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‘!’

As soon as I crossed the dimension, there appeared a strangely shaped Black Reaper.

Draped in something resembling clothes, with a softly glowing halo hovering above its head, it was a special Mini Reaper I had never seen before.

‘This seems to be on par with the 1st Sword, doesn’t it?’

Just looking at the torn bodies of the butterflies below made that clear.

Those butterflies were of a level that even the ordinary Golden Reapers would struggle to handle.

Seeing so many of those butterflies slaughtered, it was evident that this Black Hooded Reaper was no ordinary foe.

‘Hmm, since it looks like it’s wearing a hood, I’ll just call it the ‘Black Hooded Reaper’.’

I simply designated the name for the Black Hooded Reaper and scanned my surroundings.

The place I arrived at after crossing the dimension resembled an endless Color Universe.

Above me, the Color Universe glowed more vividly, feeling even closer.

Below that, the culprit who injured the Black Hooded Reaper, the External Being Butterfly, lay its gigantic form sprawled on the ground.

While I was quickly surveying the area, the Black Hooded Reaper in front of me suddenly began to emit a blinding light.

The little Black Hooded Reaper’s body trembled as if it were about to explode at any moment.

‘Stop! Knock it off!’

I rushed toward the Black Hooded Reaper in surprise.

Even when I appeared right in front of it, it still wanted to self-destruct…

I stood before the Black Hooded Reaper and poked its head with my finger.

At that moment, a torrent of golden firewood burst forth from my fingertip, enveloping the Black Hooded Reaper’s body.

The dazzling golden flames that followed my will wrapped around the Reaper’s entire form, suppressing the impending explosion.

The firewood that had been boiling as if it would burst at any moment quieted down, and its cracked body mended in an instant.

The Black Hooded Reaper, wrapped in the golden flames, slowly opened its eyes.

In those eyes, confusion and disbelief swirled together.

‘Mama? Is that really you?’

The Black Hooded Reaper rubbed its eyes as if seeing an illusion and looked at me.

As the questions in its eyes gradually cleared to certainty, the Black Hooded Reaper smiled with joy and rushed toward me.

‘It’s really mom!’

It looked just like a lost child who had found its mother.

I wanted to pat its head absentmindedly, but I decided to scold it for worrying me and attempting self-detonation.

Just as the Black Hooded Reaper dashed towards me, I lightly tapped its forehead.

‘Ow!’

The Black Hooded Reaper stumbled back, rubbing its forehead in surprise.

Then, it turned into a dazed form and collapsed onto the ground.

‘Waaah!’

Even lying on the ground as a dazed being, the Black Hooded Reaper couldn’t help but giggle happily.

I gave the dazed Reaper a few pats on the belly and then stood up to look around.

‘By the way, what on earth is this place…’

To the naked eye, it appeared to be a desolate space, but it felt somewhat different to me.

‘Mama, come quickly!’

‘Mama, I did well, right?’

‘I fought until the end!’

‘I hope the pillar of light I made shows up for mama…’

Countless Mini Reapers’ wills were woven into this space.

Just how many Mini Reapers poured their will towards me for it to be embedded in the very fabric of the space?

It was a letter from the Mini Reapers visible only to me.

Listening to the letters left by the Mini Reapers, I lifted my gaze and faced the External Being Butterfly.

‘So, you’re the one who hurt our children, huh?’

I glared up at the butterfly with a fierce expression.

That butterfly was an External Being, but it was so injured that it lost its status.

The huge claw marks etched into its body were probably wounds left by the Black Giant.

Moreover, since it was forced to wear a halo, it seemed the injuries were worsening without healing.

‘How bold to kidnap our child with such meager ability.’

I resolved to tear that External Being Butterfly to shreds.

*

[■ ■ ■ !]

For an External Being that had no concept of time, the emotion of ‘waiting’ had originally been incomprehensible.

However, the External Being Butterfly had now come to understand that meaning.

First, due to the lethal injury received from the Black External Being, having lost its status, it was caught in time.

And once more, through constant battles with those minions.

It had acquired the feeling of ‘waiting’ for the second time.

Anticipation and anxiety.

These two emotions were new experiences for the External Being Butterfly.

The hope of escaping to an area free of the Black Giant’s influence after eliminating all the pesky lower beings.

The hope of completely taking the ‘eye’ belonging to the Black Giant as its own.

The anxiety that the Black Giant could appear at any moment.

These feelings dominated the consciousness of the External Being Butterfly.

And in the final moment.

As it completely eliminated the Black Giant’s minions and was on the brink of leaving the Black Giant’s domain.

A minion wielding golden flames emerged, acting as a pesky obstacle.

But it was insufficient to impede the progress of the External Being Butterfly.

The External Being Butterfly overcame that presence effortlessly and attempted to continue moving forward.

Then, an unexpected situation arose.

Something resembling the Black Giant suddenly appeared.

[■ ■ ■ ■ ■]

Neither the atmosphere nor the appearance nor the emitted status bore any resemblance.

Yet it felt like something that resembled the Black Giant.

[■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■]

That something similar to the Black Giant began to spatially cut and slice the External Being Butterfly.

Slowly, little by little, so as not to break it all at once.

Amidst the storm of spatial cuts ripping apart the surroundings, the External Being Butterfly experienced the feeling of ‘injustice’ for the first time.

Why had that being, which had not appeared for so long, chosen to reveal itself now?

This question fiercely shook the consciousness of the External Being Butterfly.

As the moment of destruction approached, the External Being Butterfly made its final choice.

It decided to give up the ‘eye’ it had treasured so much.

The eye stolen from the Black Giant.

The very reason for all this waiting.

It gave it up.

As the bright, white glow fell to the ground, it transformed into a flash and disappeared.

The ‘eye’ eventually returned to the land ruled by the Black Giant.

Simultaneously, the form of the External Being Butterfly, which had maintained its butterfly shape, began to disintegrate.

The essential form of the External Being Butterfly was something that could not be captured visually.

The butterfly was originally a being that transcended the physical laws of this world.

As the form of the butterfly collapsed, it recognized that fact once more.

And the External Being began to ravenously devour the world.

*

It seemed this incident would soon come to an end.

Of course, it made sense since that External Being Butterfly was so severely injured that it was in tatters, and the destruction conditions were clearly in sight.

[Damage severe enough to lose status.]

I filled the destruction conditions of the External Being Butterfly and avenged the Black Hooded Reaper as well.

I was slicing the External Being Butterfly with spatial cuts.

Cutting off its last remaining leg to render it immobile.

Chopping away even the remnants of its wings down to the roots.

Finally, I was about to slice the plump body of the butterfly.

‘It seems the butterfly is about to be destroyed…’ Just then, the halo fell from above the butterfly’s head.

And that halo turned into a flash before disappearing somewhere.

‘!!!’

At that moment, the form of the External Being Butterfly began to dissolve into the air, and the very fabric of space began to shift.

As if the entire space were crystallized, it reflected light, and a profusion of sharp cracks was etched into the space like shattered glass.

Those broken shards were forming a butterfly shape.

A crystal butterfly reflecting a clear image like a mirror.

A reflected image in the butterfly that possessed many facets like a crafted diamond.

And an abundance of crystal butterflies to fill the entire space.

As countless crystal butterflies continued reflecting each other, the mirror-like images of the crystal butterflies appeared jumbled and distorted, like a room made entirely of mirrors.

And upon looking at those distorted shapes, the forms reflected within the crystal began to erode reality.

‘!!!’

The problem was that my field of vision encompassed 360 degrees.

Distorted figures began to fill every direction.

My limbs twisted and severed like a mirror image, and golden firewood flowed out of the wounds like blood.

< ■ ■ ■ >

To make matters worse, even the destruction conditions were obscured.

‘Mama!’

‘We’re here!’

And amidst the space beginning to flip upside down in all directions, I heard the mini reapers rushing toward me.

*

Even as the concept of time and space blurred, the External Being Butterfly was confident of its victory.

The External Being Butterfly was recovering its status at a rapid pace.

Moreover, the space that the External Being Butterfly began to erode effectively disabled its enemies.

The minions of the Black Giant, who possessed human-like awareness, and the Black Giant itself, which had lost both status and size.

The suddenly emerging presence resembled the Black Giant, yet lacked significantly in status.

It only had a limit that prevented it from reaching the External Being.

This posed no threat to the External Being Butterfly.

Amidst the chaotic space, the panicking presence of the minions was detected.

‘I’m dizzy!’

‘Where’s mom?’

In such a confusing situation, the External Being Butterfly could detect a specific pattern.

In stark contrast to the significantly strengthened minions of the Black Giant, the appearance of the Black Giant itself was noticeably weakened.

This was presumed to be the result of the Black Giant distributing its status among its minions.

However, from the perspective of the External Being Butterfly, this strategy was incomprehensible.

A status that could not reach the External Being held no meaning.

At that moment, an unexpected incident occurred.

A minion that had passed through the dimensional gap formed a golden, translucent blade and started to pierce through the chaotic space.

‘Robbery!’

Ignoring the complicated entanglement of space, the golden blade shot straight and accurately penetrated the core of the waning Black Giant.

It was a rebellion, a betrayal.

This was interpreted as an inevitable [internal division] caused by the excessively empowered minion.

The more the External Being Butterfly recovered, the more the concepts of victory and defeat blurred within its consciousness.

Nonetheless, within the last remaining faint awareness, its intuitive certainty of victory grew stronger.

[!]

In that moment of conviction in victory, the presence of the External Being burst forth from the domain of the External Being Butterfly.

A drop.

A drop of the status that the waning Black Giant had been lacking was filled.

The land surrounding the waning Black Giant turned white, and the world began to erode.