In the isolation room, from which the Gray Reaper had mysteriously disappeared, Yerin was observing the Golden Reapers.

The subject of her observation was a large Golden Reaper, walking on four legs and capable of making sounds.

'They’ve multiplied.'

The big Golden Reaper was now two, and beside them, smaller Golden Reapers were waddling around.

It seemed that Yerin’s growing interest in these large Golden Reapers had led the others to start imitating them, crawling around on all fours.

They approached Yerin, rubbing their faces against her.

"That tickles. I’ll give you a treat if you stop."

Yerin chuckled a bit; the scene reminded her of cute, ticklish pets.

Nom nom.

She held each Golden Reaper in her arms, one by one, petting them and feeding them snacks.

After feeding most of the Golden Reapers in the isolation room, only the two large ones were left.

The two massive Golden Reapers lay side by side like close friends, sprawled out on the floor like cats, resting their bellies on the ground.

Yerin tried to pick one of them up.

"So heavy!"

She had underestimated its weight, expecting it to be as light as a feather, and ended up dropping it back to the floor.

Thud.

The impact reverberated through the room as if a chunk of metal had crashed down.

"Kyuhinghing."

The large Golden Reaper cried out sadly, as if it felt wronged.

Strange.

Something felt off, but she couldn’t quite figure it out.

As she leaned in to examine the Golden Reaper more closely, an astonishing news report started playing on the television.

[Breaking news. The Gray Reaper, a high-priority object under Korean jurisdiction, has been sighted in Russia!]

'Reaper!'

At that moment, Yerin dismissed her suspicions about the strange Golden Reaper and focused intently on the TV, which was now showing the sighting of the Gray Reaper.

Upon hearing a suspicious noise, I entered the alley and saw ninjas who had kidnapped the otherworldly Yerin, as well as a blue-haired girl being pursued by them.

The blue-haired girl felt oddly familiar, possibly because I’d seen her dead body and encountered her frequently in my dreams.

However, she looked quite young, unlike the one I’d seen in the dream.

'I knew it.'

The blue-haired girl wasn’t human, just like the body I’d seen; she was an object.

'So, those ninjas are the villains, and the blue-haired girl I’ve seen in my dreams must be on the good side?'

I didn’t know why the girl was being chased or why the ninjas were pursuing her, but I quickly determined whom I should help and activated my powers.

Clap clap.

Then, I stomped my feet three times.

At that moment, the ground beneath the ninjas began to crumble, walls collapsed, and all kinds of chaotic misfortune fell upon them.

Usually, I twisted fate with a degree of logic, but now I had twice the fuel of Yerin!

I could overpower any minor causality with a sufficient supply of fuel.

It was death guided by the Reaper!

Thud thud.

As I approached to resolve the situation, I saw the blue-haired girl, her expression tense.

Yes, there she was, the blue-haired girl.

A girl who looked remarkably like my physical form, the "Gray Reaper."

A girl who frequently appeared in my dreams.

I felt a surge of excitement, my heart racing as I wondered about so many things.

What exactly is the "Gray Reaper"?

What are you striving to achieve?

But I doubted I would get any answers.

The blue-haired girl was, after all, just a character from the past, someone from a dream, and there seemed to be a significant age difference between us.

Still, I felt a bit of anticipation.

However, just as I opened my mouth to speak to the blue-haired girl, the world started to fracture.

Everything began to pull towards the purple moon.

The collapse began with the clouds that filled the sky, moving from a distant point towards me.

The clouds, the distant snowfield—everything was collapsing closer and closer.

As I tried to assess the sudden chaos around me, the blue-haired girl suddenly looked at me intently.

Her gaze was fixed, as if she were pinned in place, and she approached slowly, grabbing my cheek and squishing it.

Then, with a satisfied smile, she rubbed her face against mine.

"!"

Surprised by this unexpected display of affection, I froze, my body stiffening.

A strange, inhuman presence was approaching, despite appearing as a child.

The blue-haired girl, though technically a grimoire, thought to herself that this little girl seemed more human than anyone.

'What exactly is this girl?'

Golden flames radiated from her eyes, and her power was such that it could easily surpass the purple moon sustaining the city.

When the girl, now close, raised her head, our eyes met.

'!'

It felt as if I’d been struck by lightning.

Unable to contain herself, the blue-haired girl hugged this girl who was so close to her ideal type.

At that moment, a wave of reassurance filled her heart.

A child this adorable couldn’t possibly be evil.

However, just as she realized that they would soon be separated, the world began to collapse.

Noticing the dire situation, the blue-haired girl looked up at the sky, still holding the little girl tightly.

The fragments of the collapsing world were tinged with the intricate traces of illusion-based alchemy.

'This alchemical pattern is so sophisticated that even a genius alchemist like me can’t fully decipher it.'

The blue-haired girl watched in awe as the world crumbled.

Could it be that a genius had crafted this illusion?

It was an alchemical formula similar to those she used.

In that moment, she understood.

'This is a formula created by my future self.'

'All fake, but all real. A dream, but reality.'

She also grasped the objective of the formula.

'To achieve a proper ending.'

Whose dream could this possibly be that it connected time in this way?

She looked up at the purple moon, deep in thought.

'It would have to be a dream of the moon itself… but that’s impossible.'

The blue-haired girl gave a soft laugh, as the only outsider in this dream world.

Turning to the child in her arms, she whispered quietly, leaving a hint on how to achieve the proper ending.

“To reach the proper ending, you’ll need the master.”

Even as the air disappeared from the collapsing world, and the noise of destruction roared, she continued to whisper, hoping her words would reach the child.

When everything in the world had crumbled and sank into darkness, I could open my eyes once more.

I was back at the beginning of the dream, my body burning and my limbs impaled with stakes.

Healing my injuries with fuel, I reviewed the hints I’d gathered.

The condition to destroy the purple moon was <The dream reaches a proper end.>

And the blue-haired girl’s clue was that I would need the "master."

It seemed that this dream had a set story and ending that needed to be fulfilled to clear it.

It was like a looping story, repeating until it was properly cleared.

So, first, I needed to find the "master" mentioned by the blue-haired girl.

In the deepening darkness of the city, I was panting for breath.

"Haah… Haah."

It had been so long since I last breathed that I found it difficult to take deep breaths properly.

I felt dizzy.

Around me were scattered black shells, burnt to a crisp by the golden flames.

I’d looped through this world ten times, yet I still hadn’t found this so-called "master."

Instead, I’d found only black shells masquerading as humans.

These black shells were clearly obstacles to reaching the "proper end."

Moreover, their numbers seemed to grow with each loop.

Disguised as guards in armor, they blocked the blue-haired girl’s escape from the Order.

Posing as ninjas, they began monitoring my room constantly.

So from the eighth loop onward, I had no choice but to fight my way out each time.

“This is bad. Time is running out.”

I muttered as I looked up at the increasingly dark sky.

This world was collapsing.

I likely wouldn’t be able to loop through it forever.

The purple moon above was blackening and crumbling with each repeat.

It felt as though the cycle could stop at any moment.

And for some reason, I had a dreadful feeling that if I failed to reach this dream’s conclusion, something catastrophic would happen.

Just imagining it sent chills down my spine.

Ignoring even the enticing smell of grilled meat, I walked into the dark alleyways.

Like searching for a lost child, I scoured the area meticulously, step by step.

At the end of my search, I found them.

The blue-haired girl and a man who looked exactly like the cult leader I’d seen before.

He looked much younger than the leader I’d seen, but he had the same muscular physique.

“Found you.”

Smiling at my discovery, I whispered to myself quietly.

In the depths of the city under the purple moon.

“Hm.”

There, the blue-haired girl’s master sensed something strange.

There didn’t seem to be any immediate problem, but he felt a nagging sense of dread, as if something terrible was about to happen.

Was it because the blue-haired girl had unexpectedly returned from her infiltration of the Order?

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.

“Weren’t you supposed to infiltrate the Order today?”

Trying to dispel his anxiety, he turned to the blue-haired girl and spoke.

Hoping nothing was wrong.

“Oh! Tomorrow…”

But perhaps the master’s intuition had been correct.

As she began to answer with a cheerful smile, the space around her began to distort, and she was torn to pieces.

“No!”

Reaching out to the blood that splattered everywhere, he tried in vain to grasp her remains. But once shattered, a human could not be restored.

______________________________________

TL notes:

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to see more chapters and support my translations, you can contribute at ❤️ ko-fi.com/satabog ❤️. Every little bit helps, and I truly appreciate your support!