Ranker Who Lives Twice

“Father.” Doyle looked at the trespassers in Laputa with a stiff expression. Kahn stood next to him with a grave face.

Five minutes ago, as they were in the process of subjugating the Elohim, a portal appeared in the air and players had begun to descend. Lapita’s protective magic had activated to chase the trespassers away, but since Laputa hadn’t been completely repaired yet, its barriers were still weak.

Moreover, since the trespassers were bishops of the Devil Army, it was difficult to stop them. The face that led the trespassers were familiar to Doyle and Kahn: Black Skull, Doyle’s father, and the Devil Army’s Third Bishop.

When the Head Bishop said he needed a vessel for the Heavenly Demon, Black Skull had willingly given Doyle up. “It’s been a while, son.”

Victoria watched the unwelcome reunion of father and son from behind. She moved her lips slightly and shifted her magic power so she could use it at any moment.

『No. Not now. Wait, Victoria..』 However, Kahn used Open Speaking to stop her. Victoria turned to him, but Kahn shook his head gently to tell her not to get involved. Victoria was confused, but at that moment, Black Skull shouted at Doyle with a sad face, “You’ve forsaken the opportunity to become another personification of the great Heavenly Demon. And not only that, you’re an apostate! Do you know how much my heart broke when I heard that?”

Black Skull knew that Doyle had cut his Channel with the Heavenly Demon and was now connected to Yeon-woo. However, Doyle only frowned, as if he considered his father’s face despicable. “Don’t make me laugh. I’ve known for a long time that any love you had for me is now gone.”

Black Skull looked at his prickly son with a sad face, and sighed, biting his lower lip. Kahn, who knew what had gone on between the father and son better than anyone, clenched his fist. Like Victoria, he was also ready to pull out Blood Sword, but part of him was full of complicated emotions. He thought of his father, Ivan, whom Yeon-woo was keeping in his shadow.

“Let me know if you need him. I’ll pull him out whenever you want.”

“Will he…be in pain if he’s in there?”

“Time flows differently inside, so you don’t have to be concerned. Currently, he’s in a comatose state. He won’t even recognize that he’s trapped.”

“Later…I’ll see him after everything.”

Iron Lion Ivan and Black Skull—how much suffering had their greedy fathers caused? The traumas of their younger days sometimes returned to suffocate them. No matter how much they resolved to get rid of the feeling, it wasn’t easy.

He did say he’d meet Ivan after the battle was over, but a part of him didn’t know if he could face his father and pretend nothing was wrong. He wanted to avoid the meeting forever. He couldn’t imagine how shocked Doyle was to see his father appear so unexpectedly.

Even though Doyle was more mentally stable now that Kahn was by his side and Yeon-woo was supporting him, Kahn’s knowledge of Doyle told him that he was shaking inside despite his strong demeanor. Kahn was also aware of Doyle’s deep-seated fury.

‘If something happens, we’ll attack.’ Kahn felt Yeon-woo’s energy being shaken by the Elohim and quietly began to move behind them.

With the Elohim crushed, it was obvious who their next opponents would be.

* * *

“Haha! Five minutes before hell. Nothing’s normal.” Bow God Jang Wei looked at the storm of fire in the sky and chuckled. He hadn’t ever seen a pandemonium as intense as this. The shadows were trying to swallow survivors, and transcendents that rarely appeared in the Tower were in the middle of battle.

The Bone Dragon spewed her cursed Breath on a bizarre manifestation, and armies of gods and demons fought to cause each other’s downfall. Jang Wei realized that he wasn’t the kind of person who could leave the battlefield, both on Earth and in the Tower. ‘There’s always a great war wherever the captain is!’

When he learned that Arthia moved their clan house and officially started a war with the Elohim and Devil Army alliance, Jang Wei realized that his chance had come. He was tired of hiding from the One-horned tribe, and there was no better time to reappear than in the middle of Arthia’s war.

Just as the masked Yeon-woo had fooled the Tower for a long time as the Hoarder, Jang Wei had tricked Yeon-woo as the Bow God, and it was time to reveal his identity now.

What kind of expression would Yeon-woo have? Back on Earth, he’d always been impassive, which was why he’d been given the code name “Cain”, after the first murderer in the Bible. He hadn’t seemed human at all as he planned and executed attacks with their multinational squad.

He was a cold man who didn’t even cry when his girlfriend, Jang Wei’s sister, had died. Jang Wei was dying to know if that icy expression would change or if it would remain the same. He untied the Sun-Shooting Bow and gripped it with his right hand.

Swish! He released the holy power of Hou Yi, the only thing that had extended a hand to him back when he’d first entered the Tower and didn’t know anything. It began to move towards Yeon-woo’s energy covertly, so that no one would discover Jang Wei.

* * *

[00:00:57_35]

The countdown was still ongoing, and Yeon-woo decided he had to get rid of the traces of the Crawling Chaos that were still inside Bayluk.

“Die!” Bayluk screamed, his bloodied face still smashed on the ground. He was an alchemist and so rarely took part in violent battles. The pain he was enduring was shocking to him. The Crawling Chaos was about to bless him so that he could continue his legend, he couldn’t allow a mere mortal to humiliate him, especially one who was supposed to be one of his resources.

Swish. More tentacles erupted from Bayluk’s body. Clank!

Yeon-woo flapped his Sky Wings and distanced himself, pulling the chains to cut the tentacles off. Vigrid’s blade slashed at the tentacles as though it were lopping off branches. However, energy flowed from the tentacles’ skin, and the amputated areas regrew with sturdier and thicker tentacles. The severed tentacles stuck their bases in the ground and pulled up more tentacles.

Yeon-woo took out shadows and souls to erect a wall of souls, blocking the tentacles from reaching him.

“You! Even if you survive, I’ll make you regret it!” Bayluk thought that Yeon-woo could no longer get near him and roared as he raised himself. His crushed face was healing with an unbelievable regenerative ability, but there was no way to restore his broken pride. He wanted to capture Yeon-woo to make him go through a living hell. Three times as many tentacles sprouted from his body and covered the sky.

[Time Difference]

Yeon-woo analyzed the tentacles attempting to grab him and quickly tried to learn their weaknesses.

[Draconic Eyes]

[Fiery Golden Eyes]

[Black Gubitara - Philosopher’s Eyes]

He found a route through the tentacles and also found a cluster of flaws—Bayluk’s right shoulder. ‘Core.’

[Wind Path - Gale]

Crash! If there was a way, he had to move. As he stepped on the ground, winds blew over him and pushed him forward. Bayluk’s tentacles dropped down to catch him, but they couldn’t capture him. The chains whipped around, some binding the tentacles together, others making them change direction.

Because he had combined the Eight Secret Skills of the Eight Trigrams Sword to learn Flawless Strike, Yeon-woo was already an arhat who wasn’t limited to weapons. Having more potential methods suited him better. “Hup!”

Crack! Bayluk resisted again when Yeon-woo suddenly appeared. He shot an acidic liquid that could melt most artifacts, but Vigrid easily brushed it aside and pierced his right shoulder.

Snap! Past the horrifying pain felt that like his right shoulder had been severed, Bayluk heard Vigrid stab his core. ‘No.’ Bayluk wanted to shout. Although his holy power wouldn’t break from the impact, it was being sucked away.

[Vimalacitra looks at the battlefield in satisfaction.]

[Black Gubitara - Blood Flower]

The Blood Flowers that bloomed on his right shoulder were absorbing the Crawling Chaos’ holy power at a ferocious speed—and it was obvious where the stolen holy power was going. On top of that, black flames spread above the Blood Flowers to burn him.

Bayluk didn’t have the strength to scream or resist. The chains were already creeping up his shoulder and arms. Clank, clank. Clatter!

“Ugh!” The chains wrapped around Bayluk’s arms like a snake and wrapped all over his body. With a click, they tightened to suffocate him.

Clatter. Bayluk’s body floated up to the sky accompanied by the clanking of chains. He looked like he was being hung over an execution table. He wanted to loosen the chains, but his body didn’t have any strength. The magic core was his connection to the Crawling Chaos, and now that it was cracked, he no longer had any control over his holy power, and it began to leak out of his body.

No matter what he did, he couldn’t breathe, and his vision began to go white. The only thing remaining in his head was the desire to live. However, Yeon-woo made the chains tighter in order not to lose Bayluk. He pulled the chains down while gripping Vigrid in his right hand. He moved efficiently to cut off Bayluk’s remaining limbs and tentacles.

The burnt tentacles squirmed, trying to heal, but the flames had entered them, burning off the remnants of holy power.

“Uhhh…!” Bayluk opened and closed his mouth from the pain of being strangled, the pain of being burned, the pain of his limbs being severed, the pain of his holy power exploding, and the pain of the poison eating away at his body. It was as though he were experiencing every type of physical pain that ever existed. It didn’t matter how much he tried to control his senses. Yeon-woo made him undergo a new kind of pain each time.

When he learned Mugong from the Martial King, Yeon-woo also learned about the structure of the body, as well as acupoints and pulses. He knew exactly how to make Bayluk suffer.

All that was left was Bayluk’s head and his crushed torso. The tentacles that tried to swallow the Elohim had peeled off like leather, and they were unable to perform their function.

However, they hadn’t completely stopped moving since there was still some holy power left. Even if they wanted to die, they couldn’t. The immortality that Bayluk thought was a blessing had become a curse.

“Urk, ugh…just…kill…me…!” Bayluk pleaded for death, but Yeon-woo just scoffed coldly.

“You’re already crying just from this? Pathetic. Don’t even think you can die unless you give up all the information and knowledge in your brain. And after that, you’ll be used as a test subject. Bodies that have been taken over by otherworld gods are hard to find in the Tower. I want to try some things on you.”

Brahm and Boo would be happy to have him. Brahm would have a body which he could use to harvest precious materials for alchemy, while Boo would have a soul that could add to his knowledge.

Bayluk wouldn’t be able to die easily, and Yeon-woo wanted him to suffer eternally even after death. Even if Bayluk lost his identity, Yeon-woo could resurrect him again. “And don’t say you’re tired from this. Jeong-woo’s exhaustion was beyond what you’re experiencing.”

Bayluk was only suffering from physical pain, but Jeong-woo had to watch his comrades leave and endure the psychological pain of betrayal.

“You…is it possible?” Bayluk’s eyes widened as if he’d heard something unexpected, but the shadows that were at his feet stretched up and swallowed him. For the time being, he would be trapped alive in the dark to dry up his mind.

[00:00:09_59]

A half-cracked magic core, still exuding its eerie energy, was all that remained in Bayluk’s place. Yeon-woo stretched out a hand to the magic core with a slightly grim expression. The Elohim, Titans, Giants, Bayluk, and Mother Earth had been headaches, and the battle was still ongoing outside, but they were only chess pieces. There was another being who was in control: the Crawling Chaos.

Yeon-woo needed to find out what he was. As soon as his hand touched the magic core, he felt the world around him stop. Whoosh!

It was completely different from Time Difference, which didn’t stop time but rather made his consciousness speed up. In this case, the world really had paused, including the countdown at nine seconds and fifty-nine milliseconds.

An omnipotent territory had been activated. Yeon-woo felt the world grow dark, as if ink had been splashed on it. Darkness that was unlike the darkness Yeon-woo-used wrapped around him. A great being wavered in his vision. It opened its eyes.

Who. Are. You.

It stared directly at Yeon-woo.