Chapter 435

The sensation of teleportation faded, and all that surrounded me was thick smoke.

I arrived following the forceful cry of “Mommy!” but found myself in a place filled with an opaque fog, resembling the realm of the unknown. The smoke twisted and shifted as if deceiving my senses, curling around me and obscuring everything. The faint scent of something burning lingered in the air.

I quickly scanned the surroundings, my gaze darting from side to side.

Through the smoke, I could vaguely make out the scene before me. It was complete chaos.

The area looked like it had been devastated by war, a battlefield with the remains of buildings shattered as though bombarded. The ground had sunk from the impact of explosions, and I could hear a cracking sound as I landed, disrupting the ground beneath me. The contours of collapsed buildings became visible through the smoke.

These buildings, constructed in a style that seemed out of place in modern times, were stacked with large rocks, devoid of visible steel reinforcements. They were badly broken, but they looked vaguely familiar, like structures I had seen before in another place.

Broken glass, mirror shards, and dust filled the ground. This place was a battlefield, plain and simple.

Then, within the thick smoke, I sensed the faint glow of firewood.

It was a faint light, barely more than the weak glow of firewood, and from that light emerged familiar faces.

‘Yellow Detective…?’

The Yellow Detective and his junior staff, along with the Golden Horn Grim Reaper, were slowly emerging from the smoke. Though the sudden appearance of the Yellow Detective was puzzling, seeing the Golden Horn Grim Reaper nearby made it clear.

The Golden Horn Grim Reaper had called me here.

The first Grim Reaper to run away had always been with the detective group, so it made sense to find them together.

As soon as the Golden Horn Grim Reaper spotted me, it smiled brightly and waved.

“Mommy!”

But I didn’t have time to respond to its greeting. There were two objects behind the Golden Horn Grim Reaper that caught my attention.

‘Yerin…?’

The first was an object wearing a mix of black and white, dressed like Mini Yerin. At first glance, it looked like Yerin, but it was clearly not human. One of its eyes was shattered like glass, and instead of the golden firewood Yerin usually carried, this fake Yerin was holding pale firewood that burned white, which looked tasteless.

If the original Yerin was the golden Yerin, then this fake Yerin could be called the white Yerin.

And beyond this fake Yerin, I saw the second object.

It was the one I had been searching for— the man of the lamp.

At the moment I faced him, a sense of tension flooded my body.

The man of the lamp, standing before me, appeared far stronger than I had anticipated.

He didn’t look like the kind of opponent I’d find in the realm of the unknown, but my instincts warned me not to underestimate him.

I had thought he was weak because he had been running away from me.

Hmph.

Junior 2’s eyes were filled with tension.

Her gaze was fixed on the intense battle unfolding in the smoke.

Her beloved Golden Horn Grim Reaper had already jumped into the battlefield with the Gray Grim Reaper.

Meanwhile, fluffy white Goblins were gathering around Junior 2, as if to protect her in place of the Golden Horn Grim Reaper.

The battle began with a shift in the environment.

The ground, once torn apart by shells and bullets, quickly transformed into soft, white marshmallow terrain. The air, once filled with a pungent smoke, was now filled with the sweet scent of hot chocolate.

From this sweet ground, countless Mini Grim Reapers sprang up and charged toward the man of the lamp.

The first to attack was the Golden Grim Reaper, known as the Swordmaster, who had once been introduced on foreign SNS.

The golden sword slash, unleashed from the Golden Grim Reaper’s sword, cut through the air and flew toward the man of the lamp.

But surprisingly, the powerful strike vanished like a mirage the moment it reached the man of the lamp.

The strike had been filled with an immense force that even an ordinary person could feel, yet it had no effect at all?

Had it not left cracks in the space where the attack had passed, I would have felt like the strike was nothing but an illusion.

‘!’

Perhaps because of this, the Swordmaster Golden Grim Reaper’s face, normally expressionless like the Gray Grim Reaper, momentarily flashed with confusion.

At that moment, the Gray Grim Reaper moved.

The Gray Grim Reaper, donning a golden halo, merged with the Golden Horn Grim Reaper, Swordmaster Golden Grim Reaper, and the newly appeared Golden Cloaked Grim Reaper.

From this fusion emerged a Golden Grim Reaper, exuding overwhelming energy, as if to dominate the battlefield.

Golden aurora waves flickered in the sky, and endless golden flames cascaded down from the golden glow.

The cloak fluttering behind him seemed to merge with the aurora above, as if it was part of the sky itself.

From the sword the Golden Grim Reaper wielded, slashes that seemed capable of splitting the sky were relentlessly launched.

It was overwhelming.

No matter how powerful an object might be, such an attack seemed certain to crush it to pieces.

The smoke that had filled the ruins was swept away by the Golden Grim Reaper’s strikes, and the surroundings were soon filled with marshmallow terrain.

Junior 2 was stunned by the overwhelming scene.

Could the Golden Horn Grim Reaper win this easily?

It was such a grand and one-sided attack that Junior 2 couldn’t help but think this.

But contrary to her expectations, the space that had been completely shattered started to emit smoke again, and the man of the lamp walked out, unharmed.

The man of the lamp then opened his mouth and uttered an empathic wave that Junior 2 couldn’t understand.

[ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■.]

At that moment, the Gray Grim Reaper solemnly motioned for all the Mini Grim Reapers to fall back.

The three fused Golden Grim Reapers separated and retreated behind the Gray Grim Reaper.

After the battle, the Golden Horn Grim Reaper returned to Junior 2, looking incredibly exhausted.

Junior 2 gently stroked the tired Golden Horn Grim Reaper and looked toward the Gray Grim Reaper.

Then, a faint voice came from nearby.

“Ugh…”

Junior 2 turned her head, and the Yellow Detective, who had been lying motionless as though dead, slowly opened his eyes.

[You cannot hurt me.]

The man of the lamp said, beginning to walk toward me. As he did, it felt like something was tightening around me.

I used my ‘eyes’ to look at the man of the lamp, but no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find any of his destruction conditions.

It felt as though something was obstructing my ability to see the destruction conditions.

‘Hmm…’

I had a vague intuition about how I could see them.

Perhaps if I used the “Halo of Death” or donned the Black Giant’s flesh, I could see them.

But I didn’t know how to use the “Halo of Death,” and I didn’t feel like putting on the Black Giant’s corpse.

Ever since gathering all seven months, I had felt that if I called upon the Black Giant, everything would collapse.

I tried to wear the Halo of Space and kept cutting through space, but nothing seemed to reach the man of the lamp.

It felt like it was “the rule of this world” that I couldn’t hurt the man of the lamp.

It felt like fighting in the world of the unknown, where the unknown itself defied the laws.

Yet even though this place had already been filled with the Mini Grim Reaper Garden, this strange phenomenon occurred?

I tried to flip the space and push the man of the lamp away, but none of it worked.

[You cannot kill me with your power.]

The man of the lamp stopped walking and said that to me.

[Do not oppose me.]

[If you continue like this, I can easily kill you.]

And with a snap of his fingers, the space around me started to shatter.

It was as though I was tearing the space apart with the Halo of Space.

In an instant, my left hand was shattered. Surprised by the unexpected counterattack, I quickly backed away from the man of the lamp.

[Perhaps you’ve forgotten even the contract…]

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Each time the man of the lamp snapped his fingers, my limbs were severed along with the space.

Though I quickly regenerated with the firewood, it was an unreasonable situation where only one side’s attack worked.

‘Do I really have to call the Black Giant?’

As I started to think this, the man of the lamp stopped snapping his fingers and sent out an empathic wave.

[Once again, I say: Do not attack me.]

[You must live to witness the end created by humans.]

And with one final snap of his fingers, the space around me began to completely shatter.

It was as though the Halo of Space was tearing the world apart.

In an instant, my whole body was destroyed, and I woke up in the Mini Grim Reaper Valhalla.

‘He’s strong.’

Is it really time to summon the Black Giant?

As I lay in Valhalla, lost in thought, an old dream suddenly resurfaced.

The dream of the Blue Girl and the magical contract.

It was a meaningful dream, one that I had thought about deeply, but somehow it had been pushed to the back of my memory.