The Hero Returns

Giiii-aaaaah—!

Buzz, wu-ooong—

Su-hyeun's eardrums shook painfully. The raucous screech reverberating throughout the netherworld was shrill enough to make Su-hyeun instinctively furrow his brow.

"Gee whiz! You sure do have a set of pipes, don't you?"

Rumble—!

Pazzik, bzzzzik—

Su-hyeun summoned a Thunderbolt in his hand and said, "Whatever the case might be, I'll regard it as you accepting my challenge."

"You've made a foolish decision."

Vrrrrr—

Soundwaves invaded Su-hyeun's head which soon turned into a stiff voice. Su-hyeun immediately realized who was talking to him—there could be only one creature here that might want to talk to him, after all.

"You have a surprisingly cool-sounding voice, don't you?"

"If Ares and Hercules were both here, you probably could have escaped from here alive. Even if it took you three days and night, well, I wouldn't have won against those two in the end, after all."

Gyges was clearly underestimating Su-hyeun. Just from its voice alone, he could hear its disdain for him.

The corner of Su-hyeun's lips curled up at such a reaction coming from Gyges. "That's just your opinion."

"Then, what are you planning to do against an army of this size?"

"Well, that..."

RUMBLE—!

POW—!

The moment Su-hyeun's Thunderbolt flashed, the bodies of all the nearby Giants exploded into bits and pieces like overinflated balloons.

"Of course, I'm going to eliminate you all."

"You overestimate yourself."

"It won't do for you to make an important judgment like that even before you start fighting me. And also..."

Shu-wuwuwu—

"The difference in the combat force is just your opinion, too."

[The "Necromancer" trait is being activated.]

[By using "Death Aura," you can see or command the dead.]

Death Aura leaking out to Su-hyeun's surroundings seeped into the ground below.

"Arise."

Crack, crunch—

Gu-gugugu—

The corpses of the fallen Giants began standing back up one by one, but that wasn't even the end of the story.

Clack—

"Deli...cious...food..."

Prince Nezha and Gluttony, the renowned summons under Su-hyeun's command, began appearing one after the other as well.

Just Gluttony alone was a summoned creature powerful enough to rival Predators ranked within One Hundred Evils.

But what Gyges paid most attention to wasn't Gluttony nor Prince Nezha.

Chwa-aaaah—

"That creature, isn't it—?"

It was a creature wrapped in a gigantic wave of blood—a beautiful naked "woman" currently sporting pure-azure skin.

"Kali?"

The new addition to Su-hyeun's summons was none other than Kali.

***

Olympus wasn't a place anyone could enter without permission. Not only many gods resided here, but it was also surrounded by an independent line of defense.

This barrier was the handiwork of the God of Blacksmiths, Hephaestus.

Boom, bang—!

Buzzzz—

But that protective barrier was being shaken around right now.

The impact force got transmitted inside as well. The noises as the barrier shook were loud enough to reverberate within the entirety of Olympus.

The part of the barrier being attacked had turned pure-white opaque. The change indicated that the barrier, which had been operating for a very long time to keep out the Giants, was rapidly reaching its limit.

Meanwhile, at the spot below it, many gods had gathered.

Athena, who was among them, asked, "Where is Lord Ares right now?"

"He must've chased after Lord Hades and traveled to the netherworld, my lady. Also, we believe the outsider and Hercules have departed with Lord Ares."

"Why did it have to be now, when it's—?" Athena muttered before shaking her head.

There was no such thing as "convenient timing" in war.

If an event occurred, then it stood to reason that a cause must exist too. No "result" could exist without the "cause" and "process."

Athena closed her eyes for a short while and calmed her racing mind. She finally muttered, "We've been had."

"I'm sorry, my lady?"

"Where is my father right now?"

"I'm sure he's currently in a meeting with Lord Apollo."

Athena mused loudly, "He must've heard the commotion by now..."

Just what kind of discussion were they having that Zeus hadn't shown up even after such a loud commotion?

It was too late now to urge some other gods to go and call Zeus here, which meant that the gods that were already present and finished with their equipment inspection had to hold on until Zeus arrived.

"Lord Hades has disappeared after heading off to the netherworld. Lord Zeus is currently tied down by another urgent matter. And finally, Lord Poseidon fell during battle not too long ago."

Thud—!

Athena slammed her heavy shield on the ground. The terrain faintly rumbled, causing the attention of the gods gathered here for war to focus on her.

"We must engage our enemies without the presence of the Three Gods representing Olympus. Are you all prepared?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"In that case..."

SHATTER—!

The barrier shattered right then.

"Let's go!"

Whoooooosh—

Pow, popopopow—!

Through the open gap of the shattered barrier, large spears rained down indiscriminately.

Fwhoooosh—!

Clang, claaaaang—!

Popopopow—!

The counterattack of the gods was just as fierce.

Gods stood up to the Giants' attacks and began wielding their swords and various other weapons. Some even powerfully threw spears, while a few others fired their energy rays to directly blow up the Giants' heads.

They might not rank among the Twelve Gods of Olympus, but even then, enough of the gods present possessed fairly high divine status in their own right.

"So, he came today, too."

And then, visible within the gap of the shattered barrier was a truly gigantic eye.

An iris humongous enough to completely blanket the sky was "floating" right above Olympus.

"U—uwaahh, euh....?!"

"W—what the hell...is that?!"

Several of the gods were frightened out of their wits by that existence and knelt down. If a non-divine creature ended up looking at that existence, they would've simply keeled over and died just from the sheer terror alone.

Unlike the Three Gods, including Zeus, this was Athena's first time encountering that existence. Even so, she could quickly tell what or who that existence was. "Uranus," she said.

It was the king of Predators and one of the Three Destroyers—a forefather of Olympus and an existence ranked among the Primordial Gods.

The biggest lifeform in the universe, Uranus, had finally made its entrance.

***

[Summon: Kali]

[Application Rate: 43%]

There was a big difference in Kali's current stats from the past: the application rate of 43%.

After reaching the three-digit mark for Death Aura, Kali would be Su-hyeun's first summon to boast this level of application rate. It indicated how excellent her starting stats and powers were already.

Although he quietly wished for her application rate to be above the 50% mark, that was him simply being too greedy.

His Death Aura stat increased dramatically after he acquired God Titles, which also boosted the application rates across the board. Even then, Kali's rate reached only this much.

"On the other hand, the application rate for my other summons increased greatly, so there's that," he thought.

The application rate's limit wasn't 100%. No, it was well beyond that—120%. Even 200% existed, too.

This meant that the abilities of his summons had become even better than back when they were still alive, all thanks to Su-hyeun's power.

And because of that...

Crunch—!

Fu-hwa-aaak—

The tide of the battle had turned in Su-hyeun's favor.

Splaaaat—!

The strike from Prince Nezha's Yogoe Slaying Sword sliced clean through the clouds drifting over the netherworld's terrain. That attack alone caused all the Giants to fall down en masse like a cascade of cherry blossom leaves.

Split—

Right after that, a massive mouth suddenly appeared in the sky.

The mouth was huge enough to easily gobble up hundreds of Giants in one go. Just as the Giants flinched in surprise, they were all swallowed up instantly.

Crunch, chew—

That mouth belonged to Gluttony.

To Gluttony, who was cursed with insatiable hunger, this battle was basically a grand feast to satisfy its appetite.

Besides the two, the fallen Giants became Su-hyeun's new allies and continued to rise up one by one.

"Nice. Very nice," Su-hyeun muttered while observing their battles. "I have more than enough Death Aura supply too, so it's not too taxing for me, either."

He abruptly recalled the moment he first acquired the Necromancer trait.

Back then, he didn't have a lot of Death Aura. He could command an army boasting countless combatants for only a few brief minutes. That duration decreased even further if the summons he brought out used to possess excellent abilities when they were still alive.

But now, his Death Aura stat had reached the three-digit mark. No, wait—it was a lot more than that now.

[Death Aura: 105(+5)]

All in all, the stat sat at 105.

But now that he was in a combat situation, all of Su-hyeun's stats had risen by five additional points, including the Death Aura stat.

Maybe that was the reason why his Death Aura reserve was still overflowing even now. Even the application rates had shot up greatly, boosting the abilities of the summons, too.

His only problem was that...

"Seriously now, what a bloody tough exterior this is."

For the first time in a long while, Su-hyeun felt an annoyance during a fight.

This battle was different from the one he had with Kali or Ares, which required a high degree of concentration, and he couldn't afford to think about anything else.

However, the battle against Gyges was basically a long continuous chain of boredom.

Pow—!

Drip—

The sword that he powerfully swung tore through Gyges' skin. However, the wound wasn't all that deep—only a few meters at best. Compared to how big Gyges was, such a wound was nothing more than a tiny little scratch.

Rumble—!

[Zeus's Thunder Glove - Thunderbolt]

[Somersault cloud]

Lightning gathered within Su-hyeun's hand. He then powerfully thrust the newly generated lightning spear into the flesh wound he had left behind just now.

Cruuuunch—!

A portion of the flesh burned away. That should've hurt a great deal, but Gyges simply used one of its hands to shield the wound and extended its other hands in Su-hyeun's direction.

Wuuuong—

Baaaang—!

The shockwave shooting out from its handclap distorted and crushed the atmosphere. Su-hyeun crossed his arms in front of him and braced his legs to withstand the shockwave.

Gyges' power wasn't anything to write home about. However, the real issue here was with its defensive capabilities.

"So, it's not as simple as having a huge body, is that it?"

Su-hyeun had been pummeling Gyges' body for the past three hours. Still, there was no discernible change to the gigantic creature. If every wound was sized up on their own, they seemed pretty deep, but compared to the creature's colossal physique, they were just minor scratches in the end.

Su-hyeun could figure out just a little why Ares and Poseidon had failed to kill this creature back then.

"Well, even so..." Su-hyeun wasn't worried. "In the end, it's bound to fall after I injure it enough times."

Pah-aht—

Su-hyeun leaped high again.

The number of times he could activate "Leap" now had surpassed hundreds, no, thousands of times. Even that would be reset the moment he landed, so it was basically the same as him having no more restrictions during the aerial battles now.

Gyges' eyes shifted to where Su-hyeun was, but he was long gone from there by then.

Grrrrr—!

Just as Gyges hurriedly looked around to locate Su-hyeun's whereabouts...

Fuu-haaaak—!

Ruuuumble—

Purple-colored flames exploded from one of Gyges' mouths while letting out a low growl.

Kyaaaaah—!

This head let out a loud screech as one of the hands shot up to cover its mouth. Gyges did that to prevent Su-hyeun, who had somehow slipped inside its mouth unnoticed, from escaping from there.

"Blocking the exit doesn't mean I can't get out, though," Su-hyeun's voice rang within Gyges' mouth.

Gyges was suddenly overcome with an ominous foreboding, so it tried to do the opposite by opening its mouth to spit him out, but right at that moment...

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything - Sky Divider]

Puuu-haaaak—!

Gyges' eye was sliced wide open. Su-hyeun succeeded in creating a large enough hole in one of its heads by swinging his sword from the inside.

Fwhoosh—!

That was how Su-hyeun emerged after willingly slipping in through the creature's mouth. Excluding the head that now lost its lone eye, the rest of the heads snapped toward him, their eyes burning in pure rage.

"It won't do for you to become this angry already, you know," Su-hyeun smirked deeply and glanced at the eyeless head. "My present hasn't even started yet, after all."

Ka-boom—!

A loud thunderclap went off right inside Gyges' body, no less.

Gyaaaaaaaaah—!

All 49 heads screeched in torment at the same time.

Su-hyeun smirked against the creature's reaction, "The way to kill you is surprisingly simple, isn't it?"

The creature's massive body, reminiscent of toughened steel, didn't seem like it would be toppled no matter what. But the way to fight against this opponent that Su-hyeun wasn't going to lose to, but was also seemingly unable to win against, was surprisingly more straightforward than he thought.

Having slipped inside Gyges' body to leave behind a "present" of a Thunderbolt, Su-hyeun began creating another Thunderbolt.

"Why don't we..."

Forty-nine heads still remained.

"Find out how many more times you can endure it?"