The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Novel

72. The One Who Possessed the Stigmata and the One Who Did Not.

As soon as Davey faced Alice straight on, the holy knights stood in a single line behind her. They all had stern expressions. They looked like they were trying to protect her from Davey.

Once the situation did not look good for her, Alice turned the situation around to put herself at an advantage once again. She wanted to be able to order people around. It was quite a cunning move.

In fact, if Davey actually were to slip up and play the wrong move here, it was clear that the arrows of criticism would fly his way. As such, there was a need for him to be absolutely clear.

“People are dying every single day, but you would rather watch because you are too stubborn. If that is not demon-like, what is?”

“Isn’t it too brazen of you to say that when you threw the solution out the window to protect your petty pride? I did say that I would help if you just apologized,” Davey pointed out.

Alice frowned. “Your role is to simply support me with your large storage of holy power. You are arrogant just because you have received the stigmata. It hasn’t even been a year since you have learned holy power. On the other hand, I have been learning holy magic ever since I was five! Did you think that just because you received the stigmata, you would be able to do everything, even things that I could not do?”

“Man…” Davey couldn’t help but sigh in frustration as Alice wasn’t getting the point at all.

“To be honest, I really resent Goddess Freyja! If I was the one who received the stigmata and not you! If I had become the real Saintess! People would not have died like this!” Alice shouted.

Davey silently tapped the pommel attached to the end of Red Ribbon.

It only took seconds for the holy knights to wield their swords. In the blink of an eye, there was a confrontation between Davey, who was holding Red Ribbon to Alice’s neck, and the Holy Knights, who pulled out their swords seconds later to stop him.

“Get it right. That’s why you weren’t able to become the Saintess.”

There was no limit to how many people could receive a stigmata.

“Me receiving the stigmata is not the reason why you weren’t given one.”

Alice simply didn’t get a stigmata because she wasn’t good enough.

“There has always been only one Saint or Saintess in every era. What do you know?”

“That doesn’t mean only one person can fill that position. Then, what do you know about Goddess Freyja?”

Alice flinched at Davey’s question.

“The sayings of that almighty God? The Bible? How do you know that those things were by God or another human being?”

A benevolent goddess?

From the beginning of time, Goddess Freyja did not give any teachings to humans; all she did was spread power and grace so that living beings could pave their own way.

“What makes you so great when you don’t even know even the most basic things?”

“Doesn’t that go for you as well?”

“I also don’t know whatever Goddess Freyja is thinking.”

“That is blasphemy. As expected, you are a part of an intolerable cult. A faithful believer does not compromise with demons. There is no way I will ever ask for your help.”

“That is what you believe. However, the longer your army defends the fortress, the more isolated you will be,” Davey said.

Alice scowled.

* * *

19,025/20,000.

Davey only needed about a thousand more people to reach his goal.

“Prince Daveyyy~”

As Davey turned toward the woman rushing over to him while calling his name, the woman smiled cutely and handed him something; it was slightly tough bread, but seemed to have been made through hard work.

“Eat this while you’re working.”

“That’s alright, Saintess candidate Lena.”

“Nooo, you can’t! People need to eat in order to move, no matter how hard-working someone is!” Lena dragged out the end of her words out of habit, one that made Davey feel much more comfortable with her.

Saintess candidate Lena was the other one from the Holy Empire. She was placed back here with Davey due to Alice’s decision. Alice claimed that Lena was naive and inexperienced.

Lena smiled and held up the bread in front of Davey’s mouth, like she was hurrying him up to eat it. She giggled when Davey chuckled and took a bite. She then said, “I am so happy to see patients no longer in pain, thanks to your presence. I definitely prefer smiles over tears.”

Aside from the potential benefits, Lena genuinely felt pride and delight in treating people. To be honest, she was better suited for the Saintess position than Alice in terms of personality or potential power. She was definitely different from Alice, who only cared about her honor and stomped over others while arrogantly believing in her talent.

Davey wanted to engrave a stigmata onto Saintess candidate Lena if it was up to him, but he wasn’t that almighty.

“Most of the urgent patients have been treated. I will look after them for a while, so go and rest a little bit.”

“I’m not that tired anyways.”

“No! Go and resttt!”

Davey stepped back, slightly taken aback by Lena’s liveliness as she pushed him out the door.

When Lena waved her hand like she was saying goodbye, Davey asked out of curiosity, “They are probably starting to defend the outer palace right now. Aren’t you worried at all?”

“We have to do what we have to do. If I could, I would go and treat the soldiers myself, but… I can’t even stop the energy of the Undead with my abilities.”

Davey silently nodded at how Lena did her job without complaining, no matter what happened.

—It’s almost done.

“I just need a little more.”

This uncomfortable confrontation would also end the moment Davey fulfilled his end of the deal. That was when…

“The… The West Palace has been taken!! They have ordered us to prepare to retreat!!” One soldier urgently ran in and shouted.

With widened eyes, Lena exclaimed, “What?! Weren’t the doors on the west blocked by Alice?!”

“This is not the time! Escape the palace through the back gates! If the outer palace was taken, the inner palace wouldn’t last long. It’s only safe here for perhaps a couple of days!”

“W… What do we do?”

Looking at Lena, who was flustered and incapable of hiding her worry, Davey called out, “Saintess candidate Lena.”

“Yes… Yes?”

“Keep treating patients.”

“What do you…”

“The Undead will never be able to reach here.”

The attacks would continue anyways, and Davey could not allow this place to be taken over before he met the 20,000 mark. It irritated him that Saintess candidate Alice was more incapable than he had expected, but it wasn’t a bad idea to light the flame of disharmony by showing the people who were suspicious of him what kind of mistake they had made in the beginning; the more Davey stepped up, the weaker Alice’s position would become.

Lena widened her eyes even more when Davey patted her on the head.

Davey had done that unconsciously, because he had a habit of patting Amy’s head too.

“Um… Uh…”

“My apologies,” Davey apologized.

“N… No, that’s alright. Are you going to the battlefield?”

“Yes, I will just help out a little bit and go back.”

“Be careful. Oh, please take this.” After saying that, Lena pulled out a small cross and handed it to Davey like she realized what he was trying to do. It was a cross artifact with quite a lot of holy power. She then said, “I pray that you may have God’s blessing.”

“This is a great object. Thank you.” Davey smiled.

Lena showed a bright smile in return.

* * *

The Undead rushed in endlessly. The Death Knights and Wyverns, which were flying and throwing soldiers out of the fortress, continually attacked. The west doors of the fortress were completely wrecked as the huge mudworms went underground with the Undead in their mouths and spat them out upon resurfacing.

As the soldiers were inevitably marked to become an Undead if they were bitten, the situation at the west doors was chaos. Nobody kept to the usual defense tactic where they would just keep their distance.

“Ahhh!!!”

“I don’t want to die!”

People screamed. The soldiers who got bitten quickly turned into the Undead and roared at those who used to be their comrades.

This was obviously the worst possible situation, but Saintess candidate Alice who was protecting the west doors only shouted the same thing repeatedly. She yelled, “Do not retreat!! There is no compromising with demonic beings! This is a holy war! Retreating here means that the continent is giving in to the demons!!”

Alice, who was shouting fiercely while releasing her ineffective holy power, ran into the battlefield herself. She held onto a bloody sword in one hand and a small cross in the other.

“We must retreat! Saintess candidate Alice!!” Prince Sullivan, the alliance’s Chief of Staff who was with Alice, urgently grabbed Alice after shouting for retreat.

Alice simply shouted as if she had developed an obsession. “What if we run away here?! Where next?! Is it the inner palace?! Is it going to be the capital of the Pallan Empire?! Or!! Is it going to be the entire continent?! We must defend here!”

“I am the Chief of Staff of the alliance!! We were incredibly supportive of your decision per the agreement with the Holy Empire, but stop this overreach!”

Alice’s obsession did not subside even as Sullivan shouted in protest, and the situation was getting worse.

Watching the allied army in the west get pushed back, Davey reached his hand into empty space. Then, he pulled out Longinus, the divine spear that was in the shape of a cross, and mumbled quietly, “It’s obvious what will happen if you give a girl like that a stigmata. You cannot do that. You understand me, right?”

It wasn’t much of a prayer.

Basically, logic did not work on those whose beliefs were twisted.

Holy power began to vibrate from Davey’s fingertips. The allied army was doing everything they could to protect the other palace gate, but it was certain that the west gates would be broken through if the situation went on like that.

As if putting the last nail in the coffin, a hole opened in the palace wall as a part of it collapsed. A huge monster had charged right into it. Then, the Undead pushed through the hole.

Davey clicked his tongue as he watched Prince Sullivan, whose face was beginning to darken at the truly devastating situation, and Alice, who was gritting her teeth and shouting to fight back. He muttered bitterly, “This is why zealots are bad.”

—Is it okay if you do this right now?

“This place can’t be taken before I fulfill the deal. The two of them will become even more isolated if I pretend to at least do something.” After saying that, Davey straightened the cross and spread his hands.

At the same time, a huge magic circle appeared beneath Davey’s feet, and dozens of intertwined light rays began shooting up from the ground. It soon looked like dozens of dragons were ascending into the sky.

“...”

“That is…”

The atmosphere completely changed as soon as Davey’s skill began to display its overwhelming power. As the rays reached up high, everyone fighting the war turned to glance at Davey. Then, their eyes widened at the almost breathtakingly intense holy power. On the other hand, the Undead stopped what they were doing and stared at Davey as if they were drawn by his control of his Undead.

“Let’s fire this big-time,” Davey said calmly. He locked onto the west doors, the dwindling doors of the east and north, and the south.

As if a giant hand that had gone through resistance finally reached its destination…

[8th level Holy Magic]

[Rod of God]

The Rod of God, a spell that had been nothing but a nightmare to Grell Orfan, the 300-year-old Lich, began falling from the sky like bombs.

The Rod of God eradicated all evil things that it touched, wiping out hundreds and thousands of the Undead with each destructive flash of light. The effects of the spell spread throughout as the Undead pushed into a confined space where there was no room to avoid it.

“What is… This is…” Prince Sullivan stared at Davey with wide eyes, surprised by the unexpected situation.

The soldiers who were fighting blankly stared at Davey, who executed that skill brilliantly.

In just a moment, a silence so quiet that nothing other than the Rod of God’s explosions could be heard.

Davey didn’t need as much output as when he had broken the barrier surrounding the necropolis, so he split the five pillars of light he had previously used into dozens of rays that rained down.

The rays of light fell like heavy rainfall and didn’t stop until each and every Undead in the area was burned to the ground. Of course, the Wyverns also burned up as well. The rotting flesh of the Undead, who had nowhere to escape, went up in flames and disappeared in the air. Only ash was left behind. Even if they were Master-level Death Knights, they weren’t reinforced enough to withstand 8th Level holy magic.

Blankly watching the situation turn around in an instant, the soldiers looked at Davey after the last ray of light burned half of the huge monster that had broken the palace wall and made it disappear.

Davey watched them, then turned away without hesitation. “That’s enough. Let’s go; we’ve shown them enough.”

As he left the battlefield, Davey saw faces of disbelief and bafflement. He also saw Alice, who could not hide her extreme jealousy toward him.