The Max Level Hero Strikes Back!

[Further discounting this along with few more chapters due to delays-]

27

-Down, down.

Then I heard the voice again. This time around, I felt which direction it was coming from. I reflexively turned to the place where the voice had been coming from. There, a palm-sized girl was looking up at me and sitting down on my leg.

“This is my first time seeing you, I was a little bewildered when I accidentally released the seal, but I guess it was meant to be God’s will.”

There was an evident pair of pure white horns sprouting from the head. Its eyes were engraved with red patterns that had a strange glow; it could not possibly be compared to me or the vampire maid, Sharis. In short? An overwhelming beauty. As I looked at her, I opened my eyes wide to the memory of a time that suddenly came to mind.

-You look perplexed with that strange window in front of your eyes. Am I wrong?

* * *

[Hmm? Why are you up? Who are you drawing? I didn’t know you were good at painting.]

-Hmm, what does it look like to you?

[It has ergonomic handles on its head and fierce red eyes like a rebellious teenager. Isn’t that a demon? If I look at that beautiful face, it almost looks like a high-ranking demon.]

-You’re the only one who says the horns of the head are handles. Yes, as you said, this one is a demon.

[Why the heck did you draw a portrait of a demon? Besides, the detailed illustration looks like a beautiful girl.]

-Is she pretty? Of course, she’s overwhelmingly beautiful compared to those crazy girls partying over there. I’ve drawn this hundreds of times. Her name is Perserk.

Haris, the lazy swordsman, laughed bitterly, pointing to the appearance of a girl who seemed to be about eighteen years old.

-She was my daughter, whom I adopted and taught swords back when she was still human.

[Wait, Perserk?]

-Yeah, as you know, this is the Demon King of the Abyss who I cut with Calderas and sealed in the sword to end the Great War.

* * *

“…”

I only thought it was amazing.

One of the two regrets he had was right in front of me.

“Demon…Perserk.”

-Whoa…you know very well about me. After all, my eyes weren’t wrong…ugh?!

I released command mana to tie her as she was talking casually. Knowing who she was, there would be no reason to be confused anymore. The command mana quickly became lighter, spreading like a rope to restrain her and lift her into the air.

-Oh, you… you’re a man with rough hands. I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of being bound.

“I don’t think we’re close enough to make that kind of joke.”

-Isn’t this the first time you and I have faced each other? There is no reason to be on bad terms.

At her words, I laughed bitterly without lowering my guard.

“I want you to explain this situation now.”

In my eyes, she looked like she was in trouble.

-Were you going to build a symbiotic relationship with me even if I say not to?

My eyes twitched a little at her words.

“Symbiotic relationship?”

-The stigmata engraved on your back. It has become a vessel that holds my soul, so that is why the size is unusual.

“It’s funny to say that the stigmata were a vessel that seals the Demon King. To be honest, I don’t understand that situation at all.”

At my words, she was trapped by the command mana and shed a light groan, avoiding my gaze.

-Would…would you perhaps like to loosen this up? Again, I don’t have a fetish of being constrained so much… besides, if it’s such a terrible position…

She had a slightly reddened face, avoiding my gaze.

“Hmm…”

-A, little…it’s such a shame.

As if I was naked, I began to feel ashamed, and the blood that had cooled down was returning to its original state. As she shook her hand lightly, the mana that was restraining her gradually became loose. It wasn’t intentional, but it looked like she was bizarrely tied up while trying to resist. Of course, depending on the viewer, this perception might not be strange at all.

-Wow… I think I will buy it.

It was indeed a big problem to free the Demon King, but I boldly released the mana that was holding her. She was, after all, already a dead person. As she was dead, she couldn’t possibly do more harm to me.

“Okay. Can you explain it neatly and briefly so that you can convince me?”

-Hmm…you have a twisted personality.

“They said that my temper was a little bit grotesque.”

-Hmm…

She smiled emptily up at me. I felt a light reflection of myself in the red blood that was engraved in the patterns.

“Yes, what should I do for the Demon King that was sealed in a divine sword?”

-Since you know my true identity, it is meaningless to persuade you.

She smiled bitterly and sighed. Then, she looked up at me and quietly bowed her head, raising the ends of her dress.

-Greetings, formally, my name is Perserk von Palan. I am the Demon King who looks at you from the abyss.

The cause of the great war between ancient Middle-earth and the demons was in front of me. When someone looked into the abyss, that abyss also looked at them. It was her who was in that phrase. In that respect, she was a little different from a typical Demon King. She then looked up at me with a pleasant smile…

-The situation is simple. You seem to have already known that I was sealed with a divine sword.

The divine sword was the sword that Haris, the sword god, used to cut down the devil to end the Great War. What was known outside was that the demon king’s soul had been sealed in the sword. I heard it from him, so this one was not a lie.

“Right. I never thought I would be the one to awaken you.”

-It’s not that Calderas is bad enough to stop his friend’s will.

Her words gave me pause.

“Friend?”

-Well, does this mean the personal situation means nothing? I will tell you exactly; I was only transferred from Calderas to you at the will of God.

“…”

At her words, I went silent, almost as if I had lost the ability to speak entirely. Why should I care about a God who had never come down? However, the will of God certainly existed. Because of that, sanctuary magic was possible. The starting point was also the divine magic I used to undo the Blood Polis. The question was, why did she come to me from Calderas?

“Why are you here?”

I was really curious, and when I asked her, she merely laughed.

-Because of you, we have entered an unintended symbiotic relationship, so shouldn’t you be responsible?

As if raising a small child, she continued to speak in the same condescending tone.

-I’m quite interested in you. You are the second person to bear the traces of the sword.

“Haris’ swordsmanship?”

-It sounds like you know him well.

“Of course, he talked about you all the time.”

-I see… my story.

The status window appeared in front of my eyes. Lies were useless, given it was her power. No matter who it was, she would eventually see through the truth and find the essence. At my words, she nodded.

-I’m glad he didn’t hide it.

“I’m still going to have to selectively keep things secret. But, what good is a lie if you are a Demon King who has the power to see through people?”

She smiled bitterly at my question.

-It’s the Hero’s Corridor…I didn’t know there would be such a place. It’s amazing. However, I’m correcting one thing.

“Which one?”

-I am not looking through you. I’m just borrowing the power of higher beings. The status window that will express you. The slightly nasty way of expressing it is not my taste.

“A higher power?”

-Don’t humans call them Gods?

I laughed at the expression, the higher beings, who are in such a great position, gave the power to a half-mad man like me. The god granted divine power out of curiosity to a guy like me in the first place, so why should I expect more? She began to mutter in regret. From what I heard from Haris, she could read a person’s thoughts. Her value of existence was the abyss that looked into the person staring in. That was why she was called the strongest Demon King ever.

“So, because of the holy magic I used, you came from Calderas to me?”

-When you used the ninth tier magic, a large amount of divine power was released, and I came with it. My soul, which lost a place to go, seems to have settled in your stigmata like that. Originally, it was impossible…

Clucking her tongue briefly, she had a pitiful look on her face.

-There are no eternal seals. If I knew it, I would’ve bid goodbye to the ego of Calderas…

“Where is Calderas? Do you know?”

-Instinctively, you might already know. Don’t you know that Calderas has fallen asleep in the aftermath of the ninth-tier holy magic you used?

“Ah.”

-He’ll sleep for about three more days. Listening to that talker may hurt my ears, but I wasn’t bored. He’ll probably yell and swear at you when he wakes up, hehe.

Unlike the way she talked, she sounded like a child when she laughed. This was the Demon King, which became the cause of the Great War, or the origin of the Continental War. Her appearance was a little different from what was known in public. I knew she wasn’t acting, not because of how she acted but because I had already heard.

She was a scapegoat for war. And, he was a bad father who was taken advantage of at the moment. Haris, the swordsman, used to blame himself for what had happened…

-I felt weird when I first saw you. No way, I didn’t think you would use some of the perfect prototypes of swordsmanship left by my father.

To be precise, my swordsmanship was more like a collaboration between him and another. At first, I learned the unique swordsmanship of the sword, but it then began to change afterward.

-If you evaluate it soberly, it looks like a modified sword style that best suits you.

“Right. The two old men who were crazy about swords made this. “

She smiled bitterly and slowly flew up. She approached me, with small cute wings flapping behind her, and then she reached out to me.

-Well, we have come this far. It is not so bad to move together, and the symbiosis isn’t bad either. I look forward to your kind cooperation.

From what she said, it was clear that even if she had a bad heart, there was no way to do anything now.