The Hero Returns

Rumble, ruuumble-

Bang, ka-boom-

A world of darkness where not even a speck of light existed, was illuminated brightly.

The navy blue-colored divine Flames continued to drive away the darkness. As if Thomas was still struggling in his own way, the darkened world continued to fight back using various illusions, but none of them worked on Su-hyeun.

From the very start, the grade of their magical energy was too different.

<< For sure, the skill itself is a cheat alright. >>

Rumble, boom-!

In the meantime, he burned away the dark aura trying to attack him from behind. To think that there was still some leeway left to counterattack despite such a humongous magical energy was causing all sorts of chaos within it…

Not just its scope, but even the skill's durability easily exceeded his expectations.

<< Well, even then… >>

[Third Eye- Neutralization.]

The Third Eye in Su-hyeun's forehead split open wide. It scanned its surroundings, the space belonging to the world of darkness.

<< The dude controlling it is only so-so. >>

The pitch-black darkness enveloping his surroundings was forced back even further as the skill's effect dissipated at double the rate.

"Ahhhk, aaaahhk!!"

There was a scream in the distance. The voice belonged to Thomas.

His real body began reappearing, meaning the effects of the darkened world had dissipated almost completely now.

Step, step-

Su-hyeun went in the direction of the voice. He figured that it'd be easier to locate the real body and suppress that. And so, after taking several more steps, he could clearly see Thomas's silhouette.

But then…

"Please don't hit me. Please don't hit me…."

Thomas was currently curled up into a ball, murmuring something. Since Su-hyeun's hearing was pretty exceptional, he could clearly hear it. Weirdly enough, Thomas didn't seem to be addressing him, though.

<< Don't hit me…? >>

Su-susu-

Suddenly, illusions began rising up in front of Thomas. Su-hyeun wondered if the world of darkness was throwing up yet another traumatic hallucination in his path, but that wasn't the case.

The hallucination of the darkened world created two people. Their faces were unfamiliar to him.

"Please don't hit me. Please don't…."

One of the two was a little boy. Same reddish hair as Thomas, but only about ten or so years old. And the boy was getting mercilessly punched by an older man with tattoos all over his body.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault. It hurts."

Why was the boy getting hurt like that?

The illusions soon changed. This time, it was an even younger Thomas, along with a young woman.

"Thomas, can you live with your papa now? You can live happily with him, right?"

"Is that old man my papa?"

"Yes. He's your papa, now. That's why, Thomas my son…. You must listen to what papa says, okay? Mommy will have to go somewhere really far for a little bit."

"Please don't go, mommy! Please stay!" Thomas clung to his mother and pleaded with her.

But a young boy didn't have the necessary strength to stop a grown woman. And so, Thomas ended up living with a new 'daddy' who didn't share a single drop of blood with him.

The man being a new father wasn't the issue. No, the real issue was with him physically abusing Thomas because the boy's mother ran away.

She abandoned her own son and instead chose her life.

"Daddy, I'm sorry. Daddy…."

"Who's your goddamn daddy? You motherless bastard!"

Slap, pow-!

The days where the boy got hit far outnumbered those that he didn't. Indeed, the latter instances were very rare.

The man would hit him just because their gazes met, after all.

Even then, Thomas stuck close to his new daddy. Because, he had no place to go.

Even after getting older, even after becoming an adult, it remained the same story.

His body didn't hurt anymore, not like when he was little kid. But, his heart suffered hundreds, no, thousands of times more.

But then, one day, a new place Thomas could go suddenly materialized.

[Welcome to the Tower of Trials.]

His life changed from that day onwards.

Thomas didn't return from the Tower of Trials. He didn't want to return in the first place.

He ate, slept, and lived within the tower. Thomas, severely beaten and abused from a young age, ended up with a mind of a child trapped in the body of an adult man.

Shu-ruru-

Silhouettes of the adult version of Thomas, now possessing the powers of an awakener, and his 'new daddy' appeared on the other side next.

The 'new daddy' started lashing out at Thomas once more, while saying, "How dare you run away from me like your mother?"

But this time, he couldn't win against Thomas's strength and got flung away, instead.

"P-please, don't hit me. Don't hit me."

Here was a man who could've been crushed to death with just a single flick of Thomas's hand. He now possessed more than enough strength to do it.

Even then, the 'new daddy' came across too scary, too big, in Thomas's mind.

And also….

"Please don't hate me, daddy…."

The new daddy was forming a new type of expression as he stared at such Thomas. That day was the very first time he heard his new daddy speak in a gentle, affectionate voice.

"I'm sorry, my boy. Did it hurt a lot?"

"I love you, my son."

The next day, Thomas received an awakener evaluation test, accompanied by his new daddy, of course.

That's how he became an S-rank awakener. He must've been feeling happy about something, because for the first time ever, Thomas started smiling brightly.

Who knew whether or not that smile came from genuine happiness? That smile, as far as Su-hyeun could see, lacked so many things.

"Now listen well, my boy. If you enter the Ranking Wars and pass the preliminaries, Gordon Rohan will give you lots of money. You know what's money, right?"

"Money?"

"That's right. Son, all you have to do is to get that money, and give it to your daddy. Can you do that, son?"

"Son of a…." Su-hyeun groaned.

The illusions appearing before Thomas's eyes were 'traumas' borne out of the darkened world's effects.

Indeed, the skill, the darkened world, hadn't disappeared yet. It was still resisting Su-hyuen's power. And this was a reaction from that. The darkened world couldn't penetrate his defenses and, instead, started nibbling away at its caster's mind.

It seemed that Thomas wasn't in full control of the darkened world yet.

"Well, now I don't feel like fighting anymore, all thanks to that imbecile."

Su-hyeun had been wondering why this dude seemed a bit mentally challenged compared to how he looked, and, as it turned out, factors innate and environmental in nature combined to cause this phenomenon.

Step, step-

Su-hyeun walked over to the curled-up Thomas. He was still murmuring away, pleading with his daddy to not hit him.

"….Why did you return in the first place, then?"

The Tower of Trials wasn't a bad place to live. With the exception of a few floors, the rest weren't so bad even when compared to the modern world outside. That went doubly for people with great power—a talented warrior on Thomas's level should be able to live a pretty content life inside the tower without much issue.

<< It'd been better for him if he didn't come back to the outside world. >>

By doing that, he'd have avoided running into that 'new daddy' of his - the horrible past trauma. And he wouldn't have gone down the wrong path to hurt innocent people, either.

"If getting hit is painful and scary, don't fight. And don't hit anyone, too."

Su-hyeun lowered himself and matched his eyeline with Thomas's.

[Third Eye- Predator.]

"Euh, euh, woo…."

After meeting Su-hyeun's eyes from up close, Thomas slowly collapsed to the ground. He had exhausted a lot of magical energy trying to maintain the darkened world, and his mental state was unstable, as well. Then he was subjected to the effects of the 'Predator' on top of everything, so it was no wonder he passed out, just like that.

"Sleep for the time being. Also…" Su-hyeun said while standing back up, his eyes still fixed on the unconscious Thomas on the floor. "I'll see you later."

Shu-wuwuu-

The Black Forest's effect dissipated, and the bright light showered down on Thomas's figure.

* * *

The first round of the finals were over.

Of the 66 finalists, 33 managed to make it through. There were quite a few injuries among the eliminated. That was because the matches were one on one battles—a battle that could only come to an end after one side surrendered, or became incapacitated and couldn't continue.

Two days of rest were declared after the competition.

Hak-joon managed to barely scrape into the second round. Rather ironically, it was Song Hyeong-gi who failed to progress.

His opponent was a bad match-up for him. Unlike how it was with Hak-joon, who got lucky and fought against someone comparatively weaker in his one on one fight, Song Hyeong-gi drew the short straw and had to fight against a famous American awakener, Ashlyn.

"Bro? Where are you going?"

Hak-joon asked Su-hyeun, who was getting ready to leave as soon as he returned to their lodging.

Lee Ju-ho finishing up with ordering food and also entered the living room. "Su-hyeun? You going somewhere?"

"Yeah. I'll be away for a day or so."

"But, it hasn't been that long since the competition. Aren't you tired? You should get some rest first."

"Nah, I'm fine. It's not like I had to work hard, anyway."

He wasn't wrong there. Not many people passed the first round as unscathed as Su-hyeun, after all.

"But, where are you going?"

"Well, there's a place." Hak-joon's question was simply answered by Su-hyeun as he fixed his shoes. "I'll be back soon."

* * *

Claaang, smash-

A booze bottle resting on the table rolled and dropped to the floor. The noise jolted awake a man named Mitch Hewer, sleeping on the nearby couch.

"Urgh, motherf*cking…"

Mitch Hewer massaged his forehead as if a migraine was assaulting him. He gingerly sat up from his spot. He got royally pissed off after noticing the shattered bottle and its contents spilled on the floor.

"Dammit, what a waste of fine booze."

He managed to stand up from the couch and trudged towards the kitchen. He opened the fridge's door, only to be smacked in the face by the rotting odor.

Drop, thud-

Large slabs of meat fell out from inside the fridge. He silently stared at them for a while, before picking them up and shoving them back inside.

"Tsk. I better do something about them, and fast."

He cleaned the mess on the floor with an irritated face, then began rummaging inside the fridge. It was around then that he spotted a can of beer already resting on top of the dining table.

Pop-.

He popped the lid of can, and brought the lukewarm beer to his mouth. He might be hungry right now, but having some alcohol in his system made everything feel better just a little.

"Lukewarm, but it's not that bad."

He continued to chug the beer down while taking a good look at the messy state of this house.

It took only a few days to turn the place into a pigsty. Never mind the stink of booze, all sorts of trash was strewn about on the floor, barely leaving any room to stand.

"I guess I'll make that punk clean up the place when he comes back. Tsk."

Mitch Hewer muttered to himself and headed back to the living room. He remembered that he forgot to catch up on a very important match because of his binge drinking.

"He did get past the preliminaries, but did he get to the finals, I wonder?"

The results were exceeding his wildest expectations.

Mitch Hewer chuckled happily. That boy might not be related to him by blood, but just by passing the preliminaries and joining the Ranking Wars' finals, a huge amount of reward money was about to fall on his laps.

On top of this, that level of abilities meant that the money the boy earned in the future by going around various dungeons should be quite considerable, as well.

It was time to leave this stinky, dingy little corner of the world, indeed.

Ding-dong-

Just as he turned on the TV, someone rang the doorbell. Mitch Hewer's gaze remained locked on the TV as he stood up from the couch. The screen was now showing the results from the Ranking wars.

-The awakener who defeated Thomas Mathiras and stepped up to the final stages is the South Korean S-rank, Kim Su-hyeun…

"Who is it?"

"Daddy!"

Mitch Hewer frowned deeply from the news coming out from the TV as well as the voice from outside the door. His visitor was none other than Thomas.

The boy did enter the main competition, but failed to get through to the final stages and had to return home.

"This goddamn retard, why does he sound so damn happy…?"

Initially, Mitch Hewer thought that it'd be excellent if Thomas just managed to pass the preliminaries. But now that the boy did manage that, of course, his greed would grow in response, as well.

He wanted Thomas to enter the final stages and bring home an even bigger cash reward, if possible, so anger spiked in his mind the moment he heard the boy's excited voice.

Creaaak-

"Hey, you damn punk. You goddamn failed, so why…."

"Daddy! A friend came with me!"

The worn-out door was flung open, and Thomas revealed himself. And there was another face, of a stranger, right behind him.

The kid's mind was unstable, and not only that, he was mentally impaired as well. But, such a kid brought home a 'friend'?

<< A friend? This punk? >>

Something felt off.

Mitch Hewer dazedly stared at the face of the man that showed up together with Thomas. For some reason, it kind of looked rather familiar.

<< No, it can't be…. >>

"Hello to you."

Su-hyeun's greeting caused Mitch Hewer's eyes to nearly jump out of their sockets. The latter hurriedly spun his head behind and began alternating his gaze between Kim Su-hyeun's face on TV's screen as well as the man's face standing right before him.

"I'm Thomas's friend, the name's Kim Su-hyeun."

Su-hyeun's eyes were gleaming coldly with a murderous light.