A new grade appeared.
Along with it, a flash spread throughout the entire 2nd Sanctuary of Ophiuchus.
*Kugugung!*
At the same time, the Sagittarius disciples beside Igeon screamed.
Because along with the light, Heavenly Punishment unleashed a mighty force.
"Kyaaak!"
"Huk!"
A massive explosion of magical power occurred.
And then, the soundless sharp cry was the weapon's roar towards heaven and earth.
A roar inaudible to humans split the sky and ground in two.
[Heavenly Punishment answers the master's call.]
[Heavenly Punishment is startled by the master's blood.]
[It roars wildly, demanding to know who dared wound the master's body.]
Igeon, touching the Punishment, smiled.
'It's a success.'
Igeon could distinguish his own children—that is, the egos within the holy artifacts—one by one.
Because each had different auras and personalities.
And this feeling was unmistakably Heavenly Punishment!
'It's back!'
He hadn't shown it, but Igeon had been more upset than anyone about the loss of the weapon he had been with for so long.
He was used to death and dying in battle, but he wasn't such a cold-blooded person that he couldn't feel the sorrow of death.
Moreover, this one had left him after its body was destroyed while trying to protect him.
There was no way he wouldn't be happy about the repair's success.
And though his heart pounded with the joy of his child's return and the triumph of a successful repair, the disciples themselves could barely stand.
It felt similar to when the Star Gods descended.
"Kugh!"
So even Gote and Hugo, who were trying to catch the disciples about to fly away, were flustered.
'Damn, what kind of weapon is this...!'
Its mere presence exuded a tremendous pressure.
A power not felt even in the forges of Capricorn, which handles the weapons of humanity, nor in the holy relics used by the Saints!
It was like witnessing the descent of a minor god.
Of course, even if it were the descent of a Star God, the feeling was distinctly different.
'It was like when Igeon used his Battle God's Instinct...!'
That level of pressure.
And as if recognizing that otherworldly power, the divine realm was thrown into chaos.
[The Masters, who can't observe Earth, are restless.]
[They ask what this power is.]
[They make a fuss, wondering if it's the birth of a new divinity.]
[They stomp their feet, demanding that the dark curtain be removed quickly.]
It seemed the Masters were quite frustrated by the dark curtain of Cancer that Igeon had deployed.
Though the Masters of the mountains and rivers seemed to know what was happening.
[The Master of the Full Moon is surprised, saying it's a grade they've never seen before.]
[The Master of the Blazing Sickle asks what kind of weapon he made and is flustered, asking if such a grade is even possible.]
[The Master of the Full Moon tells this to the Gold Beast Master next to them.]
[Hearing this, the Gold Beast Master boasts that it's only expected, since it was made from their own fangs.]
[They then slam their tail on the ground, asking when the Snake Master is coming to the divine realm.]
The atmosphere of the Star Gods changed.
That was only natural.
EX-grade meant Extremity. A stage beyond measurement, or the extreme limit, already surpassing SS-grade.
SSS-grade items rarely existed, possessed by Star Gods, but what Igeon had created was a bizarre object that even surpassed that.
In fact, even the gods couldn't determine its exact identity.
But what was certain was that it already possessed enough power to be treated as the master of a minor divine seat.
As expected.
[The mysterious creator flinches.]
[The Masters of the mountains and rivers say this is impossible.]
[The Lords are eyeing it with greed.]
[The vassal gods of the hostile divine seats who witnessed this are horrified.]
[The vassal gods of the hostile divine seats say it's just an eccentric item anyway.]
[They claim their own Masters are far superior, flustered.]
Upon this, Igeon raised Heavenly Punishment as if it were absurd.
*Clang!*
And he drew a semicircle towards the sky.
Then an astonishing thing happened.
*Flash!*
A sword-green light burst from Heavenly Punishment and blew away the birds that were floating in the sky.
Along with the collision, the vassal gods screamed.
They were vassal gods secretly sent by Masters who could no longer spy on Igeon due to the dark curtain.
However.
*Kwakwagwang!*
[Divinity has been erased.]
[The minions of creation lose their power and fall into the sea.]
[Their names are erased from the register of the gods.]
[They have lost their abilities.]
[Experience increases significantly.]
It was a tremendous power that even erased divinity itself.
It was truly worthy of being called a tool wielded by a calamity god.
And it was then.
[With the creation of a new grade, a new divine name has been generated.]
[]
[Igeon (Master)]
The 13th Throne of God / Personal View Palace Ophiuchus Seat
Title ,
[New has been created.]
[Capricious] and 1 other.
And perhaps in response to the power that erased divinity?
[An unknown civilization shows great interest in the weapon.]
[Gods hiding their names request that weapons be made for them too.]
[A distant army shows interest in Heavenly Punishment.]
[They wish to visit the Ophiuchus Sanctuary.]
[Will you open the Sanctuary?]
But Igeon scoffed as if telling them to get lost.
"Tell them to get lost."
With that, the light disappeared from the now-complete Heavenly Punishment.
And the disciples who saw him couldn't think to close their mouths.
Especially Hugo seemed at a loss for words at the grade of the holy artifact, which he had never heard of before.
'EX-grade...'
No wonder the gods coveted it. But to Igeon, the return of Heavenly Punishment made him happier.
[The body of Heavenly Punishment has been renewed.]
[Engraving process has not been performed.]
[It can be permanently bound to the master with .]
Igeon smiled.
The Engraving skill he could use after acquiring the Creation Workshop skill.
[Creation Workshop/Engraving (M)]
- By engraving the master's name, it connects to the master's soul, binding it.
- It can be summoned to the master's call anytime, anywhere.
- Can never be used by anyone other than the master (grants binding property).
- However, it may develop its own wishes for the master.
- Durability increase effect, ability amplification effect.
In short, it was a summoning skill.
Well, until now, it was a guy that flew to him whenever he called anyway, so he hadn't felt much need for the engraving skill.
'But since there are those eyeing it greedily, it wouldn't be bad to use the engraving skill.'
Though, anyway, it didn't seem like Heavenly Punishment would follow anyone else but him.
Just as Igeon was about to engrave his name onto Heavenly Punishment.
"Aack!"
Suddenly, Heavenly Punishment shot upright. And then it began flying off somewhere.
"What! Where is he going!"
Igeon was also flustered.
And both Igeon and Hugo were shocked at the direction.
"Wait, that direction is!"
* * *
Meanwhile, around that time.
A place about 1km from Igeon's workshop.
There was an outdoor hot spring there, made by pouring a clattering amount of holy water.
And there were Cheon Seongjae and Cheon Yuha, unaware of what was happening at the workshop.
Of course, Cheon Seongjae was bathing in the hot spring water, completely unaware of his sister's presence.
"Haa. What should I do?"
But then it happened.
"Hey. What brings you here, not watching Uncle?"
"!!?"
At his sister's voice, Cheon Seongjae screamed and jumped.
Flustered, he hurriedly covered his important parts with a towel.
And just as he wondered where the voice was coming from.
"Normally you'd be glued to the live stream of Uncle's crafting."
Eventually, from the sound coming from above, Cheon Seongjae, who was in the water, screamed.
"Ah, sis! Ah, seriously!"
Cheon Seongjae nearly fainted when he saw his sister.
Cheon Yuha, wearing a swimsuit, was lying prone on the tall stone pillars erected like dolmens next to the hot spring.
"Ah seriously, since when were you here!!!"
"About 20 minutes ago?"
Cheon Seongjae grabbed the back of his neck, ugh.
She's truly god-level at hiding her presence. It's to the point where even Dad—no, even Uncle—wouldn't notice her, but still.
"I'm here because Uncle told me to test it! Anyway, go away! Uncle will be here soon too!"
But Cheon Yuha, who had likely been hiding for that reason, pouted as she looked at her brother's back.
It seemed she envied the divine seat mark on his back, which could be called the mark of a saint.
'For other saints, it's all close to the heart.'
Why was hers on the back of her hand?
But it was then.
*Shhhhhk!*
"Saint-nim!"
"Seongjae! Danger!!"
At the voices of the Sagittarius disciples coming from afar, Cheon Seongjae turned his head.
At the same time, he screamed.
Something was flying towards him.
And that something was none other than Heavenly Punishment!
The vicious blade flashed and struck down at Cheon Seongjae.
*Kwajik!*
"Aack!"
To be exact, it was the stone pillar Cheon Seongjae was leaning against.
And just as Heavenly Punishment, which had struck down the pillar, raised its blade again.
A familiar face fell from the sky.
"That's right, good Heavenly Punishment. Good boy."
Igeon, who had fallen from the sky, grabbed Heavenly Punishment.
"Uncle!"
Cheon Seongjae was surprised, but at the same time, he was horrified by the thing Heavenly Punishment had struck.
He couldn't help it.
"Wh-what is this!"
The stone Cheon Seongjae had been leaning against had turned into some woman.
And it was none other than a vassal god.
Having caught the enemy's vassal god, Heavenly Punishment roared fiercely.
[It says the audacious one secretly hid in the bath to spy on the master.]
[It says it attempted to secretly attack the master.]
It seemed Heavenly Punishment had noticed this distant watcher and moved because of it.
Moreover, was it when they faced Cancer?
Heavenly Punishment was enraged when it recognized that this was a vassal of one of the gods that appeared then.
It would be because it knew this was one that tried to kill its master.
However, looking at the vassal god Heavenly Punishment had caught, Igeon smiled with satisfaction.
He couldn't help it.
"What's this? It's one of the fish god's high-rank vassal gods."
[Let me go!]
"Were you hiding with your fancy transformation skills and peeping at our Seongjae?"
Cheon Seongjae was horrified and looked for the towel.
But the vassal god shouted as if telling him to shut up.
[Impudent! I have no interest in such a tiny, runty little one!]
Cheon Seongjae froze at a particular word. He nearly dropped the towel he was holding.
But regardless, Igeon snorted.
"It seems you came to steal the cores of that crab bastard and water jug bastard. Not a chance in hell."
With snake-like eyes, Igeon summoned his own vassal god.
[Did you call, my lord!!]
"This one is definitely connected to the fish Star God. Torture it and tell it to open the sub-dimensional gate."
[I shall do as commanded!]
Just as Igeon was about to hand over the captured vassal god to his own vassal.
"What's this. Seongjae, why are you like that?"
Igeon tilted his head, looking at Cheon Seongjae, who was despairing in the hot spring.
"Why are your eyes like you've given up on the world…."
"Uncle!"
"What's wrong?"
"Can I... grow taller?!!"
"Taller? What about?"
Cheon Seongjae was about to shed chicken-dung-like tears.
"At school. There's a really pretty girl. And I happened to overhear her friends talking about me."
"??"
He didn't really know what that was about, but it was probably girls at school talking about Seongjae.
Well, whatever.
"Uncle! They called me a dwarf little sh —t!"
*Cough.*
Of course, it was other male students who said that, but Cheon Seongjae couldn't forget it.
'Hahaha! So what if Cheon Seongjae is a saint! The kid's tiny! When he takes pictures with other saints, his face won't even be visible!'
'Isn't he a grade-schooler? They say he's 155cm?'
Actually, he's 156cm, but it was a critical hit.
"Anyway, I kind of... don't... mind... that! But when I went to get materials from the blacksmiths this time too, my height... height..."
Eventually, unable to finish his words, Cheon Seongjae wailed.
"Height isn't everythiiiing!!!"
Flustered by the sight, Igeon patted Cheon Seongjae.
"Alright. Uncle will make you a height-growth potion. So let's let go of this. Uncle's pants are coming off."
"Sniff, will I really grow?"
"Yeah, just trust Uncle. In the first place, your dad is tall too."
And it was then.
Hugo, who had rushed after Igeon because of Heavenly Punishment, was relieved to see the scene.
It seemed the reason Heavenly Punishment flew off was because of the vassal god that had snuck in.
'But still, the kid's finally maturing a bit.'
Hugo seemed proud to see Igeon comforting his son.
So, relieved, he turned around, thinking he'd buy them some ice cream.
And as if in answer to that expectation, Igeon continued speaking.
"Anyway, you'll grow too. Genetics are scary for a reason. And when Uncle was a student, he was small too, but he grew a lot as an adult. So don't worry."
Cheon Seongjae, who was relieved by those words, glanced at a certain part of Igeon.
"Uh... th-then what about here?"
At his nephew's hopeful gaze as he looked at that part, Igeon became serious.
"...Uh, sorry. That's probably genetics too."
Hugo threw the gourd into the hot spring water.
"Hey!!!! That guy can't say a proper thing!!"
*Boom!*
As expected of the divine seat of marksmanship, the carelessly thrown object flew precisely at Igeon.
"That brat hasn't even seen me properly! Hey! Let's compare! Let's compare!"
"Fine, let's do it, you bastard!"
Just as the two were about to come to blows.
"Uncle!!"
"!!?"
At the sudden sound of his daughter's voice, Hugo was horrified and screamed.
And only then, Cheon Seongjae, realizing he'd forgotten, screamed too.
He had completely forgotten his sister was there.
But at that moment, Igeon's eyes turned murderous.
"These bastards."
Igeon gripped Heavenly Punishment tightly.
(To be continued in the next chapter)