Atropos (the future), whose eyes met Igeon’s, trembled in fear.
It was no other reason.
‘That god.’
The goddesses of fate, though not instantly, could read their opponent’s information when their eyes met.
Klotho (the past) could read the path the opponent had walked and their karma,
Lakhesis (the present) could see the crossroads and choices laid before them,
and Atropos (the future) could finally face the end of that path.
And the moment she met Igeon’s eyes, Atropos froze.
‘Monster.’
A fear she had never felt before enveloped her.
‘I heard he was a completely newborn god with no previous life.’
And the term for a newborn god in the language of gods goes like this.
Thus, newborn gods are both a blessing and an object of discomfort to the gods.
But Atropos, who had seen the end of Igeon’s fate, realized something far more important than that.
“You bastard, could it be that you were a Creator!?”
“!”
Although there was no data of a past life, there was familiar data engraved at the end of his fate.
It was none other than Creator!
‘I didn’t notice because the scent of humanity was so strong.’
I don’t know why a god would reek of humanity like that, but that wasn’t important.
“You haven’t awakened yet so you haven’t noticed, but the story changes if there’s a living Creator.”
Weren’t they the ones who coveted the Scorching Lord for the resurrection of a Creator?
But the Scorching Lord was, unfortunately, an impure vessel mixed with his own followers’ souls.
But Igeon was a young god, fresh and incomparable to Louis, in a clean vessel!
At that thought, the mad crone’s eyes sparkled.
‘I’ll claim that bastard’s head!’
With that, the revival of the Creator and themselves would not be a dream.
So thought the old woman as she rose stealthily. Then, as if apologizing for the trouble, she smiled elegantly and bowed her head.
“O Snake God. I have been rude to a precious god of blessing even in the divine realm….”
But.
Crack!!
“Kugh…!”
Igeon, as if unwilling to listen, kicked Atropos in the face and sent her flying.
And as he trampled on Atropos who had regained her senses, he raised the corner of his mouth.
“Stop playing games and hand it over, the rulebook.”
At this, Atropos tried to say something as if dumbfounded, but soon the Virgo Holy God and Hugo aimed their weapons.
“……!”
At that point, Atropos hurriedly shouted.
“The rulebook! We don’t have it!”
“Oh, really? Is that your strategy?”
“It’s not a strategy, it’s true!”
Atropos cried out as if wronged.
“The rulebook is with the goddess of fate of the Norns!”
At the unexpected name, the Full Moon Lord and the Scorching Lord widened their eyes.
That was only natural, for there were two called goddesses of fate in the divine realm.
One was the Olympian goddesses of fate they had just encountered.
The other was the Norns.
And although now they are both goddesses of fate directly under the divine realm, the Norns’ original affiliation was strictly Valhalla.
“No wonder, I thought they couldn’t use their full power of fate. Did you make a bet with the Norns?”
At the Full Moon Lord’s words of interest, Hugo frowned.
‘Then the ones who came when we were at the Palace of Hades were from that side?’
No wonder they felt different.
It could be that the side Giselle was with was not this side, but the goddess of fate from that side.
And Atropos spoke, as if asking if they understood now.
“Anyway, 100 years ago, we lost a bet to them and the rulebook was handed over to them… Aagh!”
But Igeon, having beaten down the future, grinned and lifted something up.
“Then what’s this?”
“!”
The goddess was startled by the item Igeon had lifted.
It was none other than a notebook.
And the goddess looked as if wondering why it was there, but soon, as Hugo sighed and looked at someone, she could understand the reason.
‘That mudball…!’
That was it.
While she was unconscious,
Igeon’s slime had slipped into her clothes and stolen the divine artifact.
Sure enough, as soon as Igeon came out, the slime that handed him the rulebook wriggled as if excited.
[It says you can modify the rules with this.]
[It laughs, asking if you think you can evade their pursuit.]
But the goddess, upon seeing it, immediately said to Igeon,
“That is not the official rulebook.”
“Official rulebook?”
“You want to leave the divine realm, right? To fix that, you need the official rulebook, but we only have the abridged rulebook! An abridged rulebook that can only fix small rules.”
“And this is it?”
“Yes…!”
“Oho. So it’s abridged.”
Nevertheless, it could modify rules, couldn’t it?
“Then what can I fix with this?”
“Well… you could stick to Earth.”
Igeon understood immediately.
‘It can’t completely change the rules, but its effect is fairly strong.’
Not only that.
‘Is the rule I can change really just that one?’
As Igeon raised the corner of his mouth, Atropos immediately sensed something and grabbed Igeon.
“S-Snake God, you won’t be able to handle that rulebook without us.”
“!”
Atropos looked at Igeon as if worried, seeing his future.
“You may not know, but there are those who aim for Creators.”
They were the very ones that Asran had worried about.
At the same time, they were the culprits who spread the location of Igeon’s mother to the gods and had her killed, and as a result drove Asran mad with rage.
‘They must have been the ones who manipulated Asran’s brother and used cunning schemes to annihilate the Creator household.’
For one single reason.
To collect Creators.
They were sinister bastards who didn’t dirty their own hands directly.
“So who are they?”
“There are two.”
“Two?”
“One is an Evil God, the other is a Norn goddess of fate.”
Setting aside the Evil God, the other side was the Valkyrie they met earlier. That is, the Valhalla side.
And the Olympian goddesses of fate also desired a Creator, but they were different from those guys.
So Atropos’ eyes twinkled, saying it might rather be a good opportunity to strike at them.
“The Great Gods probably cannot be handled by you as you are now.”
They had a deep collusion with the Great Gods.
Atropos bowed her head politely and said to Igeon,
“But I am a goddess of Olympia. Though it is presumptuous, I have glimpsed a bit of your future.”
“You saw Geon’s future?”
At the look that seemed to ask, ‘Can this guy get married and have kids?’, Atropos said something unexpected.
“Regrettably, the thread of your fate is extremely short. Moreover, in that future, there is no inheritance, no transmission, no reincarnation—nothing at all.”
At those words, the Scorching Lord and Full Moon Lord flinched in surprise.
It was impossible for them not to understand what those words meant.
‘It’s not just a matter of life and death.’
Gods do not die easily. Even if they die, they are inherited or transferred.
But.
‘It means something will happen that will erase his very existence.’
But Hugo clicked his tongue.
“I doubt it. There hasn’t been a single instance where a prophecy was right about Geon….”
Despite Hugo’s gaze, the Scorching Lord had a serious expression.
She herself had the power of prophecy, but the end of fate spoken by the goddess of fate was completely different from her own prophecies.
Her prophecies were like the power of Lakhesis (the present), where the future could change depending on choices.
However, the words of the future who reads the end were different.
‘In effect, a sentence.’
She didn’t know why such a future would come, though.
At the Scorching Lord’s look, Hugo snorted.
“So I’m asking, has a single one of your prophecies ever been right?”
“I told you, mine is different from what the goddess of fate decrees!”
As the Scorching Lord tried to argue, the future spoke.
“Don’t worry. You plan to steal the rulebook anyway, right? If you join hands with me, I will take that rulebook from the Norns and help you escape that terrible fate.”
She inwardly raised the corner of her mouth.
Of course, the promise of helping him escape was a blatant lie.
‘If he’s a Creator, he’ll be caught by the Evil God and die anyway.’
They had killed Creators in the past and were hunters who clung to Creators even now.
‘His lack of a future is obviously because of that!’
So the goddess, who didn’t even want to get entangled with the Evil Gods, thought,
‘It hurts to become an ally, but with a Creator it’s different. It’s worth cooperating. I’ll take care of him afterwards.’
And Hugo and the Holy Gods thought it wasn’t a bad choice.
‘If we use them, we could handle the Akashic Record authority, the Book of Fate, and even the abridged rulebook.’
In fact, Igeon, who had stolen the notebook, also raised an eyebrow as if pondering.
“Before that, a question.”
“Yes, speak, please.”
“On Earth, the dimension that is my territory. I heard some goddesses of fate were scamming, pretending to be my followers and trying to take offerings. Was that you?”
“Ah, no. Probably the Norns.”
“Ah. Then the ones who interfered during Hercules’ time, were they?”
Atropos then placed her hands together politely and bowed her head.
“Ah… I am sorry about that. Hercules is a combat god of our Olympia. We could not let him be harmed. But so that such an incident never happens again…”
However, at that moment, Atropos had to witness.
The corner of Igeon’s mouth curling up into a smirk.
A facial expression that made it impossible to tell whether he was an Evil God or a god.
‘……!’
And a giant axe raised aloft!!
Whoosh!
And in that moment, an axe she had never seen before fell upon the goddess’s head.
* * *
‘In the not-so-distant future, a god named Igeon, no, even a human, will not exist.’
Hugo was oddly bothered by the words of the future goddess.
It seemed like she had lied to get out of the situation, but at least the information she saw must be true.
Of course, Igeon was a guy who shattered even predetermined fate.
So why worry now….
“Aagh! Taxes suddenly went up!”
“Aagh!! This street is now men forbidden!?”
“Aagh! Every time I use a weapon I have to pay a hundred million talents??”
“Damn! Whose doing is this!!”
Hugo groaned at the screams bursting from all around.
And eventually he shouted at Igeon, who had been scribbling something in the notebook since earlier.
“Hey! Can’t you stop!”
That was it.
Right now, the divine realm was in chaos because of the rules Igeon was changing.
However, the one holding the chisel to the notebook grumbled.
“Tsk, why is this god-damn script so squiggly. It’s hard to modify!”
“Ah, come on!”
Had he never intended to spare the goddesses of fate from the start?
After turning the future goddess into a lump of meat in an instant and taking her divinity, Igeon had immediately tried using the rulebook.
Of course, a dedicated tool was needed for modification, but Igeon was directly pulling it apart and fixing it as if modifying a single letter was nothing.
The abridged rulebook was a thick notebook made of engraved plates, and he was repairing the engravings with a chisel, carving them here and there to modify the rules.
Thus, the Scorching Lord was sending him a look of utter disbelief.
‘Good heavens, to be able to fix that without even a scribe pen.’
His skill in modifying already engraved inscriptions was outstanding, but if it differed even slightly from the original script, the divinity wouldn’t activate.
Which meant….
‘He’s copying even the handwriting identically?’
And with just a single chisel?
‘Insane bastard.’
The creator of the rulebook was rumored to be a Creator, so perhaps that’s why it could be modified, but who knew.
Since she herself had been a Creator, she had abilities related to it, but Igeon’s ability was unparalleled.
However, Igeon himself was flipping through the notebook in anger. The unique language of the gods wasn’t easy to decipher.
So wasn’t he trying to change everything one by one?
“Damn it. So where’s the rule that lets me go home! They said it was definitely here! This one’s a bust too!”
“Ow, stop it! If you keep changing the rules of the divine realm like that, you’ll get branded by the divine realm and end up in debt again!”
“Then what do I do? The goddesses are all dead, so there’s no one who can use it.”
“Then why didn’t you keep them alive!”
“No way!”
“Anyway, stop messing around and leave it to an expert.”
“Where’s an expert! Only the activator can see this script! You already have your own divinity, so you can’t use someone else’s authority!”
“Why wouldn’t there be! Just leave it to a goddess of fate!”
“I killed them all! You killed the past one and the present one too!”
Then Hugo gestured proudly.
"I didn't kill them. I made them my subordinates here."
With that gesture, two goddesses emerged from Hugo's shadow.
But at the sight of those goddesses, Lee Geon's expression was something to behold.
And for good reason—they were Lachesis (present) and Clotho (past), transformed into the likeness of Lee Geon!
Even female! And beautiful, at that!
"?????"
Lee Geon wore a bewildered expression as he looked at them.
"What the hell are these mongrels? Why are they like this? What the hell did you do?"
Hugo flinched, then averted his gaze as if realizing he'd screwed up.
"Uh… I dunno. They just turned into this on their own."
"On their own?"
But then it happened.
The slime atop Lee Geon's head sparkled its eyes.
[Hugo Otterus has been promoted to Hugo-rodite.]
[By Hugo-rodite's Praise ability, the two goddesses have become allied dolls.]
At the voice heard in both Lee Geon's and Hugo's ears, Hugo, who had been hiding his power, screamed, and Lee Geon looked at Hugo and sneered.
"Come to think of it, you consumed a divinity, huh? But why would you leave a good one and… take that kind of thing…"
"Argh! It's because of you, you bastard! Whatever, just take out the divinity!"
However, the slime was exceedingly pleased with the pretty Lee Geon (female form).
[Says that it is a very good ability]
[Says let's just go with this]
Enraged, Hugo grabbed the slime as if to pop it.
"You little shit, you fed me this on purpose, didn't you!?"
Lee Geon burst into a dry laugh, never imagining Hugo would forsake the War God Ares and choose that.
"So, Hugo-rodite. What can you do? Since you're a love god who shoots arrows, are you some kind of love Cupid?"
"Argh!!"
"Well, I was thinking of Ares's divinity, but this might actually be more useful."
"Take it out!!"
But Lee Geon ignored him and closed his notebook.
"Whatever. Before we leave the divine realm, there's something I need to check for a moment."
"Check?"
"It seems Valhalla and the Ennead were involved in Junwoo's death."
"What?!"
Lee Geon's eyes flashed.
It seemed he had already been fixing matters related to it using the rulebook.
[If one is a god of the underworld, they can peruse all registers of other underworlds.]
With Hades's divinity and all, he had been searching for Junwoo's soul.
"Originally, while looking for you, I was also looking to see if Junwoo's soul was here. Since the underworld governs human souls. I can't leave Yeonwoo alone, can I?"
To be honest, every time he saw Yeonwoo, it would be a lie to say he didn't feel guilt for failing to save Junwoo.
At the same time, Hugo said something as if he'd finally understood.
"Don't tell me that's why you two haven't been conjugating?"
"Wh-what, man?"
"Ah, whatever, just wash away that guilt and get to conjugating. I just want to see my niece or nephew."
"Hey!"
And then it happened.
Osiris, who had been listening to Lee Geon's words, was exceedingly troubled.
'Never did I imagine the Fates would resort to using the Akashic Records, of all things.'
Truly, those goddesses had done something troublesome.
'If the Snake God learns of that incident, the situation will become complicated.'
In the end, Osiris hurriedly slipped outside. It was to inform the Great God of this fact.
'When is that bastard War God coming to deal with this one?'
He had finally managed to hold him here. Would it not become problematic if Lee Geon went to Earth?
But it was then.
Someone appeared before Osiris, who had come outside.
"!"
He was a War God in the form of a young human.
"I hear the Snake God has figured out something about the Ennead because of the Fates?"
At the sight of the man standing there as if annoyed, Osiris was overjoyed.
"Set, great War God of our Ennead. You've come already knowing of the crisis. Well met. Let us carry out the command to prevent the Snake God from going to Earth together."
Set patted Osiris lightly and smiled.
"Worry not. It seems the Great God has already grasped the matter."
"Understood. Then I too shall…"
It was right at that moment.
Squelch!!
"Urk!"
Set pierced Osiris's heart.
"Heok…!!"
Osiris looked at Set as if asking what the meaning of this was, but Set, the War God of the Ennead, laughed.
"Get lost, traitor."
"!"
"Pass down Osiris's inheritance, capture the Snake God, and send him to Earth. This is the command of the Ennead's Great God."
'These bastards?'
Osiris's blood boiled.
(To be continued in the next episode)