It was around that time.
“What?! Kunlun has decided to take the snake god as its bride!”
The divine realm was in an uproar.
They were numerous, having received orders to head to Earth.
But for Kunlun to form a bond with the snake god…
“Then is the plan to colonize Earth canceled?”
The gods operated all lands as colonies.
Colonies were the power of the gods. There was no way they’d leave a land like Earth, brimming with quality and holy cities, alone.
Since colonies were originally a principle of taking and being taken.
But Earth is the snake god’s colony.
“If they form a bond with Kunlun, then they’ll also be at odds with Kunlun…”
“Well, they’ll be at odds. Earth will become Kunlun’s possession.”
“…!!”
Could Kunlun have been planning to take it that way?!
“Well, considering the snake god’s rank, it would be better for that guy to be absorbed into Kunlun…”
But right then.
“Hey! Did you see?!”
“Why?”
“The constellation god ranking chart!”
“What about the ranking chart?”
At the mention of the ranking chart, a few gods flinched.
Because there were those who had heard Igeon’s rank through the officials.
‘I don’t know why the divine realm assessed him as being of the ruling god grade.’
‘And at the top of the ruling gods at that.’
So now that the ranking chart has been updated, when everyone finds out, they’ll be shocked.
Rumors might even spread that he’s of the great holy god grade. Then, like before, the nine great powers might be born.
And they, who knew this well, immediately tried to speak.
“In any case, it’s because that guy luckily possesses the power of …”
Because he has the divine title of possessing that, he’s merely been placed above the ruling gods on the list.
“Anyway, as long as there’s no chance he’ll rise further, at best he’s ruling god grade…!”
But at that moment.
Those looking at the updated electronic board screamed.
“What is that!”
At the increased numbers, they rubbed their eyes.
* * *
Beneath the gate, a gigantic vortex of light was raging. And that vortex was the passageway connected to Earth!
But faced with that sight, like looking at the eye of a typhoon, Hugo was horrified.
‘It was a good thing I left my daughter with the Virgo god!’
He didn’t completely remember about Yuha, but she was still his precious daughter.
But to have to travel through a passageway that’s like a meat grinder!
In fact, when the gate opened, Hugo saw objects caught in the vortex being ground up with a grinding noise, and he almost cursed.
But regardless, Igeon stretched and said.
“What are you doing? Not jumping in.”
“Jum… You really want to go through this passageway?! It looks like I’ll die just from touching it!”
“It’s fine. If you become minced meat, I’ll put you back together.”
“#*$&*!”
He should have just left through a safe route like Yuha. The Virgo god had said she would help him with a secret departure if he wanted.
‘Or even Hailey, who went to meet the Scorpio god…’
But as if reading his thoughts, Igeon sneered.
“If you go to the Scorpio god, you’ll be eaten one hundred percent, you know?”
“What? Why?”
At that, Igeon let out a hollow laugh, as if asking if he really didn’t know.
“You were right next to Hailey and didn’t notice?”
“Notice what!”
“The Scorpio god who protects Hailey was absolutely trying to kill you.”
“????”
Hugo made a face that said, ‘What kind of bullshit is that?’
“You must have seen wrong.”
“Are you disrespecting my eyes?”
Igeon had indeed seen it.
When he was on Earth, the god was a distant being, so he couldn’t be sure, but once they came to the gods’ stronghold, well.
‘She looked at this guy like a mortal enemy.’
Unlike other constellation gods, she never appeared directly before him when he was next to Hugo.
Anyway, she always seemed to dislike the Sagittarius god, but especially after visiting the goddesses of fate.
‘If it’s about that time, there’s nothing else but the time Taeksu swallowed a divine title.’
Then Hugo’s expression became even more confused.
No, he vaguely knew he was disliked, but what had he done to Scorpio that its god would try to kill him?
At that expression, Igeon clicked his tongue and said.
“Clearly, you made trouble there while I was away.”
“I did not!”
If anything, he tried to be good to Scorpio, his benefactor; why would he cause trouble in Scorpio!
Then Igeon clicked his tongue.
“If it’s not that, it’s obvious.”
“Obvious?”
“While I was gone, you either got beaten by the Twelve Saints like a fool, or there’s also that matter of renting a hospital for Ms. Ji-u for over ten years. Or maybe Hailey… she just doesn’t like you because you keep bothering her saint?”
He wondered if a god could be that petty, but thinking of the Blazing Scorpio owner, it didn’t seem out of the question.
‘But it’s rude to treat me like our bald guy.’
‘Did he do something rude?’
Well, it didn’t matter anyway.
“So stop babbling and just follow me. My side is the safest.”
“…….”
Despite Igeon’s smiling face, Hugo’s expression rotted.
“Pretending to be cool, it’s so obvious, you know? You’re just telling me to follow because you need to fill your divine rank.”
At that, as if slightly stung, Igeon’s eyebrows twitched, but soon he kicked Hugo.
“Enough, get in, you brat!”
“Ack!”
Kicked mercilessly, Hugo instantly fell into the meat-grinding light.
With a Tarzan-like scream, Hugo was immediately swept away by the light.
Igeon followed right after.
Then followed a dizzying flow, like being swept away by waves.
And amid pain that made it hard to breathe, Hugo thought of his pretty daughter.
His daughter, who would love him dearly, would have scolded this damned Igeon.
How long had it been?
Thud! Thud!
“Cough!”
They had fallen somewhere.
And when Hugo, groaning, raised his body, they heard a familiar voice.
[Returned to Earth]
[A time difference has occurred from passing through the dimensional gap]
A time difference?
Hugo looked around and said,
“Geon, how much time difference did it say?”
“Who knows. More importantly, where did we fall?”
Amid the sound of bustling people, the place they came to was inside a building.
“It looks like a museum…”
There was no doubt.
He didn’t know which country they’d fallen into, but the decorations, the signs, it was unmistakably…
“Geon, it’s your museum?”
“!”
At that, Igeon’s eyes widened.
Come to think of it, everywhere there were photos of him, his belongings, and even 1:1 wax figure replicas.
There weren’t just photos of him as an orc before his return, but also after his return.
Anyway, even though other Twelve Saint museums were in various countries, he hadn’t had his own personal museum.
“What? So it was made in that time?”
“Aren’t you lucky? This is totally on the level of the Louvre.”
Hugo sneered, saying that he had finally fulfilled his wish of wanting a museum that he’d been singing about.
“Then at least a few years have passed. There’s no way a building of this scale could appear in just a few months.”
In fact, as he looked around, Hugo found something and laughed.
“Look at this.”
He held up a ticket that seemed to have been found in the merchandise shop.
The ticket had a stamp indicating admission confirmation, and there was a date on it.
[2044]
“It’s 20 years later, man.”
“What? 20 years?”
Igeon clicked his tongue.
“Tch, should I use my powers?”
“Wait. Using powers can accumulate karma anyway. The attendant god went to fetch … , so wait.”
At that, Igeon frowned.
“Why do you look so excited?”
“Of course! Here, I might even see your kid!”
“What??”
“Why! After 20 years, you’d have a wife and be married!”
“……!!”
Even so, that much time had passed, and the past and present were connected.
And even though Igeon was incredibly dense and had no interest in women, in 20 years he’d have a wife, and if things went well, even a child!
‘So, who is Geon’s wife?’
It was truly a matter of unprecedented interest.
He was curious about his own family too, but above all, Igeon’s family.
“So, is the partner Ms. Yeon-u, or Hailey?!”
“Wh-what?”
“Geon, who do you like better between the two!”
“Th-this bastard, what are you…”
“What? Don’t tell me it’s a love triangle?!”
Igeon’s expression was something to behold.
Hugo turned away, as if going crazy with curiosity.
“Ah, forget it, forget it. I’ll just check for myself.”
“Hey!”
Who on earth was Igeon’s wife, and did he have a child, and if he did, was the child a daughter or a son.
“Ah, it’s certain. Your kids will surely follow me like my own kids, praising Uncle Hugo.”
Hugo, speaking of his dream, immediately suggested they go outside the museum.
Sneaking Igeon’s keychain from the merchandise shop and stuffing it in his pocket was a bonus.
“Judging by the language in the museum, it seems like Europe… I guess we can roughly head to Kevin.”
“Is this really a museum? Why is there no one here?”
“It’s probably just before opening time. Can’t you hear voices outside?”
Then Igeon looked outside suspiciously. He could definitely hear voices, but…
‘There’s a strange energy…’
“Let’s go.”
At Hugo’s words, Igeon narrowed his brows.
“Hey. We aren’t people of this era. Wouldn’t it be better to just return to our original time without doing anything?”
Especially since faces wouldn’t change much in just 20 years.
Being gods, after all.
“If someone recognizes us…”
“Alright, alright. Then I’ll just see your wife and we’ll go.”
Hugo handed over an orc mask of Igeon hanging in the merchandise shop and said.
Igeon looked dumbfounded, but Hugo opened the door and said.
“I don’t know which country this is, but the place is packed with people who came to see you, Geon…”
But at that moment.
The moment they opened the door and went out.
Both their faces hardened completely.
“That…!”
All the people were dead.
That wasn’t all.
“Geon, those vines!”
The museum was entangled in vines of unknown origin.
‘Even the vines are alive.’
At the same time, as they cut down the vines, they realized the truth.
“These things are making human voices!”
There was no doubt.
‘They were mimicking the voices of humans they had devoured.’
The state of Igeon’s museum was horrifying.
It felt as if a monster had appeared outside, and though people had fled to survive, they ended up coming here as a last hope, like finding a church or shrine.
It felt like they had come seeking Igeon, who had always helped them escape crisis no matter what monster attacked.
In fact, a dead child was clutching a figure of Igeon tightly.
Hugo looked at it pitifully.
‘It’s been more than a day or two since they died.’
They had been left unattended for at least several years.
Even so, the reason they hadn’t become skeletons was probably the work of these unknown plants.
Hugo rushed outside the museum.
Then he saw the corpses of people lying everywhere and a ruined city that could be called a ghost town.
‘There’s no sign of life at all.’
Earth’s annihilation, extinction.
And the identity of those plants was quickly apparent.
‘This is something from the divine realm.’
And if they had really come to the future.
‘Could humanity have disappeared in 20 years?’
Due to those unidentified plants.
And right when Hugo, having noticed that fact, was about to say something.
Flash!
A power he’d never seen before burst from Igeon’s body.
“Geon!”
That was neither the power of death nor the power of life.
‘Could it be the Creators?’
And by that power, new life began to inhabit the ruined buildings.
Grasses that had died by the gods’ doing grew, and water evaporated by the sun’s heat also began to spring forth instantly.
As he watched the scene in surprise, Igeon spoke to Hugo, looking furious.
“Hey. Now that we know the future, let’s go back to our original time.”
“Uh, uh.”
This future was probably the result of them not being on Earth.
It was a future that occurred because they had been trapped in the dimensional gap.
So Igeon’s eyes flashed furiously.
“I went through hell to save Earth.”
Unknown civilizations invaded, my body broke down, and even after rotting away in the tower from the betrayal of those damn gods and saints, I crawled out and was just pulling up the roots of monsters.
And I thought that once I escaped the divine realm, I wouldn’t have to deal with those bastards.
“How dare these sons of bitches kill what I saved?”
Driven by that thought, Lee Geon immediately wielded his authority.
Flash!
[Uses the stolen Authority of Time]
The power of the Authority of Time was a force that could disrupt the cosmic order.
Unlike the lawless Monarchs, the gods who ruled over the colonists bore responsibility for their power. The stronger the power, the less it could be used recklessly.
But.
[Master! We've brought everything we swiped from Kunlun!]
[You can now exercise the power!]
His attendant gods had retrieved the permission token from the bundle Kunlun had given as a wedding gift (?).
The moment Lee Geon grasped it, light burst forth.
[Uses the permission token stolen from Kunlun, rewinding to the maximum limit]
With that, Hugo’s and Lee Geon’s vision shifted.
“Urk!”
They landed in the same place.
But there was no museum there. Only a large, empty lot slated for construction.
That’s when it happened.
“Kyaa! Lord Lee Geon!”
“!!”
“Lord Lee Geon!!!”
“Wait, it’s Lee Geon!”
The cries of a vast crowd echoed around them.
Passersby on the street recognized Lee Geon and recoiled in shock.
And at the name Lee Geon, people swarmed in a rush. Naturally, phones and cameras were thrust up from every direction.
“That’s not a disguised Lee Geon, right?”
“Lord Lee Geon!!”
Thanks to that, Hugo, who was beside him and getting shoved by the crowd, spoke as if wronged.
“No, it looks like we’ve come back properly. But why do they only recognize you? What about me??”
“Why do you think? It’s the difference in faith and merit.”
“What?!”
In reality, it was just because Hugo was still in a ghost state.
‘The phone’s working properly, too.’
Lee Geon discreetly pulled out his phone and smiled as he saw it had a signal.
[Roaming (+Paris)]
[November 9, 2026, 13:15]
‘So about half a year has passed.’
That was enough.
“It’s a bit tight, but it’s fine. We’re back before your third one is born.”
“What??”
“Anyway, we don’t have any money right now, so let’s summon a nearby Saint and fly out quickly.”
Lee Geon immediately tried to make a call to summon some underlings.
But just then.
Amid the crowd’s cheers, a familiar phrase rang out at the perfect moment.
“Oh! It’s the Saints!”
“They must have come after hearing about Lord Lee Geon.”
At that, Lee Geon and Hugo let out hollow laughs. Because there were only a handful of Saints who would admirably come to find them just for returning.
Sure enough.
“You bastards, what’s with the quickness….”
But as they turned their heads, their expressions grew strange.
“Welcome, our Holy God, our Master.”
“The Saints greet the great Master for the first time!”
“!”
The ones who appeared weren’t the likes of Kevin or Steven.
But they said something unexpected.
“Do not be surprised. We are the new 13 Saints who serve the Snake God.”
“13 Saints?”
“Yes! The Kevin and Steven you seek have passed away, and all the others have left, so we have taken up their positions.”
“It is an honor to meet Lord Lee Geon in the flesh like this!”
“……?”
At that, Lee Geon raised an eyebrow.
What the, who are these bastards?
(Continued in the next chapter)