The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

While Davey diligently collected the remnants, Mute frantically scribbled out thousands of sheets of paper as if in a trance. The musical scores, drawn in different colors, were either torn to pieces or reduced to a pile of scrap paper.

Her hands were stained with various inks from what she had done.

As if possessed, she wrote out a score and then tore it to shreds right there. “Another failure.”

Sweat poured down her face. She was clearly exhausted, but she didn’t stop.

“What nonsense,” Ares said with a snort.

“Mind your own business, and worry about yourself,” Muse shot back.

“Doing that might hit Davey even harder and crueler, you know?”

Mute stopped her work and asked irritably, “What right do you have to judge that?”

He met her gaze without backing down. “Let’s see. It’s been five to ten minutes tops, and that boy’s already suffering this much just from reading Willow’s memories. Do you think he could handle watching her vanish again right in front of him?”

“He’s the one who made that decision. Why are you taking it out on me?”

“Because I doubt it was the right choice.”

“You didn’t object at all back then! What gives you the right to say anything now?”

“I thought the same at first,” he muttered with a frown on his face. “But my mind changed when I saw him getting pushed into a corner more and more as he collected her remnants.”

He’d initially thought the collection process would provide a small measure of salvation for Davey. However, the Davey he saw was deteriorating and twisting with every remnant he collected.

That's what changed his mind.

“It’s difficult for me to say this now, but there’s a possibility this will completely shatter him...”

“Ares.” Mute cut him off and quietly stared at him. “You should keep your nose out of this. I’m busy, so get outta here.”

“You should’ve at least checked how he was doing inside.”

“What difference would that have made?”

Ares fell silent, having no answer to her question. He then said, “My apologies, clearly my emotions got the better of me. You’ve always been too indifferent to Davey.”

“It’s just my personality, so what can I do about it? Now, please leave. I’m still busy.” After he left, she focused on the score again. “I can’t live in debt, Davey. You solved my regret, so I’ll take responsibility and show you the path to a conclusion you can accept.”

Making the listener happy with music. That was the essence of the minstrel.

Mute knew that Davey had to keep being driven into a corner.

She wanted to challenge the situation herself, but there was no other way. Therefore, she didn’t have the confidence to watch him collect the remnants. She couldn’t handle seeing it.

She was just as guilty of leaving him to suffer so cruelly, even though she knew what was happening.

“Davey. I know you’re more than capable of pulling through. After all the torment we’ve put you through, you should have the tolerance. Don’t ever break. You always need to pay the suitable price when you want to get something.”

She offered a prayer to the silent goddess and moved her hands again as if possessed.

“In the end, if a situation comes where you fall into despair, I’ll be your light.”

* * *

The memories became clearer. They assaulted him even more cruelly.

Every time Davey and Perserque collected a remnant, they directly saw and felt Willow’s memories. Their expressions grew darker with each iteration.

Of the two, Perserque went through an especially difficult time.

“Haah. Haah.” She struggled so much that she couldn’t even breathe properly.

However, knowing they had to go on, Davey simply urged the group to keep going.

At that moment—

“Ummm. Davey?” Evanov spoke up, and at the same time, Perserque seemed to sense something and stepped back.

Yet, she was so overwhelmed mentally that she couldn’t move her body easily. Although she was a high-level mage with strong mental fortitude, her maternal love was deeper and greater than what the other two could imagine.

Davey figured her pain must be tens or hundreds of times greater.

“Don’t you dare think about doing that! No way!” she desperately screamed.

Davey told her with a tired face, “What’s the point of carrying on if you break?”

She didn't know what to say to that.

“Willow’s important, but why don’t you understand that you are important to me too?”

“I can handle it. So, stop with the nonsense. Davey... please...”

He pulled her into his arms and patted her back as she sobbed. “I’m sorry.”

“Davey?!” Evanov saw what he was doing and exclaimed in shock.

“I’ll take the blame later,” Davey remarked.

Thud!

With a light striking sound, she slumped like a marionette with cut strings and fell unconscious. He slowly picked her up.

“You’re going to be in big trouble later, Davey.”

“This is all too much. She can’t take it anymore.”

In the past, he had tried to change the past to save Willow. However, once that rampage stopped and he could think rationally, he realized that she wasn’t the only one precious to him.

Willow was important to Davey, but so were Perserque and the others. That was why he’d given up on altering the past.

“Besides, Willow’s situation is already weighing heavy on my heart. If something then happens to Perserque, there's no telling what I'd do.”

Therefore, no matter the reason, he believed he wouldn't be able to handle her going through more pain.

If he had accepted the situation coldly, he would’ve been able to endure, but the situation had driven him to his breaking point.

“You’re a really good person,” Evanov told him.

“A... good person? Me?” Davey was doubtful.

“At least, that’s how I see it. So, please, don’t ever forget the feelings you have now.”

“Knock it off.”

Carrying the unconscious Perserque in his arms, Davey walked along a quiet mountain path and threw himself into a massive rift gate.

Evanov was curious about the sudden change of scenery. “Is this... a place with monsters? Earth surely is strange.”

“It’s an outlet to maintain the world from the beast lair. Without it, Earth can’t be sustained.”

“So monsters periodically emerge through these rifts?”

“Sometimes they’re just summoned, which is rare, but mostly it’s like this,” Davey confirmed.

“But there aren’t many people here.”

“It’s not exactly a preferred dungeon, per se.”

They had reached the place where her last remnant could be found. It was a rift on Earth, likely to be rated as A-class if it were ranked.

However, because the rift was more like a permanent fixture, there’d be no rampage unless the number of entities increased excessively.

“Seriously, I’m starting to realize why people hate it here and stay away.”

The inside was filled with a sticky swamp that was teeming with bizarre reptiles and arthropods.

The first thing they saw was an iguana-like creature emerging from the swamp. Before it could even turn its head, a giant centipede several meters long lurking nearby bit it to death.

“Let’s go.”

“But you found this place using the instrument. Can you find the remnant inside here?”

“Of course. Don’t you worry.”

Davey pondered for a moment and lightly waved his hand. Water droplets gathered in the air. At the same time, massive spirit mana pulsed, gathering before him and forming the shape of a blue-light female figure.

“Ellaim.”

[Contractor? You...]

“Don’t say anything, Ellaim.”

Her expression wasn’t bright, as if she had been fully exposed to his emotions.

“Please look after Perserque for a bit.”

[Don’t overdo yourself. Seeing this, you and your master are exactly the same, in the end.”

Even as she said that, she held the unconscious Perserque in her arms.

“Stop worrying about it all. I’ll handle everything.”

Ellaim and Evanov didn’t say a word as the group advanced, Davey freezing the sticky swamp as he went.

* * *

The moment of decision came. The goddess was watching Davey through Evanov.

Originally, she should’ve gone to see it from his side directly, but she was currently in a situation where she couldn’t move.

She’d decided to instead seek out Evanov, and allowed a part of her to possess him. It was possible because he was one of the very few humans who held one of the divine fragments scattered throughout the world.

It didn’t take Davey long to find the remnant.

It was in a swamp filled with disgusting arthropods, and as he walked, the entire area around him froze. There was absolutely nothing that would dare target him.

After continuously moving, the three, including Ellaim, saw a giant centipede. It was coiled up, lying listlessly as if it were about to die.

“It’s huge! Maybe it’s the king of this place?”

Unlike the centipedes that were typically several meters long, the one before them looked to be dozens of meters long. Its jaws looked sharp enough to slice through a decent-sized boulder, yet they didn’t feel afraid.

It was in bad shape, no threat to them.

[It’s quiet. So, what are you going to do now?]

“This thing’s pretty much already dead. It’s only being kept alive by the remnant, so I just need to retrieve it.”

Davey slowly placed the crystal of Willow’s remnant, which he had taken from Perserque, onto his palm and raised it up.

The spontaneously floating crystal radiated light as if craving the last piece, and the centipede slowly lifted its body at the sight of the crystal. It then moved very slowly toward the crystal and extended its sharp mandible.

However, it was not aimed at the crystal.

Like a child missing its father, the centipede silently and affectionately rubbed its mandible against Davey.

Then, the light in its eyes began to fade, and before he could do anything, Willow’s remnant voluntarily emerged and seeped into the crystal.

The centipede collapsed, as if it no longer had any lingering regrets, and embraced its own death.

Davey figured it must not have been a sad memory. If it had been sad, the centipede would’ve raged out of control.

Unless he was mistaken, the memory was a good one, at least.

‘Yes. It was definitely a good memory.’

However, Evanov couldn’t speak. He knew that, unlike the remnants they had seen so far, this one was so cruel that it could twist his very core.

The remnant seeped into the crystal and infused a part of that memory into Davey.

Evanov didn’t know why this only applied to Davey and Perserque, but he didn’t resist the process.

Soon after, he stumbled as he accepted the memory.

“Davey!”

[Contractor!]

Ellaim cried out in surprise at the sight of weakness Davey would normally never show.

He soon staggered, knelt on the ground, and screamed, “Aah. Aaaaaaaah!”

Ignoring the fact that he was getting dirty, he slammed his head to the ground and sobbed. The powers he contained wildly resonated with him.

Ellaim, instinctively sensing danger, hurriedly created a barrier of water, but it didn’t hold up for long.

Crash!!!

Her water barrier shattered like ice, and she was thrown backward.

Then Evanov’s eyes suddenly turned five-colored, and his body seemed to vanish for a moment before reappearing in front of the airborne Ellaim.

He soon began restraining Davey’s outrage.

[Human?!]

“Poor children are prone to misunderstanding.” The voice that Evanov spoke in was definitely not his. “They think, ‘It was a good memory, so it must be fine. It was a bad memory, so it must be sad.’ It’s unfortunate.”

[Who... who are you?]

“But is that really true?”

Ellaim looked at Davey with trembling eyes.

“Divine authority is unable to foresee the future.”

As the Evanov before her continued to speak, Ellaim realized who the being was. Even as a spirit, she bowed down to Evanov as a sign of respect.

[Aah! Great Goddess...]

“I hope... that you do not lose yourself and come to realize the truth.”

‘My child.’

Evanov spoke the will of the Goddess.

She was merely praying that Davey, who had accepted the trial, would somehow gain something from it.

* * *

Davey had complacently thought that if it wasn’t a sad memory, he would finally see a good memory of Willow.

However, the memory that actually seeped in was far from that. What was contained in the memory fragment was none other than her dearest wishes. It was the imaginations and hopes she’d kept to herself as she endured the pain and held on until the end for Davey’s rescue, amid the eternal agony where she suffered and longed for him to look at her.

As if sneering at his complacent thought of, ‘Developing a tolerance for painful scenes? Not a chance,’ her unattainable wishes shook his mind.

It was as if all the painful memories so far were just bait for this final remnant, making him nauseous to the core.

The memory was especially painful because it couldn’t be fulfilled. Perhaps that was why the centipede had merely accepted its death slowly, instead of feeling happy or raging out of control.

An unattainable dream.

In that dream, Davey and Willow were smiling so happily.

He couldn't say a word. There wasn’t a single one of her wishes that he could fulfill for her. He had seen similar memories through her solitary monologues before then, but this was the first time he directly confronted the imagined future she had painted.

In the midst of that agony, a thought came to his mind.

‘What can I do for the child who foolishly disappeared so miserably, forever dreaming, because I failed to notice her existence?’

In that pain, he felt a voice speaking from within him.

- Sacrifice yourself. If you put everything you have as a divinity on the line, you might be able to give her a chance. You can’t let Willow go like this. You won’t be able to wake her up like this.

At the end of that terrible dilemma, his resolve to sacrifice himself grew stronger and stronger.

At the same time, his entire body began to turn into light, gradually fading.

He then heard someone shout, “No!”

The voice he heard was not Evanov’s, nor Elaim’s, or even Perserque’s. It was Goddess Freyja. It was a cry filled with her sorrow.

- It’s very small, but a possibility exists. Will you sacrifice yourself?

The divinity within him and his fundamental divine power seemed to question him.

Davey, who was lying prostrate and trembling in the colorless white space, slowly raised his head. In front of him, a pure white entity was asking him a question.

- Will you sacrifice yourself to give that child a chance?

Davey slowly raised his head to the repeated question.

If he sacrificed himself, there was a small chance he could save Willow. Therefore, all he had to do was express his intention for sacrifice.

Soon, he spoke up, “I will...”

However, before he could finish his words, he felt a sensation on his back.

“Absolutely not! Don’t go!! What will I do if you disappear?!” He closed his mouth at Perserque’s desperate plea that pierced through, even into the empty space. “If you leave, what good is it if Willow lives!”

Davey turned his head, but couldn’t see Perserque even though her touch and voice reached his ears precisely.

- Will you sacrifice yourself?

“No.” Davey slowly raised his head. His red eyes were dwelled with five colors on the surface.

At the same time, the divinity within him spoke.

- O’ divinity who has recognized the pain, the weight, and the sorrow of sacrifice. This is the last time to ask this question. The choice cannot be undone.

Davey answered the question quietly.

It was a question fundamentally designed to mislead. Sacrifice himself to save Willow, or not sacrifice himself and let her go just like that.

It was a forced black and white choice, nothing short of a trap.

A third answer, hidden within the fog of extreme sorrow, glowed as if it were pulsating. It was his fundamental belief that he had forgotten because of Willow.

“Is it truly the right sacrifice if I burn myself up to give that child a chance?”

The divinity didn't answer that question.

Instead, it emitted light.

- You have recognized the weight of sacrifice divinity possesses, as well as the sorrow and change that a one-sided sacrifice brings. You have reached the fundamental truth.

Whoosh!!

The surroundings shattered.

Beyond his hazy vision, Evanov was seen standing before him, his eyes glowing with five colors.

It was Evanov, but it wasn’t Evanov.

The goddess—not an avatar, but the dormant Goddess Freyja herself. “You have proven yourself worthy of receiving authority.”

“Goddess.”

“Call the name of that Authority.”

“...The authority of Sacrifice.”

Evanov slowly approached and placed a hand on his forehead. He then slowly spoke, “Do you desire the truth?”

Using Evanov as a conduit form, the Goddess pulsated a massive amount of power into him. “The pitiable child you wished to sacrifice for...”

Davey’s eyes opened wide.

“...has not yet vanished.”

A certain truth that only the Goddess fully knew, and that Mute had only vaguely sensed, flowed out through Evanov.

A truth no one else knew.