Ranker Who Lives Twice
chapter-715

Yeon-woo quickly cast away his brief feeling of guilt. If Shanon was present, he would have ridiculed Yeon-woo's brief show of guilt as Yeon-woo shedding 'crocodile tears'. After all, it was not like Yeon-woo to feel guilty for any period of time.

Maybe, having been steeped in the darkness for so many years, Yeon-woo's temperamental senses had become somewhat dull. In actuality, though, the only people Yeon-woo felt sorry for were Sesha and Ananta. Due to the fragments of darkness, Sesha and Ananta had searched tirelessly for Yeon-woo during the past ten years.

"By the way…" Yeon-woo tilted his head while looking at the Olympus gods, who were still busy making excuses. "…how come I don't see Athena?"

While the other high-ranking Olympus gods were visible, only Athena was absent. Since Athena was Yeon-woo's main Apostle, from a spiritual point of view, it could be said that she had the closest relationship with him. Thus, when Yeon-woo finally awakened and opened his eyes, the first thing he should have sensed and noticed should have been Athena. But like his other apostles, Athena seemed unaware of his awakening and existence.

Moreover, Yeon-woo could hardly feel any connection to Athena. To be clear, the Channel Yeon-woo had with Athena was still active. Furthermore, it was even clear. The problem was that Yeon-woo had no idea what was happening on the other side of the Channel.

Originally, the thoughts and feelings of one's Apostle could be read quickly… Or at least, one should be able to easily obtain information on the whereabouts of one's Apostle. However, presently for Yeon-woo, even these basic functions were made difficult. Usually, in this case, it was likely that the Channel between the master and Apostle was being interrupted, but this did not seem to be the case for Yeon-woo. Hence, this weird situation made him wonder what the hell was going on.

"Oh, that's… Uh hum…!"

"Hmm. It seems you guys want to enter my shadow, no? Shouldn't you have stated Athena's whereabouts as soon as you saw me? But you all didn't. I guess you all decided that, rather than confronting all these troublesome things happening everywhere, it's better to just enter into my shadow, right?"

「Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I'll be able to make some friends now! I support your idea!」

"…Uh! No, wait! I will correctly state what's going on!" Ares, while beginning to explain what happened to Athena, had momentarily started loosening his posture, but he shot straight up immediately after hearing Yeon-woo's words. Yeon-woo's shadow, which glimmered in front of his eyes, felt exceptionally ominous. Moreover, how many times had they seen Laplace's perverted actions? Ares, imagining himself next to such a pervert, felt goosebumps form all over his body, so he decided to come to his senses.

"Okay. So, what's Athena up to?"

"S-She's with Dis Pluto!"

"Dis Pluto?" Yeon-woo had not considered this scenario. His eyes slightly widened.

"Yes! She stated that she needed to be in the front lines while fighting against the Night…"

"Hmm. So that's how it is." Yeon-woo gave a bitter laugh. It was only then that he realized what Athena was thinking.

Athena had a higher status as a goddess of military than a goddess of war. This meant that her skills in resourcefulness and wisdom were far greater than her combative power.

Just by standing on the battlefield, just by being with the frontline soldiers, Athena would be able to have a huge effect. Her military operation skills gave allies a greater sense of morale and victory and set traps for the enemy, which drove them into threatening positions, put additional pressures on them, and gave them a sense of defeat. Dis Pluto, as Yeon-woo's familiars, was in a state of war against the Night, so Athena seemed to be leading them on the battlefield.

'Come to think of it… I heard that, at present, the forces of Day are centered around Jeong-woo, who has my familiars, Agares from L'Infernal, and Michael from Malach. Other than those three, Olympus and Niflheim are providing support as the secondary armies, and the Chan Sect are assisting from time to time as the tertiary army.'

Not anyone would have the skillset to lead such a complex battlefield. It was clear that Athena was probably the most central figure in the Day's battle against the Night.

"Moreover, we've currently lost contact with the main headquarters of Day…"

According to Ares, those who were currently the central figures of Day, including Cha Jeong-woo, were in the process of infiltrating deep into enemy lines. It was because of this reason that Cha Jeong-woo had not been able to contact his wife and daughter for a long time.

It was also for this reason why Yeon-woo's Channel with Athena was clear but non-responsive. If Athena had gone beyond this universe to another dimension, it was not unreasonable that Yeon-woo could not sense anything through their Channel.

Even though Yeon-woo possessed the power of darkness, as long as his body was in this universe, there was a limit to accepting information from the otherworld, where a set of completely different laws operated.

'Then, I should expand my cognitive domain to that point.' This was not a difficult task for Yeon-woo. Up to this point, Yeon-woo had purposely reduced his cognitive domain to a very narrow range. If he expanded his cognitive domain, Yeon-woo would be bombarded with useless information, and the pressure on his mind to deal with such amounts of useless information would only increase his mental burden. Thus, Yeon-woo usually restricted his cognitive domain.

However, if Yeon-woo were to fully operate his cognitive domain now, the story would be different. Presently, he already possessed more than half of the darkness, so the limits of the universe and dimensions were not an issue anymore. Furthermore, the distinction between 'inside' and 'outside', like Day and Night, was now largely meaningless.

Yeon-woo slowly started moving forward.

"Hmm, huh?" Ares hesitated and was slightly startled by Yeon-woo's changed mood. Ares wondered if he had done something wrong.

But Yeon-woo looked up at the sky, not at Ares.

'What is he trying to do?' Somehow, Ares felt a strong sense of intimidation coming from Yeon-woo. He could not easily approach Yeon-woo. Though Yeon-woo was not outwardly spreading his aura or divine power… At that very moment, Ares felt that Yeon-woo had become a completely different being.

Very far, distant… An existence so huge that Yeon-woo seemed impossible to get near or touch… Yet, on the contrary, no matter where one turned one's head, Yeon-woo was ever-present, like a quiet, omnipresent moon. Yeon-woo had become such an existence.

At this moment, the spirit pressure created by the gods of Olympus… The gazes of countless transcendents that had been drawn to this direction… The weight of Earth which was the place where the Black King slumbered… All seemed to have disappeared. There was only Yeon-woo.

Ares knew the word that was used to refer to such an existence. 'Emperor!' When Ares met the Heavenly Demon, when Ares ran into the Bull Demon King who had existed since time immemorial, and when Ares saw the Martial King during the brief instance when he transcended… What Ares had felt at those times was oozing from Yeon-woo.

All the other Olympus gods felt the same. All of them forgot what they were doing and just stared blankly in awe at Yeon-woo.

"W-What is this?"

"W-What the hell is this…!"

"Hey, he's right in front of me, but I can't see him! What happened?"

"He seems to be here…and there… Argh!"

The Hell Hound players were completely dominated by Yeon-woo's changed presence. Their senses had been completely overwhelmed, putting them in states of mental confusion.

With their pitiful levels of power, the players were trying to recognize Yeon-woo's existence, so the players' souls had no other option but to fall into a state of confusion and duress. To them, Yeon-woo could only be seen as an omniscient and omnipotent existence that existed everywhere they looked.

[7th-step Dragon Body awakening]

[All powers released]

[Sky Wings]

Yeon-woo spread his red and black wings. His wings slowly unfurled and started covering the entire sky. His wings spread across the sky and soon covered the entire Earth.

All the people on Earth were startled by the sudden total solar eclipse, so they ran out and looked at the sky in astonishment.

Yeon-woo's extended cognitive domain left Earth and reached out to the outer universe, far beyond the distance of fourteen billion light-years and the other cosmic groups beyond that. His cognitive domain passed through different dimensions and finally reached the otherworld, where the Night resided. And in a moment, Yeon-woo understood everything that was happening within the otherworld. He was able to read everything inside of 'himself'.

When the darkness had started to awaken, its fragments and subsequent chaos had spread all over the place. Yeon-woo saw the gazes from countless existences and beings, their thoughts, the remaining vestiges…the countless actions that were currently being taken… Among these realizations, there was also a society of transcendents who were enjoying freedom after having barely escaped from the Tower.

Yeon-woo could feel them screaming while looking up at the sky, but Yeon-woo did not care to listen to them.

These transcendents screamed due to astonishment or surprise after feeling Yeon-woo's presence, but to the present Yeon-woo, these gods and demons were no different from mortal creatures, much like the humans on Earth or the members of the One-horned Tribe. These beings classified each other as transcendents or mortals and acted as if this delineation was something important, but from Yeon-woo's point of view, all these transcendents and other beings were just ants living in a finite universe. He could no longer stoop down to the ridiculous level of competing amongst the transcendents to see who was stronger. Furthermore…

Father.

You've. Awakened.

Just like the transcendents who noticed Yeon-woo, the existences of the Night also became aware of Yeon-woo's existence, one by one. Among them, the Resident of the Border, the only existence that could 'confront' Yeon-woo, widened his eyes in surprise.

However.

Not. Fully. Qualified. As. Father.

But. Still.

Is. Father.

But. Why. Is. Dream. Ongoing.

The Resident of the Border was thoroughly confused as he faced the existence of Yeon-woo. There seemed to be a mixture of questions… Whether he should recognize Yeon-woo as the true Black King and why the 'dream' had not yet concluded.

Yeon-woo let out a smirk. When he was a simple human, Yeon-woo felt that the Resident of the Border was a lofty, far-away presence, someone that Yeon-woo needed to defeat much later on. However, as Yeon-woo became closer to becoming the Black King, Yeon-woo now felt a familiarity with the Resident of the Border.

Of course, that did not mean Yeon-woo was lowering his guard. The Resident of the Border was the leader of the Night on behalf of the long slumbering Black King. And the Resident of the Border had not yet finished making a judgment on Yeon-woo. He was called a leader, but it was safe to say that, in terms of power and rank, the Resident of the Border was already a full-fledged emperor-level being.

Yeon-woo quietly spoke out, 『I'll visit you soon, so wait until then.』

Of course, there was no reason for Yeon-woo to be wary of the Resident of the Border. Since the Resident of the Border had not fully assessed Yeon-woo's power level, there was no need for Yeon-woo to reveal any of his own weaknesses. Rather, at times like this, he was thinking of posturing as the Black King.

The Resident of the Border did not respond for a long time after hearing Yeon-woo's words. The Resident of the Border could see a plethora of vestiges intertwined within Yeon-woo. He seemed to be going through some internal conflict as to how to accept Yeon-woo's statement.

Alright.

I. Shall. Wait.

The Resident of the Border decided to take a step back. Since he had not had a chance to properly converse with Yeon-woo, he concluded that it would be enough to make a more certain decision later.

Whoosh! The Resident of the Border's 'eyes' slowly closed with a mournful cry. And, below the closing 'eyes' were the retreating figures of the Night and the perplexed expressions of the Day, who had been clashing against the Night just a moment ago. Amongst the Day, Yeon-woo could see Cha Jeong-woo, who looked exactly the same.

『Hyung…?』Jeong-woo looked confused as he suddenly met a pair of familiar yet unfamiliar eyes in an unexpected place.

Smile.

Yeon-woo let out a small laugh that only his brother could hear. He then spoke in Draconic Speech. "Return."

At that moment, the fragments of darkness scattered all over the Earth and the entire universe began to wriggle.

[The temporary operating system, which had been put in place due to an error in the main system, has stopped operating.]

[A new operating system has become operational.]

…

[Comparative function has been restored.]

[Calculation function has been restored.]

[Judgment function has been restored.]

…

[The normalization of the central information processing units has introduced new elements to information collection and interpretation.]

[The network between the server and the client has been activated. The system has fully restarted.]

…

[Executing the first command.]

…

[Collecting all the fragments of darkness.]

[All gates are being closed.]

[All trials have stopped.]

[All player support features shall be discontinued.]