Beside the glowing portal, an image emerged.
In the projection, towering buildings floated in the sky, rising and falling unpredictably.
At first glance, it looked like a celestial paradise.
A perfect depiction of,
"In the Jade Capital of Heaven, twelve towers and five cities stand high;An immortal caresses my crown, binding my hair with the blessing of eternal life."
However, the people walking its streets bore none of the divine elegance of the legendary immortals.
Instead, everyone was dressed in red robes, their faces filled with greedy desire; subtle but undeniable, as if they were possessed.
If it had been only one or two individuals, it might have been coincidence.
But in this so-called paradise, everyone was the same.
From time to time, someone would summon a transparent interface, projected from a blood-red ring on their hands. Some engaged in trades, while others vanished into streaks of light, heading toward the outside world.
The items exchanged in these transactions were incredibly diverse; swords and armor from fantasy worlds, high-tech firearms, and even futuristic computers.
This was the so-called Reincarnation Palace.
A multiversal organization that plundered everything from countless worlds.
Seeing this scene, Subaru and Reinhardt were left speechless.
Even the Multiversal Chat Group fell silent.
Yet Haruto remained unfazed, continuing with his task.
His hand reached into the glowing portal, stirring it ever so slightly. His irises shimmered with brilliant rainbow hues, akin to refracted light.
With the aid of his Root-Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, Haruto was meticulously severing the Reincarnation Palace's connections to the other worlds.
This act was carried out with extreme discretion.
The Reincarnation Palace was being cut off from the entire multiverse, isolated like a stranded island in the void.
Haruto worked with utmost caution, carefully severing spatial death lines to avoid drawing premature attention.
Finally, his task was complete. Withdrawing his hand, he observed his handiwork.
Now, the Reincarnation Palace was completely trapped, as if sealed inside a clay jar, with nowhere to escape.
The only exit Haruto left open led to a desolate, uninhabited universe.
A barren cosmos, where all life had long perished, and planets lay in ruins; expendable, even if it were completely destroyed.
With the preparations complete, Haruto gestured for Subaru and Reinhardt to step into the adjacent chamber beside the Forbidden Magic Hall.
Then, Haruto forcefully extracted the Gray Spirit from the AI simulation pod before vanishing into the shadows.
A few moments later, the Gray Spirit awoke, looking around in confusion.
Wasn't I supposed to have returned to the Reincarnation Palace?
This mission had been incredibly profitable.
Shaking its head, the Gray Spirit felt as though it had overlooked something.
But dismissing the thought, it activated its recall ability.
A blood-red pillar of light enveloped the Gray Spirit, and in an instant, it vanished without a trace.
—Meanwhile, in the adjacent room—
Haruto waved a hand, summoning another projection.
This time, it displayed the Gray Spirit's first-person perspective.
Its entire body had already been completely infected by the Blacklight Virus, putting it fully under Haruto's control, yet it remained utterly unaware.
The moment the Gray Spirit returned to the Reincarnation Palace, dozens of reincarnators swarmed around it.
The street was immediately packed to the brim.
"Lord Greylin! Your trip to the Re:Zero World, was it as rewarding as expected?"
"Tch, what a stupid question! Lord Greylin already said that after this world's looting, they'd be moving up the ranks!"
"So, what exactly did you obtain, my lord? You wouldn't tell us before, but surely now that it's done, you can share the details?"
The reincarnators eagerly discussed among themselves.
Seeing this, Reinhardt frowned.
These people… they treated other worlds as nothing more than resources, and the lives within them as mere insects.
Their attitude was utterly disgusting.
Haruto, however, observed with great interest.
The Gray Spirit let out a wild laugh, waving its hand grandly.
This time, in the Re: Zero World, it had managed to capture the Sword Saint himself, causing its strength to skyrocket.
On any other day, it wouldn't have even bothered speaking to these low-level trash. But today, it was in a good mood, a little boasting wouldn't hurt.
After all, what's the fun in victory if no one knows about it?
However—
Just as the Gray Spirit was about to speak, it suddenly felt something was off.
What… am I doing?
Looking down, it saw that its own hand was moving on its own.
Carving into its own flesh, drawing streams of crimson blood.
The reincarnators nearby widened their eyes, confused by the Gray Spirit's bizarre behavior.
"Is this… some kind of new celebration ritual?"
Yet none of them showed the slightest concern.
After all, in the Reincarnation Palace, even a mortal wound could be healed in an instant using Reincarnation Points.
Even death itself could be undone with a simple transaction.
However, something wasn't right.
"Why does Lord Greylin look so terrified? What's happening?"
"Wait… is that… writing? What's that? Seven… Obsidian… What does that mean?"
"Is this some new magic system? Is Lord Greylin about to teach us something?"
Meanwhile, the Gray Spirit was utterly horrified.
Why… can't I control my body?!
Its face twisted in panic, desperately trying to stop itself from writing.
Yet it was useless.
Even attempting to consume Reincarnation Points for healing resulted in no response whatsoever.
Blood continued to flow, its fingers relentlessly scribbling strange words on the ground, the walls, even its own clothing.
Watching this, Subaru gulped and cautiously asked,
"What… is that?"
The projected image had been censored, preventing them from seeing exactly what was being written.
Only the motions were visible.
"The Reincarnation Palace invades countless worlds, plundering and pillaging without remorse. Its danger level is far too high… So I've decided to execute it."
Haruto's tone was calm, his gaze fixed firmly on the projection. These words sent chills down Subaru's spine.
Execute…?
The Reincarnation Palace was a vast, independent organization, detached from any single world.
Not to mention its countless reincarnators, the Palace itself was a colossal entity of immense power.
Yet now, Haruto intended to eradicate it?
How was that even possible?
Reinhardt, however, hesitated as he observed the reincarnators in the projection.
"Are all of them truly guilty beyond redemption?"
Haruto shook his head upon hearing this.
"Perhaps some people were dragged into the Reincarnation Hall before they even had the chance to commit unforgivable crimes through plundering."
Upon hearing this, Reinhardt immediately wanted to say something.
But Haruto waved his hand.
"However, the moment these so-called reincarnators were pulled into the Reincarnation Hall, they were already dead."
These words left Reinhardt stunned, and even Subaru widened his eyes.
Haruto pointed at the reincarnators in the projection.
"Do you see that almost uniform greed on their faces? As if plundering was their very nature? Humans are all individuals with different personalities. While they may have greed, not everyone should appear so alike."
"The moment they were pulled into the Reincarnation Hall, something completely altered their perception, embedding the instinct to plunder into their very being."
"Because that something holds an extremely high status, this influence is irreversible. The instant their minds were altered, they became nothing more than tools of the Reincarnation Hall."
This was the truth behind the Reincarnation Hall.
The so-called immortal strokes my head, binding my hair to grant eternal life was nothing but an enticing bait.
Once they took the bait, they were trapped.
Either they died on the path of plundering, or they kept plundering until their eventual demise.
The Reincarnation Hall continuously extracted the power of stolen worlds from these tools, strengthening itself.
Meanwhile, Greylin had already used his own blood to inscribe a vast amount of text onto the ground.
The reincarnators who had gathered around initially were starting to sense that something was wrong.
Some attempted to summon their Reincarnation Hall panels, trying to flee to other mundane worlds to lay low.
However, as soon as the blood-red pillar of light descended—
They did not, as usual, transform into a streak of light and leave the Reincarnation Hall's world.
Instead, nothing happened at all.
This sudden change threw the reincarnators into complete panic.
Above the Reincarnation Hall, a massive blood-colored eye manifested in the sky.
Clearly, the entity behind the Reincarnation Hall had finally noticed the anomaly and cast its gaze down to investigate.
The moment it saw what Greylin was doing, the entire Reincarnation Hall began to tremble violently.
Countless floating buildings in the sky collapsed due to the tremors, crashing down with deafening roars.
A massive hand descended from the sky, directly covering everything around Greylin. It paid no heed to how many reincarnators were in the vicinity.
However, at that moment, it seemed Greylin had finally reached a critical threshold with his inscriptions.
His body stiffened, and his consciousness was abruptly restored. He collapsed to the ground, finally letting out a terrified scream.
And then, everything around him was utterly annihilated.
Even the so-called top ten on the Reincarnation Rankings were erased without a trace of blood left behind.
Yet, despite Greylin's death, the Reincarnation Hall did not stop trembling.
Instead, the eye and the massive hand in the sky suddenly retracted, as if encountering an immense crisis.
Haruto observed this scene intently.
Greylin had perished, but the Blacklight Virus had not. It dispersed into the air, continuing its mission.
And in the next moment, the sky above the Reincarnation Hall was abruptly torn open.
A torrential flood of fresh blood gushed out from the wound in the sky, crashing down to the ground.
The sight was utterly terrifying!