It happened in an instant.
Lee Gun had jumped down while holding onto the Taurus. There was no hesitation. He was instead worried that the Taurus would let go of him. Therefore, he had clutched the Taurus’s arms!
Splash!
Everyone inside Drachma was shocked and frightened at this scene.
“Ahhk! Lee Gun fell into the ocean with Ivan!”
“That’s crazy. They’ll boil if they fall into that soup!”
“Monsters are still alive in there!”
The Fairy Monarch being held in place by Chun Sungjae was also surprised. It had originally planned on helping the Taurus toss Lee Gun into the ocean, but it never expected Lee Gun to voluntarily jump in.
Chun Sungjae and Hugo, who had been watching it in real-time, reacted in fright.
“Gun!!”
“Uncle!”
At a glance, it looked as if the Taurus was hanging onto Lee Gun, but that wasn’t the case at all!
“Crazy bastard!!”
It wasn’t as if he was Nongae, who had plunged into the water with the Japanese general![1]
It was clear. Lee Gun had purposefully fallen into the water with the Taurus. The Taurus represented the impregnable defense. It was the best shield of the twelve Zodiacs and a being of great strength. Therefore, even Lee Gun shouldn’t be able to break the Taurus’s strength! But that was beside the point!
Jumping into the ocean right now would be suicide!’
The electric magical energy flowing through the ocean told the story.
‘Something above the black zone rank is approaching.’
Lee Gun knew little about the monarchs, but this being felt similar to Abundance. Of course, Abundance had been inside the body of a human at the time; it had done so to infiltrate the dome, which allowed the passage of only humans and gods.
Therefore, its abilities had been reduced by a bit. If one was being precise, the amount of power didn’t feel the same. It was only the energy.
Anyway, the ocean contained a monster much stronger than Abundance!
‘He has a death wish!’
There was no mistaking it. They would get eaten by the monster that ruled over the ocean.
As if he had read this thought, the Sagittarius spoke.
[The Sagittarius pouts]
[The Serpent Bearer is not a monster. The Sagittarius wonders why you don’t think he would die in the boiling ocean. He sulks.]
It seemed the Sagittarius wanted to show off its power, yet Hugo ignored him.
‘Just putting him in boiling water doesn’t make it a snake soup.’
Lee Gun would have long become cooked if the sun could cook him. Therefore, Hugo quickly dismissed the Ocean Walk technique, and he was about to jump into the ocean.
Lee Gun was still being held by the Taurus; the fact that he was the weaker one remained true.
Pahng!
“!”
However, the Taurus’s Constructs and disciples got in Hugo’s way. They also stopped Chun Sungjae and Goat, who tried to enter the ocean.
“Stop Lee Gun’s subordinates!”
“Lee Gun was purposefully sent into the ocean by the lord!”
[Complete our mission!]
[Master will take care of Lee Gun!]
Hugo ground his teeth.
‘The ocean is already dangerous as it is.’
Their enemies then rushed toward them at the same time. They had rented a good number of the Pisces’s skills. And, as expected, they proudly activated their skills.
[The Sagittarius temple has no chance of winning near the water!]
[Get rid of them!]
“We’ll turn the Zodiac Saint of the Serpent Bearer into an affiliate!”
“Be thankful that the great Taurus wants to make the Sagittarius temple its subordinate!”
The angry Hugo took out the Bow made out of Fish (EX). “Do we look like fools to you?”
Hugo was still worried about Lee Gun as his eyes flashed.
‘Wait a little, Gun.’
He would save his Zodiac in no time. The Archer Saint pulled back on his new bow.
* * *
While everyone was predicting the Taurus’s victory, the Zodiac itself was perplexed.
‘This bastard….’
Lee Gun was like a snake that had caught its prey. He wouldn’t let go of the Taurus. This was beyond not letting go. He was like a serpent trying to constrict its prey. He clung tighter to the Taurus.
This flustered the Taurus.
‘Did this crazy bastard jump in knowing what’s going on in the ocean?’
Naturally, the Taurus wasn’t worried about the boiling water. Its temple was called the impregnable temple for a reason.
‘I can withstand this.’
Its divine body allowed it to hold its breath longer than a human. However, that wasn’t what the Zodiac was afraid of.
Koo-goo-goong!
‘It is here.’
The oppressive energy was just around the corner. In the past, this monarch had lived in the ocean of the divine world. It ate any gods it caught outside. It was the predator of the deep ocean that could invade even the imaginary world of the gods, and it had even eaten high-rank gods!
Therefore, the Taurus quickly tried to get out of the water. This was the ocean dominated by a monarch. The Return skill didn’t work, so the Zodiac had no choice.
[Kuh-huhk!]
However, Lee Gun clung to the Taurus’s neck as if he didn’t want it to leave. When the Zodiac turned its head, it saw Lee Gun’s flashing red eyes.
The Taurus shouted as he was strangulated.
[You crazy bastard! Let me go!]
Divine words were being used to speak directly into his head. That was why they could converse with each other despite being underwater.
[Fuck off! Who said to grab me like that? Once you grabbed me, you should have planned on sticking it out until the end! You aren’t running away!]
This bastard had lost its mind! As Abyss’s energy got closer, the Taurus quickly yelled.
[Don’t you feel this energy? We’ll both get eaten at this rate!]
The divine words were slightly different from before.
[Divine words contain “Persuasion.”]
Divine words could be imbued with power. This was why gods could overwhelm their opponents with just their words.
In other words, a god’s voice could be filled with the will of persuasion. This allowed the god to persuade its enemy. If one imbued the words with love, one could make someone fall for one. That was how the skill was supposed to work, but it was useless right now.
[Kuh-huhk!!]
Lee Gun didn’t want to hear more of its nonsense. He clung harder, like a sea snake.
The Taurus was flustered as his neck continued to get constricted.
‘The divine words do not work at all…!’
This meant Lee Gun’s divine status (level of a god) couldn’t be looked down on now.
The Taurus’s eyes flashed.
‘I have no choice.’
It would have to consume a large amount of temple energy, but the situation couldn’t be helped.
[Be gone!]
This time, the Taurus put “Submission” into its divine words!
A twinge appeared in his senses as Lee Gun felt his mind get attacked.
The Taurus laughed when the strength drained away from Lee Gun’s hands.
[That’s enough— Kuh-huhk!!!]
[There is no way I’m stopping!]
Lee Gun reacted in contempt. He made use of his legs to cling to the Taurus, looking like a koala! Or maybe he was a water ghost in his past life. Lee Gun remained tenacious as he sank the Taurus toward the bottom of the ocean.
The Taurus was losing patience, so it was about to get into a battle of strength with Lee Gun when…
‘…!!!’
The Taurus’s face froze as it turned pale.
A large shadow had appeared beneath the two Zodiacs. It was shaped like a whale that roamed the ocean. However, it was completely different from a normal whale. Its size was on a different level.
One could catch a glimpse of the being’s head, and the head was as big as an island. Moreover, the being looked long enough to cover the length of the deep ocean.
Its tail looked like the appendage of an octopus. Its mouth looked like the mouth of a shark, and it was full of teeth. The fin on its body looked sharp, as if it was made out of a steel mane.
This was the Abyss monarch!
Lee Gun smirked as if he had been waiting for it to show up.
[I’m glad I didn’t heal myself so that my blood could spread its scent.]
The Taurus’s face hardened. This bastard had purposefully not used Super Regeneration!
At that moment, the monarch continued its incredible assault.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwahng!
Discovering their prey, the monarch and its underlings rushed forward in a frenzy.
[Become our food!]
The frightened Taurus quickly emitted its magical energy, which made brown lightning flash within the ocean! The move basically gave away their location to the monarch, but the Taurus didn’t care at that moment.
‘I have to run away using Lee Gun as bait!’
The Taurus activated its skill!
[Charge (SSS)]
Kwah-gwahng!!
An enormous boom rang out within the ocean. At the same time, Lee Gun felt a shock hitting his body, as if a mountain had slammed into him.
[Warning! The incredible strength of the Taurus is destroying the body of the Serpent Bearer.]
Just the shockwave had made the ocean shake and changed the ocean currents. A human would have been broken into pieces by this power.
‘The snake is pretty good for being a newborn.’
When it confirmed Lee Gun was falling toward the monarch, the Taurus desperately swam to the surface.
‘Getting out of this place is my priority right now.’
At that moment, however…
“…!!!”
The Taurus felt a chill run up its spine. It felt a frightening sensation, as if an unseen hand was trying to grab its leg. The Taurus didn’t even dare to turn its head to confirm. Just the thought of turning its head gave it chills.
And as expected…
[Kuh-huhk!]
Ooh-dooh-doohk!!!
An enormous appendage encircled the Taurus.
[Koo-oohk! You bastard—]
The Taurus couldn’t finish its sentence as it was dragged underneath once again.
[Kuh-huhk!]
Something was moving at an incredible speed. The Taurus was about to use its power once again when it almost stopped breathing.
‘That is…’
The eyes of a serpent were flashing within the deep waters. Because of the dark ocean, the Taurus could see only the silhouette. However, something was clear; an enormous serpent was moving around!
‘God of calamity!’
This was the true appearance of the god. The Taurus felt a chill. The serpent they had found and killed twenty-four years ago was here.
‘The snake that had reincarnated was found and killed by a monarch.’
In truth, the gods had been hunting the thirteenth since long ago. They feared its power. Moreover, they did it to hide a certain truth. That was why they had found and killed it once again twenty-four years ago.
Of course, its power was anathema to the other gods. Therefore, they had let a monarch take care of the matter despite monarchs being natural enemies of the gods.
Until now, the Taurus had held out hope since it had seen Lee Gun’s power. It had held out hope that Lee Gun was exposed to the god of calamity’s power and held only a portion of its power. The Taurus wanted it to be something similar, not the same.
The Taurus had also agreed to kill Lee Gun in the Devil’s Tower because Lee Gun was annoying. Of course, the Sagittarius had sworn that Lee Gun wasn’t the god of calamity. He had complained that there was no need to kill Lee Gun.
‘I was right! He is the god of calamity!’
The Taurus ground its teeth. At that moment, it wondered whether the Sagittarius had even placed curses on that bastard within the Devil’s Tower or not.
‘We are the same. He’s an accomplice in killing the snake god.’
Maybe, the Sagittarius was terrified, so it went under the Serpent Bearer as an affiliate. Such a being was detestable. But this naturally gave rise to a question inside the Taurus’s mind.
‘Then who was the woman who we killed at that time?’
That didn’t matter right now.
[Serpent Eater]
[Kuh-huhk!!]
The Taurus vomited blood. The body of the snake, which had been encircling its body, turned into chains. The enormous body of the snake returned to being Lee Gun.
[Ha ha ha! Let’s become food for the monsters together!]
Lee Gun pulled the Taurus with the Serpent Eater skill. Right now, he was emanating a power that couldn’t be compared to before.
The Taurus wondered what was going on.
[Masochist (Lv. 2) attribute has been activated.]
[Fighting ability increases as you feel more pain.]
[Pleasure increases.]
[You have acquired a stimulating effect.]
[Your endorphins have risen.]
[With the effect of the second stage of Life, the related attribute of Masochism has evolved (Masochism Lv. 2)]
[Pain is the proof of life. You have acquired more vitality and energy.]
[Masochism Lv. 1]
– Physical ability, vitality, stimulant effect, and senses increase as you feel more pain
▶
[Masochism Lv. 2]
– Physical ability, vitality, stimulant effect, and senses increase as you feel more pain
– As the number of your wounds and your pain increases, your vitality and fighting ability double.
– Energy increases in proportion to pain.
The Taurus got a chill when it felt the energy burning up inside Lee Gun. The reason was there. It saw Lee Gun’s expression as his red eyes flashed. Lee Gun was letting out a terrifying smile! He looked like a spirit!
The Taurus felt fear without realizing it.
‘He’s nuts…!’
Lee Gun hadn’t used Super Regeneration as bait for this very moment.
[Two precious Zodiacs are gathered here!]
The happy Abyss charged toward the two. It opened its mouth wide.
Lee Gun dragged the Taurus along with him as he charged into the mouth of the monarch! They were swimming at incredible speed. This shocked the Taurus.
What kind of crazy bastard would charge toward the mouth of the monster that wanted to eat them! The Taurus desperately used his defense skill as he yelled.
[It is useless! Did you forget I am a defense-type Zodiac! I won’t die so easy—]
[Yes. Between your defense and my regeneration, let’s see who wins!]
Finally, Abyss loomed in front of them. Then, Lee Gun tossed the Taurus into Abyss’s mouth.
1. Nongae was a courtesan in Jinju, Korea. She later became a mistress of Jinju Commander-in-chief Choe Gyeong-hoe. As per popular legend, she killed the Japanese general Keyamura Rokusuke by luring him to a rock on the water, clasping her fingers with rings that locked her around him, and plunging into the water with him tightly in her arms. It is said that she sacrificed herself not only in revenge for Choi’s murder but also out of love for her country. ☜
