The floating castle Drachma had appeared twenty years ago, when humanity had given up on recovering their territories. It was formed when they had decided to self-contain themselves.
[“All the overland routes are blocked.”]
[“The water routes are more disheartening.”]
[“The only place left is the sky.”]
The ground had been occupied by the unknown civilization, so they were stuck. Then there were the oceans. Innumerable monsters lay inside them, and one didn’t dare float a boat on the ocean.
Humanity’s safety was guaranteed inside the dome, but humans wanted to venture out of the dome. So they chose the sky.
Monsters did fly around in the sky, but they rarely ventured into the stratosphere, where the airplanes flew. It might have something to do with the Zodiacs.
Therefore, humanity created something there. This was Drachma, the floating castle. It was an enormous castle that traveled the airway as it moved between the troposphere and the stratosphere.
Drachma was a neutral zone where humanity gathered as a way to promote harmony. Moreover, it was made through the power of the twelve Zodiac, and in its history of twenty years, it had never fallen.
Boom!!!
It had never been rocked, yet the ship of the sky started to tilt over.
Screams started ringing out.
“Ahhhk!”
When the castle tilted at a forty-degree angle, people lost their balance and got swept to one side.
Kwahng! Kwahng!
“Help!”
Half of the crowd was swept toward the wall. The other half either fell or slipped into their seats. People grabbed seats and railings to prevent themselves from falling to the other side. It was a mess.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Did something happen to the Zodiacs?”
“No. This castle isn’t made to be like that!”
“There should be enough energy in reserve!”
“That’s right. It should be ok for the next thirty years…”
Suddenly…
Ooh-doo-doohk!
The castle tilted, and the chandelier hanging on the ceiling started to violently sway!
“Ahhk! Run away!”
“It is falling!”
“It is too late!”
[Bite]
[Serpent Eater]
At that moment, a golden chain and a green chain grabbed the chandelier.
Kwahng!
The ones making the move were the Leo Saint Stevens and Chun Yooha.
Then, Hailey used a stealing skill to make the suspended chandelier disappear.
[Steal the Shadow]
The people who had been about to die let out a sigh of relief.
“We are alive—”
Boom!!
“Ahhhhk!”
The castle was rocked once again, and more chandeliers, sculptures, and electronic displays fell all at once.
“Ahhhk!!”
“No! We can’t catch all of them!”
The Ten Stars quickly looked for the Taurus.
“Please hurry and put up the defensive barrier!”
However, the Taurus was nowhere to be found.
“Damn it!”
The people below those objects clutched at the pillars as they clenched their eyes shut. They were going to die. It was the day when a catastrophe was going to happen.
Kwahng!!
However, a beam of black and green light extended in front of their eyes. In a flash, Death swallowed all the falling items and turned them into ashes.
[You have acquired Disassemble EXP.]
[“Death” grumbles that it is being used for such a trivial matter.]
People cheered.
“It is Lee Gun!”
The eyes of the Zodiac Saints and the Ten Stars turned round when the items instantly turned to ashes.
“Uncle!”
“As expected of Lee Gun..!”
On the other hand, Lee Gun urgently yelled, “Left!”
“!!!”
As soon as he spoke, octopus legs surged up from various locations on the floor.
“It is a monster!!”
The octopus legs attacked the people. Moreover, the legs didn’t number just one or two. They were in the dozens.
Lee Gun’s eyes flashed as he raised Heaven’s Punishment high. “Everyone, get down!”
“!!!”
The Zodiac Saints were surprised by the shout, but they quickly lowered their heads. Sungjae also followed suit. For some reason, he knew he had to.
At that moment, Heaven’s Punishment drew a circle in the air.
Hoohng!!
A semicircle of green light appeared in the air. Then, the disciples prone on the ground heard a horrible sound.
“Kee-ehhhhhk!”
“Keehk!”
“Kee-ehhhhhhhhk!!”
As soon as the scream stopped, they raised their heads. Their mouths fell open when they saw the scene in front of them. The legs that had appeared by piercing through various locations had been severed; they had been taken care of in no time.
Chun Sungjae wailed. Chun Yooha’s and Carly’s eyes sparkled.
On the other hand, Stevens ranted in anger. “Lee Gun! What the hell? I thought you didn’t have an Area of Effect skill!”
“Yeah. I don’t. It is pure magical energy.”
“Magical energy?!”
Doing something like that had been impossible for Lee Gun in the past, but he had leveled up now. He merely made his aura blade as large as the stadium.
Stevens glared at Lee Gun. “P-Pure magical energy… Y-You used only that to generate this much power…”
The disciples cheered.
“This is nuts!”
“Lee Gun!”
Lee Gun ignored them as he quickly exited through the hole in the wall. The inside wasn’t important right now. He had to get outside.
And as he had expected, a big commotion occurred when people looked outside the windows.
“We are falling!”
“What?!”
The power of the suspension was still holding on, but the castle was slowly falling. Moreover, the direction of their crash was a problem.
“Ocean! We are falling toward the ocean!”
“What?! Ocean?!”
People got frightened. Falling on land was bad, but falling into the ocean was frightening for an entirely different reason.
‘The ocean is a field of monsters.’
Humanity had stopped sailing the oceans for a reason. It was so bad that even the Chun siblings had never entered the ocean. As soon as someone entered the waters, monsters would rip them apart. It was all thanks to the monarch that ruled over the ocean.
Therefore, the inside of the castle descended into pandemonium.
“The octopus legs are clinging to the castle!”
“It is dragging Drachma toward the ocean!”
People screamed.
“Hurry up and get rid of the monster clinging to the castle! Do it before the castle crashes!”
On the other hand, Lee Gun stood amongst the panicked people, and he was laughing. It was to be expected.
‘I can feel the power of a monarch-rank outside.’
He was sure of it. If he defended the castle, he would have a way to get rid of the Taurus.
‘I’ll defend the castle first, then I’ll use the monarch to get rid of the Taurus.’
Lee Gun’s eyes flashed.
‘Also, I’m curious about the secret that the twelve Zodiacs are hiding.’
The Aquarius and the Pisces had spoken about it before. They didn’t want to reveal why the twelve Zodiacs had tried to kill him. That had something to do with a truth they didn’t want to reveal at all costs.
‘I tried to find out by forcing them to speak, but they made a contract of silence.’
Lee Gun had told Sungjae to dissolve it, but he instead learned that the contract that could release the Zodiacs from their agreement existed within the Taurus Saint’s holy ground.
‘Since I can’t break through the Taurus’s defensive wall, that is the ideal place to hide the contract.’
However…
‘Shields exist to be pierced’
“Eeny.”
[Yes. You called?]
“Find the missing Taurus.”
[I will do as you order.]
Then, an enormous octopus leg entered through the broken window!
Kwah-jeek!!
Lee Gun held his ax and rotated like a tornado. Then, Heaven’s Punishment sliced apart the enormous octopus leg.
“L-Lee Gun-nim!”
Using another leg as a platform, Lee Gun immediately moved toward the head of the octopus. Then, he took out his slime. A scissor appeared in his hand!
Goat’s face turned pale from fright when he saw the familiar scissor from a distance. And it happened as he had expected!
Kwah-doo-doo-doohk!
The scissor windmill turned the octopus into mush, covering the entirety of Drachma. As the innards spread into the surrounding, everyone covered their mouth and dry heaved.
“Ooh…Ooh-ehhk!”
However, the move was effective.
“The castle stopped falling!”
Stevens and Goat, who had quickly followed Lee Gun, spoke as they covered their mouths.
“Hey, you still haven’t fixed your bad hunting habit!”
“I…I never expected to see this again, but as expected, Lee Gun is amazing— Oohp!”
Goat had spoken those words to Lee Gun, but he soon realized his mistake. He once again brainwashed himself into thinking his Zodiac Saint was more amazing than Lee Gun.
“Anyway, we won’t crash thanks to you, Lee Gun-nim. It is quite fortunate…”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“What?!”
As if to prove this, the castle started accelerating toward the ocean. Everyone wondered what was going on, but they soon realized the reason.
“Saint-nim! This is bad! The castle’s floating mechanism is completely broken!”
“What?!”
“What about Teleport!”
“It isn’t working! The castle’s central system is broken. The teleport region has stopped working! We can’t escape!”
“What?!” Stevens was shocked.
But Lee Gun just clicked his tongue. “Tsk! I guess we are all going skydiving. Ah. This is your second time, right? How is it?”
Stevens became angry; he had fallen from Drachma once before because of Lee Gun. “This isn’t the time to joke around. Shit! Someone broke the central system!”
Lee Gun immediately guessed who it was.
[Abyss is ecstatic.]
[The army of Abyss is gathering where the Drachma will fall.]
“Ah. It’s a monarch, the monarch of the ocean.”
“What?!”
“Monarch?!”
“Yeah. I merely thought about it, yet it came here. Aren’t you glad to see it?”
Glad to see it, my ass! Goat had already lost to a monarch before, so his face turned pale. When Abundance had attacked him, the defensive gear Lee Gun had made from him had suffered damage.
This was why Lee Gun had said to Goat, “Hey. I’ll acquire the power of the Taurus, and I’ll upgrade the gear for you. Don’t take the field until I do so.”
However, a monarch had suddenly appeared just a short while later!
“Ahhhk! If it’s the monarch of the ocean, we have no way of defeating it! At least, Abundance had a weakness since we had its Commandment…!”
“Defeating it won’t be easy even if we had that.”
“What?!”
“This monarch is keeping its power hidden, but it isn’t inside a human’s body as Abundance had done.”
“It came in its main body?!”
“Yes.”
At that moment, a truly sly voice rang out.
[I planned on eating only the disciples, but it seems there are two quality pieces of food here.]
The quality pieces of food referred to Lee Gun and the Taurus.
Kwahng!
“Ivan-nim!!”
Soon, a scream rang nearby.
Lee Gun had sent Eeny, and the Construct had lured the Taurus in his direction.
[I’ll eat you guys first, then give the humans to my subordinates as nourishment!]
“!”
The octopus leg was raised once again. For some reason, the monarchs coveted the Zodiacs.
‘Didn’t they say the body of a Zodiac becomes their nourishment?’
The Taurus knew this would be troublesome, so it was about to cancel the Zodiac Descent.
[Do you think I’ll let you run away?]
Unfortunately, they were above the ocean, a space where the Ocean monarch Abyss’s power could reach them.
[You are above the ocean. No one can escape this place without the permission of Abyss.]
“Damn bastard!”
The Taurus couldn’t escape to the Divine world by canceling its Zodiac Descent. Teleportation wouldn’t work either. The floating skill was dead. And, the Return skill was also dead.
It was true that this was a good opportunity for Lee Gun, but at the same time, it was the worst situation for him.
‘We’ll become fish food before I can use the monarch to defeat the Taurus.’
Moreover, the monarch had swum into the ocean depths of a different dimension, so it seemed to be unaware of Lee Gun’s presence.
So Abyss went crazy when it smelled Lee Gun.
[It is a much better smell compared to the other Zodiacs. It can’t be compared. I’ll drop you immediately and eat you.]
As soon as it spoke those words, screams rang all over the castle.
“Ahhhhhhhk!!!”
“Ahk!”
Monsters had been sent as spies inside of Drachma. The monsters appeared from various parts of the castle. Then there were the monsters captured by the disciples for the Battle of the Temples.
[The monsters in the fish tank have returned to their original forms.]
[The captured monsters have revealed their true forms.]
The inside of the castle turned into pandemonium. The hidden monsters started attacking the tens of thousands of disciples within the castle.
“Ahhhhhk!”
“Help!”
“Help us, Saintess!”
Many people had gathered at Drachma for Physical Examination, so the damage was enormous.
Stevens sensed the increased casualties of the helpless victims. He ground his teeth. “Shit… The healing temple won’t be able to handle this many people!”
Moreover, the castle was hopelessly falling straight toward the ocean.
[The floating castle of the sky is falling.]
[The floating castle of the sky is falling.]
They could do nothing and become fish food. No, they would become food for the monsters. Of course, the skill of the Pisces temple would normally allow them to walk and fight on top of the ocean. However, this was a different situation.
Instead of putting up a fight, helpless victims were increasing in number.
‘It is already tough to fight in the ocean.’
Aware of this point, Abyss laughed.
[Hurry up and fall!]
In one fell swoop, it could acquire tens of thousands of prey.
The monsters of the ocean went crazy with joy, while the humans fell into a state of panic.
“Shit. We are done for…!”
At that moment, Lee Gun chanted something, and a light exploded forth.
Flash!
[Holy Ground Designation]
– In a permanent fashion, this place can become the Serpent Bearer’s official territory (holy ground).
– Unlike the temporary holy ground, you need to maintain magical energy. You need to supervise it.
– As the Zodiac’s level rises by one, the scope of the holy ground expands.
– Current Lv. 29 / Possible Range: 1k㎡
When Stevens recognized the skill, he started foaming at the mouth. “Hey! Have you lost your mind?! This is Drachma! It is a joint territory of the twelve Zodiacs! Why are you using the Holy Ground Designation skill?”
“Then you save everyone.”
“?!”
Lee Gun laughed. With his current level, it was as the description said. He could designate only a range of 1k㎡ as his holy ground.
[The power of Space is being applied to the power of the Serpent Bearer.]
[Qualified region Drachma is being perceived as one space. The entire place can be designated as a holy ground.]
Thanks to the Space-time monarch, Lee Gun could use the power of Space. He could use it to designate this place as his holy ground
Finally, the light of the Serpent Bearer spread throughout the neutral region of the twelve Zodiacs. The light covered the entirety of Drachma.
[The Drachma (Area 3k㎡, Height 50m) Space has been successfully perceived.]
[Drachma has been designated as a holy ground of the Serpent Bearer.]
[The basic attribute of the holy ground, Super Regeneration, has been activated.]
[Super Regeneration (S) has leveled up.]
[Super Regeneration(SS) has been activated.]
An incredible light swallowed the floating castle. Then, something surprising happened.
