The Max Level Hero Has Returned!
chapter-246

The ancient ruins where only low-ranking vampires lived quickly turned chaotic because of a single monster.

Unlike humans, vampires were pretty aggressive, and they usually all participated in battle. No matter how terrifying the opponent was, there weren’t many who would run away. After all, it was their pride and stubbornness that played a big part in creating mountains of bodies and rivers of blood.

Crack!!

With a single swing of his sword, Davey cut through the enormous stone door. He looked around, quickly realizing that the underground ancient ruins where the vampires had set up their camp was definitely not their main base.

“Kehehe! Entering our base so recklessly… Kuegh!!”

The vampire who appeared behind Davey with a confident shout suddenly froze.

Splatter!!

With the splatter of blood, a chunk of meat fell to the ground.

“Huh? Keh?! M-My arm! My arm!! Keugh… Gurgle…” The screaming vampire rolled on the floor before taking his last breath as the blue sword energy beheaded him.

It wasn’t ideal to slash an incapacitated person, but Davey never struggled to kill someone who was already hostile to him.

‘Still…’

Davey had been extremely against harming weak beings who could not fight back. However, his perspective changed after he had experienced multiple life-threatening situations.

These vampires were middle to low-ranking vampires at best, but this was their homeground; if they were considering who was at a disadvantage, Davey was the one who was in the middle of a clearly dangerous situation.

-How strange. It’s very odd that not a single high-ranking vampire is here.

Upon first glance, it was clear that the underground ancient ruins had plenty of valuables. Built in a huge cave, the ruins boasted an ancient style of architecture that was not of the vampires’ unique style.

Davey had once seen something similar to this: remnants of an ancient ruin that was over ten thousand years old.

It seemed like vampires who had long hidden themselves had moved underground to avoid the light and had found this place by chance. Of course, the original framework of it would still remain even if they were to renovate this particular area.

As a result, Davey had unintentionally found the third ancient ruins. He had found a large-scale control system covering the entire territory in the first ancient ruins, and Rinne in the second. He didn’t know if what he wanted was here in the third one, but from his experience, he could possibly score big upon safely reaching the center of the ruins.

Davey had unintentionally taken up this treasure hunting task, but he was killing two birds with one stone.

However, he couldn’t be delighted at this simple chance for him to possibly gain something.

-Why?

“From the remains, it seems like it’s been over a hundred years since the vampires have started to live here. Do you think that anything would be left here?”

At the moment, the surviving vampires had all managed to run away. It also looked like countless vampires had left this ancient ruins before Davey’s arrival. This truly was unfortunate, but there was a high chance that no treasure had been left behind.

Perserque quietly stared at the wall while listening to Davey. Suddenly spotting something, her eyes lit up.

-Maybe not.

“What?”

-Davey, look at this. This… Haven’t you seen this symbol somewhere?

Davey was completely confused by Perserque’s question. He commented, “Symbol? It’s just messy doodling.”

-No, look carefully. This. This is exactly the same symbol that we saw in the Pandora Region. What I’m saying is… There’s a good chance that there is a hidden space that they were unable to find.

“Get to the point…”

In the Pandora Region, Davey had found the underground space only because Sio Howl had fallen into the basement; to be honest, he had also found it difficult to detect the space.

-Bring Rinne here. Rinne will be able to access the system here. You haven’t forgotten about that child’s ability, have you?

Rinne had the ability of interference and reformation. She could materialize the photon cannon, crowbar, and the other objects like bats after analyzing and reforming them. As such, Rinne might be able to find the hidden space in these ancient ruins.

“Let’s come back here after we’re done dealing with the Hyeon Kingdom.”

Tanya, Davey’s younger sister, hadn’t even finished the Bow Test yet.

“Die, human!!”

Sensing a desperate surprise attack, Davey lowered his head and twisted his body. He then grabbed the head of the vampire who was attacking him from the back and crushed it into the wall. He said, “You’re trying to do a surprise attack on a killer who is exceptionally trained in assassination. It’s not even funny.”

“Keurgh… Gurgle…”

“Remember this. I came here to assassinate you.”

“What assassination? You just barged in here…”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Did anyone see me kill you guys?”

It was considered an assassination if there were no witnesses; how could they know that it was some outsider or him who had killed the vampires?

They might have held out a little bit if they were high-ranking vampires, but everyone here were low-ranking vampires who hadn’t even received the power of immortality. They only had the advantage in numbers and that this was their homebase, but… It was a problem that they had poor individual abilities. And apart from that, their cooperation was terrible.

Boom!!!

Davey took his own sweet time to seize all of the items and treasures that the vampires had. He said cheekily, “Hehehehe… I knew they would have something here. Let’s take all of it!”

Clink! Jingle!

There was everything from pure gold coins to golden crowns, accessories embedded with jewels, and other valuable items. Vampires weren’t crazy about jewels like the dragon race, but Davey had heard that vampires liked having jewels that would show off their elegance. And as vampires had an unexpected habit of living in groups, they had naturally gathered all their treasures in one place.

The crystal of Davey’s concentrated power was also here as well. He didn’t really touch the crystal, which was enclosed in three layers of magic barriers like a dangerous bomb or something, as he didn’t really need it.

Davey, who slashed the treasure storage’s firmly shut door and put all of their collectibles inside his Pocket Plane, quickly did some calculations in his head. He muttered, “Just from calculating alone, I think we’re easily going to get over a hundred thousand gold from this?”

-You hit the jackpot.

With the money, Davey could prepare the capital for his new business. He was only slightly disappointed by the fact that he couldn’t find a hidden space or anything like that.

“No matter how stupid they are, they truly have a problem if they don’t know about a hidden space right in their own homebase after so long.”

-How unfortunate…

Davey was a little bitter, since this was his first time not gaining anything huge from an ancient ruin. However, he couldn’t vent to anyone about this. He had actually looted from an ancient ruin that somebody else had settled in and not from an undiscovered one.

Still, he felt the need to share this disappointment with someone. He thought of the only high-ranking vampire that he hadn’t taken care of: the vampire who was disguised as the Chancellor of Peace.

* * *

“Is… Is everything really according to plan?!” The Empress Dowager shouted urgently, arguing with the man who was keeping a straight face.

The Son of Heaven who was lying on the altar that the vampires had prepared still hadn’t moved while in the huge whirlwind of power. It had been far longer than the scheduled time, but his condition was not changing for some reason.

Also, an alarm bell was ringing in the Empress Dowager’s head like something was off. It was like she had figured out that she was being tricked by a fraud.

“It’s almost time,” the silent man finally said with a terrifying smile.

Voosh!!

A huge whirlwind of power slowly calmed down and began to seep into the Son of Heaven, who was lying on the altar.

“I… Is it done?”

“Yes, it is done.”

“Then… The Son of Heaven! The disease!”

“The disease has been cured.”

The Empress Dowager was strangely anxious.

The Son of Heaven remained still on the altar with his eyes closed. He was not waking up even though the light had completely subsided and the large whirlwind of power had been absorbed into his body.

The Empress Dowager roughly grabbed the collar of the Chancellor of Peace and shouted, “But why?!! Why isn’t His Majesty waking up?!!”

The most important thing to the Empress Dowager was not the Hyeon, the Ming, or the vampires; it was the Son of Heaven, her only son. She had done all kinds of things behind-the-scenes and cooperated with the vampires to save her child, put all international blame on the vampires and Davey… She had worked extremely hard to create this situation on time.

Now all that was left was for the Son of Heaven to wake up… But why wasn’t he? However, the Empress Dowager did not have to remain worried for too long.

“Groan…” The Son of Heaven groaned in pain. He was slowly beginning to move.

“Your Majesty!!”

Watching him, the Empress Dowager ran over and kneeled in front of the altar with no regard for her reputation. Then, she hugged him with tears in her eyes. She shouted again, “Your Majesty! Open your eyes! It is your mother!”

“Ugh…”

However, the Son of Heaven could only groan in pain. He couldn’t even open his eyes.

“Your Majesty… Your Majesty?”

The Guardian Deity’s pure power had been absorbed by the Son of Heaven.

Most doctors and even the ones from the Coalition of Disease Control had been unable to cure him. After secretly hearing the shocking news from the Hyeon priest who had accurately predicted fortunes for years, the Empress Dowager finally understood why. It was because the Son of Heaven’s disease was not a normal one.

Even though the Hyeon Kingdom was under the Ming Kingdom, the Hyeon priest was known to be very accurate in the Ming as well. As such, the Empress Dowager had no choice but to believe him that her child could not be saved by ordinary methods. The Son of Heaven would not live for long if not cured.

Devastated by the reality that she could not save her child, the Empress Dowager had gone on to abandon tradition to do everything that she could to save her child’s life. She had hired soldiers to find the legendary Herb of Eternal Youth, and she had searched for people in the dark who could cure the Son of Heaven. However, nothing yielded results.

That was when the Chancellor of Peace had approached her. He had asked her if she could do anything to save the Son of Heaven. As for the Empress Dowager who put everything on the line for her child’s life, she had made a deal with the Chancellor of Peace even if he was possibly the devil.

As a result, the Son of Heaven was able to live for the time being from the strange power that the vampires and the Chancellor of Peace had, and the situation had gotten to this point.

‘The Son of Heaven can be cured by absorbing and releasing all the power of the Guardian Deity that’s living in the Forest of Tests, where helpful powers accumulated.’

The vampires cleverly persuaded the Empress Dowager to agree to the plan, and she had gone ahead to make a choice that could greatly threaten the Ming Kingdom in the future.

The Son of Heaven had to wake up now. However, unlike what the Empress Dowager expected, the Son of Heaven just groaned and was not able to wake up to meet her desperate gaze.

“Y-Your Majesty… Your Majesty, it is your mother. Wake up and see her! Please…”

Watching the Empress Dowager weep with her child in her arms, the Chancellor of Peace… No, Vampire Gellus, walked away. He realized that it was almost time.

There had been a huge clash of power a little while ago where the Guardian Deity was, so Vampire Gellus assumed that the monstrous prince had run wild. However, it was too late for the prince. He had put a high-level barrier to block any outside access and his goal had been achieved earlier on. Nothing would change even if the prince showed up right now.

From the information they had gathered, Gellus and the other vampires judged Davey O’Rowane, the human prince, to be a Level-1 Danger. They knew best that something catastrophic could happen with just a simple provocation. As such, they had finished their preparations before Davey could do anything. They had made a trap with the power of the brooch, which contained Davey’s power, and had subdued the Guardian Deity they had been searching for for a long time.

While Davey had been distracted by turning the Hyeon Kingdom upside down, the vampires had succeeded in subduing the Guardian Deity for a while. They were even able to take all of its power and stuff it into the Son of Heaven.

The two things that the vampires needed to resurrect the Demon Lord was a pure body and a pure power. They also needed a great power to drive these things. Now that they had gotten the stolen power from Davey through chaining him up, the pure body of the Son of Heaven, and the pure power of the Guardian Deity, it was time to fulfill the wishes of the vampires.

Gellus felt sorry for the Empress Dowager, but he had no intentions of fully keeping his promise from the beginning. All he had done was trick her with the truth that he would cure the Son of Heaven. His actual goal was to extract the Son of Heaven’s heart after the Guardian Deity’s power was fully absorbed. After all, Gellus only needed the heart, the thing containing the actual power, for the pure body.

“Hey!! You said you could save him!! But… But why is His Majesty still in that much pain?!!” The Empress Dowager screamed with a threatening look on her face while grabbing Gellus’ collar.

Gellus said calmly, “We kept the promise. We cured the disease inside the Son of Heaven’s body.”

“But why…?”

“Did you think a weak human who had nothing inside of him would be okay after receiving the Guardian Deity’s power alone?”

“What…are…?” The Empress Dowager stuttered with wide eyes.

Gellus smiled terrifyingly. “The Son of Heaven will live. Of course, as the sacrifice to awaken the body of Demon Lord Perserque who we will resurrect soon.”

Now realizing that she had been tricked and deceived, the Empress Dowager was filled with shock, anger, and despair. And out of the three emotions, anger was the most intense.

“Save him!! Save him!! Save my child…!” The Empress Dowager, who was angrily shaking Gellus, trembled. Then, she let go of him and fell to the ground helplessly.

“Disgusting and lowly human, I will ask you. Did I lie to you?”

Gellus had told the truth, but he had just hidden the details of it.

“Gurgle… Groan… B… Betrayer…” The Empress Dowager coughed up blood as she struggled to remove Gellus’ arm that had penetrated her stomach.

As the Empress Dowager suffered from the fatal injury, Gellus picked her up from the floor with his hand still penetrating through her stomach. With a terrifying expression that had never been seen before, he then asked the dying woman, “Betrayal? From the beginning, I…”

“Probably had no intentions of helping.”

“That’s right. Had no intentions…” Gellus, who agreed with the voice that suddenly rang out, paused for a moment.

Squelp!!

“Ah, your heart is a beauty.”

“Keugh?!”

As Gellus was still lifting the Empress Dowager up, a hand suddenly penetrated his back to seize his heart.

The only person who was smiling in this odd situation was Davey, the boy who had Gellus’ heart in his grip.

“H-How did you come through the barrier…?”

“The blood red fog? I cut through it.”

‘Did you think all Blue Ribbon could do was destroy the power of immortality?’

Gellus widened his eyes at Davey’s mocking tone.