warm aura of the Golden Reaper filled the space completely.

That cozy warmth gave the feeling that the doll rampage, which had turned Seoul upside down, would soon come to an end.

*

Boom!

When the Purple External Being clapped its massive palms together, a powerful shockwave tore through the surrounding buildings and roads.

I rolled on the ground to evade the shockwave, but my reflexes couldn’t quite save me from it.

Ugh.

One leg touched the purple shockwave and vanished without a trace, only to regenerate instantly.

As soon as I stood, I reached out with one hand, clenching my fist toward the External Being’s hand.

Crack.

Yet the External Being’s hand remained intact in the warped space.

‘How is that possible?’

I couldn’t even hurt a part that was affecting the Earth?

If this were a boss monster in a game, there would need to be an emergency patch due to balance issues.

Hmm.

The current situation was one in which neither could inflict real damage onto the other.

My attacks didn’t affect the Purple External Being at all, and I didn’t have to worry about running out of firewood since my regeneration was only using a little.

Still, I was achieving the result I aimed for.

I had the goal of “buying time until the Mini Reaper finds the ‘anchor!’”

‘That guy is getting stronger.’

Yet, it wasn’t a situation where I could be blindly optimistic.

The Purple External Being’s hazy form was becoming increasingly solid, and thus the range and power of the shockwaves grew stronger.

Moreover, the purple threads were clinging to my wounds, making the amount of firewood needed for regeneration grow.

As the Purple External Being grew stronger, the distortions in reality also intensified.

At this rate, the distortions would reach Yerin!

Before that happens, the Mini Reapers need to find the “anchor.”

Otherwise, no matter how many times I get hit, I’ll grab Yerin and run far away.

*

A housing area stained in purple, exuding a bizarre feeling.

The Gray Reaper was battling nearby, with shockwaves resonating through the place like an earthquake.

It was also where the Golden Reapers had swept through in search of the “anchor.”

A Blonde Girl walked through this tranquil housing area, relying on faint sensations.

The point her senses indicated was her grandfather’s mansion, and that was indeed where she had wanted to go from the start.

Creeeak.

Having pushed open the noisy door, which twisted slightly from the impact, she finally arrived.

‘Finally, I’m here.’

The butler who always welcomed her.

The garden that always radiated a serene atmosphere.

The mansion, full of cherished memories, now had an unfamiliar aura.

The spot once occupied by thoroughly trained employees was now taken by creaking dolls, and all the orchids her grandfather had raised had wilted a sickly yellow.

Flame.

In the deserted mansion, she took step by step while burning the dolls.

Each step was toward the painful screams of her clone sisters.

The Red Reaper tilted her head in curiosity as she questioned the Blonde Girl about her destination.

“Why are you going there?”

The command from the Gray Reaper.

“Find the suspicious object.”

Since this place had already been swept by the Golden Reapers, there shouldn’t be a need to come here.

“I have something I must do here.”

The Blonde Girl resolutely declared, then entered her grandfather’s room and began to manipulate the device leading down to the secret chamber.

As she opened the secret passage, the smell of death rushed in.

The stench of blood that could numb one’s nose.

And countless deaths of sisters that only the Blonde Girl could perceive.

The traces of her sisters’ remaining souls.

In her eyes, her sisters were torn and cut apart, scattered all around.

“I’m sorry.”

Sorry for coming too late.

As she walked toward the underground, those traces of her sisters slowly burned in crimson flames and vanished.

Every step she took out of the mansion became a flame, and it began to ignite the mansion.

‘!’

As each trace of her sister vanished, the Red Reaper sprang forth from the air.

They bore a somewhat lonely expression.

The Red Reaper looked at them and smiled a truly happy smile.

“There are so many little sisters!”

As the Red Reaper declared that, the melancholy-faced Red Reapers embraced her gently with warm smiles.

Now leading hundreds of Red Reapers, the Blonde Girl finally was able to reach the basement.

There, she saw her sisters tangled in a horrific manner, fused together with her grandfather.

“Grandfather.”

The lifeless voice of the Blonde Girl held no emotion.

But her voice did not reach her grandfather, Oh Muryong.

The tangled mass of her sisters only received gentle pats from Oh Muryong, as if he found them adorable.

To put an end to her grandfather’s madness, the Blonde Girl stretched out her hand and snapped her fingers.

With that, she ignited a massive flame woven from the combined strength of all the Red Reaper sisters.

*

Boom!

A different sense of tremors resonated through Seoul than those emitted by the Purple External Being.

A red pillar of flames rose, engulfing Oh Muryong’s mansion, shooting up as if to touch the sky.

However, that pillar of fire disappeared in an instant with the purple waves.

And from within it, the Blonde Girl was ejected in a disheveled state.

“!!!”

Oh Muryong, who had been devoured by madness and lost his ability to speak human words, revealed himself from within.

Faced with a power far surpassing that of the Mini Reapers, the Blonde Girl felt a sense of helplessness.

Could she truly not win again?

The pained screams of her sisters could still be heard from the sphere that constituted Oh Muryong’s lower half!

At that moment, the luxurious housing area began to fill with a radiant golden light, like the sun.

‘Light?’

As the Blonde Girl looked up, a giant rock filled the sky.

It was the Golden Armored Reaper holding a stone reinforced by plenty of firewood.

“I need to run!”

“It’s dangerous!”

The Red Reapers pulled the Blonde Girl back, wary of the huge rock that seemed ready to drop at any moment.

Startled, the Blonde Girl blasted flames from beneath her feet, quickly escaping from beneath the rock.

As soon as the Blonde Girl moved away, the Golden Armored Reaper dropped the boulder, which had been held by firewood, over Oh Muryong.

*

Thud.

A heavy sound of a massive boulder striking the ground echoed through the vacant luxury neighborhood.

Where could such a boulder have come from?

While pondering this question, the flames of power nullification latched onto the External Being’s skin and began to burn.

Flame.

“The anchor has disappeared!”

Having fulfilled the conditions for destruction, the now weaker Purple Being not only lost its external status but could no longer be considered an object.

It simply turned into a “byproduct of object powers” created by the Red External Being, melting away in the white flames.

Kiiieeek!

A pain-filled scream echoed as its whole body melted away.

The cries of the External Being, which had been hidden in a space separated from the Earth, now clearly resonated with the Earth.

First, the smooth liquid-like surface that had filled the ground began to harden.

And the surface reflecting the Color Universe shattered, cracking like a mirror, all at once with a sharp sound.

The broken fragments, before they could even fall to the ground, enveloped in the flames of the Halo like sparks from a campfire, vanished completely.

The rough scars of the distorted space in the sky began to revert to their original form, and the Color Universe, which had approached closely, began to recede.

As the Color Universe faded, the association’s ambitious creation, the association dolls, lost their power and disassembled.

As if the dolls could not exist with the rules of the Earth alone.

The threads twisted from elements like oxygen and nitrogen reclaimed their forms and melted back into the air as the distortions vanished.

“No way!”

The Golden Reapers, who had wrapped themselves in threads to save the humans, sighed in disappointment.

They were like cocoons with only their legs sticking out, as if they had once been wrapped in bandages.

Everything that had been twisted began to return to its place.

And as the distortions completely disappeared, the sun began to rise gradually in the eastern sky.

The Golden Reapers cheered toward the sun, and the other Mini Reapers smiled as they basked in its warm light.

Having defeated the Purple External Being that had crossed from the Color Universe, surely the association doll incident was resolved as well?

By the way, the fair was ruined once again.