Leveling with the Gods

Pook, pook-.

He felt like he was going to go crazy.

Watching his mother die in front of him made him want to roll his eyes.

He was angry.

Even though he knew it wasn't real, he wanted to find Ares and tear him apart.

"Stop..."

His voice trembled.

Even though he was small, there was no way that voice could reach Ares or Alcmene in front of him.

Kwaaaang-!

"Stop!"

He stomped the ground to scatter mana around him, but the memory of the necklace didn't go away.

Huhhhh-!

A red stream of mana spread in all directions.

Alcmena's mana still lingered in Hercules' memory.

Yessss-.

The scattered mana came together again.

The image of Alcmene stabbed by the swords and spears no longer appeared.

In its place, another memory of Alcmene began.

-I'm probably going to die.

Two people sitting opposite each other.

Alcmena and her sister Alena.

-Why I held my son in my arms to raise him as a weapon. I thought about it.

- What?

- When I die, how will Hercules react?

At Alcmena's question, Alena's eyes widened like saucers.

With that question, she understood why Zeus had paired Hercules with Alcmene.

-So that he could kill you and...?

-I can't think of anything else but that.

-You really believe that? -Don't you seem to be overthinking it?

-Sister...

Alcmene shook her head resolutely.

-You don't know Zeus. There's nothing "just" about him.

-How could it be...

Wahh, wahh!

Screams were heard from the inner room.

It was the cry of poor Hercules, who had not yet been weaned.

Alena and Alcmena jumped to their feet, startled.

Alena ran to the door and stood in Alcmena's way.

- You'd better stay away from Hercules, Alcmena.

If in fact, that was Zeus' purpose.

The closer you get to Hercules, the closer you are to death.

-Pretend you don't know. I'll find a nanny. Then you'll...

-I can't do that, sister.

Alcmena looked over the door Alena was blocking.

A child's cry could still be heard.

Hercules was calling out to her.

-Then you will die!

-Although it's very likely, I can't do it.

-Why?

- He is my son.

- Is it out of responsibility?

-No.

-So?

-It's only because I love my son very much.

Momentarily speechless at that answer, Alena bit her lip hard.

A mother who loves her son.

No one in the world had the right to blame her. But now, as Alcmena's older sister, she had to protect Alcmena.

To do so, Alcmena must not be with Hercules.

-He is just a weapon of war planned by Zeus.

- Do you think so too?

Kwak-.

Alcmena's eyes looked at her sister, Alena, with force.

She reached out her hand towards the door Alena was blocking. Unlike Alcmena, a Ranker player, Alena, a player who had renounced the Tower, had no power against her.

-Then he should be on her side even more. Even if everyone thinks of him that way, I won't.

As long as Zeus made a decision, that child's fate would be sealed.

At all costs, he will take Hercules to war. Hercules will be a weapon of war, and he will kill many Giants, whether he wants to or not.

Kiiiiii-ii-ii-ii-.

Jeobuck, Jeobuck-.

Reluctantly, Alcmene opened the door and lifted Hercules, who was sobbing and crying.

"Mother..."

Looking at her, the grown man sank weakly into his seat.

-Thank you, Hercules.

The warmth in Alcmene's eyes as she gazed at her younger self was overwhelmingly nostalgic.

-For being born as my son.

* * *

Whoa-.

The red mana surrounding Hercules changed with every moment.

Perhaps in her, Hercules is seeing the truth he never knew.

『So there's a story like that 』

Gigäntes' voice echoed in his ears.

YuWon raised his head and looked at him.

A height high enough to make the back of his neck hurt.

He looked at Gigäntes, who was so huge he could reach the sky, and felt his whole back stiffen.

'Is he able to see everything?'

Alcmena's skills were not that good.

An ability that was nothing more than a video, showing memories stored in a voice.

There was no way Gigäntes, a Giant comparable to the Three Gods, would fail to comprehend such an ability.

"Thank you."

『What do you mean,』

"I was a little worried that you would take this opportunity to attack."

Hercules, the Giant Killer.

It was an opportunity, perhaps one of the few, to kill him.

If he had seized the opportunity and attacked Hercules, this is where the battle between Hercules and Gigäntes could have taken place.

『You risked your life to come here to resolve the misunderstanding between Hercules and us, the Giants, and I will not let your efforts go to waste』

"Is that a thank you?"

『That remains to be seen』

That remains to be seen...

It meant that he would judge Hercules by his future reaction.

'He seems to be thinking a lot.'

YuWon was also looking at the necklace's memories.

He had heard the story and knew the outline, but seeing it with his own eyes was different.

'Gigäntes shuddered.'

There was a reason he had come and handed over the necklace that could have been given in advance.

Hercules had killed many Giants as the Giant Killer.

Even if he stopped killing Giants upon discovering the truth, it didn't change that he was an enemy of the Giants.

But what if it turned out that Hercules' enmity against the Giants was caused by Zeus?

What if Gigäntes, the leader of the Giants, sees it for himself?

'Please help me, Alcmene.'

On her, who died more than a thousand years ago, the lives of millions and millions of people depended.

To prevent a great war from occurring in the future, Alcmene's voice had no choice but to persuade Hercules and Gigäntes.

While YuWon watched over the direction of Hercules.

Swish~

The giant head of Gigäntes descended.

It descended from a height of hundreds of meters, and its pupils, the size of a house, were fixed on YuWon.

YuWon turned his head and looked at Gigäntes after a moment.

"Mm?"

『Yes. I remember you. Urfa talked to me about you 』

Urfa.

The High Ranking Elder of the Gigäntes Clan that he met on the 20th Floor who told him how to get the Sea Stone.

Apparently, Gigäntes had heard about YuWon from him.

"Weren't you sleeping?"

『No, I don't usually sleep here all the time. I wake up from time to time to hear what's going on in the World』.

"Then why didn't you stop Hercules earlier?"

『Because of this 』

Gigäntes raised his arm, exposing his chest.

An ugly scar ran between his chest and armpit.

『It was a wound inflicted by the Lightning of Zeus. A wound that takes a long time to heal. 』

"Are you wounded, is that why you were hiding?"

『I wasn't hiding 』

Gigäntes lowered his raised arm, hiding his wound again.

『I was preparing for the next fight. 』

The next fight.

The Second Gigantomachy.

Unlike the first one, which was not announced, the Second Gigantomachy led to a war many times bigger than the first one.

At first, it was asked why it happened.

We all began to think, but we couldn't think of anything other than Zeus behind the scenes.

But then it seemed to make sense.

'Wasn't Olympus the only one preparing for war?'

A hand claps when it meets another hand, and a war must have an opponent.

Olympus preparing for the Second Gigantomachy. As Gigäntes, the Chief of the Giants, said, they also prepared for war.

'In the Second Gigantomachy, the Giants will be destroyed.'

The Giants were a race that occupied a fairly large part of the Tower's power.

Due to the Second Gigantomachy, such Giants were destroyed and several Giant Guilds, including Olympus, suffered irreparable scars.

An event that greatly reduced the power of the Tower.

'Winning a war against Olympus is suboptimal. The best we can hope for is no war at all.'

To this end, Gigäntes' judgment was important.

The man in front of him was the one who held the key to war as Zeus of Olympus.

『You must be an enemy of Olympus, judging by the way you stole from Poseidon. 』

"That's right."

『So you're on our side? 』

"Not really."

『Pfft. as I heard, you're a complete weirdo. 』

Gigäntes laughed strangely at YuWon.

The laughter was so loud that it sounded like a natural disaster to YuWon's ears. Gigäntes looked at YuWon, who was covering his ears, with curious eyes.

『To climb the Tower so fast, to steal Ares' items, to find this place that Olympus couldn't find. All of this is beyond common sense. And you defy all common sense, and now you stand between me and the Giant Killer 』.

Even if you looked at each one separately, it was by no means unusual.

A skill that already surpassed most Rankers.

He had captured the Sea Stone sought by Poseidon and stolen an object from Ares.

And then revealed the truth to Hercules and Gigäntes.

『Just here and now you have made history. 』

To make history

It was a grandiloquent statement, but YuWon didn't feel that way.

He really didn't.

To put it bluntly, it was wrong.

He wasn't making history, he was changing it.

"I'm kind of cool."

『I see you know a lot of things, but you don't know how to be humble』.

Perhaps paying attention to YuWon's reaction, who was covering his ears at the loud voice, Gigäntes smiled less than before.

『 Anyway, you are an enemy of Olympus, but you are neither, which means you are neutral, which means you have no one to help you in times of danger. 』

"Don't be so hard on me. I know what I'm doing."

『Are you sure?』

"Yes."

Considering what he had to do in the future, this was just one more step towards his goal.

To YuWon, the power of an organization was like a poisoned chalice.

In the end, the power of a group would hold you back and, instead of giving you more power, it would take away your freedom.

Freedom.

It was YuWon's greatest strength, and no other guild had greater charm than that.

『 If that's what you want, I can't help myself 』

Fortunately, Gigäntes didn't force a response.

Instead, he rolled his eyes and looked over to where Hercules was standing.

『Now then...』

Whoaaaah-!

The red-colored mana was absorbed by the necklace.

『It's your turn to choose. 』

The mana that had spread like mist dissipated and Hercules appeared with a dazed face.