The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 962

"Ready or not, here I come.”

“He… Heeek!!”

A young man shrieked, his entire body trembling violently.

“This… This wasn’t part of the script!”

This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.

“What the hell is that thing?!”

Most of his kin had already left to subdue the full-fledged dragons of the moderate faction. The remaining weaker ones were wreaking havoc in the nest.

Due to Elder Kaiser’s betrayal, the war had tipped overwhelmingly in their favor, leaving no chance for the moderates to win.

At least, that was how it should’ve been.

But for some reason, a single human was standing before them tearing apart five dragons barehanded.

The man thought if the human didn’t notice him, everything would be fine. Surely as long as he held his breath and stayed hidden, the human would eventually pass by.

That’s what he kept telling himself, until an icy chill swept over him, causing his eyes to widen in terror.

The monster-like human who had just been ripping his kin apart moments ago was nowhere to be seen. But an unsettling thought struck him, and he turned his head stiffly.

The monster was right in front of him, glaring at him with a face so close that their noses were nearly touching.

The young man let out a harrowing scream as he crumbled to the ground, trembling.

“I warned you, didn’t I?” The human said with a sinister smirk. His red eyes burned with a glow that flickered like flames.

“That I’d be coming, whether you were ready or not.”

The overwhelming terror made him feel as though his mind might shatter at any moment. A cold, numbing sensation crept through his body, and every hair of his stood on end.

‘Ah… O Primordial Dragon…’

The once-mighty form of his true body had been forcibly distorted by the human’s polymorph spell, turning him into a degraded state.

The disparity in strength was absolutely overwhelming. Neither the dragon elders nor the powerful monarch boasted such dominance.

“W-What are you… What the hell are you?!”

It seemed almost impossible that something so terrifying could exist—something that even dragons, the overseers of middle earth, would tremble before.

His eyes quivered with fear. Things had first begun when he had heard rumors about a human who carried around a golem with extraordinary power.

Despite the human having a stigmata, he’d thought it’d be impossible for a mere human to overwhelm dragons. And so, by any reasonable logic, he didn’t think of the human as a significant threat.

“Everyone has a plan… until they get hit with Dispel.”

“This can’t be… How… How can a human dispel a dragon’s magic?!”

The human let out a bizarre power and crushed his dragontongue magic. Every spell was canceled before they could even fully manifest.

Among all the dragons he had known, there had never been one capable of such horrifying magical prowess.

Everything that was happening before him defied all logic, leaving his mind in utter disarray.

It seemed the golem’s strength hadn’t been an exaggeration, a few of the elders occupied fighting her.

But what the entire reformist faction should have truly been concerned about wasn’t the elders of the moderates, the slumbering Dragon Lord, or even that strange golem girl.

It was the human in front of him.

He…

Ssshhh...

Was a monster. The very embodiment of one.

From the moment he had first arrived here, they’d already been aware of his controversial presence. When Elder Marin of all people staunchly defended his inclusion, it had raised even more questions.

Why would Elder Marin, who was beyond stubborn—even more so than Opal, in a way—have brought a human into this sacred place?

Now, everything seemed to make sense.

‘I... I need to let them know...’

The operation couldn’t proceed. There was no choice for his faction but to withdraw immediately.

* * *

The fallen ones, who had brazenly proposed a truce only to strike the moment their objectives were met, unleashed chaos across the nest.

Considering the moderates only had five combat-capable dragons left—aside from their elders—it was already a one-sided battle. Even factoring in Rudel’s unique strength and the absence of Karrella from the fallen ones, the disparity in power was insurmountable.

Boom! Boom!

Throughout the vast expanse of the nest, countless dragons clashed—chasing, fleeing, and firing breath attacks, each blast of magic resulting in colossal collisions. Yet, no one stopped.

War, after all, was madness itself.

[Graaahhh!]

Gold dragon Hovana let out a thunderous roar as she pinned one of the full-fledged dragons of the fallen ones under her claws, tearing into their scales.

[Arrrgh!!!]

But her triumph was short-lived. A massive fireball struck her directly, sending her sprawling to the ground, where she was then bombarded by successive breath attacks.

Facing even a single dragon was difficult enough, but with two or more attacking simultaneously, even Hovana could do little more than endure.

[Damn it! You cowardly bastards!!]

Her struggle wasn’t unique.

Among the five full-fledged dragons still fighting for the moderates, the black dragon siblings, Siller and Arti, had already crashed to the ground, each of their wings shredded to tatters. Sapphire, too, appeared gravely injured.

Rudel was in a slightly better position, but even he was barely holding on. Pressured by three dragons including Felius, his situation was rapidly deteriorating.

Boom!!

And when Hovana finally collapsed as well, the situation plunged into utter despair.

Damn it… If only we had Elder Kaiser’s barrier…

Elder Kaiser, who had betrayed them, had always been the one to maintain the protective barrier of the Dragon’s Nest. But with his absence, their critical advantage was gone, leaving them vulnerable to the reformists’ one-sided assault.

Perhaps if Elder Opal or Elder Marin were present, there could’ve been hope, but Marin was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, so were the fallen elders.

When the factions had scattered and regrouped, the whereabouts of the elders became impossible to track. The absence of leadership only served to throw their morale even deeper down the drain.

The expressions of the remaining moderate full-fledged dragons darkened.

Rudel, now standing alone, began casting a spell. But before he could finish it, several fallen dragons pounced on him, pinning him down.

[Damn it!!]

Boom!!!

Rudel struggled to rise, but the red dragon Felius slammed him back down in an instant.

[Hahaha!! How does it feel, Rudelite? I’ve always wanted to crush you like this, and Sapphire too, for that matter.]

[Rudel!!]

[Damn it!]

Siller and Arti barely regained consciousness. Hovana, watching from the ground, let out a weak wave of Fear, but she was already too spent to put up a significant resistance.

[Shut your mouth, traitor. I have nothing to say to scum like you.]

[Oh? Sorry, it’s hard to take the words of an idiot who can’t even control the power of his own heart seriously.]

[Felius!!]

Rudel struggled violently, but his weakened body made it impossible for him to break free.

[That’s exactly why you are the way you are. Wasn’t it your inability to control your heart that got your younger sister killed in your place?]

Rudel resisted even more desperately, those words having struck a nerve.

[Hahaha! So, you do have a conscience, eh? Not bad for someone who sold out his sister just to save himself.]

[Felius! Shut your mouth! Rudel didn’t sacrifice Ruby! Don’t you dare speak as if you know anything!]

Sapphire shouted through the tense air. In response, Felius flapped his wings lazily.

Boom!

The sheer force of it caused Sapphire, who had barely managed to lift himself up, to crash back into the ground.

The overpowered strength he used wasn’t his own; he had borrowed it from the monarch.

[Give it up, shitheads. You’ve already lost. From the moment you entrusted Elder Kaiser with full authority, and from the moment your so-called ultimate weapon—the Dragon Lord—failed to awaken, it was all over.]

[We still… still have the elders.]

Even with Elder Kaiser’s betrayal, there was still Elder Opal, renowned for unmatched combat abilities; and Elder Marin, who had yet to appear.

But Felius and the fallen ones were calm nonetheless.

[You’ve lost already. The only thing left for you is to shut up and die.]

Rudel didn’t respond. Annoyed by his defiance, Felius growled, pressing Rudel harder into the ground.

[Still acting calm in this situation? Have you lost your mind?]

[Hehehe.]

[Or maybe you’ve gone insane from fear?]

As the other fallen ones chuckled in mockery, Siller, Arti, and Hovana grind their teeth in frustration. Their anger was palpable.

However, Rudel was different.

[You have no idea… do you? Who’s here right now.]

[What? What nonsense are you spouting now?]

[My liege, the one Elder Marin personally invited, is here.]

Him mentioning a ‘liege’ made Felius and the fallen ones pause for a moment.

And then…

[Pfft… Hahahahaha!!]

[Wait… You mean that human? Hahaha!]

As their raucous laughter filled the battlefield, Felius grinned and locked his eyes on Rudel.

[Ah, yeah. To be honest, if we hadn’t done our homework, we might’ve messed up. We’d never heard of a golem strong enough to take down an elder—we could’ve been in real danger.]

It was clear Felius was referring to Rinne.

[What did you do to Rinne?!]

Havana roared, her voice trembling with rage.

Felius casually shrugged.

[Who knows? By now, the two elders probably tore her to pieces. Honestly, I was impressed that a golem could wield that kind of power. But with an elder who’s an expert in debuff magic helping, there’s no way even a golem like her could survive.]

[You bastard!!]

Siller erupted in fury, but Rudel didn’t react.

[So it seems you all really were relying on that golem. Well, what can you do? At the end of the day, it’s just a golem. Oh, and Rudelite—there’s one thing you seem to be misunderstanding.]

Felius muttered as he slowly activated his polymorph magic.

“We’re just the vanguard. The main force is far stronger than us, and their numbers are overwhelming.”

[That can’t be… Most of ours couldn’t even awaken from their slumber…]

“This fight was never a fair contest to begin with,” he said in a mocking tone.

In response, the three full-fledged dragons were unable to conceal their frustration.

And then, it happened.

[Who said anything about Rinne?]

“What?”

Everyone directed their attention to Rudel. He tilted his head slightly and smirked.

[None of you are leaving here alive. Rinne? She was just the appetizer.]

“What nonsense are you spouting now? Have you finally lost it?”

[He’s here.]

Then a faint humming sound echoed from the distance, gradually drawing closer.

“Boom-cha, boom-cha, boom-cha… Boom-cha… Huh? Wait, that’s not quite right.”

The voice came from a figure leisurely strolling toward them, humming a tune in the most carefree manner possible.

It was none other than the human they’d been mocking only moments before.

“Human?”

Felius, now in his human form, looked at the approaching figure with confusion.

Davey O’Rowane.

The lower being whom Elder Marin had unexpectedly brought to this place. A human, at best.

Sure, there were rumors that he possessed a holy power that could heal Runia, but it was difficult to subdue dragons with holy power alone.

Of course, it was possible with high-level holy magic, but even amongst dragons, very few were well-versed in such magic.

It was because holy magic was a power fundamentally different from mana; it was magic that mimicked the power of gods.

“Rudel, what’s with that sorry state of yours?”

[Your Highness…]

As Davey nonchalantly walked through the crowd of dragons, Rudel let out a dry laugh.

[Are you here to help?]

“A promise is a promise. Don’t worry—you’re a competent mage, so I’ll make sure to work you to the bone until you’re nothing but dust and ashes.”

‘I have to make money on my investment too.’

His smirk sent a chill down Rudel’s spine.

He suddenly recalled the young blonde princess back in Heins Territory, who wandered around like a zombie with dark circles under her eyes.

‘No, surely that wasn’t his doing. No matter how devilish someone was, they wouldn’t push people that far… right?’

Gold dragon Hovana suddenly roared to break the heavy silence. She released a ferocious cry, pushing the surrounding dragons back, and began casting a spell.

[Human! Run away!]

“Run? Why would I run, after all the trouble I went through to come here?”

His indifferent reply made Hovana gape in disbelief.

She could only see Davey as a lunatic, foolishly shoving his head into a dragon’s mouth. She knew that even recklessness was supposed to have its limits.

She began to cast her magic with desperation.

[I’ll teleport you outside the nest! Don’t look back—just run! We're the ones they want, anyways!]

[Exactly! You don’t even have that golem to protect you right now! What the hell were you thinking, coming all the way here?!]

Black dragon Arti added on to Hovana’s plea, yelling with urgency.

But Rudel, still calm, simply asked a question.

[Can you handle it?]

“Handle it? Extremely handle, evaluates handle highly.”

His playful tone made Rudel let out a faint chuckle.

For humans, the war between dragons was nothing short of a calamity. Yet Davey, in the heart of the largest dragon conflict in recent memory, was completely at ease.

[You’re right. That was a pointless question from the start.]

His calm response made Davey smirk.

Eventually, Felius sneered, his voice laced with ridicule. “Human, you must have some sort of fear deficiency. Like they said, your golem has already been reduced to scraps, so what gave you the guts to show up here alone? Are you relying on that stigmata or whatever nonsense you believe in? Or have you just lost your mind completely?”

“Nope, I’m perfectly sane. I was just playing hide-and-seek. I’m the seeker, and you all are the ones running away. I wondered where you’d gone, but here you are.”

“What?”

Felius made a face of disbelief and glanced at his fellow dragons. They broke into uproarious laughter together.

[Bahahaha!!]

[This human’s completely insane!]

Unlike the others, Felius made a soured face, his offended sneer growing more pronounced.

“Well, whatever. I was planning to kill you the moment we met anyway.”

With that, one of the dragons standing next to Felius slowly approached Davey.

It raised its massive forepaw, preparing to slam it down with crushing force.

Hovana, seeing what was about to happen, screamed in panic.

[No!!!]

She didn’t want the human who had saved Runia to meet such a grim end.

But there was nothing she could do. Judging by the enraged expressions of Siller and Arti, they seemed to think the same.

At that moment, Sapphire let out a weary sigh.

[Well, Rudel. Looks like you’ve had a change of heart after all. In that case, we’re good.]

His resigned muttering caught the attacking dragon’s attention. It paused, turning its gaze toward Sapphire for a moment.

But then, something strange happened.

The massive forepaw that should’ve crushed Davey… didn’t move.

“Huh? Why isn’t it…?”

The dragon widened its eyes in shock.

Davey remained perfectly still, unfazed and holding his ground effortlessly beneath the massive paw.

[Holy magic! How dare you, insolent human?!!]

The enraged dragon began to charge a breath attack. But before it could release the attack, Davey spoke softly.

[Shut your mouth.]

Boom!!

Then the dragon’s mouth forcibly slammed shut. Then… its entire head exploded. Dark, corrupted blood rained down like a storm.

And standing amidst the macabre maroon rain, Davey stood tall with a toothy grin.