The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Davey concluded his deal with Time Spirit Altair.

Altair, who carefully kept things related to Yuriana, including the video stone Davey gave him, asked.

[My name is Altair, the Time Spirit. Say your name.]

“Davey O’Rowane.”

[Make your demands.]

“I ask for a total of four things. First, when I create a moon, you will fix the time axis of each dimension so that it doesn’t deviate by even an inch.”

[I will do so.]

“Second: let time pass on Perserque’s body here.

[Let time pass?]

“I know it might be a long shot, but growth in one’s body means blending into this world. Maybe she’ll be able to have a child.”

When her body was created, the age/time of her body was actually fixed. Although her immortality would disappear over time, since her body had reached a level where it’d no longer age there was nothing to worry about.

[This must mean a lot to you; I will do so. State your next request. Contractor.]

“You’ll need to put in a lot more effort for the next one. I’m hoping you can do it.”

After briefly hesitating, he made his next request.

* * *

Perserque was quick-witted.

She was able to recognize that Davey hadn't taken her to meet with the Time Spirit simply as a date. But being Perserque, she didn't explicitly ask him why.

As spirits gathered to see what was happening, the entire Spirit World began to stir.

[Hey, hey, hey. Humans? Really?]

[Amazing! How did humans come to the Spirit World?]

[A bit scary! But I also feel such clean power coming from them!]

Little spirits wandered around Davey, chattering with purehearted excitement.

[Amazing, amazing!]

“To be able to see the nature spirits so pure… Amazing…” Illyna remarked.

“They’re beautiful.” Aeria added.

Illyna and Aeria muttered with flushed faces, unable to take their eyes off the cackling spirits and the beautiful sight of the Spirit World.

[Hehe! The king spoke! To help humans!]

An enormous number of spirits that even a Spirit King couldn’t handle moved for a single purpose. For the small low-level spirits, although the Spirit Kings who lent Davey the spirits were reluctant to help him, regardless of their thoughts, what was happening was just a fun and surprising game. Ř

An enormous amount of spirits resonated and a huge region of land began to move.

In the meantime, Davey received unexpected news from the spirits he had contracts with.

“Most of them are gone?”

[Contractor. Do you remember Indra, the Thunder Spirit King with whom you made a contract?]

“There’s no reason I wouldn’t.”

[That child was born when Indra, who was originally contracted with Yuriana, disappeared. She was born as a Spirit King; it hasn’t even been a year since she was born.]

Noble from birth.

He was basically saying she was the successor spirit.

[Spirits are divided into three types by human standards. Derived spirits, nature spirits, and successor spirits.]

Derived spirits were spirits born from and grew by the hands of high-level spirits.

Nature spirits were highly matured spirits that grew from low-level spirits to the level of Spirit Kings.

And finally, successor spirits were spirits born from the enormous power that Spirit Kings left when they eventually disappeared over time.

[So Indra is a spirit born in such a roundabout way. The Light Spirit and Dark Spirit disappeared without being able to create successors, but Indra was successful. This might just be fate.]

“And why is that?”

Yuriana's spirit was not old. In fact, she was young enough that disappearing in such a short period of time was a shock.

[As you may have seen, the Spirit World is collapsing. The cause is unknown, but… it's been going on for quite a while now. Many spirits were sacrificed.]

The Spirit World was also facing collapse stemming from a lack of vitality—it too was running out of time.

In the end, the only spirits that Yuriana had crossed paths with were the four major spirits Davey had contracted with and Time Spirit Altair.

“That’s a shame…”

[If you wait a little bit, you can use the power of the low-level spirits to move the dirt and rocks that exist here to Tionis. Since they’ve already been ordered to do so, they should start moving soon.]

"Alright.”

Davey reminded himself to not complicate the situation. Since he had achieved his original goal, he knew all he had to do now was to make the most of the little time he had left.

After he left the Spirit Kings to check on the low-level spirits, he looked up at the sky while lying down on Perserque.

“Is the entire Spirit World like this?” she asked.

“It may vary depending on the area, but… I’m assuming so?”

“So there is something that even you don’t know, as well,” Illyna muttered with a sullen expression. “Honestly, it’s a bit surprising—it always seemed like you knew everything.”

“Hey, give me a break. When would I have ever come to the Spirit World before now?”

Davey was confident that even the Spirit Queen Yuriana hadn’t been to the Spirit World.

[Contractor. The time has come.]

"Already?"

Perserque and Illyna looked at Davey with confused faces as the small ball of light flew toward him.

"The time?”

“I have some work to do here, where the power of the Time Spirit is strongest.”

With that, Davey closed his eyes. He then sat in a comfortable position and took a short breath as if he was meditating.

[Equipping Title Starbreaker.]

The Starbreaker title.

It made it possible for Davey to maintain a certain amount of power continuously.

He knew it would take an enormous amount of mana to create a moon that could be seen from every dimension. The mana he currently possessed certainly wasn’t going to be enough, so he needed to store a lot more mana elsewhere as a power bank.

The option he chose was to utilize the blessing Goddess Freyja gave him; borrowing the power of the Starbreaker title. It forcibly seized his power at regular intervals before storing it, eventually accumulating it into large quantities.

In other words, there was no other mana storage space as perfect as this.

Zzzzt…

Soon, Altair's power began to gather around Davey, and time separated.

Illyna and Perserque looking quizzically at Davey stopped in motion. Aeria, who had been talking to the spirits, also stopped.

Davey and Altair were the only ones moving.

[How long will it take?]

“About half a year. But if I collect it before then, it’ll be resolved faster.”

[Understood.]

The three women resumed their actions.

“What was that just now…”

Illyna frowned, having faintly sensed the gap in time.

“What just…”

"Half a year.”

"Huh?"

“I need to collect mana from now on. All I’m going to do is collect mana for about half a year.”

As if they knew what he meant, Illyna looked at Davey quietly and then made eye contact with Perserque.

“I’ll wait. I don't know what you’re doing, trying to create a moon and collect mana, but I know it’s surely not some simple task. Right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I want to wait. By your side, so you don’t feel lonely.”

“I want to do the same. I don’t want you to bear the responsibility all by yourself.”

“Well then I will too, Davey!”

He sighed before turning to Altair.

“Let’s get started.”

Hummm!!

Altair let out an enormous amount of power, and the time around him began to change.

Time became completely isolated.

The space they were in was going to persist for the next six months. Even so, it was going to be less than a second in the outside world.

However, it didn't take long for Davey to realize that the world was collapsing faster than he thought.

* * *

The original plan was expected to take six months. However, they were done with time isolation after only four months.

“W-What happened here?!” Illyna, who followed Davey out of the isolated space, muttered in surprise as she looked at the huge flower garden that had completely withered.

To her dismay, the beautiful flower garden had become a land of complete death. The countless spirits that had been chattering and flying around were nowhere to be seen, and the earth was cracked and weathered like a barren hell.

“Davey. What in the…” Aeria pointed to the darkened surroundings with a serious expression.

“It would seem… the problem here is more serious than I anticipated.”

He needed to figure out what had happened.

“Perserque.”

“You’re going to send us back whether we like it or not, aren’t you?”

“Your safety is my top priority right now.”

“Perserque?”

“Let’s go back.”

Perserque, who made eye contact with Davey, quietly fell into his arms.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I know for sure that it’s not something simple.”

“...”

“So never… Don’t get yourself hurt.”

As Davey watched her retreat, he activated Causal Fiction that he had entrusted to Ellaim from the Heavenly Demon’s Card Album. He then opened the same rift that transported him there last time.

Summoning was done by Indra, the Spirit King who contracted with him, but he could still do counter-summoning at will.

“Come back safe and sound. If you come back hurt, I’ll be really angry.”

With that, Perserque left. Illyna also held his hand tightly with an unsatisfied expression.

“I know there’s no one here to threaten your life, but you never know, so don’t even think about making me into a widow,” she said while glaring.

“I couldn’t die even if I wanted to. Don’t worry."

“...”

She then nodded her head. Aeria, who recognized the unusual circumstances, took out a small necklace and held it out to him.

“You need to come back safely. This is a talisman given to me by my Royal Father.”

“I will treasure it and give it back to you.”

“It’s okay if it breaks; just don’t get hurt.”

She then mustered up the courage to raise her heels to kiss him on the cheek, before retreating with a flushed face.

“Davey. You got this.”

After sending the three people back through the rift, he called the closest spirit to find out what happened with the situation, having been completely distorted contrary to his expectations.

“Altair.”

[I’m sorry, Contractor.]

Altair, who he summoned, had weakened more than he had imagined. Most of the light he was made up of had already dispersed, and he had almost dissolved into mist.

[My… My power in the Spirit World is proportional to the state of the Spirit World…]

“The fact that you are like this means that the Spirit World is in a mess, right?”

[The Spirit World… It’s collapsing.]

“In just a few seconds?”

Although Davey spent four months isolated from the Spirit World, he was only gone for less than a second.

He couldn’t believe that the situation turned this terrible within a second. It was as if it had been waiting to turn like this at the flip of a hat.

[It's not a few seconds. By human standards, thirty days have passed.]

"What?"

[As the Spirit World collapsed, my power weakened. In order to achieve what you wanted, I still tried to maintain time isolation as much as possible, but I reached my limit and the isolation was broken.]

Altair was explaining that although he had independently achieved time isolation as much as theoretically possible, the current situation happened because the collapse of the Spirit World was more serious than expected.

“What about other spirits?”

[All the Primordial Spirits rioted. The Spirit Kings and high-level spirits are currently blocking them, but they won’t be able to hold out for long. Contractor. Leave this place.]

“...”

[There is no longer any hope for the Spirit World.]

The Spirit World was the only place where the huge earth and rocks to create the moon could be obtained. However, Altair was saying that the Spirit World no longer had hope.

Then Altair left to suppress the rampaging Primordial Spirits again.

As Davey looked at the crumbling flower garden of the Spirit World, he saw low-level spirits miserably groaning.

[It hurts…]

[It hurts so much… Human… Help…]

Davey slowly approached the low-level Gnoums and Naiads who were crying and suffering.

“Where did all your buddies go?”

[Gone. All of them. There aren’t many of us left now…]

They clung to Davey, crying.

[Help me human… It hurts so much…]

[My friends are disappearing. We’ll disappear soon too.]

Davey could only feel the presence of a couple thousand of low-level spirits, not the tens of thousands of spirits that he was initially supported with by the Spirit Kings. With time, more and more were gradually going to disappear.

He knew there was no time to waste.

“All of you. Can you help me?”

[Help?]

[What should we do?]

“Call your friends. The Primordial Spirits and nature spirits—every single one of your friends who’s suffering.”

[Do we just call them? Is it really necessary?]

"Yeah. Since we’re using the nature of the Spirit World, the most essential factor is the will of spirits.”

The struggling low-level spirits began to move one by one. Lights flew up quickly like fireflies and began to gather one by one.

One at first. Then two. Dozens. Hundreds and thousands.

Countless spirits beyond tens of thousands began to move.

A number of nature spirits and Primordial Spirits that had yet to go berserk united under the direction of a single human, with the goal to protect their world. There were more spirits here now than the number of low-level spirits ruled by the Spirit Kings.

“A miracle is something you make happen yourself. It’s not something that’s given to you.”

A spectacular kaleidoscope of light particles gathered around Davey, traveling across the entire crumbling Spirit World.

Originally, Davey was going to start with Tionis. But since things had taken a turn for the worse, he had no other choice but to lift up the moon from the nearest Spirit World in each dimension.

* * *

The Spirit World was collapsing.

All the Primordial Spirits that made up the Spirit World collapsed to the point where everything seemed hopeless now.

Many spirits disappeared.

The remaining high-level spirits and Spirit Kings desperately tried to suppress the rampaging Primordial Spirits.

[Damn it! They keep running wild!]

Ifrit frowned while wielding the fire sword Lavatein. Other than him, other fire spirits also drew out enormous flames and attacked the Primordial Spirits, but the effects were minimal.

Despite being powerful, even Spirit Kings were at their limit. The primordial spirits rose and ran rampant no matter how much they suppressed them.

It wasn’t just one or two primordial spirits; the entire Spirit World was running wild. And the power of the Spirit Kings was weakening at the same time.

The beautiful flower garden withered and the sky turned dark. Even in the dire situation, the Spirit Kings didn’t give up.

[I will sacrifice myself. If I unleash my power and explode, you’ll gain a very short period of time. In the meantime, find another way.]

[No! If you disappear in this situation where we’re already short on spirits, the situation will get worse!]

The other Spirit Kings voted against the remarks of Earth Spirit Gnoass.

But he had already made his decision.

Boom! Bang!

Eventually, Gnoass withstood the rampaging primordial spirit’s punch and power struggled with it.

[Grrr… hurry!! Get out of here!]

The extremely exhausted Spirit Kings shed tears as Gnoass shouted.

Whether they got along or not, they were family. The agony of seeing another family member sacrificing themselves was indescribable.

[Ah… Spirit God... Primordial God… Bestow us a miracle to overcome this despair…]

One of the Spirit Kings shed tears and prayed to Goddess Freyja, but no miracle occurred. All they were given was the time that Gnoass had earned through his sacrifice.

As the Spirit Kings shed bloody tears and tried to make a run for it…

Thud…

Crack!! Crack!!

The ground began to split.

Completely different from the distortion caused by the rampage of the primordial spirits.

A collapse imbued with destructive power occurred.

"What?!"

The shocked Spirit Kings shouted as they saw the ground splitting apart.

Then, they all saw what caused it.

An immense amount of dirt and rock began to rise and coalesce into a huge circle.

The spirits, which were concentrations of energy, could tell that the huge thing in front of them wasn’t just some ridiculously huge moon.

They could feel the huge flow of mana, so precise that it was even difficult to grasp with their power. And, beyond the stream, they saw an enormous number of low-level spirits gathering and disappearing repeatedly.

[What in the world?!]

[What! What is happening?!]

An enormous number of low-level spirits were sacrificing themselves at an incredible rate for one singular purpose. And, in accordance with their wishes, an incredibly huge moon slowly began to rise.

An unprecedented, enormous vitality began to spread from the rising moon, enveloping the entire Spirit World.

[What on earth…]

The Spirit Kings muttered with confused expressions and soon saw light emanating from the huge moon, almost as if its eyes were opening. The moon that looked like a giant eye staring down at the world took in an enormous amount of vitality and began to circulate rapidly.

At the same time, the bodies of the Primordial Spirits began to collapse one by one.

The world that had been collapsing was regaining its original strength.

[The collapsing Spirit World is…]

[Did he already know?]

Gnoass and Ellaim only then realized exactly what the purpose of the moon was. All they could do was stare at the moon that was quickly beginning to adjust the Spirit World, flabbergasted.

The moon, so large that it could be seen from every dimension, began to spread its power.

The world that was collapsing seemed to be slowly recovering.

[Impossible. It’s impossible for even the Spirit King to control and manipulate so many spirits at once!]

[T-This was done by the human? How?!]

The problem was the identity of the human who could control this many spirits at once.

The moon suddenly rising was an amazing feat, but the human controlling and manipulating an enormous number of spirits—something that even the Spirit Kings couldn’t do—was also remarkable.

A miracle was now unfolding before their eyes. By the hands of the human they ignored, no less.

[Gnoass… Your contractor… What on earth is he?]

One of the Spirit Kings of another land asked in disbelief. Then Gnoass answered quietly.

[That’s what I’m most curious about as well.]

[I've known him for a while, but it's impossible to understand him.]

As Ellaim chimed in, the Spirit Kings who were witnessing the situation were entranced.

They just saw the huge moon rise in the sky and the procession of countless spirits gathering along the moon like a stream of wate

ChubbyCheeks & FriedNook's Thoughts

Editorb’s Thought

The new moon on its way to Hyrule