Deep in the Mini Reapers’ garden, it had transformed into something resembling a hospital.

The courtyard of the Sehee Research Lab bustled with Mini Reapers being constantly transported, alongside Black Reapers tending to those who had been turned into lead figurines.

While I was fighting, the Black Reapers worked diligently to move the Mini Reapers until all the injured had been safely gathered.

However, though they had managed to bring everyone to the garden, they were clueless about how to heal them.

‘What do we do!’

The Black Reapers looked at each other in panic.

One Black Reaper, who loved watching TV with me, suddenly raised his hand and projected his thought.

‘Bandages!’

‘?’

Many of the Black Reapers didn’t know what a bandage was, but they quickly received the information from those who did.

They spread out to find bandages, then began wrapping the Mini Reapers until they looked like little mummies.

Before long, the garden was filled with round bundles of bandaged Mini Reapers.

Thump. Thump.

I kept walking slowly toward the muttering green jade humanoid, hoping he’d realize his efforts were futile and succumb to fear.

The green jade figure was sinister, but he didn’t seem formidable enough to pose a threat to me, no matter what he tried.

“Return to your true form, lead puppet.”

He whispered, and a wave of power like the one that had incapacitated the Mini Reapers hit me.

Creak. Creak.

My skin began to revert to lead, and the sound of unoiled machinery echoed from my body.

“Return to your true form.” “Return to your true form!” “Return to your true form!!”

As I continued advancing, seemingly unaffected, the jade figure frantically unleashed more waves of energy.

Useless.

I burned through copious amounts of fuel to revert my leadened parts back to normal.

And I kept walking.

Thump. Thump.

With each step, the faint hints of powerlessness and dismay from him grew stronger.

But it wasn’t enough.

For what he did to the Mini Reapers, he had a lot more despair to experience.

Just as he was descending into despair, the green jade figure changed his approach.

A massive sphere made of jade.

And an immense power gathering within it.

Anyone with the ability to sense energy would instantly recognize the purpose of that sphere.

Widespread destruction.

It was meant to kill every human in the vicinity.

Since it was a physical explosion, I had many ways to handle it.

I could isolate the explosion by creating a space barrier, or I could summon the Mini Reapers’ garden to counter the blast.

And there was one method I preferred not to use.

That method was using the Halo, which nullifies all abilities.

But the explosion was primed faster than I expected, so I resorted to the most certain yet least desirable method.

I donned the Halo, and the familiar, excruciating pain engulfed me.

A burning sensation as if my entire body were disintegrating.

But it was effective.

The jade sphere, which should have detonated, merely hovered, emitting a fierce light.

Instead of exploding, it turned into a cascade of white flames, which began falling across Seoul like delicate snowflakes.

They were intangible, unable to be touched or accumulated, softening the darkening night sky.

“What… why?”

The green jade figure looked up, baffled by the falling white flames.

I glared at him, the pain of the Halo fueling my intensity.

The green jade figure took a nervous step back, as if intimidated by my expression.

Then, shaking off his fear, he advanced again and manipulated the jade.

He reformed the jade orb into a wall, launching beams of light.

He forged it into a hammer and tried to crush me.

All manner of attacks flew my way.

I kept a neutral expression, observing and pondering.

Wasn’t the Halo supposed to nullify abilities, rather than erase them?

This green jade figure could still use powers within the Halo’s domain, but any effect was transformed into harmless white flames.

What made it different?

As I pondered, his attacks grew more intense.

The beams, initially targeting small areas, expanded until they threatened the entire research lab.

I hadn’t been harmed, but I decided it was time to stop.

The Halo wasn’t behaving as expected, and unforeseen complications could arise.

Even if it wasn’t the most powerful attack, its scope was vast enough to be dangerous.

Humans are fragile enough to die from low-level attacks.

This isn’t some distant place like the United States—it’s close to Yerin.

I extended my hand and clenched my fist to prevent any further nonsense.

Crack.

With a crushing sound, a part of the jade figure disappeared beyond space.

Crunch. Crunch.

Each time I clenched my fist, fragments of the jade were ground to dust and vanished.

“No! No, no!”

The jade figure, scrambling to feel for his missing parts, seemed desperate.

I’d assumed he could regenerate instantly and wasn’t worth much, but…

Perhaps those parts were more valuable than I thought.

With a sly grin, I kept tearing at space.

I continued until the entire jade wall behind him, once like a folding screen, had vanished.

As the green jade figure knelt in despair, he fell to the ground, babbling incomprehensibly.

I thought it was time to wrap things up.

And then a presence materialized.

It was as if it had been there all along, seamlessly blending with its surroundings.

[Insufficient.]

[Nowhere near enough.]

It was an ominous, hideous thing.

Even though it stood before me, I couldn’t fully sense it, as though it were a ghost.

It was a human-shaped monster, composed of torn flesh and ominous red jade.

Instinctively, I activated my Eyes.

<■ ■ ■ ■ ■>

Yet, I couldn’t discern its destruction condition.

The inability to see a destruction condition was new.

In the past, even if they were cryptic, the conditions had always been clear enough to follow.

Like the Iron Tower’s Nostalgia or Ogre’s Stone Made by the Object of Beginning.

This was only the third time I’d encountered an object whose destruction condition wasn’t visible.

The Iron Tower with shifting conditions.

My own invisibility to destruction conditions.

And now this abominable being with its condition obscured by ■ marks.

What should I do with an object that has no discernible destruction condition?

As I stood there, weighing my options, the situation took an unexpected turn.

Munch. Munch.

I heard the sound of something hard being devoured.

The crimson creature, which seemed to be its ally, began eating the green jade figure.

Starting with its head.

“Why… why?”

The jade figure struggled, his face a mask of disbelief.

“Please, forgive me! Oh god!”

He writhed at first, but as more of his head was consumed, his movements slowed until he went limp.

“Help… help me…”

He reached toward me, begging softly, before collapsing like those brain-eaten monsters.

Something essential had been consumed, for he did not regenerate. He lay motionless, like a jade statue.

[Insufficient.]

[Nowhere near enough.]

The crimson monster, having devoured the jade figure’s brain, turned to me, muttering about insufficiency.

[I need your blood and flesh.]

It began to stumble toward me like a zombie.

Reaching forward, slowly.

As it advanced, its presence seemed to flicker and vanish.

[Insufficient.]

The next moment, it whispered right behind me.

I felt it grip my head, and in surprise, I opened my mouth as if to scream.

“!”

I was so startled that I almost forgot I couldn’t scream, and just as I was about to yell, I remembered.

No sound escaped my lungs, and in a panic, I tore through the surrounding space.

But even as space shattered, the creature remained unaffected, like a hologram or an illusion, unfazed by the broken world around it.

None of my usual techniques worked, except one.

I summoned the Mini Reapers’ garden!

As the garden expanded beneath me, the creature was pushed out of space.

Phew, that was close.

The fuel, which had been wildly flaring, calmed slightly as the distance grew.

I placed a hand over my chest to steady myself.

And I watched the unbreakable creature.

It wandered around the garden, seemingly unaware of my presence inside.

It moved as if the garden didn’t exist, as though it could walk in from the west and suddenly emerge from the east.

What on earth was this?