The Hero Returns

"Wait a second. That thing moved just now, right?"

"Yggdrasil's root is moving?"

Sun Wukong pointed at the "tree" while saying he definitely saw something. Thor replied that it was simply impossible, his eyes wide open in shock.

Was that something to be so shocked about, though?

Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong stared at Thor.

When the two stared at him with eyes clearly asking, "Why are you so surprised?" Thor regained his wits somewhat and clarified himself, "Yggdrasil will move only when it's about to give birth to a seed of another World Tree. But to think that it's about to create a new seed in a situation like this one..."

"Well, it moved, alright."

Gu-gugugu—

The root began moving again.

This time, it wasn't a faint little movement like before. Unless you were blind, you would definitely see it.

The root was rising from below. No, wait—since the sky and the ground were reversed at the foot of the cliff, it would be the same as the root descending lower instead.

Whatever the case might be, the root approached Su-hyeun, Sun Wukong, and Thor.

Crack, craaaack—

A person's silhouette made out of wood rose from the center of the root.

Su-hyeun had seen that figure before. Back when he saved a much smaller World Tree only a "few" years old, another World Tree claiming to be its mother appeared.

Sure enough...

"We meet again," Su-hyeun spoke after confirming that this one and that figure were the same beings.

The World Tree, Yggdrasil, assumed the wooden figure of a beautiful woman and opened her eyes to stare at Su-hyeun.

"Yes," She replied with a truly radiant smile, something she hadn't displayed the last time they met. "It's been a long time."

Despite assuming the figure of unparalleled beauty, her complexion seemed noticeably paler than before.

The damage suffered by the root was worse than expected, it seemed.

Su-hyeun wordlessly stared at her beautiful countenance. That face was easily the most beautiful he had ever seen, including the Goddess of Beauty herself, Aphrodite.

"So, that was Yggdrasil all along," Su-hyeun thought.

This was not their first meeting. But back then, he thought of "her" as merely another World Tree and not the biggest tree there was, otherwise known as Yggdrasil.

Su-hyeun got a seed of a World Tree from "her" and had it implanted in his body.

He had to do "missions" on the world created by the young World Tree to reach that point. That was when he began questioning the nature of Yggdrasil. Was its true nature good or evil?

"Honestly speaking, the existence called the World Tree is neither good nor evil, isn't it?"

Technically, the World Trees should be considered "neutral."

For the sake of the universe's continued existence, they needed to be protected. Other than that, one should not think of their intentions as only pure and good.

As such, they were beings that Su-hyeun needed to be most wary of. They could easily become "evil," pretending to be good, but at the same time, they could never become a true enemy that needed to be defeated, either.

"First of all, I'd like to offer my gratitude. Thanks to your efforts, I managed to survive. Without you, my root would have burned down in its entirety."

"We only did what we obviously had to do, ma'am," Thor replied while kneeling before Yggdrasil.

He would never kneel before anyone, not even to his father Odin, but Yggdrasil was the exception.

This being was Asgard, and the entirety of God Realm, itself. No, more than that, even the whole universe. The meaning of Asgard's existence was tied to Yggdrasil, which meant the World Tree was basically the deity of Asgard.

Unfortunately for Thor, Yggdrasil's attention was not on him. She continued to stare at Su-hyeun, "Good sir, what will be your decision?"

She asked the same question that Osiris also asked.

Su-hyeun's heart shook for a moment. He then shook his head, "I'm still not sure yet."

"Is that so?" Yggdrasil made a rueful face.

But that wasn't so surprising.

Now that both Osiris and Shiva had begun making their moves, Su-hyeun was basically the best shield available to her right now.

But right at that moment...

"You better stop your bullsh*t right now."

Su-hyeun's seething voice was transmitted to Yggdrasil's hearing.

She flinched in surprise and looked back at him. Her expression remained the same as before, with a warm smile, but the voice entering her hearing was a polar opposite.

"Relax. Don't make a surprised face. Or a scared one."

Su-hyeun's voice continued, and Yggdrasil's expression reverted to how she used to be.

Her complexion remained pale, but she didn't get scared or flustered, as expected of her.

Su-hyeun thought of that even during their first encounter, but she certainly was a brilliant actress, wasn't she?

"Why are you saying this, good sir?"

"If you persist with your bullsh*t, then I might end up choosing the other side instead."

"But what do you mean by my bullsh—"

"Weren't you trying to do something with the seed planted in my body just now?"

When Su-hyeun brought that up, Yggdrasil stopped replying altogether as if she had nothing to say.

Su-hyeun observed that reaction, then shifted his gaze over to Sun Wukong and Thor, "Can I speak to her alone for a little while?"

Both Sun Wukong and Thor made puzzled faces at that request.

Why was he suddenly asking them to leave the two of them alone to chat? Thor's loyalty to Yggdrasil was far too strong, so he decided to step forward to say that such a thing could not be allowed. But then...

"Please, listen to his request."

When Yggdrasil also made the same request, Thor swallowed back what he originally wanted to say and simply nodded, "Very well."

"Take care of it quickly, okay? I wanna head back home soon, so we can get something to eat," said Sun Wukong.

"Understood, Third Brother."

Thor turned around and strode gallantly away while Sun Wukong rode on the cloud to float up, his head lazily resting on his hands.

Now that they were gone, Su-hyeun shifted his gaze back to Yggdrasil once more.

However, his expression was far more unforgiving than a second ago, "Were you trying to use the seed to take over my body?"

"That was not my intention, but—"

"Then, why did you do that just now?" Su-hyeun pointed to where his heart was.

That was where the seed had been planted.

When he pointed there, Yggdrasil instantly realized that excuses would not work anymore.

Therefore, she chose to maintain her silence instead.

She didn't make any excuses or movements, either.

It was impossible to use force against the current Su-hyeun. After all, he was already strong enough to rival the gods of the Five Godly Sages tier.

Making excuses at this stage would be no different from antagonizing him even further.

Su-hyeun waited for an answer, but he suddenly walked up to Yggdrasil when one didn't come.

Grab—!

Then, he grabbed her by her throat and lifted her off the ground.

Su-hyeun watched Yggdrasil struggle as she held onto his hand, her expression pleading with him to be released.

His eyes began burning murderously in rage. "You try one more crap on me, and I will join the other side without hesitation, you hear me? It looks like you know what happened to me and what kind of person I am. In that case, you should have been more careful."

"You have changed a lot, good sir."

"Yes, I have. And that's why it's driving me nuts."

Cruuunch—!

Su-hyeun broke Yggdrasil's neck. Her body instantly turned into pieces of wood and clattered to the ground.

He then turned his head, "I already knew that this seed was supposed to use me as its fertilizer and become a brand-new World Tree. However, I won in the end, and the seed is now in an eternal slumber."

Gu-gugugu—

He looked toward was where a new body of Yggdrasil had generated.

She wasn't dead, of course. Even if he broke her neck or ripped her limbs apart thousands of times, she would not die.

Unless all of her roots rotted away, burned down, or the whole universe was destroyed, she would live on.

"Even so, you tried to control me through the seed. Just this once, I'm willing to let it go since the seed has been helpful to me. But the second time? I wonder what will happen."

"It seems that I have made a mistake."

"Yes, you have. A terrible mistake."

Step, step—

Su-hyeun turned around and walked over to the root, not her wooden body.

Yggdrasil's expression instantly changed. She asked him in an urgent voice, "What—what are you trying to—?"

"Take a good look."

Ruuumble—

Su-hyeun's fingers transformed into intense flames. When he slowly moved his hand, the flames morphed into the shape of a crimson dragon.

"N—no, you mustn't—!"

"This is what awaits you in the future."

Su-hyeun ignored Yggdrasil's scared voice and waved his hand. When he did...

Khaaaaah—!

Ruuuuumble—!

The crimson dragon made of condensed crimson flames rapidly flew toward Yggdrasil's root.

Roooooar—!

Rumble, crackle—!

An explosion went off, causing the red flames to envelop the entire root.

The flames spread in the blink of an eye. These flames seemed to treat the "tree" as their fuel and raged on like some wildfire.

Yggdrasil could only stare in utter stupefaction at this spectacle from far away. Her eyes trembled greatly as the flames billowed.

It didn't hurt, even though the root was clearly on fire, and even though she should be writhing in agony right now, she didn't.

There could be only one reason for that.

"This could be your future."

It was all because Su-hyeun controlled the power output to ensure the root would not burn down.

His divine Flame was a mysterious power that only burned the opponents he chose.

No matter how intense the flames were, they would not harm Yggdrasil as long as Su-hyeun didn't will it.

But it was another story when one flipped that around.

"Indeed, you have changed a lot, good sir."

Right at this very moment, Yggdrasil's root would go up in flames if that was what Su-hyeun wanted.

He wanted to demonstrate this fact to her, which was why he created this scene.

Fwhoooosh—

The flames vanished in an instant. They were sucked back into his palm.

He addressed her while not even looking back at her, "Now you know, so you should not provoke me anymore."

Yggdrasil didn't say anything, but that was already enough of an answer.

He walked right past her. As the distance between them grew, he addressed her one last time in a voice soft enough that she would have almost missed it, "I pray that you are someone worthy of protecting."

* * *

Su-hyeun made his way back to Asgard.

The city's devastation was so extensive that rebuilding it seemed pretty difficult. Even if he wanted to search for survivors, there weren't many, to begin with.

Of course, that didn't mean there were none.

Thor managed to locate Asgard's survivors one by one. Since Sun Wukong could perform the cloning technique, he also lent a hand. Although, technically speaking, it wasn't just one hand but hundreds of hands instead.

As for Su-hyeun...

"Hey, little bro! What are you doing up here?"

He was lying on the temple roof where Odin fought his last battle to stare at the skies above.

"What's up with all this daydreaming?" Sun Wukong asked.

"You know, just—I had a few things to think about."

"What kinda things?" Sun Wukong took a seat next to Su-hyeun. He glanced at Su-hyeun lying on his back. "You know, you've suddenly changed."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Did you finally find out some things you were supposed to know? What happened with that bastard, anyway?"

Su-hyeun chuckled at what Sun Wukong said.

Even though he didn't explain in detail what happened with Osiris, Sun Wukong spoke as if he already knew everything.

He certainly knew Su-hyeun better than anyone. If Sun Wukong weren't with him right now, Su-hyeun's thoughts would have become even more tangled up and, eventually, lean to one side.

"Well, something did happen, alright."

"Is it kinda difficult to talk about?"

"Yes. Kinda..."

If he could help it, Su-hyeun didn't want to discuss the matters related to his past life, the one of Set, with anyone.

Even if they happened to be Sun Wukong or the Bull Demon King, he still felt the same way. This was his problem. He had to decide on his own.

"Hmm..." Sun Wukong mulled on Su-hyeun's reply before lying down himself, "Sure, whatever. Do what you think is the best."

He didn't seem to have any opinion on Su-hyeun's response.

However, Su-hyeun was grateful for that. Sun Wukong must have been curious, but he didn't try to pry any more than necessary.

Despite bringing it up first, Su-hyeun didn't explain further. Sun Wukong decided that there must be a good reason for that.

"Looks like the weather is improving, Third Brother."

The sky above was initially dark and filled with gloomy clouds, but the weather was clearing up. Bright light broke through the gaps in the clouds, one ray at a time. The weather had been very gloomy, so the light felt somewhat blinding to their eyes.

And so, as they wordlessly stared at the clearing sky...

"What the heck?"

Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong's eyes caught an "object" blocking out the light. Both of them sat up simultaneously without saying anything to each other.

However, Sun Wukong seemed to recognize what it was.. He muttered while looking up, "Oh, hey! That's Buddha's palm."