[You have successfully controlled Death stage 6.]
[With the Divine status of Death under control, a part of its power has been transferred to Life.]
[Life will reach level 5 soon.]
Lee Gun’s eyes flashed. At the same time, a light covered the park as if there had been an explosion.
Koo-goo-goong!
The light didn’t last long. The dark power covering the sky disappeared, and the chaotic magical energy that had been damaging Lee Gun’s body disappeared as well.
The only thing that showed Death had gone berserk was the damaged properties.
Battered with blood, Lee Gun huffed as he wiped the blood flowing down his lips. At the same time, his eyes flashed as if to say I told you so. “There is absolutely no way to control stage 6? You wanna die?”
The notification seemed taken aback.
[Normally, controlling it is impossible.]
[You are the strange one for being able to control it.]
Lee Gun ignored that. Although his surroundings were completely destroyed, he knew it was fine.
‘The fact that I didn’t destroy the world is enough.’
As if it had read his thoughts, the notification laughed in derision.
[You really are the god of calamity.]
[It says to never call yourself a hero to others.]
“Who the hell are you? You’re the bald Zodiac, right?”
[It asks why you would make such a comparison. It shows its displeasure.]
[Moreover, it says its hair is healthy…]
Lee Gun completely ignored those notifications. He didn’t know who it was, but it seemed like that worm of a Zodiac, who kept interrupting in the middle. However, that wasn’t important to him right now.
‘It seems I got past the crisis.’
He looked at his ring.
[Confusion Became Nice (EX)]
– Ring created when Confusion became Order
– All phenomena involving confusion can be controlled
– Seal ability. It can be used in a variety of ways.
‘Half of it was thanks to this.’
Of course, the ring that was already in charge of keeping his Divine status in check shouted when a new ring appeared.
[“Black Ring that eats Divine magical energy (SSS)” feels unclean because of its neighbor.]
[It cries that only it should be worn on its master’s precious fingers.]
This baffled Lee Gun. It was to be expected since the Black Ring was the helmeted man, who had made the declaration of war against humanity. It was a ring made by changing the totem that the helmeted man had possessed.
‘In some ways, Confusion is one of their owners…’
In the end, the ring let out a strident cry, but Lee Gun ignored it.
“Kuhk…!”
Suddenly, he vomited blood. While the power of Order allowed him to bring balance to the out-of-control power, it couldn’t last long.
As if his projection were correct, he heard an unfamiliar voice.
[The Divine World says the Serpent Bearer Temple will be in danger at this rate.]
“!”
When Lee Gun felt the familiar energy, his eyes changed into the savage eyes of a snake.
Two golden objects appeared in the sky and flashed. They were the public servants of the Divine world. They approached Lee Gun.
[Lee Gun-nim, you have awakened stage 5 of your Divine status. You are a candidate to become a noble Great Zodiac.]
[You probably do not know this, but you cannot simultaneously possess Divine statuses that oppose each other.]
Murderous intent emanated from Lee Gun. It was to be expected since he was using a form of a loophole to be able to possess Life and Death at the same time. When one reached stage 5, the other had to disappear.
‘It means I broke a rule, and they are here to retrieve Life?’
Thinking that, Lee Gun attacked before they could finish their words.
Kwahng!!!
The public servants became frightened when Lee Gun suddenly sent Heaven’s Punishment toward them like a boomerang.
[Ahhk! W-Why are you suddenly acting like this?]
“Why else? You guys are probably here thinking I used some kind of trickery. That’s why you’re here to retrieve Life, right?”
[What?! Retrieve? No way! You have it wrong!]
[That’s right! We just don’t want to lose a candidate who can become the Great Zodiac!]
[Yes! At this rate, the Serpent Bearer’s body will be damaged…!!]
When it came to the words of others, Lee Gun refused to listen for more than three seconds, yet even he was interested in their words. “Do you have a good solution?”
[Yes…! We will help you awaken completely as the god of Cycle.]
[If you raise Life to stage 5, you will be able to use the power of Cycle! You will be able to revive even gods!]
Lee Gun’s eyes flashed. “What’s the method?”
[Yes! You should sell Life to a different Zodiac who specializes in growth. You should let that Zodiac stabilize Death. Life can be given to another too.]
[If you do so, you can take it back after a thousand years!]
[Moreover, the price is cheap! You just have to give up the 600%-faith Construct!]
[Your Divine statuses can be grown by merely giving up a single Construct! It’s an excellent deal…]
“Have you lost your mind, bastards!!!” Lee Gun’s magical energy shot out frighteningly.
“Miss Jiwoo, my nephew, and my niece would be dead in a thousand years. In fact, they could reincarnate ten times in that time, bastards!”
The public servants screamed when they were surrounded by the golden green light. It seemed the power of Cycle was out of the ordinary.
[K-Kuh-huhk! You will never be able to become the god of Cycle without using this method!]
[That is correct! There were cases in the past similar to the Cycle. Some were able to raise their Divine statuses in a 6:4 ratio, but none of them survived!]
[You’re only alive because you were lucky! It is unclear how long you can last with that ring—]
“Fuck off!! Why don’t I just kill you guys to acquire Life EXP?”
[W-What?]
[W-What are you…!]
Lee Gun’s eyes turned violent.
[Life stage 3 used Creation to inflict harmful diseases against the gods.]
[Life has gained EXP.]
[Life has gained EXP.]
[Life has gained EXP.]
The light of torture emanated from Life.
* * *
Around that time, in an emergency room near Lee Gun’s holy ground…
Boom!!
Those inside the hospital became surprised when they heard the loud noise from outside.
“W-What the hell! Is it another monster?”
The city was already a mess because of Confusion. Moreover, the aftereffect of Confusion remained, and a monster could show up from anywhere.
The disciples within the hospital quickly headed outside. Of course, they weren’t the only ones on their guard.
“Lee Gun-nim…!”
It was a single-person hospital room. Those who had been looking over the fallen Chun Jiwoo gulped. This was to be expected since they had no idea what was going on outside. Then there was Hugo’s head, which had been delivered as a present.
‘That was clearly the doing of Confusion.’
It was uncommon for Lee Jaewon to show murderous intent. His eyes were bloodshot. The energy left behind in the box told the story. Even the Chun siblings and the Archer disciples had lost their cool.
If Lee Gun hadn’t stepped forward and Chun Jiwoo hadn’t lost consciousness, everyone would have lost their mind in trying to find Confusion.
After Lee Gun had gone out, they had felt a clash of unimaginable magical energies from the park.
‘I still can’t feel the power of the Serpent Bearer.’
Something had happened to Lee Gun.
Chun Sungjae gritted his teeth as he looked after Chun Jiwoo.
‘Uncle rejected the Return skill.’
It was a warning telling him not to come. To make matters worse, everyone was still in a state of shock from what had happened to Hugo. If something bad happened to Lee Gun too…!
‘I’ll kill Confusion.’
It wouldn’t just be him. Sungjae would kill all the monsters even if he had to go down into a blaze.
“S-Something big happened!”
“!!”
The youngest Archer disciple came running urgently. He had gone to assess the situation at the park.
“Lee Gun-nim…!!”
It was unclear as to what he had seen, but the youngest disciple’s face was frozen.
In the end, Lee Jaewon lost his cool. He couldn’t stand it any longer and grabbed his weapon. His reaction was understandable since Lee Gun hadn’t been well.
“That bastard took down Lee Gun-nim after he killed Hugo-nim—!”
“Lee Gun-nim took care of Confusion!!”
“Yes! As expected, Lee Gun-nim took care of Confusion— What?”
Lee Jaewon and Goat were shocked as they looked at their youngest disciple.
The youngest disciple shouted once again as if he was frustrated by their response. “Lee Gun-nim got rid of Confusion!!”
“What?!!”
At that moment…
“You guys are here.”
“!”
The Chun siblings were surprised by the familiar voice. They raised their heads.
A familiar face stood near the door.
“Uncle!”
It looked like they were about to cry as they hugged their uncle. On the other hand, Lee Jaewon and Goat were surprised.
‘His energy has changed.’
This might be the reason they were unable to feel the energy of the Serpent Bearer. He must have awakened a new Divine status. Well, it didn’t matter.
When the Chun siblings saw the uninjured Lee Gun, they burst out crying. Everything had happened so suddenly, and the trauma inflicted on them was large.
Lee Gun patted them as he asked, “What about Miss Jiwoo? Is she ok?”
“Mom is…! Mom’s fine! She just lost consciousness for a short time…”
“They say the baby is fine too, but Dad is…!”
Lee Gun knew what they wanted to say. “It’s fine. I’ll be able to save your dad.”
“…!”
“Really?”
Lee Gun stroked their heads as he looked at their tear-ridden faces. Reviving Hugo wouldn’t be hard. The only problem was…
[The target is a Divine-rank.]
[He cannot be called back with stage 4 “Return Life.”]
As he suspected, he needed Life stage 5 to revive a Divine-rank. The public servants of the Divine world had also said so earlier. Then what about Life stage 5?
‘In the past, it was said that Time could become EXP for Life.’
That meant Lee Gun had only one goal.
‘I’ll disassemble Time’s body to use it as EXP for Life.’
However, something bothered him.
[Clump of Creation Clay’s eyes are twinkling as it says something was left behind.]
Stuck to Lee Gun’s shoulder, Lime took out something. It seemed the slime had taken something out of Confusion’s body when Lee Gun had killed him with the power of Cycle. Unexpectedly, it was data.
“…?”
Lee Gun’s eyes turned round. It was to be expected.
[Heart of the Original Owners of the seats of the twelve Zodiacs.]
“…?”
It seemed this data had come out since he had used the power of Cycle. Like what happened with Oblivion, the data of the original owner had come out. Lee Gun also knew what this meant.
[Clump of Creation Clay thinks something good will come out if this is used as an ingredient.]
[Clump of Creation Clay says it likes Master’s younger form.]
After receiving the item, Lee Gun looked at the slime as if it was suspicious. If he thought about the situation, the slime had swapped out Hugo’s body without him knowing about that.
Moreover, it had swallowed him at the most crucial moment to show that Hugo’s head had been fake.
Lee Gun’s eyes flashed dangerously as he stretched slime’s cheeks. “Lime.”
Lime grumbled as if it was in pain.
“Be honest with me. Who bribed you?”
Lime started to sweat.
* * *
[Master, events are developing oddly.]
Time’s camp was in a state of emergency right now. No one could have imagined Confusion could be killed. After all, Confusion was Time’s younger brother.
‘He might hate his older brother, but he always gathered EXP for Master throughout the countless returns to the past.’
Since they were brothers, Confusion was affected by Time’s return to the past. The two were always stuck together, and it was why Confusion was that much stronger.
Of course, Confusion was rebellious too, so Time had stuck him inside the body of a human. However, he was still a being akin to a great monarch.
[A person like that was…!]
Time was someone who always laughed, but this time, he couldn’t. If he were being honest, he had never thought his younger brother could die at the hands of Lee Gun.
‘Even if Death is amazing, it can’t kill him.’
Yet he had died. However, it wasn’t through Life or Death! It was through the power of Cycle!
Time had purposefully stirred the pot with his younger brother before unleashing him. He knew Confusion would raise Lee Gun’s Divine status of Death.
The best-case scenario was Lee Gun awakening as the god of Death after reaching stage 5. If things went wrong, Lee Gun would reach stage 6, but Time hadn’t been worried about that.
It would be troublesome, but he knew Lee Gun would self-destruct in the end. He would destroy humanity in his berserk state and wither away. Time just had to recover what he wanted at that point.
[Huh. I never expected him to release the power of Cycle.]
His subordinates looked taken aback.
[Master. That means the plan…!]
Time stood up.
[No. The plan hasn’t been derailed.]
[!]
[I should be thankful since the power has grown to its full form. I don’t have to do anything. I just have to steal his body.]
[Then…!]
[Deliver this message to humanity and all their Zodiac Saints. They have three days.]
[!]
[If they hand over Lee Gun, all of humanity will be spared.]
