The Hero Returns

"Maybe he didn't come here to talk to me?"

Su-hyeun shifted his gaze toward the object of Zeus's.

The god was looking at Luslec.

Ever since Zeus made his flashy entrance, he had been staring at only Luslec.

Luslec was also clearly flustered. As soon as he saw Zeus, he visibly hesitated and tried to creep back ever so slightly.

Step—

And so, the moment he tried to take a step back...

Pazzzzik—!

Ka-boom—!

Zeus's figure flashed like a lightning bolt. Then, he snatched up Luslec's head to slam it down hard on the ground.

Su-hyeun could only mutter, "What the heck?"

"Oh. How have you been, benefactor?"

When Su-hyeun stood around in a daze after failing to comprehend what was going on here, Zeus finally greeted him back.

He even made a bright smile. That expression was no different from the one he made in the past. Nonetheless, Su-hyeun still felt a bit of a chill run down his skin after remembering that Zeus was currently suppressing someone below him while making that smile.

"Ah, yes, hello..." Su-hyeun awkwardly greeted back. He then alternated his gaze between Zeus and Luslec, who was currently trapped under the Olympian God.

Not too long after that, Zeus realized that Su-hyeun had been chatting to Luslec just now and asked, "Do you know this man, benefactor?"

"Yes, we're acquaintances."

"I see. In that case, please forgive me for this momentary rudeness."

Su-hyeun made a forced smile at Zeus as the god asked for his understanding. The Olympian God should be asking that to Luslec, not Su-hyeun.

Tumble, drip—

Zeus picked up Luslec's head from the ground. The latter's eyes were closed as if he had blacked out.

But then...

Bzzzzik—!

"Ouch?!"

Zeus sent a little bit of electrical current into Luslec's body. The latter shuddered greatly before regaining his consciousness.

No, wait—he hadn't actually regained anything at all.

"He was pretending to be unconscious, huh?"

Su-hyeun wordlessly observed the unfolding situation. Regardless of what, the one acting most suspicious here was not Zeus but Luslec.

"Aha, haha... H—how do you do, sir?"

"It seems that I've unfortunately crossed a line here. I'll have to ask for your understanding on this one," Zeus replied with a warm smile still plastered on his face.

However, that face proved to be much scarier.

Su-hyeun then slowly walked up to Zeus and Luslec. The latter sent a silent, pleading gaze at him, begging to be saved, but Su-hyeun simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Hah-ah..."

Luslec sighed at length, then rubbed his face with his hand. When that happened, chains of electricity suddenly materialized and tightly bound Luslec's legs.

That was to prevent his escape attempt.

"Sir, this thing stings a lot, so can you, like, take them off?"

Pzzzik, pazzzik—

Luslec asked with a tearful face, but his request all fell on deaf ears.

Zeus shook his head, "I shall free you once my business with you is over."

"And what business do you have with him?" Su-hyeun quickly got his question in from the side, prompting Zeus to reply, although his eyes were still locked on Luslec.

"Benefactor, do you know who this man really is?"

That was something Su-hyeun had also been curious about.

Just what was Luslec's real identity? Who was he, and who was the god backing him that he knew so much about so many things?

Zeus satisfied Su-hyeun's curiosity right there and then, "This man is the Apostle of Lord Brahma."

"I'm sorry?" Su-hyeun had to ask back in shock and then stared at Luslec.

Do you know where Brahma is? That was the question Su-hyeun asked Luslec only a few minutes ago.

After seeing the latter's troubled face, Su-hyeun assumed that Luslec didn't know. As it turned out, he simply found it difficult to answer honestly because the god Su-hyeun was searching for happened to be the god Luslec served.

"Hah, hahaha... W—well, that..." Luslec, making a troubled face, tried to chuckle amicably, but then, he let out a pained groan, and his head fell even lower.

Even if he wanted to escape, he was a mere Apostle, so it was impossible to break free from the chains created by one of the Five Godly Sages, Zeus.

He seemed to have given up now because with his head still bowed, he finally came clean, "I also do not know where he is."

That was basically him confirming what Zeus said was correct.

Then again, he was in no position to feign ignorance to Zeus, who knew everything even before he showed up here. Besides, someone like Zeus would've resorted to all sorts of methods to dig out the truth, anyway.

"That's unfortunate. Are you already drawing a line in the sand even before we can start our discussion?" Zeus asked.

"I'm telling you the truth here, sir. You can pretty much tell by looking into my eyes, can't you?" Luslec's eyes seemed to sparkle rather brightly while saying that.

He wasn't simply using his eyes to plead with the other party to see the truth here, though. He was actually revealing his inner thoughts completely so that Insight would have an easier time reading him.

Even if he had a formidable god backing him, his opponent today was still none other than one of the Five Godly Sages.

Not to mention, Zeus was dead-set on reading Luslec's inner thoughts anyway, so there was no way his Insight would not be able to see through the truth today.

"It seems you're speaking the truth," Zeus muttered in a rueful voice.

Regardless of what, though, Luslec being Brahma's Apostle was an irrefutable fact. And that god was someone Su-hyeun wanted to locate in the first place.

The goal of Zeus and Su-hyeun was one and the same.

Su-hyeun asked again, "Is there a way to find Brahma in that case?"

Luslec made yet another troubled face, then sighed deeply before replying, "Is it okay for us to talk after undoing these chains first?"

* * *

Su-hyeun and Zeus stood on either side of Luslec.

The electric chain that had bound his body was gone now. Even then, Luslec couldn't dare try to escape from here. He just didn't have the wherewithal to evade both Su-hyeun and Zeus guarding either side of him like this.

"First of all, yes, it's true that I'm Lord Brahma's Apostle. But in reality, my role is nothing more than a glorified messenger," Luslec slowly opened his mouth. "Meeting Mister Su-hyeun was the role he decided for me, too."

"Does that mean you being my fan was—?"

"Oh, no, that wasn't a lie. I was being serious. Before I became his Apostle, I knew about you, Mister Su-hyeun. That's why I gladly took up this role, you see."

Was he being genuine here, though?

Whatever the case might be, Luslec being unrelated to Predators became certain through this revelation. Although his background was far grander than expected, his real identity would prove to be helpful to Su-hyeun's cause at the end of the day.

"Even if you don't know where Lord Brahma is, I'd still like to get any clues as to where I can start looking for him," said Zeus.

"I might not know the exact location, but I do have a hunch."

"Where, then?"

"He always has been staying in one location, you see, from the beginning of the universe up until this moment."

Zeus's eyes grew larger at what Luslec said.

"It's the location where this universe began."

"Huh!" Zeus let out an amazed gasp.

Unlike Su-hyeun, who couldn't quite catch neither the head nor tail of this exchange, Zeus's reaction implied that he had realized something crucial just now.

Su-hyeun asked, "Can you guess where that location is?"

"There are a few—no, several hundred locations that I can think of, yes. Indeed, that number is quite a lot, but it's still much more preferable than blindly searching through the wide expanse of the universe."

The place where the universe had begun—Su-hyeun had no clue where that could be. However, Zeus seemed to have some ideas already. Even if there were way more than one or two locations to search through, it was only a matter of time before their query would be answered.

"Let's search together in that case," said Su-hyeun.

"I'm sorry, but that's going to be difficult, benefactor."

"How come?"

"Even if I tell you, you still won't be able to find the correct path, benefactor. Please rest assured, I shall make sure to speak to Lord Brahma regarding the matter of the system so that you don't have to worry about it anymore."

"Even so—"

Before Su-hyeun could finish his sentence, Zeus's figure was enveloped in arcs of electrical current.

"Well, then, I pray you stay safe, benefactor."

RUMBLE—!

Along with a loud thunderclap, Zeus vanished from the spot. Su-hyeun wordlessly watched the Olympian God say his piece and leave. The events that unfolded left a sour taste in his mouth, but at the same time, he felt deeply relieved.

"With this, I guess it's been taken care of?"

If the system breaks down due to Master Subhuti's passing, Zeus should do whatever it takes to convince Brahma to step in. Whether it be locating or convincing Brahma, Zeus should be able to do a far better job than Su-hyeun.

Rather than Su-hyeun, who had become a god not too long ago, it would probably be more effective to have Zeus make the request since he was also one of the Five Godly Sages.

"I can't figure out what he's thinking of, though," Luslec spoke in a puzzled tone while staring at the spot where Zeus used to be. "He should know that Lord Brahma would never humor such requests in the first place."

Su-hyeun stared at Luslec with an expression that asked for more clarification.

The latter frowned slightly at Su-hyeun's question-filled face, "Lord Brahma is the type to seldom intervene after he finishes creating a universe, you see. It's already rather unprecedented of him to take in an Apostle. Still, for him to take over the management of the system...something like that will never happen even if the world comes to an end."

"Are you being serious?"

"Not just me, but even the gods in the Five Godly Sages tier should know this, too. Lord Zeus is no exception."

It was Su-hyeun's turn to frown deeply at what Luslec said.

The Five Godly Sages should already know this?

"But that can't be."

The one who told Su-hyeun to locate Brahma to restore the soon-to-be-broken system was none other than Buddha.

But now, Buddha supposedly already knew that Brahma would never get involved with the system?

"Was he hoping to grasp at straws or something?"

Su-hyeun just couldn't figure out what Buddha was thinking here.

He definitely told Su-hyeun to go and speak to Brahma. On the other hand, Zeus seemed less than keen for Su-hyeun to run into Brahma.

They might be both Five Godly Sages, but their opinions were at odds with each other, it seemed.

Su-hyeun wanted so badly to hop over to that side and ask what they were scheming right away, but he got a feeling that they would never give him a straight answer.

"Meaning, I don't have a choice but to find Lord Brahma myself."

"But how?"

"Well, you already gave me a clue. As for the how of it, from now on I—"

Gu-gugugugung...

The ground began shaking all of a sudden.

Su-hyeun staggered for a little bit before regaining his balance. Luslec was the same.

"Was that an earthquake?"

No, it wasn't. Calling it a simple earthquake was not possible since the "problem" wasn't only occurring in the underground at the moment.

Rumble, boom—!

Spliiiiit—!

The ground cracked apart as a large crevice opened up in the sky.

A hole had appeared in the air. It was unknown where that black hole even connected to. It was the same story for the ground as well.

"Dungeons?"

Su-hyeun summoned the Somersault cloud and flew to a higher altitude. Luslec also used his own flight skill and followed him up there.

Once he got close enough to get a better look, he realized that the crevice in the sky gave off a different feeling from a dungeon.

If it was a dungeon, then he would have sensed at least some traces of magical energy coming from it. Also, it should have some kind of color.

However, the holes that had appeared now did not meet those two conditions.

"Rather than dungeons, these are much closer to a fissure."

This would be Su-hyeun's first time witnessing this type of doorway. These were indeed passages connected to other worlds, just like dungeons, but they could not have been generated naturally.

Kkieeeehk—!

Right at that moment, monsters with bizarre appearances began escaping one by one from the fissure in the sky.

Snap—

Ruuuumble—!

When Su-hyeun snapped his fingers, flames began blocking the fissure. Monsters pouring outside got instantly burned to dark ashes.

Su-hyeun scanned the monsters' ashes.

"These aren't monsters at all."

These things were the same as dinosaurs.

Rather different from the monsters whose reasoning had been paralyzed due to their violent nature, these things were visibly terrified by something. For the time being, he simply had to take action. Even so, these things were a different breed from the monsters that flooded out of regular dungeons.

They were not monsters but simply animals found in another world.

When he looked down while flying high up, he saw that the situation on the ground was even more catastrophic.

"Is everything going crazy?"

Like some kind of staircase, "floors" were created on the ocean below while the land continued to crack and split apart.

The seawater even floated up as if gravity had vanished. Trees withered rapidly and fell on their sides as if their vitality had been sucked out.

This place was an uninhabited island in the middle of an ocean, so this was the extent of the damage. As such, he couldn't even imagine the level of chaos that would have unfolded in a densely populated city.

"But why is this happening so suddenly?"

"There can only be one reason why something like this is happening."

Su-hyeun turned his head at the voice coming from his side. It seemed that Luslec had a fairly good idea of what was happening here.

Su-hyeun stared at him with eyes that demanded an explanation. In turn, Luslec replied with probably the most serious face he had ever made, "The collapse of Yggdrasil."

Luslec scanned all these phenomena—from the sky with a fissure opening up to the ground crumbling down one layer after another—and continued, "This is the precursor to that event."