The Hero Returns

Grrrng, grrrrrng...

Su-hyeun, staring at the figure of the sleeping dragon quite a distance away, stopped walking.

From this distance, that dragon didn't look that different from Miru. However, the aura it emitted was incomparably greater than Miru's when it was still a little kid.

"It's like it might explode at any moment."

Su-hyeun had acquired tolerance to most heat levels, yet he still felt deeply threatened by the heat contained within that dragon.

It was asleep, yet it continued to suck in flames burning in the forest. It tossed and turned just a little, then snorted through its nostrils.

Ku-wuwu...

It was still fast asleep.

Whatever the case might be, outwardly, the dragon looked young. To begin with, King Yama wasn't a human being, so a "kid" to him didn't necessarily have to be a human child.

Step, step—

Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong approached the dragon. The closer they got, the more intense the heat expelled from the dragon's nostril felt.

"H—hey, this little guy..."

"It'll be alright."

Despite Sun Wukong trying to dissuade him, Su-hyeun still approached the young dragon.

He felt the stifling heat. His face was getting hotter and hotter due to the intense temperature emanating from this creature.

When he got near enough, the young dragon slightly opened its eyes after sensing his presence.

Grrr...

Its slightly open eyes gleamed like a pair of rubies as if someone had inserted black jewels within those rubies.

Not just its overall shape and its color, but even its face was a facsimile of Miru's. Su-hyeun waved his hand at the dragon, "Hi!"

When he did...

Kyaaaaong—!

Ruuuuumble—

The young dragon suddenly spewed out flames from its maw.

"Last brother!" Sun Wukong dashed forward and witnessed Su-hyeun instantly get swallowed up by the flames. But he was forced back by the rush of heat, his arms getting burned in the process. "Kuh..."

The temperature was no joke.

One mistake and even Ruyi Jingu Bang might get melted down here. That was how insanely hot the flames spewed out from the baby dragon's maw were.

Sun Wukong's eyes opened incredibly wide as he stumbled back, "That's freaking insane..."

While living through an uncountable length of time, Sun Wukong had encountered the race of dragons a few times.

Among them was a dragon that happened to be old enough to be considered well past an adult dragon and could be referred to as an "Ancient Dragon." Considering that initially, dragons got stronger the older they were, this baby dragon's Breath attack seemed to boast an absurd level of firepower.

Grrrrr—

After spewing out the flames for a while, the baby dragon let out a growl filled with wariness.

It sounded angry and also a bit scared for some reason.

Tap—

Then, suddenly, on the baby dragon's head was Su-hyeun's hand.

"I don't know much about dealing with kids and also didn't get to learn many things in my life," Su-hyeun said as he patted the baby dragon's head. "But Miru likes it whenever I do this, so... Not sure if I'm doing the right thing here, though."

Grrrrr—

The baby dragon bared its fangs. It looked as if the creature was ready to spew more flames out of its maw to attack at any moment now.

But that didn't last for long.

Gya-rrrrrr...

The baby dragon withdrew its fangs, then swallowed back the flames leaking out of its maw. It seemed that when Su-hyeun did not display any hostility toward it, the creature did the same and lowered its guard.

Sun Wukong watched this for a bit, then slowly got closer. The stifling heat, the aftermaths of the baby dragon's Breath, still permeated the air.

"What on earth did you do just now?" Sun Wukong asked.

"You know, I just tried to pacify it somehow," Su-hyeun continued to pat the baby dragon's head while lifting his other arm. "But my arm ended up in this state."

His arm had been charred black; his skin was burnt, and even the flesh beneath had been cooked.

Even if he did take on that Breath attack head-on, Su-hyeun's body that didn't get cooked or burned by the lava found in the Hell of Scorching Heat still got burned to that degree. Now that was one alarming event, indeed.

"This little guy, just what is it exactly?" Sun Wukong asked.

"Well, that..." Su-hyeun stared into the baby dragon's eyes and replied, "I'm planning to find out now."

Shu-wuwu...

Bluish energy swirled around within Su-hyeun's eyes. He had activated Insight. Since this ability could see through others' thoughts, it was also possible to hold a conversation using its power.

The dragons were intelligent creatures, and the red dragons were the noblest and most distinguished among them. Miru was like that, and so was Ellid.

This baby dragon should understand what Su-hyeun was saying no matter how young it was.

"Can you tell me your name?" Su-hyeun asked it.

The baby dragon hesitated slightly before opening its mouth.

Gya-rrrrr...

"Britra."

That name sounded familiar. It was as if Su-hyeun had heard it somewhere before, but he couldn't quite remember it. He briefly thought that maybe, this baby dragon before his eyes was a creature from one of the mythical tales he had heard in the past.

"Alright, Britra, how long have you been down here?"

"Dunno... Several hundreds of millions? I'm not sure anymore."

"Say what?" Su-hyeun asked back in surprise. He couldn't help himself just now.

Several hundreds of millions?

He was well aware of how long the race of dragons could live for. Even so, their lifespan could not have been that long. Unless it were Sun Wukong, an existence of immortality, or after mastering the Sage Arts to awaken one's prana at least, it would be impossible to exist for such length of time.

But, more importantly, this baby dragon before his eyes named Britra was so small that it didn't even look one year old.

"Wait, so it wasn't a baby after all?"

It was referred to as a kid, but while its outer appearance or personality was childish, its actual age was not a child's.

As it turned out, this dragon was older than most gods out there. Then again, if this creature somehow managed to swallow up so much of the flames around here in only a few years, now that would've been an extraordinary thing to behold in its own right.

"Why are you down here, though?"

"I dunno. But it's too annoying."

"Annoying? What is?"

"Moving around."

"..."

Staying down here because it was too annoying to move?

Was that something a creature which stayed in this place for hundreds of millions of years should say? Even if one was cursed with laziness, this didn't sound right at all.

"So this is what I'm supposed to pacify?" Su-hyeun thought.

Britra wasn't violent or anything like that. If no one bothered it, the dragon seemed to slumber all the time, and in a way, it was relatively mild-mannered, too.

The issue was that it continued to devour the flames of the Hell of Scorching Heat. In this hell made up of scorching flames and lava, what Britra was doing didn't seem that different from what a giant parasite might do.

"In any case, what should I do to?"

"Do you have it?" Britra opened its mouth first. "I mean, my grave."

"Say what?"

"No, it's not you then."

What a confusing thing to say, but it didn't take long for the meaning of those words to become clear.

Grrrrrr—

Gu-woooong—

Heavy footsteps came from behind Su-hyeun. When he looked up, his eyes caught the face of a red dragon much bigger than Britra. "Miru?"

But why so suddenly?

For the first time in a long, long while, Miru had come out even before Su-hyeun could issue his command.

At Miru's entrance, Britra unsteadily pushed itself up. Those eyes that seemed to lack focus and swim in drowsiness had transformed by then.

"So that's where you were."

Giii-iiiing...

The Cintamani embedded in Miru's forehead began emitting a bright light. Souls of countless dragons escaped along with the rays of light to create dazzling hazes of varying colors.

The souls of all these dragons spread all around before encircling Britra next.

"Whooooa!"

"Shh..."

When Sun Wukong exclaimed loudly in amazement at this solemn, impressive spectacle, Su-hyeun hushed him with a finger pressed to his lips. The latter looked back and spotted one of the countless souls approaching Britra.

Britra barely managed to get back to its feet. It forced its thin, bony legs to straighten up, causing them to shake rather pitifully.

"Finally, I..."

Kkuduk, crunch...

Britra's outer appearance began to change. Its bones twisted around, and its hide expanded. It rapidly transformed and soon became even larger than any dragon Su-hyeun knew.

It was several times larger than Miru—no, it was easily several dozens of times larger.

"Hul—" Unable to hide his amazement at how humongous this red dragon was, Sun Wukong's jaw nearly hit the floor. Even Su-hyeun couldn't help but quietly stare at this transformation in shock.

Hiiiissss—

But then, Britra's body began to decompose. Its scales and hide melted down to goo, while its bones rotted away to become black powder.

Even so, Britra didn't suffer from anguish or scream in pain. As a matter of fact, the corners of its lips were arching up as if this was more comfortable for it instead.

"I can rest now."

Even to its last moment, Britra spoke like a child. Still, Su-hyeun finally understood the true identity of this dragon after seeing this scene.

"Most likely... the dragon god."

The Hell of Scorching Heat was meant to imprison gods and Predators alike. So, unless you were a god, you couldn't get here.

It was unknown how Britra ended up in this place. Maybe it committed a grave crime. Maybe there was some other tragic tale.

But what was for certain was that it was imprisoned within this hell, not the grave of the dragons, while not dying, either.

"Was Britra maintaining a baby dragon's appearance to extend its life, even by just a little, so that it could rest in the dragon's grave?"

The Hell of Scorching Heat was the hell meant for regular gods. Even if gods had no concept of lifespan, they could still get burned to death in this place at any time, or they could choose to end their own lives.

However, Britra was none of those things, so it was waiting. It was enduring.

It was waiting and enduring the truly uncountable period until the grave it could comfortably rest in came to find it, even though no one made a promise of such a thing.

Su-hyeun bowed his head deeply and closed his eyes, "Rest in peace."

Shu-wuwuwu...

Britra's soul joined up with the souls of the other dragons. Those souls seemed to be honoring Britra with salutes as if to express their gratitude.

He couldn't hear their voices, but one thing was for sure—at least their emotions were being transmitted.

"Deep respect and gratitude...and also sadness," Su-hyeun thought.

Those were the emotions of the souls, and at the same time, Miru's emotions, too.

Shwa-aaaaaah—

Viscous fluid gushed out from the melting body of Britra. Its remains instantly melted down to nothing, while its bones were completely turned into powder and scattered up in the air.

"D—did it die or something?" Sun Wukong, sounding rather flustered, walked up to Su-hyeun. He had no idea about the existence of the Cintamani.

Then again, he was under the impression that they had succeeded in pacifying a baby dragon who started shooting flames from its mouth upon seeing them, only for the creature's body to balloon up and then melt into nothingness. Therefore, from Sun Wukong's perspective, his reaction was justified.

"Yes, Third Brother." However, Su-hyeun was aware of how long Britra had to wait for the arrival of its resting place, so he couldn't treat this passing as yet another death. "It seems that the red dragon can finally rest in peace now."

"Is it a good thing, though?"

"Probably."

"Should I be happy about it? I don't get it at all."

Su-hyeun smirked at Sun Wukong's confused expression.

Whatever the case might be, Britra, the "nuisance" of the Hell of Scorching Heat, was gone, as per King Yama's request.

It was unknown if anyone had predicted this turn of events, but King Yama's request had been completed regardless of what.

Rumble—

It was around this point that they sensed an intense heatwave.

This form of energy, small but hotter than anything out there and compressed to a tiny sphere, seemed far more stable than any other type of fire.

"Hey, something's rolling around on the ground over there."

Just as Su-hyeun sensed that energy, Sun Wukong discovered something among Britra's remains. It was a lone "something" emitting a light among the viscous fluid created by the decomposed melted flesh.

It was a crimson jewel.

While walking up to that jewel, Su-hyeun began contemplating something, "Now that I think about it...."

Britra waited all alone for its resting place to come for it in the Hell of Scorching Heat for hundreds of millions of years, all the while devouring the heat of this hell and adapting to its environment.

Since that was the case...

"What happened to all those devoured flames then?"