Hugo couldn’t believe his eyes. The city in front of his eyes had turned into a site of mayhem. It truly was a great panic downtown.

[Warning! Warning! A Red-zone monster has invaded the city.]

[Please hurry and evacuate...!]

There were already tens of thousands of victims.

Hugo, who had been doing mercenary work in Australia, had received a message from Lee Jaewon around twenty minutes ago.

- Zodiac Saint-nim! Please hurry up and return right now! Your wife is in danger! An unknown monster is going after her— Koohk!

After receiving the message, Hugo had immediately used a teleporter to return to Korea.

“Jiwoo!!”

However, he couldn’t find his wife or Lee Jaewon.

‘What’s going on? There is no way Jaewon would leave with a monster present....!’

Hugo glared at the monster trying to attack an apartment complex. He sent a Binding Arrow toward it as he surveyed his surroundings.

‘That’s...!’

He discovered a car in the parking lot that was letting out a red light. It was none other than Lee Jaewon’s car.

Hugo ran toward the car and opened the door. “Jiwoo! Jaewon! Are you here?”

The sight of his son inside the car surprised him. “S-Sungjae?!”

“Dad...!!”

His son was shedding tears as he clutched a Lee Gun chocolate mix in his hand.

Sungjae was wearing a necklace that was in the shape of the Sagittarius temple’s symbol, which was letting out a red light. This item had been protecting him.

Hugo was having a hard time understanding what was going on. “Why are you here...!”

He had heard about only Chun Jiwoo from Lee Jaewon, so this surprised him. But he soon realized what was going on.

‘Today is Sungjae’s birthday.’

This incident had happened while his wife came for a brief visit to meet her son.

“Dad! Mom and Jaewon hyung...!”

Hugo stroked the back of his son, who remained frozen. “Everything will be fine now. Where are your mom and Jaewon hyung? Are they somewhere else?”

Sungjae flinched. He clenched his eyes shut as he pointed at the monster. That was enough of an answer for Hugo.

Hugo’s face turned pale from fright as he closed the car door. “Stay right here! You must not come out no matter what happens!”

“Dad!!”

Hugo immediately ran toward the monster.

‘Damn it! I was wondering why I couldn’t feel their presence...!’

Hugo arrived near the monster and saw awakened beings in a state of total confusion.

“Damn it! What kind of monster is that?!”

“Help! We don’t stand a chance against it!”

“If even an S-rank can’t do anything against it, who will be able to fight it?!”

Several dozen awakened beings from the Leo temple, Gemini temple, and Virgo temple were crowded around the monster. By the look of things, they were going to be wiped out.

Moreover, although it was faint, Hugo could feel the energy of Lee Jaewon and his wife from inside the toad’s body.

When he realized this, Hugo’s feet naturally moved on their own.

This shocked the disciples.

“Hugo-nim! You shouldn’t get near it! Something is off about that monster!”

“It absorbs all the power of a Zodiac!”

Hugo charged the toad despite everyone around him trying to stop him.

And as they had said, the power of his Zodiac failed against the monster. However, that didn’t matter to Hugo.

Poo-oohk!!!

“!!‘

It wasn’t as if the training he had received from Lee Gun was all for naught.

As if to prove this, Hugo didn’t use his skill. He used his bow to stab the monster’s eye.

Due to the blow, the toad momentarily opened its mouth in a violent manner.

Zzuh-uhk!!

Hugo’s enormous strength shocked the Leo disciples.

“H-He did it with his bare hands?!”

However, there was no time to be surprised.

After opening the toad’s mouth, Hugo placed his shoulder against the top of its mouth. Then he propped up the bow so that the monster couldn’t close its mouth.

Kwah-jeek!!

It was like seeing someone keep an alligator’s mouth open.

Hugo immediately entered the toad through its mouth, making all the disciples turn pale from fright.

“Hugo-nim!!!”

It was basically an act of suicide.

After Hugo entered through the monster’s gullet, his skin started melting and his lungs took damage.

Since it was a serious situation, Sagittarius quickly gave him a warning.

[If you push it further, your life will be in danger. This bastard is eating your Divine power!]

If the blessing of the Zodiac disappeared, Hugo would become a normal human. There was no way he could last inside the monster’s body.

[Hugo!]

Despite this, Hugo ignored his Zodiac. The thought of rescuing his wife and Lee Jaewon was the only thing occupying his head.

It was unclear how long had passed.

‘!’

Hugo let out a sigh of relief when he reached the stomach. It seemed he had reached them before they could be digested. He had discovered his wife and Lee Jaewon, and they were unharmed.

‘They have no wounds, and they haven’t been digested yet.’

Hugo immediately called for his raven Constructs and used the Construct to send the two outside.

When two people appeared out of the toad’s mouth, the disciples were shocked.

“T-That’s crazy! How are people able to come out of that thing?”

“It’s Hugo-nim!”

“How the hell is that bow not breaking?”

Hugo laughed as he held the toad’s tonsil.

‘There is no way it’ll break considering who made it for me.’

The disciples quickly moved to extract Hugo.

“Koo-oohk!!”

“Hugo-nim!!!”

However, as Hugo was trying to exit through the gullet, he was dragged back into the monster’s stomach.

Hugo quickly called for his Zodiac, but his god wasn’t able to respond.

[Damn it! My power...!]

It seemed Sagittarius’s power had been consumed by the toad. In the end, Hugo fell to the very bottom of the toad’s stomach.

Splash!

“Kuh-huhk!!”

Drenched in digestive fluid, Hugo thought he was about to die. However...

Flash!

‘!’

Light erupted from Hugo’s wristwatch. It was the watch that Lee Gun had given him as a present. Then, something surprising happened.

“Kuh-huhk!!! Wait a moment...!”

Did it have some kind of emergency escape ability? The watch, which was clasped around his left wrist, raised his arms. It dragged him somewhere.

“Ahhk! Wait a moment! It hurts!”

Struggling was useless. After dragging Hugo along, the wrist unceremoniously threw him out of the toad’s mouth.

Kwahng!!

“Ahhhk!!”

Having been tossed to the ground, Hugo felt like dying.

“Hugo-nim!! Are you ok?”

“K...Kuh-huhk. I’m not ok... Damn it! My arm...! That Gun bastard...! This isn’t a protection-type holy item!”

“Hugo-nim??”

The watch didn’t seem to care if Hugo was in pain or not.

After throwing Hugo, the watch seemed smug about itself. It acted as if it had done the job well and went back to sleep. Clearly, the watch had a sense of self.

Normally, it increased Hugo’s luck a little so that he wouldn’t get hit by an attack. However, if he faced a danger above a certain threshold, it could send Hugo away to a different location by brute force.

But that wasn’t important right now.

[Kee-ehhhhhk!!!]

It seemed the light emitted by the watch had damaged the toad on the inside.

The toad was in pain as it disappeared.

Everyone sighed in relief when they saw this and rushed toward Hugo and the two people with him.

“Jiwoo! Jaewon!”

“Please don’t worry about them! We called for an ambulance!”

“Thankfully, nothing is wrong with their bodies! We believe the two of them fainted from shock! They should wake up soon!”

“I see.”

Hugo had previously seen the status of the two, so he nodded. They should wake up soon if they received treatment. That was what he had believed.

* * *

“What? They haven’t regained consciousness?”

“Yes... There is nothing wrong with their bodies, yet...!”

The hospital was in a state of turmoil. The reason was Lee Jaewon and Chun Jiwoo.

“It isn’t just the two of them. The other victims are also...”

“Sophie-nim says she doesn’t know why this is the case either.”

This meant their bodies were empty husks of their original selves, and they were unable to breathe by themselves.

This caused a commotion among the public.

“My god! This incident occurred within the district covered by the Sagittarius temple’s dome, right?”

“What the hell? It’s a region protected by the Archer Saint, yet a Red-zone monster appeared there?”

“How did he maintain his barrier that such a tragedy could happen in the middle of the city?”

The world disparaged Hugo.

The Taurus Saint, who considered Hugo a thorn in his side, was overjoyed as he disparaged the Sagittarius temple.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

However, their words couldn’t reach Hugo’s ears.

“I’m sorry! We are running tests, but you should prepare your heart for...”

As Hugo gritted his teeth...

“Poor Hugo. I heard you lost the person you love the most and your precious subordinate?”

“!”

The one to appear at the hospital was none other than Giselle.

“Thankfully, my sons were able to survive that fiasco.”

When Giselle sent a peculiar gaze toward Sungjae, Hugo immediately hid his son. “Get out of my face right now.”

“Oh my! I'm here because I'm worried about a comrade. You’re being too cold. By the sound of it, the barrier of the Sagittarius temple hadn’t performed well. That was why the monster was able to come in. In other words, you’re at fault, right?”

Hearing this, Sungjae flinched. He immediately grabbed his father. “No, it wasn’t Dad! The barrier wasn't broken! Someone else did it! The criminal was...!”

At that moment, Giselle glared at Sungjae as if she wanted to kill him.

“!”

When Giselle let out an odd sense of killing intent, Hugo looked at her as if something was off.

On the other hand, Giselle acted calm and smirked. “Anyway, my sons were there. It’s the fault of the Sagittarius temple that they got involved in this, right?”

“That’s....”

When Hugo ground his teeth, Sungjae angrily said, “No! Her kids called out the monster! They drew a summoning circle like this!”

“!?”

Both Hugo and Giselle were surprised.

However, the first one to react was Giselle. She had never expected such a young child to remember all the symbols in such exact detail.

‘Damn it! They did a horrible job of cleaning after themselves.’

Giselle ground her teeth as she approached Chun Sungjae. “My god! I have no idea what this kid is trying to say.”

“Of course, you know! I’ll show this to the police! Those older kids used this to summon the monster....!”

Surprised, Giselle let out murderous intent as she extended her hand. “L...Little kid. You shouldn’t lie. If you lie, the police will arrest you.”

“It isn’t nonsense! I saw it! The monster came from the Libra temple’s summoning circle...!”

Giselle stood in front of Sungjae, but...

Crunch!

“If you lay a hand on my son, you’re dead.”

“...!!”

Hugo broke Giselle’s arm. “I never want to see any of your faces. Buzz off right now!”

Giselle snorted. “I’m sorry, but I won’t leave! I have to make sure—”

“You guys have a hand in this.”

“What?”

“You guys are responsible for Gun’s death, and you guys are responsible for this incident.”

“What nonsense are you—”

“As soon as my wife was attacked, the Capricorn Saint took all her research material. There is no way that is a coincidence.”

Giselle blanched.

‘That Goat bastard is always unhelpful...!’

She had told him to avoid doing anything that would attract attention.

Giselle quickly turned around. In reality, she was afraid. It was as if she was seeing Lee Gun through Hugo’s face. “Alright. You are in shock because you lost your wife and subordinate. I’ll go for now.”

When Giselle exited the room, a surprised Sungjae shouted at his father, “D-Dad! No! I really saw it! Believe in me! I’ll bring her to justice...”

“Will you stop it, Sungjae?!”

“!”

It was rare for Hugo to raise his voice like this. He gritted his teeth. “If only you hadn’t called your mom here in the first place...!”

“...!”

Hugo looked to be in excruciating pain.

When Sungjae saw his expression, he couldn’t say anything. While he couldn’t understand everything his father was going through, he was sure of one thing.

“...I’m sorry!” Sungjae held back his tears as he went to the next room.

Hugo bit his tongue.

‘Damn it! Why the hell did I say such a thing to a kid...’

He was about to chase after Sungjae to give an immediate apology, but...

“Excuse me, Hugo-nim. You should prepare yourself.”

Hugo froze when he saw the people who had entered the hospital room.

* * *

Hugo tried countless things to save the people precious to him.

- We’ve finished all the tests... I’ll be honest. The probability of them surviving this is none...

- We believe it is prudent for you to make funeral arrangements.

- In a couple of days, we’ll have you meet the funeral director.

Hugo was experiencing the same thing that he had experienced ten years ago. He had to go through this for his friend, and he knew extremely well what would happen after this.

‘Should I give in?’

Like what had happened with his friend, would he have to go through the same thing for his wife and subordinate?

However, the one to snap him back to his senses was none other than Yooha.

“Dad... Dad!”

Hugo was surprised when someone’s voice shook him out of his current state. He was in a dark room. When he raised his head, he saw Yooha turning on the light. A tray of food had been placed next to him.

“You haven’t eaten anything, Dad. Let’s eat.”

“Dad doesn’t need to eat....”

However, Hugo immediately came to his senses when he caught sight of Yooha. “Yooha. What happened to your hands? Why are they like this? You are hurt!”

“Ah. I cut myself when I was chopping up the vegetables.”

“...!”

Hugo bit his lips. Since he was an awakened being, his body didn’t send any signals even if he didn’t eat food for several days. So the days had blurred together. He didn’t know what day it was.

When he saw the date on his phone, Hugo sighed.

‘Damn it! I didn’t pay any attention to the kids for four days...’

To make matters worse, he had allowed Yooha to injure her hands.

Hugo quickly got up. “What about Sungjae!”

“Ah... Sungjae says he doesn’t deserve to eat anything. He said he doesn’t want to eat, so...”

“What?!”

Hugo’s face turned pale from fright as he rushed out of the room. It seemed the sense of guilt made the young one not be able to eat anything.

Hugo headed toward the children’s room. He wanted to make them healthy food.

“Ooh, ooh, ooh...!”

“!!”

But when he entered the room, he saw fish covered in ketchup. Seasoned vegetables, cucumbers, and peppers covered in ketchup were placed over rice. The bowl had been eaten clean and was strewn across the floor.

Hugo caught sight of Sungjae crying because he had eaten too much. He gawked. “I-I thought you didn’t want to eat food...?”

“Yes, but I was forced to eat it.”

He was forced to eat it?

“Uh... Why are Gun’s figurines all over the floor?”

“Ah. He refused to eat, so I said I’ll break a figurine of Lee Gun-nim each time he refused to eat.”

“?!!”

Hugo was shocked, but Yooha’s eyes twinkled. In truth, her method had been very effective.

- Eat it. I will hurt Lee Gun-nim every time you refuse to eat.

She had pushed the spoon toward him with one hand and raised the Lee Gun figurine with the other. Sungjae had despaired when he saw what Yooha was doing.

- Wehhhhh! You can’t break Lee Gun-nim!!

- Here. If you want to save Lee Gun-nim, you should eat this.

- Wehhhhh!!!

- Have another spoonful!

Her method was very effective. She kept feeding and feeding her brother until the five-year-old felt like his stomach was about to explode.

Sungjae desperately gathered all his Lee Gun figurines as he cried.

- Noona’s food is terrible! My stomach feels like it’s going to explode! It feels like I’m going to die, but I was able to protect Lee Gun-nim...!!

Hugo didn’t know if he should laugh or cry as he watched his son in tears.

‘Yes. I can’t give up.’

He had to do it for his wife, subordinate, and the friend he trusted the most in this world.

That was why Hugo went to visit someone, and this was when Lee Gun’s holy item suddenly flashed.