The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1277

Kouna’s involvement in the future disaster had been nothing but a coincidence. She’d gone to the Haetan Kingdom on personal business, only to be found unconscious after a massive explosion.

The demonic bastard believed to be responsible for the explosion had obliterated the royal capital.

Kouna, who’d been caught in that blast, was currently with the members of the Gourmet Research Society and the Development Society, planning a certain operation. At first, she had teamed up with them out of a simple desire for revenge against Davey. The moment her vacation request was approved by the HR department of the Sacred Group, she had immediately crossed over to this world.

Yet, now...

“Hmmm. I don’t think this would work,” Yuria said regretfully, holding up a bright red Santa outfit with a short miniskirt. “I thought this would be pretty effective since Gracious Savior has a soft spot for this kind of thing. I even brought it straight from Earth.”

She sighed, then smiled mischievously as she sized the outfit up against Kouna. “So? What do you think?”

Kouna, unable to hide her impatience, asked, “If not that, when what should we do?”

The individuals gathered there were experts at causing trouble. In that moment, that was exactly what Kouna intended to do, just like a child yearning for her parent’s attention.

It wasn’t that Davey had ever neglected her. If anything, he was overly attentive. Every time they met, he noticed every little change about her and made sure to take care of even the tiniest details. Sometimes, Kouna couldn’t help but wonder how he managed to keep track of so much. It was almost stalker-like! Yet even so, she found herself cherishing that attention. That was why, at one point, she’d even thought that maybe, just maybe, Davey saw her as something more than just a companion.

Of course, she was aware that he already had a family. She knew that it was wrong to expect such a thing from him and his wives. Alas, that didn’t stop the dark, restless urge that occasionally welled up inside her.

So, she’d decided that she wanted to see him flustered just once. That alone would be enough.

“What about this?” Aeonitia pulled a small vial from her pocket. “It’s a stimulant. It’s technically used as medicine, but if we time it right, it could have quite the effect.”

“No.” Kouna waved away her daring suggestion immediately. “I’m not trying to do anything to him. I just... want to show him I’m not a little kid anymore.”

Even though there wasn’t much of an age difference, the way Davey treated her sometimes made it feel like there was a gap of decades, like that between a real parent and child. That was what frustrated Kouna most.

“But even if we plan something now,” Yuria pointed out, “What’s the point? He’s not even here.”

“True. Plus, with that recent attack and all those weird rumors going around, it sure is bad timing.”

After a moment of thought, the two groups and Kouna all let out a collective sigh.

“We shouldn’t cross the line,” Kouna finally said. “Let’s put the plan on hold until things settle down. What do you all think?”

They all knew that causing a mess when Perserque already had something going on would definitely be crossing the line.

“Gracious Savior trusts us,” Yuria reminded everyone. “We can’t betray him by doing something reckless.”

The closer the relationship, the more careful one had to be. Of course, the same went for forgiving unintentional mistakes.

“Then we’ll start the operation once he’s back at the manor’s castle,” Kouna decided. “It could be tomorrow, or maybe the day after.”

“Got it.”

Just thinking about seeing Davey’s flustered face when he returned filled Kouna with excitement.

* * *

A horrifying, ear-tearing scream ripped through the air. As the wailing continued, the sky began to change color. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Amid the rolling black storm clouds, a dark moon that shouldn’t exist rose in the sky.

“A black moon?”

“It’s fake.”

However, it was only something that looked like a moon.

Abel fell silent for a moment, then his aura erupted violently, rage boiling over. “That’s the thing that hurt her...”

All this time, he’d been suppressing his fury toward the being that had put Kouna into her coma. Without any traces, he had been left clueless for the longest time. Now that the culprit had appeared, and there was no doubt about its identity, it was only natural for Abel to lose control.

Crack!!

Before Abel could hurl himself forward, Davey drew his crimson-red sword and grabbed his shoulder, holding him back.

“Let me go, Father!”

Seeing his sworn enemy before him, he couldn’t think straight. He unleashed his anger without restraint.

Without hesitation, Davey kicked his legs out from under him.

“Gahhh!!”

When Abel cried out and collapsed, Davey didn’t give him the chance to rise. He pulled several talismans from his Pocket Plane before slamming Abel’s body with black cloth and dark-colored stakes to chain him up.

It was none other than a high-ranking binding art.

It wasn’t that Davey didn’t trust his son, of course. Sure, the demon seemed a bit dangerous in terms of sheer strength, but he knew Abel could more than handle it. The problem was, even Davey couldn’t be sure whether that was truly the extent of its power or it was hiding something more.

Most importantly, as a creature that had already died once but somehow came back to life, there was no way it didn’t have new tricks up its sleeve.

“Abel,” Davey asked coldly, “do you know anything about this thing?”

The fact that it caused such an explosion probably meant it had undergone some kind of awakening. Even so, Abel acted like he had never seen this thing before.

‘Then where the hell did that thing go?’

As that unsettling thought passed through his mind, the black moon began to move. The surface rippled as if the abyss itself was crawling within it. Then, it made an eerie sound. In that instant, the two realized it wasn’t a moon.

“An eye...”

It was a massive, grotesque eye, staring down from the heavens. Something far too unsettling to ignore.

In response, Davey pulled out a massive bow from his Pocket Plane. It was the Divine Bow Brunaak, a relic once wielded by the Bow Lord, Apollo, who was also a hero of the Hall.

The bow creaked as Davey drew the string. The sound of compressed power reverberated through the air.

In games, swordsmen raised their strength stats while archers increased their dexterity.

‘But it’s the opposite in real life.’

In a world with overflowing mana, everyone was pretty much the same.

After all, the strength needed to withstand and maintain the massive draw weight of a great bow wasn’t something easily gained. In that sense, Divine Bow Brunaak was an absolutely brutal weapon. The more mana Davey poured into it, the heavier and more horrifying its draw became.

Thwooom!

A blue arrow, condensed from pure mana, shot upward, aiming directly at the pupil of the massive eye.

Davey knew the draw weight alone was already strong. Even the power contained in the mana gave it enough firepower to pierce through things without question.

Still, he wasn’t convinced that a single shot would be enough to break through that ‘moon.’

As the arrow flew in with fierce momentum, the creature, no, the demon on the ground reached out its hand, sending out writhing black shadow tendrils in an attempt to block it. However, the arrow tore through them effortlessly, shrieking as it ripped through the air on its way to the eye.

Squelsh!!

A horrifying, ripping sound echoed.

The arrow had completely pierced and ripped the eye into pieces before disappearing.

“Huh?”

‘It actually went through?’

* * *

In just an instant, the giant eye was ripped apart, and the sky shifted from pitch-black to blood-red.

“Kiaaa!!!”

As it let out a grotesque scream, Abel glanced at Davey. “Father... I think something’s gone wrong.”

“Son,” Davey called out to him.

“Yes?”

“I have no idea what's going on either, so shut up.”

Bang!!

The moment the sky turned crimson, the petrified demon began moving suspiciously. The shadow beneath its feet rippled, expanding outward before lashing toward Davey and Abel.

There was no way of knowing if anyone in the royal palace had survived. Yet, if even one person was still alive, Davey couldn’t just leave them to die.

He summoned the Spirit King Gnoass.

“Evacuate every human still alive within the blast zone.”

Sure, those who had hidden the monster might deserve their fate, but at the same time, not everyone had been complicit. Most were just unfortunate enough to get caught up in it.

Abel drew his sword toward the devilish creature, his eyes burning as he met Davey’s gaze. “Father, I’m not backing down.”

“I’m not stopping you.”

If fighting that thing would ease his rage, that was enough for Davey. Had Abel been weak, he would’ve stopped him. However, despite his injuries, he was still a formidable fighter.

“You... Are you really trusting me?”

“I know better than anyone how far you’ve come.”

Davey fused Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon into Super Ribbon. He was aware that she was busy with her school life, but since the demon had survived the wide-area destruction magic from before, he knew it was only right to cut down the creature using her.

Even though he’d pulled her from his Pocket Plane without warning, she didn’t resist.

The red-blue longsword hummed, resonating with him. Abel’s eyes widened.

“Ah. Super Ribbon!”

“Quiet.”

Super Ribbon shook in confusion. It was only natural, as she didn’t know him yet. Davey raised a finger to his lips, signaling Abel to calm down.

He nodded, realizing what his father meant. He then steadied his breathing, and raised his hand toward the advancing monster.

Perhaps sensing his hostility, the demon ignored Davey entirely and sent its tendrils of shadow toward Abel.

Although it was a fierce-looking attack, that was about it.

Abel had told Davey that he lacked talent. He’d been born with immense potential, but never had the strength to control it properly.

Davey had never truly seen the full extent of his son’s power, either. A part of him wanted to see what he was capable of and where he stood with his strength at the moment.

The black tendrils closed in from every direction. Just as they were inches away from Abel’s face, he lifted his hand.

At the same time, a blood circle he instantly recognized flared into existence. Davey couldn’t take his eyes off of it, as he knew it was something only he had seen before. He then realized that the color of Abel’s eyes had changed.

Crackkkk!

Soon enough, the invisible force of telekinesis tied the tendrils midair.

“Hm?”

Rrrrip. Crunch!!

The sickening sound of twisting pressure filled the air as Abel’s breathing grew ragged.

It wasn’t from exhaustion, but from the effort of suppressing his fury. As that fury burned deeper, his telekinetic force grew stronger.

The pressure crushed the demon more and more. It tried to resist, but it couldn’t muster most of the power it held and lay helpless beneath the weight. If it had the strength of something like Sleesia, it would’ve shrugged off such pressure easily.

Amid that doubt, Abel kept pressing it down even harder. Nothing about him seemed abnormal. He looked fine, and Davey no longer thought of him as talentless.

Perhaps Abel felt deprived because Darian advanced so quickly compared to him. In other words, maybe Abel hadn’t been dull, but Darian had been a genius.

Of course, the fact that his current combat level fell short of his potential was still very true.

Pzzt!!

That moment, sparks crackled and the red sky shuddered with ominous waves. At the same time, the demon’s form began swelling.

It grew before they could do anything. Then Davey called out again, “Abel.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Have you seen that before?”

“No.” Abel had never seen it either. It was the creature that had put Kouna into a coma, but strangely, Abel didn’t recognize its true form.

Davey had no clue where that demon had disappeared to after causing the blast, but one thing looked clear.

“It can’t just be left alone.

The explosion happening now instead of late may have already prevented the future Kouna from falling into a coma. Yet now that the true source of it all had awakened, there was no telling how the future might change if it were left unchecked.

Goddess Freyja could compute everything down to the second and rewrite the future by altering a single fact, but neither Abel nor Davey could borrow that authority to micromanage destiny.

“Super Ribbon. Go.”

There was no point in stalling. The red sky itself was unsettling, and the growing demon was even more ominous.

Hearing his call, her form faintly appeared behind him.

The creature had morphed into a massive, bizarre quadruped. Its smooth, brown skin had horns here and there, and it had no visible facial features except for a huge maw.

When it opened its mouth and raised its head, a clock hand made of light appeared in the sky. The clock pointed to eleven o’clock. Soon after, the minute hand began to spin clockwise. Anyone could tell that reaching twelve would trigger something terrible.

Super Ribbon resonated with Davey, and she unleashed tremendous power. Davey felt a stronger surge than previous times wielding her. He could tell she had gotten stronger since then.

She pulled out something like a dokkaebi mask and wore it. Black, sharp wings unfurled behind her as well.

Each time her form shifted, a cold, eerie power rose behind Davey.

“Father! I—”

“Step back, Abel.” No matter how much he trusted his son, Davey couldn’t let Abel face that alone.

He gripped Super Ribbon’s hilt with one hand, placed his other hand along the lower blade, and stepped forward.

He manifested the ghostly blade and unleashed Heavenly swordsmanship.

The monster flared violently and activated itself the moment it saw him. Davey figured it was because he had killed it before.

He also realized he was probably the cause of its awakening.

[Dying to Live, Living to Die]

Screech!!!

The ghostly energy slash tore the air as Super Ribbon’s blade energy exploded outward.

The demon had once survived a powerful destruction spell. Davey didn’t know how, but unless he suppressed its revival conditions now using Super Ribbon, there was a strong chance it’d come back again.

Just as the blade energy was about to slash the demon in half, the red sky fluttered once.

Time felt like it paused for an instant, and then something shocking happened.

The blade energy began to weaken, and then abruptly vanished.

Davey could instantly tell that it hadn’t just disappeared.

“Father!”

“This bastard can manipulate time.”

Even though Super Ribbon’s blade energy carried an inherent authority that resisted outside force, the demon imposed a huge time effect and made it dissipate.

No matter how powerful the blade energy was, it couldn’t last forever. Most time distortions had no effect on her blade energy. However, the demon handled a power similar to the authority of time Abel had.

Davey could tell the demon wasn’t just some nobody.

Then the demon’s voice reached him.

“Dog of Freyja... Make a contract with me.” The creature communicated coherently for the first time. “I don’t intend to fight a reckless one like you. I only want to return home.”

“Who gave you the right?” Davey taunted.

The demon spoke in a cracking voice. “Incomplete though I am, I control time. I may not be able to kill you, but you can never kill me either. I’ll twist time across every path of your attacks.”

Yet Davey just simply stepped forward.

‘What the fuck is this bastard saying...’

Then Abel shouted in alarm, “Father! That thing manipulates time like I do!! You should pull—”

Whether he trusted abilities associated with time too much or not at all, Davey knew it was time to show Abel what it meant to be a father.

“Son,” he began.

“Yes?”

“I’ll show you how to deal with this kind of thing.”

Davey closed in on the demon in what seemed like the blink of an eye. This time, he didn’t release the blade energy. Instead, he just swung Super Ribbon with the energy contained within her.

The demon twisted time frantically. It clearly took pride in bending time, but it still didn’t truly know Davey’s full capabilities.

Right before the blade closed, Davey gave a faint and sly smile. “Is that your best?”

[Devour]

Crunch!!!

The power of Predatory Assimilation spilled out and consumed the time distortion, collapsing the demon’s defense.

Soon after, Super Ribbon sliced the demon clean.

“Kyaaa!!!” It let out a scream of unimaginable agony.