Leveling with the Gods

C376

Among about twenty people, familiar faces were engaging in conversations.

"Is this really the end?"

"I never thought it would be a farewell like this."

"Yeah, you're right. Whatever ends, will end..."

The Hero of Olympus, known as the Giant Slayer, Hercules.

Son OhGong, a High-Ranker with the prestigious title of Great Sage, Heaven's Equal.

And the leader of Asgard Guild's Valkyries, Brunhilde.

Besides them, all the others were recognized Rankers.

"We can't fail. It's not over yet."

While everyone fell into despair, someone still held their courage.

Great Sage, Heaven's Equal.

With his body full of wounds and shattered, Hercules responded to his words.

"You speak well for someone who's dying."

Hercules wasn't in perfect condition either. He had lost an arm, and his face was pale.

What had exactly happened?

Chronos's gaze turned to an elderly man sitting alone with closed eyes in a corner.

An old man who now looked notably older than a moment ago.

'Am... am I him?'

OhGong and Hercules were in the midst of a lively and animated conversation. While each grappled with their own determination, their future selves watched the struggle with closed eyes, as if waiting for something. (Note: Yes, the raw says that Chronos is watching with closed eyes)

Then...

YuWon appeared, in a much more haggard form than usual.

"You've returned."

"I thought you were dead."

YuWon sat down heavily in a chair and lowered his head.

When he mentioned the deaths of his other comrades, the room fell silent.

And right after...

"Who is this guy?"

"Foolish Chaos."

"What?"

An unbelievable conversation reached Chronos's ears.

'Is... is he dead?'

He couldn't believe it.

Foolish Chaos.

Chronos had seen his true nature up close more than anyone. It was hard to even imagine him dying.

And everyone shared the same thought.

Then...

The future Chronos, who was sitting in a corner with closed eyes, stood up.

"We can't win. At least not right now."

Chronos held a pocket watch in his hand.

Looking at YuWon, who asked if there was another way, Chronos replied.

"Go back to the ancient timeline. And start over."

"Is it really possible? I thought it was just a theory..."

It was something impossible.

At least that's what the present Chronos thought.

Of course...

It's not that there was no way to do it.

"On my own, it would be impossible. Mimir and Odin helped me."

If he couldn't do it alone, then with two people.

And if they couldn't do it with two people, then they could do it with three.

Time was much more complicated and delicate than one thought, and it was nearly impossible to intervene in another timeline with just one's own strength.

But even if that were true.

It was hard to believe that he, who was already aging and weakening, had the power to do it.

"It can't be..."

Then...

In Chronos's mind, the next scenes began to anticipate.

And so it was.

"In the timeline one of you will return to, I'm likely to have disappeared. That's the only way to reverse time and alter the timeline, and it's a fair price we must pay."

That was the only choice.

Squeeze out the remaining strength and pay the necessary price to intervene in another timeline.

"That's impossible... (It's a lie...)"

It was hard to believe.

That Foolish Chaos had died.

That he had made this decision for them.

It was a hard story to believe in this brief moment.

"Phew..."

YuWon sighed as he saw Chronos deny what he had seen with his own eyes.

He had already anticipated it.

YuWon reached into his inventory.

It was an item he had been keeping in his inventory for a long time.

Tick, tock...

A clock that kept ticking despite being very worn out.

The Clock Movement.

At the moment he discovered it, Chronos couldn't believe it.

Chronos reached out for the Clock Movement as if possessed by something.

And the moment he held the Clock Movement again...

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

Whoosh!

The memories that had been left in the clock flooded Chronos's mind like furious waves.

"To intervene in the Tower's laws using the Clock Movement, I will have to endure a considerable penalty."

"Then, maybe..."

"I might end up in the same situation as them."

Expulsion from the Tower.

Whether the result would be death or ending up like the Outsiders, that remained to be seen.

Chronos had been preparing for that possibility for a long time.

"...It was real."

Although he no longer had much power, and the clock seemed little more than scrap.

Chronos could feel his own power, Odin's, and Mimir's inside him.

An object from his future.

There was no better proof than that to support what YuWon had just said.

Fireee~

Then, through the Golden Cinder Eyes, the scene they were both seeing disappeared, and the original world was revealed.

The Chronos who had returned from the past had a stunned expression on his face.

Slurp...

YuWon retrieved the Clock Movement from Chronos's hands.

As he stored it back in his inventory, YuWon continued to speak.

"Intervening in the Tower's laws and other timelines is not the same as intervening on a lower floor. You, Odin, and Mimir knew that better than anyone."

The three of them were the ones who directly created the Clock Movement.

Naturally, they also knew better than anyone the consequences.

"Especially you."

Chronos had contributed greatly to making the Clock Movement work.

The Clock Movement had been completed, and the process for using it was rushed. Because of this, YuWon couldn't properly think about what would happen to Chronos once he used it.

So YuWon wanted to know.

"Let me ask you one question, Ahjussi. Did you really not know this would happen?"

Had Chronos really anticipated an outcome like this?

The disappearance of his existence as a price for violating the Tower's laws, being expelled from the Tower and cast outside of timelines, being forgotten in everyone's memory, did he really not know?

The Chronos in front of him was different from the Chronos YuWon knew.

But...

YuWon didn't believe that Chronos hadn't anticipated this outcome when he, Odin, and Mimir first devised the Clock Movement.

"Take it easy and think it through."

YuWon didn't need to keep persuading. He walked past Chronos and patted him on the shoulder.

"Think about what you really wanted."

"..."

Chronos, now alone, seemed lost in deep thought.

Where had it all gone wrong? Had it really been his choice to arrive at this situation? And now, where should he be?

'This is confusing.'

Before meeting Chronos for the first time, YuWon had been willing to intervene without hesitation if Chronos was entirely on the side of the Outsiders. He had contacted Zeus as a first step and had even considered using Chronos as food for Danpung in case communication didn't work.

But now, Chronos was in an intermediate state where he didn't belong anywhere. Therefore, there was still a possibility of his return.

'What I can do reaches here.'

From now on, it all depended on Chronos's choice.

So, as YuWon walked past Chronos.

-Beeeeee!

In the distance, a bleat that shouldn't have been heard sounded.

And the moment he heard it.

Zzing...

YuWon's head throbbed intensely, as if it was about to split open.

"This is madness..."

A sharp, biting pain...

YuWon turned his head and looked beyond the collapsed wall.

"...Curse."

On the other side of the wall, the mother of the goats emitted a bleat.

Thud...

Thump...

The Rankers who were fighting against the goats began to stagger one by one, then fell unconscious.

"Why suddenly...?"

Slurp...

Although there was a time difference, most seemed to be falling into a similar state of unconsciousness.

Beeee...

Beeeeee...

The goats turned towards the mother in response to her bleat.

The Rankers who still retained their consciousness muttered as they watched the goats return to where they had come from.

"Are they fleeing...?"

"Yeah, damn it, where to...?"

Despite their bodies trembling, their lips remained alive.

The Rankers who had been on the brink of death now sighed with relief, knowing they were still alive, and also mourned the death of their comrades.

But that didn't last long.

"It's a mountain beyond a mountain."

Agni, the High-Ranker of Veda, pushed his disheveled hair aside after the fight with the goats.

Beeee-.

The goats jumped towards the wall.

Upon hearing the mother goat's bleat, Agni almost lost consciousness right then and there.

That bleat had tremendous power.

Although they heard it, they couldn't understand it or hear it clearly. The number of Rankers who lost consciousness and fell due to that bleat easily exceeded a thousand.

A being that knocks down a thousand Rankers with just its bleat.

They had never considered that something like that could exist.

Beeee-.

Beeee-.

Odin grabbed a goat by the horns.

The goat wanted to escape him, but it couldn't due to Odin's brutal strength.

Of course, Odin had no interest in the goat he had already captured.

From the beginning, his interest had been outside.

"Is it coming?"

A presence larger and more grandiose than all these goats combined.

As long as he was present, it was difficult to see the end of this fight.

That's why...

Until now, Odin hadn't used the Gungnir.

But...

He could no longer keep the Gungnir concealed.

Kwaaah-.

Odin held the Gungnir in one hand.

He prepared to activate it at any moment and watched the backs of the goats that were retreating.

And the same went for Zeus.

"What happened to my father?"

Zeus asked YuWon, who was approaching from behind.

YuWon, like Zeus, looked at the large mother of the goats outside and replied.

"I've already said what I had to say. Now he will choose."

"Is that so?"

Despite being his father, what Zeus remembered of Chronos were recent events.

Even those memories were fragmented and did not extend to the parent-child relationship.

Instead...

Zeus's interest was elsewhere.

"So, now only that guy is left."

Zeus, who had been busy dealing with the goats when he put Chronos aside, had also been focusing his attention on the Black Goat of the Woods for quite some time.

It had been quite some time since that thing started looking in this direction with bright eyes.

However, what was completely different was that it was now beginning to influence this side not only by watching but also through its bleats.

"We must ensure it cannot enter."

-Beeee-.

The bleat was getting closer and closer.

Facing this creature was not in YuWon's plans.

"Once it enters, it will truly be a disaster."

Twist~

Through a crack that was too small compared to its size, the Black Goat of the Woods began to reveal its presence.