Lee Gun’s disappearance surprised everyone within the building.

“Uncle?!”

“Gun!”

He hadn’t merely disappeared.

“The Scorpio Saint kidnapped him!”

“!!”

Of course, it wasn’t teleportation. The only ones who could use teleportation were magicians of the Gemini temple and Chun Sungjae. However, the other Zodiac Saints immediately recognized what had happened.

‘That is the Zodiac Saint’s Return skill…!’

It meant there was only one destination.

‘The holy ground of the Scorpio temple!’

However, the problem was that their opponent was the Scorpio temple.

‘The holy ground of Scorpio temple remains hidden.’

The Scorpio temple was different from the famous Leo and Virgo temples, the main buildings of whose holy grounds were known to the world. 

The Scorpio temple was known as the temple of thieves. Like how it was with the Cancer temple, this temple’s holy grounds were hidden. Only the disciples knew the location of the holy ground.

In other words, Hailey had gone all-in on kidnapping Lee Gun.

Because of her actions, the Chun siblings were spitting fire from their mouths. 

Yeonwoo and Hugo were also taken aback. The one most surprised in this situation was Hugo.

‘I…I never would have expected Hailey to spirit Gun away.’

No, that wasn’t the problem. Hugo had heard it clearly right before they had disappeared.

- If you don’t call dibs on it, someone else will steal it. If you don’t call dibs on it…

It was the words that Hailey had been muttering under her breath as she grabbed Lee Gun’s hand! Obviously, she was worried about what Abyss had said.

‘Maybe… Can it be?’

Would he finally be able to see Gun’s children?! Hugo put his hand over his mouth. Finally, he would be able to see his cute nieces and nephews, who would follow their uncle with 600% faith!!!

On the other hand, Abyss looked furious that Lee Gun had been stolen from her.

[What does she think she is doing right now?]

“!”

She had sourced herself up to come here. A chaotic power emanated from Abyss.

[How dare you steal the snake god in front of me!]

“Wait a moment….”

[Moreover, you disappeared while I was looking?]

“You shouldn’t…!”

[I just came here for my fair compensation!!!]

Hugo became angry when faced with Abyss’s rage. “Damn it! That’s enough. Put on some clothes and get the hell out of our house!!”

Abyss didn’t seem to care as the nightmarish shadow started destroying her surroundings. 

Hugo glared at her. “Hey! Didn't you hear me?! Get out of here!”

[I heard nothing, damn Eternal Change!! I won’t agree to it even if a first-generation is asking!]

Hugo flinched, and the Chun siblings tilted their heads in puzzlement.

“First generation?”

“Eternal Change?”

They looked at him as if they wanted to know what she was talking about. However, they didn’t even have time to ask the question.

Kwahng!!

“Koohk!”

Abyss changed back into her original, familiar form. 

Kooh-goo-goohng!

It was the whale form, which they had seen in the Pacific Ocean and the Divine world. The enormous whale let out a violent roar as she started destroying the building. It seemed she wanted to get revenge on those who had interrupted her.

Of course, the Serpent Bearer’s barrier was placed over the building, so it didn’t instantly turn into dust.

Hugo got angry. For the past twenty years, he wasn’t treated like one of the twelve heroes, and the only wealth to his name was this building.

‘Of course, I have an excessive amount of wealth accumulated thanks to Gun, but…’

Anyway, Hugo bared his teeth when he saw his precious house being destroyed. “Don’t destroy our house! I paid off the mortgage not too long ago, asshole!”

[Shut up! Get out of the way before I send you to Wind— Oohp!!]

Hugo sent an attack toward her face to shut her up. Then he shouted as he took the plunge, “Let’s negotiate with Gun as the subject!”

[What?]

“You want to do it with Gun, right? I’ll make that happen!”

[!]

The expressions on the faces of Yeonwoo and his children were a sight to behold.

Hugo didn’t care as he confidently yelled, “However, as you saw earlier, someone has Gun set in their sights.”

After having her face suddenly attacked, Abyss furrowed her brows.

[The ones aiming for the snake god? Are you talking about the ones who wanted the Creators?]

“Yes. If you help us get rid of them, I’ll arrange it so that you can meet up with Gun!”

As soon as he spoke, a terrifying killing intent could be felt behind him.

“Dad?”

The terrifying killing intent was coming from three people. Hugo was afraid to turn around, but he spoke firmly. He tried to get them to stand down. 

“Miss Yeonwoo. They are enemies that are dangerous to Gun, right?”

Yeonwoo’s eyes turned round when Hugo whispered to her. Hugo’s question had to do with the beings that had appeared earlier.

“There were times in the past when Gun was unable to move. I believe they caused it… They are dangerous, right?”

When Yeonwoo nodded, Hugo followed up. “Please be precise. What are they?”

“In essence, they are evil gods. They are fallen gods. They killed the Primordial god, the king of the gods. They also sold the power of the Primordial god to the Cluders, and they were banished from the Divine world for that sin.”

“!”

In other words, they were fallen gods who had gone through with a coup d'état.

Yeonwoo monitored Hugo as she said, “It was precipitated by Eternal Change… The first-generation monarch defeated the Primordial God. The evil gods took advantage when the Primordial god was weakened…”

The Primordial god was the highest rank god who ruled over the Great Spirits. And the Creators followed him.

If Constructs became subordinates of Zodiacs to receive and use their power, the Zodiacs and Great Spirits had the same relationship with the Primordial god. He had been that big of an existence.

Of course, the Primordial god was killed by the evil gods and had his power stolen by them.

“However, the evil gods were unable to completely steal all of the Primordial god’s power. They were later caught and executed, but…”

“Wait a moment. Gun uses Cycle. Isn’t that one of the powers of the Primordial god?”

“Yes. The other powers, which were ripped away, were recovered from the evil gods and the monarchs by the Great Spirits. However, Cycle and one other power were never found again.”

The Great Spirits and the Zodiacs had gone through a lot of trouble trying to revive those powers.

Of course, all of them had failed. The factions considered the cream of the crop had failed. 

The only one who had succeeded in reviving Cycle was Lee Gun, and it was why the Divine world had been in an uproar.

“The evil gods that survived continued to covet the Divine world. They wanted to use the Creators to achieve their goals.”

Even a corpse of a Creator was a source of enormous power. In fact, Aslan’s corpse had been used to create monarchs.

‘The evil gods might have been the ones to float the idea of making monarchs using Creators.’

Monarchs were created using a variety of ingredients as a base, including trash, fragments, beasts, insects, corpses, and chaos.

In the case of the third-generation monarch Time, Aslan’s corpse was used as a base to make the monarch.

This was also true of the second-generation monarch Space-Time. The corpses of Creators from the generation of Aslan’s parents were used as the base to create the monarch.

Who had given out the information that the Creators’ corpses could be used to make monarchs?

‘I’m sure it was the evil gods.’

They were obsessed with Creators. There was a good chance that they wanted to make new monarchs using Lee Gun’s corpse.

‘It’s to be expected since a monarch like Time was made from Master's body.’

She couldn’t imagine what kind of monarch would be born from a corpse of Lee Gun’s caliber.

It seemed he had read her thoughts. Hugo secretly said, “The evil gods want to kill Gun and make monarchs from his corpse. Also, they are why Gun can’t move sometimes…”

“Yes. The evil gods know numerous forbidden techniques that should be left alone. They know how to make the Creators powerless. That’s why Gun can’t move…”

“This is why we should use Abyss.”

“!”

“At the end of the day, evil gods are gods. Monarchs are their mortal enemies. She sent them away earlier. She might be useful to us.”

That wasn’t all.

‘Wind won’t stand back and do nothing.’

Wind was the monarch desperate to create more monarch children. It wouldn’t surprise Hugo if Wind wanted to kill Lee Gun to make the fourth generation of monarchs.

‘It’s best to make a monarch work against another monarch.’

“Dad?”

When Hugo said that he would hook up Abyss with Lee Gun, his children sent dirty looks toward him. However, he told them off. He didn't plan on actually going through with it.

“How can you think so low of me? Of course, I’ll give that whale a clone version of Gun.”

With the power of Hugorodite, he could create as many clones as he liked. That is why he had to get rid of this nuisance first!

“Well? What do you want to do, whale? Will you accept the terms?”

Abyss was still enraged. She became worked up.

[Alright. However, I’ll eat you instead if you send a clone or something like that.]

Hiccup!

Hugo almost choked.

[Before we can make a deal, you guys have to find the Scorpio Saint first, right?]

Hugo shook when he felt Abyss’s gaze. “Ah. That won’t be a problem. I know their destination, so I’ll be able to find them in no time.”

He could find them, but….

Hugo started to sweat since he could guess what was going on in the meantime. It also had to do with the women next to him. Their eyes were flashing violently.

‘Miss Yeonwoo is becoming darker…’

* * *

A while ago…

Hailey had felt the energy of Abyss and had come toward Lee Gun. In the beginning, she hadn’t paid too much attention. Abyss roamed around, so Hailey thought the monarch was merely passing by.

However, the monarch was heading straight toward Lee Gun. Feeling something was off, Hailey had traveled to Lee Gun’s holy ground and found a naked Abyss. Hailey knew Abyss’s goal just from seeing this.

She knew what went through the minds of Cluders better than anyone else. This was why Hailey had gone berserk and kidnapped Lee Gun. This was a good thing, but…

‘I rushed it too much in kidnapping him!’

Hailey had used the Return skill. She groaned as she raised her head. It was supposed to be a skill used only on herself.

When she had moved Lee Gun with her in haste, she had tripped on her own feet.

‘I wonder if Lee Gun is ok. Where is he…’

Hailey was looking at her surroundings when she almost screamed.

‘?!’

For some reason, the ground had felt weird. It seemed she had fallen on top of Lee Gun. Moreover, Abyss had taken off Lee Gun’s shirt, so he was unconscious and wearing only his pants.

Hailey froze “G…Gun!!”

Taken aback, she quickly looked over at Lee Gun, but thankfully, Lee Gun was merely asleep. The reason was the ability of the Scorpio placed over the holy ground.

At that moment, Hailey was anxious.

‘I…I never planned on bringing him here for real.’

In the end, Hailey hugged Lee Gun, planning on returning him. However, her subordinates screamed toward her from her shadow.

[What are you doing? Hurry up and put dibs on him!!!]

“?!”

[This is your opportunity!]

O…Opportunity!

Hailey’s mind went faint.

[It’s an opportunity! Isn’t that why you brought him here?]

In truth, she had thought Lee Gun would be in danger if he was left next to Abyss. That was why she had brought him here without thinking too much! There had been no plan!

[Of course, you had a plan! If you return him right now, he’ll be stolen from you!]

[That’s right. You know what Abyss is like!]

[You have to put dibs on him!!!]

Hailey flinched. 

“That’s….” Hailey hesitated as she looked at Lee Gun.

She moved closer before she stopped. She once again moved before she came to a stop. Trying to be brave, she moved her face closer to Lee Gun’s lips.

At that moment…

“What are you doing?”

“…!!!”

Hailey screamed.

Lee Gun yawned as he looked at his surroundings. “Is this the holy ground of the Scorpio temple? The basic defensive skill must be ‘sleep.’”

He had a nice nap thanks to the sleeping skill. 

Lee Gun looked at Hailey. “So, why did you bring me here?”

“?!”

Hailey was taken aback by the unexpected question. When she had been told that he would be taken from her if she didn’t put dibs on him, she had kidnapped him on impulse…

She had been agonizing over her answer when…

“Ah! You kidnapped me because of Abyss, right? You didn’t need to do it, but thank you.”

Hailey covered her face as if she felt guilty.

At that moment, Lee Gun looked very interested in the holy ground of the Scorpio temple.

‘This is the first time I’ve visited the holy ground of the Scorpio temple.’

Unlike the other temples, the holy ground of the Scorpio temple wasn’t open to the public.

‘Is this the Zodiac Saint’s room?’

It was tranquil within the very beautiful building, which looked like a temple. 

When Lee Gun placed a hand on the wall of the building, he witnessed something bizarre.

[A portion of the Scorpio’s power is entering you.]

[A portion of the Scorpio’s memory is entering you]

“!”

It was the memory of the Divine world.

- Ah. Is it the new houseguest you spoke about?

A father and a very young son made an appearance.

Lee Gun was surprised when he saw the three-year-old child.

‘It’s the past Serpent Bearer.’

The young son was Aslan. A being who looked to be Scorpio spoke to the father and son.

- Yes. He will be staying with us… I might have to leave him with you guys.

Lee Gun was surprised for a different reason when he saw the man Scorpio introduced to the father and son.

‘Taeksoo.’

They didn’t look completely identical, but this man looked similar to Hugo. He was Eternal Change. This was the time when Eternal Change had met the Creator tribe.

At the same time, Lee Gun realized an important truth.

‘The Zodiac of the Scorpio Temple is a Creator. We are from the same tribe.’

He was the first leader of the Creators, and he might have been a Great Spirit.

Afterward, Lee Gun saw the Scorpio taking the short end of the stick from a smiling Eternal Change. The memory came to an end when that horrible scene flowed into Lee Gun.

At the same time, Lee Gun furrowed his brows as he pulled back his hand from the wall.

‘Is that why Scorpio hates Taeksoo?’

Well, it didn’t matter in the end,

“Hailey. I have a question I would like to ask…” 

Lee Gun was about to ask Hailey if he could meet Scorpio, but…

“!”

Hailey grabbed Lee Gun’s hand as he tried to get up. She seemed to have something to say, so he looked at her.

“!”

However, Hailey pulled his hand toward her chest, surprising him.

“…??!”

As his face became shadowed, Hailey’s face approached his. Her lips were gently lined up to his lips.

As a good smell hit him, Lee Gun fell over backward.