The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1199

"Then I'll guide this soul. But... should I put it into the River of Souls to recover first?"

"It should be grateful that it won’t be torn to pieces. Just send it off."

"Understood."

"Oh, right. Have you ever sensed a strange soul hanging around at Evangeline’s villa?"

"No, Woochi said that even his authority couldn’t detect anything."

"Got it. If it were something that could be detected normally, there’s no way I would’ve missed it. Good work."

"Ummm."

When Davey waved a hand, telling him to go back, Jeo-Seung wore an exhausted expression. "How many are you planning to kill this time?"

‘Damn, he’s pretty sharp.’

Davey paused at the question.

He had already torn apart the one who stabbed Seung-Hyun. Yet whether the entire incident had been ordered by Nacha, the emperor of an outer dimension, he wasn’t so sure. Nonetheless, Davey was pretty certain that the guy probably didn’t even know Seung-Hyun existed.

In short, Reina had already settled the matter, being the only one who held a direct grudge.

‘But the more I think about it, the more it pisses me off.’

Those dimensional pathways, even though some remained incomplete and had slipped from his control, were still his creations.

He’d built them so that vitality could flow evenly across the world, in order to keep living beings from vanishing. Yet, someone had been using them as a bridgehead for invasion.

Davey couldn't help but admit internally that it was an effective method. Once one side was controllable, a one-sided invasion became possible. Though it was ridiculous that such a method stemmed from the remnants of a guardian deity.

"Not any, right now. I don’t know if they’ll listen if I try to reason with them, but if they’ve got any sense, they’ll take the hint and back off."

What happened inside their own dimension didn’t concern Davey, as long as it had no direct connection to him. However, if whatever they did started spilling over and causing problems for others, that changed everything.

"Haah. Please take it easy. Honestly, I might die of exhaustion for real this time. Or at least get someone else to..."

"You think there are a lot of lunatics in the world like you?"

The man had given up everything to become a grim reaper just for a single goal. Cases like that weren’t common.

"Haaah. Fine. At least give me a heads-up when a mass soul ascension is about to happen, though. I'll make preparations for it."

"Sure."

After Jeo-Seung left with the soul, Perserque and Reina quietly glanced at each other.

"But where are we even supposed to look for this guardian deity?”

"I'm not sure, either. If the rainbow slime was created by that guardian deity, then it would’ve laid an egg. Do you think this little one might know?"

Reina poked the rainbow slime with her finger as she asked, yet the creature, possessing the intelligence of a mere animal, just played around with her finger.

"I think I’ve seen it once, actually. It was such a unique being that even spirits couldn’t remember it."

"Where?"

"Evangeline’s lair."

That thing hadn’t disappeared. As long as its existence had been confirmed, finding its location wouldn’t take long.

Then it happened.

[Oh my. About that guardian deity you were talking about...]

Killer Rabbit’s main body, hidden in his shadow and listening in on the situation, suddenly spoke up in their minds.

"What?"

[I think I found it. It's with one of my clones right now. But... for a supposed guardian deity, that thing is incredibly strange.]

* * *

The black creature had golden, round eyes, its body circular in shape like a slime but with two pointed ears sticking up.

The creature simply looked up at the massive, pure white muscle rabbit crouched in front of it, tilting its head.

“Kyu.” The rabbit tilted its head in response white making a low, heavy sound. It gazed down on the creature for a long time.

The black figure quietly looked up at the rabbit, then soon mirrored its motion and tilted its body the same way.

It was adorable, yet it was impossible to figure out what on earth it was thinking.

The reason Killer Rabbit’s clone was there was simple.

The Gourmet Research Society members and Evangeline were all in her lair comforting Park Seung-Hyun after he drank heavily to forget his rejection.

Though Killer Rabbit had been hiding in the shadows to protect Evangeline, it had come to the underground lair after getting a strange feeling. True to its intuition, it then discovered the black slime.

Boing! Boing!

After the two had stared at each other for a time, the black slime turned and began heading somewhere else. The clone simply followed, dumbbell in hand, lifting and lowering it as it walked.

Although it had shown strong wariness when encountering Davey, the black slime displayed no such caution toward the clone.

Eventually, it arrived at the place where the rainbow slime eggs were. It bounced over and opened a part of its body like a mouth, then began to suck something in.

After swallowing it with satisfaction, it casually snatched up one of the eggs submerged in water and gulped it down as well.

“Kyu?”

The clone looked on curiously, and the creature wobbled its body left and right as if shaking something off. It then squirmed for a moment before spitting the egg back out.

The egg began to twitch slightly. As if satisfied with its work, the creature began heading off again.

It walked all the way to a secluded cave, where it suddenly snatched up a pebble lying on the ground.

Nom nom.

Then, when it spit it back out, the pebble had transformed into a small dumbbell.

“Kyu!”

Looking pleased, the clone lifted and lowered its dumbbell. The black slime extended a small tentacle from its body and started imitating its motion, as if they were playing together.

Yet the two were completely unaware that someone else was watching them from a distance.

* * *

"That creature..."

"Now it all makes sense. Human misfortune and fortune... It's feeding off misfortune. Then it creates rainbow slimes, which bring good fortune, and in doing so, it secures even more food."

In terms of compatibility with nature, it was actually a beneficial existence.

"But... what do you think would happen if everyone had one of those rainbow slimes?" Perserque asked.

Davey simply shrugged. "Overall, luck would probably improve. Yet between humans, it’d all balance out in the end."

Davey didn’t approach the black slime that was playing with Killer Rabbit’s clone.

It wasn’t something that he could communicate with using words, and it had an uncanny sense for detecting his presence.

He instead just kept its location in check while avoiding any hasty approach.

"If you get close, it runs away?" Perserque asked.

"That’s what it seemed like, at least. Well, it was more like avoiding me, to be more precise."

"Then there's no point trying to track it down."

"That's why I’m wondering why that thing avoids me while that rabbit’s okay?"

Then it happened.

"Wow!! It’s so slimy!"

"So cute!"

Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, who had slipped away from Evangeline’s group unknowingly, exclaimed when they saw the black slime. Sporting bright smiles, they ran over and plopped down beside it.

Surprisingly, the creature didn’t flee.

Even more surprising, when Red Ribbon hugged it, the slime simply nestled into her arms and cuddled back.

"It’s fine playing with Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon. Maybe it just doesn’t like humans?" Davey said as he observed the three.

"Hmmm. A bit early to jump to conclusions, I’d say. Wasn’t there a time in the past when that slime coexisted with humans?"

After thinking for a moment, Perserque seemed to come up with something and looked at Davey. "Since that slime doesn't look like it’ll run away or something, why not pretend it’s a coincidence and walk over there? See if it runs away again."

Davey nodded at her suggestion. He then slowly walked toward the slime inside the cave.

Boing!!

However, just as he approached, the black slime that had been snuggling with Red Ribbon suddenly flinched and vanished.

"Waaah!! Slimy disappeared!!"

"It went away...”

The two dejected kids searched for the vanished black slime, but it refused to return.

That proved once and for all that the creature would run away if Davey got too close.

‘It really needs to stop discriminating against people...’

"Pffft! Maybe it avoids twisted or broken things like you? Fufufu.”

"You really want to diss your own husband like that?" Davey complained.

"Regardless of how good a person you are, you’re definitely twisted. Just like that emperor."

"Keep it up and I’ll show you what real regret feels like. Maybe I should just catch that damned slime and send it back through the portal."

As Davey grumbled, Perserque pinched his cheek with an amused smile. "We’ve confirmed that the guardian deity is in Eva's lair, and that it’s not dangerous. So, now what do we do?"

"I thought I’d get something out of it, but if we can’t even communicate, there’s not much we can do here. We’ll have to go check things out ourselves."

That small advance force from the Nacha Empire was clearly just the precursor to a full-scale invasion.

While they had yet to directly attack Tionis, if they were left alone, it was almost certain they’d eventually target Earth.

It was hard to estimate how strong their forces were. However, if war broke out between them and Earth, it was certain that countless lives would be lost. If it did, it’d all happen through the passageway he had created.

Ultimately, it wasn’t something he could just ignore.

"I’ll give them a proper warning."

They crossed over through the dimensional passageway.

While the invaders had primarily used those passages, the actual control over them belonged to Davey.

Since there was no information about the destination, finding it wouldn’t be easy. However, it didn’t take long to rediscover the path that had once been connected.

Zzzt. Zzzttt!!!

Davey reverse-calculated the coordinates to reconstruct the dimensional passageway used by the intruders, then began walking toward it.

Reina called from behind, "Ummm.”

When he turned around, she looked away. "A weapon... Please lend me one."

"Longinus? I’ve always wondered, why do you insist on using a spear?"

"I’m not worthy of using a sword."

While she typically formed energy swords with condensed mana, she rarely used actual swords.

Even though she was Illyna de Pallan from another timeline, and her talent with the sword might’ve dulled, it hadn't disappeared completely.

"Is it because of Caldeiras?"

The divine sword Caldeiras.

In the past, Reina had been captured by the First Lich Nyx, subsequently being subjected to experiments so brutal they shattered her mind.

The pain of having her mana circuits severed, combined with her unbreakable will not to betray humanity, had caused a catastrophic internal collapse that went beyond what humans could withstand.

It was the divine sword Caldeiras that restored her broken mind. It was the last remnants of her power, from beyond the Parallel World.

After that, Caldeiras lost her will and power, and crumbled away. It was no surprise that Reina carried lingering trauma from it.

"About that Nacha Empire...”

Reina looked up in response to Davey.

"If we can properly use the special minerals that the black slime reacted with, we could craft a pretty good weapon."

Her eyes widened at the idea.

"Until then, use this. After that, I’ll make your weapon."

Of course, Davey had no plans to do it himself—he planned to use those lazy blacksmiths of the Hall that were always loafing around. He knew that once that guy heard about a new material being involved, he’d be all over it.

Soon, Reina and Perserque disappeared beyond the rift.

Just as Davey prepared to cross through the gate, a sharp, ominous noise rang out and the coordinates distorted.

“That damned goddess!! What kind of cheap tricks are you pulling now?!”

It was Goddess Freyja’s avatar. She had clearly intervened using her power.

* * *

Once Davey came to his senses and looked around, he saw a profoundly bleak city. Or rather than a city, it felt more like standing in the middle of a massive quarry.

The men and women all wore nothing but ragged clothes, hauling stones and ores with dead expressions, looking as if they'd long since lost the will to live.

Unlike Perserque and Reina, who had gone ahead, he’d clearly been thrown into a completely different location, all alone.

[Just the two of us now, huh?]

He frowned at the teasing tone.

"Wouldn’t it be better if you started by explaining why?"

He kept his voice as polite as possible. The avatar of Goddess Freyja, dressed in nothing but simple attire, casually swayed the hem of her skirt.

Then she held up a tablet.

[Well? Cute, right?]

"Answer the question first. I was just separated from my wife.”

‘I would’ve just gone by myself if I knew this would happen.’

Hearing his question, she tapped her tablet expressionlessly.

[Don’t worry about them. You’re the one who should be worried right now.]

Davey scowled. "I’m not exactly the type to get beat up by someone."

[If you make the wrong move here, there won’t be any going back.]