Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant

"......!"

Cronos's eyes widened.

What?

What did I just hear?

But his ears were fine, and the words Zeus had spoken were no nonsense either.

"That man is right. Let's stop now. Our bodies can't kill each other anyway, so no matter how much we keep resenting each other and raging, all we'll do is consume mental power."

"You......"

Cronos started to say something, then shut his mouth.

Then he raised his head again, looked at the sky, and let out a long sigh.

"...Fine. Let's stop."

From both of their mouths came the words to stop.

I'm sorry, I forgive you.

Well, it wasn't anything like that.

That was why it struck deeper, and why it carried weight.

Su-ho curled up the corner of his mouth and looked at Nyx.

Nyx was smiling too.

Su-ho said,

"It worked?"

"Haha, it did. It really worked."

This was a situation Nyx hadn't expected either.

Because she had thought that neither Zeus nor Cronos would ever back down from each other.

Why had she thought that?

Nothing special.

Gods are more petty and narrow-minded than you'd think.

When people say god, they think of some great being with broad generosity who embraces everything, but the reality is nothing like that.

If anything, because they are gods, they're petty and hold grudges.

Because along with never dying, they had always stood in the superior position of being respected and acknowledged.

And yet Zeus and Cronos had, for the first time, accepted someone else's mediation.

There were probably all sorts of reasons, but Su-ho's martial force had also had a great influence on this situation.

'Gods and sages belong to entirely separate realms.'

Su-ho said with a grin,

"You both made a good choice. Then you've promised each other, so no breaking it. If something like this happens again, then that's what you'll end up like."

Zeus's and Cronos's gazes turned together toward the direction Su-ho pointed with his hand.

At the end of that line was Typhon.

Typhon, reborn as a Shadow Divine Beast, had originally been the Undying Typhon.

He had killed it without °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° Godslayer thanks to a conditional quest, but since both of them had experienced Su-ho's power firsthand, they understood well what he meant.

Nyx said,

"Then it looks like everything's been settled, so I'll be going now."

As soon as she finished speaking, Nyx gave a light jump, her body turned translucent, and in an instant she faded away.

She had no hesitation at all in leaving.

She had been like that from the start.

She had lent her power because her nephew Cronos had begged her like someone clinging to the hem of her pants, not because she had helped out of any other special feeling.

She was night itself.

Her greatest pleasure was resting languidly, drifting without involving herself in anything.

Once Nyx disappeared, Su-ho activated the Tartarus skill one more time.

Then an exit portal leading outside was created.

The exit portal was much larger than the one it had shown before.

Pointing at the portal, Su-ho said to Cronos,

"You all go out first. As for where you'll stay, either find a place yourselves or discuss it with Zeus and settle it yourselves."

At Su-ho's motion with his chin, Cronos looked like he hesitated for a moment, but then, seeing Zeus meet his eyes and nod, he said to the other Titans,

"Let's go. The fighting is over now."

At Cronos's decision, the other Titans did not add any further words and headed for the exit portal after him.

The reason they followed so willingly was less because they were following Cronos and more because they too had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

Maybe that was why their steps as they moved toward the exit portal somehow even looked joyful.

Soon, once they had all gone out, the Resentment Soldiers that had filled the battlefield also burst apart and vanished like smoke.

The Shadow Knights were withdrawn as well.

After that, Su-ho shifted his gaze to Zeus.

"You know you have to help me, right?"

"I know."

"But what I'm trying to do... let's gather everyone first and then talk."

At Zeus's motion with his chin, the Olympian gods were summoned together.

Su-ho gathered them and explained what he was trying to do.

"...So that's the situation. How much preparation time do you think you'll need?"

"If it's something like that, then as long as we recover enough, a day or two will be enough."

"Really? Then there's no need to rush. Let's meet again later when I call for you. But how am I supposed to call you?"

At those words, Zeus motioned with his chin, and Hermes stepped forward and handed over a horn.

"If you blow this, all of us will gather."

"Nice."

After taking the horn, Su-ho jerked his chin toward the still-open exit portal.

"You worked hard. Then go on now, all of you. See you again later. Oh, and don't forget to build up your magic power separately until then."

At Su-ho's farewell, the gods began approaching the portal one by one.

Like that, they disappeared through the portal one after another, and the very last one left was Zeus.

"Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for? I'm the one who locked you all in here."

"No, not for that."

The look in Zeus's eyes as he looked at Su-ho was deep.

Su-ho smiled and said,

"It's fine. I only moved because I needed to. Just don't ignore me when I call you later, and come quickly."

"Understood."

It was right after Zeus had fully returned as well.

"Then should I head back now too?"

Just as Su-ho was about to use the portal and go back, Jack, who had been waiting inside the shadows, appeared.

- Master.

"Why?"

- Why did you just let them go?

"What do you mean?"

- Up until we came here, you said you were going to subjugate both Olympus and Cronos, but when it came down to the end, you just let them all go.

"What do you mean, just let them go? I made Olympus agree to help me."

- But you did not place them under your dominion. Is the Dominion Core not a waste?

He understood what Jack meant.

Neither the Olympus side nor the Cronos side, not a single one of them, had been turned into a Shadow Divine Beast or forced into subordination under him.

But it did not really matter.

If they had refused to listen to the end, he had planned to subjugate them by force based on the Godslayer skill, but once he actually spoke with them, he realized they were capable of reason.

"I'm not bothered by it. And what if I forced them into submission and they decided they'd rather die? Then what? If summoning a Shadow Divine Beast failed from the corpse of a guy like that, then what would I do?"

- Hm. Fine. It's all your choice anyway.

"If I need power later, I can just go and ask again. This time, I found out they're the kind I can reason with."

At those words, Jack grinned.

- Wise.

"Didn't know? I was always wise."

Su-ho's steps as he headed outside felt much lighter.

***

He came back outside through the portal.

The location was still inside the Subspace House.

When he came out from there one more time, he saw the Demon King Palace.

When Su-ho appeared in the Demon King Palace again, Grid appeared before him.

- You're back?

"Yeah, things wrapped up faster than I expected. What about you? Is the war prep going well?"

Grid nodded.

He had brought Su-ho in, but he still couldn't just sit around doing nothing, so he had been making preparations of his own in his own way.

Grid said,

- So, what kind of plan did you set up?

"It's a secret. I'll tell you soon enough. More importantly, I was thinking it's about time I met the other Constellations. Do you happen to know how I can meet them?"

- The other Constellations?

Su-ho recalled once more the system alerts that had appeared when he became a High Player.

[ ■■ has requested a meeting with you. ]

[ ■■■■ has requested a meeting with you. ]

[ ■■ has requested a meeting with you. ]

[ ■■ has requested a meeting with you. ]

......

My sponsor Constellations.

He had resolved the issue of the Olympian gods, which was the biggest key point in the East-West War, and he had also finished raising his specs through runes, so now it was time to meet them.

That was why he had asked.

How he could meet the Constellations.

When Su-ho explained the situation, Grid nodded.

- The method itself is nothing special. Just request it from the system.

"Request it?"

- You're a High-grade Player now, aren't you? You have more than enough authority for something like that. The Constellation has shown a willingness to meet you, and you also have the will to meet them, so what's the problem?

"Ah?"

It was that simple?

Well, how was he supposed to know when he'd never been a high-grade Player before?

Ahem, first he cleared his throat...

Su-ho raised a hand.

"I would like to meet the Constellations I saw in those alerts before?"

Is this how you're supposed to do it?

It was right around when that thought crossed his mind.

[ You have requested a meeting with a Transcendent. ]

[ Loading the list of Transcendents you can meet. ]

[ ■■ ]

[ ■■■■ ]

[ ■■ ]

[ ■■ ]

It worked.

Just as Grid had said, as soon as he requested a meeting with the Constellations, a list popped up right away.

But the label said Transcendents, not Constellations.

'Why Transcendents?'

He realized the answer almost immediately.

It was because among the list of Constellations he wished to meet, there was also a Demi-Constellation mixed in.

Of course, every single name itself had been blacked out, but Su-ho felt like he knew which one among them was the Demi-Constellation.

'It's Shiva, obviously.'

Shiva, Earth's indigenous god.

He was someone Su-ho had openly met with his name revealed, so there was no particular benefit to name disclosure now, but it did not really matter.

He had already received all the bonus benefits related to that anyway.

After thinking for a while among the four Transcendents, Su-ho chose the first one.

Judging by the arrangement order of the names, it seemed they had been placed in the order they became his sponsor Constellations.

That was one more reason he chose the first one.

Because the first Transcendent was the very first Transcendent he had encountered on the Path of the Swordsman he had first chosen.

'The Constellation I first encountered through the Sword Emperor of the Nameless Sword Gate.'

Of course, they had never actually met, and on top of that he did not even know the name.

But it was true that he held deeper affection for that one than for any other Transcendent.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the reason he was who he was now was because that being had existed.

When Su-ho touched the first one on the list of Transcendents, the system asked again.

[ Would you like to meet ■■? ]

"Yes."

[ Delivering your intent to ■■. ]

[ ■■ responds. ]

[ ■■ has accepted your meeting request. ]

[ ■■ invites you. ]

The alerts popped up one after another.

Soon, his vision began to blur, and he felt as though his body were being moved somewhere.

[ Moving. ]

***

The alerts disappeared, and his vision returned.

Naturally, the scenery had changed.

But the changed scenery somehow looked strangely familiar.

"Where have I seen this place before?"

It was then.

Clank—

A heavy metallic scraping sound.

When he turned his head toward the direction the sound had come from, an existence appeared, wearing a tattered cloak worn completely ragged and an old helmet that covered the entire face.

"Ah?"

Seeing that, Su-ho smiled without meaning to.

At the same time, he showed delight.

"It's been a really long time, hasn't it?"

The being Su-ho greeted warmly.

It was none other than the Nameless Swordsman, the boss monster he had met in the Nameless Sword Gate in the past.

Sure enough, it was written clearly above the creature's head once again.