The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1198

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1198

Chapter 1198
Dimensional walls were typically extremely solid, to the point that only beings with immense power, like Thanatos, could even dare to attempt breaking through them.
Naturally, because of that firmness, crossing and creating dimensional doors under normal circumstances was practically impossible.
However, things eventually changed. Ever since Goddess Freyja’s power had weakened, that once-impenetrable wall had become noticeably softer.
Even so, that didn’t mean it was something simple technology could meddle with.
“Humans... have already developed technology to move between dimensions?” Perserque, who knew magic well, couldn't hide her astonishment. “
Huuuuh?
”
“No, that’s not it.”
“
Oh?
” She made a confused face. “Why not?”
“That passage... I’m the one who opened it.”
Perserque fell silent for a moment before she finished processing what she’d just heard. “You... opened it?”
“To be precise, when I created Thanatos and circulated vitality across dimensions, I opened several pathways between them. Some of those went out of control, and they seem to have linked over there.”
Anyone could travel through a dimensional path once it was already open, as long as there was a medium.
“Still, detecting or tracking an open dimension should be impossible for them, right? At least logically speaking.”
“See this magic stone embedded in the weapon?”
Perserque, curious about the unfamiliar structure, picked up the mana stone Davey had separated out and rolled it around in her hand. “This is such a strange structure. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It reacts strongly when fused with a dimensional circle. Looks like they’ve been exploiting the moment that the rift stabilizes.”
That meant it had been like that for quite some time, with a significant amount of research already put behind it.
“They said something about a divine beast, too. Let’s wake this guy up and get some answers.”
Davey formed a large ball of water in his hand and threw it at the unconscious man tied to the chair.
Splash!
“
Hmph?!
”
Though they were in an underground workshop, he wasn’t going to use any extreme measures. As long as there were no interruptions, Davey didn't care how long it took. He calmly stood in front of the man and looked down at him.
“Can you hear me?”
The man, who had looked dazed, suddenly had his eyes widened. Then, he looked up at Davey. “Crow.”
Davey kicked him in the shin without hesitation.
“
Guh!!
”
“Still not in your right mind,
huh?
”
“Davey, that’s too harsh.”
Though Perserque tried to stop him, he stared coldly at the man and reminded her, “They stabbed that guy. If I had been even a little late with my help, he would’ve died.”
Seung-Hyun had been instrumental in helping Evangeline attain her independence, basically her benefactor. For someone like that to be stabbed, there was no way Davey would just let it slide.
The man groaned, feeling the kick break his leg. Meeting him at eye level, Davey quietly questioned, “There are only three things you need to answer. First, why did you stab him? Second, where are you guys from? Third, why did you come here?”
The man chuckled at his questions. Then, as if to throw mockery in his face, he muttered, “For the Empire.”
Without hesitation, he shut his eyes and tensed his body.
However, nothing happened.
“Wha... What the—?”
“Looking for this?” Davey held up a small device, caked in blood. “This is quite the explosive-type artifact. Guess you were planning to kamikaze yourself.”
“H-How did you—?!”
“That doesn’t matter. It isn’t what we should be focusing on, is it?” Crushing the device in his hand, Davey quickly jabbed his fingers into the man’s body.
“
Gyaaah!! Khuh! Kghhh!!
”
He used the Touch of Death technique to forcibly stimulate the man’s blood flow.
The man twisted and screamed in agony, experiencing a pain he had never even imagined in his lifetime.
After a long moment of suffering, when Davey pressed a different point again, the man gasped and dropped his head, breathing heavily.
“
Haah. Haah.
You think I’ll talk?”
“Well, are you gonna stay quiet instead?”
“A knight of the Empire always keeps his mouth shut, you primitive bastard.”
“Primitive,
huh?
Funny how the ones who barged in here by stealing a dimensional passage that someone else set up are calling others primitive.”
His mutter made the man grimace. “How delusional. You think a scum like you created a natural phenomenon, something only crafted by the gods and guardian spirits—
Gyaaahhh!!
”
Another piercing scream rang out.
“Guess there’s no helping it,” Davey muttered calmly before snapping his fingers. A massive surge of vitality then pulsed outward.
Before long, a man dressed in an incredibly sleek uniform appeared before them. “You called?”
“Get ready to collect a soul soon.”
The summoned figure silently turned to look at the man tied up, before asking, “Who is he?”
“Someone that deserves to die.”
With that, Davey drew Red Ribbon.
“
Hah.
Yeah, go ahead and kill me. You won’t get anything out of—”
“I gave you a chance—a chance to confess while still alive.”
Talking while alive was always better than having your memories extracted after death.
Devil magic was originally just the study of souls and understanding their value, yet it was inevitable that it was most often used in situations like that.
Thump!
Expressionless, Davey extended his palm and pushed it against the man’s forehead.
Feeling that touch, the man twitched violently before abruptly collapsing in place.
He had died in an instant.
With high-level dark magic at one’s fingertips, killing someone silently wasn’t all that difficult.
Davey reached toward the still-intact soul and spoke, “Rise.”
It was a command given through the authority of the Death Lord.
As if memory loss for the dead meant nothing, the soul slowly rose, his face utterly void of expression.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel good.” He was different after dying. Though he retained all his memories, he was completely bound to Davey’s will.
It wasn’t exactly the most ethical action, but it was the future he had chosen for himself by resisting so stubbornly.
“This is the result of your own choice. Just grit your teeth and endure.”
“No problem. Give your orders.”
“I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’ll answer them without lying.”
“Yes, sir.” He knelt on one knee and bowed his head.
Davey began, “Let’s start with what I asked before. Why did you stab him?”
“Who are you referring to?”
“The man who lived near the area your people came through.”
The soul fell silent for a moment, then quietly lowered his head. “Apologies, but I’m not entirely sure.”
“Then let’s talk about your case instead.”
Davey figured he needed to rephrase the question.
After burning his hollow body to ashes, leaving not a trace behind, Davey asked again.
“Though I don’t know the full situation at the time, since I wasn't there, those who attacked him were all knights under my command.”
“So they were your subordinates. Why do you think they attacked him?”
“He was a witness. That location is the only passage the Empire has that connects to this dimension.”
So, they just didn’t want anyone to know about it.
What a pathetic reason.
“Second. Where are you all from?”
“The Empire. Nacha. That’s where we came from.”
Nacha? It was a name Davey had never heard before.
“Why did you come here?”
“To establish a foothold for invasion. And... to retrieve the divine beast who disappeared.”
“Now that you mention it, you guys kept going on about this divine beast...”
Clack!
Just then, Reina, who Davey had seen leave the room, opened the door and entered again.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay out?”
“Just this once... please let me be part of this.”
Her expression didn’t look good. Understandably so, he supposed.
“Do as you like...”
Reina quietly nodded, then stood behind Davey, glaring at the soul of the knight.
Davey continued, “What is this divine beast you keep mentioning?”
“A being that brought great wealth and prosperity to the Empire. Its form...” The knight’s soul suddenly widened his eyes.
His gaze was fixed on one thing—the figure perched on Reina’s shoulder.
The rainbow slime.
“Our almighty divine beast...!”
When everyone followed his gaze, Reina flinched and stepped back. “W-What?! What do you mean?”
“He says you’re the divine beast.”
“Me?! Nonsense! He’s clearly talking about this thing,” she said with an incredulous expression.
“You’re saying that slime is your so-called divine beast?” Davey asked him.
“More precisely, it’s the crystallization of our almighty divine beast’s blessings.”
A crystallization of blessings? Indeed, even just seeing a rainbow slime made individuals lucky.
“Our almighty divine beast created these crystallizations of blessings, bringing abundance to our Empire. What used to be a mere minor kingdom was quickly elevated to the greatest of the Three Nations.”
“How? You really expect me to believe all that just came from sheer luck?”
“Not just luck. All the equipment we use was created through the fusion of our almighty divine beast’s power and special natural minerals.”
The minerals themselves were basically worthless at face value. Yet once that so-called divine beast imbued them with power, they gained incredible properties.
“Our almighty divine beast was the very foundation of our Empire. Its power was essential to produce those special ores that elevated us to the top.”
Alas, that divine beast one day just ran away.
“It was around two years ago... For some reason, after a few days of just occasionally headbutting thin air, our almighty divine beast opened a dimensional passage and fled. Nothing like that had ever happened before. Some claimed it was because His Majesty the Emperor lost his way and grew too greedy... but all of them were captured and executed.”
That had only happened two years prior.
“Can’t really say for sure, since I’ve never seen that slime before. After that, His Majesty ordered us to find our almighty divine beast.”
“But there’s no way mere humans could track down a divine beast that escaped into another dimension.”
Normally, a knight as loyal as the one before Davey—so thoroughly brainwashed into idolizing the Emperor—would’ve raged at such a remark. That was how deep his devotion had seemed to run.
However, he no longer served the Emperor.
“Yes. Under normal circumstances, it’d be impossible. However, His Majesty had already been developing a tracking device for our almighty divine beast for quite some time. He stabilized the passage it had used to escape, using the special ore created from the almighty divine beast’s power, and has been searching ever since.”
The place they arrived at wasn’t Earth or the isolated dimension Davey had created. Instead, it was a yet-unknown dimension for them, much like the one where the Nacha Empire existed.
“His Majesty had another thought, as well. Even if we were ultimately unable to recover our almighty divine beast, invading resource-rich alternate dimensions would still elevate his prestige. So, he told the citizens of the Empire how ‘unjust’ it was that savages thrive while the race of the Great Empire does not.’”
It was a familiar pattern. Earth had even seen its own version of it.
It was called fascism.
“The war that began two years ago overwhelmingly favored the Empire. It was brutal. The dimension they invaded is now fighting a liberation war, but it’s nothing more than the pitiful resistance of the defeated.”
Searching for the divine beast while invading other realms made for a very profitable venture.
“What a pathetic human being,” Perserque commented with a voice filled with disdain.
In the end, they had ended up on Earth while tracking the divine beast. When the gate led them there, they tried to use it as a foothold for another invasion—until they ran into Davey.
That was the message he was getting.
“But Davey, when you think about it... isn’t this whole mess your fault? You left dimensional pathways open all over the place without properly closing them...”
At that, he just shrugged. “I already saved their lives. Do they expect me to do everything?”
He wasn’t wrong. Technically.
“So? What are you gonna do now?”
“What else? First, we find that so-called divine beast.”
While they called it a divine beast, when judging by everything the knight had said, it was clearly more than just that.

Chapter 1198