The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 981

“What?! Now a Peacekeeper Enforcer is here?!

“Damn it! Protect our benefactor! Don’t let them take him!”

The man who had picked a fight with Davey just moments ago was now calling that man his benefactor.

Yet, despite his desperate cries, no one dared to step forward. Their fearful expressions indicated that the enforcer was someone they couldn’t afford to cross.

Then came a voice, calm but authoritative.

“Hey, you there. I’m already aware that your ‘patient’ needs rest, but you’ll need to come with me for a moment. Treating a high treason convict is a serious crime. You seem like an outsider, so I’ll assume you didn’t know. If you cooperate, we won’t have to hurt anyone innocent.”

“Y-You’re kidding, right?! If you take him, you’ll just torture and kill him! Damn dogs of the king!!”

The masked Peacekeeper Enforcer let out a short hum in response.

“Dogs of the king, huh? Not entirely wrong, I suppose. But still, you’ve got some nerve saying that to my face.”

And when he reappeared, he was standing right in front of the bald man who had been arguing with Davey.

“If you keep running your mouth like that—”

Crack!!

In an instant, the enforcer grabbed the bald man’s face.

“You might just end up dead.”

Or at least, that was what he was planning to make happen. But he never got the chance.

“I already told you.”

The moment Davey’s voice cut through the air, everything fell silent.

He had grabbed the enforcer’s wrist before he was even able to begin slamming the bald man into the ground.

The enforcer gaped in silence. It was clear that he hadn’t even noticed Davey’s approach.

“What is this?”

“I said he needs absolute stability. Don’t tell me, you don’t understand what that means?”

Boom!

“You're a nobody trying to act all tough.”

Beep

[Constellation Leo sponsors you with 50,000 Stardust.]

[Constellation Sagittarius sponsors you with 50,000 Stardust.]

Davey was starting to doubt whether these so-called demigod-level constellations were even the real deal. They were acting so frivolous, for some reason.

Of course, rejecting their mindless sponsorships would be foolish. After all, he needed every bit of stardust he could get to materialize the sacred item he had his mind on.

[What exactly are you trying to buy?]

One of the constellations inquired about the sudden use of their power.

“Hm? Something good.”

And maybe some additional insurance on the side.

Sponsorship from a constellation granted immense power to a regular human. Unfortunately, additional stats were more of a hindrance than a help to Davey, considering his level of power.

The only real benefit he’d gained was secretly devouring a portion of Leo and Sagittarius’s power through Predatory Assimilation before they even realized it.

Dusting off his hands, Davey turned his gaze to the enforcer who he had just sent flying through the door, now slumped against the building across the street.

“What are you all looking at? The show’s over! Get back inside before the dust rolls in! And get this patient further in!”

At this point, he was unnecessarily misdirecting his anger, but he couldn’t care less.

“But Davey, you’re the one who kicked up all the dust.”

“Oh, whatever.”

To him, everything was the enforcer’s fault. He believed the enforcer deserved all the punishment.

He popped a pill into his mouth; leftovers from the blend the woman had prepared earlier. A sharp, tingling sensation spread through his mouth as the fatigue from the dimensional travel faded.

“Hm… The blend is a little off, but it’s not bad.”

A few more doses—maybe four or five—and his natural regeneration would be able to handle the rest. The effect was stronger than expected.

‘Fresh from the source, farm to table! Organic herbs at their finest!’

He giggled to himself as he chewed. As he stood up, the bald man who had been staring blankly stepped forward and grabbed his arm.

“My goodness! Am I dreaming? A Peacekeeper Enforcer, taken down in one hit?”

According to the ones murmuring around him, it seemed like the enforcer he had knocked out was more formidable than he’d initially thought.

“Let’s go, Per. Treatment’s finished.”

Leaving the dumbfounded crowd behind, Davey stepped out of the guild. He looked at the limp, half-masked man slumped on the ground. Then, without hesitation, he snatched his mask and tucked it into his robes.

“Hey, your mask’s pretty nice. I hope you don’t mind. Sharing is caring, after all.”

Beneath the mask was the face of a young man in his twenties. He had an ordinary face, yet his expression was twisted with a mixture of shock, fear, and utter disbelief.

Indifferent, Davey pulled the mask back out and grinned.

“Huh. You carry around something real nice.”

‘Just how many gems are embedded in this thing?’

“Per, want this?”

“Hmm… A sapphire? Jewels aren’t my thing.”

“Then what is?” he asked with a tinge of embarrassment.

“Your flustered face. It’s too cute; it never gets old.”

“What an odd preference…”

“You say that, yet you have your own fun teasing Illyna and Aeria all the time. Aren’t you being a bit hypocritical? Besides, I have no interest in a mask some other man’s been wearing around.”

“...”

A clean rejection.

Just then, the two heard the synchronized march of countless footsteps.

Although they weren’t chanting, the disciplined rhythm made it clear they were troops marching in formation.

Anyone who looked at the troops would definitely describe them as an obsidian army. Their dark uniforms were simpler than the enforcer Davey had just knocked out, but the resemblance was undeniable.

It was the Peacekeepers.

Under normal circumstances, he would’ve taken his time exploring the city with Perserque, but it looked like a pleasant trip just wasn’t in the cards for that day.

“If only I could use spatial warping.”

The best he could do at the moment was a short-range Blink.

As soon as they exited through the northern city gate, they spotted a group of soldiers with their well-bred, sturdy-looking horses.

Casting a Fly spell was an option, but that’d be like putting up a giant sign to show them his location.

“Hm…”

“Davey?”

“Leaving them like this doesn’t sit right with me,” he said grumpily.

“Doesn’t sit right?”

“There’s just something about it. But more importantly, I found a way! I know how we can get where we need to go while saving on gas.” “We’re not even using a car…” Per mumbled to herself.

Davey shamelessly strode forward.

“Halt! Who goes there?!”

One of the soldiers pointed a magic staff at him, but Davey only smiled.

“Your superior caused me some trouble not long ago. I saw you all here, so I figured I’d collect some compensation.”

Boom!!

An enormous explosion erupted before the soldiers could even scream. They were now flying through the air.

“Davey?!”

“Relax. They’re not dead. Even if they try to come back, they’ll just get sent blasting off again.”

At the same time, a commotion broke out among the soldiers who had entered the inner city. Once a few of them spotted Davey’s antics, they turned on their heels and started rushing toward him.

Davey waved at them lazily, then casually untied the reins of a horse before gathering his mana.

[Blink]

‘Alright. Try to keep up.’

He instantly teleported a hundred meters away before he leisurely mounted the horse.

At the same time, Perserque—now in her larger form–landed lightly behind him on the saddle, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.

“Riding together like this… Rather romantic, wouldn’t you say?”

Using magic continuously in order to travel would just make it easier for Odin to track his location.

However, Odin was a mage, not a priest.

This meant that when it came to holy magic, Davey had the upper hand.

[Strength]

[Hyper Body]

Skillfully layering buffs onto the horse, he gave its neck a few light pats.

“Alright, let’s go all out. Hyah!”

Neigh!! Clop, thud, Clop, thud!!

A deafening roar, far too powerful for galloping, echoed throughout the area.

The obsidian soldiers, who had been dutifully chasing after him, stood frozen with blank faces.

“Kyaaah! Davey!! This sucks! This is really uncomfortable!!”

Perserque shrieked.

The faster the horse ran, the worse the ride got.

After Davey contemplated what to do, he snapped his fingers.

‘I can just use a holy magic alternative, right?’

[9th Level Holy Magic]

[Apostle’s Wings]

A brilliant glow erupted behind them.

Originally, these wings were meant to provide immense area-wide healing.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

Even as the horse thundered across, neither Davey nor Perserque felt a single jolt.

“My goodness! You’re using high-level holy magic for something like this?”

“Riding Pegasus is the dream.”

The unicorn, a divine beast known for its obsession with purity, was nowhere near as cool.

Freed from the torture of a rough ride, Perserque let out a sigh of relief and hugged Davey a little tighter.

She then turned her head, gazing at the rapidly shrinking city walls in the distance.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? You deliberately drew the attention of the Peacekeepers.”

“I couldn’t let innocent people get caught up in this.”

Now, instead of taking their frustration out on the residents of the city, the soldiers would focus solely on chasing him.

As for whether they’d succeed, facing his ridiculous speed? That would remain to be seen.

“The moment I recover, we’ll reach Odin’s location.”

With those words, Perserque’s demonic force began to flow gently into Davey. And as her energy merged with the levels of the Demon King within him, the pill in his system stabilized even faster.

The horse was now sprinting at a speed that far surpassed its natural limit. It was practically a streak of lightning traveling across the vast landscape.

It was absurd even from Perserque’s perspective, watching the scenery whip past in a blur as it ran. And yet, despite the breakneck pace, the horse showed no signs of exhaustion.

To be precise, it wasn’t that it wasn’t getting tired. It just couldn’t even tire itself out if it tried.

The reason was simple.

- Huff… Huff!

The moment the horse showed even the slightest hint of fatigue—

[High Recovery]

[Strength]

[Agility]

[Hyper Body]

[Saint of Gloria]

[Clarity of Mind]

From low-level buffs to high-level enchantments, Davey mercilessly bombarded the horse with spells.

Any physical fatigue was instantly washed away, with any mental exhaustion immediately erased. The horse was tricked into believing it had always been capable of running like a bullet—like it had never once struggled in its entire life.

Of course, there was a downside.

“Davey… It’s common sense not to cast buff magic on a horse.”

This was because a horse that didn’t know its own limits would inevitably meet a tragic end.

Davey, however, simply turned his head slightly and grinned.

“It’s fine. Once this thing finally stops running, it won’t even remember where it started.”

‘It’ll forget everything.’

Pulling a small pebble from his Pocket Plane, he smiled even brighter.

‘No pain, no side effects. Works like a charm.’

Whether or not the horse knew what he was thinking, it seemed positively ecstatic as it galloped, gradually increasing its speed even further.

Of course, compared to the gold dragon Hovana, it was still incredibly slow.

But that didn’t really matter.

In the end, they’d all reach the same finish line.

* * *

“Commander! It’s freezing out tonight! Please, come inside!”

In Atrellia Resistance Army’s main base, Commander Illenia let out a weary sigh as she gazed up at the frigid sky.

She couldn’t figure out how things had come to this.

Atrellia had once been governed by a council system, with its leadership determined through elections. Yet it had fallen into the hands of a tyrannical monarchy—and quite some time had passed since that shift.

In that period, so many people had been executed that keeping track was almost impossible.

If the gods that a handful of people believed in truly existed, she wanted to scream at them about how the situation was too cruel.

But she was a mage, not a priest. She didn’t reject the existence of gods, but she trusted magic circles far more than so-called divine beings.

“Are you worried about the Peacekeepers?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. If even half of the Twelve Enforcers were deployed, we wouldn’t stand a chance,” Illenia murmured bitterly, her gaze still fixed on the sky.

“If only a divine messenger would descend from the heavens… riding a winged horse…”

A mage praying for a miracle was ridiculous enough, but right now, she was desperate enough to throw her beliefs aside.

And at that moment—

Fwooosh!!

Something shot past above the fortress walls—which rose from sheer cliffs, with no place to approach from.

“Huh…?”