The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1064

Davey’s opinion of Goddess Freyja wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. In fact, he’d clashed with her more times than he could count, at one point even seriously considering smacking her upside the head.

Yet human emotions worked in mysterious ways. Watching someone else harbor ill intent toward her made him feel weird. It was like witnessing someone insult a member of his own family right in front of him. In fact, when he saw the knight trying to lay a rough hand on her, Davey had barely restrained himself from dropping a meteor on the entire area.

“Absolutely not, you bastard.” Davey crushed the already charred knight underfoot—the same bastard who’d dared to reach for her dress.

Her beautiful appearance didn't exactly give off the rugged vibes of an experienced adventurer, so it wasn’t all that surprising for something like that to happen, especially given the situation.

Crunch! Crack!

Having destroyed all the restraints binding Goddess Freyja, Davey looked around at the previous positions of the warden and knights, since reduced to ashes by Prometheus. Some of them had even been Master-level individuals, and there were plenty of other powerful individuals among them. However, with the Curse of Versha weakening their resistance, and a high-tier 8th Circle spell thrown into the mix, they stood no chance at withstanding his power.

Leaving the collapsed bodies behind, Davey rubbed his wrist and spoke to the absurd God of Creation slowly rising to Her feet, “If I hadn’t stepped in, you would've been screwed.”

Boom!! Crash!!

Drawn by the earlier explosions, the sound of heavy footsteps came rushing down.

Davey pulled a small cat mask from his Pocket Plane and slipped it over his face as he spoke, “You said you were going to die. Don’t tell me... were those bastards actually planning to assault you?”

She silently closed her eyes, but soon after, she shook her head as if to say his concern was unfounded. That meant she was supposed to be killed for some other reason. Nonetheless, what mattered in that moment was that she survived.

“Gordon?!”

“How was Gordon...?! That bastard! It’s him!!”

“That bastard killed Gordon!”

Davey sensed multiple Master-level presences approaching. Three of them, in fact. Far stronger than he’d anticipated.

“The entire Rowane Kingdom only has three Swordmasters total, but here are so many.”

Even the great Lyndis Empire didn’t have that many Masters running around.

“Well, half of them seem juiced up on enhancements, though,” Davey said as he drew his weapon and faced the ones coming toward him. “With a place like this hidden beneath the chancellor’s mansion, he better not act like he didn’t know anything.”

“Identify yourself! Are you one of the rebels?!”

They thought Davey was part of the resistance that had instigated the rebellion, but he didn’t even bother answering. Instead, he asked a question of his own. “There’s just one thing I want to confirm.”

Their brows furrowed in response.

“Shut up! Answer my—”

“Look at me,” Davey cut them off, his crimson eyes glowing faintly.

Only then did they seem to notice that Gordon’s death made no sense, considering Davey had no detectable mana. They fell silent.

“I ask the questions, you answer. Got it?”

“W-Who the hell are you?!”

Boom!!!

An immaterial bullet of air blew up the head of the knight questioning his identity. The rest of them visibly began paling with anxiety and fear. It was only natural for them to be terrified, after watching one of their comrades get killed before they could even react.

Of course, not all of them were paralyzed by fear. Some were instead overtaken by rage.

“Veslin, you bastard!!!”

Another loud crash echoed out as the man who lunged at Davey quickly collapsed to the ground.

Davey had completely shattered his sword with an enhanced punch, far beyond the level of simple fist energy. He closed in on him like a serpent, grabbing the man by the neck and slamming him into the ground.

The overwhelming difference in power left the rest speechless, and so no one else dared approach him.

“Do the servants in the mansion above us know about this place?”

None of them responded at first, but as soon as he let a bit of his overwhelming battle aura seep out, fear deepened across their faces.

“I asked you a question.”

“Y-Yes, they do.”

‘I see.’ Davey quietly closed his eyes.

That was all he had to hear. The only thing left to do was burn the entire estate to the ground.

When his aura shifted, one of the remaining knights muttered in a daze, “How the hell does the rebel faction have a monster like that on their side?”

“I’m not part of that resistance you’re talking about, bro. I’m just a traveler.”

Their faces went blank with disbelief.

“Y-You’re not with the resistance?”

“Do you even know who this person you kidnapped is?”

Only then did they shift their attention toward Goddess Freyja. To them, she looked like nothing more than a beautiful woman with the mana of a mere 5th Circle mage. They tried to guess her identity, but it was impossible for them to grasp the truth with their limited imagination.

“W-Who is she supposed to be?”

Boom!!

Another head exploded.

As Davey slowly approached the frozen men, he began forming an energy sword in his hand. Seeing the density of its power, they recoiled in terror. Unfortunately, they had long passed the time to run and get away.

“Since you don’t know, I guess you’ll have to be taught the hard way.”

“Aaagh!!”

“Aaaahhh!!”

Screams of pure agony echoed through the prison.

Once everyone had collapsed, Davey raised a hand toward the ceiling and blew another massive hole through it. Then, he launched a small orb of light into the air. The glowing orb shot up and began to spin violently, radiating intense heat.

Fwoosh!! Crack!!

Then, like a meteor shower, it began raining down upon the entire estate.

Boom!! Boom!!

The sounds of screams, the building collapsing, and raging flames filled the air.

A perverted devil and the heinous humans who’d sided with him. In the end, Davey didn’t care what kind of people they were. The fact that they had dared to lay a hand on Goddess Freyja was enough to make him want to reduce everyone even remotely involved to ash.

Once the mansion above crumbled, the underground prison began to tremble as well. Davey slowly scanned the surroundings and turned his gaze to the people inside the cells. They were those who had resisted the chancellor, or simply been caught in his crosshairs. In other words, victims.

While looking at them, Davey suddenly noticed a young girl staring back at him. She had brown hair and looked to be in her mid-teens, with a fierce expression.

“Still conscious, eh?”

He remembered her. When that bastard—either Red Scorpion or Red Centipede—had been captured, she’d been dragged off in cuffs right behind him.

Judging by the state she was in, he figured she must’ve been abused by the soldiers and knights since her arrival. Her clothes were torn nearly to shreds, and her body was covered in wounds and unidentifiable marks. All of that damage had been accrued in barely half a day.

“It’s a miracle you’re still sane.”

“Who... What are you?” she asked, as if she had seen exactly what Davey had done.

“No need for you to know,” he replied calmly before gently picking up Goddess Freyja, who was in a daze.

“Hey, you over there. You still look like you’re in one piece, so take the others and get them out of here.”

“But this dungeon is underground, and it looks like everything above us is getting destroyed.”

“So what? You think there’s no way out?” With that, Davey swung his energy sword.

The thick underground wall completely blew away, revealing a hole that led up to the outside. At the same time, the metal cuffs binding the girl shattered all at once.

“Get them out of here.”

“W-Wait!”

Ignoring her protest, Davey adjusted his hold on Goddess Freyja and lightly leapt up through the opening to return to the surface.

“Hey, Goddess Freyja,” he asked softly as she rested her head against his chest. “Why is it that even after everything I just did, the future doesn’t change?”

No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t make sense. Common sense told him an event like that would cause a massive ripple effect, yet she had told him otherwise. That meant even if Davey hadn’t intervened, something would’ve happened that brought the entire nation to ruin anyway.

‘Still, some kind of change should occur.’

She silently handed him a small notebook.

[Follow your heart, and act as my delegate to bring divine judgment upon this place.]

The meaning behind it was simple.

If Davey hadn’t stepped in, the humans who crossed the line and tried to violate a god—those who turned middle earth into a living hell—would’ve driven Goddess Freyja to the point that she’d have erased the country herself.

He felt a strange mix of emotions. He couldn’t fathom how much resentment, hatred, and sorrow had to come together for a primordial deity to hear a prayer and descend in person to punish an entire nation.

“In the end, the reason Arbute was destroyed... was you.”

She shook her head in response, then gently tugged on his cheek like she was toying with him before showing him another message in her notebook.

[It was the consequence of causality.]

The words shifted again.

[There is no such thing as an identical future.]

Every breath, every step, every decision. Everything a person did shaped the future in different ways. That was why Davey never truly believed that his actions there couldn’t change the future.

[Still, it feels strange for you to step up and save me.]

For the first time, a faint smile appeared on her normally expressionless face.

His gesture was something a primordial god like her had never experienced before, wholly unfamiliar to her.

[This time, I’ll save your future. Will you trust me?]

With a breathtaking smile, she leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

* * *

In the vast and silent mansion, the chancellor sat completely naked on a chair, leisurely savoring a glass of wine. He glanced over at the woman sprawled across the bed and grinned wickedly. “You’ve pleased me, so I’ll summon you again sometime soon. Consider it an honor.”

“Sniff. Waaaahaaa.”

He listened to her sorrowful sobs like it was music, smiling like a devil. Even amidst that horror, the woman held a small girl tightly in her arms who was silent and still, as if her soul had left her body. It was her daughter.

A demonic devil. There was no other word that fit him. He was practically a demon in human form. On the surface, the chancellor looked like the epitome of a kind and refined nobleman, but his true self was utterly monstrous.

“Your Excellency, did they meet your expectations?”

“Yes. I’m quite satisfied.”

Back on Earth, he’d have been called insane at the slightest hint of his actions. Even the scummiest nobles of Tionis would've turned their heads in disgust at what he did while smiling without a shred of remorse.

But in his time, no one condemned him. In that country, he was God. He was the law. The King of Arbute Kingdom was just a puppet dancing on his strings. The true ruler was he.

“By the way, what became of the woman I ordered to be brought in?”

“She’s already been taken to the underground cells. I’ve made sure everything is ready for Your Excellency to enjoy her whenever you return.”

The Chancellor nodded, satisfied with the report. That was when the door burst open.

“Your Excellency!!!” A servant burst into the room in a panic, throwing himself face-down onto the floor.

“T-The mansion... the mansion is under attack!!”

The chancellor's relaxed expression twisted in an instant. “Come again? Did I mishear you?”

“Y-You heard correctly, sir. The mansion is currently—”

“The underground,” he asked sharply, “What about the underground?!”

“T-The knights and guardians stationed there, including the Master-level Sir Gordon... all of them have been killed.”

His eyes widened at the report. There had been five Master-level individuals stationed there, and yet someone had launched a direct assault and annihilated all of them.

“Was it them? The rebels?!”

“W-We’re not sure.”

Sling!!

The Chancellor drew the longsword from the knight’s hip with a blur and sliced off the servant’s head. “Bring me the perpetrator, and summon every single commander from the extermination—”

Before he could even finish, the sound of sharp heels tapping on the floor echoed through the room.

“My, how vulgar. That was unnecessary, Your Excellency.”

“Silence,” he said coldly as he directed his attention to the woman who had just entered.

Clad in a seductive, elegant outfit, the woman was undeniably beautiful, but there was something about her. She had a dangerous allure, like a rose prickling with thorns.

“There’s no need to summon the other commanders,” she said with a smile. “I can handle it alone.”

Her grin prompted a vicious glare from the Chancellor. “Bring him to me alive. Alive! I won’t tolerate anyone daring to stand against me in this place,” he said with a cold grin.

He was going to make sure whoever the intruder was realized precisely who they’d dared to provoke.

* * *

Leaving the chancellor behind, the woman was extremely calm upon arrival at the collapsed mansion.

As a Duke-rank vampire, member of the upper echelons among her kind, the human world was simply too feeble and insignificant to pose any threat to her.

“Well then, how should I go about finding him?”

She didn’t believe for a second that mere resistance fighters could’ve caused such a level of destruction. To her, they were nothing more than insects. With that thought, she descended into the shattered underground, her eyes lighting up as she beheld the charred remains. Her expression turned rapturous.

Slowly, she began reading the memories left behind in the blood before finally smiling eerily. Moments later, her form dispersed into a must of blood, off to find what she was searching for. It wasn't long before she reappeared in a quiet forest where two figures stood.

* * *

After escaping the mansion with Goddess Freyja, Davey had originally planned to head straight for the royal capital. Yet, Freyja suddenly stopped him and made an unexpected request.

[Take me to the stream. I want to splash in the water.]

She was acting like a child, but he wasn’t in a position to refuse her wishes.

“Is it just me, or do you also know what kind of request you’re making?”

She didn’t answer, so Davey simply nodded in quiet acceptance.

‘Fine. An hour or two shouldn’t make a difference.’

He took her to a lakeside near the outer walls of Arbute. When he helped her sit on a low rock right above the water, Freyja dipped her pale, bare feet in and began gently splashing around.

[Catch a fish for me.]

“Are you for real?”

[With your bare hands.]

The absurdity of the request made a vein throb on his forehead, but he ultimately obliged with a sigh.

Rolling up his pants, he waded into the shallow water. Despite being a hellhole of corruption, the land was certainly beautiful.

Davey began snatching the lazy fish that leisurely swam by. Even though it was nighttime, the glowing blue stones scattered across the lakebed made the water surprisingly bright.

Splash! Splash!

One fish, then another.

He held one out toward her, shaking it a little. She silently took it and gently ran her hand down its body, almost like she was caring for a human baby. It didn’t seem like she intended to eat it, but Davey just continued catching a few more as she wished.

The mansion might’ve been in chaos, but no one would ever guess that the culprit was nearby, quietly fishing by hand. It was in the middle of their tranquil moment that she suddenly released one of the fish and wrote something for him.

[It’s started to ripple.]

With those words, Davey immediately sensed someone approaching.

“Haa. Haah. There you are!”

The one who ran up to them was none other than the brown-haired girl he had saved from the underground prison.

“You’re seriously running around in that condition? Do you have a death wish for your legs or something?”

“That doesn’t matter! It’s all thanks to you that I escaped!”

“There are obvious signs that you suffered several hours of abuse. Keep pushing your body like that, and you’ll never recover. Don’t you dare ignore my medical advice. Keep that up and you won’t just lose your mobility—you’ll lose your fertility too. Do you want to spend the rest of your life infertile?”

Her condition had been critical, abused to a point that any normal girl would’ve lost her mind.

Covered in bruises and other signs of assault, it was clear her body hadn’t properly healed even with healing magic. If he’d used high-level healing magic, it might’ve been different, but he hadn’t chosen it at that moment.

Soon, others began arriving—teenagers, adults in their twenties and thirties—a mix of people surrounded the girl.

“What’s all this about?”

“We heard you’re the one who attacked the mansion.”

“So?”

“The chancellor’s going to release monsters to chase us, so powerful that even one of them is impossible to stop. They’re immortals.”

“Immortals, huh?”

“They are monsters beyond reason, precisely the reason the Arbute Kingdom commands such fear across the continent. Just one of them has the power to defeat even a Grandmaster.”

They were referring to Sword God Ares, though at that point in time, he hadn’t quite earned the full weight of that title.

Davey remained silent at the claim.

“Come with us. We owe you for saving Eldna, so we’ll repay the favor,” a man said as he stepped forward. “There’s a safehouse not far from here, someplace they can’t find. We’ll protect you.”

Davey let out a small laugh. ‘Protect me?’ Who’s protecting who here?’

“He’s right. Just one of those monsters already has powers beyond a Grandmaster, so please, you can’t—”

Then a sudden voice interrupted them, “Oh my. Now that won’t do.”

The resistance fighters stiffened and quickly formed ranks.

“Damn it! Already?!”

“Everyone on alert! Don’t let your guard down!”

“No need to panic, little ones. No matter how much you flail about, you’re nothing but insects.” Parts of the lake turned red, droplets of blood rising like mist. From it, a woman emerged in a seductive, elegant dress.

“A vampire? You must be Silcy.”

“Oh my, you even know my name? I’m flattered.”

The vampire, Silcy, walked toward them in leisure, most likely knowing how overwhelming she was compared to them.

“Eldna! Get them out of here! He can’t die here!” a man in his thirties drew his sword and shouted with urgency.

Still covered in bruises, Eldna grabbed Davey’s arm and pulled him with her. “Come with me, hurry!”

“Who here said you’re allowed to leave?” Sicily said in a cold voice. “Sorry, but he is needed by our contractor, so I’ll be taking him with me.”

“Like hell you will!!!”

The first to move was the man in his thirties. He charged straight at Silcy, swinging a sword enveloped in Aura Blade—the mark of a true Master. It was a sharp and deadly strike, but Silcy caught the blade with her bare white hand without missing a beat. The aura blade was evaporated instantly.

“M-Monster!”

At the same time, crimson droplets began to flow from her hand, slowly winding around and binding the man.

“Aaargh!!!” He screamed and struggled in agony as the blood restraints tightened around him.

“Everyone, attack!! Eldna, take him and run!! Do NOT let that bitch get him!!”

His desperate shout spurred Eldna into motion. She grabbed Davey’s arm, ready to flee.

Shrrrrrk!!

Then dozens of crimson spears shot out in unison, impaling the resistance fighters where they stood.

They were all subdued in an instant.

“Insects should act like insects, don’t you think, sweetie?”

“No, this can’t be happening!” one of them muttered in despair.

Silcy paid no mind to the broken resistanceo already walking toward Davey. Her face turned even more wicked, as she knew he could no longer expect help from the resistance.

“You’re not going to fight back, darling?”

That question made Davey chuckle. “Who the hell are you calling darling? You’re the big-ass baby here, not me.”

With that, Davey flung one of the fish he’d been holding straight at her face.

“I’m a little busy indulging the Great God’s whims right now. So scram. Leave now, and I might let you live.” The moment he spoke those words, the air grew cold and still.

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