The Hero Returns

Gungnir's spear tip was sharper than any other weapon Su-hyeun had seen.

Also, he didn't inject any special energy or power into the spear, yet Gungnir itself already possessed the power of azure lightning energy.

The very first thing to "feel" the firepower of Gungnir as it left his hand was Su-hyeun's body.

Fwhoosh—!

"Kuk!"

Su-hyeun's whole body was shoved back from the sonic boom of the spear when it shot out.

At the same time, violent air currents were generated, making it difficult to see the flying spear without activating Insight.

His body staggered for a moment there.

Rumble, ka-booooom—!

A loud thunderclap went off in the direction of Gungnir's flight.

The thunderclaps exploded over and over again, but Su-hyeun didn't have any leeway to pay attention to that. He summoned the Somersault cloud to maintain his balance from the sonic boom of Gungnir.

After a brief moment of distraction, he shifted his gaze back, only to...

"What the hell—?"

For the first time in ages, Su-hyeun became utterly speechless, his jaw dropping to the ground.

Pazzzik, bzzzzz—

In the path of Gungnir's flight was a massive wide-open hole crackling with azure electricity. It was like looking at a colossal tunnel bored into a tall mountain.

Fwhooooooosh—!

"Huh?" Su-hyeun was jolted awake by the spear flying back to him and hurriedly reached out.

Gungnir, which he had thrown a moment ago, had returned to him all by itself. As if it had a functioning ego and wanted to return to its master.

"When thrown, it'll automatically return? Does this item have that kind of option?"

Since he had thrown it only once, he couldn't be sure of it yet. But to think that it was a spear with an automatic retrieval option.

With this, he no longer needed to worry about searching for it. After throwing it, he thought that searching for Gungnir would be quite a chore, so he greatly welcomed this new revelation.

"Since this is the case, spear throwing should become easier for me."

He gripped Gungnir even harder.

In the beginning, he thought of this weapon as a bit of a white elephant.

Su-hyeun didn't know how Odin used Gungnir. If it were supposed to be swung and thrust around, then it would not be a good match for him.

The biggest reason why Su-hyeun wielded spears was to create some distance between him and his enemies and to have the means to wage powerful long-distance attacks.

In other words, his spearmanship had evolved into specializing in throwing spears.

If Gungnir's automatic retrieval option was indeed a real thing, then he found himself the perfect throwing spear.

"The azure electricity is Gungnir's power."

Su-hyeun didn't inject any magical energy into the spear just now. In that case, the thunderclaps and the traces of the azure electrical currents had to be the power Gungnir already possessed.

It didn't even consume his magical energy like the Palm Leaf. As long as he could pick it up and throw it, he could manifest the weapon's power.

Since that's the case...

"One more time, then."

Pa-zzzzzik—

Su-hyeun directed the golden-orange electrical currents through his hand that was gripping Gungnir.

[Thunderbolt - Gungnir]

Gungnir was enveloped in golden-orange electrical currents.

Two disparate types of lightning energy wielded by two different gods—the main god of Olympus, Zeus, and then the main god of Asgard, Odin—arced and danced around Gungnir. Despite him being the one spreading one of the currents, Su-hyeun felt the buzzing, numbing pain coming from his hand.

"One, two..."

He got into the spear-throwing posture one more time.

The Predators that witnessed Gungnir's firepower earlier urgently cried out at his new pose.

"Here it comes again!"

"We need to dodge first and—!"

Fwhoooosh—!

Paaaaaht—!

Another attack flew.

The Predators accurately struck by Gungnir got vaporized without leaving behind a single trace. Then, two disparate electrical currents spread out to the surroundings, preventing other Predators from getting closer.

A new path had been created.

"Three minutes."

And when the promised time was up...

"Now that was a nice rest," Sun Wukong smirked and stood up after getting back into the best condition possible.

An eyeball could be seen floating in the sky, watching all these things happen.

* * *

"That is indeed somewhat dangerous," Osiris muttered to no one in particular, his eyes deeply closed.

His hand was currently holding a fist-sized eyeball.

The scene he saw through this eye was the figure of three gods slaughtering their way past an ocean of Predators.

"M—my liege, we did not expect someone would be capable of wielding Gungnir to that degree..."

"If it's him, then it's possible. However, I'm surprised by Odin not handing Gungnir over to his son, Thor."

Osiris's calculation was off the mark this time.

Odin was never very good with Insight. He wasn't even that smart to begin with. Out of all the gods in existence, he was far closer to being a straightforward idiot.

Odin not being brilliant wasn't all that surprising, considering his Insight was worse than an average god's.

However, even without such a thing, he was still acknowledged as one of the Five Godly Sages because of his insanely incredible physical strength. He also possessed the mighty weapon called Gungnir. Regardless of all that, Odin's biggest weakness was always his poor Insight.

That was why Osiris calculated that Odin would hand Gungnir over to his son, Thor. However, despite his poor Insight, he still chose the most "correct" answer in this situation.

"My liege, don't you think this will become a bit too dangerous?"

Osiris could only frown at the retainer's question.

Indeed, this was getting dangerous. This situation had to be the first time for Osiris since the universe was created and since he was crowned the king of hell.

His instincts warned him that the result would not be good if this continued.

This was another "power" of Osiris, somewhat different from Insight.

A "gut feeling" from an existence on his level was not something to be dismissed as a mere feeling of the moment.

"And here I was, thinking that we still need more time."

"My liege, will you personally interfere now?"

"Well, I should at least try to convince him."

With Osiris's unexpected reply, the retainer raised his head and asked back in puzzlement, "Convince him, my liege?"

When the retainer thought about it, didn't Osiris say something similar in the past, too? Back then, the retainer suggested that Su-hyeun needed to be nipped in the bud before he became even stronger.

"He's not yet on our side, after all," Osiris's reply back then or now remained the same. "Since that's the case, it's time to bring him over to our side."

Osiris finally got up from his spot. His injuries remained, but he didn't need to hesitate at this point.

His opponent only started wielding Gungnir a few moments ago. Even if a god of the Five Godly Sages tier decided to show up here now, they had to be on the same level as Odin or Brahma. Otherwise, they stood no chance of stopping Osiris.

"This is merely a passing shower, not a thunderstorm," Osiris thought.

The powerful offensive of the trio, reminiscent of a vicious thunderstorm, came across as nothing more than some drizzle in Osiris's view.

* * *

[Flame - Explosion Style]

Ruuuumble—

Boom, bang, bang, bang, bang—!

Flames shooting out from Su-hyeun's blade exploded like a powerful bomb in the blink of an eye.

The "Explosion Style" did eat up a ton of magical energy. Even so, this skill doubled the firepower of whatever ability he decided to use. As such, Su-hyeun had no choice but to rely on it often despite not being all that keen on using it.

"I've opened up the path again," said Su-hyeun.

"Whew, that's pretty cool."

"We'll go on ahead."

Sun Wukong rode on Ruyi Jingu Bang, and Thor flew on Miru's back to travel along the newly opened path.

Rushing in front, Sun Wukong powerfully swung his staff. Meanwhile, Thor all too bravely wielded Mjölnir despite his mounting fatigue.

They had been repeating this cycle since reaching the halfway mark. Su-hyeun broke through and opened up a path, then Sun Wukong and Thor would rush forward to create more of the path.

In the meantime, Su-hyeun covered their rear. Then, a short while later, they would switch roles. He would rush forward and break through using the same method while Sun Wukong and Thor watched his back.

Although their method was simple, it still proved to be somewhat effective. Even if one needed to use a large-scale technique, one would still get a little bit of rest time afterward.

"I managed to conserve a lot of magical energy."

It had already been half a day since they started eliminating countless Predators to open up a path forward. Their progress was slow since they had to break through constantly. Still, they managed to make good headway.

Riding on Miru's back, Thor looked quite tired, but Sun Wukong was still lively as if something on this level was nothing to him.

"As for Osiris," Su-hyeun scanned the surroundings and nodded, "As I thought, he's still not here."

Initially, he was slightly nervous about the possibility.

Countless Predators flooded out from one thousand hells under Osiris's rule. The one commanding them all was none other than Osiris. As such, the possibility of Osiris butting in during this battle remained relatively strong.

"Why hasn't he, though?"

There was only one reason why Su-hyeun conserved as much of his magical energy as possible: so that he could be ready for the battle against Osiris.

The battle that was already going on for half a day had eaten up a considerable amount of his stamina. Still, that didn't mean his physical condition was poor at the moment. Thanks to the armor, he wasn't injured, and he hadn't exhausted a lot of his magical energy reserve, either.

But now, it felt like all of his hard work so far was for nothing. Osiris still hadn't shown up yet.

"I'm sure he's watching us, so why?" Su-hyeun's gaze shifted over to a small floating eyeball watching him from some distance away.

There was more than one eye.

A total of three floating eyeballs were staring at Su-hyeun, Sun Wukong, and Thor. He spotted those things about one hour into their battle to break through the ocean of Predators.

Initially, he wasn't sure whose eyes those belonged to, but he became certain of Osiris being their master around the middle point of the battle.

Su-hyeun had seen a similar eyeball to those, although it was inside an illusory recreation of the past.

"We're almost there," said Thor, his whole body soaked in sweat.

Su-hyeun nodded, "It's over there, isn't it?"

He could see a steep drop some distance away.

According to Thor, Yggdrasil's roots began at the end of Asgard by the foot of a massive cliff.

If they travel down there, Yggdrasil's roots should be found. All the fissures in space should stop by securing that place and eliminating the source harming the roots.

"Do not forget. Securing the safety of the roots must be our priority. We need to buy as much time as possible until our reinforcements get here."

"But are you sure about that?"

Thor nodded resolutely at Su-hyeun's worried question, "They must be aware of the situation on this side. The gods cannot ignore the collapse of Yggdrasil, meaning it's only a matter of time before their support arrives."

"But if they don't come, it'll still be fine, though!"

"I don't think this problem should be taken that lightly, Third Brother," Su-hyeun sighed after checking out Sun Wukong and his overflowing energy.

On stamina alone, none present today could match Sun Wukong. Not even Su-hyeun could emulate this Third Brother and fight for three days straight, never mind one whole month without taking a single break.

"Breaking through and fighting all these enemies are two different things, after all," Su-hyeun thought.

They managed to forge ahead somehow until now, but that was because they had a clear goal called Yggdrasil. But after reaching Yggdrasil's roots, their situation would undoubtedly change drastically since they would have to protect the roots from all these Predators.

From that point on, Su-hyeun wouldn't be able to conserve his energy while fighting anymore. A battle to protect something was always going to be several times harder than most other types of battles.

Not only that...

"So, he finally came."

Their hardest, most formidable opponent remained.

Su-hyeun's muttering caused the eyes of Thor and Sun Wukong to chase after his gaze.

Split, crack—

Su-hyeun had been staring at a fist-sized eyeball floating among the Predators for a little while now.

A crack suddenly appeared on the eyeball, and it began shattering like a glass marble. At the same time, rays of green light shot out, swallowing up all the Predators in the near vicinity.

But these Predators, easily numbering in the hundreds, didn't offer any resistance as the light swallowed them up. Rather, it was more like they couldn't resist.

The green light had swallowed them up far too quickly, even before they could fight back.

Fwhhooosh—!

The green light glowed even brighter. Then, when it instantly vanished...

"Osiris."

A familiar-looking man with a handsome face and green hair revealed himself.