The Hero Returns

Crack, craaack'”

Giii-iiiing'”

An opaque barrier materialized in front of Osiris's chest.

Rather, to be more precise, it had been protecting him for a very long time already'”just that it had not received impact strong enough to reveal its presence until now.

Drip'”

A thin line of blood trickled down his chest from a minute nick there.

He began thinking that he was getting injured rather often lately. Not too long ago, didn't he even get impaled in the waist by Gungnir during his battle against Odin?

"He injured me."

In other words, his incredibly sturdy barrier'”something that could not be broken unless it was Gungnir that attacked him'”had been broken through.

Even if the injury itself was negligible, getting injured was still an indisputable fact, which meant he had to stay wary at all times now.

Crack, craaack'”

The opaque barrier began repairing itself.

Soon, it lost all semblance of color and became completely transparent. As for his wound, it too recovered completely as if he never got injured in the first place.

"Hmm, as expected. Not sure what happened just now, but'”?!"

"But this."

SMACK'”!

Su-hyeun's sword came smashing down to slice Osiris's midriff.

The loud smack came from Osiris's barrier, which was now even thicker than before. This barrier, crafted through the combination of witchcraft and magic, was tougher than any protective spell Su-hyeun had attacked before.

Slice'”!

Even so, such a barrier failed to ward off Su-hyeun's blade completely.

Yet another wound was inflicted on Osiris, whose eyes grew slightly wider at that. He muttered as his eyes barely kept up with Su-hyeun taking another swing with his sword, "But how?"

Whoooosh'”

Winds were blowing.

Just as Osiris sensed the gentle winds that brushed past his cheek and urgently turned his head...

SMACK'”!

Snick'”!

Su-hyeun's blade smashed into Osiris's face, leaving behind a nick on his cheek.

[Palm Leaf - Storm Blade]

Clang, claaaaang'”!

Slice, snick, sliiiice'”!

The attacks came from front to back, left and right, and even above.

Every single strike was not performed with a simple sword swing, either. Just as Osiris thought he was getting used to the strike's speed or angle, Su-hyeun switched it up and attacked from a completely different direction or with unpredictable changes in his swordsmanship.

The storm-like sword strikes coming in from every direction caused various wounds to appear on Osiris's figure. They might have been minor nicks, but when there were dozens'”no'”hundreds of them, his overall blood loss would inevitably spiral dangerously out of control.

Not only that...

Splutter'”

Osiris hurriedly clamped down on his wounded waistline.

"The injuries are getting deeper!" he realized.

Initially, these wounds were as shallow as paper cuts. However, with time, they got deeper and heavier. Now, they were around half a handspan deep'”deep enough even to cut off.

Whoosh'”

Osiris's hand shot out to his front. Right that the next second, Su-hyeun's face appeared before his extended hand.

Po-po-pow'”!

Bang, boomboomboomboom'”!

Magic circles materialized one after the other in the path of Su-hyeun's movement, causing a chain of powerful explosions. He avoided those spots that Osiris's hand was pointing at, then instead of his sword, wielded the spear on his left hand.

Pazzzzik'”!

It was a gigantic spear well over a dozen meters long.

[Grand Thunderbolt]

RUMBLE'”!

The moment he fired the Thunderbolt, it disappeared with a trace. Osiris, hands rapidly moving around, had predicted the flight path of the attack and acted first. That was why.

"If you're going to stick to the same tactic, then'”!"

Pazik, pazzzzik'”!

For sure, Su-hyeun had been using the same tactic, but that didn't mean the "number" would remain the same.

"In that case, why don't you try to stop them all?"

Pazzzzzziiii'”!

As if to answer Su-hyeun's hand gesture, countless lightning bolts fell from the heavens to hover in the air.

Every single one of them boasted a similar size to the Grand Thunderbolt he had fired just now.

[Rain of Grand Thunderbolt]

Rumble, boom, ka-boom'”!

BOOOOOM'”!

Osiris quickly spread his arms as the lightning bolts rained down from the air.

He poured out his power to barely defend himself, but he was having a harder time keeping up. No matter how diligently he protected himself with layers upon layers of magic and witchcraft, he knew that getting struck wouldn't end with just a few little nicks and scratches.

But then...

"Where are you looking?"

"What?"

That voice came from somewhere below.

Osiris quickly looked down, and that was when he discovered Su-hyeun down there, holding the sword in reverse and getting ready to leap.

[The Slaughter of the Ascending Dragon]

For a very brief moment there, Osiris saw a dragon.

Just like how an Imoogi earned its wings to become a dragon and ascend to the heavens, Su-hyeun's sword began cutting open Osiris's torso upward.

Slice'”

Splaaaaat'”!

A fountain of blood gushed upward.

Osiris's abdomen, throat, and even his head were all sliced up. It wasn't bad enough to chop his entire body in half, but it also didn't mean the injury was light.

The wound was about half a handspan deep.

However, the injured area, including his face and throat, was quite extensive. Osiris couldn't help but stagger while stumbling back.

"Kugh...!" Osiris touched his face and throat.

He would need a lot of time to heal this level of injury. Despite continuing with a barrage of attacks persistent enough to leave anyone breathless, Su-hyeun didn't display any hint of fatigue.

This was completely different from when Osiris first met him not too long ago.

Back then, he figured a potential conflict wouldn't be that difficult to manage even if Su-hyeun wielded Gungnir, but now...

"How cumbersome."

Shu-ru-ruk'”

Osiris muttered while generating a "spear" in the air.

If the spear that Su-hyeun generated was concentrated lightning boasted of a light element, the spear Osiris had generated was concentrated darkness.

And he didn't generate just one spear.

"I learned a pretty good technique from you. Should I thank you for that, I wonder?" Osiris retorted while raising his hand.

At the same time, the darkness blanketing the surroundings transformed into the shapes of spears and began raining down on his opponent.

[Shower of Darkness]

Splash, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh'”!

Su-hyeun's figure rapidly darted around to evade the dark spears that rained down like a sudden deluge. If one came in an unavoidable angle, he deflected it with his sword.

"That's fairly heavy," he thought.

Each dark spear that was raining down contained a considerable force.

Also, the magic containing a dark element caused strong corrosive power similar to a potent toxin to rapidly spread if you got unlucky enough to get hit by one. Getting hit with it somewhere on his body would undoubtedly render that body part crippled.

"Dodging and deflecting won't get me anywhere."

This was the same as what he did to Osiris earlier. Unfortunately for him, the roles had reversed now.

"Can't be helped, I guess."

Whoosh'”

Su-hyeun reached behind him.

Smack. Pow'”

He allowed a few of the spears to hit him.

It wasn't as if he was too weak to withstand a few blows anyway. For the sake of landing an even bigger blow, he had to suck it up for now.

Grip'”

His foot powerfully slammed into the ground, and then...

"One, two...!"

Pazik, paazzzzzik'”!

He poured a huge amount of lightning current into Gungnir.

The azure electrical charge danced around the spear along with the orange-gold electricity. An image of a dragon floated up in an instant, too.

FLASH'”!

[Gungnir - Miru]

FWHOOOOSH'”!

"Hm?"

A path was made before him. The path itself wasn't that wide. It was created when the dark spears that were raining down over Su-hyeun's head temporarily came to a stop.

It was the path of Gungnir's trajectory.

A part of Osiris's abdomen was blown away. He hurriedly grabbed his torso with a large hole and wobbled from the impact force. "Euh...!"

Swhoooosh, grab'”!

Gungnir flew back and landed within Su-hyeun's waiting hand. Then, he powerfully dashed toward Osiris.

THUD'”!

Whoosh'”!

Su-hyeun's hands were now wielding Gungnir. This weapon was far closer to a throwing spear, but that didn't mean he couldn't wield it like a regular spear.

"Fuu-heuph'”!"

Ruuuumble'”

Crimson flames burned fiercely on the tip of Gungnir.

He powerfully slammed the burning spear down on Osiris's head.

KA-BOOM'”!

RUMBLE, BOOM'”!

Osiris urgently raised his hand.

Blood continued to pour out from his waist. He had no choice but to use his power without any time to mind his injuries.

"Kugh...!"

"Alright. Now..."

Su-hyeun's arm muscles bulged.

Fwhooooosh'”!

[Wave Spear - Explosion Style]

"Time to break it down."

Crack, split'”!

The flames intensified, causing various cracks to appear on the barrier generated through Osiris's raised hand.

CLANG'”!

Fwhooooosh'”!

Along with the intense flames burning down, Osiris's figure was chopped apart in half. At the same time, black "scales" fell off him as if he was shedding a layer of dead skin.

Creak, rip'”

The chopped body parts began reattaching themselves.

Su-hyeun glared at Osiris, already fully restored and grabbing onto the weapon's shaft, "Just how many lives'”?"

Giii-iiing'”

A green light suddenly flashed all around Osiris.

Baaang'”!

Ku-rurururuk'”

The green light poured out to pound on Su-hyeun's figure. In response, Su-hyeun surrounded himself with a layer of clouds. Still, he got forced far back by the assault of the green energy.

Nonetheless, he kept his glare locked on Osiris, "I said, how many lives have devoured so far?"

"It's rather difficult to count, actually," Osiris muttered while holding the wound on his waist with one hand. His other hand rubbed the sword wound on his head and torso. "It's been so long, you see."

"You have clad yourself in various lives, it seems."

"Life" was the mysterious power that allowed an existence to breathe and live.

An existence could only have one life. A dead heart would not start to pound again, and a cold corpse would not suddenly regain its warmth'”there were no such things.

However, Osiris was going against the natural order of things.

He had added countless other lives to his own life, turning them into protective shields.

"Compared to Third Brother's Godhood of Immortality, it's nothing to write home about, but... Yeah, it's going to get rather troublesome, isn't it?" Su-hyeun thought.

Sun Wukong possessed an unkillable physical body and soul. That was one of the godhood he possessed. From how Master Subhuti explained it in passing, only a handful of beings in the whole universe seemed to have godhood with similar properties.

"Having several lives, huh?" Su-hyeun picked up Gungnir once more while muttering to no one in particular, "I guess that means I'll have to kill them all."

* * *

Whoosh'”!

"Hm!"

Osiris's eyes shot wide because of a dull impact force on his head he failed to notice until then.

Smaaaash'”!

Fwhooooosh'”

Yet another impact landed on his chest, forcing his whole figure to be flung high into the air. Su-hyeun's blade pierced through the barrier wrapped around Osiris's body, leaving even more sword wounds.

This time, the strike was accurately aimed at Osiris's heart.

Shu-rururu...

Another soul was sucked out of Osiris's body. He had clad himself in countless souls and lives, but dealing with every single impact was consuming quite a lot of those lives.

"He has suddenly gotten faster," Osiris thought.

Su-hyeun was so fast now that Osiris could no longer keep his eyes on him.

Su-hyeun already possessed enough power to rival the gods of the Five Godly Sages tier. His growth rate was so alarmingly fast that even Osiris had to keep a wary eye on him. Still, this was simply too fast even for him.

His speed had gotten faster by another realm.

Not only that, but his destructive power had also improved, rendering all the barriers around Osiris's body meaningless at this point.

"Where are you looking at?"

Whoosh'”

That voice came from behind Osiris.

Land'”

Su-hyeun's palm pressed against Osiris's back.

Rumble'”

Boom, ka-booooom'”!

The undying crimson flames lit up Osiris's figure. He staggered from the explosions, then quickly flew up high in the air. He roused up his power to get rid of the flames.

"Kugh..."

He felt pain in his flesh akin to being cooked alive.

Just as he tried to navigate through the intense pain, Osiris spotted a streak of light flying in from a distance.

In the next second...!

Fwhoooosh'”!

Gungnir flew right past Osiris's head, missing him by a hair's breadth. The weapon initially targeted his heart, but he managed to cast a spell in the nick of time to alter the spear's trajectory.

Swiiiish'”

Grab'”

Gungnir returned to Su-hyeun's grip.

He lightly spun around the heavy spear with one hand, then got ready to throw it again by grabbing it in the appropriate section of the spear shaft. But then, a smirk suddenly appeared on his face, "Ah, so that's how it was."

He realized that Osiris's response had been the same during his intense, unrelenting barrage of attacks.

He lightly shook around Gungnir and asked, "You're scared of this, aren't you?"