The Hero Returns

It wasn't exactly correct to call all those countless Thunderbolts blanketing the sky a "skill." Su-hyeun had created them just now, after all; meaning, rather than a skill, it was closer to a technique he had come up with by himself.

Su-hyeun simply copied someone else by materializing lots of Thunderbolts and had them maintain their form up in the air.

"Doing this does eat up a ton of magical energy and prana, but..."

Pazzzik, bzzzzz—

But he got to create a spectacle of this magnitude as well.

Rumble, ku-rurururu...

Kalira's lone figure stood on the spot where all those spears were pointing at. She pushed all of her senses to the extreme as an ominous feeling swept over her.

Buzz, buzz—

Kalira looked up at countless lightning spears up in the air. Every single one was as powerful as the spear that brought Anubis to its knees.

"And I need to dodge all of them?!" she inwardly calculated, her thick grin vanishing instantly.

The speed of the lightning attack was far faster than what Kalira's eyes could see. The only reason she managed to dodge the first Thunderbolt was not that she spotted the spear's movement but simply because she was paying attention to Su-hyeun's hand.

But now, it was impossible to dodge with so many spears up there, plus none of them were coming from Su-hyeun's hand.

Grit—

Kalira angrily clenched her teeth. If dodging was impossible, then only one option remained.

"Damn it all—!"

And that was to withstand everything.

Kalira charged straight at Su-hyeun. At the same time, his hand extended upward and clenched into a fist.

RUMBLE—!

* * *

Boom, ka-booooom—!

Kalira's whole figure was being scorched black. She used two of her arms to shield her head, while the other two arms busily defended against the Thunderbolts striking down at her.

By now, dozen-plus lightning spears had struck her.

Plop—

She fell down to her knees. Only after the 10th Thunderbolts struck her did she go down to her knees. She was indeed far more amazing than Anubis, who went down after only one strike.

Unfortunately for her...

"I still have plenty left."

Flash—!

KA-BOOOOM—!

One more Thunderbolt fell from the sky.

Kalira's spine bent backward, and the arms shielding her head trembled weakly. Her scorched-black figure resembled a piece of charcoal at this point.

Kkuck, kkugh...

The whites of her eyes were showing, while her breathing intermittently ceased.

Su-hyeun observed Kalira's state for a bit and then canceled the rest of the Thunderbolts.

"Around 17 shots."

His technique placed importance on the number rather than the individual spear's firepower, but even then, the overall attack power seemed to be adequate enough.

A spear that could not be dodged nor blocked—that was the Thunderbolt in essence.

"Although it's still difficult for me to shoot them all at once, this isn't shabby at all."

Gordon Rohan's technique, the Divine Punishment, allowed him to summon and rain down countless spears to the ground. However, Su-hyeun found it hard to shoot more than three Thunderbolts at once, which meant his firing rate wasn't so great.

On top of that, its consumption of his magical energy and prana reserve was a big burden, too.

"I need to refine it a bit more."

The matter of improving his proficiency would be dealt with in time, but the matter of how to efficiently and effectively use this technique was something Su-hyeun alone had to contemplate and resolve.

Su-hyeun looked into the bottom of the deep crater where Kali was currently kneeling.

This deep, deep crater was created from the combined might of 17 Thunderbolts.

Sliiiide—

Su-hyeun slid down to the bottom of the crater and walked up to Kalira, who barely raised her head and stared at him. Maybe she noticed that he had come closer to her position, as her irises were gradually showing back on her eyes.

"I...must...fight..."

"You still want to keep fighting me?" Su-hyeun tutted while staring at Kalira as she tried to fight back rather than plead for her life, despite her current wretched state.

If he wanted to kill her, he could have done so using the remaining Thunderbolts, but there was a reason why he spared her.

"Where is Kali?"

And that was to locate her mother, Kali.

Creeeak—

Whoosh—

Kalira didn't verbally reply to his questioning and instead chose to respond with her vajra.

Whoosh—

Pow—!

The vajra that she swung with all of her remaining strength landed on Su-hyeun's palm. Although the impact felt rather weighty, it no longer carried the same destructive force from earlier.

He found it really amazing that she could still move and wished to fight him despite her current state. Without a doubt, Kalira was a creature born only to fight.

"Come...fight...me..."

Creak, clack—

She forced her bent knees to straighten and somehow managed to make the other three vajras move.

Literally, she made them move; despite not being held in her hands, the three vajras swam through the air and emitted a somewhat scary level of fighting aura.

"Keep...fighting...me..."

"Your obsession is seriously something else."

It seemed that she had no thoughts of answering him. Indeed, the only thing occupying Kalira's head was the obsessive desire to keep fighting Su-hyeun.

Pazzzzik—

Another Thunderbolt materialized in Su-hyeun's hand.

The speed of creating one this time was a level quicker than before, and this time, he was confident of hitting his target.

"Since you don't want to answer me, there's no need to delay it any further, then."

One, two...

While counting down in his head, Su-hyeun arched back his torso.

And just like that...

Flash—!

The Thunderbolt shot out from his hand.

Rumble—!

Kwa-jiiiik, bzzzzzzzik—

The thrown Thunderbolt dyed the world pure white.

Su-hyeun had been planning to completely kill off the dying Kalira for good, but then, a surprised expression overtook his face.

Pazzzik, pazzzzik—

Kalira, her eyes without any focus and her life force ebbing away, somehow managed to catch his thrown Thunderbolt. More surprisingly, her eyes had regained some semblance of vitality, too.

"You..." Su-hyeun stared at Kalira who was tightly gripping the Thunderbolt and asked, "Who are you?"

The light burning in her eyes had changed. The eyes of Kalira, who couldn't control her own overzealousness to fight and rampaged around, were now calm like she had regained her composure.

Crunch—!

Pah-sususu—

One of her hands, the one that stopped the Thunderbolt, burned away and crushed to bits. Her physical body had already reached its limit by then, so it seemed that she couldn't stop the lightning spear without any lasting damage to herself.

However, Kalira didn't even bat an eyelid to the lost arm. She instead raised her head and stared at the sky, "It sure has been a while."

She sounded as if she didn't really care about Su-hyeun's presence either. She then quietly closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.

Su-hyeun picked up an incredible level of fighting aura quietly oozing off from her, one strong enough to numb his whole body. It was truly mystifying how she could emit such an aura simply by standing still and breathing in and out.

This was completely different from Kalira of earlier.

She outwardly emitted a crazed fighting aura that she couldn't control, but now, the current Kalira was easily reining in her own fighting aura.

Seeing her like this, Su-hyeun didn't need long to realize who this was. "Are you Kali?"

Was she indeed Kali, Kalira's mother and Asura's rival?

His question prompted Kalira's gaze to shift over to him, "Do you know who I am?"

"No, not exactly."

"Then how do you know my name?"

"What's wrong? You think it's unfair that I know your name, but you don't know mine?"

"Not really. I already know who you are," Kali's lips distorted into a grin. "Kim Su-hyeun. The sword of the gods who is caught under an unfortunate fate."

"The sword of the gods...?" Su-hyeun's brows rose. Kali actually knew of him? But that wasn't all. She sounded as if she had accurately seen through his fate just like the other gods had done.

Did the Predators also have powers similar to Insight, which was supposed to be the power of the gods? Or was it nothing more than her scheme to shake him up, instead?

If it was the latter, how did she learn of his name, Kim Su-hyeun?

Or...

Fwhooooosh—!

Kali's vajra suddenly slammed down on Su-hyeun's head.

It was a sudden sneak attack. The weapon closed in on his head far faster than he could react.

Fluff—

Rather than a heavy and dull noise, a soft and malleable sensation was transmitted through Kali's hand. It came from the Somersault cloud protecting Su-hyeun's body.

He grabbed the vajra and then pulled Kali's figure close.

Ruuuumble—

[Flame - Transformation]

Then, without stopping, his arm that had transformed into pure flames shot out toward Kali's unguarded abdomen.

Pooooow—!

A huge hole opened up in Kali's torso.

Even if a new consciousness had taken over Kalira's body, it would be impossible for her to move around now that there was a massive hole in her torso. Kali, who had taken over Kalira's body, smirked as she fell to the ground, "You seem to have a few tricks up your sleeve."

Calling the godhood capable of controlling clouds a trick? Su-hyeun didn't respond to her provocation because all she could do right now with the damaged body was a single sneak attack.

She continued, "It hasn't been long, but well, it's been fun."

"Doesn't that body belong to your daughter?"

Kalira was born from a mixture of Kali and Asura's blood. As such, Kalira was basically Kali's daughter—a life form that shared her blood, a creature that most resembled her in this universe.

However, Kali actually took over Kalira's body and was personally experiencing her daughter's impending death, so how could she smile like this?

"Do you consider a drop of blood your offspring?"

From the very beginning, Kali never thought of Kalira as her offspring but merely a single drop of bloodshed during a fight. She was technically not wrong with her thought process; Kalira was born from her blood, and no person out there would bring themselves to mourn or be wistful over a drop of blood they had inadvertently shed.

Su-hyeun muttered, "Well, sure thing."

Honestly speaking, he wasn't really interested, anyway. What did it matter to him whether these two had parental love or not?

Whatever the case might be, Su-hyeun simply had to kill them all.

"Since you're here, let me ask you, where are you right now?"

"I wonder. Where can I possibly be?" Kalira's torso had halfway disintegrated by now, the skin on the remaining body part scorched pitch-black. Even then, Kali's voice remained unperturbed, "Why don't you seek me out on your own? This will be the trial I bestow you with."

Hiss, sizzle—

Kalira's body began melting down next. Rather, more correctly, the blood inside the body was going through a transformation. Kali was actually speeding up her daughter's death as she grinned, "This kind of fight might be amusing in its own way."

"What was that?"

Hiss—

Su-hyeun stared at Kalira's corpse that had turned into a puddle of blood and muttered in confusion, "This kind of fight?"

What did Kali even mean by that?

He raised his head, and that was when he got to see it, "What the...?"

Drip, driiip—

Splash—

The crimson blood floated up from the ground before shooting up high in the air. The blood, having defied gravity, morphed into ink and began drawing a massive portrait as well as texts in the sky.

That portrait belonged to none other than Su-hyeun's face.

[From this moment on, all Altars will cease functioning.]

[All believers of Pangaea, bring the head of this individual to the Altar.]

Kali's message inscribed in the air said those words, and they were inscribed in the eyes of all beings existing in the land of Pangaea at the same time. Her "oracle" was absolute as far as the residents of Pangaea were concerned. No matter what Su-hyeun said, all of this planet's denizens would treat him as a hostile entity from this moment on.

Bring Su-hyeun's head: this was the trial bestowed unto the people of Pangaea. It was likewise a trial given to Su-hyeun. It seemed, from here on out, Su-hyeun must either evade all of Pangaea's residents or kill them all before he could discover where she was hiding.

After realizing what Kali was scheming here, he ended up biting his lower lip, "A war, then?"

She wished for a war between Pangaea and Su-hyeun.