The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1251

Finding Isera wasn’t going to be so difficult, after all. The gang boss who ruled the slums had already been investigating her disappearance on his own, providing Mit with information.

“Still... I never thought it’d turn out like this.”

The man was a gang boss, pretty much a common street thug. Mit couldn’t understand why thugs had protected Isera for years, kept her safe, and even sent men after she was kidnapped, and continued the investigation afterward.

He wondered if she had some hidden secret.

However, the boss explained it rather plainly. Apparently, she was the child of the boss’s benefactors.

Years ago, back when the boss was still fighting for control of the slums, he’d been stabbed and nearly killed.

The one who saved his life back then was none other than her parents, long since dead.

“Vasilion, that son of a bitch...” Even as he cursed, Mit Chyde couldn’t shake the bitter taste in his mouth. After all, he himself had once despised Isera, framed her, and cast her out.

The gang boss might be ruthless, a downright merciless ruler of the slums, but for some reason he carried a debt toward Isera’s parents. Thus, when Isera and her siblings drifted into the slums, while he didn’t help them live better lives, he made sure no one touched them. He deployed his men to keep other groups from harming her.

Some thugs, who resented the nobility, even pitied her for having been cast aside by them. Now, she’d been taken by nobles once again.

The boss made sure to choose his steps carefully. Even if it was for Isera, acting recklessly would destroy his entire gang. A group of a few dozen men couldn’t possibly stand against nobles. It would practically be suicidal.

Instead of intervening directly, he quietly investigated where she had been taken. That much, at least, he could do.

“They look and act like some doomsday gang ready to swoop up everything in sight, yet they’re so loyal. Are gangs usually like this?” Davey asked in wonder.

“No, usually they’re just full of scum. The slum gangs, especially, are crawling with the lowest of the low. How do you not know that, Teacher?”

“Why would I? There was no reason for me to tangle with them in Shakuntala, and gangs like this barely exist at all in Heins.”

If they stirred up trouble for no reason, the “king’ of the hive would show up and sting you to death. No way these guys could’ve survived that.

“Isera’s just a special case, living here.”

As long as things worked out, that’s all that mattered.

The gang’s tailing confirmed that she’d likely been taken to the central island of Mist Lake, somewhere not far from where she’d lived.

“I’m guessing you’re not going to help, are you?” Mit asked Davey.

“Nope, I’ll just watch. That’ll be better for you too.”

“Then I’ll need to find some backup and support first.” He no longer had any significant connections. However, he did have one person that could act as his ally.

“You never bothered to build relationships, did you?”

“I have one! Someone who owes me, and has to help.”

The Central Academy.

Not the student council, or students he had clashed with, but a professor. One who had branded him a criminal based on flimsy evidence.

“Professor Ryuda. She owes me.”

* * *

They eventually reached the central island of Mist Lake.

Not far from the great territory where the Central Academy stood, there stretched a vast lake. Its waters were clear, its scenery beautiful, yet one section was always covered in a dense, eerie fog.

Without special artifacts, even seasoned explorers would lose their way there. Once inside, facing the vast lake and the fog that swallowed the landscape, it was impossible to tell front from back, left from right.

Deep within that fog, on the central island, lay the ruins of a forgotten kingdom, built long before the mists spread. Inside that supposedly deserted ruin was a certain group of people who moved in secret.

Mit, after confirming their presence, used one of the artifact scrolls he had wrung out of Professor Ryuda. It was a scroll that erased all traces of his presence. It shadowed them silently and allowed them to sneak into the hidden facility.

However, the deeper they went, the stranger it became.

“Weird. There are people here, but nothing else of any significance.”

The place felt wrong. There were plenty of guards busily moving around, but they couldn’t see what they might be guarding.

At that moment, Josiah’s eyes suddenly widened before she grabbed Mit to hold him still.

“Teacher?”

“Stay here,” she muttered as she stood up.

“Wait, what? Why, all of a sudden?”

“Don’t get yourself hurt. I need to confirm something.” Her figure dissolved like gray smoke, vanishing into the mist.

Mit blinked, staring at where she had been, then tilted his head. However, he couldn't stay still once he heard voices approaching.

“Move it already! It gives me the creeps.” 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“Yes, sir.”

He spotted men carrying large crates. The coppery stench of blood filled his nose, and his gaze sharpened.

Clearly, something was there. Even if Josiah had told him to wait, the compulsion to investigate overwhelmed him.

He tore another scroll, cloaked himself, and slipped after those men. After weaving through the maze-like ruins, he stumbled upon something he hadn’t expected at all.

“Isera!”

Inside a rusted iron cage, battered and broken, was the maid. Her body was covered in stab wounds and burn marks.

Seeing her limp and weak, Mit rushed forward and grabbed the bars of the cage. Being an unmanned prison, her cage was locked tight, reinforced with a heavy padlock. Fortunately, it wasn’t unbreakable.

He conjured a spell, smashing it apart, then stormed in, shattering her restraints.

“Isera! Wake up! Hey!”

She slowly rose with a hollow face. When she saw him, her eyes widened. “You are...”

“What did they do to you? Can you stand?”

“My... my siblings!!” Her empty gaze flickered alive with sudden panic. She tried to raise herself up, but her broken body wouldn’t move properly.

“Quiet! If they hear us, we’ll never get out.”

She recognized that and somewhat calmed down.

“Were your siblings brought here too?”

Tears welled in her eyes at the thought, streaming down her cheeks. She weakly pounded his chest with a frail fist. “Why... Why do you torment me like this until the end?!”

Her scream shook with grief, and Mit had no words in response.

“You humiliated me, then drove me out, and now that my family finally found a way to survive, you’ve come to ruin us again!”

Her sobbing left him speechless for a moment.

“Let’s get you out first. I’ll find your siblings. I swear it.”

“Sob. Sob.”

Holding her as she cried, he forced himself to regain his composure.

‘Think carefully, and act swiftly.’

Words Josiah had drilled into him echoed in his head.

It was impossible to protect Isera there and escape silently with her in tow.

The plan was to take her from Prince Vasilion’s clutches, but clearly the place they'd reached held a deeper, darker secret. If he could uncover what was happening there, the forced ties between the royalty and the Chyde house could be cut in one stroke.

He contemplated what he should prioritize. He couldn’t abandon Isera, and he couldn’t ignore her siblings either. However, if there was ever a chance to uncover the truth, it was now.

‘First... I need to find her siblings.’

Resolving himself, he hoisted Isera onto his back.

“W-What are you—?! Stop! You’ll stain your clothes with blood!”

“Quiet. I’ve left the noble house. You and I, we’re the same now.”

“Lord Mit? What do you...”

“I won’t say sorry. I know you’ll never forgive me. But for now, don’t resist. Just stay still.”

He tore through his remaining body-enhancement scrolls, and an enormous amount of mana flowed through his body. He bolted forward after hiding his presence.

“Do you know where your siblings were taken?”

“I... I think it was the left corridor. There’s a strange room there. I saw people being dragged there, including my siblings.”

Nothing much could be done about the lack of details, but that was enough to warrant a check.

A thunderous alarm suddenly rang out, and shouts echoed everywhere.

“Intruder!!!”

Mit couldn't believe it. “What the hell did she do now?!”

If it wasn’t him, the only other culprit had to be Josiah.

Figures swarmed toward him, weapons drawn.

“Reporting! Another intruder found here—! Hmph?! It’s Mit Chyde, son of Count Chyde!”

Coming through an artifact, a hysterical voice screeched, “What? Are you fucking serious?! Get that asshole!!”

Mit instantly recognized the voice to be none other than Prince Vasilion.

Sling!! Clang!!

The knights unsheathed their weapons, surrounding him.

Mit checked the last of his scrolls and mana reserves. With Isera on his back, the only way to fight was to squeeze out every bit of power he had.

He pressed his foot against the ground and began chanting. Even two of those elites would be enough to put his life at risk when just using his raw skills.

Fortunately, he had another card up his sleeve. The artifact scrolls he stole, no, borrowed, from Professor Ryuda.

“Let ‘er rip!!”

Ka-boom!!

A 4th Circle explosive spell went off, engulfing the area in fire and smoke.

Charging them head-on would be madness, so Mit tried his best to avoid the enemies in his path as he dashed toward his destination as fast as he could muster.

“Ugh! He’s getting away! Don’t let him—agh!!”

Unfortunately for them, Mit had survived pursuit by strong foes before. He triggered the trap magic he'd planted while fleeing, making gas that induced volatile status effects burst out.

“Damn it, I’m burning through these things!” he shouted while grimacing and sprinting. “Isera! Can you hear me? Hey!?”

“Y-Yes... Yeesss...”

Her voice sounded hollow, but he didn’t pay much attention to it. He figured that since the fight escalated quickly, her injuries were probably draining her.

Once he reached the destination, his eyes widened.

There was a mountain of corpses before him! Men and women of all ages lay heaped together, yet the first thing that hit him wasn’t the amount. It was a small child tossed to the side of the pile.

The child lay there entirely bare and breathless. What was even more shocking was that Mit recognized the face.

“What in the—”

Before he could finish, a massive boom echoed from the wall and Josiah’s mana slammed into him.

He had never expected a 6th Circle mage like her to struggle, despite holding back her true power. More important, though, was the child in the middle of the corpse mound. Mit had seen that face before. When he’d almost died, Isera had saved him, and that tiny child had stood beside her. It was one of her siblings.

Seeing the lifeless, pale child, fury froze across his face. “Vasilion!! You bastard, come out here!!!”

He couldn’t contain himself. He roared, voice ragged with fury, “You worthless human scum! What did you do to these people—”

Crack!!

A sudden sound made him stagger. Isera, tightly bound in cloth, collapsed to the ground, limp.

“Ugh. Cough, cough.”

Blood gushed from her vitals, and he could see that a sharp sword had pierced her.

The hand holding that sword belonged to none other than Isera herself.

“Isera... Why?”

“Simple brainwashing. How do you like it?” A disgusting voice whispered into his ear, “Why’d you even come this far? If you had just run, you might’ve kept your life.”

Someone stepped forward, walking with a smile. Prince Vasilion snatched the sword from Isera’s limp hands and, without hesitation, drove it into Mit’s abdomen.

“Ghhhk!!!” Even though Mit had survived the pain of bullets tearing through his body before, he had felt immense pain from the blow. The prince pinned him to the ground, cruelly twisting the blade in his gut.

“Khuhh. Cough!”

HIs breath turned to ragged coughs. “What the hell have you done, you lunatic?!”

“Come now, a royal shouldn’t be spoken to so roughly. We’re friends, aren’t we, Mit? You hurt me.”

‘This psychopath...’

Prince Vasilion grinned and drove the blade into Mit’s thigh.

“Argh!!”

“You want to know about this place? It’s an old vampire research facility that some explorers found a long time ago.”

He spoke as if enjoying himself, “Most of what they left behind was useless, but one project turned out to be valuable. It was a program to brainwash and enhance humans, turning them into perfect weapons.”

He clicked his tongue as he gazed at the mountain of corpses. “Few successes so far, but a few, like that bitch behind you, made it through alive.”

Mit turned, eyes widening.

Isera, with a hollow face, was rising on her own. The stab wounds and burns that scarred her skin faded away before his eyes.

“Sacred Grass can be used as narcotics, sure, but those vampires figured out how to twist it even more. They found a way it could brainwash humans and reinforce their bodies at the same time.”

That was why Vasilion had targeted the Chyde family’s Sacred Grass.

“The royal family won’t let this slide, you fucking idiot,” Mit spat.

“Do you really think a weak prince like me could manage all this alone?”

Mid’s eyes widened.

“Your sister Berah Chyde, and the plan to dump all that debt on you? All of it only worked because the royal family supported me. Otherwise, how would I imbue that explosion with mana nearly identical to yours?”

The Bosta Kingdom itself had ordered the research. To keep it running, they needed the Chyde family’s supply of Sacred Grass.

“Suspicion might grow if it went too long, sure. Yet with your house taking the blame, who cares?”

“You think the Continental Union will stay still once they find out?”

Vasilion chuckled darkly. “They won’t. This facility will be destroyed by nightfall, and I’ve already secured everything I need. Why leave any trace?”

Mit was speechless.

“Josiah Frances showing up was a complication, but—”

“Hah! If you’d clashed with my teacher, you’d all be corpses already.”

“It doesn’t matter if she’s the disciple of the Saint, since we already have that monster running wild. As for me, I was of course never here. That monster will take all the blame for me.”

In his mind, Mit and Josiah would die after being caught up in a vampire relic, and that would be the end of it.

However, there was one thing he didn’t know. Josiah wasn’t just Davey’s disciple—she was a Vampire Lord, something that the monster he’d released couldn’t simply kill.

Of course, she still had to hide her real power, so it wasn’t clear whether she’d use her powers as a vampire.

“Don’t worry, I have no plans to kill or maim your sister. She might suffer a little in the process, but she’ll live.”

Every word Vasilion spoke made Mit lose it. His vision blurred as he fought to stay conscious.

“As long as the royal family backs me, and as long as I hold the kingdom’s secret, I can’t be touched.”

Following Vasilion’s gesture, Isera lifted her sword again, raising it high with an empty gaze.

Then, beyond his fading sight, Mit saw a small blue orb drift upward like a firefly.

He knew that light. He had seen it somewhere. Once he realized, his eyes widened. Then, he laughed bitterly.

“There it is...”

“What?”

“It’s over, bastard.” He pointed weakly at the orb. “Know what that is?”

“Hm? That...?”

The strange blue light reached the ceiling. It wasn’t quite magic, nor was it a living being. The moment it flared, time itself seemed to freeze.

“You’ll never see this again in your life, Vasilion. It’s an 8th Circle grand spell, you chimpanzee bastard.”

[8th Circle Fire Magic]

[Prometheus]

Crackkkk!

The blue orb began to spin before instantly swelling to an enormous size. It expanded rapidly beneath the solid ceiling of the cavern, creating a breathtaking sight.

A massive pillar of blue fire, swirling like a vortex, unleashed an incredible force and sucked in every trace of mana around it.

It was nothing short of a calamity. The grand spell, fittingly called primordial fire, melted the earth and ripped apart the heavens.

At the same time, the massive fog visible beyond the opening vanished as if torn apart by overwhelming force.

It was a spell packed with enough firepower to wipe out the fog that had lingered for centuries in but an instant. The deafening roar and the earth-shaking tremor that followed were nothing more than byproducts.

“What the...?” As a mage himself, Vasilion stared in horror at the pillar that had vaporized solid bedrock. His eyes darted to Mit. “What did you do—”

“Prince Vasilion... Do you know the implications of an 8th Circle spell being cast here?”

There was only one person alive who could do that.

Vasilion stumbled back, paling. “No... it can’t be! Why would the Saint of Tionis be here...”

“How the hell should I know, you fucking bastard.”

Davey shouldn’t have been there, having said he wouldn’t. Yet reality told Mit otherwise.

“Stop them!!” Vasilion roared.

Assassins in black surged past Mit toward the intruder. There were six of them, each being Expert-level.

Squelch!!

However, all of them were suddenly pierced by the light spears of a small girl who had appeared out of nowhere. They were impaled on the ground, unable to move.

She was known throughout Heins Territory as Davey’s personal guard captain.

It was none other than Rinne, who, despite having a small frame, was pretty much an enormous living weapon.

Vasilion gaped in disbelief, while Davey simply smiled. He strolled past Mit, who lay bleeding, and kicked him sharply in the side.

“Shut up, patient! Stop acting like you’re the hero.”

As Mit's consciousness slipped away, Davey fixed his gaze on the prince.

“Vasilion le Bosta.” He simply said the man’s name. Even so, the air itself quaked, crushed beneath the weight of his presence. “Messing with vampire relics? Looks like you’ve got a death wish.”