The Hero Returns

* * *

Kim Su-hyeun was fighting right now; this news rapidly spread around all over the world.

The person who spread the news was, of course, Lee Ju-ho.

Someone famous once said the immortal line, about how social media was a waste of one's life, yet the current situation was the exact opposite of that.

"A hero is born."

That single line that appeared on various social media sites gave the world renewed hope.

The term "hero" in the current despair-inducing situation proved to be truly enticing and sweet to mention.

Lee Ju-ho continued to stare at the post he made a few hours ago. His post that started off with some rather stimulating words would go on to explain in detail the currently unfolding situation.

"A hero. A hero, huh?"

That was a nice-sounding term, indeed. Anyone would've dreamed of becoming one when they were young, at least once. Being a hero was an ideal like that, after all.

"But it'd be nice if he wasn't the West-influenced type of hero who likes to go lone wolf all the time."

Lee Ju-ho was currently the only one remaining behind in Seoul's World Cup Stadium. Unlike Hak-joon or Thomas, who urgently got on a plane to go where Su-hyeun was, he was too far from being the hero seen in those blockbusters.

Even if he went there, it would be a miracle if he didn't end up as a hindrance instead.

All he could do for now was to urgently post on social media sites and spread Su-hyeun's name everywhere and, in the process, instill this seed of hope in everyone's heart.

Wasn't it funny and also pathetic at the same time?

"I might get smacked by him later, though."

Su-hyeun didn't like the term "hero." No, wait—to be clear, it wasn't as if he hated that word with passion. To him, the word came with a heavy burden, responsibilities, and a sense of dejection.

Indeed, the term hero was the symbolic word that made him recall some unpleasant memories. Even then, the world desperately needed a hero right now.

"Well, I guess it's fine to get a smack later," Lee Ju-ho muttered with a long groan.

He then tossed the smartphone aside and plopped down on the ground. He supported his head with both of his hands and leaned halfway back to watch the clouds above floating silently by.

The sky was pristine and clear, which didn't really fit the current situation. When looking at such a sky and not his surroundings that were filled with corpses of monsters, he couldn't help but get the feeling that today was no different than any other normal days.

"Huh. That sight feels way too peaceful, doesn't—? What?!" Lee Ju-ho thinking that to himself shot back up to his feet. He stared dazedly at the sky above with his eyes opening up wider than ever before. "The sky?" he muttered only that and then let his mouth hang open.

* * *

Hak-joon, Thomas, and Gordon Rohan...

And the awakeners Daian Gedeck, Ashlyn, Bak Yun-gyu, and Mirage Rowoon...

Besides them, countless other S-Rank awakeners continued to gather in one location—Everest.

This place had become the center of planet Earth.

The first person to arrive was Gordon Rohan since he possessed the ability to fly, which allowed him to travel faster than planes. With his "Archangel" trait, the flight speed he could achieve with his wings didn't fall all that far behind Miru's speed.

That's how he arrived at Mount Everest, and he was rewarded with a truly unbelievable spectacle despite witnessing it with his own eyes.

"Are they his summoned creatures?"

If this was any other time, he would have assumed that monsters were busy fighting one another. However, the red dragon that was spewing out Breath from high up in the air was a creature famous for being Su-hyeun's trademark summon.

And one of the abilities Su-hyeun was well-known for was the Necromancer trait that exceeded Daian Gedeck's ability, although Gedeck used to be known as the world's best Necromancer.

"Well, at this rate, I don't have anything to help with, it seems." Although he said that, Gordon Rohan didn't stop moving and set out to search for Su-hyeun.

Su-hyeun was sitting in a lotus position with his eyes deeply closed and focusing solely on his breathing technique.

He was fully immersed in his breathing technique to recover his magical energy, but to Gordon Rohan who didn't know that, he looked like slacking off right now.

"What is he even doing?"

Kkha-aaaahk—!

It was right at that moment that a flight-capable monster broke through the cordon of the summons and flew directly toward Su-hyeun. This creature was as large as an adult tiger, while its wings were hard and sharp like forged steel blades.

Gordon Rohan materialized a pure-white spear in his hand and immediately threw it.

Stab—!

With its head impaled, the monster crashed to the ground.

It was also at that moment that Su-hyeun opened his eyes. "You're late," he greeted.

"Well, I had no idea that you'd do something this ridiculous."

To think that he would cast Provocation against every monster that appeared throughout the world...

Thinking up of such a plan and then bringing it into reality were completely insane things to pull off. On one hand, Gordon Rohan was suitably impressed. That didn't mean he could still believe it, though.

"Hey, you. Just what have you become?"

He was most curious about this point.

"In the past, you were like a tall mountain—a difficult mountain to overcome but still possible to overcome. But now, it's like you've become the sky."

Gordon Rohan said some things like that after running into Su-hyeun in what felt like not seeing each other for a very long time.

Back then, that feeling remained vague. That feeling was similar to looking at a place so high up that it almost seemed impossible to reach, which also made him feel that he had lost even without fighting first. In turn, he was not happy about feeling that way at all.

But now that he had witnessed this spectacle, that earlier unhappiness he felt instantly dissipated.

Here was the proof that Su-hyeun had become an existence far outside of Gordon Rohan's common sense.

"Does it matter whatever it is? As long as we can win, I'm prepared to become anything."

"That makes sense." Gordon Rohan nodded and then scanned the horde of monsters by the foot of Everest. "Thanks to you, everyone is still alive."

"I didn't know you were capable of saying stuff like that."

"Well, it's true that I'm grateful, after all. Ah, looks like the others have finally arrived."

Either the timing was perfect or he just wanted to change the topic, but Gordon Rohan turned his head in the direction of a private plane that was flying in toward them.

Two figures could be seen leaping out from the moving plane before it even had the chance to land. They were none other than Hak-joon and Thomas.

"Bro—!"

"Su-hyeuuuun—!"

The two men made their entrance with loud cries, and Su-hyeun couldn't help but chuckle at that. What a relief it was that they didn't take too long to get here. With their help, enduring should become so much easier from now on.

Gordon Rohan continued to mutter, "And it seems that all the ones who should come have come.'

They weren't the only ones to arrive, either.

Except for Lee Ju-ho who was basically a noncombatant at this point, all the members of the Paragon Guild, as well as S-Rank awakeners from various countries around the world, had shown up here.

Other than the Ranking Wars, S-Ranks had never had an opportunity to come together in such a large number before. It seemed that all the stars had gathered in one spot.

"Well, then..."

Rays of light that were shooting out from Gordon Rohan's two wings began engraving the skies above.

Chwa-rararara...

All those light rays soon morphed into thousands, no, tens of thousands of spear shafts. Gordon Rohan spread his wings wide open and flew up to grab a humongous light spear.

[Divine Punishment]

"Let's mop everything up here."

* * *

Dozens of awakeners...

Specifically, dozens of S-Rank awakeners had gathered in one location to fight against the horde of monsters nonstop.

Each and every one of Gordon Rohan's light spears was basically the same as bombs that could destroy a wide area. He poured out thousands of such spears and utterly massacred monsters down below.

It was the same story for both Thomas and Hak-joon. Honestly speaking, Thomas was doing a lot more than Gordon Rohan when it came to using his wide-area skill.

Unfortunately, though, it didn't really matter how many S-Rank awakeners were present today, as the number of monsters always far surpassed them.

There were hundreds of thousands—no, make those millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of monsters!

Even if dozens and hundreds of monsters were slaughtered in the blink of an eye, such a thing didn't even put a dent in the entire horde in the end.

Even Gordon Rohan was shaking his head at the continuous stream of the monsters. "Damn, there is simply no end to this."

It was the right call to use Provocation and bring all the monsters over here, but now, the problem lay with human stamina.

"It seems that everyone is gradually reaching their limit."

It had already been half a day.

Fighting without rest for that long was no easy feat, even if they happened to be highly skilled awakeners. To make matters worse, boss-level monsters from the dungeons boasting difficulty of green color or higher were regularly mixed in among the horde as well.

S-Rank awakeners would not find it easy to hunt such creatures down on a good day. That must've been the reason why a large number of them were easily injured here.

Almost half of the combatants who came here had already been forced into early retirement, so to speak.

And then...

Gwuh-uuuuuh—!

Grrrrr—

The bosses from indigo-colored dungeons were here too.

A Titan Turtle and a Steel Dragon with a long maw resembling a crocodile showed up to severely impact the fighting spirit of the gathered awakeners.

"Even those creatures..."

"Looks like they have crossed the oceans to get here."

"Is this how far we can go?"

"It's only been half a day, though. Just a little bit more...!"

Shurururu...

And it was also around here that Gluttony, which used its mountainous physique to overpower and relentlessly devour other monsters, disappeared from view.

However, it wasn't just Gluttony, either; all of Su-hyeun's summoned creatures that had been helping the awakeners began disappearing one by one. The only one remaining was Miru, who seemed to have a lot more left in its tank even now.

Just Gluttony and Prince Nezha alone did the work of dozens upon dozens of awakeners, especially more so with Gluttony, which had been exceeding Gordon Rohan in terms of overall impact in the battle.

But now, all of them had disappeared.

"This isn't good," Gordon Rohan summarized the situation rather succinctly.

Thankfully, they had avoided the absolute worst possibility for now. One could argue that attracting the attention of all the monsters to one location was probably the best outcome in this situation. However, the problem now was dealing with all these monsters, which would be an exceedingly difficult task.

Grrr...

Boom—!

The boss from the indigo-colored dungeon, the Steel Dragon, made its move.

Even though this creature's size was only about half of the Titan Turtle, the power it could generate from its tail or its fangs easily surpassed that of the gigantic turtle monster.

Only by exhausting every scrap of magical energy Gordon Rohan still had would they be able to kill those two boss monsters.

"I guess there's no other choice," Gordon Rohan muttered before preparing his final technique.

Giii-iiing—

[Divine Punishment - Ragnarok]

All the spears Gordon Rohan had materialized began gathering in one spot. He had activated this skill thinking that he should prioritize dealing with the boss monsters before their eyes first.

Just as he got ready to use this technique...

"It's time to substitute the players."

His ears picked up the soft but still vivid voice.

Gordon Rohan canceled his technique at that familiar voice and turned his head. Su-hyeun had finally stood up from his lotus sitting position and walked up over to him.

"Everyone, please take a break for now."

"What will you do all by yourself, though?"

Snap—

Giii-iiing...

Su-hyeun snapped his fingers, and a ring of bright light suddenly rose from the vicinity of the mountain range.

And right after that...

Fwhoooooosh—!

Ruuuuuumble—!

Purple-colored flames spread out and swept across the entire mountain range in an instant.

Every single monster within Gordon Rohan's view was either incinerated by the flames or melted down. Many awakeners were also seemingly enveloped in these flames, but other than their panicked state, their bodies remained unhurt.

"Crazy son of a...!"

"W-what is this?"

Sheer flustered voices broke out from their lips.

Gordon Rohan turned his head to stare at Su-hyeun. The latter had unsheathed his sword to scribble on the ground with it.

Kwa-dudududu...!

With the mountain in the center, he had drawn up a massive circle in an instant. This huge-scale magic circle was completed at a break-neck pace, and it was soon used as a medium.

Meanwhile, the magic circle for the Provocation skill was still active even now. Gordon Rohan could scarcely believe what he was seeing right now.

"Activating another skill all the while maintaining a skill of this magnitude...?"

This was "multicasting," a technique for using several skills simultaneously.

An awakener that boasted some level of proficiency could feasibly activate more than two skills at the same time, but the thing was, Su-hyeun's Provocation skill was cast throughout the entire world.

Rather obviously, not just Gordon Rohan but every other awakener present didn't think Su-hyeun could maintain the Provocation skill when choosing to activate another skill.

Not only that but he had also been summoning and maintaining his summoned creatures up until now.

Now that his summons had disappeared, they all thought that Su-hyeun's magical energy reserve had been depleted.

Some monsters managed to survive, and the majority of them happened to be boss-level creatures from blue dungeons or higher.

Among them, the Titan Turtle, which was specialized in defense to start with, didn't seem to have suffered any major damage. It screeched loudly and pounced straight ahead for Su-hyeun's position.

It was right at that moment that Su-hyeun's blade made another move.

"Cut it down..."

Sliiice—

It was the sound of something hard being cleanly sliced apart!

"Palm Leaf."

A strand of vicious wind extended from his blade, drawing a single unbroken line on the figure of the Titan Turtle.

Split—

Ka-boom...

The Titan Turtle was split in half, and the severed halves collapsed to the ground.

Su-hyeun shifted his gaze and stared at the monsters right at the edge of the range of his Sage's Eye.

"Well, the Death Aura reserve has run out now, so..."

He had been commanding his summons continuously for over half a day. Doing so completely depleted his full-to-the-brim Death Aura reserve. However, he still had more than enough magical energy left, all thanks to the hard work of the other awakeners.

Focusing solely on maintaining the breathing technique to restore his magical energy reserve was paying off handsomely right now.

"And now, it's the start of the main round."