The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

- Davey? Davey? Hm? Why is the connection fading… zzzt…

The communication line cut out. There was probably a reason for it on their end. Though it was a bit concerning, it also brought him a sense of relief—the two moving separately from him had stumbled across something that happened to be related to Behemoth.

In the wake of Behemoth’s rampage, the deepest sections of the underwater base were already flooding. Of course, mana wasn’t something that’d be affected just by some water, but the damage was extensive…

“They say that mermaid is alive… Could there be two of them?”

[There is only one…]

Behemoth’s twisted voice slowly regained its natural form, and its menacing aura began to recede.

“So, it’s the one you’re looking for?” Davey asked.

- …

“I asked you if it’s her.”

“Answer the question. Is it her or not?”

Behemoth muttered in disbelief, unable to hide its urgency.

[Lead me to her… quick!!]

Davey narrowed his eyes. “For someone who nearly caused a major disaster just now, you’ve got a lot of nerve talking to me like that.”

[That… I…]

“Forget it. Step aside.”

Behemoth blinked in confusion. At that moment—

Bang!!

As the wall went down, a familiar presence emerged from the rubble.

“What is that… monster?!” Kouna exclaimed, standing nearby with her eyes wide with shock.

“Don’t let its roar reach you!” she shouted urgently.

The other walls splintered as the towering beast—over ten meters tall—roared.

Boom!

The ground shook, walls finally crumbling as the monster’s voice reverberated with an unimaginable power, causing the surrounding mana to tremble violently.

[That scum is… a Demon God…]

“You know this one?” Davey asked.

[These creatures are Demon Gods created by forcibly merging and evolving countless lower beings using my power. I’m not certain, but I heard they’re differentiated depending on their strength.]

Behemoth, in its human form, had eyes glowing with a fierce red light.

The being in front of them had a massive humanoid figure composed of blazing red flames instead of orange, standing over a dozen meters tall. It was far larger and stronger than any of the entities Davey had encountered so far.

Despite only sticking its upper half through the wall, it was already massive. It had no mouth, but its powerful roar shook Kouna, making her shiver in fear.

Sensing her fear, the Demon God lifted its enormous arm, reaching out for her.

“Behemoth. Take care of that thing,” Davey ordered.

Without another word, Behemoth’s body shimmered. In what felt like a frozen instant of time, it returned to its enormous true form. It then smashed through the underwater facility’s lowest levels, dragging the Demon God down into the depths with it.

All that remained was a wreckage with debris strewn about. Despite the surrounding water, not a single additional drop leaked in.

“Looks like they’ve wrapped things up above us. Let’s head up,” Davey said.

“Uh… Is it okay to just leave things like this?”

“Someone else will handle it.”

He waved his hand, and the Grand General of Heaven who had been standing behind him dismissed its weapon, moving to enclose both Davey and Kouna in its enormous hands.

Whummm!!

Kouna blinked in confusion, but Davey just continued to convey his will.

[Teleportation]

They vanished in an instant, reappearing on the same deserted island where they’d initially arrived.

“Was that… some kind of spatial warp magic?” Kouna asked, looking around.

“It’s called Teleportation in Daoist Magic. Ghost Gods are a form of possession sorcery, so I used its power to move us too,” Davey explained, gesturing to the Grand General of Heaven behind him whose aura had grown even stronger.

“Still alive, huh?”

Knowing Behemoth’s strength and size, Davey couldn’t imagine that Demon God lasting long in their fight. Despite it being the most threatening and ominous by appearance, nothing he’d seen so far could rival a Mythical Beast King.

But—

Boom! Boom!

The battle actually raged on for a while. Finally, with a thunderous crash, the massive Demon God burst from the surface, sending waves crashing down like rain.

Its body was far larger than Davey had anticipated, stretching hundreds of meters. Either it had been concealing its true size like Behemoth, or it had massively grown in the short time since they’d begun fighting.

Following the Demon God, an immense, four-legged whale broke through the waves, lunging at it with mouth agape.

Crackle! Crackle!

There was an overwhelming power difference—no matter how powerful this Demon God was, it stood no chance.

However, the Demon God calmly conjured a massive blade wreathed in red lightning and clashed head-on with Behemoth. It instantly countered Behemoth’s attack.

“Hm?”

The vast power disparity was clear. Behemoth was even fighting with all his might, unlike the first time Davey had encountered him. But when the red lightning blade struck Behemoth, an odd resonance seemed to minimize the Mythical Beast King’s strength, disrupting its immense power.

Boom!

Behemoth involuntarily shot back into the depths. It soon resurfaced and sent its whiskers toward the foe.

“What is that thing?” Davey murmured.

[It's one of the weapons that they’ve been developing here.]

Behemoth flared its slit-pupiled eyes, clearly irritated. It glared at the Demon God with the red lightning blade hovering in the sky.

“Seems like some kind of resonance occurred just now.”

[What did those damn lower beings do to my body?!]

Demon Gods were a conglomeration of monsters that were forcibly evolved. But the Demon God before them was unlike others—it was something closer in nature to Behemoth itself.

Thud!

[Contractor, Behemoth’s power is being nullified by some ominous interference. Allow me to handle it instead.]

“No. Don’t intervene.”

[Contractor?]

“May as well have Behemoth earn its keep, right??”

Davey calmly stepped forward. They had already found what they came for; there was no reason to hold back anymore.

“There shouldn't be a problem with me wiping this island from the face of the Earth, right?”

Boom!

As Davey spoke, the red Demon God extended its hand as if it sensed something. The surrounding ocean erupted as a horde of identical Demon Gods, engulfed in golden flames, shot out from the surrounding sea.

He recognized them as the lower beings Illyna had easily cut down when she was attacked before. Despite their weakness, however, there were hundreds of them. And clearly, this red-flaming Demon God was controlling them all.

“They’re low-quality, but their numbers must be meant to keep Behemoth in check.”

He figured they needed a means to buy time in case Behemoth went on a rampage. Still, those efforts wouldn’t be enough if Behemoth made up its mind to kill.

Unperturbed, Davey raised his hand with his index and middle fingers together, writing something in the air.

[Within the dreams awaits the realm of illusions.]

Shing!!

The Chinese character Mong appeared in midair [1], then slowly fused into the massive Grand General of Heaven.

[Whatever may be.]

One by one, luminous characters rose and sank.

[As the ten thousand vines of Mount Mansu twist.]

Reciting the verses, the massive Ghost God’s indigo-colored weapon shimmered, transforming from a great axe into a spiked dokkaebi cudgel. The giant god radiated overwhelming power as it gripped the cudgel firmly.

Sensing the change, the red Demon God and its minions shifted their attention from Behemoth to Davey.

[We shall live together, all tangled up, for a hundred years.]

The giant god raised its cudgel to strike down, its eyes glowing with determination.

“Look out!” Kouna yelled, her voice filled with panic as she saw Davey standing still while reciting the poem.

They pursued him relentlessly, closing in from every direction.

Once they were within his domain, he simply held a single white talisman between his fingers and invoked his sorcery.

[Possession Sorcery of Grand General of Heaven]

[Song of Resignation]

Whummm!!! Thud!!!

The Great General of Heaven swung its cudgel down through the air. For a fleeting moment, there was silence. Then, an ear-shattering roar filled the air, the massive force crashing across the island and the surrounding ocean.

Everyone froze, momentarily speechless at the sheer power that rattled the sky.

* * *

Davey gazed down at the island, now obliterated without a trace, and clicked his tongue in mild regret.

[What absurd strength. Is this the standard power of sorcery?]

“No.”

Like magic, the power of sorcery varied depending on its wielder.

He turned to face the massive white-bearded whale in the sea, its head poking out of the water. He couldn’t tell what the whale was thinking.

Having just vaporized an island and the surrounding area in an instant, he didn’t dismiss the Grand General of Heaven but asked a question instead.

“Behemoth.”

[Hmph?!]

It flinched, trembling in fear.

“What do you think I should do with someone who keeps causing trouble?”

[W-What... What do you mean…]

“I’m here because Shane asked me to deal with you. But looking at the mess you’ve made, I don’t think I have much of a choice.”

In times like these, the solution will forever be a good spanking.

Davey made sure the Grand General of Heaven had its gaze locked on him as he spoke.

“I’ll whoop you once. Not more, not less.”

[Cough! I... I don’t think that’s necessary!]

Behemoth began to cautiously back away. It was strange behavior for a being that never fled, no matter how outmatched.

“Why not? Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. Just one hit.”

[No, really! Human, I understand perfectly well the point you’re trying to make!]

“No, I don’t think you do.”

[I do! So please—]

“No, you don’t.”

Davey descended toward the sea, taking light steps. His feet didn’t sink but instead rested firmly as if on an invisible platform.

“You’ve caused me a lot of trouble, you know that?”

[Guh?!]

“Now get over here, you bastard.”

As he smiled, Behemoth’s eyes began trembling violently.

And then—

A desperate, pained wail echoed over the now-barren sea where the island had once been.

* * *

“You’re here,” Perserque said.

“What about Illyna?” Davey asked in response.

“She’s guarding the mermaid. I just got here to assess the situation.”

“Good timing.”

“You seem to know quite a bit about the mermaid.”

“Just a lucky coincidence. You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Do I seem like the type to return injured?”

She made a playful smile as she stepped closer and looked up at him.

“And if I did get hurt, I know you wouldn’t just sit around. Your reaction would be a headache all on its own.”

“Well, if you already know that, don’t go getting yourself hurt.”

“Overprotectiveness isn’t always a virtue, Davey.”

He nodded at her remark.

Leaving behind the chaos that had unfolded on a now-sunken small island near Hawaii, he returned to Japan with the information they gathered. He brought along survivors, as well—those who had been captured and subjected to evolutionary experiments in the facility.

“You can handle the survivors on your end, right?”

“Yes.”

The researchers at the facility had kidnapped various humans, using their skin tissue and blood for horrific experiments.

Some humans had been forcibly evolved using a white stone infused with Behemoth’s flesh and blood. Others had been hybridized with monsters.

In some cases, they had artificially inseminated human eggs with monster seeds, re-implanted them in a womb, and forced them to give birth to hybrid creatures, all for the sake of advancing their twisted goals of evolution.

The place Perserque and Illyna had located the mermaid So-Ya was none other than Korea, in a pharmaceutical company factory near Gangwon Province.

In the basement of the factory’s hidden research lab, experiments were being conducted on abducted individuals from multiple nations, with So-Ya imprisoned in a tank and used as a test subject.

They had only been able to find this place after Seo-Yoon and Yoon-Seok had shared crucial information from their independent investigations.

Call it luck—what began as a coincidence turned into a jackpot discovery.

“But... that enormous creature—is it a Mythical Beast King?”

“Yes, its name is Behemoth.”

“Then why is it glancing at you like that, as if it’s afraid?”

He looked toward the Mythical Beast King, who was glancing at him nervously.

“I don’t know.”

At his indifferent reply, Behemoth let out a long, woeful groan.

“Oh, by the way, Davey. The person you performed surgery on, Si-Woo—his vision seems to have stabilized. According to Rinne, he’s been looking for you. The surgery is so fascinating, isn’t it? Without the goggles, he’s practically blind, but with them on he can see perfectly.”

The artificial eye surgery wasn’t something that could be explained logically using Earth’s science. It was natural to be surprised and amazed by it.

“Any residual side effects?”

“None, as far as I can tell.”

Satisfied with her response, he made a faint smile. He knew it’d be a new stepping stone for the development of Heins Territory.

“Oh, and Davey,” Perserque said while making a mischievous grin.

“What?”

She stepped closer, closing the distance between them.

And then...

1. Mong (夢) means dream in Chinese ☜

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