The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 703

190. Where do you think you’re going?

"General, I believe the raid will start soon," the middle-aged man with three stars on his uniform reported.

The Army Commander Seo Ho-Jin quietly closed his eyes. "Okay. Did you meet with the attack leader?"

"Yes, I relayed everything as you instructed," the officer replied.

"There's virtually no chance of success," Seo Ho-Jin stated flatly.

"I suppose so. It's likely that everyone will die. The chances of success are slim."

"It won’t be ideal either way.”

"Should we proceed as planned then?"

"The Awakened are dangerous troublemakers. It’d be unwise on our part to ignore them. Let's take this opportunity to take care of them.”

Seo Ho-Jin paused, considering the implications. "I doubt he will intervene, but if he does... Let’s just see how things unfold."

"Pardon? Are you suggesting we do nothing if he intervenes?"

"Exactly. We can let them play against each other. If they end up destroying one another, what more could we ask for? But of course, we’ll have to use the new weapons we have against the surviving side,” Seo Ho-Jin answered while fiddling with a strange blue bullet in his hand. He then said with a dreary voice, "I’m already looking forward to what’s going to happen.”

***

Everyone witnessed Davey arrive with confidence. Some were astonished. Others were puzzled. A few even felt a sense of relief, feeling something profound.

With an unusually polite tone, the president asked him, "Are you sure you’re okay?"

But Davey only swung the Corona Destroyer without saying a word in response.

Boom!

The restored giant hammer cleaved the air with a resounding sound.

"This should be enough," Davey remarked.

His words caused Meses to look at him.

"Hey, how’s my shadow looking?" Davey teased.

[You…]

“You want to get me, don’t you? Davey asked playfully to taunt Meses. He then took a step forward and said in a provocative voice, "Let's start by cutting down your defense first."

Clank!

The air trembled as the head of the Corona Destroyer struck Meses in the abdomen. But because of the barrier Davey created, Meses wasn’t affected. But something else was. With just one strike, it seemed as if a shield-shaped pattern in the air was cracking.

One stack.

Clank!! Clank!

Two stacks. Three stacks.

Meses flinched with every hit.

Crack!

The shield shattered into pieces. But as Meses realized that nothing was happening to him, his strange eyes glared at Davey.

[Huh! You’re just all talk.]

No one said anything about the comment Meses made, because every player of Alf Online, whether domestically or internationally, knew the weapon that Davey was using—the Coroner Destroyer, which could destroy an opponent’s defense in three hits. The unbelievable ability of the Corona Destroyer was already revealed during a guild competition called Guild War, where it struck an indestructible castle wall three times, reducing its defense to zero.

"Just talk? Well, brace yourself,” Davey declared.

‘Cause from now on, I’m going to crush you,’ he added in his thoughts.

He then lightly clapped his hands.

All eyes were on Davey, waiting to see what was going to happen next. But nothing seemed to happen, despite his confidence.

A serene silence fell over the area, as if time had stopped. Faces around him showed confusion, wondering why nothing was happening.

But the determination on Davey’s face remained, as his attack to press Meses down to the point he couldn’t resist had already begun.

The people who were watching started to murmur in confusion, asking, "W-what’s going on?

Another person then said, “What’s happening?”

It was only natural for those who hadn’t realized what was happening to murmur among themselves. But as if some had caught on, they began to retreat with grim expressions.

Thud!!!

A brief moment of silence fell over again. Then an effect that everyone could feel took over the entire place. There was a tremendous pressure coming in from every direction, and the intangible force then started to compress on the space he was trapped in.

Eclipse or a higher-level Malicious Spirit would’ve been able to break free from this force that separated the inside from the outside, but Meses was far from being able to do such a thing.

[Huh?! Playing cheap tricks!]

"Cheap tricks? Do you think this is just some cheap trick?” Davey taunted. "Even mustering up all of your strength might not be enough to fend off this attack!”

[Grrr!! Gaaa!! Don’t be so full of yourself!!]

"You were done for the moment I put you under my binding spell,” Davey said calmly.

The pressure, which defied the laws of physics and targeted his half spirit, half physical body, was far stronger than Meses had anticipated. It stripped away his proud demeanor and forced him to muster every ounce of strength he had left to withstand the crushing force.

‘I bet you’re shocked by what’s happening,’ Davey thought. ‘I understand how you feel. But it's time you die.’

From their very first encounter, Davey had already devised the method he would use to end Meses, who was an entity that grew stronger by devouring the shadows of the living. Despite this inherent ability, the amount of strength Meses gained was minimal. Even though this still made him a catastrophe for humanity—both for the Awakened and the ordinary people of Earth—he was a more manageable foe for Davey, a foe that he could take down without using his divine power.

Still, Davey methodically crushed and obliterated Meses. There was no need to ponder why he wasn't as powerful as Davey anticipated. The privilege to ceaselessly grow was a gift granted solely to the human race. And so when Malicious Spirits tried to mimic this, it was merely a bid for them to pull off the human trait.

Davey had already nullified Meses’s defense even before their fight. So Meses struggled to resist the compressing space, and only then did he seem to realize the debuff affecting him. But it was already too late.

"It was like this during the Goumda Raid too,” said one of the people watching.

"This is insanity,” said one Awakened in awe, unable to believe what they were witnessing.

Some had predicted that even gathering around two hundred people wouldn’t be enough to defeat Meses. Yet here Davey was, taking the catastrophic Meses down with a couple of moves.

Crackle, crackle!

The sound of distortion and breaking filled the air as the space constrained by the binding spell continued to compress. As the pressure intensified, Meses' form deteriorated further. He resisted desperately, but his efforts were short-lived.

Crunch! Thud!!!

The enormous qi, which was infused with divine power, finally shrank the space to the size of Davey’s palm. His method of hunting was surely so astounding that anyone would find it hard to believe unless they had seen it themselves.

Meses was now reduced to a mere cube, making it impossible to even tell that it was him. Meses, who made people tremble in fear and devoured the souls of multiple Union forces after overpowering them, was now gone.

"Holy…”

The murmurs grew louder as Meses, who had instilled terror across Korea with just his presence, turned into the size of a cube without resisting once.

It was then...

As Davey prepared to squish him down one last time, the sharp sound of a gunshot shattered the silence. The noise around him ceased. The gunshot wasn't just any gunshot, but the distinct sound of a high-caliber rifle.

Given its projectile, Davey could tell it was meant for him. So someone from the military had tried to shoot him the moment they thought he had successfully defeated Meses.

To cut the long story short, the bullet never made it to Davey. But the surprising part was that the bullet was not like the usual ones that were lead. Instead, it was a bullet that was infused with the power to break through mana and was meant to eliminate the Awakened and humans like Davey rather than monsters that had the resistant authority toward firearms.

Davey knew this couldn't have been a coincidence. It was a calculated move, timed perfectly with the completion of the raid, as if someone was determined to take care of him using this opportunity. Davey couldn’t care less about who had shot him; the fact that he was supposed to get shot was what mattered.

Taking care of Meses and Davey would’ve been the perfect scenario for the military. The person who had planned this most likely wanted to provoke Davey in the hopes that he would lash out at the people here.

Obviously, Davey wouldn’t die even if somebody had shot him in the forehead with a gigantic sniper rifle. But he would most likely take it as a huge insult.

Because of the bullet, Davey messed up his finely tuned space-binding spell. And Meses, on the brink of total annihilation, seized the moment.

["Human!!! I will kill you!!!"]

With just his spirit, Meses cursed Davey, giving him the chills. But it didn’t matter to Davey.

A crack appeared in the space that was compressing Meses. Without hesitation, Davey attempted to intensify his power, but the chaotic energy within the compressed space surged faster than he could control it. It thrashed wildly and unyieldingly, making it clear that Meses wasn’t going away without a fight.

"Sigh… After the raid, I’m going to kill that person,” Davey muttered while unleashing his divine power.

Boom!!

The dark shadows that had been spreading out and capturing the shadows of the Awakened suddenly stopped. As the shadows seemed to be caught in mid-air, all eyes turned back to Davey, who took out two items in his Pocket Plane. One was a branch adorned with bells, and the other was a handheld fan. They were once tools for rituals, but Davey was now using them as weapons.

Ring!

With the clear ringing of the bells, he began to conjure a high-level spell to obliterate Meses completely.

[First Grade Forbidden Sorcery]

[Annihilation]

Davey swung the Shamanic Rattle through the air as if he were holding a painting brush.

When Meses saw this, his reaction was filled with confusion and fear.

[Huh?! What?!]

"Just die quietly. I’m in a really bad mood right now," Davey said coldly.

At the same time, the word [Annihilation] materialized in the air, glowing with an ominous light. It was clearly spelled out in Korean.

The spell required qi, and it moved, seemingly pulsating with life as it completely destroyed and erased its target. As the spell aimed to disintegrate the opponent into atoms, even Woochi had always cautioned against using such powerful sorcery unless absolutely necessary. Given that a sorcerer should value balance and harmony, abandoning these principles to focus solely on destruction was not something to be overlooked.

Davey was currently in an extremely bad mood. He would normally let people have things their way as long as they didn’t cross the line, but their recklessness just felt like they were outright pleading for death.

"Rinne,” Davey called out.

[Rinne waiting for a command]

"Hold onto the person who tried to shoot me. I'll make them pay myself.”

Thud!!!!

The black, inky letters, imbued with enormous energy, slowly dissipated in the air. They were in bold Serif font, seemingly reflecting Davey’s mood.

***

"Shit! Shit!" Seo Ho-Jin cursed as he hurried into his vehicle. He knew Davey possessed formidable power, but he didn’t expect him to subdue Meses, a national catastrophe, without direct confrontation. Ideally, he had hoped that Meses and Davey would weaken each other in battle and both disappear.

He had always heard of the Saint of Tionis's strength, yet it had seemed rather mysterious until now. But after the events that unfolded, he realized Davey was unlike any other Awakened. Despite his efforts to shoot him with the foreign-made secret bullet designed to assassinate the Awakened, Davey didn’t get a single scratch.

While Seo Ho-Jin was surveying the scene, he briefly sensed someone looking at where he was.

Whir!!! Whir!!!

With urgency, Seo Ho-Jin started the engine of his car roughly and sped off. His only option now was to flee. Because the fact that Davey had stopped smiling scared him to death.

‘Let's get away for now and get him later,’ Seo Ho-Jin thought as he floored the accelerator.

Just then, he noticed someone standing directly in his path in the distance. The figure had a pure white dress with a thigh-length skirt, blue-silver hair parted in two, wings on her back, and a halo atop her head. Seo Ho-Jin knew exactly who this girl was, as she had been with Davey earlier. He also knew she wouldn’t have come here to block him without a good reason.

Driven by desperation, he considered running her over. He knew she was strong, but he figured she wasn’t strong enough to hold back a running vehicle.

The girl, who looked like an angel, stepped forward. And then she vanished...

Bang!

She suddenly reappeared, but she had gotten much closer to Seo Ho-Jin’s vehicle.

"Rinne prefers extreme domination. Rinne values this highly.”

As Seo Ho-Jin tried to escape, she raised her small white hand and hit the hood of the car.

Baaang!

The impact crumpled his car to the ground.