The Hero Returns

That was a rather playful reply.

But Brahma took it seriously and nodded while staring into Su-hyeun's eyes, "You're not lying."

"God" was the noble existence that all Predators wished to become, but in reality, the two camps were diametrically opposed.

The qualification of godhood was indeed that—the qualification to become a god—and the authority symbolizing an individual's power, but actually becoming a god was another matter altogether.

Obviously, one needed to possess the qualifications, but one also needed a physical body capable of wielding all those qualifications, as well as a mind that was tough enough to withstand such a physique.

Brahma stared straight into Su-hyeun's eyes.

There it was, one of the abilities that symbolized the gods—Insight, the eyes of the gods that could see through everything.

Brahma had seen eyes like Su-hyeun's in the past. "A god like you existed? I've never heard of such a thing. How bizarre."

It seemed that Brahma was unable to even imagine the simple fact that Su-hyeun ascended to full godhood despite being a human.

However, something like that was understandable. Countless unknown, unfamous, gods existed throughout the universe, but even then, there weren't all that many who, despite being born as a mere mortal, reached full godhood on their own strength.

"It doesn't really matter, now does it?" Su-hyeun asked back.

"Is that so? Indeed, that's true. Regardless of what, the only certain thing here is that Goddess Kali will direct her rage at me if I fail to kill you in this place."

Giii-iiing—

A sharp and purple-hued spike suddenly materialized over Brahma's hand. It was no ordinary spike, however. A massive quantity of energy, much greater than any contained in a weapon Su-hyeun had seen so far, was compressed inside that thing.

With that much energy, it could even slice through adamantium depending on who wielded it.

"Are you that scared of her?"

"That's right. She's far scarier than the likes of you."

"Well, I'm really looking forward to meeting her now."

Piiit—

Brahma's figure suddenly vanished from the spot. Su-hyeun couldn't even see how the Predator had moved even with his eyes, but that wasn't so surprising, really.

He thought, "Was that some kind of teleportation ability?"

Brahma had literally vanished from the spot, after all.

A blink of an eye later, Su-hyeun tilted his body out of the way.

Swiiiish—

Sliiiice—!

A thin line was carved out in the ground. This line extended on and on—clouds up in the skies were split apart, and a purple line manifested itself to seemingly connect the split sky and the ground.

"Was that like 'erasing'?"

That wasn't a simple blade strike. Rather than slicing something apart, it looked far closer to erasing whatever was found in its long path, instead.

It was most likely this Predator's "authority."

"Is it an attack-focused combat style that utilizes its quick speed and killing power? I've already confirmed its defensive capability earlier, and it looks like this guy's specialty is that teleportation ability."

Slice, chop, sliiiiice—

Piiit, pii-piiit—

Su-hyeun continued to move this way and that as if he was on a dance floor. Meanwhile, Brahma's blade strikes grew faster and faster.

"The range of its strikes are really long but narrow enough to fit a palm's width. As for the attack pattern..."

Whoosh, swiiiish—

Su-hyeun's eyes rapidly darted around, and soon, he spotted Brahma appearing again to wield that purple-colored spike in its hand.

Whoosh—!

Su-hyeun reached out to the Predator, and then...

Grab—

Keok!

Brahma, appearing in that position right then, suddenly had its throat firmly gripped by Su-hyeun's hand.

KA-BOOM—!

Crack, split—

Su-hyeun powerfully slammed the Predator's head on the ground.

Keo-hurk!

Its whole body violently shuddered. That horrifying impact forced all strength to seep out from its body. As expected, this Predator might have been fast, and its killing power, extraordinary, but in return, its defensive capability was well below par.

Fu-wuuu—

Su-hyeun exhaled at length for a very brief moment.

He saw something earlier. Although the moment didn't even last 0.1 seconds, Su-hyeun still got to clearly see it.

"I saw the future that would happen a little bit later."

Indeed, Insight wasn't some simple ability meant to read the target's mind. No, it was a power that allowed its wielder to see what they wanted to see. That was the true power of Insight.

"Now that got a bit annoying just to catch a mosquito..."

Cruuuunch—

Kkeuh...

Su-hyeun used his free hand to break Brahma's thigh bone. At the same time, the divine Flame traveled through his fingertips to enter the Predator's leg and scorched the gap between the broken bone bits.

With this, the Predator should find it too difficult to get up and start rampaging again.

"Alright, then, I hope that you can now more or less figure out what your current situation is."

"What...do you want...?"

"For now, stop the trial within the Altars under your control."

"But that means I—"

"If you don't want to, just die here, then. If you start running right away, maybe you can escape from Kali's grasp, but if not, well, you'll definitely die by me."

Brahma's expression distorted as if it was conflicted by Su-hyeun's offer.

It seemed that Kali was indeed a terrifying existence, seeing that this Predator was actually debating what to choose between the figurative blade thrust in its throat and Kali who should be somewhere far away, beyond one's visual range.

"If you don't want to, I'll just end you right here. That will probably end the trial automatically, anyway."

"A—are you going to let me live if I do as you say?"

It seemed that this Predator's obsession over its survival was rather strong, which was great since that would simplify this discussion.

"Of course. Except on the condition of you leaving this planet for good."

"That will be obvious. If I agree to your demands, I will then have no choice but to escape from her reach, too. However, you must promise me. Swear it on your honor as a god."

"My honor, you say?" Su-hyeun nodded nonchalantly, "Something like that? Why not?"

Brahma sighed in relief at that reply. It used one of its hands to barely prop itself up. "I need a little bit of time. It's not an easy task to undo the system cast on every location, you see."

"Sure, whatever," Su-hyeun withdrew his attention for a little while.

Brahma cautiously gauged Su-hyeun's alertness several times after that. However, the latter was sitting down with his back turned toward the Predator.

"Should I sneak attack him? No, it'll be useless," it surmised.

Su-hyeun dodged all of Brahma's attacks, even though the latter was practically invisible all the time. Things shouldn't be any different now, too.

"How much longer?" Su-hyeun abruptly asked, his back still turned.

Brahma immediately answered with a flinch, "It'll be over soon."

"Is that so?" Su-hyeun raised his head and looked up, "That means they'll be here soon, too."

"What?!" Brahma shot up from the spot.

But right at that moment...

Shu-rururuk—

Grab—!

Pure-white clouds suddenly materialized all around Brahma and tightly restricted it.

"W—what are you doing?!"

"You know, those Altars you've created? Their mechanism will stop automatically when you die, so there's no real need to waste my time waiting for you, right?"

"Do you not have any honor as a god?!"

"I'm not really interested in stuff like that. Besides all that, you never planned to honor the promise in the first place, anyway."

Ka-boom—!

Lightning bolts flashed in the suddenly darkened sky. However, all those storm clouds gathering there were not summoned by Su-hyeun.

He said loudly, "One, two, three...Huh, you sure called a lot of them out, didn't you?"

"W—w—wait a minute!"

"Wait a minute, my foot. Here's my answer."

Squeeze—

Su-hyeun clenched his fist tightly, "Strike down, Somersault cloud."

Pazzzzzzzzzik—!

Aaaaaaaaahk!

Lightning bolts were unleashed from the Somersault cloud, enveloping Brahma's body. The Predator was instantly scorched pitch-black, and then, its burnt figure rapidly started withering.

Soon afterward...

[Ten Altars have stopped functioning.]

[The false god, Brahma, has been defeated.]

[The second trial is concurrently underway.]

[Please eliminate 10 false gods.]

Several messages popped up one after the other.

It sounded like the second trial was to get rid of all the fake gods including Kali. In other words, all of the Predators.

"Thankfully, the Altars stopped functioning..."

The system handily took care of the slight problem of Su-hyeun needing to confirm everything personally. He raised his head and stared at the other Predators summoned here by the fake Brahma.

Faint silhouettes were visible within the dark clouds. One was a dokkaebi with a massive horn, another was a giant with a canine head, and then finally, a female with an arresting figure who also happened to possess four arms.

"He's really dead?"

"Looks that way."

"To think that Brahma really died. The Hound this time seems a bit different, doesn't he?"

"That only shows how desperate the gods have become. Goddess Kali's strength is only getting stronger, after all."

"Makes sense since, in 10 thousand years, the Three Destroyers will surely become Four Destroyers, instead."

"He's not such a bad offering, that's for sure. She will definitely prefer a Hound over those insect-like humans, after all."

The three of them chatted among themselves while staring at Su-hyeun.

Their voices reverberated throughout the sky. Perhaps common people witnessing this scene from far away might say that the gods had actually descended to the land right now.

"Three, huh?"

Su-hyeun, having finished Brahma off, slowly got up from the spot.

These three Predators were all ranked within the One Hundred Evils. Su-hyeun recalled the information from Luslec while taking in their appearances.

"That's Zawucheon, then Anubis, and finally, that female is none other than..." Su-hyeun locked his gaze on the female with four arms in the middle of the trio. "Kalira."

Luslec said that, excluding Kali, the one to be most wary of among the 10 Predators was Kalira.

"A creature born from the mixture of blood shed by Kali and Asura during their battle. Quite literally, she' basically their offspring," Su-hyeun quietly muttered while picking up a ton of murderous intent oozing off of her.

A child born from two long-time rivals who kept fighting each other? Now that was an ironic existence if there ever was one.

For sure, the murderous intent oozing off from Kalira's body and eyes were denser than any other Su-hyeun had experienced so far.

"She's the closest to being one of the Ten Great Evils. A monster who is a Predator from her birth and loves bloodshed, warfare, and constant battles."

He got to meet her sooner than he anticipated.

Not too long after that, Kalira, who had been keeping quiet until then, finally said something, "An amusing opponent has shown up after a long while, it seems."

Kalira then pulled out four vajras.

"Both of you, do not interfere."

"But, Kalira, Brahma is dead."

"Even you could—"

"If you dare interfere, then..." Kalira's eyes changed color to crimson. "I'll kill you first myself."

Anubis and Zawucheon clamped their mouths shut.

She had such a fervent desire to fight, and they figured that getting on the current Kalira's bad books might cause the fight to spiral in an undesirable direction, instead.

But right then, something happened.

"Strike them—"

KA-RUUUUMBLE—!

Lightning bolts struck down from the dark clouds up in the sky.

"Somersault cloud."

Bzzzzzzzzik—

"Keuh-euh..."

"That stings."

"..."

The trio, struck by the lightning, glared murderously at the culprit—Su-hyeun.

That attack only caused Kalira's glare to become even more twisted than before. She never thought that Su-hyeun would dare to attack them simultaneously despite eavesdropping on their conversation.

The meaning behind that attack was quite easy to understand.

"Stop wasting time and attack me together," Su-hyeun beckoned with his hand. "If you don't, you will only make me rueful, you know."

"Kalira."

"We cannot overlook this."

Naked killing intent filled up the eyes of both Zawucheon and Anubis. It seemed that their pride would not allow them to hand Su-hyeun over to Kalira when he dared to attack them first.

Kalira shot a glare at the two before nodding slightly. She was saying they should do what they want.

Soon, the trio's fighting spirit converged on Su-hyeun.

Being on the receiving end of the fighting spirit of three Predators ranked among the One Hundred Evils was a surprisingly weird experience, and the fighting spirit coming off of Kalira was rather ominous, as well.

Su-hyeun unsheathed his sword with one hand and then raised his free hand up in the sky.

And then...

"Strike down, Somersault cloud."

Flash—!

[Somersault cloud]

[Zeus's Thunder Glove]

He grasped the lightning bolt that fell down and gave it a tangible form—a long spear that was glowing in a blinding reddish-golden light.

Kalira's eyes bulged out of their sockets as she took in the sight of Su-hyeun wielding a sword and spear in each of his hands. "Zeus?"