CH 182

Gi-Gyu’s mouth went dry since he was about to learn his identity, knowing which would change many things. He turned to look at Jupiter, who was grinning as if it already knew he would ask this.

Jupiter joked, “I guess you haven’t become that smart, huh? I thought your intelligence improved after passing Lou and El’s tests.”

Gi-Gyu frowned at Jupiter’s remark.

“Ahh… Your sync has been disconnected, so I guess you can’t access your data. That makes sense,” muttered Jupiter. He covered his mouth to hide his smile and continued, “That has to be why you asked such a ridiculous question. Kekeke…”

Gi-Gyu’s lips twitched in displeasure. He was about to swear when Jupiter answered, “I’m you.”

Gi-Gyu felt as if his brain had stopped working.

With a solemn countenance, Jupiter explained, “I’m you. That’s the answer. You keep trying to separate the two of us. Just the fact that you tried to name me proves this.”

Jupiter slowly walked up to Gi-Gyu and placed its hand on Gi-Gyu’s chest. Slowly, it began to dissipate into smoke from the tip of its feet. Jupiter ordered, “Do not separate yourself from me.”

When only his face was left, Jupiter added, “You and I are the same. You must realize and accept this to obtain your true power. The problem is that you unconsciously keep separating us. That makes us divide and share the power, which you should be using fully.”

Before completely dissipating, Jupiter chuckled, which echoed even after he was gone.

“Kekeke…”

Jupiter had said that it and Gi-Gyu were the same.

Jupiter was Gi-Gyu, and Gi-Gyu was Jupiter.

So…

‘All the names he mentioned earlier might be me too,’ Gi-Gyu realized.

[You have obtained the allowed answer.]

Gi-Gyu heard the dry voice of the system.

[A reward will be provided for passing the test.]

The system’s voice sounded empty.

***

-...Mo…

‘Did I faint?’ Hearing something in his head, Gi-Gyu shook his head.

-...ron…

“Huh…?” Gi-Gyu couldn’t hear clearly, but he recognized the voice.

“Lou?”

-Moron!

Finally, Gi-Gyu could hear Lou’s voice clearly.

El and Brunheart also screamed,

-Master!

Lou asked,

-Moron! Are you finally awake?

The voices of his Egos sounded like echoes. Gi-Gyu shook his head to clear his mind and asked, “What’s wrong? Wait!”

He looked around as he mumbled, “What happened? The last thing I remember is passing the test. I was about to get a reward…!”

Gi-Gyu remembered defeating himself or his other self named Jupiter. Then, it was revealed that Gi-Gyu and Jupiter were the same people. In the end, the system had told him…

‘It said I would get a reward, didn’t it?’ But Gi-Gyu couldn’t remember what had happened afterward since his head was muddled.

His Egos realized Gi-Gyu’s condition quickly.

Lou muttered,

-Hmm… Just wait a moment.

Gi-Gyu sat down on the floor. For some reason, he felt utterly exhausted.

While he rested, Lou said to him,

-The time axis is still in complete disarray. But it’s a good thing that time has stopped.

“What?” Gi-Gyu gasped in surprise. “Did you just say that time stopped?”

-I have confirmed this with El. Time in this place has stopped. We don’t know how much time has passed in the outside world, but we do know it has stopped here.

Gi-Gyu asked, “So no matter how much time I spend in this space, not a single second will pass in the outside world?”

Lou and El both replied,

-Yup.

-That’s right, Master.

Lou suggested,

-But we don’t know how much time has passed outside, so… You should ask Brunheart.

As soon as Lou finished his sentence, Brunheart exclaimed,

-Master!

It seemed Brunheart had been waiting for a long time to speak. She replied in excitement,

-They said they don’t know! The entrance to the outside is blocked, so they said they couldn’t check anything!

“Hmm…” Gi-Gyu sighed in worry.

Brunheart reassured him,

-Don’t worry! Not much time has passed since our sync with you got disconnected! Oh, I’m, of course, referring to the time inside the gate!

Gi-Gyu was relieved to hear this.

Lou suggested,

-For now, you should try to utilize this situation to your advantage.

Gi-Gyu nodded in understanding. “I’ve obtained too much information, and I can’t even remember what reward I received. Since time has stopped here, we have plenty to spare. You’re saying I should take extra time to think about everything, right?”

Lou and El replied,

-Yes. Thank goodness you’re smarter now.

-I agree with Lou’s suggestion, Master.

Gi-Gyu found his brain working much better than when his sync had been broken. This was what Jupiter had guessed too. It seemed that Jupiter knew Gi-Gyu’s body better than Gi-Gyu himself.

Lou ordered,

-There is no need to hurry since time has stopped.

Gi-Gyu nodded. He needed time to think; thankfully, he didn’t have to hurry since the time axis was frozen. Gi-Gyu looked up and wondered, “System, I mean Gaia, must be looking out for me, huh?”

If this were true, it had to mean that Gaia felt favorable toward Gi-Gyu. Gaia had swallowed all the powers, so… Was she closer to being Chaos now?

Gi-Gyu was thinking about Gaia when Lou said sharply,

-We couldn’t see or hear what you were doing due to the broken sync. We’re looking through your mind as we speak, but the information is vast and…

In a tone more serious than usual, Lou continued,

-There must’ve been a troublemaker here. While we sift through your memories, it would be best if you told us what happened. You’ll be able to summarize your thoughts better this way too.

El agreed,

-I think so too, Master.

Gi-Gyu nodded. He suspected that Lou had referred to Jupiter when he talked about a “troublemaker.”

Gi-Gyu told his Egos about the information he had gathered from the test. “The Tower showed me the memories that were hidden from me… It was about the history of how the Tower was built.”

***

-That’s an anecdote.

-...

Lou replied calmly while El remained tensely silent.

Lou explained,

-El and I do not have information about the Tower’s construction.

While listening to Lou, Gi-Gyu organized his thoughts and discoveries.

-At the time, we… Hell was at war with El’s world. There had been minor fights between the two worlds before that, but never this bad. Therefore, we couldn’t pay attention to what was happening in the other dimensions. We realized this much later when a tower appeared out of the blue.

‘A war?’ Gi-Gyu was surprised to hear this.

Lou continued,

-Now that I think about it, perhaps this was Gabriel's plan all along. He purposely caused trouble with hell so that we won’t interrupt the Tower’s formation.

El agreed,

-That is what I think as well. That war happened so unexpectedly, and it was a big one. There was always trouble between the two worlds, but a serious war like that shouldn’t have occurred.

Gabriel and Kronos caused this war as a distraction. Since Gabriel was an angel and in cahoots with hell, this was a plausible explanation.

Gi-Gyu began, “Let’s try to get the timeline straight first. Lou defeated Satan and began ruling hell. During this time, Gabriel and Kronos conspired to build the Tower and eliminate God.”

Gi-Gyu continued, “Around the time the Tower was being built, hell was at war with El. Consequently, the Tower was completed without interruptions. Did I get everything right so far?”

-Yup.

-That’s right, Master.

Gi-Gyu added, “The Tower made God disappear, and… I can’t be certain, but I think huge events called Fusion and Creation occurred.”

Gi-Gyu remembered Gaia, the system, announcing Fusion and Creation. Gi-Gyu wondered what these were. Not dwelling on this topic, Gi-Gyu continued, “Lou was dethroned by the other hell kings afterward, and Gabriel betrayed El during a ritual to stop Chaos.”

Lou and El remained quiet, so Gi-Gyu kept going, “Gabriel used Lou to kill El and Raphael. But at the last minute, Raphael managed to take down Gabriel too. They all fell into Chaos… Am I right?”

This was the basic chronology of what had happened. Because the memories Gi-Gyu saw weren’t in order, he used this time to get organized.

Lou growled,

-And we learned that your father and Satan were involved in all this… This is so complicated. Even I find it hard to understand everything. Still, there are many missing pieces.

El agreed,

-It’s true.

Lou asked,

-Gaia took over the Tower to fuse and create. But the question is, what did she create, and what was the result of it all? And where did Kronos go afterward? What happened to Chaos? How could Chaos remain so powerful? And what happened to Satan?

There were indeed too many blanks, so Gi-Gyu nodded in agreement. He needed to ask many questions, but something else currently took priority.

“I’m sorry,” Gi-Gyu apologized.

-...?

-Master?

Lou and El seemed confused at Gi-Gyu’s sudden apology.

Gi-Gyu explained, “I don’t know much about my father. I’m not even sure if Kronos is really my birth father. But Jupiter said he was, so I guess he is…”

Gi-Gyu looked down a little before continuing, “Anyway, you two suffered because of my father. Other figures, like Gabriel, were involved, but it still doesn’t change the fact that my father was a big part of why you had to suffer.”

Gi-Gyu was correct. Kronos was behind why both Lou and El had been sealed away. Gi-Gyu could barely remember his father’s face; he only remembered how his father looked at him. The two figures precious to him had to suffer because of Kronos.

Lou smirked and muttered,

-You’re an idiot. Are you referring to the sins of your father? Since your father has sinned, do you think we should blame you?

Lou seemed annoyed as he continued,

-Well, in the past, I might have agreed with you. In fact, I will be applying this logic to Belphegor. But things are different with you now.

“What?”

-What would we get by blaming you? After all, we…

Gi-Gyu could feel Lou smiling.

-Can’t live without you anymore.

Gi-Gyu was shocked. He asked cautiously, “Are you confessing your love to me, Lou?”

-Fucking idiot. I’m talking about the sync. We’re connected to you, remember? If you die, we all die. So what would be the point of blaming you? We can’t kill you or anything, right? But I will bully you and annoy the heck out of you as fair compensation.

It was now El’s turn to reply.

-Master, I believe I have become happier because I met you. Please do not be bothered by the past.

Lou muttered,

-Now, that was a real love confession.

As if he remembered something suddenly, Lou asked,

-By the way, I think Kronos must still be alive. I mean… Who knows? If we stay with you, we might end up meeting Kronos someday…

Lou, El, and Gi-Gyu suddenly stopped. Gi-Gyu’s face turned to find a man standing near him.

“I will tell you the rest of the story now,” the man offered.

Shock filled Gi-Gyu’s eyes as the man continued, “My son.”

Kronos was standing in front of Gi-Gyu.