The Hero Returns

"We're done for."

That was the very first thought that popped up in Thor's mind as he stared at the two foreign gods brazenly striding forward ahead of him.

Now they wouldn't have enough time to deal with the Predators stationed in the outskirts or even outwit them before the reinforcement arrived. It would only be a matter of time before Osiris noticed that something was amiss, and when that happened, everything they had planned for would be for naught.

"Why did he do something this stupid?"

Thor was completely unaware that he was seen as the number one dumbass within Asgard while thinking that to himself.

But then...!

"Expand—"

"Expand—"

"Expand—"

Countless clones of Sun Wukong suddenly appeared and aimed with their Ruyi Jingu Bangs.

Ka-boom, booooom—!

And the Predators stationed here at the outskirts were instantly swept aside, but that wasn't even the end of the story yet.

"Strike them down—"

FLASH—!

A bright light flashed in the sky. Right at that moment, Thor ended up muttering a certain name despite thinking to himself there's no way it can be true, "Somersault cloud."

[Rain of Thunder]

Rumble, ka-ruuuuumble—!

The roar of thunder continuously rang out.

Thor had heard about this phenomenon before. It belonged to the god of another world who possessed the Godhood of Thunder like himself—a god named Zeus.

"Could it be that man is...?"

No, wait—that didn't seem right. That man introduced himself as Su-hyeun. Therefore, him being Zeus didn't make sense.

Not only that, but his appearance was rather different from Zeus's. That god was supposed to be a blondie old fart, wasn't he?

Although he was confused, Thor knew none of this was important right now.

FLASH—!

Pazzzzzik—

Thor drove the power of thunder into his trusty hammer, Mjölnir. The moment the electrical current enveloped the weapon, he powerfully leaped high into the air.

KA-BOOM—!

He slammed the hammer down, causing the land to tremble like it was hit by an earthquake. The electrical current traveled along the ground, electrocuting the Predators. The high temperature of the electrical charge easily scorched their bodies mercilessly.

Sun Wukong turned to look at Thor, "Hey, uncle! Who knew, you ain't so bad, after all!"

He then threw an enthusiastic thumbs-up for good measure, followed by an impressed "Wow!"

Not so bad, he said. What a lukewarm praise that was.

Thor was someone in charge of leading the gods of Asgard, all of them renowned warriors. Yet, he still ended up getting such praise today.

Even so, he didn't feel awkward by it. Honestly, Thor was happy and bitter about this whole situation. The fact that those two were reliable allies had not changed, but then...

"Compared to them, I only amount to this much."

Su-hyeun was capable of bringing down a storm of thunder from the sky.

And Sun Wukong, employing countless clones wielding Ruyi Jingu Bangs, utterly decimated the Predators.

The hammer that had been accompanying Thor throughout his entire life suddenly felt so small and shabby when he looked at those two as they rampaged.

Ka-boom, kwa-zzzzzzik—!

Thunk, ka-boom—!

The sudden intrusion of Su-hyeun, Sun Wukong, and Thor quickly took care of the Predators found in the outskirts. Betraying the trio's initial expectation, the Predators chose to flee rather than keep fighting.

These creatures must have realized that they stood no chance of victory.

Huff, pant...

Thor spat out ragged, labored breaths while glaring at the fleeing Predators.

It wasn't because he got freshly injured or had been exerting himself for too long. His physical condition had not been excellent, to begin with.

"Aren't you pushing yourself too much?"

Su-hyeun also didn't go after the fleeing Predators.

Only Sun Wukong, still clearly excited, chose to chase after them. Su-hyeun didn't and stayed back.

It had been only around five minutes since the battle had begun. He didn't believe the enemy would figure out the situation and quickly send reinforcements.

Bang, ka-boom—!

The noises of Ruyi Jingu Bang destroying the terrain and crushing the Predators continuously rang out.

Su-hyeun glanced at that before looking away. "Well, Third Brother needs time to grieve, after all," he thought to himself.

This would be Sun Wukong's first battle after Master Subhuti's passing.

He truly, innocently enjoyed combat, and while fighting, he had no unnecessary thoughts clouding in mind.

What Sun Wukong needed right now was time. If he got to fight like this a few times more, maybe he might get over his sadness just a little bit.

So, the one Su-hyeun should worry about right now was Thor.

"Looks like my injuries opened up again," Thor furrowed his brow deeply and pressed down on one of his injuries with his free hand.

That wasn't surprising, however. He lost on a battlefield and almost died as a result. It hadn't even been a couple of hours since he regained consciousness, and his body was still riddled with injuries.

Su-hyeun did cast a healing magic spell on him, but that didn't mean all of Thor's injuries were cured by now. Not to mention, his stamina was also running empty at the moment.

That was his current situation, yet he still activated his Godhood of Thunder and fought against the Predators. It would've been far stranger for his injuries not to act up again.

"I'll be fine after taking a short rest. This much is nothing to me," Thor said while straightening his back.

What a monstrous physique he had. Back when Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong discovered him under the rubble, him still being alive seemed like a miracle, yet he was up and moving in no time at all.

This happened so naturally that even Su-hyeun had briefly forgotten that Thor had been heavily injured.

"It might be for the best if you sit out of the future fights, at least for a little while," said Su-hyeun.

"No, I'm really fine, so I can—"

"You might be feeling fine now, but there's a chance that you won't be later. What will you do when we run into Osiris later, and your body's condition is no different from now?"

Su-hyeun's persuasion worked like magic.

After listening to that advice, Thor stopped forcing himself and plopped down on the ground, "I understand."

"Hey, little brother—!"

When the duo waited around on the same spot, Sun Wukong finally returned while riding on Ruyi Jingu Bang.

Land—

"Those punks, I don't think they want to fight anymore," Sun Wukong lightly landed back on the ground and smacked his lips while sounding rather rueful about something.

Even if he enjoyed fighting, that was only when there were opponents worth fighting against, and they desired to fight in the first place. The Predators were too busy running away at the moment as if they no longer wanted to fight back.

In the end, Sun Wukong couldn't enjoy fighting anymore and had to come back.

"For now, we should go deeper into the city," said Su-hyeun.

"Oh? Does that mean we'll finally meet this punk named Osiris?" Killing intent flickered in Sun Wukong's eyes as he asked that.

It seemed that he was still furious about Master Subhuti being chased around all over the place by Osiris for a very long time.

However, now wasn't the time to get angry. He had to stay composed.

"We won't run into Osiris that easily, unfortunately," said Su-hyeun.

"Mm? How come?"

"Because he's most likely not in great shape right now."

He was taking a guess here, but the odds of it being true were pretty good.

Su-hyeun recalled Osiris's battle against Buddha, Master Subhuti, and King Yama not too long ago, "On top of that, he even fought against Odin."

That was three of the Five Godly Sages. He even battled King Yama, too. Therefore, it was more than possible that either Osiris was finding it difficult to move around freely, or his condition was still not perfect at the moment.

Sun Wukong nodded at Su-hyeun's explanation. Even Thor had to agree with the guess of Osiris's battle against Odin that concluded not too long ago.

"Which means this might be our chance," said Thor.

"No, our priority must be with rescuing Lord Odin first. Osiris's condition is merely a guess on my part, after all."

"Indeed. It's wiser to perform the task we are sure of first instead of something uncertain," Thor nodded in agreement. "In that case, let us hurry. We don't have much time."

Thor was again charged with guiding them. Not only was he quite knowledgeable regarding Asgard's terrain, but he was also connected to Odin.

Su-hyeun stared at Thor walking up ahead before scanning the crumbling ruins of the city of Asgard.

"So Osiris is hiding somewhere in here..."

He fully understood that the battle against Osiris would not be easy at all.

Even if Odin was still alive, he should be grievously injured like Thor was earlier. If Osiris's condition was much better than they expected, then things would get so much harder for everyone.

"Even so, if it's now, maybe we can..."

Su-hyeun recalled the figure of Osiris he saw through the illusion magic. He then imagined fighting against that being who seemed so far out of his reach. He did that multiple times.

Ten times out of 10, he lost.

Twenty times out of 20, he still lost.

But when he imagined it for the 100th time, he finally managed to win a victory.

"So, there's a chance."

Three of the Six Paths remained. Su-hyeun reminded himself of one of them while silently following after Thor.

* * *

Asgard's scenery was pretty close to that of Olympus.

No, wait, it might have been similar in the past. The wrecked and ruined buildings reminded Su-hyeun of impressive temples. And unsurprisingly, none of the other structures built below these temples could be called small at all.

The three of them instantly killed off the Predators that occasionally showed up here and there during their journey. Since Sun Wukong was a part of the team, it was impossible to infiltrate the place quietly.

"I didn't know that we'd announce our arrival this loudly," Thor lightly tutted while sweeping his gaze across the center of Asgard. They had reached here far sooner than he initially expected.

He didn't directly get involved in any of the battles while reaching this location, so his stamina had recovered to some extent. Unfortunately, the corner of his heart was the exact opposite; it was in an utter mess right now.

The sight of the destroyed and ruined Asgard was breaking his heart. He could only grit his teeth in a rage so many times before getting too exhausted to do even that.

"We're here."

The location they reached was a half-destroyed temple.

It was noticeably different from other structures leveled flat by now. Su-hyeun took in the sight of this temple resembling a castle that rose hundreds of meters in the air.

"It kind of reminds me of Zeus's temple," he thought.

Both Zeus and Odin were Five Godly Sages–tier gods.

Maybe he wanted to emphasize the difference in the class of his godhood because Odin's temple boasted a scale on another realm compared to all the other structures.

It also seemed sturdily constructed. That was easy enough to guess from how it still stood tall despite the entirety of the God Realm laying in ruin.

"Is Lord Odin inside this building?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it," Thor replied in an anxious tone. "However, his condition is truly critical, as if he'll suddenly stop breathing any second now."

Now that they were close, even Su-hyeun could sense it. He detected so many things happening within this building.

He detected the weak breathing and faint presence. It was almost as if a dying dinosaur was panting, huffing helplessly away in front of him. The breathing was weak and labored, but even so, he could hear it.

That wasn't all, either.

"Looks like they are still fighting inside."

There was more than one presence inside.

Dozens? Hundreds?

Maybe it could be a lot more than that, and these presences were so much more vicious and violent than Odin's.

A battle was still taking place inside.

Odin was still holding onto his life that had been threatening to quit him at any moment and continued to extend this war that seemed to be a lost cause already.

The three of them would see for themselves if they stepped inside right now.

Bzzzik—

Su-hyeun touched the temple's door and sensed that something was blocking the access. He pulled back his deflected hand and felt the door again.

The surface was trying hard to deflect his hand again, but he strengthened his grip even more. When he did that...

Ruuuumble—!

The invisible "wall" caught on fire. At a casual glance, it looked like the whole temple might burn down, but the flames only affected those things Su-hyeun wanted to be burned and nothing else besides.

The wall proved to be rather challenging, but it still quickly burned away to nothing, which wasn't that surprising.

"This wall wasn't placed here to prevent others from coming inside," said Su-hyeun.

Indeed, this wall was constructed to make it easier to break down from the outside.

Meaning its true purpose was to keep "something" inside the building.

Su-hyeun, now knowing the purpose of the wall, reached out to the temple's doorway once more.

Sun Wukong gripped Ruyi Jingu Bang, while Thor held Mjölnir and got into a combat stance.

"I'm looking forward to this."

"I'm ready."

Sun Wukong and Thor sent their signals.

"Well, then," Su-hyeun lightly nodded once and strengthened his grip, "I'm opening the door."

Creeaaak—

The temple's doorway began opening noisily.

And from its interior...!

Kkyaaaaaah—!

Along with a monstrous howl that could only be heard in hell, a spray of pitch-black blood splattered outside.