The Hero Returns

"Dammit. Just what is going on here?"

"A crap like this…We should just destroy it first and—"

Just as a handful of awakeners were about to use their skills against the magic circle that emitted light on the ground…

"You mustn't!"

A familiar voice reached their ears, and then, a man walked out from the slum's green-colored dungeon.

It was Adel.

"Hey, isn't that Adel Castle?"

"We mustn't do it?"

"Does he want us to leave this thing be?"

"What kind of nonsense is he…?"

Everyone's gaze landed on Adel. Completely not caring about that, he emerged fully outside the portal and resolutely shook his head. "If you touch the magic circle carelessly, everyone might be endangered and—!"

Swoosh—

Grab—!

Someone had suddenly dashed forward at a speed so fast that he couldn't be seen with naked eyes.

It was none other than Su-hyeun.

He instantly grabbed Adel's throat and, almost at the same time, lifted the latter up and slammed him hard on the ground.

Boom—!

Keo-heok!

Adel's body bucked.

The impact was severe enough for his entire body to spasm. The hard concrete floor split apart from the force, so even if this was Adel, he shouldn't be unaffected by what happened just now.

Su-hyeun spoke first. "I held back just now, so stop exaggerating."

Cough, cough!

"Hold on, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Why, without a warning…?"

The awakeners in the vicinity watched as Adel coughed out blood and gasped out in shock. They all knew the bad blood between the two men but to resort to violence straightaway like this?

"W—what… is the meaning of…?"

"I wasn't trying to do anything out of line here."

Su-hyeun lifted his knee as he replied, his hand still gripping Adel's throat.

Crunch—!

"Euh…Aaaaaahk!"

"Stop squirming and be still. And don't try anything stupid."

He slammed his knee down on Adel's thigh, causing the man to scream out loud. His thigh had been instantly crushed from the force.

Su-hyeun looked down at Adel who was moaning in pain below him and scanned his surroundings.

All of the awakeners had fallen silent. If he happened to be someone else, they would have stepped forward to dissuade him and hear what's going on first, but this was Su-hyeun they were facing right now.

Not only could they not see an opening to step up, but no one present was capable of subduing him in the first place.

More importantly, though, they had also been thinking that there was something clearly wrong with their current situation.

"Let me make one thing clear before anything else," Su-hyeun's voice resounded clearly. "All of you must've heard the news by now, that our current situation has been deliberately caused by someone. Someone used a hypnosis-related skill to kill everyone in the dungeon management agency and made sure that the dungeons wouldn't be located on time."

"There was something like that?"

"I did get the message. It's all over the news as well."

"Not many people believe that, though…"

"But it's strange, isn't it? It's not just one or two, but this many? And they were all undetected at the same time?"

"Then, was it Adel Castle's doing?"

A few quick-witted awakeners figured out what Su-hyeun was implying here.

However…

"But where's the proof?"

Their suspicion was understandable.

Unlike Su-hyeun, they couldn't see the dead. Therefore, they couldn't see the souls of the people who were murdered by Adel Castle nor hear their voices.

On top of this, none of these awakeners even knew about Su-hyeun's attribute.

"Proving it can wait until we get out of here first."

But right then, they heard a voice they weren't expecting. It belonged to a pale-faced man standing among the awakeners.

It was Daian Gedeck.

"I got the text message and came here wondering what's going on, but well, an interesting event has gone down, hasn't it?"

"Daian Gedeck?"

"Why did a guy who doesn't normally step up…?"

Daian Gedeck as an awakener was famous for avoiding working in the open. He rarely interacted with other people and did his absolute best not to get involved in public events.

That was why Germany had become quite noisy with the news of Daian Gedeck planning to participate in the Ranking Wars.

To think that a man like that stepped forward without anyone asking him.

"Well, there was this thing I witnessed, you see. I'd like to share that with everyone here if you don't mind."

"Share?"

"What does he mean by that?"

Just as everyone was confused by his announcement…

[Grudge of the Dead]

Daian Gedeck activated his skill.

Shu-wuwu—

When that happened, a certain scene brushed past the minds of everyone present. It was from a memory containing the grudges of dead people.

Isn't this…

No way, seriously?

Originally, "Grudge of the Dead" was a mind-related skill designed to unsettle the mentality of one's opponent. However, for this moment at least, Daian Gedeck used the skill to share a specific memory.

In their heads, they all watched a part of Adel's memories where he was hypnotizing some people. At the same time, his voice also entered their minds.

"Match the dates of the Ranking Wars and conceal the existence of all the dungeons hidden from the public view. Also, the moment the first dungeon outbreak occurs, you will end your own lives."

The moment those memories were shared, no further explanations were needed.

The reason why Su-hyeun subdued Adel became instantly clear.

"Well, you will get a more concrete proof by comparing Adel Castle's magical energy signature to the traces of magical energy lingering in the crime scene. Wouldn't you agree, friend?" Daian Gedeck said as he looked at Su-hyeun.

Unlike Su-hyeun's first impression, Daian seemed to be a pretty outgoing person after all.

Su-hyeun smirked and nodded his head. Thanks to the German, he didn't have to waste his energy explaining the situation to these folks anymore.

Pu-heuh, heheheh…

Right then, Adel, with his face buried on the ground suddenly, began chuckling.

His laughter sounded as if he had lost his mind. It was also definitely not the kind of laughter one would make after being pointed out as the worst criminal there was, accused of masterminding the dungeon outbreaks.

"What the heck? Did he go insane?"

"That's not all that surprising, is it? If what we saw was true, then he's basically thrown away everything he had worked for until now."

"No, wait. Isn't he worthy of execution, at least? You can't imprison an awakener of his level, but if you leave him be, who knows what other insane things he will resort to in the future?"

The whisperings from the surroundings caused Adel's laughter to stop abruptly. And then, with great difficulty, he raised his head and lifted his body off the ground with both of his hands. A wide grin unfitting his current situation was etched on his lips.

"Well, it doesn't matter now. Because…" Adel snickered insidiously. "We are all going to die here today."

"We're all going to die?"

"That insane son of a—"

"He's definitely insane. Is he saying that because of this magic circle?"

"A mere magic circle created by a swordsman…"

Adel's reactions so far led the other awakeners to believe that the activated magic circle was created by him.

They were slightly flustered at first, but they didn't feel that the magic circle itself was particularly dangerous.

Even the level of magical power they could sense from it was minuscule. And since Adel, who is clearly not a magic-type awakener, had created it, they all thought that the magic circle couldn't have been that powerful.

Unfortunately…

"What the hell? I can't erase it?"

"Just use force to break it, then…"

"It's not breaking!"

"Damn it!"

Boom, ka-boom—!

Explosion noises came from everywhere.

The crowd had two options: either erase the magic circle emitting the faint light on the ground or disable it entirely through a powerful impact.

However, neither of the options worked. The magic circle was sturdier than they expected.

Not only that…

"I feel like my strength…It's—"

"You too?"

"I feel the same here. I think this is…"

"Vitality" was slowly being drained from the awakeners' bodies.

Vitality was the natural power of life itself—one with different characteristics from magical energy. Even though the amount was considered little, "power" was gradually seeping out of them.

"All of you…will die. Except me, that is," said Adel, sniggering.

"Kill that bastard right now!"

"You gotta undo the magic circle!"

Once the awakeners realized that they couldn't break the magic circle, they were soon consumed by panic.

At this rate, they would die after all of their strengths were stolen away. Since Adel Castle, the creator of the magic circle, was already before their eyes, they thought of threatening him to undo the magic circle somehow.

"This guy didn't create this magic circle, so everyone calm down," Su-hyeun said before raising his hand toward the crowd rushing toward Adel.

At the same time, the chilling light in his eyes flickered, causing the bodies of the awakeners to freeze up. Even though it lasted for a blink of an eye, they all felt a spine-chilling sensation just then.

He continued on, "Nothing will change whether or not you kill this guy here."

"But that bastard called us all over here, didn't he?!"

"Well, it's true that this punk was responsible for this crisis, but I'm pretty sure that Adel didn't create this magic circle."

"What are you talking about?"

The awakeners all formed puzzled expressions at Su-hyeun's words.

He didn't reply immediately. They should find out soon enough, anyway.

Instead of that…

"Let's see…"

Buzzzz—

Su-hyeun concentrated a considerable amount of magical energy to his fist. Then, he bent down and punched the ground hard.

KA-BOOOOM—!

Rumble, creak—

The magic circle quaked greatly.

Although small, a crack even appeared on the ground as well—evidence of the magic circle's power breaking.

Adel who was grinning until then immediately froze up.

Su-hyeun looked down at the cracked ground and muttered, "As expected, it's pretty tough."

"You will never destroy it from the inside!" Adel roared.

"There's no such thing as 'never.' If it's only this much, I can definitely break it given some time. If you don't believe me, should I show it to you again?"

Grit—

Adel gritted his teeth.

Despite what he said, he realized one thing from the force's impact earlier—if Su-hyeun continued to pound away at the magic circle, then sooner or later, it would shatter into bits.

However…

"You will all die before that!"

That ultimately didn't matter.

"No, wait. You probably won't die. But what about everyone else here? They will all die for sure, wouldn't you agree?"

"Well yeah, that might be true…"

Su-hyeun was unexpectedly calm in his reply.

It only made Adel even more anxious. He knew full well that Su-hyeun wasn't the type to take it easy just because he would be able to survive all by himself.

"That is, if it's from the inside," Su-hyeun continued.

"What was that?"

"Magic circles of this type all have one characteristic in common. You see, magic circles that display its effects after trapping its victims inside are all very weak against impact coming from the outside."

What Su-hyeun said was true, and everyone who was present also knew that.

An awakener enjoying a certain level of skill would already possess some basic knowledge of magic circles because only by having so would they find a way to respond while going through magic-related trials.

"So what if you know that? What can you do?"

Obviously, Adel didn't find anything impressive about what Su-hyeun said.

Theoretically, he was right. But that was only when standing on the outside; Su-hyeun was currently trapped inside the magic circle.

Even if he possessed the skills necessary to destroy the magic circle and go outside on his own, he would still waste quite a lot of time doing that.

"I can do this," Su-hyeun said before he raised his head.

The sky above, obscured by the magic circle's effects, looked reddish. Everyone followed Su-hyeun's gaze and looked up. And at that moment…

"A dragon…?"

They all saw the blurry figure of a gigantic dragon beyond the magic circle.

Su-hyeun smirked after seeing that and said, "Destroy it."

His voice shouldn't have gotten across. Nonetheless, the giant dragon instantly opened its mouth the moment those words were uttered.

[Breath]