The Hero Returns

Did he say he burned hell down?

That was a truly flabbergasting thing to say.

Meanwhile, Apollo was laughing sheepishly. It seemed that even he found his own actions way too absurd to behold, and Su-hyeun got an even bigger sense of disharmony while looking at the sun god who was laughing awkwardly like that.

"Was the story of you burning hell down something that can be recounted so nonchalantly like this?" Su-hyeun sighed softly under breath.

If Apollo wasn't a god on friendly terms with him, he would be busy thinking of ways to escape from this place right now.

It didn't matter what anyone said, Apollo was a top-tier god. His class was on another realm compared to Su-hyeun, who only recently earned his qualifications of godhood, or a demigod like Hercules.

On top of that, someone on his caliber wouldn't just show up to spew lies so that they could share a good chuckle together either. He really must have been banished to hell and escaped from it in one day.

"If you are on the run, is it okay for you to be here like this?"

"This place is fine, actually. We're inside the conflagration I've created, after all. I won't be discovered as long as I stay inside."

"But what if you step outside?"

"Well, my uncle will immediately chase me down, and I'll be locked up in hell for about 10,000 years."

Ten thousand years, he said.

That sounded like an eternity of torture to a normal person, yet Apollo spoke as if it didn't even bother him one bit.

Did that period of 10,000 years come across as merely "suitably" long to him?

Su-hyeun shook his head. There would be no end in sight if he kept getting impressed, shocked, or even ponder too deeply at every little thing Apollo said.

Such questions should be asked later. For now…

"But why did you have to escape while going that far? Is it really because of me?"

"Well, yeah. That's one of the reasons."

"One of the reasons?"

"What you're guessing is correct, but honestly, it was not just for you but for the sake of the gods, too. Although father and the other gods don't seem to share the same opinion."

"Are you really planning to use a human to defeat Uranus? And is that why you were using Hercules?"

Apollo looked a little stunned by Su-hyeun's questions. He must have not expected the name "Uranus" to leave Su-hyeun's lips.

"This is why talking to a human whose mind can't be read is so tough. Did you hear that from Hercules?"

"Yes, I've heard everything, including Uranus being the predator."

"Sounds like you already know what a predator is. Well, you're not from here but from the other side, so…that makes sense."

As expected, Apollo was aware that Su-hyeun was not a person from this world.

"Right, you're correct. Father is thinking of developing Hercules and letting him defeat Uranus. Hercules has the potential to become strong enough to do that, after all."

"In that case, shouldn't you be aiding Hercules instead of me?"

"My thought process is a little different."

"How so?"

"It's the question of investment. I figured that you're better than Hercules, although other gods don't see it that way yet. Whatever the case may be, you're a pure human, aren't you?"

"What kind of situation is this? Investment? It's not like you're raising a game character to defend your nodes either…" Su-hyeun recalled a video game he used to play in the distant past and chuckled in dismay.

To stop the race of Giants from invading the human world, gods were raising Hercules, while Apollo chose to support Su-hyeun. He understood this much, and at the same time, he felt that this whole thing was rather absurd.

"If that's what you were all doing, why don't you personally step forward instead?"

If no special promise or something was preventing him, just the presence of Apollo alone would become a great help to this side, especially more so when, unlike the other gods, the sun god seemed to be rather friendly toward humanity.

"You mean, me?" Apollo asked.

"Yes."

Apollo shook his head. "Well, in my heart, I would like to, but I can't."

"Why not?"

Apollo answered Su-hyeun's inquiry with a slightly bitter expression, "That side is not completely safe either."

* * *

From the scorched skies to the black land still filled with fierce flames, the whole world seemed to be burning away.

An old man was walking amid all these hot flames. "…Everything has burned away."

He shook his head and headed toward a tall gate. When he stood before it, the gate opened up and revealed a pathway connected to a lengthy cave.

"He has already escaped."

The old man shifted his gaze over to the pile of bones lying on the ground, which definitely belonged to Cerberus that should have been guarding the gate.

Hell, that was the name of the world found beyond the gate; it was also the world that this old man was in charge of.

"Arise."

Creak, creaaak—

The old man, Hades, issued a command, and the pile of bones began creaking and moving about.

Pitch-black aura permeated into the bone pile and became the flesh, intestines, and hides of the creature.

Soon, a massive hound with three heads, Cerberus, stood back up.

Krrrr—

"Was this Apollo's handiwork?"

His question was answered by a couple of fierce cries.

"I see. I shall punish him. It must've hurt a lot, didn't it?"

Hades gently patted the heads of Cerberus as the hell hound whimpered and lowered itself.

The god of the netherworld never expected Apollo to escape when he had to vacate his post for a little while. He knew that the sun god had an undignified side to him, but even then, he was obedient to his father Zeus and adhered to his commands.

"He needs to be captured again, but…"

However, even if this was hell's matter, the top god of fire Apollo couldn't simply be apprehended by force and dragged back here. It meant that Hades, a fellow god and the top god of death, had to personally step forward.

"But before that…"

The old man turned his head toward a new presence in his realm.

Not many guests would come to visit hell on their own volition. Those who did were either fellow gods or sometimes an unwelcome guest.

And there could only be one existence that Hades thought of as an "unwelcome guest."

"Unfortunately, hell has burned down."

KRRRR—

A growl came from a distance.

Hades discovered an ominous glare shooting out from a pair of eyes from the end of the cave, and he straightened his previously bent back.

"Why don't you call it a day here and go back? I was going out to catch my troublesome nephew, you see."

"O—lym—pus…" The voice of the monster responsible for that nightmarish glare could be heard now.

It uttered Olympus—the world where the gods besides Hades lived—with clear and unmistakable hostility.

"If you were searching for Olympus, then you came to the wrong place. This here is underground, and that place is much higher up," Hades said as his eyes were dyed in a pitch-black hue. "However, I can't let you go if that was your ultimate destination."

Ka-gagagagak, kwa-dudu—

The monster started rushing forward while continuously shooting out that nightmarish glare, and Hades, who was standing on the other end of the dark cave, extended his arm toward the incoming monster.

Shu-aaaaah—

Pah-saaaah—

The hide of the monster that resembled a massive snake instantly turned into powder and scattered away.

The monster couldn't come any closer to Hades. No matter how resilient its life force was, and no matter how strong its powers of regeneration was, in the end, a life form with only bones remaining on its body would have no way to move forward.

Boom—

Hades stared at the corpse of the monster as it collapsed to the ground. He then lightly tutted while studying the lengthy creature that was huge enough to almost completely fill up the massive cave. "Tsk. It was merely prey?"

Hades muttered as if he lost all of his enthusiasm just then, but then again, a predator would never show up here alone even if its mind had dulled considerably.

"Even measly preys have started infiltrating this place?" he muttered to no one in particular as he started to walk away.

His destination was above ground—the world of humans.

* * *

Ruuuumble—

Su-hyeun's arm transformed into a "flame."

He stared at his arm in amazement. The arm that was now made of fire didn't seem to weigh anything, and he couldn't sense any high temperature from it either.

Although he could only change his arm, for now, this much was already good enough.

"You've finally taken your first step," said Apollo.

After turning himself into a flame, he had been leisurely coiling around Su-hyeun, but he revealed his humanoid appearance once more.

He floated in the air for a while, and then, while looking a bit bored, he stared at Su-hyeun's arm and said, "Well, you should be able to practice it by yourself from now on."

"Is this the 'Transformation' you've been talking about?"

"Right. Although it's only your arm, for now, that is definitely Transformation."

"Transformation," a technique available through the godhood of fire, allowed the wielder to turn his body into fire. Not only did this ability nullify physical impact, but it also made releasing one's aura so much easier.

"Now that you've succeeded in Transformation, it should get easier for you from now on. Besides, you getting this far in only two days is quite fast."

"Is it really?"

"Indeed. Even other gods need about one year to succeed, so you're incredibly fast compared to them. Although, I could do it even before I started walking, so there's that."

For the past two days, Su-hyeun had learned many things while staying next to Apollo. He also learned that gods were classified into different types as well.

There exists a "species" that was born with godhood qualifications, and then there are those beings that polished their abilities and eventually acquired the necessary qualifications—all of them were combined under one umbrella and were called "gods."

Apollo belonged to the former. He was an existence born with godhood, and even his genes were different from the rest.

"It's pretty unfair…" Su-hyeun thought.

He learned from Apollo that the latter species, those who became gods by acquiring godhood, were extremely rare.

It wasn't as if you automatically became a god after acquiring one or two qualifications and you also didn't live for eternity either.

"Has anything happened outside?" Su-hyeun asked while activating "Transformation" once more to change his arm into flames.

At the same time, he grasped the sword and lightly swung it with his flaming hand. He wanted to experiment if he could properly swing his weapon even if his body was made of flames.

"Nothing much, for now," Apollo replied nonchalantly.

Su-hyeun stopped swinging the sword at that reply and turned his head. "For now? Does that mean something will happen soon?"

"Maybe. It's possible."

Su-hyeun's eyes quietly gleamed at Apollo's reply. As a complete god, the sun god did possess the ability of some foresight.

"How long do we have left?" Su-hyeun asked.

"Not a lot. Maybe even—"

"It seems that you've not been warned by Zeus to never teach humans about the future that hasn't happened yet."

Ku-gugugugu—

A cold air that was icy enough to send shivers down Su-hyeun's spine rushed in. His whole body froze up. He grasped his arm with goosebumps breaking out only to discover that his skin had already turned dark.

"Death Aura?" he thought.

It was a familiar sensation.

The sensation of cold air was just an illusion. Rather than coldness, this aura was far closer to death itself. Also, it was the aura the Lich King wielded back then and something Su-hyeun currently wielded as well.

"You finally came, uncle."

Su-hyeun chased after Apollo's gaze. Inside this space completely blanketed by flames, only a section of the fire had turned into a pitch-black color.

It was Hell Fire, also known as the flames that burned in the depths of hell.

It was a fire under Apollo's control, but at the same time…

"Your father asked me for a favor, so I took it on, but never did I guess that you'd cause such a scene and make a run for it."

This fire also belonged under the authority of the god of hell, Hades.

Hades walked out from the black flames with his bent back. Su-hyeun's whole body froze up even more as he stared at the god of death.

"This…is a god?" he inwardly asked.

The sense of presence Hades gave off was a whole other class compared to Apollo's. It was a feeling that made one think that merely getting closer would cause one to lose their lives, that they would immediately be embraced by death itself.

"For sure, there's a reason why you'd be interested in him. Even if you have helped him out, to think that he acquired two different types of qualifications of godhood at such a young age…"

Hades's blackened eyes were peering right through Su-hyeun.

Su-hyeun held his breath and stared back. Even though merely holding that gaze caused his breathing to nearly stop, and his whole body felt like it was rotting away, he still endured and held on.

Hades continued the stare-down with Su-hyeun for a little while longer before smiling faintly. Then, he looked beyond Su-hyeun's position and opened his mouth, "By the way, you don't have any desire to show yourself here, it seems?"

"…?"

Who was he talking to just now? Su-hyeun looked behind him, but he couldn't see anyone.

Hades continued as he disregarded Su-hyeun, "If you don't come out now, I will kill this man, so how about it?"

"Well, this is…"

It was a familiar voice.

"Troublesome. Indeed, quite troublesome."

Su-hyeun reflexively turned his head in the direction of the new voice.

Whooooosh—

Soft breezes were flowing out from the Palm Leaf Sword.

As for the voice that he heard just now…

"First…brother?"

It belonged to none other than the Bull Demon King.