Leveling with the Gods

Side Story 92

The sound of the wind buzzed in his ears.

Upon regaining consciousness, Ananta found himself standing somewhere.

It wasn't the depths of the Tartarus Sea.

He felt solid ground beneath his feet and the scent of soil in his nose.

"Where am I? What is this place?"

He wondered if he had fallen asleep.

Or perhaps he had arrived here in the blink of an eye?

Looking around, he saw blackened trees and bushes, and a sky tinged with purple.

And he also heard.

Beeeh-.

The bleating sound of goats.

Not just from one direction.

The sound of goats came from all over the woods, and Ananta felt a strange sense of unease.

And at that moment...

Ananta's last memory resurfaced in his mind.

"Definitely at that moment..."

Something enormous with its mouth open beneath his feet.

He thought he would be devoured by it, but his body was intact.

The spear wound that pierced his abdomen was also the same.

It wasn't fully healed, but it had coagulated a bit, indicating that a considerable amount of time had passed.

"It's because of the wound."

Swish-.

He turned his head towards the familiar voice.

Just behind him.

YuWon was there, leaning against a tree.

"You took too long to come to your senses."

"Were you hiding here?"

"What do you mean by that?"

YuWon replied incredulously.

"Why would I hide from you? To escape?"

"..."

He had no words.

It was true that, until recently, the advantage was in YuWon's favor.

Ananta knew that too.

However, he had only said that because YuWon had disappeared.

"Where are we?"

"The Black Woods."

"The Black Woods?"

"That was their home. Along with their mother."

Beeeh-.

Beeeeh-.

The goats bleated in response to YuWon's words.

Ananta felt strangely uncomfortable with their bleating.

It wasn't that goats scared him, but he felt a shiver running through his body.

However, no matter where he was or how many goats there were.

"What will change just by changing the place?"

Crack, crack-.

For some reason, the wound on his abdomen had healed quite a bit.

His Arcane Power was also full. His condition was not bad for a rematch.

However...

"Change?"

There was a reason why YuWon had brought him here, even giving Ananta time to recover.

"Yes. A lot."

Sizzle-.

Shudder-.

Ananta shivered as he felt the same sensation as before beneath his feet.

The ground beneath his feet had turned black.

Within it, he saw the huge and indescribable creature that he had seen before losing consciousness open its mouth.

"As I said before, this place is the Black Woods."

Crunch-.

YuWon moved away from the tree he was leaning on and approached Ananta.

"Many people don't know. They think the power the Outers we defeated had is all there is."

As he spoke, YuWon thought to himself.

"I thought so too at first."

It was natural not to know if you hadn't experienced it.

It was understandable.

After all, there had been no Player who had surpassed the wall created by Azathoth.

However, after gaining Azathoth's memories, YuWon discovered a shocking fact.

"Those guys can barely breathe comfortably inside the Tower. It's natural, as the world's foundation is a different force."

Outside the Tower.

The nature of the power used by the Outers was completely different from the "Arcane Power" that formed the Tower's world.

Like a fish can't survive out of water.

And like a human can't breathe underwater, they couldn't enter and breathe comfortably inside the Tower and use their power.

That's why they needed 'Yog-Sothoth.'

The Sky of the World.

The world's ceiling where they could breathe comfortably.

"And that includes me too."

"You..."

Chills, chills~

His body shivered.

Ananta realized the nature of the chill he had been feeling since earlier.

The woods with the blackened soil and trees.

This was no ordinary place.

'The woods are alive.'

The Black Woods Goats.

That Name, representing Shub-Niggurath, wasn't just a Name to summon a thousand goats.

The true power of that Name wasn't in the "thousand goats" but in the "Black Woods."

Creak-.

Horns sprouted from a tree in the Black Woods.

Underneath those sprouting horns, a goat's head and torso grew, and a small goat was born.

Beeeh-.

The goat that came to life blinked and let out its first bleat.

Ananta, who had witnessed the instant birth of a Black Woods Goat, opened his mouth in disbelief.

"What kind of..."

"Here, anyone can become a goat."

YuWon stroked the head of the newborn goat and continued.

"With the strength of life, soul, and flesh as fertilizer, this woods moves endlessly."

The Black Woods contained countless bodies and souls.

That was the kind of place this woods was.

"Someone like you could be a richer nutrient than thousands of low-level Rankers."

Crack-.

Ananta lowered his head, surprised by the sound beneath his feet.

A trail of scraped soil.

It was a sign that he had taken an involuntary step away from YuWon.

'I have to escape. No, can I escape?'

Escaping wasn't the issue.

Ananta wasn't the type to irrationally risk his life for pride.

On the contrary, he sought benefit more than anyone.

If he couldn't win, he could retreat.

He had done it once before, so it wasn't such a difficult decision.

However...

The situation was different now.

"I should have lured you here first and made it impossible for you to escape."

YuWon remembered when he went to capture Ananta for the first time.

Even back then, YuWon was confident.

That even if he faced the Monster King, he would never lose.

But he made a mistake himself.

Ananta chose to flee.

And furthermore, he achieved perfection by sacrificing half of his head.

It didn't matter if you lose in strength.

If you lack strength, you can increase it.

If you can't do it alone, you can gather companions.

But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't forgive that mistake from that time.

He could have caught him.

If he had set the stage for a proper fight as he always did.

"Now, choose."

Lowering the hand holding the sword.

"Will you fight more or surrender."

YuWon asked, showing the visible gap.

Do you plan to keep fighting like this?

YuWon didn't know what decision Ananta would make in response to that question.

However, he thought it didn't matter.

It didn't matter if he decided to fight despite the gap or if he surrendered like this.

Either option was valid.

And after a few seconds.

Ananta made a decision.

Kwa-rung-!

Suddenly, Ananta launched a Lightning Bolt attack at YuWon.

Tsutsu-tsu-.

And YuWon's "Foolish Chaos" blocked the attack.

The Lightning Bolt dissipated as if it had never existed, blocked by the Chaos.

And at that moment, as if it didn't need to hear more answers, the goats rushed from all over the Black Woods.

Beeehe-e-.

Beeehe-.

The Black Woods Goats recognized the being with a Name as their mother.

They were furious with Ananta for attacking their mother.

The entire Black Woods filled with a commotion, and Ananta felt even more chilled than before.

"This response is enough..."

Ananta's body glowed and transformed into the form of a Dragon.

Kyaaaaaa-!

Once again.

A golden dragon with its entire body covered in Lightning Bolts appeared in the Black Woods.

With hundreds of heads.

-Let's do it again.

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

Ananta's resistance was fierce.

Ku-rung, kwa-uung-!

Bzzzt-!

Despite losing a considerable number of heads, he breathed fire with the remaining heads and summoned thunder and lightning from the sky like Zeus.

But...

The worst part was the place.

All of Ananta's attacks couldn't penetrate the "Foolish Chaos" surrounding YuWon's body.

The chaos teeth bit all over his body, and the goats devoured Ananta's eyes and flesh.

Beeeh-!

The goat, which had become larger than Ananta thanks to the "Magnum Innominandum," grabbed Ananta's torso.

And in the meantime...

Another spear flew towards him, who hadn't been able to pay attention to YuWon for a moment.

['Nir' activates.]

Tsutsu-tsutsu-.

Kwa-uung-!

The accelerated spear along with the spear pierced Ananta's torso.

Ananta had already received countless wounds.

And for Ananta, the activation of Nir was a finishing blow.

Kiiing-.

A bright light enveloped once again Ananta's body.

Soon, he returned to the form of a man with a battered and ragged body.

No strength to get up.

He sat on the ground.

Sizzle-.

The teeth that tried to swallow Ananta.

YuWon quickly raised his hand.

"No, not that. Don't eat that."

[The 'Amorphous So■l' tilts its head curiously.]

[The 'Amorphous So■l' expresses hunger.]

"If you want to eat, I'll give you another one. Just wait a bit."

[The 'Amorphous So■l' ponders.]

[The 'Amorphous So■l' nods.]

Sssss-.

The enormous teeth that had appeared in the Black Woods disappeared.

Ananta was originally a being from inside the Tower.

Although powerful, he wasn't important enough for the "Amorphous Chaos" to salivate over.

The real feast would be next time.

So YuWon stored his Name and looked at Ananta, who was in pieces.

"To be honest, I'm shocked."

He had an even larger hole in his abdomen, and his arms and legs were so torn that they looked like they would crumble if squeezed with the hand.

A miserable state where he couldn't fight anymore.

Looking at the larger wound, the hole in his abdomen, he muttered with a mocking voice.

"I knew I couldn't win, but I didn't think the difference would be so great."

Fighting knowingly that you're going to lose is never a pleasant experience.

However, he couldn't run away either.

Because he knew that all of this woods was YuWon's domain.

It's true that picking fights isn't good.

However, the reason Ananta could fight was because he had read YuWon's mind.

Of course...

'I knew you had no intention of killing me.'

YuWon was also aware of Ananta's trust.

Killing him wouldn't be a great gain.

From the beginning, YuWon had extended a hand to Ananta.

So that he would help him fight.

And under that condition, he would grant him freedom.

This fight started because of that.

A fight too advantageous for Ananta, where at least his life was assured.

Knowing that, Ananta could fight without surrendering.

And as a result...

"I've lost completely."

Ananta had no choice but to surrender to YuWon.

"It would have been better if you had done this from the beginning. Aren't you sorry for losing so many heads that you worked so hard to get?"

In this fight, Ananta had lost half of the heads he had obtained.

And that meant Ananta's strength, which strengthened by consuming others' lives, had been reduced by half.

However, Ananta wasn't ignorant enough not to know it.

"I can get them back. Food is everywhere."

Smirking, as if he knew everything, Ananta looked at YuWon.

"Anyway, you're going to give me orders, right?"

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