The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

"Damn it! Stop him! Stop him right now!"

The soldiers shouted in terror as Davey steadily approached them.

Bang! Bang! Bang-bang!

The bullets ripped through the air, aiming for his body. Yet the bullets never struck true, disintegrating into fine dust before they could reach him.

A high-level dark magic spell rotated continuously around him, devouring the incoming projectiles with ease.

To them, his appearance was nothing short of an apocalyptic nightmare.

Although Davey wasn’t entirely clear on who they were, they certainly knew who he was.

Whoosh! Thud!

A special forces soldier was hurled backward with tremendous force, splattering blood as he hit the ground.

Even as their panicked cries filled the air, Davey kept advancing.

"K-Kill him!”

A couple of soldiers, driven to desperation, pulled out their knives and lunged at him, thinking they might have a chance in close combat. One of the men got close, and the moment he was within range, Davey twisted his arm with a swift, controlled movement before planting a light strike to his abdomen.

Boom!!

For what was meant to be a gentle blow, the impact sounded like leather tearing apart, and the soldier went flying. Davey pushed the other soldiers down as well. As soon as they all writhed on the ground, he flicked his hand nonchalantly, causing the brass colored steel bullets nearby to be sucked into his grasp.

"R-Run! Call for reinforcements!"

Realizing their resistance was futile, the remaining soldiers turned and fled. Davey, impassively watching them, tossed one of the bullets into the air.

Ting!

The bullet collided with a shockwave of compressed air, ricocheting violently. It tore through high-performance Kevlar vests like they were paper, sending two soldiers crashing to the ground.

Alarms blared throughout the underwater facility.

Those who had yet to flee screamed and bolted as they saw Davey. They ran as if they were being chased down by a ghost.

Some of the remaining soldiers and mercenaries tried to stand their ground, but after figuring out that they stood no chance, a countless number of them ran for their lives.

"Ahhh! Spare me!"

A researcher stumbled backward, collapsing onto the ground in terror.

"Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you," Davey said calmly with a faint smile on his face. "This bullet might, though."

Raising a blood-stained pistol, he aimed it at the trembling man and pulled the trigger.

Bang!!

The researcher’s body twitched before going still.

"Aren’t you being a bit too cruel?” Kouna asked, frowning.

"Do they deserve mercy?" Davey retorted.

"If you keep doing this, you’ll become just…”

"Don’t even try to say that I’ll be no different,” he warned coldly. "Don’t do something you’ll regret.”

Kouna fell silent at his sharp tone.

"I’m no moralist or saint.”

"Aren’t you literally a Saint, though?"

"Quiet. Just focus on what I say. You’ve seen their research logs—you know exactly what kind of scum they are."

"But still..."

"What angers me most isn’t just their atrocities. It’s that they dared to misuse the power of the moon, Thanatos—the very force I used to save this world. So just do as I say and follow my lead.”

"So, what’s the plan for those that are running away…?"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"They’re not going to get anywhere. They can’t.”

Davey had stationed a massive black dragon to guard the facility entrance, then sealed any other potential escape routes with the power of the Time Spirit Altair. None of those on the run had the means to escape.

As he continued to eliminate those he found that resisted, he began to feel that handling each and every one of them individually was becoming troublesome.

With that thought, he pulled a card from the Heavenly Demon’s Card Album and tossed it into the air.

"Come forth."

Black mist coalesced, and three figures with ash-gray skin emerged from the shadows.

“Hahahaha!!!”

Their eerie laughter filled the room. They were manifestations of his soul that he summoned from a parallel world, where they had fought against Sleesia.

One wielded a bastard sword, another an axe, and the third a shamshir.

“Those are…?” Kouna asked.

“Take them all down. Kill anyone that resists."

The three figures turned their attention to Kouna without saying a word. The one holding the bastard sword frowned slightly, glancing between the two before turning to whisper inaudibly to its companions.

But it kept looking back and forth between Davey and Kouna.

“Hahahaha!!!”

The one with the bastard sword waved its pinky finger at Davey in a mocking gesture.

"You want me to cut that off for you?"

It quickly lowered its finger, retreating. Davey let it slide.

The second one, wielding the axe, strode toward Davey, and mouthed.

‘You know what I want, right?’

Smack!!

"Know what, you idiot?" Davey growled, kicking it into a wall.

The third figure, the shamshir wielder, looked at him with a strange expression before approaching Kouna.

"Hold it right there,” Davey yelled. "If you keep disobeying me, I’ll make sure to kill you with my own hands.”

The shamshir wielder licked its tongue in disappointment, but still backed away obediently.

"Get moving, all of you," Davey commanded. "And you—get up."

The axe-wielder, seemingly unbothered by the fact that it had been slammed into a wall, casually dusted itself off and lumbered off to join the others.

"Ahhh! What the hell are these monsters?!"

"They're enemies! Kill them!"

“Yeah, pump them full of lead!"

The trio burst into maniacal laughter before charging forward with terrifying speed unbefitting of their chaotic demeanor.

They closed in within an instant, tanking the bullets that were trying to stop them with their bodies.

"Aaahhh!”

"Spare me! Please, spare me!!"

The one that had the bastard sword had tossed aside its sword and was wrestling a soldier to the ground.

Seeing this, Davey couldn’t help but mutter, “They’re absolute psychos..."

The three were formed from his soul, and were supposed to reflect him as a person. Yet, he couldn’t help but think that they had to be defective.

"Sorry about those three…”

"It’s... fine," she replied hesitantly.

“They really haven’t learned their lesson about messing with minors and ending up in handcuffs, have they…?”[1]

“Does Tionis have laws like that too?”

“In Tionis, early marriages sometimes happen as early as twelve or thirteen. Unofficially, there were even cases involving ten-year-olds.”

“…”

“But it’s more symbolic than anything else. Traditionally, the obligations of marriage aren’t carried out until both parties are adults. In fact, engagements are more common than actual marriages.”

Tionis truly was different from Earth.

Ignoring the distant screams, Davey and Kouna continued downward, finally arriving at a heavily fortified area, almost as if designed to block any and all forms of entry.

However, it wasn’t just built to stop outsiders from getting in—it was clearly meant to prevent something inside from escaping. It resembled a prison cell.

Davey placed a hand on the reinforced door, closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them with a calm resolve. Without hesitation, he pulled out Red Ribbon and destroyed the entire wall.

A vast research laboratory lay before them, far larger and more complex than anything they had seen before. There were dozens of people who froze in place, staring nervously at Davey as he stepped through the shattered doorway. At the center of the room stood an enormous, enigmatic machine and a simple table.

On the table, a boy with sky-blue hair was restrained, with their arms and legs bound and strange syringes stabbed into their body.

“…”

It was exactly as described in the experiment logs.

“It’s even worse than I expected.”

Behemoth was a tyrant with a remarkably straightforward nature, so much so that it seemed as though it acted more than it thought—as if even its brain refused to lose any muscle from overthinking. For such a being to completely suppress its presence and mimic the form of a human was utterly beyond the bounds of common sense.

While it wasn’t impossible given its power, it was something Behemoth would never choose to do. Davey knew it’d rather die than willingly take on such a form.

[I do not listen to those inferior to me!]

This was a phrase Behemoth often uttered.

“Was that explosion just now your doing?” one of the researchers stabbing syringes into Behemoth asked.

Ignoring the question, he descended the steps into the room. Unlike the others, the boy was composed. They simply stared at Davey with an unreadable expression.

“So, you’ve come after all,” said the boy with sky-blue hair. The researcher nodded at their words, as if suddenly understanding what they meant.

“I see now. So that’s where you disappeared to… You decided to join forces with a human from another dimension,” the researcher said.

In response, Davey lifted the face blindness spell and stepped slowly into the room.

“I was looking for him,” he said while pointing to Behemoth.

“We were aware,” the researcher replied with a slight shrug. “Your meddling truly knows no bounds.”

“It’s nothing personal; I’ve got my reasons,” Davey replied casually. “So, how exactly did you rope Behemoth into all this? Have you finished whatever it is you’re trying to do?”

The researcher scoffed in response. “Indeed. We’ve just made an extraordinary discovery. And don’t bother trying to stop us—all the data is being backed up in real time. Even if this entire facility is destroyed, you won’t be able to erase it.”

While he was able to speak confidently, the other researchers instead seemed tense.

“So, you want to team up with Behemoth now and take everything we’ve worked on?” the researcher asked.

“That’s really not my intention,” Davey replied.

The man chuckled. “I thought so. Not unexpected. Tell me, though, do you know how deep underwater this facility is?”

“No idea. Pretty deep, I’d guess.”

“Six hundred meters. Mana is truly incredible, isn’t it? It allows us to make the impossible possible.”

Six hundred meters. Although it didn’t seem like much, Davey knew how extraordinarily deep it was.

“What’s your point?” he prompted.

“At this depth, no Awakened individual could possibly hope to make it back to the surface alive,” the researcher said smugly.

The other researchers’ eyes widened in alarm.

“Director! Surely you’re not—” one of them shouted in panic.

Ignoring them, the director took out a device from his pocket and pressed a button without hesitation.

Beep!!

“Even if Behemoth alone goes on a rampage, he might only kill everyone else here,” the director muttered. “But to also have the Saint of Tionis here? How cruel the heavens are.”

Davey narrowed his eyes. “You’re Korean?”

“You couldn’t tell?”

“How many nations are involved in this?”

“Nations…? We operate beyond such petty boundaries. We are something far greater. But why aren’t you asking why we’re operating like this?”

Before saying anything, Davey pointed to the walls. “Why would I ask when it’s so obvious? You all are probably working behind these walls because it’s not something you can do officially.”

The director made an eerie smile at his response.

"R-Run!!”

"No!! I don’t want to die!"

Boom!!!

Accompanied by the terrified screams of the researchers, the silent countdown ended and a massive explosion finally erupted along the walls. The blast directly swallowed up numerous researchers and completely obliterated the thick, sturdy walls.

At a depth of six hundred meters below ground level, the destruction of the facility’s walls could have only one possible desired outcome—the director clearly intended to forever sink both himself and Davey in the sea.

He had swiftly and decisively chosen such an end—he was now able to protect their data and eliminate every trace of their research.

But there was one thing he hadn’t accounted for.

"W-What the hell…?"

"Well, I took some precautions before coming in here—you’re not the only one who doesn’t want their presence known, after all.”

The surviving researchers stared in disbelief. There was a massive hole in the wall of the facility. However, instead of seawater flowing inside, not a single drop entered the facility.

"What… What is going on?!"

"Oh, it’s nothing too complicated. I just used a bit of magic to stop time in the space around the hole. Water can’t flow into a place where time itself has frozen."

He was, of course, correct—in a space where time was halted, any type of movement was impossible. While this wasn’t what he had intended to use Altair’s power for, it worked perfectly in this situation.

"You guys can fix that later if you want. Oh, and don’t bother trying to contact anyone. Just like the water, all electromagnetic waves are frozen still too. You’re completely cut off."

"Ugh?! Y-You monster…" the director muttered, grinding his teeth.

It only made sense, considering Davey had done something beyond his logic as if it were no problem at all.

Whilst all of this was happening, Behemoth shattered the restraints binding it. Without hesitation, it grabbed the nearest researcher by the neck and lifted them off the ground.

"Ga… GAAA?!”

"You heard him, didn’t you?" Behemoth growled.

"B-Behe… Behemoth…"

"Don’t you dare speak my name with that filthy mouth, you insignificant creature.”

Thud!!

Behemoth let out a devastating surge of presence, forcing everyone into silence.

"I’ve waited so long for this day. I’ve been longing for the moment I tear each and every one of you to pieces.”

To the researchers, the entire situation had become nothing short of a nightmare. Not only was Behemoth running on a rampage a problem itself, but every method they had to control it had been neutralized. With the shackles gone, they had no means to stop it.

They all knew they weren’t going to have a peaceful death anymore. With everyone frozen in fear, Behemoth glared at the man in its grasp.

"Tell me, mere creature. How would you like to die?"

"He… Hehe… Why… bother… asking me…?"

Hearing him laugh, Davey let out a sigh and walked forward. Sunken into despair, no one dared to impede him. He looked at Behemoth, who gripped the man even harder with the smile of a victor, befitting an apex predator.

To the researchers, Behemoth alone was a living nightmare, but with Davey in the mix, they felt like they were witnessing an apocalypse. Yet, Behemoth focused solely on its target, seemingly trusting Davey.

Although it had taken the form of a small boy, it was still the enormous Tyrant of the Undersea at heart.

"Hm? Hold on a second,” the researcher said. "I’ll handle the extraction of the information you need instead…”

“No. Before that…”

The researcher turned his head toward Davey. Before Behemoth could make a move, Davey grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him backward. Behemoth made a confused face, not understanding why he was stopping it.

Davey smiled back and said, “Looks like you’ve got some good healthcare down here, huh? How dare you trick me and run away?”

He was aware that he had to eventually take care of the researchers who took advantage of Thanatos and broke taboos.

But still, there were things he had to take care of first.

"Wait, what are you—"

Pow!

Faster than Behemoth’s reaction time, Davey punched it in the stomach, making its body seemingly float in mid air for a second. He then kicked it, sending it flying toward the hole in the wall and beyond the time freeze barrier.

But Davey knew it wouldn’t die from that. In fact, Behemoth returned moments later, but its face was a mix of pain and bewilderment as if the kick had really done some damage.

"Human! What the hell are you—"

"Shut up and come here, you bastard!" Davey said.

He flicked three strands of hair that he had plucked ahead of time into the air. Each of them transformed into an exact copy of himself.

What happened afterward shocked everyone in the room.

As Behemoth stumbled back, Davey knocked it down to the ground before he and his copies ganged up on it.

Wham! Wham! Wham!

"You little—!"

"How dare you—”

"Trick ME? Huh?!”

Behemoth, unable to rise, helplessly writhed on the floor. The only sounds in the laboratory were the heavy thuds echoing throughout.

“You bastard! Hah!”

“I’m going to sashimi you today, you got that?!”

“Freakin’ die, would you!”

The researchers were dumbstruck by the absurd scene, having thought Davey and Behemoth were on the same side. But as the kicking continued, some began to question their conclusion.

"P-Please… Wait!" Behemoth begged.

"Wait? Oh, I’ll make you wait, alright," Davey growled, grabbing Behemoth by the leg and dragging it back. He didn’t even give it the time to revert back to its original form.

He threw it to the ground again and continued the punishment.

Wham! Wham! Wham!

"Owwww!! Stop it! It hurts! It hurts!!" Behemoth cried.

"It’s supposed to hurt, you moron!"

The brutal beating was enough to evoke pity in anyone who watched.

The once-dominant Behemoth, a being of overwhelming presence, lay on the ground stripped of all dignity. As Davey brushed off his hands, his copies dissipated into smoke.

Behemoth fainted on the spot.

Behemoth—one of the three Mythical Beast Kings and by far the one with the toughest endurance—was now unconscious.

"Hey, did you pass out?” Davey asked.

It obviously didn’t reply. But the fact that he had asked if it passed out at all shocked the researchers.

While Behemoth may have looked human, the idea of someone reducing it to this state was beyond belief. Of course, none of that mattered to Davey. He was simply doing what he had to do.

“Gaa! Grrraaa! W-Wait! I was wrong!! Gaaa! Please, just this once—spare me!! Agh! Stop it! Stop!”

As it continued to let out another round of pitiful cries and helplessly struggle, Davey continued to punish it. Eventually, finally feeling satisfied, he paused and grabbed it by the collar.

"I’ll let it slide this time. But if you try pulling anything like that on me again..."

"..."

"I’ll really beat you up until you die.”

He didn’t get a response. It only made sense, considering unconscious beings—one repeatedly rendered unconscious, in fact—couldn’t reply. Thanks to this, one of the researchers who Behemoth let go managed to buy a little more time to live. Though, judging by his pained grimace, its throttling had left its mark.

"Cough! Did… Did you just save me?" the researcher asked, still struggling to catch his breath.

"..."

"I see. A snap decision under dire circumstances, I suppose. After all, we’re both humans in the end—"

"Both humans? Bullshit.”

Without another word, he firmly grasped the researcher’s head.

"Tell me what you know.”

"..."

"Actually, forget it. There’s no need for you to tell me.”

[Fire of Interrogation]

Crackle.

Black flames flickered to life at his fingertips. The researcher was woefully unaware of the hell he would be going through.

* * *

Boom! Thud!!

Illyna sliced through the air with her sword, completely shattering a massive steel door in an instant. Following her lead, Perserque walked forward, slowly pulling the long hairpin from her ponytail and twirling it between her fingers.

Zzzt!!

The hairpin transformed into an ornate staff, crackling with demonic force.

"Perserque, this looks like the place.”

Ting! Ting!

Bullets struck an invisible barrier, only to fall to the ground afterward. Despite their speed, Perserque remained utterly calm, showing no hint of concern.

"Seems so. What’s the point of them resisting?”

1. Korean reference/metaphor for talking shit and getting hit or the evil being punished—Davey’s ghost-selves haven’t engaged in such actions. ☜

ChubbyCheeks & FriedNook's Thoughts

Editorb’s Thoughts

Davey at a music festival: