Ranker Who Lives Twice

Team: HH, thursdays, Yahiko (3/12)

[Grief of the Black King]

Category: Sabaton

Rank: ???

Summary: ???

**This artifact is ‘Unique.’ There is only one that exists in the entire Tower, and it is completely bound to its owner. It cannot be shared or traded with anyone else.

**Currently, you cannot see anything about it. Only after you have certain qualifications can you see it.

When he first opened the information, he wasn’t in his right mind because of the fight with Benteke, so he hadn’t looked too closely.

But after confirming it, he laughed futilely.

‘Qualifications…..’

An important clue to discovering the Black King’s identity had turned out to be a false lead, so he was annoyed. There wasn’t anything about the conditions to become qualified, so it was even more annoying.

However.

‘That doesn’t mean there’s no clue at all.’

Yeon-woo opened the information window of the black bracelet.

[Despair of the Black King]

Category: Vambrace

Rank: ???

Summary: The past ??? were always fearful of the great and mighty Black King.

In the end, they betrayed him and locked him away in the darkness.

The Black King trembled with rage during that immeasurable eternity. Thanks to that, the three objects that bound him became his servants.

The grudge inside the objects will try to test the user because it is dark.

Be careful not to be swallowed by it.

……

Yeon-woo focused on the summary, ignoring the options and warnings.

When he first attained the Despair of the Black King, he didn’t know what any of it was about, but with the Grief that swallowed Poseidon’s Triaina, he could somewhat guess.

‘Are the question marks in the first sentence ‘Gods of Olympus’?”

The Black King Set had swallowed Zeus and Poseidon’s holy artifacts. This meant that the Black King had enmity with Olympus.

Yeon-woo especially focused on the word “betrayal.” Betrayal was usually an emotion felt when someone close to you had turned their backs.

He could guess that the Black King had been close to Olympus before becoming enemies.

‘The Black King might be a holy being from Olympus.’

In the legends, until Zeus took charge, Olympus was filled with war.

From the great war between Titanomachia and Gigantomachia to the end of Ouranos, and the stories of heroes in the War of Troy

There were countless gods who had been removed from Olympus.

And it wasn’t like the legends that Yeon-woo knew were all true. There might have been different sides to the story not known to the lower world and fallen gods not known to the outside.

However, with this, he had narrowed down the meaning by quite a lot.

If he looked for a few more clues from here, there were only a few gods who could be the Black King.

‘Those related to death who were in Olympus or close to them.’

The moment he thought of the traits of the Despair of the Black King, the gazes following him became more intense.

[Azrael quietly looks at you.]

[A god of Olympus, Thanatos, observes you.]

[A god of the Chan Sect, ‘King of Seven Hells,’ crosses his arms and observes you.]

[A god of Ea, ‘Nergal,’ burst out laughing crazily. He smirks at you, wondering if you’ll be able to find out as a mortal.]

[A god of Deva, ‘Ksitigarbha’ looks at you with sad eyes.]

[‘Dis Pater’ smiles violently.]

[‘Izanami’ swallows.]

…..

[A demon of Niflheim, ‘Hel,’ expresses his greed for you.]

[A demon of L’Infernal, ‘Halphas,’ screams, flapping his wings. He shows his lunacy.]

[‘Aesma Daeva’ looks at you strangely.]

…..

[All the gods of death are watching you.]

[All the demons of death are awaiting your judgement.]

[Agares shouts, saying not to touch what’s his.]

[The gods and demons ignore him.]

Gods and demons related to “death” or “the Beyond.”

After he acquired the Grief of the Black King, the gazes on him became stickier, and now, they were outright direct.

It was clear that they were after the items of the Black King.

‘I’ve never heard of an artifact that deals with death and souls until this bracelet.’

Actually, this was the question that Yeon-woo had all this time.

It wasn’t like there weren’t any necromancers or witch doctors in the Tower. Even Boo was a witch doctor who dealt with corpses and souls.

However, there were limits to how players dealt with souls.

He had never heard of anyone being able to freely control a thousand souls.

There wasn’t any mention of players like this in the diary either.

Nor was there anything about strengthening souls to make them servants.

Even the player closest to death, the Vampiric Lord Bathory, wasn’t this powerful.

However, the Despair of the Black King made this possible, and Yeon-woo’s combative power increased.

If he worked with his Spirit Familiars, he could defeat the Nine Dragon Sons.

Although Bathory had the trait of a Lord to rule over many, she couldn’t be compared to Yeon-woo. It was just that Yeon-woo hadn’t unlocked all his potential yet.

There was still a lot of power within the Despair of the Black King. There were two options that weren’t unlocked yet, and his collection was growing larger.

It was an Authority that went beyond an Authority.

There was no reason why Azrael and the other gods and demons wouldn’t watch him with fiery gazes.

[A message from Azrael has arrived.]

[Message: Don’t suspect anything. You are the only human to have been chosen by him. You have the qualification to become a Godly Human.]

[A message from Azrael has arrived.]

[Message: So accept it. Trust and follow. You’ll be rewarded for it in the future.]

[A message from Azrael has arrived.]

[Message: Furthermore, accept me. Become my apostle, my shadow, my servant, and my spiritual body. I will lead you down the right path. I am a faithful servant of his.]

[A message from Azrael has arrived.]

[Message: The Authority that I shared was also from him and…..]

[A message from Agares has arrived.]

[Message: No! You can’t leave me for that…..!]

Yeon-woo moved Agares’s message to the side and read Azrael’s message.

His eyes sunk.

‘Azrael is calling himself a servant?’

Yeon-woo raised his head high towards Azrael, who he couldn’t see but knew was watching him from above.

From what he knew, Azrael’s holiness was pretty high. No, because he was a being who oversaw life and death, there was no way it would be low.

Like what Poseidon, Azrael, of course, had a lot of pride.

The fact that he had lowered himself like this meant that the Black King was an incredible being when he was alive.

Furthermore.

[Thanatos is silent.]

[Nergal is silent.]

[Ksitigarbha is silent.]

……

The gods and demons of death were silent, as if they were adding onto what Azrael was saying.

From what Yeon-woo had figured out so far, the gods and demons were extremely bored on the 98th floor, and they quickly became interested if something out of the ordinary happened.

The reason why they were quiet now was probably because the gods and demons of death knew or suspected who the Black King was.

‘But then there’s another problem. Azrael is a god of Malak. He has no relation to Olympus. Then was I wrong to think that it was related to Olympus?’

His questions didn’t end here.

‘And it’s strange that Hades hasn’t reacted to anything.’

The pillars of modern Olympus were Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. They ruled over the sky, seas, and land, and Hades was a also a ruler of the underground.

He was a god who should’ve reacted to this situation the most, but there weren’t any messages from him.

‘Then is the Black King Hades? If Hades was betrayed by Zeus and Poseidon and is locked somewhere…..’

This also made sense, but it was hard to say that Hades had a higher level than the other gods and demons of death.

‘Then is it Kronos, who was stabbed in the back by Zeus? Or Ouranos, further back in time?’

Yeon-woo’s eyes darkened.

‘And there’s a possibility that it’s Luciel…..’

The being who had spread out his wings to soar high into the sky and fallen because multiple gods and demons tore his wings off. It was hard to exclude him from the candidates.

‘I need to unlock the seal on the information window first or look for the last clue.’

The information window said there were three binds of the Black King. Edora had said that the binds might be a vambrace, a sabaton, and a gorget.

Then it was obvious where the gorget would come from.

‘Hades’s magical helm, Kynee.’

However, from what Yeon-woo knew, an apostle of Hades didn’t exist in the Tower yet.

It was possible Hades had an apostle, but Yeon-woo didn’t have a way to find Kynee like he had found Benteke.

Still, there was still a way.

If he couldn’t get Kynee now, he could look for a way to get it.

He was also planning on looking more closely into the vambrace and sabaton while he was at it.

‘The three cyclops brothers who made holy artifacts for Zeus and the others. I have to find them.’

Brontes, Steropes, Arges. They were the children of Ouranos and Gaia, but they had been trapped in Tartarus because their appearances were horrifying, and when Zeus saved them, they gave the gods of Olympus Astrape, Triaina, and Kynee as presents.

He had a few clues related to them. Yeon-woo was going to chase after them as soon as he cleared the 30th floor.

Wouldn’t he be able to discover something he hadn’t until now?

Urrrng, urng—

Yeon-woo silently rubbed the bracelet on his wrist.

The gazes of the gods and demons of death were still sticky and obsessive.

It was displeasing to him.

* * *

‘Still. Recovery first.’

Ignoring the focused gazes, he pulled out something from his shadow.

It was Benteke’s severed right arm. While everyone was busy with the arrival of Duke Ardbad and Waltz, one Monster Portent had collected it.

An apostle was an incarnation of a god and their holy body. Of course they would be filled with a God’s Blessings. Benteke’s arm looked like a delicious prey with many nutrients in it.

[A message from Poseidon has arrived.]

[Message: Stop! You dare! You…..!]

Yeon-woo ignored the furious message and wrapped his left hand around Benteke’s right arm.

“Swallow.”

Clack, clack—

A black lump opened wide, revealing sharp canines.