The news Leon and I delivered was shocking.
However, the world quickly began to find stability.
It was inevitable, as the God who had been the source of the chaos had seen his Rank vanish.
The world regained its original form, once again ruled by humans, which was far more stable than adapting to something entirely new.
However, there was a slight discord, and that was the reorganization of the power structure.
Dissatisfaction toward the powerful individuals who had originally ruled the world and its nations began to surface.
In a way, it was the start of a new era.
As the saying goes, “New wine should be put into new bottles,” and people wanted change and revolution.
In particular, the existing power holders had caused many problems until now, and those who felt dissatisfied began to take direct action.
Protests condemning the old authorities broke out all over the world.
Even radical groups advocating for anarchy were emerging.
Naturally, those currently in power issued stern warnings to these protesters and organizations.
Usually, people would back down after such warnings, but this time was different.
They would not retreat, determined to reshape the structure of power that had ruled the world until now.
Complex interests were intertwined here.
There were those who wanted to overthrow the corrupt existing power structure and replace it with leaders who truly cared for the people.
There were opportunists trying to seize power by using this chance.
And there were those caught up in the tide, participating in the protests without any real self-awareness or understanding.
Humans, who had once again become masters of the world, were pushing themselves into a vortex of civil war to claim the seats of power.
However, there was one place that was an exception.
That lone nation was South Korea.
Power restructuring?
Of course, it could happen as easily as flipping one’s hand.
That is, if I wanted it to.
But currently, I had no particular complaints.
The current supreme leader of South Korea, Hosik Jeong, was one of the individuals who possessed quite good judgment.
Since I had no complaints, there would be no change in regime or power.
And since the people also had no grievances against Hosik Jeong, there was no particular reason to change the current power system.
If there was something that needed to change…
“…Is this the best you can do?”
At my words.
“Huff, huff!”
He was breathing heavily, seemingly lacking the strength to even answer.
The person in question was Leon.
The clean-cut, handsome guy was lying on the floor of the training ground, gasping as if he were about to die.
“Huff, this… huff, huff! It’s too, huff, hard….”
Looking at the situation, it might seem like he had done something incredible.
But not at all.
All he had done for 5 minutes was hold a horse-riding stance.
Only 5 minutes.
He had held the stance for 5 minutes, and this was the result.
‘I had expected this, but…’
I had anticipated it to some extent.
I knew his physical body was as thin as paper compared to the divine authority he possessed.
It made sense; I was someone who had trained my body for 1,000 years.
I could understand an opponent’s physical condition just by a glance, and Leon’s condition was a mess.
How should I put it?
Like a newborn baby?
Of course, I didn’t mean he was actually weaker than a newborn, but that he was just that frail.
And now, it had been clearly proven.
I hadn’t even added weight; he simply couldn’t withstand a basic movement of supporting his own body weight and collapsed.
In exactly 4 minutes 51 seconds.
‘Salmora. It seemed he didn’t have much regret for a reason.’
Even though Salmora knew exactly what I was up to, he had accepted the one-on-one duel and sent Leon alone.
He must have judged that I would kill the boy, but from another perspective.
‘He probably thought it wouldn’t matter either way.’
Leon was certainly… half-baked.
He was a God of Creation.
As seen before, his divine authority was great.
The problem was that his abilities were skewed entirely toward that authority.
To put it simply, his physical abilities, excluding his divine power, were lower than those of an ordinary person.
Of course, if he used the divine power dwelling in his body or his Rank, he could annihilate humanity with a single gesture.
But with the collapse of Asgard, that was no longer an authority permitted to them.
Previously, his Rank had bottomed out due to the use of the Pangu Axe.
In the past, he could have replenished it through the faith of believers, but that was no longer possible.
So, to summarize the result.
‘He has no talent.’
Surprisingly, Leon, the vessel of the God of Creation, was just an ordinary human with no talent for martial arts.
Forget physical talent.
“Huff, huff!”
He didn’t even show the persistence to continue his efforts.
Simply put.
‘A rich boy born with everything.’
That description fit him perfectly.
Leon was a rich boy, he was born with a lot, but he was a young master who had achieved nothing through his own strength.
After realizing all these facts through a brief training process, I couldn’t help but fall into thought.
What should I do… with this guy now?
Training?
To someone with neither talent nor effort, training was nothing but torture.
I could force him, of course but training without heart would only break the body.
Before long, problems would arise in his body as its durability reached its limit.
Normally, one would give up.
But I had no intention of giving up on him.
Salmora might have thought of him as a discarded pawn, but.
‘There is still hope.’
Surprisingly, there was a way to resolve the situation of this seemingly hopeless guy.
“You probably know it too.”
“Huff, huff?”
“That you are an incomplete being.”
“…”
His heavy breathing stopped instantly.
“How… did you know?”
It seemed his surprise at me seeing through his condition was even greater.
“That incompleteness is a phenomenon caused by the imbalance between light and darkness.”
I didn’t know at first.
But keeping him close allowed me to see it.
His current state was extremely incomplete.
And that was due to the imbalance of power between light and darkness, his very essence.
“Seeing as the light is stronger, it seems you failed to properly absorb the darkness. Is that right?”
“…Yes. That’s correct.”
It seemed he had intended to hide it at first.
But when I spoke as if I already knew everything, he finally began to confess the truth.
“My father — that is, the man from the past — told me. He said that while perfect light dwells within my body, the darkness is not complete….”
The picture immediately formed in my mind.
‘He succeeded in luring the Goddess of Light in her moment of crisis, but he couldn’t fool the thorough God of Darkness.’
Light and darkness were born from the same place, but they had completely different personalities.
Light was arrogant and impulsive.
Darkness was calm and calculating.
Therefore, Light was more likely to fall for Salmora’s tricks.
After Salmora prepared the vessel known as Leon, he must have properly absorbed the Goddess of Light, the source of that power.
However, deceiving the thorough and calculating God of Darkness was no easy task.
Thus, he likely had to settle for a small amount of energy without fully absorbing the darkness.
It might not look like a problem right now, but the resulting incompleteness had settled into Leon.
In a way, he could be called a failure.
That was why Salmora could discard him so boldly.
“…”
Having told the truth, Leon began to watch my reaction.
It was a sight like a once-abandoned puppy watching its master’s eyes.
No matter how much he pretended otherwise, he also knew.
He knew he was a discarded existence.
That was why he hadn’t been able to talk about his incompleteness beforehand, fearing he would be abandoned if he were useless.
“It’s all right.”
I spoke with certainty to the boy who was watching me.
“If it’s incomplete, we just have to make it complete.”
“He said it wouldn’t be easy….”
Salmora must have tried to eliminate the incompleteness as well.
But he failed, and that experience of failure had persisted until now.
“He failed, but I am different.”
Especially if it was something related to a God, it could never escape my eyes.
When Asgard, which forms the Rank of a God, collapses, what happens to the Gods belonging to it?
There are two answers.
First, they live a life similar to humans while losing all divine authority in Asgard, a world that is completely cut off.
Second, they subordinate themselves to this world by pretending to be special beings using the remaining Rank they have.
Most Gods chose to stay in Asgard.
Since the collapse of Asgard meant they could no longer use their Rank or the authority they once wielded, they judged it would be difficult to intervene in the human world any further.
For that reason, even if they lived like humans, they had no choice but to choose living with their own kind.
However, a few, especially the God of Darkness, had no choice but to choose staying in the human world.
The reason?
It was because of what he had done until now.
He had conspired with the Goddess of Light to oppress the other Gods and trample them to reach the Lord Tier Status.
And now he was expected to live with them?
Of course, he might think that was fine.
The problem was how the other Gods would accept him.
It went without saying, but the Gods were not prepared to accept him.
If the God of Darkness had chosen to stay in Asgard, he would have realized exactly what outcasting and bullying meant in the human world.
Facing that obvious conclusion, the God of Darkness chose to remain in the human world.
In exchange for that.
“A-A ghost?!”
A dark alleyway.
A person who saw the God of Darkness suddenly appear in that deserted place…
“Thud!”
They collapsed.
And in that moment.
Surprisingly, something like a black aura drifted out of the human’s body and was absorbed into the God of Darkness’s body.
“Phew — “
What darkness harbored was the unknown and fear.
Therefore, the emotion of fear felt by humans provided the God of Darkness with a certain amount of energy.
It was the driving force for living in the human world and a special power that allowed him to be slightly different from humans.
‘…Damn it!’
The God of Darkness spat out a curse as he looked at the fallen human.
A noble God who had reached the Lord Tier Status was cursing?
But it was only natural.
“A ghost? How dare they compare someone like me to a petty spirit!”
He knew what humans meant by ghosts.
Although they were both supernatural, the God of Darkness was deeply angered by the comparison to a low-level spirit that could not even be compared to his position.
“I don’t want to cause a stir until I’ve recovered a certain amount of power, but I cannot forgive you.”
He had to be careful for the time being.
He didn’t know when or where the eyes of Salmora or Kim Si-won might be.
Salmora, in particular, possessed a special ability to look into the entire world.
Furthermore, he had the immense authority to process all that information.
As the one who had created the Demon Clan, and as one who knew some of Salmora’s secrets, the God of Darkness had no choice but to be wary of him.
However, he could not forgive this human who dared to treat him, a great God who possessed the Lord Tier Status, as a ghost.
“The sin of insulting a God. The sin of profanity is death.”
Of course, there was also a hidden motive to devour the human to soothe the hunger he felt while being subordinated to the human world.
In the end, though the God of Darkness denied it, he was degenerating into the kind of existence called a demon or a ghost.
Just as the God of Darkness was about to devour the fallen human.
“Found you!”
Surprisingly, there was an existence that easily scattered the fog of darkness.
“…!!”
He didn’t know who it was yet but without a second thought.
-Sshhh
He tried to vanish immediately by melting into the shadows.
However.
“Your tricks are obvious.”
-Flash!
A bright light suddenly erupted.
Because of it, the darkness receded, and there was no corner left for him to run to.