The Hero Returns

Chapter 553: Chapter 553

Vishnu thrashed about violently.

When his soul’s final moments were extinguished, his figure ballooned up into a giant, just like when he first appeared here.

However, a bigger body did not equate to a larger soul. He continued to thrash about in pain before collapsing powerlessly.

Huff, pant…

Su-hyeun gripped his hand.

This was the power of Destruction, which was initially granted to Shiva alone.

As a power that could extinguish all things, it was categorized as the top godhood along with that of creation.

The Predation ability was indeed incredible. The power that devoured and turned another power into the wielder’s own somehow managed even to devour “Destruction,” too.

However, that didn’t mean it became Su-hyeun’s power instantly.

“That freaking hurts.”

An indescribable pain continued to shoot up from the hand that devoured the power of Destruction.

Burning one’s hand in a blazing inferno might have felt like this. Even now, the power of Destruction remained within Su-hyeun.

He soon got used to the pain. His gaze then shifted over to Vishnu’s corpse.

“In the end, that’s how he died,” Su-hyeun inwardly said.

The others probably saw Vishnu’s exterior continuously transforming, but Su-hyeun’s eyes caught sight of a single humanoid thrashing about in pure agony.

That couldn’t be helped, though.

Su-hyeun directly injected the power of Destruction into Vishnu’s soul using the Soul of the Dead. He didn’t know what it felt like for a soul to get extinguished, but judging from Vishnu’s agony, it must’ve been sheer hell.

“He’s dead, then.”

If it were determined through what was visible, one would never be sure of what was happening to Vishnu. However, Su-hyeun was here as per the trial issued by the system, and that trial’s goal was to stop Vishnu.

He then heard the message declaring that the trial of the 220th floor had concluded just now.

“In that case…”

After confirming Vishnu’s death, Su-hyeun turned his head, but right at that moment…!

Stab—!

Cough!

Accompanied by the sound of flesh being impaled, Zeus coughed out a mouthful of blood.

A pitch-black spear was jutting out from his chest after puncturing him from behind.

“Dammit!”

Witnessing that scene, Su-hyeun spat out a curse word, realizing that he was already too late.

A blurry black silhouette was standing behind Zeus.

“He already made his move?”

It was none other than Shiva. Unfortunately, he had acted sooner than anticipated.

Su-hyeun did think that Shiva might make a move as soon as Vishnu was dead, but to think that he would turn on everyone this quickly.

“Or maybe I was too slow?”

He used the power of Destruction to erase Vishnu’s soul and waited to confirm the Primordial God’s demise. On top of this, Su-hyeun also suffered from the impact of the Destruction’s powers, rendering him unable to focus, so it was unsurprising that he only detected Shiva’s movements after that.

Plop—!

“Father!” staggering about, Hercules called out to Zeus.

Zeus’s heart must’ve been pierced straight through because he powerlessly collapsed to the ground. His complexion went deathly pale as Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King rushed to his side.

BOOM—!

The half-broken Ruyi Jingu Bang slammed into the ground. Sun Wukong’s golden irises glared at Shiva, who had dodged that attack just now, “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Merely performing my role, that’s all.”

“Your role?”

“Yes, and it’s destruction. Now that our common enemy is dead, we have become enemies once more.”

“Even so, you stab someone in the back just like that?!”

“Well, he was the most intact one among you. If I had my ways, I would’ve loved to kill you first, Great Sage Heaven’s Equal, but it’s not easy to do that, you see.”

Hercules and the Bull Demon King were injured, and Zeus was inflicted with a grievous wound from this sneak attack.

Su-hyeun was also quite exhausted from his battle against Vishnu, which left Sun Wukong as the least worn-out combatant in the current situation.

“But what can you even do by yourself?” Su-hyeun asked while trying to clutch his hand, still aching like crazy.

Indeed, Shiva was alone in this place. Everyone else here was his enemies, plus there were tens of thousands of other combat-capable gods present on the moon, even if their ranks were on the lower side.

In other words, no matter how strong Shiva was, making a move in the current situation should’ve been an unwise choice even for him.

“I’m not alone.”

Split, crack—

Suddenly, doorways began opening up all around Shiva.

There were well more than one or two. All these doorways connected to another dimension, and they eerily resembled dungeons.

Kyaaaahk—!

Step, stomp—!

Grrrrrr…

Gigantic monsters resembling wild beasts and humanoid creatures began pouring out from these doorways. Su-hyeun instantly understood that none of them were simple monsters despite their varied appearances.

“Predators!”

They were all completed Predators that had broken past the “Prey” stage by now.

Split, split—

The number of the doorways continued to swell. Their numbers shot past several hundred in the blink of an eye, and the Predators emerging from them must have been well over 10,000.

But that wasn’t all.

Shiva stood among the sea of Predators, his eyes locked squarely on Su-hyeun. “Our agreement comes to an end here.”

“…”

Su-hyeun shifted his gaze over to Earth.

Several bright-colored spots began manifesting on the planet. This phenomenon was happening all at once, making it near-impossible to count them all.

All of them were dungeons.

“Right. We did make an agreement like this when we started, didn’t we?”

Before joining hands with Shiva to kill Vishnu, Su-hyeun put forward a single condition: to halt the generation of dungeons.

Since ancient times, dungeons were the cards Shiva had planned and prepared to usher in the universe’s destruction. They were being constantly manufactured according to Shiva’s will.

Even so, Shiva agreed to Su-hyeun’s condition without much hesitation.

“Alright. It’ll be pointless even for me if we fail to stop Vishnu. Everything would still be destroyed without me doing anything, after all.”

He was rather pragmatic about it.

That was how Su-hyeun joined forces with Shiva—specifically until they managed to kill Vishnu. Their cooperation had come to an end right then.

“I wouldn’t have minded a bit of a break after a big fight. How about it?”

“Don’t try to get cute with me. The Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven, Hercules, and Zeus are exhausted right now. It’s the same for you, too. If I don’t seize this chance, I will not have any hopes of victory,” Shiva replied without hesitating for a second.

Su-hyeun’s side would have held the advantage if they were in a good physical state. For instance, the Bull Demon King was enough to fight against Shiva one on one, after all.

That was why Shiva bided his time for this moment.

He waited until everyone had become weaker. He waited until everyone had gathered in one spot to devour them all at once.

“All of you will die here today.”

“I guess it can’t be helped, then.”

Su-hyeun still wanted to take a bit of a break, but since Shiva was so adamant like this, he had no other choice now.

“Third Brother.”

“Mm?”

Sun Wukong, seemingly only a moment away from charging at Shiva, turned his head to look at Su-hyeun.

“Can you stop those things for a little while?” Su-hyeun used his eyes to point at the doorways still increasing in number.

The Predators’ numbers had already gone past tens of thousands to reach several hundreds of thousands.

Their numbers should continue to shoot up. Since Shiva had been waiting for this one moment to end everything in one go, he must have made some extraordinary preparations.

“What about you, though?”

“I shall deal with Shiva myself.”

“Will you be alright alone?”

“You’re better at me when it comes to the numbers game, and we have several injured here to worry about.”

“I’m fine,” the Bull Demon King interjected.

Indeed, his condition looked so much better than either Zeus or Hercules. He didn’t wobble about while walking forward, and his complexion was noticeably healthier.

“It isn’t time yet for my little brothers to worry about me.”

“Will you be alright, First Brother?”

“Don’t worry about me. This should be the final battle, so do what you need to do.”

Su-hyeun nodded silently.

Shiva looked slightly stunned as if he didn’t anticipate the Bull Demon King to be fine like this. He made a fed-up face in the Yogoe’s direction. “This guy just loves to act outside my calculations, doesn’t he?”

“Don’t freak out. After all, they aren’t the type to suddenly butt in during someone else’s fights.”

“Hmm, that makes sense. He has achieved his goal, anyway.”

The Bull Demon King even chose to join this battle solely because Shiva made a deal with King Yama to revive Lang Mei. The Yogoe didn’t care much about other matters besides killing Vishnu.

The Bull Demon King wasn’t that interested in this universe. After all, he achieved his ascension by discarding his lingering attachment to the world of the living.

“Even if this universe is destroyed, someone on the level of the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven can hide within the Path to Reincarnation for a while. Once Brahma finishes creating the next universe, he can start a new life with Lang Mei.”

“You talk as if you’ve already won.”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Shiva stared at Su-hyeun’s arm. “Will you really be alright alone, I wonder?”

Su-hyeun’s arm was in a tattered state.

It was the price of absorbing the power of Destruction. Even now, this power was constantly eating away at his insides.

This power was not something anyone could control.

“A power you can’t absorb will only eat away at your body. Even if you’re half of Brahma, I’m still the only one allowed to wield this power.”

“You’re right. This power is alarming.”

Su-hyeun got to see Shiva’s powers while climbing the tower with him. As he had already fought against him before, he knew better than anyone else how dangerous Shiva’s true power was.

That was why he remained hesitant right until the end. He was unsure if he could use this power. He also knew that this power could start eating away at him, harming him.

But to kill Vishnu, he had no choice in the matter.

Shiva suddenly spoke up, “Let me ask you something first.”

“About what?”

“Why go this far? I mean, you could have lived on in the next universe by turning your back on this one, just like the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven. You could even—”

“I like this universe.”

That question wasn’t even worth pondering his answer for.

Su-hyeun continued while glancing at Earth, “No, let me correct myself. I like that world. I enjoy living over there, you see.”

“That small world is important enough that you’d choose the entire universe’s fate based on it?”

“It is, at least to me.”

In a way, that answer could’ve come across as a bit selfish. Unlike Shiva, who opted to sacrifice everything for a better universe, Su-hyeun chose to fight for the sake of one single planet that he enjoyed living in.

Of course, he was well aware of this, too.

“How human-like reply that was.”

“I lived as a human, after all. And I’ll continue to do so, too.”

“Are you saying you have rejected your role?”

Shiva asked Su-hyeun to take over Vishnu’s role. To do so, Su-hyeun would have to climb to the position of an absolute being and rule over the “order” of things while discarding his emotions like a god.

But Su-hyeun had been living as a human until now, and he said that he would remain that way, too.

“Unlike you or Brahma, I was never assigned a fixed role. I’m simply Kim Su-hyeun, and living that life will be enough for me.”

“If you don’t take up that role and kill me now, the same thing will repeat itself billions of years from now.”

“If the universe fails to improve by then… Then, you do what you want. It might be better to establish a brand-new universe by then. But…”

Shu-wuwu…

The power of Destruction enveloped Su-hyeun’s hand.

“Now isn’t the right time, at least.”

“So you’ve made up your mind, huh?”

Su-hyeun would use the power of Destruction absorbed through Predation once more? That should accelerate the rate of his body breaking down, yet Su-hyeun still chose to go ahead, fully resolving himself.

That wasn’t all.

Sha-aaaah—

The Soul of the Dead spread all over the space around Su-hyeun and Shiva, even though the duration of this ability should’ve ended.

Even so, he still activated it, meaning he was currently burning his soul to bring out the power of this ability.

“Very well. I shall respect your decision.”

Right in this moment…

Su-hyeun and Shiva, possessing the same faces, stared at each other and made mirroring expressions for the first time.

“Let’s finish this… brother.”

[The final trial will now begin.]