—As planned, please go and die for the operation.

Lee Woo-Hyuk, better known as the Black Lion, reacted first to that cold military command that could’ve came from a ruthless dictator.

He suddenly clutched his chest and gasped in apparent pain. “Guh...! Kugh!”

Seizing the opening, a demonic beast lunged at him and swung its scythe-like claws.

Swoosh!

It slashed his chest open, and a massive fountain of blood poured out. It was hard to believe a human carried so much blood.

The demonic beast triumphantly roared, convinced of its kill. “Grrrr! Kraaaa!”

Judging by the visceral sensation it felt when its claws struck and the sheer volume of blood, it was a lethal wound beyond question.

Lee Woo-Hyuk staggered as if he would collapse at any moment.

—Good. It seems they haven’t noticed the fake blood or wounds. Please go ahead and fall now.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s voice rang in his mind.

“Ugh... Damn it.”

To perfectly sell the performance, Lee Woo-Hyuk decided to add a bit of flair to his acting. “I was going to... propose to her after this battle.”

—Excuse me?

“I can’t believe... I lost...”

—Hey, please just die already?

“I’ll leave the rest... to you guys.”

—Oh my gosh. Just shut up and die.

What are you even doing, giving a death monologue to monsters?

“Kugh! Ack!” Lee Woo-Hyuk clutched his chest and collapsed dramatically.

Kwon Oh-Jin worried that the overdone acting would give it away.

“Grrrhhk!”

Fortunately, the demonic beast didn’t seem smart enough to notice. Seeing Lee Woo-Hyuk fall, it turned its back without any suspicion.

“Ahem! I can’t hold on much longer!”

“Kyahhh! I’m dyyyyying!”

—What is this, an elementary school play?

The sheer awkwardness of their performances gave Kwon Oh-Jin a headache.

Haaa. At least I expected this from the beginning.

None of them were trained actors, so he hadn’t expected real performances anyway.

—Everyone, stop talking and just move your mouths.

Using the Stigma of Capricorn, Kwon Oh-Jin created fake screams. Their earlier cringeworthy screams transformed into bloodcurdling cries of despair.

“Kugh!”

“Argh!”

One by one, the Awakeners collapsed in agony. Blood gushed out of their wounds so realistically that even the demonic beasts' keen senses couldn’t tell the difference.

Of course, this is Isabella’s work after all.

With the Stigma of Leech, she could easily create fake blood indistinguishable from the real thing. Even though the fake blood was made from animal blood, the stench still fooled the demonic beasts.

They howled victoriously. Normally, they would feast on the corpses. Just then, a thunderous roar echoed across the city as clouds of dust rose into the air.

Rumble!

While the special unit played bait, Alina’s main force had successfully entered Rome.

“Grrrhk... Enemy... attack.”

“Invaders... again.”

The demonic beasts muttered clumsily like people half-awake from anesthesia and turned toward the sound.

“Kill... invaders.”

The horde left toward the sound, leaving the tightly guarded gate entrance completely unprotected. Only the corpses of the special unit, who had bravely given their lives, remained.

“You can all get up now,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.

The supposedly dead Awakeners squirmed.

“Phew!”

“Did it work?” Sakaki asked.

“Ugh, what is this stuff? Did you actually use real human blood?”

One by one, they got up and shook off the sticky crimson fluid.

“Still, I can’t believe this plan actually worked.” Xiao Lan laughed disbelievingly and scanned the empty space where the demonic beasts had been.

Honestly, when they first heard about Kwon Oh-Jin’s plan to play dead in front of monsters, they had thought his intelligence had regressed too. The double bait strategy had worked far better than expected.

“Their intellect has degraded,” Kwon Oh-Jin explained.

“Degraded?”

“When under the Serpent’s control, even intelligent demonic beasts regress mentally to a childlike state as if hypnotized.”

“And how exactly do you know that?”

That’s because the person who once controlled such demonic beasts is standing right here.

“I told you that I’m a Regressor, didn’t I?”

“Ah...” Xiao Lan exhaled softly and nodded. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

One by one, the real force consisting of Allen, Baek Mu-Kang, Rebecca, and the others stepped out of the gate.

Allen blinked in disbelief as he stared at the empty space. “It actually worked.”

“Yes.”

When the special unit first formed, they had been given two missions. One was to act as bait so the main force could slip into Rome. The other was to kill Mobius, the Black Stars Celestial behind all of this.

“Now, we go after the Serpent,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.

To do that, they had to draw the demonic beast army’s attention toward the main force.

But if that happens, it’ll be impossible for us to fulfil the first mission of acting as bait.

Sneaking in quietly to assassinate the enemy’s leader and causing as much commotion as possible to draw the enemy’s attention were like water and oil. They couldn't mix.

Of course, Kwon Oh-Jin could’ve sacrificed the main force as bait.

Then, the gate entrance wouldn't be empty like this.

The demonic beasts guarding the gate had abandoned their posts because they believed the Awakeners who had come through the gate had already died. Otherwise, even with their dulled intelligence, the monster army wouldn’t have left the gate completely undefended.

Then again, maybe that’s not it.

According to what Cassia had told him, the demonic beasts under the Serpent’s control were far more brain-dead than expected like playing against an AI in a computer game. They simply couldn’t think beyond the commands they had received.

“I told you, you didn’t need to use such complicated methods.”

Cassia stepped out of the gate.

She toppled a demonic beast corpse with her boot and whispered so only Kwon Oh-Jin could hear. “Creatures dominated by the Stigma of Ophiuchus can only follow very limited orders. These demonic beasts are probably only carrying out commands like, ‘Kill the intruders.’”

“Seems that way.”

So far, it’s working out.

Their next objective awaited them.

Let’s kill Mobius and rescue those hostages.

“Get ready to move out,” Kwon Oh-Jin said.

“Do you know where Mobius is?”

“We’ll have to start looking for him.”

Of course, they couldn’t recklessly tear apart every building in the city.

“I’ll leave it to you, Vega.”

“Understood!” Vega shot into the air.

“We’ll help as well.”

“Leave finding Mobius to us!”

Regulus, Spica, Aldebaran, Aries, and the other Celestials also manifested and shot into the sky. Like stars rising, faint waves of light spread out from each of them.

Had Vega been alone, finding Mobius would have been difficult. Dozens of Celestials had gathered here. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every Celestial who could manifest physically had assembled.

When they combined their powers, finding Mobius without facing the Law’s restrictions would be quick work.

“It’s that way.” Vega landed on Kwon Oh-Jin’s shoulder and pointed.

“Let’s go.”

The special unit moved swiftly in the direction that Vega indicated. Thanks to the main force drawing the demonic beasts' attention, they didn’t encounter any more on the way.

Just like that, they eventually arrived at a nameless plaza.

“P-Please, save us!”

“Over here! Over here!”

“Wahhh!”

In the center of the plaza, they spotted young children all tied up.

Biting her lips, Isabella was about to head toward the children when Kwon Oh-Jin stopped her.

“Ugh...!”

“Wait a sec.”

The children were in broad daylight in the middle of an open plaza. This was highly likely a trap.

Kwon Oh-Jin activated the Stigma of Canes Venatici and scanned the surroundings.

A pale white serpent slid smoothly out from the rubble of a collapsed building. It transformed into a person and casually settled on the fountain in the plaza’s center.

“Haha. I never expected the main force would be the bait.”

“Mobius.”

For someone claiming to be surprised, he looked remarkably relaxed.

“I knew you’d come, Heaven-Defying Star.” Mobius stood up and bowed politely with a hand on his chest.

“Are you the Celestial of Ophiuchus?” Allen unsheathed his sword and stepped forward.

His Stigma of Cygnus flared brightly, showering the air with a cold, murderous aura.

“Release the children at once. Or else—”

“Alright.”

“What?”

Before Allen could finish his threat, Mobius released the serpents tying the kids.

The freed children looked around, bewildered as if they couldn’t believe what had happened.

“Huh...?”

“C-Can we go?”

Mobius looked at the children and smiled gently. “Go on now.”

“Uh...”

The children hesitated only for a moment and soon began running toward Kwon Oh-Jin’s group, their eyes brimming with tears.

Hundreds of them all ran out like the front gate of an elementary school on the first day after summer break. The once-silent plaza erupted into chaos.

Several Awakeners, deciding it made no sense for Mobius to release the hostages so easily, aimed their weapons at the approaching children.

“Watch out!”

“It’s a trap! Everyone, stay away from the children!”

Startled, the children flinched and stopped in their tracks.

“Eek!”

“W-We didn’t do anything!”

Mobius chuckled softly as he looked at the armed Awakeners. “This isn’t a trap, so you can all relax.”

Even so, how could they relax when the very person who had taken the children said that?

The Awakeners didn’t lower their weapons and glanced uncertainly at one another.

Rebecca, aka Phecda, the Awakener of Gemini broke the silence first. “I’ll go check.”

She stepped forward and softly recited an incantation. Her Stigma glowed green, and several identical copies of herself appeared. Her duplicates approached the children one by one and examined them carefully.

“It doesn’t look like he’s done anything to them.” Rebecca frowned, clearly confused.

Why would Mobius capture hostages only to release them so easily?

It couldn’t be out of compassion since he had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people in Rome in a single day.

“Hic...”

“Y-You’re Awakeners, right? Please, save my dad!”

“I just... I just want to go home.”

The children, clinging to Rebecca’s copies, broke into tears.

Having lost their homes and parents overnight, they burst out crying after being held captive for over a week.

Rebecca’s copies hugged each child. “It’s okay now. It must’ve been so scary. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“N-No.”

“He didn’t do anything bad to us.”

“H-He even gave us good food.”

Their condition seemed perfectly normal with no signs of starvation or abuse.

Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes at Mobius. “What are you thinking?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you release the children?”

No matter how he thought about it, letting the hostages go so easily didn’t benefit Mobius at all.

“Hahaha. You’re overthinking this.” Mobius shook his head with a serene smile. “They’re just children, pure and untouched. How could I harm something so innocent?” His gaze swept across Kwon Oh-Jin and focused on the Celestials. “Don’t you all agree?”

Vega crossed her arms, frowning. “Hmm.”

Freeing the children couldn’t possibly atone for his crimes.

“At the very least, it seems you have a shred of conscience left in you.”

“Not conscience, but a sense of duty would be more accurate.”

“Duty?”

“Isn’t it the Celestials' duty to protect humanity, so Stigmas can take root and maintain the world’s balance?”

Vega glared at him. “You claim to know that, and yet you commit atrocities like this?”

“Haha, yes.” Mobius laughed as if it were someone else’s problem. “But tell me, are you all fulfilling that duty as Celestials?”

“Of course. If we’d forgotten that, this many Celestials wouldn’t have manifested here today.”

“Haha, right, right. Then...” Mobius’s green eyes shimmered, and his pupils split vertically like a serpent’s. “Why didn’t you do the same back then?”

A chilling, murderous aura exploded out and consumed the air around them.