Side Story 55
Crunch, crunch-.
The teeth devoured the giant lying on the ground.
Ananta murmured, wiping blood from his mouth as the Administrator's gaze faded.
"Administrators have a bit strong taste, after all."
Craack, craack-le-.
The remnants of the electrical battle echoed throughout the office.
Tens of thousands of Envoys.
And the god who ruled them, the Administrator.
Ananta devoured both with an expression of ecstasy.
"This is how it should be."
He had finished savoring the administrator. He understood it right after awakening from the seal when he devoured him for the first time.
The power they possessed.
And beyond that, pure and unadulterated Arcane Power.
The ecstasy of tasting it was incomparable.
Kkeok-.
Soon, Ananta's head, which had devoured the administrator's body, was satiated.
"I'm done."
Chiji, chijiji-.
An uncontrolled lightning bolt erupted from Ananta's body as he stood up.
The feeling that his head, which had been annihilated, was filling up again.
He still had a long way to go to be complete, but if he continued devouring Administrators like this, he would surely recover his old heads, no, even more than that.
And when that time comes...
'I don't know his name, but I remember his face.'
Ananta remembered the black-haired man who had cut off hundreds of his heads at the last moment.
The man who used the power of Tartarus.
He exuded a dangerous aura.
"It's still not enough."
What he had seen at that moment was not all the power of Tartarus. He could feel that the man had an even greater power hidden. Otherwise, he wouldn't have desperately tried to escape, even sacrificing hundreds of heads.
"More, more. More than now."
Siiik-.
Lifting the corners of his blood-stained lips, Ananta walked through the hallway stained with the blood of the Envoys.
"I ate well, Administrator."
-----------------
Floor 95.
A world devastated by Vishnu's death and the battle against the Administrator.
Now, in this world where Players no longer tread, new people began to appear, one by one.
"I didn't think I'd come back here."
This time, it was Soma who arrived. She frowned as she examined the map.
"Everything looks the same, where is it supposed to be?"
A forest full of trees. Even with a map, it didn't seem easy to find the way.
And while Soma looked at the map Varuna had given her...
"Are you lost?"
A man hung upside down from a tree like a bat.
"Druva?"
"It's been a long time, Soma."
Druva, one of Deva's High-Rankers, had also received Varuna's message and arrived at this place.
There was still quite some time left until the agreed-upon time.
However, Druva seemed to have arrived much earlier.
"You're quite absent-minded. How can't you find that?"
"What do you want me to do if all there is are trees?"
"Don't you see it?"
At Druva's words, Soma turned her head following his finger.
A tall-rising tree.
And on the thick trunk of that tree, it was written in large letters: "Here."
"What are the eyes for, then?"
"...Shut up."
Deva's Rankers, including Soma, gathered at the top of the tree.
A tree with many thick branches.
Soma looked at the tree breathlessly, reminding her of Yggdrasil, the World Tree.
"What's happening?"
"I should really call him Vishnu-nim..."
The tree rising through the clouds still brimmed with dense Arcane Power.
"I really don't know if he's still alive."
Although his name had disappeared from the Ranking, some in Deva still believed Vishnu was alive.
Soma was different.
She doubted. She didn't believe Vishnu could be alive.
She thought that even Vishnu wouldn't have escaped the eyes of the Administration Bureau.
However...
Ssssh-.
The air around Soma froze.
The air temperature changed according to the mood of a High-Ranker.
Druva, who was ahead, looked at Soma.
"Soma?"
Soma snapped out of it at his call.
"Ah, yes."
"Aren't you going...?"
"Let's go."
Soma, with an unchanged expression, as if nothing had happened.
"...We have to go."
She climbed the tree.
Thinking that maybe Vishnu would be waiting for them up there.
----------------
Tap, tap, tap.
Varuna shivered.
He could feel Soma's Arcane Power approaching from below.
Deva's Rankers were getting closer.
"Is it really okay to do this?"
"What do you want me to do about it?" Yama frowned at Varuna's frightened look, despite being the one who devised the plan.
It's true.
Even Yama himself couldn't be sure if this was right or not.
"Using Vishnu-nim's name as bait..."
His conscience bothered him as if a knife were being driven into his chest.
There was no other choice.
It was Vishnu, whom he had served and respected all his life. Yama and Varuna had lured Deva's Rankers to this place using Vishnu's name as bait.
"Where is my Hyung-nim?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know? He was supposed to come here!"
YuWon was the one who planned this.
Regardless of whether it was a good or bad idea, he gathered all the Rankers of Deva.
YuWon had used Vishnu's name as bait for them. But YuWon himself hasn't shown up at the meeting place.
"Are you going to keep depending on him?"
"No, it's not that..."
"Then snap out of it. If you don't, we'll be the ones losing."
"Ugh..."
Varuna groaned and lowered his head. Anyway, Yama closed his eyes and focused on the aura surrounding him.
"They're almost here."
The enormous tree created by Vishnu. Yama and Varuna stood, without even a chair, on top of this tree, closest to the sky.
And the first to arrive at that place was a woman with short white hair.
"It's been a long time, Devahuti."
"Yama-nim?"
Devahuti, a Deva Ranker who hadn't become High-Ranker but was close, opened her eyes in surprise to find Yama.
She knew Yama had disappeared, so she didn't expect to find him here, but she was surprised to see him.
"Is this your first time here, Yama-nim?"
"Yes."
"I knew you would come, but... so soon..."
Devahuti couldn't continue speaking.
'How much he must have missed Vishnu-nim...'
Devahuti's heart saddened.
Varuna and Yama didn't exchange a word.
Devahuti, observing both their behaviors, asked Varuna, who had sent the message:
"Isn't Vishnu-nim here?"
"Eh, eh?"
Varuna opened his eyes in surprise. Devahuti felt something strange in his bewildered expression.
"I'll tell you later."
"What do you mean by that?"
If Vishnu were really alive, he should appear immediately.
Varuna's response generated a different thought in Devahuti's mind.
'Maybe he plans to appear when everyone is gathered?'
A faint hope. Without a specific place to sit, Devahuti stood, observing the atmosphere.
Being a relatively low-ranking Ranker, she chose to remain silent.
However, the opposite happened.
"Hey, Varuna-!"
Smack!
As soon as he appeared, Hanuman reached out and grabbed Varuna by the neck without hiding his anger.
"What's going on? Is Vishnu-nim really alive?"
"H-Hanuman. Let go of me for a moment..."
"If you lied to me, I swear I'll with my own hands-!"
"Hanuman."
Sssaa-.
A shadow rose over Hanuman's body. With a chilling sensation in his throat, Hanuman stopped shaking Varuna by the neck and turned to Yama.
"Shut up and stay still there. Please."
"Y-Yama..."
The only person Hanuman, aside from Vishnu, feared was Yama.
The Shadow of Vishnu and the Deva known for being the most ruthless.
"If you're the one asking me..."
Yama was someone who could lose his mind and do anything when it came to Vishnu.
At this moment, the most important thing was to save his own skin.
"Phew-."
Varuna, finally released from Hanuman's grip, breathed a sigh of relief. If it hadn't been for Yama's intervention, this place would have been filled with people harassing him.
From that moment, Yama became Varuna's shield.
And so, the stage set by the two filled up.
Numerous Rankers inhabiting Deva gathered.
'All the big shots are here. Even Rankers from Medium Guilds with connections to Deva, all of them.'
The Rankers forming the core of the Guild. Their number seemed to easily surpass 200.
'It's really impressive when they gather like this.'
Devahuti felt again the true influence of Deva. Although Deva staggered due to Vishnu's recent death, Deva was Deva.
Along with Olympus and Asgard, it was one of the strongest Guilds dominating the Tower.
Varuna, under the growing attention, sweated cold without anyone noticing.
They all looked at him with curiosity for the news of Vishnu's survival.
'Varuna, you can do it. Make a face that seems as convincing as possible.'
As if he had a grave secret that he couldn't reveal. Keeping that expression was what Varuna had to do now.
However...
"What...? Eh?"
"Why is that guy here?"
Confused voices echoed.
Step by step, he approached.
An unexpected guest arrived at the place where Deva's Rankers were gathering.
"There are a lot of people gathered."
A man dressed in white greeted the Rankers of Deva gathered around him with a cheerful face. He shook his head from side to side and, finding Varuna and Yama, waved at them.
"Long time no see? Varuna. Yama."
Yama's hands trembled. He felt an overwhelming urge to run towards the man who was now in front of him and break his neck.
It couldn't be otherwise.
"...Vayu?"
He was responsible for attacking Deva along with Surya.
He was a traitor of Deva who had failed in his attempt to kill Varuna and had fled.
And at that moment...
Far from the tree, YuWon was watching the same face as Varuna.
The man dressed in white.
The moment he appeared in the place, the air around him changed.
'Is it Vayu?'
YuWon had memorized the faces of the main Rankers of Deva.
Furthermore, he also knew from Varuna that he was a traitor to Deva.
'This becomes more interesting.'
YuWon's eyes lit up.
['Golden Cinder Eyes' discern the truth from lies.]
YuWon's view widened, and he could see at a glance the expressions of the Deva Rankers confused by Vayu's appearance.
Their expressions were much more varied than before. Various emotions like confusion, anger, and surprise could be seen.
'Rather, it's fortunate.'
Vayu.
The traitor of Deva who, until now, had been confirmed to be on the side of the Administrators.
'Thanks to him, it's easier to read the expressions.'
His appearance seemed to make things easier.
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LWTG (Novel)