Leveling with the Gods

C521

When Azathoth first discovered Nyarlathotep

The child, who still had no Name, was thin and hungry for having nothing to eat.

For a long time, Nyarlathotep hated this world. He said it was a world where everyone was hungry and miserable.

That's why the child blamed Azathoth.

He said Azathoth had enough power but did nothing and abandoned this world.

"Like me, huh..."

YuWon pondered Nyarlathotep's words.

At that moment, YuWon couldn't answer for himself whether he was Kim YuWon or Azathoth.

"Indeed, the mistake was on our side from the beginning."

YuWon's gaze turned to the barren desert.

This place had been ruined long ago. In a world where not a drop of water flowed, of course, no one could live.

In that place, Azathoth wanted other living beings to live.

So, he gave them a Name, and that was the result.

Finally, he was the one who would have to clean all this up.

"Should I consider this luck?"

In one of YuWon's eyes, the scene inside the Tower was reflected.

"Who is this beauty? She's comparable to Aphrodite."

"Pandora. Kim YuWon's girlfriend."

"...Kim YuWon has a girlfriend?"

"Why is a guy who's going to return soon flirting with a woman here? Let him die."

"No, I just..."

"And she's stronger than you and Baruna, right? We couldn't see her from where we were."

Son OhGong's clone laughed heartily in front of Pandora. Pandora, who received help in an urgent situation, reacted with confusion, not knowing what was going on.

The companions who cfrom the future.

YuWon was able to confirm their existence through Pandora's eyes.

'Mimir.'

It didn't take much thought to know what sacrifice Mimir had made to create this moment.

'Anyway, thanks to him... it's been much easier.'

Originally, the idea was to defeat Nyarlathotep here and return to the Tower. He thought that if he hurried, he could make it in tbefore the battle ended.

But thanks to Mimir, a significant change occurred on the other side.

Odin and Hercules crossed with their companions.

There was nothing to worry about anymore. The Outers without Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and Nyarlathotep could be left to them.

After all, they were warriors who had survived fighting against the Outers for so long.

So...

'I no longer have to save that Name.'

All reasons to doubt had been eliminated.

"Nyarla."

Nyarlathotep took a while to respond to YuWon's call.

The child answered belatedly, wondering what he was thinking.

"Yes, Father."

The child saw two people in YuWon.

A Player named Kim YuWon who had fought against him for a long time.

And Azathoth, the father who gave a Nto a hungry child wandering the desert.

Of those two, Nyarlathotep responded, considering YuWon as Azathoth.

"Please speak."

And YuWon, this tas Azathoth, asked.

"Don't you think of stopping here?"

"If I stop, will you forgive me?"

"If all of you return..."

"You're going beyond what I thought."

The corner of Nyarlathotep's mouth curved into a mocking smile.

"My foolish father. Don't you know now? All the Names you loved put a knife in your back."

"Still, return immediately."

"It seems you're givinga chance."

Nyarlathotep's arms opened wide.

"The Names you have are fewer than mine. Do you think you can handle all these Names with just Amorphous Chaos?"

YuWon's eyes could see more than a hundred Names, even those as high as the Nof Amorphous Chaos.

It seemed he had been accumulating Names for stime.

Moreover, he had devoured the Nof Yog-Sothoth, so it was understandable that he was so confident.

However...

"You make the smistake she did."

In the end, he was making the smistake as Shub-Niggurath.

"The power of the Names has faded, and only the shell of the True Nremains."

Both Shub-Niggurath and Nyarlathotep had becobsessed with the Names and had forgotten the most important thing.

"The True Nis not a shell but the essence. The many Names you cling to are just empty shells."

The sword, without a single wrong letter.

That showed how much Foolish Chaos and Shub-Niggurath resembled each other.

"I am Azathoth."

The moment that Nwas heard...

Woo-!

The world surrounding Nyarlathotep changed. The purple sky, cracked by battles, also changed.

As if black ink had been poured over a carefully drawn picture, the world surrounding Nyarlathotep turned jet black.

And in the deep darkness...

"I am the unrighteous King sitting on the throne of Amorphous Chaos, preparing for the Great Chaos."

YuWon, sitting on the throne with his chin resting on his hand, looked down at Nyarlathotep.

"There is no greater Nthan mine."

Nyarlathotep's eyes widened.

He couldn't believe he had to look at him like this again. He felt his stomach churn.

"-It's an exaggeration."

"It might seem so."

YuWon descended from the throne.

Slow steps.

Nyarlathotep used his Nto devour YuWon, but...

"There's nothing here."

Nyarlathotep's Ndid not respond.

"Neither Nnor anything."

YuWon descended from the throne entirely.

His height seemed much greater than before.

When Nyarlathotep looked down, his hands, which were thin and bony, had turned into the palms of a small child.

"What happened...?"

"Didn't I tell you? The Names you cling to are just empty shells."

YuWon looked at Nyarlathotep.

The small child, not even reaching YuWon's waist, had lost even the face he had gained.

"You said you wouldn't abandon this world like me?"

And YuWon said.

"You were wrong."

And he revealed a truth he had not told Nyarlathotep until now:

"I was the one who made that world you hated so much like this, Nyarla."

"...!"

Nyarlathotep seemed shocked, his thin arms trembling.

"Aza--oh!"

Gugugu, gugugugu-!

Nyarlathotep's anger resonated in space.

The anger made the throne YuWon was sitting on waver, but that was it.

"How could you!"

"It's not a matter of how I could. Simply, you trusted me."

What surprised YuWon the most by having Azathoth's memories was this.

Azathoth loved the world so much. In a distant past, unknown even to the Outers, it was a being who turned this world into a wasteland.

"So I won't insult you for betraying me. I will only criticize you for what you did to others."

"Why... no, how...?"

Nyarlathotep was desperate.

"Are you still that big?"

Unlike him, who was thin and small, YuWon seemed increasingly larger. Even though he had many more Names.

Crack-!

The throne YuWon, or rather Azathoth, was sitting on cracked.

"No matter how many Names you have-"

Crack, crack-!

The cracks in the throne widened more and more.

"If I want, everything will turn to dust."

"...Are you planning to disappear?"

Nyarlathotep asked as he watched the cracks in the throne spreading.

He knew very well what that throne meant.

It was not a simple object but the very power of Azathoth. Azathoth had always controlled his power sitting on that throne.

But now, that throne was about to be destroyed.

Azathoth.

The essence of that Name, in itself.

"Even you, who are you, if you lose all your Names and use so much power-"

"All Names cfrom Azathoth."

The devastated world. Nyarlathotep. The greed of other Names that started from him.

The whole root of the problems was Azathoth, so YuWon had thought of this ending.

"So, it's natural that I bear it."

Gugong, gugugugu-!

The image of Nyarlathotep seeing YuWon becincreasingly larger and majestic.

It wasn't the weak and shrunk Azathoth that had been left after the Names were stolen.

It was the Azathoth he had first seen.

The Azathoth who had all the Names and was almost omnipotent.

Crack, crack-!

YuWon glanced sideways at the Azathoth's throne behind him.

"I didn't plan to do it so soon, but..."

Huuaaaaa!

All the air around enveloped Nyarlathotep's body.

As soon as he tried to respond to the changing flow of air,

Crack!

Nyarlathotep was surprised to see that his two legs were bitten by the teeth, and quickly tilted his head.

"What...?"

In a short time, Nyarlathotep's two legs were swallowed by a bottomless abyss that seemed to have no end.

He wanted to kick desperately.

But it was futile resistance.

Within this place, Azathoth was omniscient and omnipotent, and the Names he possessed had no power.

"Tis running out."

Crack, crunch!

More than half of Nyarlathotep's body had disappeared.

If it were only the physical body, there would be no problem, but the abyss swallowing Nyarlathotep made his essence, his Name, extinguish.

As his existence disappeared, Nyarlathotep uttered the last curse words.

"I... hate you."

Nyarlathotep remembered the twhen he wandered hungry and alone.

"I curse you. Your powers, your Names, everything!"

"..."

Yuwon nodded.

"Do as you please."

Woo~

Thus, Nyarlathotep completely disappeared from the world.

YuWon silently looked at him.

Nyarlathotep.

A small, hungry, and helpless child who barely survived in a destroyed world.

A child who hated that world and wanted to change it.

For that purpose, the enemy took control and destroyed YuWon's world.

YuWon had no intention of blaming that child as a problem. In a way, it was just a twisted outcome, and the child was also a victim.

'All problems are...'

YuWon closed his eyes for a moment.

Now was the tto decide who he was.

'I am Azathoth.'

Originally, he had tried to delay this moment as much as possible.

But an unexpected variable emerged.

Crack!

The cracks in the throne grew larger and larger.

There was about half a day left until Azathoth's Nwould completely extinguish.

As much as it was said to be a shell, the current Azathoth had lost most of his Names.

In that state, to use the spower as in his heyday with just one True Name, there would be many consequences.

'There will still be time.'

Probably, the destruction of the throne and his own extinction would occur together.

'Until the gate closes.'