The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Hyun-Ah and Davey, still floating as a spirit, looked at each other blankly. Each second of silence felt like a year.

“...”

As soon as he opened his mouth, she did too.

"What did you say? You must be on something.”

“You must be out of your mind.”

Hyun-Ah looked at Davey like she was looking at a piece of trash. Seeing her gaze, he rubbed his finger around his temple.

“Geez, you’re ridiculous.”

“Hey mister, that’s my line.”

The two glared at each other in silence for another moment.

He asked out of anxiety, but there was something more important he needed to know. He had to confirm what she had just said to him.

“Did you just say…”

After Davey asked with a frown, she gave him an answer again in a different tone.

“Stop with the acting. I know you're my brother. You’re Hyun-Soo.”

He made a fake smile.

‘As a professional, I should not panic. I’m a pro at acting—I can never fall for a leading question like this!’ Davey thought.

“W-Who said that? I wonder who would say such a strange thing.”

“How about you stop stuttering?”

He took a step back in shock and covered his mouth with one hand. He couldn’t believe he had made such a major mistake as a professional actor.

“Haha. Is it time for you to take your medicine? Why would I be your brother? You’re probably mistaken because I’m good-looking and give off a strong older brother vibe.”

“Ha, what a joke! If you’re going to lie, at least do it properly. And what? ‘Do you like me?’ Are you out of your mind? For me to like someone like you? Do you know what people like you are called in our world?”

“Narcissist?”

“Ha, so you know.”

Davey once again covered his mouth with one hand and muttered with a very serious expression.

“I’m so taken back I don’t know what to say.”

The devil was in the details, and he was doing the worst at keeping them straight.

“Taken aback? Bullshit.”

She giggled at his attitude and hugged him again.

“Hyun-Soo… I missed you.”

“...”

At her certain tone, Davey was pondering on how he should react. But then…

Squeak…

“Hyun-Ah, do you have a fri-… What are you doing floating in midair?”

“Eek! Yeon-Hee! Didn't I tell you to knock before coming in?!”

She screamed and ran toward the door, pushing Yeon-Hee out and closing the door.

“...”

“You cause quite the fuss.”

“Shut up, how dare a toad like you sigh?”

“I guess frogs like you can talk human these days.”

“Ahhh, you’re so annoying!!”

She walked toward Davey, trembling. She then looked him in the eyes.

“Why haven’t you asked me?”

“What?”

“When I first knew.”

Davey tilted his head at her question.

“It seems like you keep misunderstanding. I am Davey O’Rowane, not your brother who has already attained enlightenment as a Buddha.”

“Is that so?”

She nodded in a particular way. Davey remembered that every time Hyun-Ah nodded like this, she came up with some shocking news, which had made him anxious.

“Then let’s just say you’re Davey.”

“...”

“To be frank, you grabbed my attention. So when you said you were going to die, I wanted to stop you first.”

After saying that, she walked toward him while swinging her arms.

“I… I think I do like…”

"Stop it! What do you think you're doing, acting so brazenly?!"

“I’m guessing you don’t like this, do you?”

She smiled mischievously and lightly tiptoed over to sit on the bed. Then she looked up at him.

“Whatever, then. If you want to hide that you’re my brother, do so. But I’m happy to see my brother doing well.”

She then smiled bitterly and trailed off, saying, “So you did reincarnate from the beginning, and you were having a good life…”

“You’re going to go even if I try to stop you, right?”

“I must.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve noticed that you’re my brother.”

Davey realized that he may have underestimated what details family members could recognize.

“To be honest, I was a bit skeptical when you showed up just the way I remembered you. But you know, people don’t change that easily,” she chuckled.

“The person named Davey and Shin Hyun-Soo were the same person all along. It's funny if you think about it. You hadn’t changed since you first met me… and I still couldn't even recognize you…”

“It’s even more interesting that you realized, you fool.”

It ended up being meaningless to hide the truth. She was so certain that even if he told her he wasn’t him, he knew she wouldn’t buy it.

“See? I was right, wasn’t I?”

“Alright, alright. You win, you pest.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Now that I know that my brother is doing well, I won't ask any more questions. If you have to go, who has the right to stop you? Be sure to bring my sister-in-law back.”

‘Sister-in-law…’ Davey mumbled.

He ended up not being able to say anything more to her. She waved at him as if it was her last goodbye.

“I feel like I won’t be able to see you again if I let you go now… Take care of yourself.”

Instead of answering, Davey quietly closed his eyes and smoothly flew into the sky. He felt like he had come here for no good reason, and now he just felt strange—he wasn’t able to hide the truth from her, after all.

As Davey suppressed his mixed emotions, he returned to the forest where Perserque was bound and landed in front of Verdandi. He was now more than comfortable with his movements.

“Did you get used to moving around?”

“I’m good to go.”

“You have to keep in mind that it’s darker and heavier in there than you can imagine. A normal mind wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

“That’s not something you should worry about.”

“Then I’ll just start…”

She then released the power of the Abyss from all over her body. At the same time, Perserque, who had been sleeping, reacted to the power of the Abyss by opening her eyes and beginning to scream in agony.

“Ah… Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!! Ahhh!”

She struggled to break free of the chains of the sorcery Davey had bound her with, but the chains and the barriers Verdandi had set up had weakened her too much. When her power of the Abyss and Verdandi’s power of the Abyss fused together, a phenomenon similar to a cosmic wormhole occurred in the air, creating a huge rift.

Davey instinctively recognized that the inside of the rift was the Abyss, and that Perserque was in there as well. He wanted to throw himself in without hesitation, but for some reason, he stopped in his tracks before he reached the rift. He slowly turned around and handed the two swords in their scabbards to Rinne, who had been looking at him silently. The two swords were Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon.

“If I don’t come back…”

“…”

“Kill me.”

“Rinne reports that it is impossible to kill her owner.”

“It’s an order, Rinne.”

“Command… accepted…”

He figured it’d be tricky for her if he lost his mind, but he also knew there had to be a way to fix it. In fact, there were barriers he and Verdandi had set up to prevent him from going wild. He knew Rinne could kill him if she was given even the slightest gap.

Davey finally threw himself into the endless Abyss.

All that welcomed him was a black space without any light in the surroundings. A sea of endless darkness. In the terrible darkness where he couldn't even see with his Death Spirit Eye, he attempted to find the tiny waves that Perserque would emit.

[I’ve been waiting for you.]

If only it weren't for the creature baring its teeth at him, waiting in the darkness…

Whoosh!!

A chilly wind blew. At the same time, an immense feeling of loneliness and fear beyond imagination began to envelop his entire soul.

“Hmph?!”

With that, his sense of sound and smell vanished—the feeling of deprivation from having all his senses blocked was beyond his imagination. The fear in this maddening darkness gradually ate away at him. The terrible fear of not knowing when or where something might appear was so intense that it wouldn’t be surprising if someone with thalassophobia fainted from the torturous unknown. [1]

Ssss…

He dragged his trembling body and raised his head, still managing to the presence of a huge figure in front of him—even without his sense of smell and hearing, he felt something unimaginably enormous watching him. But even in this fearful situation, he kept moving, driven by the one thing that seemed to call him.

He then remembered how Verdandi had said the odds of success were extremely slim, and that the chances of him leaving with his sanity intact were little to none.

‘Bullshit. Dying isn’t my style,’ Davey thought.

The first thing he was mentally trained on by the heroes was to trust in himself and to constantly innovate and develop himself. To him, hesitation was just a common notion that he’d done away with a long time ago.

“Perserque… You just wait. I will definitely find you.”

***

Davey walked and walked in the darkness. With each step, anxiety and fear beyond imagination gripped his entire body. He had vowed to find Perserque, but he couldn't think of a way to find her.

But then, he heard that damn Thanatos whispering again.

[Do you want to meet her?]

“...”

Davey pretended not to hear her will, but she was persistent.

[Do you want to meet her even while busy putting up this futile struggle?]

“...”

Her voice was difficult to ignore, but he tried his best. His body was shaking, and he felt like he was about to lose his mind. However, he knew that if he faltered now, finding Perserque would be impossible.

[I will let you meet her, as you wish.]

Her cruel voice eventually made Davey stop in his tracks.

"Per…?”

The space that had been completely dark until now began to change. As he stood before a huge cliff, he felt his heart sink. In this space where no light had penetrated, parts of the surrounding area started to brighten with an eerie glow. His vision and hearing returned, along with his sense of smell.

[She’s over there. Shouldn’t you go meet her?]

As Davey stood at the edge of an uncrossable chasm of darkness, faint light gathered on the wall of the opposite side. He gasped with relief, feeling as if he had seen light at the end of an endless, terrible tunnel. But then Thanatos interfered again, her mocking voice growing darker.

[She died horribly. I cut open her stomach and took out her internal organs as she screamed. I gouged out her eyes, pulled her teeth out, and plucked her hairs one by one.]

Thanatos kept whispering as if everything she said had actually happened. Davey clenched his fists so hard to the point his bones were about to break, but he tried to keep his expression calm. He then let out a short sigh.

[Be afraid. Despair and suffer even more. Being anxious in the endless darkness will fuel my strength. The Gem of Despair will continue to give me power.]

Thanatos' mental pressure intensified, slowly eroding his mind. Davey began to see the hallucination of a girl hanging on a cross beyond the huge cliff—a dead Perserque hung with a horrific expression, exactly as Thanatos had described. The insane darkness that was encroaching him made him think that the hallucination was now real.

His body trembled, his mind growing increasingly exhausted.

“Urk…”

He tried to cover his mouth with a hand, but the nausea kept coming.

[It’s your turn next. Since you’re here, you will never escape. I will torture you forever. I will twist you and pull every part off of you. I will pop your eyes out and sizzle your tongue with a heated iron before pulling it out as well.]

Terrible pain accompanied the hallucinations, making Davey feel as if he was really going through the torture she was describing.

The darkness was driving him mad, pulling him in deeper. Unbeknownst to him, as this change continued, his physical body—which had been bound by the barriers—slowly began to move.

1. Thalassophobia is the fear of deep ocean/unfathomable depths ☜

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