The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 741

Thud!! Thud! Thud!!

Black pillars constantly rained down from the sky. Katshi lunged for Davey, using his massive physique and barbed arms in an attempt to pierce the man’s heart. Davey knew he would die the moment he let his guard down.

Bang!!

He fortunately blocked the attack, but the intangible energy left a deep scar on his arm.

"Are you sure you can afford to waste your time with me? The longer you stay here, the more disadvantaged you'll be."

Katshi was completely different from when Davey had first met him. Earlier, he had been diverting more than half of his power to assisting Kirsina, the second-ranking Malicious Spirit who was not here, in their mission to do something to Perserque. However, his plan was shattered by Eclipse's instigation.

Of course, it was true she was extremely dangerous, being the second-ranking Malicious Spirit, so Davey knew he had to get back to Perserque before it was too late.

“She’s already come in contact with the incarnation of Thanatos. Honestly, there is no one who can beat our species except you,” Katshi said.

“Why don’t you stop worrying about other people’s issues and start worrying about yourself?” Davey replied.

“Since we couldn’t clearly deal with the incarnation of Thanatos, I’ll have to take you down to make up for it.”

“Did Eclipse troll you that hard?”

Her trolling led to major problems messing up the ritual of preparing her summoning circle by drawing Katshi’s power away from Kirsina.

Davey knew he’d be much worse off without Eclipse’s contribution, though that likely wasn't her intention. Her extremely hedonistic and interest-oriented personality made it hard to believe there was any elaborate plan behind her actions.

Kain and Arbit mentioned before that Katshi's power was difficult to define, with one of his attack methods involving creating illusions disturbingly close to perfection. He could change the world with a snap of his fingers, instilling extreme fear with ease.

His illusions were awe-inspiring and terrifying, significantly different from magic’s simple illusion spells. He remained unfazed even as Davey used Taboo’s Karma to free himself from the powers interfering with his sight and sense of touch.

“Prince of Horne, I didn’t expect your power would still be going strong after all this time.”

"Huh? I haven’t even shown you everything I got yet.”

“After Hercules began to use goddess Freyja’s power, he too became exceptionally challenging to deal with,” he muttered eerily and rolled hard on the floor, causing yellow dust to begin surrounding the area.

“Then let’s get rid of the hallucinations.”

Just as those words reached Davey, a sharp, pointy horn pierced through his chest. It was a long, awl-like horn Katshi had created by deforming his arm.

He appeared from the smoke, looked at Davey with eyes full of fury, and demanded in a low voice, “Surrender now and I’ll spare your life.”

“...”

“If I fight you, it’ll be difficult dealing with that damn ancient dragon later.”

It seemed that he could still not tolerate what Eclipse had done.

Before Davey could answer, he heard Arbit’s cry.

[My lord! You must not die here! It would be better to abandon being the Goddess’ delegate and become the ruler of the void...]

‘Arbit,’ Davey muttered briefly and neatly spat out a handful of blood. He held the horn with one hand and slowly opened his eyes.

‘Keep your mouth shut.’

Whoosh...

At the same time, the horns began to crumble as if they had been weathered down.

"Huh?!"

Pow!

Davey grabbed Katshi’s head and slammed it with his fist. “Do you like power struggles? I get it, you’re strong. But your abilities... It seems like my power counters them.”

Katshi narrowed his eyes as he listened.

Though Davey had not seen all of his power, from what he had observed so far, he figured Katshi was extremely weak against Taboo’s Karma.

“Let’s finish this.”

There was no time to waste once Davey realized Katshi’s plans were targeting Perserque. Even if it meant losing some of his reserves, he was going to use the power of the taboo as much as possible to take him down right here.

Davey unleashed his power toward Katshi, who fought back by releasing his power. His power that tried to erode Davey’s body and the Taboo’s Power that negated that power and unleashed a special effect of barrage decomposition began to clash.

In terms of compatibility, Davey had the overwhelming advantage, but Katshi possessed such great power that it felt wrong to compare him to the other Malicious Spirits.

“This damn compatibility,” Katshi let out in an exasperated voice. “But I can endure your attacks for as long as I want. Even as we speak, Eclipse's summoning circle is being rebuilt. I don't like Eclipse, but if I can’t stop you here, then our chances of winning are diminished, so I have no choice but to use her help.”

As the power struggle continued, Davey became more and more disadvantaged. That's why Katshi tried to hold him here with otherwise unreasonable methods.

“You son of a bitch...!”

Davey couldn’t help but think of how absurd and anger-inducing the situation was. He pressed down Katshi even harder, but he used his tremendous strength to withstand the attack.

Rattle...

Switching tactics, he summoned Super Ribbonback to his hand. He used the tip of the sword to stab at Katshi’s heart.

Crack!!

Davey managed to pierce through the intangible barrier thanks to Super Ribbon’s sharpness. With an eerie sound of flesh tearing, Super Ribbon’s power began to interfere with the power in Katshi’s body.

“Alright, let’s see who wins,” Davey said with a grin.

“Hmph. I can last for days if this is all you got—what about you? The moment Eclipse is summoned or the incarnation of Thanatos is awakened, it’s over for you.”

Katshi kept provoking him, trying to make him impatient. Gritting his teeth, Davey applied more force.

[My lord... Your Sin of God is still very weak! Although you may be able to protect your body, it’s impossible to interfere with the bodies of others! My lord! I suggest you retreat...]

‘I don’t think he’ll let me just run away, Arbit.’ Davey thought.

Since Katshi knew he would win if he dragged the fight, Davey knew he would do everything to keep him here.

Davey began to think that Verdandi should’ve shown up to help by this point. Her absence could have hinted at a betrayal, but her power’s constant protection reassured him of her loyalty. It was more likely she was being disturbed by something else.

Davey could only depend on either a golden opportunity resolving the situation or a swift win in the power struggle. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like either of them were plausible in the current situation.

“Tsk...”

[My lord?]

“Do you know the meaning of ‘losing a battle to win the war?’”

“My lord, why are you talking about this?”

“I'm going to let him have some of what he wants so that I can beat him.”

Preparing for the worst was a fundamental strategy. He had come up with a plan for a scenario close to this one now—it was time to use it.

“Equip the title Saint.”

As soon as he said those words, the enormous physical power of Malicious Spirit Antares within him disappeared. Replacing it with a mysterious and sacred air was the secondary unlocking ability of the title Saint: Possession.

Davey wasn’t sure if Goddess Freyja would tolerate it, but he figured he’d be doomed anyway if he didn’t do anything.

“Goddess Freyja, my creator in heaven,” Davey recited as he wrestled with Katshi.

“Your lamb walked a dark path, longing for grace. Let your light be a beacon that illuminates the path ahead.”

“I gladly accept this as a trial. Guide your shepherd by sharing the absolute light and warmth that brightens the sky, the generosity and love...”

As Davey prepared Possession, Katshi quickly moved his tail and pierced his back. But Davey continued to unleash his divine power.

“W-What are you doing?!”

“Well, I’m inviting the real deal to our fight.”

With that, Davey created the optimal body for Possession. Katshi's eyes trembled violently in confused trepidation.

“It’s not possible, nobody can... summon a god like that...”

“Well, I can.”

The title granted an ability that defied common sense. Katshi screamed in frustration.

“No... No!!”

“Your Shepherd, your Lamb, your Son longs for you. Your...”

Thud!!

Something fell through the dust in the sky. Both Katshi and Davey stopped what they were doing and frowned as they saw something large descending from above.

“What in the world did the humans do...?”

The mysterious thing was a huge missile. Monsters weren’t the only ones that had extreme resistance to firearms. Davey couldn’t believe that the humans had decided to launch a warhead. As the missile kept falling through the purple lightning and reached a certain altitude, the warhead opened and created a wave of blue light. Both Davey and Katshi widened their eyes at the unexpected change.

Katshi screamed and Davey also finished his invocation.

“Goddess... I don’t think you need to come anymore.”

A huge EMP bomb exploded in the sky. More precisely, it was a suppressor bomb created by combining Earth’s science and alchemy to disrupt the flow of mana. Davey had seen traces of this in Korea's military regime. He couldn’t quite remember if the United States had made them first or not.

He had thought they might launch it, given the unusual happenings in the city. He couldn’t help but admire their perfect timing.

***

A press conference was held.

Donald Drumper, the President of the United States, made a powerful statement with a confident expression.

“Just wait and see! This new weapon will provide great direction for the United States of America!” he shouted strongly while raising his index finger. Just as he said, he achieved tremendous results that had low chances of happening—it was just in an unintentional way.

Of course, even though it was a suppressor bomb, it had little to no effect on Davey and Katshi. At most, it caused a brief interruption in their fight.

However, the bomb’s unique wavelength caused a big problem for Eclipse's summoning circle which was as fragile as a thin sheet of glass. Originally, it wasn't supposed to break this easily, but Eclipse's interference had weakened it enough.

“Oh boy. I guess the magic circle disappeared?” Davey smiled.

Katshi gritted his teeth.

The bomb had also affected their power struggle. No matter how unique Katshi was, the suppressor interrupted the flow of mana itself. So, even though the effect was minimal, it was enough to break the balance between them. It was like if two people were in a one-on-one power struggle and someone pushed one of them from behind with a finger; the balance would collapse in an instant.

The President’s small domino ended up knocking down a towering building.

Davey couldn’t imagine how unlucky Katshi was to have something like this happen to him—Davey had an extreme advantage even when it came to compatibility. And now, after the bomb, Davey clearly had the upper hand.

“You win this time...” Katshi clicked his tongue. His body then began to break down.

“You’d better go back quickly. Although I’m reluctant to tell you this, the incarnation of Thanatos is the basis of God Thanatos. No matter what you do, her awakening will be inevitable.”

He looked like he was dying as he crumbled to dust, but for some reason, he didn't seem to be in any hurry.

Davey spoke up as he stabbed Super Ribbon into the crumbling head.

“That’s why I have the Absolute Gem prepared, you son of a bitch.”

Squelch!!

Katshi's power was scattered so vastly that Davey couldn’t even trace it.

[My lord. He is almost immortal and likely not dead.]

"I know."

Davey was satisfied with the fact that he was able to block the summoning of Eclipse. What was more important now was assisting Asgard where Kirsina had attacked.

Without hesitation, Davey forcibly grabbed the flow of jumbled mess of mana and jumped through space. He appeared on the deck of the huge Asgard.

Davey knew the barrier had to be working, though it wouldn’t hold out for long against the power of a high-ranking Malicious Spirit. Given the strength of the World Tree, it should have at least held until he returned.

However, the barrier wasn't used at all.

Instead, he saw a rather surprising sight: a woman he'd never seen before and Urd were glaring at each other.

“What kind of situation is this?” Davey muttered. Then, Verdande, wearing a witch's hat, appeared from behind.

“Good timing.”

Davey turned to look at her.

“What have you done?”

"It’s not a big deal. Let me ask, do you remember my choice of pursuing my personal activities after coming here?"

“I do.”

“Specifically, I was investigating myself because there were some lingering traces. I learned something interesting in the process,” she scoffed toward Davey. “And Urd? Well... I used her foolish trust in me to forcibly place her under control.”

Verdande, in a way, was the Princess of the Abyss with a truly terrifying power.