The Hero Returns

* * *

Kali the Predator loved conflicts, warfare, sacrificial offerings, and bloodshed. She was different from Kalira who was simply fanatical about having a good fight; Kali was far more meticulous but, at the same time, overflowing with just as much madness.

What she wanted to achieve right now wasn't to simply kill Su-hyeun. She wanted to use him to satisfy her desire at the same time.

Until now, she made the residents of Pangaea offer themselves up as sacrifices, thereby satisfying one of her desires that way. Now, she had initiated a huge war—a battle between trillions of people versus one god.

"What a mess," Su-hyeun groaned at length.

Crunch, chew, crunch—

Right next to him, Gluttony was busy chewing and swallowing the corpses of two Predators. Unfortunately, Kalira's corpse was gone; it was melted down by Kali and became a puddle of blood instead.

"So tasty!"

Crunch—

The sight of the clearly excited Gluttony enjoying its meal was quite something else to behold. In the past, it resembled a bull the size of a mountain, but now, Gluttony had taken the outer appearance of an overweight man around two meters tall.

Seeing the humanoid version of Gluttony devouring a dokkaebi and Anubis with a canine head was rather upsetting to one's stomach even at a casual glance.

"You must be happy being so carefree," Su-hyeun muttered and waited until Gluttony finished its meal before he got up from the spot. "Altars, is it?"

This was Kali's world. There were 100 Altars, and 10 of them belonged to her.

"This might take a while."

Su-hyeun glanced at Gluttony.

After devouring two Predators, it had ballooned in size noticeably. Its height now hovered around 2.3 meters, and more flesh was attached to its frame now, making him look neither a human nor a full-on monster.

"Are you still hungry?" Su-hyeun asked, and Gluttony nodded enthusiastically. "Ah, well, obviously, you wouldn't feel satisfied already, anyway."

A Predator whose desire was insatiable appetite would never feel fully satisfied. A Predator that fulfilled its desire would no longer be a Predator but practically a god, after all.

"Still, you mustn't eat humans. The only thing you can eat in this place is other Predators."

"Ehhhh..."

Gluttony's intelligence had developed enough now to express its emotion at Su-hyeun's command.

That didn't mean Su-hyeun couldn't control his summoned creature, though.

"If you devour one, know that I won't feed you, like, forever."

This was the most effective threat.

Gluttony's expression froze up for a little while, and then, it urgently nodded several times. It should've understood the gravity of the situation with this, then.

"Nezha."

Clack—

When Su-hyeun called out, Prince Nezha, who was sitting a bit away, stood up and walked over. His body that was greatly damaged from his fight against Anubis had already finished regenerating by then.

Since Nezha was already dead, he didn't shed a single drop of blood, and he could be revived at any time as long as Su-hyeun had his Death Aura reserve.

This was not a matter of whether he was weak or strong. A warrior who couldn't die even if he was killed—that was the current Prince Nezha.

"You and Gluttony work together to destroy the Altars. You can act separately, but make sure to fight Predators together with Gluttony. You two have good compatibility, after all."

The individual abilities of Gluttony and Prince Nezha had a great synergy during battles as one specialized in defense, while the other, offense. If these two worked together, they should be able to take on two or three Predators on the level of Anubis or Zawucheon.

"Begin right away," Su-hyeun issued his command, and Gluttony and Nezha nodded simultaneously.

Nezha grabbed Gluttony's shoulders. The latter let out a beast-like growl and concentrated its power on its legs.

Then, at the next moment...

Booooom—!

Gluttony, carrying Nezha on its back, sprang high into the air and soon disappeared from view.

Su-hyeun watched them leave and then opened his mouth again, "And Miru."

Grrrr—

His calling prompted Miru to reveal itself, its massive wings proudly unfurled.

Miru was now a somewhat proper-looking dragon that had shed a lot of its immature and childish traits.

"You're coming with me."

Gya-aaaah—

It issued a cry that was halfway between that of a kid and an adult. Still, it sounded much more dependable than before. More than anything else, though, Su-hyeun required Miru's mobility to traverse the huge expanse of Pangaea.

"From this moment on, we will destroy every Altar found in this world."

* * *

In the Empire of Pangaea, the only nation that existed on this massive land where the sole emperor existing under the gods lived…

The imperial palace where the Pangaean Empire's absolute ruler stayed was currently mired in an unprecedented level of chaos and confusion.

"God Bergo's Altar, confirmed destroyed! The target is now moving north!"

"The target's next goal must be God Niguras's Altar. The news has been sent, and our combat force is in the middle of amassing in the—"

"At the same time, God Dalos's Altar has been confirmed destroyed! The target is now moving south—"

"Enough, enough!"

Jiiii-iiing—

The emperor's enraged roar rocked the imperial palace. In response, the retainers reporting in promptly shut their mouths at his rage.

The emperor was deeply distorting his aged face, adding more wrinkles to what he already had there. "Just why did the noble gods grant such power to someone so sacrilegious?"

All residents of Pangaea believed that their own magical powers were gifts granted by the gods. As such, the emperor thought the power of Su-hyeun who was riding around on a dragon and destroying the Altars was actually acquired through the gods, too.

"What is the total number of destroyed Altars?"

"Including the divine altars that ceased operation, the number of destroyed divine altars is 48, Your Majesty. We predict that majority of Altars will be destroyed within today."

"Forty-eight?" The emperor squeezed his eyes shut. His dilemmas were only getting heavier.

The emperor was a man who had managed to climb to the highest position that ruled over trillions of people. One word from him was basically the same as a message from the gods.

At the end of his long deliberation, the emperor finally opened his mouth to speak, "We shall give up on the next Altar." As he said that, he opened his eyes as well.

No one cried out or voiced their objection. They quietly waited for the emperor to speak the next part of his declaration. They simply used their faces to express their surprise or fluster instead.

"Have we not come to learn that it's impossible to chase after that man's movement speed during these past few days? Continuously chasing after him in this fashion is indeed meaningless."

"In that case—"

"The itinerary of that man so far has been surprisingly simple. He aims for the nearest Altar, then he moves on to the next nearest one. We must consider what will happen soon in that case."

"Your Majesty, when you say we will give up on the next Altar, does that mean we won't ready the soldiers?"

"Indeed," the emperor nodded gravely. "Gather all flight-capable knights. He has been destroying the Altars from the air rather than ground, after all."

No one objected because they all knew that what the emperor said was the correct call. They knew that at this rate, all the Altars would be destroyed one by one.

Even then, no one could easily agree to do it. The reason for their reluctance was simple.

"Yes, I'm fully aware of it. Even I cannot be certain if this is the right decision or if we're on the right course," he said, voice becoming firmer, more resolute, "That is why I shall bear all responsibility for this course of action. Whether I receive the divine punishment or get sent to hell, I shall take on all responsibilities and the punishment meted out."

The emperor scanned the crowd and then asked aloud again, "Do you understand me?"

"Y—yes, Your Majesty!"

"We shall follow, Your Majesty!"

"In that case, get on with it immediately! I shall also accompany you to the next possible location. The location where we will prepare shall be..."

Clack—!

The emperor unsheathed his sword, the one he hadn't wielded in such a long while, and roared out majestically, "Goddess Kali's second Altar!"

* * *

Flap—

Whoooooosh—

The scenery below was passing by at a break-neck pace when viewed from high above.

The panoramic view as seen from above the clouds was as beautiful as always regardless of what it was. It also didn't matter if the planet wasn't Earth.

"The morning air sure is refreshing," Su-hyeun spectating on the scenery below yawned and rubbed his eyes.

He hadn't slept for a few days while continuously moving around, and he wanted to get some shut-eye for a little while.

He thought, "It's not like I need to sleep, but..."

For some reason, he didn't need to sleep after becoming a god, but that also didn't mean he couldn't fall asleep either. It was just that every once in a while, he felt the need to sleep despite knowing it wasn't necessary.

This sure was a strange sensation. Even after falling asleep, he could wake up whenever he wanted. If he willed it, he thought that he could even sleep for all eternity.

"Still, taking a quick siesta is nice, isn't it?" Su-hyeun yawned grandly and climbed up to Miru's head.

The red dragon also didn't get a wink of sleep. However, the race of dragons preferred to sleep a lot at once and then not sleep for a long time. As for Miru, it mostly slumbered away whenever Su-hyeun wasn't summoning it.

Thanks to that, Su-hyeun could take quick naps here and there while riding on Miru's back.

"Has it been two hours?"

He didn't have a watch or his smartphone with him, but he could more or less tell how long it had been.

The distance between the Altars was quite considerable. Miru was fast enough to travel halfway around Earth in less than three hours, but even it needed several hours to reach the next closest Altar.

"It's getting closer."

Su-hyeun climbed up on Miru's head and used Insight to peer into the far-off distance.

He could see a lot of people over there; first, wyverns and then countless knights riding on these flight-capable monsters that were thought to be devolved dragons. Finally, heavily armed knights were standing in huge rank and file below the Altar, too.

"That's to stop me, isn't it?"

Now it made sense why he couldn't spot any proper soldiers or knights guarding the last few Altars.

It seemed that they decided to sacrifice those Altars to protect this one or, more specifically, to capture Su-hyeun who had been going around destroying said Altars.

"They really used their brains this time, didn't they?"

Grrrr—

Miru growled lowly to reply to him.

The Altar was under a tight lockdown that made it nearly impossible to approach the structure, and the army surrounding the massive Altar numbered in the hundreds of millions. It seemed that all the renowned knights throughout the land had been brought here.

"When judged solely by the number...Man, this is more troublesome than a regular purple-colored dungeon, isn't it?"

Hundreds of millions of knights? Without a doubt, some really capable individuals would be among them, too. Of course, they weren't going to be the problem; having a greater number of opponents was no longer an important factor to him, after all.

No, the real problem was...

"I need to evade all those people and destroy the Altar..."

In a situation like this, Su-hyeun had two options: one, kill them all or, two, evade them all and then destroy the Altar.

Rather obviously, Su-hyeun chose to go with the latter.

He scratched his head unhappily, "Hey, Miru."

Grrr—

"Just in case, once we arrive there, put me down and go back inside. I mean, it'll be hard to tell how many will die if you inadvertently use your Breath here."

Different magic spells and the Breath attack Miru used were all seriously powerful. However, their attack range was just as wide as they were powerful, and the dragon still hadn't fully mastered controlling its destructive power as it was still not an adult yet.

Gya-oh—!

Miru nodded at Su-hyeun's new command and energetically beat its wings. Back when it was still young, it might have thrown a bit of a tantrum, saying it didn't want to. He proudly thought that the dragon had grown up a lot.

Soon, Su-hyeun no longer needed Insight to stare at the massive Altar and the countless knights guarding it. He quietly muttered to himself, "Well, this has gotten a bit annoying."

Indeed, the task of not killing anyone but still destroying the Altar at the same time had gotten annoying for him. However, that was about it; his task shouldn't really be challenging at all.