The Hero Returns

Before their discussion could continue, they changed the location first.

Su-hyeun didn't head to the next floor. Instead, he entered a city not too far from the battle location.

"Hey, did you hear all that commotion coming from afar?"

"Yeah. It sounded like some big things were going kaboom!"

"Probably a bunch of archmages fighting each other or something."

A crowd inside a tavern was whispering among themselves regarding Su-hyeun's epic battle against Shiva.

It seemed that the noises of their battle had reached this far. Su-hyeun ordered some drinks while thinking that this city was lucky enough to escape getting swept up in the battle.

"One cup of booze with any side dishes with meat in them. And a cup of water."

The waiter took the order and quickly left the table.

Shiva scanned the surroundings in sheer curiosity, and when the booze and food showed up, he took a long gulp of the pungent liquid to start his meal.

"Is this your first time being in a place like this?"

"Well, not really, but this kind of experience doesn't come by for me that often."

Shiva then earnestly dug into the food.

Seeing him up close like this, Su-hyeun began picking up an unexpectedly different vibe coming off Shiva.

That chill-inducing aura Shiva emitted until not too long ago was nowhere to be felt now. Just coming in contact alone with that aura would've been enough to decompose your limbs and flesh. Yet, right now, Shiva outwardly looked like any other ordinary person, just like Su-hyeun.

"Even our faces are the same," he thought.

That was why Su-hyeun had to change his looks using magic. People thinking of them as twins wasn't a problem, but that didn't mean people seeing them in the first place was a good idea.

"Okay, so? You are saying yes to joining forces with me, right?"

"Correct."

No hesitation was present in Su-hyeun's reply.

A creature that he always thought of as an enemy offered to become an ally. On the one hand, Su-hyeun wondered if Shiva had another ulterior motive. On the other hand, he felt somewhat reassured by this development.

"No, hang on, he's not exactly my real ally, is he?" he thought.

Regardless of what, Shiva's goal was still to destroy the current universe.

He wanted to get rid of Vishnu because there was no "next" for the father of the Primordial Gods. It meant that, in the end, Shiva remained a deadly threat to this universe.

"Still, I think I can understand him a bit."

A couple of parts of Shiva's actions still puzzled Su-hyeun until now.

For one thing, why didn't Shiva make a move much earlier, and why did he even bother to provoke the Bull Demon King?

The latter wished not to get involved in the upcoming battle, but Shiva still went ahead and threatened Lang Mei, the Bull Demon King's beloved spouse. Predictably, that enraged the Yogoe enough to make him change his mind.

"I wonder how my First Brother will react if he learns about this development."

"You mean, the Great Sage Who Pacifies Heavens? Is he still swearing to kill me even now?"

"Basically, yes."

"That's good. If we play our cards right, we might even get his assistance, too."

As Su-hyeun suspected'”Shiva's goal was to provoke the Bull Demon King and make him join the battlefield.

Without a doubt, the Bull Demon King and Su-hyeun were the only two existences in this universe strong enough to oppose Shiva.

"He started setting this stage up a long time ago, huh?" Su-hyeun realized.

Shiva might have gotten Master Subhuti's help. Even so, the Primordial God turned out to be quite a sharp thinker himself.

Su-hyeun began thinking that maybe Shiva had prepared several other unexpected machinations just in case, too.

"Hold up," as Su-hyeun thought that something popped up in his mind all of a sudden.

"Hey, could it be...?"

"Mm?" Shiva looked up with a puzzled face while pouring more booze into his cup.

Su-hyeun asked in a low growl, "Was it you who interfered with my mother... Yun Hui-yeon's dream?"

"Well, Brahma is a caring guy, after all. You see, all the good aspects of humanity were based on Brahma, while humanity's worst aspects come from me. I figured that Brahma would make the decision I want if I used that woman called your mother."

"Ooh..."

Squeeze'”

Su-hyeun clenched his fist. "Is that so?"

Smaaaash'”!

His fist slammed straight into Shiva's face.

The impact force threatened to spill out to the surroundings. The air rippled viciously enough for the tavern building to come crashing down, but Su-hyeun had already made sure to prevent the force from leaking out. No one in the surroundings noticed what was going on.

Shiva's head turned to the side from the strike. He then began rubbing his cheek as if it hurt.

"Well, shoot. This might be a problem because that one punch wasn't enough to cool my anger."

"You sound pissed off."

"That I am."

Su-hyeun swore that if he ever found out who made her go through those dreams, he would make the culprit pay a fair price.

It was pretty surprising to learn that Shiva knew about Kim Sung-in, but right now, Su-hyeun was far too angry to care.

"I will definitely kill you."

Su-hyeun's eyes were filled with potent killing intent.

If he could, he wouldn't have minded continuing their fight from earlier right now. The only thing holding him back was the prospect of becoming the strongest pair to defeat Vishnu. That was it.

"It's nice to know that we share a broadly similar goal. I've been thinking of doing that to you, too."

Shiva's expression was not good after getting hit without any warning.

He probably couldn't understand what Su-hyeun was feeling at the moment. He was a Primordial God, so no such concept as "mother" existed for him, which in turn made it impossible for him to understand the depth of Su-hyeun's anger.

Su-hyeun seriously debated whether to hit Shiva once more or not before finally choosing not to. It was pointless to hit him again for the time being, after all.

"Venting my anger can come later," Su-hyeun thought and withdrew his fist. He then sat back down and calmly asked, "Did Master Subhuti also know?"

"Obviously, and that's why I'm sitting in front of you like this."

Rub'”

Shiva rubbed his cheek that Su-hyeun's punch had bruised. He then grabbed another piece of meat.

As for Su-hyeun, he wanted to use Insight and see how genuine Shiva was. However, no one in this universe would be able to do that, including himself.

He thought, "Although I can't trust him..."

Whatever the case might be, Shiva waiting for Su-hyeun's arrival in this place indicated that Master Subhuti was involved in the matter.

"I guess it's worth trusting him for now."

Master Subhuti was a trustworthy being. At least, that was what Su-hyeun thought.

Therefore, to think that he would join forces with Shiva to lead this universe to its destruction? Such a thing was improbable. That was why Su-hyeun initially got puzzled by Shiva waiting for his arrival inside a trial Subhuti had crafted.

Still, if the things Shiva said were genuine, then it wasn't as difficult as before to understand this part of Master Subhuti's plan.

"How much did you hear from uncle?"

"Uncle?"

"Master Subhuti."

"Oh! Pretty much everything important. But honestly? That man makes me uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable? How?"

"It's like he's not even good at fighting. Do you know what I mean? Sure, it's enough to get him into the ranks of the Five Godly Sages, but that's about it. Odin was a better fighter. Even Zeus is slightly better."

"Okay, then why?"

"That man was incredibly sharp. No, rather than being scarily sharp, should I say he's better than anyone else in predicting the future, even though his Foresight isn't even that great?"

Shiva continued to explain while eating, but that only made Su-hyeun stare back in confusion.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Shiva seemed to have evaluated Master Subhuti quite highly, which was in line with Su-hyeun's impressions, too.

"And it sounds like Shiva knows a lot about the other Five Godly Sages, too," Su-hyeun contemplated.

Judging from the names he mouthed off just now, Shiva seemed to be well aware of other Five Godly Sages, not just Master Subhuti. He brought up Odin and Zeus, after all.

"If you want me to cooperate with you, you better tell me everything you know."

"Everything I know, huh?"

"Tell me all the things related to Vishnu, like, where he is right now and what kind of powers he has."

Shiva stopped biting into the meat and picked up the cup of booze when he heard Su-hyeun's question. He took several large gulps of the alcoholic beverage and then fell into a bit of contemplation.

He finally spoke up, "I also don't know what kind of powers he has. However, we should assume that he possesses the powers of both me and Brahma."

"What about his whereabouts?"

"It's not too far from my home. As for how much time we have left, between 10 days and two months, maybe?"

Although the margin of error was significant, both ends of the time estimate being "too soon" remained indisputable. Between 10 days and two months, it would be wiser to assume that they only had 10 days left.

"Even so, there is a variable at play. Depending on that, two months can stretch to a few years instead."

"A variable?"

"The one who knows Subhuti better than anyone else isn't me, you see."

When he heard Shiva, Su-hyeun began recalling the faces of several people.

The one who knows Master Subhuti the best?

Sun Wukong, the Bull Demon King, the Roc Demon King, and then...

"Buddha?"

* * *

"So, you finally came, I see."

Buddha opened his eyes.

A humongous thing was dominating his view. This object's size was practically impossible to estimate.

Not even Uranus was this large. This object was approaching closer while casting its shadow over the darkness of the universe.

"I heard that you'd show up in this place, but well..."

"Is it that man again?"

Buddha's ears began ringing. It sounded like the universe itself was talking to him.

"Was his name Subhuti? Indeed, a notable being like that is uncommon."

"And he was my humble disciple."

"Oh, you were his teacher?"

"This kind of conversation isn't important, hm?"

Clap'”!

Buddha clapped his hands, causing all of his wrinkles to disappear suddenly. His smooth skin soon began expanding as his size grew larger and larger.

His massive hands clapped again. A small planet entered his palm while his gigantic torso and head finally revealed themselves.

"You've been waiting for me, it seems."

"Indeed, and we have prepared appropriate measures for you, too."

Countless letters suddenly began floating all around Buddha.

Every single one of these letters contained mystical power. The letters scattered and danced around before some of them engraved themselves on Buddha's figure, while the rest spread all over the universe to hinder Vishnu's movement.

The space distorted as a massive hand approached. However, Vishnu's extending hand couldn't go forward as if an invisible wall was blocking him.

"You wish to hold me back, is that it?"

"That is precisely my role."

"It seems that you've been preparing yourself for a very long time."

Granting power to all those letters would have been incredibly difficult even for a deity like Buddha. Such a task couldn't have been accomplished in one or two days either'”maybe, not even in a few years.

Just how much time was needed to prepare this scene?

"It was my disciple's request'”and his last wish, too."

Master Subhuti's final request was...

"It's to stop you in this place."

To humor that request, Buddha had been waiting for a very long time in this spot for Vishnu's arrival.

His life was focused solely on stopping Vishnu here. Buddha was determined to block Vishnu's advance in this place no matter what.

While extending his hands forward, Buddha's stiff expression turned toward Vishnu.

"I was born a human and lived for far too long while indulging in my desires."

Buddha was now speaking to himself.

"And thus, I shall think of this place as my grave."

* * *

Su-hyeun picked up a cup of booze for himself.

He always found alcohol bitter and unappetizing, and that was why he didn't want to drink it if he could help himself. However, after listening to Shiva, he felt like drinking some today.

"So, something like that happened?"

He began thinking that Master Subhuti's request was cruel for both the one humoring the request and the one making it.

"And they should have run into each other by now." Shiva washed down the meat he had been chewing with another gulp of booze. "Buddha will die."

Tap'”

Driiiibble...

He refilled his empty cup with new booze from a jar.

"But no one knows how long he can hold out for."

The preparations had been made a very long time ago.

And this was coming from Shiva, who had lived for basically an eternity by now. That made it nearly impossible to guess just how long ago "a long time ago" was.

"I see."

Su-hyeun reached out and grabbed that jar of booze. Shiva stared at him silently with an expression that seemed to ask what Su-hyeun was doing right now.

Gulp, gulp...

Su-hyeun drank straight out of the jar itself.

The booze was still bitter and didn't taste good at all.

He didn't even get drunk, either. Probably, no alcohol in existence could make him drunk, anyway.

"Fuu-woo," Su-hyeun sighed at length to exhale the stench of alcohol out of his mouth. He then stood up right away, "Looks like I need to go now."

"You sure look like you're in a hurry."

"You and me both. Aren't we both in a hurry?"

"True that. Even as we speak, Buddha should be bitterly struggling against Vishnu, after all." Shiva stared at the empty bottle and muttered, "Just so that he can give you some extra time."

No one knew how many floors remained in the Tower.

Even so, he needed to hurry.

"If I climb to the top, I will find Vishnu," Su-hyeun thought.

Su-hyeun got up and prepared to head straight to the next floor, but then...

"Let me finish this grub first, then we can go," Shiva suddenly said while biting into the last piece of meat.

"What do you mean, we?"

"You're headed to the 211th floor, right? I hear there's also a party system in place. Besides, I also need to say hello to Vishnu, don't I?"

A party system?

That system didn't hold much relevance to Su-hyeun until now. Whether it was before his regression or now, Su-hyeun always climbed the Tower at such high difficulties that no one could form parties with him.

As such, he believed that such a thing would never happen in this lifetime. However, with Shiva, the story would change rather drastically.

"Although I'm not entirely happy about it..."

It's true that every second counted.

Su-hyeun stared at Shiva chewing on the last piece of meat and thought to himself, "He might be the strongest party member one could ask for."