"There is a price… are you willing to pay the price?"
The words of the giantess seemed to echo in Gabriel's head, and a thoughtful expression crossed his handsome features. For a moment, silence reigned, and the only sound that could be heard was the faint, sensual, alluring breathing of the giantess, who was looking at him with an expectant gleam in her eyes.
However, even this went unnoticed by Gabriel, even though he was looking ahead.
Because…
A crisis was brewing in his head.
He was dead, wasn't he?
Did he want to be alive?
Definitely.
"There are a lot of people I want to save, a lot of things I want to change, and most importantly, I want to drive my sword into the hearts of those bastards." Gabriel's eyes flashed with chilling coldness as the scene of Sutre slashing down his sledgehammer resurfaced over and over again in his head.
What price would he have to pay that he hadn't already paid?
Gabriel clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. He had already lost everything once.
Mom, Leon, Father, Valery, his subordinates.
The world was literally gone.
What could be worse than that? If this giantess—this mysterious being before him—held the key to his return, then he would take it—no matter the cost.
How terrible could this price be anyway?
His soul?
Regaining his bearings, Gabriel spoke in a deep, firm, and calm voice: "What do you want? I'll do whatever it is that you want… as long as you can bring me back."
He paused and added in a much quieter voice, one carrying grief, regret, and longing. "As long as you can bring everyone back."
The giantess looked at him for a while, her two different-colored eyes boring into him as if staring at his very soul.
Then…
Her lips curled into an enigmatic smile, and she purred in a sweet voice laced with danger.
"The price is simple. You'll become the Champion of Death… You will walk the world once more, but never as you were before."
Gabriel remained calm, his expression unreadable, and he simply stared at the giantess with a bored gaze despite hearing what would have caused others to flinch in fear.
The giantess chuckled at this sight, her soft, melodious laugh pleasant yet chilling at the same time, capable of making the skulls of low-level humans tingle with fear.
"I love this… It seems you're the perfect person I've been waiting for all these centuries."
She had been here for centuries? One of Gabriel's eyebrows arched up. However, he didn't really care about that, and his expression returned to neutral.
"Of course, I won't be heartless enough to simply send you back without granting you something in return." The giantess's eyes twinkled with a strange light. "So make your choice—do you want to hear the price for your return or the power you'll receive?"
Those words… they sounded like something the devil would ask.
However, Gabriel didn't dilly-dally and said in a deep voice, "The power I get. After all, if the price I have to pay is massive, it's only natural that I get something that will give me an edge over all the others."
"Negotiating with me? Oh boy, with each moment, you're becoming even more charming in my eyes." She pouted cutely, looking at Gabriel as if he were delicious candy she couldn't wait to gobble up.
"Very well, then. I shall start with the talent you'll receive," she said. "In the universe, there are eight ranked talents: E, D, C, B, A, S, SSS, and finally, God-Tier. As the name God-Tier suggests, this skill is exclusive to divine beings—in other words, gods.
"However, I'll grant this talent to you."
For the first time, a noticeable expression appeared on Gabriel's features. His eyes widened.
He had heard of monstrous talents—SSS-ranked abilities that could shake the heavens and dominate the battlefield. But a God-Tier talent? That was something beyond mortality, something reserved for divine beings.
His expression didn't go unnoticed by the giantess, who continued with even more determination. "The name of the talent is… Extraction."
"The skills of those you kill? Yours."
"Their strength, their talent, their souls? Yours."
"Their loot? Yours."
"Their class? Yours!"
"The resources of the universe? Yours!"
"Their experience points? Yours!"
"You will devour the power of the strong and rise beyond the heavens."
Gabriel felt his blood boiling, and the unreadable expression he had maintained all this while threatened to crumble.
Extract class, skills, loot… Did this mean he could extract everything?
Gabriel inhaled sharply, cold air traveling through his lungs.
A power that let him take everything from his enemies?
This wasn't just a talent.
It was authority.
No wonder it was rated God-Tier.
It was a sin for any human to possess such a terrifying talent. It completely shattered the natural equilibrium.
If armed with this kind of skill, didn't it mean that he was a walking disaster? An apocalyptic threat?
Could he be considered a god among mortals?
Gabriel wasn't a fool. He knew a power of such magnitude would come with an equally grand price. He asked a moment later,
"What is the catch? The price?"
"Like I said—bloodlust." The goddess smiled, but that smile soon disappeared from her face. A dangerous light shone in her eyes. For a moment, she was anything but beautiful.
"Kill, KILL, KILL, KILL! Kill everything that blocks your path—monsters, humans, whatever! Slaughter them and extract!!"
"From now on, the lives you take… will fuel your ascent."
"Let me advise you." The giantess whispered devilishly. Despite the noticeable distance between them, Gabriel could still hear her voice tickling his ears. "If you want to survive and not become a mindless murdering hobo, you have to kill—always—to keep your Bloodlust Meter full!"
"After knowing this, do you still want this power?"
Gabriel took exactly five seconds to process everything and looked up at her, his voice brimming with resolution. "I just have to keep my Bloodlust Meter always full, right? I accept. But in return for all this, what do you want? What would you gain?"
"Get strong… strong enough to shatter these hateful chains. I want to see the sun again—it has been centuries. If you do that, I'll grant you even more power."
"Deal," Gabriel said without hesitation, not bothering to think too much about it. The only thing important to him was returning and changing everything back to the way it was. He could deal with everything else later.
"Great," the woman said enthusiastically, her crimson and sapphire eyes lighting up. "I shall send you back in time. Good luck, Champion."
In response to the glowing energy, the entire temple began to tremble. Space twisted, and a black portal appeared.
At that moment, Gabriel suddenly remembered something. He opened his mouth to say something.
"Wait, I don't even know your na—"
He couldn't even finish his words before a powerful force sucked him into the portal. But before he disappeared, he witnessed something that sent a chill down his spine.
She was smiling.
But it was no longer the enigmatic, teasing smile she had worn before.
This was something else.
A wide grin—stretching far too wide, filled with razor-sharp teeth that glistened like obsidian.
Her once-beautiful face distorted, twisting into something beyond human comprehension—something eldritch.
"My name is Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld," the giantess declared.
But Gabriel was already gone.