The Hero Returns

Sizzle'”

The seed's roots dug in even deeper.

The roots used Su-hyeun's heart as their fertilizer to grow bigger. They devoured the magical energy stored in his heart to enlarge itself.

It felt like a huge tree was growing up inside his body, and the resulting pain was indescribably horrifying.

"God... damn... it..."

He thought he was already used to pain, but this easily exceeded his threshold.

Don't lose to something like a World Tree?

Easier said than done.

The seed had already invaded his ego, ready to pounce and devour Su-hyeun's mind at any moment. If he blacked out from the pain, no one could tell for sure what might happen afterward.

"When I meet Brahma again, I'm going to beat his ass up!"

It had been some time since he stopped hearing Brahma's voice. It seemed that the Primordial God went home, thinking that his job here was over.

That made some sense, though. This scenario must've been in his calculations when he said he would make his decision after witnessing the world through Su-hyeun's eyes. Now that it had happened, there was no need for him to stay.

"Still..."

The pain grew more familiar and less severe as time ticked by.

He proceeded to trample on the World Tree's ego and accepted its powers as his own, causing the control of his body to revert to him gradually.

Sprawled on the ground until then, Su-hyeun clutched his chest as if he wanted to claw his heart out. He then slowly got back up.

"Not bad."

The uncomfortable sensation akin to having a tree growing inside his body was definitely not pleasant.

Even so, the World Tree that had finally sprouted its roots no doubt possessed far greater power than ever before.

"So, this is the World Tree, huh?"

Initially, it would've gone on to form a new world.

No, more than that, it would have given birth to many, many different worlds. Even the power called the magical energy was merely another type of energy contained within World Trees like Yggdrasil.

And one such World Tree had taken root inside Su-hyeun's body, which also happened to be massive energy storage.

Su-hyeun remembered someone who possessed something similar to this.

"It's like my Third Brother, isn't it?"

Indeed, it was similar to Sun Wukong's situation.

After absorbing every immortal peach found in the Heavenly Peach Garden, Sun Wukong came to possess a near-infinite supply of magical energy.

Su-hyeun's current state seemed somewhat similar to that.

Infinite magical energy supply?

It was a refreshing feeling to possess an energy that would never run out no matter what.

"I guess I should beat him up gently, then?"

Although his whole body was soaked in sweat, the gift itself wasn't bad at all.

Something like the growth of the World Tree should have initially taken billions of years to accomplish. After all, the time a World Tree needed to mature would have been incomparably longer than a single lifeform needing to grow.

However, Brahma held power to shorten that time requirement greatly. Thanks to him, Su-hyeun came to acquire the powers of the World Tree in a matter of only a few minutes.

"Infinite magical energy supply, hmm'¦."

What kind of battles would he be able to fight when relying on this newfound strength?

Su-hyeun began picturing the possibilities. He imagined numerous scenarios and thought up brand-new techniques, too.

Split'”

A portal generated before his eyes. It was the doorway leading to the 210th floor.

As he slowly stepped forward, a particular image popped up in his mind, bringing a faint little grin on his lips, "This is totally amazing."

* * *

[The 210th floor's trial is commencing.]

The scenery before his eyes changed once more.

The system message reached him first before colors were added to the blank-white space around him.

[Prevent the apocalypse.]

What a simple message that was.

He was puzzled at first. Prevent the apocalypse? Was his goal to rescue a world from a Predator?

"But that doesn't really live up to my expectation."

He had been inwardly looking forward to this'”the 210th floor.

This was his first 10th-floor trial after going past the 200th floor. As such, he expected the difficulty to be high and the quest itself to be complicated.

However, that explanation didn't live up to his expectation at all.

Su-hyeun's view cleared up little by little. That must have been the extent of the system's message as no other notifications popped up.

"I better finish this quickly and move on."

Su-hyeun began thinking that he wouldn't get the chance to test out his infinite reserve of magical energy, but then...

"You finally came, huh?"

A voice suddenly came to him from behind.

Whoosh'”

Su-hyeun quickly turned around to see. Initially, he couldn't see the owner of the voice.

No, more correctly, he saw way too many people to find him among them.

"What the hell...?"

Countless people surrounded Su-hyeun, but their eyes were blindfolded, their mouths gagged, and their whole bodies tied up. Their numbers must have been easily tens of thousands.

Why were so many people in such a condition in this exact location?

Su-hyeun's shock didn't last long as he quickly discovered the one who spoke to him earlier.

He was shocked once more.

"Brahma?!"

"Nope. I'm the opposite," a man replied while smirking in Su-hyeun's direction.

Just like Brahma, this man looked exactly like Su-hyeun.

But Brahma's opposite?

That revelation was enough for Su-hyeun to figure out the man's identity with the same face as his. "Are you Shiva?"

"Bingo," Shiva nodded, then scanned their surroundings. "I've been waiting for you for a while now. I even got worried about what to do if these people starved to death or something."

"Are they supposed to be your hostages?"

"For now. But don't you worry. I will let them go soon enough."

How could the same face emanate such a different atmosphere like this? Su-hyeun instantly figured out why Shiva described himself as the opposite of Brahma.

"Preventing the apocalypse... means this?" Su-hyeun thought.

The maker of an apocalypse was Shiva's main role. While Brahma created, Shiva did the opposite and destroyed everything.

In that case, the apocalypse the system mentioned had to be Shiva.

"Honestly, I'm surprised. I had no idea that all that careful plan Brahma made would go astray by this much. Is it because you ran into Master Subhuti? Or because you learned the Sage Arts?"

Shiva began talking about things that Su-hyeun had been thinking about for some time. However, there were simply too many distractions in their near vicinity to respond to his questions in a friendly manner.

"Ah, don't be too concerned about their fate. I shall release them before we start fighting later."

"Didn't you say they are your hostages?"

"It won't do if you just start swinging your fist at me the moment you lay your eyes on me, no? That's going to prevent us from having a nice little chat, right?"

Shiva shrugged his shoulders, and Su-hyeun nodded in agreement.

For sure, Su-hyeun would've attacked right away if Shiva was the only one standing before him. Shiva and Vishnu were the main enemies he had to kill no matter what, after all.

"It'd be wiser to get rid of Shiva when I have an opportunity like this, but for now..." Su-hyeun started inwardly calculating.

Su-hyeun glanced at the people around him.

Should he just ignore them and start fighting right away?

Tens of thousands of people'”that was a lot but still inconsequential when weighed against the fate of the entire universe. If their sacrifice was enough to kill Shiva, this couldn't be described as a bad situation overall.

However...

"That small portion is everything to someone, after all."

It hadn't been that long since he heard those words.

Sacrificing all these people just for a chance to kill Shiva would be no different than trampling on the reason why Brahma chose to help Su-hyeun in the first place.

"What do you want to talk about, then? Hurry up and out with it."

"As expected, you're definitely Brahma."

"Think what you want," Su-hyeun retorted while scanning the hostages around him. "However, you better stick to the promise of releasing all these people once you're done. I'm not planning to hold myself back at that point."

"I have to say; I like your personality a whole lot better than Brahma's softer-than-marshmallow nature."

"Don't waste my time with nonsense, either."

"Then again, you sure have a short fuse, don't you? Now, let's see..." Shiva seemed to ponder where he should start and asked, "Do you know where this is?"

"Do I have to know?"

"No, not really. It's not like you came here with your power, anyway. The system sent you here, so you probably don't have a quick way to find out."

Did Shiva know of the system's existence?

Yet, that shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, the system had spread all over the entire universe on a massive scale. Even if you weren't granted the system's power, it wasn't that difficult to learn about its existence.

"Right. The real issue here is that Shiva has been waiting for me," Su-hyeun reminded himself.

It wasn't as simple as Shiva knowing about the system. He also learned about the contents of the system's trials, figured out where Su-hyeun would show up, and then waited for his arrival there.

"Just how is that even...?"

Su-hyeun racked his brain during this short lull, but no plausible explanation came to his mind.

He restored the system, yet even he was not privy to the contents of the trials, but to think that Shiva knew it ahead of time?

Only one person could do something like that...

"No way."

"Oh, so you finally figured it out?"

"Master Subhuti?"

Clap, clap...

Shiva began clapping his hands when Su-hyeun mentioned a specific name, "You hit the nail in the head. Pretty smart, aren't you?"

"But why would he'”?"

"Why would he join hands with me? Is that what you're asking?" Shiva correctly guessed Su-hyeun's question and replied immediately. "I wonder about that myself. Just how did he know so much about me? And where did he even find out about father's existence, too? I don't have any answers for that. But one thing's for sure. I'm part of Master Subhuti's consideration toward you."

"You are?"

"That's right. Of course, this is not the final destination he has prepared for you, but still..."

Shiva began shaking his head as if he was saying something unnecessary.

Almost simultaneously, an ominous aura began spreading all around him.

"First thing's first. Brahma, which side are you on?"

"What kind of answer do you expect from me?"

"Well, all I want is an honest one. Master Subhuti ensured that Brahma's plan would go astray, and the ripples would reach you, causing you to become a fully separate entity from Brahma."

When Su-hyeun met Brahma for the first time, Shiva showed up in front of the tomb. Meaning he must have known everything from a long time ago.

"Does that mean Brahma wasn't the only one making plans?" he thought.

Master Subhuti also prepared for the future with his means. He built the system and mapped out the Tower's trials. All of that was in consideration toward Su-hyeun, causing variables to interfere with Brahma's plan.

Shiva joined forces with Subhuti and waited for the existence of Su-hyeun for a very long time.

"I will ask again. Which side are you on?"

"My answer is..." Su-hyeun extended his hand forward, "This."

Right in the middle.

Although Shiva didn't know the exact meaning of that answer, he still understood what kind of answer it was.

"Is that so?"

A grin appeared on Shiva's face.

Fwhooooosh'”!

At the same time, tens of people surrounding the duo instantly vanished from view.

Su-hyeun scanned his vicinity at this sudden development.

"Was that wide-area teleportation magic? Without a magic circle, too?" he inwardly pondered.

He heard enough about what kind of existence Shiva was by now'”the creature that would lead the universe to its destruction and excelled in not creation but in pure destruction.

What Shiva did just now was definitely a type of magic. There was a good possibility that he possessed all sorts of abilities and techniques, which was somewhat different from Brahma, who only excelled in one category.

Even so...

"I can also do something like this, though."

Su-hyeun knew what kind of magic spell this was. You would need a lot of magical energy to teleport such a large area, but it would not burden the current Su-hyeun.

Meaning he had no reason to panic or get shocked here.

Shu-kak'”!

Su-hyeun unsheathed his sword. He then immediately drove in his magical energy into the weapon. A much greater quantity of energy than usual permeated the blade, making it glow in the distinct azure light.

"You don't seem to know how to control your overflowing power."

"Right. As you can see..."

Su-hyeun reined in his breathing.

It had been a while since he felt this tense.

The energy he got from Osiris, the Demonic Aura, began surrounding Su-hyeun's figure like some armor.

"I'm overflowing with power right now."

In one hand, he had his sword.

Pazzzzzzik'”

And in the other hand, he held Gungnir. Su-hyeun drove the power of lightning into his two weapons.

"Oh-hoh'”"

Shwa-aaaah'”

Shiva's hands were now gripping a sword and a spear that emitted black light. The exterior of these weapons was precisely the same as Su-hyeun's weapons.

The corners of Shiva's lips curled up as if he found this situation rather amusing.

"Alright, then, let me see how good you are."