Minsu Kim is the main antagonist of Hero Has Returned. He is the Sword Warrior who turned into a Demon Lord after falling into despair upon returning home from another world only to discover that everyone he cares for is either dead or shuns him, going on a rampage with other corrupted Warriors to make everyone as miserable as him.
Appearance[]
Human[]
Minsu is an average-height man and muscular teenager with short black hair and red eyes. He wore a grey standard school uniform and black pants with sneakers.
Sword Warrior[]
Minsu wears a clad white colored full body armor with a white crusader helmet and a red plume attached to it. The armor shoulder part has a diamond-shaped strap attached to his red cape. He also carried a giant greatsword that could change its size at will.
Demon King[]
After becoming a new Demon King, Minsu Kim’s hair turned pure white, and due to his battle against Ivan Pushkin, he lost both of his legs and arms, resulting in him using magic to create artificial prosthetic legs made from light and scripture writings and restructure his Holy Sword Durankal into prosthetic arms. The irises of his red eyes were also shown to have changed shape, with a pentagon star having formed in them.
Personality[]
Pre-Fallen Warrior[]

Minsu reaches his breaking point
Minsu is a young boy who is empathic, deterministic, strong-willed, kind, and helpful. The Sword World's natives noted that Minsu was humble and very soft-spoken. Minsu was determined to see the other world's salvation and was very selfless in this regard.
Post-Fallen Warrior[]
Minsu is an extremely depressive, nihilistic, thoughtless, cold-hearted, genocidal, and cynical individual who eventually almost loses all of his humanity.
He lacks the concept of empathy, hope, and life. He doesn't care or show any concern for others, not even himself. It is known that at a point like this, Minsu doesn't even fear death due to no longer having anything worth living and protecting, even nearly allowing the Spear Warrior to kill him since he didn't see how meaningful his life is once.
Although it is known that Minsu doesn't enjoy killing others, he has to do it because he feels like it's unfair that others can't feel the same way he does, and wants everyone to know the despair of what it truly feels like to lose everything that matters to them.
Despite establishing a faction consisting of warriors who have been through a lot of tragedies like him, he still doesn't trust any of them, viewing the "warriors" of his faction are just like the other people who reject him from society, believing that even they don't understand his sorrow even when they did praise and told him that what he's doing was the right thing.
When Minsu sees his other world comrades die protecting him, Minsu is driven further into despair and concludes that no one will be able to feel the same misery as he. Instead, he decides that everyone alive will die, and casts away what shreds of humanity and heroism he had left, becoming Earth's Demon King.
Demon King[]

Minsu once again hitting his breaking point
As a Demon Lord, Minsu Kim’s personality becomes even darker and empty. Due to seeing his friends and companions from the other world be mercilessly slaughtered by the undead, Glacial Warrior, Minsu’s despair, hatred, and contempt for the world reached a new level and he has now become completely nihilistic and omnicidal, now only desiring to completely slaughter the entirety of the human race.
As noted by Hans Joseph Belgisch, Minsu’s mind has already gone far past its breaking point and has now reached the level where everything he does is almost completely done out of robotic instinct, this is seen when he barely registered Belgisch’s words and was unable to comprehend what he was trying to say to him, ironically making him immune to the power of his abilities as a Faith Warrior. As stated by Ivan Pushkin, Minsu had essentially become nothing more than a gigantic ball of hostility toward everyone and everything around him.
However, he has shown to have maintained at least a little bit of his sanity, attempting to force Seongjun Lee to go back in time and save his comrades. In addition, he is also still capable of anger, killing Seongjun slowly when he refused to follow his command.
As shown, days after his battle with Seongjun, Minsu’s mind was shown to have somewhat recovered. As seen where he began to contemplate his state of existence and was now able to remember his past. As shown where he thought about everything that he went through to wind up where he is now and was trying to make sense of his “role” in the world. Despite this rationality however, Minsu never the less retains his animosity towards humanity and is still stead fast in his desire to annhilate all sentient life on Earth.
History[]
Background[]
Minsu is born to an average family and lived a normal life. However, one night while he's walking home after school, he ends up getting hit by a truck.
Summoned to another world upon his death, he was tasked by the Goddess to defeat the demon lord if he wishes to go home. After successfully defeating the demon king and saving the otherworld, he and his party celebrate their victory. Minsu's comrades, still question whether he still wants to go home, saying that he can stay if he wants, but Minsu was determined to see his loved ones back in his home world again. His last moments of happiness are when his comrades cheer for him to live a fulfilling life. Which that life never happens.
Upon his return, Minsu discovers that his mother got into a hit-and-run accident upon giving out missing posters, his father committed suicide because of the shame that he couldn't protect his family, and his home has been sold to a new owner. His school refuses to revoke his expulsion and blames him for running away and his parents' deaths. One of his close friends was told by his family to not hang out with Minsu because he was homeless and thus could no longer be his friend. Minsu's paternal relatives, mainly his uncle, beat him and tries to kill him, blaming Minsu for being the cause of his parents' death, and his cousin tells him that his uncle will beat Minsu again if he returns and so he to leave and never come back because their family is also getting bankrupt because of him.
Minsu is left homeless and poor, with no family, no social life, and no degree, with no help given to him from others and all blame placed on him even though he saved a world and countless people and risked his life fighting his Demon Lord to come back home.
Three weeks later, Minsu reaches a breaking point and suffers from a mental breakdown when a couple bullies him for his homelessness and miserable appearance, he has now given up on hope and wants everything to taste the despair of what it feels like to lose everything that matters to them. He ends up enslaving Korea and declares war against humanity, along with other Warriors who have gone through the same tragedy he has.
To make matters even worse, he also killed all the remaining Warriors that stood out to defend humanity, except for the Vampire Hero, who betrayed humanity due to being taken over by his world's Demon Lord.
Original Timeline[]
In chapters 61 and 62, it is revealed that in the original timeline, before Seongjun Lee traveled back in time and began altering events, Minsu and Seongjun were two of the warriors who fought against 9-Warriors of that world. After about a year of fighting, they were able to defeat the 9-Warriors. Afterward, Minsu began a relationship with Seonhwa Yu, eventually marrying her and having two children together.
Unfortunately, due to Seongjun being sent back in time against his will, this happy ending for Minsu was effectively erased.
Synopsis[]

Seongjun notified Minsu about Jeongsu
The Warrior of Revolt's Arrival:[]
A year later, Minsu is seen sitting in an area of the now-destroyed Seoul, he was later notified by Seongjun Lee that two of his allies got killed at the hands of the now-returned Jeongsu Park. He was disgusted that his chain of misery is breaking apart and later called all of his remaining warriors to search for Jeongsu before he can even ruin more plans that Minsu prepares for the world.
Reconstruction Government Raid:[]

The faction have entered the base
After Garam Lee tracked down the location of the Reconstruction Government, Minsu and his gang went in for a killing spree that killed a total of 13,000 remaining government officials in 3 minutes, not long after Jeongsu spotted Minsu. The two engage in battle face-to-face for the first time in a year. When Park throws his poisonous spear, it creates a gas that made Minsu bleed from his eyes. However, Minsu almost let himself get killed at Jeongsu's hand only to realize that Jeongsu would get his happy ending not his, the envious Minsu soon strikes his sword at Jeongsu as the battle of the century had begun.
The two struggle as they both collapse after a minute or so until they show up to be serious when both made their helmet visible to him he cast a blessing from his goddess Seraphine. The two fought once again until Minsu cut Jeongsu's left arm off saying "Your sadness is not deep enough." Jeongsu charged at Minsu and eventually punches a hole in his armor and then get a heavy kick by Minsu, Minsu beat the defeated Jeongsu over and over until his face becomes unrecognizable and soon he notices a stray bullet past him and turned to see Somin holding a gun. when Minsu was about to kill Somin, he heard an announcement from Jeonguk Choi announcing the remaining survivor to protect Jeongsu and the building exploded almost landing on Minsu but later saved by Hana's light magic hand.
Later Minsu saw the Hero of Magic standing before him defending Somin while raising her wand at him. The magic hero blasted Minsu with her Sugar Dust Stream attack critically injuring Minsu. After the Hero of Magic made her escape, Minsu was seen to be recovering his wound with the help of Hana's healing magic.
Aftermath of the Reconstruction Government:[]

Minsu offer the man a chance to spare his life
After the two Warriors who revolt against Minsu successfully escape, the other Warriors wipe out half of the population such as the government officials and refugees in the reconstruction government base. Minsu walked up to the last remaining government official and told the man if he spread fake news about the warrior of revolt officially dead for the whole world to see, he will spare his life; however the man refuse as he mocked and told Minsu that Jeongsu and the rest of the resistance will kill them, he later gets beheaded by Minsu out of anger. Minsu told the rest of the squad to launch a search of Jeongsu and Yerin to prevent other people to feel hope and their faction's demise before facing the entire world.

Minsu's last conversation with his co-leader Seongjun before resetting
When Garam Lee use her ability to make a Hologram screen of the conference being held in the white house they all heard that the government use the latest technology called Gods Hammer that a nuke was launched at their location and no one can fend it off, Garam was devastated and failed to hack it earlier.
However, the Iron Arms Hero told them that there was nothing to worry about because they have a great "Reset Button" on their side. After settling in waiting for the nuke to arrive for Seongjun to reset and informed them about the Gods Hammer, Seongjun has a final little chat with Minsu and lets him know that they will lose their memories upon his reset but in the other conversation, he also revealed that he was the one who killed his beloved parents. Minsu was enraged to hear this information but it was too late, the nuke already disintegrated Seongjun from the heat and eventually blew up half of Korea.
Old Generation[]
After Garam Lee hacked into the satellite weapons systems, the warriors of Minsu Kim's faction began their destruction in various areas of the world, with Minsu Kim invading North Korea.
Despite all the North Koreans' military equipment, nothing was able to even put a dent in Minsu Kim's body and armor, as he had been using the Blessing of Goddess Seraphim to protect himself from any projectiles that were coming his way. Without much effort, he began to lay waste to the cities in North Korea while he just kept on walking and walking until the Glaciation Warrior, Ivan Pushkin blocked his way.
Before they fought, Ivan asked Minsu Kim why he was causing so much destruction, to which he replied saying that he didn't know at all anymore, despite knowing for himself that he wanted everyone to be in just as much anguish as he was in, before swinging Durankal at Ivan. Ivan countered by saying that there is no obvious reason why people like Minsu Kim did what he did before summoning a large ice turtle to block the attack.
Ivan showed his skills, he easily blocked the slashes of Minsu Kim's sword, which was impossible for anyone to do. He has the strongest fighting power, such as freezing his ankles and punishing his face so that his face becomes bloody, while he freezes Minsu's body with force to prevent him from getting frostbite. Using his long experience of living and fighting on the battlefield for more than 100 years, he showed a versatile and skillful use of his abilities. However, Minsu managed to counterattack and swing his sword, showing a scene where his neck was cut off.
However, he hides and controls an ice clone that he created to catch Minsu off-guard. In a surprise attack, he stabs Minsu Minsu's heart, predicts that Minsu will counterattack, and blocks them all with his summons. The method of freezing from the inside neutralized the protection of the goddess Seraphine and drove him to the point of death within 30 seconds, demonstrating the overwhelming difference in experience and magnificence of working as a hero. In addition, to eliminate one more chance of winning Minsu, he summons the Nazi army that he defeated with ice, Siegfried, the warrior of the squadron sword, and Jonas, the champion of the squadron golem, to respond.
In the end, Minsu Kim is pushed into a corner with a limit in front of the overwhelming amount, and one arm is completely shattered. Nevertheless, when he resists fiercely with a sword in his mouth, he surprises him with a technique called Absolute Zero Temperature and freezes it completely. He leaned on Minsu, who was frozen, and said that he was sorry and that this is all he could do for now.
Ironically, at this time, all of Minsu Kim's comrades from another world are summoned in front of Minsu. When Ivan realizes this, he tries to tell them that Minsu Kim is the villain in this scenario, but given how Ivan had used his glaciation powers on the environment around them, Minsu Kim's comrades believe that it was Ivan himself who was the demon king.
Minsu Kim's comrades all fight against Ivan. However, Ivan is unable to fight to his full potential because of the injuries he got from fighting Minsu Kim after pushing himself to the brink despite his age. After he is struck by a fatal blow by Jin, he lies on the brink of death. However, as he lay on the ground, the snow witch from the world he once transferred to arrived and made a deal with him, that if he gives her something, she would grant any wish Ivan wanted in return. When Ivan wishes for the power to be able to keep peace in the world, in return, the snow witch takes Ivan's 'memories.' This turns Ivan into an undead glaciation king.
With his newfound power, Ivan summons a massive undead army and the dragon and kills all of Minsu Kim's comrades, one by one with various methods when they tried to buy time to help break Minsu Kim out of the frozen ice seal Ivan had put upon him.
As Minsu Kim mourns the deaths of his comrades, Ivan tries to finish him off once and for all using his undead warriors. However, Minsu's despair turns him into a Demon Lord. Shocked that he was the cause of this, Ivan tries to kill Minsu Kim. However, just as he was beheading his enemy, Minsu Kim effortlessly kills Ivan. With the last of Ivan's strength, he created a snowstorm to stall Minsu as long as it could to buy some time for his remaining allies. Minsu continues his march as he makes his way to China. In about 12 seconds, Minsu killed 200,000 soldiers as he walks forward. As a surviving officer reports and curses the Russian military for their failed attempt to kill Minsu, Minsu appears before him and kills the officer.
He continues his walk of despair and spreading destruction as Minsu made his way to Russia. No matter how much modern weapons the Russian military used against him, they were completely annihilated.
Abilities & Powers[]
Sword Warrior[]
Minsu Kim is by far the strongest Warrior of his generation, stemming from the general rule that each Warrior is usually slightly stronger than their respective Demon Lord, with the one he fought being especially powerful. It is a testament to his strength that every timeline where he was part of the Resistance Warriors ended in their victory, no matter how many times Seongjun Lee reset.
- Superhuman Physical Attributes: During his time in the Otherworld of Swords, Minsu had extensively trained and developed his body’s physical attributes, resulting in him developing superhuman strength, speed, stamina, endurance and power. As noted by several individuals, Minsu’s physical stats is easily the strongest of all the current generation Hero’s. As its been stated that only Uiho Jeong, the Iron Army potentially had a superior physical body than him and Minsu was easily physically stronger than the Martial Arts Warrior Jiseong Cheon and Metamorphasis warrior Jiwon Ahn, despite both being specialists in physical combat.
- Immense Strength: It can either be that he trained through most of his journey in the other world, or it can either be a boost by a goddess blessing, Minsu breaks Jeongsu's Demon Lord armor with just a single punch and even send him flying by a single kick.
- Immense Durability: As shown, Minsu’s body by default possess immense physical durability. This is seen where he could shrug of bullets and rocket launchers without problem and without needing to actually defend himself. During his rampage to Russia, Minsu was able to completely tank the various attempt to destroy him by government’s army, including using various modern weapons, gigantic bombs and even nuclear bombs, with Minsu being completely uninjured and unbothered by them as he calmly walked from one country to another.
- Immense Stamina: As shown, Minsu possess a gigantic amount of physical stamina. As shown where he could fight multiple Heroes in successive battles over and over again with no notable fatigue. Later, when he decided to leave South Korea and make his way to the rest of the world, Minsu walked from South Korea, to North Korea and made his way to Russia and China on a straight line, on foot, non stop and without tiring at all. As shown, he also did this while enduring and brushing off all the modern weaponry these countries used to try and stop him, gun fire, tanks, missiles, landmines and even nuclear warheads, of which he all survived and was otherwise unhindered as he continued to walk.
- Immense Speed & Reflexes: Minsu has also displayed immense speed and physical reflexes, allowing him to easily outmaneuver and overpower other warriors by quickly closing the gap between them in seconds. As shown, despite his sword’s large size, Minsu is able to easily swing it around and move with immense speed uninhibited.

Minsu changes his sword to even larger version
- Sword of Durant: As stated by Tiomann, the Dwarf companion of Minsu from the World of Sword, the Sword of Durant, was a sword created by the dwarves of their world by melting and merging the swords of Four of the Previous Sword Warriors of the World’s past. Tiomann also stated that Durant is a sword that evolves and changes for its user, Minsu and the Sword gained a variety of different powers and abilities as he progressed through his journey to defeat the Demon Lord of the world of Swords. This sword is Minsu’s main ability as the Sword Warrior, a massive sword, representing a great sword capable of causing mass destruction. Minsu can summon it by calling out to the Durant by saying 'Answer my call, Durant', which, in response to this, will fall from the sky, right next to Minsu. After becoming a Demon Lord, its been implied that Durant has been corrupted and like Minsu, has been fundamentally corrupted.
- Eclipse Mode: Minsu change his weapon when he called out, The eclipse mode of Durant is a larger version of the sword, and additional sheathe of white blades around the normal black and gold sword core, that creates mass destruction with just a single strike or even at a long distance. Currently, Durankal is shown to look like a massive Greatsword when it's in Eclipse Mode that can either block the enemy Attack or even deflect it.

Minsu split wielding 2 swords
- Daybreaker Mode: Minsu change his weapon when he called out, The Daybreaker mode of Durant is a smaller version of the sword, the normal black and gold core of the sword, that creates a swift in a singular horizontal/ Vertical motion of slashes and can even use as a long-range attack as well. The Durankal is shown to look like a smaller, but still large Greatsword when it's in Daybreaker mode that can cut anything in its path.
- Unknown mode Split: The sword has also been shown to be able to split in half. They turn into a sword with one edge and on the other side is a flat side, allow with massive round and heavily spiked knuckle bows. The sword edge consists of constant erratically-moving, sharp lights when wielded, somewhat reminiscent of a one-sided chainsaw. This light only appears if Minsu is actually holding the blades, and in periods of intense usage can seemingly almost solidify into a straight smooth edge of light. Minsu can make his helmet appear and disappear whenever he's in combat mode against a strong opponent.
- Blessing Of Goddess Seraphine: Minsu summons a Goddess that can either give him any buff boost, heal him from certain damage, or protect him from any incoming attack. However, Minsu notes that the Goddess' Blessing is useless against things that are within his body, such as the lethal frostbite spreading through his limbs and to his heart caused by Ivan Pushkin, the Glacial Warrior.
- Durankal Eclipse Mode: Vortex Slash - Minsu creates a powerful swing creating a rising large vortex that demolishes the surrounding area.
- Durankal Eclipse Mode: Slash - Minsu unleashed a powerful horizontal sword slash at his opponent.
- Durankal Daybreaker Mode: Slash - Minsu unleashed a powerful vertical sword slash at Jeongsu.
- Durankal, Split: Dual wielding the two halves of Durankal, Minsu slices everything in all directions at the opponent's incoming attack.
Demon Lord of Earth[]
After transforming into Demon Lord, Minsu Kim’s powers and abilities as a Hero was further augmented and enhanced, with him even demonstrating to have gained new abilities altogether. Already the strongest Hero of his generation, after becoming a Demon Lord, his powers were further boosted, to the point that it is now believed that he could truly single-handedly end the world.
- Sword Cut Manipulation:Upon his ascension to a Demon Lord. Minsu achieves a far more advanced version of his Hero abilities. One of these skills allows him to create a line of laser like sword cuts from his fingertip that slices his targets into cube-like bits and soon disintegrates them into nothingness. The effects of this laser cutting ability appear to also extend to a level where he can activate it upon staring at the target he wishes to kill showing that the ability can even work via his field of view.
- Unnamed Protection Cape: Minsu's cape is empowered with an unknown protection spell that allows him to wrap it all around his entire body. The cape is powerful enough to shield him from a nuclear explosion that bombarded and burned a piece of a continent.
- Unnamed Observation Eyes: The red star-like eyes that he possesses serve as an ability that allows him to view locations that he wishes.
- Aura Sensing: Minsu is capable of seeing the aura of nearby heroes or other superpowered beings.
- Prosthetic Arms: After becoming the Earth’s Demon King and having his limbs torn out by Ivan Pushkin’s the undead army, Minsu Kim was able to restructure and craft his dual split swords of Durant into prosthetic arms. As shown, due to his swords now literally being his new arms, he no longer needs to use its sword form to attack, instead being able to simply point and flick his fingers at his intended targets to use his new skills to reduce and slice his targets into mince meat.
- Sword Form: As shown when he had finally decided to fight back against Jeongsu Park in earnest, Minsu was able to command his prosthetic arm that Seongjun Lee had cut off to return to its sword form and return to him so that he could use it as a weapon once more. As shown, after calling it, his prosthetic arm returned to its original sword form and began to fly to Minsu’s location. As shown, the Sword itself may be sentient, as it was able to fight and kill all the Soldiers of the Polish army that tried to stop it. Retaining its original quality of evovling for its wielder, the sword is able to change its shape and gain new abilities to assist Minsu. As shown when Yerin Ma had attempted to stop it from reaching Minsu, the half of Durant was able to sprout multiple bladed spikes to kill Yerin to reach Minsu.
- Magic: Despite not making much use of it while he was just the Sword Hero, it has been implied that Minsu had also been taught the magic of the Sword World he was summoned to and was immensely proficient in its usage.
- Magical Prosthetics: After he lost his legs to Ivan Pushkin’s undead army, Minsu was able to conjure magical prosthetic legs created from light and scripture writings. Later, when his orginal heart was destroyed and ruptured by Jeongsu’s attacks, Minsu was able to magically create a new one.
- Barriers: During his fight against Yerin Ma, Garam Lee, Junho Yu and Jeongsu Park, Minsu showcased the ability to create powerful scripture-light barriers to protect him from their attacks. As shown, the barrier appears as a sphere made out of light and scripture writing, acting as a omnidirectional shield against all attacks.
- Inhuman Physiology: Minsu’s overall physiology and possibly biology was implied to have been changed when he had ascended into a Demon Lord. As shown during his final battle against Jeongsu Park, the latter had successfully caused Minsu’s heart to rupture and explode by trapping him in the middle of two shield bashes using the Shield Hero’s shields and forcing a gigantic amount of pressure into Minsu's body. However, as shown, despite losing his heart, Minsu did not die and was still able to continue fighting. While the loss of his heart caused him to lose some of his power, Minsu has showcased that he was never the less able to continue battling him without pause or issue despite the injury.
- Heart: As noted by Garam Lee, Minsu Kim’s heart is the source of a gigantic amount of energy and the organ contained a bulk of his power. Later, after Jeongsu Park had initially destroyed his original heart of flesh and blood using the Shield Warrior’s shield, Minsu was able to create a magical prosthetic heart made from light and scriptures similar to his legs.
- Demon Lord‘s Minions: As shown as he began to properly access and focus his power as a Demon King against Jeongsu Park, Minsu gained the ability to spawn/summon minions to assist him in battle. As explained, it is part of the conceptual make up of a Demon Lord to possess servants and minions to do their bidding. As such, it is a power Minsu gained automatically when he became a proper Demon Lord. These minions take the form of his Party members that were killed by Ivan Pushkin, although unknown if it is indeed them, and this new power of Minsu was a form of necromancy, resurrection or he simply made them from his memories of them, these servants possess all the powers, skills and abilities of his deceased teammates. As shown, these minions appear as ghoulish-undead like versions of his former companions, although Minsu himself does not perceive them as this and they appear as his still living companions in his distorted perception.
- Martial Arts Master:
- Tiomann:
- Elf Archer:
- Fairy Dragon:
- Saintess Seria:
Trivia[]
- Minsu Kim is presented as a false protagonist during the series' first chapter, making it appear as if he would be the main character while this is not the case.
- According to the author, Minsu Kim's character is based on a protagonist of an "Isekai" story, where the main character is transported to another world.
- According to the author in a Q&A in the Season 1 Afterword, it is uncertain but possible that Minsu Kim possesses the characteristic of a Demon Lord that would continue to unleash power and destroy the different Otherworlds if he somehow found a way there or was moved there, in which case it would be very likely that he would continue to destroy.
- In another Q&A conducted by Yongdol Gallery, it is stated that it is hard to say whether a Warrior who has fallen and uses the power of a Demon Lord is stronger than a Warrior who awakens the power of a God, as both are quite powerful. However, a Warrior that uses the power of both a God/Warrior and a Demon Lord would be really strong.
- In that same Q&A, it is stated that, prior to being a corrupted Hero, Minsu Kim is strong when he has something to protect, and by being capable of making rational decisions, he can evolve depending on his opponent until he gains the upper hand in interpersonal battles like a snowball.
- In the same Q&A, it is explained that even if the latest generation of Glacial Warrior had survived, defeated their Demon Lord, and returned to Earth, they still would not be able to defeat Minsu Kim, and that Minsu's specs were the highest of the Warriors.
- The previous Sword Warrior Siegfried, sided with the Nazi Party during WWII and was killed by the Glacial Warrior, Ivan Pushkin. As seen during his final moments, Siegfried was Implied to have had the desire to take over the world and was disappointed that his fellow Warrior did not share the same ambition.