The Max Level Hero Has Returned!
chapter-397

[The Ember that Protected One’s Final Moments]

(A title given to those who have resisted the roots and origins and have successfully resurrected themselves with the Fleeting Ember)

—Upon title activation, you can use the miracle of the Two Moons.

—The First Moon’s Miracle. (Within an hour, the extinguished embers of the dead will be rekindled into a weak fire. Penalty exists.)

—The Wish of the Burning Embers. (Applied at all times to the effect recipient.)

There were three effects. And for Davey, it felt like he had taken on a very dangerous gamble, one that he did not know when the penalty would come.

Vwooooooooong…

Davey placed his hands above Aeria and raised his holy mana to check her condition, all the while keeping an eye on the fluctuation of time.

The Yurgian Continent had a power that was similar to mana, but mana did not truly exist there. That was the primary reason why alchemy and science were extremely developed in that realm. And since that was the case, Davey confirmed that his time in the Yurgian Continent would reduce depending on the amount of mana he used.

Considering that this unidentified world was a place where both mana and holy mana existed, it was likely that his time here would be reduced at a normal speed.

“Bingo!”

Vwooooooooong!!!

The moment Davey confirmed that mana and holy mana existed in this world, he immediately raised his holy mana to the extreme and poured everything into stabilizing Aeria's body.

Davey had used a considerable amount of mana and dark mana during his fight with Urd, but he still had a substantial amount of holy mana in reserve. He also took out some disinfecting solution, needles, and a scalpel from inside his Pocket Plane.

Bang! Bang! Bang!!!

“Bwahahahahahahaha!!!”

“You!!! Die!!!”

“Go, go!!!”

Although the three lunatics were running wild as they attacked the flock of cockroaches around them, no one came to disturb them. This was because Davey had cut off the space around them for a moment.

Well, in fact, there was no need for Davey to cut off the space since the three lunatics did their job perfectly.

They might look crazy, but their power was actually on par with their card maker’s own fighting power. After all, the stronger their master’s soul power was, the stronger they would become. There wasn’t much of a problem with them except for the fact that they were quite difficult to control.

Davey quickly rubbed Aeria’s body to loosen up her muscles before tearing her dress around her abdomen to expose her bloody injury. Then, he immediately poured the disinfecting solution and moved his scalpel forward.

[Pain Relief]

[Hemostasis]

He took a short breath after using two magic spells in a row. Then, without any hesitation, he cut her wound open and began his surgery. It was necessary for him to know whether Aeria’s life had been damaged only by the creatures of the Abyss or by something else.

Davey had, in fact, encountered creatures from the Abyss before. He even received an injury from them once. It was just a small cut, but the biggest problem was the traces of the Abyss. It permeated through the wound and spread from that area.

And just as Davey had expected, Aeria’s wounds, which could not heal properly even after he applied holy magic, were covered with something dark.

He took another short breath as he closed his eyes and raised the mana in one of his hands, slowly placing it above the affected area with his other hand. Then, he slowly opened his eyes as he tore apart the dark power and burned it without any hesitation.

***

Crack, crack, crack, crack!!!

“Bwahahahahahahaha!” One of the lunatics, the one with blue eyes, approached Davey while laughing grotesquely.

His eyes stared silently at Aeria, who was covered with a blanket and fast asleep, before turning to look at Davey.

“What?”

“Fufu,” he chuckled briefly and gestured instead of speaking to convey his message.

The bastard made a circle with his thumb and index finger, poking it with his other index finger to insinuate something. Davey immediately grabbed a nearby fragment of what seemed to be a cockroach shell and slammed it into his head without any hesitation.

Slam!!!

The bastard flew back, accompanied by a loud thud. However, it did not end there. The other two lunatics also approached and did something strange. One of them poked Aeria's cheek, seemingly trying to move sneakily and kiss her.

Kick!!!

Of course, Davey kicked the bastard away.

As for the remaining one? He looked at Aeria silently. Then, he slowly got up and began to unwrap his leather pants.

“You have three seconds to stop what you’re doing.”

“Bwahahahahahahaha!” The final lunatic laughed strangely and raised both of his hands as if he was surrendering.

At that moment, a cockroach, which seemed to have survived their onslaught of attacks, appeared right behind him.

It was very shocking to see a cockroach that was bigger than a human being attacked like that.

Boom!!!

But the bastard did not even think of pulling the ax that was hanging on his waist. All he did was stretch his fist back, and the cockroach’s head had already exploded. Although they always threw temper tantrums and acted immaturely, they were very strong and capable.

Of course, Davey did not even intend to give credit to these bastards. It was not once or twice that their clothes burst and exploded because of their reckless behavior.

Without any hesitation, Davey took an empty card out of the card album and stretched it out toward them. “Get out of here, you damn punks!”

Each and every single one of them was troublesome. Who the hell did they resemble?! A loud shriek, or was that laughter, rang in the area as the three bastards got sucked inside the card. And this is what was written on the card...

[Mischievous Clowns]

Davey looked at the card in silence. He immediately placed it back in the card album and shoved it back inside his Pocket Plane.

Aeria’s condition had now stabilized. Davey was still unaware of the penalty he had received. However, it seemed like it was not related to his life since he had not experienced any problems as of yet.

Tick… tock… tick… tock…

They could only stay in this world for two hours at most. He had spent most of his time doing surgery, which significantly reduced his remaining time. He did not have much time left to stay in this dimension.

Tick, tick… tick, tick, tick, tick, tick!

Davey placed Aeria on his back as he slowly stood up the moment he saw the time start to blink and show signs of their return home. He then moved around the area, climbing above the place where they fell.

“…”

Then, the time ran out, and the surrounding landscape began to change. However, the change that Davey expected did not happen. The clock, which was floating on one side of his vision and had been blinking and making noise since earlier, suddenly stopped moving. The goddess’ influence had weakened, and it seemed like she was in a very bad shape.

Davey silently looked around and realized that they were in the middle of a silent red sea devoid of waves and tides. Just like in Noah’s Ark, the sea was very quiet, save for the cockroaches around them. However, he found it quite ironic that the sea, which should be blue, had turned red. As expected of a strange world, no?

Davey placed Aeria on the wooden deck and sat down himself. Since the key was still releasing power, he could surmise that the situation would resolve itself sooner or later.

It did not matter how many hours this would take. Anyway, Davey needed a break the most right now.

***

“U-Ugh… hmmm…” Aeria groaned, waking up around fifty minutes later.

Considering that she had undergone major surgery, it was quite surprising to see her wake up this early. She quickly sat up, the blank look on her face morphing into that of surprise when she saw Davey.

“Ah… Aaaaaaaaah!!!”

Davey immediately ran to her and hugged her from behind when he saw her suddenly go into a seizure. Her body struggled against Davey’s hold, her tears dripping down her cheeks as Davey covered her eyes with his hands.

“It’s alright. You’re alright.”

“Ah… Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Since Aeria was an elementalist, spirit mana would immediately gather around her whenever she experienced a seizure. Even her Nine Tail race’s special trait ability was overflowing. Davey had expected that she would experience seizures, but he did not expect her to not stop crying.

“Aaaaaaack!!!”

Davey could tell how frightened and sad she was from the hot liquid that dripped down the hands that he was using to cover her eyes. Davey hugged her tightly and continued to try to stabilize and comfort her.

“It’s alright, Princess Aeria.”

“Aaaah… Ah.”

“It’s me, Davey.”

Even the mention of his name did not calm Aeria down. All Davey could do was wait for her until she calmed down. He was fully aware that the moment he loosened his grip on her, she would try to harm herself. After all, she would not be able to overcome her fear.

That was how bad her condition was. If Aeria harmed herself using the power of the Nine Tails, then it was not just a matter of self-harm, the situation would grow dire to the point that it would probably become suicide.

Davey only removed the hand that he used to cover her eyes when he felt that her hiccups had slowly died down. And the sight that greeted him was blank and hollow amber eyes.

“That…” Aeria said slowly not long after.

“How much do you remember?”

Aeria shook her head at the question. “How… much…”

“Yes.”

“There was obviously a bright red flash that flew in…”

It seemed like she only remembered up to the point where she died. It could not be helped. This was normal.

Although Davey did not think too much about it, he still explained just in case, “We’re in a different dimension. You are alive. Many of the knights that escorted you have died, but Grand Duchess Kathryn and Sir Belross are still alive and well. For the time being, we are safe.”

Aeria flinched at Davey’s words. “Ah… Aaaaaaaah…”

She buried her face, which had turned red after realizing whose arms she was in and who was stabilizing her condition, in her hands.

“What… What do I do…”

Perhaps she thought that Davey would not hear her since she mumbled in a very small voice. However, Davey could clearly hear her and the confusion in her voice. She looked lost for quite some time, only for her face to turn red once again when she recalled the fact that she was sitting in Davey’s arms.

“My goodness… Oh my god… I’m so close to Prince Davey…”

With Davey’s good hearing, he could hear all of Aeria’s small muttering to herself. In the first place, the two of them were very close to each other, so it was no different from her thoughts being displayed out in the open.

Aeria’s face had turned as red as an apple, her body trembling fiercely. She looked quite cute. Even her ears were constantly perking up and drooping down. It seemed like she was thinking of getting away from Davey because it was inappropriate while also thinking of digging deeper into his arms.

Eventually, Aeria, who looked out at the sea beyond the deck silently, decided to sit comfortably and dig deeper into Davey’s arms. It seemed like she had decided to accept this dream-like situation and enjoy it a bit longer.

Davey could clearly feel her warmth as well as the slight tremble in her body, a tell-tale sign of her nervousness. Then…

“Prince… Did I die once?”

“Yes.”

Davey did not even think about lying to her.

Aeria tilted her head slightly and glanced up at him when she heard his words. “Is that why…? Strangely, my head is in a mess. Why was I going to the Heins Territory?”

Davey’s expression turned stiff at those words. “What do you mean?”

“That… I don’t really remember the reason why I was heading to Heins Territory.”

A frown appeared on Davey’s face. “That’s impossible. How can you not remember the reason?”

Aeria tilted her head and tried to think desperately about the reason. “Heins? Heins… Heins…”

But…

“I’m, I’m sorry. I have no idea where the Heins Territory is…”

…it seemed like she could not remember the Heins Territory. Having short-term memory loss after a big accident was nothing but a simple medical problem. However, the memories that she had lost were quite unusual.

“You don’t know where Heins Territory is?”

Aeria had once visited the Heins Territory. In fact, she had happily come to the territory to hand a gift to Davey. But she couldn’t remember that?

“Excuse me, Imperial Princess Aeria.”

“Yes… Yes?”

“Do you remember the Firefox, the Grand Duchess?”

“Eh… Yes? Aaaaah. Yes. I remember,” Aeria replied cautiously.

“How about your brother?”

“I, I remember… Brother Alberth.”

“And do you remember Lyndis Empire’s Emperor Deorte?”

Anxiety and fear started to appear on Aeria’s face as she answered Davey cautiously, “Yes, I remember.”

“Then, please tell me…” Davey asked slowly. He needed to verify this. “When was the first time that you met me?”

Aeria looked at Davey in doubt when she heard his question. “Of course, in the Imperial Palace…”

Davey did not expect this to happen. Aeria and Davey’s first meeting was not in the Imperial Palace. At that moment, Davey firmly realized that there was truly nothing free in the world.