The Hero Returns

* * *

The Lich King's aim was rather simple…

"By killing all living beings, I shall tear down the boundary between the dead and the living."

And quite horrifying in nature.

Monsters emerging from the dungeons simply went on indiscriminate killing sprees while staying true to their base instincts, but this particular creature followed its set of beliefs.

It was quite a simple-minded theory.

Reviving the dead was so difficult that it was basically an impossibility, but killing the living was incomparably easier. A human would die if a knife stabbed their heart, after all.

This creature wished to become an equal of living humans not by becoming a living being itself, but by killing every single living thing out there.

The god of all the dead.

That sure sounded like an epic title. When Su-hyeun first met the Lich King, he even wondered if the undead creature could really be a god.

This bastard was quite difficult to miss, and his ability to command all the dead with just one word was nothing more than a monster showing off its petty tricks.

But now…

"In the end, it's just another human ability, that's all."

Plop, plop—

One by one, the dead began kneeling before Su-hyeun. They were submitting to him.

He stared at the Lich King. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"So, you're finally here."

The Lich King's face was expressionless, which was to be expected since it didn't have skin or flesh, unlike regular humans. However, even then, Su-hyeun could tell to some degree what the mood and the expression of the undead creature were currently like.

It would certainly not be of "happiness," that's for sure.

When the loyal believers who worshiped you suddenly kneeled before somebody else—a living person at that—you would not feel good as well.

"If you were laying out a trap, you should've done a better job. Who were you planning to catch with such a sloppy little trap back there?" Su-hyeun spoke up.

"That trap wasn't meant for you. If it was, I'd have paid a little more attention to it."

"That attention you're talking about? You better start paying it now," Su-hyeun said while scanning all the undead currently kneeling toward him. "No matter how strong or terrifying you are, in the end, your powers are nothing more than some abilities that a living person used to possess. With only that much, you shouldn't be so arrogant as you are now."

At the end of the day, the Lich King was no better than a human. No, he was worse than a human. He longed for the living so much that he ended up causing events like the current one, after all.

"Your ability didn't belong to you in the first place," said the Lich King in a flat, calm voice. "No, it was my sibling's."

Those words caused the light in Su-hyeun's eyes to brighten up.

The Lich King's sibling—the bastard that had temporarily invaded Roy's body back in the 50th floor's trial.

"Besides, this isn't the full extent of my abilities."

Giii-iiing—

The Lich King raised his hand. At the same time, the kneeling undead began standing back up one by one while letting out creaking noises.

"All these creatures belong to me. Do you truly believe that you could steal away my subjects with such a superficial ability?"

"Well, you aren't wrong about that one."

Su-hyeun and the Lich King both possessed the same types of abilities. Even if that was the case, the latter had been wielding his power far, far longer than the former did.

Not only that, but all the undead summoned here were also souls subjugated by the Lich King himself. Therefore, it was obvious that they would be affected far more by his control rather than Su-hyeun's.

"And that's why I'm relieved."

"What?"

However, Su-hyeun actually welcomed this development.

If his own Necromancer trait exhibited far stronger control over the souls he personally harvested, then…

"Arise."

It meant that all the souls Su-hyeun currently possessed could not be taken over by the Lich King either.

Gu-gugugugu—

The ground began rocking violently.

Something absolutely massive was writhing beneath the surface. It was as if an earthquake was breaking the ground.

Not too long after that, the thing responsible for it was fully revealed.

Kwa-duk, kwa-booooom—!

Kii-aaaah—!

A massive head that emerged from below overturned the earth. The entrance of the Ouroboros boasted its breadth of dozens of meters and body length that was seemingly enough to pierce the heavens above.

"Whoa! What the hell is this?"

Gordon tutted and stared at the newly emerged Ouroboros.

The entrance of the gigantic snake caused hundreds of skeletons trapped underneath it to be crushed flat. More notably, the snake itself wasn't just mere bones anymore. Although it looked emaciated, as if it hadn't eaten in a while, some amount of flesh and hide covered its whole body.

[Dead Summoning]

* Summon a body without a soul. The designated body will not decompose and will be stored away. The number that can be stored will rise with proficiency.

* Depending on your proficiency, you can summon the target's body in a more intact state.

* Proficiency: 43%

* LV: 6

* The number that can be stored: 120

* Application rate: 68%

An application rate of 68% percent.

That was the current effect of the Dead Summoning skill Su-hyeun possessed.

The initial application rate for "Dead Summoning" was only about 40%. With only that much, the summoned undead couldn't even exhibit half of its original strength when it was still alive.

However, the story was much more different now.

Kii-aaaah—!

The summoned Ouroboros now resembled an actual living monster. Just this creature alone wouldn't lose to the undead army of tens of thousands in sheer presence. However, this wasn't even the end.

["Ouroboros's offspring" has been summoned.]

["Cerberus" has been summoned.]

["Hydra" has been summoned.]

["Death Knight" has…]

Dozens of summoned creatures began appearing all around Su-hyeun next. Every single one of them was an existence that could serve as the boss of green- and blue-colored dungeons.

Su-hyeun spoke up, "I guess this qualifies as turning the table, right?"

Crunch, crush—

BOOM—!

The undead army of tens of thousands was rapidly crushed to powder.

The Lich King looked at the army he had called out. For sure, the current number seemed far too inadequate.

"Turning the table, you said?"

The "Dead Summoning."

He had no idea that Su-hyeun could also wield that power.

The Lich King hurriedly moved his hands. He drew a large circle as big as himself in mid-air and then rapidly laid out a magic circle within it.

Paaang—!

Giiii-iiiing—

The magic circle began activating. Almost at the same time, Lichs with a similar appearance as himself started appearing one by one from all directions.

Soon, the number of Lichs that showed up in this manner reached several hundred. These monsters had emerged with the Lich King from the indigo-colored dungeon earlier.

Not only that…

Kiii-aaaah—!

Krrrrr—

Howls resounded out from the skies above.

Su-hyeun raised his head to discover five dragons flying in toward his location while spitting out black flames out of their maws. They were Bone Dragons that were roughly similar to what Herrels had commanded back then.

The Lich King quipped, "In that case, I guess this qualifies as turning the already turned table."

The overall number of the undead army had shot up much greater than before. It seemed that the Lich King had summoned all of the undead armies dispersed throughout the state of California to their location.

To top it all off, even the Lichs that had spread out to the rest of the United States of America had gathered back in that spot as well. Even the most powerful undead the Lich King commanded, the Bone Dragons, had been summoned.

With that, his entire army had assembled.

Su-hyeun looked at Gordon and asked, "Can you still fight?"

Gordon looked around himself in confusion before asking back. "Were you speaking to me just now?"

"If it's not you, who else could I have been talking to?"

"Oh, I didn't know because you were spouting something preposterous. Of course, I can."

Although Gordon was acting all tough, he was already in a heavily exhausted state. He had to use a skill powerful enough to penetrate through the Lich King's barrier, so it was no wonder that he ended up spending a massive amount of his magical energy reserve.

Despite that, Gordon still held formidable war potential. He could still fight on if he had a little bit of magical energy or stamina remaining.

"I'm not asking you to do any more than…" Su-hyeun pointed at the Bone Dragons attacking his Ouroboros and continued, "To bring those dragons down."

"Okay."

"I'll leave it to you, then."

After leaving those words behind, Su-hyeun dashed toward the Lich King. The latter watched him instantly close up their distance and snapped his bony fingers.

Snap—

[Hellfire]

Ruuumble, pa-pa-pang—!

Pitch-black flames exploded in front of Su-hyeun's flight path.

The flames were summoned directly from the depths of hell itself, and the Lich King only needed to snap his fingers to activate the most powerful spell within the fire magic class.

Fwoooosh—

Su-hyeun readily evaded the flames and flew up by activating "Leap." The Lich King chuckled softly and raised his head to stare at Su-hyeun. "Were you surprised by that?"

Snap—

Ruuuumble—

Reddish-black flames began swirling around the Lich King, and then, as if they were living things, began writhing around and coalescing into a gigantic mass.

"A true god should have enough powers to rule over the world all by himself. Did you take me for a mere dark magician capable of only commanding the undead?"

Ruuumble—

Giiii-aaaah—!

The flames gathered as one and formed a massive silhouette right above the Lich King's head.

It was a monster with two giant horns and a face that resembled that of a dragon. It was an existence that could legitimately be considered as the top dog within the dark magic's branch of summoning arts—a creature referred to as the demon king in some worlds, the Balrog.

Su-hyeun patted away the burning flames on his body. These licks of fire didn't want to disappear and remained on him, but his hands still managed to quickly put them out.

The flames might be gone, but the stifling heat still caused his body to feel numb. The Hellfire the Lich King brought to life was on a completely different realm compared to those used by other Lichs.

"It would have been dangerous if I entered there," Su-hyeun thought.

If he dashed in a little deeper, he could have been swallowed up by the Balrog summoned from the flames of hell.

Su-hyeun recognized the fact that he had acted too rashly out of all the urgency he felt and calmed his mind. Then, he began enveloping himself with skills one after another.

[Indomitable Body]

[Spirit's Grace]

[Armor of the Mage]

[Sky King's Feather]

[Reflect]

Giiii-iiing—

Layers of skills enveloped Su-hyeun's surroundings. At the same time, his figure flew straight toward the Balrog's mouth.

"What an idiotic…"

Witnessing that sight, the Lich King became somewhat flustered, but he quickly roused up even more vicious magical energy through his hands.

The Balrog he had summoned was an existence that lived inside the flames of hell, but Su-hyeun had dashed straight toward such a creature's face.

Without a doubt, his body would melt away the moment he touched the monster.

Fwoosh—!

Su-hyeun dove straight into the flames exploding from the Balrog's maw. As the Lich King looked on, he thought that the battle would come to an end quite soon.

He didn't believe that a human would be able to survive inside that hellish fire.

Unfortunately…

Stab, stab—

Kah-aaaaaah—!

What resounded soon after was the Balrog's screams instead.

The stunned Lich King quickly fixed his gaze on the Balrog's head. The creature had closed both of its pitch-black eyes and shook its head about in great distress.

"Isn't that…?" the Lich King suspected quietly.

A spear and a sword were stabbed into the Balrog's eyes.

Not only was Su-hyeun not dead, but he even stabbed the monster in the eyes. A blink later, his figure flashed before the Lich King's nose.

"…!"

To think that this human would stupidly break through such flames with his own body. That was truly a stupendous level of magic resistance.

Only then did the Lich King notice all the skills currently surrounding Su-hyeun, as well as the armor he was wearing.

"This unsophisticated…!" the Lich King thought.

Grit—

The Lich King gave up on suppressing Su-hyeun now that the distance between them had narrowed down too much and instead strengthened his barrier even further.

It was the absolute protective barrier that would never break unless the entire undead army had been defeated. Not only that, but Su-hyeun also didn't possess a skill that had an overwhelming destructive power like that of Gordon Rohan.

But then, right at that moment…

Split—

Giiii-iiiing—

A third eye opened up on Su-hyeun's forehead.

[Third Eye - Neutralization]

A gigantic magical power began devouring the barrier cast around the Lich King.

It was only for a brief moment, but a hole opened up in the barrier. Its protective effects were gradually disappearing because of the "neutralization" skill.

"My magic, it's…!"

Something far tougher than casting magic was canceling his magic spell. The Lich King was referred to as the one who attained the pinnacle of magic once upon a time, so naturally, he couldn't believe that someone actually managed to cancel his magic despite just witnessing it so clearly.

"Surprised?"

Whoosh—

And through the open gap of the barrier, Su-hyeun's fist rapidly flew in.

Smash—!