[Huhk. Leader...! Did you just feel that?]

[Yes. What just happened a moment ago!]

In the southern hemisphere, a commotion took place among the surprised Virgo Constructs. They had been tracking the Libra Saint’s whereabouts with Carly’s help, and they had just heard about the hostage situation with Sophie on the news.

[The Serpent Bearer’s energy has disappeared.]

[Our head god is gone!]

The beautiful goddesses were surprised when Lee Gun’s presence disappeared.

The disciples of Serpent Bearer were naturally able to sense Lee Gun. This was also true for those from the affiliate temples under the rule of the head temple. They could feel the presence of their head Zodiac and his energy no matter where they were. Of course, they had to be in the divine rank to do that.

This was why Kevin was excluded as the goddesses ran around in shock. The disappearance of the constant presence of a god meant only one thing.

Death of a God!

Therefore, the faces of the goddesses turned pale from fright. Lee Gun wasn’t their direct master, but he was their headmaster.

[Did something happen to Lee Gun-nim?]

At their leader’s words, the war goddesses gathered amongst themselves, anxious.

[My god! What if something bad happened to our baby snake-nim...!]

[Kevin is cute, but Baby snake-nim is tens of thousands of times cuter!]

[That’s right! I hope our baby snake-nim isn’t hurt!]

The leader’s eyes flashed at their worries.

[Look here. This isn’t the time for us to say such words! It’s a serious situation!]

In the end, unable to listen anymore, the leader of the war goddesses turned to Kevin.

[Kevin! Our headmaster is gone. Do you know this?]

The Virgo Saint furrowed his brows. “What? What do you want me to do about it?”

His Constructs kept saying Lee Gun was gone, but in the end, he couldn’t feel it for himself as he wasn’t a divine rank.

‘I think the Archer Saint felt it..’

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Was it because of the difference in faith? Or was it the fact that the Serpent Bearer favored the Archer?

Although Kevin and Hugo were both affiliates, a difference existed between them.

“That bastard Lee Gun always favors the Archer. He completely forgot about the sparring session we were supposed to have.”

Kevin seemed disgruntled. When he kept mumbling to himself, the Constructs became angry.

[Why are you acting so relaxed, Kevin? You should contact the head Zodiac Saints to check up on Headmaster’s status! What if something happened to our headmaster...!]

“Nothing will happen to him, idiot”

[!]

“Also, stop saying head Zodiac Saints. That sounds terrible.” Kevin wouldn’t mind it if it was Lee Gun, but he never pledged loyalty to those two Zodiac Saints. It made no sense that he had to treat those kids as his superiors.

‘They are still wet behind their ears.’

“It’s dangerous for little kids. They should just go and study for tests!”

The goddesses clicked their tongues.

[You must admit it, Kevin. One of them killed a general.]

“What? Of course, Lee Gun killed it for him!” It didn’t matter. “I don’t care what you guys say. I’m not worried about what happened to Lee Gun at all.”

[Kevin!]

Despite the words, Kevin was worried, but he trusted Lee Gun’s prowess. Above all else, his prosthetic arm was proof that Lee Gun was right.

[Prosthetic Arm (Left) is angry. It wants a rental fee.]

[It wants ten thousand dollars and a pair of the finest clothes every hour.]

[It quickly wants all that for its parent.]

[For the clothes, the first thing it wants is the highest quality underwear.]

[It says it wants underwear worth somewhere around ten thousand dollars.]

Slap! Slap!

Kevin’s right arm threw a tantrum as it slapped Kevin’s cheek.

After Kevin became an affiliate, Lee Gun had tossed this item to him, saying it would be troublesome if someone under him couldn’t fight.

Unlike Stevens’s cast-iron arm, this arm was the upgraded version. Lee Gun had worked hard on the texture. Kevin could barely feel the difference between the item and his real arm.

Of course, Kevin didn’t care about such things. Thus, he had wondered why Lee Gun had put so much effort into something so odd. However, Lee Gun seemed to have purposefully done so. Why?

Slap! Slap!

[K-Kevin! Why do you keep hitting yourself in the face?]

“...”

Yes, the prosthetic arm was wicked. It kept slapping his cheeks on a whim.

An outsider looking at this scene would just think Kevin was hitting himself in the face. If Kevin had the black cast-iron arm instead, everyone would’ve thought the arm was malfunctioning.

‘It makes me look like I lost my mind.’

This seemed to be the reason Lee Gun had gone through the effort of working on the prosthetic arm’s surface texture. He was a god with a bit of a weird taste.

It didn’t matter in the end.

“If something happened to Lee Gun, the prosthetic arm would have reacted first.”

[!]

Kevin had already realized this thing when Lee Gun had fought the helmeted man.

When Lee Gun’s power became weak, his manufactured items would get affected since they were like his children.

‘If Lee Gun dies, his holy items that have a sense of self might die along with him.’

When the enemy had used the nightmare skill, Lee Gun had become incapable of using his power. At the time, Stevens’s prosthetic arm had lost energy and fallen limp.

But right now, Kevin’s prosthetic arm was better than fine. It was being unruly by asking for payment.

“There is no way Lee Gun is dead.”

[Then why would the god’s presence disappear...]

“Who cares?”

In fact, Kevin’s thoughts were more occupied with Carly instead of Lee Gun’s state. It was to be expected.

‘Father? Father???’ That one word from Carly had shocked him. ‘She really is Lee Gun’s daughter?’

Lee Gun had never spoken about his child. Moreover, Carly was known to be twenty-one years old, a year older than Yooha.

Twenty-one years ago, Lee Gun’s body had been in its worst state. Moreover, he used to live with Hugo, so there was no way Hugo was unaware of Lee Gun’s lover. Yet, it seemed both of them didn’t know about Carly at all. Was Carly lying?

‘No. When I look at her magical energy again, it feels similar to Lee Gun’s....’

Carly and Lee Gun didn’t look too much alike, but both of them were good looking. Lee Gun’s body had been hurting, yet it seemed he was able to do everything he wanted to do...

Did Carly say her mother was Giselle...

When that thought suddenly came to his mind, Kevin screamed. “$*%&*!”

[Kevin! What’s wrong?]

“Lee Gun! As it turns out, you secretly did it with that woman...?!!!”

[Kevin? What’s going on? Kevin?]

“#$*$&#*!??” It was rare for Kevin to be this shocked. His mouth opened and closed in silence.

[Calm down. It isn’t what you think.]

“!”

Kevin flinched at the familiar voice. Then a silver light descended from the sky!

[In the first place, a Zodiac does not have a normal reproductive ability.]

“!”

Yes, it was the Virgo. She continued to speak.

[Well, Giselle did steal her Zodiac’s body, so it might be a different story. However, that wouldn’t be an easy task.]

“That means...!”

[Without a doubt, I believe Carly was made through the Aquarius’s Chalice.]

“...!!”

[The Aquarius is more than capable of doing it. It is cunning and shameless. It wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to acquire the data of a god. Moreover, they probably created the child of a god as a replacement for the god of calamity.]

Suddenly, the shocked Constructs spoke up.

[Excuse me, Master. Our headmaster is gone.]

[Is he ok?]

[That’s right. As an affiliate temple, we might be influenced by—]

[Do not worry. He merely entered the Aquarius’s middle world.]

The Constructs looked like they wanted to faint.

[What?! Did the Aquarius invite the god of calamity to the divine world? Are they perhaps on the same side...]

[There is no way the Aquarius would do that. Lee Gun ripped into its space.]

[What?! Is that supposed to be possible?]

One of the Constructs clicked her tongue.

[No way! It makes no sense. Of course, our master helped him get there.]

These words made the Virgo laugh uproariously.

[I didn’t.]

[What?]

[He just ripped into space by himself. In the first place, we can’t even open that space. The Aquarius had locked the space. It had even used its Illusion magic.]

[What?! Really? How did he...!]

[I have no idea. I told him that I would guide him, yet he ignored me and just left.]

[What?!]

When they looked askance at her, the Virgo laughed.

[There is no way the god of calamity will get lost.]

[!!]

[Anyway, that sneaky Aquarius probably thinks it is completely safe, tucked away in its own space. I want to see its surprised face.]

Yes. A Zodiac’s face didn’t change in color. But the Virgo bet the Aquarius’s eyes would widen from surprise.

* * *

“I-Found-You.”

[Ahhhhhhk!!!!!]

The Aquarius’s eyes couldn’t widen further, so it screamed. The Zodiac was so surprised that it not passing away was a miracle.

It couldn’t believe its eyes at all. Lee Gun! It rubbed its eyes again and again, yet the being in front of it was still Lee Gun!

Lee Gun had followed the Zodiac into the domain of a god and was laughing like a psychopath. He truly was the god of calamity.

The frantic Aquarius tried to run away from the crazy god of calamity. When it had gotten entangled with Lee Gun in the first place, it had already known that Lee Gun didn’t listen to reason.

When it had seen the grinning face of Lee Gun above its eyes, the Zodiac had been so surprised that it had fallen backward out of the sunbed.

The Aquarius was so beside itself that it didn’t register the embarrassment. Then, it unconsciously ran away, unable to understand what was going on.

‘What the hell? What happened? Why is he here?’

The Zodiac had no idea what was happening. The only thought that came to its mind was that it had to run away from him.

Lee Gun’s expression was deranged! His grin said the Aquarius would get its skull cracked and die if it got caught!

Although the action had looked unsightly, this was the reason the Aquarius had entered its temple in the middle world.

The Aquarius erased its presence as it hid in a room.

“You-Are-Here.”

[Ahhhhhhhk!!!]

The Aquarius screamed once again when it realized Lee Gun was sitting next to it with a bright smile on his face. Moreover, one of his hands held a bloody ax, and the other a head!

Recognizing who the swinging head belonged to, the Aquarius screamed once again. There was no mistaking that. That was the head of the sentry tasked with protecting this place!

[Ahhhhk!!!! Guardian!]

The more shocking part was that Lee Gun followed the Aquarius no matter where the Zodiac went. It tried to hide under the bed, but...

“I-Found-You.”

It turned its body into the water to hide within a bottle.

“You-Are-Here.”

In the end, it tried to hide in the toilet!

“Is-That-All-You-Got?”

The red snake eyes flashed as Lee Gun smirked and opened the toilet lid!

In the end, the terrified Aquarius wailed as it ran away. It didn’t even have the time to think about the dignity of a god.

The only important fact was that Lee Gun had invaded the territory of the gods. To make matters worse, the territory was its secret space!

This was why the Aquarius was flustered. Although this place wasn’t entirely the divine world, it was an “Absolute Holy Ground” where humans and monsters couldn’t invade! A person who still smelled human shouldn’t have been able to enter this place!

This place was the “Twelve Houses of the Zodiac.” It was like numerous galaxies existing in space.

Many varieties of the divine seats existed, but the twelve Zodiacs were considered the high-rank major temples. Everyone knew this, and the Zodiacs’ influence was immense. All the gods coveted their seats.

And this place was a space that only the twelve Zodiacs, ones that were given permission, and their Constructs could enter. So how?

None of that mattered as the Aquarius once again heard a voice near its ears.

“Aquarius! I have feelings. If you keep trampling my feelings, I might just snap your neck.”

[Ahhhhhhhk!!!!]

The frightened Aquarius fell on its butt. It started crawling as it entered one of the rooms.

The room was dark, but looking at it was like watching the Milky Way in the night sky. Light flowed across the ground. It was a river of light that shone.

Lee Gun’s eyes turned round when he entered the room. “What the hell? There is more than one Chalice?”

Yes, Lee Gun numerous Chalices in the surrounding area. And something was odd. Some Chalices were submerged within the river of light.

[You feel great power.]

[You feel a powerful divine status.]

Lee Gun saw familiar faces within it.

‘That’s...’

The ones he saw were none other than the twelve Zodiac Saints. He even saw some Zodiacs.

When Lee Gun looked within the river, the Aquarius shook as it asked a question.

[What do you want? Just say it! I’ll give it all to you! Data? I’ll give them all to you!]

“I don’t need you to do that.”

[What?]

“I’ll just take them from you.” Lee Gun extended his hand.

Black power surged forth.