The Hero Returns

"And so, it has begun," Buddha muttered as he opened his eyes.

Then, he laid his eyes upon a handsome young man before him. This man, with the corners of his lips curled up ever so slightly to form a smile, was not a stranger to Buddha.

"Why haven't you attacked me yet, Osiris?"

"Is there a need for that?"

"Wasn't it an opportunity for you?"

The act of closing his eyes in front of Osiris was not an indication of Buddha letting his guard down, nor was he being carelessly conceited.

He was waiting for his enemy to make a move first.

"I'm not here to mess around with the likes of you, so why don't we just stay civil and wait?" Osiris shrugged his shoulders during his reply.

He seemed to be genuinely at ease.

Even though only the two of them were here, bone-shuddering killing intent permeated the air. Buddha prepared to cross hands and turn his head away at any given moment.

Gu-oooooh'”

That was where a pitch-black pillar had manifested.

This pillar was rising past Yggdrasil's fissure that hadn't properly closed up just yet.

From this pillar, a truly intense murderous aura oozed out, sending chills down Buddha's spine.

The magical energy leaking from it was easily the creepiest and most evil he had ever sensed. Evil intentions and emotions even worse than Osiris's could be sensed within the magical energy leaking out.

"So this is the magical energy of that young man?"

Next to this pillar was the Great Sage Heaven's Equal, Sun Wukong. Figuring out what was on his mind right now was as easy as staring at one's own palm.

He was probably distraught. The event happening right now would be too much for his head to understand, after all.

"I pray that you emerge a victor," Buddha muttered and closed his eyes once more.

Having a standoff against Osiris like this was ultimately meaningless.

* * *

Despite being a pitch-black space, it seemed pretty different from when Su-hyeun was trapped within the Dark World.

It was as if this entire space was a part of him.

"Is this how it feels like when casting the Dark World?"

For some reason, he thought he could figure out a little what it felt like for Thomas or Osiris when they activated the Dark World.

Within the space generated by the skill, "Dark World," the caster would be god. Not only would one be capable of exerting physical changes, but one could also show any illusions they wanted.

And also...

"If I do it this way, then..."

Gu-gugugu'”

The darkness spreading all around Su-hyeun began gaining vivid colors.

The empty space that made him feel like he was floating on nothing was suddenly filled up with solid ground. An imposing coliseum rose on this brown terrain, surrounding him in all directions.

Su-hyeun looked up and discovered a boundless sky above him, not a speck of clouds in sight. A sun blazed hotly to cast blinding rays of light on the coliseum.

"Wow. So it really was possible," he muttered to himself while scanning the coliseum.

This stage, which was prepared for battles, was so expansive in scale that it seemed well-suited to host a massive war or some such rather than one-on-one combat.

Just by imagining it, he could create a whole new world.

Inside this space, Su-hyeun was basically the deity'”not just any deity, but a deity who had reached the realm of a creator.

Shuwuk, shuk'”

The audience seats of the coliseum began filling up one by one.

Their figures were impossible to distinguish. As if they had been dunked into a jar of ink, their whole bodies, including their faces, were pitch-black.

Tens of thousands...hundreds of thousands'”their total number couldn't even be estimated, their dark figures utterly filling up the massive coliseum kissing the sky.

However, every one of the audience members was a "person" Su-hyeun knew.

"My past lives."

About half of his past lives were here, and they were all people with contrasting natures from Su-hyeun's.

Among all those countless faces, a few caught his attention. They happened to be from those past lives that he vividly recalled.

One completely unforgettable face was among their ranks.

"Set."

The face might be "black," but his lips were not. He was grinning in Su-hyeun's direction as if to ask, "Why haven't Su-hyeun prepared this sort of a stage sooner?"

"Well, whatever," Su-hyeun swept his gaze across them and opened his mouth, "So, this is every single 'me' dissatisfied with the current me, right?"

Indeed, every being present here was a version of Su-hyeun himself; they were people who had the same soul but different physical bodies.

They couldn't be treated as strangers at this point. If Su-hyeun kept thinking of them that way, there would be a continuous chain of confusion for him.

That was why he thought of this.

"Now then, all of you are here now, so..."

THUD'”!

Su-hyeun stomped on the ground.

He didn't use Heavenly Demon's March of Sovereign. That was Cheon Mu-jin's technique, after all.

He simply loaded magical energy into his foot and stomped the ground hard.

"Anyone who has a problem with me, come out here right now," he announced.

"Do what I want," Su-hyeun thought. He agreed with what Sun Wukong said.

But that didn't mean their voices, which were constantly ringing inside his head from a long time ago, would vanish altogether.

There was no other way to make them understand.

Not just Set, but everyone here all had their circumstances. It was not possible to overlook or dismiss their stories as nothing. Also, Su-hyeun didn't know how to verbally convince them to set them on the path of redemption.

As such, he came up with another way.

"I will break you all down with my strength."

If he couldn't convince them, then he might as well subdue them through force.

* * *

Crunch'”!

His fist slammed into a face of a man.

POW'”!

The head shattered into bits and pieces. The brain matter and blood exploded, a few droplets landing on Su-hyeun's face.

When the man died, he became a wisp of black smoke and vaporized from the scene. At the same time, though, yet another version of "Su-hyeun" rushed toward him.

Swiiiish'”

This time, he swung his sword.

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything - Earth Divider]

KWA-AAAAAH'”!

KA-BOOM'”!

The sword slammed down to utterly rip the earth apart, chopping dozens of enemies in one go.

However, the majority had dashed left and right to dodge the strike. Each one here possessed excellent abilities.

"That's irritating," Su-hyeun frowned and snapped his fingers in the directions of those dodging his sword strike.

Snap'”

Ruuuumble, bangbangbang'”!

A chain of explosions went off in the air, causing an ocean of crimson flames to scorch everything.

Dozens more were swept up in the explosions. However, this number was nothing more than a fraction of all the enemies filling up the gigantic coliseum.

Ku-gugugu'”

Right at that moment, storm clouds gathered in the sky. Su-hyeun wasn't the one summoning them, however.

"Lightning Shower!"

A voice roared from somewhere.

And then...

Ka-rumble'”!

Pazzzzik'”!

Dozens of lightning bolts descended on top of Su-hyeun's head. At the same time...

Swiiiiiiish'”!

Stab, stabstabstabstab'”!

Countless spears and arrows descended and impaled Su-hyeun's figure.

"Thanks for that."

Su-hyeun gripped one of the spears and threw it right back.

Fwhooooosh'”!

Pow! Popopopow'”!

The spear didn't stop after destroying the target's head but continued to fly forward to destroy more heads and torsos in the way.

Su-hyeun smirked and looked up while taking on the rain of lightning bolts with his body, "Thanks to you, I don't have to waste my energy summoning new clouds."

And now, he would use the powerful technique the enemy started as his own.

Su-hyeun extended his hand toward the clouds floating above the coliseum, "Strike down'”!"

FLASH'”!

"Somersault cloud!"

Ruuumble'”!

Arcs of lightning spread all around Su-hyeun's vicinity. His past lives were vaporized after getting swept up in dozens upon dozens of lightning currents, thereby completely emptying a large section of the arena.

"Fuu-woo..."

He regulated his breathing during this brief opening.

He activated Insight to scan his surroundings for a bit, including the coliseum's audience seats.

"How many are still left?"

He thought he had managed to bring down a lot by now, but from the look of things, he was wrong.

No matter how many he felled, he didn't even leave a dent in their numbers.

However, he also didn't think it was wise to widen his area of attack. He might end up in a situation where he wasted his magical energy for no good reason and find it hard to deal with the aftermath.

"Well, every one of my old selves used to be someone of note, weren't they?"

It seemed that the thing about souls gaining power was real, after all.

Almost every past version of Su-hyeun used to be someone powerful.

Kim Sung-in was a good example.

None of the past lives were stronger than the current Su-hyeun. Even so, they all possessed excellent capabilities.

A few among them were powerful beings who seemed to have transcended the limits of a human being, such as the one standing right before him.

"Why do you need to go that far?"

Step'”

Someone walked right up to Su-hyeun.

He survived even after getting struck by the Somersault cloud's lightning attack. He had crimson irises and pitch-black hair, and his skin was so pale that it was verging on being pure white.

This man with a hulking frame of over two meters tall was none other than...

"Cheon Mu-jin."

"There's no need to call me by my name, now is there? In the end, you and I are one, after all."

He was right about that.

Su-hyeun agreed with him. Still, he had a reason to call the others by their names.

"Even so, I can't call you as 'another me' all the time, now can I? It's kinda cumbersome and also a bit cringey."

"Well..."

Claaang'”

Cheon Mu-jin unsheathed his sword.

An eerie crimson aura gushed out from him. It contained the Heavenly Demon's Divine Technique, the unique martial art that Cheon Mu-jin had developed.

"You're correct about that one," said Cheon Mu-jin.

He was one of the strongest past lives Su-hyeun could remember'”the one called the Heavenly Demon, a deity among the villainous kind, a being who ultimately led his world to destruction.

He thought, "As far as technique is concerned, he might be even better than Set."

Cheon Mu-jin's techniques had already proved to be of great help to Su-hyeun many times by now. That was why confronting him now meant something important.

Shwa-aaaah'”!

A massive monster with one hundred arms materialized behind Cheon Mu-jin. Each of the arms wielded different swords, and they were all pointing at Su-hyeun.

None of them were fakes or illusions. They were all real.

This was the real form of Heavenly Demon's Divine Technique's final stance, Shattering the Sky, Absolute Destruction.

"Here I come."

"No need to be so nice and inform me ahead of time, you know?" Su-hyeun began walking up toward the monster that appeared behind Cheon Mu-jin. "I already know all about this technique, after all."

Pah-aht'”!

Su-hyeun activated the Earth Shrink Technique.

Cheon Mu-jin seemed to be able to track him. All one hundred swords simultaneously moved toward Su-hyeun as he dug in.

Paht, papaht'”!

He evaded all the swords.

It almost looked like the swords were deliberately missing him. These hundred swords, sharper and more powerful than seemingly every sword in existence, couldn't even touch a single hair on his body.

And when he dodged all the swords and reached his destination...

Flash'”!

Cheon Mu-jin's sword hacked down on Su-hyeun's head.

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything - Cutting the Sky]

[Explosion Style]

CLAAAANG'”!

Su-hyeun's sword slashed upward to shatter Cheon Mu-jin's blade into million pieces.

Splaaaat'”!

Cheon Mu-jin's abdomen was sliced wide open at the same time.

His body faltered, and he fell face-first as his blood gushed out. Just like all the other past lives before him, his body also turned into black smoke and gradually vaporized.

"My... Heavenly Demon's Divine Technique. Did you deliberately... not rely on it?"

"Yes. But not just that one, but everything else."

"Only using what you have attained through your own might, huh?" Cheon Mu-jin suddenly grinned as he vaporized completely. "In that case, I shall respect your decision."

Shu-ruru'”

Cheon Mu-jin's figure vanished from the spot for good.

It had only been one exchange of moves, yet a wound was made on Su-hyeun's cheek for the first time. It was proof that Cheon Mu-jin had been one of the strongest among Su-hyeun's past lives.

"I guess it's about time guys as strong as him started appearing, huh?"

Most of those who were confident of their skills, and those that Su-hyeun himself acknowledged as strong even among his past lives, had not stepped forward until now.

However, Cheon Mu-jin had shown up, indicating that those powerful individuals had also started making their moves.

"Okay, now..."

Rumble'”

Crimson flames erupted all around Su-hyeun's vicinity.

The time to conserve his magical energy and control the pace was now over.

"Here comes the second half."