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Chapter 261
Ssuh-guhk!
The scene unfolding in front of them was that of a murder. One of the twelve Zodiacs was killing the thirteenth.
This surprised the Chun siblings, who were seeing this for the first time.
‘Uncle.’
They were sure of it since they were the disciples of the Serpent Bearer temple. The woman had brought down the sword on a man. That man was the Serpent Bearer.
‘He is our Zodiac.’
Moreover, his magical energy was almost identical to Lee Gun’s.
If Constructs saw that man and Lee Gun, they would think the two men were identical figures, since Constructs identified others by their souls.
The woman who had killed the thirteenth had short brown hair.
‘I’ve never seen that Zodiac before. She might be the original Libra, who got eaten by Giselle.’
After the original owner of the thirteenth Seat of power died, a cheer rang in the distance.
[We succeeded in dethroning them! We really defeated them! We succeeded!]
The one to shout was none other than Aries. Unlike its present self, the Aries of the past was slim and had worn the clothes of a slave. However, there was no mistaking that it was Aries.
Afterward, more familiar faces appeared. They were in awe as they looked at the Zodiac that had killed the thirteenth.
[He’s supposed to be the strongest amongst our masters. He was our toughest opponent, yet I knew you would be able to succeed.]
The one that spoke while laughing was Aquarius. In contrast to how it had been in the present times, this Aquarius gave off the feeling of being a small sprite.
Next to it was a half-humanoid baby calf, a set of twin sisters, and a set of twin brothers.
The twin brothers spoke.
[Borrowing the power of the monarchs was a big help to us. I was skeptical as to whether we could really make our owners lose their minds.]
[I was right. For some odd reason, our masters couldn’t use their powers against the monarchs. I knew the monarchs were their weakness.]
They all looked young, but there was no mistaking them. They were Taurus, Aquarius, and Gemini.
[Did you take out all the cores of our masters?]
[Of course.]
[Good. Lets… What the hell? I don’t see Sagittarius. Did he fail?]
[No. I heard he succeeded.]
[Why isn’t he showing himself?]
[That particular owner put up a huge fight, so Sagittarius suffered significant injuries. He isn’t dead, but whatever the reason, he won’t move yet. ]
[He did well for a coward.]
They spoke as if it didn’t really matter.
[Did everyone take care of the corpse of their owner?]
[Aside from the thirteenth, everything went smoothly. We used that method to get rid of all of them.]
Then, everyone burst out laughing as if they had waited for this moment.
[Good. We acquired the powers of our masters and their Seats of power!]
[We just need to gather disciples through the Seats of power, and it’ll allow us to become Zodiacs! Our days of being slaves have come to an end!]
Aries cheered, but someone pushed back.
[It’s too early to celebrate.]
She was one of the female twins, who would later become one part of the Pisces. She had a venomous look on her face.
[Our thirteen masters are celebrated as the best heroes of the Divine world. They are also part of the Creation tribe. We might buy suspicion from the other gods.]
[!]
[We have to tie the loose ends.]
They smirked.
The next scene showed Aries and several familiar Zodiacs. They were crying as they spoke out against a group.
[All of this is the fault of the monarchs. They made our masters sick and go mad. However, our great owners were able to regain sanity at their last moment.]
[Our masters lamented about their responsibilities. Then, they sacrificed themselves to block the dangers to the Divine world.]
[Afterward, they passed on their Seats of power to us. This proves our story.]
[We also received the will of our masters, and we promise to rebuild the Divine world.]
[Ohhhhhhh!]
This scene left the Chun siblings disenchanted. It was a sight that they had seen somewhere before.
‘We will never forget Lee Gun’s noble death! He sacrificed himself for all of us.’
‘We will carry on Lee Gun’s dying wishes! We will take back all the lands of humanity!’
That had been the declaration the twelve Zodiac Saints had given when they announced Lee Gun’s death within the Devil’s Tower. It seemed they had learned how to do these terrible things from their Zodiacs.
However, the group soon saw another more serious vision.
“Uncle. Didn’t you say you had two family members who died before your awakening?”
Lee Gun’s eyes instantly turned cold. His Seat of power had simply shown the memories of the twelve Zodiacs through visions.
In the process, the group also got to see memories related to Lee Gun.
[What the hell? He’s still alive!]
[Hurry up and kill him. Our sins won’t be revealed if we do so.]
The ones speaking were probably the Zodiacs of the Pisces temple and the Gemini temple. They were the ones that had killed the reincarnations of Yeonwoo again and again. In the end, they had also killed a young man.
[This will put an end to it.]
The young man was Yeonwoo’s younger brother and someone Lee Gun thought of as his blood brother. He was a part of Lee Gun’s family and a kid who was very attached to Lee Gun.
[Oh, past comrade, if you want to blame someone, blame the actions of the one that tried to reveal our sins.]
[No. Don’t kill him too quickly. Do you realize how much effort we had to go through to find him this time around? He should suffer for making us work.]
[Is that so?]
Lee Gun’s family member had been killed brutally by the Zodiacs.
At the same time, the younger brother didn’t want his sister and Lee Gun to become tangled in this. He had resisted until he died.
Then, the vision again shifted. The final scene it showed was that of the moments before the Zodiac Saints were about to enter the Devil’s tower.
It was after Kevin had been swapped out. Kevin fell to Liv, Jean-Louis, and another female Zodiac.
‘Liv is Pisces. The man and the woman must be the Gemini Zodiacs.’
Pisces and Gemini, who led the two magic-type temples, spoke.
[Lee Gun is a problem.]
[That’s right. The thirteenth Zodiac was killed by our magic-type temples, so why did someone like Lee Gun have to show up? It’s unfortunate.]
[As the great magic-type Zodiacs who established the Temple system, we must kill Lee Gun.]
[That’s right. If we let Lee Gun live, he might kill all the monsters of the unknown civilization. That bastard isn’t helpful at all.]
[Lee Gun is that big of a monster.]
[Tsk! Humans’ faith exists because the monsters are here.]
It seemed the Chun siblings, Kevin, and the Archer disciples had been shown these visions since they were affiliate disciples.
Therefore, they knew they weren’t shown something normal.
On the other hand, Hugo was surprised to hear them discuss it. “What the hell? You guys were shown such things? I only saw the person who was similar to Gun. I saw nothing after that.”
Lee Gun mockingly said behind him, “Idiot. That happened because you fell unconscious. I saw it all.”
Hugo felt a surge of anger.
[Serpent Bearer Faith 450% (-100%)]
Kevin ignored them as he furrowed his brows. “If what we were shown is true, it’ll cause a big mess. If you had shown these scenes to us, there was no way I would’ve doubted their veracity. However, it is a different story since the Seat of power was the one doing it.”
Lee Gun agreed with him. “It might have been instructed to record it, but on the other hand, it could be trying to sow chaos.”
Taurus’s Seat of power had tried to get cute with him.
“Eeny. Meeny. Miny.”
When Lee Gun called out their names, eyes flashed within his shadows.
[You called for us.]
“You guys are fairly high-rank gods, right? Do you guys know about the story of the previous thirteen Zodiacs?”
[What?]
“You guys must have seen the visions. Is it all true?”
The Constructs looked shocked when they saw Lee Gun’s menacing eyes. It was to be expected since they were Constructs that had originally followed the Gemini temple.
[That is…]
“You followed them despite knowing the truth?”
He sounded like he wanted to cut open their necks with a knife. The battle-type Constructs cried out.
[Huhk! That isn’t the case!]
[We just found out about it too!!!]
“You better not be lying to me.”
[We promise! We have no intention of lying to our master!]
[It was something not even the Constructs knew about…!]
“Did you know about the original owners of the Seats of Power?”
The Constructs were surprised for an entirely different reason. It was as if they had never expected to hear such names once again.
“Are you deaf? Do you know them or not?”
[Ah! I’m sorry!!! That is their official title. However, they were famous beings known as the Creation tribe.]
They were legendary beings.
[It’s very hush-hush now, but they were known as a manufacturing tribe, who could create anything. They were peerless. All members of that tribe possessed a special power that could change the laws of the universe. They were considered treasures of the Divine world…]
[However, they suddenly went mad one day. They started to slaughter gods and humans alike…]
[Anyway, they were gods with fame and achievements. That is why the current twelve Zodiacs, who followed after them, were also considered highly….]
“It must be quite a sight to have seen that the original owners hadn’t been truly mad, right?”
Faced with Lee Gun’s cold gaze, the Constructs flinched.
“They are gods that killed their masters through conspiracy. There’s no way such beings would come to earth with good intentions in mind, right?”
[…!!]
That wasn’t all.
“You heard what they said in the vision. If they gathered disciples, they could become gods. Moreover, humans’ faith exists only because monsters exist.”
“!”
“That means several Zodiacs might have joined hands with the unknown civilization to gather humans as disciples.”
Kevin nodded at Yooha’s words. “It’s a good plan. Fear is the easiest way to raise faith and religion.”
His words left the Chun siblings dumbfounded. They glanced sideways at Kevin.
Kevin might look like a simpleton. However, he was someone who had kept his temple in second place for the past twenty years. He was the leader of a massive temple with a billion disciples.
The Chun siblings accusingly looked at Kevin as if he had used such a method to expand his temple.
Feeling aggrieved, Kevin angrily said, “Hey! I didn’t grow my temple that way! The one to use fear was Giselle!”
“Ah. It’s fine. If what the vision showed is correct, I can see where the Zodiac Saints learned all their bad habits.”
“?!”
The siblings’ words took Kevin aback. He was about to say something, but Lee Gun just laughed in derision.
“Don’t be too hard on him. He never entered the Devil’s tower. He’s lousy. He slept outside while we did all the hard work.”
Kevin was about to say something, but he despaired. Everyone else had entered the Devil’s tower except him. So him being unconscious during that time was humiliating for him.
However, the Chun siblings pouted as if they were still displeased with Kevin.
“Still, he was in on it. He didn’t push back on any of the rumors spread about Uncle.”
At those words, Kevin and Hailey despaired, as they labeled themselves as transgressors.
“We…”
“We have no leg to stand on…”
Lee Gun laughed when he saw this. According to what Carly had told him, Giselle had threatened Hailey that she would kill Hugo if Hailey did anything.
‘She probably wanted to protect my friend.’
Hailey had also lent out a place where Chun Jiwoo could be hidden. What about Kevin and Stevens?
‘The two of them were influenced by Giselle.’
Giselle was a monarch called Neglect, who had been hiding as the Libra Zodiac. She had used her power to join hands with the Zodiacs. As for those that didn’t listen to her, she made them into her accomplices.
Moreover, there was also a pact that kept their mouths shut.
‘Of course, they were useful enough to take advantage of them.’
It didn’t matter in the end.
Lee Gun had found a clue on how to find Yeonwoo.
‘I’ll get rid of Pisces and Gemini. Both will suffer the same fate.’
The magic-type Zodiacs were the ones that had built the Temple System on the earth. At the same time, they had weakened the power of the Serpent Bearer. They were the main instigators that kept the other Zodiacs in line for being complicit in the crime.
Above all else, Lee Gun had seen them slaughter his younger brother. His eyes turned violent.
“Uh, Uncle? Where are you going?”
“I’m going to designate the Nameless Land as a holy ground.”
That wasn’t all.
[Someone is calling for the Serpent Bearer.]
Curious, Lee Gun headed toward the center of the land.
“Ah. Uncle! Let’s go together!”
Lee Gun and his other party members headed in the direction where the light was emanating.
At that moment, Virgo asked the despairing Kevin a question.
[Are you chasing after them?]
“…”
[Kevin?]
“Goddess. You must know this, but I owe my life to Lee Gun. You know how I plan on settling that debt, right?”
[I do.]
“Originally, I hated you, Goddess.”
[I know. You tried to kill me in the beginning. You even found out how to kill a god.]
“Despite all that, I accepted you because I knew you didn’t hold any ill will toward me. I also did it because I knew you would never lie to me if I made a contract with a Zodiac.”
The Virgo temple was the temple of rules. One earned power by placing strict restrictions and rules.
If one told a lie, it would show that one had lied. Moreover, there was a top secret that others didn't know. One of the provisions said that one’s head would be decapitated if one lied on purpose. There were other rules, but these strict provisions also applied to the Zodiac.
Kevin had the condition needed to activate this provision right now. “That’s why you won’t be able to get out of this.”
[What do you plan to say? Why do you keep trying to bait me?]
“Let’s talk about something a bit different.” Kevin’s eyes flashed as he looked toward Lee Gun. “You’re the one who killed the thirteenth, right?”
[!]
Virgo was taken aback.
“Why are you acting dumb? It was you. You’re the one who killed the thirteenth.”
[…!]
“Others don’t know your face, so they overlooked you. However, I’m the Zodiac Saint of the Virgo temple. While your face may be a bit different now, did you really think I wouldn’t recognize you?”
Virgo seemed shocked.
It made Kevin coldly laugh. “However, I don’t think you’re stupid enough to become an affiliate under the temple of someone that you killed.”
[…!]
“Also, I don’t feel any evil intent toward Lee Gun from you, so I refrained from speaking for a bit.”
[Kevin.]
“That’s why you better have a good answer. Why are you monitoring Lee Gun?”
[!]
Kevin pointed his sword at her. “Depending on what your intention is, I plan on wiping out the Virgo temple. I’ll merge it with the Serpent Bearer temple.”
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