The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Davey knew something about his body had changed as a residual effect of embracing the madness. He figured it must be what made it possible for him to see beyond the rift Thanatos had opened and closed.

Through that opening, Davey caught a glimpse of what was happening.

He saw Eclipse’s body, trapped and sucked into the collapsing Abyss, disintegrating piece by piece. Her soul, once imprisoned within her body, was now separated and suffering. Watching her soul slowly fade into the space was not an experience Davey wanted to endure.

He owed her his life—not once, but twice. He didn’t want her to get caught in the endless collapse after all she’d done for him.

Davey knew he could briefly halt the Abyss from collapsing if he used all of the remaining vitality force from Thanatos' divinity, creating a brief moment to tear open the dimension and rescue her. However, doing so would mean that he wouldn’t be able to lengthen the lifetimes of all the dimensions currently lacking vitality.

Rationally, he knew the right choice was just to let her go. But deep down, the feelings he harbored for her complicated things.

He couldn’t come up with an answer easily. Her soul was getting encroached, and there wasn’t much time left.

Finally, when Davey was about to release the power of the card in his hand, someone stopped him.

A large man dressed in animal skins appeared. Seeing him, the first wave of emotions Davey felt was a mix of surprise, relief, and confusion.

‘Now’s my chance to pierce a bamboo spear into his abdomen!’

Eclipse lay in Hercules’ arms with an exhausted face, though she had a faint smile with tears streaming down. Davey stood in a daze, watching Hercules hold her with a pained expression as though she were something precious.

"This is enough," Hercules said to someone else.

Davey quickly came to his senses and turned his head. A figure descended beside him and slowly passed by. They weren’t Rinne, but someone similar. It was the Goddess Freyja—the very source of this world.

The entire world froze upon her descent.

Only then did Davey realize that time itself had stopped. He assumed the reason he could still move was likely due to his divinity.

Goddess Freyja approached the two, who both remained silent, and gently wrapped them in the wings that sprouted from her back. She embraced them softly, and as she did, the souls of Hercules and Eclipse began to dissolve, disappearing together.

"Thank you for keeping your promise,” Hercules said softly.

Goddess Freyja said nothing and simply watched as the two souls vanished. Afterward, she walked out of the collapsing world and turned her gaze to Davey.

"Are those two gone?" Davey asked.

Without saying a word, she extended her hand and took his.

Zzt!!

[Who the hell are you, spying on someone while they're bathing? Get lost!]

[Like hell I wanted to see you bathe. I’m here because there's an urgent meeting, and I’ve been sent to drag your lazy lizard ass back to work.]

[You got a death wish? Want me to end you?]

[Go ahead and try, you damn reptile.]

[Sigh... Whatever. Why am I even bothering with a weak Horne like you?]

A brief but vivid hallucination filled his mind. He saw two figures: a small girl bathing in a moonlit lake, and a large man openly irritated with her.

[It’s this way.]

[No, it’s this way.]

[You know, you always say the opposite of what I say.]

[That’s my line. You fool!]

The two, Eclipse and Hercules, glared at each other, both stubbornly defending their own opinions.

[Stay still!! Can’t you see how badly injured you are?! I clearly told you not to go!]

[Hahaha, cough. The important thing is that I’m alive. You should be grateful to me for the rest of your life!]

Eclipse was tightly holding onto Hercules who was covered in blood, shouting and crying while he lay in her arms.

The illusion continued. Unfamiliar landscapes, things Davey had never seen before, and even strange new species appeared. He assumed they were likely humans from an ancient civilization that existed long ago.

[Marriage? Are you out of your mind?]

[You expect me to marry that ill-tempered little runt? Are you crazy?]

[Who you calling a runt?! You wanna die?!]

[Who else would I be talking about?! There’s no way I’m marrying you! Even if it's for the sake of unity among the races, I’m not going through with it! I’d rather marry another ancient dragon than—]

[You bastard!!]

Wham!!

Eclipse slapped Hercules. From there, scenes flashed rapidly, shifting from their constant arguing to moments where they began to fall for each other.

[’ll wait for you. I’ll protect the peace you’ve created. Just... don’t make me wait too long…]

The hallucination ended with Eclipse’s sorrowful voice and a scene of her gazing out at a destroyed plain.

Davey had never seen Hercules like this before.

Goddess Freyja, who still held his hand, remained emotionless to the point that it shocked Davey. Unlike Rinne who also had a neutral expression but carried emotions within, she showed nothing. Her eyes were bottomless and cold. She soon let go of his hand and vanished as she ascended.

The time that had been frozen resumed. Davey, still in a daze from everything that had transpired, turned to Verdandi, who was crying and screaming nearby.

"Get ready," Davey said, his voice calm. "We’re going to have a ceremony. You’ll help me this time too."

"Sob… Sob…”

But instead of replying, Verdandi just kept crying. Isildi spoke up in her stead.

"My goodness, what’s wrong with you? You need to at least give her time to grieve…”

“She lived her life to the fullest, met someone she loved, and was happy. Don’t mourn for the dead that had everything.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!!” Verdandi shouted in a burst of fury, her tears flowing freely. “Lived her life? My mother was trapped in that hell for ten thousand years! After all the suffering she endured, her soul couldn’t even be saved… Wait… What?”

In the middle of shouting at Davey, she suddenly looked at him in shock.

"What did you say just now…?" she murmured.

“Hercules saved her soul,” Davey replied. Verdandi stood still, taking his words in before frowning.

“Dad… is…”

“Even after dying, he couldn’t abandon Eclipse.”

If Eclipse had waited for ten thousand years in the Abyss, Hercules must’ve spent all that time searching for a way to rescue her. Perhaps his actions were more for her salvation than for the good of saving the world itself.

Davey thought that maybe the reason Goddess Freyja had shown him the vision was to reveal how similar he and Hercules were.

Their situations weren’t so different, after all—both had made similar choices and shared similar fates to the point he wondered if things were going to be any different for him.

As Davey was lost in thought, preparing to walk away, a voice echoed through the world.

[May the primordial saint, who has completed the tuning of distortion, be blessed by the name of god.]

Everyone, not just Davey, heard the voice. The revelation was from Goddess Freyja. It signified the end of the long, enduring battle with the Abyss.

Davey collapsed and muttered to Isildi, “Can you carry me… I can’t move.”

He wasn’t exaggerating. Even though he appeared fine on the surface, his body was completely wrecked internally.

His mind wandered as he thought about the promise he still needed to fulfill. The two people who he hadn’t been able to spend their wedding night with were waiting for him, and Perserque—who had trusted him from the beginning—was counting on him to step up. He needed to reclaim his place.

Isildi glared at him, but quickly hoisted him up over her shoulder. "This is really unbecoming of you," she muttered.

“Shush. I’m not exactly thrilled about it either,” Davey grumbled.

Boom!!

As they came out from the collapsing cave, Davey saw a massive pillar of energy coming from the island, rising so high that it could probably be seen from anywhere on the continent. It had pushed away the surrounding thick fog on the island, the power radiating a light that felt incredibly bright and warm.

* * *

Thud!!

The gray knights that seemed to reach the heavens were like humanoid typhoon disasters. Even for sword masters and wizards, they were nearly impossible to take down. Their size alone made most attacks futile. To make matters even worse, killing these knights—whether large or small—would turn the surrounding area into a deadly swamp, making it even harder to respond.

But something began to change.

Boom!! Thud!!

The armored knights started to fall apart. It was as though the energy that had sustained them had vanished. The smaller knights melted away like water, disappearing entirely, while the giant knights collapsed as their armor split apart piece by piece.

Most of the nations of Tionis were choosing to abandon their territories and flee rather than fight against the knights. By this point, they had been cornered, and their situations showed no signs of improvement. But in the final moments, the gray knights began to self-destruct and collapse.

The White Bird that Illyna led. The soldiers from various nations, including the Three Empires. The Last Wisp Secret Knights that traversed the continent, knowingly or unknowingly, doing everything they could to resolve the catastrophe. The magic towers, schools, and priests dispatched from the Holy Empire.

They all had no choice but to flee at the apparent apocalypse their world was facing.

But the massive beam of light that shot up from Selisha Lake, followed by a rainbow wave that spread across the world, changed everything.

Everyone watched as the gray-armored knights exposed to the wave disintegrated and vanished, unable to even trigger their dreaded swamps of death.

The same thing was happening in the Demon World.

The Killer Rabbits, one of the ancient demon beasts, unexpectedly saved the demons who had been isolated from their allies. They were able to hold back the knights’ attack. However, there were still limits to how much they could do. Though powerful, even the Killer Rabbits struggled to neutralize the armored knights—they just couldn’t seem to kill them.

But a radiant pillar of light appeared above the towering mountain range, and the demons stood in awe as the armored knights pressuring them crumbled and vanished in the waves of light.

Everyone realized that the end of this long battle had come with the divine revelation of someone beyond their understanding.

"Arita… That revelation just now…" a demon whispered, still catching their breath.

“It was likely Goddess Freyja, the one humans worship,” Arita replied.

But she knew full well that Goddess Freyja, the one worshiped by humans, was in fact the same deity the demons revered.

"Ha… So we survived?" Arita sighed in relief, hearing the muttering of another demon leaning on their weapon for support.

“I don’t know what’s happening, honestly… But at least we made it through…"

With that, everything tied to the Abyss across the entire continent disappeared.

* * *

"Mother!!!" Kain shouted, running frantically toward Illyna, collapsing into her arms.

“Thanatos!! Thanatos has disappeared!”

Kain had two personalities.

His younger, more childlike personality was currently in control—the one that regarded Illyna as a mother figure, far different from his other personality when working with Davey. Illyna gestured with her finger for him to quiet down, eliciting an immature harrumph from him.

“I know, Kain.”

"W-What?" Kain stammered, surprised.

She then glanced over to where a young man lay resting peacefully on a bed.

It was none other than Davey, the first prince of the Rowane Kingdom, who had long since given up his claim to the throne to become a grand duke.

"Please, be quiet for now so that Davey can rest.”

Kain hesitated, then nodded at her words. Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, standing nearby, approached and mimicked Illyna’s gesture with their fingers to their lips.

“Shhh…”

“Shhh…”

Kain blinked in confusion in the face of their cuteness.

"Do beings who’ve obtained divinity also dream?" Aeria asked softly as she looked at Davey, who was sleeping peacefully.

“I suppose they do,” Illyna replied.

“What do you think he’s dreaming of right now?” Aeria continued.

All three women fell silent, their gazes resting on his calm expression.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think it’s a nightmare,” Perserque murmured.

Indeed, his face looked so peaceful, as if a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

"I don’t think I’ve ever seen him sleep so comfortably,” Illyna said.

“I think… this is probably the first time he’s truly rested since waking from his coma,” Perserque said.

At her response, Illyna made a bitter face.

Just then, Aeria looked toward the window and spoke up. "By the way… is it already time for sunset?”

"Hm?"

"Why does it look like the sun is setting?"

It was still early, a time when the sky should be bright. Yet the sun was setting outside. The three stared outside the window blankly for a while. The sky was lit in an orange as if the sun had weakened.

"When Davey returned…”

He had said that Thanatos had tried to stop sunrises, but he managed to prevent that from happening. But now, the sight outside didn’t match what they had expected.

"Something’s not right… Is something missing? Or… is there another problem?" Perserque muttered.

Unfortunately for them, the truth was closer to the latter. None of them were aware that the world was collapsing far faster than they could have ever imagined. The process that should take three years was accelerating, threatening the world’s very existence.

The time when Davey would need to unleash his divinity—reset all civilization across the world to resolve this, was rapidly approaching.

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