Plop.

The Trinity researchers threw the corpse into the lake.

It was an act of polluting the water source they used for drinking, but the researchers threw the corpse into the lake without hesitation.

The researchers had no intention of staying in this cave for long, so it was an obvious choice.

Rather, they were even having pointless thoughts.

'If someone comes, I should show them this lake and say it's drinking water. And when they see the corpse at the bottom of the lake, how shocked will they be?'

'And if they turn around, tada! I'll be standing there, transformed into an Evolved.' 

'Their expression would really be worth seeing.'

Chuckling inwardly, they carefully checked and rechecked to make sure no corpses were missed.

The reason for this erratic meticulousness?

It was because a corpse they didn't remember clearing had suddenly disappeared.

The corpse of a girl left on the altar and the corpse of a man in a black suit.

Only a bloodstain remained where the girl had been placed.

And where the man had been, only pieces of his entrails were scattered, the corpse itself gone.

They had no memory of clearing it away!

It was enough to make a ghost wail.

From then on, they worked diligently, thinking they must have cleared it away and forgotten, being extremely thorough.

Thanks to the researcher's efforts, the cave that had been full of dismembered corpses until recently was now spotless, without a single corpse.

All that remained were the bloodstains on the floor and walls.

And the stench of blood filling the inside of the cave.

The blood smell would dissipate if they waited, but the bloodstains had to be left as they were.

"Ah, why won't this smell of blood go away? If it continues like this, I won't be able to leave."

Muttering to himself, the researcher sat in a corner of the cave and waited for the living sacrifice to arrive.

***

Reaper (MC) POV:

---

Looking around from inside the sand, there were no traces of people.

I had finally succeeded in driving away all the people lurking around with the 'shark in the sand' operation.

All that remained was to check if there were people inside that cave.

As I approached near the red skull, the stench of blood was overpowering.

The stench of human blood, at that.

"Ah, why won't this smell of blood go away? If it continues like this, I won't be able to leave."

An annoyed voice coming from inside the cave.

Following the voice into the cave, it was completely covered in blood.

The floor, walls, and even the ceiling were painted red.

The red rock and red bloodstains had distinctly different textures, easily distinguishable at a glance.

Still-wet bloodstains trickled down the walls, forming eerie patterns.

Pieces of human flesh were carelessly scattered across the floor.

And in that horrific environment, a human figure sat with a calm expression.

No, it was a monster.

It looked human, but it was not human.

A hideous being, a mixture of human and Object.

A deep malice toward humans flowed through its veins.

Not an Object from birth, but a human injected with something.

That grotesque being heard my footsteps and turned its blood-flushed face to address me.

"Ah, hello! Well..."

But upon seeing my appearance, it recoiled in terror.

"Wha... Gray Reaper! No, why is the Gray Reaper suddenly here?"

The man backed away, his face drained of color.

He seemed far more terrified than expected.

"That's... right! You don't attack humans, do you? I'm human! Haha."

The monster claiming to be human. 

But to my eyes, it appeared more harmful to humans than Objects.

I ignored his words and kept walking forward, step by step.

"C-Could it be you've noticed? The Research Institute said I'd never be discovered!"

Now backed against the cave wall, the man looked utterly desperate. 

"No, I don't want to die! Please spare me! Please!"

As I approached closer, he crouched down, trembling and clutching his head.

Then the clothes covering his body burst open, and he transformed into a monster. 

And the stench emanating from his body became overwhelmingly foul.

The terrible smell made me frown and step back.

"That's... right. I'm strong enough. There's no need to be afraid of the Gray Reaper."

The monster muttered to itself, as if in a trance. 

It seemed to have seen an opportunity when I stepped back.

When in fact, it was incomparably weaker compared to me.

"I can win. I can win!"

The monster whirled its whip-like transformed hands around.

And it stomped the ground so hard that the rocks on the floor crumbled, and swung down its hideous hands towards me.

I overlapped its whip-like body with ghostification, then materialized.

"Kkkueeeck!"

The monster whose arm was severed in an instant clutched its arm and rolled around on the floor.

After a while, the blood vessels all over its body started rampaging uncontrollably.

It looked like the blood vessels were going berserk, trying to break free from the body.

"No! The balance! Aaargh!"

The blood vessels tore and ripped apart the monster's flesh.

As if the blood vessels alone were separate living beings, they started thrashing about violently.

The monster, whose limbs were twisting in strange directions and thrashing about, eventually stopped screaming and died.

And then it exploded with a 'bang' sound.

All that remained was black blood emitting a foul stench.

Clearly blood made to be harmful to humans.

A stench that made one feel nauseous.

A stench I never wanted to touch.

Just for fun, I summoned the Golden Reaper in the black blood pool.

The Golden Reaper sprang out striking a pose with a 'jjan!' sound.

But soon it recoiled in horror at the black blood all over its body, made an expression of utter despair, and collapsed to the floor.

Hehe, as I repeatedly ghostified and un-ghostified, seeing that, the Golden Reaper used ghostification to remove the blood and revived.

Oh, it caught on quicker than I thought.

And it came up to me and started punching me repeatedly.

thud thud thud-

This time it seemed quite angry, showing no signs of stopping its attacks.

Leaving the Golden Reaper pounding on the top of my head, I explored deeper into the cave.

There were plenty of bloodstains in the cave, but strangely no corpses, until I found the reason.

The corpses were all in the lake inside the cave. 

Ugh, can't drink that lake water.

***

I sat perched atop the red skull, gazing up at the red moon for a long while.

Quite some time had passed, yet night refused to end and the red moon still hung high in the sky.

Looking down, all I could see was the horizon in every direction.

Even sitting atop this rather tall skull, the desert seemed to stretch endlessly.

Shattered statue fragments littered the ground below.

I kicked them to pieces as I was exiting the cave.

And atop my head, a snoozing Golden Reaper.

Even while sleeping it occasionally pounds my head, just how angry did it get?

The reason I was gazing at the red moon was because of the 'center of the desert'.

The Golden Reapers had already spread evenly across the entire desert region.

But I still couldn't pinpoint the desert's center.

A pristine dome shape.

Yet inside that dome, my location kept changing. 

At first I thought the desert was flowing like a river, but it was the dome that was moving.

No matter how I looked at it, the area beneath that moving moon seemed to be the center of the desert.

The Golden Reapers were already together with all the humans.

Humans were safe now.

There was no one around.

Time to wake up the red skull.

I leapt down from the red skull, calling the Golden Reapers to gather.

*** 

I was watching the massive, mountain-sized red skull from a sandy hill where it was visible.

Behind me were rows of unemployed Reapers who couldn't find 1 Reaper per 1 human jobs.

Using my 'eye', I checked the destruction condition:

<Destruction of the Heart.>

No sooner had I confirmed the destruction condition than the desert began pulsating.

Gulurulurung-!

Pillars of fire erupted from the desert sands.

Those flames gushed down like a waterfall onto the red skull.

The rock fragments attached to the skull melted away, erasing any trace of what looked like a cave entrance.

What remained was an ancient red skull exuding considerable force.

And with burning eye sockets, it raised its massive body.

Where the prone skull had lain, only a lonely lake with a underground spring remained.

Only the upper body emerged from the sand, but its size was to a building.

Inside the rib cage burned a heart, fused to the bones.

That must be the weakness.

Thud.

Thud. Thud.

Heavy footsteps reverberated.

Only the upper body of the skull emerged, parting the sand like waves as it began walking towards us.

The red skull glared at me with its two fiercely burning eyes.

The skull opened its empty, fleshless mouth wide and spewed fire.

Not only was its sheer size intimidating, but it also breathed flames hot enough to melt sand.

If an ordinary person saw that sight, wouldn't it seem quite dreadful?

But to me, it just looked like a kind skull that helpfully set itself on fire.

Thank you, Mr. Skull!

Amidst the ferocious flames hot enough to turn the surrounding sand into glass, me and the Golden Reapers were unharmed.

I smiled confidently and gestured towards the skull.

That skull is a harmful skull!

Very harmful to humans!

The charge of the Golden Reapers began from behind me.

The wave of Golden Reapers clung densely to the red skull like termites gnawing on wood.

The high temperature flames protecting the skull were useless.

The skull tried to shake them off by swinging its huge hands, but it was a futile effort.

Even when flung off, more Golden Reapers clung on.

Finally, piercing through the red skull's fierce resistance, one Golden Reaper penetrated its heart.

The heart began spilling flames like a punctured water balloon.

Grooooooaaaah!

An eerie resonance rang out from the skull's entire body, echoing across the whole desert.

The red skull collapsed, propping up its falling torso with both arms, and stopped moving.

The Golden Reapers also stopped and looked up at the skull.

The faintly flickering flames in the skull's eye sockets seemed to be staring straight at me somehow.

Its eyes were strangely calm and emotional, unlike anything I had ever seen before.

As the slowly beating heart that had been spewing flames from its wound completely stopped, the red skull began scattering into dust.

***

The fallen red skull billowed tremendous dust clouds.

Being so massive in size, it took quite a while for the dust to dissipate.

The heart and remaining bones all turned to dust and scattered.

All that was left was the still fiercely burning skull head.

So now, should I just dance on top of that?

When I turned to see if the Golden Reapers would dance instead, they just smiled blankly without a thought.

Ugh, what a hassle.