The Hero Returns

* * *

Shake—

Tumble, driiip—

When Su-hyeun powerfully shook his sword once, all the blood staining its blade flew off.

The dropped blood wriggled for a while but eventually stopped moving. This was a good indicator that Kali's blood, each and every drop of it, was capable of moving on its own as if it possessed an independent ego.

"Well, that's too bad," Su-hyeun said after he had chopped the wave of blood apart by swinging the Palm Leaf. He stared at Kali, "I was trying to slice your whole body apart in one go, though."

Still, he managed to slice up one of her eyes, which was certainly better than nothing.

Kali's expression was weird, to say the least. She seemed happy on one hand, but on the other, she looked enraged. She was also briefly stunned. In any case, her mind seemed to be a chaotic blend of all sorts of emotions right now.

She finally opened her mouth, "You escaped quite easily."

"I only needed to cut an opening, after all."

"You make it sound easy."

Smirk—

The corners of Kali's lips extended to reach her ears. Quite literally, they were touching her ears right now—her already large lips had split open like that of a terrifying ghostly apparition from some spooky tale.

Su-hyeun had just witnessed her smile.

"Yes, I like you. Asura was also capable of this much, after all."

"Is that so?"

"I now fully acknowledge you, and I should also express my gratitude. Your death by my hands today will finally signal that I have truly surpassed Asura," said Kali, as she began manipulating the skull in her hand.

Her action prompted the wave of blood to start undulating. It seemed that the skull was her medium to make the wave move according to her will.

Shwaaaaaaah—

The blood wave charged toward Su-hyeun once more at a much faster speed and with greater force behind it. However, at the same time, he raised his foot before powerfully stomping the ground.

Ruuuumble—!

Poooooow—!

A pillar of flame erupted from the ground beneath his feet and collided against the incoming blood wave. The wave couldn't break through the flames and evaporated in an instant, turning into a fog of blood.

"Hoh-oh?" Kali's brows arched up.

Her blood had instantly evaporated. Since the wave containing a huge quantity of her blood evaporated so easily like this, those flames couldn't have been something simple at all.

"This is getting even more interesting!" Her grin grew only deeper.

Step—

Kali then finally began moving. Her vision that was dyed in blood didn't matter at all to her since the blood was hers, to begin with. No, it only made her even more excited.

Pow—!

Fwhoooosh—

Kali placed her shield before her, broke through the pillar of flames, and then charged straight ahead. At the same time, she swung her sword and tried to slice Su-hyeun by his waist.

Claaaang—!

Creaaak, creak—

Two sturdy swords collided, sending huge ripples of magical energy everywhere. At the same time, Su-hyeun's free hand rose into the air.

Rumble—!

Pazzzik, bzzzzik—

[Thunderbolt]

Arcs of electricity slammed down from the heavens to enter his left hand and quickly morphed into the distinctive shape of the Thunderbolt.

Currently, he was clashing swords with his opponent; he then reversed his grip on the Thunderbolt and thrust it down on Kali's head with all of his strength.

KA-RUUUUMBLE—!

FLASH—!

An explosion that was loud enough to rip eardrums off, along with a flash of blinding light, rocked the surroundings.

Kali's shield clashed against the Thunderbolt. Her entire figure was viciously shoved back, causing her to stagger.

"That...what a destructive power that is…something I have not experienced before until now," Kali muttered as she stared at the surface of her shield.

The shield that somehow managed to block the Thunderbolt was scorched jet-black, its surface dented deeply. It might be possible to block a couple more Thunderbolts after this, but if possible, it seemed safer to simply dodge instead of blocking.

"How strange. He did not possess this much power earlier," she inwardly observed.

Not too long ago, Kali got to fight Su-hyeun for a few moments by taking over the body of Kalira, her "daughter" and perhaps her most perfect clone that was created out of her blood.

That exchange allowed her to more or less gauge Su-hyeun's strength, but now, the strength he possessed, or even the fighting aura he emitted right now, was completely on another level.

If Su-hyeun back when he was fighting Kalira was like a dull and unrefined iron ingot, then the current him gave off the air of a sharp treasure sword that had been repeatedly refined.

"Just what has changed in him?" Kali gripped her sword and shield tightly and pounced on her target once more. "This is great. Truly wonderful!"

Chwarururu—

She then threw the noose in her hand forward. Su-hyeun swung his sword down to cut it down, but not only did the noose not get damaged, it instead wrapped tightly around the blade.

Squeeze—

Kali tautly yanked at the noose, and it responded to her strong tug to briefly disrupt Su-hyeun's balance. During that brief opening, her sword rapidly swung downward.

Kwa-jajajajak—!

The Thunderbolt and her sword clashed noisily.

Kali's weapon couldn't break through the spear of lightning, but now that their distance had closed up so much, a spear couldn't exert as much strength as a sword.

Bang, boom, ka-boom—!

Crunch, crack, shatter—!

Kali's sword repeatedly struck to chop off Su-hyeun's head. The light shining from the Thunderbolt grew duller as a result. She completely ignored all the electricity buzzing off the spear and focused her entire being on chopping his head off.

But right at that moment...

"Arise—!"

A huge shadow suddenly loomed large over Kali's head.

"Nezha."

KA-BOOM—!

[Yogoe Beating Mace]

A humongous steel mace descended right on top of Kali's head. She hurriedly raised her shield in defense, but that action created a small opening.

Ruuuumble—

The Thunderbolt vanished, only for Su-hyeun's unoccupied hand to be enveloped in flames.

[Flame - Transformation]

Fwhooooosh—!

Ka-boom—!

His punch, thrown with all of his strength, landed on Kali, bathing her in the fierce flames. She got flung far back along with the trajectory of the flames, while her noose that was ensnaring his blade came undone at the same time.

Crackle, hiss, sizzle—

Kali faltered from where she was standing as flames burned on her. Soon after that, though, the blood spread all over the area quickly wrapped around her to extinguish all the flames and seep into her wounds.

Hisssss—

Her scorched-black wounds gradually recovered.

Kali quickly stood back up, "You and your bizarre summoned crea—?"

Gu-ooooooh—

Kali detected the changes to the airflow above her, as well as the huge shadow still looming over her, and raised her head to look. The sky had suddenly turned dark—no, more correctly, something was blocking out the sky.

"I'll be borrowing this for a bit," Su-hyeun said as he grabbed the hilt of the Yogoe Beating Mace with both hands.

Nezha's massive weapon, the mace of the gods designed to punish the Yogoes, made its descent.

Kwaaaaaaahng—!

Ruuuumble—

The ground trembled unsteadily, all thanks to the weapon's weight and Su-hyeun's strength. However, Kali wasn't squashed flat as he expected, which was rather unfortunate from his point of view. "Now that's one weird-looking hand, alright."

"It's all thanks to my loyal subordinate."

Squeeeeze—

A huge hand that materialized through blood was holding onto the Yogoe Beating Mace. The said hand originally belonged to another Predator that Kali had devoured.

"Slice it..."

Swiiiiish—

"Palm Leaf."

Split—

A single strand of wind moving extremely fast sliced apart Kali's massive hand.

THUD—!

The Yogoe Beating Mace began descending once more, but Su-hyeun, wielding the weapon in one hand and his sword in the other, frowned deeply at the sensation he felt from the impact.

He didn't sense something getting crushed under the Yogoe Beating Mace.

Crack, split—

Crunch, shatttttter—

Soon after that, cracks developed on the weapon, and the Yogoe Beating Mace, which was supposed to be made from near-unbreakable hardened metal, shattered into million pieces.

As the debris rained down, Kali extended her sword forward and stabbed at Su-hyeun's heart.

Grab—!

"What?"

A questioning look took over Kali's face. Her sword was caught by Su-hyeun's bare hand, and when she tried to yank it back, she couldn't as the sword remained firmly in his grip.

If he was trying to block or dodge her attack, then she would have understood it, no problem, but to think that he actually caught the blade bare-handed? To make it worse, he wasn't finished yet.

Squeeze, crack—

Claaang—!

Su-hyeun snapped Kali's sword in half with his hard grip, which left the Predator gasping in shock and stumbling back.

Swhooosh—

Right at that moment, Su-hyeun's figure rapidly closed in on Kali.

Fwhoooosh—

CLAAANG—!

Kali raised her shield to block the sword that was coming down, causing her feet to dig into the ground and carve out a deep crater below.

Splat—

Whoosh—!

A blade of blood that materialized in Kali's hand successfully sliced Su-hyeun's torso in half, but in that instant, his whole body dissipated like an afterimage, only for the real him to appear behind her.

Splatttter—!

"Kugh...!"

She staggered when a deep cut was made on her back. She used the blood in the surroundings to quickly envelop her torso to protect herself. Then, through all four of her arms, she began swinging the sword and shield around, all the while throwing the noose in Su-hyeun's position.

Splash, whoooosh—

Sliiiiice-

Su-hyeun quickly darted about and cut Kali's flesh open. Her eyes hurriedly chased after his darting figure, but she needed some time to heal the damaged third eye in her forehead at the moment.

"He's getting faster," she thought.

Both Su-hyeun's movements and his strength had gotten faster and stronger than when this battle had started, but that wasn't all.

Fluff—

Before Kali had time to take notice, dark storm clouds had appeared all around her. She knew that Su-hyeun possessed the ability to command the clouds, but even then, he shouldn't have been capable of creating them to ensnare her this quickly.

"Strike her..."

Flash—!

"Somersault cloud."

Rumble—!

Lightning flashed ominously within the clouds surrounding her. In the meantime, Su-hyeun gripped his sword with both hands and cocked the weapon as if he was getting ready to swing a large fan.

"Mercilessly cut everything..."

Whoooooosh—

"Palm Leaf."

Whoooosh—!

Fwhoooooosh—

A massive typhoon condensed into a single spot and swept aside the clouds. The blood armor protecting Kali was mercilessly and viciously sliced and torn apart, thereby exposing her bare flesh beneath in no time at all.

Slice, sliiiiiice—

Swiiiish—

Hundreds and thousands of wounds quickly accumulated on her body. Although they were cuts from the harsh winds, none of them were shallow scratches at all. For instance, the ground behind her had been already carved out by countless sword cuts.

They actually resembled the aftermaths of a massive storm. All of that was simply the after-effects of the winds that had pummeled Kali just now.

Drip, driiip—

Dribble—

"Keuh-eugh..."

Kali moaned in pain as blood leaked out from all over her figure. She was utterly confused.

"He's different from earlier."

She noted that he did not simply get faster or stronger. The time needed to activate not only the godhood of Somersault cloud and the Palm Leaf but also the others had decreased, and their effects had gotten so much stronger.

She just couldn't keep up with his speed now; Su-hyeun wrapped the clouds around himself, concentrated storms into one spot, and even roused up massive flames with a snap of his fingers.

Just how much faster would he get? And why was he getting faster in the first place?

It wasn't just Kali whose head was getting filled up with the question of "why" at the moment.

Huff, pant—

Su-hyeun was panting quickly and heavily.

Something about himself felt different compared to before. The more he moved, the lighter his body felt. At the same time, wielding and commanding not just the Somersault cloud and the Palm Leaf, but also the other godhood felt as comfortable and natural as moving his own hands and feet.

What could be the reason for this?

"Did something about me change?"

Su-hyeun thought back to the moment he unleashed the Palm Leaf when he swung it and tried to remember the sensation he felt back then.

Indeed, something was different.

The moment he wielded Palm Leaf using his prana, another energy source naturally acted alongside as well.

"My magical energy, prana, and then..." Su-hyeun closed his eyes for a moment there and scanned the energies writhing within his body. "The seed of the World Tree."

He had been using the three energies individually, but just now, for some reason, all three energy sources resonated and acted together when he unleashed his godhood.

When he thought about it, hadn't this been true all along? Magical energy, prana, and even the seed of the World Tree were all his powers, so was there a reason for him to consciously activate them and use them separately?

"Well, I learned something important today," Su-hyeun smiled faintly. At the same time, he roused all three energy sources.

When that happened, a blend of energies rose like heat haze all around him.

"Alright. Let's finish this."