The Hero Returns

Su-hyeun was angry, but his expression became composed once more.

Just like it had always been, the rational thing to do was to swallow his anger rather than letting it explode. Anger created openings and dulled one's sword and body.

It was his habit. Of course, that didn't mean he had forgotten his own emotions.

"You angry?" Thomas was tilting his head in confusion. "Why?"

He seemed to be missing something somewhere.

To look at him, Thomas must've been similar in age or slightly older than Su-hyeun, but the way he spoke and the looks he was giving Su-hyeun belonged to a child.

"You should…."

Swiiiish-

[Leap.]

Su-hyeun exploded forward. In the blink of an eye, he flew to a spot just above Thomas's head and swung his sword down.

Claaaang-!

"….Think about it while I beat you up!"

Giii-iiing-

Thomas was shoved back. A curtain, a veil of some sort with visible cracks running on it, was spread over his hands.

Was it because of the unexpected force of the impact? Thomas looked quite surprised right then. He clenched and opened his fist repeatedly before raising his head.

At that exact moment-

Craaack, claaaang-!

Kwa-rummmm-!

Powerful sword strikes began raining down from all sides with Thomas caught in the middle. Even then, he didn't panic. Instead, he spread out both of his arms and moved smartly to defend against Su-hyeun's attacks.

"This is so cool! So cool!!"

Thomas was smiling brightly while blocking Su-hyeun's sword as if this whole thing was just too entertaining.

The curtain spreading out from his hands regenerated immediately right after Su-hyeun's attacks shattered it. Instead of the curtain's defensive powers, it was Thomas's control over his own powers that allowed him to quickly regenerate it, shining brilliantly for all to see.

Rumble-

[Flame.]

Boom, bang, bang-bang-!

Blue-colored divine Flames suddenly appeared and caused a chain of explosions all around Thomas. Previously, he had been focused on the sword so he hurriedly crouched, furrowing his brows.

The explosion of divine Flames blinded his sight for a short moment, and Su-hyeun's sword exploited the opening by stabbing straight at Thomas's shoulder.

Stab-!

Whiiiir-

Thomas's figure faded little by little. There was no sensation coming from the tip of the blade. Su-hyeun instantly swung his sword behind him.

CLAAANG-!

[Doppelganger.]

A metallic noise echoed from behind Su-hyeun. His sword had caught Thomas's hand, just about to stab him in the back.

From the sensation alone, Su-hyeun could tell what happened to Thomas's hand that had changed color to brown.

<< Is that a skill that changes a portion of your body into a specific metal of your choice? >>

He only knew one light brown metal that was blessed with such hardness.

<< Adamantium. >>

The metal that could easily be called the best in regards to either magical energy conductivity or hardness and lightness.

Even if it only transformed a portion of one's body, that skill was quite impressive to be able to change human hands into such metal in the first place.

Not only that, Thomas's movements were rather remarkable, as well. Despite possessing several skills, he was wielding them freely, displaying his mastery over them. Normally, you'd be unable to deploy the right skills at the right moment if you had too many of them, and you'd eventually end up neglecting certain ones.

"Wow, so strong! You're so strong!"

Clang, clang, clang, clang-

Thomas increased his distance from Su-hyeun and clapped his hands. His palms, modified to replicate the characteristics of adamantium, clashed against each other and produced hard-edged metallic noises.

He looked as if he had lots of leeway still.

"Are you having fun?" Su-hyeun asked.

Thomas stopped clapping his hands abruptly and raised his arms in sheer shock.

CLAAANG-!

Gu-gugugugu-

Su-hyeun's sword, striking downwards, pressed on Thomas's body. He crossed both of his arms to defend against the attack, and he finally stopped smiling. Before he could react, Su-hyeun had disappeared once again.

"Why don't you keep at it, then?"

"Where…?"

Thomas hurriedly spun around. His opponent was definitely in the air above him just a moment before, but now, Su-hyeun was already right behind him.

Clang, clang, clang-

Piiik, pii-piik-

Chwa-aaahk-

Su-hyeun darted in and out non-stop.

From the front, then the back; from above, then left and right. Su-hyeun's sword danced around disorientingly and without any set pattern, causing numerous wounds to appear on Thomas's body one by one.

"Why….? Are you getting faster?"

Thomas's voice trembled ever so slightly.

The more he blocked the attacks, the faster Su-hyeun got. He rained down more sword strikes, too many to be blocked or avoided.

[Spirit's Grace.]

[Thorn Armor.]

[Reflect.]

Tiii-iiing-

Several skills overlapped and reinforced Thomas's body, causing Su-hyeun's sword to issue a metallic cry.

Even the previously-deep wounds changed into small scratches, instead.

Thomas began smiling again. "Doesn't hurt anymore."

"Nope, wrong."

Splaaash-!

Blood spurted from Thomas's back.

He was so sure he couldn't be sliced up anymore that he didn't recognize what had happened for a moment.

The confusion was greater in his mind than the pain. Thomas covered his head with both of his hands and curled up into a ball.

Piiik, pii-iik, pii-piik-

Slash, splaaash-

Wounds began appearing once more on Thomas's body. Su-hyeun, in the meantime, grew so much faster that his silhouette couldn't even be seen anymore.

It was at that moment that Thomas remembered what his opponent had said earlier.

"That wasn't a fight, but a display of one-sided brutality."

"Is that right? In that case… it looks like I'll have to do the same."

Not a fight, but one-sided brutality - this was exactly that situation.

Right then, Thomas's smiling face distorted greatly.

"Euh… I don't like it, I hate it, I HATE IT!!"

FWOOOSH-!

Pitch-black magical energy began whipping around him violently. At the same time, his curled-up figure grew blurry and faint, before melting into the surroundings.

Shu-sususu-

The dark magical power soon enveloped the entirety of the arena Su-hyeun and Thomas were fighting in. The former stopped his rapid movements and scanned his vicinity.

<< Isn't this… that skill? >>

His eyes widened in surprise. He had no idea that he'd stumble into this very skill in this place.

[Black Forest]

Ranked as one of the very best among all the spatial-type skills out there.

No, not just among the spatial-types. It easily qualified as one of the top ten skills ever to exist in the world, even after including all the skills yet to appear in the future. That's how high-grade the skill was.

"….So, it was this bastard?"

Thomas Mathiras.

Su-hyeun had only heard that name in passing a couple of times, but, other than what he'd seen in the competition, he didn't know anything about him. His first and last public appearance was during the Ranking Wars.

His whereabouts afterward were vague, to say the least. There wasn't even any news about his death either, so people often wondered if he had literally vanished into thin air.

But such a man had activated the skill, 'Black Forest'.

-Please don't hit me, don't hurt me…

Thomas's voice came from somewhere in the air. It was filled with palpable fear. But, it didn't seem to be directed at Su-hyeun, somehow.

<< What's wrong with this guy? >>

Thomas definitely made his way onto Su-hyeun's blacklist just by being able to use the 'Black Forest'. There would be a news story a few years in the future—this skill got invoked in the middle of a city and caused the deaths of thousands in the process.

<< It's a relief that I got to learn early who the culprit is, but… >>

Su-hyeun raised his sword, then swung it down on the floor, just like that.

CLUNG-!

The blade simply bounced away.

A sword collided against another sword. And his opponent's weapon just so happened to be exactly the same as his.

<< Reflect? No, did he fold the space, instead? >>

Su-hyeun wasn't sure about the specific effects of the Black Forest. He only knew that thousands of people would get swept up in the skill and lose their lives. As such, he didn't know of a way to cancel or invalidate this skill.

-My dear Sung-in.

A voice suddenly came to him. A gentle voice that he had forgotten about until now. The name being called out was different, too.

The current him wasn't Sung-in, but Su-hyeun.

-S-Sung-in… Please, please save me, your mother.

-There was no one beside you, but… Why did you….

-Why did you do that! Why?! If only you were here, my dad would still be alive!

-Hero? Don't make me laugh. You're just pretending to be one!

The voices changed with every passing second.

Su-hyeun remembered all those voices. The 'voices' buried deep within his memories were leaking outside of him.

It was like a nightmare.

Rumble-

Suddenly, the image of a burning city appeared before his eyes. But it changed in an instant. Now, it showed the pitch-black skies and the destroyed cityscape.

The voices from his past stopped plaguing him. Su-hyeun had been living on, forgetting about the life of Sung-in.

<< Attacking one's trauma, is that it? >>

No matter how bright your personality was, the past memories you didn't want to remember were bound to exist. People without a reverse scale didn't exist. No, the difference between them simply had to do with how much that reverse scale could painfully affect you.

The 'Black Forest' attacked that very reverse scale. In other words, it forcibly dragged out the past the targets didn't want to remember and crushed their minds in the process.

The scene currently laid out before Su-hyeun's eyes was the most horrifying image he had ever seen in his life. The sight of a devastated, ruined world, and the voices of people crying out the words of resentment that squarely blamed him.

-I'm sorry.

A man knelt in front of Su-hyeun.

It was none other than his past self, Sung-in.

-I'm truly… sorry.

Su-hyeun remembered himself from back then. He couldn't forget even if he wanted to.

Back then, he had to choose between two outbreaks occurring in Tokyo and London. Regardless of which one he chose, it'd be too late to help the other one.

In the end, he chose to save the one nearer to him, Tokyo. And that's how countless people ended up dying in London.

<< Yeah, they really resented me back then. >>

Many people died because of me—that's how he blamed himself.

My family's dead because of you, they said.

He was subjected to curses and denunciation several hundred times the level of resentment he had been receiving all his life until that point. That caused his previous feather-light body to suddenly feel heavy like a ton of bricks. For a while, back then, he couldn't eat anything and even forgot how to smile.

It was the worst memory Su-hyeun possessed.

Unfortunately…

"Sorry about this, but…" Su-hyeun wasn't even remotely moved by the illusion before his eyes created by his old trauma. "I've reflected on it for so long that I can't even feel anything particular about it anymore."

Ever since this life began, Su-hyeun had been moving tirelessly to change the future he knew. And, in the process, he couldn't help but retread his past.

If he was scared of the approaching future and tried to hide, then he wouldn't even have thought of changing it in the first place.

He chose to confront the future since he had already faced it and knew it couldn't be avoided.

And that's how he got over it. The painful past was now nothing more than that—the past.

Shu-rururu-

The illusions disappeared from his eyes. It seemed that something or, rather, someone had realized Su-hyeun couldn't be shaken by these things. Although he didn't know whether Thomas or something else had made this admittedly rational choice, it was still a logical one nevertheless.

Rumble, tumble-

But that didn't seem to be the end just yet. The black space filling up the battle arena began to quiver and wiggle around. He couldn't be sure what else was in store for him, but he definitely wasn't planning to sit back and let it happen.

<< Since I don't know how to invalidate or cancel this skill…. >>

He couldn't forget, the 'Black Forest' was a top-tier grade skill. Su-hyeun didn't possess a higher-grade skill that could potentially overcome it.

<< The best thing to do is to cut down the space itself. Does that mean I have to resort to a somewhat unsophisticated method? >>

Rumble, ruuumble-

Flames lit up all around Su-hyeun. Pure blue flames illuminated his surroundings, their awakening causing the Black Forest to wriggle slightly and display hints of rejection.

It wasn't enough, though.

Rumble-

The color of the divine Flame changed from blue to dark navy blue next.

RUUUMBLE-!

His entire body was soon wrapped up in divine Flame.

Light, to fight against the darkness.

<< In the end, there's a limit to the total amount and density of the magical energy that can be contained by a single skill. >>

This couldn't even be called a proper cancellation method. No, he was simply 'experimenting' on where the limits of the Black Forest currently trapping him lay, that's all.

"Fine, then. Let's have it."

RUUUMBLE-!

The divine Flames sticking close to Su-hyeun gradually grew bigger and wider. The navy-blue colored flames were now forcing the darkness back.

The world of darkness.

This spatial-type skill was seen as one of the top ten best skills available, even after including the skills that would appear in the future.

He didn't know how to counteract it. It wasn't even known in the first place. But that didn't matter.

The absolute difference in power would simply ignore everything, after all.