The Hero Returns

* * *

The Imperial Guard, the guardians of the Imperial Court filled with hundreds of thousands of elite among the elites of Pangaea continent…

And then the Imperial Knight Order placed just below the Imperial Guard in the pecking order, filled with millions of knights who called themselves the swords of the Emperor, as well as the servants of the gods…

Besides them, hundreds of millions of renowned knights hailing from many different cities had gathered in one location.

The fact that this many knights had come together was already an amazing spectacle to behold.

"That's the hero of the city of Neparim, Sir Kallamahn."

"Isn't that the knightess Lady Charllora who hunted down a King Wyvern by herself and tamed it not too long ago?"

"Even the Imperial Knight Order's treasured sword, Sir Nepa, is here too..."

"Well, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor is personally participating today, so it's not all that surprising for them to show up."

Many voices expressing surprise roused up from here and there. That only went to show how renowned some of the gathered knights in this place were. Not a single knight found here could be looked down on or dismissed out of hand; knights with their names known not just in their cities but even in the capital were accompanying the Emperor here.

On top of this, the tamed wyverns mobilized for this battle easily numbered in the millions. In truth, every single wyvern that could be mobilized had been brought out here.

"Have you determined the location of the corrupt heretic yet?" the Emperor asked.

His question prompted his retainer and the Imperial Court's treasured sword, Nepa, to reply, "The report of the Altar before ours being destroyed has reached us a few hours ago, Your Majesty."

"In other words, he will soon be here."

Clack—

The Emperor grasped the hilt of the sword mounted near his hips. He was rousing up his battle aura ahead of time.

An old man over a hundred years old, he never got selected by the gods and remained as the Emperor until now. Recorded as the longest-serving Emperor in history, he never once stopped wielding his sword, so much so that one of the Emperor's unofficial titles was the "high priest."

"Command the Wyvern Regiment to immediately issue a signal once they spot the heretic. He apparently rides on a red dragon."

"Understood, sire."

"As for the additional personnel, where are—?"

"He's here!" A voice that roared out from the megaphone caused the knights to turn their heads. However, they couldn't see anything in the air.

"He's here? But where?"

"Maybe the report is wrong?"

"I don't see anything, though?"

Their opponent, who had been going around destroying various Altars, was supposed to be traveling on a red dragon. No matter how he tried to hide, his options should be limited as long as he was flying in the air.

Rather unsurprisingly, everyone's gaze shifted toward the sky, searching for a flying red dragon.

However...

"He's on the ground!"

Their opponent wasn't in the air at all.

"Ground?"

"No way...?"

One by one, the knights lowered their binoculars and searched on the ground.

How far away was he? They all spotted a single man trudging through the distant grass field.

"He's really walking over here?"

"Is he insane?"

"Why is he not using the more convenient air travel?"

A knight that rode on a dragon—now that was like a legendary existence that only appeared in fables or in one's dreams, yet their opponent who did ride on a dragon went around committing heinous acts of destroying the Altars.

There was no need to wonder why he traveled in the air, though. If one had a method of travel called a "dragon" that boasted high mobility, as well as a powerful attack called Breath, then there wouldn't be a reason to persist with traveling on foot, after all.

Also, the knights who couldn't fly would never be able to attack the enemy in the air, but for those who did fly, they could easily attack their foes on the ground.

This was the "absolute advantage," yet their opponent today had discarded such advantage and was walking on foot instead.

"Is he looking down on us?"

"He's a man who dares to commit the blasphemy of the highest order, so we shouldn't find this act strange at all."

"Indeed, this is the gravest insult imaginable to the continent of Pangaea and to the gods above."

"We must punish him no matter what!"

These knights with unyielding pride were immediately enraged. They all thought that they were being underestimated here.

However, only the Emperor was not seeing it the same way. "Is it really because he's looking down on us?"

The distance gradually closed in, and the figure of the man they referred to as the corrupted one, the heretic Su-hyeun, entered their view.

The Emperor had met all sorts of people during his life that span a century and then some. Among them were individuals that drooled over the position of the emperor after their lust for power had blinded them. He also met countless aristocrats who lost their faith and became deeply corrupted, stained to their core with the lust for political power.

As such, the Emperor was quite confident of his ability to discern people. He could even tell what category the other party belonged to simply by staring into their eyes.

But now...

"I don't sense any hostility from him."

Their opponent today didn't emit a single trace of rage or hostility toward the army.

Step, step—

The remaining distance to the Altar was about a dozen or so kilometers, and this man was walking rather slowly.

However, there was no more time to leisurely think about this and that. The Emperor then opened his mouth, "Heed me, all of you..."

He raised his hand, as magical energy permeated his loud voice, "Go and eliminate the betrayer of our faith!"

"Waaaaaaaah—!"

The moment his command rang out, roars from hundreds of millions of people loudly rocked the sky, and then, the crowd of warriors too numerous to count became a tidal wave that charged toward Su-hyeun.

* * *

Swiiiish—

Whoosh—

"Huh?!"

A sword was powerfully swung around, but it only ended up slicing the empty air instead.

Su-hyeun, who was right in front of this sword-wielding knight's eyes just now, scattered away as nothing more than an afterimage.

The knight hurriedly looked around, and only then did he hear the voice of his fellow knight crying out from a distance, "Over here!"

This exact same thing repeated itself several times almost simultaneously. Su-hyeun slipped past the wall of the crowd and gradually narrowed the distance to the Altar.

It was at that moment that someone attempted to strike Su-hyeun's head from behind.

CLANG—!

A fairly heavy noise rang out. For the first time since their attacks began, Su-hyeun pulled out his sword. The reason why he didn't dodge and blocked the attack after he kept dodging the other knights was that he ran out of room to evade this particular attack.

Also, the knight that managed to intercept Su-hyeun boasted of excellent abilities.

"I am Kallamahn of Neparim."

"Sir Kallamahn has captured the heretic!"

"Surround him in a circle!"

"Make sure he can't escape!"

Countless knights rushed to where Kallamahn was.

Su-hyeun stared at this knight named Kallamahn who was currently locking swords with him. In this world with trillions of people, this knight's name was highly respected, which meant his skills were quite excellent as well.

Of course...

Su-hyeun spoke, "There's this saying in one of the worlds out there."

"What are you saying in this situation, you—?"

"A truly excellent swordsman can easily tell the ability of his opponent just by crossing swords once."

Shudder—

Suddenly, Kallamahn's whole body shivered from a deathly chill.

The moment Su-hyeun finished speaking, Kallamahn abruptly dropped his sword and stumbled back. A short while later, a clear clanking noise reached his ears.

Kallamahn's gaze drifted lower, "My sword...?"

Shards of a broken blade that belonged to his sword were lying on the ground.

Clang, shatter—

Ka-gang—

Almost at the same time, the same sort of noises resounded from everywhere.

All the swords were being broken right now.

"What on earth is—?"

Their heads were not being chopped off; instead, their swords were being broken into pieces. No matter how one tried to simplify it, the latter was far harder to achieve than the former.

From the get-go, a sword was a weapon designed to cut through flesh and bone. Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that it was exceptionally hard to break a sword, especially more so with swords not held in one's hand, but in someone else's hand; it was already difficult to break a stationary sword, so it would take an enormous amount of effort to break swords wielded by your opponents.

But now, slicing apart swords without making any sounds or without even seemingly making a move? Even someone like Kallamahn, who had been wielding swords for a long time, found it hard to believe or even imagine such a thing.

Clang, claaang—

Shatter, clatter—

However, those breaking noises didn't want to stop at all.

The noises of sword shards clattering to the ground continued without any break in between.

* * *

In a world where the time flow had seemingly come to a stop, the path Su-hyeun needed to walk was vividly painted before his eyes. He followed after this path, slipping smoothly forward.

Slice, crack—

Blades were smoothly being cut apart.

One sword, two swords...

When he finished slicing apart the swords of all the knights in his path, the stopped time began ticking forward once more.

Clang, clatter—

Tiiiing, ting—

"M—my sword?!"

"The enemy has vanished!"

"But he was definitely here a second ago...!"

The surroundings were thrown into chaos once more in an instant.

Bang—!

Su-hyeun's figure shot up into the air—up high and even higher than that.

The Emperor was first to discover Su-hyeun leaping toward the Altar and roared out loudly, "Stop him!"

Kyaaaaahk—!

His roaring prompted the Wyvern Regiment to head straight for Su-hyeun.

Not only were they placed nearest to the Altar but they also belonged to this land's greatest and strongest knight order that boasted the highest level of skills.

They were the Imperial Guard's Wyvern Riders.

But Su-hyeun jumped high into the middle of the Wyvern Riders, and in the blink of an eye, scanned everyone in this group that easily numbered past tens of thousands.

Right after that, his eyes became dyed in a yellowish hue, and his third eye opened up in his forehead.

[Third Eye - Predator]

Sha-aaaah—!

The image of a gigantic snake suddenly materialized right behind Su-hyeun, but no actual snake had appeared there. He merely gave the impression that it had.

The skill that broke the spirit of opponents to be weaker than the caster and restricted their movements, Predator, had been activated.

"W—w—what is that?!"

"My wyvern...?!"

"H—hey, listen to my command!"

These knights had spent almost their entire lifetime with their wyverns. One could even argue that they spent more time with their rides than with their friends or family members. Also, wyverns were courageous enough to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of their masters.

Nonetheless, such wyverns suddenly stopped listening to their riders' commands.

Step, dash—

Fwhooooosh—

Right at that moment, a certain knight rapidly flew in like a streak of lightning. Even though it was only for a moment, this individual still managed to almost match Su-hyeun's speed. The latter, in the middle of using the Predator skill, turned around while feeling inwardly impressed and swung his sword.

Claaaang—!

Fwhoooosh—

The swords of the two people clashed, sending out ripples of vicious broken sword lights everywhere.

Su-hyeun stared at the knight before his eyes, who was wielding the weapon with wrinkled hands. He turned out to be an old man with all-white hair, who must be well over 100 years of age.

"May I ask the reason why you are participating in this battle despite your age?"

The old man flinched in surprise at Su-hyeun's question. He was taken off guard by the tone of voice in that question; it was far too polite for a couple of men crossing swords like this.

"How can I command my retainers with a straight face if I'm not willing to set an example?"

"Ah, you are the Emperor."

"That's correct."

Creaaaak—

He strengthened the force behind his sword pressing forward.

He was charging in while fully prepared to die today, so the Emperor was giving this exchange his everything. Since he was old, his overall stamina had fallen compared to his youth, but even then, he was exhibiting strength far above what he could display back in his heyday.

Su-hyeun replied, "You are a good leader, indeed."

"What?"

Creak—

The Emperor's sword pressing against Su-hyeun's gradually got cleaved apart, and even though the Emperor was watching this happen, he could do nothing about it.

Tiiing—

The sword that had never tasted defeat, the number one treasured weapon in this entire land, was cleanly cleaved apart.

At the same time, Su-hyeun's figure vanished from the spot.

The shock of watching his treasured sword break into pieces lasted only for a little while; the Emperor hurriedly spun his head around to locate the now-gone Su-hyeun.

"Where did he...?!"

Right at that moment, the Emperor's eyes bulged greatly. He instinctively realized where Su-hyeun had headed off to.

Whoosh—

He turned around, his eyes now taking in the sight of a crimson roof, which happened to be the roof of the Altar.

"We—we must stop—"

Even before he could finish his sentence...

FLASH—!

A blinding light flashed from the Altar.

CRACK—!

Rumble, crash, gugugugu—

As if to follow that light, the Altar split into half; the roof lost its balance and began crumbling, while the once-sturdy walls developed sharp cracks before tumbling down, too.

The Emperor watched all this happen from the closest vantage point.

"Huh. Ha, haha..."

Su-hyeun could no longer be seen anywhere. He broke through the defensive cordon and made his move with such speed that pretty much rendered all of the empire's preparations meaningless.

A short while later, the Emperor stared at his sword with a broken blade that he still had in his grip and realized something—all these things happened in less than three minutes.

Not only that but not a single person was killed.