The Max Level Hero Has Returned!
Chapter 1035

Chapter 1035

Countless desert-type monsters flooded in from all directions.

Davey, Al Hajat, and Rinne hadn’t wiped them out immediately; they first observed whether the rift was stable or not. In the case of any irregularities, Davey would figure out what adjustments would have to be made.

"Here we go again!"

The monsters kept swarming relentlessly.

Davey knew their usual hunting patterns and was sure that they didn’t involve that kind of mindless charge. Normally, they would attack strategically, eliminating targets one by one.

However, because he had deliberately drawn their attention, the sheer number of monsters rushing in had escalated into the thousands.

"Rinne selects high-temperature beam. Overwhelming force engaged."

Rinne, who had undergone sephirothization, twirled the World-Destabilizing Spear[1] before unleashing an intense heat beam.

Like an artist stroking paint onto a canvas, she swept the spear through the air, firing an orange beam that burned the monsters on the battlefield.

Like a laser cutting through metal, her attack instantly disrupted their formation.

Once exposed to the extreme temperature, their severed limbs glowed bright yellow.

"Seeing her in action is truly incredible. No Awakened individual on Earth could compete with her.”

No Awakened individual from Earth could massacre the desert tyrannosauruses so easily.

The gigantic, dozens-of-meters-tall reptiles were melted into puddles before they could even fully enter the battlefield.

“Kraaa!! Kyaaa!!”

The rampaging monsters kept coming, only for the ice spears to freeze them solid and the heat beam to melt them.

Still, their numbers showed no sign of diminishing.

"Mr. Davey," Al Hajat called.

"Yeah?"

"Are you stalling on purpose?"

Al Hajat had initially joined to support Davey and observe the rift’s interior. It was admirable that he had volunteered to take initiative, but in reality, there wasn’t much he could do.

"Yeah. I am."

Al Hajat nodded.

To others, what the two were doing could’ve looked like mindless slaughter. Yet, neither Davey nor Rinne showed any signs of exhaustion or concern. In other words, Davey was deliberately avoiding using a full-scale annihilation method.

"May I ask why?"

"It’s nothing complicated. I agreed to protect Earth, sure—but when variables like this appear, they need to be adjusted accordingly."

Technically, it wasn’t Davey who would be struggling with those adjustments. That job would fall to the heroes of the hall.

“Kiiiaaa!!!”

"Gosh, they’re annoying.”

Boom!!

When he swung his arm, an enormous tidal wave of ice surged and swallowed up the monsters.

Some managed to survive before trying to break through.

"Their aggression is off the charts. It’s like they have no fear at all!"

Normally, when a creature realized the power gap between itself and a predator, its first instinct was to flee. Monsters were no exception. However, the ones attacking them didn’t seem to consider retreat an option. It was as if killing their predator was their only option for survival.

Davey pulled out a notebook, jotting down details regarding their types, numbers, ratios, and behavioral patterns. Every bit of information mattered.

"After clearing this rift, things inside should be safe for at least three years. But once those three years are up, it'll have to be cleaned up again.”

Davey had made such a decision because the alternative could interfere with Earth. To avoid overburdening Neltarid, he was supporting them himself and conserving energy where he could.

"Then how long will this surge in rifts last?”

"Who knows? As long as I’m alive, there won’t be a problem. At the shortest, maybe twenty years? That is, if Earth successfully synchronizes with the new mana. At worst, it could take over a hundred years."

Al Hajat chuckled shallowly. "Humans don’t live for a hundred years, Mr. Davey."

"Most don’t."

Realistically, it wouldn’t even take that long.

"I don’t see any major variables left, so let’s wrap this up. Al Hajat."

"Yes?"

Davey smirked and gestured toward the side of Al Hajat’s head. "Your ears."

Al Hajat blinked in confusion.

"Cover them and turn around."

Reluctantly, he sighed and did as he was told.

Boom!!!

When Davey retracted his mana, the massive tidal wave of ice slowly began to crack and shatter. Once it was clear, the remaining horde of monsters rushed in all at once.

Landing gracefully beside them with her three pairs of fluttering wings, Rinne withdrew her spear and looked up at him.

Davey stretched out his hand toward the endless swarm. "I’ve seen enough. No need to hold back anymore."

The strongest monster in the rift was the Desert Giant.

Despite its bland name, its power was far beyond even an SS-Class Awakened individual’s capabilities—it could rip apart an enormous titan with its bare hands.

Just as he had expected, such rifts contained monsters that were still too strong for Earth to handle alone.

"But where are all these monsters coming from?" Davey muttered to himself.

Even in Tionis, monsters didn’t appear in such numbers.

He knew something was off, and that it’d be worth investigating. He firmly grabbed hold of a reinforced gauntlet, one of Al Hajat’s custom-forged weapons. He then slowly curled his fingers inward, stretching his hand toward the oncoming swarm.

Black light seeped out in thin, eerie rays from between his clenched fist.

"I’ll end this with as little effort as possible, so don’t push me.”

The stigmata on his wrist resonated intensely.

[9th Circle Dark Magic]

[Life Exchange]

He siphoned half of his vitality and used it to enhance his physical abilities. A wave of draining exhaustion coursed through him as the magic took effect, but it didn’t matter. He knew he could restore his vitality later. For now, he wanted to test something out.

A disturbing bone-grinding sound echoed from within him, and red mist seeped out of his mouth.

"Tch. Haaa.”

‘This is straining...’

The 9th Circle Dark Magic Life Exchange grew stronger alongside the strength of the caster. Even an ordinary 9th Circle Dark Mage could cause massive destruction with it.

But if used by Davey, a master of vitality manipulation? The results were obvious.

"I’ve always wanted to try this."

He planted his left foot forward and then pulled back his right fist. Holding his breath for just a moment, he threw a straight punch.

"Full-power slap."

Boom!

The attack packed unimaginable power. The rift’s entire landscape—not just the ground, but even the very space of the rift itself—began to crumble and shatter.

* * *

The rift in Al Hajat’s country had vanished.

Davey stepped out of it, his hand tingling and aching. He looked down at it in silence—that was his first time using that spell at his current level.

He used Life Exchange during his Hall of Heroes training, but back then, he didn’t have the same unimaginable amount of vitality. He wasn’t a demigod or had achieved divinity yet either. Moreover, he hadn’t yet obtained the vitality interference authority that the Red Void granted.

Al Hajat looked visibly shaken despite having covered his ears.

Considering that the entire space was sure to be distorted, Davey had put up multiple barriers around Al Hajat ahead of time. However, some of the impact still seemed to have reached the man.

"I think I’ll have to handle the next one alone, bud."

"Ugh. My apologies."

"It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I pushed myself more than I should’ve just to test something.”

Al Hajat chuckled weakly. "Davey, I sincerely thank you. I will never forget the kindness you’ve shown us."

"You’re making a big deal out of nothing," Davey responded casually, feeling a bit awkward.

Al Hajat passionately took his hand. "I understand why you made such a grand display."

Davey couldn’t figure out how to respond. Hence, he just let him continue.

"People don’t take dangers seriously until they experience them firsthand." Al Hajat pulled him into a brief embrace. "Truly... Thank you."

Sharing such a moment, Davey felt validated in his decision to befriend the man.

Maximus, not so much, but the former thief[2] Yulis, who became Winley’s husband, had a genuinely good character, just like Al Hajat.

He figured he was quite lucky when it came to making decent friends.

"I’ll make sure to craft better gear for you next time." Al Hajat gestured to the half-destroyed gauntlet Davey was holding, "To think a rift that shot terror through so many could be erased just like that."

The entire operation barely took an hour, fifty minutes of which were spent investigating the rift.

"Are you really not going to accept anything in return?"

"Your snacks are more than enough.”

Business was about long-term vision.

Al Hajat sighed in resignation before pulling out a small card and handing it over. "This is all I can offer for now. Present this at any bank in the world, and you’ll be able to withdraw any amount of money you need."

"What if I commit fraud with this?"

"Hahaha. I know you won’t."

Davey smirked and tucked the card into his pocket. "Then I’ll put it to good use."

"You’re heading off immediately, aren’t you?"

"Yeah. There are still other countries dealing with the same rift mess."

"It seems Russia and France have already attempted their own operations. That’s only making word spread across the globe about just how absurd these rifts have become."

Most rifts contained at most a hundred monsters, but the recent extra-large rifts were on a different level entirely.

After parting ways with Al Hajat, Davey prepared to fly to the next country using Megalodria. However, before he could hop on, his phone vibrated. Hyun-Ah was calling him.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

"Hello?”

-Davey...

"What’s up?"

- Did you see the news?

"The news?" Davey tilted his head. "What about it?"

- It seems like Japan tried to handle their rift by themselves, since you said you wouldn’t help.

"And?"

He was planning to help Japan at some point, just not immediately. If he were going to intervene, it’d be best to get something out of it first.

- So, uh. Kouna is one of the members they sent.

"I’m sure she’ll back out before it gets too dangerous."

Large-scale rifts like that took time to fully collapse.

As long as the right conditions were met, retreating from the rift was possible. Taking that into consideration, it wasn’t like Kouna was in the worst situation.

* * *

Crack!!

Davey crushed the head of a massive monster inside a rift that had appeared in Paris. He then pulled out his notebook to take more notes.

France: No irregularities detected.

Fewer irregularities meant less work, which was great news for him.

Davey traveled to various countries, destroying rifts as he went. Eventually, only one remained: the rift in Tokyo. He had refused to help with it due to a minor dispute.

Among all the colossal rifts, it was the only one that the Awakened individuals of Earth were completely incapable of handling. Yet, when Davey consecutively cleared rifts worldwide for free, Japan’s public assumed he’d eventually help them as well, saying that there was no way he’d ignore their plight.

Frankly, they simply failed to comprehend just how dangerous and serious the situation was. To be fair, most other nations also failed to grasp the severity at first. Unfortunately for Japan, Davey intended to let them experience the severity firsthand.

There was also the Yoshiki Group, which clearly had deep ties to the Japanese government; they remained untouched.

The biggest point of contention was that Kasato Yoshiki himself hadn’t even acknowledged anything. Such apparent nonchalance and lackadaisical responses got Davey thinking, ‘Maybe they thought they could handle the rift alone? Something else could have been at play, too.’‘

"Please, try to reconsider—"

"I’m not angry, Prime Minister. Let’s keep this simple. I didn’t create this rift, and I have no obligation to clean it up."

Technically speaking, he did, but the prime minister wouldn’t know whether he was lying or not in the first place.

"That’s..."

"Saving people is a personal form of satisfaction. A form of hypocrisy. I won’t deny that."

The man didn’t know what to say.

"But tell me, Prime Minister—why the hell should I save my enemy?"

The prime minister trembled.

Yes, innocent civilians were suffering. Still, placing the blame for it on Davey was nonsense.

"Since things have come this far, I’ll give you a choice,” he said coldly. "Option A: while the rest of the world enjoys the protective barrier I’ve cast, preventing damage from rifts, I will remove Japan’s barrier—exclusively. I will then trim down the monster population in your rift, preventing the monster population from overflowing in the foreseeable future.”

Unfortunately, that was just one side of the deal.

"However, that will result in an exponential increase in the number and difficulty of future rifts that get through the cracks, which you will then need to deal with on your own."

“That’s—!”

"Basically, I’ll just return Japan’s environment to how it was meant to be."

The prime minister had no response.

“Oh? Am I sensing that you would rather hear Option B?”

‘Maybe I’ll taunt him a bit.’

"Honestly, I find this situation to be pretty hilarious—so I’ll cut you some slack."

The prime ninister’s expression only grew darker.

1. Previously Spear that Can Melt the Balance of the World. ☜

2. It’s a Korean expression for men who married women, especially those loved in their family. ☜