Sophie always thought,
that Igeon was a bastard she could never get along with.
He was scary-looking, sure, but more than that, Igeon seemed to see her as a thorn in his side.
Especially when it came to anything involving Hugo, it was even worse.
She fell for Hugo at first sight and poured her heart into making him a lunchbox, but what did it matter?
"H-Hugo! I made you a lunchbox. If you don't mind... would you like to take it and eat?"
"A lunchbox? Uh... yeah, thanks..."
"Oh, free food! I'll take that."
"?!"
"G-Geona?!"
He stole every lunchbox she made, then said it tasted like crap and tossed it into the toilet.
"KYAA! I stayed up all night making that!"
So she improved the taste and tried to give it to Hugo, but he snatched it again and this time fed it to the pigs.
Did he even know how much the nutritional supplements and tonics cost each time she packed a lunchbox?
"Whoa, wild ginseng fertilizer is amazing."
Igeon cackled that it made great fertilizer and mixed it with manure to grow his own medicinal herbs.
"And if you'd at least eaten it, I wouldn't be saying this!"
That wasn't all.
When they were alone at base camp, what good did it do to shyly hold out a gift?
"Hugo, it's your birthday, right? Here's a present."
"Uh, huh? A present? Thanks..."
"Kahaha! This is perfect for firewood!"
"KYAAAAAA!!"
Igeon laughed like a demon, snatched her gift, and used it for a campfire.
He even snapped it into pieces right in front of her!
"Where'd you get firewood like this? Tell me your secrets."
"THIISSSS!!"
"What? Knowing that potion junkie, she probably spiked it with something."
"Wha... what did you say? You keep pushing me, baldy... KYAAA!! What are you doing? Stop! You're pulling my hair!"
"Who's a baldy?! I've still got some left! And you think I don't know you drugged this?!"
Igeon absolutely hated it when Sophie approached Hugo.
And for good reason—Sophie was a pharmacist who could concoct any kind of potion.
She had even laced a gift for Hugo with a drug to force him into becoming a love slave.
Well, half of it just seemed like he enjoyed tormenting Sophie.
Anyway, Sophie had plenty to say about Igeon's horrible personality.
And twenty years later:
"Enough. You're starting by taking a few hits no matter what."
It was the same when he beat her up after they reunited at the Sacred Relic Exchange.
That filthy temper of his hadn't gone anywhere.
Of course, given what they'd done over the past twenty years, she couldn't really complain.
But in this moment.
"Igeon! You came to rescue me!"
"Yeah. Came to rescue you."
Even so, Sophie was moved by Igeon's smile.
She'd fallen into a barren, unknown civilization, starving hungry, and it was the kind of day where you wondered if you'd have to abandon human dignity because there was nothing to eat.
Who wouldn't be overjoyed to hear "I came to rescue you"?
And despite all the talk, they were still comrades among the Thirteen.
Sure, she'd done things over twenty years, but that was all settled when he beat her up last time.
Humanity, compassion among fellow humans.
And as an ally against a common enemy—the monsters—he must have come to lend her a hand.
Or so she thought.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
"Urgh...! Gwaack! Uggeekk!!"
[The trait of the One Who Strikes All Things is activated.]
[Data acquired (Potion Crafting)]
[Data acquired (Tears)]
...
[Data acquired (Poison)]
Beaten by Igeon yet again, Sophie wailed.
"THIISSSS!"
Dragged out of the prison, Sophie was mercilessly pummeled by Igeon.
Though it was better than the beating at the Sacred Relic Exchange last time.
Back then, it felt like Igeon had put real fury into his punches, but now... was he holding back for the situation?
"Ah, what's this? Why isn't it coming out? One more!"
"KYAA!"
No, it felt more like he was controlling his strength because if she died, no more data would come out...
"Why are you doing this?! You said you came to rescue me!"
"Yeah. Came to rescue data."
"?!"
What in the ever-loving...!
Sophie had no choice but to scream.
After all, even now, Igeon saw all the Saints except for Hugo as insects. There was no way he'd suddenly be considerate toward a Saint.
"Urgh! Kuheek!"
Just because he controlled his strength didn't mean it didn't hurt.
Especially now, with Sophie more deeply connected to the Holy God than usual for survival.
[The synchronization rate between the Saint and the Master is temporarily elevated.]
[Strongly connected to the Master.]
[Damage taken by the Saint is transmitted to the Master.]
[Partially acquired the Master's data (Divine Beverage)]
[Partially acquired the Master's data (Fragment of the Holy Grail)]
[The Holy God of [ ] and the Master of the Holy Grail is horrified.]
It wasn't as effective as full Holy God possession, but Igeon grinned as if he'd hit the jackpot.
"Score! Purification skill!"
Witnessing this, onlookers collectively felt their minds go blank.
The Saints watching on live TV were no exception.
"That crazy bastard...!"
Steven even dropped the cup he was holding.
"Has he forgotten this is a live broadcast...!"
In fact, after the truth was revealed.
Steven had been threatened (?) by Igeon into writing advertisements and an autobiography for him.
It was a kind of punishment.
[Well, since you all did what you did, I'm going to milk something good out of this. I plan to make every survivor do it, so if I don't like it, you're dead.]
Even though Steven had made a declaration of conscience, it had been a shockingly outrageous story.
The image of Igeon that Libra, Cancer, and their allied Zodiacs had cunningly trampled over twenty years wasn't going to be restored in a single day.
Of course, [ ] had tried to work on it for those twenty years, but failed due to Libra's schemes.
And the neutral Zodiacs, including Leo, had ignored the actions of those other Zodiacs despite pricking consciences—for the sake of their own Zodiac's benefit, and jealousy and inferiority toward Igeon.
So even though he was being threatened, Steven was preparing to reflect sincerely, weaving the truth while portraying Igeon as the most noble and cool hero possible—
"KYAA! The Saintess!"
"What's going on?! Igeon is attacking the Saintess!"
"A-Aren't we supposed to stop that?!"
"O-Of course not! If he's attacking so mercilessly, then that must be a fake Saintess!"
"Ah, right! As expected of Igeon the Saint!"
"In order to quickly deal with the fake and find the real Saintess...!"
Fake, my ass.
Steven cupped his face in despair.
'That temper of his, seriously.'
It seemed like the autobiography would need massive revisions.
In fact, the Leo followers watching TV with him were also horrified.
"L-Lord of the Zodiac... That's..."
"She's a fake. That Saintess is a fake. She's a monster whelp. It's fine to kill her."
"Uh... B-But didn't Igeon-nim just say that she was the real Saintess..."
"You didn't see it! None of you saw that crazy bastㄷ... Gurk!!"
As if reacting to Steven's words, his left prosthetic hand smacked Steven's cheek.
How dare you treat my parent like air and pretend not to see them?
[Furious, [ ] raised the rental fee to one million dollars per hour.]
[[ ] angrily demands you hand it over quickly.]
And watching the same scene, Virgo was equally flustered.
After becoming subordinate to Igeon, they had been converting Virgo's facilities for the Ophiuchus followers, as per Igeon's orders.
Because he had said they'd be recruiting a huge number of Ophiuchus followers this time.
And.
[L-Lady Goddess... No, Ophiuchus's servant. Is this really okay?]
Watching the news video on their phones, Virgo's subordinate gods were sweating as they looked at Kevin.
[This is a live broadcast!!!]
[Shouldn't we stop it?!]
[Does this person not care about his image at all?!]
But Kevin didn't even pay attention.
"Why are you acting so surprised now."
[Even so, this man... pulling data out with his fists! Then shouldn't he also... from our master...!]
"I'll tell him to tear off as much as he wants. If there's anything good, I'll get some too."
[KEVIN!!]
Kevin instead turned his head as if the Saintess wasn't what mattered.
"So, Libra?"
At that, the subordinate gods didn't answer but looked somewhere. Unexpectedly, Kali was there.
Soon the subordinate gods spoke while looking at her.
[Libra's Holy God... no, Giselle's location—this child says she has found it.]
That's right.
The southern region, Libra's stronghold.
Under Igeon's orders, he had been searching for the missing Giselle together with Kali.
Of course, it wasn't entirely clear why Igeon was looking for Giselle.
But.
'If my guess is right, he's after the Holy God's core, like with Cancer.'
And at the same time, aiming for Libra's vast subordinate gods.
Since Libra is the No. 1 Zodiac for a reason.
And above all.
Igeon must be after that.
Though their own Zodiac didn't have one, it was a top-class god among the subordinate gods.
He'd definitely taken an interest when he caught a glimpse of it being summoned at the Sagittarius Sanctuary last time.
Of course, the Virgo subordinate gods sparkled with reverence: 'The baby snake-nim is trying to raise the Zodiac's prestige!', 'Because if His subordinate gods increase, His mana will increase too!'—but Kevin himself just looked like he'd bitten into dung.
'Weird. There's no way that guy will just use them as mere subordinates...'
Kevin remembered vividly.
The look in Igeon's eyes, laughing that he'd lend them even to Kevin if he wanted.
'Anyway, that's probably why he saddled me with Kali, the former Ten Stars of Libra.'
After all, Kali had even filled out her membership paperwork and 100-page self-introduction, so her membership was already approved.
Of course, Igeon's face had said he never expected her to actually bring a 100-page self-introduction.
Anyway, once her membership was approved, Kali said she'd be helpful to Igeon and volunteered to bring over Libra's subordinate gods.
Thus, she'd teamed up with Kevin, who was searching for Libra.
And now.
Ultimately, Kevin frowned as he watched Kali happily staring at her phone.
"Hey, kid. Time is short. Where is your Holy God...?"
"Woowah! Igeon-nim! So cool! So freaking cool!"
Kali was deeply moved, watching Igeon rampaging.
That made Kevin's blood boil.
Libra and Virgo, ranked 1 and 2, were natural enemies fighting over territory.
And Kali was the captain of Libra.
Since many of their followers had suffered at Kali's hands, they were never going to get along.
Maybe that's why.
"Girl! Spit out where Libra is since you found it! Stop clinging to Igeon!"
"IGEON-NIIIM!!"
"Oh, for crying out loud!"
Was it because of Igeon's video?
To Kali, Kevin's existence seemed thoroughly erased.
So Kevin tried to snatch her phone away.
"Since earlier, ignoring me like..."
"You really are ㅃ...! Igeon-nim! So cool!"
"......?"
For a moment, Kevin doubted his ears.
What did this brat just say?
ㅃ...?
Dad?
Daaad???
* * *
And so, the world was in chaos from Igeon's Sophie-rescuing... no, data-acquiring operation.
And whether they knew of this chaos or not,
the monster made a proposal to Igeon.
[Human! If you want the Saintess back, stop beating her and instead, bring us the ten Legion Commanders we demand...]
"What's that? Shut up and get lost!"
[Kieeek!!]
Igeon carved up every last monster trying to protect Sophie.
Watching that scene, Sophie finally wailed.
"Monsters! Please hold on longer! Kill that bastard!"
Could it be that being captured was better than being beaten by Igeon?
"Monsters! Don't die! Please!"
The followers who'd chased after Igeon to stop him looked shocked.
"Defending the monsters... Then she really is a fake Saintess?"
"Right, there's no way Igeon-nim would do this to the real one."
"W-Wha?"
"Hurry and dispose of the fake!"
"Aaack! No! That's not... KYAA!"
Sophie screamed.
But regardless, Igeon approached Sophie with a smile.
"So, out came one SS-rank Purification skill... two, three, four, five."
As if the main event hadn't started yet. Igeon's eyes flashed as he grabbed Sophie's shoulder again.
[Acquired precious data.]
[Purification (SSS)]
Finally, as the notification popped up, Igeon clenched his fist.
"Yes!"
Had he finally gotten what he wanted?
As Igeon pulled back his fist, Sophie screamed in sorrow.
"It came out even without hitting me?!"
Of course, thanks to the high synchronization rate and the Holy God's protection, she wasn't seriously hurt. But still—
"You devil! At least take the ring out of my stomach! Is data really that important?!"
Sophie sniffled from her aching stomach once again, but Igeon ignored her and immediately used the skill.
[Using extracted data (Purification SSS).]
[Purifying the Celestial Judgment core.]
With that notification, the Judgment core in Igeon's hand began to glow.
[Effect is very good.]
[[], expelling the energy of the Dark Star.]
[Purification progress 30%]
...
[Purification progress 40%]
Igeon smiled.
But just then.
[Purification progress 50%]
[Skill use complete.]
[The effect of Purification (SSS) (Single Use) has ended.]
What, it was single-use again?
Igeon turned back to Sophie.
At that vicious glare, Sophie wailed. No matter how much the Holy God's protection shielded her, at this rate, Aquarius's power would...!
"St-Stop it! You said you could get it without hitting me...!"
But right then.
Flash!
[The Holy God of [ ], the Master of the Holy Grail, requests negotiations.]
(To be continued...)