The Hero Returns

* * *

In the Dark Realm—a world populated by Predators and, size-wise, a realm even larger than Hell itself—unprecedented warfare was taking place.

"Even if this is all to kill the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven, this is a bit..." Baal, the last seat of the One Hundred Evils, muttered in disbelief at the unfolding situation.

Only a few short years ago, a new king was crowned in the Dark Realm. That being grew strong at a blinding rate. Then, after devouring the previous ruler of the realm, Lucifer, he began lording over countless Predators with an iron fist of terror.

The first goal of the new king was to hunt down a certain Yogoe, a creature said to be very close to in power level as the Five Godly Sages: the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven.

That Yogoe was indeed a dangerous existence, so dangerous, in fact, that not even Lucifer dared to carelessly provoke that creature.

As such, the new king decided to mobilize the entirety of the Dark Realm to hunt down the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven. Since he used to be an emperor back in his original world, the new king quickly restructured the army and came up with various battle strategies.

It began with the first division, then the second, third...

Eventually, hundreds of divisions were created.

And now...

Baal asked in disbelief again, "Are you sure they are all dead?!"

All those monsters overflowing within the Dark Realm were meeting their gruesome demise right now.

"Y—yes. At the hands of the ones that crossed over to our realm through that doorway—"

"What? Are you telling me that the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven has personally come here?!"

"N—no, it's not him. It's his companion, the Great Sage Heaven's Equal, plus one other god who started off as a human being. Only those two."

"Two...individuals?" Baal narrowed his eyes.

If it was the Great Sage Heaven's Equal, he should be another Yogoe widely known as a sworn brother of the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven. Although his strength was nowhere near his older brother's level, he was still rather infamous for being another pupil of Master Subhuti, who happened to be one of the Five Godly Sages.

However, a god who used to be a human being? With that little information, Baal couldn't immediately think up of anyone in particular.

"Since he was brave enough to invade the Dark Realm along with the Great Sage Heaven's Equal, he cannot be some ordinary..." It was at that part of his train of thought that Baal recalled a certain incident from not too long ago, "No, it can't be?!"

"What's the matter, sir?"

"Uranus."

Baal was reminded of the Three Destroyers—monsters that were strong enough individually to threaten all the worlds and dimensions in the universe and were strong enough to even potentially devour the Five Godly Sages–tier gods.

These Three Destroyers were Shiva the Primordial God, Osiris the King of Hell, and finally, Uranus the Titan.

The death of Uranus was the biggest topic of discussion among the ranks of the Predators recently. After all, this event was grave enough for the delicate balance between the Predators and gods to be tilted in one side's favor.

Those in the know probably knew all about it.

"That god, he must be the one who killed Uranus."

They knew that the one who killed Uranus happened to be another sworn brother of the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven.

"A—are you serious, sir?!"

Baal growled in anger, "That stupid king of ours...!"

It wasn't just the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven they had to worry about now. Their new king ended up getting into a fight with a truly nonsensical existence.

Their new king sounded like someone with a commendable ambition whenever he said he would devour the Three Destroyers sooner or later. But that eventuality should take place in the far-off future, or "later," if everything went well.

Meaning, it wasn't "right now," not by a long shot.

"However, he only killed Uranus because he was with Zeus..."

"Doesn't matter either way. The fact that they are here means our king is dead."

"W—what should we do, then?"

"What do you mean, what?" Baal turned around to leave, "It's time to bounce, obviously."

* * *

Inside a massive palace...

This structure, humongous enough to seem like a small city, was none other than the "home" of the master of this Dark Realm, Fafnir.

Tens of thousands of the highest-ranked Predators resided here, and this place served as the heart of the Dark World's governance, too.

Whooooosh—

CRUNCH—!

Dashing forward, Su-hyeun grabbed a Predator's head and mercilessly smashed it straight into a nearby wall.

Not only was the palace incredibly huge, but its construction material also seemed to be rather absurdly tough. The wall didn't break down, causing the Predator's head to be thoroughly crushed to form a pool of blood.

Shortly after that, countless Predators began pouring out from inside the palace.

Unfortunately, they were coming down a lengthy passageway.

"Get bigger—!" Sun Wukong pointed his Ruyi Jingu Bang at that passageway, "Ruyi."

KA-BOOOOM—!

Containing an astonishing amount of Dao energy, Ruyi Jingu Bang extended at a breakneck pace. The Predators' bodies were instantly crushed while Su-hyeun stepped on the extended polearm to continue his advance.

Pazzzzzik—

[Thunderbolt - Rain of Thunder]

Large spears of lightning materialized above the skies of the palace. Hundreds of Thunderbolts answered Su-hyeun's hand gesture to rain down to the ground.

KA-BOOM—!

Kwa-aaaaah—!

Struck by the Rain of Thunder, the palace lost over half of its structure in an instant, gone without a single trace. Sun Wukong nimbly dodged the Rain of Thunder and flew up high while riding on his Ruyi Jingu Bang.

The altitude he reached was where large clouds had gathered.

Poof, pow, popopow—!

Countless clones of Sun Wukong were then created above the clouds. There must have been well over several hundreds of them.

Every single one of them assumed the same stance and began rapidly spinning their own versions of Ruyi Jingu Bangs.

"Get bigger, Ruyi."

"Get bigger, Ruyi."

"Get bigger..."

BANG, ka-booooom—!

Hundreds of Ruyi Jingu Bangs began wrecking and destroying many parts of the Dark Realm in the blink of an eye. Sun Wukong watched the polearms extending seemingly endlessly and muttered in clear excitement, "Man, this brings back some good memories."

A really long time ago, Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King left the Heavenly World, the one ruled by the Jade Emperor, in utter destruction.

His companion this time wasn't the Bull Demon King but Su-hyeun. However, the feeling he got was still quite similar. No, wait, it felt even more fun this time, in all honesty.

"What are you grinning about?"

"Oh, this? Just, you know, because it's fun."

"Are you sure you don't need to take a break, though?" Su-hyeun asked while looking at the drops of sweat trickling down Sun Wukong's forehead.

Sun Wukong wouldn't sweat like this for some minor things, so this indicated how exhausted he must be feeling at the moment.

Since Sun Wukong possessed the Godhood of Immortality, Su-hyeun didn't have to worry about him dying. Still, this seemed a bit concerning.

"It's almost over anyway, right?"

Shu-wuwuwu—

Sun Wukong looked up at the doorway floating in the skies, "Looks like it's starting to close."

That doorway connecting Earth to the Dark Realm was gradually narrowing.

It seemed like the energy to sustain the doorway created by Fafnir was running out. Maybe something that maintained it had vanished or some such.

Whatever the case might be, a significant quantity of energy was required to keep the doorway open.

"It can't be Fafnir since he crossed over to our side, so I'm guessing the punk responsible for maintaining the doorway has run away," said Su-hyeun.

"Oh? So that dude's name was Fafnir?"

"Yes."

"That's a weird name. Well, whatever. Shouldn't we quickly hop back home? I mean, it looks like it's gonna close soon and all."

Su-hyeun pondered for a bit after listening to Sun Wukong. Should they stay for a bit longer in the Dark Realm and try to decrease the number of Predators even more? Or should they just leave since the doorway was closing up?

"In that case..."

Shu-wuwuwu—

Death Aura began leaking out to Su-hyeun's surroundings. When that happened, his summoned creatures began revealing themselves one by one from his outstretched shadow.

First, Gluttony, then Prince Nezha, Kali, and finally, Gyges.

These summoned creatures, Gyges with its huge body and the three others, were easily the strongest combat force in Su-hyeun's arsenal.

His Death Aura reserve that had emptied out had been refilled to some degree during the past day or so.

"Rampage to your hearts' content, then come back."

The moment Su-hyeun issued his order...

"It's foooood!"

Clack—

Shu-rururu—

Wuuuong—

Gluttony dashed out with a huge smile on its face, while Prince Nezha went down on one knee. Kali's figure transformed into a stream of blood before disappearing from view, and Gyges's heavy body began trudging forward.

All four summons began making their move. Each one of them now possessed greater strength than most of the One Hundred Evils. These four should be enough to deal with most of the remaining Predators here.

"We can go now," Su-hyeun smirked deeply and placed his hand on Sun Wukong's shoulder. "Let's go and drink some booze, shall we?"

* * *

The doorway connected to the Dark Realm closed up not too long afterward.

Su-hyeun confirmed that his connection to the summons had been severed. That was the surest proof of the doorway closing up for good.

Besides that, many artificial dungeon outbreaks had been sorted out to some degree as well. It was all thanks to Sun Wukong's help.

"This thing called the Cloning Technique, it's seriously convenient, isn't it?" Lee Ju-ho asked while delivering cups of coffee to Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King.

This would be Sun Wukong's first time seeing coffee, so he sniffed its scent for a little bit and replied, "Well, yeah, I guess."

His reply was as nonchalant as it could get. However, he ended up furrowing his brow deeply after taking only a single sip of the coffee. It tasted far more bitter than he had been expecting.

He put the cup down and got up from his spot to wander around the office. He then shifted his gaze outside the window and took in the sight of the sprawling city below.

When nicely put, he seemed innocent and air-headed, but when not so nicely put, he seemed a bit scatter-brained.

Su-hyeun tugged at Sun Wukong's clothes to say the latter should settle down. He then asked Lee Ju-ho, "Have you located the whereabouts of Johnny Brad?"

"After he disappeared, it has become near-impossible to find him again. Since he's the holder of the greatest illusion-type skill, it's not surprising that we can't find him."

Johnny Brad was definitely connected to this event in some capacity. Gordon Rohan himself came out and said it, so it had to be true.

"But even so, the connection is a bit uncertain, you know what I mean?" Lee Ju-ho picked up a pen with his free hand, his other hand lifting up his own coffee cup. He scribbled some drawings on a piece of paper, then drew lines over them next. "It's not like he was after money. But we also can't say with absolute certainty that he was siding with Fafnir either. His goal is unclear, his intentions obtuse."

Question marks were scribbled on the paper next.

"I just can't figure it out."

"You mean his goal?"

"Yeah, that. The end goal, the means, and the opportunity...From our perspective, Johnny Brad lacks two of those things. Not only that, even his birth or background is unclear, too...At this point, I'm beginning to suspect that he's an extraterrestrial entity or something."

Lee Ju-ho seemed to be most perturbed by Johnny Brad.

A man who suddenly appeared only to vanish just as suddenly. On top of that, he was also the most suspicious individual involved in this Fafnir incident.

Su-hyeun was also quite bothered about this matter.

He frowned a little and sank deep into his thoughts, but then, Sun Wukong climbed down from the window sill to address him, "What are you racking your brain for again?"

"Third Brother, the thing is..."

"You can ponder it later. Don't we have something more urgent to do first?"

When Sun Wukong asked that, the Bull Demon King nodded sagely as well, "Indeed. Resting every now and then is a necessity."

Lee Ju-ho chimed in, "I totally agree. I'll give you a call once we find Johnny Brad's trail, so you should go and get some rest."

All three of them were in agreement.

Su-hyeun sighed softly. It did feel like something bothersome still remained somewhere, but on the one hand, his heart was beginning to beat faster.

"But not all of us are here, though?" Su-hyeun said.

The more urgent thing, as mentioned by Sun Wukong, was for all the sworn brothers to share some booze together.

Su-hyeun had been waiting for it for a long time.

This would be a first for him to look forward eagerly to drinking some alcohol. Just by having his brothers together and sharing some booze while chatting away, he felt like he had everything he needed in this world.

That was why his heart was beating faster. Now that his mind was set on it, he was getting more impatient.

Sun Wukong replied, "Well, our Second Brother has been dang busy lately, you know. We might as well hop over to that side instead."

"Now that I think about it..."

"Yeah, he's living among humans now. Even I was shocked at how he managed to stay so long with them."

The Roc Demon King hated humans, but somewhat paradoxically, he deliberately chose to live among humans.

In order for them to drink together, it seemed that they now had to go visit the Roc Demon King first.

"This is good timing. Even if it's not our Second Brother, there is someone else who'd like to speak to you," said the Bull Demon King.

"Speak to me?" Su-hyeun asked back in confusion. But then, even before he heard the Bull Demon King's reply, he was able to recall a certain name.

The name he was thinking of asking Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King if he ever got a chance to run into them...

"Could it be?"

Sure enough, the Bull Demon King brought up that very name Su-hyeun was thinking about, "It's Master Subhuti, the first Taoist God and the teacher of us three brothers."