The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 754

The severely injured Perserque struggled to raise her hand and reach out for Rinne.

“Impossible... You were obviously extinguished after accepting Goddess Freyja’s power—how could you still be alive?” Katshi asked.

Rinne’s eyes shifted as she floated in the air with her head bowed. When she raised her head, her eyes glowed brightly as if there were a comet tail following every flutter of her eyes, pairing well with her hair’s similar glow. Her hair that was previously tied in a loose pigtail grew as the blue glow darkened, eventually reaching all the way down to her calves.

“The Goddess of the Battlefield...” Katshi murmured bitterly. “Everything was going according to plan, I never expected that I would be tied up here... This is bad.”

Vwoooong! Bang!!!

The clear and crisp sound of metal hitting metal rang in the area as Rinne swung the spear in her hands, suddenly disappearing mid-swing.

“Keok?!”

When she appeared again, the spear in her hands, having turned white from high heat, had pierced through Katshi’s abdomen.

“The Spear that Melts the Scale...”

Katshi felt himself swaying in the air as the hot spear impaling him was lifted. He spat out a mouthful of blood from the sudden attack, but was still somewhat able to move. With a wave of his hand, black spears appeared in the air and shot straight toward Rinne.

But the black spears didn’t manage to reach her, the flames carrying ultra-high temperatures easily melting them. These flames were created by the Spear that Melts the Scale and its aftermath. The spear was so hot that it could burn the air in the surrounding area—even the sand beneath them had melted and turned into glass from the excessively high temperatures.

Rinne spun the blazing spear, and Katshi along with it, before throwing him away like a rag.

“Keheok!!! Urk!”

Energy began to gather in Rinne’s hands, on another level compared to what she could normally use. Not long after, the particles of energy gathering in her hands burst. With a flutter of her wings, a strange device suddenly appeared right behind them.

Shiiiiiiing!!!

Then a beam of light shot out and flew toward Katshi, looking as if it had been refracted by Rinne’s wings.

Boom!!! Bang!!!

The earth split and the ground bled as the deafening roar resounded all throughout the area. Katshi ripped his now ragged and messed up top as he slowly got up from the melted ground. Rinne looked at him with her familiar machine-like expression, the tip of her spear pointed at him. The two remained silent as they looked at each other for a while.

The first to break eye contact was Rinne. She approached Perserque, who was lying down on the ground, and silently placed her hand on her body. Then, surprisingly enough, a dense amount of energy surrounded Perserque and formed a white protective curtain.

“Nothing will change. She’s beyond saving.”

“...”

Rinne remained silent despite Katshi’s provocation. However, it was not as if she did not respond—her six wings flapped and shot out a piercing bright light toward Katshi.

Katshi immediately turned into a gigantic grotesque monster and hurriedly gathered a dark purple energy to resist the attack.

Bang!!!

The aftermath created by the collision of the two beings created by the God of Harmony and Balance Neltarid was disastrous. Rinne fired hundreds of rays of particle lights while Katshi evaded. The surroundings became increasingly devastated as the two catastrophic beings mercilessly fought.

Vwoooong!!!

Not long after, Rinne raised the Spear that Melts the Scale. The particles of light gathered at the tip of her spear and shot to the sky. Katshi, who was standing on the melted ground, twisted the space around himself and turned illusion into reality as he created countless black spears surrounding him.

“A battle between dark and light... This is interesting.” His voice sounded heavy and scratchy.

The forces created by Rinne and Katshi clashed in the blink of an eye, the devastating aftermath extending even further and showing no mercy for whoever or whatever was in their path.

***

Katshi was hailed as Neltarid’s Strength and was ranked number one among all of the Malicious Spirits. But now? He was sporting a completely contradictory appearance, blood dripping down from the huge gashes littering his enormous body. On the other hand, there was no sign of injury or trauma on Rinne’s body.

“Ha... It seems like you have recovered enough so that you can assess and repair any damage, huh?” Katshi muttered, a vicious glint appearing in his eyes.

“But that is your limit. My plan has already succeeded—now that Thanatos’ Incarnation has become like this, there is no reason for me to stay here any longer,” Katshi said, his tone calm as he grabbed one of the black spears on the ground.

“Still, I am not happy to know that you are alive. How dare you use the power given to us by the Creator when you have betrayed him?!”

A black stream of energy appeared on the ground as his words ended, spreading out into dozens of branches which then got pulled up off the ground before slowly seeping into Katshi’s body. The energy was obviously very dangerous.

What was Katshi planning?

He planned to kill Rinne before leaving.

Rinne, seeing the scene unfolding in front of her, gathered particles of light in her hands once again while she retrieved the silver Spear that Melts the Scale. Then she opened her mouth slowly and said, “No... more...”

She opened her eyes with great difficulty, a blue light flashing in her eyes.

“I can no longer let this meaningless war continue.”

“Is that so? But what can you do? Even if I’m in a state of exhaustion because of that damned ancient dragon, your chances of beating me right here and now are still slim to none.”

Thud!!!

Rinne staggered on her feet when she tried to raise her spear. The geometric pattern that had been spinning wildly behind her had slowed down, and even the glow on her wings seemed to have faded. Although she looked unscathed, she had actually suffered severe damage from the clash earlier.

“You want to stop me? You and what army?”

Rinne remained silent.

“I, on the other hand, have prepared a lot for this battle.”

Rip!

With a wave of Katshi’s hand, the space around him was torn apart. Then, something black twisted and squeezed out of that space. It soon condensed into the form of a black knight.

As the distorted space widened, more black knights poured out in large numbers. By the time it was done, they had already circled around Rinne.

“This is the Plague Army created by my Atlantis kin, Olga. He split his power in the past and left some for me to use.”

Rinne was already having a hard time fighting against Katshi. If this huge army joined in, then the results of the battle would be as clear as day.

“Pay... the price for your sin,” Rinne spoke with great difficulty as she spun the spear in her hands before stabbing it straight into the ground.

Bang!!!

She was besieged. The number of black knights that were ready to pounce on her was overwhelming—they not only filled the ground but almost filled the sky too.

Crackle!

Rinne’s body shook once as sparks appeared on a portion of her body. It seemed like her body, which could not withstand being ravaged by an enormous power, started to fail.

“Is this already your limit?” Katshi said, his tone dripping with disdain.

Rinne closed her eyes. “Davey...”

“You can’t even open your mouth to talk properly.”

“Master Davey’s orders... Rinne’s priority... Protect... ritual...” Smoke started to seep from her body as she spoke with great difficulty. “Protect... Miss Per... Orders about protecting Rinne’s life... none.”

Carrying out the orders that were given to her was more than enough for Rinne.

At that moment, one of Rinne’s pupils glowed red. Despite the error messages constantly scrolling past that pupil, Rinne continued to draw out the power within. Sparks soon began to appear, covering the body of the spear she had stabbed into the ground in front of her. It then trembled and released a bright, blinding light.

The light robbed everyone of their vision for a moment. When it finally disappeared, Katshi, who had raised his arm to protect his eyes, couldn’t help but stare at Rinne with his open jaw almost touching the ground.

Nothing much had changed in her. But...

Thud!!!

Her surroundings had changed. The black knights surrounding her collapsed one after another as they were pierced by the blinding light. Then, accompanying the blinding beam of light that she created, a being with white wings on their back and wearing full plate armor slowly appeared.

The stunned Katshi shouted, “Battle Maiden Summons?!”

Thud!!! Thud!!! Thud!!!

At that moment, dozens of beams of light fell down from the sky, the black knights that swarmed the area disintegrating into nothingness. Although it might look like it was nothing but an ordinary bombing of attacks, the reality of its power was the inverse.

The beings wearing full plate armor, having appeared alongside the beams of light, slowly stood up from the ground. They lined up neatly with halberds in hand, surrounding Rinne.

Among the three absolute races created by Neltarid, the Valkyrie and the Atlantis races were the judgment unit. As for the Sephiroth race? They were hailed as God’s Blade before their disappearance. The same applied to the original Rinne, who had also died and disappeared.

But Rinne was able to summon her kin through these beams of light. No, it wasn’t exactly a summoning—it was more like she created them immediately on the spot.

“A one-man race... What a ridiculous power.”

From one to two to a dozen, then to a hundred. The army of light lined up around Rinne and raised their halberds high in confrontation with the sea of black knights. With each beam of light falling from the sky, the light shining from Rinne’s wings glowed even brighter. At this point, it looked like the final light of a setting sun.

The Sephiroth race was uniquely bizarre. Sephiroth was a name that applied to her, but it was also a word that referred to countless blades. As long as she could release her power, then the Sephiroth race would never go extinct. This also meant that her race’s existence depended solely upon her.

Letters spun swiftly in Rinne’s pupils as she created hundreds of light knights. Her pupil that had turned red slowly took on a golden hue before returning to its original blue color.

She raised her spear and pointed it toward Katshi and his black knights, speaking words unlike any she had said before.

“Elder Brain Rinne issues your command.”

[Slaughter the enemies.]

The light knights swung their weapons in unison upon hearing her machine-like voice. They moved as if they were performing a sword dance. They soon gathered energy at the tip of their weapons and pointed it at Katshi and his sea of black knights.

Clang!!!

Then, the two sides charged toward each other and clashed fiercely.

“Hmph! No matter how lethal your powers are, the outcome of this battle will remain the same. I want to see how horrified the angels of that arrogant Judgment Unit are,” Katshi muttered, his voice eerie and terrifying. He then shifted into his monster form and slammed his tail on the ground.

“We will win this war, no matter what it takes. Just tear everything apart.”

At the eerie sound of his voice, the black knights charged toward Rinne’s White Wings’ angels. The situation was dire, but just when the two forces were about to clash against each other, light appeared in the space between them and took the form of a man.

Rinne and Katshi could not help but stare in shock at the man who had suddenly appeared on the battlefield. The unkempt black hair paired with a rough and shaggy beard made the man look sickly, but his quiet and calm eyes were enough to make the two feel horrified.

“Hmm... Shall we get this sorted out?”

Even in this situation, where everything was ready to go off at any moment, the man leisurely grabbed the gourd hanging on his waist and took a swig of liquor.

“Hic! Goodness, I’m too drunk. Anyway, a promise is a promise. So, at least once...” The man murmured as he shook his head.

Seeing him like this, Rinne could not help but move in a hurry to evacuate him from the battlefield. Where the hell did this man come from? As long as Davey wanted to protect the humans, she could not let an innocent human being get caught up in the battle and die just like that.

Just when Rinne was about to snatch the man and run away, the man tilted up the gourd in his hands and finished up all of the alcohol inside. Then, he threw away the empty gourd and pulled out the old hwando hanging on his waist.

“Hic!”

He twirled his sword with familiar ease as he calmly gazed upon the sea of black knights.

[Demonic Sword 88th Form]

Everything twisted and turned. Even the heavens and the earth were reversed as the flowing water was cut off. An incomprehensible sword energy took over the area with a slight hum from the drunken man.

Rinne could not help but look at the scene in shock when the light finally disappeared. The man obviously looked like an ordinary drunk. She already wasn’t able to understand why this human appeared in this place, yet the situation that appeared right after the man swung his hwando made her even more confused.

The battle, which looked like it would devastate the entire area if the two sides truly went at each other, ended in just an instant. None of the reinforced black knights that Katshi had summoned were left—even Katshi was not spared from damage.

After sweeping away these powerful beings with a single swing of his sword, the man twirled his old hwando before roughly pushing it back into its leather sheath.

“What’s the point of being greedy with life? Hic! Just enjoy it and go! Even a goddess will not be forgiven for calling back someone who has already died,” the man said to no one in particular as he disappeared like dust scattering in the air.

No matter how weak Katshi has become, it was still difficult for Rinne to stand a chance against him. After all, she had only just awakened—Rinne was essentially already prepared to die. But the situation in front of her went beyond not only hers but also the others’ expectations.

Rinne looked blankly in the direction where the man had disappeared, having just witnessed such an absurd and ridiculous scene.

“Keok?!”

Not long after, Katshi twitched and blood spurted from his body as he collapsed to the ground.