Leveling with the Gods

Pandora shuddered.

No, she was shaking.

She couldn't figure out why she was doing it all of a sudden. The shaking started slowly, then accelerated endlessly.

'W-Why?'

The struggle seemed to be over.

An endless, deep well.

Lightning with enough power to blow up several cities fell on Zeus' head.

Without the Thunderbolt, Zeus was weakened, while Poseidon and Hades were stronger than ever.

Worst of all, Zeus was now powerless to stop Hercules.

'But why...'

She wondered why Zeus' helplessness made her feel afraid.

Crouching and trembling, Pandora finally looked up.

The clouds had changed color.

The sky turned purple, as did the earth.

The air was vaguely familiar.

'The Box.'

A nightmarish memory suddenly came to her mind.

Pandora's face went white.

'This is....'

The same day she opened the box Zeus had given her.

Terrible forces and all kinds of negative emotions emanated from the box, and Pandora stepped in and out briefly.

'It's just like when I opened the box.'

* * *

Swoosh-.

Zeus, floating on the surface of the sea, stood up.

Poseidon, who thought the fight was over, rose with his trident.

"If I had known he was so persistent, his rating would have gone up another digit."

Now he was a dying man.

Poseidon intended to do the final finishing himself.

'If I kill him with my own hands, my ranking will go up a little.'

It would take quite some time to get out of Asgard's prison, but he could endure that long.

After all, power in this Tower was determined by ranks.

Killing Zeus and improving his ranking would finally allow him to move on.

Kwok-.

Then Poseidon approached Zeus.

At that moment...

"Wait."

Hercules stepped in Poseidon's way.

Poseidon frowned.

"Still, he's still the father who gave birth to you, and you're going to be greedy with his life?"

Seeing the greed in those eyes, Hercules asked with a disgusted face.

"Aren't you my father's brother?".

"Then you want me to spare his life?"

"Not so..."

Hercules saw Pandora tremble in the distance, and read the churning air.

"This is strange."

"Strange?"

"It's grown back. My father."

"He's grown back?"

It was something he couldn't understand.

Even if it was Zeus, he had lost his Thunderbolt and had become a mess.

If he's the Zeus of now, even Hercules could handle him on his own.

'But what did he say, that he's grown back?'

Poseidon looked at Zeus and saw no change in his appearance.

At most, he had gone from lying down to standing upright, but without his Thunderbolt, Zeus was still ugly and unsightly.

His greed did not disappear.

Poseidon turned up the tide.

Bang-.

"If you don't do it you-".

"Uncle!"

Poseidon rode the waves toward Zeus.

Hercules reached out his hand toward Poseidon, but Poseidon, already riding the current, was far away.

"I'll do it."

Chak-.

The tip of the trident pointed at Zeus' head.

The sea rose, water gathered at the tip of the spear, and the immense pressure of the water seemed to split Zeus' head in half in an instant.

But the next moment...

Swoosh-.

Zeus looked up, his eyes locked onto Poseidon's, and he froze in place.

'Wh-what.'

His eyes turned purple.

Poseidon had never seen those eyes on Zeus before.

It wasn't just a color change.

Unlike his original eyes, which contained infinite power, it was another force beyond his understanding.

At that moment...

Poseidon saw Zeus as something else entirely.

A monster that could swallow oceans whole.

Or a scorching sun that returned all the oceans to nothingness.

He literally had before him his own "monster," one whose very existence was its antithesis.

And so ....

Jjeouk-.

The monster slowly opened its mouth in front of him.

Kwareung-!

A lightning bolt fell from the sky.

It was much less powerful than the first one, but the flash in front of him brought Poseidon to his senses.

An unfamiliar back appeared between Zeus and Poseidon.

"Please step away."

"Kim YuWon?"

A person who fell with the lightning.

It was Kim YuWom, the man who had thrown the Lightning Bolt at Zeus.

"This is my opponent."

Gulp-.

The tension from a moment ago was nowhere to be found.

Instead, Poseidon questioned Yuwon's words.

'I admire your skills, but.... Facing him yourself?'

YuWon's skills definitely surpassed most Rankers.

No, it's more than surpassing them, it's enough to convince him that he had reached the High Rankers.

He even had Lightning, so there was no doubt of his ability.

But the opponent was Zeus.

A single-digit High Rank.

Now that he had lost his lightning, his rank would be much lower, but it was clear that he was still in the rank of the Three Gods.

YuWon was still no match for Zeus.

In an all-out war, he would be dead in a matter of seconds.

Of course.

'I will not stand up to Zeus.'

That was something YuWon knew.

He was no match for Zeus yet. Even having the Lightning in his possession.

The opponent was a High Rank with high stats, enough to have a single digit ranking.

It was still too much for him.

Therefore, at this point, YuWon had a clear idea of what he had to do.

'What I have to do is...'

A violet color flashed in Zeus' eyes.

Looking at it, he saw a landscape of despair.

It had no particular shape.

He had seen this kind of Outlander before.

'It is a hard nut for a first-timer to crack. For all living men fear an opponent beyond common sense and perception.'

This power of Zeus was not just big and intimidating.

The essence of it, if you look at it deeply, was not so difficult to understand.

Fear of the unknown. Confusion about the unknown.

Zeus merely threw a sharp jab into the breach.

'Have you managed to control it?'

If so, this was truly remarkable.

In the first place, it was nothing more than a seed sown by Chaos Fool, waiting for chaos in the Tower.

It could not be controlled, and was not meant to be controlled.

But to plant such power in his eyes and use it.

It was to the point of admiring Zeus' abilities again.

He didn't move up the rankings for nothing.

He was currently in ninth place.

Later, he jumped four spots to fifth place, and it wasn't just because of the power of the Outsider.

The reason was simple.

Zeus.

Because he himself was just as powerful.

'He'll certainly be much easier to catch now than he was then.'

YuWon looked at Zeus without avoiding his eyes.

In those eyes, Poseidon must have seen what he feared most.

And that was the most terrifying thing about that power.

On the other hand...

YuWon was familiar with that power.

'It's fake anyway.

The Outsiders, the beings outside the Tower, outside the conglomeration of worlds.

Their greatest fear was when they failed to 'understand' something.

It was the same with YuWon.

They had fought countless times, for so long, and he still hadn't understood them.

However....

That did not frighten him.

'Not worthy of fear...'

YuWon had lost too much, the experiences he had been through were not easy.

'Just a bigger fish than normal.'

YuWon had seen worse despairs.

Foolish Chaos, Swampy Frustration, Stupid Catastrophe....

And Despair That Closes the Sky.

Yes...

When it came to despair, there was no existence beyond him.

Compared to that guy, this is just a nightmare.

A mirage, a dream that would vanish upon awakening.

YuWon looked at Zeus without averting his eyes.

And at that moment.

Boggle-.

Like Poseidon, YuWon was sucked into the endless abyss.

Deep.

Very deep.

YuWon was quite relieved to be disconnected from the World.

This way, he could really only fight the Outside, not Zeus.

'You made a mistake.

In a deep swamp...

What YuWon faced in the midst of that was a monster that could not be defined in just one way.

Jjeouk-.

The mouth of the monster, whose shape was hard to determine, swallowed YuWon whole.

It existed to devour this world. But its power was contained in the eyes of Zeus, and until now, it had been suppressed, unable to wreak havoc.

How long had it been?

The one who jumped like this and opened his mouth to covet something.

A form that was neither here nor there, a mixture of animals and monsters.

It was the desperation that YuWon hid within.

This indistinct form.

Because.

'Because someone like you wouldn't be able to understand what my despair is.'

Jeobuck, Jeobuck-.

YuWon took a step towards him.

The monster was inside him too.

And it was much bigger than him.

['The Predator' bared its teeth.]

But another monster started baring its teeth.

Danpung, which had taken the shape of an egg, appeared on YuWon's shoulder.

"Baat-."

Danpung greeted him with open arms.

He was like a child trying to reach a cute animal.

And at that moment...

Grr-.

The form of despair in front of YuWon retreated.

Transforming into countless forms that can't be counted, the guy threatened YuWon.

No.

Rather, he was protecting himself.

There was only one reason.

"Abaa-, baa-."

A tiny hand whined, trying to reach out to the Outsider.

But every time the hand came closer, it retreated a step.

It was like a frightened little animal.

'Are you being cautious with this guy?'

He was afraid of this little guy on his shoulder.

It seemed that Danpung's existence was really bad for them, the Outsiders.

Also.

So was the strength Danpung gave off.

'It may have been like that once upon a time, but...'

And underneath such a creature...

Jjeouk-.

Something huge opened its mouth.

'Now I am the Predator, bigger than you.'

Kwadeuk-!

[Initiating 'Predation']

* * *

Zeus and YuWon were facing each other.

They were doing nothing, just staring at each other.

Poseidon questioned this strange situation.

It was short, less than a minute, but what the hell was going on?

"He says he's your opponent, and he's just standing there."

Poseidon looked at Zeus.

His eyes were unfocused.

Now, for some reason, he thought a surprise attack would work.

Of course, that was a thought in his head.

But no.

When he remembered what he had seen moments before, when he had charged with the same idea, he froze.

'What the hell was that?'

Until that was resolved, it was hard for Poseidon to move too fast.

Zeus' left eye.

He didn't know what that eye was hiding, but it's probably more dangerous than the Thunderbolt on the right.

He wondered how many minutes passed like that.

Thrrrrrr-.

Then Zeus' eyes, which were tinged with violet, began to turn black.