The dense fog of the "festival" cloaked the streets.

The faint sound of metal dragging echoed within it.

The fog, swallowing the sound, only amplified the eerie resonance, heightening the ominous atmosphere.

The bob-haired girl trembled in fear, hidden between buildings.

One question circled relentlessly in her mind.

"How did it follow me here?"

Her breaths quickened, and her heart raced wildly.

The monster emerging from the fog intensified her terror.

Covered in blood, towering over three meters, its arms severed at the elbows and replaced with saws.

It let those grotesque limbs hang as it approached her, slowly, ever so slowly.

Scriiiitch. Scriiiitch.

The saws scraped against the asphalt, the sound growing sharper as it closed in.

Slow and steady, the noise relentlessly magnified her fear.

The girl clamped her hands over her mouth.

She felt that if she let go, she would burst into sobs.

Scriiiitch. Scriiiitch.

The ceaseless, grating sound surrounded her, and as the saw-wielding monster drew closer, her heartbeat pounded harder and faster.

At any moment, she felt the saw would come crashing down on her.

She squeezed her eyes shut as it neared.

Just then, an unexpected noise shattered the tension.

Thunk.

A dull yet piercing sound echoed, followed by something warm dripping down onto her head.

Opening her eyes slowly, she saw a scene beyond belief.

A sharp, bone-like protrusion had pierced the chest of the saw monster.

"Eek!"

She nearly screamed at the sight.

Then, she noticed another creature standing behind the saw monster.

It was the green reptilian beast she had seen fighting in the clearing.

This creature, with its green-scaled skin and no arms, had a sharp, spear-like tail.

That tail had skewered the saw monster through its chest.

As the saw monster collapsed, the green creature bent over, tearing into its chest with its mouth.

It extracted an orb from within, biting down to pull it free.

As it removed the orb, a translucent, white filament stretched from the monster's body, like strands of stretched adhesive or wispy cotton candy.

Though simple and insubstantial, the girl sensed that those white strands held a significance beyond their appearance.

Once the orb was torn away, the saw monster’s body began to dissolve, an image of a young man in a wrinkled shirt and suit appearing briefly before melting into the air.

Thud. Thud.

The green creature then turned and slowly walked away.

"I'm… I'm alive!"

Relief spread through the girl’s mind.

"Now I just need to escape this strange foggy world."

Thud.

At that moment, the green creature stopped and muttered in a rasping voice, as if choking on its words.

"This space won't disappear."

It began to turn around slowly.

Thud-thud-thud.

Her heart felt like it would burst from her chest.

Haa. Haa. Haa.

As if hyperventilating, breath leaked out from behind her hands.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The footsteps of the green creature came closer but then continued past her hiding place and began to fade into the distance.

Haa. Haa. Haa.

Even as the creature moved away, her breathing remained shallow and panicked. She finally rose, gripping her shaky knees for support.

"I have to run. Now."

As she stumbled to her feet, she looked up and met the glowing yellow eyes of the reptilian creature staring down at her.

"Aaaaah!"

The girl screamed, her face turning pale, as a sharp, bony tail shot toward her.

Watching the tail hurtle toward her heart, a thought flitted through her mind.

"Should I have eaten the orb sooner?"

And as she prepared to apologize to her sister and close her eyes—

A golden comet fell from the sky.

Against the shattered, grid-patterned heavens, a Golden Armored Reaper landed before her.

Lazing around in the quarantine room, my thoughts drifted to the lead doll.

"The lead doll that grants wishes indiscriminately… reminds me of an ancient god from the Blue Girl’s dreams."

Feeling a sudden and inexplicable concern, I stood up and headed toward the quarantine room where the lead doll was being held.

Arriving, I saw the Mini Reapers waiting in line on the floor and the lead doll sitting primly in its chair.

A quick glance around the room reassured me.

"Fewer Mini Reapers here than in my own quarantine room."

Hmph, a fake can never outdo the real thing.

When I de-materialized from ghost form and appeared on the bed, the Mini Reapers cheered and hopped around excitedly.

"Mom came to visit!"

"It’s Mom!"

A few of them subtly edged closer to me, slowly latching onto me one by one.

I promptly tossed the clingy Mini Reapers off the bed.

"Ouch!"

Then, I started an experiment with the lead doll.

Since the doll was powered by firewood and granted wishes, I decided to try infusing my wish into the firewood itself.

"Shake your head up and down," I commanded, and even while feeding snacks to the Mini Reapers, the lead doll obediently nodded.

It was capable of performing simple commands that involved quick movements.

It even "bonked" a Mini Reaper on command.

However, complex commands requiring extraordinary abilities, like cutting through space, were unsuccessful.

"Put everyone at Sehee Lab to sleep."

"Teleport Sehee Lab to the moon."

"Solve the P=NP problem."

"What’s 127 plus 1,452?"

For such requests, it would either tilt its head in confusion or remain still.

It seemed the lead doll didn’t have the capacity to use powered firewood to that extent.

"Hmm."

Just as I was about to leave, feeling I’d tested enough, I noticed several pairs of eyes on me.

It was the Mini Reapers sprawled across the floor beneath the bed.

They watched the lead doll, then turned their gaze to me.

Nom nom.

The lead doll continued to cradle, pat, and feed snacks to the Mini Reapers.

Their looks seemed to say, "Why doesn’t Mom treat us like that?"

Did they want me to act like the lead doll?

I suppose I have no choice.

Hehe.

Trying to sound as grand as possible, I conveyed my intent to the Mini Reapers.

"Your wishes shall be granted."

At the same time, I began throwing firewood at the lead doll, each piece imbued with my own intent.

"Woohoo!"

"Mom’s so kind!"

The Mini Reapers leaped and grinned happily.

As my firewood reached the lead doll, its behavior began to change.

"Eek!"

The lead doll grabbed the Golden Reaper sitting on its lap and tossed it aside.

It then started rolling toward the Mini Reapers.

"Eek!"

"Mom’s teasing us!"

"Liar!"

Naturally, I joined the lead doll, rolling toward the Mini Reapers.

Their wish to see Mom behave like the lead doll had come true, so they must be thrilled, right?

Hehe.

In the Mini Reaper Garden, at the Marshmallow Plains.

The pink-haired girl lay on a hill filled with Black and Golden Reapers, reading a textbook-like book.

"Once I learn the language and some knowledge used here, I’ll be able to go to a place called school."

She beamed down at the Blue Idol Reaper.

"School is like an academy, so my dream of attending one might actually come true!"

The Blue Idol Reaper mirrored her expression, happy to see her so excited.

The pink-haired girl closed her book and leaned toward the Blue Idol Reaper.

"Want to learn the language together?"

Expecting the answer to be yes, she was surprised when the Blue Idol Reaper shook his head.

"Why not? It’d be much more fun together…."

But another answer came from a different direction.

"Mom said not to!"

"No pretending to know Korean!"

"The Blue Reapers got in trouble for that!"

The Golden Reapers jumped to their feet, bouncing around as they answered.

They didn’t seem to fully understand what "Korean" was, but they remembered Mom’s instructions clearly.

The pink-haired girl couldn’t understand their message, but the Blue Idol Reaper translated.

"I see…."

A bit disappointed, she still accepted it, knowing it was something the Gray Reaper had forbidden.

"If such a powerful magic book like the Gray Reaper said not to, there must be a good reason."

"Maybe it’s a forbidden matter, one that could change the fate of the world."

Convinced, she nodded to herself.

At that moment, a commotion broke out among the Mini Reapers.

"Oh no, someone bit me again!"

"We need to find them!"

"Bad Reaper!"

Golden Reapers leapt up in shock, and the pitter-patter of tiny feet echoed as they marched across the marshmallows in search of the culprit.

But the perpetrator had already disappeared without a trace.

The plump cheek of the startled Golden Reaper who had just woken up still bore the marks of a Mini Reaper’s teeth.

In the mist-filled world beneath the grid-patterned sky.

The space where monsters had recently battled each other to death now lay empty.

The saw-armed monster was gone.

The green reptilian beast was gone.

The girl who hadn’t eaten an orb was gone.

And the Golden Armored Reaper who’d descended from the sky was gone as well.

In the void, a man suddenly appeared.

He gazed up at the hole torn in the sky and murmured.

"That face… is it the Golden Reaper?"

The man walked slowly, looking down at the blood-soaked ground.

In the puddle of blood lay the body of the reptilian beast with a Golden Armored Reaper-shaped cavity in its chest, alongside the corpse of the saw monster.

"To meet that face at the end of the great work—"

"Is it fate? Or coincidence?"

Covering his mouth with one hand, he spoke as if chewing on his words.

"It must be fate."

"The final alchemist…"