[With the Divine status of Death under control, a part of its power has been transferred to Life.]
[Life will reach level 5 soon.]
Lee Gunâs eyes flashed. At the same time, a light covered the park as if there had been an explosion.
Koo-goo-goong!
The light didnât last long. The dark power covering the sky disappeared, and the chaotic magical energy that had been damaging Lee Gunâs body disappeared as well.
The only thing that showed Death had gone berserk was the damaged properties.
Battered with blood, Lee Gun huffed as he wiped the blood flowing down his lips. At the same time, his eyes flashed as if to say I told you so. âThere is absolutely no way to control stage 6? You wanna die?â
The notification seemed taken aback.
[Normally, controlling it is impossible.]
[You are the strange one for being able to control it.]
Lee Gun ignored that. Although his surroundings were completely destroyed, he knew it was fine.
âThe fact that I didnât destroy the world is enough.â
As if it had read his thoughts, the notification laughed in derision.
[You really are the god of calamity.]
[It says to never call yourself a hero to others.]
âWho the hell are you? Youâre the bald Zodiac, right?â
[It asks why you would make such a comparison. It shows its displeasure.]
[Moreover, it says its hair is healthyâŚ]
Lee Gun completely ignored those notifications. He didnât know who it was, but it seemed like that worm of a Zodiac, who kept interrupting in the middle. However, that wasnât important to him right now.
âIt seems I got past the crisis.â
He looked at his ring.
[Confusion Became Nice (EX)]
- Ring created when Confusion became Order
- All phenomena involving confusion can be controlled
- Seal ability. It can be used in a variety of ways.
âHalf of it was thanks to this.â
Of course, the ring that was already in charge of keeping his Divine status in check shouted when a new ring appeared.
[âBlack Ring that eats Divine magical energy (SSS)â feels unclean because of its neighbor.]
[It cries that only it should be worn on its masterâs precious fingers.]
This baffled Lee Gun. It was to be expected since the Black Ring was the helmeted man, who had made the declaration of war against humanity. It was a ring made by changing the totem that the helmeted man had possessed.
âIn some ways, Confusion is one of their ownersâŚâ
In the end, the ring let out a strident cry, but Lee Gun ignored it.
âKuhkâŚ!â
Suddenly, he vomited blood. While the power of Order allowed him to bring balance to the out-of-control power, it couldnât last long.
As if his projection were correct, he heard an unfamiliar voice.
[The Divine World says the Serpent Bearer Temple will be in danger at this rate.]
â!â
When Lee Gun felt the familiar energy, his eyes changed into the savage eyes of a snake.
Two golden objects appeared in the sky and flashed. They were the public servants of the Divine world. They approached Lee Gun.
[Lee Gun-nim, you have awakened stage 5 of your Divine status. You are a candidate to become a noble Great Zodiac.]
[You probably do not know this, but you cannot simultaneously possess Divine statuses that oppose each other.]
Murderous intent emanated from Lee Gun. It was to be expected since he was using a form of a loophole to be able to possess Life and Death at the same time. When one reached stage 5, the other had to disappear.
âIt means I broke a rule, and they are here to retrieve Life?â
Thinking that, Lee Gun attacked before they could finish their words.
Kwahng!!!
The public servants became frightened when Lee Gun suddenly sent Heavenâs Punishment toward them like a boomerang.
[Ahhk! W-Why are you suddenly acting like this?]
âWhy else? You guys are probably here thinking I used some kind of trickery. Thatâs why youâre here to retrieve Life, right?â
[What?! Retrieve? No way! You have it wrong!]
[Thatâs right! We just donât want to lose a candidate who can become the Great Zodiac!]
[Yes! At this rate, the Serpent Bearerâs body will be damagedâŚ!!]
When it came to the words of others, Lee Gun refused to listen for more than three seconds, yet even he was interested in their words. âDo you have a good solution?â
[YesâŚ! We will help you awaken completely as the god of Cycle.]
[If you raise Life to stage 5, you will be able to use the power of Cycle! You will be able to revive even gods!]
Lee Gunâs eyes flashed. âWhatâs the method?â
[Yes! You should sell Life to a different Zodiac who specializes in growth. You should let that Zodiac stabilize Death. Life can be given to another too.]
[If you do so, you can take it back after a thousand years!]
[Moreover, the price is cheap! You just have to give up the 600%-faith Construct!]
[Your Divine statuses can be grown by merely giving up a single Construct! Itâs an excellent dealâŚ]
âHave you lost your mind, bastards!!!â Lee Gunâs magical energy shot out frighteningly.
âMiss Jiwoo, my nephew, and my niece would be dead in a thousand years. In fact, they could reincarnate ten times in that time, bastards!â
The public servants screamed when they were surrounded by the golden green light. It seemed the power of Cycle was out of the ordinary.
[K-Kuh-huhk! You will never be able to become the god of Cycle without using this method!]
[That is correct! There were cases in the past similar to the Cycle. Some were able to raise their Divine statuses in a 6:4 ratio, but none of them survived!]
[Youâre only alive because you were lucky! It is unclear how long you can last with that ringâ]
âFuck off!! Why donât I just kill you guys to acquire Life EXP?â
[W-What?]
[W-What are youâŚ!]
Lee Gunâs eyes turned violent.
[Life stage 3 used Creation to inflict harmful diseases against the gods.]
[Life has gained EXP.]
[Life has gained EXP.]
[Life has gained EXP.]
The light of torture emanated from Life.
* * *
Around that time, in an emergency room near Lee Gunâs holy groundâŚ
Boom!!
Those inside the hospital became surprised when they heard the loud noise from outside.
âW-What the hell! Is it another monster?â
The city was already a mess because of Confusion. Moreover, the aftereffect of Confusion remained, and a monster could show up from anywhere.
The disciples within the hospital quickly headed outside. Of course, they werenât the only ones on their guard.
âLee Gun-nimâŚ!â
It was a single-person hospital room. Those who had been looking over the fallen Chun Jiwoo gulped. This was to be expected since they had no idea what was going on outside. Then there was Hugoâs head, which had been delivered as a present.
âThat was clearly the doing of Confusion.â
It was uncommon for Lee Jaewon to show murderous intent. His eyes were bloodshot. The energy left behind in the box told the story. Even the Chun siblings and the Archer disciples had lost their cool.
If Lee Gun hadnât stepped forward and Chun Jiwoo hadnât lost consciousness, everyone would have lost their mind in trying to find Confusion.
After Lee Gun had gone out, they had felt a clash of unimaginable magical energies from the park.
âI still canât feel the power of the Serpent Bearer.â
Something had happened to Lee Gun.
Chun Sungjae gritted his teeth as he looked after Chun Jiwoo.
âUncle rejected the Return skill.â
It was a warning telling him not to come. To make matters worse, everyone was still in a state of shock from what had happened to Hugo. If something bad happened to Lee Gun tooâŚ!
âIâll kill Confusion.â
It wouldnât just be him. Sungjae would kill all the monsters even if he had to go down into a blaze.
âS-Something big happened!â
â!!â
The youngest Archer disciple came running urgently. He had gone to assess the situation at the park.
âLee Gun-nimâŚ!!â
It was unclear as to what he had seen, but the youngest discipleâs face was frozen.
In the end, Lee Jaewon lost his cool. He couldnât stand it any longer and grabbed his weapon. His reaction was understandable since Lee Gun hadnât been well.
âThat bastard took down Lee Gun-nim after he killed Hugo-nimâ!â
âLee Gun-nim took care of Confusion!!â
âYes! As expected, Lee Gun-nim took care of Confusionâ What?â
Lee Jaewon and Goat were shocked as they looked at their youngest disciple.
The youngest disciple shouted once again as if he was frustrated by their response. âLee Gun-nim got rid of Confusion!!â
âWhat?!!â
At that momentâŚ
âYou guys are here.â
â!â
The Chun siblings were surprised by the familiar voice. They raised their heads.
A familiar face stood near the door.
âUncle!â
It looked like they were about to cry as they hugged their uncle. On the other hand, Lee Jaewon and Goat were surprised.
âHis energy has changed.â
This might be the reason they were unable to feel the energy of the Serpent Bearer. He must have awakened a new Divine status. Well, it didnât matter.
When the Chun siblings saw the uninjured Lee Gun, they burst out crying. Everything had happened so suddenly, and the trauma inflicted on them was large.
Lee Gun patted them as he asked, âWhat about Miss Jiwoo? Is she ok?â
âMom isâŚ! Momâs fine! She just lost consciousness for a short timeâŚâ
âThey say the baby is fine too, but Dad isâŚ!â
Lee Gun knew what they wanted to say. âItâs fine. Iâll be able to save your dad.â
ââŚ!â
âReally?â
Lee Gun stroked their heads as he looked at their tear-ridden faces. Reviving Hugo wouldnât be hard. The only problem wasâŚ
[The target is a Divine-rank.]
[He cannot be called back with stage 4 âReturn Life.â]
As he suspected, he needed Life stage 5 to revive a Divine-rank. The public servants of the Divine world had also said so earlier. Then what about Life stage 5?
âIn the past, it was said that Time could become EXP for Life.â
That meant Lee Gun had only one goal.
âIâll disassemble Timeâs body to use it as EXP for Life.â
However, something bothered him.
[Clump of Creation Clayâs eyes are twinkling as it says something was left behind.]
Stuck to Lee Gunâs shoulder, Lime took out something. It seemed the slime had taken something out of Confusionâs body when Lee Gun had killed him with the power of Cycle. Unexpectedly, it was data.
ââŚ?â
Lee Gunâs eyes turned round. It was to be expected.
[Heart of the Original Owners of the seats of the twelve Zodiacs.]
ââŚ?â
It seemed this data had come out since he had used the power of Cycle. Like what happened with Oblivion, the data of the original owner had come out. Lee Gun also knew what this meant.
[Clump of Creation Clay thinks something good will come out if this is used as an ingredient.]
[Clump of Creation Clay says it likes Masterâs younger form.]
After receiving the item, Lee Gun looked at the slime as if it was suspicious. If he thought about the situation, the slime had swapped out Hugoâs body without him knowing about that.
Moreover, it had swallowed him at the most crucial moment to show that Hugoâs head had been fake.
Lee Gunâs eyes flashed dangerously as he stretched slimeâs cheeks. âLime.â
Lime grumbled as if it was in pain.
âBe honest with me. Who bribed you?â
Lime started to sweat.
* * *
[Master, events are developing oddly.]
Timeâs camp was in a state of emergency right now. No one could have imagined Confusion could be killed. After all, Confusion was Timeâs younger brother.
âHe might hate his older brother, but he always gathered EXP for Master throughout the countless returns to the past.â
Since they were brothers, Confusion was affected by Timeâs return to the past. The two were always stuck together, and it was why Confusion was that much stronger.
Of course, Confusion was rebellious too, so Time had stuck him inside the body of a human. However, he was still a being akin to a great monarch.
[A person like that wasâŚ!]
Time was someone who always laughed, but this time, he couldnât. If he were being honest, he had never thought his younger brother could die at the hands of Lee Gun.
âEven if Death is amazing, it canât kill him.â
Yet he had died. However, it wasnât through Life or Death! It was through the power of Cycle!
Time had purposefully stirred the pot with his younger brother before unleashing him. He knew Confusion would raise Lee Gunâs Divine status of Death.
The best-case scenario was Lee Gun awakening as the god of Death after reaching stage 5. If things went wrong, Lee Gun would reach stage 6, but Time hadnât been worried about that.
It would be troublesome, but he knew Lee Gun would self-destruct in the end. He would destroy humanity in his berserk state and wither away. Time just had to recover what he wanted at that point.
[Huh. I never expected him to release the power of Cycle.]
His subordinates looked taken aback.
[Master. That means the planâŚ!]
Time stood up.
[No. The plan hasnât been derailed.]
[!]
[I should be thankful since the power has grown to its full form. I donât have to do anything. I just have to steal his body.]
[ThenâŚ!]
[Deliver this message to humanity and all their Zodiac Saints. They have three days.]
[!]
[If they hand over Lee Gun, all of humanity will be spared.]
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!