The Hero Returns

Osiris did not reply.

A bout of silence descended between the two—one that felt a little too long for a fierce battle.

But that response of Osiris only helped reaffirm Su-hyeun's thoughts. "So, I was right."

"Haha..." Osiris sheepishly extended both of his hands to his front. "Why don't we stop this, old friend?"

He was requesting a ceasefire. Now that wasn't like Osiris at all.

"Stop what exactly?"

"There's no need for us to fight like this, no? I mean, considering our history and all."

"Yeah, you have changed a lot. You used to be such an inflexible idiot back then."

"I can say the same about you, too."

"That's right. At least you understand."

Gi-gigik—

Su-hyeun assumed the spear-throwing posture once more. "That's why this is my answer."

"Hah—" Osiris sighed dramatically. "Well, I knew you'd be like that."

Giii-iiiing—

Magic circles began materializing all around Su-hyeun.

These weren't black but green circles.

Since from the ancient past, Osiris used the "green" hues to symbolize himself. It was also the unique color of his magic.

"I knew, but that doesn't make it any less unfortunate, you see."

Snap—

Fwhooooosh—!

In that flicker of a moment, the whole world was dyed in the vibrant green light.

KWA-AAAH, Ku-gugugugu—!

The heaven and earth powerfully shook around. Thousands—no—tens of thousands of magic circles were casting their magic all at the same time.

Even Osiris could not see anything within the blinding explosion of green light.

"Tsk," he tutted softly. "It's too bad that we couldn't work together in the end, old friend."

"Sounds like you were being genuine about that."

Su-hyeun's voice came from within the noises of the raucous explosions.

Osiris's eyes shot wide open. Just as he hurriedly stared at where the voice was coming from...

Whoosh—

Whoosh, whooooosh—

He saw Su-hyeun quickly spinning Gungnir in his hand.

Despite staring at this scene with his own eyes, Osiris couldn't believe it and gasped softly, "You blocked that?"

Of course, Su-hyeun didn't completely block everything.

Burn marks of varying sizes pockmarked Su-hyeun's figure, indicating that he couldn't fully protect himself from the ripples of all those explosions.

Osiris muttered, "You're too much, old friend."

"You're the same, too," Su-hyeun retorted while sucking in a deep breath.

A few thousand? No, there must've been well over a few tens of thousands of magic circles just now.

Su-hyeun never imagined that it would be possible to activate so many magic circles at once. Even the Grand Wizard Arwen couldn't activate more than 200 circles at once.

Activating several magic circles simultaneously was similar to drawing several paintings simultaneously using just one brain.

Having many hands didn't automatically mean you could pull off such a feat. Maybe two or three paintings at once, sure, that might have been possible. But the more paintings you had to picture in your mind simultaneously, the more significant strain your brain would be under.

But to think that Osiris could activate tens of thousands of magic circles, all of them boasting incredible destructive power. Not only that, but he didn't even require a lot of time.

"This must be the magic he used back when he fought against Buddha, Master Subhuti, and King Yama," Su-hyeun thought.

These tens of thousands of magic circles weren't unique or special, but they were all infused with killing power.

Every single beam of green light shooting out from the circles possessed more than enough destructive power. Not even someone like Osiris would have found using this much energy in one attack an easy feat to pull off.

"Since he started using such an attack, it could only mean—" Su-hyeun abruptly broke into a grin after figuring out the meaning behind this magic. "He knows he's being pushed into a corner."

The fight had entered the second half—no, wait—it was about to enter the closing stage.

Su-hyeun's head quickly came up with new plans. He then used Insight to simulate all those plans one at a time.

Although blurry, a future not too far from now floated up in his head, which unfolded in a rather somewhat similar manner to his plan.

Attacking faster than his current speed was impossible. In that case, should he change the tempo by attacking slightly slower?

"No. He still hasn't gotten used to my speed even now."

Here was the reason why Osiris barely managed to remain wary of Gungnir and not much else.

Slowing down might not be the best idea, then.

"But one's speed isn't the only way to change the tempo."

What if he went in for a close-quarter fight but also mixed in a few long-range attacks now and then?

It would become much more challenging for Osiris to locate Su-hyeun's current position.

His plan was now set. He had also discovered that Osiris's weakness was Gungnir.

"In that case..."

Su-hyeun's feet kicked the ground.

[Leap]

Ka-boom—!

He activated Leap to accelerate even faster. His figure rapidly closed in on Osiris.

"Here I come."

Giii-iiing—

Right at that moment, countless magic circles materialized between Osiris and Su-hyeun. It was impossible to tell how many had appeared like the last time.

Every one of these circles began shooting out energy beams powerful enough to blow mountains apart and split oceans in half.

KWA-AAH—!

BOOM, KA-BOOM, BOOM—!

Su-hyeun's figure darted this way abruptly and that to evade the attacks.

Whoosh—!

A single strand of energy brushed past his head, missing him by a hair's breadth.

A streak of cold sweat ran down his back as he glanced at the strand of energy. "It'll get troublesome if I get hit by even one of those."

Was this too much of a reckless gamble? Maybe he should've used brute strength to break through?

"No," Su-hyeun reminded himself to strengthen his resolve. "I shall continue with this method."

Dodge everything.

The future he saw through Insight should not be false. He should trust not just what he saw through Insight but also his own five senses, including his eyes.

It wasn't on the level of something completely impossible to dodge, after all.

"Those that I can't dodge, I'll just deflect them away."

Pazzzzik—

While evading the green energy rays, Su-hyeun gripped a spear.

[Thunderbolt]

Azure arcs of lightning condensed into the spear in his hand.

And the moment he hurled it at his target...

"Hm!"

RUMBLE—!

A streak of light came down, causing Osiris to flinch.

A green aura enveloped his entire figure in the blink of an eye. The Thunderbolt failed to break through this barrier and scattered mid-air completely.

But that result only sowed more confusion in Osiris's mind.

"That wasn't—?"

The last part of his muttering was too soft and got buried under the surrounding noise, but Su-hyeun's hearing caught it anyway.

That wasn't Gungnir?

Osiris's confusion made sense, however.

Su-hyeun had changed the hue of his regular Thunderbolt to mimic the energy coming from Gungnir.

Su-hyeun thought, "This level of control isn't hard to manage, but..."

Pazzzik—

Su-hyeun gripped yet another Thunderbolt in his hand.

"But making a call in the blink of an eye should still be difficult even for you."

FLASH—!

That Thunderbolt was hurled at his target again.

KA-BOOM—!

The explosion noise of the Thunderbolt resounded.

The rays of light spread out with Osiris in the center. The noises and the impact force were indeed loud enough, but he still managed to defend against the attack regardless.

He had enveloped himself in the green energy barrier once more.

But that was precisely what Su-hyeun wanted.

After all, that energy barrier was too much of an overkill to block something as simple as a "mere" Thunderbolt.

"Trying to determine whether it's Gungnir or a regular Thunderbolt with just a flash of light... That's your weakness."

The moment Osiris became aware of Gungnir's entrance into this battle, Su-hyeun figured out what his opponent's weakness was. Then, he mapped out a way to defeat said opponent by exploiting that weakness.

Until not too long ago, Osiris allowed most of Su-hyeun's attacks to land to some extent. It was as if he didn't care about losing a few lives. He seemed to be prioritizing the preservation of his energy reserve as much as possible during the battle instead.

That was precisely what Osiris wanted about how this fight should unfold.

But now, the initiative of this battle had shifted over to Su-hyeun instead.

"You want to keep fighting long-range, is that it?" Su-hyeun thought.

Pazzzik—

Su-hyeun created several more azure lightning spears, but he also made a few orange-golden spears among them.

"Did you think I can't play along, old friend?"

* * *

"Dammit..."

Rather uncharacteristically for him, Osiris muttered an expletive.

He didn't seem to care who was listening. That expletive contained both his current thoughts and raw emotions, indicating how turbulent Osiris felt right now.

It also expressed how anxious he was feeling.

"Just when is it coming?!"

Sometimes it came half a beat slower than his energy ray, sometimes faster.

Never mind the direction; even the tempo varied greatly. Suppose you were a human, a god—no—an existence that could think, you would have established some fixed habit. Yet that did not exist here.

To put it in another way, Su-hyeun had calculated everything that was happening right now.

As such, Osiris could not predict anything and had to remain deeply tense at all times.

Pazik—!

Here it comes!

Bang—!

It was another fake this time.

The attack was made with azure lightning, but Gungnir wasn't involved.

However, Osiris was neither relieved nor rueful. No, he was grinding his teeth right now in frustration at Su-hyeun, who was responsible for setting this stage.

"Dammit!"

He swore again.

There just wasn't enough time for him to see the azure color and determine whether that was Gungnir or not.

To do that, he absolutely required a thought process and reflexes faster than a ray of light. Unfortunately, he didn't meet that condition. More correctly, not just Osiris but everyone else would be in the same situation as him.

The moment one sees the light?

How long would that light take to reach Osiris's position after being seen?

It would probably be too short to explain in simple words. Indeed, the time would be so indescribably brief that even if he managed to react the moment he saw the light, it would be cutting it real close.

As such, when dealing with light-based magic, one was supposed to look at the opponent's behavioral pattern, the hand movement, or the eye direction to dodge.

But now...

"Where is it coming from this time?"

Su-hyeun disappeared from Osiris's view over and over again.

Whenever Osiris thought he had finally located Su-hyeun, the latter would disappear again only to close the distance between them and take a swing with his sword or Gungnir.

Just like...

Sliiice—!

Now.

Thuuuud—!

Giii-iiing—

Su-hyeun's sword, hacking down from behind Osiris, was blocked mid-air. The blade was being pushed back little by little.

It was stopped by Osiris's hand that accurately reached out to meet the descending blade.

Snick, slice—

Several nicks appeared on Osiris's face. The winds condensed on Su-hyeun's blade were the culprits.

"You aimed for my back again," Osiris said, his lips curling upward a little. "Directly attacking me is meaningless. Shouldn't you have learned that by now?"

"Of course, I know."

Creak, creaaak—

Buzz—

The blade couldn't dig in any lower toward Osiris's figure because the power of magic transmitted through Osiris's hand was simply too strong.

Su-hyeun didn't have enough wherewithal to chop that apart with brute strength alone. The prior sneak attacks—repeated several times by now—confirmed this fact for him more than anything else.

"This is the 'Perfect Barrier of Exclusion.' The sorcery you always have surrounded yourself with."

The Perfect Barrier of Exclusion was the name of the sorcery technique that Osiris learned and practiced since ancient times to protect his physical body.

This ability allowed him to observe and sense everything happening within a few meters around him like the back of his hand. He could even expand it to dozens of meters if he wanted to.

This was the reason why Osiris could survive Set's sneak attack all those years ago.

"Oh, so you do remember it. Or is it more like you remembered it only now?"

"It's neither."

"It's not? What then? You attacked me like a fool despite knowing the truth? Betting everything on blind luck?"

"Not luck, but..."

Squeeze—

Su-hyeun strengthened his grip on the sword as he replied, "It's true that I was aiming for a single opening."

"What?"

"You sure are still slow-witted, aren't you?"

"What are you even—?"

Only then did Osiris realize something.

Su-hyeun was talking to him right now in close proximity, but crucially, his back was empty. He wasn't carrying anything there.

"Where is Gungnir...?!" he thought in alarm.

Whoosh—

Osiris's head urgently spun upward.

But by then, it was already too late.

Pazzik, pazzzzzik—

Kyaaaa-aaah—

Up in the sky high above his head...

While the speartip was accurately pointing at the top of Osiris's head, a small dragon made purely out of the azure lightning was wrapped around the weapon's shaft called Gungnir.

The moment his eyes landed on the speartip, Osiris couldn't help but mutter, "I'm done for."