Hwarang Hong was a supporting antagonist in Hero Has Returned. He was the Vampire Warrior and a member of the 9-Warriors. It is eventually revealed, however, that he was being possessed by his world's female Demon Lord, his actual title being Exorcist Warrior.
"Hwarang Hong's birthday is January 3th"
Appearance[]
Hwarang[]
Hwarang Hong was a well-built man with long purple hair and black eyes. As the Exorcist Warrior, Hwarang's costume consisted of a long black and red trench coat, a cropped sweater underneath, red pants with black buckles, and a witch hunter hat.
Demon Lord[]
The Demon Lord of Blood, while possessing Hwarang's body, wore a similar outfit to Hwarang with a few differences being a cropped jacket, a red armband, red shades, an inverted cross necklace, and blood-red eyes.
.jpg "Ch.143 - Hwarang Hong (Vampire Demon Lord).jpg (264 KB)")
Personality[]
Whilst Hong was the Exorcist Warrior, he was described as someone who had trained themselves to surpass human levels, displaying grit and determination. He was also good at heart, which was shown when He joined the Reformed Government to stop the rampaging of the 9-Warriors.
However, Hong is shown to be rather reckless when driven to a corner, as shown when he willingly injected himself with the Vampire Demon King’s blood, despite being well aware that his mind could be corrupted and overpowered by her will, which ended up happening.
As shown in the past, Hwarang possess a very determined and devoted mindset, with him being very dedicated to seeing something through once he started it. As shown in his home life, where despite his friends trying to dissuade him from perusing a future as a musician and follow a more realistic path in life and the dismissing their band and music as a high school hobby, Hwarang was dedicated to continue on his career as a singer despite the hardships. With this trait being the main reason as to why he was the one summoned to the world of Exorcism, as the main criteria for their Exorcist Warrior, is that other than having all four limbs intact, the individual needs to have the personality of never giving up, no matter how hard things become.
Hwarang collecting some blood from the defeated Vampir
This quickly became Hwarang’s strongest trait as he battled Demon Lord Vampir in his otherworld, as despite being severely outclassed and overpowered by the inhuman opponents of that world, Hwarang continued to persist in his efforts to defeat them by continuously training and refining his techniques and power as a human. And despite the immense effort, loss, pain and hardships, Hwarang still managed to overcome these inhuman opponents while staying human. As shown, Hwarang developed a strong sense of pride as a “normal human” and despite being offered numerous opportunities to get stronger by turning into a inhuman monster, Hwarang had notably refused and persisted to grow stronger as a regular human being.
However, despite this immense mental fortitude, there have been times during his adventures and battles where Hwarang was notably tempted to grow stronger by turning into something inhuman. As shown where he had almost accepted the offer of Vampir’s werewolf subordinate to turn into a werewolf by devouring his heart and him later collecting Vampir’s blood after killing her as a secret weapon in a future battle. Showing that while Hwarang desired and prides at being a “regular human”, he was pragmatic enough to know that there are enemies he couldn’t defeat with fortitude, persistence and human ingenuity.
History[]
Current Timeline[]
Like all the other Warriors, Hwarang Hong was transported to a world where he became a vampire hunter. At one point, when he had defeated a werewolf demon, the demon ripped out its heart and offered it to Hwarang, wanting to know how far he could go before disintegrating. However, before he can consume the heart, Van Helsing, Hwarang's mentor, restricts him from doing so, saying that it's important for a human not to use such things despite the unfair advantage monsters have over humans.
Before Minsu Kim began his rampage, Hwarang Hong was a street performer who specialised in the electric guitar.
It is noted in Chapter 17 that the Vampire Warrior was formerly a member who joined the group of Warriors that are against Minsu Kim's goal to dominate the world before unknowingly for some unstated reasons betraying the Warriors that protect the world and becoming one of the 9-Warriors who desired to destroy humanity.
Hwarang injecting himself with Vampir’s blood
It was later revealed in Chapter 56 that he was originally the “Exorcist Warrior”, who was recruited to help in stopping the Fallen Warriors, where he faced an impossible victory against the Transformation and Resurrection Warriors.
With no means of defeating the pair, due to the Transformation Warrior’s firepower, and the Resurrection Warrior’s reset ability, he decided to inject himself with blood taken from the Demon Lord of Vampires, as a last resort attempt to defeat them.
However, the blood ended up corrupting the mind of the Exorcism Warrior, replacing his personality with that of the Demon Lord, who now possessed his body, and gladly joined the Fallen Warriors to conquer Korea.
One year after their rampage, each warrior/hero, excluding Minsu Kim, separated the territories of Korea amongst themselves. Hwarang did gruelling experiments on the citizens he enslaved according to the Golem Warrior.
Original Timeline[]
The Hwarang Hong in the original timeline, before Seongjun Lee travelled back in time and began altering events, was one of the Resistance Warriors who survived the Warrior's Civil War. Due to the resistance having the Resurrection Warrior and Sword Warrior on their side in this timeline, Hwarang did not resort to recklessly consuming the blood of his world's Demon Lord and thus was not taken over.
After the Civil War, Hwarang eventually started a romantic relationship with Yerin Ma, and they ended up having a daughter. But, due to the circumstances of Seongjun Lee being trapped in a time loop, this future never happened in the Current Timeline.
Synopsis[]
Recovered Government Raid[]
After Garam Lee had found the underground bunker where Jeongsu Park and the restored government had taken shelter, Hwarang, along with the eight other warriors, invaded the shelter. When he lands, he questions how these 'damn cockroaches' or the underground citizens, managed to build an entire city underground. Upon Minsu Kim's order to have everyone in the shelter in despair, Hwarang Hong including the Iron Arm Warrior and Resurrection Warrior, successfully incapacitated the shelter's military defenses, as Hwarang effortlessly takes down the military's helicopters.
When Jeongsu Park and Minsu Kim engage in combat, Hwarang sees the commotion from afar and tries to fly towards the fight to help Minsu Kim, but is distracted when a group of surviving citizens on the top of a building, starts throwing things at him. One of which is a rock that scrapes the side of his cheek, angering him. After he kills the survivors in the building, he overhears that Jeongsu Park has been defeated by Minsu Kim.
When Yerin Ma, the Magic Warrior, reveals herself as a traitor to the warriors, Hwarang pursues her and cuts his hand with a curved dagger to create a bow-shaped weapon formed from blood. However, when he shoots three large blood arrows at Yerin, he only manages to graze her with one of the arrows. He is later forced to deal with the remaining thousands of survivors of the underground city who buy five minutes' worth of time for Yerin Ma and Jeongsu Park to escape.
The Old Guard[]
After killing every last survivor in the underground shelter, the warriors learn that the rest of the countries around the world have agreed to use God's Hammer, the most lethal satellite missile-launching weapon in space upon the warriors. After they realise that they can't survive the incoming nuclear missiles, the Resurrection Warrior rewinds time and rewrites the inevitable fate of all the warriors.
After rewinding time and taking control of God’s Hammer and launching several nuclear attacks in several of the major cities all around the world, the Warriors split up as each attacked an individual country. The Vampire Warrior in particular went ahead to Cairo where he began slaughtering people in mass.
Relics[]
Hwarang later makes his final appearance from chapter 55 to chapter 59 and challenges the Magic Warrior, which ended with the Vampire Warrior emerging victory, though, it backfired upon the Resurrection Warrior arriving at her aid and killing the Vampire Warrior instantly.
Powers & Abilities[]
Exorcist Warrior[]
As the "Exorcist Warrior", Hwarang Hong was shown to have originally fought with stakes and a hammer/pick as his main weapons. As admitted by Seongjun Lee, Hwarang was noted to have been exceptionally strong and was stated to have killed him numerous times in previous timelines and killed him more times than the Vampire Demon Lord who had stolen his body. The original Hwarang Hong was also acknowledged by his world's demon lord as being truly powerful and someone who had exceeded the limits of humans through diligent training, with the demon lord holding him in high regard in comparison to the other Warriors such as Yerin Ma. As shown, despite choosing to stay as a “human” and refusing to become a monster to gain more power, Hwarang’s strength was one of the most powerful among the current generation of Warriors, having overpowered and defeated Hana Baek on his own during her initial rampage and he was noted by Seongjun that he was much stronger than Garam Lee, the Transformation Warrior.
Hwarang’s power, skill and mental fortitude was such that Seongjun seriously considered selecting and raising him as the “Warrior of all Warriors” to kill Minsu Kim once he ascended into a Demon Lord. But eventually decided against it, as Hwarang was ultimately a hero raised and trained to fight within the limits of humanity and utilise the powers and skills within those limitations to the maximum, not break through them and transcend into new heights of strength.
- Superhuman Physical Attributes: Hwarang was noted to possess superhuman Speed, Strength, Reflexes, and Durability. As shown where he was fast enough to react to and evade Garam’s weapons, including her missile fire and laser guns, and endure being blasted by her weapons. Furthermore, Hwarang’s usage of his Stakes and Hammer with his physical offensive power was shown to be much stronger than most of her armoury. As shown when Hwarang’s speed in launching his Holy Nails surpassed Garam’s auto-scanning machine gun, overwhelming it as his rapid-fire far surpassed hers and forcing her into the defensive. A single attack from his hammer was shown to be powerful enough to crack Seongjun’s claymore. With all of Hwarang’s physical abilities causing the latter to wonder if Hwarang was like the Faith Warrior, a inhuman monster in human form.
- Chains: Using his stakes and then saying “Chains”, Hwarang possess the ability to conjure iron chains from them possessing dark purple aura. As shown, Hwarang makes use of this ability to trap, capture and restrain his opponents, rendering them unable to move and thus easier for him to finish off. Hwarang himself has shown creative use in his chains, by tying several of his stakes to it, he was able to make a barbed, whip like weapon to slash and cut multiple opponents around him. Hwarang can also have his chain break apart and let go of its entangled target by saying the command “unchain”. Using this technique, Hwarang can use his chains to swiftly travel across urban areas by swing around the area using his chains.
- Demon Sealing Formation: By throwing four of his stakes around his opponent, Hwarang can activate a sealing technique. As shown, the four stakes transforms into four tall black crosses that once surrounding his victim, conjures more chains to restrain them. As seen during his fight against Hana Baek, this skill was powerful enough to restrain her and preventing her from using her own powers by sealing them. However, as noted by Hwarang, despite sealing and immobilising anything trapped in it, the monsters/victim of the formation still retains their unique traits or powers, rendering it ineffective in preventing Seongjun Lee’s Return Ability from being activated.
- Demon Sealing Formation Demon Encasing Circle: A stronger sealing technique where Hwarang throws several stakes around his victims in a circle in order to trap them in a powerful seal. After the circle is drawn and activated, the victims is then perched up in a black cross and bound with more chains. As shown, its been implied that this sealing technique is powerful enough to trap the Faith Hero indefinitely. As shown, the sealing power of this technique even works on Warriors with science based abilities, as shown where Garam, the Hero of Reformation, was unable to access any of her weapons and firepower when sealed in this technique.
- Eternal Formation - Demon Encaging Circle: A much stronger variation of Hwarang’s Demon Sealing Formation, where by repeatedly casting the Demon Sealing Formation technique on a target three times, he can create a stronger version of his seal.
- Domain of the Holy Nails - Path of the Cross: A technique where Hwarang launches a barrage of dozens of stakes towards his intended target, with them then creating a powerful aura shaped like a cross within it which was strong enough to rival and overpower Garam's attacks
- Chain Barrier: Using his chains, Hwarang can create a powerful defensive barrier to protect himself from enemy attacks. The barrier technique itself works by Hwarang creating multiple layers of a hexagonal-spider web of chains to shield him from a incoming attack. As shown, these barriers are powerful enough to absorb the full blast of one of Garam’s most powerful laser weapon, even when she increased its power and destructive output.
- Demon Sealing Formation: By throwing four of his stakes around his opponent, Hwarang can activate a sealing technique. As shown, the four stakes transforms into four tall black crosses that once surrounding his victim, conjures more chains to restrain them. As seen during his fight against Hana Baek, this skill was powerful enough to restrain her and preventing her from using her own powers by sealing them. However, as noted by Hwarang, despite sealing and immobilising anything trapped in it, the monsters/victim of the formation still retains their unique traits or powers, rendering it ineffective in preventing Seongjun Lee’s Return Ability from being activated.
Items[]
- Stakes & Hammer: As shown in the flashbacks, prior to having his body stolen by the Vampire Demon Lord, Hwarang primarily used metal stakes and a hammer to fight. After getting his body stolen, the Vampire Demon Lord/Vampire Warrior, abandoned Hwarang’s original weapons in favor of her own techniques. Later, his equipment would be collected by the Reconstruction Government and given to the Spear Hero.
- Vampire Demon Lord’s Blood Vials: After successfully killing the original Vampire Demon Lord in his summoned otherworld, Hwarang collected some of her blood using a double vial syringe. As stated by Hwarang, if he was prepared and in full strength, he could potentially successfully suppress the Vampire Demon Lord’s consciousness within the blood and gain access to her power if he injected it into himself.
Trivia[]
- While still male, the demon lord that had taken his Hwarang Hong's body is originally female.
- It's been implied that the reason why the Demon Lord Vampir managed to steal Hwarang's body was due to the latter having already been physically and mentally exhausted fighting Seongjun Lee and Garam Lee, making it much easier for her to overpower Hwarang’s personality with her own.