Seoul Object Story
Chapter 248: Broken Moon (10)

The black fissure grew, an endless void churning within.

From its depths, the “Magic Book that killed a God” emerged.

The blue-haired girl watched its overwhelming form, a wry smile on her face.

To think such a powerful Magic Book existed!

The Magic Book warped reality by its mere presence.

A truly mythical Magic Book.

An entity from a completely forgotten era, utterly different from the seven moons now revered as gods.

Can we even face such a monster?

The blue-haired girl glanced at the black and white-clad girl, but her face showed no trace of worry or concern, as always.

Boom.

A massive tremor shook the ground, drawing the blue-haired girl’s attention back.

There stood the monster, its upper body fully emerged from the void’s fissure.

As the Magic Book’s feet touched the ground, the earth began to change.

The land twisted and darkened to match the monster’s hue, like intertwining roots with fine grains.

Parts of the warped earth spiraled upward, forming sharp spires reaching for the sky.

Where a city once stood, not a trace remained.

Only grotesquely twisted land, as unsettling as the “Magic Book that killed a God” itself, marked its passing.

As the monster’s legs finally touched down, it slowly raised its massive form.

With the beast fully risen on the blackened earth, the world completely transformed.

The gold and navy trees that had encircled them like walls vanished, replaced by an endless expanse of distorted land.

Sharp, twisted spires of earth stretched as far as the eye could see.

The ominously perforated sky and blackened clouds disappeared, leaving only boundless darkness.

The world of the “Magic Book that killed a god,” unrecorded in any alchemist’s tome from ancient times to present, revealed itself.

“This is the true form of the Magic Book that killed a god,” the blue-haired girl murmured, peering into the endless darkness.

The monster, having stained the world with its essence, lowered its gaze to where the blue-haired girl and white Hungry Ghost stood.

Though the colossal beast’s face, nearly touching the sky, had no eyes, it was clearly looking down at the white Hungry Ghost.

Where the sky once was, now only an endless black void.

Where a city once stood, now only land twisted like a vortex being sucked into the void.

And the “Magic Book that killed a god,” as ominous as the void above.

Yet the white Hungry Ghost didn’t back down in the face of this sight.

The halo and golden flames bestowed by the black and white-clad girl.

And the blue-haired girl, still holding its core, sending unwavering faith.

Kyu!

The white Hungry Ghost cried out bravely and charged at the monster.

But its valiant charge ended after just a few steps.

Its marshmallow-like white skin began to darken and twist into spirals.

Crunch. Crunch.

Its body twisted into sharp spikes, tearing into its own organs and innards.

Kyueeek!

Engulfed in golden flames, the white Hungry Ghost could only scream in agony as holes riddled its body.

Seeing the white Hungry Ghost’s core wavering as if it could no longer endure, the blue-haired girl cried out.

“No!”

The Bud Magic Books clustered on the blue-haired girl’s shoulder looked utterly shocked at the scene.

Some pulled down their Buds to cover their eyes, others clutched their chubby cheeks with both hands, while some covered their mouths.

In this moment of despair, a massive golden flame erupted beside the blue-haired girl.

The white Hungry Ghost, stuffed with isekai Yerin’s firewood and wearing a Halo, was surprisingly powerless.

The main reason was clear - though Object-like phenomena were occurring, the Halo wasn’t blocking them.

Strangely, the Halo didn’t recognize this “corrosion” as an ability.

It judged it as natural as an apple falling from a tree.

“No!”

I heard the blue-haired girl’s dismayed voice as she watched the white Hungry Ghost become riddled with huge holes.

We were nearly at the one-hour mark, but in this state, the white Hungry Ghost couldn’t even last that long.

Can’t be helped.

I began burning through the firewood hidden in Yerin’s heart.

I unleashed a torrent of Yerin’s golden flames, so intense they erupted from her skin.

Then I recklessly shoved all those golden flames into Hungry Ghost’s body.

So much that it might die from firewood overdose!

Seeing the white Hungry Ghost looking ready to burst, I summoned another Halo in my hand.

A Halo, which perfectly avoids all attacks.

I placed this Halo atop Hungry Ghost’s head.

The twisting of its skin stopped, but the stabilizing Halo began to collapse again.

The white Hungry Ghost’s skin darkened, and blood-like red tears streamed from its eyes.

Though the white Hungry Ghost couldn’t even scream from the immense pain, the endless influx of golden flames prevented its body from collapsing.

Endless cycles of agonizing collapse and regeneration.

Through this endless repetition, the white Hungry Ghost’s body gradually grew larger.

Breaking down and regenerating, it kept growing.

Trapped in this hellish cycle, the Hungry Ghost lost consciousness.

Now as large as the massive “Nameless,” the white Hungry Ghost stood silently, unconscious.

“Hungry Ghost, I’ll borrow you for a bit.”

With those words, the blue-haired girl skillfully began controlling the white Hungry Ghost using its core.

We made a perfect combination - I provided the Halo and firewood, while the blue-haired girl controlled the Hungry Ghost.

The white Hungry Ghost under her control moved freely, as if performing acrobatics.

It approached while dodging countless spikes erupting from the ground, then threw a white Hungry Ghost punch.

Of course, with the perfect-avoidance Halo, this might have been pointless, but considering the enemy’s ability to adapt to anything, dodging seemed wiser.

The blue-haired girl’s movements, which seemed like the result of extensive training, were proving quite effective.

But despite this one-sided assault, the white Hungry Ghost’s physical attacks weren’t doing much damage to “Nameless.”

The blue-haired girl grew increasingly anxious, but I remained calm.

We just needed to last one hour!

The longer this stalemate dragged on, the closer we got to victory.

But as I grew confident in our victory, a strange sound began to ring in my ears.

Screech!

It was an irritating sound, like nails on a chalkboard.

The world began to shake as if space itself was being forcibly torn apart.

“Ah! It’s caught!”

Simultaneously, I heard the blue-haired girl’s startled voice.

Turning towards the white Hungry Ghost, I saw “Nameless” gripping it with sharp claws, despite it being supposedly uncatchable.

Slowly, “Nameless’” claws began to dig into the white Hungry Ghost’s body.

!

Seeing this, I realized the problem.

The dream was the issue.

The Bud Reapers’ power wasn’t enough to properly maintain Halo’s connection.

Seeing “Nameless” grip the white Hungry Ghost with both hands, ready to tear it apart, the blue-haired girl looked extremely anxious.

“What should we do?”

Manually controlling Hungry Ghost with its core, the blue-haired girl looked quite exhausted.

“There’s one way!”

“?”

Our only option was the ultimate move.

The image of the beam fired by the zombie in the black sphere was vivid in my mind.

If that zombie could do it, so could I!

Of course, firing a beam from Yerin’s body would atomize it, so I decided to use the sturdy Hungry Ghost.

I closed my eyes and began to concentrate.

The blue-haired girl also closed her eyes and started sending her wishes.

May we defeat the Magic Book that killed a god.

Hearing her wish, I began pushing all the firewood I had into the white Hungry Ghost.

The white Hungry Ghost, burning more and more intensely with golden flames, suddenly crossed a threshold and began burning blue.

The sudden eruption of blue flames was so fierce it forced even “Nameless” to step back.

“Hungry Ghost Beam!”

At my shout, the white Hungry Ghost, now floating gently in the sky, opened its mouth and began spewing massive flames.

It was closer to flames than a beam, but its power was incredible, destroying all the corroded surroundings and blasting a huge hole in the ground.

As the flames tore through the void filling the sky, a blackened purple moon was revealed.

The bizarre traces covering the ground were all incinerated.

Moreover, the flames from Hungry Ghost’s mouth didn’t stop at creating a hole in the ground - they surged up from the hole, endlessly burning “Nameless.”

The blue flames spewing from Hungry Ghost’s mouth seemed to successfully repel the “Magic Book that killed a god.”

“Did we defeat it?”

The blue-haired girl was so tense she almost uttered a resurrection spell without thinking.

“Nameless,” trying to escape the blue flames, was swallowed by the flames surging from the pit and fell into the abyss-like hole.

“Haha, we won.”

Seeing this, the blue-haired girl collapsed to the ground, her strength leaving her, and looked around.

The Bud Magic Books had their arms stretched towards the sky, eyes tightly shut, clearly struggling.

Looking closely at them, she could faintly hear voices.

So these Magic Books can speak.

Finding their furrowed brows oddly cute, the blue-haired girl gently smoothed them out.

“We won…”

We defeated a mythical being!

Though her body felt weak, the blue-haired girl forced herself up and tightly hugged the black and white-clad girl.

She began shouting loudly.

“We won! We won! We won!”

While one might expect elation after defeating such a formidable entity, the little one just stared expressionlessly at the pit.

Then, suddenly, words tumbled from the child’s mouth.

“Now, we won.”

Though the pronunciation was childish, it clearly declared victory.

The blue-haired girl found this expressionless child so adorable that she began vigorously rubbing its cheeks.

Thud.

But then came a heavy sound.

The hand of the Magic Book that killed a god had emerged from the massive pit, gripping its edge.

And it slowly began to climb up.

“!!!”

In that moment, her heart began to race wildly with tension.

Where’s the Hungry Ghost?

Turning her head, she saw the completely battered Hungry Ghost collapsed nearby.

But the Hungry Ghost was too wrecked to fight again without significant recovery.

I’ll have to fight.

With a determined face, the blue-haired girl once again drew the  alchemist’s sword.

At that moment, her master stepped in front of her.

He began inscribing a massive alchemical formula on the ground.

It was his unique technique of walking through endless corridors.

“Take that child and run. I’ll buy you time.”

The man added in a low tone…

“The last alchemist must survive.”

It is an alchemist’s duty to protect humans.

It was something her master always said.

“…Yes.”

Unlike her master who could put up some resistance, the powerless blue-haired girl answered softly and tried to flee with the child.

But the child refused to follow her, just staring fixedly at the sky.

Following its gaze, she looked up and saw something strange happening to the purple moon in the sky.

An hour had passed, but the dream wouldn’t end.

Huh? Why? Did I count the time wrong?

Moreover, the “Nameless,” hit by the Hungry Ghost Beam, was starting to climb back up.

Did my sense of time get messed up because I’m in Yerin’s body?

As I worried and considered our next move, something strange happened to the purple moon.

From the completely blackened moon, an endless stream of viscous black liquid began to pour down.

It cascaded like a waterfall onto the “Nameless’” head and into the massive pit that had erased the purple city.

As the evolution fluid touched “Nameless,” it lost its form and collapsed instantly, just like the black Reaper that had easily dissolved.

“!!!!!!”

Though there wasn’t not a single bit of sound, a bizarre scream could still clearly be heard.

It was the death throes of “Nameless,” still trying to climb up even as it melted away.

We won!

As victory suddenly arrived amidst my anxiety, a smile involuntarily spread across my face.

Hehe.

So that’s why it was more than one hour! It must have been the time until the moon’s collapse.

Thump thump.

I slowly approached the edge of the pit and looked down.

A city-sized sinkhole.

Evolution fluid from the sky was gradually filling the hole, eerily similar to the one that appeared in Songpa-gu.

In the rising evolution fluid, the pitiful form of “Nameless” could be seen repeatedly melting and regenerating before finally dissolving completely.

This should end the dream, right?

As I turned around with a grin, I saw the Bud Reapers bounding towards me.

The Bud Reapers, looking truly happy, were there to welcome me.