---

Late at night, Seodaemun District.

Eventually, the last remaining people in Seodaemun District began to flee the city.

Even the patients from the large hospital had been transported out, but those who stubbornly remained changed their minds as the Golden Reapers rushed in.

‘This place is dangerous!’

‘Humans, run away!’

Some were slapping their cheeks with angry expressions.

Others were pulling at their cheeks with sad faces.

Some were sticking to the hems of pants and being dragged along.

While others were pouting with a pleading expression.

With all sorts of cute persuasion from the Golden Reapers, everyone fell for it.

Thus, Seodaemun District was engulfed in silence like a ghost town, yet the traces of the Firewood Pig Golden Reaper were still nowhere to be seen.

‘Where on earth could it be?’

The feeling of wanting to see the missing Golden Reaper for no reason at all must surely indicate a dangerous situation…

At that moment, a streak of golden light burst forth, cutting through the pitch-black night sky.

It was a comet-like golden beam.

At first, it was as small as a Mini Reaper’s flame, but it explosively spread out, covering the entire Seodaemun District in a wave of golden light.

The shadows on the street flickered as if dancing, and everything seemed to be surrounded by a golden border.

At the center of that sun-like light was a small chunk of firewood, which resembled the small fist of the Golden Reaper.

And as the sun appeared, the presence of the missing Golden Reaper was felt.

‘So, it was there!’

The small crack in the shape of a Golden Reaper’s fist.

Though it disappeared in an instant, having already observed its location was no problem.

With firewood stuffed in both hands, I tore through the space.

Raking it as if filled with anger, I swiped recklessly.

Creak!

Then, with a sound like shattering glass, a suspicious space was revealed.

A twisted space where desires swirled and flowed.

In the corner, a short-haired girl lay collapsed.

And finally, the Golden Cloaked Reaper, slowly falling after raising its fist.

That girl, who looked rich in firewood, must be the Golden Cloaked Reaper’s Attached Human.

I jumped towards the Golden Reaper.

Looking up at me, the Golden Cloaked Reaper smiled weakly.

As I fell, I simply tore apart the space that confined the Golden Cloaked Reaper and embraced them.

‘Don’t worry. Mom is here.’

Sending my will like that, I blew firewood into the Golden Cloaked Reaper.

Breathed in firewood.

Breathed in firewood.

Breathed in firewood.

‘???’

It looks like I’ve put in at least 100 times more firewood than usual….

Once the firewood was patted fat, the Golden Cloaked Reaper came to its senses, looked up at me, and smiled faintly.

After giving that child a gentle pat, I placed the collapsed girl atop my head and sent her off to the Mini Reaper Garden.

‘Ready to fight!’

And as I turned my head toward the kidnapper, a man with a halo above his head was gazing at me with a strange expression.

That expression seemed to show both hatred and longing.

[It’s already too late. Byproduct.]

The moment the man’s lips trembled and spoke, the space split as if breaking.

And decayed hands surged from the crack in the space.

They were traces of desires, created from longings but twisted and decaying.

The hands desperately reached out toward the man, as if trying to seize what they had longed for.

And beginning to wrap around him as if they would never let go.

The man simply glanced at the hands tunneling into his body.

Even as his flesh melted into the hands, his expression seemed to be in ecstasy.

[At last… The great achievement has been accomplished!]

With his voice filled with elation, the fusion was completed.

The man no longer looked human.

Countless hands pierced through his flesh and emerged, grasping in grotesque forms.

And that appearance slightly resembled that of the ‘Old God’ nailed to the ground.

*

Late at night, Sehee Research Institute.

Yerin was hiding in the isolation room, preparing to sleep after playing with the Gray Reaper for the first time in a while.

However, since the Gray Reaper didn’t come, Yerin slowly munched on snacks in the isolation room with a sad expression while watching TV.

“I even prepared pajamas for the Reaper….”

Of course, they wouldn’t wear them, but she always prepared outfits for a pajama party in the isolation room.

Moreover, she wondered if something happened to the Gray Reaper, as the Mini Reapers, who usually crowded the isolation room, were almost nowhere to be seen.

What remained were the Black Reapers patrolling slowly and the Golden Reapers rolling around sleepily on the bed.

Even the Golden Reapers on the bed seemed to be in a state of emergency, clutching long spears.

Seeing the Golden Reaper yawn widely, Yerin put her finger into its mouth.

‘Ah!’

The almost sleepily yawning Golden Reaper lightly bit Yerin’s finger, startling awake.

‘It bit me!’

‘Doesn’t it hurt?’

The Golden Reaper looked up at Yerin with a worried expression, licking its fingertips.

Seeing that, Yerin smiled warmly.

“It’s so soft, it didn’t hurt at all.”

Saying that, Yerin pulled the soft chubby cheeks of the Golden Reaper.

Yawn.

The other Golden Reapers were also yawning, trying hard not to fall asleep.

One Golden Reaper, trying not to doze off, flipped upside down and rolled over.

Golden Reapers who were training with their spears to stay awake ended up dozing off and bumped their heads together with a loud ‘thud.’

Watching the Golden Reapers nodding off while refusing to sleep, they seemed to have more professional awareness than Unnie Sehee.

[Breaking News.]

[Object phenomenon occurred in Seodaemun District.]

As that phrase popped up, the TV screen suddenly shifted.

Then, scenes of buildings collapsing in the dark night sky appeared.

And in the middle of the screen, a gray figure was rolling on the ground.

“!”

The moment Yerin was startled, the Golden Reapers gaped up at the sky.

‘It’s been a while!’

‘I’m calling for you.’

‘Do you need help?’

Then, with dazed expressions, they slowly walked over to Yerin and started to cling to her.

*

In a twisted space devouring longings like a pit of ants.

I used ‘Kkyek’ against the hideous man with the halo.

Immediately, the space began to warp, and a black sphere appeared, starting to suck everything in.

[It’s useless.]

But with the man’s sharp declaration, the halo began to shine brightly, and the black sphere disappeared without a trace.

‘!!!’

How annoying.

Could it be a halo that manipulates space?

The man, radiating the brilliant light of the halo, began to speak as if entranced.

[I have finally acquired the power of ‘God.’]

[The long-cherished wish of the alchemists has been accomplished by my hands!]

He appeared somewhat fanatical.

What about being a god?

I had my doubts about that.

He was definitely stronger than the hungry ghost or spider Reapers, but the extent of power remains uncertain.

The reason was the man’s destruction condition: [Destroying the ■ of longings.]

Since I can’t properly confirm his destruction condition with ‘eyes’, I can assume he has at least one foot in the outer being category, if not a black giant or red outer being level.

Well, his silhouette is most similar to ‘Old God.’

Trapped by longings, unable to fly.

The man looked down at me with a delightfully pleased expression.

[And by extinguishing traces of her challenge against God, I shall reclaim ‘that title’!]

As the increasingly agitated man applauded at the end, a powerful shockwave hit.

It was a shockwave that applied pressure to the space, shattering it.

I was flung out from the crumbling lattice-patterned space and rolled back into reality.

An empty city and buildings collapsing from the shockwave.

Drones capturing this place from afar.

And the colorful moonlight with four halos in the sky.

‘Fool.’

You should have fought in the confined space instead of pushing me away to Earth.

Hehe.

As I stopped rolling, the man’s figure began to emerge from the rift in space.

As his root-like legs touched the Earth, the twisted hands surrounding his body reached toward the ground, spreading out.

Remarkably, once those hands touched the Earth’s surface, they took root firmly as if they had always belonged there.

And as they took root, those decayed hands began to grow larger.

‘Huh?’

Like the roots of the ‘Old God.’

At the same time, the man’s body and the lattice began to grow larger as well.

As I gazed at the man who now bore the size of an outer being, I summoned a halo negating ability above my head.

Then, white flames clung all over the man’s body.

Watching that, I stuffed firewood into my right hand and tore apart the space, including the man.

Five streaks of scars extended from the sky down to the man.

But it didn’t connect.

‘Why?’

Upon closer inspection, I found a thin spatial barrier over the man’s skin blocking both the white flames and space cut.

The man opened his mouth with a smug expression, as if expecting this.

[To dominate space is proof of being a God.]

[As the purple moon controlling space was the strongest, the shard of God controlling space is supreme among all shards.]

And as the man swung his long arms like a black giant, many black spheres began to emerge in all directions.

Hundreds and thousands of black spheres that would grind everything into pieces.

My body was reduced to powder and disappeared, yet I instantly regenerated using firewood.

But the man’s assault didn’t end.

As the distorted halo of longings emitted light, the world began to twist.

A world that warped in every direction like a kaleidoscope.

Every time I touched the warped space, my body was torn apart.

I switched my halo to one of complete evasion and slashed through the twisted space with ‘Kkyek’.

[Playing tricks, are we?]

Just as I was about to tear through the distorted kaleidoscope, the man’s words echoed, and the space flipped again, causing my space cuts to turn back towards me.

Yet, the attack returning to me was deflected in all directions by the complete evasion halo.

At that moment, the distorted space returned to its original state, and the man’s voice rang out.

[Impressive. You’ve come this far with that ridiculous plan?]

The man spoke with a mix of admiration and melancholy.

Listening absent-mindedly to the man’s words, I checked my situation.

I still had enough firewood.

What measures can I employ?

The first is to call the Blue Idol Reaper for a double halo.

The second is to call the Hungry Ghost Reaper for a double halo.

The third is to summon all the Mini Reapers led by the cool and strong Tyrannosaurus.

The fourth is to summon the Blue Sphere and fight in Blue Giant Mode.

The fifth is to summon the Unchanging Sphere to show the true power of the Old God.

Lastly, summon Yerin to display the infinite power of firewood.

But there were hardly any choices to truly select from.

Options one through three likely wouldn’t suffice against the massively strengthened spatial halo of longings.

Four and five would ensure victory, but strangely I didn’t want to.

The giants seemed a bit unsettling.

Especially the Black Giant.

And summoning Yerin seemed risky, so it felt like a last resort.

‘….’

Ah, thinking is too annoying.

Should I just summon the Black Giant?

At that moment, a golden aurora began to appear in the sky.

It was an absurd flow of firewood.

Like thick desires flowing from the ground where the man was rooted, a massive amount of firewood flowed from the sky’s Mini Reaper Network.

And at the center of that flow was a Golden Reaper.

Standing on the only intact high-rise building, the Golden Reaper raised one hand.

It was the adorable Golden Horn Reaper sprouting cute horns.