The Max Level Hero Has Returned!
chapter-253

The home of the current World Tree Al was very messy and chaotic. It was usually peaceful and quiet, but the birds that lived there were now chirping non-stop. The small animals also remained constantly alert, looking left and right as if they were anxious about something.

“Mother Divine Tree? What’s wrong?” The little girl dressed in an elegant and neat ceremonial dress asked after seeing the unusually noisy and chaotic space.

“Come quickly, Emilia,” said the woman who sat in the middle of the beautiful forest. As she reached out to the girl with a bitter smile on her face, she said, “Come and let your mother hold you in her arms.”

Only then did the messy and chaotic atmosphere suddenly start to quieten down. Everything began to calm down. It was as if there had been no mess since the beginning. However, the newfound sereneness did not wipe away the tension on Emilia’s face.

The mood of all the forest animals was entirely dependent on World Tree Al’s condition. If the animals’ mood was chaotic, then AI, the mother of all elves, was clearly feeling anxious. The World Tree was a demigod-like existence, but she was anxious? That was not something that they should easily dismiss.

“Mother… Please tell me…what in the world is going on?”

“It’s nothing. It is not a cause for concern.”

“I am Mother's Saintess. Can’t you tell me?” Emilia asked anxiously.

After the recent changes in the World Tree and their shift in generation, Emilia had once again become the Divine Tree’s Saintess.

Emilia had originally been the previous generation’s Saintess, but there was nothing wrong with her becoming the Saintess of the newly born World Tree. After all, the World Tree’s Will that had appeared was the very same Will that she had served before. And since the Divine Tree’s Sacred Land had lost its main pillar after the recent war, they needed to have another pillar. That was why no one went against Al and Emilia’s rule.

“Hoo… It seems like…something strange…is about to happen.”

“Something…strange?”

“That’s right. The root of darkness in this world’s Abyss is beginning to twist the divine providence.”

“The root of darkness… What in the world…?”

“Do you know what existed in the beginning?”

“The…beginning?” Emilia asked with her head tilted in curiosity. She was like a child listening to an old story.

“The world comes back in full circle. I haven’t seen it for myself. But if that’s the case, then that means that there was a world before the Tionis Continent and its many races like the humans, the elves, the dwarves, and many more appeared, right?”

“I see… I haven’t thought about it that way.”

“Right…” Al trailed off with a very complex emotion flashing across her face.

The signs of the previous world, a world that had already been slumbering for hundreds of millions of years, was starting to show itself again. Just like the sun and moon, which would both alternately rise and set… If the Abyss once again made its way to the surface, then the only natural course of action would be the destruction and collapse of the continent. The problem was…

“Then, Mother… Are you saying that the land we live on is functioning on a system where our lives can naturally be destroyed at any given moment?”

“No. That’s not it. It’s just like that common saying… there are two sides of the same coin, a human currency. One can flip the coin, but they still cannot mix the light and darkness that dwell on each side. The light and the Abyss can coexist because they know each side well.”

But that law was being openly twisted now. The Abyss was something that should never make an appearance in this current world.

“Then… What would happen if the two got twisted and merged into each other?”

“Even this mother of yours does not know anything further than that…. However, if two things that should never be mixed start to blend into each other…”

The world would absolutely be unable to go back to the way it was before.

Al turned her head silently and looked up at the sun, which was shielded by the ceiling of her own space. On the surface of the sun that could be seen through the World Tree’s eyes, a very tiny and unnoticeable movement appeared.

***

In the unending darkness that could make one lose their senses, Davey could only feel whatever he was touching as well as the deep pain that was resonating in his body. He was understandably flustered after realizing that he could not smell or hear whatever was around him.

However, the confusion that plagued Davey disappeared soon after Perserque planted some kind of power that boosted his senses.

Perhaps Perserque being the Demon Lord of the true Abyss and not this small Abyss had allowed her to plant a power that boosted Davey’s own power. In this unending darkness, Perserque was sharing with Davey the power that could help him distinguish his surroundings. And thanks to that…

Baaaaaaang!!!

…Davey was able to smash the fake purple-haired giant who was right in front of him. His attack caused Hercules to tremble.

Davey gradually struggled to breathe with every rough and unrefined hit that came from Hercules. Thankfully, his own punches were also growing stronger and stronger.

Booooom!!!

A rough fight between the two opponents quickly took place. The moment Davey’s fist smashed into Hercules’ face, he immediately felt Hercules’ thick thumb digging into his left eye to smash his very skull.

Baaaaaam!!!

Ignoring the pain, Davey pulled out Hercules’ thumb from his eye. Then, he slammed his fist on the man’s face while digging his chest with his elbow.

Even if Davey crushed Hercules’ physical body, the purple-haired giant still would not die easily. It was all thanks to his inexplicable recovery ability, one that only a berserker could have.

Their fight seemed to be between beasts who had completely lost their sense of reason and had abandoned all of their techniques. None of them took care of their bodies. They just landed one blow after another on their enemy.

Of course, the fight did not last that long.

The purple-haired giant might have the same appearance, techniques, and skills as the Hall’s Hercules, but his physical strengthening and remodeling were not the same. On the other hand, Davey’s physical remodeling was no different from the physical remodeling of the Hercules in the Hall. Above all, this was the first thing that Davey had learned in the Hall of Heroes. Needless to say, this was the oldest skill in his arsenal and the one that he had worked on for the longest time. This was a testament to how hard the technique was.

Bang!!!

When Davey punched his face again, Hercules quickly recovered and tried to stage a counterattack. However, the trajectory of his blow had been seen through by Davey, who easily slipped away to give Hercules even more punches.

Bang!!! Bang!!!

Davey was fully aware that his opponent’s resistance was gradually weakening. This proved that the Hercules in front of him was dying, but he did not stop his fierce attacks.

“Heuup!!!”

Eventually, Hercules’ strength dwindled down, effectively taking away the edge to his blows, after receiving dozens of blows from Davey.

Once this happened, Davey did not hesitate to squeeze all of his remaining power into his one final blow.

Baaaang!!!

Very quickly, an incomparably huge shockwave spread all across the Abyss, where nothing could exist. The shockwave was so powerful that even Davey’s fists had been crushed.

However, Davey did not care. His altered and remodeled body was now slowly recovering. Also, there would be any strength left in him; the price that he had to pay for using such a crazy technique definitely would not be cheap.

“Haa… Ha…” Davey struggled to catch his breath as the raging blood that flowed in his veins slowly started to calm down. His bulging muscles with the hideous veins that popped out also began to shrink back to their original forms.

“Kghkk… Urrrk!”

After returning to his original form, Davey curled himself up and repeatedly coughed up mouthfuls of blood. He even forgot about the purple-haired giant who he had just killed a moment ago.

—Davey! Davey!

“Stop making a fuss. This won’t kill me.”

—…

Davey answered Perserque calmly, but he was not sure about the penalty that he would receive for using such a skill. He actually could not determine it. If he was lucky, then his arm would only feel numb for quite some time. If he was unlucky, then the sensations that he would feel in that arm would be left in a mess.

Hercules-style Physical Remodeling was a technique that could give someone tremendous power, but it was very dangerous to actually use it. Using it would be akin to gambling.

Davey looked down at Hercules, who had completely turned into a silent and unbudging corpse. Then, he gathered the strength in his legs and stood up. Now that the man inside the Abyss was dead, all he had to do was to escape from this unending darkness. He also needed to seal this place up no matter the cost.

But at that moment…

Fwoosh…

Davey suddenly felt an unfamiliar gaze coming from the depths of the darkness.

—Davey?

“Wait,” Davey said, interrupting Perserque. While slowly catching his breath, he looked back at the place where he felt the stinging gaze was coming from.

As if it was waiting for him to look back, the darkness that covered Davey’s vision slowly began to lighten as the power of the Abyss weakened. And it did not take that long for Davey to realize what he was looking at.

“…”

—Oh my… Goddess Freyja…

Perserque freaked out. Feeling frightened, she freaked out and pulled Davey’s hair out in the process.

When the veil of darkness was finally lifted, Davey and Perserque were greeted by a gigantic set of bones. They seemed to have come from an ancient dragon that had been restricted by the Abyss. In terms of appearance, the bones were quite similar to dragon bones but Davey knew that these were not dragon bones at all.

—A dragon?!

“No. Dragons wouldn’t grow this big.”

Davey didn’t think that it was a dragon due to the bones' large size. In fact, at first glance, the bones looked just like a wall. He even took one, two steps back. However, no matter how much he looked, the monster’s bones were just too large to have belonged to an ancient dragon.

According to the records, there were no dragons in this world. However, some of the heroes in the Hall had told Davey tales about how they had fought against them. Based on what Davey could remember from those stories, an ancient dragon would only be around 200 to 300 meters at most. What kind of crazy ancient dragon would have a size that stretched on for kilometers, right? Not to mention the size of its skull. A rough estimate was telling Davey that the skull itself was already around a few hundred meters in size.

Perserque instinctively pulled on Davey’s arm when she saw him move to approach the ancient dragon, who was either completely dead or just did not move.

—Don’t… Don’t go.

“I’m just going to take a look,” said Davey calmly as he pressed on his still throbbing left eye.

Upon closer inspection, Davey could see quite a lot of scratches on the ancient dragon’s bones. He then commented, “These are traces of someone smashing, slashing, and biting on the bones.”

Who was the one who killed this ancient dragon? There was no doubt in Davey’s mind about who had killed it.

“Hercules…”

Davey was very certain that the being who looked similar to Hercules, the one who had just been killed, was the culprit behind this act.

However, even though that was the only plausible reason, Davey still could not bring himself to believe it. After all, no matter how strong Hercules’ clone had been, there was no way that he could have killed such an existence, right? An ancient dragon that was several kilometers in size would definitely have tremendous power. So, why in the world was Hercules’ clone fighting against such a monster?

—Perhaps…the clone that you fought… Perhaps he was fighting against this monster and other similar creatures to stop them from getting out of here?

“…No way,” Davey rejected Perserque’s assumptions.

However, if he were to be honest, Davey truly could not deny those words. In fact, if he followed Perserque’s line of thinking, then everything would make perfect sense.

Davey was looking at the giant dragon’s bones closely when he spotted a subtle power that still covered its teeth. Compared to its huge skull, its small teeth were only around two meters long.

Without thinking, Davey reached out to touch the teeth.

Shwaaaaaaaa!!!

As if it had been waiting for this very moment, the darkness of the Abyss scattered away like fog. It was getting sucked into the tail that had been hidden from sight.

“Ugh?!” Davey groaned when a strong suction started tugging at him.

Davey moved on instinct, digging his arms into the ground and holding out against the tremendous force that was trying to drag him away.

Crack, crack, crack… crack, crack!!!

As the strong suction turned the entire area upside down, Hercules’ clone body, which had become a mere lump of bones and flesh, got sucked into the tail as well. The speed of suction gradually grew faster until the bones and Hercules’ clone had been completely devoured. Even the darkness of the Abyss had been sucked in, leaving behind an indescribable scene in front of Davey.

When the Abyss had still been there, Davey had believed that he was fighting in a space of hundreds of meters or even dozens of kilometers wide. But when everything disappeared, he realized that he had been in a small space of only tens of meters in width at most.

The huge space from earlier… Everything had been caused by the ore of darkness which could be found in the middle of this small ritual space. It was an ore that could devour light, but it still seemingly held onto something deep in its depths. Perhaps this ore was the source of the Abyss?

Davey approached the ore of darkness as if he was possessed. Just as he reached out for it…

[Ah… Aaaaah… This power… The Root of the Abyss… It is you. I have been wandering around for a very long time… My queen… After a long time… We will bring freedom upon you and save you from the hands of these heathens who have oppressed you… I promise you.]

…a voice from behind the Abyss that had vanished rang in Davey’s ears. The voice gradually faded until it disappeared completely.

In the now silent ritual hall, Davey looked up at the ceiling to see Rinne’s expressionless and silent face looking down at him from the hole above.

Rinne suddenly jumped down from the ceiling and approached Davey without any hesitation, but Davey completely ignored her. He chose to face the woman who was floating in the air in front of him.

With the black ore firmly in his hands, Davey asked, “What in the world was that, Perserque?”

The silver-haired girl remained silent. She did not even raise her head to look at Davey.

—Davey.

“You… What the hell did you sacrifice to allow me to regain my senses in the Abyss?” Davey asked in a chilling tone.