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A flash of golden light sliced through the darkness, adorning the sky.

A radiant light that filled the horizon with brilliance; it was the flash embodying the wishes of the Mini Reapers.

That sword strike cut through the misty wall, an impenetrable barrier which the contract-bound Mini Reapers could never cross, advancing beyond it.

The sound of space tearing followed the trajectory of the sword.

That strike was so threatening that even the Man of the Lamp, who had calmly taken the attacks from the Gray Reaper, had to twist his body to dodge it.

[….]

But at a moment no one anticipated, the strike flew off in an unexpected direction.

Swinging just past the Man of the Lamp, the attack flew directly toward a crack in space behind him.

A flicker of surprise crossed his face, obscured by smoke.

It was the moment the true intention of the Golden Reaper Fusion was revealed.

The Golden Reapers weren’t targeting the Man of the Lamp from the start.

From the very beginning, their goal was to eliminate the crack for spatial movement.

It was merely buying time for the Gray Reaper, ‘Mom,’ to return.

A subtle expression flickered across the man’s face.

For him, creating a crack in space was an incredibly easy task that barely took seconds.

‘To undertake such a reckless challenge just to buy a few seconds….’

The Man of the Lamp thought while watching the Golden Reapers descending from the sky as the fusion was undone.

Truly, this one attack was everything the Mini Reapers had bet on.

At that moment, the air around suddenly grew heavy, and an immense presence could be felt.

A contradictory sensation, as if it defied the order of the world, yet at the same time, as if the world welcomed it.

It was the signal announcing the return of the Gray Reaper.

[Oh no.]

A small sigh escaped the man’s lips.

*

Thump.

As I returned to the battlefield where the Golden Horn Reaper dwelled in the body of the Blue Girl, I heard a massive heartbeat that resonated only for me.

It felt as though something significant was happening in the world.

However, there were no changes on the battlefield to suggest such an occurrence.

Wearing uncomfortable shoes on a solid ground, I slowly moved through the fog.

Finally, when I reached the open lot beyond the fog, the Mini Reapers sprawled on the ground greeted me.

‘Mommy!’

‘Mom!’

The will of the Mini Reapers lay in their happiness.

It was a cheer imbued with a proud spirit, as though they had accomplished something.

The Mini Reapers seemed to lack the energy to even jump; they forced themselves up and then fell right back down.

With no strength in their legs, they slipped and landed headfirst.

It was a sight that involuntarily brought a smile to my face.

I approached the fallen Golden Reaper, helped him up, and brushed off the dirt.

‘Interesting.’

The Blue Girl and the Gray Reaper.

On the surface, they seemed somewhat similar, but in height, attire, and skin tone, they were different; yet the Mini Reapers recognized themselves easily, which felt a bit fascinating.

I then turned to look directly at the Man of the Lamp and slowly approached him.

[….]

At that moment, as my gaze met the Man of the Lamp’s, he muttered something as if he had realized something.

He began walking slowly toward a certain direction.

I followed him, traversing the short ruins.

Feeling a light, I looked up at the sky, where a blue light shimmered.

Simultaneously, the power-drained smoke slowly began to disperse.

Like dawn fog scattered by morning sunlight.

And the place we arrived at was the edge of a cliff where the sun was beginning to shine down.

[This ending is hollow, but… not bad.]

The Man of the Lamp, having reached the cliff’s edge, turned to me and spoke.

[The end of the world, which cannot be avoided, is near. The Last Alchemist.]

He seemed to be looking at me as he spoke, but it also felt like he was directing his words somewhere else.

I didn’t respond, yet he appeared to have come to some understanding.

Then, the intangible chains that had bound the Man of the Lamp began to break one by one.

Simultaneously, a deep, abyss-like smoke poured out from his body.

The more the Man of the Lamp lost his form, the more the black smoke flowed out.

The disintegrating ‘form that bound him’ resembled contracts that restrained the Man of the Lamp.

The black smoke that took over the place where the Man of the Lamp had vanished seemed to have no end in sight.

It filled the ground and even stained the sky black, continuously spreading without stopping.

That sight was truly a disaster-level object, covering the earth and filling the sky.

The black smoke consumed the lamps the Man of the Lamp had carried to the very end, and gradually expanded its range.

The level of black smoke, which had almost reached its limit, swiftly touched the External Being.

Yet strangely, I felt no tension at all.

Rather, despite the rank being insufficient, the Man of the Lamp, who could only be killed by a contract and possessed human-level intelligence, felt overwhelmingly stronger.

< ■ ■ ■ ■ >

The conditions for destruction were not in sight, but I smiled faintly and invoked the abilities inscribed in the body of the ‘Blue Girl.’

‘The first object. Golden flame filled with hope.’

Then I summoned the White Hungry Ghost and raised it towards the sky.

‘Finally, the pure white guardian that protects humanity.’

In that moment, the alchemy of the Blue Girl, far surpassing a supreme object, was unleashed.

“Alchemist’s Sun!”

Kyaa!

In an instant, the White Hungry Ghost radiated brilliant light and transformed into a colossal sun.

The White Hungry Ghost began to emit light like the sun, burning the black smoke.

A marshmallow sun that devoured the External Beings like a true sun.

“….”

In the place where all the black smoke had been erased, what remained was:

A desolate cliff that resembled the location where I had seen the contract in a dream.

And just one solitary book left behind.

I lifted the book and gazed at it intently.

It was an object I had never seen before, but the Blue Girl recognized it as a Magical Book.

The first Magical Book that had prompted the extraordinary phenomena in the world of Alchemists.

The contract Magical Book that grants wishes.

I looked down at the book that had lost its rank in the External Beings with ‘eyes.’

[I will burn it with golden firewood.]

Without hesitation, I conjured golden firewood from my hand and set the book ablaze, reducing it to ash.

Thus, the tale entwining the Man of the Lamp and the contract Magical Book came to an end.

*

Junior No. 2 clung to the White Hungry Ghost and the Golden Horn Reaper amidst endless black smoke.

In the darkness where not even one step ahead could be seen.

The Mini Reapers, using all their strength, crawled across the ground to protect Junior No. 2’s group, unsteadily managing their bodies.

At that moment, a brilliant white flash pierced the darkness from the forest, tearing through the veil of black smoke.

And the black smoke that filled the surroundings began to slowly disperse.

The first thing that caught my eye was the sky.

Through the vanishing smoke, clear blue light seeped in.

Like a hefty curtain being drawn aside, the blue sky began to reveal itself bit by bit.

Simultaneously, the sunlight that had been obscured by the black smoke began to shine through.

It was as though, after a downpour, the sun was shining through the cleared sky.

The beams of light grew more intense, illuminating the desolate battlefield where the fight had concluded.

The landscape revealed beneath that light was sheer desolation itself.

The ruins of the cult, completely shattered by bombardment, showed no signs of the battle between the Man of the Lamp and the Mini Reapers.

Only the traces of battle remained.

The ground melted as if glass under immense heat.

Deep cracks as if a giant serpent had slithered through.

Trees burned black, lifeless.

A Holy Maiden doll with one eye broken looked with a somewhat lonely expression, stroking the stone fragments which once formed the cult.

‘Waaah!’

‘It’s okay! Mommy will make you again!’

Surrounding the Holy Maiden doll were Mini Reapers that looked several times sadder than her, coming over to pat the doll.

To Junior No. 2, that scene resembled Researcher Yerin Oh from the Sehee Research Institute.

“It’s finally over.”

At that moment, the Yellow Detective rose from his seat and spoke softly.

He looked relieved, as if something had been thrown off.

Detective Sunbae had truly, truly worked hard for a long time to break free from the Man of the Lamp’s bindings.

With just three ordinary people, he had managed to break into a secret isolation facility where the head of the Central Research Institute had been trapped.

The gas lamp, which had been shackled to the detective’s hand with heavy iron chains, was now dissolving into powder and disappearing.

The smoke that constituted Watson was also slowly losing its strength and dispersing.

Was it because the smoke couldn’t shape itself properly?

That smoke oddly resembled a figure of someone, emanating a semblance to Detective Sunbae.

Speaking of which, I had heard that the Yellow Detective had changed people several times….

However, the seniors hadn’t shared any related stories at all.

Could it be related to that?

Within that smoke, along with the figure resembling Detective Sunbae, traces of many other people were also visible.

Men and women alike, their forms varied.

But just as Junior No. 2 blinked, the hazy smoke vanished without a trace.

At that moment, the Golden Horn Reaper, who had been dozing in my arms like a sleepyhead, suddenly opened his eyes and began to stretch his neck like a meerkat, gazing somewhere.

Turning my gaze, I found all the Mini Reapers sprawled on the ground gazing in the same direction.

‘Mom!’

‘Mommyyy!’

And from where the Mini Reapers were looking, a figure that resembled a human-colored Gray Reaper emerged.

‘Let’s go, kids.’

The girl with blue hair who appeared looked incredibly tired.