Like a ghost from a horror movie, the crimson creature’s limbs twisted grotesquely as it moved around aimlessly.

The red creature wandered the space where I stood, oblivious to my presence inside the Mini Reapers' garden.

‘Wow, that was close.’

It was the first time something had suddenly appeared behind me and grabbed me like that; it was startling.

For something to shock me like that, despite my awareness of everything around me—impressive.

I took a deep breath, watching the red creature as it roamed outside, aimlessly.

Once I felt confident that the garden was safe, I began to observe the crimson creature closely.

It had the shape of a human, but its movements were anything but human.

Its faceless, hollow visage seemed to gaze at nothing, as if looking into an empty void.

It staggered as if forcing its dysfunctional limbs to move.

But upon closer inspection, it was clear that its movements weren’t as random as they appeared.

The creature seemed to be rearranging causes after reaching a destination, as though time was flowing backward, and space folded and unfolded repeatedly as it walked.

It moved as if searching for something, yet it appeared blind to everything around it.

When it passed by where a tree had been, the tree morphed into something unrecognizable—a mix of red flesh and crimson stones, obliterated without a trace of its original form.

The grass once lush in the courtyard of the Sehee Research Lab transformed into indistinct matter with each step of the creature.

The ghastly appearance was unsettling, but it wasn’t the biggest issue.

The real problem was the nature of these things.

It wasn’t just that the trees and grass were changing; their very positions shifted.

They were present in this place, yet they no longer existed here.

Their essence had shifted to an unknown realm, far beyond my understanding, leaving only hollow reflections in their place.

The creature wandered for some time, and then I heard the sound of something shattering.

Its form had changed.

The space where its torso should have been fractured like broken glass.

Each shard attempted to reshape itself into a human form, but it was far from human now.

An arm severed from its shoulder sprouted a new head, arms, and legs in a twisted attempt to reassemble a body.

A small face emerged from the back of a hand, while countless appendages wriggled like centipede legs from the underbelly of the arm, crawling along the ground.

No one would call such a monstrous thing human.

The fragmented body parts appeared and disappeared, teleporting across various points in the courtyard.

Sometimes only four arms would remain, roaming alone, or at times, just ten heads moved about.

It seemed to try to reform itself, but each attempt grew more grotesque, with heads sprouting from legs and chests from arms.

[■ ■ ■ ■]

[■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■]

The pulses of energy emanating from it became as incoherent as the creature itself.

And as it continued to shatter and distort, the surrounding environment grew more bizarre.

Mist slowly filled my vision.

Odd lumps of flesh and crimson stones sprang from the ground, almost as if they were alive.

The open space around the Sehee Research Lab transformed into something increasingly menacing and twisted, yet the creature's presence grew fainter.

No, it felt less like it was fading and more like it was drifting away.

Was it destroying itself?

Or was it unable to remain on Earth for too long?

It felt like it might disappear on its own if left alone, but the crimson mist it emitted was a problem.

If I allowed it to spread, it would likely reach Yerin’s location.

As I worried about Yerin, a thought crossed my mind: perhaps the weaker the creature became, the easier it might be to discern its destruction condition.

So I focused once more on identifying how to destroy it.

<Die ■ ■ ■ ■>

A single letter revealed itself!

Boom!

Just as relief washed over me, a colossal hand burst through the now impenetrably thick mist, crashing down on the Mini Reapers’ garden.

[■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■]

Then, a massive head, easily two meters tall, emerged from the mist.

It stared down at me, empty eye sockets seemingly fixed on where I stood.

The pitter-patter of busy feet echoed like the scurrying of small animals as the Black Reapers bustled through the research lab.

They darted around with such urgency, some even collided and tumbled, creating quite the scene.

Patter! Patter!

Inside the Sehee Research Lab’s medical center, Black Reapers hoisted bandages larger than themselves and carried them overhead.

‘Bandages? Is someone hurt?’

Yerin, watching the commotion, grew curious and stealthily slipped out of the shelter, following one of the busy Black Reapers.

Eighty percent of her curiosity was simply about the Black Reapers, but she also felt an inexplicable sense that she was needed by the Gray Reaper.

She arrived at the familiar courtyard, but it was eerily empty.

Scattered paper cups and wind-tossed documents littered the ground.

Only a few pieces of paper remained, drifting in the breeze where the Mini Reapers used to play.

The courtyard’s atmosphere felt strangely somber, leaving Yerin feeling a chill.

Rubbing her arms against the cold, Yerin approached the entrance to the Mini Reapers' garden, where a different air greeted her.

A sweet scent and a gentle light.

The garden had an aura that warmed her heart.

Inside, Yerin found clusters of mysterious bandage bundles piled atop marshmallow-like mounds.

They were meticulously wrapped, forming perfect spheres that would roll if poked.

When Yerin picked one up, it had a surprising weight to it, almost metallic.

‘There’s something inside.’

She began unwrapping it to inspect the contents, but a Black Reaper approached and shook its head with a stern look.

Surprised by the uncharacteristically serious expression, Yerin set the bundle down, stroking the Black Reaper on her palm as she did so.

Puzzled, she continued walking through the garden until she saw the Mini Reapers before they were wrapped.

They had turned gray, like the Gray Reaper, but instead of looking soft, they seemed hard, as if ready to crumble with a touch.

Black Reapers were carefully dividing bandages, wrapping them snugly around the frozen Mini Reapers to prevent them from shattering.

‘So, the Mini Reapers got hurt and turned to stone, and they’re being wrapped to avoid breaking?’

It seemed a reasonable assumption.

‘But where’s the Gray Reaper?’

Usually, the Gray Reaper would be the first to care for the Mini Reapers during a crisis, even if he often played pranks on them, stealing their pudding and knocking them over.

Had the Gray Reaper turned the Mini Reapers to stone?

If this were the result of one of his pranks, it would make sense that he’d leave them like this and flee.

But the Black Reapers were diligently wrapping bandages, so it probably wasn’t his doing.

If it were, the Black Reapers would likely be beating him senseless by now.

Lost in thought, Yerin wandered through the garden until she finally spotted the Gray Reaper.

He was fiercely battling, a burning halo above his head.

His skin was charred black.

“Gray Reaper!”

At the sound of her voice, the Gray Reaper’s antennae perked up, pointing toward the sky.

I had made a terrible mistake.

The moment I identified the destruction condition, the creature became aware of me.

The crimson figure, which had been human-sized, had now grown gigantic amidst the red mist.

It looked as if it were trying to peer into the garden, its empty eye sockets bearing down on me.

They were large enough to swallow a person whole, filled with a thick darkness that seemed to stretch endlessly.

‘Ugh.’

From those eye sockets, countless hands emerged.

They were so grotesque that they seemed like something out of a nightmare.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

The many hands pounded on the garden’s boundary, as if knocking repeatedly.

Though the taps were light, each one made the boundary between the crimson mist and the garden blur.

[■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■]

If left unchecked, it felt like the boundary would soon shatter, so I swapped to the Halo and began reinforcing it.

I activated the Maze’s Halo.

I poured all my power into overlaying the garden with the strongest barrier I could imagine.

And with every pulse, more of my energy drained away.

I couldn’t hold this up indefinitely.

Even with infinite power, the Halo’s illusions wouldn’t last forever.

The crimson creature also seemed to have a time limit, as its body crumbled more with each moment, but the garden’s boundary would break before it collapsed completely.

I needed an immense rank to defeat it.

But even with three Halos, that level was out of reach.

Just then, I heard Yerin’s voice.

“Gray Reaper!”

And at that moment, a solution to this situation occurred to me.

I shed the Halo and bolted toward Yerin.

As I hurled myself into her warm embrace, my dwindling energy surged back to life.

Hehe.

Feeling the fire reigniting in my core, I closed my eyes.

Above me, a black sphere emerged.

<The Immutable Black Sphere>

It was the highest rank among my powers.