The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 973

Crunch! Crack!

As a massive, mist-like force seeped into the monarch, his enormous exoskeleton began to twist as he mustered all his strength to resist the power pressing down on him.

[You think a mere curse like this will stop me?!]

He furiously reinforced his body in order to fight back against the cursed mist Davey had infused him with.

A Princess of the Abyss, once they reached a certain level, possessed the power to overturn the world single-handedly. Though Versha’s physical destructive capabilities weren’t the mightiest among the Princesses of the Abyss, in terms of her specialization, she could stand toe-to-toe with even her high-level peers.

In other words, her curse had only been underestimated back then due to the interference of Rho Aias’s curse—it was far from weak.

Crack...! Crackle...!

Watching the monarch draw upon dark power to resist, Davey once again realized how strong Odin’s capabilities were.

[Monarch!]

A few surviving dragons from the fallen dragon faction recoiled in horror at the sight of his condition, rushing toward him.

Then, the monarch’s crazed eyes gleamed ominously.

In the next moment, he let out black energy from his entire body, engulfing the approaching dragons whole.

[W-What...? Aaaagh!!]

Along with a crunching sound, blood was sent splattering all through the air.

Everyone stood in stunned silence, struggling to accept the reality that he had devoured his own subordinates.

The monarch took a deep breath, staggering slightly before exuding a chilling, oppressive force.

[That level of power is nowhere near enough to kill me.]

“This is impossible. That kind of dark curse...?”

[Do not judge this power by the label of mere magic.]

As Elder Opal muttered, the monarch’s eyes flashed with malice.

Immediately, the space around them twisted, countless particles converging and turning into disintegrating beams of destruction. They soon fired toward the undead dragons Davey had summoned.

The undead dragons, beings that relentlessly attacked even as their bodies tore apart, did nothing to avoid the assault. Instead, they charged directly into the attack without regard for their well-being.

And the result?

Fwoosh!

Even on the verge of death, a dragon was still a dragon—the monarch’s disintegration beams began wiping the undead dragons from existence one by one.

Their once-solid dragon bones were vaporized entirely, leaving trails in the sky which appeared like punctures. Those that survived lost their connection to Davey and plummeted to the ground.

Undead forces typically thrived on their sheer inexhaustible numbers, capable of regenerating and returning to battle, yet the monarch’s power was uniquely effective against their kind.

“His breath attacks seem to use a power beyond ordinary dragons.”

Davey murmured, scanning the monarch carefully.

It wasn’t like the red dragon’s Flame Breath. Nor the blue dragon’s Frost Breath. Neither was it akin to the black dragon’s Dark Breath or the green dragons’ breath attacks.

It was an entirely different kind of force.

Then again, it should have been obvious when even his appearance was different from an ordinary dragon.

[Now you understand just how foolish and weak you truly are!]

Bolstered with a growing confidence, the monarch did something even more horrifying—he turned on his own faction’s surviving fallen dragons, mercilessly consuming them all with the black energy.

But he wasn’t merely devouring them; he was breaking them down at an energy level and absorbing them entirely.

Davey knew it couldn’t be Odin’s power.

It was impossible to tell whether this power was unique to him, or if it came from the one with that icy blue-colored hair.

Regardless, he had finally seen everything he needed to see.

[M-Monarch...! I don’t want to die! Please, save me!]

He had devoured the ones around him, despite their terrified cries. Gold dragon Hovana and black dragon Arti trembled at the sight.

[Brutal...]

[How can he do this to his own kind?!]

Despite the sheer cruelty of his actions, the monarch seemed completely unfazed.

He then turned to glare at Davey for a moment before his eyes flared with insanity. A massive light began to gather around him.

Moments later, without paying any heed to the rest of them, he shot forward—straight toward the Dragon’s Nest.

[What’s that bastard trying to do?!]

[Wait! No way!]

Elder Opal shouted urgently, having sensed something off about his movements.

‘It’s too late to do anything.’

Though Opal was quick to catch on, the monarch had already achieved his goal.

Rumble...!

Part of the Dragon’s Nest shattered as he drove his massive tail into it, eventually pulling something out. It was a gemstone, no larger than a human forearm.

[The power core of the lord!!]

It was the very same core that gold dragon Kais had attempted to steal—the current dragon lord’s power core.

[He’s going to absorb it! Stop him!]

Panicked, Opal quickly charged an immense amount of energy and fired a breath attack at him, but an invisible barrier blocked it, preventing it from advancing any further.

In the end, the monarch simply tossed the core into his mouth and swallowed it.

[Tch... Even though the plan fell apart, this much should still be enough to plunge you all into despair.]

With those words, his body began to change.

A massive surge of energy burst forth from him as his body twisted and swelled, growing several times larger than before. He also gained additional wings, horns, and even two additional pairs of eyes above his original ones.

At this point, he could no longer be called a dragon—he had become a monstrous abomination.

Watching the transformation unfold, Davey observed him with interest.

“So, despite the preparations being incomplete, you’ve managed to initiate the Ouroboros Ritual? That shouldn’t be possible...”

[Hey! Is this really the time to be so relaxed?!]

Black dragon Siller shouted urgently as he prepared to cast a spell.

But before he could act, a massive celestial shape emerged behind the monarch. In the next instant, Siller coughed up blood and went tumbling across the ground multiple times.

The impact was so severe that his massive form was covered in injuries.

[O-Older brother!]

Shocked, her younger sister Arti screamed in panic. She quickly took flight, gathering energy for a retaliatory breath attack.

Boom!

But responding with just the slightest tilt of his head, the monarch effortlessly sent her crashing back to the ground.

His power was overwhelming—the confrontation became absurdly one-sided.

[Hah. Incredible. To possess this level of strength even with an incomplete ritual process is remarkable. It feels like I could destroy anything in the world.]

Hearing his words, Davey ignored the overwhelming gravity magic pressing down on the area and took a step forward.

“So, this is what you wanted?”

[This is a power approaching the gods. Bow before me.]

Crack!!

The area-of-effect gravity magic intensified, and all the dragons were slammed to the ground, unable to lift themselves.

[T-This is absurd!]

[Urgggh!!]

Watching the moderate dragons groan in pain, the monarch sneered before turning his gaze back to Davey.

At the same time, the moon behind him began to glow with green light.

[With but a single word, all shall change before me. My voice is the law. I will become the god of this world.]

His eyes flashed with ruthlessness.

[You. It is about time you embrace death.]

[To break free from the constraints of magic... This is impossible!]

Elder Opal, collapsed on the ground and struggling to rise, muttered in a daze.

The sky was tearing open in a massive circular rift before his eyes. And from within, enormous meteors began pouring down.

Even for dragons, reaching the 9th Circle was a near-impossible feat. That was why many dragons had no true understanding of what lay beyond the 8th Circle.

This was why Opal and the others could only watch in despair when faced with such an overwhelming gap in power, unable to even grasp where exactly the monarch stood in terms of mastery.

From the 8th Circle onward, masteries were divided into three parts, with the 8th Circle’s being perception, absorption, and materialization. The 9th Circle had its own—comprehension, realization, and transcendence.

The fact that the monarch could forcibly summon meteors meant he had already surpassed mere comprehension and reached the realization realm of power.

There was no way that simply devouring a dragon lord’s power core could result in such a drastic transformation.

The monarch was actually a byproduct of Project Forced Magic Overdrive, a reckless experiment from ancient Atrellia—an attempt to reach divinity through magic.

Davey figured that, while it was certainly a foolish ambition, it wasn't entirely impossible either.

As he silently watched the moderate dragons horrified at the sight of the meteors, the monarch turned to him.

[What a peculiar human you are. Even as the others lie crushed beneath my power, you alone remain standing. Even so, you must have reached your limit by now.]

Davey didn’t respond. He was too busy evaluating the monarch’s mastery and whether the Ouroboros Ritual had truly succeeded.

Mistakenly taking his silence as agreement, the monarch smirked with arrogance.

[I hold you in high regard, human. Despite being a lower being, your abilities are quite impressive.]

“Hm? What was that?”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Davey looked at him curiously. The dragon’s two pairs of eyes gleamed ominously.

[Bow before your new god. When the day comes that I become a perfect god, I shall make you my messenger, destined to maintain the balance of this world under my rule.]

Davey could tell this guy was definitely bonkers. Admittedly, his goal wasn’t even that different from the moderate faction’s, seeking to preserve the balance of middle earth and protect it. But still, his methods were far too extreme.

He didn’t particularly care about why the monarch had ended up in such a state. What mattered was that his use of the Ouroboros Ritual was actively interfering with the laws of the world.

Originally, the monarch’s mastery should’ve been on an even greater scale. But by forcibly rushing the ritual, he had only managed to achieve an incomplete, flawed form.

“A god, huh? That’s a bit much.”

Davey muttered indifferently, reaching out into empty space.

In response, shimmering particles of light gathered, coalescing into a staff in his hand. He had left the artifact in Perserque’s care, but knew the time had come to use it again. After all, he could always return it to her Pocket Plane afterward using spatial coordinates.

Gripping the staff containing strange energy, Davey spun it lightly before striking it against the ground.

Bang!!

Immediately, waves of light began to ripple outward.

[So you intend to resist? Do not waste your life in vain, human.]

“But I never said I was staking my life?”

Davey smirked, looking up at the massive meteors slowly descending from the heavens. He then closed his eyes and reached deep within himself—he sought to awaken a power that had been lying dormant.

Two years ago, he had come up with countless methods to correct the distortions threatening the world’s very existence.

There were many demigods in this world. Even the constellations were considered demigod-level.

But not all demigods were made equal—the density of divinity varied immensely.

As Davey began to gather magic at the tip of the staff, a unique mana was intertwined with his divinity. The restraints that had been binding his power unraveled all at once, and clusters of pure white light emerged behind him, resembling a pair of mosaic wings.

“Tsk. Becoming a demigod isn’t really something to be happy about.”

[I-Impossible! W-What the hell is that?!]

“What do you think? Can’t you tell just by looking?”

[There’s no way! My power has reached the level of gods! Unless you’re a god yourself, there’s no way you could push my strength back—!]

The monarch shouted in disbelief.

After obtaining power through the Ouroboros Ritual, he had developed the ability to perceive exactly what kind of force Davey was emanating.

He was terrified by what he saw.

It all reeked with tragic irony.

“Of course, this is still about the only thing I can do.”

As the pure white light gathered in his hand, the monarch thrashed violently, letting out a desperate roar.

[This is impossible!! It’s absolutely impossible!!]

Crackle...

His eyes widened in horror. He then muttered as if he was in his death throes. The monarch shook with fear.

[You. Are you truly... human?]

Davey said nothing. He simply tossed the gathered light into the air and snapped his fingers.

Within an instant, the false divinity that the monarch had relied on vanished.

For someone who had mistaken their upper-9th Circle magic to be on the level of gods, he had met a helplessly pitiful end. The once-mighty monarch who had driven the dragons to despair simply and anticlimactically perished in silence.

As soon as he was gone, the crushing gravity magic dissipated. Davey turned his gaze toward the place where the monarch had fallen before shifting his attention elsewhere.

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That was when he heard something completely absurd.

[C-Could it be? Are you... the Goddess Freyja?]

Davey narrowed his eyes at Opal, who was now staring at him with fear. He had always thought Opal was rather rugged. But the people of the Peslisa Continent, and now even the dragons—why were they all so obsessed with turning him into a goddess?

[O’ Great C-Creator, we offer our worship...]

The dragons quickly started convincing themselves that the monarch’s last words had been true. He had declared that only a true god could stop his power—and since Davey had obliterated him so effortlessly, they figured it could only mean one thing.

It was natural for them to be mistaken. After all, the sheer power the monarch had wielded had been enough to resemble godhood itself. They simply didn’t know any better.

Davey sighed internally.

‘Ah, geez.’