The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 681.

In the depths beneath the Emperor's court in the Pallan Empire's imperial palace, there existed a place that was a secret yet not a secret—the Altar of the Sword Lord. The location itself was confidential, and in order to prevent people from poking their nose into it, the imperial palace had intentionally spread a number of rumors about it. In any case, while it was unknown to outsiders, pretty much anyone in a position of power in the imperial palace was aware of it.

The altar had a very simple purpose. It served as the venue where people could perform rituals to pray for the safety and peace of the Pallan Empire under the deep blessing of the Sword Lord. But it wasn't only for rituals. The altar was also used for the divine sword’s trials and for blessings to pray for the empire's peace.

Although the Pallan Empire officially worshiped Goddess Freyja, it was actually Ares—the Sword Lord, who was human but was depicted as a divine entity—that the people of the empire truly revered.

The altar was meant to be a place of blessing, but instead it was taken over by Overmind[1]'s writhing tentacles that had crawled out from the Abyss.

It was Davey who made the first move amid the silence, while Overmind still seemed to be utterly baffled by the situation. While a god could have immediately foreseen Davey's actions, Overmind could not. After all, Overmind was not Thanatos himself, but merely a fragment. Naturally, it was completely taken by surprise. It instinctively realized that something was terribly wrong, so it tried to escape, but…

Crash! Boom!

The massive body of Overmind was immediately restrained as soon as it made an attempt to escape by trying to tear through space.

"It was probably easy for you to enter this place. But you can’t leave as you wish."

Slash! Slash!

While Davey already had the experience of fighting against Overmind in the Dream World, the creature still did not die easily. So without an ounce of hesitation, Davey enshrouded himself with the Power of Taboo, which not only separated his body from the physical rules, but also allowed him to analyze and disassemble anything he touched. This power was specialized against the Abyss, so it was exceptionally effective against Abyssal beings.

What kind of person was Hercules to have such lethal power against the Abyss?

If the Abyssal beings had been freely utilizing their powers to gain an advantage in Tionis, then it was now Davey’s turn to use his strength against them.

[Shrieeek!!!]

Caught off-guard by the deadliness of Davey’s power, Overmind writhed as blood gushed out of it. Then one by one, the hundreds of eyes on its tentacles reddened, swelled and ruptured, unable to withstand Davey's power.

[Kill… Kill him!]

Overmind shouted, seemingly realizing that surviving was much more important than trying to understand the situation.

A large entity that was half-human, half-snake emerged from Overmind’s severed body parts. The new arrival pointed its spear at Davey.

"Die,” the odd-looking Princess of the Abyss said with a cold voice as she charged at Davey with a black aura swirling around her. She then thrust her spear at him, going right for the throat.

Right then and there, Davey felt as though time slowed down.

But the Princess of the Abyss was left stunned. Her spear, which was made up of condensed power of the Abyss, crumbled into dust the moment it touched Davey’s neck. Not just that, she was also about to be destroyed by the same power that dissolved the spear when it came into contact with Davey.

While she knew that his power was lethal for her, seeing her power immediately disintegrate still confused her. She attempted to free her hand from the Power of Taboo that clung to her hand, but despite her efforts, she couldn’t do so. And while she continued to struggle against the stubborn Power of Taboo on her hand, her weak point was exposed.

"Huh?!"

As she flailed, she turned her head toward Davey. By then, he had already reached out and thrust his sword toward her right shoulder.

As her eyes widened in shock, the moment stretched as if it was in slow motion. Then…

Swoosh!!!

Her body was diagonally sliced from the shoulder down to her left hip, producing a gruesome sound.

"Kyaaaah!!!"

With a dreadful scream, she began to disintegrate and disperse into black mist.

"For a Princess of the Abyss, her defenses were weak. It's clear she was not a normal Princess of the Abyss."

After swiftly cutting down the Princess of the Abyss, Davey approached Overmind’s giant eye as it tried to recover the rest of its body.

"I've waited a long time to kill you."

[Die in the Abyss!]

The flesh that surrounded Overmind’s eye twitched and spread out, like a massive mouth, just as Davey was about to deliver a fatal blow. He was then swallowed by Overmind and engulfed by utter darkness.

[This is the Abyss. It’s darker than anything, and there’s nothing you can do here.]

"Really now… always the same boring pattern."

Davey already had countermeasures prepared for this. After all, the sequence of events was exactly the same as when Overmind swallowed him and Princess Davey in the dream world. So naturally, how he dealt with the situation would be the same as back then. Except, this time, he was alone and without anyone he had to protect.

Boom!!

Having surpassed the level of a human spirit, Davey’s spirit was on par with a demigod’s, and so he could not be corrupted by ordinary power of the Abyss. Of course, Overmind was unaware of this.

[Ugh… How?! What?!]

"Curious?"

Crack!!

To break through the completely isolated space, Davey rotated his wrist and then thrust his hand toward the eye of Overmind, which was still in shock.

Swoosh!!!

His hand entered Overmind’s body, which felt mushy. He then pulled out the spectral essence that served as Overmind’s regeneration source.

"Keep wondering,” Davey muttered with a terrifying voice as he held the spectral essence and tore it apart with brutish power.

[Kyahh!!]

The Princess of the Abyss screamed as the remnants of her body completely disintegrated.

Unlike before, Overmind had neither the strength to resurrect her nor the leeway for another counterattack. And so, it decided that fleeing was its best course of action, even if it meant sacrificing everything else.

The ground where Overmind's massive body had been turned into a viscous, tar-like substance, which then enveloped Overmind.

Seeing that it was trying to escape, Davey extended his hand quickly. But Overmind revealed a final desperate move that Davey had never seen in the dream-like world. It seemed like the Overmind in front of Davey at the moment had different measures from the Overmind that he had faced in the dream-like world.

Massive jaws emerged from the black, tar-like substance, and they attempted to devour him along with the altar.

Davey had seen the owner of these gigantic jaws before. It was the Ancient Dragon—an entity composed of bones that stood in the way to the Abyss in the deepest level of an underground relic, where the presumed clone of Hercules was trapped. Back then, it only had an intimidating appearance. But now, it was unmistakable that the huge jaws attempting to swallow Davey belonged to a living dragon.

[It is now one with the Abyss it once stood against!]

Over time, those who fought the Abyss were gradually corrupted by it. Although Davey was unsure of the Ancient Dragon's allegiance, he figured it had already lost its original self.

He put an end to his musings, and as if there was nothing more to see, he flicked his fingers toward the people who had followed him to the altar. Warp magic was activated, and a pool of light enveloped the people. Panicked, they were about to yell, but the teleportation had already become complete by the time they released their screams.

The only ones left at the altar were Davey, Overmind, and the enormous jaw of the Ancient Dragon that Overmind had summoned.

[I'll drag you into the Abyss!]

Woosh! Crack!

Before Davey could get away, the jaws attempted to clamp shut to devour him. But he managed to hit the roof of the mouth. He then quickly pushed himself away from it, creating a distance between them.

Ping!

. Davey used a simple technique from the Duchy of Felicity: position swapping. It involved placing a mark on an item somewhere and swapping places with it. He thus succeeded in escaping the jaws of the Ancient Dragon in an instant, and the pile of debris he had marked was sucked into the Ancient Dragon’s mouth in his stead.

Thud!

The mouth that closed in vain was eventually sucked into a swamp-like black tar.

But while Davey was preoccupied with the dragon, Overmind had escaped through the space he had opened, and the swamp-like black tar evaporated slowly until it disappeared. At the same time, the massive tentacles vanished instantly, and the altar was simply left shattered and devoid of all the horrific fluid that had filled the place moments before.

Overmind had managed to flee from the situation that was evidently disadvantageous for it. Knowing of this escape, the dying Princess of the Abyss, which was turning grotesquely and swelling slowly, spoke to Davey.

[I don’t know how you did it, but you’ve let Overmind escape.]

Strange dissonance filled the dying princess's voice.

[We... we are one... I can feel Overmind’s vitality. You, you'll never defeat us...]

Because Davey had let the enemy escape even after ambushing it, the Princess of the Abyss was now mocking him.

But Davey just shrugged his shoulders and said, "You're mistaken."

His reply caused her eyes to twitch. Then, with only her head left intact, since the rest of her body had already disintegrated, she looked at him blankly.

"Only you guys can open the pathway to the Abyss, right? Whatever means you used, in the end, it's your kind that opens the door."

This meant Davey could only passively defend against them, which seemed a bit unfair. And so, Davey had no other choice but to counterattack whenever the pathway was opened.

[What?!!]

"Don't be too disappointed. If there's something left of your spirit after you die, maybe you guys will meet again," Davey said mockingly.

Earlier, when he had plunged his hand into Overmind's body, Davey had implanted something inside it before pulling out its spectral essence. Since the pathway to the Abyss had not completely closed yet, the power Davey had left there could act as a conduit for magic. And when he was sure that Overmind had reached the Abyss, Davey lightly flicked his fingers toward the still-open pathway.

"Don't just come giving presents all the time; this time, I'll give you one, so take it."

Davey had not managed a complete Metamorphosis, but the level of his spirit was high enough now to mimic one of Odin's magic spells.

The creator of the spell himself did not have a demigod-level spirit. However, in order to copy his spell, Davey needed his spirit to be more powerful than the original in the Hall of Heroes.

This condition had now been met, but Davey did not know how far the impact of his magic would reach, especially considering that the one Davey had implanted in Overmind was not something supremely clever.

Magic typically emulated natural phenomena. Even if it was lightning, a magic version did not match up to actual lightning. However, Odin’s magic was different. It was difficult to cast, but its power was actually on par with true natural phenomena!

Davey copied Odin's magic by also emulating natural phenomena. But at the same time, he also tweaked the magic in his own way. At any rate, he could emulate a simple collision of power. If gravitational powers were to contract and explode at once, then casting magic with similar effects as Odin’s, though inferior, would become possible.

T magic was practically suicide to use directly, but if an Abyssal being just so happened to swallow the core of this spell and flee to the abyss, that would be the best gift for the Abyss that Davey could possibly offer.

So, at the moment, Overmind was like a ferocious beast that gobbled up a large amount of TNT bombs, broke through its enclosure, and hid alone in the forest.

[Ah... No!!]

"I always tell you, yes."

[Ninth Circle Transcendent]

[Odin-Style Collapse Magic]

[Supernova Explosion]

Boom!

Even though Overmind was in another dimension and the laws of physics made it impossible for anything from the Abyss to reach Davey, an intangible shockwave seemed to transmit directly from the pathway Overmind had escaped through.

The corners of Davey's mouth rose into a smile.

The timing was simply perfect. After all, it was almost Christmas on Earth.

"Merry Christmas, you bastards."

Beep.

[You have acquired the title Terrorist of the Abyss.]

1. Previously Over Mind. ☜