Chapter 273: Who was it? (1)
Hugo was taken aback.
‘What was it?’
He urgently looked at his surroundings.
“Dad?”
Something was wrong. He felt as if he had forgotten someone important, someone he should never forget. Moreover, he got an ominous feeling that, that person would never come back if he forgot them.
So, he asked, “Yooha. Sungjae. Who was here right now… No. Who were we serving right now?”
“Serve? Of course, Dad serves Sagittarius. We serve Leo and Gemini.”
“Ah! I’m not talking about that baldie! This person couldn’t care less about others, and he dipped into my pocket at will! He’s a hikikomori and an ungrateful idiot. He’s also a psychopath!”
The mouths of the Chun siblings fell open.
“Dad. You lent him money?”
Why was he serving someone like that? Wouldn’t it be appropriate to cut off such a person?
Hugo desperately looked at his phone. He went through his messages, photo albums, and even voice messages. “What the hell? Why isn’t it here? I stored it in permanent storage.”
“What’s missing?”
“I don’t know!”
“What???”
“I don’t know what it is, but it should be here…! It was something very recent.”
He felt as if the voicemails he had saved were especially important. It was as though he had been despairing over something he had lost for a very long time before he found it again.
Moreover, he hadn’t changed his number for the past twenty years because of this person.
“When the Devil’s Tower fell, someone came out…”
“Dad?”
Hugo suddenly screamed. “Devil’s Tower!! Who destroyed it?”
“Who else? Of course, it was destroyed by the monsters within it!”
“That’s right. There is no way a human could destroy the tower considered to be the worst.”
“…!” Hugo was confused.
Of course, his children were right. The Devil’s Tower was a sealed place because the twelve Zodiac Saints could do anything about it. However, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was off.
‘It is a place we gave up on. So who defeated the boss, Red Eye?’
At that moment, Hugo had a realization. He asked, “What about the person who came out of there?!”
“What?”
“A person came out of there! That person is….”
“Ah…!”
This time, the Chun siblings showed a reaction.
“I remember a big commotion on the news…”
[It was a corpse.]
“!”
An unfamiliar man suddenly appeared in front of them.
Everyone was surprised at his appearance.
“Oh, great Zodiac of the Gemini temple!”
Chun Sungjae, a disciple of the Gemini temple, was especially surprised. “Why has the Zodiac appeared in front of us lowly beings?”
The one before them was one of the Gemini twins. Named Frey, he was the twin brother of Freya, the goddess of love who had had been killed using the bible earlier.
Frey was also the owner of the fairies. And since he was the twin of the goddess of beauty, he was a handsome Zodiac.
Gemini smirked as he appeared before the humans. It was as if he was trying to make sure Hugo and his party would be unable to remember anything related to Lee Gun.
[A human didn’t exit the Devil’s Tower. It was a corpse.]
“…!”
[Foolish and ignorant humans. The media did talk about it. It was about the curious humans who went into the Devil’s Tower but were unable to make it back out alive. It was about their corpses.]
In truth, a commotion had happened when a corpse similar to Lee Gun in height and size had appeared. However, none of them could remember the existence of Lee Gun right now.
“Uh… You’re right, but didn’t they say the corpse looked similar to someone?”
[The corpse looked similar to a Zodiac Saint.]
“!”
[It was big news because someone who revered the Zodiac Saints went in cosplaying as a Zodiac Saint.]
“Ah… That’s right. I believe that happened.”
Frey laughed at their reaction.
‘This is the end of the road for the thirteenth!’
He had been as angry as he could be since his twin sister had died at Lee Gun’s hands. That was why he had purposefully let his skill run amok to get rid of Lee Gun’s existence. He got on the nerves of Oblivion to bring out its true body, and he planned on shoving Lee Gun into it.
Of course, Lee Gun was a battle-type god. Frey had thought it would be tough to put Lee Gun into Oblivion. So he had brought the strongest Constructs, who were imprisoned in the basement of the Gemini temple.
However, then something unexpected had happened!
‘I never expected that idiot to enter it on his own!’
Lee Gun had caused so much headache, yet he turned out to be an idiot! Frey held back his laughter.
‘He probably thinks he can get rid of Oblivion like how he did with Abyss and Abundance. He jumped in, thinking he could acquire its power.’
However, that would be impossible. Oblivion was a powerful being that could make itself forget its own existence! It was a monster that monarchs and Zodiacs would never approach!
Yet Lee Gun had jumped into such a place without much thought?
‘The thirteenth will cease to exist.’
Since no disciples were left to worship Lee Gun as a god, he would lose his Divine status. He would cease to exist.
Gods like Frey could remember the existence of the thirteenth for now, but…
‘Soon, he’ll be erased from our memories too. That bastard won’t be able to use the power of the Serpent Bearer.’
Even the Zodiacs had a hard time erasing the existence of a god, so this was a great development.
“Uh! Dad! Your bow is…!”
“!”
Hugo was surprised. For some reason, he had been clutching at his bow as if it was something precious.
The “Bow made out of Fish” started to melt away. Hugo tried to gather the bow in surprise, but the bow disappeared without a trace from his hands.
Unlike his normal self, Hugo seemed shocked and in despair. The Chun siblings were surprised to see this.
“What’s wrong? Was it something expensive?”
“No… It was free, but…”
“Everything is fine then.” Frey smirked.
This proved that Lee Gun had ceased to exist.
‘It is done! The thirteenth will cease to exist. It’s what we had wanted.’
He wouldn’t mind if that scum of a Zodiac never existed in the first place. So Frey spoke up.
[Do not worry. I’ll make you another bow—]
“Who destroyed the tower?”
[!]
Hugo glared at Frey. “Let’s say that a corpse came out of the tower. Who destroyed the Devil’s Tower then?”
[I said the monsters within it destroyed it.]
“If the monsters within the tower destroyed it, who killed the monsters?”
“!”
“The monsters were sealed because the Zodiac Saints couldn’t get rid of them. If they had come out, it would have caused a big commotion. I don’t remember any news saying they were killed.”
[Withdraw your suspicions. The Zodiacs were the ones to destroy the Devil’s Tower. The mighty gods destroyed all the monsters within it for humanity.]
“That doesn’t sound right.”
[!]
Hugo glared at Frey. “Something feels off about the information that the Zodiacs destroyed the Devil’s Tower and Red Eye. If you were capable of doing such a thing, why couldn’t you get rid of the unknown civilization for the past twenty years?”
The Chun siblings’ eyes turned round.
Frey furrowed his brow. That damn bastard! He was always the dark horse. Without Hugo, it would have been game over as soon as Oblivion’s magic had been used!
‘He is the reason why my sister…!’
Frey could kill Hugo right now, yet it wouldn’t be satisfying. Moreover, the situation had changed.
‘Yes. It’ll be a shame to kill him.’
It was rare to find disciples with more than 100% faith. Someone like Hugo would throw away his life for his Zodiac. He would also help in growing EXP and refill the Zodiac’s Divine status. Hugo was someone who couldn’t be acquired even if one wanted someone like him. Moreover, his faith was 600%.
‘I cannot kill someone like that.’
Up until now, calling forth Oblivion’s true form had been too dangerous. Yet, Frey had called it forth, and that had been worthwhile.
‘Now that the thirteenth is gone, I can switch out the thirteenth for Gemini.’
He would be able to cause a distortion of that magnitude. This was how he would get his revenge for his sister against Lee Gun.
[What are you doing? He dares show contempt and doubt toward a god.]
Chun Sungjae flinched when Frey shouted. The Zodiac was calling for his disciples. Sungjae’s body reacted as a Gemini disciple, yet something was wrong. “Uh. What the hell? I can’t even use first-degree magic. It seems I’m not a Gemini disciple?”
[…!]
They glared at Frey.
Frey became mad as his eyes flashed.
[How dare humans look at a Zodiac with disdain!]
Suddenly, a luminescent circle appeared below Hugo’s feet.
[Eternal Cycle]
It was a gate heading toward the Fairy Garden. This magic skill extracted and broke down a soul by force. The skill revived the being as a fairy. It would create a being like Mimir, but Frey didn’t care.
Hugo became vigilant when he felt Frey’s greed. He took out another bow.
[Forced Missionary]
The risk was high, but this skill could bind a soul.
“?!”
At that moment, Frey suddenly looked at Oblivion.
* * *
Gohhhhhhhhh.
Hailey was drowning in the ocean of Oblivion. It looked like the endless ocean of Abyss, yet Hailey knew it for what it was.
‘Oblivion.’
It was a being that dragged around the fog. The fog coalesced to create Oblivion’s body, and from inside, it looked like an endless ocean.
Once someone fell within it, they would never be able to surface again. From their recent memories to their most precious memories, they would lose it all. In the end, they would forget even their own existence.
As if to show proof of this, familiar sights appeared within the ocean of Oblivion.
[You aren’t human?]
[Saint-nim! This is bad! The Devil’s Tower has fallen!]
It was as if memories were being pulled out of Hailey’s head. Her memories disappeared in ones and twos.
Her most recent memories were comparatively less important to her.
[What is this woman talking about? You were the one to put poison in his food, so I took it out. I replaced it with herbal medicine!]
[You are the one who put poison in it.]
Then there were the memories she didn’t want to lose.
[What are you doing so far away?]
[Do you want to eat this?]
They were the memories of her occasionally meeting Lee Gun during raids.
As the memories disappeared one by one, Hailey felt her heart break. All her memories disappeared one by one, until it was the time for her most treasured memory.
It was when she had met Lee Gun for the first time, when she had been young.
[She smells like a human. She is dirty.]
[Why hasn’t the monarch killed her yet?]
[She can’t even eat humans or gods. We have to bring her lowly foods. It’s annoying as hell.]
[It’s fine. This time, he’s going to send her to the other side. She’ll be a useful piece.]
[Is that so?]
It was the year 2000, before the unknown civilization had invaded the earth.
Hailey had been scorned, victimized, insulted, and abused. She had been called the dirty sewer rat princess and was sent to the earth as a tool to self-destruct.
When the invasion started in earnest, she would have to eliminate the leaders of humanity, who would get in the unknown civilization’s way the most.
Since she looked the most human, she would have an easy time approaching the humans. Moreover, her excellent looks would engender goodwill from humans.
However, after she had successfully completed her mission, Hailey had been close to dying.
But she traveled through time and space. In doing so, she met Lee Gun when he was a high school student.
Hailey had been able to activate the ability because she was the daughter of the Time monarch.
It had been a rainy day. Her body and face had been ruined, and she had been slowly dying in the streets when Lee Gun had rescued her.
[Are you awake?]
This was how the six-year-old Hailey was able to meet future Lee Gun. Moreover, she was able to spend time with him for a mere month.
When she returned to the past once again, her relationship with him had come to an end. However, it was enough.
At the time, she had given up on everything, yet Lee Gun was the only one who gave her the strength to keep on living. He was the one who allowed her to have goodwill toward humans.
When the unknown civilization had invaded, he had been the only one Hailey had wished would survive.
This was why she had become a Zodiac Saint; she had decided to protect the normal Lee Gun from a distance.
Of course, she had never expected to meet him as the thirteenth awakened being. When she met him again, his face and heart had been ruined. His heart held only hatred for monsters and Zodiac Saints.
Moreover, Lee Gun didn’t remember her at all, but it didn’t matter.
[Kitty. Let’s hurry up and go play with Oppa.]
It was the only memory that allowed her not to give up on life. However…
Sss-rook!
Oblivion finally started stealing her most precious memory, the memory of her time travel when she was young, the memory of meeting him.
Unlike his current self, Lee Gun had laughed with kindness. It was the last memory of Lee Gun’s face, which she didn’t want to lose.
Hailey felt like crying. However, she had only one worry at that moment, as her most precious memory was being stolen.
‘Ah! The item… I have to deliver it to him.’
She couldn’t remember his name. She wasn’t able to see his existence in her thoughts. Yet, the only thought that remained in her mind was that she had to deliver the item to him.
‘No….’
At that moment…
“!”
Someone grabbed her hand. Someone had grabbed her hand within the quagmire of Oblivion, the deepest part of the ocean of Oblivion.
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