The Hero Returns

* * *

Whoooosh—

Ka-booooom—!

A vast figure crashed down and caused a chasm to open up in Hell's terrain.

Su-hyeun had grabbed Gyges' arm and threw the Predator down. He then grasped his sword with both hands. The blade emitting a blinding golden-orange light contained the currents of the Somersault cloud.

Pazzzzik—!

[Zeus's Thunder Glove - Thunder Sword]

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything - Earth Divider]

FLASH—!

RUMBLE—!

The lightning current that shot out from the sword morphed into a deadly blade and cut deep into Gyges' body. The Giant howled in pain at the considerably deep wound and shuddered noticeably.

"I definitely cut its Gyeol just now," Su-hyeun said inwardly.

In the beginning, its Gyeol was almost not visible, but now, one by one, they became apparent to Su-hyeun's vision as the Giant was inflicted with more and more wounds.

The "Gyeol" was basically the weak point of an opponent, and such weakness, as Su-hyeun saw through his Insight, now numbered in the thousands. This indicated that Gyges had gotten so much weaker.

"Fuu-wuu..." Su-hyeun exhaled at length after wielding the Thunder Sword.

That strike was performed with his magical energy and the combined might of prana and the power of the World Tree.

This technique seemed possible to pull off in theory, but he had no opportunity to unleash it until now. The energy consumption of the skill was ridiculous, but the most significant sticking point was that he had no clue how the surrounding terrain would end up if he decided to try it out as an experiment.

"For now, I guess I should see it as a success?"

All thanks to getting struck by enormous waves of energy, the current state of Gyges was indescribably wretched. Its humongous body was almost split in half, while it was spasming unsteadily, too.

But that indicated that it had accumulated a lot of damage.

"Even if that's true, this guy..." Su-hyeun scanned Gyges' overall condition and muttered to himself, "Seriously now, how can you be this tenacious?"

He plopped down on the spot for a bit.

His summoned creatures were still fighting off the remaining Giants. He was thinking of letting his summons deal with the rest of the fight and get some rest himself.

One whole day—that was how long his fight against Gyges had lasted.

"I think I understand why Ares and Poseidon were unable to defeat this guy."

The reason was fairly simple: Gyges' truly insane level of endurance. That was enough explanation.

This Predator wasn't simply massive in size. Its power of regeneration was also insane. Even if its flesh was ripped apart and its internal organs burned to crisp, it still moved around soon afterward.

Against such a foe, Su-hyeun continued to swing his sword and fired Thunderbolts for almost a full day.

Just thinking about what would've happened if he encountered Gyges before he acquired his God Title gave him the case of nasty heebie-jeebies.

"Never mind one day...I might not be able to defeat it at all."

Despite being in the ranks of the Ten Great Evils like Kali, Gyges was a different enemy than her. Rather than specializing in defense or endurance, Kali's strong points lied with her offense.

It all depended on who fought who, but at least to Su-hyeun, he found fighting against Gyges far more difficult.

Gyges might not have any particularly threatening attacks. Still, its strength and endurance due to its massive size ensured that subjugating it would not be an easy task, to say the least.

Whatever the case might be, though, Su-hyeun still managed to defeat such a creature.

And finally...

"The Thunder Sword, is it?" Su-hyeun faintly smiled, "Well, I got my hands on something pretty good."

It took one day.

A considerable length of time had passed by, but he didn't feel that it was a waste at all. Along with becoming more familiar with the Thunder Glove through repeated experimentation, he also had the chance to get used to his strength, which was greatly enhanced by his newly acquired God Titles.

"I will need a bit of time to rest, though."

Su-hyeun caught his breath through the breathing technique. He still needed some time to refill the reserves of magical energy and prana, which was currently only a quarter full.

"Too bad, isn't it?" a voice suddenly said.

Su-hyeun frowned deeply. A certain someone suddenly talking to him happened fairly often, actually.

"I'm busy right now, so don't talk to me," Su-hyeun answered.

That certain someone was the seed of the World Tree that had taken root in his body. It possessed an ego of its own, and it often tried to talk to him.

It said it would grant him even greater strength. By doing so, the power of the World Tree would grow, too, and in return, Su-hyeun's own ego would get devoured by the World Tree.

At first, he remained wary, but there was no need for that now.

"You can't win against me, anyway," Su-hyeun said.

Su-hyeun's ego had already completely suppressed the World Tree's seed by now. No matter how much it struggled, it had no way of winning against him.

Even then, he tried not to rely on the World Tree's power if he could help it. His reasoning was simple enough—there was always that one in a million chance, wasn't there?

Who knows, the World Tree could get strong enough somehow and extend its roots completely to become even larger.

But then...

"That wasn't me, though," the World Tree's seed replied. It had been sleeping until now, and its ego only barely managed to peek out when Su-hyeun talked to it.

Su-hyeun, concentrating on the breathing technique, abruptly opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings.

When he thought about it...

"Right, the World Tree seed's ego is in a slumber unless I permit it."

And not only that, but the voice was also not the same.

"You," Su-hyeun slowly opened his mouth, "Who are you?"

The reply came quickly, "I'm..."

Su-hyeun's heart suddenly began constricting, and his consciousness instantly grew faint.

"Your true nature."

* * *

Ares, riding on the back of his heavenly steed, flew high into the sky. Eventually, he reached outer space beyond the boundaries of Olympus, where no oxygen existed.

He began tutting unhappily, "To think that I can only barely see Uranus's overall shape by reaching this far..."

Among the Three Destroyers, Uranus was known to be the biggest of them all.

No planet out there could contain Uranus, all because he was big enough to hold a small planet with just one hand.

As for how he looked, he was a humanoid just like the other Giants, while his face was that of a middle-aged man with black hair.

Ares, who had been swinging his sword against such a creature, readied one last powerful attack despite his accumulated fatigue.

[Giant Spear]

Squeeeeze—

Ares gripped the Giant Spear tightly. "Most attacks don't even work on that thing."

Bulge, stretch—

Ares's arm muscles began ballooning up.

The pale-green veins visibly bulged on his skin, and even his already colossal physique soon swelled further by about 50% next.

Soon after that, the Giant Spear twisted bizarrely because of the power now contained in the weapon.

"I only have one shot at this..."

He aimed the Giant Spear at Uranus's head from a great distance away.

Uranus was currently reaching out toward Zeus. Ten thousand lightning bolts traveled up Uranus's extended arm. They paralyzed him, while Zeus himself transformed into lightning and disappeared from there.

Ruuuuumble—!

And as if on cue, Apollo's flames rapidly enveloped Uranus's torso.

At the same time, Ares's eyes gleamed sharply.

"It's..."

Ka-boom—!

"Now!"

Swhooooooosh—!

The Giant Spear was launched at its target.

Uranus's huge head turned toward the spear hurtling in at a threatening speed. However, that reaction was a step too late to avoid getting struck by the weapon.

Poooow—!

Uranus's head turned to the side. Thanks to the Giant Spear's power, a hole the size of a mountain was gouged out on the side of the colossal head.

However, something like that wasn't powerful enough to leave behind a big wound, just some minuscule nick. When considering Uranus's sheer size, such an impact would've been negligible at best.

Even then...

"Thunder Dragon."

That momentary distraction was more than enough.

Pazzzik, pazzzzzik—!

Kkyaaaaaah—!

A massive Thunder Dragon emitting a golden-orange light that was entirely made up of electrical currents rapidly coiled around Uranus's arm before climbing up the Giant's throat.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

And this Thunder Dragon wrapping around Uranus's torso with the speed of light began tearing into the Giant's neck.

CRUUUNCH—!

Electrical currents swam all over Uranus's gargantuan body.

Ares and Apollo urgently created a great distance away from Uranus to avoid getting sucked into that maelstrom of flashing lights and electrical currents.

"Wow..."

"He's really going for it, isn't he?"

Even Ares had never witnessed Zeus unleash that much electrical energy at once. Uranus, who got struck by the Giant Spear and failed to defend himself in time, could only open his mouth after his whole body became paralyzed.

"Ze—us..."

"Please, do not utter my name in such an affectionate manner."

Pazik, pazzzzzik—!

A gigantic electromagnetic field was generated all around Uranus's figure. Zeus extended his hand toward his grandfather and then tightly clenched his fist, "We are foes who must kill each other, after all."

[Lightning Chain]

Pazik, bzzzzzik—!

The electrical currents enveloping Uranus took on physical properties and began gradually tightening around the Giant. It crushed down on him and broke his balance.

Ares watched Uranus slowly tilt to one side and urgently cried out, "Pegasus!"

Neiiiiigh—!

The heavenly steed kicked the void and dashed forward at Ares's call. At the same time, Hercules, riding on its back, pulled the bowstring once more.

Fwhooooosh—!

Pow—!

Several holes opened up on Uranus's torso.

Ares's eyes gleamed sharply as he witnessed this. "We can do this," he thought.

They were capable of defeating that gargantuan Uranus. This war that initially felt impossible and despair-inducing suddenly felt not all that difficult to overcome.

But something happened just then.

"That stings a bit."

Gu-gugugu—

Uranus lifted up his arm. But wasn't that arm definitely restrained by the electromagnetic field created by Zeus?

"Huh...?!"

"But how...?"

Apollo, who had turned himself into flames and landed on Uranus's shoulder, gasped in pure shock.

Uranus raised his arm and scratched his waist where Hercules's arrow had pierced through only a moment ago.

"It seems that you have pushed yourself too far, Zeus," the corners of Uranus's lips distorted into a grin.

This was the first time he had smiled during this fight. Ares, overcome with a terrible foreboding, hurriedly turned his head to look at Zeus.

His father had a sickly pale face. Zeus, who had been using his lightning power to continuously attack Uranus, was finally displaying how fatigued he was.

Ares cried out in his mind, "No, we were never in an advantageous position!"

Zeus had been unleashing one attack after another without taking a break. The reason for that was simple enough.

At that moment, Uranus raised his palm and said, "First of all..."

Gu-wuwuwu—

"I shall now declare the end of Olympus."

Directly below his raised palm was Olympus.

"N—no!" Ares cried out in shock.

The moment that hand came down, the Palace of Olympus would literally be smashed into millions of pieces.

The same end was in store for all the other gods fighting in and around the palace itself. Except for the Twelve Gods, no other gods down there were capable of withstanding a single flicker of Uranus's hand.

And so, as the gigantic palm of Uranus descended to the ground below...

Paaaaht—!

Boooooom—!

Along with a loud, heavy boom, Uranus's hand stopped descending for a moment there.

"Urgh...Kkeuh..."

This was the result of Hercules's incredible strength. He was actually lifting up Uranus's palm while propping himself in the empty space with both of his feet. He was doing this to protect Olympus.

"Hmm, another son of Zeus?" Uranus was somewhat stunned.

The impression Hercules gave off during the fight was that he didn't possess any special abilities. It wasn't as if he was as good as Ares in handling weapons, nor did he possess the authority over fire like Apollo had.

But his ridiculous physical strength was enough to momentarily lift up Uranus's palm.

"Your strength is indeed strong enough to lift up a planet. Unfortunately..."

Hercules's figure was progressively being crushed by Uranus's gigantic hand.

"In the end, your strength is still slightly lacking."

Squeeeeze—!

"Fu-huuuuph...!"

Hercules's leg muscles ballooned up to a near-bursting state.

He tried to prop himself up in the empty space and shove that palm away with all of his strength, but it was still not good enough. Uranus's physical strength was something Hercules was helpless against.

"Apollo!"

"It's too late!"

Ares cried out while Apollo was already heading toward Olympus below. Since they had no way of stopping Uranus, he chose to hurry down there and try to save as many gods as possible.

He couldn't afford to waste the precious time Hercules had earned for them.

But then...

"It's..."

Gu-gugugu...

Uranus's palm suddenly stopped its descent toward Olympus and then began to gradually rise.

"Not too late yet."

BANG—!

Uranus's gigantic hand was flung back as if something had repulsed it.

And right at that moment...

Splaaaatter—!

One of the fingers belonging to the gigantic hand that tried to crush Olympus was cleanly sliced off, blood gushing out from the wound.