The Hero Returns

"Their locations are...at the edges of American coastlines."

But those weren't everything.

"Even wider...With the Pacific in the center, there must be at least several thousands."

Creaaaak—

Crack, spliiiit—

When he sent his power to his hand, pressing against the stele, cracks began running on the slab made out of the World Tree.

Puff—!

And then, the stele shattered into powder.

The stele could no longer continue with its intended purpose after breaking apart. When that happened, the colorless dungeon next to it briefly wavered ever so faintly.

"As I thought, they were connected somehow, huh?"

Su-hyeun unhesitantly stepped inside this colorless dungeon.

Its interior didn't look all that different from other dungeons. Its entrance that lacked any discernible color seemed to be the only difference, as he could still sense the presence of monsters within this large cavern.

"No, wait."

Step—

Su-hyeun's eyes gleamed sharply as he walked inside this enclosed cavern. "There is something different here, alright."

"What brings you back in here?" A skeleton waiting by the entrance of the dungeon suddenly addressed Su-hyeun.

Its cracking voice sounded androgynous. It wore a set of a smart, gentlemanly business suit while a fedora adorned its skull. This creature was no doubt the top dog in this dungeon.

Also, it was no ordinary monster, either.

"Did we not warn you that until the promised date, there will not be any further interaction—?"

"A Prey—No, you seemed to be a low-rank Predator."

"What was that?!" The gentleman skeleton gasped in a flustered voice.

If its face still had muscles and skin, it would've probably made a rather funny expression by now.

Shu-ahahahk—

Crack, ka-boom—!

Su-hyeun dashed forward, grabbed the skeleton's throat, and lifted it up before slamming the undead down hard on the ground. A deep crater caved in on the spot, and the ripples from the impact rocked the entirety of the cavern.

Krrrrr—!

Hiss, hsssss—!

Sha-aaaah—!

All sorts of monsters began leaping out from the deeper part of the cavern next. It seemed that they sensed a threat after their leader, the skeleton, got attacked.

"Nezha."

Shu-wuwu—

Su-hyeun called out, and Prince Nezha answered by revealing himself. This time, Prince Nezha appeared with his torso guarded by the treasure armor. At the same time, his hands wielded the Yogoe Slaying Sword and the Yogoe Rending Saber.

"Sweep them all away."

"Yes, my lord."

Pang, paaaaang—!

Dozens of spheres circling around Prince Nezha shot out toward the monsters. At the same time, he kicked the ground to dash forward while swinging both of his mighty blades.

Kwa-dududu—!

Splaaat—!

He began dashing and weaving through the ranks of countless monsters. The current Nezha shouldn't have any problem dealing with a Predator ranked among One Hundred Evils.

"What are you trying to do?" asked the skeleton.

Despite being buried halfway into the ground, it had not blacked out. For one thing, it didn't have a brain inside its skull, and also, Su-hyeun had pulled back his strength at the last second.

The skeleton, with its smart suit now all in tatters, also understood the latter fact.

Grip, squeeze—

The undead grabbed Su-hyeun's wrist and tried with all its might to pull that hand away, but in the end, it failed.

Su-hyeun's physical strength easily outclassed the undead. With his gripping power or strength alone, it would be too easy for him to crush the skeleton's throat to powder.

"You. You are not really undead, are you?"

When Su-hyeun first spotted this skeleton with the suit, he felt that something seemed off, and as it turned out, this was the reason. This creature possessed a rather stock appearance of an undead, which was a skeleton, but even then, it was not undead.

Meaning, it was not a dead skeleton but a living one.

If it was a dead creature, it wouldn't have been able to rebel against Su-hyeun. His Necromancer trait possessed a powerful controlling influence over all dead and undead, after all.

So, a mere low-rank Predator wouldn't have been able to escape from Su-hyeun's control.

"I'm different from those lowly things."

"Yeah, I know. You're even worse."

"What's your goal here?"

"Fafn—No, wait. I guess you wouldn't know that name. Okay, so, what's your relationship with Bradley?"

Push—

The skeleton's skull momentarily pushed back. Its resistance had gotten even stronger than before. "How do you know the name of that noble one?"

"I see, so he's still using that name, huh? And judging from your reaction, you are in a master-servant relationship with him, then?"

"..."

"You want to stay quiet, is that it? I know torturing you won't work, so that leaves me with only one other method."

Crunch—!

Su-hyeun unhesitantly shattered the skeleton's neck. Although its skull was now separated from the rest of its torso, the skeleton didn't die immediately.

But then...

[Flame]

Ruuuuumble—

The purple-colored flames enveloped the skeleton's torso and began melting all of its bones down with the suit. Even if the Predator boasted a "life force" as tenacious as that of the undead, it was impossible for it to still cling on when its entire body had melted down to nothing but black liquid.

"Alright. Now then," Su-hyeun stared at the soul of this now-dead skeleton, "Why don't we have a proper conversation in this manner?"

"Inconceivable. Just how...?"

Maybe because it used to be a Predator, the skeleton still retained some level of its ego despite ending up as nothing but a soul.

It was certainly different from Rockwell earlier, at least. Still, that didn't mean it could resist the control exerted by the Necromancer trait.

"What is this place? It doesn't look like a regular dungeon, at least."

"To put it simply, this place is a stepping stone that connects different dimensions. But the passageway is still too narrow, and we are waiting for the signal to...Huph?!"

The skeleton hurriedly covered up its mouth with its hands. It seemed to be incredibly flustered because it replied so willingly and honestly to Su-hyeun's questions.

But Su-hyeun simply ignored that reaction and continued with his questioning, "What is this signal you're talking about?"

"The moment our sovereign arrives, the exit's color will change. That is the signal."

"Fafnir is headed over here? If so, is there a reason why you are all waiting around like this?"

This didn't seem to make much sense.

An existence on the level of Fafnir shouldn't have found entering this world all that difficult. He would not have a reason to waste time by creating artificial dungeons like this.

"That's because he's not coming alone."

"Then what?"

"He shall create a gigantic passageway that connects the other dimension to the world beyond the exit. This side is merely one of the countless worlds our noble sovereign lords over, that's all."

"Dammit. Figures," Su-hyeun groaned at length while sweeping back his hair that had tumbled down on his face.

He asked a few more questions afterward but didn't get any more information that seemed to be useful.

He learned that Fafnir had been traveling to various worlds out there and made the residents of said worlds serve him as their ruler.

As for the image carved on that stele, it was nothing more than some narcissistic action of a being who wanted others to worship him.

"Fafnir...No, Bradley. If it's him, that kind of makes sense, doesn't it?"

Su-hyeun didn't know what Fafnir was like now all that well, but at least he knew some things about the latter when he was still a human being.

A man who held an intense desire to rule, who was profoundly arrogant and quite prideful, too—that was Bradley, who was Fafnir now. Engraving his image on some steles and forcing the ones he had enslaved to worship and exalt him should come somewhat naturally to him.

"For now, it looks like I don't have a choice but to destroy them, huh?"

The only thing that could serve as a lead of some kind were those steles erected in several parts of the world.

Whatever the case might be, Fafnir seemed to be thinking of connecting Earth to some other world. If many more Predators were waiting on standby in all of those places, then without a doubt, the upcoming situation would become seriously troublesome.

Su-hyeun was about to make a move but stopped himself and hesitated for a bit. And then...

"Can you hear me?"

No reply came back his way. Even so, Su-hyeun continued, "Now is the time you should help me out, you know."

* * *

In a chamber with a tall ceiling and marble floor spanning several thousand square meters...

A humongous throne was at the end of a long crimson carpet that led to the door, and a giant was sitting on it.

"How tedious," the giant muttered, causing all the retainers to bow their heads in nervousness.

Almost at the same time, the giant turned his head toward a skeleton, who had been bowing its head deeper than anyone else.

The giant asked, "How much longer?"

"A few more days...We only need a few more days, sire."

"A few more days, you say? Not a few more hours, but days," the giant muttered softly as a sense of impatience washed over him.

Crunch, cruuuush—

The armrest of the throne with his arm on it was crushed to powder. That wasn't all, however; even the throne itself noticeably buckled as his rage was transmitted in full throughout the interior of this vast audience chamber. "That's taking too long."

Go-oooooh—

"Make it faster. I now grow tired of waiting."

The giant's rage resulted in a stupendous pressure to bear down on the audience chamber. With their heads bowed, the retainers all had to go down on their knees as if they were collapsing from the pressure crushing down on them.

"Just as the rumors say, your personality is rather terrible, isn't it?"

"Hm?" The giant's glare shifted toward the far end of the audience chamber.

A figure was brazenly walking into the throne room after throwing the door open.

Step, step—

The heavy pressure was still bearing down on the interior of the audience chamber. Even the average Predators would've found it hard to control their bodies from the pressure exerted on them.

Yet this individual strode in airy steps, indicating that the pressure was not affecting him in the slightest.

Go-ooooh—

Crunch, crack...

The pressure grew even more intense, which caused several of the retainers to get shoved down flat to the ground before exploding into gory bits. However, the giant didn't even pay any heed to that and continued to focus his glare on the new visitor.

"Nice to make your acquaintance, Bradley. I heard a lot about you."

"I've never seen you before."

"I'm not someone a lowly punk like you can meet even if you try."

The eyes of the giant, Fafnir, gleamed sharply as he glared at the man. The latter was a handsome green-haired man decked out in a smart black business suit.

At a casual glance, he came across as a regular human being, but this outer appearance was simply a form that the "man" had decided on.

"You're not Shiva, and Uranus is dead. Which means...You're Osiris, then?"

"If you've realized that, I shall graciously give you some time to bow your head to me. Any intentions on coming under my wings?"

"I refuse."

"What a pity."

Dududududu—!

The marble floor rose to support Osiris and then morphed into a flashy throne to reach a height even higher than Fafnir's throne.

"And now our lines of sight finally match. So, what were you planning to do now?"

"You came here already knowing that, did you not?"

"Well, that's true. You're targeting the planet called Earth, yes? Humans on that planet are exposed to the thing called the system of the Five Godly Sages, after all. They are tasty prey, indeed."

"That used to be my initial goal," Fafnir grinned sinisterly as it bared its fangs. "Although, that's no longer the case."

"Then, the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven?"

"That's right."

The initial reason for Fafnir's actions was to devour all those awakeners blessed with the system's power. Absorbing their powers significantly boosted the strength of Predators. In truth, Fafnir himself had been growing stronger by devouring various awakeners before he was returned to the past.

But now, his goal had changed.

"I shall call that bastard back out in the open."

"But it's not going to be easy for you. Even if you succeed in calling out The Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven, he has come in contact with Master Subhuti by now."

"Master Subhuti?"

"He's one of the Five Godly Sages and the one who taught the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven."

"The Five Godly Sages..."

Smirk—

Fafnir's lips distorted into a grin, "I was wondering where I can find one, so this is even better."

"Hmm..." Osiris stopped talking and then pondered on something for a moment before scanning their surroundings.

After he made his entrance, Fafnir's retainers didn't even dare raise their heads. Among them were a few faces that even Osiris recognized.

He asked, "Looks like you're planning to unleash the monsters of the Dark Realm?"

Here was the reason for the seemingly reckless confidence of Fafnir.

Not just inside this audience chamber, but even the outside was teeming with countless Predators. Fafnir had become their king. Now, not only did he enjoy his own considerable strength, but he also commanded an entire army.

"Absolute dominion is my true desire, after all," Fafnir nodded before sweeping his gaze over his retainers. "Does it not fill you with anticipation?"

Even though they were now subservient toward him, every single one of these creatures had already brought several worlds to their complete annihilation.

And this was the army Fafnir had amassed.

"To witness these creatures go on a rampage?"