With an immense gust of wind, Hugo and Yi Geon’s subordinate deities crashed into an unfamiliar place.
Boom!
At first glance, it looked like the middle of a dark mountain.
Amid the thick smells of grass and insects, Hugo glanced around.
“Kgh…! Where are we?”
At those words, the Lord of Scorching Heat rose, frowning as if his back ached.
“This is a dimensional rift. A passageway connected to all sorts of colonies.”
“So, to Earth too?”
“Yes. Unlike that labyrinth, you can reach Earth in one minute. Not even the gods could pursue you.”
Hugo rejoiced at that.
He’d been worried, since the energy he sensed all around seemed anything but ordinary.
“Then we just need to find the exit! No physical body lost, no pursuers. This is the ultimate route.”
“Yeah, the ultimate. If only we could leave.”
“What? Why? Is finding the exit hard?”
“No, the problem comes before that. Ha, damn that nephew of mine.”
“What do you…”
Just then.
Crunch!!
“Kgh?!”
He barely had time to speak before a black shadow clamped onto Hugo’s throat and hung on.
Hugo wasn’t the only one.
“Kgh! You bastards!”
Strange shadows also latched onto the subordinate deities who had fallen with him.
They looked like zombies at a glance.
And their strength was monstrously immense!
They seemed to be after the valuables Hugo and his group possessed, but Hugo realized instantly.
‘They’re strong!’
He couldn’t identify them. But they were strong enough that even high-ranking gods might not shake them off.
Moreover, as if sensing what was the most prized among his belongings, they targeted the bow Yi Geon had made him.
But what the hell were these creatures, reduced to such mindless monsters?!
As if reading that question, Yi Geon’s captured subordinate deities cried out urgently.
“These are sinners, piled high with karma! We mustn’t be dragged away!”
“Karma?! The Goddess of Fate kept yammering about karma to me. What is it?!”
“The power of gods is infinite! So there are rules.”
“What rules!”
“You can use strong abilities freely, but you mustn’t do anything that shakes the cosmic order. Violate that, and you accumulate karma.”
“The cosmic order…”
“That’s why you must always secure a Rulebook. Usually, you can absolve it with Divine Merits, but if you cross the line, karma piles up. And according to that karma, you get cleaned up by the cleaners, or executed!”
“Then these guys are…!”
“Yes! They’re karmic sinners cleaned up by the divine world’s cleaners!”
Hugo, who had been kicking zombies while worrying he'd go bald from hair-pulling, was startled.
“Then these guys are Evil Gods?!”
“No. Compared to those, they’re the docile ones. This is just the level that gets dealt with by cleaners.”
“Docile gods?”
“Yeah. An Evil God is the most depraved deity, to the point where the word karma feels laughable. The absolute enemy.”
“!”
“But these guys are cute compared to Evil Gods. Small-time criminals, in short. The felons get dropped into Narak. Well, any who pose a greater danger to the divine world are sent to Yulha, managed by Mahabharata, and executed. Then they reincarnate into another life.”
Reincarnation.
Hugo frowned.
The Goddess of Fate had definitely spouted similar nonsense at him.
“Anyway, perhaps because of that, any humans who are geniuses or gifted are highly likely to be gods who committed crimes in their past lives.”
“Then…”
He was about to ask if the same applied to saints, but soon Hugo’s veins bulged.
“You little shit, aren’t you getting off my head?!”
He glared at the Lord of Scorching Heat, who had climbed onto his shoulder to take refuge.
“How long are you going to flap your gums up there? Why don’t you get down and fight?”
“Why would I, a Lord of Dominion? Such dirty work doesn’t suit a genius and elite like myself.”
At that, Hugo’s temper flared.
“You prick, I’ve been treating you like a king, and now you’re climbing all over me!”
“Ha. What are you going to do if I climb… Aaagh!!”
Hugo grabbed the Lord of Scorching Heat like a club and started pounding the enemies.
Thwack! Thwack!!
“Aaagh!!”
In the end, the Lord of Scorching Heat shed tears, crying out from his back pain.
“Anyway, these guys who’ve lost their bodies—no attacks work on them, and like zombies, their abilities are strengthened! On top of that, they steal divine power!”
“What?!”
“Meaning they’ll try to steal our bodies!”
“What about the exit?!”
“This place is a dumping ground like a trash can for sinners! If exits were so easy to find, these bastards would’ve escaped long ago and then some!”
“It’s fine! I’m confident I can find it!”
“No, the real problem comes after you find it! The doors here can only be opened by the cleaners in the first place! Which means we’re trapped here forever!”
As if that was the real point, Hugo was grinding his teeth when—
Rumble!
“!!”
Suddenly the ground trembled, and familiar faces fell from the sky.
“Dammit, let go of me!”
“What the, the Fighting God?!”
“Geon?!”
Yi Geon was falling from the sky, choking Set.
And there wasn’t even a moment for bewilderment.
Whoosh!
Yi Geon slammed Set onto the ground, landing in a stamping motion.
Boom!!
With the brutal kick, Set felt like dying.
Yi Geon’s subordinate deities looked flabbergasted at the scene.
“No, the very guy who threw us into this trash can is…!”
“Aish!”
Set clutched his face as if going insane.
Hugo was moved.
“Geon, you came to save us!”
“No. I just dragged this bastard here to screw him over.”
“!?”
The Lord of Scorching Heat wore an expression asking how he’d managed to drag someone of that level here, but he laughed.
“With that bastard here, we won’t have to worry about not being able to get out.”
“!”
Speaking of that bastard, just like opening the lid of a trash can, he could open the passage to Earth located here.
But he wasn’t supposed to be in here.
As expected.
“Hey! I need to get out fast. I can’t be in here!”
“What?”
“I am the Gatekeeper who manages all the gates of the divine world! If I stay here, all the doors of the divine world will open abnormally, and kruder and outer gods will invade the divine world!”
Set urgently tried to head toward the sky as the door was closing.
But.
[Fighting God Descent]
Using his authority, Yi Geon immediately kicked Set.
And Set, whose physical condition wasn’t normal due to the pesticide-laced chicken Yi Geon had fed him, let out a groan of pain.
“The Fighting God is the guardian of the divine world! Don’t you know this too, as a Fighting God who protects the divine world?! How dangerous it is if invaders, especially monarchs, storm the divine world! Are you really saying you don’t care if the divine world is attacked?”
At that, Yi Geon tilted his head.
“It doesn’t involve me, though?”
“What?!”
“Something like the divine world, I’d rather it just split apart entirely.”
“……!”
Set’s eyes flew wide open.
“In the divine world, your woman—no, your saint is there! So…!”
But he couldn’t continue speaking.
Because Yi Geon was grinning chillingly.
At the same time, Set realized.
‘This bastard already evacuated his saint.’
Realizing there was no way out of here after all, Set gave a hollow laugh.
“Fine, do as you please. In any case, you all are destined to rot away here.”
Did he think he just sent them to any place?
‘This is where those guys have settled their turf.’
And there was no way they’d just let a Holy God and his subordinate deities pass through.
As expected.
“My goodness, who’s this?”
“……!!”
“I never thought I’d see the Snake God in the flesh.”
Unfamiliar deities revealed themselves, trampling the zombie-like karmic gods.
‘High-ranking gods.’
And as they approached with menacing eyes, Set smiled.
“These ones are my collaborators, the butchers who dispose of the gods I send down.”
At that, the subordinate deities and the Lord of Scorching Heat immediately went on guard.
“Master, be cautious! Those villains steal divine power!”
“Dammit, karmic gods ahead. Butcher gods behind. And we can’t even use our authorities here…”
“What? Why can’t we use authorities?”
At Hugo’s question, the subordinate deities gritted their teeth.
“This place is a garbage dump, so using authorities is forbidden! In other words, using authorities in this space accumulates Sin Points!”
It was a structure meant to prevent sinners from escaping, they said.
“Meaning we’ll become just like those zombie gods from earlier!”
“!”
That was likely why the Lord of Scorching Heat hadn’t been using any skills.
But it seemed there might still be a way.
“If you have Divine Merits, it’s fine. Don’t you have any?”
“They’re all with the master…”
“No. I used all mine up too.”
“What?!”
The more Divine Merits you had, the more abilities you could use compared to Sin Points, so you wanted as many as possible.
Thus, it was one of the valuable items even in the divine world.
The Lord of Scorching Heat pressed his forehead.
“Dammit, looks like we’re about to be helpless.”
And that’s when—
Finally spotting Yi Geon, their enemies glared fiercely.
“You, Snake God!”
At that ferocious sight, Yi Geon raised an eyebrow, and Set sneered.
“See. This is the end for you. Who asked you to open that gate? The labyrinth would’ve been easier. Well, for them, too—meeting a Holy God for the first time in a thousand years, they’ll be all fired up and…”
“You wretch! Why haven’t you changed your clothes yet?!”
“If you’re to hold the wedding ceremony with the Great Holy God, you must prepare quickly!!”
“??”
“Children, what are you doing?! The Snake God has arrived! Bring food and open the way!!”
“????!”
Far from rushing at him with swords drawn, the scene of them escorting Yi Geon made Set’s expression a sight to behold.
“Wait! What are you… Kheok!”
“Get lost, you bastard!”
“This is no time to pay attention to the likes of you!!”
“Why are you suddenly acting like… Kek!”
Set was trampled by them.
Watching Set, who was dumbfounded by his business partners' sudden change, Hugo held back laughter and asked:
“Those guys, are they Evil Gods?”
“W-Well, yes…”
“Ah. I thought so.”
It seemed the letter sent by Geumgang wasn’t a fake after all, as all the deities belonging to Geumgang prostrated themselves before Yi Geon.
And then.
“The bride of the Great Holy God has arrived!”
“It’s the sister-in-law!”
“Madam!”
“Quickly, this way! We shall assist in preparing for the wedding ceremony!”
Set seemed about to go stark raving mad, while Yi Geon’s veins bulged.
“You crazy bastards.”
The screams echoed through the dimensional rift.
* * *
Meanwhile, around that time.
“What? Giselle?”
“Yes. Giselle.”
Downtown.
While mopping up the remnants of the monsters, Kevin met Yeon-woo and looked bewildered.
Listening to the events in the divine world, Kevin’s expression showed he hadn’t expected it.
That made sense—the Libra-saint they knew had been a fake, and the original owner of the body was alive and in the divine world.
Moreover, she’d even helped them after her death.
“Huh. I don’t know much about the Libra-saint, but…”
What was certain was that she was a politician’s daughter, a pacifist for humanity who’d shown strong interest in Yi Geon and tried to sponsor him.
But unlike when they first met, she’d suddenly changed one day, so they’d assumed it was just an act.
“Anyway, we need to find that person to get the Rulebook. The one Geon has is a temporary Rulebook, so…”
“Is something tricky about it being temporary?”
“He probably won’t be able to stay on Earth long with that. A few weeks at most…”
That wasn’t all.
‘A proper Rulebook is essential to protect his body from the Great Holy Gods.’
Like the incident with Hercules, no—a proper Rulebook might even allow manipulation of Yi Geon’s fate.
“You said gods came claiming to be Geon’s subordinate deities? Who knows what they might be plotting.”
“Got it. I’ve relayed the details to my subordinates, so we’ll find her quickly. And we’re practically on the level of subordinate deities ourselves, at SS-rank or higher. We won’t lose in any ordinary matter.”
He didn’t know which side of gods had come to Earth, but they’d fulfill their duty until Yi Geon arrived.
Just as Yeon-woo’s face was about to brighten at those words—
Boom!!!
A building downtown exploded, turning the city into a scene of chaos.
“……!!”
And the sight of a colossal monster appearing made Kevin swallow hard.
That was understandable, given the opponent’s rank.
‘Red-grade?’
No, there were no monsters left on Earth already.
But these occasionally appearing, seemingly dangerous ones were outer gods in demon form, different from monsters, that attacked humans.
“Aaagh! Run away!”
“Call the saints!”
Amid the pandemonium, Kevin immediately summoned the power of a Holy God.
“Dammit, that thing is…!”
Kevin drew his sword and was about to launch an attack, but just then—
Bang!!
“!!”
Someone had obliterated the demon, larger than a building, in an instant.
And it was none other than winged angels.
“…That’s!”
“Eden!”
Yeon-woo’s eyes flew wide open.
Eden was one of the Eight Great Powers, a place teeming with angels led by the heavenly army.
At the same time, a human commanding the angels appeared atop a building, having annihilated the demon in a flash.
People stirred at the sight of him.
“A saint?”
“What? I’ve never seen a face like that among S-rank or higher?”
“No, it’s someone else!”
And the figure atop the building, bathed in the holy light of the angels, spoke.
“You have been deceived.”
“!”
“The existing 12 saints are garbage. And the saints who shall serve Earth’s Holy God, Yi Geon-nim, are us.”
Kevin looked absolutely dumbfounded by the sudden appearance of a new 12 saints’ existence.
Damnation, what the hell kind of situation is this?
(Continues in the next episode)