You're Asking for It? (5)

“Kneel.”

Thud!

At that voice, Selbia’s knees buckled involuntarily.

Because of that, Selbia could only break out in a cold sweat.

In truth, she hadn’t intended to kneel. But Heilli’s voice, her gaze, her pressure—she couldn’t keep her body upright.

So Selbia was more flustered than anyone.

‘There’s no way the current me could feel fear from anyone…!’

Thus, Selbia gritted her teeth and tried to rise, but—

“You have no capacity for learning whatsoever.”

“Kurgh!!”

That momentum, that pressure. Selbia’s head even bowed of its own accord.

It felt as if a giant was pressing down on her from above.

So Selbia could do nothing but tremble.

‘Crazy.’

Of course, Heilli did nothing at all.

It was simply an aura of magic power.

But it was no ordinary magic.

‘Monarch-level…!’

Yes.

When she managed to lift her head to check, a menacing magic was surging from Heilli’s body.

Naturally, other humans likely couldn’t see it, but now that she was borrowing some of the monsters’ power, it was different.

She had thought that obtaining this power had elevated her to Saint-level, yet—

‘Wh-what…! That woman!’

Monsters feel an incomparable terror toward those of higher rank.

That sensitivity is sharper than that of wild beasts.

So perhaps borrowing the monsters’ power had become poison instead.

Now able to feel Heilli’s power more vividly, Selbia trembled.

Her head lowered further.

But Heilli herself looked utterly enraged.

“How did you come to use that power?”

“!”

The power Selbia had just used was unmistakably power.

And the fact that these bastards could use that power meant—

‘It means Time has directly intervened.’

Why would that wretch, who’d been wandering like a time vagrant until now, do this?

Moreover, he was bizarrely fixated on the 13th seat, .

Of course, it was only recently that she’d realized that what he’d been obsessing over since ancient times was .

‘I learned that when I investigated the Devil’s Tower, regenerated at request.’

She had figured it out from the records left behind by the tower administrator there.

Anyway, that wasn’t the important thing.

‘Igeon is in danger.’

Thus, Heilli’s eyes took on a fierce hue.

“Speak. Who gave you that power?”

At those words, Selbia, who had been in agony, smirked.

“Ah, really. Since you’re the head of the Thief God Sect, I guess you stole the Unknown Civilization’s power with your paltry tricks and started using it, huh.”

“!”

“I obviously prepared countermeasures against you.”

Right then.

Flash!

With a burst of light, Selbia’s magic suddenly surged violently, as if amplified.

Boom!

“Lady Heilli!”

And at that power, all of the Ten Stars couldn’t help but be shocked.

It was a power on a completely different dimension from before!

“What is that power! Ugh!”

“Her magic amplified!”

At this level, it’s God-Saint class!

So they couldn’t comprehend it.

‘No god has descended, so how does she have such power!’

But there was no time to be surprised.

Enormous fish burst forth from the ground.

“Gasp!”

And when those transparent fish swallowed Heilli first, something astonishing happened.

“Lady Heilli!”

Heilli, who had entered the transparent fish, transformed into a child.

[The frog forgets its tadpole days]

It had reverted her physical body to a past time.

And the time period it reverted her to was an age before she had contracted with the Scorpio God.

Naturally, she couldn’t use any skills.

“Hahaha! With this, one is out!”

The transparent fish’s strikes continued toward the other Ten Stars.

Their speed was extremely fast.

“Sis! Gote!”

Everyone there instantly turned into five-year-olds, eight-year-old children.

And Cheon Seongjae also triggered a spell, but due to the troublesome power, he ended up a three-year-old child.

“Aack!”

In the end, reverted to before they became the Ophiuchus God’s followers, they all became ordinary humans.

They even grew younger and younger; Cheon Seongjae turned into a complete newborn.

“Seongjae!”

“Goo goo!!”

Cheon Yuha, now six, hurriedly embraced her baby brother.

“You!”

Selbia laughed as if enjoying the sight.

She relished the sight of the supreme Ten Stars and Saints, who acted so high and mighty, becoming babies and wailing.

“You were all so cocky. How does it feel to be unable to use your abilities now? Don’t worry. I’ll dump you right into the Alps. Go ahead, call for mommy and daddy, cry for food, and starve to death.”

But that’s when it happened.

“Kyaaaaack!!!”

Dark-red flames erupted from Selbia’s body.

Everyone caught in those flames ducked under the table.

At the same time, Selbia’s screams rang out!

“Aaaaargh!”

The violent flames stripped Selbia’s skin away. And from the peeled skin, fat oozed out.

So Selbia was thrown into confusion.

“Who is it!”

It’s not the Sagittarius God’s arrow.

And among those here, the only ones who could use fire of this caliber were the blacksmith Taylor and Cheon Seongjae.

But neither could use their power, and Heilli, the biggest wildcard, also couldn’t use her power.

‘But…!’

But that’s when it happened.

“Foolish wretch. Of all the times you could have reverted me to, you chose this one.”

“……!!”

Selbia turned her head and was horrified.

The one spewing dark-red flames was none other than the young Heilli.

That wasn’t all.

As Heilli gestured, her three-year-old form reverted back up to an eight-year-old.

So Selbia could only be terrified.

‘What is this? Wasn’t she supposed to be powerless without Scorpio’s power?!’

Heilli had contracted with the god in her late teens.

In infancy, she naturally shouldn’t be able to use a god’s power!

‘Then how does she have power!’

But as if mocking that, the young Heilli’s eyes flashed.

“Come to think of it, I never told you.”

“……!”

“My childhood name was the Monarch’s 13 Knights. I was the Crimson Monarch’s general.”

“?!!”

Yes.

The dark-red flames coiling around Heilli’s body were her original power.

She was skilled enough to be the monarch’s general at a young age.

Of course, even as a general, it was the childhood where she was abused and called the sewer-rat princess.

She roamed the battlefields without knowing why.

So she had few memories, and it had no connection to the Unknown Civilization’s invasion, but anyway.

This flame power was sealed when she killed her mother, the Crimson Monarch.

And the , who sealed her power, had said:

-That will only hinder me, so use my power.

Well, due to the command, there was no one who could unseal her power.

She couldn’t even unseal it herself.

Because of that, even Giselle of , who noticed her, had mocked her.

-Oh my, your power is so weak I didn’t even realize you were that blood-soaked princess.

But of all things, Pisces had sent her back to before the seal.

“You obtained a speck of time’s dust and thought you could act like a god?”

No sooner had the words fallen than Selbia screamed.

The dark-red flames had burned even her eyes.

“Aack!! My eyes!!!”

“Still, that power will be very useful to Igeon’s followers.”

“Aack!”

At last, the dark-red flames coiled around Selbia.

Everyone screamed at those flames.

And it was then.

Amid the screams, Selbia collapsed, vomiting blood.

“Aack, aack! Save me! Super Regeneration! Give me Super Regeneration!”

Her flailing hands desperately reached toward the Cheon siblings.

Cheon Seongjae, a newborn, threw a wine glass as if telling her to get lost.

“Goo goo! Goo goo goo!! (Turn us back right now!) Goo ba goo goo! (I can’t even fangirl over uncle like this!)”

He simply couldn’t understand from the start.

‘How is her vitality so stubborn?’

Was it connected to how her magic had amplified to God-Saint level earlier?

‘What on earth is the principle?’

And that question was soon answered.

Because of the phone ringing in Cheon Seongjae’s arms.

With a hand like a little sausage, Cheon Seongjae checked the caller and immediately answered.

-Ack! Seongjae! Something terrible!

“Goo goo (Jimin)??”

The caller was his roommate, Han Jimin, whom he had sent on reconnaissance with the Sagittarius God’s followers.

Though currently a C-rank Awakener, she showed signs of growth and, more than anything, had exceptional talent for reading the flow of magic.

She was the one who first noticed the unique divine scent coming from his uncle.

So he sent her along, thinking she’d be helpful this time as well.

“Goo goo goo goo goo?! (What’s wrong, what is it!)”

-Seongjae? Who’s there? I’ve entered the Alps Labyrinth! There’s something here! Probably a Monarch…!

-Igeon, I will not let this stand!

-Aack!

“Goo goo (Jimin)!!!”

At that voice, Cheon Yuha narrowed her brow.

“I don’t know who it is, but they’ve trapped a Monarch-level in the Alps, and Pisces is sucking out its power, right?”

“If that isn’t handled, Uncle…”

And that’s when it happened.

“!”

The imperial divine relics held by Cheon Seongjae and Cheon Yuha began to lose their power with faint whimpers.

Seeing that, the Cheon siblings were startled.

“Goo goo goo goo!!! (Something happened to Uncle!)”

As Cheon Seongjae wailed and pounded the floor, Gote, who had been reading an article on his phone, was aghast.

“It’s Pisces! Looks like Igeon-nim already ran into the Fish in Spain.”

They were panicked.

They had to sever Pisces’s lung quickly.

“Goo goo! Goo goo goo goo goo!!! (What do we do? Teleportation doesn’t work, and it’ll be too late even if we go to the Alps now!)”

And as if reading that chaos, Selbia, now charcoal, quivered as she spoke.

“I, Igeon is fated to die by our Holy God anyway. And as soon as our Holy God… strips away Igeon’s Super Regeneration ability… I too… cough!!”

Selbia was pierced through by Heilli.

At the same time, Heilli spoke to Cheon Seongjae.

“It’s fine. Don’t you have the authority obtained from the Gemini God?”

“!”

Gemini is a god seat that originally handles souls.

When Igeon beat Frey to death, he dumped the magic-related authority onto Seongjae.

Well, it was something he told him to use temporarily until he could grind it into a holy relic.

Anyway, was one of the things he received then.

Of course, the Gemini Saint did suffer the consequences after possessing a figurine with it, but still.

“If you possess your friend, you should be able to handle the Monarch-level in the Alps.”

Then the power of Pisces, which is drawing upon that, can be severed.

That’s not all.

“You could probably redirect the magic source there not to the Fish, but to Igeon.”

“!”

Simultaneously, Heilli pulled out a small gem crystal from her body.

[ Crystal containing power]

“Take one each. It must be the power Pisces lent to this Ten Star. It will surely prove useful when facing .”

As the power of that crystal reverted them to their original forms, they all marveled.

“Whoa, the effect is killer!”

“With this, I could even make old uncle merchandise new again!”

At Cheon Seongjae’s words, Cheon Yuha smacked her brother.

“When will you grow up. Judging by the remaining power, it’s limited to a few dozen uses at most. You won’t be able to use it for long, so only use it for defense.”

But that’s when it happened.

Taylor, who had been silently staring at the holy relic, said something.

“…By the way, with this, could we also see Igeon-nim’s childhood?”

A silence fell over everyone.

At the same time, Cheon Seongjae’s eyes flashed as he cast the possession spell, and with noticeably changed expressions, they hurriedly headed for the Alps.

* * *

Meanwhile, around that time.

[I have a proposal. Will you die by the Fish like this? Or will you join hands with me?]

At Time’s words, Igeon scoffed.

[So. What will you do?]

To that, Igeon grinned.

“Piss off.”

[!]

At Igeon’s response, Stephen and Hugo beside him widened their eyes as if wondering why he was talking to himself.

But at the unexpected answer, Time laughed.

[You refuse?]

Igeon sneered as if disgusted.

And he glared at the bastard.

‘I said piss off. How could I trust the words of a brat like you from the start.’

Igeon’s eyes flashed.

‘The future? There’s no guarantee that what you just showed me is a future that will really happen.’

Yes.

It could be a false future Time showed to lure him in.

At that, Time laughed.

[Very well. Try to escape from a future of nothing but death.]

No more voice was heard.

And that’s when it happened.

“Do you not hear me?”

“!”

The Pisces God brandished a necklace that looked like Yeonu and smiled.

“Let me be clear, this is not a fake.”

It must be something handed over.

At the same time, the Pisces God smiled.

‘Now, hurry and attack me.’

Of the 13, this one had the foulest temper.

Given Igeon’s temperament, it wouldn’t be strange for him to fly at them and cut off their heads right then.

Then they would frame him and kill them all at once.

He was thinking that and smiling smugly when—

“?!”

The Pisces God, looking at Igeon, doubted his own eyes.

(Continued in the next episode)