The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

"Let me get straight to the point. Are you responsible for this mess?" Davey asked in a cold voice.

The man stared back silently for a moment before answering.

"This mess?"

"Look around. This place is in ruins."

The man glanced around, his glowing red eyes scanning the surroundings.

"I see. It seems the lifeforms here are far too weak to withstand my presence," he sighed while shaking his head. "I came here after sensing the strongest source of energy possible, but it seems this world won’t help me get stronger.”

He raised his sword, pointing it at Davey.

"And so what if this place has become ruins? What are you going to do about it?"

"Did you cause this or not?"

"If you don’t give a clear answer, things are going to get ugly for you," Davey said, his expression growing colder.

‘I can tell that this bastard isn’t from a dimension under my control. Since that’s the case, then they’re outsiders. And in my experience, not a single being from the outside has ever been reasonable on first contact.’

The man made a chilling smile and chuckled in a cracking, low voice.

"Ugly? Hehe… Hehehe…”

Swoosh!!

In an instant, the air next to Davey had split. The swing was so fast that he neither heard the sound nor saw the blade’s movement, and yet it wasn’t aimed directly at him.

"You didn’t avoid my attack. Was it a coincidence that you saw through my sword path, strange horne?”

"Horne, huh? That’s not a common word any other world would come up with," Davey remarked.

“Hm?”

"Seems like you’ve been here before.”

The man’s eyes flashed even more as he let out a small sigh. "Indeed, you’re different. Unlike the weaklings around you, I sense no trace of the power of constellations in you—yet you managed to glimpse my sword path. You also have an eye for noticing things. How intriguing… Take this."

He then grabbed a sword from a black-armored figure nearby and tossed it to Davey.

"Take the sword, horne. I want you to prove I’m not wrong about your skills."

"Hello? You kill our people, and then you ask to spar? Are you out of your mind?” Illyna shouted angrily, glaring at the man.

The man narrowed his glowing eyes toward her. "Kill? Ah, yes. I won’t deny it. But let me ask you something: What do you think of a predator in the wild hunting its prey?"

"What are you even talking about?" Illyna spat.

"It’s a natural order, unchallenged by any. Tell me how this is any different.”

Illyna gritted her teeth in anger. As she tried to take a step forward, Davey raised a hand, stopping her.

"Davey! Why are you stopping me?"

"Because someone needs their mindset fixed.”

"What?"

Davey then talked in a calm yet sharp voice. "You’re right. Predators killing prey is part of the natural order. But..."

He casually swung the sword in his hand a few times before tossing it aside.

Zoom!!

In an instant, Davey was in front of the man. He then glared at him ferociously.

"The kin of the prey never forgive the predator that killed one of their own. That’s a burden you must humbly accept."

‘Especially if the perpetrator is someone powerful.’

Thud!!

In an instant, Davey had leaped forward, delivering a kick to his head that sent him flying. He then landed lightly.

Boom!

Despite the man flying away, he managed to block the blow with his arm. He still slid back several meters, but he possessed the strength that would easily triumph over a master-level being. He staggered as he got up, glancing at his shattered arm with a frown.

Others stared in horror at his grotesque musculature revealed beneath his armor. His muscles looked nothing like those of a human, more like the soft, stringy meat of a crab.

"My shell broke," the man muttered. "A horne with no connection to the stars... yet possessing this level of strength, nonetheless. I don’t remember any record of such a being.”

His red eyes glinted with genuine interest. "Very well. I’ve seen the extent of your strength."

‘Extent? Does he think he’s the only one holding back?’

But then, come to think of it, a certain level of confidence was the privilege of the strong, so it wasn't surprising for him to think that way.

The man grinned. "I recognize you as a predator capable of grazing me."

"Then I assume you’ll answer my questions now?"

"Hahahaha! Very well. I am a servant of Cancer’s sixth star. I have no name, for I am but one of its many tools. However, I am among those worthy of being granted one."

“So?”

"Soon, the War of Constellations will begin. With the Primordial Gods gone, there are no longer any restrictions. Given your exceptional strength, I will make an exception and allow you to serve m—"

"I think that’s all I need to hear from you,” Davey interrupted, his voice flat.

He bent down and picked up the black sword on the ground. Its texture felt like hardened carapace.

"Are you directly connected to your creator?" Davey asked.

"No. I am merely a servant using power derivative of the constellation's will.”

"That’s all I needed to know."

"What do you mean?"

Davey transferred the sword to his left hand and reached into the air with his right. In an instant, he used glowing enchantment scrolls to summon intricately inscribed talismans between his fingers.

Whoosh!

The two talismans quickly burned with blue flames, turning into yellow talisman paper and soon beginning to emit qi. The overwhelming amount of qi enveloped his entire body.

Since these bastards wielded a strange force similar to mana, he figured it’d be best to use a power least related to mana.

[Advanced Sorcery]

[Descent of the Ghost God]

[Grand General of Heaven]

In an instant, a towering, indigo-colored colossus slowly rose behind him. It lifted something resembling a giant butcher’s knife with deliberate ease, and the intimidation it let out made the black-armored knight falter.

Davey figured there was no need to gather more information from them. If their power stemmed from the stars, he knew it was a matter related to the Saint Sanctuary. And for these kinds of problems, he just needed to ask the ones who knew them best—there would be no harm in beating these peons up, as they no longer served any purpose.

“Hmph?”

Suddenly, the space tore apart as a gigantic pillar, no, a gargantuan figure wielding a massive sword appeared. It loomed over twenty meters tall, making others need to look up at it.

Thud!!

The massive armored figure swung its sword swiftly toward the Grand General of Heaven.

But the Monster God raised its sword high in the air and crashed its blade down onto the armored figure with blazing eyes.

Boom!!

The surroundings trembled violently, sending shockwaves and quakes. The ground twisted violently, and the Grand General of Heaven concentrated an immense force into a single point before crashing down on the giant armored figure.

It hadn’t performed some half-hearted attempt to avoid damage; it was the kind of strike that had previously obliterated an entire island. Davey had to go all-out to determine exactly what these creatures were, and how far their capabilities extended.

Seizing the opening, he deftly adjusted his grip on the black sword the man had given him. He then stepped forward toward the man.

[Blink]

Rip!

The distance between them disappeared in an instant and he swung his blade.

“Amazing! Truly an exceptional blade technique!” he exclaimed, raising his own weapon in defense.

Under normal circumstances, his reaction would’ve been too slow. But since he possessed the unique power of the constellation Cancer, he was different.

“However, it’s still not enough! Such swordsmanship won’t reach me!”

He slashed his sword perfectly straight—no flashy technique, no deception. Yet, what unfolded in Davey’s vision was far removed from simplicity.

The single strike looked like seven distinct trajectories, each resembling whips of sharp blade energy.

Davey quickly analyzed the attack. He couldn’t help but marvel that while the blade energy wasn’t overwhelmingly dense, its precision was chilling, similar to what Super Ribbon could achieve.

The sword energy, though seemingly simple, was terrifying—sharp enough to slice through even an Aura Blade with ease. The overwhelming wave of sword energy was far too massive to block with a mere blade. Even so, Davey surged forward with a calm expression.

‘I can’t do exactly what you’re doing, but I can still do something similar.’

Despite the relentless sword energy, he advanced steadily and extended his hand to cancel out each attack.

Seeing Davey’s actions, the man couldn’t help but feel taken aback.

“You… were holding back?!”

“If this is enough to surprise you, then you’re about to have a tough time,” Davey replied.

Without hesitation, he raised his blade high and brought it down slowly.

‘If at first you don't succeed, kick things up a notch.’

Screech! Rip!

“What—?!”

“Ever heard the saying that ten years is an epoch?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?!”

“It’s been a while since the roles of predator and prey have shifted.”

‘It seems like you’re thinking you're the hunter, but the truth is, that dynamic has changed a long time ago. You should've bothered reading the world’s patch notes—you wouldn’t be so surprised if you had.’

If the enemy’s blade could split into seven or eight paths, Davey figured he’d respond by unleashing even more paths. With that, twenty trajectories of dense blade energy completely trapped him before crashing down.

Slash!

His sturdy shell-like armor was shredded away. As Davey held the man’s severed head, he glared into his eyes.

“Thanks to you, Killer Rabbit’s been forced to take an unwanted vacation. So, go ahead and hand over some of your power. You’ve got to take responsibility for what you’ve done, after all.”

“What madness is this?!”

“Don’t worry—I’ll just have a taste.”

[Predatory Assimilation]

Crunch!

“Gah?! What is this?! What are you doing?!”

An immense, intangible mouth formed, chomping down on his head. His unfamiliar energy then began to flow into Davey.

If he couldn’t absorb the power through the authority of Predatory Assimilation, he would have discarded it without hesitation. But to his surprise, the energy blended seamlessly with his divine power.

This meant that the man’s power and his own were related somehow.

“Huh…?!”

The man’s panicked screams echoed as his body began to disintegrate. Just as Davey had suspected, he wasn’t truly a living being, but rather a constructed servant formed from the power of the Zodiac constellation Cancer.

He turned his gaze briefly to the side to see the other armored entities, that were much weaker than the primary figure, already down for the count—Illyna had taken care of them. She flicked her sword clean, standing amongst the fallen enemies.

Out of the eight, only one had been noteworthy.

Despite this percentage, if that was a general measure of their strength, Davey thought the constellation Cancer could very well possess the power of a demigod—or perhaps something greater.

* * *

“Some of it’s been decoded,” the small girl said, her voice calm.

“What does it mean?” asked Ares the Sword God in his usual even tone.

“The power of the stars,” the girl replied.

She was none other than the God of Mages. She had become the eldest after Hercules had disappeared from the Hall of Heroes. She was a legendary archmage who had forsaken her divine-like authority and reached the power of constellations as a human being.

“The twelve fragments of immense power released when the Primordial Will created the world possess a powerful ego will.”

She traced her finger along the stone wall as she murmured.

“Ego will?”

“Call them fragments, splinters, shards—whatever you like. But that’s not the most important part. Shall I continue with the interpretation?”

“Please do. I’d rather not piece it together myself.”

“The problem is that the ego wills are so overwhelming that even Goddess Freyja couldn’t reclaim them. In the end, she sealed them within the stars.”

The twelve Zodiac constellations—the power of stars.

“Star clusters, black holes, and constellations were all shaped by Freyja’s power, right?”

“That’s not all. From what I can tell, only one of these stars has awakened. And the root of the problem… is that stupid moon Davey created. That damned bastard. When he comes back, I’m going to burn him alive.”

“That moon of his keeps causing problems everywhere. So, which star is it?”

“The Sword Star. Cancer, the sword constellation[1].”

Odin adjusted her black wide-brimmed witch hat, her glowing eye flashing as she spoke.

“Ares, bring Davey here.”

“And what do you plan to do once he’s here?”

“What else? He’s going to be the one cleaning this mess up. No matter how much these pests squirm, they’re all within the palm of our hands anyway.”

Ares let out a dry chuckle at her sheer confidence.

“My daughter won’t like it… But you said Sword Star?”

“Yeah.”

“But Davey… with his current standing, isn’t he already at the level of a Sword God?”

“So?”

“Just curious which of them would come out on top.”

1. It's a constellation, but named like a star. Don't worry too much about it - the Sword Star is actually a full constellation. What Davey has fought here is a servant delegate of Cancer, not the direct manifestation of the constellation. ☜

ChubbyCheeks & FriedNook's Thoughts

Editorb's Thoughts

Constellations can have wills, don't worry about it. I wonder if we'll end up with an Orion wearing a giant belt buckle just like the constellation.

Side note: If you're ever looking on Tenor for a gif of an anime character wearing a dramatic belt, just searching "Anime belt" definitely won't get you the images you're looking for... And even worse, if you're an editor like me, is what you get if you search "belt buckle" instead.

Literally no one pronounces it "hawdy" and a semicolon isn't an apostrophe. Even worse, the non-apostrophe isn't even in the right spot. Y'all is a combo of "you" and "all." The apostrophe is meant to indicate a gap and missing letters. Ugh. This gif, man...

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