The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

The terrorists had been instantly subdued, yet there were still signs of rifts forming.

Unlike the mana EMP airship Asgard launched, Rinne had to take care of the things in the area she was in with her own strength. Unfortunately, that meant they couldn’t prevent the rift from appearing in advance.

"Master Davey. Rinne reporting. Target neutralized, yet rifts have still formed.”

- Well yeah, I figured. I mean, Asgard’s mana pulse can only cover one side.

With the terrorists subdued, the rift in Shibuya was likely to disappear having only been a minor disturbance. But if Rinne didn’t step in, a major disaster could still unfold.

To Rinne and Davey, every human on Earth, whether Korean, Japanese, or otherwise, was just another human from an alternate dimension. There was no particular priority in who they protected.

"Master Davey. Rinne requests a command.”

- Clear it.

"Rinne requests permission to use a sacred weapon."

The moment Davey gave his approval, Rinne flapped her wings as particles of lights gathered about here. Looking through her enhanced vision, one would see something resembling a target lock indicator hovering over the rift. The glowing halo above her head began to spin, and a weapon started to materialize in her hands.

Zzz… Zzzing!!!

It was none other than—

“Rinne highly evaluates the Aura Chainsaw!”

The weapon was a chainsaw with its teeth made up with the emblem of the Masters, Aura Blades.

Screech…! Zzzt!!

“Aahhh! Monster!”

People instantly panicked when they noticed a figure in crimson flames emerging from the rift—it was a Demon God, at least B-class.

- Kurrrooo!!!

The Demon God created more rifts in all directions to summon more monsters.

Rinne knew that if it was left unchecked, the devastation would be unthinkable. She hoisted her spinning saw with both hands and leaped off a nearby building.

“Rinne…”

Zzzziiing!!

“Evaluates the electric saw highly!”

Crack!!

- Kuuuooo!!!

A massive burst of sparks erupted as she sliced through the Demon God on the spot. The crowd fell into stunned silence once she took care of it.

Rinne, with her bright, youthful appearance, looked like an angel—pure and serene. But what she did afterward was the opposite.

Crack! Crunch!!

Blood from the monsters splattered onto her white form. The onlookers watched her mercilessly shred every monster that emerged from the rift, forgetting to even run away. The Aura Blade of her chainsaw played a big role in making the jaws of the onlookers drop. She flashed through and swiftly took care of each descending monster.

The terrorists had planned to massacre helpless civilians, so they hadn’t deployed much strength. Now, with Rinne completely subduing and preventing the additional rifts from even opening, their additional supply of monsters was out of the picture.

Creak… Creak…

Crack!! Zzzziiing!!

Indifferent to the splattering, Rinne continued to cut down the monsters. When a few winged monsters attempted to escape, she took to the air in pursuit.

“Rinne requests permission to pursue retreating targets.”

- Granted.

“Command acknowledged.”

She flashed toward the monsters across the sky at flashing speed. They fled toward the sea, without daring to look back, but she ruthlessly pursued them, eventually eliminating every last one. Finally, once the massacre was finished near the shore, a shadow appeared behind her.

“Hmmm?”

Rinne let out a faint sigh, her face expressionless despite the surprise.

* * *

“Dummy data…”

To locate the enemy leader, they’d compiled intel and pinpointed a location. But when they arrived, the site was empty.

“We were duped,” Seo-Yoon muttered, frowning.

The enemy had already vacated the place long ago, though it had likely been one of their main hideouts before then.

“Damn it! They slipped away again!” Yoon-Seok shouted in frustration. Perserque, who had joined the group late, ignored him and approached Davey.

“We stopped their attack this time, but what’s your plan?”

“If this were Tionis, I’d find and tear them apart myself…”

“But this is Earth.”

Davey knew he’d weaken Neltarid’s influence if he overused his power, so he had to be cautious about his actions. Not that it would make much difference when finding his target—it was just a choice between burning a whole house down or spraying bug repellent to corner a pest.

“What’s next? We can’t let them succeed with an attack…”

“Don’t worry; we can track them down.”

“What?”

“Did you gather all the necessary evidence?”

“Oh, yes. We have more than enough to expose the organization Adamantium before the whole world.”

"Good. Then head back and make it official. Let the government handle the remnants themselves."

"Huh? What do you mean…"

"I’ll take care of the chairman of Adamantium—the one who broke the taboo."

Davey swiftly dismissed them after giving his command, though Seo-Yoon tried to shout something in surprise. But her voice never reached him.

"So how are you going to find him? I don’t think ordinary intel will cut it," Illyna asked, watching him scan the surroundings.

"I have my ways."

The enemy seemed to have thought they were meticulous, going to great lengths to closely monitor him. But in the end, Davey knew he just had to focus on electrical signals.

"Summon Will-o’-the-wisp."

A Light and Lightning Spirit appeared—a lower spirit of the Lightning Spirit he’d summoned over the past two years. The small glowing wisp hovered, gazing at him.

"Can you trace where that electric signal is broadcasting to?”

Wisp flickered, then vanished into the surveillance equipment, only to reappear moments later.

[I found it.]

Davey nodded. The enemy was monitoring him in real-time. That meant he only needed to trace them back.

The way he knew they were keeping an eye on him was almost laughably simple—as a being with divinity, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize the fluctuations of a person that had broken a taboo on Earth.

* * *

"Chairman! You need to go! We’re under attack!"

"…"

"Please, take cover!"

“I see. So he made it all the way here.”

The young man, Khalishinif, rose calmly from his chair. "I only wanted revenge… How did it come to this?" he muttered, opening his desk drawer and pulling out a pistol.

"Sir?"

Bang!

Without hesitation, Khalishinif loaded and fired, killing his subordinate instantly.

"We’re finished. The enemy was far stronger than we anticipated, simple as that."

He slumped onto the couch, pouring coffee into two cups sitting in front of him.

"You found me much more quickly and precisely than I had anticipated.”

"No attempt to run?"

"Where would I escape to now? Our plans have failed, and a year of work toward our dreams lies in ruins."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Davey sat comfortably with his legs crossed facing him.

"Quite a lot to say for someone who broke a taboo.”

"I don’t know what you mean."

"It’s one of the reasons I came to kill you."

Davey calmly took a sip of coffee.

Boom!! Boom!!

The place they were in was heavily fortified, with seven B-class Demon Gods stationed as guards, but nothing could stop Davey’s group from coming in.

"I didn’t expect our B-class Demon Gods to fall so easily," Khalishinif remarked.

"Your so-called A-class ones are no better—they’re all failures.”

Khalishinif chuckled mirthlessly. "My name is Khalishinif. Since I’ve abandoned my mother country, consider me a man of no nation."

"Like I give a shit.”

"Are you sure it’s alright for you to be here with me like this? It looks like you’ve deployed most of your forces."

"And?"

"The one you left at your villa is our true target."

He was talking about Aeria El Lyndis, who was the princess of the Lyndis Empire, Davey’s wife, and a beastfolk.

Adamantium had their eyes on her so that she could serve as the vessel for their EX-class Demon God. Davey made a faint smile at their foolishness.

Crack!

Without so much as a single moved muscle from Davey, Khalishinif’s head abruptly slammed into the table.

"My airship is more secure than you think. It has defenders capable of repelling the enemy even if Demon Gods attack."

He knew the prepared defense was more than enough to protect Aeria. Khalishinif simply had no understanding of the extent of Davey’s power.

"May I ask something?"

"Go ahead."

"You said I broke a taboo. What exactly did I do?"

"Evolution."

His eyes twitched. "Evolution?"

"Are you familiar with the theory of evolution?"

"Are you referring to concepts like snakes gradually adapting without legs, butterflies modifying their wings for survival, and plants adapting to their environments?"

"Exactly."

"I thought that with the advent of divine beings, evolution became one of the most meaningless theories."

Davey shrugged in response. "Why do you need to separate creationism from evolution? They’re not mutually exclusive—can’t you just consider that the gods designed it that way from the start?"

"And why would they?"

"To allow gradual improvement for incomplete beings. Nothing in the world is perfect."

There was nothing more arrogant than the concept of perfection. Even the Primordial Goddess Freyja wasn’t completely perfect, which was why beings like Thanatos had emerged.

"Your problem is that you don’t understand that all life forms are capable of evolution. Humanity has already gone through one evolution."

The second Awakening.

Khalishinif fell silent.

"The issue is that you threw a wrench into that natural process. You created a bug in the system, trying to force an unnatural evolution. Of course, if you’d stopped there, this wouldn’t have escalated as it has."

But he had unknowingly crossed the line. By meddling with the natural flow of evolution, he’d created something that should never have existed.

The Demon Gods were exactly that.

“And to top it off, you stole power from a moon that someone else painstakingly created."

"Heh… Hahaha! How ridiculous."

"Oh, you find this funny?" Davey replied calmly as he rose to his feet. "The international community will soon bury you alive. Those with something to hide will put all the blame on your organization. That part, you can handle on your own—it’s not my concern."

"…"

"But as for you, the impetus behind this whole breaking of taboo… I’ll deal with you personally."

Sling…

Davey slowly drew Red Ribbon and asked. "I don’t need to ask about your reasons or manifesto or anything, do I?"

"We lost—I have nothing else to say. The only regret I have is wishing we had a little more time… Just kill me. I’ll be waiting for you in hell."

"…"

"What’s the matter? Did you really think you’d go to heaven after killing that many people with your own hands?”

"No, it’s just that you seem mistaken."

Davey leveled Red Ribbon at his neck. "You don’t even have the privilege of going to hell."

Slash!!

Zzzzing!!

The divine power at the tip of Red Ribbon intertwined with the divine power of Neltarid and enveloped Khalishinif. Once Davey provided the pathway for Neltarid to judge him, they began to reclaim him.

Davey knew even a half-assed deity like Neltarid had enough strength to accomplish such a thing.

"Taboos are something living beings instinctively reject. It’s something that shouldn’t be done, period—especially by mortals like humans.”

Though logic might not recognize the feeling, it was something the soul instinctively understood. Choosing to ignore that limit meant a deliberate disregard for the world itself. Humans fighting amongst each other was no matter, but as a god, they couldn’t overlook those who undermined the core operation of the world.

"Urgh…! Aaagh!"

After splatting blood all over the floor, his body was enveloped in light before floating and beginning to disintegrate into dust.

Though he deserved a far more excruciating punishment, like torture to the point where he would’ve preferred dying, Neltarid was quick to claim him, clearly impatient. Davey wanted him to go through more pain, but as familiar as he was with the fate of those who broke taboos, he released Khalishinif without hesitation.

"I don’t know if Neltarid is a merciful god, but if they are I doubt they’ll show any to someone like you."

"We weren’t wrong!! What’s so bad about hating the monsters who killed our loved ones?! What’s wrong with punishing those who profit from them?!" Khalishinif shouted, face twisted with madness as he continued to disintegrate.

Every member of Adamantium harbored a similar anger toward monsters. According to Dakayev, every member had lost family and loved ones to monsters. As a result, their overwhelming hatred coalesced into collective madness.

Though they’d initially claimed to work toward restoring world order, their true goal had always stayed the same: eradicate monsters and punish the humans who profited from them. The amount of people that would die in the process of accomplishing their objective was the least of their concerns.

Left unchecked, Davey knew they would’ve brought unimaginable chaos.

Stretching out his dissolving arm, Khalishinif screamed, "Don’t think it’ll end here! When a mouse is cornered, it bites back! You have no idea what the mermaid provided us before you saved her!"

"Alright. I’ll handle it.”

Psss!!!

Davey sighed as he watched Khalishinif vanish in a rage. The ends of those who broke taboos were never pretty.

As the surroundings fell silent, he looked around to see Perserque and Illyna finished taking care of the others.

"Speaking of that mermaid…"

The immortal being who taunted them with awful jokes, the Queen of the Sea and the sea itself—So-Ya, the High Mermaid. Thinking back, it seemed unlikely that Adamantium had captured her simply to control Behemoth. He could tell they had intended something more.

He wondered what they had planned to ultimately do with her.

In Khalishinif’s office, Davey found a file titled Report on the Immortal Being, Queen of the Sea—it was clearly about So-Ya. Without a word, he opened it, only to narrow his eyes.

"Is this it?”

He activated the nearby electronic equipment, which then began projecting various scenes. Locations around the world began to appear—South Korea, the United States, China, Japan, etc.

Korea had stabilized, thanks to Asgard’s mana EMP missile. But Japan’s situation was unfolding in an unexpected direction. The screen showed a ruined port, where Japanese Awakened individuals were desperately resisting and fighting back with all they had.

He then saw a massive black figure crushing them along with the surroundings.

‘Wait, but isn’t Rinne there?’

Scanning the screen, Davey spotted a small girl in a white dress lying motionless at the monster’s feet. The monster had managed to subdue Rinne, even though she could access her full powers.

Davey instinctively recognized the monster he was seeing, even though he had never encountered it before.

Ten thousand years ago, during the War of the Gods, Thanatos and Neltarid had created their own creatures.

And one other, a neutral race.

"Vant, was it?”

Vants were an all-female race, entirely composed of small girls. However, the Vant on the screen was a colossal black monster shrouded in fog. Still, his divine power intuitively told him unmistakably that he was looking at a Vant.

"These fools found the bones of a dead Vant and fed it a mermaid’s scales."

They hadn’t just captured So-Ya to control Behemoth; they’d harnessed her body’s intrinsic value as well. Feeding the Vant something incompatible had revived it as a monstrous being.

Mermaid flesh was known as an elixir of immortality. He assumed it wasn’t completely immortal, but he figured they had revived the ancient Vant through the Behemoth’s evolution stones and the mermaid’s scales.

‘If I leave that thing unchecked, it’s going to cause another whole catastrophe.’

"Rinne, I trust you can hear me.”

She didn’t respond. He assumed she was pretty much down for the count, but he couldn’t care less. After all, she’d asked him to modify her, and it was finally time to make use of it. "I give you permission to lift your limit. That ancient remnant before you… Destroy it.”

Boom!!!

A blinding white light erupted from the pile of rubble where Rinne had fallen. What he’d given her was simple: a channel to draw upon his power.

- Rinne, activating stigmata upon permission. Rinne evaluates successful enhancement highly.

In essence, he’d engraved an artificial stigmata upon her.

ChubbyCheeks & FriedNook's Thoughts

Editorb’s Thoughts

Rinne about to get down and teach this monster a lesson