The Max Level Hero Strikes Back!

81.
Retirement’s Rejection.
Divine Tree’s Prophecy and Jewel.

After being overpowered in just a mere blink, some of the elves struggled while others sported looks of frustration on their faces.
They were not motivated enough to fight back after being overpowered so easily.
They couldn’t put up a fight.

Gnoass silently stared at the elves.
He was just about to gather up the power to deal with them when Davey suddenly stopped the flow of spirit energy to him.

“Wait.”

[Contractor?]

“Well, I have a question.
What is wrong with you? I asked you to kill all of the elves here but you did not even hesitate?”

Gnoass’ face, which was made from the earth, frowned at Davey’s question.

[I won’t beat them to their death…?]

This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

Gnoass was relieved that he had no need to kill these elves.

Just then, an elf, who was in the robe of an elder and was at the vanguard, shouted furiously, “Sp… Spirit King!!! How can you stop us?!!! Why is someone who’s in charge of nature’s providence helping such a heinous and deplorable human being?!!!”

The elven elder was raging.
His eyes were completely bloodshot.

[It is the World Tree that has refused and violated the providence.
Take your weapons away, or I will be forced to kill you.]

“That’s absolutely impossible! There’s no way that the World Tree would refuse and violate the providence of nature!”

It was a violation.
The fact that the Divine Tree had refused to follow the regulations was already no different from a violation.
In fact, breaking one simple rule was already a cause of violation.

The enormous powers of the World Tree and the special abilities that were derived from her birth made it impossible for her to send her incarnation to another place.
Although the situation was slightly pitiful, the World Tree could never separate from her original body for the rest of her life.
This was already a violation.

Of course, this rule did not work for Gnoass since he did not appear in his true form.
In fact, Gnoass also did not appear to be as beautiful and gracious as he truly was since he was only summoned as Davey’s contractual spirit.

“We won’t back down!!! Us elves will never bow down to that vile human!!!”

“Do not think that mercy will be given to you twice.
I have only spared you because this is only a battle against the World Tree,” Davey said calmly.

“Don’t be ridiculous, human!!! No matter how strong you are, do you think you can beat the countless beings that live in this forest?!”

Only a few Ancient Guards were left and capable of fighting.
The rest of the elves did not know combat and were no fighters.
However, it seemed like they were unaware of this fact.

‘Go on, do something else.
Make the situation worse!’

Davey silently got closer to the silent battlefield of the Earth Spirit King and the elves, then…

Vwoong… vwooooooong!

One of the elves who had been watching the situation no longer stood still.
Gathering some courage and determination, he began to move.

But before the elf could do so, Davey suddenly took out a hexagonal mana stone with his free hand, the hand that was not holding the sphere of light, and raised it high so everyone could hear the voice from within.

[Stop!!! Please… Please stop!!!]

The crowd turned silent at the desperate cry that rang loudly in the area.

“Miss… Miss Emilia?”

“The… The Third Central Official is alive?!”

Davey adjusted the crystal ball’s volume to the maximum so everyone could hear Emilia loud and clear.

“What do you mean stop? Didn’t you see them trying to attack me? In the first place, one should expect their death and slaughter the moment something goes wrong.
After all, this is war, right?”

The crystal ball fell silent at Davey’s question.

“That’s right! Emilia! We can never live under the same sky as such a vile and heinous man!!!”

Regardless of her job, Emilia was like an ancestor to these elves.
However, Davey could see that not many elves had true respect for her.

[We accept our defeat! Please don’t kill anymore… I beg you…!]

It was obvious that Emilia had been crying, which silenced Davey.
The elves’ faces also turned ugly.

“Surrender… Absolutely impossible! Third Central Official Emilia! Are you trying to trample on the elves’ pride and tradition just for the life of a single person…?”

[You!!! You… On whose authority are you saying that? Do you want to kill hundreds of thousands of our kind?! Don’t you understand the situation that we are in yet?! What are you going to do?! Just act recklessly like that and get everyone killed?!]

“…”

Everyone turned silent at Emilia’s desperate cry.

[The living has to survive and go on… If we can solve this by having a peaceful conversation then…why do we have to kill each other with our spears and swords?! Elder Trie! Please…]

Emilia’s cries only made some of the elves’ expressions become even uglier.

“Absolutely ridiculous! He has invaded our territory and slaughtered many of our own people! He even killed Mother Divine Tree in front of our very eyes! And you’re talking about making peace in this situation? A conversation? Ha! Don’t make me laugh!”

Many of the elves shouted in agreement with the elder elf.

“Use your eyes and look around! Look at what that human has done to our Sacred Land! The trees are on fire and the flowers have withered! Even the spirits have fled from this place! And what about the World Tree? Our foundation and our leader?! Can you even see the beautiful forest from our past?!”

Just as the elves started shouting one after the other, the sphere of light in Davey’s hand, the sphere that was not the mana stone being connected to Emilia, rose to the skies and vibrated fiercely.

Vwoooong… Baaaaaam!

Alongside a tremendous power, an intense light blanketed the entire area.

The Divine Tree’s Sacred Land was greatly influenced by the World Tree.
Simply put, as long as the World Tree was healthy and strong, it could always regain its beautiful and sacred appearance.

With Yggdrasil’s disappearance, the forest was starting to die and wither.
However, it would be a different story once a new World Tree’s Will was born.

As the bright and intense light covered the entire area, a subtle purple glow started to spread across the forest.

The elves, who had closed their eyes from the sudden flash of light, opened their eyes to see a shockingly amazing view.
They fell silent in an instant.

The dying forest was regaining its lost light.
As the purple light spread, the withered flowers started blooming again and the burnt trees were born anew with fresh bark and sturdy trunks.

The surface of the World Tree, the part that had suffered the most damage and had scars and injuries, started to change.
Its original appearance began to return, and it was again exuding its original power and presence.
Clearly, a new Will was being born.

The purification of the forest only took a moment.

Amidst the baptism of light, a shockingly strong force began to condense.
It caught everyone’s attention.

[Stop this meaningless fight.]

The voice was very familiar even though it sounded completely different.

The elves, the inhabitants of this forest, instinctively recognized the voice.

“Ah… Ah… World Tree…”

The glow that covered the forest danced around before forming the shape of a woman, who was none other than the incarnation of the giant tree itself.
She could be called the World Tree’s soul, the next generation’s Yggdrasil.

Although her scent and her gaze were very similar to the previous Yggdrasil, her tone of voice and gentleness were very different.
She felt much more sincere than before.
In fact, even her appearance looked subtly different from what Yggdrasil had looked like before.
This was probably because the current World Tree was sporting bright blonde hair.

‘It looks brighter than Illyna’s hair.’

Davey felt like this color was only possible because she was a transcendental being.

[I will not allow you to fight any more fights.]

The World Tree walked forward, stepping between Davey and the elves.
Then, she turned to look at Davey.

For a moment, Davey felt a subtle sense of déjá vu.
No matter how great a being the World Tree was, there was no way that she would have such an overwhelming presence upon her birth, right? Davey was willing to bet all of his fingers and his entire fortune that it was not, absolutely not, possible.

—You don’t sound so sure.
Do you think you’ll win that bet?

‘If I chicken out, then I’ll die.’

—Oh? Come on, then.
Let’s try it.

“I see.
You’re not a new World Tree.”

[That’s right.
I see, so you’re the main culprit of all of this chaos.]

“I think your choice of words is very wrong.”

[Right.
I see.]

The World Tree spoke calmly as she assessed Davey with glittering eyes.
Then, she took a slow and deep breath.
Finally realizing why she had come back to existence, she narrowed her eyes and muttered softly.

[Hmmm… The connection is not yet broken… Does that mean that child is still alive?]

The World Tree calmly waved her hands before a green glow appeared right beside her.

The green glow gathered together to form the figure of a young elven woman, whose eyes widened as she looked around.
She was flustered by the sudden change in her surroundings.
However, her eyes grew even wider after seeing the woman in front of her.

“N-No way… Mother Divine Tree…”

The young elven woman who cried was none other than Emilia.
Her awful power of Charm had already been sealed by Davey, so it had no effect in this situation.
Still, even without Charm, she looked so pitiful that anyone would feel protective over her.
It would not be strange for a major incident to come about just from how pitiful she looked right now.

Davey knew that it was not easy to travel such a long distance in one go, even if someone had a tremendous amount of warp magic in their arsenal.

Perhaps she had read Davey’s mind, because this generation’s Yggdrasil chuckled lightly at Davey.

[You wear your heart on your sleeve, which is surprising to me.
That’s right.
There’s only one being who can call and bring Emilia here from such a faraway place.]

The Divine Tree’s Saint or Saintess were said to be elves.
However, a person who communicated with the World Tree was someone who had transcended the realms of ordinary elves.
As such, their basic appearance might be similar to elves but the composition of their soul and body were different.

If they were talking to the previous generation Saintess, Emilia, then the only one such being who could do such a thing would be the World Tree’s soul from a previous generation.

“Can the soul of the World Tree be reused?” Davey asked aloud the question that suddenly came to his mind.

Common sense dictated that it should be impossible.
However, in the first place, Davey should not even care about something like that.
After all, common sense did not really work for him either.

[Have you ever seen a transcendental soul be born so easily? However, this is an uncommon scenario.]

That was true.
After all, who was crazy enough to kill a very important transcendental being who acted as the world’s pillar, right? It was safe to say that there were only a few people with such impure goals and even fewer people with the abilities to do so.

‘I think, what she means is that the company boss, Goddess Freyja, has refused her retirement and has dragged her back out to work again.’

—Is that…even possible?

‘It’s impossible to create a transcendental soul so easily, like randomly printing something out.
In fact, the heroes of the Hall also did not enter the cycle of reincarnation.’

—Hmm…

‘Forget that.
I won, right?’

—Damn it.
What the hell do you want?

‘I’ll tell you about it later… I have an extremely strong preference for bullying, so I’ll definitely ask you for something very shameful and disgraceful.
Be prepared, Miss Demon Lord.

Perserque turned pale.
She immediately hid behind Rinne after seeing the smile on Davey’s face.

—Wicked bastard…

However, Rinne was unaware about Perserque who was hiding behind her.

To get back on track, what the World Tree meant was that Yggdrasil had died in Davey’s hands but her soul did not truly die.
Did the Goddess Freyja know that this would happen? At this point, Davey had grown suspicious of the big picture that Goddess Freyja was trying to create.

The World Tree chuckled and opened her arms wide towards Emilia.

[Come, child.
Come to your mother’s arms.]

Seeing the World Tree’s kind and gracious smile, Emilia immediately jumped into her embrace with a tearful expression on her face.
After much struggle, she uttered, “Are you really… Are you really Mother Divine Tree?”

[I see.
I left you behind, but I have always been worried about you.
There’s nothing I can do, this is how things work.
How did you become so thin? You’ve worked really hard this time, huh?]

The way the World Tree was hugging Emilia was definitely different from the World Tree that Davey had killed.
This was like a loving mother and daughter pair.

“That… I mean… Mother… I… Sob…” Emilia burst into tears.

The World Tree gently patted Emilia on the back and hugged her even more tightly.
Then, she addressed Davey.

[That’s right.
I’m not so shameless to blame you for what has happened here.]

“World… World Tree.
What do you mean…?”

[All of you, take your weapons away.
Spirit King, do reign in your wrath, please.]

Gnoass immediately turned to Davey after hearing the World Tree’s request.
Once he saw Davey’s nod, he released the earth that bound the elves tightly and scattered his body away.

[Can you please follow me? I’m extending an invitation to you to my own space.
I’m sure you and I have a lot to talk about with regards to how we should deal with this matter.]

“Even though you’re not the one who caused it?”

[It’s my responsibility to protect the children of this forest.
What else can I do? It’s your side that’s holding the hilt of the knife.
You’re the one at an advantage.
Besides, I was tasked to deliver an item to you too.]

An item? The reborn World Tree’s Will had something to relay to Davey?