The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

88. Do Not Impersonate Someone’s Teacher

Baaaaaang!!!

It was not easy for anyone present to respond to the mysterious being who had appeared with a loud roar. It was because the man’s presence had not triggered any of their senses.

In fact, Davey, Rinne, and Milpieu had not done much in this place. All they had done was touch, inspect, and investigate the mural, which smelled like blood according to Milpieu’s testimony, using Rinne’s power. No, perhaps it was because of Rinne’s actions that such a sequence of events had been triggered.

—…

The purple-haired giant had appeared with a flash of bloody red light. He looked at Rinne and Milpieu, then immediately crouched down in preparation to charge forward.

Milpieu widened her eyes. She immediately jumped forward and pushed Rinne away. She screamed, “My research material!!!”

Thwaaaaaack!!!

The giant threw his fist forward swiftly, aiming for Rinne once again. However, he ended up hitting Milpieu instead.

“Kghhhhk!!!” Milpieu groaned.

Curled up into a ball due to the impact, she flew helplessly toward the walls. She did not even have the power to resist. Perhaps she had only been able to intercept the attack because of a sudden boost of power after seeing her precious research material in harm’s way?

It had been a very dangerous attack that not a single one of them had effectively reacted to. However, it was precisely because of that that Rinne’s life had been twice saved with the help of the others.

Of course, Milpieu was in a terrible condition after having thrown herself in harm’s way to protect Rinne. Her entire lower body had disintegrated, leaving only her upper body stuck on the wall. She was just twitching on the wall as if she was unable to recover and regenerate her own body.

“Overwhelming physical strength… Un… Unable to recover… In… Interesting,” Milpieu uttered funnily.

Although she was close to death, Milpieu still mumbled about her research. However, it had to be known that a vampire would not die easily even after sustaining such grave injuries.

“Rinne…evaluates this very lowly.”

Having been saved twice now, Rinne’s self-esteem and pride had seemingly been affected. For the first time, her expression began to change. Her blue eyes also slowly turned red, as if they were heating up.

“Rinne’s emotional circuit is heating up. Reaching their limits. Rinne states this as the state of reaching maximum anger,” Rinne murmured through clenched teeth.

The changes in her facial expression were minute, but this truly was the first time that Rinne had a different expression from her otherwise usually expressionless face.

Not long after, the bloody giant turned away from Milpieu to look at Rinne.

Noticing that, Rinne silently raised one of her hands.

Vwoooooooong—

Particles of light appeared above Rinne’s hands to create the shape of a cube. At the same time, a red light slowly appeared on her chest before spreading across her entire body. Then, a voice that was different from Rinne’s usual voice rang out, “Rinne… Overlimit. Unfolding the Great Demonic Dragon Extermination form.”

“Stop.”

At that moment, an arm popped out from the unending darkness, a darkness where no one could see an inch ahead, to grab the giant’s head. It stopped the giant from further crouching down to charge at Rinne.

“Sir Davey!!!” Rinne cried out to Davey, who had stopped the giant, in surprise.

However, Davey just silently dragged the giant into the Abyss. He had a blank and expressionless look on his face.

Rinne, who had raised her machine heart to its limit, had no choice but to sit blankly and stare at the Abyss for a very long time.

***

The unending darkness truly did not allow one to see through its depths. Simply to try to see whatever laid ahead of him in this never-ending darkness, Davey was using all of his senses and pushing his sensitivity to the limit.

Davey then placed his hand on his injured abdomen. He could feel a terrible pain coursing through his entire body, but he did not have the time to scream or groan.

[Highness Heal]

The pain that Davey felt slowly went away after he had circulated holy mana within his body and cast holy magic. It seemed like the source of magic was not blocked in this dark hell where even the light of the Highness Heal could not be seen. However…

‘I’m doomed.’

Davey’s holy mana, although not blocked, did not last long and soon scattered into nothingness. In other words, the use of magic in this space did not last long.

Fwoosh… Fwoosh…

After falling into the darkness for quite some time, Davey finally moved and slowly turned his head. This was his first time experiencing total pitch-black darkness. Perhaps Ultima, the pinnacle of dark magic that could erase light, had been cast over this place? The darkness even ate away at the light magic that Davey had cast. In fact, he still could not see even after casting Dark Eyes.

The darkness was also affecting more than just Davey’s vision. He could not hear nor feel anything, and this caused his entire body to become extremely sensitive and tense. It was definitely a space that brought one’s emotions and senses to the limit.

This place was obviously the place that Perserque had mentioned before…the Abyss. Here, even God’s light would be devoured.

The Abyss, unlike a black hole that pulled the particles of light via gravity, erased light. It was simply a place with no light at all. If one fell down in a place like this, there would be no way for them to know their right and left or even their up and down. It was literally like a prison.

Then…

Vwoooooong—

Davey felt the soft touch of something small amidst this wrecked mess.

—Davey, listen. Do not believe your senses in the Abyss. In fact, do not believe any of the words I say either.

Nothing could exist in the Abyss.

—However, I will protect you. Compared to the things that you have done for me… This much is nothing.

Perserque sounded like she was ready to sacrifice something. Her voice began to grow clearer in Davey’s ears, and the rest of his senses also started to exhibit changes.

Although she never intended to be such an existence, Perserque was born as the Dark Lord of the Abyss. In other words, the Abyss was a very familiar place for her.

Gradually, figures began to appear in Davey’s vision. Even though everything was still black and dark, at the very least he could see some sort of blurry figures in front of him now.

That was when Davey saw the figure of a giant aiming for Rinne over the hole that was located on an incline not too far away from him. He was also able to witness how Milpieu had pushed Rinne away to take on the punch to sustain a fatal injury in exchange.

Perhaps that was the reason. For the very first time, Rinne was showing emotion on her face and her body was exhibiting changes.

Davey did not know what was happening with Rinne, but his instincts were screaming at him that it would be dangerous to let her change into whatever that was.

Baaaaaaaang!!!

After that, Davey instinctively moved before his thoughts could even catch up. He stomped on the ground, mercilessly snatched the head of the purple-haired giant, and said firmly, “Stop.”

Davey had never allowed Rinne to bring destruction upon herself.

With a frown, Davey turned to look at the purple-haired giant who he was dragging away from Rinne. Since his opponent had dared to blow a hole in his body, then he should be prepared for the consequences of his actions.

If Davey were to be honest, he would admit that he truly could not believe what he was seeing. No matter how different the giant looked, there was no way he would mistake the unique and mysterious energy that he was sensing from the giant.

“Why are you here?”

Hercules had been one of the two strongest people in the Hall. When all of the other heroes would simply be knocked down by Rho Aias’ strongest dark magic, he would be the only one who could remain standing. He had been a monstrous superhuman who could endure such a powerful attack with his bare body.

Hercules, instead of teaching Davey combat skills, had been the only hero who had taught him survival skills and simple physical strengthening. In fact, Hercules’ origins had been every bit unclear to Davey.

They said that, over time, unpleasant feelings would slowly become pleasant through nostalgia.

Davey had stayed with the heroes for a very long time and most of them had told him a lot about themselves. He had been told facts like the places that they had come from and the kind of lives that they had lived before.

However, out of all the heroes, Hercules had been the only one who was different. All Davey knew about him was that he had been the oldest person in the Hall as well as the fact that his power and force had been beyond anyone’s imagination. Those two were the only things that he knew.

Why had Hercules arrived in the Hall? And why was it that he had been known to specialize in survival skills? However, this was the most important question: which continent had he come from? It was unclear to Davey if Hercules had been from the Tionis Continent or not.

—Get your senses together! He’s not the man who you know of!

Hearing Perserque’s cry, Davey snapped out from the spiral of his thoughts that his confusion had caused him. Right after that, he immediately twisted his body.

Booooooooom!!!

Perhaps he was still suffering from the after-effects of his previous injury and reeling from the lack of senses from earlier on. Davey could not move in the way that he wanted to. Due to that reason, the purple-haired giant who appeared to be Hercules could grab Davey by the head and slam him face down on the ground.

Even though Davey felt like the back of his head was about to break apart, he did not even let a scream slip past his lips.

The heroes of the Hall had all been strong individuals, but Hercules had been unusually stronger than any of them.

What would happen if they were in a situation where Davey had regained his entire powers back? He would still have no chance against Hercules. After all, the Hall of Heroes had been a gathering place for all of the greatest monsters in the world that the system had recognized.

The giant repeatedly slammed Davey’s head on the ground, as if venting his anger on Davey for dragging him back here. If Davey had been an ordinary person, his head would have already turned to paste. The attacks were truly that horrible and devastating.

—Kyaack! Davey!

Perhaps Davey had allowed the attack because he could not use his hands. Nevertheless, all he could do was listen to Perserque’s screams as he collapsed to the ground. He was completely dazed.

Vwoooooong…

Not long after, the giant let go of Davey. Then, he quickly made a fist and started to gather a tremendous amount of energy in his hand. Before Davey could move to avoid it, he sent the punch that could distort space toward Davey’s forehead.

***

Davey’s ears rang. As for his vision, it was entirely blurry. He could not tell if he was in good condition or not. All he knew was that he was about to die.

Davey was fully aware that something slumbering deep in those ancient ruins actually broke and rejected common sense. And this time, his cluelessness had become severely disruptive to his ability to survive.

What in the world was the Abyss for? Why was Hercules here? There were so many questions that he had no answers for.

However, Davey believed that he knew of at least one thing. It was the fact that the purple-haired giant was not Hercules.

Although the giant’s entire figure was still unclear to Davey, his blurry vision still gave him a general idea of the giant’s face up close. The unkempt hair was similar, but their beards were different… Rather than the Hercules that Davey knew, the Abyss had brought back the Hercules of the past. So, the figure in front of him was more of a clone.

‘A homunculus?’

The thought suddenly flashed in Davey’s head.

—Davey!!! Davey!!! Wake up!

Davey’s ears rang from Perserque’s sudden and urgent voice.

‘Wow, this…’

Davey felt flustered and embarrassed from the unexpected results of his current situation.

‘I’m in danger of dying… It seems like I’m in a bit of a pinch…’

Davey was feeling slightly lost. There was no helping it if he had to slightly step back from his goals. After all, it was his fault for being too complacent. To be honest, it was truly questionable why such a monstrous being had appeared here and why the Abyss had spread out here.

Despite his still blurry vision, Davey slowly stood up and murmured, “You’re like that lunatic of a guy, but you’re definitely not him.”

Even if the real Hercules only had a limited amount of power, he could have turned Davey into a bloody meat paste in less than a minute. However, the purple-haired giant in front of Davey could not kill him despite knowing that Davey only had half his powers?

Since the beginning, Davey had been questioning the identity of this being who had come from another world. But now that he could confirm that the giant was not the Hercules who he knew, Davey had no other reason to hold back anymore.

This was the Abyss, a place that devoured anything and everything. Once someone fell into it, they would not be able to get out unless they were able to overpower the powers of the Abyss. Needless to say, whatever fuss Davey chose to create here, there would be little to no damage to the outside world.

Now, Davey was ready to make the purple-haired giant regret not killing him earlier on.

This was similar to the saying of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Davey did not know who the man in front of him was, but there would be hell to pay for impersonating his teacher. Since the opponent was insisting on physical combat, even if it was hard for him now, Davey had no choice but to comply and adapt.

Creak, creak…

Davey’s bones were distorted, so they started to creak. Then, he opened his eyes and raised himself up. Immediately after that, he grabbed the giant’s incoming fist and pulled hard.

Just then, the blood flowing in Davey’s veins sped up and his muscles started to bulge. With his blood quickly pumping through his entire body, his overall temperature rose. And as if showing the aftermath of whatever he had done to his own body, a bright red tattoo-like pattern started to appear all over his skin.

This technique was known as Physical Remodeling Through Sheer Vitality. It was a skill similar to an instantaneous and momentary physical remodeling of the body. It was a very dangerous skill that even the nutcase heroes in the Hall had called it crazy and had told Davey never to use it.

And in the Abyss, most types of power could not be maintained for a very long time.

In Davey’s case, the existence of the true Abyss, and not this small Abyss, was staring right at him from behind.

Davey’s eyes flashed a bloody red glow as he saw the giant, who had lost his balance, swinging another punch at him.

The giant’s physical force was strong enough to distort space, but…he was not the only one who could use it.

Davey also swung his fist forward, his punch overwhelmingly crushing the giant’s fist. His attack directly struck the giant’s head, slamming him straight down on the ground.