Leveling with the Gods

Tap-.

YuWon took a step closer.

The double's eyes widened.

"What are you doing?"

Suh-.

Arturo and Ares behind him disappeared.

From three against one, it was back to one-on-one.

"Really..."

K-Kuk-.

The double's muscles twitched irregularly as he looked at YuWon.

Something seemed off.

YuWon never made a move without being certain, and the same applied to his alter ego.

"You should know by now."

Even if he was just a reflected alter ego of Yata, YuWon was YuWon.

"I am you."

It was noticeable when their swords clashed.

Who the opponent was, how they fought.

The presence or absence of skill wasn't important.

Even with the same skill, it would be completely different depending on who used it.

If he had that skill...

Perhaps by now, the alter ego was thinking like that. And maybe he thinks it's himself who gives him goosebumps.

He couldn't help but doubt it.

He wondered if the YuWon in front of him was truly the same person as him.

But...

"Still, you..."

Realizing that wouldn't change anything.

"You don't know me."

Kuduk-.

Boom.

[The power of the Giant permeates your entire body]

[Demonic Energy activates]

[Gigantization strengthens]

Boom-.

Kusanagi traced a trajectory.

A sharp strike flew, and his alter ego wielded his sword against it.

Bam!

The two clashed swords again, one after another.

Clang, clang, clang!

Pi-it, Pi-pit-.

Sword clashed with sword, but it was the flesh that got cut.

Wounds grew on the double's face and body.

The same happened to YuWon's body.

"Do you want us to die together?"

"No."

Kwagwagwa-.

YuWon increased the power he was infusing into Kusanagi.

"You will die alone."

Kwat-!

Jjong-!

The double's body took a step back.

It was to create some distance from Kusanagi.

'You can't gain an advantage in strength.'

The alter ego turned his head.

He had found something better.

The judgment wasn't difficult to make.

'But I am faster.'

Due to Gigantization, their strength was almost the same. The same applied to Arcane Power.

But when it came to speed, he had the advantage. To turn the tide of this fight, he needed to capitalize on his advantage.

Kak-.

The alter ego disappeared.

Swoosh-.

YuWon's eyes moved, and in the mirror cave, he could see his alter ego moving.

Not in front of him, but to the side.

It only meant one thing.

'He's using his speed...'

It was almost unbelievable at this point.

As much as he said it was himself, how could he think the same way?

'I'm sure I would have done the same.'

But...

'You don't know me.'

Hwareuk-.

[The 'Ashen Eyes' read the path]

Jjoong-!

He pushed back the sword flying from the side, and Kusanagi traced another trajectory with a sharp burst of foresight.

Pit-, pit-.

Chwak-!

The doppelganger's chest was sliced. Unlike the wounds on his hands and cheeks, this was the first real injury.

'What kind of power do those eyes possess...'

Tuk-.

The double staggered backward.

YuWon, on the other hand, moved closer to him.

"I really know myself well."

Quaddudeuk-, Chaaaaang-!

Skaak-.

The tip of the sword pierced through the mirror.

Kusanagi's sword pierced through the mirror wall and then slashed the neck of his alter ego, who was escaping to the side.

Jjoong-!

The double's eyes, who had just managed to block the strike with the sword's hilt, trembled.

Immediately after.

Boom-.

BANG-!

The flying double's body crashed into the opposite wall.

The staggering clone quickly swung his sword and cut at YuWon, who was running straight towards him.

Skak-.

Huung-.

He thought he had landed a hit.

But it wasn't so.

By a hair's breadth.

YuWon was already moving before his alter ego swung the sword.

'How the hell...'

Question marks continued to form in his mind.

Clearly, his speed was far superior to his.

And yet, strangely, he couldn't catch his opponent. It was as if he was reading all of his movements.

"Seriously, is it me?"

If the other person looked exactly like you on the outside, then the person should be able to do it.

Because one wouldn't be foolish enough to not know themselves.

However...

"Then why can't I?"

If that were the case, then it should be the same for him too.

He should be able to anticipate his opponent's movements and fight accordingly.

Like now.

"What if that guy is me..."

From the corner of his eye, he saw YuWon rushing in.

"He's coming."

Kwak-.

The alter ego infused strength into White Night in his hand.

This fight was going to be a long battle, and it didn't bode well.

The more time passed, the more he felt like they were reading his movements.

Kwaaaaat-!

With the opening of his Arcane Power, the double unleashed several sword strikes.

By pushing his Sensorial Field to its limit, he anticipated his opponent's movements.

He moved based on what he could see, the subtle movements of their muscles, and the assumption that the other person was who they claimed to be.

It was just an instant.

In that brief moment, the double had calculated YuWon's movements.

However...

Boom-.

He didn't land a single cut.

"You see."

Peet-.

A burning sensation in his waist.

"I said I would win."

Chhhhhh!

"Agh..."

Blood welled up from a cut on his side.

It was quite a deep cut.

If he tried to move too much now, the wound would widen.

Zing-!

The double let go of the sword in his hand.

He needed to recover.

['Super Regeneration' is activated.]

[Cannot recover.]

His eyes widened.

'Why...'

He couldn't recover.

This had never happened before.

It was an ability that even worked against dark magic that hindered healing. Although it could only be used once a day, Super Regeneration allowed for rapid recovery in a short period of time.

But why, why, why.

The double's eyes fell upon the sword in YuWon's hand.

"Is it because of that sword?"

A red sword emitting an unpleasant Arcane Power.

That sword was obviously unusual.

Even he had never heard of a sword that emitted a tremendous amount of energy that would cut even the wielder of the sword.

The alter ego realized.

He couldn't win this fight alone.

"Let me ask you a question, ......."

"What question?"

"Are you really me?"

As if none of this made sense, the alter ego finally raised the question in his mind and asked.

And at that moment...

"Because I am you..."

Tang-.

YuWon's hand grasped the hilt of another sword.

"You also know this."

“……!”

The hilt of a sword floated in the air.

It was the White Night that the alter ego had dropped to the ground.

[Sword Qi Control] [以氣馭劍]

It was quite a difficult skill.

One of the techniques of the Murim World, it utilized Arcane Power to levitate a sword and move it at will.

It wasn't very efficient as it required a lot of energy, but it wasn't bad for assassination.

That's why YuWon always saved this skill for last.

Pang-!

Then, the White Night left YuWon's hand and fell to the ground.

His alter ego silently watched it.

Not even his final move worked. His eyes fluttered wildly, then calmed down.

"You really are me."

He had to admit it.

The YuWon standing before him was him.

And that could only mean one thing.

"So I... am the fake?"

At that murmur, YuWon wore a slightly surprised expression.

It truly was himself.

To realize that this was a test even in these circumstances...

"I knew that one of us was the fake. At first, of course, I thought it was you, but then it became strange."

The double did nothing to stop the blood flowing from his waist.

Far from stopping the bleeding, the wounds inflicted by Kusanagi widened. He no longer tried to halt the wound.

"It was difficult to admit, but now that we've come this far, I can't help but admit it."

Swish-.

The double picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.

YuWon silently watched him.

There was no longer a trace of fight left in him.

The double's sword was inverted.

At that moment...

Pooh-.

He opened his mouth, piercing his own heart in the center of his chest.

"You are the real one."

YuWon's face reflected in the alter ego's eyes.

The fight hadn't been long, but he quickly saw it clearly.

That this was a battle he had lost. It was also a fight he had to lose.

"I don't know what you're trying to do, but..."

His eyes slowly clouded over.

His voice faltered, losing strength.

"You must win, I'm sure of it."

His eyes were not closed.

Blurry focus. The alter ego's eyes clouded over, and his form became increasingly

YuWon lowered his head and looked down at the ground.

He saw his reflection in the mirror again, where just moments ago he had seen nothing.

[You have passed the 'Yata Test'.]

Goo-goo, goo-goo-.

The cave shook.

The floor and walls trembled violently as if about to collapse.

YuWon watched as the mirrors disappeared from his sight.

'The test is over.'

The mirror test was about defeating his reflection.

At first, he felt panic seeing his past self instead of his current self.

He wondered if he could defeat such a guy, who was stronger than him in all statistics, although their skills differed slightly.

It was a good thing.

What would have happened if the opponent in the mirror had been his current self?

He would have had a 50% chance of winning or losing. But since that wasn't the case, he could only figure it out another way.

Furthermore, it made him realize something.

He hadn't fully accepted it yet.

Several years had passed since he traveled through time.

He had been very busy and believed that he was living in the present.

He met Hephaestus, Merlin, Hercules, and even Son OhGong, albeit as an alter ego.

So he thought it was fine.

-"If you go back once, there's no way to come back."

Cronos.

The Father of the Three Gods, including Zeus, who created the Clockwork Mechanism with Odin.

"So whoever goes back, let them live there as best they can, without any regrets here."

That's what he said when he first revealed the Clockwork Mechanism to everyone.

And whether it was a mistake or not, YuWon felt as if Cronos had been watching him at that moment.

Perhaps from that moment on, he might have been considering sending himself back in time.

'This is not easy.'

It wasn't as easy as he had expected.

The time he had lived before his return had been long, like a millennium, and the time elapsed since his return was still too short to compare.

He had too many regrets to throw them all away.

His mood turned sour.

After returning using the Clockwork Mechanism, it was a sense of detachment he had never felt before.

A strange feeling.

His mood was interrupted by a sudden sound.

Ding-.

The sound came from the direction of the alter ego that had become transparent.

YuWon looked in the direction where the sound came from.

[You have obtained the 'Yata Mirror'.]

A circular shield made of transparent mirrors.

Pak-.

Upon seeing it, the Kusanagi sword in his hand trembled.

'I finally found it.'

The Kusanagi Sword.

The Magatama Jewel.

And the last of the Three Sacred Treasures.

The shape of the cave returned to its original form, and the 'Yata Mirror' appeared before him.