The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 832

Before even seeing the rift, Davey had a hunch that maybe—just maybe—that’s what it was. But he couldn’t believe that something like that was really possible. However, after seeing it for himself, it gave him some degree of certainty.

For the flow of mana, devil mana, and divine power.

When he applied and utilized the way internal energy moved through the body’s pressure points, it became much clearer. No one else had tried all these combinations the way he had. It was something only he could do—no other hero of the hall could do so.

“But even so, it doesn’t make sense to transform an entire continent from this alone.”

It wasn’t some kind of monster emerging from the rift—it was a massive amount of vitality. It was so vast that Davey couldn’t possibly guess where such an absurd amount of vitality was coming from. The amount grew rapidly as the vitality from the Red Void mixed with the vitality tied to devil mana.

This meant the source of the vast vitality was the combination of their own vitality and the vitality drawn from the Red Void. But still, Davey wasn’t sure if this amount could really reshape the entire continent of Peslisa. A lot of vitality was spilling out, but it was hard to wrap his head around how this much was coming out and what possible changes it could lead to.

Davey reached out to the rift, ready to check it for himself. But then,

“Mage?!”

He ignored Holygon, who was shouting in a panic, and stopped his hand in midair.

“What’s this?”

In his line of sight, something finally came into focus—something he only became able to see after he gained divinity.

It was a peculiar magical formation. If ordinary magic worked by distributing mana based on the caster’s will to cause natural phenomena, this was more like an enormous canal system. It was a naturally formed magic circle; a feat that had never been recorded as a theory or in academic studies.

It was a one-in-a-million chance magic circle. A massive mana channel created by sheer luck. Davey found this incredibly intriguing.

He reproduced the mana channel exactly as it naturally appeared. Then, something extraordinary began to happen.

A small amount of vitality from his fingertips linked with the magic circle, and the quantity slowly began to increase.

“Oh... for the love of Freyja.”

He wondered if this was how it felt to discover that an antique you bought for fun was actually a national treasure. Davey leaped to his feet.

“Squad Leader Holygon.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Are there more rifts like this?”

His sudden outburst brought a puzzled look to Holygon’s face.

“There are rifts all over the continent, but... is there something important in these rifts?”

“Yes. A jackpot.”

“A jackpot? Well, I only know of two types of rifts: the ones that spew out strange mutated creatures, and the ones like this that don’t release anything.”

‘Nothing coming out...? What’s this vitality doing coming out from this then?’

“Can’t you feel anything?”

“No. We’ve conducted several investigations on the rifts—even before this place was reduced to ruins—but we’ve never found any useful information. It’s really odd. Strange creatures flock here to a rift that’s not releasing anything. Well, it’s not like absolutely nothing happens. As soon as that rift appeared, we all started looking like this.”

A young dark mage holding half a dozen books responded from behind Holygon.

“To be frank, we believe that something is definitely coming out of the rift, which is why the creatures are gathering here. The gathering is why the Mage Tower has forbidden us from getting too close to the rifts.”

Davey realized they couldn’t see the mana channel, nor could they detect the vitality flowing from this place. They assumed this rift was simply the origin of some sort of virus, but they were wrong about that. What was actually emerging from this place was amplified vitality, created by the naturally formed mana channel.

The rift circulated and amplified vitality, which was then mixed with the power of the Red Void and spread everywhere, seeping into everything and amplifying the amount of vitality.

The power of taboo supposedly isolated every outer element except itself, but seeing something like this made Davey realize it had more functions beyond what he had used it for. He then figured out why the surrounding was unnaturally lush.

Davey decided to link the mana channel he just made with the vitality that had the divine energy of Thanatos, which was sealed in the Heavenly Demon’s Card Album.

The vitality that circulated and amplified: this was the very element Davey had been searching for.

Though, honestly, finding the solution so easily did leave him feeling a bit uneasy. But fear had never been enough to stop him from pursuing something since he knew that if it didn’t work, he could just try something else.

But things didn’t go as smoothly as he had hoped. The vitality, which had been slowly amplifying, started to spin out of control like a machine malfunctioning and then scattered left and right.

“Looks like I’m missing a part...”

Even though Davey had just witnessed a natural phenomenon that revealed a fundamental truth of the world, he was still missing something. He had reproduced the mana channel perfectly, but it still seemed like something he had yet to discover wasn’t moving the way it was supposed to.

In a situation like this, he knew comparing multiple rifts would be useful. If only there were more rifts—not even multiple, just one more...

He thought about summoning Megalodria and traveling across the continent to search for more rifts.

But then,

Boom!!

A sudden explosion shook the library.

“W-What the...?!”

Startled, Squad Leader Holygon grabbed his staff and yelled out.

“What the hell is going on out there?! Report!”

“Aaaah!!”

A terrible scream echoed from the communication crystal. With a nod from Davey toward Rinne, she immediately shot off toward the source of the noise.

“I knew it... It was suspiciously quiet.”

Just after Rinne left, several mages rushed into the central library looking terrified.

“W-We need to get out of here! It’s a trap... A trap!!” they shouted.

Whmm...

At the same moment, a faint light burst forth and spears of light suddenly flew toward the survivors.

Clang!

Holygon reflexively threw himself forward, shielding the group with a barrier, but coughed up blood in the process.

“Cough... What the...”

“Look over there... There’s so much to eat... we need to finish them off before the monsters get here.”

Alongside the chilling voice, they began to feel the presence of multiple beings.

"The Fallen Ones...” Davey muttered softly.

Holygon stepped in front of him to protect him, his eyes fixed on the many figures that had appeared out of thin air. There were about eight of them, but their powers were on a completely different level than the Fallen Ones they encountered before—the Yust. Davey assumed it was the result of them eating endlessly.

“We don’t have much time. Take them down quickly.”

At that command, the ground beneath them suddenly gave way.

“How dare these Fallen Ones!” Holygon shouted, his voice filled with fury as he gathered his magic. But spears of light once again struck his protective barrier, halting his efforts.

Thud!!

The ground continued to crumble, revealing a hidden space below.

[Fl...]

Though the Fallen Ones before him wielded power equivalent to that of a master, it didn’t matter. Regardless of whether Rinne was with him or not, these beings were no threat to Davey. And as far as he was concerned, he had no intention of showing any mercy to those who interrupted his investigation.

Yet Davey did not cast his flying spell—as the floor collapsed, he felt something larger than the rift he had seen before beneath them.

‘Well, look at that. There’s another one down below.’

Davey took this as indication that there could be more. He wondered if the Fallen Ones knew about this.

Davey allowed himself to fall below to the endless underground, along with Holygon and the remaining five mages who had survived thus far. He knew Rinne would handle things up above; he just needed to focus entirely on his investigation.

If he could understand the principles behind this massive mana channel, he could forcefully circulate Thanatos' divinity and spread it across every dimension and the entire continent, which would eventually restore the collapsing world to its original state.

The problem that had seemed insurmountable after Thanatos' disappearance now had a hopeful lead to resolution.

“Cough... Shock Absorb!”

As Holygon staggered from the impact of the powerful magic, he hurriedly tossed several enchantment scrolls into the air, nullifying the fall damage for everyone.

Dark magic didn’t have any light-based spells, so Davey formed a glowing orb of holy power to light up the area. It revealed what appeared to be ancient ruins—and a massive rift, far larger than the one he had seen before.

“Holy shit.”

Perhaps because they heard his muttering, the remaining mages groaned and readied their staffs while maintaining faces of despair.

“Protect the Mage! Form defensive lines! Hold until Lady Rinne returns!” Holygon ordered as the eight Fallen Ones that had followed them managed to surround them.

The first to step forward was a woman with blue dreadlocks.

“Well, well, well. What a handsome boy. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt when I eat you.”

Her voice was seductive, but behind her back grotesque tentacles began to pop out.

“She’s dangerous. Stay back, Mage. I’ll handle this.”

Holygon staggered forward with a determined expression, summoning his devil mana.

“Raging Golem.”

In an instant, the surrounding rocks came together to form a massive stone golem.

“You disgusting Fallen Ones! Come on then. Not a single one of you is walking out of here alive!”

But the Fallen Ones just chuckled amongst themselves.

“He’s funny.”

The blue-haired woman smirked, then moved her grotesque tentacles toward him.

Slash! Boom!

With Holygon’s body crumpled to the ground with a heavy sound. Although he had blocked the attack with a defense spell, he couldn’t completely stop it, and his mana had backfired. It was like the howl of that massive thirty meter mutant Davey had seen in the previous defense siege.

“M-Mana... reversal...” Holygon gasped.

As his body collapsed, the other mages turned pale with horror.

“Such unbelievable power... They can’t be...”

“T-The King of the Fallen Ones?”

“And all Eight Sovereigns??”

Now recognizing the gravity of the situation, the mage squad turned pale as a ghost.

“Eight Sovereigns? What kind of childish title is that?”

The terrified mages didn’t answer. Instead, the blue-haired woman responded to him.

“Fallen Ones devour humans. Among us, there are eight of us who are considered kings. That’s us. You understand now, handsome? What a dangerous place you’ve found yourself in.”

She then released energy from her body.

“We’re predators, and you’re just weak prey. That creepy little winged kid from before was a bit of a nuisance, but by now she’s probably stuck with the dummy, getting further and further away from here.”

“W-Why are you doing this...?”

“What do you mean? We’re here to eat that tasty-looking human over there,” she said while pointing her tentacles directly toward Davey.

The subdued mages made even more hopeless faces.

“No... No... I won’t let you...”

Even on the verge of death from mana reversal, Holygon was still trying to protect Davey. He sure was stubborn when it came to accomplishing his mission.

“How can you not be ashamed to devour your fellow humans?!”

“We’re predators, you’re weaklings. Can I make it any more obvious?”

Ignoring Holygon coughing up blood to the side, Davey raised his hand.

“Can I ask you something?”

He took a step forward to match their casual demeanor.

“No...! You shouldn’t!! Step back!!”

But he continued to ignore Holygon’s cries.

“Hmm? Aren’t you scared of us?”

Amused by Davey with his indifferent and calm attitude, the woman ascended and gazed down at him.

“That weird little winged kid isn’t here to protect you. Or are you going to cure us with that fancy light trick of yours again? Haha!”

‘So they had been keeping track of her whereabouts,’ Davey thought.

“That was quite the show, by the way. I’ve never seen anything like it. Your healing powers totally caught me off guard! If we eat you, can we get that power too? Oh, and if you’re expecting that kid to come save you, I’d give up now. The dummy she’s chasing is actually a genuine monster, not just some fake.”

Davey figured a real monster would make killing a mysterious being seem like nothing.

As they continued their mockery, Davey continued to ask.

“Are there more rifts besides this one?”

He figured the rift above was just a branch, and the massive rift they discovered below was the real root. But if there were more roots, he needed to find them in order to fully understand the mana channel’s magic circle. He knew that if he could grasp it completely, he could use it to stop the collapse of this world.

So it was essential for him to know if this was the only root—that way he could just focus on this one to get the answers he wanted.

“Hmmm...”

At his question, the Fallen Ones exchanged curious glances.

“I’m not sure what you’re on about, but it wouldn’t hurt to grant the last wish of a man who’s about to provide us with nutrients. Sure, that’s the only God’s Linking Cord. But why does it even matter?”

‘God’s Linking Cord...’

“That’s what made us so strong.”

They didn’t only devour mutants—they had eaten mysterious beings too. Davey initially thought they were just master-level beings, but it seemed they were beings far beyond that.

Of course.

“Hmmm... So that’s all there is to this.”

Davey couldn’t care less.

“You...”

They soon made twisted faces, annoyed by Davey showing such a careless attitude despite being on the brink of death.

“Thanks. You just helped me solve a complicated problem.”

“Sir Mage?”

Holygon looked at him in confusion, and Davey extended his hand. A warm energy then enveloped him.

“What, got some last trick up your sleeve?” The blue-haired woman teased, her tentacles lazily swaying as she closed in on Davey. She trailed her finger along his chin and gave him a seductive smile.

When the Fallen Ones mutated, their minds and instincts were transformed. He figured the way she was acting was a far cry from who she really was.

Her eyes glowed violet as she tried to interfere with his mind. It wasn’t exactly magic, instead a peculiar power gained through genetic mutation from devil mana and the power of the Red Void.

“Come on, let me have a little peek...”

Squelch...

Before she could finish her sentence, a gruesome sound filled the air.

Slash!!

Soon afterward, her body split cleanly in half.

“How dare you try to get close, ugly bitch. I’ve got three wives way prettier than you waiting for me at home.”

As she helplessly collapsed, having been unable to even fight back, Davey twirled Red Ribbon and looked at the remaining Fallen Ones.

“Predators?”

He smirked and spun Red Ribbon.

It didn’t matter if they were the Kings of the Fallen Ones or mutated mysterious beings—it wouldn’t change anything. His personality wouldn’t let those who interrupted him off easy.

He released powerful energy that was on the level of divinity. Those who couldn’t sense anything before now began to feel the thick and heavy energy.

“Gaaa?! W-What the...?!”

“Cough... There was nothing wrong before, but now...”

As they reeled in confusion, Davey slowly approached them with a mocking smile.

“You all think you’re predators?”