[Fully Awakened as a God]
A massive radiance erupted from the silhouette of light.
The outer gods summoned by the Lord of Aries stared wide-eyed at that power.
They couldn't help it.
[This is no ordinary mana.]
[What is this, this alien mana?!]
It was the mana Lee Geon emitted that was the problem. He had always harbored divinity, but the mana revealed after he completely shed his old self was enough to startle even other gods.
'Of course, in terms of sheer size, there are far mightier higher gods.'
Gods who led colossal forces far surpassing even that.
If the 12 Zodiacs were a solar system, those beings headed massive forces akin to an entire galaxy.
Yet from those beings, they had never sensed the unique mana they felt now.
'He's strong.'
As expected.
[That one, he's no ordinary god.]
[What a fiendish power! A mutant!]
At the same time, the outer gods stirred.
And no wonder, it was because of the pattern that had appeared by Lee Geon's left eye.
[That pattern...!]
And Lee Geon's appearance now carried a completely different aura from before.
His black hair, his gleaming crimson eyes, they were the same—but now, one could say he no longer smelled of humanity.
The flesh that had been breaking under divine power had grown far more solid and strong.
Even his looks seemed much more handsome than before.
And at Lee Geon's changed appearance, the shadowy outer gods stirred.
[That scent, I told you! It's the scent of the Creator Clan!]
[The Creator Clan?]
[The original masters who made the 13th Zodiac!]
[That can't be! They are beings cherished by the Star Gods. If word that they were alive had spread, all hell would have broken loose!]
[Given what kind of existences they were!]
[They say they vanished overnight.]
[Right, they say that clan was cursed and disappeared.]
[Didn't the 12 Star Gods themselves say that?]
At their stirring, the Lord of Aries flared with rage.
Perhaps an inconvenient topic had come up, one that should never have been mentioned.
The Lord of Aries immediately glared at Lee Geon.
[What use is it, awakening at this point?]
Grinding his teeth, the Lord of Aries stretched out his hand.
Then, accompanied by a blinding light, a colossal gate surged up behind the Lord of Aries!
Kugugung!
The gate alone stood as tall as a hundred-story building.
Lee Geon narrowed his brow.
That was undoubtedly the authority of the Lord of Aries.
And clearly the highest-grade skill version of the chest he had stolen from Yang Wei long ago!
[Heavenly God's Vault (SSS)]
Inside the vault existed floors, each with different abilities and retrievable items.
And as far as he knew, the 1st floor was !
The prototype of the chest he’d stolen from Yang Wei: put a weapon into the vault, and the same weapon would come out; put a follower god in, and the same follower god would emerge.
It was one of the abilities truly befitting a God of Wealth.
And then it happened.
[Heavenly God's Vault, 1st Floor]
As the massive gate opened, countless follower gods poured out from within.
And they were no ordinary follower gods, either.
"Those bastards...!"
Kevin and Hayley flinched.
That was because the follower gods that emerged were from the Virgo Seat.
There were even follower gods from Sagittarius or Leo.
[Battle follower gods, multiplied within the vault, are swarming out.]
Worse, at the sight of creatures that all looked identical, Kevin flared with rage.
"You pig of a god! No wonder the envoy I sent over there never came back—you kidnapped and multiplied them in that damn place?!"
Well, it made sense.
Aries had always coveted the forces of the warrior god seats.
Yang Wei must have secretly siphoned off those follower gods for his own star god and locked them in the vault.
The problem was, what emerged wasn't just their follower gods.
[Samnami (Berserker) has multiplied into a hundred copies.]
"!"
At the familiar faces that appeared in the sky, Lee Geon furrowed his brow.
Why was that guy multiplying like a cockroach in there?
'Well, Samnami did go missing along with the piggy bank.'
He'd sent them after the general of an unknown civilization, they vanished, which was why he'd dispatched Red Eye to that location.
Even Yongyongi had been sulking, unable to find any trace.
'So they were in there.'
Lee Geon still recalled how Yongyongi had dejectedly returned, only clutching the hem of his follower gods' clothes.
'Well, it must be the doing of Aries' follower gods.'
It didn't matter.
[Master!]
A sobbing voice came from within the vault.
It was unmistakably Samnami.
And then.
[Hearing your voice, I am relieved you are safe! The piggy bank suddenly fled, and chasing him led me to this... I am utterly ashamed!]
At that, Lee Geon smiled.
Well, Piggy Bank (Pishu) originally belonged to Aries, so he'd know exactly what it liked—and luring one in with bait would have been child's play.
So it didn't matter.
"Is our piggy bank with you, too?"
At the question, Samnami seemed to flinch for some reason.
[Uh, t-that is...!]
"?"
Right then.
[Cloned Samnamis are attacking.]
Lee Geon narrowed his brow and raised the Sky Judgment.
Well, Samnami was a high-ranking follower god, incredibly strong, but still his own follower.
'I know his weakness.'
So his eyes flashed—but unexpectedly, the hundred cloned Samnamis ignored Lee Geon and simply passed him by.
"!"
And their destination was precisely where Kevin and Hayley were!
Just then, Lee Geon startled.
Kwajik!
"!"
Because a line shot from the sky, binding his body.
It was a green chain.
At the same time, the Sky Judgment was also bound by chains.
[Sky Judgment is in distress.]
He tried to tear them apart by force, but couldn't budge an inch.
He couldn't help it.
[Snake Catcher]
What held him was none other than his own skill.
Wondering how this could be, he looked up and saw the chains protruding from the vault.
And then.
[The vault has replicated the skill of Piggy Bank (Pishu).]
[The Lord of Aries can now use the skill.]
So that was it.
Lee Geon laughed, as if disgusted.
'Right, there were a few who could use .'
One of them was Piggy Bank.
It must have been replicated.
And the Star God of Aries was .
A god who perused all information on living beings and dictated their fates; isolating and copying a mere skill would be nothing.
Besides, Pishu was originally their side's follower god—they'd know him like the back of their hand.
As expected.
[How does it feel to be caught by your own skill?]
Lee Geon laughed at those words.
"Damn amazing. So this is how awesome my ability is?"
At Lee Geon's mockery, the Star God of Aries's eyebrows twitched, and Lee Geon put strength into his arms.
'Still, Pishu's level is low, so all skill potency is weak.'
The Snake Catcher was a skill that bound the soul. So it hurt like hell, but
This much, I could easily break free...
"!"
Lee Geon flinched.
And as if reading that gaze, the Star God of Aries smiled.
[Did you think that's all I prepared?]
With that, the Star God of Aries revealed something.
A cube.
[You likely won't be able to move now.]
Sure enough, perhaps due to that cube's power, his strength drained.
'Not completely immobilized, but...'
At the same time, Lee Geon's eyes turned ferocious as he looked at the cube.
An expression he had never shown before.
Because that was an item Lee Geon knew all too well.
But did the other know that, or not?
[The conditions are now met.]
'!'
[Merit and Demerit Record - Soul Evaluation]
As if waiting for this very moment, the Star God of Aries activated the ability.
Kung!!
[Damn, that technique is...!]
[Master!]
And that was the unique authority of the Wealth Seat Aries: a technique that evaluated the souls of all living beings, bestowing wealth for good deeds and divine punishment for evil deeds!
And among these, the was a skill that assessed the value of each individual.
Simply put, you could see it as a price-checking skill.
Moreover, neither god nor human could escape it.
As expected.
"!"
The pattern of Aries etched itself beneath Lee Geon's feet.
And the crimson light of Aries surged upward!
The red of Aries was slightly different from the Crimson Lotus of Sagittarius.
A deep, dark red, almost like wine.
At the same time, numbers only visible to the Lord of Aries began to float up.
And those numbers converted the opponent into a price.
'Once the numbers appear, the opponent can be commodified.'
That was one of the specialties of the Wealth Seat, .
For instance, if Hugo's value was 10 talents, you could offer 10 talents to enslave him.
It was buying the opponent's soul.
And it was no different for Lee Geon.
Flash!
The outer gods marveled at the light.
[I never thought I'd witness that technique.]
[I recall that once, many gods became captives of Aries through it.]
In fact, even great star-god-level beings outside the 12 Zodiacs had been enslaved by Aries.
It was a god seat with such wealth to make it possible.
In other words, it was hard to capture in the first place, but once that skill activated, there was absolutely no escape.
[Even against a foe like him, it's equal. Just pay the price that appears and buy his soul, that's all.]
They had talents overflowing to spare.
It wasn't for nothing that they were among the richest in the divine realm.
At last, light surged from Lee Geon's body, as if his value had materialized.
The outer gods and follower gods cheered.
But that's when it happened.
[?!]
The moment the Lord of Aries confirmed Lee Geon's price, his expression turned rather strange.
* * *
Meanwhile, around the same time.
"Aaagh! Crazy! Where the hell is this!"
Hugo was currently being chased.
And the space he was running through was not Earth.
It would have been a relief if it were only not Earth.
[You have been flung into Tartarus by the Serpent Lord's trap.]
"Yah, Lee Geon, you crazy bastard! What the hell kind of trap did you put on a chair?!"
Tartarus—wasn't that hell?!
And not just any hell, but a place of torture at that!
Of course, he couldn't know exactly where Lee Geon had sent them.
But one thing was certain: this place seemed to be some part of the divine realm.
Indeed, the aura of star gods swarmed from all directions.
And that wasn't all.
[Catch him!]
[Catch that one!]
"Aaaaaagh! Don't chase me!"
A force with bizarre faces was chasing him.
And by a rough estimate, their numbers were over several hundred!
All of them were of godly rank.
"Damn it! I said get away!! Lee Geon, you son of a bitch!"
One thing was certain: at this rate, he'd die.
And if by any chance he died here, he'd be seriously screwed.
It couldn't be helped.
-Taek-su, be careful.
-Huh?
-Don't die, whatever you do. Even with the power of , I still can't revive anything above a human.
-What?!
-I tested it after the ability appeared, but the maximum so far has been an amoeba.
-What the heck?! A single-celled organism?!
-Anyway, if you die, it's the end. I can't save you. So absolutely do not die.
And yet the bastard who told him not to die sent him flying into this hellhole?!
Hugo felt like he was going insane.
But what his pursuers said was even more ridiculous.
[You there, aren't you the saint of that notorious Snake God?]
[Your faith in the Snake God is very high.]
Saint of the Snake God, my ass!
"What are you going on about since earlier! I'm from Sagittarius, I tell you?!"
[Sagittarius? Don't lie. With your faith in the Snake God looking like that, what nonsense.]
[We'll have to kill the liar.]
[That Snake God, not even beating him to death would be satisfying. With that level of faith, you're practically a saint of that Snake God. We'll kill you to avenge our grudge.]
[No, I shall make him my saint.]
[No, let's devour him. And enslave him here for life.]
"Ah, seriously! I'm telling you, I'm the saint of Sagittarius!"
Hugo was frustrated.
'Damn it, the ones with high faith in that bastard are the others!'
He had clearly seen it with his newly gained ability.
He couldn't see his own faith, but he could see others'.
And his son's faith was 330%, Kevin's faith was 200%.
Hayley's wasn't visible, probably because she wasn't human, but it must be high.
'Since Yuha was that high.'
Hugo flared with rage.
Anyway, it was just the other day he'd mocked Kevin, saying how could he be a saint of Virgo with that.
Compared to them, his own should be at a decent level, so why was this happening?!
Finally cornered, Hugo drew his sword.
"Anyway, you must be blind. If you can see faith, look closely. Even so..."
But right then.
Suddenly, Hugo's face stiffened as he saw his own reflection in the blade.
[Hugo Oters]
[Sagittarius Faith: 50%]
[Ophiuchus Faith: 500%]
(Continued in the next episode)