Leveling with the Gods

Side Story 38

Kaboom!

A fist struck the side of Asura's head.

Once again, Asura could do nothing.

If that punch had aimed for his head...

Perhaps his only remaining head would be crushed like minced meat right now.

"That's fifty."

Swoosh!

YuWon spun his body.

A Lightning Bolt resonated over his slightly withdrawn head.

It was that same Lightning Bolt.

Asura, struck by the Lightning Bolt, was paralyzed and couldn't do anything.

'Fifty times...'

Though not severely injured, Asura was rendered helpless.

Impotence took hold of him.

He knew his opponent was strong. Even before coming here, he had already lost to YuWon more than 10 times.

But he never thought the difference would be this significant.

"How the hell... even Zeus's Lightning-?"

Flash!

Midway through his prayer. A long thread of electricity flew towards Asura's throat and stopped.

What would have happened if it hadn't stopped?

Undoubtedly, he would have died instantly.

"Forty-nine left."

YuWon no longer spoke to Asura.

The only times he opened his mouth were to kindly count the remaining blows.

Boom!

Clang!

The sword that had clashed so many times finally broke.

The hand holding the sword became numb.

In an instant, YuWon's sword pierced through Asura's head and stuck into a tree.

Puff!

"Forty-eight."

A number gradually diminishing.

"Forty-seven."

Bang!

"Forty-six."

"Forty..."

Asura wasn't injured anywhere.

The only wounds he had were the chest YuWon had cut at the beginning and the cheek swollen from the punch.

Since then...

YuWon hadn't cut or struck Asura; he had only been suppressing him.

『What should I do now?』

『How can I win?』

With the "Great Six-Armed Heavenly Destruction" broken and after enduring over fifty defeats, Asura thought over and over, gathering his heads.

A way to defeat the monster in front of him.

If there was even a sliver of hope, Asura would never consider giving up.

But...

Whoosh!

"Ack!"

Asura's nape was grabbed by YuWon's hand, and his body was lifted.

The fiercely burning eyes looked into Asura's and recited with a monotonous and emotionless voice.

"Thirty-one."

The moment their eyes met.

『I can't win.』

Along with the helplessness of defeat, all the strength in his body faded away.

Thud!

Asura collapsed to the ground when YuWon released his hand. His body was still energetic, but something much greater than losing his arms and legs had been taken from him.

His heart.

Fear seized Asura's heart.

------------------

Asura gave up on continuing to fight. Exactly when there were thirty-one battles left, he knelt down and sat on the ground.

His eyes dulled.

Asura, without the will to fight, was no longer Asura.

YuWon stood there for a while and looked at Asura, who had his head bowed.

Had he scared him? He no longer rushed at him and didn't even lift his head.

'Did Vishnu also do this?'

No.

The Vishnu YuWon knew wasn't that meek.

That's why a hundred times.

But now that he thought about it, there was no need to obsess over that number.

Sigh~

Pandora, who had freed herself from Pressure Points and was sitting on the side with a spread-out picnic blanket, was eating snacks with Hercules.

YuWon, who checked his safety once again, for once regretted his choice.

'I should have done it like this from the beginning.'

Facing the master of weapons, Asura, YuWon confronted him with a sword.

But that didn't matter. Because he was confident.

YuWon knew Asura better than anyone.

He had taught him weapons and finally defeated him in battle.

But Asura didn't know YuWon.

YuWon knows his opponent, but his opponent doesn't know YuWon.

That was a great advantage for a expert above Rankers.

And moreover, YuWon had much greater skill than Asura.

He suppressed him without hurting him, and suppressed him again.

So YuWon planned to keep fighting until Asura surrendered.

The problem was that he was trying to be like Vishnu.

If he had been pressuring Asura from the beginning, he wouldn't have been injured.

Crunch.

"Do you want to eat?"

Hercules, who knows where he got it from, handed him a fruit-filled cake and a fork.

"Did you come for a picnic?"

"Who is the one who suddenly barged in?"

"Who's lazing around and chopping wood in these times?"

"Lazing around? Me?"

Hercules' expression slightly frowned.

"I tell you again, I can endure being ignored, but I can't endure you ignoring the work of lumberjacks..."

"Alright, give it to me."

Interrupting halfway, YuWon took the fork and started eating the cake hurriedly.

Maybe because he had been moving his body all the time, the sweetness was even sweeter.

In the sight of Pandora, who watched him eat a whole cake alone, YuWon left the fork in silence.

"Haha."

"Why are you laughing?"

"If you're hungry, I'll take care of the food. It's the first time you've come as a guest in a long time."

"...Yes."

The time it took to break Asura's spirit was only a day. The sun was already setting, and night was approaching.

"Thank you, Hercules."

"Thanks?"

"If you hadn't been here, I might have gotten a little carried away."

Hercules stood beside Pandora. If it weren't for that figure, he couldn't be sure if he could be any calmer right now watching Asura.

"You seem quite worked up. Was that real?"

"Was I that worked up?"

"You looked angry."

For Rankers with a lifespan close to infinite, a decade wasn't a very long period. But that didn't mean all concentrations were the same just because time was short.

Hercules thought the time he spent with YuWon was more intense than any other moment.

So much so that they knew each other well and had seen many different sides of each other.

However...

He thought that this was probably the first time he saw YuWon express so much emotion.

"It seems like you really cherish her now, huh? No."

Hercules alternately looked at YuWon and Pandora and lowered his voice to ask.

"Do you love her?"

"Are you and Son OhGong really..."

He wasn't just asking; he seemed to be teasing.

"Now be honest. Don't be shy."

"When did I-?"

"Did you say you would marry her?"

Hercules' words made YuWon's mouth stiffen.

Marry...

It had been over ten years since Pandora courted YuWon. Finally, YuWon decided to marry Pandora and was making plans to do so.

It wasn't something that could be done just for unilateral affection.

Anyway, being with her was also YuWon's desire.

"Aren't you doing it because you want to? Then express it. Lucky bastard."

In the face of Hercules' words, YuWon looked at Pandora, who eagerly devoured the cake he had left, with whipped cream on her mouth.

"...To think there would come a day when I'd hear you say these nonsense to me."

He couldn't help but laugh.

He didn't expect Son OhGong to do it, but it was even more surprising that Hercules, who used to treat women like stones, talked about this topic.

He seemed so frustrated, and at the same time, YuWon felt that the world they had protected had become a more inhabitable place.

In the past...

Under the sky tinted purple by the Outers, this conversation would have been unimaginable.

YuWon nodded.

He was aware that he was terse and stiff.

Although he had improved a bit lately, that shyness was probably due to the long years of fighting in the future.

Of course...

"And you?"

That didn't only apply to YuWon.

"Aren't you dating anyone?"

"Well, Hargan told me the same. That I should date someone."

"Is Hargan planning to introduce someone to you?"

"He said he would."

"But?"

"I'm not mentally prepared yet..."

"Look at how much you resemble your father."

"So it seems."

"..."

A sudden silence enveloped them.

The atmosphere became awkward, and Hercules got up from his seat stiffly.

"Sh-Shall we?"

-----------------

Crackle, crackle.

The pork skin cooked deliciously over a slow wood fire.

As he roasted the whole meat, Hercules saw Asura sitting silently in the distance.

"How long is he going to stay like this...?"

"It will be a shock for him."

YuWon, drying his wet hair, approached and followed Hercules' gaze to observe Asura's reaction.

"Still, this level of shock therapy is necessary."

"You washed up quickly."

"The water was cold. Customer service is terrible."

Hercules smiled at YuWon's joke and stirred the dying fire with a poker.

Showing his back, Hercules asked without looking at YuWon:

"Now, are you going to talk? Why did you look for me?"

"Do I need a reason to come?"

"It seems to be a difficult matter. The way you're beating around the bush."

There was no way YuWon would come to this remote place without any purpose.

Moreover, he had just defeated three Administrators in Celestial Realm.

Did YuWon, who visited him right after that, have no motive?

Not even a stray dog would believe that.

"Is it about the war, right?"

At Hercules' question, YuWon nodded.

"Probably."

"Is the enemy this time more dangerous than those guys?"

"Do you mean guys like Shub-Niggurath or Nyarlathotep?"

"Nyarlathotep?"

"I guess the Foolish Chaos Name would sound more familiar to you. Yes, I mean those guys."

YuWon's response was delayed a bit.

At that moment...

Thinking about Hercules' mood, who turned his back, made it difficult for him to respond smoothly.

"What kind of answer do you want?"

Crack.

The firewood he had put in the fire broke in Hercules' hand.

Watching the shattered pieces of wood fall to the ground, Hercules nodded.

"That answer is enough."

YuWon didn't deny his question.

Perhaps this would be a battle as difficult as the fight against the Outers.

After all, the Administrators were like symbols of this world.

"Did you ask me why I came?"

Hercules turned his head.

With a towel on his wet hair, YuWon had an apologetic expression on his face.

"I don't want to fight, but now is not the time to be calmly chopping wood."

Calmly. Chopping wood.

He had heard those words recently, but this time they didn't bother him.

It was true.

At this very moment, there would be people fighting somewhere.

"You need to help me, Hercules."

Saying those words, YuWon closed his eyes.

It was Hercules, not just anyone.

He was different from Son OhGong or Asura obsessed with battle.

The strongest of them all, but the one who hated fighting the most.

The one who became a lumberjack after all the battles were over, without needing to fight anyone.

To him.

He was really saying something cruel.

Whoosh.

Hercules raised his head and looked at the sky.

The stars entered his field of vision.

That was the sky they had protected.

They couldn't afford to lose it again.

"From today... the lumberjack is temporarily retiring."

For now, it was time to wield the Club instead of the axe.

-KO-FI

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