“Do you like bulls or snakes?”
The sacred disciples on the water’s surface stirred at the question.
They wanted to know why he was asking that out of nowhere.
“Bulls and snakes, of all things...”
In the end, one of the disciples flustered by the question grinned innocently.
“Aigoo, why ask something like that? Obviously bulls are bett... aack!”
The clueless disciple went flying the moment the words left his mouth.
Bam!
“Aaaah! Michael!”
The disciple who flew from being hit by Igeon plunged into the sea unconscious.
While his comrades hurriedly pulled him up, Igeon walked over.
“Well, whatever.”
“!”
“I like meat too, so I can acknowledge liking beef.”
Igeon, while saying he acknowledged it, raised the Divine Punishment of the Firmament.
Thanks to that, the bulls were terrified.
They weren’t ignorant of the Divine Punishment of the Firmament, which the Capricorn Constellation God had supposedly made.
Perhaps because of that.
“No, uh...! Why is your weapon going from Stage 2 to Stage 3...!”
“Why? You guys tried to kill my people and my subordinates under your Constellation God’s orders.”
“What? Aaack! We’re sorry! But those were the Constellation God’s orders...!”
But Igeon’s eyes flashed as if he didn’t care about that in the first place.
“Enough. You. Do you like snakes or bulls?”
“H-huh? No, wait! Still, betraying my master is... urgh!”
Another sacred disciple went flying. This time, I could even see a glimpse of blood.
Eyes flashing, Igeon raised the Divine Punishment.
“Now. Do you like bulls or snakes?”
“Snakes!!! I like snakes!!!!”
“Snakes without question!”
“Hey! You bastards!”
At that sight, Gote held his face.
“...He’s started again. Lord Igeon’s forced missionary work.”
“Hey, that’s not missionary work anymore, it’s threats.”
That was true.
And Steven, a victim of that missionary work, could only grind his teeth.
He’d said the combat power of the Leo Seat was decent—just how many had been beaten by Igeon and dragged off?
Well, most returned because they failed to clear the faith requirement, but still.
And now he’s doing that again?
“They won’t be able to clear the faith requirement anyway!”
At Steven’s words, Gote broke into a cold sweat.
“No... actually, if you apply physical attacks, their faith... ah, no, if you use the Bible, their faith does rise, so it’s fine.”
“There’s no point once the Bible buff ends! If their faith is low, they can’t even use their abilities properly!”
That was also true.
Scribes, after all, used powers separate from the Constellation God, so low faith didn’t matter.
“If it’s a combat class, having your abilities debuffed has no benefit.”
But just then.
“Dumbass, didn’t you hear? He’s merging the 12 Divine Seats.”
“!”
Steven flinched at the sharp voice.
The one who had spoken was Hugo, who had risen above the water’s surface.
He came out of the water, sweeping back his soaked hair.
“What need is there for faith in a merger? You just force the Constellation God to submit and bring the whole lot over.”
“Merger, like with Aquarius?”
They’d already heard about the Aquarius matter.
Replace the Aquarius Constellation God and install your own person in their place.
So then Taurus too...
However, at Steven’s expression, Hugo sneered.
“Naive fool. Sparing them is the Aquarius process.”
“What? Sparing them? There’s another stage?”
Hugo scoffed instead of answering.
‘The best stage is treating the Constellation God as a subordinate but at least keeping them alive.’
Below that is the slave stage, where you replace the Constellation God and install your own subordinate.
Though the treatment differs, in both the Divine Seat still remains.
But.
“Wouldn’t there be a stage where the Divine Seat itself is obliterated?”
That was merger.
And at those words, Steven’s face turned pale.
“They’re going to wipe out the Taurus Seat?!”
“The Taurus Seat is a defense-specialized Divine Seat. If they can just steal that Authority, is there a need for the Divine Seat?”
“Are you joking! Even if they take the Authority, every Divine Seat has different techniques and traditions! Do you intend to cut off that lineage?!”
“I don’t know. I’m not interested in other combat Divine Seats. If anything, if the bulls disappear, our Divine Bow Seat becomes the 3rd Combat Divine Seat, which is even better, isn’t it?”
“Hey! That’s your goal, isn’t it!”
“While I’m at it, I should tell him to merge Leo too. Good, the 2nd Combat Divine Seat.”
“Hey!”
Just as Steven was about to say something in response to Hugo’s cold sneer.
“Urgh!”
Steven was suddenly dragged toward Igeon. His prosthetic was the problem.
[Weeps upon seeing our parent’s missing right arm.]
[Rages, asking which bastard took our parent’s arm.]
[It was because it saw Igeon, whose arm had been severed.]
In the end, as the prosthetic screamed and tried to head toward Igeon, Steven desperately grabbed his arm to keep it from leaving.
“Hey! Where are you going! You already took 400,000 dollars as a usage fee!”
[Says, what’s that to me? Says our parent is in critical condition.]
“Critical my ass! Is someone in critical condition sitting around threatening people?!”
[Says it’s ending at this level precisely because he’s in critical condition, and gets angry.]
“What are you saying! In the first place, you’re a left arm, right? Not a right arm, so you’re useless... urgh!”
[Reports being hurt by this fact assault. Demands compensation for emotional distress for our parent, and gets angry.]
“What the?!”
Ultimately, just as Steven was getting money extorted and being slapped by his own prosthetic.
Hugo surveyed the surroundings and sneered.
“Well, anyway, be careful. Igeon is going to try to merge the Leo Seat too.”
“What?!”
“Why that expression? You honestly think that because you made a declaration of conscience, your actions are forgiven?”
“……!!”
And at that trembling expression, Hugo scoffed.
‘Well, it’s a lie.’
As if he could destroy the Leo Constellation God.
Right now, isn’t he giggling about how the materials are good and when he can go back to pull out more fangs and claws?
This time, he’d even crafted an SSS-grade pliers, saying he’d pull them out easily.
‘To think mere pliers would be SSS-grade, perverted bastard.’
Anyway, the strongest candidates for merger with the Ophiuchus Seat were Taurus and Pisces.
Then the 13 Divine Seats might become 11.
And it was at that moment.
Bam!
“Aaaack!”
A scream came from where Igeon was.
“Lord!”
Igeon had thrown the bull he’d been carrying on his shoulder.
And the sacred disciples who checked the face of the bull wrapped in his outer robe foamed at the mouth.
Regardless, Igeon spoke.
“Now. For the merger, hand over the Taurus Seal. Since this guy doesn’t have it, you lot must have it, right?”
Hugo held his forehead as if disgusted.
That bastard, seeing how he acts, he’s not a constellation god but a demon god.
But the sacred disciples looked troubled.
“Th-the Seal isn’t with us. The Ten Star...”
“Ten Star?”
At those words, fellow Ten Star Gote thought, Oh no.
Come to think of it, the Taurus Seat’s Ten Star, Joseph, who’d been here until recently, was nowhere to be seen.
“Uh, uh, he was just here.”
Igeon smiled as if it were despicable.
“Looks like you had him escape in the meantime.”
He looked at the Taurus on his shoulder, now in tatters.
The bull actually gave a faint smile.
‘Hide in the safe house.’
He wasn’t a defense Divine Seat for nothing.
If he hid in the fortress, even a catastrophe god couldn’t penetrate his defense.
At this, Gote moved to act.
“Don’t worry. I have data on the Ten Stars, so I can find him quickly.”
“No. Only shoot the tracking arrow. You don’t need to do anything else.”
“What?”
In the end, Gote tilted his head as he prepared the tracking arrow.
The opponent was a defense Divine Seat anyway. Even if he shot the arrow, it would bounce off.
Then.
“Are you going to use the Snake Catcher skill? But that skill...”
That was the only binding skill of the Ophiuchus Seat that Igeon had turned into a skill this time.
It could bind even souls, making it incredibly useful, but its range was only 50 meters.
That wasn’t all.
‘Lord Igeon, his arm.’
Whether because it had been torn off by the monarch, Igeon’s right arm hadn’t regenerated yet.
And Snake Catcher was a grappling skill.
If the Constellation God’s body was damaged, the power would inevitably decrease.
‘And the range of the Snake Catcher skill would be halved.’
The bull also knew this and smiled.
No, that wasn’t the issue in the first place.
[Even if you track him, it’s too late.]
His sacred disciple was already in the sea.
Under the protection of the Pisces Constellation God, he’d nearly reached the Taurus sacred domain near Africa.
But at that moment.
Boom!!
A black shadow shot up from beneath Igeon’s feet.
[Activates _____.]
And the form of Death that had evolved to Stage 3 had also changed.
Unlike Stage 2, which only had a face, now arms and legs had appeared.
[Death has transformed into Stage 3 status.]
[Attack power, hunting skill, and the five senses increase.]
[A new skill has manifested.]
And when Death roared toward the sky, everyone around was terrified.
[Uses the new Authority gained from _____.]
[_____]
At the same time, the sacred disciples screamed.
Black water began to spread across the sea like a red tide.
“Aaaack! Everyone get up here!”
“What is that?!”
And how much time passed after the skill was activated?
“Caught him.”
Igeon’s eyes flashed.
* * *
Around that time.
“Pant, pant. I’ve handled them all.”
“Pant.”
The inside of Dracma was thick with the smell of blood.
It was because of the monsters that had been infiltrated.
The monsters who had been captured as prisoners had targeted the core of Dracma and attacked the power room.
Since it was a place containing the energy of the 12 Constellation Gods, it was worth targeting.
Of course, it was also the place where the core power sustaining the castle was located, so it was the final defensive line that must never be taken.
‘If this power is taken, the castle will collapse.’
Never mind everyone falling into the sea en masse; they couldn’t allow the sanctuary Igeon had taken over to be destroyed.
That was why Kalli and Cheonyuha had sent only Cheonseongjae to Igeon’s side while they themselves took on the defense.
And just when they had finished dealing with those monsters.
The inside of Dracma was filled with cheers.
“Igeon dealt with the deep-sea monster!”
“Really? It seemed like it was on another level?”
“Then, doesn’t that mean reclaimable land for humanity increases, like the Green Zone that appeared in Europe?”
“On top of that, he used healing abilities too. The Ophiuchus Constellation God is incredible...”
“Didn’t the bull call Igeon a constellation god earlier?”
And at that sight, Kalli was impressed.
‘It doesn’t seem completely impossible for the 12 Divine Seats to merge.’
Originally, it required an immense amount of fame and faith, but it didn’t seem impossible.
‘If only we had enough Talents (divine currency), it would be perfect.’
And it was around then.
There was someone watching the scene as if it were troublesome.
‘To think this one would be caught.’
Yes. He was a scout from the [blank] faction who had disguised himself as a sacred disciple.
He had infiltrated to observe the Serpent Bearer, but...
‘Things were already troublesome with just Plenty, and now even ____.’
He had caught one of the countless horrors drifting in the deep sea, but it was quite a headache.
‘If ____ disappears, doesn’t that mean its Authority has been stolen?’
It was a movement technique different from teleportation.
Still, now that those bastards had vanished, it was an opportunity to seize the territory they used to occupy.
In fact, before the human bastards could go plant their flags, various factions were already moving to claim those fertile empty lands first.
But.
‘ ____ dying is extremely problematic.’
Because that Authority was something his lord frequently used.
Meaning,
‘They have to revive ____.’
With that thought, the scout pulled a pocket watch from his chest.
It was an object imbued with the monarch’s Authority.
[Pocket Watch of Time Regression]
- Move 5 seconds into the past.
And with this, he would return to before ____ died.
To slightly alter the past so that Igeon and ____ never met in the first place.
Of course, neither he nor this object had that much Authority, but this place was Dracma.
‘A place where the power of the 12 Constellation Gods is gathered.’
The power core of Dracma contained an immense amount of energy.
With this, even the power of this object would be amplified, allowing him to go back about an hour.
‘It’s enough to send ____ back.’
Thus, smiling, he approached the power core.
Around him were Capricorn sacred disciples in the same clothes as him, busily repairing Dracma’s devices.
And perhaps because he had transformed into one of those repairmen, no one paid him any attention.
Everyone was too focused on the fact that ____ had been caught, after all.
And thanks to that.
‘Good.’
Just getting close made the pocket watch overflow with power.
And just as the Authority was about to activate.
[Urgh!!!]
The scout let out a groan.
It was because of someone’s attack piercing his back.
“Caught you.”
And the [blank] scout who turned his head was horrified.
(To be continued in the next chapter)