Chapter 490
A mysterious place where winter and summer overlap somewhere in Eastern Europe.
A cold snowflake brushed past a green leaf.
On the left, an endless snowy field stretched out, while on the right, a dense jungle proudly displayed its grandeur.
In this strange place where two seasons met, the Fusion Reaper had come in response to the Golden Reaper’s summons.
‘There’s a huge dome here. Come quickly. The human is in danger!’
Strangely, the summons wasn’t broadcast through the network, but instead was a direct message aimed specifically at the Fusion Reaper.
Moreover, unlike the usual short and simple messages from the Golden Reapers, this one was unusually long and detailed.
The Fusion Reaper briefly felt confused but soon shook it off.
Golden Reapers, too, had their individual personalities.
Lately, there had been a growing number of Golden Reapers who enjoyed reading books, so perhaps it wasn’t so strange.
Step, step.
The sound of small footsteps broke the silence in the air.
The summoned Golden Reaper led the way, with the Fusion Reaper following behind.
The wind from the cold snowy field on the left mixed with the humid air from the jungle on the right, creating a strange mist.
Time passed.
At first, the Fusion Reaper followed without much thought, but soon, thirty minutes had gone by.
A growing sense of something being wrong began to creep in.
Even if it was difficult to find the dome, it was strange to have been searching for so long.
Just as that thought crossed the Fusion Reaper’s mind, a will was sent from the Golden Reaper.
‘The dome was here, but now it’s gone!’
‘!’
As the Golden Reaper’s will reached the Fusion Reaper once again, it stopped in its tracks.
Under normal circumstances, this would be a situation that could be brushed off with a warm smile.
But this time, it was different.
This was already the third time.
The Golden Reaper would call with all sorts of reasons, only for nothing to have happened. This was the third time!
On the strange boundary where the snowy field met the jungle, the Fusion Reaper cast its first suspicious glance at the Golden Reaper.
The Fusion Reaper slowly extended its hand.
One by one, the strange details started to come to mind.
The endless walk, the three futile trips, and most importantly…
The Golden Reaper, who had never once made eye contact with it.
Without hesitation, the Fusion Reaper grabbed the Golden Reaper’s face.
And forcibly turned it to face its direction.
‘Ah!’
The Golden Reaper desperately resisted.
It twisted its small body, trying to turn its head, but it was useless.
Against the strength of the cloak-wearing Reaper, which could lift massive rocks, the Golden Reaper’s resistance was as helpless as a butterfly’s fluttering wings.
‘Don’t make eye contact…’
The Golden Reaper’s sorrowful will poured out.
But it was already too late.
The Fusion Reaper’s grip on the Golden Reaper’s face slowly turned it, and finally, their gazes met.
In that instant, the Fusion Reaper’s eyes widened.
The Golden Reaper’s pupils were stained red, as if soaked in blood.
The usual warm golden glow was completely gone, replaced by a chilling crimson hue.
‘Red lenses…?’
The Fusion Reaper cautiously extended a hand to confirm, but there were no lenses.
Only the purely red-stained pupils of the Golden Reaper were staring back at it.
‘Why was I not supposed to make eye contact?’
The Golden Reaper’s will faltered.
A confused will, as if it didn’t even know what it was doing, spilled out.
It was like the mental contamination seen in humans.
The Fusion Reaper’s expression froze in an instant.
‘A trap!’
Now everything became clear.
It was hard to believe that it had not noticed, despite facing the mentally contaminated Golden Reaper so close.
There was no more hesitation.
The Fusion Reaper immediately took action.
It gathered a massive amount of firewood and infused it into the Golden Reaper.
The red-eyed pupils gradually faded, and eventually, the original golden hue returned.
As soon as the mental contamination was cleared, the Fusion Reaper hurriedly returned to the Mini Reaper Garden without hesitation.
Every time the red mist pulsed, the world shook.
The light of the color universe covered the sky, and I gritted my teeth, continuing the fight.
I could still hear the Golden Reaper’s cries, but I still couldn’t tear apart that harmful creature.
‘This is so tough…’
One of my arms was completely unresponsive.
No, more precisely, my half-body was actively obstructing me.
Half of my vision was gone, and it even stole my firewood, scattering it into the air.
It was as if two wills were fighting within one body.
The Halo of Death, or any other Halo, couldn’t function properly.
Whether it was because my half-body had become uncontrollable, or if the red foreign entity was actively interfering, I couldn’t tell.
I was simply frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t use even half of my abilities properly.
Each time the red mist pulsed again, the carefully constructed structures of the Mini Reapers crumbled.
The golden walls of the knight’s fortress collapsed, and the hospital, which had been glowing warmly, shattered with the screams of jelly pigs.
The magnificent coliseum was already half-destroyed, and the cookie house, filled with sweet smells, had vanished without a trace.
But surprisingly, the Mini Reapers didn’t seem to care at all about the collapse of the facilities they had cherished.
‘Mom, hang in there!’
‘Mom, don’t lose!’
The children were only sending their earnest cheers toward me.
‘Aaah!’
‘I got bitten!’
Sometimes, a Mini Reaper, with eyes turned bright red from the mist, would bite its companion, but it would quickly regain its sanity with the help of other Mini Reapers.
Now, there were only two possible methods I could use.
The first was to use the unchanging black unchanging orb of faith and trust.
Perhaps, the moment I wielded the Black Giant, I could rip apart that red foreign entity.
Since my true self had fully descended, there would be no escape for it.
But my intuition strongly warned against it.
The moment I used the unchanging orb, a disaster greater than the current crisis would come upon us.
This wasn’t just a guess—it was a strong, almost prophetic feeling.
In other words, the unchanging orb was something I should only use as a last resort.
The second method was to use the Ghost Reaper’s intensity to rise to the level of the foreign entity’s power.
By doing so, I would be able to break free from the mental contamination, and then the Halo of Death could be used freely.
If I had the Halo of Death, I could resolve this entire situation in an instant.
But there was a fatal flaw here as well.
I couldn’t be sure if I would retain my sanity even after becoming a foreign entity.
If I lost my mind, even if I defeated the red foreign entity, it would only be a new disaster replacing the ‘me’ that was once in control.
In this hopeless situation, as I considered summoning the Ghost Reaper and getting stabbed by the intensity, I saw two small figures running from afar.
It was the Bleached Reaper and the Hug Reaper, with a Halo.
I was genuinely shocked.
It seemed dangerous for them to get so close, yet they ran out like this. What were they thinking?
I was about to shout for them to turn back, but something felt off, and I stopped my will.
Both of them looked perfectly fine.
The Hug Reaper was surrounded by a blue mist, similar to the garden, so it seemed like it had overcome the mental contamination.
But the Bleached Reaper, despite having no protection, was hopping along with its short legs and still appeared fine.
No, the Bleached Reaper seemed more stable, while the Hug Reaper looked distressed.
Could it be that there’s a solution for mental contamination?
I began to feel a surge of hope as I watched the Bleached Reaper hopping toward me.
The victory of the red foreign entity seemed almost certain.
Within the space where its consciousness spread, the life force of those resisting it drained away, like sand slipping through an hourglass.
Their resistance was nothing more than dust scattered in the cosmos.
It was meaningless, insignificant.
The ‘long-awaited wish’ that had waited for endless years was now right in front of me.
It would soon be within my grasp, the thing that would complete this imperfect existence.
Now, on a higher plane…
Beyond the ‘half-body’ that had been chased away, on a higher level…
The time was coming to crush this trivial enemy and rise to the true throne of the gods.
In that moment, the ecstasy of victory overwhelmed the consciousness.
An unexpected light erupted.
Flames of golden and white light swirled in all directions.
The two flames merged into one and became a massive torch, piercing through the red foreign entity’s carefully constructed realm as if tearing paper.
The realm that had been built over countless eons crumbled in an instant.
Beyond the crack created by the flames, the ‘enemy’ appeared.
A shape strangely mixed with gray and white.
A weak existence that hadn’t even become a true half-body, failing to gain a proper form or strength.
But it seemed to mock the laws of the universe, piercing through everything with a single punch.
At the moment when the perfect victory shattered, the consciousness of the red foreign entity shook for the first time.
