The Hero Returns

Chapter 396: Chapter 396

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"They left, mom."

After Su-hyeun and his two companions vanished, a humongous tree appeared and loomed over the so-called false World Tree.

However, the appearance of this tree was rather strange. Unlike any other tree, it didn't have a conventional trunk, not a single branch, and not one leaf adorning it anywhere.

It was as if a person had turned into a tree or maybe it was the other way around. This strange-looking tree was so massive that it easily towered over the false World Tree and then some.

This was merely a small "portion" of the real World Tree. It paid attention to the false World Tree's sorrowful voice and replied, "His is a sad fate, indeed."

"Mom, you also saw it, too?"

"Yes, I did. I can only pray that he makes the right choice."

Unlike the false World Tree, the World Tree spoke with not a single hint of emotion in its reply.

"Without making a gamble of such nature, he would never be able to stop the calamity about to happen in his future, after all."

"Will he be fine, though?" the false World Tree asked tearfully.

Unlike the World Tree that it referred to as its mother, the false World Tree did possess emotions, and it held quite a deep affection for the human named Su-hyeun who had rescued it.

"He mustn't become like me, though…"

The World Tree stared at the "false" World Tree that had grown so much in seemingly a blink of an eye.

Thousands of years ago, it had been a seed that was planted in the tiny body of a person, and as years flew by it had grown to this size. That person had completely lost its humanoid appearance and became a World Tree—even if it was referred to as a false one—and then went on to create a world of its own.

A World Tree that wasn't really one—the false World Tree and the "child" being referred to here—was such an existence.

Once "planted," the World Tree's seed would immediately find itself between one of the two pathways.

One of the pathways would continue to split into more crossroads. If one didn't want to end up as a World Tree, one simply had to constantly keep this incredible power in check and control it.

"You shouldn't worry too much, child."

Unlike the tearful voice of the false World Tree, though, the World Tree's voice remained calm and unperturbed.

The reason for that was simple enough—because it wasn't worried at all.

"He already possesses the power to alter his own fate, after all."

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Tree vines began tightening around his body and planted him deep below the surface.

Su-hyeun's mind remained crystal clear, but he didn't put up any resistance.

There was no problem with his breathing. For some reason, despite being stuck underground, he didn't feel any discomfort and had no trouble breathing freely.

"Am I turning into a tree or something?"

At first, he thought that was a laughable notion, but then, he recalled the false World Tree.

"Ah, so that's why that was called the false tree."

That young tree must've been someone like Su-hyeun who had consumed a seed. Just like him, a seed was implanted in that person's body, causing them to lose their original appearance and morph into a tree, eventually becoming the false World Tree.

Crack, break…

"I got really lucky with unlocking prana before that, though."

The seed was continuously trying to take over Su-hyeun's body, but a certain power was blocking that. It was prana.

This energy injected much vitality into Su-hyeun's body and protected him from the seed trying to take over his body.

Grip, snap, craaack…

Still stuck deep underground, Su-hyeun clenched his fist tightly and began ripping apart the tree vines that wrapped around him.

He sensed the screaming of the seed that had begun using his body as nourishment to grow. Of course, he had no thoughts of going easy on it.

"This is my body," he thought.

Cruuunch, crack…

He crushed the tree roots sprouting from his chest with his bare hands, and then, his lips parted to say some things, "That's why…you should stay all nice and quiet, got that?"

Riiip—!

Pow—!

Su-hyeun's hand finally yanked the tree root out. At the same time, the seed went quiet.

Its will had been broken, thereby leaving behind only its strength, and the seed that would've become the origin of a vast universe redirected its full power away from trying to plant its roots and into something else.

Shu-wuwuwu…

Su-hyeun's body was now acting as the substitute for the tree roots. The energy gushing out from the seed rapidly spread throughout his flesh.

It felt truly peaceful and comfortable.

Prana, the magical energy, and the energy flooding out from the World Tree's seed were seeping into every corner of his body, and the final destination of that energy was none other than Su-hyeun's head.

Ache…

His head suddenly began throbbing painfully like his skull was being shattered. He had deliberately focused this energy there, but the pain was well beyond what he had anticipated.

"Crap. Give me a break…"

It felt like his head was about to explode, but considering his reason for going through so many hurdles to acquire the seed, he just couldn't give up here.

Su-hyeun recalled what Sun Wukong and Luslec had said to him.

"Awakening your unique ability, huh? That's pretty simple, you know. You just have to concentrate a heck of a lot more Dao energy than what you currently possess into your head, then keep at it until you hear something going 'Bang!' inside your mind. As for me, I awakened mine after chowing down all the peaches found in the Garden."

"That's what I was saying earlier. Of course, there are always a few exceptions—like those beings who are already born with their unique abilities unlocked. But those are exceptions, so you shouldn't mind them…"

He didn't need any further explanation than that.

In the end, the main point was that he needed to focus his suddenly acquired energy into his brain and break open a blocked-off "vein" there. This was because a person's flesh would gradually adapt and become even stronger when it acquired a powerful source of energy. It was the same story for the pathways of both blood and magical energy.

However, the moment when one would freshly acquire the energy was a different story altogether.

It was like breaking down a wall via the quantity of water far greater than what was there before. Because the wall hadn't yet adapted to the new change, it would thus be weaker.

And the pulsing pain in his head came from pounding on that "wall."

Ache, pulse…

His head felt like it might shatter into bits, but the pain itself didn't last for long.

Fwhooooosh…

Once the pathway was broken open, the pain instantly dissipated, and the inside of his head cleared up, making him feel refreshed.

No, it wasn't merely on the level of "refreshed" here.

It felt something greater than that.

His closed eyes opened up, and memories began flooding back into his head.

"What's this?"

These memories were blurry as if some kind of fog was covering them up, and after some time slowly passed by, a message suddenly popped up in Su-hyeun's head.

["Unique Ability: Samsara - Six Paths of Heavenly Ways" has been awakened.]

"…What?"

There it was, the Unique Ability he so longed to unlock. However, its name sounded rather ominous.

Wondering just what kind of an ability this could be, Su-hyeun was about to check out its explanation, but right at that moment…

Whooooosh…

The previously blurry memories became vivid to him. It felt like all that fog obscuring his view had been cleared away.

His whole body floated—or more correctly, he thought that he had become weightless.

His eyes slowly opened even wider, and the scenery before his eyes transformed. He now found himself "standing" in the air.

Above him were nothing but pitch-black clouds. Below him were rivers of flowing blood, and the corpses of chopped-up monsters were strewn about everywhere.

"Where am I?"

This location suddenly popped out of nowhere.

However, something about this place seemed familiar, especially the skies that had turned pitch-black and the ground filled with mountains of monster corpses.

Although his viewpoint was now different, he was sure that he had seen this place before.

"Isn't this…?"

Without a doubt, this was his past. More correctly, it was the world before he was reborn.

"Fuu-wuu…"

Su-hyeun's hearing caught the only noise to be picked up around here.

Someone over there was letting out a long sigh as if he was too exhausted to even move.

Su-hyeun turned his head in that direction. In the far distance below him, someone was sitting on a monster corpse, his whole body soaked in blood.

And that man's face was something Su-hyeun would never forget because it belonged to…

"Kim Sung-in."

None other than himself.

Thud, thud—

Loud thundering footsteps could be heard coming from a distance. Other than the noise, though, Su-hyeun couldn't sense any real presence, but that was because this was merely a vision, and as such, there couldn't have been actual bodies present right now.

"You came right on cue, didn't you?" Kim Sung-in muttered.

Everything was coming back to Su-hyeun now with crystal clarity…

"Now…"

Including that man's—his own—words being spoken.

"Let's go and die."

Having said that, Kim Sung-in began making his next move toward the hundreds of millions of monsters, and that one monster that commanded over all of them.

He was moving toward the predator—Fafnir.

"Right. That's what I said back then."

He was the only one left in the whole world. In that state, he continued to fight, and he fought some more. While he kept telling himself that he simply had to kill that Fafnir somehow and that would be the only way to resolve the knot in his heart, he kept fighting, he kept running away, and then he started fighting again.

Then, one day, on this very day, he came to a decision.

He decided that he would go all out without holding back right until the end—that he would not run away even if his fatigue level hit its limit, he couldn't breathe anymore, and his magical energy was drained until there was nothing left.

After all, he was the only one alive.

Just like that, Kim Sung-in began fighting the monsters.

Floating up in the air, Su-hyeun watched this scene unfold. Now that he got a chance to observe himself like this, he had to admit that he did put up one hell of a struggle back then.

Despite knowing that his death was approaching, he never stopped wielding his sword and continued to chop the monsters apart. Even as bloody holes opened up in his body and toxins splashed on him, he didn't care.

The "Hero," that word felt truer than ever before right now. He thought he could understand just a little bit more why other people insisted on calling him with that title back then.

Anyone would think the same after witnessing such a scene.

"That's…kinda cool," Su-hyeun thought.

Even though he could sense his impending demise, he continued to fight back.

In front of him were hundreds of millions of monsters, yet Kim Sung-in still chose to become a spear to dig into his enemies' ranks.

At the end of this horde was Fafnir, a giant over four meters tall, a monster with a dragon's head.

No, it was not a monster but a predator.

Kim Sung-in momentarily faltered at that creature's entrance.

Shu-rururu…

The ominous magical energy in the purplish hue began tightening around his body. That was Fafnir's magic.

And right at that moment…

Stab—!

A hole suddenly opened up in Kim Sung-in's body. He was struck by the rake belonging to "Ant Hell," a boss monster found inside an indigo-colored dungeon.

If it was any other time, he wouldn't have been struck like this. His other stats might not be as high, but Kim Sung-in's reflex stat at least had reached the three-digit mark and allowed him to basically "see" his immediate future, after all.

However, seeing the future and evading it were two different matters. Indeed, even if he did see what might happen in the future, his body still had to answer his command to evade in the first place.

By this time, it wouldn't be all that surprising to see Kim Sung-in collapse in exhaustion.

Sliiiice—!

Splatter—!

Even then, Kim Sung-in still wielded his sword. He chopped the Ant Hell in half and started moving forward again.

"Wow, that's some persistence, alright."

Su-hyeun couldn't fully remember how he fought back then. The inside of his head had gone blank, and he just madly fought according to how his body wanted to move.

And in the end…

Plop…

Just like that, he went down on his knees.

His strength had run out. He attempted to straighten his knees that didn't want to listen to him, but even doing that was impossible now.

Crunch, stab—!

Several more bloody holes opened up in his body, and his limbs were torn off by the fangs of the monsters. Even then, Kim Sung-in didn't make any pained expression. His body simply sagged without energy.

Only then did Fafnir walk up to where he was.

"Even though we were enemies, you have been an excellent foe until the end, oh hero of humanity."

Su-hyeun couldn't forget that bastard's voice even now, and when Kim Sung-in heard those words, he sensed his death finally approaching.

"You are the last one."

Kim Sung-in looked into Fafnir's eyes.

How could he ever forget the light burning in those monstrous eyes?

He became too exhausted trying to fight against hundreds of millions of monsters. "If only that wasn't it," was what he told himself, but the moment he looked into the predator's eyes, Kim Sung-in became acutely aware of the truth.

Even if he had been in perfect condition, the end result wouldn't have changed all that much.

Fafnir's massive maw split wide open.

"I shall devour you and prey on this world."

Back then, Kim Sung-in had no idea what those words even meant. He was about to die anyway, so he didn't feel the need to ponder their true meaning.

Honestly speaking, he could feel just one emotion back then.

"Now, let's go and die."

Those words were his attempt at self-hypnosis.

He kept thinking like this. Even if he clung to his life, this world was already finished, anyway. He told himself that there was no point in dragging out a fight he couldn't win.

He thought that he shouldn't be afraid of something like dying, and so, he hardened his resolve.

But the truth was he didn't want to die.

Kim Sung-in wished for everything to revert to how it was.

Crunch—!

Just like that, Kim Sung-in was swallowed up by Fafnir.

Right at that moment…

[All conditions have been satisfied.]

[The first authority of "Unique Ability: Samsara - Six Paths of Heavenly Ways" is being activated.]

[Samsara - Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation]

[Time will now be wound back.]

A miracle had begun.