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Chapter 284. Side Story – Heimdall Pt. 4

“She has none of the memories...” Yeo Seong-Gu said as he covered his eyes with a hand while staring at the ceiling.

It had been quite a while since he had laid down in a bed. The reason why he, who could sleep standing up if he wanted to, couldn’t sleep was because the conversation with Athena had come to mind.

“I see... Everything is now just memories only for me.”

In the new timeline that they had appeared in after defeating the Demon King, he had regained his memories in a world without Sponsors. They were memories of those countless years. Although most of them had been painful, there had also been happy ones among them.

‘Jun-Kyeong.’

There was the time that he had spent with Lee Jun-Kyeong, his son. Every lifetime had ended with his son’s death, but every single memory that he had of their time together was precious.

His memories of Athena were just as enjoyable and happy. In the beginning, during the first few regressions, Heimdall had spent them all with her.

‘I couldn’t keep watching it.’

However, he couldn’t bear to see her in pain. He couldn’t even tell her the truth. After learning the truth, she had always either become the embodiment of revenge or had become crippled with guilt and despair. That was why he had stayed away from her.

Near the end, he had tried to make sure he had as little to do with her as possible, thinking that it would be better for her to be away from the entire situation.

However, they had reached the era of peace. Now, he had looked forward to spending time with her again. But, more than ten years had passed since Athena had regained her memories.

“Whew...”

Despite that, nothing had changed. She was busy in her own way, and so was he. The gap between how she appeared in his mind and how she appeared to herself was too great. On top of it all, she had no memories of their lives together.

She was Athena, someone who had always been precious to him.

“...”

However, from her perspective, all she remembered was the pain. They were memories of a man who had abandoned her and left. That was all she had.

“Did I expect something out of nothing?”

Was the problem that he had thought everything would have been restored to how they had been originally again?

Zzzz.

As he wallowed in despair, Heimdall fell asleep, snoring so loudly that it felt like the apartment would collapse. Fortunately, today was a day that Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t come home.

***

The next day, Heimdall tried to make small talk after meeting Athena.

“Did you sleep well?”

Although he had so many worries all through the night, he had slept much better than he had thought he would. However, Athena just stared at Heimdall\'s face without answering. He wondered, were the dark circles he saw an illusion? For some reason, it seemed as though she hadn’t slept whatsoever.

“It really does look like you slept well. People really might mistake such soft skin for that of a newborn.”

“Huh?”

Her tone was both frosty and playful—Heimdall didn’t know what to do.

“Um...”

Eventually, he smiled slightly foolishly. For a moment, even Athena laughed at his silly smile.

“Now, there are two left,” Heimdall said, getting to the point.

They had begun attacking the special Gates to find Zeus, and eventually, only two gates remained. From the information they had heard, the one they were going through today wasn’t that large.

“...”

“We’ll probably be able to finish it today. So, let’s go through both Gates by tomorrow. It would be nice, though, if Zeus is in one of the two...”

It’ll be a pain in the ass if he isn’t in either of them.’

They would have to spend more time looking for him.

“Do you not want to spend time with me?” Athena suddenly asked. “If we can’t find Zeus, you’d have to spend more time with me...”

He protested, “No! That’s not it! I love spending time with you! I’m just worried about him, that’s all.”

Athena nodded carefully. The two reached the entrance to the next Gate.

“Heimdall, sir!”

A person who appeared to be an employee of the Association was running toward them, greeting Heimdall.

“It’s fine! I know the information about the Gate roughly, so I’ll go in first!”

However, before the employee could even say anything, Heimdall stepped toward the Gate.

“Just wa...!”

“Thanks for your effort!"

He was trying to quickly erase the slight awkwardness he felt while moving with Athena, as once they entered a Gate, the awkwardness they felt would disappear.

They were Transcendental-Grade Hunters, beings who weren’t apathetic enough to care about other things in a place where there were monsters.

“Heimdall, sir!”

Heimdall heard someone calling for him, but he had already entered the Gate.

“Then, have a good day,” Athena said, bowing to the employee who had approached her before entering the Gate.

“Whew...”

The lone employee looked over at the Gate where the two Hunters had disappeared and sighed softly.

“It should be okay, I guess...”

Heimdall was an SSS-Rank Hunter, and it wasn’t as if what the employee had wanted to tell him was something that would have been particularly threatening to him. The employee shook their head and returned to their seat.

***

“This place...” As Heimdall entered the gate, he glanced around with a stern look on his face. “It’s special.”

Although it was true that they were going through the special Gates that they suspected Zeus might have been, this one was different from the rest.

Zzzt.

The mana here was so powerful that it made them tremble as the breathtaking concentration of mana served as evidence of the danger of the Gate.

“What the hell is with this place?”

Heimdall looked puzzled as he summoned his rainbow. It was the first time that he had summoned it so quickly since they had started this expedition. Soon, Athena also arrived at the Gate, noticing the special nature of the Gate almost immediately.

“It’s a much higher grade than the Gate rating listed.”

“Yeah, it’s dangerous here.”

They already had been notified about the general information of the Gate, but now having entered it, they realized that the information would be useless.

After all, the concentration of mana hadn’t been this severe when they had sensed the mana within the Gate from the outside.

“Zeus might actually be in this one.”

“It seems so.”

Considering it was a gate that boasted this level of specialness—no, to be frank, this might have been a specialness that had actually been caused by Zeus. Heimdall’s lips curled up into a smirk.

This was a dangerous gate. However, that only applied to other Hunters. Heimdall was an SSS-Rank Hunter.

“It’s good that there are two of us here.”

Moreover, Athena was also one of the few listed SSS-Rank Hunters as well. They were two of the strongest people in the world. Nothing would pose a danger to them.

Clang!

Athena’s shield and spear appeared with a clear ring of steel. This was the first time that she had armed herself as she also sensed danger to some extent.

“There’s no need for us to do any reconnaissance, right?”

“Although the mana concentration is definitely high...”

“That’s what I thought as well.”

There might have been some danger, but it wasn’t enough to cause them to worry. Thus, the two incredibly powerful Hunters began to cross the Gate.

BOOM!

They moved quickly as they began to circulate their mana, and the wind pressure caused by that spread out as if it were sweeping through the entire gate.

“There are thirty of them in the front.”

“There are monsters approaching from behind, too.”

They used their mana to detect the presence of others as it was a gate that had been judged to be somewhat dangerous.

“Don’t get hurt,” Heimdall said.

“Let’s handle this quickly,” Athena responded in turn.

The two moved as if they were one. Heimdall stretched out a hand as a red light shot forward in a straight light.

Whoosh!

BOOM!!

A storm of raging flame rushed forward as an explosion rocked the ground. The explosion wasn’t something that was caused by any mana. It wasn’t even from a skill.

BOOM!!!

Athena had hurled a spear at the monsters approaching from behind, and the force of her throw caused the very air to explode.

“Our rear has been handled.”

“The front as well.”

The two stopped at the same time as they spoke simultaneously.

“Hehe,” Heimdall laughed briefly. “How good.”

Regardless of why, it really felt as though he was fighting alongside Athena now. They were together, and it had truly been a long time since the word together had really touched him like this.

Athena\'s cheeks turn red for a moment. “Multiple monsters are approaching us.”

However, that was only for a moment, as an uncountable number of monsters were approaching them.

“There are even monsters of this level...?”

The problem was that they could feel that the monsters actually gave off a threatening aura. Heimdall and Athena looked a little nervous as they lifted their respective weapons.

BANG!

A cloud of dust bloomed with a small explosion. Inside the dust, the red eyes of monsters began to glow.

***

“Whew...”

Heimdall took a breath as Athena did the same.

“Ha...”

“What the hell is this place supposed to be...” Heimdall said as if he was fed up.

His armor, which had been made by Park Jae-Hyun, had long since become tattered. To think there was an attack power that could pierce armor made by the best blacksmith in the world!

“Do monsters as strong as this still really exist?”

Heimdall seemed genuinely surprised by what they had just gone through. However, that was all that it was. Only their armor had been slightly damaged, and their breathing only got slightly heavy.

“Keruk...”

The only ones that had actually fallen were the monsters that had attacked them. Heimdall sat down among the corpses that were scattered around.

“It seems we really can’t let our guard down here.”

“The world...might not be actually safe just yet,” Athena said.

It was dangerous where they were as it was filled with monsters that could make even people like them struggle. This was not a place where just any Hunter would be able to raid if they came. What if someone other than them had actually arrived here?

“That would have been terrible.”

None of them would have been able to escape annihilation. Heimdall thought about that possibility before looking at the sky for a moment.

“It’s clear.”

Unlike from the fierce battle just now, the sky was blue and clear. He continued to think to himself as he looked over at Athena.

‘I remember raiding Gates like this with you.’

He thought back to the days when he would enter gates one after the other with her. After hunting, they would always sit like this and look up at the sky. Each gate was hellish, so they would always be surprised whenever the sky was clear. Whenever they sat down and talked together like this, the fatigue of battle had washed away.

‘But that’s only my memory.’

Thinking to himself, Heimdall smiled bitterly. But, looking to the side, Athena was also looking at the sky.

“...”

Although she didn’t remember it like he did, her behavior was still the same. Heimdall sat in silence, feeling some comfort in the thought. At that time, they started to feel another presence.

“Someone is coming.”

It was the clear presence of a person this time as it was different from that of a monster. Heimdall tried to gauge the level of the person’s mana but failed.

“Huh...!”

Then, a welcoming voice came from afar.

“Hyung? Also, Athena, too...?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong was approaching them, scratching his head.

‘This is suspicious.’

Something, something seemed extremely suspicious.