The Hero Returns

Fwhooooosh—!

The sword chopped apart Britra's wing.

Ruuuumble—

However, the sliced-apart wing rapidly regenerated. All the fire within this endlessly vast space was its flesh and bones.

Split—

Whoooosh—

Britra's maw split open one more time. It was preparing another Breath attack.

[Leap]

Baaang—!

Su-hyeun jumped high and dodged the incoming Breath. He spun around in the air and looked down at Britra below, then began tutting unhappily, "I'm getting a bit tired now."

Just how long had he been fighting?

Britra didn't want to go down easily at all. No matter how many times he cut it down, it continued to regenerate its body.

"Sure, it's just a lump of flames, but I still can't underestimate its size..."

Just one flap of its wings and a firestorm intense enough to be concerning madly whipped about.

Not only that, but he had to avoid getting struck dead-on by that Breath attack at all cost. At one point, he thought he had gotten used to it and relaxed just a little, only for the attack to slightly brush past him, which left behind a burn wound that still didn't want to heal on his back.

"And also, no other attacks work unless it is fire-based."

Out of all the abilities Su-hyeun possessed, the one with the highest killing power was undoubtedly lightning.

The Thunderbolt, generated through the authority over the Somersault cloud and strengthened by the Godhood of Sky, was powerful enough to obliterate a small city without a single trace.

However, such a Thunderbolt couldn't even do anything to Britra. It was the same story for his other martial techniques and magic spells.

"Only fireworks."

That was the rule within this space.

This was where Su-hyeun's Flame fought against Britra's heart. Meaning other types of power couldn't interfere.

Then again, this place was not reality but a visualized space depicting the current situation within his body, so such a thing couldn't be helped. In the end, he had no choice but to fight Britra off using just his fire.

Grrrrrr—

Britra's eyes were sharp and angry as it glared at Su-hyeun after he dodged yet another Breath. This creature possessed emotions, and it also seemed to have an ego, although by only a little bit.

It probably found Su-hyeun despicable for continuously dodging its Breath attacks.

"That's understandable." Su-hyeun put away his sword and raised his dukes instead. "I'm sure you're also getting anxious."

Britra's Breath had also gotten weaker than before, after all. For sure, the flames burning on its body were gradually getting fainter, too, indicating that it had gotten quite exhausted as well.

Squeeze—

Ruuuumble—

Rather than sticking with his sword, he relied on Transformation to envelop his arms and fists in flames.

The cutting power of his blade had no meaning here. What he needed to do right now was to deliver one punch after another that contained the hottest, strongest flames he could muster.

Fuu-huph—!

Su-hyeun's eyes sharpened instantly. He used Earth Shrink Technique and appeared right below Britra's maw.

KA-BOOM—!

When he threw a punch, Britra's huge body stumbled greatly.

It was just as he thought; if he enveloped his hand in flames, he could touch Britra's form, which was also made out of flames.

Kkha-aaaaah—!

Britra, with its maw struck clean, howled angrily right next to him. Although it was loud enough to ring his hearing painfully, Su-hyeun had already heard it enough times by now to build up some tolerance to it.

What followed next was another Breath attack. However, right now, Su-hyeun's fist made its next move.

KA-BOOOOOM—!

When he whacked its chin again, Britra's maw was snapped shut.

Su-hyeun muttered while watching Britra's head float up, "Keep it shut, will you?"

Fwhoosh—

Bang, boom, ka-boom—!

A storm of fists rained down mercilessly.

He struck the dragon's chin from below, then flew up to smash its crown down with his elbow next. The dragon with the bulk of a village staggered precariously before floating in the air from the impact.

He couldn't tell how long he kept on pounding on Britra like this.

Huff, pant...

By recklessly using his strength, his stamina was getting gradually depleted. It couldn't be helped since he was using the divine Flame without any breaks and at a far quicker tempo than the usual.

Thankfully, though, Britra was also getting just as weaker in the meantime.

Not to mention...

"I'm getting more and more used to it."

Su-hyeun was rapidly getting accustomed to the method of utilizing the divine Flame.

The divine Flame had devoured the heat of the Hell of Scorching Heat, resulting in its color changing and emitting even greater heat than ever before. As such, he needed to spend a lot more magical energy to deploy the enhanced power. At the same time, the number of flames he could unleash at once had also significantly increased.

Initially, it was not that easy to control the Flame. More power than Su-hyeun expected got unleashed, so never mind exercising control, he even found maintaining his balance more difficult than before.

But now, he was almost done acclimatizing.

Ruuumble—

The more accustomed he became in controlling his flames, the greater his flames grew and spread out within this vast space.

Grrrr—

Once the barrage of punches ended, Britra retracted its wings and stumbled back.

Compared to the beginning, its body had gotten a lot smaller. The difference was so stark that one didn't even need to take a closer look to realize this.

On top of that, Britra seemed to be scared of Su-hyeun's flames that had gotten even more belligerent than before because it no longer fired its Breath attack.

"Hey, you want to get beaten up some more?"

Britra hurriedly shook its head at Su-hyeun's question.

As expected, this creature felt pain and understood fear.

What Su-hyeun needed to do within this visualized consciousness was to beat the living daylights out of Britra and make it submit to him.

And right now, the flame dragon was scared of Su-hyeun.

"Lay on the ground."

Grrrr—

Britra slowly moved according to Su-hyeun's command.

It slowly knelt, but then...

SMASH—!

Su-hyeun slammed his elbow down on Britra's head, ramming it down hard on the ground.

Kkhaa-aahk—!

Britra howled in pain, then looked up at Su-hyeun with protesting eyes. It was as if the flame dragon was asking him, "Why did you hit me even though I did as you said?"

Su-hyeun addressed Britra looking back at him, "On the ground."

He said the same thing as before.

Britra hurriedly knelt and lowered its long neck to the ground when he did. Su-hyeun observed the flame dragon's action done more quickly and nodded in satisfaction, "From this moment on, I'm your master."

Britra nodded in acceptance at Su-hyeun's declaration. The creature that tried its hardest to devour him earlier was acting much mellower now.

Su-hyeun briefly scanned his surroundings. The two fires that didn't want to blend like oil and water and fought each other like bitter rivals had now become a single lump of fire.

All this fire was now his.

"Very good, Britra," Su-hyeun smirked deeply in satisfaction, then extended his hand toward Britra. "I'll be in your care from now on."

That wasn't something one should say after beating somebody else to a figurative bloody pulp, but even so, Britra stuck its head out while making a noticeably gentler expression.

The moment it did...

Jiiii-iiiing—

Whooooosh—

Britra's massive body transformed into rays of crimson light before shrinking down to a small sphere resembling a firefly.

That was as far as Su-hyeun could remember.

* * *

He remained a bit dazed after opening his eyes.

He wondered if the chaotic fight earlier was just a dream. But could a dream be that vivid? Maybe the blue sky above him with not a speck of cloud was the dream instead.

All kinds of thoughts flitted in and out of his head.

After opening his eyes, it took him around one minute to push his upper torso up. He could see the ashes filling up the charred-black surroundings when he did.

It was as if a colossal wildfire had swept across this place.

"Did I do this?"

"If not you, who else could it be?"

Su-hyeun flinched at the voice coming from relatively close by and hurriedly turned his head. That was when he finally noticed an old man with a thin body so gaunt that it was practically skin and bones, as well as a face filled with age spots and wrinkles as if it belonged to someone over a century old.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't properly greeted this being yet.

"Are you Lord Buddha?" Su-hyeun asked with a slight tremble in his voice.

It wasn't because he felt nervous or uncomfortable. Rather, it was because he never imagined that one day, he would get to address someone before his eyes as "Lord Buddha."

Buddha formed a meaningful smile at Su-hyeun's greeting, "You seem a bit awkward there, young man."

"Yes, kind of."

"How come?"

"Well, that's because," Su-hyeun dusted the blackened ash off him and stood up from the spot, "I can't see anything about you."

"Oh-hoh," Buddha quietly muttered in an impressed tone.

He didn't outright deny it because he rather liked what Su-hyeun said just now.

"Really, I can't see anything from Buddha," Su-hyeun thought.

Su-hyeun was using Insight right now.

He believed that he had become a fairly high-tier god who could witness many things by now. He might not have ascended to the same realm as Master Subhuti, the Bull Demon King, or even Apollo, but even so, it should have been possible for him to see through his opponent's essence at the very least.

However, he could neither see nor sense anything from Buddha.

It was the same story back when Su-hyeun first saw him—having no worldly desires or possessions.

It probably had something to do with Buddha's beliefs. He wasn't merely paying lip service here. He practiced his teachings, thereby becoming an existence living in the near state of nothingness.

"I've never met anyone like you before," said Su-hyeun.

This feeling was something he didn't even get from Master Subhuti.

It was impossible to compare who was "better" of the two; it was simply the difference in what they sought after, as well as the path they walked on.

Even if Buddha served as the teacher, in the end, Master Subhuti was a sage, a Tao practitioner, and Buddha was a Buddhist monk.

Buddha maintained his smile even after listening to Su-hyeun, "And so, do you find my presence rather uncomfortable?"

"No, sir, that's not what I meant..."

"I didn't mean to make you flustered when I asked that question. It's fine, young man. Most people react similarly, after all," Buddha said, then guffawed loudly.

Something about this felt different from the Buddha of Su-hyeun's imagination.

Feeling a bit sheepish now, Su-hyeun wordlessly scanned his surroundings once more before asking a question, "Where did King Yama go, if you don't mind me asking?"

"He's not originally from here, so he returned, saying that he needs to check out the state of the other hells."

"And my Third Brother?"

"He's still fighting," Buddha shifted his gaze in another direction. His eyes seemed to be staring at somewhere really far away. "I can't tell when they will stop, however."

"When you say fighting... with uncle?"

"Once that fight ends, they will have to say goodbye, after all. That child, he's holding onto his lifespan for the first time."

Master Subhuti didn't hold onto his lifespan until now. He said he would disappear according to the flow of things once his life ended and patiently waited for that fateful day.

But now, for the first time, he was willingly going against the flow of things while fighting Sun Wukong.

"It'll be nice if the fight doesn't end," Su-hyeun muttered.

"Regardless of what possession, event, or person or even the universe that contained all those things, the end exists for all. It's no different for them."

Su-hyeun could only sigh deeply at Buddha's insincere-sounding remark.

That fight would eventually come to an end. Even if it's Sun Wukong, even if it's Master Subhuti, they certainly couldn't keep fighting nonstop for a millennium or some such.

Su-hyeun asked, "What will happen to the system from now on?"

Master Subhuti was responsible for constructing and maintaining the system, and Osiris' goal was to kill him and get rid of the system altogether.

However, Osiris didn't need to step forward since Master Subhuti was already at death's door.

"Most likely, the system already given to you won't disappear. However, there won't be new trials given out by the system. I fear that restoring this functionality will take a minimum of tens of thousands of years."

The system was about to disappear from existence. Meaning, the method to stop the massive "virus" invading the universe, the one created by Shiva, would be gone, too.

Su-hyeun didn't have a leeway to grieve over Master Subhuti's death, his expression getting even graver than before.

He even wished for Master Subhuti not to die and stick around for much longer if possible.

"Are you concerned?" Buddha asked before continuing without waiting for Su-hyeun's reply, "It's not as if there is no other way left, however."

Su-hyeun hurriedly asked back at that, "What is it?"

"Sounds like you're in a great hurry," Buddha chuckled before replying, "You must find Brahma, one of the Primordial Gods."