The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1210

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1210

Chapter 1210
The Nacha Empire had taken over Shuneria’s homeland and executed her parents.
The noble lady who had once dreamed of a brighter world and a happier country had to watch her parents die right before her eyes on the execution platform.
That was the expected fate of a defeated nation.
She was smart. She never forgot her anger over her parents’ deaths, but also accepted her reality.
Using the large amount of funds her family had still possessed, she’d bribed the right people and ultimately managed to save her younger siblings.
They were the only family she had left. For them, she was willing to sacrifice even herself.
No matter what, she couldn’t erase the hatred she felt toward the emperor of the Nacha Empire who had killed her beloved parents. As such, she had offered her hand to the remaining resistance forces.
At first, people called her a traitor. Eventually, they began to see her true intentions and joined hands with her, secretly preparing to bring the Empire to ruin.
No matter how weak they were, as long as they kept on trying, eventually their efforts would put cracks in the wall of the empire. Especially for one that had rapidly expanded, those cracks would inevitably grow wider.
To break a massive empire, a single crack was enough to start it all tumbling down.
However...
“Seems like they caught on,” Davey muttered as he looked around the underground facility covered in blood.
“
Aah!
No...” Shuneriae collapsed to the floor, then hastily began rummaging through the corpses. He figured she was probably looking for her siblings.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, her younger siblings weren’t among the dead.
“This place has never been discovered before... not even once. How did they find it?”
She grabbed her face with both hands.
She had expected to be hunted once they were exposed. That was why she’d planned to use the dimensional passage they took from the Empire to escape to another world after giving up all her assets.
However, before she could even put the plan into motion, the safehouse had been discovered, and everyone was massacred.
“Why... Why did this happen?!”
“Looks like there was a traitor,” Davey said while pointing to one of the corpses.
“Leader!” Finally coming to her senses, she ran to the fallen body.
“See this wound?”
“The wound?”
“It’s unique to curved blades. Looks like all the resistance members must have used them. He was stabbed cleanly from behind by one, so that means there was a traitor.”
With the leader dead, everything she had in mind crumbled in an instant. Overwhelmed, she slumped to the ground. She didn’t even notice her clothes being soaked in blood.
“This guy’s alive.” That was when Reina found a man, barely breathing, crushed under the corpses.
Davey walked over and quickly checked his wounds. He hesitated for a moment before trying to draw out his mana. He felt a brief sense of deja vu, but he pushed through and successfully treated the man.
“
Ugh. Gah.
” The man had weakened significantly, but his major wounds were healed. He slowly opened his eyes. “Shu...Neria...”
“What happened here?! What is all this?!”
“T-Traitor... There was a traitor.”
In a resistance group, the most dangerous threat wasn’t the enemy—it was betrayal from within. It was a problem that often arose in small factions.
“My siblings... What about Shunaitz and Shunia?!”
“I-I’m sorry. They were taken by the Imperial Military Police... because they were looking for you...
ack!
”
He was still in pain, injuries having yet to fully heal.
“Who... Who was the traitor?!”
“The Captain of Unit One...
cough!
” He lost consciousness before he could finish.
Shuneria quickly turned to Davey with eyes asking if he could do something about him.
“I mean, I could awaken him, but if I do, he’ll be a cripple for life. Still want me to?” Davey had already pushed the limits by bringing back a man who should’ve died. He had no obligation to go further.
Shuneria flinched at the question. Perhaps being crippled was better than death, yet sometimes, a life of suffering was worse than simply dying.
“But still... the Military Police,
huh?
Why’d they take just those two and kill everyone else?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Davey said as he looked at a small music box sitting off to the side.
He could tell the place had once been a quaint little shop, but there was nothing cozy about it after the raid.
He then looked straight at Shuneria and delivered the brutal truth. “They want to lure you in. To them, your siblings are just pawns.”
If she were a fool, she would’ve gotten angry. Fortunately, she wasn’t. She knew the truth better than anyone there.
“Thank you. From here on out... I’ll go alone—”
“Reina. Go help her.”
“What?” Shuneria’s eyes widened. “Wait! They were taken by the Military Police! Most people taken by them end up in the Shumir Concentration Camp! Do you know how dangerous that place is?!”
“I’ll be borrowing this a bit longer.” Reina lifted Longinus slightly, and Davey took a moment before pulling out a small pouch from his Pocket Plane and handing it to her.
Inside the pouch was a small hammer that fit in the palm of her hand. It was a weapon made from the remains of the Malicious Spirits.
Although it didn’t match up to Longinus or Red Ribbon or Blue Ribbon, it was still useful.
“The Corona Destroyer. You know how to use it, right?”
No matter the defense, three strikes would be enough to destroy it. The weapon’s effectiveness was almost absurd.
“
Hmm.
It’s a little hefty for me, but I’ll make it work.”
“Wait! Are you even listening to me?! It’s not too late! If we hurry, we can still escape into another dimen—”
“Where are you headed?” Ignoring Shuneria, Reina asked calmly, “The Imperial Palace isn’t far from here, right?”
“
Huh?
I-I mean, that huge spire over there is... Wait. Don’t tell me...”
Davey spoke up, “I’m going to pay the emperor a visit. Go save them while I’m gone.”
When Davey turned to leave, Shuneria’s hands began to tremble. “Why... Why are you going this far for me?”
He paused for a moment, then slowly turned around and met her eyes. “Who knows. What do you think?”
There were plenty of complicated reasons it could be. Yet in the end, Davey never gave her an answer.
* * *
Davey stepped out of a ruined building and gazed at the towering spire in the distance.
They weren’t far from the capital.
Though Reina had rescued Shuneria in an area a bit away from the city, the moment they arrived, she had immediately led them to the capital.
The emperor, whom he thought he’d killed, was still alive.
While Davey wasn’t sure if the man had used a vitality vessel like a lich would, in the end, it didn’t make much of a difference.
The Nacha Empire was a world where magic had evolved in a rather unique direction. Strictly speaking, their magical development fell slightly behind Tionis, yet thanks to their dimension’s unusual materials, it had taken a strange turn.
The core materials seemed to be mana stones or minerals, created by combining black slime and certain special ores.
However, now that the slimes were gone and such materials couldn’t be produced anymore, Davey figured the world’s progress would soon go through a massive decline.
Not that it was his concern.
Despite the ongoing war outside, life in the capital didn’t feel like a nation at war. In fact, it felt indulgent, even extravagant. The nobles walking the streets wore clothes that were anything but ordinary.
The unique architecture of the Nacha Empire stood tall and imposing. What stood out most was the way residential zones were stacked like layers, all centered around the imperial palace.
At the very center stood the massive palace and the grand homes of high nobility. Beyond that lay two zones that seemed more typical.
Yes, they were slightly less significant in comparison, but they were nonetheless well-maintained residential areas.
Then, of course...
“Looks like the slums are at both ends of the palace.”
At a glance, it looked like the classic disparity between the rich and poor that surrounded most imperial palaces.
However, gazing from the clocktower facing the massive spire, Davey didn’t see it that way at all.
“The races are different.”
Davey assumed the people who were the same race as the emperor were the original inhabitants of the Nacha Empire. It seemed the nobles and the wealthy amongst them had taken over the areas closest to the palace.
The further out one went, the more the racial makeup changed. He figured those were the ones that were more cooperative to the Empire among other members of their race.
Either way, it was a strange sight.
Blood spilled outside the walls while luxury reigned inside. Though, that part wasn’t even surprising anymore.
Tionis had once had nations like that as well, and their fate had always been the same.
Absolute collapse.
Regardless of whether Davey had been the one to destroy them or not, such countries had never lasted long.
The concentration camp Shuneria mentioned was located a fair distance from the capital. On the eastern side of the capital, they found a mana gate that led directly to the camp.
The fact that mana gates even existed there was surprising, though it seemed to be using outdated relics just like Tionis.
Of course, as with any camp, the security there would be tight. Trying to pass through the mana gate, which was also the only entrance, would inevitably cause a massive disturbance.
It wasn’t that Davey doubted Reina and her abilities, but that he knew it’d be best if the mission could be carried out in silence.
That meant only one thing.
“I’ll need to draw their attention somewhere else.” Murmuring to himself, Davey raised one arm slowly as he stared at the massive spire across from him.
Reverse rotation.
The blood circle and the heart circle he temporarily made began to grind against each other, creating a dissonant hum.
As a result, his mana drained tremendously as overwhelming energy gathered in his hand.
He had to avoid using destruction magic in the area.
Although it wasn't certain whether killing someone at that moment would trigger anything, he clearly understood that there was no benefit from even making the attempt at it for testing.
What mattered was instilling fear without killing them.
Though highly inefficient, Davey knew a visual domination spell perfect for instilling fear.
[9th Circle Dark Magic]
[King of the Devourers]
Tremendous amounts of evil mana tore through the sky, opening a massive rift.
The sunlight vanished, and everything turned a shade of gray. The sun that had brightly illuminated the world now looked like a dark eclipse, with only its blood-red edge glowing ominously, dripping as if it bled.
Its dreadful form, visible from miles away, wasn’t actually all that dangerous. It simply erected a perfect barrier over a certain area—nothing more, nothing less. The difference was in the synergy.
His barrier magic drastically amplified the effectiveness of dark magic. Even the same spells took on an entirely new appearance from its influence.
He then heard voices from below the clocktower he was at.
He could see the energy of human greed be transformed into a vitality force, rising like a tide. He sent it all toward Thanatos, the moon in the sky.
He figured that if Thanatos lacked vitality, it could take some from there.
The external form of his magic always changed depending on his state of mind, and judging by how this one looked, he wasn’t in great condition. At that rate, he wasn’t sure if he could really claim to be different from Thanatos.
He wondered what the humans would think as they looked upon such a scene.
In the chaos, Davey felt Reina’s presence shift, her energy pulsing briefly.
‘Okay then.’
Now it was time to do his part. He turned his eyes away from the impenetrable imperial palace.
‘Hm, that emperor is a fake.’
In the central plaza, a massive crowd had gathered—at least five thousand people. Among them stood two shackled figures, standing at the edge of an execution platform and staring up at the sky in a daze.
It didn’t matter whether they were executioners, death row inmates, or the frenzied crowd. The people all wore the same expression.
Confusion and fear.
Davey slowly descended, scattering a red mist around himself.
Perserque had been too soft, despite being a Demon King. To wield the pressure of a true Demon King, one had to understand just how important visuals were.
As countless eyes turned toward him, Davey walked forward calmly.
Between the countless number of nobles watching in silence, he spotted a young man seated alone on the throne, entirely aloof and arrogant.
It seemed he had shed the elderly guise Davey had seen before.
“You...”
“Guess my warning didn’t sound serious enough,
huh?
”
With each step he took, the crowd parted like the sea.
Crack.
Crack.
This was their stronghold! It was where their entire power was concentrated.
Both he and the emperor knew what it meant for someone to storm that place alone.
However, none of that mattered.
Though his priority was not to kill, that also did not matter.
The moment Davey took a single step forward, the emperor looked down at him with arrogant eyes. He moved like someone who still had a card hidden up his sleeve.
‘Fine. Go ahead and hide it, human. Let’s see just how much you think you’ve got up that damn sleeve of yours.’
Davey kept walking, not even aware of the disconnect between his thoughts and actions.
The rift began to tear open again.
* * *
“Davey!” Perserque went pale as the cup in her hand slipped and shattered on the floor.
A sharp, stinging pain pulsed through her.
She stared in confusion at the wedding ring on her finger. It was an artifact created using Yosiah’s power, a ring that linked their lives together.
At that moment, the gem embedded in it was turning a deep, dark crimson.
“What... What is the meaning of this?” Perserque looked anxiously at the two women standing in front of her.
“What’s going on...?”
“Something’s changed with Davey.”
At those words, both Illyna’s and Aeria’s eyes widened.
“What do you mean...?”
“You know what that could mean, don’t you? What exactly is happening right now?”
Facing the question, Goddess Freyja quietly closed her eyes.
In the end, she offered no answer.
She remained silent, as if she simply chose to trust Davey.

.
!
Chapter 1210