[Experience application completed]
[Death's stage has risen]
[Death evolves to stage 4]
[Warning. This is the stage just before entering the final stage.]
[The time of choice is drawing near]
A sinister black demonic energy surged upward.
And that demonic energy was so overwhelming that simply being near it made it hard to breathe!
As a result, Hugo couldn't help but tremble.
‘Death…!’
There was no doubt.
‘It ate the fish and leveled up its Death divinity!’
And the power of the Death divinity that had advanced a stage was beyond imagination.
Crunch! Crack!
“Urk!”
“Gun!”
That power was like a black whirlwind!
Even at stage 3 it had been extraordinary. But the moment it reached stage 4, it began destroying everything around it.
[Warning. Death's power is too strong]
[It turns everything in the vicinity into nothingness]
The black whirlwind reduced the sofa they had been sitting on, the table, everything to ash.
That wasn't all.
The instant that black demonic energy grazed them ever so slightly!
Zap!
“!”
“The holy relic!!”
The black gloves Steven was wearing vanished in an instant.
Because of that, he couldn't help but panic.
‘Is this insane? That's an SS-grade!’
Of course, he knew well that an SS-grade holy relic meant nothing before the power of a god (SSS).
But the problem wasn't that it was destroyed—the problem was that the holy relic had been annihilated just from being grazed.
Not even a trace remained. Literally, it felt like its very existence had been erased.
And what if what touched it hadn't been a holy relic, but a living creature?
That thought left Steven with no choice but to tremble.
‘I've never seen power like this before.’
That wasn't all.
“The bow!”
Hugo had taken out his bow, intending to show it to Igeon, but now it was already half-obliterated.
On top of that, even the personality housed within the bow was on the verge of being scattered.
In fact, the bow let out a cry of agony.
[The holy relic is in great pain]
[Death's power is trying to erase even the relic's ego]
In the end, Steven, shocked by the sight, hastily threw the bow out the window, both to evacuate it and to protect it.
“Damn it! An EX-grade weapon is being wrecked!”
But that didn't seem to matter to Hugo.
“Gun!!”
Hugo's face was deathly pale as he looked at Igeon.
Seen from outside, he had been hard to make out, shrouded in black energy, but now he could see clearly.
‘Gun's body is changing!’
Igeon was indeed in pain.
“Urk!”
The skin of his arms was turning black, and his nails were lengthening and sharpening like those of a monster.
The power of Death was too strong, and he couldn't control it.
This made Hugo grit his teeth.
Because he had never been fond of this power.
Sure, he acknowledged that thanks to this power, they had been able to kill the Holy God and the Monarch earlier.
It was that strong.
But.
‘That power threatens its own master.’
Hadn't it wrecked both his own body and Igeon's last time?
The higher the stage, the more it became a dangerous power that threatened its wielder.
That was why, as a friend, his true wish had been for Igeon to become the god of something other than Death.
‘In the first place, with that temper, if you're a god of Death, who's going to treat you like a hero? You'd already be a damn villain.’
And aside from that, he disliked Death because it seemed to be eating away at Igeon's lifespan.
Anyway, this time, too, it was sure to wreck Igeon's body!
So Hugo hurriedly tried to approach Igeon.
But it was at that moment.
‘!’
As Hugo approached Igeon, he couldn't help but be shocked.
‘What the? His body's fine?’
Well, not exactly fine, but his muscles and bones weren't putrefying like last time.
The proof was that Igeon was smiling.
‘The painful molt was worth it.’
Of course, here and there blood was flowing and skin had peeled away, but that was nothing compared to before.
Igeon's eyes flashed.
And then.
“I get you're trying to show off your power, but pipe down, you brat!”
Along with his voice, a powerful mental force suppressed the power of Death.
Thud!
He was suppressing the power to keep it from radiating outside his body.
And the effect was immediate.
Boom!!
[Death is in pain]
[Death resists its master]
Of course, the divinity's stages probably ended at stage 5. Having evolved just before that, Death's power was ridiculously strong.
In fact, when he tried to forcibly cram all that power back inside his body, his body began to creak.
That was probably why.
‘Damn, fully suppressing it is impossible.’
The excess had to be released.
With that thought, Igeon glared.
And then.
“You brats, sit down!”
“!!!”
Steven and Hugo flinched in shock.
And the moment they shifted their posture, startled by Igeon's voice—
Bang!!!
Black energy shot over their heads.
If they had been just 0.1 seconds slower, their brains and everything else would have been seared away—a hair-raising moment!
At the same time, a tremendous explosion occurred.
“Ugh...!!!”
It was a force beyond comparison to a mere gale.
An immense energy that even adults of their level felt like they would simply be swept away.
They squeezed their eyes shut.
And after some time had passed.
“Hoo.”
When they opened their eyes at the sound of Igeon catching his breath, they could only freeze completely.
“Wh-what... this...”
Where Igeon had released the black energy, nothing remained.
Not just the wall of the room they'd been in, but even the golden palace nearby had disappeared.
All that was left was the rubble and part of the roof, enough to tell there had once been a palace there.
Well, it seemed he had aimed that way knowing it was an empty building without people...
“You crazy bastard!!”
“If you're going to release something like that, warn us first!”
Still, he had minimized the power, so this was all that happened; otherwise, they might have died too.
But Igeon, who was using the power of Life to heal his injured body, simply picked his ear.
“I did warn you. I told you to sit down. Isn't that being plenty kind? I gave you a whole second to dodge.”
At that, Steven and Hugo pounded their chests as if frustrated by his idea of “kindness.”
Sure, it was far more considerate than the old days when he'd say nothing and expect them to dodge on their own...
But regardless, Igeon dusted himself off.
“Well, it was a necessary inauguration rite now that my divinity has evolved. Still, isn't it a relief that it ended with just a palace? Anyway, it's not 100% yet, so I figured it'd be okay.”
Even considering that, it was terrifying power.
Hugo let out a relieved sigh.
“Well, true. No one got hurt, so it's fine. What got blown away was an empty building, after all.”
“Right?”
Igeon turned around, feeling refreshed.
Of course, it seemed the time to choose between this or that was fast approaching.
“Anyway, let's go find the kids and get something to ea...”
But it was then.
“By the way, wasn't this the Virgo Sanctuary?”
“!”
As they were feeling refreshed, Steven sent them a baffled look.
“That thing you blew away. Even if it looks like that, it was probably a treasure of the Virgo Sanctuary......”
“......”
Igeon and Hugo fell silent.
Wordlessly, they stared at the empty lot where the palace had disappeared without a trace.
Even if they wanted to repair it, nothing remained of the original, so fixing it seemed impossible.
That was probably why.
“Hey. You two saw nothing, got it?”
At Igeon's innocent expression, Steven was incredulous.
“No! Igeon, you could fix this!”
“Ah. No. It's a pain to fix without the original. Annoying. Takes too long. Frustrating. Why should I restore Virgo's stuff anyway? Let's just say a monster showed up.”
“Hey!!!”
And just then.
[Aaack! What on earth is this!!!]
It seemed someone had witnessed the scene.
A subordinate god, shaped like a bundle, who had been bringing a tea set for Igeon's group, let out a scream.
[Just what is this! Our sanctuary's precious building...!!!]
Igeon's eyes flashed as he saw him, and he grabbed the god tightly.
“Now, now, subordinate god. No matter how dissatisfied you are with life, destroying your master's sanctuary is quite something.”
The subordinate god, suddenly branded the culprit, looked dumbfounded.
[Wh-what are you saying...!]
But Igeon just raised the corners of his lips.
“You got that? You are the one who wrecked that.”
[What?!]
“Tell her the repair cost will be 100 million.”
[Why, you damned snake god!!!!]
* * *
And it was around that time.
Bang!!!
“Ugh!”
The Cheon siblings, who had infiltrated the vault of the Virgo Sanctuary, groaned, clutching their heads.
They had been possessing a slime using a possession relic just moments ago, but—
“Ugh...! The possession broke!”
A strange shock had suddenly forced the possession to break.
At the same time, they realized.
“That was it, right?”
“Yeah. Uncle just awakened to stage 4.”
The proof was that the death energy Cheon Yuha carried had become even stronger than before.
That's why it was such a shame.
“Seongjae, you idiot. If you hadn't opened your mouth, we could've kept possessing the slime and watching Uncle.”
She was saying that now that Uncle had noticed, possessing the slime would be impossible.
In the end, even Cheon Seongjae, who had flinched at being called an idiot by his sister, pounded the ground in frustration.
“Ah, noona, sorry! The slime was the optimal target!”
At the same time, they looked at the slime clone, which was pouting its lips, and lamented.
“It was kindly telling us the perfect timing to use it for possession.”
That's right.
Official designation: Slime.
In other words, the slime had apparently caught sight of the Cheon siblings, who were wrestling with their consciences over the possession relic.
And it had been soothing(?) them, telling them to possess its body if they wanted.
Saying that with its body, even Igeon wouldn't notice.
And it made sense: the slime was Igeon's second-ever created relic after "Heaven's Punishment," and a mutant!
Created by accident while dozing off, even Igeon didn't know what materials had been poured into it.
That's why it was the only one whose structure Igeon still didn't fully understand.
Anyway, because of that, it was a creature even Igeon couldn't fully sense!
So it was the perfect target for possession!
But...!
“You idiot! Uncle even takes Limey into the bath with him! And when he sleeps, they stick together!”
At his sister's words, Cheon Seongjae wailed as if he'd become a great sinner.
Well, that wasn't what mattered right now.
“Damn it. We can't find Uncle's shed skin!”
That's right.
Actually, they had come here to find Igeon's shed skin, which Kevin had supposedly stolen.
‘That person dared to take it without even telling Uncle?’
The skin Uncle had shed was an object of tremendous power in its own right.
Already an EX-grade material, precious just by itself.
And the place they'd followed Uncle's lingering aura to was this vault.
Of course, it wasn't for nothing that the Virgo god was called a nouveau riche—the vault was the size of a mansion and plastered in gold, which pissed them off, but that wasn't important.
‘Uncle's shed skin must be here.’
And this was one of several vaults in the main palace of the Virgo Sanctuary.
In fact, it was the most solid and heavily secured one, but that was useless in the face of Cheon Yuha's skill!
And thanks to his sister, they'd passed through the vault's wall and gotten in, which was good, but—
“Damn it! The vault is crammed with Uncle's stuff, so we can't find the shed skin!”
They trembled as they looked at the items filling the vault.
And they weren't ordinary items.
“Whoa, this is the limited-edition figures of Uncle from a collaboration with a master artisan ten years ago—only five brands released them! The premium alone is hundreds of millions!”
“More than that, look at this! Isn't this the glove Uncle wore during the Russia subjugation?!”
“Look over there! That's the original doodle Uncle drew during the 2004 Paris Agreement! The one from the photo in the textbooks!”
“This is Uncle's hand-drawn strategy map from 2003 in Shanghai!”
“This is an early-version armor of Uncle's...!”
That's right.
It seemed the vault they had entered was his personal vault.
The items inside were all Igeon's belongings.
And all of them were precious, premium items!
It was filled with things any fan of Igeon couldn't fail to recognize.
“These are all legendary items only left in textbooks and photos! All of them are here...!!”
“Damn it, if you add up everything in here, it's got to be tens of billions won...!!!”
In the end, they were trembling, afraid to even touch the items in case they sullied them, when—
“Noona!”
“!”
Cheon Seongjae seemed to have discovered something.
And when Cheon Yuha looked where her brother was pointing, she too was shocked.
“What? A hidden door inside the vault?”
It was another vault within this vault.
And what did that mean?
‘This means it holds something even rarer and more important than the things here, doesn't it?’
In the end, their eyes flashed as they reached for the vault.
And it was at that moment.
Beep beep beep—
The sound of a security device as they touched the vault!
A tremendous alarm rang out from the vault, and they sensed the subordinate gods and Kevin rushing over.
But regardless of that—
Click!
The vault door opened.
(To be continued in the next chapter)