It was a hair-raising voice.
And at that voice, Yang Wei’s body flinched instantly.
‘That voice.’
It sounded like someone mumbling while wearing a mask.
Yang Wei hurriedly turned his head.
But there was no one behind him. All he could see were the collapsing ceiling and the mannequins crushed under debris, their forms now ghastly.
The crushed and dismembered mannequins were burning black in the flames, adding to the eerie atmosphere.
‘Damn, did I mishear?’
Cold sweat ran down Yang Wei’s face. He was clearly in the midst of flames, yet it felt cold.
‘Right. It can’t be him.’
It had to be an auditory hallucination. The voice he’d heard belonged to someone who couldn’t possibly exist in this world anymore.
This voice.
Always wearing a mask, always that annoyingly muffled mumble.
Yet, despite that, the words had still entered his ears with perfect clarity, and the deep voice possessed a severity that gave it an overwhelming presence, but...
‘Damn, I feel sick.’
He had hated it back then, but now it was even worse. He loathed it more than hearing a child’s laughter in a ruin.
And this was all the media’s fault, kicking up a storm since yesterday.
‘Making a fuss about nothing, claiming Igeon has returned or not...!’
It must be because of neurosis that he was even hearing such hallucinations.
Anyway, right now, such an auditory hallucination didn’t matter at all.
“I need to get out of this damned place quickly...”
Just as Yang Wei was about to move his feet.
“Hey.”
“Aack!”
Yang Wei screamed at the shadow that fell over him.
It was because of the glimpse of Igeon’s mask he saw in that instant.
And when he realized it was just another mannequin wearing a similar mask, Yang Wei yelled.
“Who the hell is doing this?!”
Well, it was probably those bastards who were nipping at their heels. Or maybe it was the work of Igeon fanatics in Korea.
‘If not that...’
It was right then.
The moment he kicked aside the eerie mannequin and climbed onto the display rack blocking his path.
“!”
Yang Wei was startled.
‘What, why is that bastard here?’
Yang Wei’s face hardened at the familiar face he saw in the distance.
‘The guy who wouldn’t even take our calls.’
That was it. What he found inside was none other than Hugo Otter.
At the same time, his nerves already on edge, he ground his teeth. Because the fact that Hugo was here allowed for many assumptions.
Though when they had briefly met earlier through a possession skill, he hadn’t paid much attention since the guy seemed to be on a mercenary job.
‘Then, was he the one who caught the Spider Queen that appeared here?’
He couldn’t imagine that this guy had caught what they couldn’t, but it was still the most realistic explanation.
And that wasn’t all.
The incident of the Demon’s Tower exploding, the incident of his subordinate gods disappearing.
Even, just moments ago, Igeon’s voice.
‘Now I get it.’
Yes.
He’d pretended to be busy with requests, but it had all been this bastard’s doing. And he was more than capable of it.
Because 20 years ago, he was the one who had severed ties with them over Igeon’s death.
Yang Wei’s teeth chattered, but on the other hand, he actually felt relieved.
Starting with the collapse of the Demon’s Tower, it was easier on his mind if it had been someone else’s scheme.
‘Right. There’s no way that Igeon is alive...’
“Is the view good from there?”
“?!”
Yang Wei instantly slumped onto the display rack. Because the voice he thought was a hallucination sounded again.
And this time, right nearby!
Yang Wei swallowed.
‘Behind me.’
Slumped down, Yang Wei’s hands trembled faintly. He was too scared to even turn his head.
It was certain. It wasn’t a hallucination.
“What’s wrong? Feeling unwell?”
“?!”
Yang Wei, who had instinctively turned his head, ended up falling off the display rack.
Boom!
Having crashed down, Yang Wei trembled as he looked at the figure before him. A man drenched head to toe in spider’s blood stood there.
Wearing an unforgettable, familiar mask.
“Hello, scruffy. Long time no see?”
In a very familiar tone.
* * *
“Please step aside! It’s dangerous!”
“Injured people, this way...!”
Meanwhile, Cheon Seongjae couldn’t take his eyes off the sinkhole.
Around him, the holy followers of Baekyangjwa and the holy troops of Ssangajwa were busily moving about.
They had attempted to seal it from the outside earlier, but it had been a while since they’d stopped upon realizing the spider had been caught.
Of course, they were now preoccupied with something else instead.
“What, you still don’t know who caught it?”
“No witnesses?”
That was it.
The holy followers who had rushed into the building couldn’t tear their eyes away from the spider queen driven into the sinkhole.
They had been shocked just by the monster corpses they saw upon entering the building, but a spider queen driven in upside down!
Moreover, the spider queen’s belly was completely hollowed out and mutilated to the point of being pitiful.
“Look at the dislocated joints... Is that even possible?”
“And what about the knife work on its belly...”
“Anyway, isn’t that the one that the holy figure of Baekyangjwa caught in Manchuria before? It still has the wounds from back then. Look.”
“Then why is it here? They incinerated it in front of the media back then.”
“Don’t tell me they faked catching it then...”
“Shh!”
“Anyway, who in the world could handle a Red Zone-level monster...!”
But Cheon Seongjae, the sole witness, was still dazed.
Of course, he hadn’t seen the exact moment the spider queen was caught either. Because the venomous energy the spider queen emitted had obscured his vision.
But what was certain was that it was Igeon who had handled that.
‘It’s obvious.’
He hadn’t seen his face, but the spider queen’s screams had clearly echoed within the black venomous energy. And after that, there were a few bursts of Igeon shouting, ‘Ah, I said don’t move! I need to gut your belly!’ Then an immense energy shot up into the sky, blasting through the building’s ceiling.
And when the venomous energy cleared, all that remained was the spider queen with its belly completely hollowed out.
Igeon had been gone for some time.
And perhaps because such an unbelievable situation had unfolded,
Even the head of Ssangajwa’s holy troops, who had entered the scene, looked flustered.
And just as that holy troop leader was about to ask Cheon Seongjae what had happened before and after.
“Cheon Seongjae!”
“!”
The holy figure of the Sagittarius Constellation appeared.
And at Hugo Otter’s entrance, the crowd stirred.
Deep blond hair and a dark suit.
A handsome man who looked at most in his late 30s, with a clean-cut, Caucasian appearance overall.
And there was probably no one in the entire world who wouldn’t recognize the face of the Sagittarius Constellation’s holy figure.
Of course, that was about all the information most people knew.
“Cheon Seongjae. Why are you here?”
“Why are you here, is the better question.”
“What? Is that how you talk to your father?”
“!”
For a moment, questions flew about whether they were father and son, and Cheon Seongjae immediately winced.
It was an expression of someone who absolutely hated his family relations being exposed. But regardless, Hugo sighed.
The damn monster they’d already caught appearing again. And his son who’d run out of the house on his own, claiming he was going to see Igeon-nim, was also a problem, but that wasn’t the important thing right now.
‘That spider queen.’
It was certain.
Those marks on the spider queen.
It wasn’t guaranteed, but only one person in the world could do such bizarre things.
“Didn’t you see who caught that?”
At that, Cheon Seongjae only frowned slightly instead of answering.
At the same time, as Cheon Seongjae disappeared without pretending to listen, Hugo sighed again.
Seriously, who did that kid take after?
So when Hugo was about to say something, someone urgently grabbed him.
“Mister, don’t scold Seongjae! I saw! The person who took care of that spider!”
“!”
The one who grabbed Hugo was the boy Han Jimin, who had been with Igeon. Hugo quickly grabbed the boy at the unexpected information.
“You saw? What did the person look like? Maybe someone who looked to be in his 50s or 60s... No, maybe even older...”
“Uh, well, he looked maybe a year or two older than us and was really handsome...”
At those words, Hugo’s face grew visibly strange.
A year or two older? Even handsome?
‘Not Geon-ee, then.’
But then.
“But that hyung. He wrote something on the bottom of the sinkhole down there before he left. I don’t know what it was.”
“!”
At that, Hugo immediately jumped toward the sinkhole.
The people who had been exploring the sinkhole first were already buzzing over the phrase they had seen.
And when Hugo approached, the holy followers were startled.
“Oh...! The holy figure of the Sagittarius Constellation...!”
“Why is he here!”
However, Hugo, who saw the phrase on the floor, froze.
‘This brat...!’
No way!
His face turning pale, he hurriedly looked outside the hole. People stared at him with bewilderment at his suddenly changed expression.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“Is Yang Wei here?”
“Ah, yes. We heard he was coming, but I’m not sure if he’s arrived yet...”
No sooner had the words finished than the sound of an explosion came from somewhere.
Boom!
At that sound, Hugo, having looked at the phrase again, lost all color.
It was a terrifying message.
* * *
‘This is insane.’
Yang Wei was on the verge of losing his mind. All because of the man in front of him.
And the man wore a familiar mask as he smiled with his eyes.
“That’s too harsh. How can you see a dear comrade for the first time in 20 years and not even say hello?”
Dear comrade my ass!
Boom!
Yang Wei unknowingly stepped back and collided with a display rack. And the guy walked towards him, the unextinguished flames at his back.
‘...That bastard!’
Yang Wei trembled in fear as he looked at Igeon.
In the approaching man’s right hand was a knife that looked like it had been used to deal with the spider. And in his other left hand, something that seemed to have been pulled out from inside it.
And when the guy finally came right up to his nose and took off his mask.
Yang Wei just went limp.
That was only natural.
‘What. This isn’t Igeon?’
When he’d seen him from afar, he must have mistaken him because of the mask and the poor visibility caused by the fire.
His gait, his build, everything felt similar to him.
‘No.’
The Igeon now standing before him looked completely different.
His fully upright height was taller than the real Igeon’s, his hair was much thicker, and there were no terrible burn scars at all.
And above all.
‘He’s too young.’
At best, wasn’t he just a student who had newly become a holy figure?
‘It’s not Igeon.’
In the end, Yang Wei covered his face and couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Ah, what. I got scared for nothing.”
He must have been so neurotic since yesterday that he’d imagined things.
Soon, feeling dejected, his gaze turned to the leather mask hanging around Igeon’s neck.
“Heh, that’s really well made. These days, do fake masks even support the voice, I wonder? I don’t know which holy seat made it, but the price for surprising me will be hefty... Huh?”
Boom!
“?!”
Yang Wei was flabbergasted by the knife that stabbed into the side of his face.
And as if telling him to stop spouting nonsense, Igeon laughed right in front of him.
“Why? Do I look like a fake?”
“......?!”
Yang Wei’s heart almost stopped for a moment.
The familiar voice.
Definitely that deep, clear bass tone.
“Lucky. The divination was right this time. It was worth waiting here.”
But Yang Wei’s eyes, full of disbelief, slowly turned to Igeon’s mask.
‘......!’
And upon confirming that the mask was still hanging around his neck, he froze.
Sure enough, Igeon spoke with his bare face, without even wearing the mask.
“Now, then we can greet each other, right? Scruffy.”
“......!”
In that instant, the knife flew.
Swish!
Yang Wei was horrified by the blade flashing before his eyes. And though he instinctively bent his body to dodge.
“Aack!”
Yang Wei screamed. A sharp pain like sparks flying. In an instant, the muscles in both legs were cut, and Yang Wei trembled.
‘Damn, I thought I dodged it...!’
One might say he had made it so he could move just enough.
Sure enough, Igeon, as if it were nothing, flicked the blood off his knife.
“Where do you think you’re going, you little shit. It’d be disappointing if you tried to run off already when I have so much to ask.”
Igeon grinned murderously.
This guy was not a combat holy seat. But that was exactly why he was perfect as the first test subject.
“Alright. Then shall I roast you into a pig skewer?”
At those words, Yang Wei cursed viciously.
‘...This crazy bastard!’
It was certain. That thuggish expression and that impudent way of speaking!
It was definitely him.
One of the first awakened beings from 20 years ago, the 13th mutant, who had been with them!
(Continued in the next episode)