Leveling with the Gods

"So it all came down to this."

A self-deprecating voice came out of Zeus' mouth on the ground.

Asgard.

Zeus had given up fighting them. Asgard was beyond his control, even for Olympus.

So he thought of Ragnarok.

The power of the Giants, to defeat Asgard.

But in the end, he found himself lying on the ground, and Asgard came here to take him away.

In the end, this is what he got.

"Really bad..."

Zeus' gaze looked up at the sky.

Not so long ago, he was up there.

And from there, countless spears rained down.

Pow, pow, pow-.

Dozens of pure white spears pierced Zeus' body.

He felt all the energy escaping from his body. There were dozens of objects that restricted the energy of a High Rank, so even Zeus had no way to escape.

Hercules paused in his struggle to watch the Valkyrie descend to the ground.

"Are you Hercules?"

A copper-skinned warrior approached.

Turning to look at the silver-armored leader of the Valkyries, Hercules responded by raising his voice.

"This does not seem to be Asgard's business."

"If you wish to get rid of Zeus, you may take matters into your own hands, for this is an internal affair of Olympus."

This fight belonged to Olympus.

The Valkyries, and Asgard, were very clear about that fact.

So it was inevitable that Zeus would be dealt with first by Hercules.

But.

"But if you're not going to slit his throat, I'd like you to hand them over to us."

"For what reason?"

"Because we, Asgard, are the only ones who can control a living Zeus."

Hercules' eyebrows twitched.

He was not wrong.

Unless he was dead, a living Zeus could always be a major source of trouble for the Tower.

He had the power and the knowledge to do it.

"It is your choice, Hercules, to kill him or not."

The Valkyrie's words drew Hercules' gaze to Zeus, who had dozens of spears stuck in his body.

"What would you like to do?"

* * *

The battlefield was gradually clearing.

Poseidon was taken back to Asgard by the Valkyries.

Zeus' forces, incapacitated by Hercules, returned to their original positions.

The war was over.

"You have done a great job."

Thor approached YuWon and smiled with the Mjolnir slung over his shoulder.

His eyes were full of curiosity.

Apparently, he had heard enough about YuWon.

'There's no good in getting involved.'

Thor was the son of Odin.

A familiar face. YuWon had also seen quite a few battlefields with him.

But not the face he was about to see.

"I did it because it was necessary. I don't need praise."

"Necessary? For what?"

Thor's gaze turned to YuWon's hand.

"Would that be it?"

The Thunderbolt.

An object that was the symbol of Zeus.

YuWon didn't deny it. Nodding and meeting his eyes, Thor smiled in satisfaction.

"Don't be too cautious. Asgard is not shameless enough to covet the spoils justly taken."

He knew.

He didn't know if it would be the same elsewhere, but at least in Asgard, they wouldn't covet the Thunderbolt.

They say that when the water above is clear, the water below is clear.

In that sense, Asgard was the clearest of waters, as far as YuWon was concerned.

However, he had other concerns.

'The Clockwork was created by Cronus and Odin together.'

Although Cronos had the power over time, but the Clockwork Mechanism was not something he could create alone.

Because the difficulty of the object was too high for that.

'There's nothing wrong with them knowing, but...'

His encounter with Odin was clearly planned.

Moreover, it was impossible to proceed without meeting him. His influence in this Tower was too great for that to be the case.

Alone.

'It's best to have as few variables as possible.'

Now was not the time.

Contact with Asgard would come many years later.

For now, it was best to let it go.

"I'm tired of fighting. I hope you can make it simple."

"I'm just curious what kind of player my father is interested in."

"My father......?"

YuWon's eyes narrowed.

"Odin?"

"It would be best not to use that name too carelessly."

Kwak-.

Clak-.

The force of his hand on YuWon's shoulder grew stronger.

He had forgotten it.

It was only later that he called it too carelessly, but in Asgard, Odin's name was like a shrine.

"Do you understand?"

"I will remember."

"Well, with that said..."

Thud, thud-.

The corner of Thor's mouth twitched again as he patted YuWon's tight shoulder.

Immediately after, he reached into his chest and pulled out a badge.

"This is from my Father. Accept it."

YuWon looked at the badge/plaque as Thor handed it to him.

The symbols were familiar to him.

It was golden, gleaming, and was in the shape of a large compressed palace.

'This...'

I had only heard the name, but had never seen it in person.

The Golden Castle Plaque.

A ticket of sorts to Valhalla, the sanctuary.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"It's an invitation."

"An invitation?"

"If you survived this war, my Father said he wanted to see you."

It was a remarkable event, no doubt.

Olympus, one of the largest guilds like Asgard, had been overthrown.

Moreover, surviving a major war with a top 10 player, Zeus, was enough to completely change the perception of YuWon as they knew him.

"You're going to be here soon anyway, so come and stop by. I'll make sure you don't mind the hospitality."

"If you're offering me a job, I'm not sure I like it."

"We just want to have you as a guest. No cheating."

It was also not polite to keep saying no repeatedly.

Especially this way, at least he could at least decide when to meet.

"I will."

YuWon received the badge/plaque and kept it.

They still had a long way to go to reach Valhalla. At times like this, he was grateful for Odin's heavy ass.

'Is this the second one?'

He remembered getting a similar item.

The Devil Horns.

It was an item obtained after passing the test on the 41st floor. YuWon had passed the test on the 41st floor and had promised Diablo's alter ego that he would see him again.

'How can I use this again...'

The Golden Castle/Sanctuary Plaque was a sort of reward obtained from Asgard after resolving the affairs of Olympus.

Since it was not a simple item, it was up to YuWon to decide how to use it.

"Well, I'll see you around..."

Having finished his business, Thor turned away.

In the distance, the Valkyries were carrying Poseidon away.

"Friend."

Kak-.

Thor, who was in charge of clearing the battlefield, walked towards the Valkyries.

YuWon looked at Thor's spacious back and then looked at the Golden Castle Plate in his hand.

'Friend....'

The words were spoken as a gesture of friendship, but YuWon couldn't help but feel awkward.

'Now I've heard all about the son of Odin.'

Going back, he really had been through all sorts of extraordinary things.

YuWon thought to himself and put the Badge/Insignia/ Token into his inventory.

* * *

News of the fall of Olympus spread through the tower faster than any other means of transportation.

The main story was the rebellion of Hades, Poseidon and Hercules.

The division of the Three Gods.

Hercules, the blood of the King, who succeeded him on the throne.

Flesh and blood joined the bones of the rumor, and another form was created, a mixture of fact and fiction.

The rumor that the division of the three Gods was an Asgardian plan.

That Hercules wasn't really the son of Zeus.

Or that it was all just another plan of Zeus.

Yet despite such rumors, Olympus quickly found stability.

"So, in the end, you let him go alive?"

YuWon put aside his cup of tea and sat across from Hercules.

They were in a small house on the 32nd floor of the city where the war had been fought. It was a long way from the battlefield, untouched by the aftermath of the fighting.

A place as small and ramshackle as Hercules' original hut.

That's why Hercules chose it as a place to stay for a while.

"Well, that's the way it happened."

"I guess you couldn't kill him."

"I don't know, maybe I didn't have time to decide. Or maybe because he gave birth to me. I didn't have a choice, so I let him live."

It would have been a difficult choice to make in an instant.

A father who ordered his mother's death.

Clearly, Hercules, who was deeply attached to his mother Alcmene, was an irreplaceable enemy.

But at least Zeus had been a father to Hercules for thousands of years.

It couldn't be easy to make a choice in such a short time.

"He's like you."

"Like what?"

"Undecided."

Hercules burst out laughing at YuWon's words.

"I am the Giant Killer. I have killed millions of Giants. Indecisive, how improper...."

"So, are you okay?"

Hercules' eyes widened.

Was he all right?

When Hercules didn't answer for a moment, YuWon took the floor.

"I'm asking you if you enjoyed killing Giants."

"...Enjoy it?"

"Probably not. The first time I saw you, you didn't look like that."

"What did I look like?"

"You looked like you just wanted to get it over with and get the hell out of here."

Alcmene's revenge.

It was a task for Hercules to accomplish.

But in the process, Hercules continued to break down.

"The Gigantomachy was not just a war. It was also the stage for the realization of the Giant Killer."

"What do you mean?"

"If it wasn't for the war, would you have moved?"

In response to YuWon's question, Hercules remembered himself when he was called the Giant Killer.

At that moment, he had his eyes closed.

Vengeance against Alcmene. Hostility against the Giants.

As a result, he had thrown his fists at any Giant he encountered, perhaps because he thought this battlefield had been marked out for him.

'Even then, he was just being molded.'

War.

Hercules could see the logic in it.

This fight was not just about revenge.

The Giants were the enemies of Olympus, and would one day bring even greater disaster to the Tower.

That was why Hercules was able to brandish his fists against them.

He could have his revenge.

Zeus had used the Gigantomachy to wield the tool called Hercules.

"Do you regret not being able to kill Zeus?"

"A little."

"Then go find him now. Maybe even now, Asgard will deliver Zeus' head to you."

"Forget it. That guy has already lost his powers, his dreams and his future."

Hercules no longer called Zeus his father.

It was the last of the remaining father-son attachment.

Hercules finally cut him off from the inside.

"I want to stop here, that's all."

Zeus had lost everything.

Unless death was the only way to complete his revenge, he had already achieved it.

"I'm not going to think about it anymore. I'm too tired for that."

"Is that so?"

YuWon looked at Hercules' expression.

He was not as expressive as Son OhGong.

But still, after watching him for a long time, he could understand to some extent what he was thinking.

A complicated face.

But at least there was a hint of relief mixed in there.

'That's it, then.

Whether Zeus was alive or dead.

YuWon didn't care about that.

What mattered was Hercules' heart. YuWon hoped to get rid of the burden he carried if he could.

Because he was his friend.

"What about you, what are you going to do now?"

Hercules asked, remembering that YuWon had been fighting against Olympus for quite some time since he entered the Tower.

And now that fighting was over.

Perhaps the Tower would be shaken again by YuWon's actions in the future.

"I'm going to meet with Uncle (Ahjussi) first."

"Uncle? My brother Hephaestus?"

"Yes."

YuWon thought for a moment about the Thunderbolt in his inventory.

He gathered the three pieces.

Towards the end of their discussion about smashing Olympus....

Suddenly, Hephaestus said something.

"When you have gathered all the pieces, be sure to bring them to me."

YuWon still couldn't forget Hephaestus' eyes at that moment.

The greed and desire of a Blacksmith.

He had never seen such burning eyes before.

''It's a promise.

Not the Hephaestus of this time though.

''I'll make you the best item.

''Uncle and I.''

At least in this era, it was time to fulfill that promise.