Leveling with the Gods

One day, Zeus called out to Pandora.

"Here is your gift."

It was a box.

Each of the Three Gods of Olympus gave Pandora a gift for becoming a Ranker.

Pandora was delighted and accepted the gifts.

But Zeus' gift was a bit unusual.

"You must not open this box. Never."

A gift that must not be opened....".

Pandora thought it was strange. But she could not disobey the order of Zeus, King of Olympus.

And so, for hundreds of years, she did not open the box, as Zeus had said.

The only time she opened it was out of desperation.

To survive.

He opened the box that had been in his inventory for so long.

And right after that.

He was left with all the misery in the world.

* * *

The situation on the battlefield wasn't positive enough to change with the addition of just one person.

Hades and Poseidon were already bleeding.

Even if two of the three Gods joined hands, Zeus was a formidable opponent.

Moreover, YuWon knew that his skills were still far from those of the three of them.

'What I'm going to do is not a one-on-one fight.'

It didn't fit Yuwon's fighting style.

But he had to be clear.

That what he was going to bring was completely different from what he had been bringing.

"Tell me."

Zeus' gaze fixed on YuWon.

"What do you know about the peak?"

At that moment...

Swish-.

YuWon's gaze swept over Hades and Poseidon.

A brief glance.

And the two weren't bored enough not to notice.

Bang-.

Suaaah-.

A huge tidal wave and darkness descended upon Zeus. Standing still and staring at Yuwon, Zeus immediately raised his arm and pointed it at the clouds in the sky.

"Fall!"

Flash-!

Quarreureung-!

Dozens of lightning bolts falling from the clouds.

Although the power of each is weak, as numbers are numbers, it was enough to neutralize the power of Hades and Poseidon.

Zeus divided the two.

The stage now belonged, for a moment, to YuWon and Zeus alone.

"Speak."

The voice was low and heavy.

There was a subtle sense of authority in his voice that was enough to make him the head of a guild and a King.

YuWon faced Zeus.

In line with his voice, the mana of this World shifted.

"It is no different from what you know."

YuWon began to speak.

"Only that you discovered it through them..."

Paji Jiji-!

Hades' darkness swallowed Zeus' rays.

Their time alone was not long.

"Except that I figured it out for myself."

"You caught up with him?"

"Yes."

It was absurd...

YuWon wasn't even a Ranker yet....

Naturally, he had neither the time nor the skill to get to where Zeus wanted to be, which was higher than the highest level the Rankers had reached.

But...

Looking at YuWon, Zeus recognized that the words were not a boast or a falsehood.

"...I see."

Zeus' head turned quickly.

It all made sense now.

Where had it all gone wrong?

How it had all gone wrong because of this little player.

YuWon wasn't just a player with great talent.

He was already a being who had climbed higher than himself.

"I apologize for ignoring you all this time."

Paji Jiji-!

On top of the golden armor that surrounded Zeus' body, the lightning armor was placed.

"From now on, I will treat you as my enemy."

Flash-!

Lightning shot out of Zeus' hand and flew towards YuWon.

The lightning flew at the speed of light.

It was nothing compared to the one that had fallen on Camelot, but it was enough to reduce any High Ranker to ashes.

And at that moment...

Kwaji Jijik-!

Between YuWon and Zeus, a person intervened.

Tsutsu, Tsutsutsutsutsutsutsutsut-.

The woman blocked the beam with her arms and raised her empty eyes.

"Zeus."

Despite her gaze, her voice was as clear as water.

Pandora looked at Zeus and pursed her lips.

"What have you done to me?"

She remembered it clearly.

The way he had handed her the box.

His eyes telling her she must, must open the box, but his voice telling her she must not.

Pandora knew.

That she had no choice but to open it.

"What did you do?"

As if chewing on every word, she looked at Zeus.

But, unfortunately, Zeus wasn't looking at her.

"Is she also a hand you prepared?"

"Unfortunately, no."

Clearly, Pandora was a rank player, above Athena.

Although she had been inactive for so long that she was not properly ranked, she was surely just below the Three Gods in the rankings.

She may not have been able to defeat Zeus, but she could withstand a thunderbolt.

But she wasn't part of YuWon's plan in the first place.

"She's nothing more than the Karma you created."

"...Well."

True to his word, Zeus was wary of YuWon at this very moment.

Of course, being alert was not his strong suit.

It was a "picture" he had painted for this moment.

"If it's not part of the plan, there's nothing to fear."

And if it was out of the picture, it didn't matter.

No matter how many Pandoras there were, Zeus was confident he could handle them.

And he knew it, not out of arrogance, but because it was obvious.

And so, as Zeus prepared his next Thunderbolt....

Bang-!

Hades and Poseidon burst through the boundary he had created.

"They came after all."

Zeus looked at them.

"The paletas/remos you prepared."

Zeus no longer saw them as brothers.

They had long since ceased to be, and as such he saw them only as one or two bystanders.

But at this moment, Zeus saw that the two had changed.

Kim YuWon had prepared his hand.

He had climbed higher than himself, but it would be another thing if he had fallen and prepared a hand.

"...Is it Pandora?"

Hades, who stepped through the beam, looked alternately at Yuwon and Zeus.

It didn't last long, but just when he thought YuWon wouldn't make it (resist Zeus), Pandora was in the middle.

Pandora is one of the few beings on Olympus who can resist Zeus' lightning bolts.

If she was helping YuWon, it wasn't something she didn't understand.

But...

'How is Pandora here, and why is she helping him?'

He couldn't understand.

They recognized Pandora's abilities, but it was hard to understand how she could break through a barrier that even they couldn't easily break through.

And it was the same with Zeus.

"So, I too..."

Pagit-.

Zeus' body disappeared from sight.

Pandora's eyes rolled back in her head. The next moment, Zeus' fist was extended in front of him, pointing at YuWon's head.

Kwaaang-!

Pandora's body went flying.

She instinctively defended YuWon.

"I'll try to fight more aggressively."

Her target was YuWon, not anyone else.

Realizing that, Hades realized the rules of this fight.

"Poseidon!"

"I know, I know!"

Zeus' target.

That man was the king of this battlefield.

And now, the king of this battlefield had become YuWon.

'I'm not sure what's going on here.'

Swoosh-.

Hades shrank back into the darkness.

'But first of all, I can't let him do what he wants.'

Poseidon drew in all the water from everywhere and made another wave.

Pandora went flying and, before she knew it, she had repulsed another blow from Zeus, her shoulders slumped as if she had broken an arm.

And then...

['Inferno' is summoned.]

Kak-.

Through YuWon's Kyneē, the colors around him began to change.

Everything turned black.

At the same time, the Arcane Power of Hades turned.

'This is...'

That was not the end.

Pang-.

A large amount of water gushed out from within him.

Along with a fragrant salty smell, a familiar Arcane Power enveloped Poseidon's body.

[Sea' is summoned.]

At that moment, Poseidon's eyes opened.

"Sea Stone..."

Divine Crystal of the Sea and Divine Crystal of Darkness.

The different types of power that these two objects possessed manifested in this place.

Changing the environment so that the two could fight to the best of their abilities.

That was the first move YuWon prepared for this fight.

'Sharks can only show their strength in the water.'

Pang-.

A huge amount of Arcane Power was consumed by Kyneē and Triaina.

Originally it was an environment that should have been Yuwon's strength, but this time the case was different.

These two powers originally belonged to Poseidon and Hades, who were the three Gods.

Their ranks rose even higher after obtaining the Divine Crystal of the Sea and the Divine Crystal of Darkness.

The proof?

Poseidon's eyes glittered with greed as he looked at YuWon, and Hades, who was unaware of the existence of the Divine Crystal of Darkness, looked puzzled.

Fortunately, however, the two High-Ranked Gods were not willing to waste their time.

Pssssst!

The darkness of Hades, borrowing power from Hell, devoured the light of Zeus.

Forces that were no match for him moments ago were now becoming a bit of a struggle.

Zeus' eyebrows twitched.

Poseidon's too.

B-Bang-.

A tidal wave the likes of which they had never seen.

Controlling it with the tip of his Trident, Poseidon's tidal wave engulfed Zeus' body.

Purrrrrrrr-!

Troubled waters.

Kwajijijiji!

Zeus' hand on the thunderbolt split it in half like the Red Sea. But that tidal wave was not alone.

Boom!

A second tidal wave, even bigger than the first, fell upon him.

And just as Poseidon's wave was swallowing Zeus, Hades rushed up to YuWon.

"What did you do?"

"I changed the environment a bit."

"What and how?"

"If I tell you, will you take him away?"

At YuWon's words, Hades found Poseidon's eyes looking at YuWon from afar.

Even in this situation, he could not let go of his obsession with the Sea Stone.

It wouldn't change anything even if he obtained it when he had already become a sinner in Asgard.

"I don't want to be like him."

That didn't mean he wasn't greedy, he really wanted that thing that amplified his powers.

But Hades knew why Poseidon was the way he was, and he accepted that depending on his response, he could end up in the same position.

The player in front of him was already such an existence.

"Wise one."

"So now what do we do?"

Hades had come to accept that it was YuWon who was calling the shots in this game.

At least now it was clear that he was the one who had created this fight and was controlling it.

"He's probably increased the odds from zero to ten."

"¿10%?"

"Yes."

"...That's too low."

It was still a small possibility.

Hades doubted it, but at least YuWon was sure.

Nothing was what it seemed.

It wasn't for nothing that they said that if all the single-digit Rankers gathered, the Tower could be destroyed.

Zeus' power was absolute.

Besides, Zeus probably still has a hand or two up his sleeve.

'I know it's a 10 so you can't see it, but...'

It went without saying.

Besides...

'The unseen part is mine.'

YuWon was waiting.

Zeus, the God of Heaven.

The Heaven of Olympus.

The moment he was cornered would be the moment he would reveal all that he had hidden.

'So get him out quick, Zeus.'

Boom!

The sea rose up.

A pillar of golden lightning flashed across the sky.

Kak-.

Zeus slowly emerged from the Sea of Poseidon.

From now on, the real battle between the Three Gods would begin.