The Max Level Hero Has Returned!
Chapter 1040

Chapter 1040

"Seriously, I don’t know what to say..."

"Are these really the powerful centipede-type monsters we almost died to...?"

The surviving Awakened individuals couldn't hide their shock.

"Kiaaahhh!"

Squelch!!

A lord skeleton slashed a massive monster to pieces with its bone sword, exhaling a chilling frost as it stepped forward. Though it looked fragile, enough to be shattered instantly if struck by a giant iron hammer, the reality was far from that.

Clang!!!

The skeleton blocked the giant iron hammer with one hand. Before the monster could react, two more lord skeletons flew in from behind, slicing it into three pieces—along with the terrain behind it.

A one-sided massacre. An overwhelming slaughter. There was no other way to describe what they were doing.

Their grotesque appearances were no different from the monsters they were fighting, and it was fortunate they were on the humans' side. Unlike how everyone thought they’d have to run for their lives nonstop until they finally reached the exit, the skeletons mercilessly tore apart any monster that blocked their path. However, even though they were allies, the chilling frost they let out and the eerie glow in their eye sockets sent shivers down everyone’s spine.

They couldn’t believe that such powerhouses were truly just skeletons summoned by a single human. There were a few Awakened individuals who could control skeletons, but none had ever commanded any with such overwhelming power. Necromancers and their summons were supposed to be weak individually, relying instead on numbers to overwhelm their enemies. At least, that was their standard method.

But those skeletons fighting before them didn’t fit the norm. Not only were there so many of them, but each one wielded power that was outright unfair. At such a level, just those skeletons alone could function as an entire guild.

When the thirty skeletons steadily advanced, slaughtering every monster in sight, one of the individuals trembled. "Hey, Kouna. Is everything okay?"

"Yes," she said with a complicated expression.

"Those things... They're not suddenly gonna turn on us, right?"

"Yeah, every time I meet their gaze, I get chills all over..." another Awakened interjected.

Their fear was understandable, but Kouna could be certain of one thing.

"As long as we don't attack first, we'll be fine."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Ah, but... that’s such a waste."

They sighed as they watched the skeletons disassemble the monsters down to their cores.

Being that the corpses were of high-ranking monsters, if any of the Awakened managed to collect even just a few of them, they’d make a fortune. Instead, the cores were being discarded like trash.

"Wow... All of those cores going to waste..."

"They're not being thrown away."

"Huh?"

Kouna pointed behind them, and the others turned to look.

They saw a lord skeleton carrying a large sack, carefully collecting only the intact mana stones and cores along their path.

"Wow. Do you guys know how much all that is worth?" one of them said with a gulp.

Greed could be dangerous, but when the exit finally came into view, relief and exhaustion washed over and rid them all of their greed.

"Let's get out of here! I can't stand being in this place any longer!"

Following the skeletons, they dashed toward the exit. None of them noticed that Kasato Yoshiki was nowhere to be found—they were too focused on escaping to give him any thought.

"Oh, wait. Are those skeletons going to be coming out with us?"

"Probably?"

"Nothing’s happening outside... right?"

They worried they had caused quite the commotion, and the chances of that worry becoming a reality certainly weren’t low.

* * *

There was a massive crowd gathered at the entrance of the massive rift. Awakened individuals, reporters, and even soldiers maintaining order had all come together in anticipation of what might happen.

It had already been quite some time since Davey entered. The onlookers couldn’t help but become anxious, wondering if something had gone wrong. They had initially been able to monitor his progress through his livestream, but then, midway through, things had started to feel off. He had cut off the stream, and from that point on, they were left with nothing but silence.

Tension filled the air.

Sparks suddenly flickered around the rift, signaling that something was emerging.

"Someone’s coming out—"

"Shit, fall back!!"

Even those who had convinced themselves that nothing could’ve gone wrong recoiled in horror.

Instead of people, eerie-looking skeletons emerged, freezing the onlookers in place with fear.

"Damn it!! Did the rift break open?!"

"Prepare to fire! The Awakened individuals won’t last long against them!!"

A frenzy erupted. But even in that situation, the reporters scrambled to capture the moment on camera.

Meanwhile, the lord skeletons seemed utterly indifferent to the humans panicking.

"Wait a second. Those skeletons, hm."

A sharp-eyed onlooker raised his voice, "Aren’t those... the Saint of Tionis’s skeletons?"

"Hold on. Now that you mention it, they do look familiar."

"Huh? And what are they trying to do here?"

As if to confirm their suspicions, some of the skeletons stretched lazily after stepping out of the rift—before promptly plopping down onto the ground. They then began doing something amongst themselves. One skeleton reached into its ribcage and pulled out a deck of cards from who-knew-where, swiftly shuffling and dealing them to the others. It was as if they were trying to kill time by playing cards.

Five or six skeletons sat in a circle and began playing, while the onlookers could only stare in stunned silence.

"Haaah. What in the world?"

Of course, not all the skeletons were playing cards. Some of them, for reasons unknown, started undulating in waves, dancing amongst themselves. Others, with their eerie glowing eyes and chilliness, walked up to the frozen humans, casually rummaged through their supplies, and helped themselves to their food.

Then, they started munching away. Despite having no throats, the food vanished into their mouths after they swallowed. It was as if the food had evaporated into thin air.

The skeletons, gathered in groups, were engaged in their own strange antics, leaving the humans utterly dumbfounded. The entire spectacle was being broadcasted worldwide thanks to the reporters.

It was this moment that earned them the nickname "Skeletons Who Know How to Have Fun."

* * *

At the center of the massive cavern lay the corpse of an enormous monster. Clinging to that corpse, busy letting out eerie wails, was the gray creature.

There were constructs made of different types of earth surrounding them, but the most annoying thing to Davey was the group of knights that had approached to corner him. Whether they were spectral essences or something else was unclear, but one thing was certain—they designated him as an intruder.

Davey tried to signal to them, pointing at the living monster to make them understand the situation, but they didn’t care in the slightest.

[The dead must be left to rest.]

[Do not disturb their peace.]

"Y’all just won’t listen, huh?"

Annoyed, Davey ignored them and stepped forward. He then raised Red Ribbon, poised to finish off the gray creature that was clinging to the corpse in terror.

Whirl! Slice!

But before he could strike, one of the knights twisted its body and swung its sword with full force, slashing at Davey. The knights wielded a slightly distorted form of Aura Blade, and they seemed to have judged Davey as someone they couldn’t communicate with—simply choosing to eliminate him instead.

"So, that’s how it is, huh? You wanna play rough? Okay."

Spinning his sword and fixing his grip, Davey adjusted his stance and stared at them with an expressionless face.

He generally respected the elderly. But if they refused to accept the passage of time and cling to the past, then respect quickly turned into an attack.

"Don’t blame me for doing this."

[Longsword]

[Splitting the Mountains]

Boom!!

The slender blade of Red Ribbon suddenly became impossibly heavy. A spectral essence knight raised its sword to block the devastating downward slash, but Red Ribbon sliced it clean in half as if she couldn’t care less.

"Guooo!"

The knight’s armor split apart, a pale green mist seeping out from within. It didn’t seem to have any special immortality traits. The armor itself was impressively sturdy, but nowhere near enough to withstand the enhanced Red Ribbon.

As soon as Davey erased one of them, he turned to cut down the rest.

Fwooosh!!!

The knights' eyes flashed as they suddenly drove their swords into the ground. A complex magical formula spread then around them, unleashing a massive burst of light. It was obvious that they were trying to escape.

Crack!

There wouldn’t normally have been a way to stop them. Yet, Davey instantly analyzed the magic, found a weak point, and successfully drove Blue Ribbon straight into it.

"Where do you think you’re going?" With a chilling grin, he let go of Blue Ribbon and thrust both hands toward the knights, who were shielding themselves with a magical barrier. Forcing his way through, Davey ripped through the barrier and shoved his hands all the way inside.

One of the knights' glowing eyes flickered for a brief moment.

Crunch!!!

Grabbing its neck, he twisted and snapped it in one fluid motion. Once the barrier was torn apart, all that remained was slaughter. What was surprising was their strength—their teamwork was certainly exceptional, but even individually, their power far exceeded that of the average Last Wisp knight.

"Not bad, for some dusty old bags."

Boom!!!

Kicking one of them in the gut, Davey lunged at the remaining knights like an evil spirit. The massacre started in an instant. He crushed, shattered, and ripped them apart one by one.

But even as their comrades fell, they continued to resist. Each of their defensive spells, debuffs, and attack patterns was slightly unfamiliar, but Davey quickly memorized their operating principles as he methodically destroyed every last one. It didn’t take him long to take them down. Once finished, he then realized there was something incomplete about them; something missing.

After taking care of the moving clay constructs as well, Davey finally turned his gaze back to the gray creature.

But it was nowhere to be found. There was no trace of mana flow; no remnants of the knights' peculiar energy. They had vanished completely, as if they had simply evaporated.

"This is getting annoying..." Davey muttered with a frown.

Then, as if on cue, the rift trembled, showing signs of vanishing. He reached out and tore through space. He went to the Saint Sanctuary, as there were some questions he needed to ask a certain someone about the whole situation.

When he arrived, the heroes of the hall were already waiting inside their grand temple, as if they had known he was coming.

Feeling a bit grateful for their proactive response, Davey said in a jolly mood, "Judging by how you were all waiting for me, this isn’t just some trivial matter—"

But then... he saw the scattered cards on the floor. The empty liquor bottles. Finally, the plates of meat and snacks.

"Oh? Davey, what are you doing here? Come on, let's have a drink."

‘Of course. What was I expecting from these people?’

Letting out a deep sigh, Davey walked over and gave Daphne a couple of light taps on the shoulder.

"Huh? What is it?"

"Hey, Daphne. What is this?" He tossed the emblem in his hand to her.

Catching it, she looked at it for a moment. "Oh, this is... it’s that."

Before she could explain further, Apollo, who had been hovering around Daphne, answered instead, "Yeah, that’s that one thing."

Daphne nodded in agreement.

"So, you recognize it?"

"Yeah. Those damn traitorous bastards."

"Hey, we agreed not to use that kind of language," Apollo scolded.

She clicked her tongue.

Davey couldn’t believe what had just happened—Apollo was reprimanding Daphne. No matter what happened, Apollo had always been on her side. Seeing him act like that made Davey feel like he was bearing witness to a rarity of the cosmos.

"I can’t help but feel like shit, seeing this." Daphne, clearly losing interest, casually tossed the emblem back at Davey. "Where did you find this?"

"Weren’t you watching from up here?"

"You think we have that much free time?"

‘Free time? You people were busy drinking and gambling, not doing your job anyway?’

Davey seriously considered whether he should use his authority to flip the entire temple upside down for gross negligence.

"Davey, come talk with me. Daphne won’t enjoy talking about that anyway," Apollo said, getting up and giving him a push.