I explained the situation to the regressor and Tirkanjaka. I told them how I’d tried to persuade the Golden Mirror, but his anger ended up directed elsewhere—toward killing all the wolves—and how Peru had stepped in to stop him.
I braced myself, expecting to get grabbed by the collar again, but to my surprise, the regressor nodded in understanding.

“Well, that makes sense.”
“What? That makes sense?”
“Not everything goes according to plan. Especially when dealing with an unknown entity like the Golden Mirror.”

‘I’ve had my share of disasters, too. Like when I tried to prevent the military nation from expanding and ended up sparking a world war by borrowing the power of the Holy Empire to brand it the Axis of Evil.’

This is odd. I wasn’t fazed when Peru or Hilde criticized me, but now that the regressor is sympathizing with me, I feel like I’ve done something terribly wrong. Am I at the regressor’s level? No way. I’m definitely more normal and grounded than him! I have to be!

The regressor, after catching his breath, generously defended me.

“Anyway, you did well. At least you stopped the war.”
“But because of me, the confederated nations are about to be destroyed.”
“It’s not like you’re the one destroying them. It’s the Golden Mirror, isn’t it? No reason to blame you for that.”

‘Being able to control the Golden Mirror at will would be stranger. Only the King of Calamities could pull something like that off. Still, this confirms it—Hughes really has a way with mysteries. He said he was from the military nation, but could he be an abandoned imperial prince from the Empire? Well, his origins don’t matter much.’

What is this? It’s making me feel out of place, like I’m trash.
Having assessed the situation, the regressor got to his feet immediately.

“Alright, let’s go.”
“Where to?”
“To stop the Golden Mirror. We can’t just let the confederated nations fall, can we?”

The regressor spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. But of course, it wasn’t obvious. Hilde, incredulous, questioned him.

“Leaving aside why the confederated nations shouldn’t collapse, how are you going to stop the Golden Mirror?”
“We’ll have to see when we get there. We probably can’t stop him on our own, but with the Verdant Overseer, we might manage.”
“Peru hasn’t even been helping us. She’s been infuriating! Why should we risk our lives to stop the Golden Mirror for her?”
“Because we can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

“Why not?! Just leave him alone! Why poke the hornet’s nest?”

Ignoring Hilde’s protests, the regressor began stretching in preparation, clearly intent on leaving.
After a brief pause to collect himself and plan his approach, he secured Tianying and Jizan and looked around.

“Let’s go. As for a guide...”

Surveying the area, the regressor’s gaze landed on the road stretching straight through the middle of the cornfield.

“Doesn’t look like we’ll need one.”

It wasn’t hard to track the Golden Mirror. The road he created as he moved was a clear, straight path cutting through the cornfields.

Hilde claimed to have “borrowed” a nearby wolf’s cart. It wasn’t much—a cart with no sides, just a body on wheels—but it was enough. She attached a sail to it, and with Tianying generating wind, the force converted directly into speed, pushing the cart forward.

The road the Golden Mirror had made was perfectly smooth, and with no resistance from the wind thanks to Tianying, we quickly exited the cornfields. In the distance, we saw the Golden Mirror entering a city.

And all of us were struck speechless.

“Run! Run away!”
“Dear God…!”

How could one even begin to describe what we saw?

The Golden Mirror… looked like a mop. Not in the sense of being dirty, but in the sense of scrubbing away filth to reveal something previously unseen.

The city by the cornfields was home to wolves. These transient beings didn’t take care of the city, knowing they’d eventually leave. They tore out window locks and door hinges to sell them, dumped trash wherever they pleased, and even knocked down walls or pillars if they needed more space. The city was lively yet filthy.

The Golden Mirror, like a mop, wiped through it all.

As he marched forward, the grime of the confederated nations peeled away. Beneath the filth, the radiant Golden Nation began to reappear. Scattered debris rose to form bustling streets once again.

Within a radius of 500 meters, everything was transformed into the Golden Nation.
The Golden Mirror was a gigantic cleaning tool for restoring a nation, with a reach of 500 meters.

“Uh… ah…”

…Even humans were wiped away.

I saw bodies of wolves being crushed. Parts of their bodies, transformed into crops created by the Golden Mirror, were high-quality alchemical substances. When exposed to the Golden Mirror’s influence, these materials were immediately broken down and repurposed.

Until now, the Golden Mirror hadn’t actively targeted them. The Suppression Overseer had kept him in check, and the Golden Mirror himself hadn’t bothered with them.
But now, things were different. The Golden Mirror was indiscriminately attacking the wolves.

The city moved. Wolves fleeing for their lives found their paths blocked. As time dragged on, the Golden Mirror’s homunculi relentlessly attacked them.

There was no escape from the homunculi, creatures born of the Overseer’s power. Their overwhelming strength crushed the wolves and the city itself, even as the city was restored to a cleaner, more beautiful state than before. The Golden Mirror’s reconstruction excluded humans entirely, making it flawless.

“Everyone, move this way! Get to the transports as fast as you can!”

Hecto, the Suppression Overseer, used a large iron plate to amplify his voice and shouted commands. The wolves, utilizing their agility, fled as quickly as possible. Despite casualties, many still survived.

Perhaps displeased by this, the Golden Mirror made his next move.

The city seemed to shift, as if it were alive.

A wolf running on two legs felt something strange. Though he was running with all his might, his legs grew heavier, and his heart pounded as if it would burst. Initially, he thought it was fear causing this and pushed himself harder.

When he finally tripped, he realized the exhaustion in his body wasn’t just in his mind.
As though sliding down a steep slope, his body scraped against the ground, moving downward. Scratching at the stone pavement with broken nails, he muttered.

“The… the city… is tilting…”

With those words, he fell straight toward the Golden Mirror.

This city was the Golden Mirror’s creation. To deal with the vermin hiding in its depths, he used a simple method.

He folded the city.

It was like a massive clam closing its shell. Streets became steep slides, and wolves who failed to escape rolled downward. Some kicked at walls to maintain their footing, but many unlucky ones hit obstacles and died before they could escape. Others tumbled all the way to the Golden Mirror and were “resonated” into him.

Though many were still alive, it was only a matter of time. Once the city finished closing, they would face one of two fates:
To slip and fall or to resonate and be consumed.

Amid the chaos, the wolves screamed.

“Help! I’ll give you all my money!”
“Save me! Someone, anyone, get me out of here!”

But no one could help them. Even if someone wanted to save them, who would risk their life to rescue others?

The wolves who had managed to escape the city or who had been outside to begin with fled even further, fearful of aftershocks.

And then—
The city stopped moving.

At the same time, one figure rushed toward the city, defying the flow. It was Peru, mounted on Aurea. As she approached, the folding city halted, as if caught on something.

Her abilities don’t affect living creatures much, especially robust beasts like Aurea. Riding the snorting animal, Peru visualized the city’s structure in her mind.

‘The city’s foundation has been turned to steel. Its mechanism… twisted iron?’

Steel has resilience. If you twist rebar like a corkscrew, it exerts powerful restorative force as it tries to return to its original shape. The Golden Mirror had alchemically crafted “twisted iron” to power the city’s movements.

Peru, a master of Verdancy and a consummate alchemist herself, could interpret the Golden Mirror’s design just by observing it, even if she couldn’t create it.

‘If that’s the case, then the power source…’

She destroyed it.
Steel’s resilience disappears if its structure is broken. Peru’s power couldn’t create something from nothing, but it could erase what already existed.

And now was the time to use it. Peru reached toward her mental image.

Steel objects can be melted down and reused. When such items wear out, they can be reforged, ground down, and reshaped into something new. Alchemy follows the same principle: as long as the cost is paid, it can be used, repaired, and reused infinitely.

Peru, born to a poor family of wolves, grew up recycling everything. Her most treasured possession, a tin doll, had once been part of a wagon wheel, then a crowbar, and had undergone countless transformations since.

How many more times could it change?

A childlike curiosity guided her. Peru applied her knowledge of alchemy to her beloved doll.
She altered it. Reversed it. Changed its material. Reforged it into tin. Made it move. Adjusted its pose.
Peru loved her doll and loved alchemy. She played with it, cherished it, and grew up with it. Its value lay in its enduring presence.

But even the doll and alchemy had their limits. Just as humans grow old and wear down, so did the doll, exposed repeatedly to transformative magic. One day, it stopped responding entirely.

No matter how much she tried to restore it, no matter how many fragments she gathered, it was futile. The doll’s end came as its structure collapsed under its own weight. Its tin, full of impurities, turned a mottled, rusty red.

The harder she tried to restore it, the closer it came to its inevitable end. At some point, it simply ceased to exist.

An end. Everything has one. Alchemy might be perfect, but humans, its practitioners, are not.
No matter how wondrous and miraculous magic may be, as long as its user has limitations, alchemy too will encounter its limits.

Her unique magic embodied the endless repetition of alchemy—a closed-loop cycle that every creation must inevitably complete. If alchemy represents the journey of an object, her power is its final destination.

Her unique magic: The End of Gold.

The corroded steel split apart. Twisted iron, its structure weakened, failed to withstand its own strain. It shattered like glass, breaking down under its own strength.

The city’s grip weakened. The folding clam-like structure slackened and unfolded as if its energy had been sapped.
Crash! The collapsing city reopened. Wolves who had been sliding toward the Golden Mirror were instead thrown outward in the opposite direction. Those fortunate enough to survive ran desperately out of the city’s boundaries.

Walls blocking their way and supporting columns crumbled into sand at Peru’s touch, opening a clear path. Wolves surged out like a flood. Even the homunculi didn’t pursue, wary of being caught in her power.

The harbinger of ruin, riding alone, charged toward the Golden Mirror.

Even the Golden Mirror, who had ignored everything so far, turned to face her at the end of the verdant path she created.

The two locked eyes.