With Igeon's appearance, the top media outlets haven't had a single quiet day all month.
But they were whispering cautiously, mindful of someone’s gaze.
“Chief, be careful. Behind you…”
It was the supervisors from the Divine Constellations, watching them.
Put simply, it was media oppression and surveillance.
It wasn’t outright oppression, but they would habitually show up to check that no unnecessary stories were being published. In severe cases, they even imposed direct sanctions.
Well, since the power of a Divine Constellation can waver depending on believers and faith, they couldn’t help but keep a close watch on the media.
But lately, it had become far too extreme.
“Hey! There’s way too much about Igeon! Delete it! Write about our Lord instead!”
Igeon’s mere existence and actions stirred up a frenzy.
And the Demon’s Tower he had emerged from was, naturally, the top story.
In the end, the reporters began secretly huddling together.
“They say the investigation team for the Demon’s Tower is still a long way off? The tower broke apart, and it’s already been a month since they started investigating.”
At that question, the reporter who had brought the news looked flustered.
“Ah, well…”
“Well?”
“All the investigation teams that went into the tower have gone missing…!”
“!!”
The voice was a little loud. The watchers shot the reporters a sharp glare.
But whether they did or not, the reporters kept murmuring.
“Anyway, those are supposed to be special investigation teams assembled by each nation…!”
At that remark, someone lit a cigarette and snorted.
“Special investigation teams, my ass. They’re just people who went in to scavenge the crumbs since Igeon came out of there…”
In truth, they were trying to get ahead of others to find out what had happened inside the tower and whether there were any valuables.
On top of that, recently, a bunch of monster corpses had been discovered, causing a huge stir.
“And the few who managed to come out alive from there are all in a state of panic. And every single one of them says that Igeon, who endured in there for twenty years, is insane.”
“……!”
Awakened chosen for a special investigation team are not the type to have weak mental fortitude.
Yet every one of them was reportedly trembling, saying they never wanted to set foot in that tower again.
With residual grudges, miasma, hallucinations, and traps still lingering inside…
Even without monsters, it was that bad; people were saying it must have been hell itself when beasts were present.
So it sent chills anew.
About Igeon, who had walked out of a place like that with his head held high.
That wasn’t all.
“Did you hear? The Observatory says they sensed the presence of the Thirteenth Star God.”
“!”
It was true.
A new Divine Constellation that had begun with the Capricorn Saint’s testimony.
Of course, no one believed it, but this time, the Five Great Observatories had delivered the definitive verdict.
[The Thirteenth Divine Constellation exists]
The Observatories were major institutions jointly established by the Twelve Divine Constellations.
There was no way their words could be false. So it was only natural to be astounded.
“What? That story was real? There was another Divine Constellation in the twelve signs of the zodiac?”
“Yes. It seems they’re planning to formally announce it to the world now.”
At those words, everyone screamed.
They no longer cared whether the watchers were glaring at them or not.
‘The 13 signs of the zodiac…!’
Originally, even in earth science, there is a thirteenth constellation that exists along the ecliptic but remains unknown.
That is .
But to think that the Thirteenth Star God existed not just academically but truly.
“Who is the Saint!”
“They say it’s Igeon!”
The people immediately understood.
At the same time, a chilling thrill ran through them.
‘Indeed, the first Awakened were not twelve, but thirteen.’
Back then, they simply hadn’t thought of him as a Saint because he had looked so different from the others.
He had undisputedly been one of the Saints.
And for some unknown reason, now, twenty years later, it was clear that he had blossomed that power.
There was even speculation that his rejuvenation was a result of awakening as a Saint.
“Anyway, they say Cheon Seongjae has become the first Acolyte of that Ophiuchus Constellation…!”
People were utterly astonished.
“That prodigy of the Gemini Constellation?”
“Yes. He’s disappeared from the Observatory’s registry.”
At the Observatory, there were those called Acolytes.
Simply put, Acolytes belonging to the Twelve Divine Constellations were marked as stars.
They shone in their respective Zodiac’s domain, so unless deliberately hidden, any change was immediately known. Their brightness varied according to rank, at that.
“And they say Cheon Seongjae’s star, which was in Gemini’s domain, has moved to an unnamed constellation.”
“…That would be Ophiuchus!”
“Yes. The newly appeared Divine Constellation. Its brightness and size are immense.”
Cheon Seongjae wasn’t Saint-level or S-rank famous enough to appear every day on news or commercials, but he was still considerably well-known.
Though he was only A-rank, he was the youngest to ever achieve contributions rivaling the Order Commander classes of the direct divine orders.
At the same time, people lamented.
The reason was simple.
“The whole world is going to swarm Cheon Seongjae, aiming for .”
“You mean the skill you get for eliminating the first Acolyte.”
“It’s such an extremely rare skill that even the Order Commanders will mob him to take him out.”
“Heavens, that’s not a level a mere A-rank can defend against…!”
They pitied Cheon Seongjae.
And so, the world was abuzz with the news of the new Divine Constellation.
* * *
The South.
A land ruled by the closed-off Southern Divine Constellations.
There, a man was dying.
Bound and tortured to the point of bleeding from all over his body.
“Who gave you permission to use your power?”
The one being tortured was none other than the Cancer Saint.
Zhang Rui let out a laugh.
“Wasn’t it you who ordered me to capture Igeon?”
But at those words, the other clicked his tongue. The perpetrator who had left a Saint covered in blood was extremely furious.
“Then why did you let Virgo live? You were supposed to use Perio to definitely kill Virgo.”
At that furious remark, Zhang Rui smiled as if resigned.
“I never thought that with Igeon’s filthy temper, he’d let the culprit who stabbed him live after hearing about it.”
From the start, they had intended to use Igeon to eliminate Virgo, who was a hindrance to them.
‘But to let her live.’
When the plan went awry, they were greatly flustered.
Sure enough, the woman was angry.
“Virgo is someone who has visited Scorpio’s Sanctuary. What if she gives Igeon directions or something?”
“…….”
“Don’t you know that Scorpio possesses that?”
[The Scribe]
It is said to be a special administrator of the divine scripture that only Star Gods can have.
And while most of them were imprisoned by the Star Gods in special jails,
One of those powers was in Scorpio’s Sanctuary.
Its true nature was unknown, but what was certain was that it brought immense power to a Divine Constellation.
And now, Igeon had appeared as the Thirteenth Divine Constellation. If that fell into Igeon’s hands, it was as clear as fire that the situation would deteriorate badly.
‘Though it’s meaningless if Igeon can’t summon the Star God.’
“And it’s not like Scorpio is going to hand it over to Igeon so easily.”
Indeed, Scorpio was, for the time being, on their side.
Of course, unlike when with them, Scorpio oddly always ran away at the mere sight of Igeon.
But when they were in the same place, seeing that Scorpio couldn’t even meet Igeon’s eyes, Scorpio must have utterly detested him, don’t you think?
Like Sophie did.
‘There’s no way a beauty like that would have fallen for such a beast anyway.’
Well, I understood.
Even I loathed making eye contact and talking with Igeon.
It didn’t matter.
The Cancer Saint spoke.
“Give me just one more chance. This time, I will eliminate Igeon for certain.”
“!”
The Cancer Saint smiled.
“And don’t worry about the Scorpio side. In the first place, they won’t even be able to reach Scorpio’s Sanctuary.”
Because the great god of battle, the golden beast’s main palace, blocked their path.
* * *
And around that time, in the United States.
Igeon’s face was rotting.
And beside him, Virgo’s face was twisting like a rotten apple.
Of course, the only one among them whose face wasn’t rotting was Hugo, but he was instead restless and fidgety.
As if gauging when Igeon might explode.
And sure enough.
[Yes! Leo is amazing! Incredible! He has utterly defeated Igeon!]
[A single blow to Igeon, who stepped onto the sparring stage! No, knocked him down with one punch!]
[Aaah, Igeon! He can’t get up!]
[Igeon! Does this even make sense? He was instantly K.O.’d by Leo’s one-punch strike! Without even using a skill!]
[Aaah! It’s over! Leo has knocked down Igeon in a single blow! Isn’t this tremendous?]
[As expected, was Igeon nothing much in front of the great Leo!]
[Indeed, the Saint of the strongest combat Divine Constellation! Leo is magnificent! This has been the live duel broadcast!]
When the TV program on the electronic billboard finally ended, Igeon hurled his forging hammer straight at it.
Crash!
“Kyaak! What the hell! What’s going on!”
“It’s terrorism!”
Igeon, who had instantly shattered the billboard, muttered a torrent of curses.
“That retarded cat bastard.”
That’s right.
The United States was a country with relatively free travel.
It had been convenient to arrive easily by teleporting under debt to the rich Kevin, but.
[Yes! Twenty-three years ago. You’ve just witnessed the legendary spar between the great legend, Leo Saint, and !]
[Ah, you missed it? Then we’ll keep showing you the rerun!]
[Waaaaaah!]
With cheers, footage of exploded once more across the entire United States.
[You’ve waited and waited! The match everyone has been curious about…!]
From airport billboards to every outdoor ad and street store.
When Igeon finally exploded and tried to smash every last screen on the street, Hugo stopped him.
“There’s no helping it. America is Leo’s domain! It’s only natural they revere the Constellation Lord!”
Igeon frowned as if enraged.
Upon arriving in America, the streets plastered with Leo’s photos grated on him endlessly.
Of course, that spar video was from twenty-three years ago.
It had been a live program filmed as a deal with Leo.
He had accepted after they begged and pleaded, promising to pay him if he just lost once on stage.
Well, Igeon hadn’t cared about such childish displays of power in the first place.
If anything, he’d played along with their tune and made money; it was a sweet deal.
So whether they used it for marketing or not was none of his business.
But.
“Damn it, no matter what, you’re going to milk something like that for twenty years?”
At that, Virgo, who had come with Igeon, was also furious.
“How cowardly, Igeon! You fought him and let him win!”
In response, Hugo looked at Kevin as if dumbfounded.
Because that video had come out well over twenty years ago.
No matter how much that video had mainly been a hit only in America.
“You didn’t even know that video existed?”
“Of course not! Why would I pay attention to random extras besides Igeon?!”
“Ah… right.”
Hugo clicked his tongue and looked at Igeon.
“Well, still, you did make a fortune off that short clip back then. How much did Stephen give you again?”
“5 billion.”
Hugo’s face twisted.
This guy sure took them for an insane amount.
But soon, Hugo flinched and said.
“Huh? Wait. You said you received 1 billion!”
“Yeah. I got 1 billion in cash. The rest was 4 billion worth of goods.”
“Th-then what happened to that 1 billion?”
“Obviously, I spent it all on food and medical expenses.”
“……”
How high are this guy’s grocery bills?
‘Well, those 4 billion worth of goods were probably used for subjugation operations anyway.’
Igeon was the kind of guy who, even when receiving compensation, would coolly toss it to the areas damaged by monsters. The reason being that he only needed as much as necessary.
It was then.
[Anyway, what do you think of Igeon, sir?]
[Well, Igeon might be revered as the Thirteenth Divine Constellation this time, but with how many Acolytes will swarm him…!]
[Still, there was the Cheon Bridge Incident, and the public’s view of Igeon has completely changed. They’re championing him.]
[Come on, against our Leo Saint, it’d just be another one-punch knockout, wouldn’t it?]
At that broadcast, Kevin let out a chuckle.
“They’ve been milking it really well for twenty years. You actually allowed that?”
At that, Igeon loosened his neck, seemingly unbothered for some reason.
“Well, they said they’d use it only for a bit, but we didn’t specify a timeframe, so it’s fine for them to use it like that.”
“What? It’s really okay…?”
“Still, doesn’t feel great, you know?”
At those words, Kevin’s eyes widened, but Hugo, who had instantly caught the nuance in Igeon’s voice from the start, was sweating profusely.
And sure enough.
“Taek-su, book the departing train for tonight.”
“Wh-what?”
“Changing one impression. That won’t take long, right?”
Igeon’s lips curled up coldly.
And right as Igeon arrived in America like that.
“My Lord, we have information that Igeon has entered the States.”
An SS-rank from Leo’s Divine Order came to see Leo’s Saint, Stephen.
Stephen, who had already been discharged from the hospital, looked quite well.
But more than anything, he was extremely delighted by the news his subordinate had brought.
That’s because Igeon, whom he’d been searching for so desperately, had come to his land.
“Igeon came here? Perfect. Right now…”
Just as he was about to ask for a weapon to be made.
Oliver, Leo’s SS-rank and Stephen’s direct subordinate,’ said with sparkling eyes, as if he understood his lord’s heart.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already scheduled a sparring match.”
Stephen’s face stiffened in an instant.
But whether he knew it or not, Oliver continued.
“Given recent events and all, it seems people don’t quite believe in your greatness from the old dueling footage with Igeon, so I’ve booked a live worldwide broadcast!”
“What?”
“This is the perfect time to seal the deal. For your sake, my Lord, weapons are OK, killing skills are OK; we’ve made everything possible.”
Oliver’s eyes flashed.
“It’s an event where the global media, leaders, and honored guests will be attending. We’ve also sent someone to Igeon, so he’ll head to the arena soon. A rematch with Igeon after twenty years—it will be the arena to rewrite your legend, my Lord.”
But Leo was sweating bullets.
Oh, shit, why’d you make reservations for that.
(To be continued in the next episode)