The Hero Returns

Splat'”

The blood that spluttered outside landed on a transparent barrier and slid to the ground.

Boom'”

Right after that, a fairly large corpse flew out and landed before Su-hyeun's feet. It must've been the owner of the blood earlier. It was also a Predator with a head shaped like a dinosaur or a dragon.

"Father'”!" Thor roared and jumped inside while swinging his hammer.

Su-hyeun briefly thought, "He shouldn't be forcing himself to that degree," and then prepared for battle, "Arise."

Shu-shushushut'”

Black aura spread all around Su-hyeun, and his summons began revealing themselves one by one. Prince Nezha, Gluttony, and Kali were the first to appear.

Gyges was excluded this time. A summon with such a size might end up destroying the temple when it was already in such a precarious state.

"For now, sweep them all away," Su-hyeun issued his order while taking in the pandemonium happening inside the temple.

Thor and Sun Wukong were already inside, causing even more chaos. Su-hyeun unsheathed his sword and enveloped the blade in the divine Flame, "Well, then. How about..."

[Palm Leaf, Flame]

[Wind of Flame]

Along with the divine Flame, he wrapped the blade with massive storm winds.

"I get rid of the small fries first?"

The whirlwinds weren't as sharp, but when Su-hyeun added the flames to the winds and took a swing...

KWA-AAAAAH'”!

Flames instantly spread out to all corners of the temple. The flames that traveled with the winds landed on the Predators and started burning them down in the blink of an eye.

Kkyaaaah'”!

"Who the hell are those bastards?!"

"Kill the flames first!"

Predators that hadn't been reduced to ashes from the flames roared. It seemed that they were quite flustered by this sudden intrusion.

Over half of them survived. In other words, slightly less than half of them had been killed in that attack. Su-hyeun found this quite surprising.

"They managed to survive?"

The divine Flame had absorbed the heat from the Hell of Scorching Heat and Britra's fire. So the temperature of his current Flame was hot enough to melt down most average Predators simply by coming in contact with it.

Even if he had been focusing more on covering the wider area instead of firepower to deal with the small fries, the number of Predators that survived the attack was a bit surprising.

"In that case..."

Rumble'”!

Su-hyeun enveloped his sword in flames once more, "I'll just have to cut them down directly, then."

He lightly began shrinking the space. He also activated Insight to spot all the folded space around him.

His feet danced. At the same time, he looked a few seconds ahead of time through Insight.

He could see it.

"Follow the trajectory and..."

He didn't even need to focus on the Predators' movements. His eyes saw the trajectories his sword needed to take, so he simply shifted his feet and wielded his sword accordingly.

Whoosh, swish'”

Slice, chop, sliiice'”

He dug into the ranks of the Predators as his sword danced and darted around.

Several Predators tried to rush in, seemingly determined to throw away their lives to stop him. Su-hyeun simply punched at them.

[Flame - Transformation]

[Heavenly Demon's Heaven Shattering Fist]

Ruuuumble'”

KA-BOOM'”!

A massive fist of flames shot forward.

The heat of the divine Flame was already incredible, to begin with. When the fist technique employed by the Heavenly Demon was added on top, the attack became so strong that it blew apart the torsos of the incoming Predators.

"Condense the flames..."

Flames that simply spread around weren't as intense. Strength rather than gentleness was the foundation of the ideal martial art that the Heavenly Demon pursued.

Su-hyeun added the power of the divine Flame to the profound law of this martial technique.

Sun Wukong briefly stopped swinging Ruyi Jingu Bang and muttered while staring at his little brother, who was simultaneously performing sword and fist techniques, "Wowsers, my little bro is something else, alright."

Thor also chimed in, "Just what on earth is going on here?"

Predators packing the temple's interior fell in droves like autumn leaves. Swinging Mjölnir around until then, Thor also came to a brief stop and gawked before noticing that a path had opened up behind Su-hyeun's rampage.

"We should follow him."

"Why don't you go on ahead?" Sun Wukong replied to Thor's observation while spinning Ruyi Jingu Bang around. "I'll catch up with you guys after cleaning this place up some more."

"Alright." Thor quickly went after Su-hyeun. He could sense Odin's presence from somewhere deeper in the temple.

Crunch, splat'”!

Kwa-dududu'”!

Along with a loud noise, a Predator's corpse was thrown in Su-hyeun's way. He lightly caught that and chucked it aside. He then stepped on the head of another Predator blocking his view and jumped up high.

That was when he spotted fountains of blood splashing around and a figure of someone gallantly fighting in the distance.

It was a muscular man with white hair who must have been well over two meters in height. Blood streamed nonstop from the rest of his body as he staggered, but he still snatched up the head of a Predator right before him.

Squeeze'”

Crunch'”

The Predator's skull was crushed in an instant.

The man's gripping strength was still stupendous despite losing so much blood. Having crushed a skull so easily, he powerfully threw the Predator's corpse.

Bang'”!

Poooow'”!

The thrown corpse became a deadly projectile. Predators struck by it instantly got pulverized and exploded to bits. He didn't even rely on magical energy but pure physical strength to achieve this feat.

Huff, huff...

He didn't seem able to wield the golden spear in his left hand. It was currently stabbed deep into the floor to support the man. Without doing that, he probably couldn't stand on his own anymore.

Just before the man couldn't hold on anymore and started faltering...

"Father!"

Rumble'”!

Thor slammed Mjölnir down and cried out.

At the same time, Odin turned his head, "Thor?"

It looked like he would collapse right there and then, but renewed strength concentrated on his hands. He might not have any energy left to keep fighting. Still, he forced himself to stand upright by holding onto his spear, Gungnir, and avoid the shame of falling on his knees.

Thor's hammer, Mjölnir, split apart the temple's floor, sending arcs of electricity in all directions. Meanwhile, Su-hyeun, who happened to be the closest to Odin, summoned a spear of lightning glowing in a golden-orange hue.

[The Giant's Thunderbolt]

Paazzzik, bzzzzzzik'”

This spear of electricity was dozens of times sharper and more extensive than a regular Thunderbolt. Su-hyeun came up with this technique after observing Ares wield the Giant Spear. He had already confirmed its firepower a few times by now.

FLASH'”!

RUMBLE'”!

The thrown spear instantly pulverized all the Predators between Su-hyeun and Odin.

Su-hyeun ran past the newly created path and quickly assisted Odin, "Are you alright?"

"Who... are'”?"

"For now, we should get out of here first," Su-hyeun turned his gaze to the nearest window.

The opening seemed large enough to accommodate their escape.

Su-hyeun, his eyes still locked in that direction, asked Thor as the God of Thunder finally reached his side, "Can you escape on your own?"

"Do not worry about me."

"Third Brother!" Su-hyeun then called out to Sun Wukong, who was still fighting somewhere far back.

"Yeah!" His reply came back right away.

His voice was filled with confidence and so much enthusiasm. Then again, he possessed enough stamina to continue fighting Master Subhuti for nearly one month straight. There was no way he would get tired so soon.

"I'll see you later, Third Brother!"

"Yeah! Go on ahead without me!"

The moment Su-hyeun heard that reply...

[Heavenly Demon's March of Sovereign]

Gu-wuwuwu'”

His feet rose into the air and began gradually crushing the bodies of all the Predators in the surroundings.

Plop'”

Crunch, snap, crack...

Kuk...

Keuaaaaah'”!

"Where did this pressure suddenly come from...?!"

Predators, crushed flat and kneeling against their will, all began glaring at Su-hyeun next. They had all instinctively realized that the power crushing them came from Su-hyeun's steps.

The Predators who figured this out and were still able to move began rushing toward Su-hyeun, who was trying to carry Odin on his shoulder.

But right at that moment...

Craaack'”!

Ka-boom'”!

Ruyi Jingu Bang and Thor's Mjölnir flew at a breakneck speed and flattened the waves of the Predators once more.

Shatter'”!

Su-hyeun broke the window and jumped outside, but then...

"Man, this is getting seriously annoying."

Another group of Predators had shown up outside without him noticing sooner. It was rather likely that they figured something was up after the barrier cast around the temple was broken.

Su-hyeun wanted to move Odin somewhere safe as soon as possible, so after confirming all these waves of Predators gathering around, he quietly muttered, "Miru."

He then raised one hand and focused his lightning power.

Rumble'”!

Kkyaaaaah'”!

The skies darkened instantly, and a dragon's howl resounded from somewhere above. A massive dragon consisting entirely of electricity revealed itself from the gathered clouds, only to hide again. It repeated this action as the surroundings got brighter and brighter.

[Thunder Dragon - Miru]

Right in the next moment...

"Strike down."

FLASH'”!

The bright light completely enveloped the ground teeming with countless Predators.

* * *

Su-hyeun managed to locate an intact building.

Meanwhile, the Predators didn't give chase. The impact of the Thunder Dragon Su-hyeun displayed earlier was far too shocking for them to continue their pursuit.

In an instant, Asgard became mired in chaos once more. After bringing Odin somewhere quiet, Su-hyeun took a look at all the wounds on the Asgardian god who kept coughing out blood.

"He probably doesn't have much time left."

He thought that Odin's treatment should be prioritized, first of all, so he ended up using an extremely powerful attack to make way.

Thunder Dragon affected an immense area. Because of that, every creature within a specific range would have figured out where the battle had occurred. If Osiris was in good condition right now, it shouldn't take him too long to notice Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong's presence.

Su-hyeun didn't mind fighting him at this stage, but trying to protect Odin during the battle would not be an easy task.

Cough'”!

Odin coughed more blood again.

The color of the blood was as dark as ink. It was so dark that it went past the level of being dead blood.

Su-hyeun's eyes shot up after confirming the status of Odin's blood. "Half of his blood is mixed with toxins."

This was no longer a simple "poisoned" status anymore. By now, too much toxin had invaded the god's body, and the boundary between normal blood and poison had become indistinguishable.

Casting healing magic at this point was meaningless. The fact that Odin was still breathing right now was a miracle in itself. In comparison, all those injuries riddling the half-dead Thor earlier seemed like flesh wounds.

"How did he manage to hold on with a body like this?"

Su-hyeun recalled Odin's figure as the old god beat back the waves of Predators not too long ago. Never mind moving around freely, his body was just about ready to give in, so how did he even manage to hold on and keep fighting back?

Should the detoxification be done first, or should the treatment of the injuries take precedence instead?

Just as thoughts in Su-hyeun's head got tangled up more and more...

"There's no reason to waste your energy, fella," Odin opened his mouth to speak.

However, just because he could speak, it didn't mean he had recovered to some extent. Was this what they call terminal lucidity?

Odin was burning brightly for one last time before his death. "I thank you. It's... much better now."

For sure, he did sound more relaxed now. That wasn't so surprising, considering that the first thing Su-hyeun did after reaching here was to lessen Odin's pain.

But that didn't mean he was being healed right now.

"I'll begin with detoxification first."

"No need to waste your strength," Odin raised his shaking hand.

Despite ending up in such a wretched state, he still hadn't let go of his weapon.

Odin pushed his spear, Gungnir, in Su-hyeun's direction, "Thor is unsuitable."

"I'm sorry?"

"He won't be able to win."

Not be able to win?

"Is he talking about Osiris?" Su-hyeun thought.

Only Osiris and Shiva would be strong enough to leave Odin in this state out of all the Predators.

Most likely, Odin didn't get any time to rest after the battle against Osiris ended and had to continue his fight. He must've lured the Predators into the temple and made sure no one could escape through the barrier before fighting them all, not knowing that Asgard had already fallen by then.

"Take this."

Su-hyeun ended up receiving Gungnir, Odin's spear.

This was a weapon that accompanied Odin throughout his life. But after Odin handed it over, his expression looked rather relieved for some reason.. "And from this moment on, this burden shall be yours to carry."