The Hero Returns

Act 6

Gu-wuwuwung-

KA-BOOOOOM-!

A thunderous noise echoed through the forest. It was the sound of the struggling, howling Titan Turtle finally falling to its side.

"Fuu-woo- Now that was tough."

No longer feeling tense, Su-hyeun, still stuck inside the Titan Turtle's shell, used the back of his hand to wipe away the blood and sweat caked to his forehead. It sure had been a while since the last time he had to focus so much in a fight against a single monster.

How fortunate that he knew a way to kill this creature. Otherwise, things wouldn't have gone so smoothly.

<< It would've been far harder for dragons to kill this thing. >>

The best way to fight a Titan Turtle was to use blunt weapons. Swords were the next best thing, if you insisted on it. And the worst thing you could do was to indiscriminately pour magical attacks at it.

Meaning, no other creature would be as fearful to a dragon as a Titan Turtle.

Gya-ong, gya-oh-ohng-

It was then that the fatigued-looking Miru began flying toward the Titan Turtle's carcass. The red dragon looked quite excited about something.

Su-hyeun quietly stared at Miru. His dragon had been excited about something ever since the Titan Turtle appeared.

<< Is he going under the shell? >>

Miru slid inside the Titan Turtle's shell, where Su-Hyeun had just been. He followed the dragon back inside. Underneath the shell was a mess of blood and flesh, with the Titan Turtle's severed head slumped over, unmoving.

"Talk about stink," Su-hyeun muttered with a frown while looking for Miru. Thankfully, the dragon wasn't far away.

Gya-ohng, gya-ong-!

Miru cried in Su-hyeun's direction while tapping on the side wall of the shell with the horn on its head.

"You want me to break that?"

Gya-ong-

After hearing Miru's reply, Su-hyeun pulled out Balmung, which he had sheathed just a few minutes before. The job at hand still wasn't easy due to the toughness of the shell, but at least the Titan Turtle wasn't alive and rampaging around, so it was a bit more manageable.

He pounded on the shell for a few minutes on the spot Miru pointed at and it began breaking apart, bit by bit. A short while later….

<< Uh? >>

Su-hyeun discovered a fist-sized reddish marble stuck within the inner part of the shell.

"Is that the Cintamani??"

Su-hyeun's hands moved even quicker.

Clang, claaaang-!

He continued to break the Titan Turtle's tough shell down, but in a far more cautious manner, as if he was working on a precious jewel. If this marble was really the Cintamani, then he had to be extra careful not to leave even a small nick.

<< It's done. >>

For the next hour or so, Su-hyeun worked carefully at extracting the red marble embedded in the monster's shell. He then cautiously brought it near Miru.

"Hey, Miru. Is this really the Cintamani?"

Growl, grooowl-

Miru stared at the red marble Su-hyeun brought before its nose. And then…

Chomp-

….It bit down on the marble.

Rumble-

Rays of light exploded out from the marble, brightly illuminated the dark interior of the Titan Turtle's shell.

* * *

It had been three days since Su-hyeun and Miru departed for the Cintanami Forest.

There hadn't been any news about them so far. Just like always, Karne stared outside the window of the castle while holding a teacup.

"Can you even see anything while doing that?"

Karne turned his head after hearing the voice from behind him. An uninvited guest, Blanc, was sipping tea, just like him. The latter had barged in without warning, saying that he had some good tea with him and personally brewed it for the both of them.

"Of course, I can," Karne replied.

"Makes sense. I heard that orange-colored dragons can see and sense things the rest of us can't. Tales of a world far removed from mine."

Blanc chuckled while saying that and started sipping on his tea again. Fitting for his unfathomable age, he sounded like he had done everything there was to do in this world.

Even though they were quite close in age, Karne still couldn't understand Blanc.

"Why did you come here today?" Karne asked. "Blanc, I know that you're not my biggest fan."

"Indeed. So you do know."

"So?"

"It's just that I'd like to know more about the future of our species you have envisioned."

"I've heard that question dozens of times by now. Even now, do you still see me as a selfish bastard who only lives for himself and not for the rest of our people?"

"Well, that's not really being selfish. But that doesn't mean I accept your actions to belittle the sacrifices our ancestors made for our sake."

"You're still going on about that? Just how much do you distrust me?"

"You already know this, don't you?" Blanc put the teacup down, the light in his eyes sharpening in an instant. "That they're not the type to do what you said they did."

"….I witnessed this all myself."

"No." Blanc shook his head. "You were also in hibernation, just like me."

"Looks like there's no need to talk about this any further, as it's the same story as before."

Karne shook his head, no longer interested in talking, and turned his body away.

But then, Blanc said something different from what had had said in the past. "A red dragon has returned."

"…"

"And now, it only needs to recover the Cintamani. Then…. we can take this world back."

Karne's expression hardened. The Cintamani—Blanc brought up something he'd forgotten about long ago.

"Is that the reason why you've been waiting for the red dragons?" Karne asked.

"Well, that's not the only reason, but…"

"The Cintamani is long gone." Killing intent spread out from Karne's eyes. "And the red dragon will definitely die."

"Karne!!"

"It doesn't matter what you say, my decision, and the end result, will not change."

"Even if you're telling the truth, you can't destroy our future because of your personal feeli….."

Blanc couldn't finish his sentence. He fell silent when he saw Karne's face suddenly change as he stared out the window.

Seeing Karne stiffen, Blanc began grinning widely, instead. "Looks like they've returned."

Karne.

Out of the current crop of surviving orange-colored dragons, he was easily the oldest of the bunch. He could see and feel what other dragons couldn't.

And so…

He could see Su-hyeun and Miru approaching the city from afar.

* * *

Tap-

When they arrived in the city, Su-hyeun lightly leaped off from Miru's back.

"Nice work."

Gya-ong-

Miru formed a conceited expression and spun his head away, causing Su-hyeun to softly chuckle to himself. Having been around this still-young dragon for a while now, he thought he could roughly figure out the meaning behind the expressions Miru was making these days.

His expression, in human language, would be similar to "That was nothing."

But Su-hyeun's expression hardened right away. This wasn't a situation he could just smile through, after all.

"Alright, then. Now, let's see…."

Shu-wuwuwu-

An incredible amount of magical energy began pouring out from Su-hyeun's body as he stood before the city. This was the absolute limit of all the energy he could emit in one go.

The moment the gigantic magical energy enveloped the entire city, he raised his foot.

Swoooosh-

Booooom-!

His foot stomp rocked the whole city.

The rocking would gradually weaken as it reached the opposite ends of the city, but, still, it would be enough to alert every dragon to his arrival.

Su-hyeun finished his declaration of war and softly muttered to no one in particular. "Hurry up and gather."

A short while later.

Swish, swiiiish-

Shuwuwuwu-

Dragons above yellow grade recognized Su-hyeun's signal and quickly began appearing, one by one. He murmured to himself. "As expected, they're pretty fast."

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Dragons that sensed the gigantic magical energy shaking the entire city grew deeply wary of Su-hyeun. He had sworn to hunt the demonic beasts down, yet he caused such a commotion as soon as he came back. They found it hard to understand the situation.

<< About thirty of them. >>

Su-hyeun swept his gaze on the dragons surrounding him. Only the high-ranking ones had shown up so far, and, somewhat surprisingly, Karne and Blanc appeared at the exact same time. They must've been near each other before Su-hyeun arrived.

More dragons were pouring out from the deeper parts of the city as they sensed the unfolding situation. Once their numbers ballooned some more, Su-hyeun addressed them. "Alright, then. Please wait a little while longer until everyone's here."

"You want us to wait?"

"Wait for what?"

"The first thing he says after causing such a commotion is telling us to wait….?"

"But did that human really cause the commotion just now all by himself? I thought it was an army of demonic beasts invading us or something."

The dragons, flustered by Su-hyeun's words, began murmuring among themselves. Rather than the 'let's wait' bit, the massive magical energy they sensed in front of the city concerned them even more.

<< Did this guy really do that just now? >>

Blanc's own expression wasn't all that different from everyone else's.

Enough magical energy capable of sending a shockwave throughout the city. Although he suspected this human was someone amazing, he never expected him to have power of this magnitude

Like the other dragons, Blanc, too, would've mistakenly believed that the demonic beasts were invading if he had no prior knowledge of Su-hyeun's return.

"Just what are you up to?" Karne shouted out the question.

"…"

"Answer me! How will you explain this hostility you're directing towards us?!"

The continued questioning prompted Su-hyeun's to open his closed eyes and stare straight at Karne. The gathered dragon began making puzzled expressions.

"Hostility?"

"What are you talking about, Sir Karne?"

"Sure, he caused a commotion, but I can't sense any hostility from this human at all…."

Only after hearing them did Karne sense that something was off.

They couldn't sense his hostility?

From the moment he first returned until now, Su-hyeun had been clearly displaying his hostile aura toward Karne. The aura was so thick that, at a casual glance, it bordered on pure killing intent.

<< Can it be? It's not that they can't sense it, but…. >>

Karne stared back at Su-hyeun. Then he finally realized that the human had been glaring just at him until now.

<< He's only baring his hostility at me? >>

Indeed, Su-hyeun's hostility wasn't directed at everyone. Su-hyeun was baring his fangs toward Karne alone. The moment he realized that fact, the orange-colored dragon's expression crumpled to an unbelievable degree.

"How dare a sh*tty little human…."

He even ended up muttering an expletive, after momentarily forgetting his station.

One thought consumed Karne's mind, ever since he realized that Su-hyeun's fangs were only bared at him.

"You think I'm an easy mark?"

It was about how Su-hyeun was looking down on him. But another thought entered his head, not too long after that.

<< Why is he…? >>

The human didn't seem the type to become hostile for no reason at all. There was nothing to gain by doing that, and, more importantly, such an action could harm the red dragon hatchling right next to him.

When Su-hyeun said the red dragon was his child, he had sounded completely genuine. And that was probably why he risked his life to fight against the demonic beasts. As such, he'd never do something that might harm the red dragon.

But, flipping that around, however, meant…

<< Everything he does is for the sake of that red dragon?? >>

When he reached that conclusion, Karne felt a deathly chill run down his spine.

Not his head, but his instincts were telling him this—that what was going to happen from that point on would not go well for him.

"H-hurry up and bring that bastard down!!" Karne yelled in an urgent voice. "He's trying to oppose our kind! Most likely, the demonic beasts are controlling him to attack us!"

"Eh, what?!"

"Sir, what are you even….?"

"Hurry the hell up!!"

Despite knowing what he said was utter gibberish, he nevertheless stubbornly persisted.

Just as the other dragons grew restless from sheer confusion, Su-hyeun finally opened his mouth to speak. "I guess enough dragons have gathered now."

Not just the yellows, but the green, blue, navy, and even the purple-colored dragons had gathered. At a casual count, over three hundred of them were present. He could safely say that well over half of the dragons remaining in the city had shown up.

"In that case, right now…." Su-hyeun pulled out a red marble from his inner pocket. "Let's get all the secrets out in the open, shall we?"

The next second…

The noisy dragons suddenly shut up, their full attention focused on the red marble resting in Su-hyeun's hand—the Cintamani.