Leveling with the Gods

Side Story 101

Azathoth laughed genuinely for the first time in a long while.

He was like a completely different person from a moment ago, devoid of any expression.

The sun had set, and not only the alleys but also the streets were dark.

"I'm going."

Nyarla, who had been playing hide and seek, reappeared and said with regret.

"Do you have to go?"

"My sisters are waiting for me. We'll play again next time."

The promise of "next time" was meaningless.

She lived a life where it wouldn't be strange for her to die at any moment.

It was unknown if there would be a next time.

However.

"Yes."

Without showing his weakness, Azathoth waved his hand.

"We'll play again next time."

Nyarla walked away, waving her hand.

Azathoth stood there for a while, watching her disappear into the village alleys, and smiled faintly.

"It was fun."

His expression brightened.

It had been a dreadful day, no, every day was dreadful.

But even in the worst times, there were people like Nyarla.

There was still a reason for this world to exist.

Step by step~

As he walked home like that for a while.

"..."

Azathoth looked towards where Nyarla had disappeared.

And then, he realized that direction was...

"Get lost, brat."

It was the direction where he had encountered those guys.

‘It can't be.’

A chill ran down his skin at the possibility. The thought of "it can't be" filled his mind.

He closed his eyes.

The world went completely dark.

When he opened his eyes again.

He was standing in an alley illuminated by the moon and stars.

"What is this?"

"Two coins? Is that it?"

"That idiot. Did she risk her life for this?"

Those were the voices of the middle-aged men and woman he had seen before.

They were picking up the two coins that had fallen to the ground and grumbling.

And behind them...

He saw a familiar face lying on the ground, spilling red blood.

Eyes that met his at that moment.

It was Nyarla.

"…Azat…."

She, who had met his eyes for a brief moment, couldn't finish saying Azathoth's name.

The faint light remaining in her eyes faded.

In an instant...

Azathoth's face turned the color of earth.

"Hey, hey."

"What?"

"Look at that."

The men holding the knife stained with Nyarla's blood saw Azathoth.

"The kid from earlier?"

"What's up? Did he bring more money?"

"He was quite rich. From a wealthy family?"

"But the clothes aren't that good."

They chuckled as they looked at Azathoth.

Nyarla's body lying on the ground wasn't in his eyes.

They were the same ones who had lamented over two coins just a moment ago.

Azathoth's gaze shifted to the coins the man held in his hand.

That was.

All Nyarla had.

"One was enough."

Blink~

In an instant, the surroundings flickered as if someone had turned the lights on and off.

"What?"

"What was that just now?"

It wasn't an interior but an exterior.

It was an alley where the only light came from the moon and stars.

But for a moment.

The world flickered.

The middle-aged woman, who raised her head wondering what was happening, was surprised and pointed with her finger.

"W-what, what... the moon...."

“Hwaaaak!”

“What, what is that?”

Blink~

Eyes appeared on the surface of the moon.

Tears of blood sprouted from the moon's eyes, and it blinked several times.

The same happened to Azathoth.

Splat~

Bleeding from the eyes.

The small-framed one walked slowly towards Nyarla's body.

“Why did they take it away from her?”

Blink~

The moon blinked again.

He was angry. No, he was always angry.

Even when he opened his eyes in the stinky warehouse that morning.

Even when he was slapped as soon as he woke up.

Even when they took away the money, he was always angry.

But he thought one was enough.

Even in this world.

He thought there was still a reason to be here, only if there was.

“Let's see, let's see, this brat, from the beginning, what nonsense-.”

The moment the man with the knife in hand walked towards Azathoth.

Smack.

Azathoth, who had suddenly approached, put the palm of his hand on the man's stomach.

"I don't need it anymore."

“…!”

The man's eyes opened as if they were about to burst.

Not even a scream came out. There weren't even any special warning signs.

But soon...

Swooshhhhh.

The man's body turned into sand and spilled onto the ground.

“C, crazy!”

“Kyaaaah-!”

The two companions screamed.

Their companion turned into sand.

It wasn't a simple death, but an inexplicable annihilation.

Without understanding what was happening before their eyes...

Tap, tap, tap.

The two terrified individuals started running in opposite directions.

Trying to escape.

But...

"I told you."

Swooshhhhh.

The small one looking at Nyarla's body.

Starting from Azathoth's feet, the world began to turn into sand.

"I don't need it."

Swooshhhhh.

Both the fleeing man and the middle-aged woman...

The man who slapped him in the morning, the people who looked at Azathoth with disgust on the street.

All turned into a handful of sand.

That's how the world came to an end.

-----------------------

"I won't abandon this world like you did."

Nyarlathotep was deeply mistaken.

A barren and desolate world covered in sand.

He thought the world had become like this due to Azathoth's inattentive personality.

But...

"You said you won't abandon the world like me?"

He was wrong.

"You're mistaken."

Azathoth never abandoned the world.

Rather, it was the opposite.

"I am the one who turned the world you hated so much into this, Nyarla."

Azathoth was the one who turned the world into this.

That was something neither Nyarlathotep, nor Yog-Sothoth, nor Shub-Niggurath...

It was a story only YuWon, who was close to Azathoth, knew.

‘That's why it was scary.’

Nyarlathotep thought he knew everything about Azathoth.

But that was wrong.

No one knew anything about Azathoth.

Not even Azathoth himself.

‘A being that can destroy the world with just a wish. A truly immortal being that cannot die even if it wishes to.'

YuWon didn't want to become such a being.

Even Cthulhu standing in front of him, and even the numerous Administrators ruling this Tower.

They were nothing more than byproducts of the dreams Azathoth had in his childhood.

Swoosh.

YuWon wielded his sword.

The Administrators that appeared before his eyes.

No, he cut through the old nightmares Azathoth had.

Whoosh.

The nightmares were cut as easily as a mirage.

Unlike the external Administrators who possessed physical strength, the nightmares in this Dream dispersed too easily.

-It can't be...

Cthulhu kept repeating the same words.

He wanted to deny it.

He, who was Azathoth's nightmare itself, couldn't understand why the nightmares he had for so long were disappearing so easily.

Swoosh.

The Dreams were shattered.

He didn't even try much.

That was the reason YuWon had come here.

Because the Administrators in this place were nothing more than powerless illusions.

-It can't be...

As he repeated the same words.

“Cthulhu.”

YuWon's voice came from nearby.

“It's time to wake up from the Dream.”

SLASH!!

Cthulhu's pupils were cut in half.

Paf.

And thus, the long dream came to an end.

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Craack-le!

Thor was sweating trying to control the Gungnir violently moving in his hand.

This was the third.

Thanks to the power of Yggdrasil, he could now ignite the Gungnir three times in a day.

“Vishnu-nim!”

Thor asked Vishnu for help to increase the probability of hitting.

Vishnu, moving Yggdrasil. He impatiently moved his hand and raised the tied-up Administrator.

Kwaang-!

The Gungnir flew off with a deafening roar.

‘With this, another bastard...'

At that moment...

Swoosh.

Kwaang-!

The Gungnir flew past where the Administrator had disappeared like a mirage.

“Eh?”

“...?”

"…?”

Similar reactions erupted everywhere.

That wasn't all that disappeared.

All the Administrators fighting against Zeus, Ananta, and Vishnu.

They vanished as if they had never been there.

“Did they run away?”

Unaware of what was happening, Zeus lowered the spear and hand with a disheartened air.

And at the same time...

“What's going on? I was having fun.”

Son OhGong with a swollen face.

Although he had been bragging, he and Hercules were already completely exhausted.

And meanwhile...

Pandora was also sitting on the ground with her head down.

“Is it over?”

Pandora responded to Hercules' soliloquy.

“It's over.”

Pandora, who had exhausted every last drop of her strength fighting the Administrators, didn't have the strength to even stand.

Both OhGong and Hercules were bewildered by the sudden turn of events.

Why had all the Administrators they were fighting disappeared?

Tap, tap.

In the misty fog. An unusually clear presence was felt.

Pandora, who had been crouched without strength, lifted her head and staggered to her feet, feeling from whose footsteps these were. She ran towards the vaguely visible man in the distant fog, gathering the last remaining strength she had.

“YuWon!”

---------------------

After the battle with the Administrators ended, Zeus lay in bed with bandages all over his body.

The wounds to his pride were more painful than those on his body.

Looking at the landscape through the blue window, he muttered:

“Twice in debt...”

Both in the war against the Outers and in the war against the Administrators this time.

Not only him, but this world had been saved twice by Kim YuWon.

Vishnu, who had returned to Deva, was so busy catching up with overdue work that he had no time to rest.

"Gather all the data related to Kim YuWon again."

"Yes? Where do we get them from?"

"They were thrown away because you forgot them. Find them however you can."

"Even you, Vishnu-nim, have forgotten..."

At Baruna's tearful response, Vishnu laughed and ruffled his hair.

The world had forgotten Kim YuWon's name.

The data, records, and everything related to him were deemed worthless and discarded.

But now.

The world had remembered him again.

And almost at the same time...

"Hey, man! Kim YuWon-!"

Bang bang bang!

Hargan called his name while banging on the door of YuWon and Pandora's house.

He seemed like he was going to break the door if they didn't open it immediately.

YuWon, who was about to prepare dinner, sighed as if annoyed and opened the door.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't remember."

"You should have told me! My name is Kim YuWon! Like this! See!?"

"How do I explain it to each and every one?"

Smack.

YuWon left the food on the table and placated Hargan in his own way.

"Come eat."

"Eh?"

Reconciliation came suddenly.

After all, it's not like YuWon had disappeared on purpose, so there was no reason to fight.

While eating with Hargan...

"I want to eat too!"

"The tree is outside."

Son OhGong, who had come to play because he was bored, and Hercules, who had brought a maple tree, entered the house.

And so...

YuWon returned to his original place.

In the noisy and peaceful table...

"I guess this is what you wanted."

YuWon looked around and thought.

"Both the boy and the girl."

----------------------

Screech~

The girl drew on the ground with a long, rough stone.

The boy looked at the drawing she had made and asked:

"What is this?"

"The house we will live in together later."

"House?"

The boy had a perplexed look.

The drawing was too tall to be a house.

It looked more like a castle or a Tower.

It didn't make sense for this to be a house.

The girl smiled happily.

"Our house will have 100 floors. On the first floor, we'll grow beautiful flowers, on the second floor, there will be sweets everywhere..."

The girl described the house she had drawn.

The drawing was the girl's ambition.

A big and beautiful house, like a dream.

The more he listened to her, the more the boy laughed.

"And also... on the 41st floor..."

"You're too greedy, Nyarla."

At the boy's words, the girl scratched her head.

"Do you think so?"

"Yes. Tone it down a bit."

"Hmm..."

The girl seemed distressed and worried. Her hand holding the stone trembled. After a brief pause, she grabbed her head and shouted:

"Aaaah! I can't! I can't give up!"

"Calm down, calm down, Nyarla! Oh, fleas."

"Fleas? Where?"

The surprised girl made a big fuss.

The boy laughed at her behavior.

While the girl removed the fleas from her head, the boy looked at the drawing on the ground.

"Nyarla."

"Yes?"

"Can't you really give up?"

"Of course not!"

At the girl's firm response, the boy nodded in understanding.

"You said it would be 100 floors, right?"

Since things were like this, the boy thought.

Although it might be greedy.

Hopefully, this house, unlike this world, is filled with happiness.

LWTGEND OF SIDE STORY

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KO-FI:

https://tinyurl.com/LEVELKO

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