The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Novel

Gellus didn’t even get a chance to feel a presence. He didn’t even hear the rustling of the grass nor a heartbeat. He didn’t smell the distinct scent of humans nor the sweet scent of blood. Besides, he had cast a barrier surrounding this place that isolated it from the outside world.

Even if Davey had used a sword to cut through the barrier, for him to show up without a trace?

It was possible for Gellus to feel nothing if he had been attacked at the same time as the barrier had been slashed open, but that was not the case at all. This was an assassination so secret, natural, and fatal that Gellus could not believe it.

As a high-ranking vampire, Gellus had been given a stronger power of immortality on top of the regular power by the person he served. However, even he was bound to lose a substantial amount of his power now that he had lost his heart, the origin of his power.

When Gellus’ sharp hand that had penetrated through the Empress Dowager’s stomach lost strength and slid out, Davey also retrieved his hand with Gellus’ heart still in his grip.

Gellus’ heart had been removed from the rest of the body, but it was still beating strongly.

Should it be surprising that Gellus was still alive even though his heart had been extracted?

Gellus stood up after struggling and clenched his jaw. “If… If I had a bit more time…”

If given a bit more time, he could have removed the bothersome Empress Dowager and extracted the power-filled heart that was inside the Son of Heaven’s body. That heart was going to become the living heart, which was the key origin of resurrecting the Demon Lord.

As the resurrection was the vampires’ main goal, Gellus held great pride in his mission.

Unfortunately, Davey was a lot quicker than he had anticipated. Perhaps this was the result of ignoring the lowly half-blooded vampire’s warning to not underestimate the opponent. It was perfect according…

“I guess you’re relaxed enough to think about something else.”

It only took a moment for Davey’s voice to reach Gellus’ ears. At the same time, Davey threw the bloody heart on the floor.

“Keugh?!” Gellus fell to the floor as his vision blurred. He could still see the horrifying smile of the boy who had just kicked him to the ground.

Gellus was now a lot weaker after Davey had seized his heart. Was that the reason that Davey could throw him around like that? Looking at Davey’s smile, he knew that the boy was only playing with him.

“You despicable human!”

“You have a nice place.”

“...”

“I got a lot of treasures thanks to you.”

“Y-You?! How!”

“It’s not like you took my power without knowing how expensive it is, right?”

“.The hideout that our Lord gave to us…”

“Lord, my ass.”

Gellus screamed like he was insane. Even while coughing up blood, he was shouting furiously, “I already know about your power! You will not be able to track it even if it is your power!”

How could it be possible for a power that had left the body to be tracked down? Right?

“Sorcery can. The only daoist magic that exists in this world is mine.”

Not knowing that daoist magic was a refined power unlike regular mana, Gellus said, “What…?”

“However, it makes me feel a little shitty that you tried to do this by using my powers. You should not have crossed the line.”

Davey was spouting nonsense! He was saying that, although the vampires had been the ones to start this, everything had gone according to his plan ever since they had stolen the brooch which contained his power and had subdued the Guardian Deity, stolen its power, and honed his power into a crystal through a surprise attack.

Ignoring Gellus’ shocked expression, Davey went on to talk about how he had stolen everything in the well-hidden hideout. Now, the hideout only had lowly vampires who could barely be used as assistance.

Gellus was not angry about the lowly vampires’ deaths. He was only furious at the fact that a human had dared to turn their base upside down.

Gellus’ eyes were bloodshot as he got back up on his feet. Wanting to scream, Gellus was determined to kill Davey. No, even if Davey was a monster who he could not kill, he was going to leave the boy with an injury that could not be healed!

The hole in Gellus’ chest began to mend while blood energy started flowing out of his body. He said threateningly, “I will make you regret it. I have learned a special type of blood magic among fellow vampires, so even you will not be prepared for it.”

“Of course.”

At the same time, a bright red flame burst from Gellus’ body. It looked capable of burning everything in its path. Unlike a regular vampire flame of normal red, Gellus’ had a deep red color that resembled blood.

Gellus’ body was also undergoing a transformation. Before his transformation was complete, he widened his eyes when the despicable Davey had suddenly gotten so close to him.

“I think I told this to that Pace guy when we met.”

Gellus could hear Davey’s voice coming from right next to his ear before his head was grabbed and slammed into a nearby tree.

“Why are you transforming when your opponent is right in front of you? Why?”

Gellus could hear the demon-like boy’s calm voice.

Soon after, a bright blue light flowed out from Davey’s fingertips. At that moment, Gellus lost consciousness.

* * *

Davey looked at his hand, which was flying with sparks, then he looked at the silent Gellus. He also felt like his own body was numb from overusing his daoist magic.

-Davey, you’re not going to kill him?

Perserque asked quietly. She was curious as to why Davey would keep Gellus alive when he had killed all the vampires he had met in the past.

“I can’t kill him. Do you know how valuable he is?”

Perserque’s eyes glistened at Davey’s reply.

-Hm, did you realize that all lives, including those of our enemies, are valuable? I don’t think a change like that is bad at all.

“What are you talking about?”

Davey chuckled. As he walked away, he stepped on Gellus’ heart and had it burst apart.

The medium of Gellus’ power was no more, and the rest of his red energy scattered away.

“Tanya has to take her test, right?”

Although there was such a dangerous situation, Davey still had to let Tanya take the Bow Test. After all, he had made her a promise. This was the very first time that his cute younger sister, who he would take a bullet for, had asked for something.

Normally, Tanya would have to take the test of the Monstrous Rock Giant, the Guardian Deity of the Forest of Tests. However, Davey had to make preparations just in case the actual rock giant could not move.

It was actually impossible to create an appropriate test for those who had trained in something completely different from Davey himself. However, one truth existed: being put on the spot could bring about a lot of changes, and humans…would unknowingly progress in times of crisis.

All Davey had to do was corner the participant into a crisis until it worked.

-And if you can’t?

“There’s more to tests than just passing, Perserque.”

Davey couldn’t compromise on that, even if the participant was his own precious younger sister.

“I don’t think there will be any problems.”

Unlike Baris, Tanya had no idea about the changes that were happening inside her body.

Ignoring Vampire Gellus, who was lying on the floor with his body distorted, Davey walked over to the fatally injured Empress Dowager who was lying on the floor.

The injury was so fatal that it was surprising for the Empress Dowager to still be alive. She was holding on to dear life with a vicious look on her face. Although her throat was blocked, preventing her from speaking, she desperately grabbed onto Davey’s leg.

Did she want to beg for her life? Unfortunately, Davey did not want to let her live as dying here would be a better death for her.

“His?”

“His Majesty… His Majesty…” The Empress Dowager began to cry tears of blood as she struggled to speak.

“It doesn’t matter if you die; just save His Majesty?” Davey smiled coldly. As the Empress Dowager nodded desperately, he then asked, “Why would I do that? Do you know what you have done?”

When Davey pointed to the destroyed forest, the Empress Dowager continued to beg with blood flowing from her eyes. “Pl…ease…”

Davey fully understood what the desperate Empress Dowager was trying to say.

She had been tricked by those mosquitoes who had said that they would cure her son; he wasn’t actually cured and now, he had basically become a corpse that could not regain consciousness for some reason.

After that, the Empress Dowager fully collapsed. She was completely silent.

Looking down at the Empress Dowager’s body, Perserque mumbled bitterly.

-Motherly instincts are amazing…

“Are you envious?”

-Although she has become a spirit upon death… It’s always been my dream to be a mother as well.

As Davey activated his Death Spirit Eye, he could see the Empress Dowager’s spirit escape from her dead body.

“...”

-Davey. “What are you going to do for me?” Davey asked quietly when he realized what Perserque meant.

-I will give you one thing that you want.

“Do you really have to do that? You have no reason to.”

-Yes, it is true that you benefited from this situation, but that does not make it right. It might be better for this woman to die here, but…

“It’s different for the Son of Heaven?”

Perserque nodded silently.

The Empress Dowager had seemingly been the only person who could intervene and protect the Son of Heaven. As such, it was clear what kind of future awaited him.

“You lost a bet to me once before. Did you forget?”

-...Ah, just do it for me! Do you know how much I’ve helped you along the way? You can’t do this little thing for me?

It was true that Perserque was the one proposing ideas and making plans whenever Davey thought of something. If she was choosing to be like this, then…

“Even if you kill a sick person, you kill them after treating them…”

-What does that mean?

“It’s a stupid promise that I won’t be able to keep. Move. You might be affected.”

The child who had been hiding his sex this entire time had his body in a complete mess. There was no way that he would be fine; his body had too much yang energy when he should be filled with yin energy. The yang energy that had been put inside him was suppressing the naturally made yin energy and distorting it.

In truth, this child was closer to having no actual sex than being either a boy or a girl. The result of making a girl, who hadn’t even hit puberty, absorb a large amount of yang energy to force her into being and living as a man had taken a huge toll on her life.

Just then, half of Davey’s body began shining with holy power and the other half with devil mana.

Although Davey hadn’t learned about the Yin Yang Technique in detail, he could probably create something similar using holy power and devil mana.

Following the smooth movements of his fingertips, Davey made a symbol on top of the child’s body. The energies then began to shine, harmonizing as they absorbed each other.

Looking at the child moaning in pain with her eyes closed, Davey muttered, “I don’t know if I’m making a monster or something.”

-No way.

“You never know.”

Davey slowly opened his eyes. Then, he forced all the harmonious power into the Son of Heaven’s distorted heart. He said, “Open your eyes. How can you sleep in this situation?”

This was effectively resuscitation. The defibrillator that was made of mana hit the Son of Heaven’s heart with force. To be exact, it was inserting yin and yang energies by causing shock to the dying heart and suppressing the power of the Rock Energy from going berserk.

This was an extremely dangerous treatment method. A single mistake on Davey’s part could kill the Son of Heaven. Thankfully, he had the experience of saving hundreds of thousands of people.

The treatment was fast-acting; the Son of Heaven had woken up. Moaning in pain, she curled herself up into a ball. “Kahh!!”

“Good?”

As Perserque chuckled, Davey picked up the Son of Heaven who was staring into space.

“Ah… Ah! What… What are you doing?! Prince Davey!”

“Please sit tight, Your Majesty.”

“Ugh?!” The Son of Heaven struggled to get free. She seemingly could not remember what had happened.

Ignoring the Son of Heaven, Davey then used his devil mana to pick up Gellus.

Slowly putting his hand on his ear, Davey said, “Rinne, let’s start the test. Tell Annabelle to cast those debuffs like I said.”

As Tanya relied heavily on her sight, Davey was going to take it away. Conversely, he would give the blind princess beside Tanya an illusion of being able to see.

[Command accepted. Elderbrain effectively communicated command.]

After hearing the answer that he had been waiting for, Davey smiled eerily as he saw Gellus getting back up according to his finger movements. He thought that Gellus would be even more effective in the test, since his appearance alone was enough to cause fear.

“Now, you will show hell to the five people taking the test in this forest. All you have to do is be the punching bag.”

Davey declared that he was going to kill Gellus after making him suffer in every way he could, and he had to keep his promise.