Ranker Who Lives Twice

"Sesha. It's too dangerous here, so sit tight." When Yeon-woo lightly waved his hand, darkness spread and embraced Sesha. Then…

[7th-step Dragon Body awakening]

[Powers fully open]

[Sky Wings]

Boom! Yeon-woo spread his wings and rushed toward Zeus.

***

'What is this…!' Having been suddenly 'sucked' into a strange space, Zeus was in a state of shock.

Ohyohyo! You should be more mindful of the darkness, no?

He's just a mere mortal who won't even live for a hundred years.

If those from Asgard or other transcendents heard your remark, wouldn't they be fuming and up in arms, you know?

Ha! Are you comparing me to those idiots? I'm still a king of gods…

Ohyohyo! I know that you, Zeus, have been the only god who defeated another king of gods. However, be honest, that doesn't mean you're the only one with the title as the king of gods, right?

…

Anyway, that's all I'll say about that. Although you do not share the same genetic trait, you two are brothers all the same. However, he's now become the darkness.

…so what?

What I mean is, he's darkness. It was something that the Heavenly Demon was barely able to contain and put to sleep. The darkness paints the dreams of all the universes.

Zeus knew how great the Black King was. As a god among gods, the Black King was an existence that was difficult to define with the relatively primitive concepts of high-level power, such as 'emperor'. In fact, the Black King could not even be defined as an idea or concept.

However, Zeus still looked down on Yeon-woo. The fact that Yeon-woo seized part of the Black King's power and became a part of his personality was certainly commendable. Moreover, Zeus had observed how Yeon-woo had defeated Allforone/Vivasvat and collapsed the Tower… But it was simply those achievements.

Did any of that mean anything to Zeus? Moreover, Zeus had not been sitting idly by during the past decade. He repeatedly devoured, and in the process, fortuitously seized and acquired another Soulstone.

Zeus already considered himself an equal in strength to that of Luciel, who had burst onto the scene and surprised the heavenly world in the Tower long ago. Although Luciel held fourteen brilliant Soulstones at the time, Zeus currently held the divine domain of a creator god, so Zeus did not feel inferior to Luciel. Rather, in terms of greatness, Zeus felt that he had already surpassed Luciel.

Thus, Zeus planned on killing this arrogant younger brother, someone who dared to even think about confronting the gods. He planned to throw Kronos back into the abyss, reclaim Olympus as his own once more, and teach Yeon-woo who the real 'king of gods' was.

Of course, Zeus did not plan to lower himself and do this in his true body. Therefore, he needed to first find a suitable puppet to move on his behalf, so he chose Kim Bum-seung as his puppet.

Kim Bum-seung was an orphan who lost his family on the day of the beginning. However, what made Kim Bum-seung different from others who had lost family members on the day of the beginning was that Bum-seung saw, with his own eyes, how the day of the beginning happened. He had directly witnessed the 'ark' appear in the sky. Moreover, Bum-seung saw the various otherworld beings that chased after the ark and caused great upheaval on the previously quiet Earth.

Since it was so chaotic at the time, no one noticed Bum-seung. No, to be more precise, even if any of them noticed him, it would be more correct to say that they did not care. A mere mortal was nothing to any of these beings. Even if a city was destroyed or if a young child had lost her parents and siblings in the aftermath of their clashes, these beings would not have even batted an eye.

Thus, after seeing what he saw…Kim Bum-seung wandered around to find the culprits that caused the day of the beginning. The funny thing was that, contrary to his initial thoughts, Bum-seung was able to find one of the culprits very easily.

Cha So-yeong, the kid who was introduced as the youngest S-class player and looked exactly like one of the people Bum-seung witnessed at that time.

When Bum-seung fell into despair thinking that revenge might be impossible, as Sesha was an S-class player, Zeus reached out. This was how Bum-seung became Zeus' faithful dog and the reason why he tried to contact Sesha.

On Zeus' part, if he continued to follow Sesha, he expected to eventually find Yeon-woo, so Zeus waited patiently… And when he saw the sight of Yeon-woo waking up, Zeus felt relieved. As an older brother and as god, Zeus wanted to teach this rambunctious bastard who did not know the ways of the world a lesson.

However, instead of teaching Yeon-woo a lesson with a puppet, as Zeus had initially planned, Zeus' true body had been dragged into Yeon-woo's illusory world.

Moreover, what the hell was that thing behind Yeon-woo? The thing behind Yeon-woo…appeared to be Yeon-woo's true body… 'A dragon?' No. Zeus had existed as a ruler for a long time, but he had never seen this type of dragon species before.

The divine power of a god, the demonic magic power of a demon, the magic power of dragons, and even the fighting spirit of giants… It seemed as though the power of the four races, all transcendent species, had been crammed into one existence. As these clashing characteristics were combined, one would expect the resulting existence to feel unnatural or unbalanced…but the issue was that Zeus felt no such thing at all. What was more, the Dragon Fear, which spread throughout the darkness, weighed down heavily and crushed Zeus' shoulders.

At that moment, Zeus' face turned red. For a moment, he felt embarrassed and ashamed of the fact that he had been pushed back in a momentum and aura fight. At the same time, he felt uncomfortable. Zeus recalled Yvlke's warning to be mindful of the darkness.

『A mere human…!』 Zeus shot out his yellow lightning bolts with a horribly distorted expression. If Yeon-woo planned to confine him within the darkness, Zeus planned to just tear the darkness apart.

Zeus' Soulstones, 'Caritas (charity)' and 'Industria (diligence)', each emanated a cold light. As the magic power from the two Soulstones mixed, Zeus' yellow lightning bolts, amplified several times over, spread like a spider's web in all directions, blazing violently as if it would tear Yeon-woo to pieces at any moment. The violence of the lightning matched Zeus' level of anger.

However, Zeus' words did not last long. Zeus thought that something passed in front of his eyes, and then suddenly, the tip of Scythe was rushing towards his head.

"Didn't I ever tell you?" And Yeon-woo, who approached and was as close to Zeus as Scythe, smiled coldly. "You talk too much."

[Pressure]

[Stream]

[Breath]

Rumble! Yeon-woo's Sword Thunder strike exploded. It was a similar Sword Thunder strike that exploded the gate and tore apart the otherworld gods. However, in Zeus' eyes, it seemed that a huge dragon, with its mouth wide open, breathed out.

The Sword Thunder strike that Yeon-woo wielded was not much different from the concept of the dragon power of Dragon's Breath… It compressed an element to the extreme until an explosion occurred.

With an 'Ugh!', Zeus unconsciously took in a breath of air. He reflexively pulled his head back and concentrated his lightning to a point in front of him, but before he could fully defend himself, Scythe blasted onto his face.

『Ack!』 Zeus fell with a long tear near the right corner of his mouth. His face had been ravaged in an instant. Half of his face had been blown away as a cut extended to his right ear, and the other parts of his face were charred by Yeon-woo's strike. It was surprising that Zeus' head did not explode.

The bigger problem for Zeus was that he could not recover from the wounds. His two Soulstones resonated and poured out a huge amount of magic power, but the more they did so, the more the burns that had penetrated his face spread all over the body. In an instant, the burns had spread to every part of his body.

['Death: Poison' has been transplanted!]

['Death: Starvation' has been transplanted!]

['Death: Disease' has been transplanted!]

['Death: Thirst' has been transplanted!]

…

There were many kinds of death, such as from poisoning, starvation, disease, thirst, old-age, murder, and so on… All these different forms of death came together in a complex way to form the concept and divine domain of Yeon-woo's death. It was a concept that even immortal gods and demons could never completely escape.

Yeon-woo was essentially a conceptual god representing the concept of death. In addition, the concept of 'fight', partly embedded in the transplanted deaths, gave the added characteristic of resisting more strongly the more it collided against something, so the constant operation of Zeus Soulstone's was nothing more than pouring oil on the fire for the concept of death.

『H-How dare you…!』

"You look so much better."

『Die!』

Zeus roared and struck with the thunderbolts he had gathered. Boom! Boom! His condensed thunderbolt strikes were so intense that one would wonder if it would burn off all the darkness and reach Yeon-woo.

Rumble! Yeon-woo quickly pursued Zeus and detonated his Sword Thunder strikes one after another. From the Second Extreme to the Third Extreme… from the Fourth Extreme to the Fifth Extreme. The black and red flashes from the tip of Scythe easily deflected, blocked, and tore through Zeus' lightning strikes.

However, due to the constant explosions and subsequent soot, and the magic field that was spread all around him, Zeus did not know what was going on.

『Hahaha! Yes. Now you know who you're up against…!』

Not knowing what was going on, Zeus did not see that Yeon-woo, who came out from an opening in the emptiness, was right behind him.

"First off, let's take away…"

It was only when Zeus heard Yeon-woo's ridicule-filled voice that he hurriedly turned his head.

"…those annoying eyes."

Whoosh! Yeon-woo swung Scythe across Zeus' face.

<Lightning of Heavens>. The power that Zeus boasted was shattered before it was even properly formed. No, it was more correct to say that Zeus was no match for Yeon-woo in the first place.

Though Zeus had given his all to launch a sortie of lightning strike attacks, Yeon-woo used Scythe to brush off the incoming attacks with ease. And soon, the tip of Scythe quickly split Zeus' eyelids where the Soulstones were embedded.

Sss!

『…!』 Zeus could not even scream. It was because of death, which had already penetrated deep into his body. 'Thirst' had caused his uvula and esophagus to shrink, blocking even the voice of his soul.

Thanks to this, Zeus had no choice but to suffer quietly. The supply of his Soulstones' magic power, which was naturally connected to his divine power, was abruptly cut off, so even his control over his pain threshold had completely disappeared.

Furthermore…

['Death: Burn' has been transplanted!]

Whoosh! Embers flew out from his previous burn marks, which had spread all over his body. Zeus was being incinerated from the inside like firewood.

Yeon-woo swung Scythe successively, cutting off Zeus' hands and feet. Finally, Yeon-woo pierced Zeus in the chest.

Crack. Following the sound, a black shadow spread out from the spot where Scythe was embedded and completely covered the embers and flames that roared out from Zeus' body.

[Power, 'Hades' Spirit Eating Sword' is attempting to devour!]

Clack! Clack! The razor-sharp teeth clashed violently together as Zeus' soul was devoured.

[Successful in devouring the 'Jade Emperor', which was contained in Zeus' legends!]

[Succeeded in devouring 'Atum', which was contained in Zeus' legends!]

…

Zeus wriggled in pain and trembled as if trying to fight against the devouring. All the legends that he acquired from the creator god were funneling into Yeon-woo. However, there was a limit to his ability to resist, as Zeus had already lost his eyesight and both his Soulstones.

Clack! Clack! Clack! In the end, after the shadow that greedily covered him disappeared, all that was left behind was Zeus' skeletal figure. Zeus looked like someone had stretched a layer of skin on top of a skeletal bone structure. It looked like Zeus had lost all his vitality.

Even if Yeon-woo were to swing half-heartedly, Zeus would easily lose his life.

『…Yeon-woo.』 Kronos, who had been silent until now, uttered a single word.

Yeon-woo was unable to take Zeus' life. "Fine, fine." Yeon-woo sighed lightly and held up his hands. Of course, Yeon-woo intended to confine Zeus in a place that he could never escape from.

Whoosh! Chains protruded from the emptiness that bloomed in the darkness. The chains quickly bound Zeus' body tightly so that he could not move.

"Well, that was a lot easier than I thought." Yeon-woo lightly threw Zeus over his shoulder and got up to leave. He thought Zeus would be stronger, but it was much easier than he thought… A bit too easy perhaps, or…

'Did I become too strong?'

Pft. The smile seen from Yeon-woo's lips was buried in the flowing darkness.