The Hero Returns

Sun Wukong shot up from the hospital bed when he heard Su-hyeun say they would find the Bull Demon King.

But then, he collapsed right back on the bed and screamed in agony. His entire body was hurting, he said.

He could at least talk without a problem right now, thanks to his monstrous regenerative power. Even so, his injuries were so severe that he shouldn't even be able to lift a finger.

So, this was an unsurprising result.

"Let's get going after a few days' rest, Third Brother."

Of course, Sun Wukong vehemently opposed Su-hyeun's suggestion.

He loudly announced that he could get going right away, then asked if the Bull Demon King's location had been found for real.

He was so noisy that, never mind the room he was in, even the corridor outside and the rooms next to his could hear what he was shouting about.

After a vocal back-and-forth, the two of them finally came to an agreement.

"Just one more day. Let's rest for one more day before setting off, Third Brother."

When Su-hyeun suggested that, Sun Wukong looked conflicted but eventually nodded his head.

The Monkey King was known for his stubborn side, but even he knew how poor his condition was right now.

If he insisted on moving now, he might end up as a burden should something unexpected happen later.

"Fuu-aaah—" Su-hyeun came outside the hospital and sighed before heading toward a certain famous island located off the coast of San Francisco. "Man, that was harder than actually fighting him."

Sun Wukong's legendary stubbornness lived up to its reputation.

Su-hyeun needed over two hours to talk him down. Another four days of rest and healing were necessary for Sun Wukong to get back on his feet, yet he wanted to get going right away.

In the end, even Su-hyeun couldn't win and had to compromise for one day's rest, but still…

"No way he can move around normally with his current condition," he thought.

Sun Wukong should be able to move and run around with one day's rest, at least. He might be strong enough to swing around Ruyi Jingu Bang if he didn't care about worsening the state of his injuries.

It seemed that there was no choice but to somehow improve Sun Wukong's physical condition as much as possible in one day.

Tap, tap—

Su-hyeun tested the ground with his foot. Although uneven, the soil seemed tough enough.

As for the buildings in the surroundings, they had all collapsed to rubble a long time ago.

This was Alcatraz.

This island used to be a large prison complex in the distant past. However, the Lich King showed up to murder every person found in this place. Now, this whole island was utterly deserted.

Thanks to that event, Su-hyeun got himself a private space not too far off the city of San Francisco where he could do whatever he wanted.

"Renting out" this place wasn't too difficult, either. Su-hyeun was swimming in the pile of money, after all. Buying an abandoned island or two wasn't even worth sweating over for him.

"One day left, huh?"

He didn't have a lot of free time.

"It might be barely enough to raise my proficiency to where I like it to be."

Su-hyeun came here for the past few days while Sun Wukong was still unconscious. There was only one reason for that, though.

Shu-shushushu…

Black aura began spreading all around him.

He needed to keep testing his newly acquired power in this deserted place.

"Come out."

Shu-ruru…

Two summons appeared from Su-hyeun's shadow.

They were Prince Nezha and Kali. Their eyes, without irises, stared at Su-hyeun.

He couldn't summon Gyges on a small island such as this one. Besides, he wasn't trying to have a serious fight anyway, so these two were more than suitable for his goal.

"Start attacking me from now on."

Prince Nezha and Kali got into position.

Su-hyeun's Death Aura stat and application rate had all gone up relatively high, meaning both of these summons boasted a strength level similar to a mid-tier Predator ranked among the Ten Great Evils. Not to forget, Kali was originally a Ten Great Evils Predator, to begin with.

Su-hyeun then modified the command a bit more.

"With the intention of killing me."

The moment he said that, the Yogoe Slaying Sword came flying in and split Su-hyeun's figure in half.

Kwa-jajajajajak—!

However, that was just a trick of the eye.

The only thing that split apart was the ground beneath.

Snick—

What happened was that the black energy current enveloping him had easily repelled the Yogoe Slaying Sword.

Was it because the application rate had improved?

Even before Su-hyeun had noticed it, the Yogoe Slaying Sword was coated in Kali's blood. Without being told what to do, the two summons worked in sync and combined their abilities to fight.

They had come up with this method all by themselves.

"Does this mean the higher the application rate, the greater the scalability of their intelligence?"

Somewhat unexpectedly, Su-hyeun learned something new about the summons created through his Necromancer trait.

"Well, that's not what I was looking for in the first place."

The Yogoe Rending Saber was now in Kali's grip.

The crimson-hued currents flooded the surroundings, and then dozens of hands made of blood floated up seemingly everywhere.

One of those hands was wielding Prince Nezha's weapon, the Yogoe Beating Mace. It was the same story for the Wind Fire Wheel.

Prince Nezha, who controlled six different weapons, and Kali, who possessed absolute authority over blood, combined their assault to rain down on Su-hyeun.

Splaaaatter, ka-boom—!

Brrrrrrr—

The entire island of Alcatraz rumbled and quaked.

The island's defensive durability had already been reinforced through magic circles. Even so, there was always going to be a limit to how much abuse it could withstand.

The whole world seemed to be rumbling as if it was the apocalypse. Huge waves swelled up in the surrounding ocean, too. Meanwhile, the skies turned blood-red in color as tornadoes of blood danced around.

And in the middle of all this mayhem…

"It can block this much, huh?"

Only the spot Su-hyeun stood on remained completely fine.

"Feels like I've gotten more used to it now."

His proficiency over the newly acquired energy had gone up significantly. However, the method of controlling this energy turned out to be something he didn't reasonably expect.

"To think that this energy is based on Demonic Aura…"

The Demonic Aura was the name given to the stat Su-hyeun acquired after defeating Fafnir. However, he hadn't found a way to utilize that stat until now.

He knew how to utilize this stat but hadn't felt a need to go out of his way to use it. For one thing, the Demonic Aura stat was too insignificant and useless compared to all the other energy types Su-hyeun currently possessed.

However, somewhat unexpectedly, the Demonic Aura was connected to the new authority he gained after devouring Osiris through Predation.

The black energy current swirling around Osiris was none other than a version of Demonic Aura.

"I've finished testing out its defenses, so…"

Su-hyeun decided to change the usage of the black energy current.

"From now on, let's focus on attacking."

His goal changed. To match that, the black energy protecting his body from the combined attacks of Prince Nezha and Kali began stretching out in all directions.

Riiiip—!

The Demonic Aura extending from Su-hyeun's figure began devouring Kali's blood current flooding the surroundings.

The Demonic Aura that possessed a tangible physical form split into thousands, tens of thousands, no, countless tentacles to attack Kali and Nezha from every direction.

Spliiiit—!

Riiip, splat—!

Prince Nezha's Wind Fire Wheel defended against the Demonic Aura, while Kali's blood spun around in a whirlpool to push away the incoming Demonic Aura.

The strength of these two summons was noticeably stronger than in the past. In the case of Kali, her application rate was around 80 percent, which meant she exhibited almost the same level of power from back when she was still alive.

Even then…

Stab, stab, stab, stab—!

Driiiip—

Dozens upon dozens of holes appeared on the bodies of Nezha and Kali.

This resulted from their failure to block only a tiny portion of the black energy tentacles, which numbered in the hundreds of millions.

"Well, that's not too bad, I guess," Su-hyeun faintly grinned. But then, he corrected himself with a small whisper, "No, wait, this is actually great."

Great, he said.

Indeed, it was an extraordinary ability—one that could both defend and attack. Not only were both options available to him at any given moment, but he didn't even have to move from the spot.

Everything was unrestricted and limited to only his imagination, from its area of effect to its defensive capabilities, its killing power, and even its ability to change its shape.

"Then, the problem I have now is…"

Shu-shushu…

Su-hyeun scanned the surroundings that were quickly getting brighter.

His Demonic Aura reserve ran out rather quickly. Using this much power ended up depleting the reserve in only a matter of minutes.

However, that didn't matter since the Demonic Aura was different from the other energy reserves Su-hyeun relied on most of the time. He still had magical energy as well as Death Aura, after all.

Still, he did feel a bit rueful about how short the duration was.

"Well, it's not like I can do anything about it in the meantime."

Su-hyeun stared at the ruined figures of Nezha and Kali currently collapsed on the ground, then canceled their summoning.

He then turned around to head back to San Francisco.

<hr />

After returning to his lodging, the first thing Su-hyeun did was to shower.

The day was drawing to a close already. By sunrise tomorrow morning, he needed to leave to find the Bull Demon King.

Although it wouldn't be for long, he decided to enjoy a much-needed rest for the time being. This was definitely not a sign of idleness on his part but more like a type of mental leeway.

Shwa-aaaah—

"I wonder if First Brother is doing well."

None other than the Bull Demon King taught Su-hyeun about taking a break.

While enjoying the warm water falling on his body, Su-hyeun slowly closed his eyes.

He took his time washing himself off, then lay down on the bed of San Francisco's most expensive hotel.

The room was far too big for him to use alone. He said there was no need for such a luxurious room, but Gordon Rohan insisted that one needed a lodging befitting their status.

Su-hyeun confirmed the time through an expensive-looking antique clock mounted on the wall. It was only nine in the evening.

"Let's just turn in early."

It had been a while since he enjoyed a long slumber, so he thought he might as well do it now.

He closed his eyes, and sleep came to him soon enough.

However, the problem began as soon as he fell asleep.

<hr />

Su-hyeun was definitely aware that he should be asleep.

He was normally like that. His sharply attuned senses always checked every little thing happening around him, even during his sleep, allowing him to choose what to do about it.

But the current event was a bit different from that.

"What the hell is going on here?"

His eyes were wide open. He lifted his hands, then slowly touched his face.

He could definitely feel his facial skin.

"This isn't a dream, then?"

Only after recognizing this fact did the scenery laid out before his eyes seem significant to him.

It was the sight of the vast universe. Countless stars flickered in the darkness, and the closest one happened to be Earth.

"This is definitely not an ordinary dream…"

He didn't need long to figure out what this scene signified after his drowsiness went away for good.

"Is this what they call Foresight?"

This power was commonly referred to as a gift to look into the future.

It was used interchangeably with another term, "Prescience." Foresight was a powerful authority granted to only an extremely few deities.

Insight was the power of eyes that allowed you to see through the truth of everything. Once one reached the absolute pinnacle of this power, one could start seeing into the future next. This was what happened to Apollo and Master Subhuti.

Su-hyeun had no trouble figuring out that this spectacle laid out before his eyes was an event from sometime in the future.

"Not sure what's going on here, but it sure is pretty, isn't it?"

The universe looked so beautiful.

It didn't matter which famous tourist attraction you talked about. It was nothing more than a mere tiny dot on the planet called Earth.

But take a look at this universe. Its beauty was blinding. Even the Milky Way, commonly seen in the night, was nothing more than a collection of fireflies compared to this spectacle.

"I guess I should thank Insight for letting me see things so vividly."

If his consciousness was not responsible for activating Foresight through his Insight, then maybe this event wasn't supposed to show him a vision of the future.

Su-hyeun felt deeply satisfied that he could vividly witness such beautiful scenery like this.

But then…

[We finally meet.]

Shudder—

Su-hyeun hurriedly looked around at that voice coming from seemingly everywhere. This was not reality but the future seen through his Insight, yet the level of danger he felt right now was the most intense one he had experienced in his entire life.

He couldn't see anything. The universe remained peaceful and so beautiful even now.

"Even so, I didn't just imagine hearing that," he thought.

Not being visible didn't automatically mean something didn't exist.

Even now, that voice still vividly rang within his head, causing his breathing to clog up.

We finally met, it said.

"As if it was waiting for me or something?"

This unknown being finally shattered the long silence to say something else.

[Oh, wait, I was wrong. I see. This is Foresight, isn't it? This is a future that hasn't happened for you, and you are a being from the past.]

A hint of amusement was contained within the voice.

Su-hyeun failed to locate the source of this voice and had to ask in the end, "Just who are you?"

One thing was for sure. This was the future that would definitely happen to him sooner or later. It also meant that he would get to meet the owner of this ominous voice.

The voice answered Su-hyeun's question.

[I shall pray that you remember the answer to your question as soon as possible..]