Chapter 458
In that moment, it felt as if the world had stopped.
The Golden Reaper’s consciousness expanded into a new dimension, and sensations never felt before flooded in like a tidal wave.
It was as if a door, long closed, had finally opened, and his very existence began to be reconstructed into a new form.
“Did the First Sword ever experience something like this?”
The sensation was so unique that the Golden Reaper felt a bit of wonder.
Thus, the Golden Reaper opened his eyes in his new form.
The abundant firewood his mother had instilled in him.
The spirit that had moved separately from his physical body.
And the Cycle Halo.
Perhaps because of these three variables, the Golden Reaper’s evolution took on a peculiar shape with special abilities.
The first noticeable change was the spirit.
A new spirit, moving separately from the body, had formed.
However, it wasn’t painful or uncomfortable.
Rather, it felt natural, like moving limbs that had always been there.
In other words, the Golden Reaper could now freely control not only his original physical body but also his spirit.
It felt as though his body had become two!
The second change felt was the double strength of the firewood.
His mother had pushed him beyond his limits before, and there was already a considerable amount of firewood, but now he could store twice as much.
Perhaps it was because the separated spirit could also contain firewood?
As that warm energy enveloped his body, a sense of confidence surged within him, making him feel like he could accomplish anything.
Finally, the Cycle Halo was now completely under the Golden Reaper’s control.
This was the power he had desperately longed for until the very end.
Just like the Halo of Command used by the Blue Idol Reaper.
If it were his mother’s Halo, he would be able to absorb anything into his spirit and freely use it.
The Golden Reaper, looking quite unusual from the outside, had the spirit trailing behind him like a shadow, centered around his original physical form.
But there was something strange.
The form of the spirit was in the shape of a “Dagji.”
It seemed as though someone had intentionally shaped it like that.
“Why…?”
The Golden Reaper looked up at his spirit, feeling confused.
Having no knowledge that his mother had been continuously making him into a “Dagji,” the Golden Reaper could only feel puzzled.
“It seems like it’s because it wasn’t a proper awakening…”
The Golden Reaper came to his own conclusion.
In fact, this was not something he needed to think too much about.
He was simply pleased with his new form.
And most importantly, he had now become able to protect his attachment human.
No matter what the spirit’s round, fish-like form looked like, it no longer mattered.
Feeling the new power enveloping his body, the Golden Reaper began to expand the realm of the Cycle in all directions.
Like his mother summoning the marshmallow garden.
Like foreign beings eroding the rules of reality.
Then, the first thing to change was Bora, whose cheeks, once emaciated and lifeless, began to plump up.
The vitality that had been forcefully expanded by alchemy but had completely depleted now began to refill.
“It’s okay now…!”
The Golden Reaper smiled softly as he looked down at the sleeping attachment human.
Soon after, the fish-like figures, having been vaguely revived like puppets, completely integrated into the Mini Reaper garden and began to move.
Kyu!
The colorful stone fish were resurrected just as they had been before.
And the Alchemist Fish, which was powerful enough to handle a Halo, opened its eyes once more.
It wasn’t in a half-melted form, but instead, it looked like the pure, complete white stone fish from the memory of the attachment human.
And finally, the dark sky full of clouds changed into a star-filled night sky, and the blue grasslands replaced the black sea.
It was the Mini Reaper Valhalla descending into the mortal world.
‘!’
The behavior of the Red Reapers changed upon seeing this.
They became more aggressive.
As though they had become the Golden Reaper themselves, they ignited flames all over their bodies and began charging forward.
“Valhalla is near!”
“Charge!”
“Revolution!”
It was like a continuous wave of Golden Reapers, resurrecting endlessly beside the Gray Reaper and constantly charging forward.
The Shark Foreign Object began to fall into a defensive position.
The fire that the Red Sun Reaper created in their space blocked their retreat, while the Mini Reaper Valhalla slowly expanded their domain as if they were going to consume the Shark Foreign Object.
The Shark Foreign Object seemed to shrink in size every time it was attacked.
Its dignity was visibly collapsing.
Under the constant assault from the Red Reapers and the pressure of Mini Reaper Valhalla, the once majestic Shark Foreign Object, which swam through the Evolution Fluid with authority, was growing smaller and smaller.
The Golden Reaper instinctively knew the moment had come.
Now was the time to strike the final blow.
He gathered all the remaining firewood in his body.
A faint golden flame surged from both his physical body and his spirit.
And when the Golden Reaper reached out to the Alchemist Fish, its stone body became even harder and heavier.
It felt as solid as the Black Reaper’s body and as heavy as the bloated belly of his Dagji mother’s distant future.
Then, the Golden Reaper, holding the stone fish, shot into the sky and began to fall at great speed.
It was a comet wrapped in deadly golden firewood, a fatal strike against the harmful Object.
“Stone Fish!”
Kyu!
The Golden Reaper’s will and the stone fish’s cry echoed.
Bang!
With the thunderous sound, the stone fish struck the Shark Foreign Object.
The shockwave spread, shaking the blue grass of Valhalla.
In the face of that tremendous blow, the Shark Foreign Object shattered like glass.
The once menacing appearance that had leisurely faced off against the Red Sun Reaper and the Golden Reaper was now scattered, its flesh flying in all directions as it fell into the ocean of Evolution Fluid.
A brief silence fell over the battlefield.
“We won!”
“Victory of the revolution!”
Soon after, the Red Reapers’ triumphant will erupted.
Amidst the ruckus, the Golden Reaper silently smiled and gazed at the peacefully sleeping attachment human.
Atop the solitary peak of the Black Planet, which had melted away.
I was clapping while watching the Mini Reapers’ struggle, in a state of ghostification.
“To think they defeated a Foreign Object-level on their own!”
It was truly the new horizon of automatic hunting!
Of course, that Shark Foreign Object was a strange one without any erosion zone.
Why didn’t it have a zone even though it touched a Foreign Object?
That was a bit of a question.
It didn’t seem affected by the Evolution Fluid, so it wasn’t twisted by it…
Upon further thought, the Worm Foreign Object also had a slightly strange erosion zone.
Especially since the erosion of other Foreign Objects felt like the rules of the world were being completely disrupted.
“They all look so happy.”
As I silently watched the Mini Reapers celebrating their victory, hugging each other and rubbing cheeks, I began to take note of significant points.
In this automatic hunting, there were three notable things.
The first was the Cycle Halo, which had appeared without any effort!
From its use, it seemed connected to death and resurrection, and the Mini Reaper Valhalla, so I was quite excited.
Especially if human resurrection were possible, it would solve Yerin’s lifespan problem as well.
The second was the Red Sun Reaper, who, without even experimenting, proved that they could use the Halo of Ability Nullification!
And the final, most important point in this automatic hunting, was the new Golden Halo Reaper.
Though I hadn’t tested whether it could handle other Halos, I had a feeling it could, so the naming would probably be suitable.
Hehe.
The most important point was that the Golden Halo Reaper was a special variant of the Golden Reaper.
The Golden Reaper had many variants and was suited for fusion, but its only flaw had been that there was no usable Halo.
But now that flaw was a thing of the past.
The Golden Halo Reaper had arrived!
Golden Reaper First Sword.
Golden Cloak Reaper.
Golden Horn Reaper.
And Golden Halo Reaper.
Just imagining combining these together made a happy smile spread across my face.
Hehe.
“By the way, I think Hug Reaper’s rank is too low. Should I throw it in front of a Foreign Object and guide its growth?”
Thunk.
Just as I was thinking this, something fell before me.
A piece of the Shark Foreign Object’s shattered flesh.
Now that I thought about it, it was strange.
Foreign Objects and Objects should break down into powder, so why did the Shark Foreign Object disassemble into flesh?
‘!’
When I looked down to confirm, the flesh was twitching.
It wasn’t the flesh of the Shark Foreign Object.
“Sardine?”
It looked more like a grotesque Object, twisted into the form of a sardine from the Netherworld than just torn flesh.
At that moment, the sea, filled with black Evolution Fluid, began to ripple.
At first, it was a slight disturbance.
But the vibrations grew larger, and soon the entire sea seemed to be boiling.
From the entire Black Sea, and the deep abyss, something was coming.
The first thing to appear was a sardine.
It looked just like the twisted Netherworld sardine that had burst out of the Shark Foreign Object’s body.
And then, following it, the second, third… thousands, tens of thousands of sardines shot up from the depths of the Black Sea.
The sardines soaring into the sky looked like living pillars.
They began to gather in the air.
Like a giant puzzle being formed, with tens of thousands of small pieces fitting together.
The first form to take shape was a giant gill.
The sardines stacked up layer by layer, creating the gill, and every time it inhaled and exhaled seawater, black Evolution Fluid surged forth.
Next came the sharp teeth.
Thousands of sardines individually formed the shape of teeth, and Evolution Fluid trickled through the gaps.
Finally, the last piece completed was the eye.
The darkest sardines that had risen from the deep sea came together to form the eye.
The completed eye was already dull and rotting, as though it had died.
Finally, it took on its full form.
The giant shark, created by tens of thousands of sardines.
It was the true form of the Shark Foreign Object, having gathered all the pieces that had been devouring Objects across the Black Planet’s oceans.
The sardines that formed the surface of the shark constantly moved.
Like a living armor, each sardine moved with independent will but still formed a perfect harmony.
The shape of the shark kept changing, but its fundamental form remained.
Well, since it was a group of sardines, we should probably call it the Sardine Foreign Object now…
“It seems like the kids might have a hard time beating that.”
The distorted Netherworld sardine Foreign Object looked stronger than the Worm Foreign Object.
I thought that as I took a step toward the kids.
