Leveling With The Gods - Chapter 500
[Level Up with the Gods Episode 500]
* * *
Quaduk, quack, quack-.
The fear of being surrounded by countless Outers and feeling like my body was being torn apart alive was a memory I could not easily forget.
Fortunately, it didn’t hurt or anything.
In the first place, this was a ‘memory’, not an ‘experience’.
There was no pain in my memory, and although I could hear sounds, there was no feeling of the cold, frosty feel of teeth.
-I thought it would stop.
It was from then on that Azathoth’s voice was heard.
Hwaaaaa!
The surrounding scenery changed in an instant. All the purple waves pouring from the sky seemed to be distorted, and the first black forest appeared.
“….”
Yuwon looked down at his hands.
Hands that are thin and thin but covered in calluses.
It was his original hand, different from the white hand he had just seen.
And right in front of Yuwon’s eyes.
-You have a pretty goofy face.
Someone was standing.
Yuwon’s eyes wavered.
This is inside the ‘amorphous chaos’.
Unauthorized or unqualified people could not set foot here.
That was why I was surprised when Pandora suddenly appeared.
That’s right.
“Azathoth?”
This man is probably the same person who was an amusement park just a moment ago.
Glancing-.
Yuwon looked at Azathoth.
What would maple leaves look like when they grow up?
The neat white hair and black clothes wrapped around the body, a face as pale as the hair color, combined black and white to create a mysterious atmosphere.
-Why are you asking this question even though you know it?
“There was something I wanted to ask when we met.”
-what?
“What are autumn leaves?”
I was curious the whole time.
What on earth were the autumn leaves? Why did it come out of such a small egg?
And why did this guy suddenly disappear next to me?
“Is that guy you? Or a name that fell from you? Or simply…”
Yuwon paused while continuing his question.
Many guesses I thought about alone.
But anyway, after meeting Azathoth, the guesses he had made on his own were no longer meaningful.
He will have all the answers anyway.
-This guy was Azathoth.
Azathoth spoke.
And it was just as Yuwon first expected.
but.
-It almost happened like that.
Azathoth’s words were instantly overturned.
“Is it obvious?”
-I don’t die. It just looks and feels like death.
A word that feels somewhat familiar.
-Even the Phoenix, a mere creature, was resurrected from the ashes where the fire had gone out. Couldn’t I do that?
As expected, Yuwon had heard this before.
‘Is this also that time?’
It was Azathoth who beheaded Shub Nigurath and took her name back.
He relayed the same story he had shared with Shub Nigguras to Yuwon. And Yuwon understood what Azathoth was trying to say with those words.
“Was that egg the medium for your resurrection?”
Azathoth smiled faintly.
Is the meaning of laughter positive or negative?
Azathoth laughed and raised his head. The black sky here was different from the purple sky outside that Yuwon knew.
-You asked, right? Why did you do that?
It certainly was.
For a moment, Yuwon became Azathoth and put his memories on the line. I didn’t understand his entire life, and the end was even more incomprehensible.
Why on earth did that happen?
Azathoth must have had names that could overwhelm all the outerwear.
-As I said before, I thought it would stop. I thought I would be satisfied once I took away all the names I had left.
“To stop?”
Did you sacrifice just for that?
“Why did you have to do that? “If that happens, you’ll lose your power, right?”
-You don’t know me yet. No, you are asking this even though you know.
Those words hit the nail on the head.
Actually, I knew it. Why did Azathoth make such a decision?
I just wanted to hear it again from his mouth.
-Why did I give them names?
“Because they are your children whom you gave names to.”
-I know.
I had no choice but to know.
For a moment, I became Azathoth. I had his memories and shared his thoughts.
Born in terrible chaos, his only weakness is his god-like powers.
That was his love for the things he named.
-Azathoth does not die.
He spoke his name as if it were someone else’s name.
-Just being reborn.
Azathoth’s gaze turned to Yuwon’s feet.
Yuwon’s eyes followed Azathoth’s eyes to see what he was seeing. And there was a familiar guy stretching out his hand towards Yuwon.
“Abba-.”
“Autumn leaves?”
Yuwon hugged the maple leaf that was reaching out towards him. Somehow, it felt a lot heavier than before. He also seemed a little taller.
-Amorphous chaos. It was the first name I came up with.
“You mean autumn leaves?”
-I really don’t like that lame name.
“It’s much easier and cuter than those weird and difficult names you come up with.”
The name ‘Autumn Leaves’ came to mind without much thought just because of its appearance.
Amorphous chaos The goat of the black forest with a thousand babies The one who failed to give birth…
All kinds of complicated and difficult names.
Yuwon and Azathoth were named in completely different ways.
“Isn’t that so?”
“Maja-.”
In response to Yuwon’s question, Maple raised her cute hand and nodded repeatedly.
Maple had already fallen in love with his own name. I couldn’t even hear any other name that had never been called since birth.
Yuwon looked at Azathoth as if asking him to see something. Azathoth averted his eyes and turned his head.
A face that looks somewhat displeased.
-Does not matter. Anyway, whatever it is, from now on you will have to shoulder it, not me.
“I?”
-As I said before, Azathoth does not die. Just being reborn.
Although the words were the same, the feeling of being accepted was completely different.
Yuwon looked at the autumn leaves in his arms.
Although he seemed to know nothing, he was clearly someone who almost became the next Azathoth.
-Azathos is a name that does not disappear even if it disappears. He is resurrected in a new body with his previous memories and his name. I was like that too.
Memory meant Pandora. What she showed Yuwon was clearly the past that Azathoth had experienced.
Then, what is a new body?
‘Is it this guy?’
Maple waved her arms as if it was uncomfortable to be held and asked to be put down.
Yuwon placed the autumn leaves down and listened to Azathoth’s words.
-He was the next Azathoth I had planned. Until you were there.
“Why am I growing up?”
-This guy was worried about you.
“me?”
It wasn’t that surprising.
It wasn’t the first time that Maple was worried about him.
The guy advised him that it was dangerous for him to help him fight against Shub Nigguras.
Those words clearly came from concerns about Yuwon.
-I wanted you to become Azathoth.
“That’s the only reason?”
-I’m not worried, but I also think you’re better.
“why?”
-Because, unlike me, you hate them.
them.
I’m talking about outerwear.
Yuwon nodded as Azathoth looked at him asking if that was so.
It was right.
He hated them.
-I had no idea that the body I planned would fall into the hands of a guy like you. One who knows the existence of the outside world. The one who will confront them. Coincidentally, the conditions fit perfectly.
A situation that even Azathoth could not have predicted.
That was Yuwon’s existence, and Azathoth’s first name was held in his hands.
I was embarrassed, but it was nothing bad.
If this is fate.
Azathoth was willing to follow that fate.
“It fell apart.”
Yuwon now knew Azathoth.
How great he is. It also shows how weak you are on the inside.
Azathoth must have been scolded, but he laughed.
He did not deny Yuwon’s words.
-There is something the kid said to me at the end. ‘My foolish, foolish father.’
A scrawny, faceless child who followed Azathoth around.
Nyala Totep. A traitor who took the name ‘Foolish Chaos’ from Azathoth.
He called Azathoth foolish. Perhaps the foolishness he was talking about meant that Azathoth had laid down his name altogether.
-That is correct. I was foolish. I couldn’t steel myself and had a vain hope that they would stop.
“Because you had the power from the beginning. But most things are different.”
Yuwon entered the tower, passed the test, and became a ranker.
I saw countless players along the way. Even those who passed the tutorial for the first time and shed tears upon reaching the first floor. Even those who have some determination and determination.
Clearly they have become much stronger than when they first started. But I climbed the tower nonetheless.
‘Me too… it was the same.’
I remembered the first time I entered the tower.
Even if it’s not like that right now, Yuwon has definitely climbed the tower at an incredible speed.
He quickly made a name for himself by changing the rankings of each floor. By the time he became a ranker, Yuwon was already on par with high rankers.
And there is one reason why that was possible.
It was because of the desire to go higher.
“Once you have power, you want more power. “Once you have more power, you want more power, and then you don’t know where to stop.”
Words from experience.
Azathoth nodded.
He was perfect from the beginning.
That was Azathoth’s greatest flaw: he did not know that the beings he gave his name to were different from him.
“I don’t know anything else, but that guy spoke well. What a foolish, foolish father. matches well.”
-Wouldn’t you be different?
Azathoth’s expectations for Yuwon.
That was because Yuwon’s purpose was completely opposite to his own.
-You have a goal.
Yuwon closed his eyes.
The day when the fight against foolish chaos ended and I returned to the past.
Kronos said as he handed over the clockwork.
Tell me to start again.
Sssssssssssssssssssss-.
Azathoth’s image turned into black dust and dispersed.
A being that is slowly disappearing from the legs to the waist.
-Take back the names from those I gave names to and kill and trample on them. Because that’s why I chose you.
Azathoth reached forward.
The day that was supposed to come has finally arrived.
Azathoth, which had existed for such a long time, was no longer there. Now it was time for a new being to be born with his memories and power name.
-From now on, you are ‘Azathos’.
Passsss-.
Azathoth’s appearance completely disintegrated and disappeared.
In the chaos where all sound has disappeared.
Sreuk-.
Yuwon slowly opened his eyes and looked at the autumn leaves rolling on the ground.
[A new name is imprinted.]
[‘True name – Azathoth’ has been acquired.] The
eyes are different from the first time. The eyes were when Azathoth was inhabited.