The development surprised Hugo. As the woman emitted that strange light, his fingers turned cold.
‘How is this possible?’
This should’ve never occurred to him, someone who served the god of the sun. Why?
Since he served the god of the sun, his body always generated intense heat. He would have a tough time feeling the cold unless someone dropped him in Antarctica.
His fingers turning cold underscored the severity of this situation. Hugo became vigilant.
‘As expected, this is the ability of a Secretary.’
He was sure of it. The Secretary’s ability was threatening his Zodiac. As if to prove this, Hugo heard a voice in his ears.
[In jealousy, the cloud took the place of the sun. The humans below the cloud were unable to receive the blessing of the sun.]
“…!” Hugo became sure. It was slightly different, but the passage was somewhat familiar.
‘Bible.’
All Zodiacs possessed scriptures that were considered holy books. In other words, Bibles existed, and these Bibles were already completed. However, none of the twelve Zodiacs could open and use their Bibles. No one knew why.
Hugo had thought this was the curse of the Secretaries. The reason?
‘Gun can open his bible.’
As the thirteenth Zodiac, Lee Gun was a rookie Zodiac that had appeared after the extinction of the Secretaries.
Hugo surmised that Lee Gun could avoid the curse of the Secretaries. He wondered if that was the reason Lee Gun could freely open and use his Bible.
He might be thinking about the matter too simplistically, but that wasn’t important right now.
‘I’m pretty sure that passage is from the Saggitarius’s Bible.’
Of course, Hugo had never seen that Bible before. However, his Zodiac had written down all the passages that it remembered. Therefore, Hugo had a general idea of how the bible went.
He needed to know his Zodiac’s achievements to propagate them to his disciples. This also allowed him to use his abilities, par for the course.
However, this passage that the voice spoke was a bit different.
The original passage was - The sun sent the light of its blessing beneath the cloud. The grateful humans beneath the cloud received its blessing.
However, the passage that he had heard was - In jealousy, the cloud took the place of the sun. The humans below the cloud were unable to receive the blessing of the sun.
Hugo furrowed his brows at this realization. ‘The content is different!’
He was sure that this was the editing ability of a Secretary. It was as expected. He felt the Zodiac he served rage.
[That damned sect is at it again.]
As the dark voice rang, Hugo’s body started to burn up.
Woosh!
An incredible power slammed toward the ground.
Boom!
It felt like being crushed by the force of gravity!
Kwah-gwahng!
“Koohk!”
It seemed the Zodiac was using its Saint as the coordinates to descend into this world.
[I’ll personally eliminate that impudent sect.]
Hugo froze. Then, he hysterically yelled, “You can’t right now!”
If his Zodiac descended to this world, it would easily cause complete destruction within a ten-kilometer radius.
Moreover, his Zodiac was the god of scorching heat. In other words, the situation would be like a burning sun falling directly on earth. It would be a calamitous event.
On top of that, the descent of a Zodiac precipitously decreased a temple’s contribution and EXP.
Therefore, a Zodiac normally took possession of the Saint instead! This would cause incredible stress to the Saint’s body, but it was the safest route for everyone involved.
And right now, a high-rank god was about to appear in this place in the flesh!
Hugo desperately tried to calm his Zodiac. “Please! There are people inside the hospital!”
The hospital still had over a thousand people inside it. Moreover, his wife and subordinate were there too.
‘Everyone will die if the Zodiac descends in person.’
His voice shook a bit. “Please.”
Thankfully, it seemed his Zodiac’s anger subsided. However, the Secretary’s voice continued to reverberate.
[The foolish suns kneeled under the sun. This made the humans cheer as they worshiped.]
What the hell! She had changed “foolish beasts” into “foolish suns.” She had completely changed the achievement of a Zodiac.
As expected, all the disciples of the Sagittarius temple fell to their knees when they heard the passage.
Boom!
“Koohk!”
Hugo felt the power drain out of his body.
Chun Sungjae was surprised as well. “Dad!”
“Don’t come here!”
“!”
The Secretary’s abilities were amazing, but it was also the reason he found something suspect.
‘Even if she’s a Secretary, she shouldn’t be able to do this without the Sagittarius’s bible!’
Yes! Who cared if the Secretary had the ability to edit?
‘She shouldn’t be able to use her ability without the Bible’s original text!’ So how was she doing this? ‘Does she have the original copy of the Sagittarius's Bible?’
The Archer Saint ground his teeth. He didn’t even have the time to figure out what was going on. When he was about to stand up…
“!”
“Saint-nim! Behind you!”
Something burst through the ground.
Kwah-jeek!
They were hands! A man’s hands had come out of the ground like a mole. The hands grabbed Hugo.
Kwahng!
“Now! Hurry up and kill him!”
The woman yelled and charged at Hugo. When the woman summoned her spear, a black sphere surged into the sky. It was a pocket of poison.
[Formless Poison (SS)]
The disciples’ faces hardened at the sight of the black sphere. This was expected. Once, this poison had caused unprecedented casualties when the temples had fought.
The poison had wiped out even general rank disciples, so that event was still talked about to this day.
‘That poison can kill a building-sized monster in three seconds!’
It seemed the woman’s true goal was to kill a Zodiac Saint.
Chun Sungjae didn’t even have time to go save his father as the poison sphere fell on Hugo.
“Dad!”
When Hugo got drenched in the poison, his skin became mottled with black spots.
The man who held Hugo cheered. “Ah ha ha! He’s dead! We killed a Saint!”
However, the poison-drenched Hugo laughed as if this had left him dumbfounded. “How foolish! How dare you look down on a Saint?”
Murderous intent appeared in his eyes. Then, something surprising happened.
Bbah-gahk!
Hugo swung his arm. The sound of a neck being broken rang out. It was the neck of the man who was holding him. The man slumped.
This astonished the woman. Her face was saying she couldn’t believe Hugo was fine after being hit by that poison.
“!!!”
In the blink of an eye, Hugo approached her and stabbed his dagger toward her neck.
Poo-ooh!
Hugo had instantly killed two high-rank disciples. He didn’t usually like killing people, but that changed when someone had used this poison. It was a heinous poison that had killed tens of thousands of civilians. Moreover, the poison was monstrous. After killing its target, it would spread into the surroundings like spores.
These disciples were no longer human once they used this poison.
At the same time, the Secretary’s power shorted out. Having regained their powers, the Archer disciples approached Hugo.
“Saint-nim! Are you ok!”
They were alarmed. Hugo’s skin had changed color.
“Why didn’t you dodge the poison?”
“If I had, you guys would’ve died. I would never let that happen.”
“…!”
That wasn’t all. If the poison had fallen to the ground, it might have harmed the people within the hospital despite the hospital being some distance away. If the poison had spread through the corpses of animals and insects, Hugo would have had no way to stop it.
As for him, he had high resistance to poison due to him having the body of a Saint. That was why nothing worse had happened.
Chun Sungjae tossed his father an antidote and said, “It probably hurts like hell, but you’re trying to act cool.”
With a pout, he continued, “You were a little cool today.”
“!”
It felt like a million years since he had heard a compliment from his son. Hugo’s heart became choked with emotion. “Sungj—”
“Still, you aren’t as cool as Uncle.”
Fuck!
At that moment, Goat looked at Hugo with worry in his eyes. It was to be expected.
“It seems they are connected to the Secretaries. If you kill them all, we won’t be able to gather information about them…”
Hugo laughed as if Goat had said something foolish. He snatched his disciple’s bow.
Goat didn’t even have time to be surprised. Something flew past his face in the blink of an eye.
Tahng!!!
It was a spear. Hugo had shot the woman’s spear like an arrow. The spear flew as it traversed through the trees.
Shwehhhhk!!!
It blew apart a tree a thousand meters away from them.
Kwahng!!
When the spear destroyed the upper portion of the tree, a scream rang in the distance. Someone was hiding atop that tree. This man was the real Secretary, the source of the torment Hugo had suffered.
The man looked to be in a daze after he fell from the tree. He was sure he had completely hidden his presence!
The Archer disciples’ mouths fell open.
“H-Hyung-nim? Did you notice him?”
“Not at all.”
Hugo didn't pay attention to his disciples. He just laughed in contempt. “Bastard! You call that hiding?”
His target looked taken aback and tried to run away.
At that moment, Hugo called out an unexpected name. “Slime! Come here!”
“?!”
When he called out, the moss stuck on a rock flinched.
Hugo extended his hand as if he wanted it to come quickly. “Gun sent you with me! Hurry up and come here.”
The moss grumbled as if it found all this vexing, as if it wanted to say, ‘Why did I have to follow someone like you?’
Hugo extended his hand in anger. “I’ll snitch on you to Gun!”
The slime finally reacted in surprise. It flew toward Hugo. While it was in the air, it skillfully changed its shape as if it were used to this. Its new shape was an arrow!
The slime was an item that had learned how to change its shape by stealing and eating a divine weapon. Of course, it could transform into just one arrow, but that didn’t matter.
As soon as Hugo received the arrow, he loaded his bow.
This surprised the Secretary, and his voice could be heard once again.
[The foolish suns kneeled under the sun—]
Hugo sneered as he pulled back his bow. “The pen may be powerful, but it’s slower than an arrow.”
Kwah-jeek!!!
The arrow hit with absolute accuracy.
* * *
“Saint-nim! Wait a moment! You have to move slowly!”
“The poison has not been neutralized yet. You shouldn’t move so quickly!”
The group was inside the hospital. Hugo was running, ignoring his subordinates, who were trying to dissuade him. His reaction was understandable. The hospital was in ruins.
To be precise, monster corpses lay in various locations inside the hospital. Of course, all of them had been killed in one shot.
Hugo’s eyes could pick up the fact that these monsters had been killed at unimaginable speed. It had taken an instant. The proof was the vivid expressions on the decapitated heads.
The Archer Saint now knew why Lee Gun had left him behind to go to the hospital. However, that issue was neither here nor there.
‘Gun! You bastard!’
Since he had sent his slime, Lee Gun must’ve realized the identity of Hugo’s opponent. ‘If it was going to be like this, he should have sent me to the hospital!’
How dare he make himself scarce to go to Hugo’s wife? Hugo’s face turned into the face of a yaksha. He had already forgotten that only Lee Gun could kill this many monsters.
The fact that Lee Gun had told Hugo to use this opportunity to get closer to his son made him that much more beside himself.
Hugo finally arrived on the tenth floor.
“Ah! Saint-nim!”
The youngest Archer disciple, Suh Jihoon, waved his hand with a bright expression. Suh Jihoon looked between Hugo and the corner as he made a gesture with his hand. “Over here! Over here! She’s here!”
Hugo quickly turned the corner. “Jiwoo—”
However, Hugo’s face froze. His wife was in Lee Gun’s arms. The Archer Saint screamed in alien words. “Hey! You #&*#$&#*!”
