The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 818

“Arrogant bastards.”

A man of impressive physique with tanned skin was standing protectively by her side.

“E-Emperor...”

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. But you must be ready to pay the price.”

Emperor Contas. Without hesitation, he cut down the strange beings that had ambushed the conference hall.

Across the Eastern Continent, an unsettling event was sweeping the land. Monsters clad in gray, fortress-like armor appeared in droves, destroying everything in their path. They left black swamps in their wake, spreading a disaster that had first struck the city-states and then progressed to creeping across the entire continent.

“Shit!! Get out of the way! If that swamp touches you, you’re doomed!”

The situation was just as dire in the far corners of the continent.

“Alyssa!” a voice called.

“I know!” Alyssa Patrick frowned and gritted her teeth, fending off a humanoid attacking her fiercely. She was a young lady of a noble family, following her orders from the Pallan Empire to protect Illyna.

In fact, she had joined the Alpha Reinforcement Order with Illyna and even served together with her.

“Her Majesty... Where have you gone?” Alyssa muttered.

She had lost all contact with Illyna, with no idea what had happened to her.

“Move! If we let them spread, the swamp will keep growing!” yelled Basara, a guardian of the knight alliance Last Wisp.

The fighters of the Alpha Reinforcement Order then gathered the armored enemy knights into a single area, suppressing them with coordinated attacks. They had recently discovered that the knights turned their surrounding area into a swamp upon death or the accomplishment of their goal. Stopping the source of the swamp’s creation was found to be impossible. Their only solution was to gather the soon-to-be swamps together and eliminate them all at once to minimize their spread.

The monsters’ presence ate away at their surroundings, appearing as if the very world was collapsing before the members’ eyes.

“There’s no difference between the East, Central, or Western lands. Everywhere’s the same,” remarked Hegg, a fellow knight and Alyssa’s fellow student from the Knight Class of 268, as she threw a giant armored soldier to fend off a knight.

The world was teetering on the brink of catastrophe. The knights knew they had to defend the fronts, but their own situation was dire, only making the situation worse.

“What is happening in this damn world...”

“Dear Daphne, help us to face the trials ahead of us. Give us the courage to move forward...” Lucia Shelman, a devout follower of Daphne, clasped her hands together and prayed in an effort to hold herself together amidst the chaos.

“Has Davey gotten back to you yet?” Hegg asked, turning to Alyssa.

“No. It’s as if he’s vanished from this world, just like the princess.”

Hegg frowned. She thought Davey would be able to tell them what was going on, but she realized that this thought itself already made them extremely dependent on him.

She couldn’t help but feel bitter about the whole situation.

Meanwhile, the space Davey was in finally aligned with the real world’s timeline.

* * *

Rumble!! Boom!!

A massive explosion echoed as an enormous arm crashed to the ground.

Davey swung his sword, imbued with the power to skip through time, and sliced the arm without giving the giant a chance to even defend.

‘So this is the power of time Red Ribbon gained,’ Davey thought.

Her power felt like the authority of a sword, almost akin to that of a divine sword—not vitality. But then, he thought it could be the power of Arbit, the mediator of sand and the ancient dragon of time. Whatever it was, the nature of the power didn’t matter; what mattered was its immense strength. Once an opponent was within her power’s range, the distance may as well be zero.

Gooo...

The monster knight made an eerie cry and slammed their foot into the ground, shaking the earth with such force that the air itself seemed to tremble. Their eyes were glowing even brighter with fury.

Davey instinctively sensed something amiss and swung Blue Ribbon, sending her blade energy toward the knight. But unlike Red Ribbon, Blue Ribbon hadn’t gained the same power of skipping through time. In fact, her blade energy shattered upon contact with the giant, barely leaving a scratch.

‘What the hell...? I manifested the same authority of time on her, yet no changes? Did I fail? That can’t be possible, right?!’

He and Surtr had poured their blood, sweat, and tears into Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon. He knew they understood each other perfectly and were in such synchronization that failure wasn’t even a possibility.

Nonetheless, Blue Ribbon’s blade energy somehow hadn\'t inflicted any damage to the giant, and simply dissipated.

Just as he began to question what had gone wrong, the giant knight’s glowing eyes flashed ominously.

Shine!!

A split second later, red beams shot out from their eyes.

Zap!!

But then something amazing happened. Just as the beams were making their way to Davey, they were suddenly cut off.

‘I didn’t do anything... What just happened?’

As Davey frowned at the unexpected change, a sudden realization struck him.

‘Don’t tell me...’

After organizing his thoughts, he tightened his grip on Blue Ribbon and manifested her authority of time to unleash another wave of blue blade energy.

Whoosh!!

And just like previously, her blade energy didn’t do anything to the giant.

But—

Slice!!

It once again sliced the giant’s laser shot.

‘Residual blade energy...’

Davey finally realized what Blue Ribbon had gained from Arbit’s authority. It didn’t cause direct damage, but rather created an area of influence. Within this area, her blade energy persisted and cut down any non-physical laws that came into effect.

‘This is insane. Absurd.’

He was already pleased that the two already-overpowered children had grown even stronger, but he hadn’t realized just how incredibly powerful Arbit’s dragon heart was. He figured Eclipse, who had lived for nearly ten thousand years, wouldn’t be comparable to Arbit who had survived over thirty thousand years in the Red Void. In hindsight, he supposed this was a natural outcome for such an ancient being.

After their attacks were completely neutralized, the enormous knight moved again. The power they exerted, given their immense size, defied the laws of physics, but it didn’t matter. The bigger they were, the more surface area Davey had to slash at.

Swish! Swish!!

Davey slashed the surroundings with Blue Ribbon and cut the giant with Red Ribbon. As he saw the giant collapse in an instant, he levitated Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon in the air and brought his hands together.

[Transcendental Qi Dark Magic]

[Swamp of Karma]

A swamp materialized in midair, swallowing the falling debris from the knight. It was a high-level magic that the Death Lord had once used to stop a falling meteorite. Despite not being the creator, it was no surprise that Davey wielded it effortlessly as if it were second nature to him.

After swiftly eliminating the massive gray knight, the collapse of the world stopped. Even so, Davey\'s expression remained tense.

"Wow, those are overpowered as hell.”

“Those shouldn’t be allowed. It’s just unfair.”

“Surtr, why didn’t you make me something like that too?”

“My ass. If you want to make something like that, gather the ingredients and learn from me. Then you can make it yourself.”

“And that’ll take what? A couple of thousand years? Keke.”

“There we go.”

Davey finally heard the familiar voices of the heroes.

“Where were you all?” Davey asked.

“We were watching you handle things,” one of the heroes said.

Davey figured they had left the work to him on purpose, as he knew they could’ve easily taken care of the giant if they wanted to. But he was certain that if it weren’t for the gray knight, he might’ve not been able to fully grasp the new powers Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon obtained.

Though he had tried to eliminate all the fragments of the giant that dropped to the ground and caused the earth to quake, he wasn’t able to completely stop the giant’s whole body.

“This is...”

At the spot where the fragments had fallen, black swamps were beginning to take shape.

“Thanatos’s Swamp...”

Davey realized this meant the gray knight wasn’t the work of the heroes, but of Thanatos. He wondered what her ultimate goal was by doing this. It was at least clear she was scheming, trying to spread these swamps across the world since she wasn’t in the position to show up herself.

But the real question was how she had managed to breach this space.

“The answer’s simple. Thanatos synced the time flow between this space and Tionis to be the same. That’s how she, as a god, was able to interfere,” Daphne explained.

“What can’t she do?” Davey asked.

“Like I’d know,” Daphne shrugged. “But you’ve got about a day before anything else happens. Sorry for pulling you into this while you were busy. Go back to what you were doing. Rho Aias restored the space, so don’t worry about the swamp here.”

Davey sighed at her words and started walking back. After sheathing Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, he turned to the Saintess’s Sanctuary. Inside, Illyna and Aeria were waiting dressed only in nightgowns. Perserque and Rinne had also arrived after hearing the disturbance.

“What happened?”

“It’s no big deal. Thanatos just pulled some idiotic stunt,” Davey answered nonchalantly, though he knew the implications of her interference were serious. He knew that if she was meddling here, the situation outside was likely dire.

"Then..."

Just as her tone implied, there would likely be no more passionate wedding night for them. The attack was surely a party-pooping experience for both Illyna and Aeria, who had been half-nervous and half-excited.

"I’m so annoyed..." Illyna muttered, her frustration evident.

“A-At least no one was hurt. When I saw that giant knight, my legs nearly gave out...”

It appeared Illyna had been supporting Aeria.

"It\'s alright. It probably wasn’t easy for Thanatos to cause a ruckus like this either.”

With that, he went back inside the room and they followed him.,

"We did get disrupted midway, but it\'s all resolved now.”

‘I never thought I’d fight in my nightgown,’ he thought.

Feeling complicated emotions, he sat down and poured himself a glass of wine. The ground that had split open moments ago was now completely restored, thanks to Rho Aias. It was a godly ability, though all the heroes here had the power to manifest and reshape things according to their will.

That was their authority.

They were like the devs of an online game. In fact, rumors said they were in fact the moderators of this space.

The atmosphere was a bit off due to the earlier chaos, but after drinking some wine, Davey felt like the room was going back to the mood before.

“I... I want a drink too!” Illyna said as the atmosphere turned back to the awkward mood from earlier.

She quickly downed the drink. Most of the alcohol in the room was incredibly strong, and her face soon became flushed as the alcohol took effect. After forcing down a few more drinks, her face turned as red as an apple.

“Hehe... Daveyy...” she slurred.

True to her nature as being the most affectionate of the three, she took advantage of being drunk and went up to Davey to kiss him.

“I love you,” she whispered, her cold eyes now soft as she gazed up at him.

Aeria, seeing her in his arms with eyes full of bliss, wasn’t sure what to do. Slowly, Davey lifted Illyna and gently laid her on the bed. He then picked up Aeria and placed her beside Illyna.

“You can leave the fun to me. I’m not exactly inexperienced.”

“Pervert.”

Her pout made Davey chuckle.

Just as he reached for Illyna’s nightgown—

Boom!!

A thunderous noise echoed once again. This time, it was even louder than before.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me...” Davey’s face twisted in frustration.

‘How dare you interrupt me at such a crucial moment?!! Whoever it is clearly has no sense of decency or respect for night time!

But then, he stopped for a second.

“Davey?”

“Sorry, wait just a moment. I’ll go deal with the damn nuisance and be right back.”

Rage boiled inside him. He hadn’t felt this kind of anger in a long time. It didn’t matter if they were an enemy—attacking at a time like this was unforgivable.

Davey drew Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon before fusing them together, creating a massive longsword that gleamed with a blue-red light. The two swords combined to form Super Ribbon. They also pulsed with overwhelming power as if she was feeling the same way as Davey.

Every second was precious to him right now. In this world where time flowed in sync with the outside world, his fury toward Thanatos, who had left him no room to breathe, burned violently.

Just then, a black fog gathered in front of him, staring him down.

[Come forth. I will tear you apart with my own hands—]

“Hey.”

Davey cut off Thanatos, who had manifested her will and was spewing rage.

“You... don’t have any decency at all, do you, you bastard?!”

He didn’t care what Thanatos had come to say. The fact that she had interrupted was enough for him to kill her.

In an instant, Davey slashed Thanatos\' form with Super Ribbon.

[Urgh?! You insolent bastard!!]

“I never said I’d let you finish your monologue.”

As Davey slashed Thanatos’ manifested will, her consciousness began to dissipate.

[Heh... heh heh... Fine. Keep acting all high and mighty. While you\'re busy here, everything you’ve fought to protect in Freyja’s domain will be completely destroyed.]

Freyja’s domain... She was talking about Tionis.

With those final words, Thanatos disappeared, leaving Davey staring blankly into the empty space. He let out a sigh. The thunderous noise and tremors finally disappeared. Thanatos\' interference had ended.

Trying to salvage the mood, Davey grabbed a wine glass in one hand and roughly gulped it down, ready to focus back on the two women.

But just as he was about to—

Boom!!

“You’ve got to be FUCKING kidding me!!!”

1. The country isn\'t actually the Ming Dynasty, but this is from how Ming is one of the ancient Chinese Dynasties. And, in the past, the Chinese believed that their emperor was the son of heaven. ☜