The Hero Returns

* * *

Rumble, fruuuuuush—!

The ranging flames turned the place into a furnace.

The color of these flames was far removed from the purple hue of Su-hyeun's own divine Flame. They were hotter than any known flames sporting every other imaginable hue. They burned in an ominous, pitch-black color, the mixture of all the colors.

This was the Path to Hell. Among the "Six Worlds" of the Six Paths, this place was where the ones with the gravest sins would eventually end up after their death.

Not only that, but the "Path to Hell" summoned on the Moon, with both Su-hyeun and Fafnir on it, was a part of "Hot Naraka," also referred to as Eight Burning Hells.

Fafnir tried to kill the flames burning his body with his staff, but the flames didn't want to die at all. That was because these flames were the type to never die for all eternity.

Hiss, sizzle—

The unavoidable flames began burning Fafnir down. However, it was the same story for Su-hyeun.

Shu-wuwuwu—

Hiss...

A small amount of flame landed on Su-hyeun's body. Although hot, it wasn't intolerable. Compared to all those flames burning Fafnir down, this was nothing at all.

"When you said you want us to die together, is this what you meant? Going to Hell together?"

"Not exactly."

Step—

Sizzle—

When Su-hyeun took a step forward, the black flames undulated and wavered for a moment.

These flames might have been hotter than any other known flames, but when he took a step, they abruptly parted to the left and right. It was as if the flames themselves were trying to avoid him.

"What is the meaning of—?!"

Grab—

Fafnir witnessed that scene and tried to leap, but the flames persistently coiled around him and yanked him back down to the ground. However, if that was all, the Predator wouldn't have staggered unsteadily in the first place.

Heavy!

His feet didn't want to leave the ground. Fafnir looked down and discovered black hands writhing and wiggling about to firmly grab hold of his feet.

"The Path to Hell, also known as Narakagati, is a space that looks at all the sins you've committed, like the crimes of murder, as well as all the good deeds you might have performed. Then, it sentences you with an appropriate penalty," Su-hyeun spoke while staring at those black hands grabbing onto Fafnir's feet. "You see, those hands belonged to all those people you have killed so far."

Indeed, the Path to Hell, or Narakagati, was where your sins were tallied up.

Normally, it existed as one of the netherworlds where you would have to go to endure great pain before you were allowed to reincarnate into the next life.

However, summoning the Path to Hell in this manner would noticeably change its utility.

"It's hard to move around, isn't it?"

All the murder he had committed was tying Fafnir down, his whole body now being crushed down to the ground. His shoulders were pushed down from all the weight of the sins he had committed.

Due to Fafnir's sins, the flames burning within the Path to Hell grew even hotter and more vicious.

Of course, even Su-hyeun wasn't entirely free from sins. It didn't matter who it was; a living person would inevitably commit sins of various nature as they lived, after all.

For instance, Su-hyeun had caused harm to many people and even killed many as well, regardless of what his reasons were.

On the flip side, though, he had also saved countless lives. As such, he was able to escape the effects of the Path to Hell.

"You think an attack on this level will immobilize me completely?"

"No, of course not."

No matter how powerful the Path to Hell's influence was, and no matter how grave all the sins Fafnir had committed up until now, they were simply not enough to restrict him completely.

However, Su-hyeun's intention was never about confining Fafnir using the Path to Hell to begin with.

"The thing is, though, this will potentially give me the advantage."

Pazzzik, bzzzzzik—

RUMBLE—!

Lightning bolts crashed down all around Su-hyeun, and then, every single one of them transformed into lengthy Thunder Dragons.

Their sizes were far smaller than the Thunder Dragons he created earlier. However, Fafnir's brows still shot up far higher than before.

Khya-aaaah—!

Pazzzik, bzzzzzz—!

At first, there were dozens, but now, there were hundreds of Thunder Dragons. Their sizes were smaller, but their numbers were far greater now. A few of the comparatively bigger Thunder Dragons coiled around Su-hyeun's figure, while the rest roamed freely above in the sky to brightly illuminate the Path to Hell.

Every single one of them contained souls of dragons, thanks to the effect of the Cintamani.

"Well, then, do your best to dodge."

Su-hyeun raised his hand. When he did that, the glares of all those dragons that were aimlessly wandering around until then suddenly focused on one spot.

The moment his hand came down...

RUMBLE—!

The explosive thunderclaps resounded within the Path to Hell without pause.

* * *

Ka-boom—!

Splat—!

A Ruyi Jingu Bang extended to shove aside the sternum of a Predator. At the same time, another clone of Sun Wukong swung his Ruyi Jingu Bang to utterly crush the head of a different Predator.

Staaab—!

A Predator thrust its hand forward and stabbed Sun Wukong's chest from behind.

Poof—!

The clone vanished in that very instant.

"Peekaboo!"

Splaaaat—!

Sun Wukong swung his Ruyi Jingu Bang and smashed the head of the Predator responsible for eliminating the clone.

The head was ripped clean off from its torso by that stupendous impact force. Sun Wukong pulled his polearm back then jumped up high.

Spiiiin—

Land—

He lightly landed on a giantified Ruyi Jingu Bang belonging to one of his clones. He peered down the side and watched his clones continuously fight against all those Predators.

"Man, this is literally endless," Sun Wukong muttered and softly tutted.

The number of Predators still flooding out from the doorway connected to the Dark Realm was far higher than Sun Wukong initially bargained for.

No matter how many he killed, more still popped out of there, so it kind of felt like he was going around in circles at the moment.

"First Brother, aren't you going to seriously fight?"

"But I am fighting, am I not?" the Bull Demon King nonchalantly replied as he slapped away a Predator that pounced on him.

Smash—!

The Predator, swatted like some annoying fly, ended up as a bloody chunk of meat and crashed down to the ocean below.

Sun Wukong pouted at the Bull Demon King's nonsensical level of destructive power and replied testily, "But you don't look like you are too eager to fight, you know?"

"How can I, as your dear brother, steal away what makes you happy?"

"Well, uh, I guess that's true," Sun Wukong scratched his head and muttered helplessly.

He did feel a bit short on power at the moment, but even so, he was having a good time right now. All those feelings he experienced back when he was still called the "Victorious Fighting Buddha" came back to life bit by bit.

Of course, Sun Wukong's question wasn't about getting help from the Bull Demon King in the first place.

"In that case, why did you follow me all the way here, First Brother?"

If the Bull Demon King wasn't even thinking of fighting properly, why was he so eager to join earlier?

He was someone who had discarded his emotions as his ascension loomed, causing him to become rather detached, for the lack of a better word.

Although he did display a hint of interest when the Last Brother, Su-hyeun, joined the siblings, today would be his first time in tens of thousands of years to be so eager about something.

The Bull Demon King replied, "It's all to set up a stage."

"A stage?" Sun Wukong scratched his head as if he was confused, then he came to an abrupt halt, "Wait, could it be that you wanted our little brother to fight that crocodile-head bastard?"

"It's not a crocodile but a dragon's head. If I'm being pedantic, then he's a human who devoured a dragon's heart and transformed to his current state, but yes, that's him."

"In any case, did you come here so that our little bro can have a go at that punk?"

The Bull Demon King heard Sun Wukong's question and smiled faintly.

They had lived for who knows how long together, so of course, Sun Wukong instantly recognized what that smile implied. Even before Sun Wukong heard a verbal answer, he began frowning deeply, "Just what are you planning, First Brother?"

"What do you think?"

"I can never tell what's inside your head, you know?" Sun Wukong spat out a long groan, "Just how far did your 'eyes' see?"

Sun Wukong learned about something quite important only recently.

It was about "Insight," the "eyes" that allowed one to see through the truth of the world and, more than that, to peer into the future and past, as well as some things that should not be visible to one's eyes.

The Bull Demon King had been polishing his Insight through the Sage Arts for a very long time. According to what Master Subhuti said, the Yogoe's Insight had already surpassed the level of the Five Godly Sages by now.

Meaning, the Bull Demon King had constantly been "looking" at something that Sun Wukong could not see. And he would frequently avoid talking about most of what he saw.

"What I saw was the past of our little brother."

"Sorry?"

The Bull Demon King said something as he watched the clones noisily fight down below. Sun Wukong, who had been getting ready to rejoin the melee, turned around to stare at his First Brother.

The Bull Demon King raised his head to look at the skies and continued to speak, "His connection to the giant he's fighting up there runs quite deep, as it turned out. Rather than a good connection, though, it can only be called a terrible one. Regardless of what, this connection needs to be severed by our little brother alone."

"Is that really the only reason?" Sun Wukong questioned the intention of the Bull Demon King.

The Bull Demon King thought that he had provided an adequate-enough answer until then. However, his content grin changed to a bitter one after he heard the question. "Maybe," he answered.

"Tsk. Give me a break," Sun Wukong tutted greatly in frustration and spun around to leave.

As he flew down, a golden light suddenly glowed from just above his forehead as a certain golden fillet revealed itself.

Giii-iiing—

This was the device created by Master Subhuti to prevent Sun Wukong from going berserk.

Since it revealed itself out in the open, it could only mean that Sun Wukong's reasoning had become paralyzed, and the device's power to suppress his violent nature had to be strengthened.

However...

"Now listen well, Wukong. You have one hour. Past that, you will enter the berserk state once more."

That was Master Subhuti's request and advice.

Smirk—

Sun Wukong recalled those words and smirked deeply.

There certainly had been a noticeable improvement from following what Buddha said about not killing or going violent. Despite deliberately weakening the golden fillet's sealing, not only did he not lose his rationale, but power began filling him up.

"So, one hour, eh?"

Whoosh—

He viciously swung around the Ruyi Jingu Bang in his grip.

Splat—!

The bodies of several Predators were crushed flat, and the terrain pointed at by the end of his polearm caved in deeply.

Sun Wukong sensed the satisfying feeling of power transmitted through his hands gripping the Ruyi Jingu Bang, then muttered in deep satisfaction, "That will be more than enough."

* * *

Kkyaaaaah—!

A Thunder Dragon's open maw tried to swallow up Fafnir's head from above. The scorching electrical current collided against the purple-hued energy gushing out from his staff next.

Fafnir succeeded in defending against that Thunder Dragon, but he was given no time to catch his breath as he had to spin his head in another direction.

Chomp—!

Pazzzzzik—!

Yet another Thunder Dragon bit down hard on Fafnir's extended arm. Almost at the same time, two other Thunder Dragons pounced on him one after the other.

Crunch, chomp—

Vzzzzzzik—!

The scorching-hot electricity of the Thunder Dragons traveled through Fafnir's bitten arm and legs. Unlike other types of "lightning energy," these Thunder Dragons contained souls of dragons and were not affected too much by the lightning rods.

As such, Fafnir had to come up with another method to respond to them.

Crack, split, crack...

Fafnir's hide began splitting apart from where the Thunder Dragons had bitten him. He didn't seem to care about his limbs being chomped on by the lightning dragons and continued to swing his staff around.

Shu-wuwuwu—

At the same time, black energy rose from all around him to swallow up four Thunder Dragons.

Tumble, crumble—

Fafnir's cracked hide split apart and tumbled to the ground. It was none other than a set of improvised armor possessing the characteristics of thick rubber.

"Even this is not a sustainable method, it seems."

Since he couldn't redirect the flow of the lightning energy, he chose to outfit himself with the type of armor that could cancel out the Thunder Dragon's attacks as much as possible.

Of course, the armor created on the fly couldn't completely protect him. He felt the subtle numbing sensation spreading all over his limbs and raised his head.

"Was this all to buy yourself some time?"

Pazzzik, vzzzzik—

Kkyaaaaah—!

Countless Thunder Dragons were still flying around in the skies of the Moon. Their numbers had doubled compared to the beginning.

Fafnir instinctively understood something after witnessing this scene.

"So, then, this will be your last hurrah?"

Creating that many Thunder Dragons would not be an easy task, even if you were a high-tier god. Indeed, even one of the Five Godly Sages would not be able to freely unleash a technique of this caliber.

While Fafnir was dealing with four Thunder Dragons, Su-hyeun was getting ready to activate his "last" technique, it seemed.

Shu-shu-shu-shu...

The black energy current rose up all around Fafnir's surroundings and began coalescing in one spot. With him in the center, a massive magic circle taking up at least half of the Moon's surface was generated.

The black energy current finished coalescing, and a pitch-black dragon raised its head up from the magic circle. It screeched out an ear-piercing white noise and began flying up.

And at the exact same time, hundreds of Thunder Dragons rained down like a thunderstorm.

[Rain of Thunder Dragons]

[Doomsday]

The moment the Thunder Dragons and the black dragon collided...

FLASH—!

For a moment there, the entirety of the Moon glowed brightly and began emitting a bright light as powerful as the sun itself.