The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1284

“Ahhh—”

The avatar of Goddess Freyja resided in the Saint Sanctuary. The area within the sanctuary where she stayed was one of the most sacred parts of it.

Of course, what made it sacred wasn’t the sanctuary itself, but the goddess who dwelled within it.

The goddess sat with her feet dipped in a round, circular pond, eyes closed. She hummed a sweet melody in a gentle voice. It sounded elegant and holy beyond comparison, but there was something different about it.

“This is exactly why I hated coming here,” a voice cut through the song, and the avatar slowly turned her head to look at the uninvited guest.

A nymph. It was the Minstrel Hero, Mute.

To the world, she was known either as a Muse or simply as Mute.

“There’s sadness in that song. Honestly, I consider myself a proud minstrel, yet whenever I hear your voice, it feels like my entire existence is being denied.”

While Mute was an exceptional minstrel, the music the avatar sang was nothing short of the creation of an entirely new world.

“Are you sad?”

At the nymph’s question, the goddess closed her eyes again and resumed singing. No answer came, but Mute could feel it clearly.

The demon race clashing with Davey. She could tell that the goddess was mourning the primordial demon of time, the foundational beings of the demon race Thanatos once controlled.

“What exactly is that demon? Daphne went down after storing up her power, so she probably knows, but the others still seem to be wondering.”

The sorrowful song came to an abrupt stop once more. The goddess slowly turned her head again and quietly gazed at the nymph. Then, her delicate lips parted softly. “Poor children, desperate for a parent’s love.”

“Only you, the Goddess of Mercy, would say something like that. Wait a sec, don’t tell me that you’ve been intentionally helping Davey grow accustomed to his divinity all this time...”

However, she left it at that.

* * *

The monster couldn't be harmed by those who possessed divinity.

Right now, only Evangeline and Saintess Lena, who came with Davey, could do anything to it.

Even so, despite Evangeline’s overwhelming power, it remained uncertain whether she could defeat the demon who had become even stronger than before.

That meant Davey needed to think things through carefully.

“How far do the conditions apply...?”

If its immunity was absolute, the demon shouldn’t have bothered fleeing from Davey. Yet it had.

Whether that was because of something truly important, or if it was simply trying to avoid death, was something Davey had to confirm for himself.

He clenched his fists while watching the monsters pouring out from the temple. “Evangeline.”

“Yes?”

“Step back for a moment.”

Davey cracked his knuckles and began walking forward. The monsters immediately swung their massive arms toward him.

“Ah! Watch out!!” Saintess Lena cried out from behind, but Davey didn’t stop walking.

Just before the arms reached him, he lightly stomped down with his raised foot.

[8th Circle Gravitation Spell]

[High Gravity]

Thud!!!

The monsters slammed into the ground as if crushed by an invisible weight.

A powerful gravity field emanated from him, distorting the space and pressing down on the monsters surrounding him. They struggled desperately to escape the pressure, but the increasing gravity broke even the laws of physics and crushed everything around them.

“Grrrk. Grrk.”

Their bodies began to warp even more. Davey stepped forward toward the fallen monsters.

The creatures, each having a head the size of his entire body, lay on the ground, staring up at him with unfocused eyes.

He could sense the little vitality they had, but it was clear at a glance that they weren’t truly alive. They were puppets, nothing more.

Davey reached out and touched one of their heads. The instant he touched them, their entire body burst into flames. It spread from one to the others as if the fire was alive, consuming everything in its path.

“That’s weird. There’s no way they should be going down this easily.” Saintess Lena’s head tilted in confusion, muttering as if thrown off by how effortlessly the monsters had been wiped out.

“Hmph.” Evangeline puffed out her chest as if pleased, then looked away, slightly blushing. “Let’s go. Looks like this bastard has completely taken over the interior.”

Right after that, the interior of the Sacred Temple began to twist like a massive mechanical structure.

The ground beneath them flipped into the ceiling. Every side of the temple twisted, and the pieces of the temple scattered like fragments drifting in zero gravity.

The space began to expand at an overwhelming rate.

“Goodness gracious! Is that demon really capable of something like this?” Saintess Lena asked in a nervous tone. She walked closer to Davey while trembling, as if afraid she might fall.

Though it was no different from standing on solid ground, anyone who had never experienced such a phenomenon before wouldn’t easily trust that they wouldn’t fall.

Even Evangeline seemed amazed by the warped space. She manifested her wings and walked cautiously.

“Don’t be fooled. It’s an illusion.” Davey revealed the truth. “This bastard’s good with illusions.”

There were already two illusion specialists by his side, so he wouldn't miss it. The first was Marky, who possessed the power of the Butterfly Empress Chandra and was from the Gourmet Research Society. The other was Verdandi, Princess of the Abyss and adopted daughter of Eclipse.

On the surface, it looked like a space that had completely broken away from the laws of reality.

When Davey turned his head, he couldn’t find the entrance they had come in through. He didn’t worry much, figuring it was the aftermath of its unique hallucinatory power.

The powers Marky and Verdandi wielded also had their differences, but Davey couldn’t deny that the illusion he was dealing with felt entirely unique.

More than anything, he could feel the presence of the goddess’s power within its operations.

He needed to hear the full story from Daphne soon.

Evangeline cautiously asked, “Dad... We’re trapped, right?”

“Putting aside our plans of keeping this bastard from escaping, I think it recognizes that it needs to do something about us right here and now.”

If not complete divinity, perhaps demigod powers could work. If so, he had a considerable number of inner forces he could use.

The demon had clearly grown stronger. That much was certain. As for what lay beyond that, he’d have to get his hands dirty to find out.

“Getting out won’t be hard. But first... let’s see how it moves.”

Davey stepped forward and raised one hand.

[Devour]

His silent will radiated outward, and the power of Predatory Assimilation flowed from his hand.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to control the demon’s power after devouring it. He would have to spit out every bite, making the whole process inefficient. Even though Davey could consume and manipulate power, the efficiency wasn’t great. He thus only used it sparingly, only to disrupt the flow in the short term.

Whether this place even had such a core to target remained questionable.

Thud!! Thud, thud!

Suddenly, the ground beneath them cracked and pieces scattered in all directions.

Saintess Lena and Evangeline flinched and hurried closer to him.

“Evangeline, can you still track its position?”

“It’s a little fuzzy, but I can still pinpoint it,” she assured him.

“Good. Then let’s move.”

“Let’s go! You beat that bastard up!” Evangeline shouted passionately.

“No. You’re going to do it.”

“What...?” Evangeline looked at Davey in disbelief, as if someone had just told her the world was flat.

They had no other choice but to use her power. It was true he had become powerful after attaining divinity, but not all things went as planned in the world. This very situation was proof of that.

No matter how unique the demon was, even gods were simple creations before Goddess Freyja.

The divinity Davey possessed came from her. If she had granted that demon protection over its life, then Davey, bearing her divinity, would have no way to harm it.

Whether the demon could harm Davey was still uncertain, as well.

“You can handle it, right?”

At his words, Evangeline looked at him, forgetting to grumble for once. She was sharp enough to realize how much stronger the demon had become since their last fight. While she had also grown, the gap between them had only widened even more. There was no way she wasn’t aware of that disparity.

In a situation where calling in reinforcements was difficult, they couldn’t afford to waste time.

Even when Davey tried tearing through space using the power of Predatory Assimilation, whether the demon had done something or if his own divinity interfered, it had little effect.

“This demon probably needs time to recover too. We can’t let it have it.”

Evangeline looked up at him. “Can I really do it?”

“Yeah. I’ll back you up from behind.”

Hearing that, she nodded, seemingly reassured by his trust.

Saintess Lena carefully raised her hand and asked, “Ummm. Is there anything I can do?”

“Saintess? Haah.”

At that moment, Davey deeply sympathized with Archbishop Alice.

With that dumdum head of hers, Saintess Lena might even try to reform the demon. In a situation so dangerous, something like that could easily get her killed.

What Davey needed to confirm was whether those two, Evangeline and Saintess Lena, could inflict a fatal blow on the demon with his support.

“We’ve got a healer, a tank, and a damage dealer... sorta.”

Sure, Lena and her healing might be lacking, but with his support, it should more than suffice. He figured they had enough buff magic working for them too.

He couldn’t help but think that one more damage dealer would’ve been nice, as he couldn’t help but worry that Evangeline might lose control and make a mistake.

So, he had to take advantage of how the demon had turned the temple into a dungeon to deal with her weakness. The question was if there would be enough time to do that.

Evangeline’s eyes narrowed at the warped, lawless space and she muttered to herself. “It seems like someone’s fighting over there.”

It seemed she had sensed something only she could perceive.

“Dad! Hurry up!”

“Let’s move for now.”

The twisted world, just like how gravity had been messed up, made Saintess Lena and Evangeline both hesitate for a moment. Yet, they quickly adapted and began moving. They leapt across floating debris as footholds, swiftly navigating the labyrinth space.

Evangeline frowned once they arrived at a vast, empty clearing. “This should be it...”

“Step aside for a second.” For Davey, if something felt off, his first instinct was to tear it apart. Even if he couldn’t destroy it permanently, he could distort the space momentarily.

He reached out and twisted the air to rip it apart. He manifested the power of Predatory Assimilation. The nauseating force flowed through his body, quickly dispersing outward. Then, as if they were a part of glitched computer graphics, the space around them distorted and tore open, revealing a new dimension.

They were experiencing something that’d only happen in movies. Judging by the time distortion traps scattered throughout, even just triggering one by accident would throw them into the rift of time itself.

Since Evangeline wasn’t capable of handling such phenomena yet, Davey had torn everything apart with the power of the Predatory Assimilation just to be safe. Fortunately, it seemed that indirect attacks still worked, and his powers still worked to a certain degree.

Beyond the fully revealed space, an unexpected scene came into view.

Boom!! Boom boom!!!

Right in front of them stood Abel, locked in combat with a grotesque monster, blood dripping from an injured arm. Davey could tell it was the same demon they were looking for.

‘Wait, why is he here? More importantly, what’s that injury from?’

Davey knew Abel wasn’t in good condition. The wounds and internal damage from the rift in time wouldn’t fully heal until he returned to his proper timeline. Yet the injuries he had now were different—they had clearly been inflicted in this place.

Davey went blank.

“S-Shit!!” At the same time, the demon spotted Davey and let out a panicked screech. It attempted to escape through space.

However, Davey had already moved, standing in front of the rift the demon tried to flee through. “Demon scum.”

Thud!

In an instant, he grabbed the demon’s massive head with one hand. “Where the hell do you think you’re going, you bastard?”

Boom!!

Even though his divinity prevented him from causing real damage, the adrenaline from doing something he was told not to do made every fiber of his being scream in protest.

‘No effect? I can’t kill it?! Then instead of hitting it once, I’ll hit it twice. Then instead of twice, I’ll hit it ten times!!!’

It was an irrational and reckless decision, but before he knew it, instinct had already taken over.

“Guh! Guuuh!! You! You can still harm me?!” The demon cried out in disbelief and struggled violently. It swung its arm at Davey, but fragments of a barrier surrounding him deflected every blow.

He still couldn’t figure out what Abel was doing there, though he soon realized that in the end, it didn’t matter.

He figured his son, Abel, must have returned right after escorting his mother Aeria to Heins castle.

As an 8th Circle mage, teleporting back wouldn’t have been difficult for him. Nonetheless, how he made it past the barrier of the Sacred Temple was a mystery.

That meant the bastard had already been there before Davey arrived.

Was it just a coincidence, or part of someone’s plan? That bit was unknown.

Boom!! Boom!!

“S-Stop! Remember the primordial pact!!” the monster screamed.

“Still not dead? Then how about this, you son of a bitch.”

Boom!! Boom boom boom!!

The damage he inflicted was steadily weakening, yet it wasn’t that his power that was fading. The demon was morphing continuously, developing resistance to his attacks in real-time.

Aside from divinity, which was practically useless, his other powers still had some effect. Predatory Assimilation, of course, worked. Alas, it was no better than a foolish waste of stamina.

Had he remained calm and analyzed the situation, Evangeline alone could’ve dealt a fatal blow. However, the moment Davey saw Abel bleeding, he had already moved. Whatever happened afterward was out of his consideration. All that mattered was punishing this thing.

Crackle!!

Reaching a threshold, his mana, intertwined with divinity, stopped affecting the demon altogether. Likewise, the demon could no longer affect Davey.

He couldn’t kill it, and it couldn’t stop him. It wasn’t a one-sided phenomenon. It was a mutual resonance.

Having pushed himself too hard, Davey felt his stamina draining rapidly. He had to stop, or his rhythm would break. Exercising superhuman restraint, he landed a powerful kick on the demon, sending it flying into the distance to stop himself.

Back when they first met, a single strike had been enough to kill it. Things had since changed. The unique demon race power Davey felt from it had transformed into something faint and unfamiliar, so it made sense why his future self hadn’t been confident about beating it.

Abel stared at Davey with his eyes widened. Evangeline, too, looked on in shock. The sight of him losing control and mercilessly beating the demon had probably been unsettling to them.

“Dad?” She couldn’t understand why he was so angry.

“Uhh. Evangeline?” Abel said in a surprised voice.

“Hm? And who might you be?”

Abel tilted his head at the question, then quickly panicked and shook it. “Ah—! No, sorry! I must’ve mistaken you for someone else!”

His flustered reaction only made it more suspicious. Trying to change the subject, he turned to Davey and shouted, “Kouna! Kouna got caught up in this place! We need to find her, quickly!”

Davey frowned. Abel being there was one thing, but Kouna too?

He wanted to grab Abel and question him thoroughly, but he kept his thoughts to himself and assessed the situation calmly. “I won’t ask why you’re here.”

Abel lowered his head in response.

Davey suddenly smirked. “We just happened to be short one damage dealer.”

Abel had held a divine authority. It wasn’t quite divinity, but still the power of a god. It had made him rather unique.

However, now that the world’s law had reclaimed his authority, Abel was nothing more than the son of Davey O’Rowane and Perserque. Even half of his lineage was more than enough to beat that demon to death.

Their team had one Saintess from the Holy Empire, one son, and one daughter.

If they found Kouna, she’d be a considerable asset as well.

Davey couldn’t touch the demon anymore, let alone affect it in any way. They had to act before it transformed any further.

He reached out and laid a hand on Abel, activating his holy power. His son’s wounds began to heal rapidly. “We’re out of time, so I’ll only say this once. Listen carefully, Evangeline.”

She nodded, already aware of the situation.

“And you too, Abel. You are my child, after all.” Davey hadn’t planned to tell her, but he was her sibling, after all. He couldn’t let her stay ignorant.

Both Abel and Evangeline widened their eyes in surprise.

“Father?”

“Dad, what did you just say?”

“Say hello, Evangeline. That’s your younger brother.”

On the surface, Abel looked much older. Yet again, once a younger sibling, always a younger sibling.

Watching the two of them stare at each other in bewilderment, Davey suddenly felt uneasy.

They say siblings were born to fight.

He wondered if these two would be the same.