The Hero Returns

"Big… bro…?"

That voice came from a fair distance away. It must've been amplified through magic, although the magical energy couldn't be detected anymore.

However, Roy regained his mind only for a brief moment.

"Wake up. You're fated to become the king of the dead, so you must not pay attention to the words of the living."

The whisper filled the boy's mind once more.

All of a sudden, the whisper that felt comforting, the soothing voice, came across as ominous and scary. Roy held his head with both of his hands as migraine began to assault him.

"I… don't wanna…"

Kiii-iiii—

He could still see the souls of the dead before his eyes.

They were different from all the other souls he had seen up until now. No, they were not some simple souls wandering around the world but something else that possessed a unique power.

"Lichs…"

They were the souls of the Lichs whose Life Vessels had been destroyed. They were fiercely struggling right now to enter Roy's body.

"I don't… Get away… from me…"

"Accept them. They are your servants," the ominous voice said.

"Don't want to…"

"You are destined to become me, so you must embrace them into your being."

"Don't…"

Roy's consciousness was sucked into the deep abyss once more. His pained expression reverted to being glazed, and he began walking again just like how he had been doing so far.

Step, step—

However…

Gya-ong—!

Rumble—

[High Breath]

Miru's Breath gushed powerfully into the sky.

The massive Breath blanketed the entire sky. This attack, fired with every ounce of the dragon's being, was a signal meant for Su-hyeun.

It was the signal to tell him that they were right there.

Act 4

[Remaining time: 03:17:04]

Su-hyeun grew impatient after confirming the remaining time. It had significantly decreased compared to not too long ago. Only then did he finally figure out what this countdown actually meant in the first place.

It was the time remaining until that thing that was hidden in Roy's body would start activating.

If the countdown indeed indicated such a thing, then the time suddenly decreasing by a lot made some sense.

If something inside Roy had begun reacting sooner than scheduled, then obviously, the remaining time would decrease accordingly as well.

I was too careless.

Su-hyeun only thought about fighting the Lichs.

He thought that protecting Roy and not doing anything else would not be counted as perfectly passing the trial. Even if the countdown came to an end and he passed the trial, the Lichs would still be here, after all.

That's why he began thinking that completely eradicating the Lichs and their influence would be the correct path to perfectly clear this trial.

In terms of the end result, his hypothesis wasn't entirely wrong. The trial's achievement percentage continued to climb every time he eliminated a Lich, which indicated that he was succeeding in passing the trial.

However, a problem developed with Roy in the process.

Where did they go?

Finding the small figure of Roy in this expansive forest proved to be a challenge.

Right after the boy disappeared, Lichs blocked off Su-hyeun's path. They were obviously trying to stop him from searching for the kid.

Breaking through their encirclement wasn't hard, however. Since he no longer planned to drag things out, he unleashed all of his saved-up magical energy and broke through their net in one go.

However, there was a decisive difference between him and the Lichs. There were many of them, while he was all alone.

The remaining Lichs had set off to find Roy as well.

I need to find him before they do.

Whether he passed this trial or not depended on him locating Roy before the Lichs managed to do so. And so, just as he began following after Roy's small footprints…

Rumble—!

Bright rays of light illuminated the night sky for a moment just then. He sensed a very familiar magical energy from that.

That's Miru's Breath!

Miru had disappeared with Roy, but the dragon wouldn't have fired a Breath in mid-air for no reason.

They're over there.

[Leap]

Su-hyeun activated several "Leap" skills in a row and dashed forward.

It wasn't only him who saw the Breath just then. The Lichs who were searching for Roy must've confirmed the location of that attack as well.

And sure enough…

Wu-du-du-duk—

Boom—

A thick wall of earth rose up to block Su-hyeun's path.

Lichs that stood in a line had cast this magic. Since his resistance would negate all the spells that restricted him, they chose to alter the terrain and stop his advances that way.

I'll break through.

He didn't need long to make up his mind.

Shu-rung—

He yanked out the sword stored away for a little while until now. He didn't need to use his magical energy either.

Swish, swish—

Chwa-ra-rak—!

Su-hyeun sliced apart the thick wall of soil with his sword and quickly activated "Leap" once more. In that exact moment, despite knowing that they would die, the Lichs, along with Death Knights, pounced on him from both sides.

Fwoosh, slash—

Slice—

The bodies of the Lichs and Death Knights were sliced in halves.

As expected, they had discovered Roy's location as well.

I should run.

Gu-guguguk—

Power ran to his feet.

Pow—!

Su-hyeun's figure shot forward as the ground below exploded. He didn't have to dart between the gaps of the lush vegetation; he flew in a straight line while destroying the trees in front of him.

The view before him transformed in an instant with such speed.

Swoosh—

He caught sight of Lichs and Death Knights busy facing off against Miru.

Grrrr—

The Lichs couldn't get closer to the red dragon that was currently growling, with its fangs bared. Burnt corpses also littered the ground in front of Miru.

It seemed that Miru was still protecting Roy. Su-hyeun took in that sight for a moment before making his next move.

Pah-aht—

Swish—

With the sword still in his hand, he dug into the ranks of the enemies by the dozens.

Soon afterward, a coldly gleaming sword beam drew a concentric circle, with Su-hyeun in the center, and had spread out widely. That single sword strike sliced apart every single enemy caught inside the attack range.

Slice—

Ku-gugugugu—

The trees in the surroundings slowly fell, their oblique-angled and smoothly cut surfaces on full display. The Lichs and Death Knights weren't spared either. All of their bodies also helplessly fell.

Thud—!

Not a single Lich or Death Knight remained standing.

Su-hyeun sheathed his sword and walked over to Roy. "Are you alright?"

Step, step—

The boy didn't reply to Su-hyeun's question. Instead, he began walking over to the fallen Lichs and Death Knights.

"Roy?"

Gya-ong, gya-ong—

Miru stood next to Su-hyeun and cried as if it wanted to pass on a message. It seemed that the dragon was saying that Roy's current condition was strange.

Su-hyeun grabbed the boy's shoulders. "Roy, just what is…?"

Squeeze—

Su-hyeun was stunned.

Roy's shoulders were moving slightly under Su-hyeun's tight grip. The physical power displayed by the boy in wanting to go forward was noticeably different from before.

His strength was so great, in fact, that Su-hyeun almost briefly lost his grip on the boy's shoulders.

What's going on here?

He could tell that the boy's condition was weird, but to think that the young child's physical abilities had been enhanced to this degree…

And that wasn't the only surprising thing.

"Rise… up…"

Gu-gu-gu-guk—

Clack, clack—

With just one short command from Roy, the fallen Lichs and Death Knights began standing up again one by one.

It was an ability similar to Herrels'. However, Roy was unable to wield this power at will until now.

Did he suddenly awaken his ability or something?

Whatever the case might be, this was not a welcome turn of events.

Su-hyeun took a look at the revived Lichs and Death Knights and quickly realized that Roy's ability was different from Herrels'.

"As expected, the great one did promise us the everlasting eternal life."

"An eternal life without any pain…"

"The descendant of our god has arrived on this land!"

The cries of the revived Lichs were filled with sheer heartfelt emotions.

Su-hyeun was dumbfounded by this. Unlike the undead serving Herrels, these Lichs were revived with their souls and minds completely intact from back when they were still alive.

This is definitely…

Su-hyeun recognized this ability.

It's from the Lich King.

It was one of that bastard's abilities.

"Roy! Roy!"

Su-hyeun grabbed Roy's shoulders and shook the boy.

The latter's body was difficult to move—as if it was a heavy boulder deeply embedded to the ground. Su-hyeun was almost mystified at seeing the amount of strength now residing in the boy's small frame.

"Big… bro…"

Roy opened his lips somehow, but that was all.

He must've barely managed to squeeze out those words because his lips clamped shut as soon as he called out to Su-hyeun.

And right away…

"Get away from the great one!"

"You blasphemous human!"

Chwa-rururu—

Dozens of chains tightened around Su-hyeun's body, while the Death Knights yanked their swords out and pounced on him.

Su-hyeun's response to that was simple.

"Miru? A Breath, please."

[High Breath]

Rumble—

Miru heard Su-hyeun's order, opened its mouth wide, and spat out a Breath. Su-hyeun watched the Lichs and the Death Knights as they got swept away by that powerful strike.

"Stop them for a little while. You can do it, right?" Su-hyeun spoke again.

Gya-ong—

Miru energetically replied.

Su-hyeun saw all the small little nicks that covered Miru's body were constantly bleeding a little. If this happened in the past, his red dragon might have cried and complained about things being too tough, but it was not displaying even a hint of complaint now.

Just bear with it for a little while longer.

He didn't think that his red dragon would be pushed around by the Lichs of such low levels, so he shifted his gaze away from Miru who was standing protectively before him and spitting out yet another Breath toward the undead.

Roy still had no expression on his face.

"Roy, you gotta wake up."

Su-hyeun strongly shook the boy's shoulders. However, Roy still didn't respond to him.

[Remaining time: 00:11:23]

The countdown had decreased substantially. Only around 11 minutes remained.

No, wait—even the rate of the countdown was ticking away was too fast. With the way things were going, the so-called remaining time had little meaning now.

Feeling the urgency, Su-hyeun pressed his hand on Roy's chest.

Grab—

When he did, Roy suddenly grabbed Su-hyeun's hand and then glared back at him with his blackened eyes.

"Take… your… hand… off…"

The voice had changed. It was not Roy's but someone else's. It was also one that Su-hyeun was rather familiar with.

"This… is… my body…"

"…So, it was you?"

The cold light of recognition flickered in Su-hyeun's eyes.

Su-hyeun knew exactly who the owner of that voice was, even with such poor articulation because of the voice's lack of energy.

It was the Lich King.

It was that bastard's voice.

Wuduk, wududuk—

Strength began flooding into Roy's hand, as if to shatter Su-hyeun's hand right there and then. However, the latter didn't even budge an inch.

"Why don't you use even more strength, then?"

[Strength: 99]

The strength stat boasted an overwhelming numerical value.

Although his magical energy rank was still low, the strength stat at least had exceeded the level attained by Kim Sung-in of the previous lifetime. Not only that, but Su-hyeun also boasted the achievement of defeating the Lich King in his past life.

Thus, to be pushed back by a little bit of strength such as this would be unimaginable. Besides, his current opponent wasn't the actual Lich King but a person being possessed by that monster.

"Sorry about this, Roy."

Su-hyeun grabbed Roy's shoulder with his other hand and picked the boy up off the ground like he weighed nothing.

Swoosh—

Bang—!

"Keok!"

Roy was slammed down on the ground, and immediately, his eyes shot open wide and his whole body began shuddering.

Su-hyeun continued to press down on Roy's chest with one hand to restrict the boy's movement.

The god's descendant, right?

Su-hyeun recalled what the Lichs said a few moments ago.

"The descendant of our god has arrived on this land!"

To the Lichs, the Lich King was their god, their king. The reason why they didn't fear death was because they believed that the Lich King would revive them again.

He thought he could understand it now—why these Lichs had been persistently targeting Roy.

Also, Roy was of the same existence as the people from the Rawlsman bloodline.

They were the descendants of the Lich King.

The Lich King, that creature was also a living human once upon a time before it turned into a Lich.

I was originally planning to use it against the Lich King, but…

With his hand still pressing down on Roy's chest, Su-hyeun spat out a long groan.

They say half a loaf is better than nothing, so I guess it can't be helped.

[Transfiguration]