The Max Level Hero Has Returned!
chapter-730

Wee-woo! Wee-woo!!

The unexpected explosion and black smoke filling the sky completely engulfed the populous area in chaos. In response to the sudden terrorist incident, the People’s Police rushed in and began to contain the situation.

“Everyone, stay back! This site is now off-limits!”

All the curious Chinese citizens who had yet to leave only added to the chaos.

“Got any idea what all the fuss is about?”

“Like hell I would. This isn’t some simple monster warning.”

“Could it be the Awakened Liberation Army?”

The police officer dismissed his colleague's question with a wave of his hand. “Maybe, but it doesn’t matter. We just have to do our job.”

He then glanced around silently. There were traces of a large-scale explosion, and the ground looked as if it could sink in at any moment. No matter how hard he examined the area, though, he couldn’t figure out what on earth had happened.

The police officers were keeping the situation under control despite having no specific orders or information about the event.

Whup-whup-whup.

Several helicopters arrived, and men and women of varying ages descended. The red mark engraved on their chests made it clear that they were part of the Awakened Legion, not the People’s Police.

The police officers flinched. Gulping, they stepped back. “The Awakened Legion…”

“What’s the situation?” the mid-thirties man leading the group asked coldly.

“S-Sir! We have gotten the situation under control and are currently monitoring the area, but aside from the continuing earthquake and roars, we haven’t found anything worthy of note…” a police officer nervously answered.

“Step aside.”

“B-But there’s a lot of heat rising from the inside—”

“I said, step aside.”

The man headed toward the hole with his stern legionnaires. The closer they got, the more they felt the heat. They also began to feel as if something was preventing them from approaching it any further.

“Hm. Intriguing”

He figured he could look inside right now if he wanted to, but his instincts were telling him to stop for some reason.

“Hmmm…”

“Sir, what should we do?”

Chao Huang, the Awakened team leader, decided to follow the high command’s orders.

[Inspect the place. If the situation seems serious, blow it up without a trace. We can’t let the public know about this.]

He figured defying orders would only shorten his life.

“Yeon Li-Hwa.”

“Sir,” a woman in her early twenties answered.

“This looks dangerous. Bury it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Yeon Li-Hwa stepped forward and reached toward the pit. She then distorted the surrounding ground, causing it to shake and crack. Eventually, it collapsed.

Rumble, rumble!!!

Yeon Li-Hw was a Seismic Sorcerer, an extremely rare hidden class from Alf Online. It enabled her to manipulate the earth.

Although she wasn’t physically strong, her skills made her useful in situations like this.

Burying things was one of the methods people thought of when they wanted to hide something. For the Awakened Legion, it didn’t matter who was inside or what had happened. Although only a few of them were truly loyal to the organization, they all knew that disobeying orders would only lead to severe punishment.

Rumble, rumble!

The large-scale earthquakes widened the cracks in the ground, causing the entire area to collapse in on itself.

Thud!!

But then, something bright red that didn’t seem to want anyone near it quickly emerged from the underground pit.

"Huh?"

Squish!

Everyone watched what seemed to be a red ball of light smash and seep into Chao Huang's head so quickly that they couldn’t even react. Taking the full brunt of the impact, Chao Huang instantly fell to the ground and lay still. He stared at the night sky with a blank face, the sharpness in his eyes quickly disappearing.

Instinctively realizing that something was amiss, Yeon Li-Hwa approached Chao Huang and reached out to him. "Sir?"

Chao Huang suddenly grabbed her arm, making her gasp in surprise. His face then split open like a monster, revealing rows upon rows of fangs. He gobbled up her upper body with his huge jaws.

"Aaaah!!"

“What the fuck!!”

As he chewed and swallowed her, the Awakened Legion screamed and prepared for battle. However, to their surprise, the monster used the same power that Yeon Li-Hwa had used earlier.

"H-Huh?!"

"What?!"

The Awakened people lost their balance, slowing them down.

Whish!

Seizing the chance, Chao Huang made red-hot, vine-like tentacles sprout out of him. He then sent them in all directions and wrapped them around the legionnaires.

“A-Aaaagh!!! Aaarrrgh!!!”

Right after, he pulled his subordinates in and chewed them up. By the time he had swallowed them whole, they had stopped screaming, and their death rattles had echoed.

Crack… Crack…

- Grrr...

Speechless, the police officers watched the scene blankly. Chao Huang, who had been limping and shaking, slowly raised his head and turned to them. His grotesquely distorted face and bright red eyes—which were missing their whites—made them all freeze in fear.

“Aaaah!!”

Desperate screams echoed across the area.

***

The blood-red, spreading rift desperately looked for Davey even as it broke apart. At the same time, the old, tired voice kept calling him.

[Ah… Ah… Her.. Hercules. I've waited so long...]

The surrounding light completely swallowed Davey up. Instead of responding to the sorrowful cries, he just silently stared at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

He found himself in a red space with no up, down, front, back, or left. This place, which was like a huge sea of fog, was similar to the side of the world located between dimensional gaps, albeit with a few differences.

Hiss…

Soon, the red fog parted, and something colossal blocked his path.

[Father!]

Seemingly wary of what was about to happen, Super Ribbon gathered energy and protected Dave. However, the gigantic thing that had appeared in front of him didn't attack.

“The size of that thing is amazing.”

Instead, it slowly moved and helped Davey identify it. Initially, all he could see was a huge wall that was ten meters thick, moving slowly and then gently slipping away. Eventually, however, he finally made out what looked like a huge being with dull red scales. It was so enormous that he couldn’t even estimate its size.

“...”

Davey realized that the part that he had initially thought was a wall was actually the tail of this mysterious being. When it opened its neatly folded tattered wings, he finally figured out what it was.

“It’s so big that I can’t even compare it to a dragon.”

The largest known dragon was about one hundred meters in size, yet the one in front of him seemed to be a couple of kilometers long. It was so enormous that even its large head made other dragons look small.

“Ancient dragon...”

Davey recalled the time when the being, possibly a clone of Hercules, was engulfed in madness in the Abyss. He remembered the huge piece of bone he saw. Although the ancient dragon was bigger than the bone, Davey knew that it was the first ancient dragon he had ever seen in person.

“No wonder that huge civilization was destroyed in an instant. Who would stand a chance in a war against something like this?”

The gigantic dragon, standing up with an overwhelming presence, slowly looked down at Davey.

"Ah… Hercules... I’ve been…”

The voice of the old man stopped.

"Ah..."

The voice let out an exclamation.

“Ah… Ah.”

The huge dragon looked down at him, seemingly at a loss for words.

“You’re an ancient dragon, right?” Davey asked.

“...”

Instead of answering him, the voice just kept mumbling in confusion.

"This can’t be… No… The promise was… You’re not Hercules… but there can only be one person who can use the Sin of God…”

The huge dragon soon opened his eyes wide and looked at Davey. The sheer presence of the dragon made Super Ribbon tremble.

"I see! It's unfinished! Right! Hmm."

The ancient dragon nodded several times as if he understood, then lowered his head toward Davey. He glared at him and growled.

"I see… It seems you died, ultimately breaking your promise to come get me. You’ve left me here with no return in sight!" the red ancient dragon exclaimed. At the same time, he began to release an enormous amount of power.

“In the end… It was my mistake trusting a human… My mistake… My mistake!!!”

The ancient dragon roared as if he was having a seizure, making the area rumble.

“I trusted you!! How could you betray me like this?! You made me wait here for as long as I could remember, so why should I mourn your death?!”

The dragon’s vast force grew stronger and pressed on Davey, draining the taboo power from his body.

"Hey, I don’t mind you talking and screaming to yourself, but I can talk too, you know. How about we at least have a conversation…”

Bang!

Venting out his anger, the dragon wrapped his gigantic tail around Davey and lifted him, the motion creating sonic booms.

“Young human. Uncontrolled power will inflict self-destruction one day.”

"So?"

“The Sin of God is the power created by God sinning. Only one person is allowed to be shackled by it, and it acts as their only path to salvation!”

Davey lightly covered his ringing ears.

“So, I also have a lot of things I want to ask you. What is this place, and what do you know about this power? And who on earth is Hercules?”

Although Davey knew about all the other hall heroes, he didn’t know much about Hercules, who seemed to be a self-proclaimed survival expert. Still, he could tell that the braggart was deeply involved in whatever was happening here.

The ancient dragon's eyes split sideways.

“Do you want to know the truth? Alright. I am Arbit, the treasure trove of truth and the ancient dragon of the sand. Overcome my challenge, and you shall get the knowledge you seek. However, should you fail… I will kill you and take away your power."

Davey couldn’t help but smirk.

“Huh… I can’t believe what I just heard.”

Wham!!

Divine power burst out from Davey, mercilessly crushing the dragon.

“Hmm?!”

He seemed quite surprised to see Davey wielding not only the power of taboo but also the divine power of the goddess Freyja.

"This… power…"

“This power is mine. She merely gave me its source. Anyway, what did you just say? You want to take away my power?” Davey shattered the brief moment of introspective silence. “You must’ve lost your mind.”