The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

“What a horrendous experience.”

A massive blue whale floated belly-up in the vast ocean, and atop its upturned stomach laid a red-haired girl, limp and unconscious. Davey had given mermaid So-Ya an iron-fisted punishment for her terrible puns, and to Behemoth as well, who had the audacity to laugh at them.

“Her jokes threw me off guard. Maybe it’s their simplicity that made them find such awful jokes funny.”

He never wanted to hear anything like that again. He was also mystified by how it was possible to feel so beaten up simply by words. Never since his days training in the Hall of Heroes had he felt such overwhelming powerlessness.

“I’ll make sure she can never tell jokes again.”

“Understanding that nonsense she said makes me want to stuff my own ears,” Perserque muttered, her face pale as she leaned against Davey for support.

It seemed the titles of Immortality and Queen of the Sea[1] weren't given to So-Ya for nothing—she was certainly very… capable. Watching Behemoth lay unconscious, Davey sent him drifting further across the ocean with a flick of wind.

“Let’s hope that apocalyptic mouth of hers stays shut when they wake up.”

“You also bring ruin every time yours opens.”

* * *

“What? An island disappeared?”

“Yes, sir. Do you remember that island where we conducted the classified research project?”

“I do. If I remember correctly, it was used as a place to store our intel after the project was suspended, no?”

“That’s right, sir. But the island has recently vanished without a trace. We only had a minimum number of crew stationed there due to its classification, and it seems that worked against us in this matter, leaving us with zero clues.”

“Disappearing without a trace… Any possibility of it being due to natural causes or internal issues?”

“We examined the surrounding area but found no evidence indicating such.”

“Could it have been a foreign terrorist organization?”

“Unlikely sir. Secretly conducting experiments on captured monsters doesn’t provide much motive for a terror attack. Though the U.S. had conducted the project on a large scale, most other countries conducted similar research.”

Knowing your enemy was always important to achieve victory.

“Then what on earth happened?”

The President frowned as he raised his voice.

“There’s Hawaii not far away! If our citizens feel threatened, it could be a liability in the next general election! How could you not understand that?”

“My apologies, Mr. President.”

“Is there any chance it was an Awakened individual?”

“Highly improbable, though we can’t entirely rule it out. In the past, we’ve seen single entities with power equivalent to entire divisions, like the Saint of Tionis. Or it could even be a new kind of monster.”

“If it’s an Awakened individual, find them. Someone with that much power could greatly boost the United States’ position in the world. Use any means necessary to bring them over to our side.”

“Understood, sir.”

* * *

Rrrrrr…

Late at night, several military trucks snuck through an abandoned industrial zone, transporting unusual cargo in oversized crates.

There were many dangerous weapons within: biological, nuclear, and more recently, mana-based ordnance.

“Is everything accounted for?”

“Yes, confirmed. Let’s get it unloaded in the hangar.”

Watching the individuals hustle back and forth, Seo-Yoon narrowed her eyes. “Looks like they’re the Demon Gods Dakayev spoke of.”

“So, what now? If they find out that we’re here, the rest of the operation could be compromised…” Yoon-Seok whispered.

“Wait here,” Davey said.

“Hm?”

“Rendezvous in five minutes.”

He reached into the air, pulling two dark daggers from a rift and cloaking himself in black smoke.

“What the…?”

Even those familiar with mana couldn’t comprehend what they saw. Then—

Whoosh!

Davey instantly vanished as though he’d evaporated.

Zzzzt!!!

A vast blue barrier of light enveloped the entire industrial zone.

Flashes of light nearly blinded the onlookers as silent explosions erupted across the area.

“Incredible… I can’t hear a thing.”

“I’ve heard of this. Silence magic, a power used by certain Awakened individuals. It can nullify sound across an entire area,” one of the men muttered in awe.

“But I’ve never seen a soundproof barrier of that size…”

“Saint of Tionis, was it? I thought the rumors were exaggerated, but… this is absurd—he’s a complete monster.”

Explosions continued in rapid succession. Tendrils of black fog stretched out from each impact, tearing apart everything in their path.

“What is that…? Necromancy?”

“No…” whispered a woman, horrified. “That’s… him.”

Dozens of black tendrils spread out like soaring eagles, converging and scattering repeatedly, destroying everything in sight.

“Is that… an afterimage because he’s moving so fast?” someone speculated.

“Seems like it.”

“What… Is it winter here, by chance?”

“No, this is a tropical region,” Seo-Yoon replied.

“Then this is definitely what’s giving me the chills… If we were on the other side of his assault, it would’ve been a nightmare.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “To be frank, it’d be hard to believe what he’s capable of without personally witnessing his destructive attacks. After all, he’s a man who can tear apart high-ranking Demon Gods with a smile on his face.”

“At this point, I’m not sure if he’s even the same kind of human as us. I even heard he’s not even in his twenties yet. If he’s already like this at such a young age, is everyone in Tionis like him as well?”

“According to the first Awakened individual who crossed over into Tionis, he’s… an absurdly powerful exception.”

It was hardly surprising, considering he’d slaughtered the Malicious Spirits which were pretty much walking calamities.

The crowd looked at the scene in stunned silence. They all knew that intervening would just cause more trouble.

After the five minutes Davey had established elapsed, the tremors disappeared.

“Really? Exactly five minutes? Just from what I saw, there were over fifty guards on watch….”

If there were fifty outside, it wouldn’t be surprising for the actual count to be over two hundred. These were Awakened, elite operatives trained in special forces—and he had taken all of them down with ease.

Once the barrier dissipated, they all approached the site.

They saw a pile of demon corpses stacked into what seemed like a mountain. At the very top sat Davey, relaxed and holding a small stone that glowed with a white light. His black hair and eyes glinting red made everyone tense up.

“Not a single one escaped, right?” he asked.

“No, not a single one…”

“So, that means….”

“Assassination.”

“How could this be considered an assassination?!” Yoon-Seok shouted in disbelief.

“If there’s no witness, it’s an assassination.”

“Wha—?!” Yoon-Seok gasped and turned away.

“Everything’s clear here. Head inside and sweep up the rest.”

“Did you… kill all of them on your own?”

“Let’s not waste time talking about that. Just go in. The evidence you need is in there.”

They had come expecting to participate in the operation, but looking at it now, they were more or less just spectators.

“Then why did you even bring us along?” Yoon-Seok muttered under his breath, frustrated.

“Why else? To act as guides,” Davey replied calmly.

“Unbelievable...”

“I was kidding; come on.”

“The other places…”

Dakayev had sworn he’d never spill any secrets. Even so, just as Davey predicted, he’d changed his tune within thirty minutes.

[I’ll talk… just kill me, please…]

Davey had pushed him to the point of breaking down.

“The operatives in the other places are doing fine on their own. What matters is what we’re doing here.”

The international criminal organization, Adamantium, aimed to exterminate monsters through the use of Demon Gods. In doing so, they were planning to provoke national turmoil under the guise of monster-related incidents to secure more test subjects and evaluate the capabilities of the Demon Gods they created.

“If we don’t stop them in time, there’ll be a catastrophe. Let’s go, hurry up,” Davey urged.

Seo-Yoon widened her eyes in response and dashed inside. Despite Dakayev being an insider with a lot of information, he couldn’t be expected to know everything. It was impossible for torture to obtain knowledge that he didn’t know to begin with.

“If a large-scale terror attack is left unchecked, it could easily escalate into war,” muttered a middle-aged man hurrying inside with Yoon-Seok.

“Please… please be there!”

If they failed this time, their enemy would likely go on high alert and begin destroying all the evidence. Watching everyone frantically search for information, Davey blocked off the surrounding presence.

“My god… this one’s in Arabic, and that’s French. Just how many countries are involved in this?”

“It’s practically global at this point. Should be somewhere around here… got it!”

The man’s eyes flashed.

* * *

“Chairman.”

“What’s the status?”

“The A, D, F, and I storage facilities in the hangar were completely destroyed. The firepower we faced was beyond anything we could’ve imagined.”

“I see,” the young voice replied calmly. “I expected as much.”

“Chairman, if this continues, our plans will be…”

“No. We proceed as scheduled. The losses are significant, but the mere fact we’ve drawn the Saint of Tionis’s attention in this direction is enough. Let’s begin.”

“Yes, sir.”

“If we succeed this time, we’ll achieve tangible results.”

* * *

“Wha… T-These insane bastards!!”

All eyes turned to the man who shouted, his face twisted with rage as he feverishly typed away on a computer.

“What’s going on?” Seo-Yoon asked.

“Their planned attack is set for the fifteenth, at ten in the evening, for both Japan and Korea!”

Seo-Yoon frowned at his response.

“That gives us about twenty-four hours. If we start preparing now, we can at least avoid a catastrophe….”

“No, no, no. It’s not that simple. With the time difference between here and Korea…”

“It can’t be…!!”

Yoon-Seok widened his eyes in realization.

“Today… It's happening today. If there’s any good news to be found here, it’s that we at least know the exact locations. But even if we start preparing now, it’s already too late. At this hour, Myeong-dong and Shibuya must be packed with people!”

A Korean citizen would attack in Japan while a Japanese citizen attacked in Korea.

South Korea and Japan weren’t on the best of terms—especially with Japan’s government leaning heavily toward the far-right as of late. Neither country had any intention of starting a war, but once the situation unfolded, the already strained relations between the two would plummet beyond control. Though it wouldn’t lead to outright war, such a large-scale terror attack on their soil could easily provoke them as enemies.

This wasn’t the only problem. Their method for carrying out the attacks was audacious; they artificially triggered monster rifts. The world wouldn’t see this as a mere conflict between two nations. These monster rifts were akin to uncontrollable nuclear bombs, and the moment the rest of the world found out that these two countries could control such phenomena, they’d surely jump into the fray as well.

Everyone looked at Davey, silently pleading for help.

‘What do you expect me to do?’

“We need to get back right now! This isn’t something we can handle quietly. We need to alert the other nations and prepare ourselves!” Seo-Yoon urged, taking advantage of the fact that Davey could teleport them back.

Davey, however, merely assessed the situation for a moment before speaking. “How much time do we have left?”

“Two hours, tops. And now that they know we’re here at their ruined base, it’s quite possible for them to act even sooner—maybe even right away.”

When it came to war, all it could take was one excuse to bring it all to blows.

“With the right justification prepared, they’d be perfectly set. And once their members in each country take control, the pretext for war would be complete,” Davey smirked, mocking the scheme enacted by the chairman of Adamantium. “What a nice little puppet show they’ve set up.”

“Is this really the time for sarcasm…?”

“Relax. We’re not going to let them get what they want. Have we found the information about their headquarters in the rubble yet?”

“J-Just a moment! I think I’ve found it!” someone called out.

“Where’s it at?”

Yoon-Seok, exasperated by his cavalier attitude, grabbed his arm. “Didn’t you hear? A war could happen!”

“And?”

“What?”

“Just so we’re clear, I’m neither Korean nor Japanese. I’m Davey O’Rowane, the First Prince of the Rowane Kingdom.”

“That… That’s…”

Logically speaking, there was no personal benefit for him to rush to stop a war between the two nations.

“My goal isn’t keeping your country peaceful, it’s to confront the ones who created this Adamantium or whatever bullshit organization.”

“...”

Everyone turned silent at his indifference.

“Then at least send us there to fight back. I know you can.”

Davey shrugged. “Forget about that and just focus on gathering more information.”

“What…?”

“As long as we know the time and location, we have the upper hand. These artificial rifts don’t cause waves, so they’re exceptionally hard to seek out and destroy.”

“And how does that matter now?”

“Because there’s plenty I can do if I can know ahead of time where they’re being opened …”

He could forcefully close the rifts without even touching them physically. Despite appearing similar to natural rifts, the rifts were artificial, created with mana.

It seemed Adamantium thought they’d successfully deceived him.

He looked around, then fixed his gaze on something in the distance.

“Wait here a bit. I’m on my way to meet them now.”

“But we need to stop this war from happening!”

“Relax. I have a far more reliable solution already in place than you guys going on your own.”

Unbeknownst to her, Davey had an individual capable of foresight with both the powers of a celestial maiden and Haitai.

* * *

At that very moment in Seoul’s bustling Myeong-dong district, a small team was observing the crowd.

“This is Team One. We’ve arrived at the target location. Preparing the rift opening device. Awaiting further orders.”

- Zzzt. This is Shibuya Team Two. We’re in position as well.

After the two reported, the voice on the other end of the radio replied, calm and smug, [Proceed. Let’s show the Saint of Tionis just what our strategy really is. In the end, he won’t be able to stop us.]

The Japanese member, Mugo Iken, nodded as he relayed the message to his counterpart in Shibuya, making sure to keep his eyes on the streets of Myeong-dong district. “Mr. Park, make sure you handle this cleanly.”

- And you take care of your side cleanly. For the cause.

“For the cause. See you in hell.” Mugo murmured in awkward Korean, nodding to himself.

“Begin.”

They activated their equipment. Formless waves radiated outward, triggering unusual phenomena from their prepared locations. Large rifts started opening in the sky above, and Demon Gods capable of controlling monsters began to stir.

The Demon Gods would now lead the monsters on a rampage and wreak havoc. As long as they staged a grand massacre of innocents and provoked a response, their job would be done.

As the rifts opened, people began to freeze, staring up in shock and confusion—it was only natural, considering no alarms or warnings had gone off. The rifts enlarged even more before a burning, monstrous hand emerged from within.

“Alright. Let it begin! For the cause!! Until the last monster is slaughtered and those who profit from them are annihilated, we will not stop!”

The crowd of fanatics around him echoed his fervor, their faces twisted with collective madness. That ideological dedication and insanity were the fuel that kept Adamantium burning bright.

And then…

Zzzt… Thud!!

Out of nowhere, a pink light shot down from the sky and pierced directly into the rift.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“What the—?!”

Following an enormous and formless shockwave, the rift vanished, completely erased. Despite being a rift supposedly invulnerable to brute force closure, it had disappeared.

“What’s going on?!”

One of the subordinates stammered with a confused face and fiddled with the device. “I… I’m not sure what’s happening, sir! All the surrounding mana has frozen, almost like an EMP went off…”

But even an EMP wouldn’t be able to obstruct such a high-level existence like the artificial rift.

Then, looking through a pair of binoculars, he saw something descending from what looked like a massive black airship in the sky.

Thud!

With an impact that shook a building, a figure shot down from the sky like a meteorite and landed on their team’s designated rooftop.

They gulped, a chill running down their spines.

Taken aback, they slowly moved to look at the woman who had crash-landed. They noticed her disheveled hair twitch on its own. Then, like a ghost from a horror film, she slowly rose to her feet.

[Let’s…]

Her words were suffocating.

[Play… together…]

The biological golem, Annabelle, acted as if she hadn’t literally fallen from the sky. Their faces turned pale in her presence.

Meanwhile, over in Shibuya—

“Rinne evaluates the ambush lowly,” she said while swinging a blood-stained crowbar with an oddly innocent expression.

Mr. Park stammered, taken aback, “How did you even…?”

Rinne raised her lightsaber, “Master Davey’s plan. Rinne analyzes his plan as one step ahead of all of yours.”

Crack!!

The international organization Adamantium had already begun to unravel at its very core. And as Davey closed in on their chairman, the final blow was about to be dealt.

1. It seems So-Ya has multiple titles regarding the sea. ☜

ChubbyCheeks & FriedNook's Thoughts

Editorb’s Thoughts

They didn’t have to go THAT hard on our gill grill, that’s just rude. Justice for So-Ya ;_;