The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Chapter 824

Even though he was crazy, he had pulled this move off. No, more accurately, it might have been something only possible with his madness.

A massive surge of energy. A foundation of dimensions. He had extinguished the power of a star, a symbol of transcendence.

"You extinguished a star... You’re truly shaking the very foundation of this world."

"Ugh... I’m starving... Really starving!"

"Do you even know how incredible it is to destroy a star?!"

Davey frowned as Thanatos shouted.

"Who cares?! Just give me something to eat!!"

Bang!

His eyes gleamed as he violently swung his sword. Though reckless and erratic, his swings sent shockwaves through the area. As the aftermath rippled out, spears of black and white light rained down on Thanatos from all directions. Each spear was a form of lethal magic.

Her expression grew colder as she dodged and deflected the onslaught with transcendent skills.

There were mysterious laws governing the universe. Despite Earth’s extensive research on space, the truth was that little was known beyond a certain range.

Stars were part of a transcendental force that existed in another dimension.

Davey, wielding Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, clashed once more with Thanatos who held a black sword. Every time their weapons collided, black fog poured out. Their swords danced relentlessly, striking at each other as if the vast space wasn’t affecting them.

Each clash of blades preceded a torrent of strikes, having already become impossible to keep track of. With every collision, the dark nebula that surrounded them howled.

"Ugh?!"

Davey’s attacks grew faster, fueled by his madness. He then unleashed magic on Thanatos as if he were the ruler of the space.

But the most terrifying thing was how much power he was consuming. As his authority of Predatory Assimilation went into a frenzy, he didn’t stop at eating what he needed.

His frenzy knew no boundaries—he devoured everything around him without distinction. The surrounding mana, laws, the concept that the god Thanatos possessed, energy, and everything else. Mental and physical strength were no exception, either.

Even though Thanatos, as a god, had gained a physical form, there were limits to how long Eclipse’s body could endure. Typically, she should’ve sustained Eclipse’s body with the power of god to maintain it at its finest condition, but Davey had devoured that too. Even worse, Davey was now trying to consume Eclipse’s body, the fog filled with the surrounding black nebula, and Thanatos’ divinity as well.

Davey normally knew that it was impossible to absorb something physically, so he wouldn’t have tried. In his current state of madness, though, he no longer had the reasoning ability to tell what would drive him deeper into insanity or not.

Aside from the Primordial God—no, in fact, any being with a will couldn’t do what Davey was doing. Every power had its limits and restrictions, but the characteristic Predatory Assimilation made him endlessly consume and expand himself regardless.

And all of that consumption was purely to satisfy hunger.

To Davey, Thanatos and Eclipse's bodies no longer mattered.

"Ha... Ha..."

Davey panted, his expression cold.

Thanatos, unable to adjust to the physical discomfort, instinctively realized something as she observed Davey moving unhindered despite the injuries covering his body.

The monster in front of her—the worst being who had obtained divinity—had abandoned reason and ignored the penalties his power imposed. She figured it was already too late now for her to turn the tables.

But this didn’t mean her will had weakened. If anything, her rage, cultivated over ten thousand years, burned even more passionately. She was more determined than ever to take care of the intruder in front of her. If she couldn’t win against him, she would rather kill him by breaking a taboo—consequences be damned.

Her eyes shifted from yellow to black. She raised her small pale arm, and something began to gather at her scaly fingertips.

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It was the very source of one of the stars, among the substances fundamental to the world itself.

"Oh..."

Davey observed this with curiosity.

Crack!!

She completely devoured the star, drawn to her fingertips as it slowly disintegrated into particles of light like matter being sucked into a black hole. After a brief silence, she moved her body once again.

Ssss... Boom!!

Davey was thrown back by an indescribable force.

"I will destroy your body before you can digest everything you’ve consumed.”

Thanatos stood over the fallen Davey, raising the tip of her sword before plunging it down without hesitation.

Squelsh!!

Even though Davey could consume anything he wanted, the only drawback was the time it took. There was a limit to how fast he could devour.

Thanatos had gone after this weakness.

Davey remained silent.

As Thanatos consumed the essence of the stars through his taboo methods, she drove her sword into his abdomen and unleashed a relentless storm of black fog.

[May my will become hatred and become a thunderbolt of authority.]

[The resentment will pour out from the end of the Abyss.]

Her body was caught in the attack, but she didn’t stop. She was determined to kill him this time; she continued to consume all the stellar power she could.

‘I need to kill him before Goddess Freyja intervenes!’

But Davey continued to endure, insanely resilient. The black fog’s bombardment intensified until finally Davey, who had been resisting, fell silent.

When the relentless assault of black fog that had lasted for several minutes finally ceased, Thanatos—her entire body drenched in blood—staggered backward.

Davey’s body, still impaled by her sword, was so damaged it no longer resembled a living being. The attack had pierced through his divinity. She knew it was impossible for him to be alive, despite obtaining divinity.

Thanatos smiled coldly, though mixed with a strange sense of confusion at the victory. She realized she was feeling an emotion no god should experience—hatred, followed by the satisfaction of triumph. She thought to herself that she had finally defeated the monstrously tough creature.

"Freyja... I will bring you down next," she muttered, relieved that she had been able to conserve enough strength from consumption.

Just as she prepared to leave the vast black nebula space with Davey behind, something unexpected happened.

Ssss...

"Hmph?!”

Thud!!

Suddenly, an overwhelming murderousness engulfed her entire body. Davey launched a sneak attack, and she raised her indestructible scaled arms in defense, but he still managed to rip one of her arms off. He had moved so fast that she had no time to properly react.

Davey had once again changed.

"..."

Thanatos couldn’t comprehend how a being could still be alive when their body had been reduced to such a state. Amid her confusion and disbelief, she suddenly felt herself being pulled in by Davey. As he hurled a punch at her, she felt her consciousness slipping away.

Bang!!

A force so strong it could obliterate a star struck her entire body. The pain was so overwhelming that her mind struggled to keep up.

The Davey who had been groaning about his hunger moments earlier was gone. What stood before her now was something far worse—a literal catastrophe. He had lost all remaining shreds of reason, unable to satisfy his hunger.

Crack!!

She tried to fight back with her remaining arm, but Davey emotionlessly shattered it. He grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the ground.

Thud!!!

The impact rattled her very foundation of divinity. This attack, though it was the same magic as before, had become far more devastating. It was as if the previous strikes had been a mere joke, a warm-up.

‘So he didn’t unleash his full power before now...’

Thanatos was in disbelief—she had even consumed the power of stars, yet it wasn’t enough!

Shing...

Davey, still expressionless, reached out his hands. Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon flew back into his grip, and with a single light swing, he split the massive nebula in half. The nebula sealed itself almost immediately, but the force that resulted had shaken Thanatos.

Chills ran through her body. Her hands trembled, surprised to find them slick with sweat.

Fear.

She felt terrifying, unrelenting fear.

Davey, still emotionless, slightly lowered his body. Thanatos hastily restored her arm and gripped her sword tightly.

The overwhelming feeling of death crept over her.

* * *

Neither Thanatos nor Davey spoke. They simply moved, releasing immense power with each strike, both intent on silencing the other.

But there was a clear difference this time.

“Gaaa!!”

The battle had turned completely one-sided. Thanatos, who had harbored hatred for ten thousand years, and even consumed the source of the star, was now facing a monster whose strength surpassed all her accumulated anger and power.

Davey knocked down Thanatos who could no longer move. He then threw his sword aside and raised his fist.

Thud!!

With a single punch, her divinity began to crack. Her very existence as a god wavered. Realizing how perilous it would be to take another hit, Thanatos began to channel all the star power she had consumed, putting everything on the line.

Zzzt!!

With a frown on her cute face, she extended her battered hand and summoned a swirling typhoon of black light. She didn’t know how Davey had survived the earlier onslaught of black fog, but this time she vowed to destroy him for good.

She unleashed the power of the primordial star, combined with the immense gravitational force of a black hole.

The black typhoon held the strength to annihilate divinities that formed the world as it was the very force Thanatos had been saving to defeat Goddess Freyja. It wasn’t a power that a creature who had only recently gained divinity could block off.

However...

"What?!"

Things didn’t go as Thanatos had expected. Davey caught the black typhoon in his bare hands and crushed it with sheer force.

"Ah... Ahhh...”

She couldn’t believe what she had just seen. No matter how powerful one’s divinity, or how insane they became, she knew there had to be limits. She knew that the characteristic Predatory Assimilation shouldn’t be able to stop something designed to erase a target before it could be consumed.

Yet reality defied her will. Davey had shattered the attack with an emotionless face. As Thanatos collapsed helplessly, he drew his fist back and struck her once more.

Thud!!

A tremendous shockwave erupted, and her divinity crumbled. Her eyes and long hair that had turned black fluttered helplessly. As she slipped into unconsciousness, she couldn’t help but think that the shattering of divinity for a god could only mean one thing: complete divine annihilation.

She then began to wonder if she could’ve won had she not created the fresh princesses of the Abyss, or if she hadn’t hidden the source of her power in the cave.

But her fading consciousness whispered that none of it would have mattered. The monster before her was beyond a Horne or even a newborn god. He hadn’t used all of his special powers—he had simply crushed her with sheer, raw force.

They were no longer engaged in a fight or struggle. She had been totally dominated.

The divinity that formed the very foundation of her existence began to unravel.

“What a mess I am,” Thanatos chuckled at Davey, who looked down at her with a blank expression.

“You’ve won. I tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter. I was destined to fall and lose it all—I was just another pawn in Goddess Freyja’s game.”

Ssss.... Boom!!

Another shock tore through her body. At this point, nothing she said mattered to Davey.

"But... Don’t think I’ll disappear without leaving a mark. The ritual is complete. Tionis will fall. Even if my divinity is shattered into fragments, I’ll spend my last moments looking on with pleasure as you suffer."

Her soul transformed. Her body, or to be more precise, Eclipse’s body began to dissolve, as the energy of death started to ooze out.

"You’ve gone so mad that you’ll never return to your true self again. Watch the world you tried to protect crumble in that frenzied state..."

Thud!!

Davey, who had been pressing her down, suddenly shuddered.

"Damn, you really never stop yapping.”

Thanatos couldn’t detect any traces of madness in his voice. She widened her eyes in shock, unable to comprehend what had happened.

"I managed to find a solution and take care of it... but I have no intention of losing control and going through all of that again," Davey muttered in irritation, looking down at her.

"How dare you think you can just disappear. Your divinity... is my trophy."

Thanatos had no clue what was going on. She had thought he went completely mad. She knew one couldn’t just regain their senses so easily... But he was too calm and collected. His face didn’t show a hint of madness.

"If I’d woken up any later, my entire plan would’ve been ruined," Davey said, pressing down on her divinity that was still trying to resist.

"I’ll do anything in order to prevent civilization from resetting. Anything, even if my plan involves using the soul of a former god.”

His eyes glimmered with confidence.