The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Squelp!

An eerie tear of flesh could be heard.

Rinne's tiny foot not only crushed the Undead's damp skin, but also their tough skull. The sharp pieces poked her feet like blades, but they failed to leave even a scratch on her fragile pale feet for some reason.

The Undead resisted with all they had. However, the girl was too powerful for them to handle, and they were slaughtered in seconds.

“Rinne, location secured. Command given to subordinates.”

[Megatron, command accepted.]

With a short mechanical sound, a huge golem that was standing behind Rinne reached into itself with one hand. It pulled out a small object and planted it in the ground where Rinne was pointing at.

“Rinne, requesting subordinates to brief the current situation.”

[Sniper, reporting that the mission was successful.]

[Juggernaut, tanking mission complete.]

[Shadow, mission complete. Keheheheh.]

Sniper, the golem specialized for long-distance firing, Tank, the defense golem, Juggernaut, the rapid-firing golem, and Puma, the agility-specialized golem that usually took part in secret missions, were reporting to Rinne.

They were only about as powerful as an advanced Expert when they had been first created, but now they were stronger than Expert-level.

“Excessively frivolous, weighty… Rinne does not appreciate this. Considering prompt modification.”

The golems’ voices sounded grating and weird, and the way they replied wasn’t great either. They had been given this function to accurately and strongly reflect Rinne’s opinion, but even she found it more counterproductive than useful. However, it assured Rinne to see that her subordinate golems of the fleet had notable operational abilities.

Rinne proudly puffed up her flat chest and kept nodding in satisfaction. She said, “Mission of integration complete. Ordering perfect defense until the sacred item is secured.”

[Command accepted.]

[Command accepted.]

As each of the fleet’s five captains reported, Rinne quietly stared into the dark forest.

“Feeling the flow of a large amount of energy.” Rinne pouted like something wasn’t making her happy. She muttered, “Rinne, analyzing that combat ability is very good. Rinne does not appreciate Sir Davey’s lack of trust in her.”

Then, Rinne lightly jumped onto Megatron’s shoulders and said, “Megatron, requesting your opinion on Sir Davey’s trust.”

[Meaning unclear; requesting clearer orders.]

Rinne stared at Megatron like she had expected that reply.

The Decepticon Fleet’s magic stone golems appeared to have quite an exceptional artificial intelligence system, but unlike Rinne, they didn’t really have the ability to think on their own. Most of their actions were dependent on newly added information, and so were their answers.

Megatron was better than the other four golems, but it still could not problem solve as well as Rinne.

“...”

Sensing that something was secretly approaching her in the quiet forest, Rinne held a bat in one hand and the energy sword she pulled out from the back of her hand in the other. She commanded, “Megatron, prepare for battle.”

[Command accepted. Activating electric chainsaw.]

“Rinne highly values Megatron’s destructive actions. Ordering Megatron to not let even one of them reach the sacred item.”

[Goal prioritized.]

Soon, numerous Undead began to swarm to where Megatron and Rinne were.

* * *

Squelp!! Splatter!!

Several invisible and odorless pillars pierced Davey and remained in him. The penetration did not hurt, nor could he see them with his regular vision. However, if he activated his Death Spirit Eye and carefully created a barrier of mana…

—Davey?

“...”

“Keh… Kehehehe! My master’s power has already been absorbed into your body! It doesn’t matter whether you have an outstanding stigmata! You will not be able to handle the power of my master, who has reached the 8th circle!”

“The level of [Materialization]...”

From the 8th Circle, the levels of power were no longer Beginner, Expert, and Master, but were divided into Perception, Absorption, and Materialization. This meant that the invisible pillars penetrating Davey right now was a power executed by someone who had entered the stage of Materialization.

“Oh, my master, I never thought I would see your power again. I am not going to regret dying… Gurgle?!” Grell, who only had his head left, shouted like crazy.

Suddenly, Grell flinched. His skull followed Alice’s fingertips and floated up into the air. Noticing that, he said, “M… My lord. I have no regrets even if you take my life.”

“Oh… Grell, my loyal servant. I will not forget your sacrifice.”

With that, Grell Orfan’s gaze shook. He murmured, “Everything is for my master…”

Grell’s last words were not of resignation or despair about his death. He expressed absolute delight that his master had resurrected…before disintegrating completely and dying.

Normally, Grell wouldn’t have disappeared unless his life vessels were destroyed. However, he was already barely holding on with the traces he had left in his crushed body, so he completely died after receiving a simple attack.

The death of an 8th-Circle necromancer was quite in vain.

“Hm… My palace is not in good condition.”

The person speaking definitely looked like Saintess candidate Alice, but the voice that came out of her mouth was that of an old man.

“And…there is also the dirty servant of God,” Alice commented with a wave of one hand.

Rumble!!!!

As the ground was uprooted and something began emerging from the ground, Alice declared, “Let the world know that the King of the Dead, the absolute king who you cannot dare look at, has returned.”

The dead spirit that had come out from the ground moved around, then disappeared in a moment.

“Yes, have you come to stop my resurrection, disgusting servant of God?”

Davey tapped the pillars that pierced through him and said, “I don’t care about your resurrection or whatever. My territory’s food supply situation isn't all that great because of your shenanigans here.”

“Ha… You dared to stand in my way because of such trivial reasons.”

Alice, now known as the old man, stepped forward. He was no longer amused.

“Well, alright. I will not take your life at this moment since I am in a good mood. Be grateful for my mercy and get out of my sight.”

As he waved his hands at the completely destroyed ruins, the crushed walls and floor began to come together and rebuild themselves like they were alive.

This old man was definitely powerful. Davey could clearly see the difference between Grell Orfan, who was at the Perception stage, the entry-level of an 8th-Circle mage, and someone who was at the stage of Materialization, the highest level of the 8th circle. He seemed more substantial than Grell Orfan, who had the grand name of the Death Lord just because he had reached the 8th Circle, but… They were all the same to Davey.

Davey became a little curious. He asked, “Do you call yourself the Death Lord, too?”

“Death Lord? Ha! I have transcended such a trivial position a long time ago; I have become God itself from the moment I was able to see the flow of the world!”

Perserque looked at the old man like he was pathetic, and Davey felt a headache coming on. He groaned, “This one is worse.”

It was quite funny how these guys were nowhere close to being a Grandmaster but were calling themselves the Death Lord. The power that Davey had gotten back was at the 8th-Circle, but this wasn’t even half of the power he had at the Hall.

Whoosh!!

After provoking the old man, Davey felt an invisible power grabbing him and throwing him into the air.

The old man only waved his hand, but he was controlling every inch of Davey’s body. In fact, he was only using his fingers. He was showing Davey that it was extremely easy for him to throw a human up into the air.

“Be careful what you say, you dirty servant of God. One sentence could save a lot of lives. I am disappointed if your judgment is so bad that you can’t even see who is the almighty here.” The old man took a step forward, continuing to say, “Daphne, the Saintess who had tried to stop me, died in my hands. She was a substantial servant of God.”

“What?” Davey stopped smiling.

* * *

“You killed who?”

The old man scoffed at Davey’s calm question. He declared, “Has her name been forgotten after all these years? Saintess Daphne, that is the name of the servant of God whom I’ve killed.”

“No, I don’t care about that. You were the one who killed that woman?”

The old man stayed silent. However, his black eyes shone at Davey’s incredulous question.

“With that kind of power?”

Crash!!

The invisible power holding Davey up in the air swung him toward the wall without any hesitation. He crashed painfully.

Crash!! Crash!!

The old man quickly followed up that attack by holding onto Davey and pressing him into the ceiling. Then, he slammed Davey against the ground over and over again.

Infuriated by Davey’s words, the old man snapped, “Be careful of what you say, servant of God.”

“...”

“Don’t forget that I can kill you with just the flick of my finger.” With that, the old man reached out his thin hands and muttered, “Alright, I can’t help it if you want to die. However, you will not be able to die painlessly. You will wander in deep pain for an endless amount of time, and I will make your soul disappear when your mind has been completely destroyed.”

“So, what is it that you want to do after going through all of this to resurrect?” Davey asked with his body limp.

“The extinction of disgusting human beings. This land has been full of dirty human lives for a long time. Now, it is time to end it. It seems that most of my loyal servants have been left asleep underground in these ancient ruins.”

Davey forcibly twisted the invisible energy that was holding his body. He groaned, “So cliche and no fun.”

‘I thought you would have some interesting things to say since you’re an ancient being.’

“You don’t even have life vessels. Just die here,” Davey said.

The old man’s eyes shone. Saintess candidate Alice, who was holding his soul, would also be caught up, but it was safe to assume that her life had ended from the moment she had turned away from God.

“Mortal, I am the true Immortal. Do you really think you will be able to kill me because I do not have a life vessel?”

“Enough about that immortal crap.”

“An ignorant person who cannot tell the difference between Heaven and Earth must be punished.”

[I sentence you to death.]

The simple incantation affected the surrounding mana, which was moving all over the place and was stopping Davey from using magic. The mana then flowed into him, causing the invisible pillars to vibrate and engrave a nasty curse in him.

“The Curse of Death… Be thankful for even witnessing such a curse.”

Davey watched the curse slowly suffocate him.

‘Hm, surely I would die if I was ambushed with this.’

However, the old man was, unfortunately, forgetting one thing.

“Hm?”

“Is it cool?”

The Curse of Death had surely been engraved in Davey’s body, but why wasn’t it working? The old man took a step back as Davey walked toward him nonchalantly.

“Now, I’ll tell you two things since it’s no fun hiding everything.”

Davey grabbed the old man’s hand and placed it on the part of his chest that was not pierced with a pillar. He asked, “Now, you can see it, right?”

“...” The old man was shocked into silence.

“You can now see who you are up against, and who is standing in front of you right now.”

“What is… This…”

Davey stared into the old man’s confused eyes, then he opened his mouth to speak. “The reason your curse is not working is simple.”

Considering the nature of a curse, a lower level curse would become absorbed by one of a higher level and disappear. This was assuming that a higher level curse was at play.

“N… No way… A power like this cannot be in your body unless you are a God?!”

“There is a curse that a dark mage far beyond your power has put on me.”

[Rejection of Flow]

This curse allowed Davey to escape the flow of destiny. It looked like an advantage, but the price of this curse…was that Davey would always be an outsider who couldn’t receive God’s protection. He was completely disqualified from entering the ring of reincarnation where the soul circulated, and this was an additional condition: if Davey died before being able to accomplish achievements that would be enough for him to enter the Hall, his soul would disappear after being ripped to shreds, or he would wander the Earth for eternity.

There was no way a simple curse such as the old man’s would work on Davey when there was something like this on him.

“That’s why I’m immune to most curses, you ass.”

Even before the old man could move, Davey forcefully reached his hand over and grabbed the jewel embedded in the old man’s forehead. Smiling as the old man struggled, he said, “Let’s see how long you hold out.”

“W–Wait?! S–Stop! I told you to stop!”

“Ah, whatever!!”

‘You would only add to the confusion when you leave. Just die here quietly if you are going to be no help in the later battle with the World Tree.’

[If you want to save your lost little lamb, you can interfere as you wish. I wish that you will be able to show your will through the will of your contractor and dealer.]

[9th level Holy Magic]

[Strengthened Body]

[God’s Index Finger]

[Grand Holy Fire Ball]

Once again, God’s index finger crushed the old man’s entire being like it had come down to earth. However, unlike before, a flash of light that had combined with God’s will and synergized with the sacred item’s power, which had been activated by Rinne, also fell onto him.