The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1115

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1115

Chapter 1115
Whoosh!! Boom!!
With a thunderous blast, the wall shattered as Apollo was hurled back.
“
Whew.
She’s a feisty one. This is a lot, man. It’s not easy trying to hold back in this state.
Hmph!!
”
Thud!!
The massive man intercepted her movements in place of Apollo, grinning broadly.
“Damn it!”
Illyna scowled and tried to push past them to get to Aeria, but the two heroes blocked her with perfectly controlled movements. They deflected and neutralized every strike she threw at them, not letting her move an inch.
“Hate to say it, but this is where you stop and surrender. If you go on a rampage, it’s just gonna make life harder for us.”
“Then tell me already! Where are the two of them?!” she shouted desperately.
Apollo just shrugged. “Why would we tell you that? What are you gonna do even if we tell you where they are?”
“Obviously, go find them.”
“And that’s exactly why we can’t tell you.” Apollo grinned and loaded a blunt-tipped arrow onto his bow. “We can’t just let you hurt them.”
“Hurt them?! Who the hell said I’m gonna hurt anyone?!”
Clang!!
Illyna swatted the incoming arrow away, but staggered from the force.
“Your skills and talent are top-notch, but you’re seriously lacking in real combat experience.”
Illyna’s eyes widened when one of them suddenly got behind her.
“Don’t worry. I can’t say for sure if we’ll be able to get you back to normal, but it’s not completely off the table either.”
It was a hopeful stance, but in truth, the odds were unclear. Neither Apollo nor Astrea were particularly knowledgeable in that area.
“
Argh!!
” Illyna collapsed with a cry.
She was powerful, but not even she could handle going up against not just one, but two heroes. Or more accurately...
“Is she pulling her punches? That’s kind of unusual.”
“I can’t go all out on you folks. After all, you’re Davey’s benefactors.”
Realizing something was off, the two heroes glanced at each other.
“Hey. Just to be sure... You’re thinking straight, right?”
Illyna retorted in frustration, “Of course I am, you people!!”
“Then why are you holding a sword?”
“I brought it just in case, that’s all!”
Apollo wiped the sweat from his brow. “
Aha.
So that’s how it is.”
“Tell me! Where is Aeria right now?!”
“Where else? We had her hide with that little lady Evangeline, just the two of them—”
“No!!” Illyna suddenly screamed and forced herself to her feet. She desperately cried, “You can’t leave Aeria alone with Evangeline right now!!”
A few moments later, a pillar of blue fire erupted not far from the manor. It wasn’t quite magic; it was a unique power that had a blend of spirit power as well.
No one could say for sure what its precise structure was, but there was only one person in the territory who could use that kind of blue flame.
The Nine-Tails. It was Aeria’s foxfire.
There were only two people at that location: Aeria and Evangeline. Darian and Perserque had been sent elsewhere, since Aeria was suspicious of Illyna.
“No way. The one who mutated wasn’t this girl?”
“
Oh,
hell. We’ve got a problem. Move it, pointy-ears!”
“Damn! This is why I wanted to send Odin instead. Fine, I’ll go first!” Apollo vanished like the wind.
* * *
Crack!!
Davey devoured the expansive energy gathered in the great chamber.
‘Go on, resist. Try all you want. In the end, you’re still within the palm of my hand.’
Davey devoured every last dark knight inside the chamber.
It was an endless power, plentiful no matter how much he consumed. That was the very nature of the primordial predator. If it had been just the kingly power alone, it would’ve been an overwhelming wave impossible to withstand.
After all, Davey was being rejected for the simple reason that he didn’t have the right to ascend the Origin Throne. The authority of Predatory Assimilation he possessed now, just as they had said, wasn’t the complete power of the primordial predator.
It had evolved, or perhaps mutated. It was a fundamentally changed power. Similar, but not the same; different, but still of the same lineage.
As if testing to see how much Davey could endure, they kept appearing en masse, drawing closer and closer. Yet beyond how unreasonable their trial was, his authority of Predatory Assimilation stood at a level well beyond the trial’s threshold.
It was like using a cheat code in a fighting game or first-person shooter, making your character invincible.
‘They’re trying to overwhelm me with power? Interesting.’
Either way, if they were going to keep rejecting him until the end, Davey had no choice but to play his own hand.
Lifting his head, he scanned the surroundings. He’d felt something was off ever since the dark knights began approaching him. There was also one single knight that had been sitting still the whole time.
Davey moved toward that same knight, which was seated on a stone chair in the distance with a body nearly double the size of its comrades.
Upon closer inspection, everything from its armor to its helm and weapon exuded a distinctly superior level.
He knew that had to be the one.
As Davey drew near, the other dark knights began rushing toward him with even greater desperation.
Some made it into striking range, swinging their weapons at him. They weren’t just using some simple cold weapons, either. He knew taking a hit from them wouldn’t do him any favors.
[Devour]
His will surged forth, and the authority of Predatory Assimilation ravenously consumed everything around him.
Boom!!
As he got closer to the towering knight, different kinds of beings arrived and began blocking his path.
Dark knights over three meters tall emerged and approached, throwing themselves in his way like suicide bombers.
Even as Davey devoured the majority of the particles composing their bodies, their assault didn’t stop.
‘Ah. So these things are only knights in appearance. In the end, they’re really just clumps of particles.’
They only took the form of knights because Davey perceived them as enemies. In reality, they were more like the black tide he’d seen on the staircase. Granted, their density was much greater.
Despite the increasing resistance and density, he couldn’t help but laugh. “What a joke.”
Crunch!!
They were putting up a decent fight, but Davey didn’t let that stop him. The unleashed authority of Predatory Assimilation was a power that had previously killed a hero in the Hall and crushed even a god.
The power of the primordial predator, on the other hand, had poor compatibility with Davey. It boasted overwhelming strength against the world's rules, yet was oddly weak against other forms of power.
Ironic, really.
Crack!!
Eventually, the last surviving knight trying to reach him was finally dissolved and scattered into particles.
Coming to a stop before the towering dark knight seated on the throne, Davey slowly extended his hand. Surprisingly, the knight didn’t put up any resistance at the gesture.
Instead, when his hand touched its helmet, the knight suddenly reached out and grabbed Davey.
Boom!!
An immense flood of information surged into his mind all at once.
“
Agh!
”
He let out a dry cough. For a brief moment, his perfect memory ability kicked in and amplified the burden, scrambling his thoughts into chaos.
[You are qualified to ascend the Origin Throne, though mutated. You must understand and accept the burden and purpose of the Origin Throne.]
“So now you want to talk about purpose, even after calling me an intruder,” Davey muttered under his breath.
Regardless, the information kept pouring in.
[In the beginning, the Goddess split herself in two. One half took on strict order and discipline. The other, mercy and forgiveness.]
The voice was calm and composed, like an elder reading from an old tome.
[Order protects structure and law in all circumstances. Mercy grants kindness, compassion, and hope to her creations. That is the miracle she bestowed upon us.]
Davey already knew that the rules of the world were the other side of Goddess Freyja. To put it simply, she was like a flexible system operator adapting to circumstances, while the world’s laws were an inflexible system with zero leniency, governing the world by rigid rules.
[When the Primordial Goddess was split, she formed the foundation for the world's operation.]
“Quit yapping about stuff I already know and hand it over already.” Davey yanked the knight’s helmet free. When the helmet came off, a swirl of black mist inside it dissipated with a soft hiss.
[You, who possesses the power to sit upon the Origin Throne. Though mutated, your purpose remains pure.]
“Get to the point, geezer.”
Davey spun the helmet in his hands, then playfully placed it on his own head. At the same time, the seated knight’s form began to dissolve as it was absorbed into his body.
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[Though the origin of your mutated power is unknown, you certainly possess the qualifications of a king. Should the world’s laws fail in their function, will you uphold your sacred duty as dictated by the primordial mission?]
The voice sounded like it was demanding an oath, but Davey just gave a relaxed smile.
‘What kind of stupid question is that?’
“Go ask someone else. You clearly never intended to hand anything over to me, yet now that you lost you’re demanding obligations from me?”
‘Who do you think you’re trying to con?’
Boom!!
An enormous wave of energy began to flow into him. Like planets being elongated and sucked in by a black hole, energy rushed toward him in streams. Some of the energy naturally tried to resist, but couldn’t hold out for long before also being absorbed.
At the same time, a change began taking place within his authority of Predatory Assimilation.
The power he had consumed up to then began forming pieces like those of a jigsaw puzzle. The last thing he devoured, the throne itself, became the final piece that completed the picture.
With that, Davey suddenly understood how the power was meant to be used.
The Origin Throne. The primordial predator. These powers all had a singular purpose.
“A power that interferes with the rules of the world... So that’s why Behemoth devoured the rift.”
Davey had been able to devour countless spiritual entities inside Belga all at once, likely because they were all manifestations of the world’s inflexible and unyielding laws.
The world’s rules operated with a staggering lack of flexibility, regulating the world with absolute rigidity. It was likely that such stubbornness was exactly why the world hadn’t collapsed up to that point. Even the avatar of Goddess Freyja had been deemed an impurity and targeted for elimination.
That was the world’s law, the rules of the world created by the Primordial Goddess Freyja.
It was the foundation of all things, like simple scientific formulas such as (E = mc²). In gaming terms, it was like the core programming that governed the entire system.
Yet when Goddess Freyja created the world’s laws, she had also implemented a failsafe.
Inflexible yet perfect, there still had to be a system in place for when the laws became twisted or, as Davey was experiencing, fell into a state of chaos.
Of course, it wasn’t a true form of control. It was a system that worked by devouring flawed parts and letting the rules of the world gradually heal themselves autonomously. In that sense, it was incomplete.
It resembled the human immune system when it cut out necrotic tissue and allowed the body to recover on its own.
Davey could feel the kingly power of the primordial predator gently revolving in his grasp. Even so, the power wasn’t capable of completely devouring and assimilating his authority of Predatory Assimilation.
More precisely, it felt as if the authority of Predatory Assimilation had recognized and reinforced itself, completed by what had once been its own, the kingly power of the primordial predator.
A power capable of unilateral interference with the world’s system. It was not a power any single living being was meant to wield.
“It’s far too great and heavy an authority for one person.”
Such absolute manipulation wasn’t the kind of power a mere creation should be able to wield. Davey being able to utilize it, even back when he was just human, spoke to how terrifying his authority of Predatory Assimilation truly was.
Still, the situation left much to be desired and understood.
‘
If I hadn't been the one to come here, who would’ve ultimately sat on the Origin Throne?
There were several potential candidates, but no real way to know.
The Origin Throne, and the kingly power of the primordial predator. What ultimately mattered was how Davey would wield it.
If all it entailed was devouring and allowing the natural healing process, he figured that might be doable. Unfortunately, the world’s laws had already gone out of control as a result of the transformation process and were wreaking havoc. Unless something changed, that chaos would continue and possibly trigger even worse consequences.
The only real solution was to restore the laws to a stable state and reapply them correctly.
Davey turned his head at the sound of approaching footsteps. At some point, Rho Aias had entered the chamber.
“How did you get in here?”
“It was easy after you devoured all the power in this place.”
“
Ah.
Right.”
It was now just an empty space, so there was no reason Rho Aias wouldn't be able to enter.
After she entered, a small boy and cheerful-looking girl stepped in from behind her.
One was the humanized Behemoth, while the other was, of course, the mermaid So-Ya.
“
Hmm
?”
“Davey, look! I have legs now! Aren’t they amazing?!”
Looking at it from a certain angle, it was kind of funny. Behemoth, arguably the dumbest of the mythical beasts, had been the first of the two to succeed at humanizing.
As for So-Ya and her legs, Davey had no idea why she even wanted them, but it was safe to assume Rho Aias had temporarily altered her form.
Both were wearing large robes, and for some reason, the two gave off the vibe of a pair of siblings.
When Davey gave Rho Aias a look clearly demanding an explanation, she simply said, “First, let’s start practicing how to handle that power.”
“
Hm.
”
“You need to be able to completely devour the world’s laws, fix them, and put them back into place.”
Davey asked for more clarification. “Devour, modify, and return them?”
“Yes. Your authority of Predatory Assimilation is no longer the incomplete power it once was.” She held up her hand and conjured a dense black sphere with overwhelming mass. “Start with this.”
“Time isn’t exactly on our side, you know,” Davey reminded her.
“It won’t take long. The others are working to keep the Hall from spiraling out of control, so just trust us this once.”
The real concern was that Apollo was in Heins Territory. That made him more uneasy than anything else.
A bitter taste rose in his mouth.
* * *
“
Ah. Aaah.
”
Evangeline sat on top of the fallen Aeria, her expression blank as she pointed the divine dragon sword Twilight at her throat.
Crack!!
She swung the sword down, but Aeria managed to block the blow with the brooch in her hand.
“E-Eva...” Aeria murmured weakly.
Evangeline, still expressionless, raised her sword again. It took her time to prepare each strike, then with every blow, Aeria could feel the protective barrier on the brooch slowly cracking.
Each strike was precise, intended to end her life.
‘
She’s out of her mind! This isn't the Evangeline I know.
’
The one who had changed wasn’t Illyna.
It was Evangeline.
It was unknown how she suddenly became like that, or why she had stayed quiet until then. It would seem Illyna had sensed something was wrong, just like Aeria. Perhaps that was why she’d let out her battle aura and then wandered at night with a blade in hand.
Illyna herself probably wasn’t sure either. She might not have even known who specifically had changed, only recognizing danger.
Being that not even Davey had realized what was happening to Evangeline, it was no small feat for Illyna to sense it purely on instinct.
Tears welled in Aeria’s eyes, telling herself she’d ruined everything with her own foolishness.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry I made you do something so painful...” With great effort, Aeria reached out and gently stroked the cheek of Evangeline, who gripped her sword in a reverse grip.
Though not life-threatening, blood was flowing from a cut on her arm. That blood eventually made its way to Evangeline’s cheek.
“I’m sorry. Mommy’s such an idiot. I didn’t even notice what was happening to you, Eva...”
She knew Davey would surely have a way to resolve it. He had said no, but that didn’t mean there was no way at all. There had to be a solution!
The brooch’s defense was reaching its limit.
“Please, Goddess... Don’t let this child suffer.”
They were similar in height, close enough to look like friends despite Evangeline only being three or four years old.
“It’s okay, Eva.” Sensing that the brooch was at its limit, Aeria forced a faint smile.
Even with a blade to her throat, she never once blamed Evangeline.
Evangeline raised Twilight high for the final blow.
Her blank face looked unbearably cold, but for some reason, Aeria thought she saw tears there. It was as if she was crying beneath her mask.
“Remember: This is just an accident. None of this is your fault.”
Aeria used every word she could to soothe Evangeline so that when Davey brought her back she wouldn’t be sad, and wouldn’t be hurt by what she’d done.
Evangeline’s hand began to tremble.
Then, from her left eye, something began to fall.
It was a tear. Deep crimson, like blood.
“Eva?!” Aeria gasped, horrified, just as a chilling tearing sound rang out.
However, Twilight never pierced Aeria. The final swing hadn’t been aimed at her—it had been aimed at Evangeline’s own abdomen. A vital spot, where a stab could easily trigger death from shock.
She had chosen to end herself. Her mental fortitude was beyond comprehension. Yet even as the blade came to a rest, no blood spilled out.
Someone had caught her sword mid-action.
“You idiot.” A small blond girl with one eye, blood dripping from her hand, stepped in front of Evangeline and flicked a finger at her forehead with irritation.
Zzzt!
A sharp resonant sound rippled out, and Evangeline staggered back.
Odin let out a deep sigh. “I told you not to leave this to those two morons...”

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Chapter 1115