“This is not fair!”
“We really didn’t kidnap him!”
The Leo disciples screamed after being apprehended. They were tied up, and the disciples of the Sagittarius temple held torches before them as if they were about to carry out a witch burning.
Stevens had been severely beaten by Hugo to a point where death would have been preferable. Afterward, Yooha had placed a rope around him before stringing him up on the building. Stevens and the Leo disciples were hung like giant banners.
The guardians of the child walked out of the collapsed building. They had recovered Lee Gun.
“Gun, were you scared because these scary-looking men kidnapped you? Let’s hurry up and go back home. We’ll eat a lot of tasty food.”
“Byaa.”
After recovering the kidnapped Lee Gun, Hugo and his party let out sighs of relief and exited the holy ground of the Leo temple. However…
“What a mess.”
“!”
When they arrived at the entrance to the Leo temple’s holy ground, a familiar face greeted them.
“Jaewon oppa!”
Lee Jaewon stood near the entrance, wearing a crisp suit. His cleaned-up version looked striking.
“If you had told me about it, I would’ve helped destroy this place.”
Hugo laughed. He was surprised to see Lee Jaewon, who was smiling brightly. “Why are you here? I thought you went to negotiate with Shiva to meet Hailey.”
“Yes. That’s why I’m here.”
“…huh?”
When the three of them looked at him in askance, Lee Jaewon pointed somewhere. It was one of the still-standing buildings of the Leo temple.
“Shiva hid his family in that building, including Hailey-nim.”
“What?”
“Hailey-nim is inside that building.”
“What!!!”
Hugo and his family looked at the building in surprise. This was especially true of Hugo since he had planned on destroying all the buildings belonging to the Leo temple.
“Why would you tell me this important piece of information right now? Ahhk! I have to tell the others to not destroy that place!”
“That building is under the direct protection of Shiva. We won’t be able to destroy it easily. It won’t be possible with human power.”
Hugo groaned as he felt conflicted. He started sweating. “Hailey is in that building. Should we visit her?”
“You want to go there after you razed the holy ground?”
“Ughh… Yes. Today isn’t a good time. Let’s head back since we found Gun. He should be exhausted. We need to give him his rest…”
At this point, Lee Jaewon looked confused. He let out a bitter laugh. “I’m sorry for interrupting you, but you mentioned that he needs his rest. Where is Lee Gun-nim?”
“What?”
“Lee Gun-nim isn’t here.”
Surprised at those words, everyone looked toward Hugo’s arms.
The Chun siblings screamed when they realized Hugo’s arms were empty. Hugo was cradling a rock instead of Lee Gun.
“Uncle is…!”
“He’s gone!!”
The baby had been in his arms a moment ago! He had been docile when food was mentioned!
Surprised, Hugo tried to drop the stone before looking for Lee Gun.
“Kuhk!”
However, the stone wouldn’t separate from his arms! It was stuck to him as if super glue had been applied. In the end, the weight of the stone toppled Hugo.
The stone suddenly gained a weight that even the strongest superhuman would have a hard time lifting.
“Dad!”
“Zodiac Saint-nim!”
“What the hell? I can’t get it off you!”
Hugo’s face turned pale in fright as he held the stone in his arms. “Gun!! Where did you go!!!”
* * *
Kwahng! Kwahng!
As this was going on, next to the building housing Hailey, a line of Leo disciples was standing guard on the first floor.
They kept glancing toward Shiva. The reason was the Sagittarius temple and the Serpent Bearer temple causing a ruckus outside.
Of course, Shiva didn’t take it well when he realized they had invaded this place. His own residence was destroyed, and above all else, they would try to meet with Hailey. Shiva looked a bit uneasy.
The disciples who had been walking on eggshells spoke up.
“Will we be fine? I doubt they’ll go without messing with this building…”
“They probably realized your daughter is here.”
Shiva had been off to the side, making a toy for his daughter. One of his eyebrows rose.
“Humans won’t be able to force themselves into this place. I put up a barrier.”
“There is a monarch on their side…”
“It’s fine. A monarch won’t be able to enter this place. I set up something here that the monarchs hate. Anyone who doesn’t possess my power won’t be able to enter—”
Clank!!!
“!?”
Suddenly, the door and the windows on the first floor were destroyed. That wasn’t all.
Puhng puhng puhng!
The interior of their building started to crumble as well.
“I…Is it an intruder?!”
“Is it an attack from the outside?”
Shiva furrowed his brows when he heard the shouts. No, this wasn’t an attack from the outside. The disturbance had started from inside the building!
“If it’s from the inside, is it your wife and daughter?”
“No….” When Shiva turned his head, he caught sight of items flying around the interior of the building.
“Huhk! That’s…!”
Several hundred items had descended from the top floor. They were all weapons!
“My god! Those are all from the weapon storage on the fourth floor!”
“W-Wait a moment! Weren’t those weapons serviced by the Creator not too long ago?”
“That’s right— Ahhk!!”
It was as if someone was controlling the weapons through telekinesis. Each weapon caused mayhem. They started destroying the barrier, doors, and windows from the inside.
Kwahng! Kwah-jeek! Kwah-jee-jeek!
At that moment, the highest-ranked weapon in the storage flew through the air to pin itself to the first floor’s door.
Kwahng!!
The weapon exploded in a flashy manner and destroyed the building and the front door.
Koo-goo-goong!
Shiva had been guarding the building against outside intruders. He hadn’t paid much attention to the defense inside the building. His eyebrows twitched.
As the mouths of the surprised disciple fell open, a young blonde man leisurely entered through the opening. “Where is my daughter-in-law?”
Green magical energy surrounded him.
“That person is…!”
“He’s a Creator! He was the previous Serpent Bearer!”
Shiva’s face became red from anger when he witnessed Aslan’s entrance. “Aslan… You sneaky thief….”
Aslan cheekily mocked him by kicking the broken front door. “I’m glad I serviced those weapons. You should’ve managed the internal defense as well as the outer defense. This is why fighting-type gods are dumb..”
The Leo disciples descended into a panic. A while ago, Aslan had appeared unannounced at their temple and offered to service the temple’s weapons!
‘He did it to pull this off?!’
Leo had already been leery because he knew that Aslan wasn’t someone to do a generous act for no reason. Leo claimed something was off! That no longer mattered.
Aslan waved two bags in front of Shiva. “I brought presents for my daughter-in-law and your wife. Where is Hailey?”
“Did you suddenly fix Cargo’s weapons because you wanted to pull this off?”
Aslan and Shiva had always been hostile toward each other. No, they were closer to being enemies who tried to take each other’s lives.
However, Aslan snorted as if he was offended. “Cargo may be your comrade, but he’s also my friend. Of course, I did proper work in upgrading his weapons. As a price, I made a bit of change that would allow me to use them for a bit.”
There was a good reason the Leo temple was so obsessed with the durability of their weapons.
‘Cargo always uses his power in excess.’
Leo was a high-rank fighting-type god. Like Lee Gun, Leo was an extremely strong god.
When a disciple wanted to use a Zodiac’s power, the Zodiac had to control their power before sending it.
However, there was no way Leo would control its power. If one had to make a comparison, it was like converting electricity for commercial use. Leo chose to send a direct shot of lightning instead when one needed electricity.
This was why Aslan had become angry at Leo.
- If you send your power like that, you will burn out your disciples!! You’re supposed to send them your power, not kill them!
Aslan kept telling Leo to modulate his power before sending it. However, the young Leo had refused to listen.
- I don’t want to. Why do I have to control my power for mere humans? It’s annoying!
- Damn it!
This was why Aslan had placed a limiter on Cargo.
- If you ever acquire people for your colony, your power must manifest through their weapons.
At the very least, the weapons would take the brunt of the damage from the Divine power.
However, as Cargo sent excessive power each time, the weapons weren’t able to last long. Cargo was a beast god, so he didn’t use weapons.
The weapons were not meant to be used. The power was sent for destructive purposes. Naturally, those weapons wouldn’t last!
It was why Capricorn felt aggrieved.
‘Only a Creator can make weapons that can safely contain Cargo’s power.’
It was a problem with compatibility. While Lee Gun developed high-rank skills, his weapons had been durable despite him making them when he was young. It had to do with the power of “Life.”
While manufacturing weapons, Lee Gun would unconsciously put the power of Life into his weapons. It increased the life energy of his weapons.
Aslan had used a similar principle. He filled the weapons with the power of Life to upgrade them. Aslan possessed the Divine status of Asclepius, a power similar to Lee Gun’s power of Life.
“Anyway, my business isn’t with you. I want to arrange a meeting between Gun and Hailey.”
His son didn’t have his memories. Aslan wondered if meeting Hailey would be like shock therapy. He hoped it would return Lee Gun’s memories.
There was a reason he was so desperate to return the memories to his son.
When he had realized his son didn’t have his memories, he had gone looking for Yeonwoo and Virgo. He had found them having a serious conversation.
- Serpent Bearer no longer has his memories. Isn’t this an opportunity for you, Yeonwoo?
- W-What?
- That’s right. If he doesn’t have his memories, you are at an advantage compared to the Scorpio Saint. If you start raising him right now, Lee Gun might grow up looking only at you. Also, you grew up with the Serpent Bearer. You know better than anyone what Lee Gun likes!
Virgo cheered for Yeonwoo, but Yeonwoo didn’t want such a thing.
- You don’t have to say it. I already know Gun has his heart set on a different person.
- !
- I know the truth. The cat that Gun kept wasn’t really a cat.
- What?
- Gun liked that cat more than I had imagined. He treasured that cat, and I saw that cat change into a human.
- What?!
Virgo’s mouth kept opening and closing. Yeonwoo rested her chin on her hands as she sighed.
- She was very young and pretty. Of course, I found out she was the Scorpio Saint after I was revived.
- …?!!
Virgo didn’t know what to do with herself. She became restless.
Yeonwoo let out a bitter laugh.
- You don’t have to look at me like that. It’s true that I’m insanely jealous of her, but I’m also thankful to her.
The relationship between Yeonwoo and Lee Gun was quite complicated. At the time, Yeonwoo had been traumatized because Time had killed her and her brother again.
‘If Time finds us, he’ll kill Gun for being next to us.’
This was why she thought about ending her own life when Time’s shadow was cast over them. She had planned on giving up on revenge for her master. She planned on destroying her Divine status and soul so that she could end this tiresome and endless cycle.
Moreover, her early death would save the man whom she loved. She could end all of this while no harm would come to him.
Despite her resolve, Yeonwoo was unable to tell the full truth to Lee Gun even as she died. However, Lee Gun probably knew. He knew that Yeonwoo and Junwoo had been hiding something from him.
- When I tried to die when I was young, Gun was the one who stopped me from doing it. He told me to become his bride when we grew up.
Lee Gun had said that when he was young, so Yeonwoo had no idea if there was any big meaning behind his words.
In hindsight, Lee Gun had instinctively realized that she had given up on life and thrown her a lifeline in his own way. He did it to keep Yeonwoo in this world.
Both of them had grown up as parentless orphans. They could rely on only each other. This was why Yeonwoo felt a large sense of guilt for dying. It also made her that much angrier when she found out why Time had appeared.
- That cat… No, Hailey appeared when we were struggling the most.
This was why Yeonwoo felt thankful to Hailey. The cat had saved Lee Gun, who had been unable to laugh. In reality, Hailey had been saved by Lee Gun, but it didn’t matter who was saved.
- When Gun was struggling the most, I wasn’t the one to save him. It was Hailey. That’s why I don’t want to use such an underhanded tactic.
But the status quo kept tempting her, so she thought it would be best if Gun regained his memories.
Anyway, Aslan had heard this conversation.
‘I thought him having his memory wasn’t important.’
However, memories were more important at times, and their absence could make it hard for others.
Aslan loved his son; he wanted Lee Gun to live a happy life until the end with the person he loved. It was something Aslan hadn’t been able to achieve for himself. He had to send away his loved ones before they could achieve happiness.
“Ha ha ha. Just wait a little longer.” Aslan let out a cheeky smile as he teleported toward the upper floors.
Shiva immediately chased after him. “Stop right there, you little thief!”
Aslan laughed when he heard the barrage of curse words from behind him. “Idiot! Give it up! I’m going to make Gun regain his memories! I’ll bring Gun here soon!”
“I won’t let you bring your son here!”
“Hmmph. What nonsense—”
At that moment…
Flash!
Accompanying a green light, Mimir appeared next to Aslan. “This is bad, Old Master!” Mimir looked flustered. “As per your order, I was going to bring Master here. However, Master was suddenly gone! I tried looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found!”
“!”
Aslan, who had been heading upward, came to a stop. He furrowed his brows. Looking a bit angry, he glanced at Shiva. “I see. As if hiding Hailey isn’t enough, you kidnapped Gun?”
Aslan called forth his magic.
Shiva, who had caught up to Aslan, became angry as well. “I didn't kidnap him. In the first place, he isn’t someone I can mess with.”
“Hmmph. You’re just saying that because you don’t want him to regain his memories….”
Shiva glared at him. He didn’t want to say this, but he had to. He raised his voice. “You really don’t know!”
“What?”
“Your son has his memories! He had them as soon as he arrived on the earth! Do you still not know this?”
Displeased at Shiva’s angry shout, Aslan furrowed his brows. “What nonsense are you talking about? I checked it with my translation ability. Also, the conditions needed for him to retain his memories weren't there. When the power of Universe was transferred, his Divine status was sent flying. There was no place for him to store his memories, so how…”
“Damn it! Of course, it’s possible!”
“How…!”
“He entrusted his memories to me, idiot!”
“…?!”
Aslan was stunned. His eyes turned round. What? What the hell did he just say?
