Side Story 33
Until recently, YuWon had been silently observing the fight from a corner of the stands.
His team, created by himself, was battling an Administrator.
To his surprise, the power of the Three Sacred Treasures created by Tsukuyomi could rival the Arcane Power of the Administrator.
"I thought it would be easier than I thought."
Izanagi.
Even YuWon coveted the performance of Izanagi when the Three Sacred Treasures were combined.
An item that could compete against the "Mana Master," a monopoly of the Administrators.
YuWon thought the fight might end more easily than he thought.
That was until Tsukuyomi collapsed on the ground with closed eyes.
"...This is problematic."
At this point, Pandora was the only force left. Of course, she still had the ability to fight, but the issue was her broken spirit.
They still didn't know.
That the true nature of that damn Administrator was nothing out of the ordinary.
And then...
"Eh?"
YuWon saw Pandora recklessly charging towards the administrator.
He knew.
That was the correct answer.
Even if it meant losing a hand or an arm...
It was the right answer to win this fight.
However.
Even knowing that, YuWon couldn't help but move.
----------------
"I was just going to watch, but it's harder than I thought."
"YuWon?"
Pandora blinked in surprise and looked at YuWon.
Everyone's attention focused on YuWon due to the unexpected situation.
Those who still didn't know the relationship between YuWon and Pandora opened their eyes in surprise at seeing YuWon holding Pandora in his arms.
"You did much better than I expected. I told you to gain experience, but I didn't think you could come this far."
YuWon was genuinely impressed.
He didn't bring all three to the Black Woods but only two, not because he couldn't handle all three by himself.
There would be many more battles against the Administrators in the future.
However, he couldn't be there every time.
High-Rankers needed the power to confront the Administrators even if they formed a team with several people.
Forming a team to fight against the Administrators and leaving an Administrator behind in this battle was the first step toward achieving that.
However...
They did much better than YuWon had expected in their first battle.
"Why did you come back alone?"
The Administrator looked around at YuWon's appearance.
They were not in sight.
The two Administrators who had disappeared with him.
Only YuWon had returned, and the others were nowhere to be seen.
"Are you really... the owner of Black Woods?"
The last thing the two Administrators saw before disappearing was the Black Woods.
They thought it was impossible, just a resemblance, but...
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
Bam!
At that moment, another presence appeared over the arena.
A white-haired man riding on a white cloud, cutting through the Administrator's wind.
"...The Great Sage, Heaven's Equal?"
The Administrator's voice trembled as he confirmed Son OhGong's identity.
He even held the unconscious 25th Floor Administrator in his hands.
Following YuWon, who had defeated two Administrators, Son OhGong had also subdued another Administrator.
In an instant, the situation had drastically deteriorated.
"And were you just watching?"
"That was what I was going to do at first."
"If you had stayed still, that bastard would have finished."
Son OhGong clicked his tongue regretfully. He alternately looked at YuWon and Pandora, who was huddled in his chest, with a mocking expression.
"Did you also become blind like a bird that can't see?"
YuWon nodded silently.
Pandora chuckled foolishly at Son OhGong's words.
In a combat situation like this, one would never expect to make such an irrational decision.
Making Pandora, injured from the battle with the Administrators, sit on the ground, YuWon examined her body.
'She's injured.'
It was natural for her to get injured while fighting.
He hadn't dragged her onto the battlefield without considering that.
However, just in case...
With a fleeting thought, YuWon hurriedly subdued the two Administrators and silently observed their battle.
'And quite a bit, too.'
In reality, she wasn't that injured.
Scratched and cut wounds from the wind.
As expected when fighting against an opponent who wielded wind magic, there were numerous superficial wounds, but not very deep.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any fatal injuries. Thanks to Pandora's robust constitution.
However, strangely, she seemed very injured.
YuWon didn't feel good.
"Rest."
"...I can win."
"I know you would have won if I hadn't intervened. So consider it a draw."
YuWon pressed Pandora's forehead, who was trying to get up, and sat her back down.
Son OhGong laughed cheerfully as he flew over to YuWon's side on his Flying Nimbus.
YuWon looked at the Administrator that Son OhGong held in his hand and asked:
"Is he dead?"
"I didn't cut off his breath."
"He looks dead."
"He woke up a couple of times on the way. He really has a tough life."
"Then it's lucky."
Suddenly, Son OhGong narrowed his eyes.
The two locked eyes.
"Rock, paper..."
Whoosh!
Looking into YuWon's eyes with his Golden Cinder Eyes, Son OhGong extended his palm.
"Scissors!"
Rock and paper.
Son OhGong, who had drawn paper, grabbed his head and screamed.
"Ahhhh! Hey, that's not fair! Who thinks of using Eyes of Foreknowledge in Rock, Paper, Scissors?"
"We both used abilities, so don't play dumb and accept it."
Son OhGong rolled on the ground for a while after that.
Despite having fought quite a bit, it seemed like the guy was still hungry.
It's understandable.
Having not had a decent fight in ten years, no matter how much he fought, he would still hunger for battle.
[Did you choose your opponent with Rock, Paper, Scissors?]
The Administrator looked incredulously at approaching YuWon.
The fact that they didn't attack together, but only one, and not The Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, but another guy stepping forward, was puzzling.
YuWon nodded to the question and displayed his hand, which had drawn a rock.
"Yes. I won."
Son OhGong was definitely an idiot. Rock, Paper, Scissors, of all things. He had relied on his Golden Cinder Eyes, but YuWon had Eyes of Foreknowledge.
It's not like he was looking into a distant future; he just had to guess what OhGong would draw next, which wasn't that difficult.
[...And what happened to the other two?]
"You mean Dagon and Ihot?"
[How do you know those names?]
The Administrator is bewildered.
No one but the Administrators should know their names.
Only a few know.
The ancient Administrators who took root in the Tower and have existed for a long time...
[Don't tell me...?]
A being that is not an Administrator.
Thinking about that, Hastur's Arcane Power became unstable and began to fluctuate.
"You have a good eye, Hastur."
By guessing his name right, Hastur's speculation inched one step closer to certainty.
And that was the situation that the Administrators most wanted to avoid.
[That's impossible. He clearly-]
"Don't you see?"
Shuaa!
Fwoosh, whoosh!
Enormous flames engulfed YuWon and Hastur.
Hastur, wrapped in flames, hesitated and took a step back.
The flames turned purple.
Inside them, a huge eye stared at Hastur.
[Magnum Innominandum]
[The Flame of Death and Decay]
He felt like he was going to be suffocated by the enormity of the flames.
Hastur's gaze turned to the sword that YuWon held in his hand.
An item that had caught his attention since YuWon first appeared.
As if its mere existence denied and threatened the Administrators, like the fangs of a fierce beast.
"Ah, this?"
YuWon felt Hastur's gaze, hidden in his empty cloak.
"I didn't think of it myself. At that time, I was just in a hurry to fight the ones outside."
The Otherworld Sword.
This item was Hephaestus's masterpiece.
A weapon that future Hephaestus, sacrificing his hammer, had bequeathed to the current Hephaestus and which he had modified.
This sword was the nemesis of the Outer Gods.
But ironically, the role of the Otherworld Sword did not end with the fight against the Outer Gods.
"Thinking about it, you guys are the same. You come from outside."
[Don't tell me you, seriously....]
"Not now. Now, I only have memories left. But it's funny that you only remember Azathoth and forgot about me."
Step by step, YuWon approached Hastur.
"Well, for me, that's a good thing."
Crack.
Hastur began to retreat.
He had already lost the will to fight.
What he wanted most was to ride the wind and flee as far as possible.
But he couldn't.
Fwoosh, whoosh!
The flames burned fiercely around him.
It was as if touching them would turn his whole body into black ashes.
Unable to ignore the flames, Hastur stopped retreating and turned his head to look at YuWon.
"It's ridiculous. Posing as Gods, but being defeated by the Players you yourselves summoned and being dragged to the ground."
The flames burned in YuWon's eyes.
Hastur's interior, reflected in the Golden Cinder Eyes, remained empty.
An empty space.
That's why Izanagi, Tsukuyomi, Lee Ye, and Hargan, too.
They gradually lost the will to fight against a formless Hastur.
However, they were not wrong.
Hastur's cloak, now tattered from the battle against the Celestial Realm and various High-Rankers.
She had tried to deliver a final blow to Hastur's true form.
The result probably would have been the loss of a hand or an arm for Pandora, and death for Hastur.
But YuWon couldn't just watch that scene.
If the opponent had been a stubborn lunatic like Asura, the battle would have been much easier.
[What... are you?]
Hastur asked about the essence of YuWon. Although he had initially doubted, now he was sure that YuWon was not Azathoth.
Azathoth.
He was an absolute being that spanned the Tower and all worlds, regardless of form or space.
A being that could destroy the Tower in an instant if it wished.
The only being that even Outer Gods like Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, and Nyarlathotep, whom the Administrators feared, feared was Azathoth.
However, he didn't feel that Azathoth's power in the current YuWon.
"You see, I told you, 'now' I'm not."
Fwoosh, whoosh!
The flames were getting closer.
"In the past, I was for a while. I had its memories, its power, and its Name. But now I've lost the power and the Name."
The wind surrounding Hastur pushed YuWon's body backward.
"But I still have a Name."
[Name...?]
Now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard his Name.
A Name overshadowed by Azathoth's enormous name.
"Kim YuWon."
The three words stirred a whirlwind of emotions in the Administrator's mind.
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Tags:
LWTG (Novel)