For a moment, they wondered if they had heard wrong. What the hell was he talking about right now?
“What do you mean you don’t have a Zodiac?”
“What are you talking about, Gun?”
In the first place, the world was abuzz because the thirteenth Zodiac Saint had shown up. Lee Gun not having a Zodiac made zero sense. However, Hugo did find it reasonable why Lee Gun was saying this.
‘I’ve never seen Gun have an audience with his Zodiac.’ Hugo perspired.
Yes, for a Saint, their holy ground was considered the holiest of locations. It was called the bedchamber of the Zodiac. It was the place within the temple where the Saint could directly meet and converse with their Zodiac.
The situation differed depending on the Saint, but Hugo had to have an audience with his Zodiac once a day. There, he offered tributes to his Zodiac and listened to any of the Zodiac’s complaints and requests. Of course, the Zodiacs didn’t have human bodies, so they didn’t possess human appearance when they appeared in front of their Saints.
Anyway, Lee Gun had never convened with his Zodiac. ‘He’s a couch potato who always watched dramas and played video games all day.’
To anyone who looked at the situation from the outside, Lee Gun would look like some kind of king who ruled over the disciples. Some might even mistake him for a Zodiac.
In any case, Hugo had just assumed Lee Gun was a new Saint with no holy ground and that the new Zodiac didn’t have any rules.
‘It was odd that he released his Constructs in our holy ground.’ If Hugo thought about it, the thirteenth Zodiac would never allow that.
In truth, a Zodiac would get furious if its Saint went into the holy ground of another Zodiac. Why would its contractor go to the house of someone else?
And yet, Lee Gun had mooched off Hugo in Hugo’s holy ground for a month.
‘If his Zodiac had made an appearance, it would have never allowed that.’
That was why Lee Gun could fearlessly traverse through the holy grounds of other Zodiacs.
Kevin asked in surprise, “That means you’ve never met your Zodiac? I assumed your Zodiac fixed your body.”
Lee Gun looked at Kevin with loathing in his eyes. “Idiot! I recovered by myself.”
“?!” Kevin was dumbfounded.
However, Hugo just massaged his forehead. Yes, he had heard it all before, but he hadn’t taken it seriously. He had just thought Lee Gun had made a contract with a Zodiac and just hadn’t realized it yet.
‘After all, Gun doesn’t have any experience with it.’
Hugo and the other Zodiac Saints had been with their Zodiacs from the start. He had assumed Lee Gun had later become the thirteenth Saint and that, unlike them, he didn’t know how to meet his Zodiac.
Therefore, Hugo said to Lee Gun, “Gun, you probably don’t remember it, but I’m sure your Zodiac appeared in your dream. Or maybe an animal tried to talk to you— Kuhk!”
Lee Gun disapprovingly looked at his friend. “I don’t have one. Do you want me to hit you?”
‘You already hit me!’ Hugo wanted to say something, but the look in Lee Gun’s eyes made him shrink back a bit.
“Right. Your Zodiac will appear soon. Don’t worry about it.” Some Zodiacs were very interested in humans, and some were indifferent to them.
Lee Gun dismissively nodded. If he was being honest, he didn’t really know much about his power. The only certainty was that he had satisfied some condition within the tower to acquire this power. Moreover, the power might be the power of the thirteenth Zodiac.
If that was true…
‘The owner of the power might show up someday.’
Kevin, who was quick on the uptake, had a completely different thought than Lee Gun. “What if he became a Zodiac?”
Lee Gun never had a Zodiac from the start. He was an oddity who generated his own power. What if he was capable of such a feat because he was a Zodiac? What if he went through an uncertain awakening process twenty years ago? What if he was in an incomplete state?
Kevin glared at Lee Gun with a meaningful look in his eyes, then called out to Hugo, “Hey, Archer. You said Lee Gun can control his Constructs, right?”
“What about it?”
“What if Lee Gun awakened as a Zodiac when he exited the tower? There is a high probability…”
Kevin couldn’t finish his question. He got surprised by the expression on Hugo’s face.
“What? Zodiaaaaaaaaac?”
“…!”
It was as if Hugo was asking what nonsense Kevin was spouting. Maybe, it was because Lee Gun was his best friend.
Hugo looked like he wanted to spit in response. “If someone with such a bankrupt character is a Zodiac, I’m the god of the universe! If what you say is true, I’ll clean that bastard’s feet.”
Kevin was on the fence, but he decided to accept Hugo’s point. If someone like Lee Gun had become a Zodiac, humanity would’ve met its demise already.
“Then…” Kevin was about to say something, but…
Koo-goo-goohng!
The ground shook. Everyone looked out the window in surprise and saw a familiar sight.
“Those are…!”
The things causing damage were the enormous worms Lee Gun had killed.
“Their vitals were pierced, so how…”
The Archer disciples were taken aback, but the two Saints furrowed their brows.
“It would’ve been odd if they had died…”
“What?”
They were the rare-type monsters.
‘They are the ones who showed up at Drachma.’
These monsters had appeared at Drachma to take that billion-dollar bone Lee Gun had once wielded. Currently, twelve confirmed classes of monsters existed amongst the unknown civilization. The rare-type monsters were the thirteenth class as they couldn’t be classified within the existing twelve classes.
‘Above all else, none of our attacks work on them.’ The toad-like monster that had consumed Hugo’s wife and subordinate was probably a rare-type monster too.
All the rare-type monsters had identical characteristics somewhere on their bodies. It was a unique wound. That wound looked like a snake.
Anyway, they were a troublesome class of monsters that the Saints couldn’t hurt.
“I guess it wasn’t a killing blow.” Lee Gun, who had taken them down, sounded dissatisfied.
The complaints left Kevin dumbfounded. “Are you kidding me? None of our attacks works on those bastards! The fact that your attack actually worked on them means a lot…”
Hugo laughed as if he was proud of Lee Gun, as if he was showing off. “Gun’s magical energy works even on the great rare-type monsters.”
The spear Lee Gun had killed these monsters with was the Leo Saint’s weapon.
“It worked because Gun infused it with his magical energy—” Hugo couldn’t finish his sentence as a scream escaped his lips.
Boom!
Lee Gun disappeared with a deafening roar.
“Gun!”
The deafening roar was the sound of Lee Gun calling forth Heaven’s Punishment. As soon as its owner called for it, the ax instantly flew toward Lee Gun’s hands.
Lee Gun jumped out of the hole in the wall as he grabbed his ax.
“Lee Gun-nim!”
They were on the fourth floor! Lee Gun didn’t have a floatation skill, so he immediately used another skill.
[Familiar Summon]
He summoned a large beast. It was none other than Pixiu!
[You summoned Piggy Bank]
[Due to the summoning, it failed to eat Disciple 1.]
Boom!
Perhaps, because it had been forcefully summoned, the building-sized Pixiu immediately expressed its anger. It asked who dared interfere with its meal when it had been about to eat Sungjae.
Realizing its owner was the one, Pixiu reared back in fright, but its reaction lasted only a moment.
Kwah-jeek!
“!!”
Lee Gun used Pixiu’s head as a launching pad to jump forward. It allowed him to take a flying leap.
Kwah-jeek!
The incredible force behind his feet sent Pixiu flying backward.
Boom!
Pixiu cried in pain when it fell into an empty lot.
The Saints and the disciples could only look on in shock.
“Did… did he just use a Construct as a stepping stone?”
Constructs were a Zodiac’s direct subordinates. Of course, unless they were battle-type gods, many Constructs had less fighting power compared to the Saints. However, Constructs were gods at the end of the day.
‘How can he treat it like that…!’
Oblivious to their reactions, Lee Gun landed on a worm’s head.
Boom!
He raised his weapon high. Heaven’s Punishment activated after consuming blood, and it let out a light.
Flash!
An incredibly bright light surprised the audience members who had been evacuating from the stadium.
“What the hell is that light?”
“Over there! Someone is standing atop the monster’s head!”
“Head? Hey! Did you take a shot to your head? What psycho would get on a monster’s head!”
“That’s right. Even the Leo Saint and the Taurus Saint, who fight up close, wouldn’t do that!”
Despite those words, the people who moved toward the glass windows became thunderstruck.
“What the hell? There really is someone atop the head?”
“Who the hell is that?”
“It’s Lee Gun! Lee Gun!”
“What?!”
Letters made out of light were engraved upon the body of the activated ax. They formed a magical energy sharp like a blade as the ax roared.
Go-ohhhhhhhhhh!
In truth, Heaven’s Punishment was a dull ax. Normally, it couldn’t split wood with its blade. However, when it activated, that was a completely different story.
Paht!
It sounded like the breathing of an old man had changed into the roar of a young devil, and its body that looked like rusted copper sheen had recovered its light.
Doohng!
A sound rang out as if it would shake heaven and earth. It was as though the heartbeat of the earth was ringing through the heavens.
Doohng!
The crowd and the reporters who had been evacuating came to a stop in surprise.
“That’s…”
“Yes, it is! It’s the legendary weapon that has the three-stage transformation!”
“My god! I never expected to see it in real life…”
The roaring ax received the magical energy of the snake.
Go-ohhhhhhhhh!
Its blade let out an enormous flash of light as it fell toward the worm’s head. The light falling from the heavens made the ax’s blade look like the blade of a falling guillotine!
Kwah-jeek!
The blade of light dug into the worm’s head and instantly bisected it from head to tail.
Kwahng!
However, Lee Gun wasn’t done yet. “Ha ha ha! One, two, three! They’ll make great ingredients when I make my badges!”
Having fun, Lee Gun parted the flesh and bones of the monster. He ripped out its innards with his bare hands.
Hugo and Goat, who had weak stomachs, put their hands over their mouths. Only Lee Jaewon was smiling. He looked impressed.
“As expected of Lee Gun-nim, he hasn’t changed at all.” Lee Jaewon respected Lee Gun since he had worked like a mule for Lee Gun.
However, Hugo, who had the same experience as Lee Jaewon, hated it. “You don’t think he has changed at all? He has returned as a complete psychopath!”
“What? What do you mean? Lee Gun-nim has always been a psychopath.”
“….”
Hugo couldn’t deny those words, so he felt like crying. In the end, it didn’t matter.
“Saint-nim! Look over there!”
“!”
Kevin and Hugo turned to look at what Goat was pointing out and were surprised. A familiar crystal dropped out of the bisected monster. It was the mark of the Scorpio Saint.
The two Saints furrowed their brows. Of course, they knew what this meant.
‘The Scorpio Saint called out those monsters.’
“As expected, she’s in league with them.”
Of course, there was also a nagging feeling about why Lee Gun could easily kill these monsters.
* * *
When Lee Gun killed the monsters, most of the crowd was cheering. However, someone ground her teeth in shock.
“What the hell! How can he kill them so easily?”
She was a very beautiful woman and the one who had released the monster, the Scorpio Saint! Of course, she wasn’t really the Scorpio Saint.
“Shit! This messes up our plan.”
Yes, this woman who looked like the Scorpio Saint was, in fact, an SS-rank disciple from the Pisces temple. Named Silvia, she was one of the <Ten Stars>.
The Pisces specialized in transformation skills, and its Saint was another magician Saint alongside the Gemini Saint. The two Saints were a pair of magicians.
Anyway, Silvia had come to the stadium in the guise of the Scorpio Saint for a simple reason.
<Assassination of a Saint>
Yes, she was here to assassinate Lee Gun. Why?
[Kill Lee Gun in the US]
The Pisces Saint had ordered her to.
The order had actually left Silvia dumbfounded at first. ‘The Saint hasn’t contacted me in two years, so why now all of a sudden…’
However, the person on the other end of the phone call didn’t care if Silvia was annoyed or not. She just sighed.
– That’s too bad. If you kill a Saint, I’m pretty sure a skill greater than the Faith Destroyer would come out.
“!”
The person on the other end of the line continued.
– If you kill Chun Sungjae, you will 100% receive an SS-rank skill. If you kill a Saint, I’m pretty sure an SSS-rank skill would come out. I would like you to get rid of Lee Gun before you go hunting down Chun Sungjae.
Silvia lowered her head as she made a call. “I’m sorry! You lured Lee Gun to this place, yet I…”
She gritted her teeth. ‘This is all the Scorpio Saint’s fault.’
Two years had passed since they had last spoken, yet her Saint, the Pisces Saint, had sent an unreasonable demand to her. That had surprised Silvia. She asked how she could kill Lee Gun. After sending a hundred text messages, she had finally received an answer.
[Scorpio. Same side. I’ll speak to her.]
In the end, her Saint was saying the Scorpio Saint was on the same side as them. The Pisces Saint wanted Silvia to ask for cooperation from the Scorpio Saint. That was Silvia’s interpretation of the message.
In the end, Silvia went to the Scorpio Saint and asked for help. The Scorpio Saint was a bombshell that even a woman would fall for.
The Saint had replied to Silvia with a mysterious laugh, “I see. You want to get rid of Lee Gun.”
Her voice was so beautiful that it gave Silvia goosebumps. Silvia felt as if the Scorpio Saint wasn’t human. Her eyes, hand gestures, presence, etc. The Scorpio Saint possessed incredible charisma. When it was said that looks could kill, they were talking about her.
“Yes. I already received payment.” The Scorpio Saint had long black hair, and she had worn a black dress. As the corner of her mouth lifted, she had replied, “I’ll give you something fit for this occasion. You’ll be able to kill Lee Gun with them.”
And so, Silvia had received monsters. The Scorpio Saint told Silvia that the monsters would follow her order if she transformed to look like her, the Scorpio Saint.
That was the reason for Silvia entering the stadium looking like the Scorpio Saint. So what the hell happened?
‘Did that woman give me the right monsters?’
The Scorpio Saint had guaranteed these monsters could kill Lee Gun! What was happening was completely different from that! Silvia almost felt as if the Scorpio Saint had sent these monsters so that they could purposefully lose to Lee Gun.
Silvia felt like she had been duped. The person on the phone spoke.
– Lee Gun is no good. He’s bothersome.
Silvia’s eyes twinkled. “Please do not worry! Even if Lee Gun is the thirteenth Saint, he only has one disciple. He has a critical weakness. That’s why I will take care of him today…”
At that moment…
“You’re having a fun conversation.”
Someone viciously grabbed her shoulder.
