The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Just as he was about to slash at her, someone flashed in like a streak of lightning and knocked his sword to the ground.

Clang!!

The heavy metallic sound caused the association head to recoil violently.

“I'm sorry I'm late.” The person who appeared before Elysia, their long hair flying, once again turned into a flash of light and charged forward. She drove her sword into the head’s shoulder and slammed him to the ground.

Boom!!

“Gaaa?!”

Elysia’s eyes instantly widened, involuntarily shouting, “Kouna!”

“He said the people of Earth had to deal with this matter themselves.” Kouna pressed down on the sword even harder. “No matter the reason, he’s not wrong. It’s about time we step up.”

Once she finished her sentence, large transport aircraft quickly approached overhead, and a large number of Awakened individuals rapidly fast-roped down.

Someone muttered in amazement, “Holy cow! Who would’ve imagined there's an island in a remote area like this...”

Hyun-Ah, who had descended with the help of a flying Awakened, coldly remarked, “Well, if it isn't the head of the association! As expected, you were the main infected body. We conducted our own investigation, starting with the first two infected Valtan guild members. It eventually came to light that the Valtan guild master skipped the inspection, allowing them to sneak through unmolested, because you scheduled a meeting with him for the same time.”

The Korean Awakened Association was a national organization that had continuously developed and established itself since the time of the previous administration. Its history was short, but it had amassed a wealth of power and influence in that time.

Since the association head was a high-ranking official, the guild master of Valtan judged that he couldn't break his promise with him over a simple inspection. Thus began the catastrophe.

If it had been a common dagon parasite, the situation might not have escalated so much, but it was an evolved mutant.

“There's nowhere left to run. We already heard what you were saying on the way here,” Hyun-Ah told him, turning to Si-Woo.

The gamer gave a smirk and held up a hidden satellite communicator. They’d overheard the head’s words about being the main body, and that even if things went south, he could parasitize a sea creature to escape.

Hyun-Ah shouted, “Kouna! Pineapple!”

“Understood.”

Following Hyun-Ah’s perfectly timed shout of the codeword, the newly arrived Awakened sprang into action. Most of them were contract mercenaries from the Sacred Group. Coming from all manner of nationalities, they helped with problems all over the world.

While the other Awakened individuals surrounded the association head, Kouna quickly healed Seung-Hyun and Si-Woo. The severe injuries that Elysia alone had struggled to manage were sure to be trivial scrapes before Kouna’s restoration abilities.

Once those two were stabilized, she turned to Grace and asked, “Are you hurt?”

“No. Just a little exhausted.”

The life-threatening injuries gradually began to heal before their eyes. Kouna frowned as she realized just how severe their injuries were, something she hadn't noticed in the heat of the moment. She muttered, “That's strange. They shouldn’t have survived with injuries this severe...”

She knew only one person could perform the insane feat of keeping a person alive despite injuries that should’ve been fatal. “Ah. I guess, even though he said we had to resolve the situation ourselves, he couldn't just stand by...”

Kouna smiled, feeling a rush of relief fill her heart, and got up. “Elysia. Please look after those two.”

Aftercare delegated, she drew her sword and approached the association head.

“Heh. Heh, it seems you're misunderstanding something.” The association head gave a sinister laugh and mocked, “You coming here in such numbers only serves to increase the number of infected.”

Hyun-Ah sharply rebuked him, “That's ridiculous! You can't even infect anyone easily anymore, can you?”

If instant infection could occur so easily, the Korean Awakened Association should have already been wiped out. However, the fact that only some were infected was proof of her conclusion.

His face sank. “Grrr.”

“You probably have to meet some conditions. Well, that doesn't matter. There's no place on Earth for a monster like you.” Hyun-Ah waved her hand, and the Awakened individuals quickly continued closing in on him.

The association head desperately cried, “P-protect me!!! Even if your bodies are destroyed, save me!” He was trying to control the already infected Awakened.

However.

“What?!” His eyes widened as he realized his connection to all the dagon parasite larvae linked to him had been severed.

At the same time, he caught sight of Grace. She had one arm on the ground, and liquid-like substances were wriggling from her fingertips, connecting to the Awakened.

“Gaaa!!”

“Graaaa!”

All the unconscious infected individuals began to convulse and vomit out their larvae. It was a different method from when she had gotten rid of the special larva implanted in Seung-Hyun.

A man strongly gripping his knuckles pressured the association head, mocking, “You’re the only one left now. If we deal with you, it’ll be like nothing had happened. Don't bother resisting.”

“You... You fucking bastards!! How dare you ruin my plans?!”

Though the dagon parasite possessed a special power, it had no way to deal with the high-ranking Awakened individuals.

Therefore, its only remaining option was to escape.

The association head’s body began to rapidly twitch rapidly, and soon, something gigantic burst out of his mouth. It was of an entirely different level compared to the other diminutive dagon parasites.

“It's escaping!! Don't let it get away!”

The Awakened quickly tried to move and intercept the desperate flight, but the entity that emerged from his body spewed out a black mist. Like an octopus covering its retreat, the mist served to utimately obscure everyone's vision.

Swoosh!!!

Of course, it didn't manage to subdue everyone present. It simply didn't have the power to overcome their aces.

Kouna, whose eyes shone sky-blue, swung her sword and instantly bisected its body. Its two pieces fell to the ground on the edge of a cliff, only meters away from its escape.

It had been so close! It would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids! Writhing on the ground in pain, it had no mouth, but it managed to scream in everyone’s minds.

[I can't die like this!! I can't die like this!!]

Everyone watched it in relief, standing still and simply bearing witness to its clearly inevitable demise. They almost found it pitiful, if not for the untold destruction it’d wrought on so many.

Not one to resolve itself to death, the parasite nonetheless desperately tried to escape the hopeless situation. Demonstrating a surprising nimbleness, its body shook as it summoned power from lord knows where and propelled itself into the air.

No one had expected it to still attempt to flee with half its body gone. Seizing that moment of blank surprise, it managed to leap off the cliff toward the sea below.

“Damn it!”

Just as Kouna was about to follow it into the sea, Haitai's foresight momentarily activated, showing her a premonition. Quickly relaxing, she abruptly stopped her pursuit.

Splash!!

At the same time, bursting from the depths of the sea beyond the cliff, a gigantic blue whale emerged with its mouth wide open with glee. It seemed to be on a leisurely swim, tail flapping behind it as it relished the fresh air.

Owing to its wide open maw, the beast inadvertently swallowed the dagon parasite whole. Once its flight lost momentum hundreds of meters in the air, the massive ocean creature crashed back down into the sea. One would be forgiven for thinking it was sure to start a tsunami.

Splash!!

The Awakened were left speechless by the enormous impact sound of the water filling the vacuum of its splash.

The creature that had just appeared was Davey's contracted Mythical Beast King, an entity that had ultimately settled on Earth with its mermaid companion. It was, of course, Behemoth, the rumored Tyrant of the Undersea.

[Hmm? I think I ate something...]

The Awakened who knew Behemoth's power let out a cry of despair at the fact that it had chosen to eat a dagon parasite of all things.

“Ah! Oh no! If Behemoth gets infected...!”

However.

[Oh well. I was feeling a little peckish, anyways.]

Unfortunately for it, even a mutant dagon parasite wasn't strong enough to infect a creature with a powerful and bottomless stomach like Behemoth's.

The only fate awaiting a creature swallowed by Behemoth, one of the primordial predators capable of devouring anything, was death.

The Awakened wore stunned expressions as they watched Behemoth move without any issues.

“Huh?”

“It's not getting infected?”

The dagon parasite incident, which almost sent Earth into a massive pandemic, was ultimately resolved as the perpetrator mastermind turned into a light tapas snack for Behemoth.

* * *

Rinne, who had recorded every detail of the situation, looked at Davey, who was nodding contentedly to himself.

“Rinne reports the method of resolution to be rather ambiguous. But since Behemoth settled on Earth because of you, Rinne supposes he qualifies as an earthling, too.”

The mermaid So-Ya was doubtful it was even intentional. “Did Guardian really do that on purpose?”

“Yeah. I have no intention of needlessly summoning the Mythical Beast Kings these days. Behemoth already being present saved me the effort. For the time being, occasionally using Megalodria is enough.”

He closed his eyes and softly muttered, “Everything worked out in the end. But one thing still bothers me—that mutant shouldn't have existed in the first place...”

It was as though someone had deliberately tampered with it. It didn't seem to be from Earth, at least. Still, he couldn't think of who could’ve possibly committed such a crazy act.

It was then.

Whummm. Whummm.

Perserque’s voice came through the communication crystal ball.

- Davey! The elixir ingredient, the one I painstakingly made by grinding my horns... Where is it? Don’t tell me you used it to make that Grace girl’s body...

As a demon, Perserque had thorns. Yet unlike other demons, owing to her life having been so tumultuous since birth, her horns were much larger than others.

Although they were detachable, she had spent a long time imbuing her horns with power, and implanted the magic she had researched and turning them into a collective storage unit. She would also periodically grind them down a little to collect small amounts of powder, preparing it for use as an elixir ingredient. After all, she was still a mage who never neglected her research.

Hearing her voice over the call, Davey and Rinne froze.

So-Ya, the mermaid watching the two, had a confused tilt of the head.

- I know you stole it using Rinne as your mercenary, so consider this a courtesy notification. Do you know how much effort I put into making that? When I catch you, you're a dead man. It’s on sight, Sweetheart~

Davey screamed, his face pale, and Rinne covered her head with both hands, spinning around in a panic.

“Ugh. AHHHH!!!”

“Error! Error! Error!”

They’d suddenly found themselves in an even more dire emergency.

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