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Chapter 105: Public Execution (2)
Chapter 105: Public Execution (2)
Chapter 105: Public Execution (2)
Hugo was dumbfounded. His mouth fell open. That bastard abandoned him and ran straight for his wife?
‘He was the one who said I should go to Sungjae since he was in danger!’ That little snake.
The Archer Saint was sure Lee Gun had done it on purpose, but he wasn’t in a position to even glare at the hospital room.
“Dad! Behind you!”
Hugo quickly turned his head at his son’s desperate warning.
“!”
The woman who he had sent flying with his bombardment should have fallen unconscious. Yet, she was running toward him. Her hands emitted an odd light as she aimed for him.
Flash!
The light gave Hugo an ominous feeling. For some reason, he knew he shouldn’t let it touch him. This ominous feeling became reality when the woman got close to him.
‘!’
The magical energy of the Saggitarius disappeared. ‘Shit! The power of my Zodiac…’ His divine protection instantly disappeared as well. This meant he was completely defenseless!
The woman grinned when she reached an arm’s distance from Hugo.
“…!”
Then she touched Hugo’s heart!
Hugo realized something had gone wrong at that moment. Another explosion erupted.
Kwahng!!
The explosion was so incredible that it seemed as though two tanks had collided. Flames engulfed the surroundings, and an orange light spread everywhere.
Kwah-gwa-gwa-gwahng!
The explosion blasted away the forest, and the strange rays of light melted the birds.
“Saint-nim!”
The disciples’ shocked voices boomed in the air. It was as if the woman had wanted to self-destruct alongside Hugo.
A deep sinkhole now lay on the floor, and the large coniferous trees had instantly turned into ash. In terms of the power, the explosion was strong enough to disintegrate someone.
Lee Jaewon and Goat had watched it all. Devastated, they sank to the ground. Their reactions were understandable.
‘Saint-nim’s protection vanished.’
The disciples received their Zodiac’s blessing through their Zodiac Saint. The blessing would never disappear unless their Zodiac Saint was dead! The disciples knew what this implied.
“Saint-nim!”
Chun Sungjae’s face hardened. The young man possessed excellent sensing ability, and he had also felt his father’s energy disappear alongside the explosion. His legs turned wobbly without him realizing it, and his hands shook.
“Dad!”
At that moment…
“Kuh-huhk!”
A black object was flung out of the gray smoke.
“Cough! Cough!”
It was the woman. She clutched at her stomach as she retched.
Then, Hugo walked out of the smoke. “You’re still a kid. You shouldn’t blow yourself up.”
“Saint-nim!”
“Dad!”
The Archer Saint held his bow in one hand and a wristwatch in the other. The watch was what had caused the explosion. It seemed Hugo had wanted to save the woman who had intended to blow herself up.
Soon, Goat and Lee Jaewon approached Hugo in relief.
“Are you ok? That explosion was out of the ordinary.”
“We were worried because our blessings disappeared.”
Hugo reacted as if they were speaking rubbish. Taking off his ruined clothes, he replied, “This isn’t enough to kill me.”
He was a Saint; his body contained the god of the sun. It would be unharmed even if he jumped into lava.
As expected of his Saint! Goat looked deeply moved by Hugo’s words.
“Whatever! It won’t change the fact that Uncle can defeat him with one punch.”
“?!”
The remark left Hugo dumbfounded. He turned his head and caught sight of the pouting Chun Sungjae.
“Don’t try to act so cool, Dad.”
This made Hugo even more dumbfounded. “You really are going to say that to your father!”
“You might get yourself killed.”
“…!” Hugo was surprised.
His son clenched his mouth shut as he said, “Whatever! Why don’t you fix that broken bow?”
“What? Bow?” Hugo turned his head to see what Sungjae meant. Then, a scream escaped his mouth. “Ahk! The bow Gun made for me!”
His bow was broken in half. Hugo had haphazardly used the bow to block the explosion, and that had led to this.
The despairing Archer Saint tried to piece together the bow. “Fuck! Gun is going to kill me.”
Although Lee Gun didn’t look like it, he was a perfectionist. He claimed it wasn’t true, but even the items he created in boredom weren’t sloppy. That was why he showed great affection toward his items.
Lee Gun had said he would break Hugo’s back if Hugo broke his bow again. And the bow was broken to this extent? Hugo touched his face.
Moreover, it also made this development stranger. Why?
‘Even if it’s for temporary use, it’s an item Gun made. There’s no way it would have broken easily.’
Lee Gun was skilled enough to satisfy the Zodiacs, who were very picky. How great was his skill?
Amongst the Constructs under the Sagittarius was a one-eyed blacksmith. Even the divine weapons such a being made were chopped liver in front of Lee Gun’s weapons.
It also might be the reason the bow had broken. Hugo wasn’t sure of it, but this was probably related to the power that had eliminated the magical energy of a Zodiac.
All the items Lee Gun made were sturdy, but this one was for temporary use.
– I made it in haste, so I didn’t pay attention to its durability. Well, the durability will be supplemented a bit once you infuse it with your Zodiac’s magical energy.
This meant that Lee Gun had taken the magical energy of his Zodiac into the equation when making the bow. The process was done without even a 0.00001 mg of error. Lee Gun was perfect in these matters.
The loss of durability was inevitable since the divine magical energy was gone!
“Saint-nim!”
“!”
Seeing the woman move again, Goat and Hugo were distressed. Their magical energies had disappeared.
“!”
This meant the magical arrows they had loaded up had vanished as well. It flustered them.
“Shit! I can’t shoot my arrows like this…”
The Archer Saint’s arrows were made from magical energy. Hugo had physical arrows as well, but he couldn’t take them out right now. They were within a bag that could only be called forth with divine magical energy.
At this point, Hugo realized that he was right. He glared at the woman. “It’s as I suspected. That woman erases divine magical energy.”
“What?!”
“Unsheathe your blades for now!”
The flustered Archer disciples and Chun Sungjae quickly unsheathed their short swords.
“What should we do next?”
“I got nothing!”
“What?!”
“Saint-nim!”
“I don’t have a plan, but you guys have to protect yourselves!”
Chun Sungjae had high hopes, so his father’s remark left him flabbergasted. “This is why Uncle should’ve come here instead of Dad! Why did Dad have to come here?”
“What? Is that really something you should say to your father?”
“I don’t know! You suck, Dad! You really suck!”
It didn’t matter in the end. There was a reason Hugo had said he didn’t have a plan.
“She is a Secretary.”
“Secretary?”
Hugo furrowed his brows. The Archer Saint knew about “Secretaries.” He had heard about their existence from his Zodiac.
In simple words, a Secretary was like the narrator for a Zodiac and its temple. They were the ones who captured time. They were like the wandering minstrels who spread past heroic tales. The secretaries compiled the history of the Zodiacs and their disciples through written words in a book. This book was called the Zodiac’s “Bible.”
Written words lasted longer than oral tradition. What the secretaries did was an effort to make the Zodiacs and their disciples be remembered for a very long time.
No matter what dimension they were in, the Zodiacs didn’t want their heroic stories to be erased. Therefore, the stories were engraved on a dimensional level.
The Secretaries were called spectators of history, and they were considered unique by the Zodiacs and their temples. Therefore, all the twelve Zodiacs coveted Secretaries who could record their existence. After all, as the number of their believers increased, their temple became stronger.
‘Zodiacs are born through the belief of humans.’
The Zodiac perished when there were no believers. This was why the power of the temples faltered just from the disciples leaving them.
The Secretaries could solidify the existence of the Zodiacs. They could help a Zodiac reach the seat of an absolute god.
‘However, the Secretaries are like double-edged swords.’
While the Secretaries could record the history of a temple, they could erase it too. They possessed special editing and deleting abilities. They could wipe out a Zodiac’s magical energy and achievements.
Amongst a temple’s various roles for the disciples, the Secretary was the scariest. Temples could go extinct without achievements and faith.
In truth, it was said that there had been a lot of Secretaries in the past. However…
‘They tried to erase the Zodiacs from existence.’
The secretaries were an unyielding group. The Zodiacs had asked them to write good stories about them. Instead, the secretaries belittled and forged their achievements.
This led to temples being ruined. The Zodiacs were almost extinguished. And so, the Secretaries were jailed in a special prison.
Even though the Zodiacs coveted the Secretaries’ power, the Secretaries showed a propensity for being dangerous. So, they were either killed or imprisoned. This had happened over twenty years ago.
The Constructs had eradicated all the Secretaries, yet one was standing in front of them.
‘What happened?’
However, Hugo’s shock lasted only a moment.
“Saint-nim!”
His eyes flashed. Although he had earlier said that there was no way to deal with her, it didn’t mean he would sit on his hands.
“!”
At that moment, the woman’s eyes flashed as she used an odd ability.
Hugo felt fear. He had heard his Zodiac dissipate.
***
At the same time…
“I think something happened in the forest.”
“What’s going on?”
The people within the hospital talked amongst themselves. All the doctors, nurses, and patients had gathered around the windows. The forest was quite far away from the hospital, but the situation was unmistakable.
“It was faint, but I heard an explosion!”
“I think the high-rank disciples are fighting…”
“I saw Chun Sungjae head in that direction earlier!”
“What? Chun Sungjae?”
Amongst the crowd gathered at the windows were some anxious people as well.
‘Sungjae!’ One of them was Chun Sungjae’s mother, Chun Jiwoo.
Suh Jihoon, the youngest disciple of the Sagittarius temple, held her back. “You don’t have to worry about Sungjae. I saw Saint-nim head in that direction.”
In truth, Chun Jiwoo was more worried because Hugo had gone there too!
Suddenly…
Kwahng!
The sound of an explosion rang out, and the hospital’s wall crumbled.
“Kyahhhhhk!”
A large beast had burst through the wall.
“A bear!”
When the violent bear that was over five meters long appeared inside the hospital, all hell broke loose.
“What the hell! How did a monster get inside the hospital?”
“This place has received the blessing of a Zodiac!”
“The blessing is gone!”
It frightened everyone.
Suh Jihoon quickly took out his bow. He was about to shoot his arrows when…
“Uh…?!” The surprised Suh Jihoon watched his arrow disappear like smoke. “What the hell? My magical energy!”
The beast violently roared.
Boom! Boom!
It was as if the beast was looking for someone. Moreover, finding who that person was wasn’t hard.
“Keep back!” Suh Jihoon quickly jumped in front of Chun Jiwoo.
At the same time, the paw of the beast fell on his head.
Kwah-jeek!
Suh Jihoon clenched his eyes shut when he felt the pain hit him.
“Koo-oohk!”
Blood erupted into the air. Suh Jihoon bit his lips. ‘Is this how it ends?’
The temple of the Sagittarius was always known for long-range fighting, and they were vulnerable to pain caused by close-quarter fights.
Of course, he would feel like dying from pain if a monster like this hit him. This was why Suh Jihoon admired Lee Gun, who could shrug off attacks like these as though they were nothing.
“Huh-uhk! It hurts! It really hurts… It is killing me!” Suh Jihoon felt something amiss, so he opened his eyes.
“That’s odd. I should be dead….?” He was confused. However, when he saw the scene in front of him, he screamed. “Ah!”
Lee Gun was standing in front of Suh Jihoon, grabbing the bear by its neck with one hand.
This confused Suh Jihoon. “What the hell? What about the blood? What was the blood earlier?!”
He screamed when he felt blood continue to drip on his head.
“Ahk!”
The blood was coming from the bear’s head.
“Ahk! Blood! It’s bleeding from the head!”
Lee Gun looked at Suh Jihoon as if this Archer disciple was pathetic. “Did they gather only idiots in the Sagittarius temple?”
It was said that the Sagittarius picked its disciple by their looks, and seemingly, it had chosen only comedians.
However, Lee Gun didn’t have the time to continue clicking his tongue.
“Koo-hoo-uhk!”
The bear twitched as it let out a murderous intent.
Lee Gun laughed and squeezed.
Crunch!
“You can’t even take a single punch. How dare you?” His snake eyes flashed!
Poo-hahk!
Lee Gun instantly obliterated the bear’s head. Then, he tossed the bear without much effort.
Boom!
The surprised Suh Jihoon lay on the ground as he shook.
“Such a huge beast… With one hand…”
Lee Gun looked more like a monster than the bear.
When Suh Jihoon turned his head, however, he got more and more shocked.
“Ahk!”
The path Lee Gun had taken was littered with monster corpses. It was as if the man was announcing to the world that he had walked this path.
Suh Jihoon shook at the sight. “Did you kill all of them while coming here? What about Sungjae?”
“Things were more urgent over here.” After arriving here, Lee Gun had realized a suspicious person had infiltrated the hospital.
“Taeksoo went to Sungjae. He’s always grumpy about his son. He deserves to die if he can’t even protect his son.”
“Then…”
“It’s fine. What about Miss Jiwoo?”
“Ah, ah…! She’s fine! She’s over there!”
Lee Gun turned his head, and the sight left him surprised.
“Kyaaaa!”
A gorgeous woman stood there. She was beside herself. Moreover, she looked very young. If not for her hospital gown, Lee Gun would have mistaken her for a young nurse from the hospital.
The anxious woman looked at Lee Gun. “Oh my! This is so sudden. I’m not wearing any makeup… Oh my! I’m wearing hospital clothes. Before that… My husband… Lee Gun-nim! My oh my! Kyaaa!”
When Chun Jiwoo met Lee Gun’s eyes, she became shy. She hid behind the door as she sank to the ground.
Lee Gun tilted his head when he saw Chun Jiwoo.
[You feel an unknown yet powerful power from her.]
He was about to look closer at what it was when…
“Excuse me! What about Mr. Hugo!” Chun Jiwoo asked him with worry.
Lee Gun let out a wicked smile. “He’s fine. I sent someone trustworthy.”
Trustworthy?