‘I expected this would happen someday once the war began.’
This is trouble.
Yu-hyun thought to himself as he looked at the two First Generation Divine Spirits who were watching this side with a bored gaze.
While most of the Great Army’s main gods possessed tremendous power, these two were particularly renowned for the massive "stories" they held.
The widespread nature of their stories indicated that the status of these divine spirits was equally elevated.
In that sense, those two, who had once shouldered the most famous myth in Earth's history, certainly deserved to be considered the highest among the First Generation Divine Spirits.
Especially Zeus. Although his title as Olympus' strongest had somewhat faded due to Hercules, he was still the one who had defeated Typhon and protected the throne of the heavens.
And that very Zeus was looking this way, particularly eyeing the women, with a gleam in his eyes.
“Oh. Such a beautiful maiden.”
What especially caught Zeus's gaze was Kang Hye-rim, who was glaring at him with a wary look.
“Radiant beauty that shines even amidst the battlefield, her gorgeous black hair, and those endlessly glimmering, piercing eyes.”
Zeus’s gaze briefly swept over a particular part of Kang Hye-rim.
“She would make a perfect match as my woman.”
“Is that sickness of yours flaring up again?”
Unable to bear it, Odin shot a reprimand at Zeus.
“Enough. They are enemies we must kill.”
“Must we really kill them? Love can still blossom, even in a war zone like this.”
“The love you talk about so incessantly has always been lighter than a feather, hasn’t it?”
“Even a feather can be genuine in this moment.”
Odin shook his head, purely exasperated, as though unwilling to interfere any further, and Zeus nodded in satisfaction at this silent concession.
He extended a hand to Kang Hye-rim.
“What do you think? You’re destined to perish and vanish if things continue like this, anyway. But if you agree to become my wife here, I could at least take you alone to the next universe. I’ll grant you the honor of becoming the Hera of the next universe.” �
His words were absurdly arrogant and frivolous, yet the fact that Zeus, this Divine Spirit, had uttered them somehow made it fitting.
He was that kind of character.
Even before being devoured by the story of Zeus, he was a notorious womanizer, and perhaps it was precisely for this trait that he had risen to the role of Zeus, the usurper.
“…Absolutely not.”
Kang Hye-rim looked at Zeus with a gaze filled with contempt. She had never before displayed such blatant revulsion.
“Heh. What a delightfully aloof woman.”
“…Yu-hyun, please leave this to me.”
“Hye-rim.”
Yu-hyun started to say something but stopped.
The moment he met her unwavering gaze, he immediately realized that any words would be useless.
She had ultimately stood here to fight.
How could he stop that resolve, that pride?
“Yes, I’ll leave it to you. And Jia, as well.”
“Right. I already knew, without you telling me.”
Kwon Jia, too, was exuding hostility toward the enemy in front of them.
Her gaze, in particular, was fixed on Odin, and had been for some time, locked onto him with unyielding intensity. Her tail, hidden until now, slipped out from under her clothing, swaying fiercely.
“Hmm?”
Perhaps Odin sensed something familiar, as he looked at Kwon Jia with his single eye, the other covered by an eyepatch.
His one eye widened sharply.
And then he smirked.
“I thought I’d seen you somewhere before. So you were here?”
He had thought this war meaningless, after all. He believed that everyone would kneel before Logos in the end, that the beings destined to move on to the next universe were already decided.
This was a world he had experienced multiple times.
Were there really no others who resisted Logos in the history of previous universes? There must have been countless. And the pattern would have repeated.
That was how it was. As Odin, the one who usurped the role of Odin from previous universes, he had no intention of partaking in a hopeless fight.
The winner would inevitably be Logos.
It was just tedious to watch this futilely large theater unfold.
That was all that had annoyed him.
But now, well.
“I take back what I said about this being boring.”
Responding to his master’s will, Sleipnir, his legendary steed, stomped the ground.
“Finally, a battle with meaning.”
No further words were needed.
As if they’d promised each other, the battle began.
Yu-hyun was the first to push off the ground and charge forward.
The path cut right between Odin and Zeus.
“How dare you!”
“Are you trying to pass between us?”
In the moment that Zeus and Odin erupted in fury at the mere human who dared to ignore their First Generation Divine Spirit status,
Kang Hye-rim’s sword sliced toward Zeus, and Kwon Jia’s fist flew toward Odin.
The two chief gods clicked their tongues and retracted the attacks aimed at Yu-hyun, shifting instead to defense.
Ignoring the others and attacking Yu-hyun would have left them exposed to dangerous blows.
Zeus retreated, evading the strike, while Odin blocked the attack by holding Gungnir horizontally.
“Odin!”
With Kwon Jia’s fury, the hood that had concealed her head was thrown back.
The wolf ears she’d hidden all this time were now fully revealed.
Seeing that, Odin let out a loud laugh.
“Kahaha! Fenrir! After you lost to me, I wondered where you’d gone, and it turns out you bonded with some human girl, lending her your power!”
The purple wolf’s maw extended from Kwon Jia’s fist and clamped onto the shaft of Gungnir.
A simple exchange of blows.
Odin’s expression shifted subtly, as he recognized that his opponent wasn’t actually Fenrir.
“A woman wielding the power of Fenrir… It hardly seems fitting to call you Fenrir anymore. That fool handed over all his power to a single human? The previous Odin would weep at such folly.”
“Watch your tongue, you usurper, who dared to steal the name Odin!”
“Oh, a human woman. Are you here to take up Fenrir’s anger and rage at me? What a laughable comedy.”
Kwon Jia’s skill, Heaven Biting Divine Art, which carried the meaning of tearing the sky asunder, had of course drawn its inspiration from Fenrir, the wolf that devoured the world.
Kwon Jia had been using that technique and honing her abilities for a long time.
Even in the endless cycles of regression where memories and skills wore down, she never forgot and continued using the Heaven Biting Divine Art.
And then, after some time had passed, while wandering the realms in search of Yu-hyun’s traces following his disappearance.
One day, in an ancient underground ruin, she encountered a wolf.
[That power. It’s unmistakably similar to mine, yet curious. I’ve never granted that power to anyone before.]
The wolf, whose name was synonymous with devouring worlds, looked at Kwon Jia with a gaze that was both calm and wise.
[Ah, I see. So, you too were a lost child in this endlessly repeating universe. That power of yours was merely a marker to keep you from losing yourself.]
Fenrir, as if in good spirits, transferred all his power to Kwon Jia.
[This isn’t too bad, I suppose. Here, take it. Take all of me. Use it to devour this world, if you can.]
Just thinking back to that moment made her grit her teeth.
Since accepting that power, she had grown beastly ears atop her head and a tail near her lower back.
Part of her irritation was directed at that wolf, who had turned her into this form without permission, but facing Odin with the inherited story and power of Fenrir stirred a deep fury within her.
Kwon Jia and Odin clashed repeatedly, soaring high into the sky.
The vast war unfolded below them, with flashes of light bursting beyond the desert hills like a cross.
Against this backdrop, a beast and a god fought one another.
“I’ll tear you to pieces!”
“Do your best, beast.”
* * *
“Look at Odin. He acts like this battle means nothing, but he’s the one enjoying it the most.”
Glancing at Odin, who had fallen far away with Kwon Jia, Zeus shrugged.
Kang Hye-rim continued to look at Zeus with a wary gaze.
“Don’t look at me with such eyes. Fighting here doesn’t benefit any of us.”
“…What are you scheming?”
“Scheming? There’s no scheme. I simply don’t want to lay a hand on the woman destined to be my wife.”
“Who said I’m destined to be your wife…”
“I did. Because I am Zeus. I’m the ultimate romantic, the man who falls in love more deeply than anyone. I can hold any woman I desire. That’s just how it is.”
“You… truly disgust me.”
A Divine Spirit steeped in his role and story, uttering outdated phrases.
A creature of the times whose unchecked power and swollen ego had only grown without ever facing judgment.
“I will kill you.”
The moment Kang Hye-rim activated her Thunder Sword to strike.
Zeus flicked his fingers.
“Child, how amusing you are.”
The clear lightning contained in her sword disappeared without a trace. Kang Hye-rim was momentarily stunned.
“The Thunder Sword’s lightning… How did you do that?”
“Have you forgotten who I am? I am Zeus, God of the Sky. And I wield the purest lightning in this universe, Astrape. Do you think I’d permit you to control lightning in front of me?”
All lightning-related powers were nullified in his presence.
Only Thor from Asgard or Shiva wielding the Trishula could handle lightning in front of Zeus.
“You have remarkable abilities, but the compatibility is poor. Even if you die and are reborn, you’ll never defeat me.”