"Ugh."
Clang.
Kim ShiHoon dropped the sword.
His body was soaked with sweat, and he was breathing heavily.
"Damn."
A short curse left his mouth.
Kim ShiHoon extended his hand toward the sword he'd dropped.
Just grabbing the sword made him sweat.
“Haa, haa.”
It felt like he was trying to force his way through a blocked passage.
He bit his lip and grabbed the sword.
Clang-
The sword fell from his hand, and a clear sound of steel spread through the room.
"Damn, damn it…!"
He collapsed and felt like he was going to cry.
He looked at his trembling hands.
Although they were his hands, they felt foreign.
- For giving birth to you…
He heard that voice.
It was definitely something his mother had said, but it didn't sound like her voice anymore.
- Get stronger, and…
The demon wearing a red mask, and a mocking voice.
The voice that rang in his head was closer to Satan’s than his mother’s.
"Shut… up."
He stood up and frowned.
He extended his hand toward the sword and bit his lip again, blood wetted his tongue.
He raised his sword.
Clang-
The sword fell to the ground.
* * *
"Guardian Kim ShiHoon…"
Gaia was looking with a sad expression at Kim ShiHoon within the Hall of Protection’s training room, desperately trying to hold his sword.
It wasn't that she could see him, but she could feel how desperate his situation was.
"Is… is it okay for us to stand still?" Gaia asked with a trembling voice.
"We should wait."
"But…"
"If we can't trust ShiHoon here, who else will trust him?"
"At least, consoling him…"
"No."
He shook his head.
"A pointless consolation will make ShiHoon feel more desperate."
"…"
"We must trust ShiHoon and wait."
"Yes…" Gaia said in a weak voice.
After being wounded by archduke Mamon, Kim ShiHoon had lost both arms.
"Guardian Kim ShiHoon…"
Gaia bit her lips.
In reality, losing both arms wasn't a problem.
Since there were players, they could treat injuries that weren't possible with modern medicine.
In reality, thanks to KangWoo, Kim ShiHoon's brain thought he'd lost both arms.
His brain still remembered the pain from when Mamon’s flames had melted away both of his arms.
Kim ShiHoon's sense in his hands had disappeared; he even struggled to hold a spoon.
"Ugh…"
Gaia cried at the scene that unfolded in front of her.
Kim ShiHoon hadn't left the training room for a few days.
Even though he had a superhuman body, it wasn't hard to imagine how hard it was to train without taking a break.
"It's okay."
KangWoo held Gaia's shoulders while she cried.
"ShiHoon is definitely going to get through this."
He turned his head and looked at the training room.
Kim ShiHoon desperately tried to grab the sword while sweat covered his body.
A smile appeared on KangWoo's face.
* * *
'Kim ShiHoon is obviously going to overcome this.'
It wasn't just because Kim ShiHoon looked like a protagonist.
It also wasn't because he was chosen by a god or that he looked like a hero.
'That guy doesn't know when to give up.'
He remembered the fight against Halphas and Mamon.
Although they were enemies Kim ShiHoon couldn't beat and his life was at risk, he didn't escape.
It wasn't that he didn't know fear.
'He has a strong enough will that death feels pointless.'
He could feel that ShiHoon was going to overcome the problem.
'And…'
He was going to become stronger.
KangWoo looked at Kim ShiHoon with expectant eyes.
The beginning of the relationship wasn't good.
At first, he complained about a guy looking like a protagonist obtaining strength without making much effort, but after spending time with him, his opinion of Kim ShiHoon changed.
'To think that I would really think of him as a little brother.'
Was he in a bad spy movie? Although he was planning to use him at first, he'd become affectionate toward him.
KangWoo smiled bitterly.
"Ah."
At that moment, a short exclamation left Gaia's mouth.
KangWoo turned his head.
"What's wrong?"
"A revelation… No, I'm not sure if I should call this a revelation… I'm hearing the voice of a different god… Other than Ms. Gaia."
"Another god?"
"I'm not sure who it is… but he seems to have a close relation to Ms. Gaia."
"What did you say?"
Gaia kept talking carefully.
"A god from another dimension… is coming here."
* * *
A thin woman with long, brown was laying down in a temple atop the clouds that was covered in an intense light.
A shallowly breathing man with hair resembling a lion’s approached her.
"How is Ms. Gaia?"
"Ah, Mr. Uranos."
A woman wearing a priest's robe bowed with a dark expression on her face.
She smiled bitterly and softly touched the unconscious Gaia.
"She still hasn't regained consciousness. She opens her eyes from time to time but ends up falling asleep soon after…"
"Hmm."
Uranos gulped.
"So she isn't regaining consciousness even though an archduke who was residing on Earth died?" he mumbled in a bittersweet voice.
The heroes chosen by Gaia… The Guardians had killed an archduke that had planted roots on Earth, but Gaia's state hadn't changed.
"Her look improved a bit, but…"
"Until we eliminate the cause, she probably won't improve."
Gaia had used most of her strength to seal the Demon of Prophecy.
Due to her over-interference with the system, her Divinity was at risk of disappearing.
"Haa."
He couldn't help but sigh.
The world Gaia was protecting…
It was a beautiful planet with a blue color.
The woman that was taking care of Gaia grabbed her hands.
"If Mr. Uranos could get involved…"
"That's not possible."
Uranos shook his head.
The woman couldn't seem to understand.
"I don't get it. Why is it that the system blocks the interference of gods in such a dire situation?!" she shouted angrily.
Uranos shook his head.
"I don't know. The rules were made like this, so we have no other choice but to follow them."
"But…"
"It isn't that there's nothing I can do about it," Uranos said in a low voice. "This time, I've asked for the help of a god from another world."
"But if they're a god, they shouldn't be able to…"
"Not completely, but gods from other worlds can bypass the restrictions a bit."
Hero God Tyrion…
Although he was a lower-tier god, it was easy to understand that he could bypass the restrictions a bit with how he gave power to a human.
Usually, due to the system restrictions, your divinity would extinguish if you said the wrong thing.
Interfering with the system was impossible unless you were a high-ranking god like Gaia.
Although he had been extinguished, seeing that he was able to give such strength to a human that wasn't an incarnation of a successor was proof that foreign gods weren't held to such harsh restrictions.
The woman's eyes shone after hearing Uranos’s words.
"You're going to ask a god from the Ernor Continent…?"
"No. I've asked for the help of a god from a farther dimension. It seems like she knew Gaia before she became like this."
"Then who…?"
"She's going to arrive soon."
Uranos turned around.
A white fissure opened, and a woman walked out.
An eye-blinding light shone from the woman with blonde hair.
"So this is the world Gaia's in charge of."
The blonde woman looked around, and Uranos walked toward her.
"Thanks for coming."
"So you're Uranos. I heard about you from Gaia."
She sighed after looking at Gaia’s unconscious form.
"How did things become like this…?"
"She sacrificed herself to seal the power the Demon of Prophecy has."
"The Demon of Prophecy…?"
The goddess tilted her head.
Uranos kept talking with a heavy voice.
"There's not much information, but…"
He clenched his fist.
"A demon called Satan is probably the Demon of Prophecy."
"Satan? There's a Satan in this world, too?"
"He's probably different from the Satan that's in your world."
"Hmm…"
The Goddess fell into thought.
"If Gaia ends up dying, this world…"
"I won't let that happen. Even if my divinity disappears because of that," Urano said with intense eyes.
The Goddess nodded with a heavy expression.
"Then, what were you trying to ask me? By the way, I also can't interfere too much."
"I know. I wanted to ask you for help regarding this…"
Uranos flicked his finger.
A human with sharp eyes appeared.
"His name is Oh KangWoo. He's the human the incarnation of Ms. Gaia trusts the most. I wish for you to give him as much strength as possible."
"Hmm… What kind of person is he?"
"To be honest, I don't know him very well."
"You don't?"
Uranos nodded.
"After Ms. Gaia collapsed, we've been having trouble interfering with the system. That human, Oh KangWoo, is someone we got to know through Ms. Gaia's incarnation, but… I do know that he's definitely an impressive human."
A human had killed an archduke…
He didn't know the details of the battle, but he'd heard from Gaia's incarnation that the one who had killed the archduke was a human called Oh KangWoo.
"We want to make this person the hope of our world," Urano said in a firm voice.
The blonde woman narrowed her eyes.
"Hmm…"
She slowly opened her mouth.
"I want to see that human with my own eyes first to see if he's someone worthy of becoming the world's hope."
"You're quite cautious…"
The goddess nodded while making an expression that looked like she'd remembered something unpleasant.
"I have struggled before because of a trash-like human."
"Hmm. What kind of person was he?"
"Lee KiYoung. A true mother fuck… Haa, you don't need to worry. After all, he isn't related to this world."
The woman shook her head as if she wanted to erase a nightmare.
"Anyway, I want to see that human Oh KangWoo and check if he's someone worthy of being trusted. I have a debt with Gaia, so if possible, I want to help as much as possible."
"I trust you, Goddess Benigore."
Uranos bowed to Goddess Benigore, who had come from a world far away.
