Chapter 1453

The expedition team had fought with everything they had, putting their lives on the line to accomplish an impossible objective. Yet, what was it that happened next? Even after the enemy commander shattered their will and they became certain they were going to die?

Everything ended so laughably easily, almost anticlimactically.

Aris wore a look of futility, those feelings filling her expression. She asked Davey, “Does it even matter if I'm the one who finishes it off?”

“It does. The very fact that you end it is what matters.”

She was absolutely necessary for the conclusion of the dimension’s experiment.

That was when the tactless ones butted in.

Mary, laying fallen on the ground with petrified arms and legs, shouted with difficulty, “Davey! The Imp Lord seems to have incredible regeneration! If we try to engage it in a war of attrition, we'll likely wear out first!”

She continued, “Aris can affect its core with her power! If we support her to drain its fundamentals...”

“Hey,” he interrupted. “Don’t say another word, or else you'll turn to stone faster.”

“Hmph?!”

“Just kidding.”

Seeing his playful smile, Mary’s expression twisted into a hellish frown. “You're in the mood for jokes right now?!”

They knew he was strong, but the actual pressure the Imp Lord exerted felt stronger to them. At least from the party’s perspective, Davey didn't seem to be drawing on immense power like the Imp Lord was.

Of course, he had just sliced off its arms and tail, but they mistakenly believed that to still be insufficient.

Feeling bored of the pageantry, Davey stretched out the hand he had used to block its attack earlier. “Well, that's enough fun and games.”

The bone fragments of the wall that he’d created seeped deep inside the monster. Truly suffering from success, the Imp Lord didn't have time to completely expel the bones before its incredible regeneration healed over the wounds, inadvertently absorbing them into its body.

It seemed to trust its own durability too much, not even bothering to rectify the issue. It was a laughably foolish decision against a Death Lord.

Davey then snapped his fingers.

[5th Circle Devil Magic]

[Level Amplification]

[Bone Explosion]

Crack!!

The Imp Lord instantly went still.

The half-petrified expedition members made puzzled faces at the sound. It was extremely alien and intensely loud.

The Imp Lord soon began to thrash about in agony. “Grrr... GAAAHHH!!!”

Boom!!!

When its body was finally sent flying by a massive explosion, everyone's jaws hit the floor.

Yes, it was only a 5th Circle spell. However, even the same spell would demonstrate drastically different effects when used by a high-level mage.

Despite the Imp Lord regenerating over and over as it resisted, a 5th Circle Bone Explosion was what ultimately blew its body apart.

“Guess it never learned not to eat whatever it finds lying around.”

Davey pointed to its upper body, which had been blown away along with its halo. A red crystal was gleaming on it. He casually scolded, “Aris, what are you waiting for? Deliver the finishing blow.”

Aris was startled. Instead of answering, she lowered her stance and tightly gripped the holy sword. She stared directly at its regenerating body, then abruptly rushed forward like a flash of light.

With her lips tightly sealed and her eyes shining, a brilliant white aura erupted across her entire body.

[Flash Sword Trajectory]

[Single Strike Lightning]

Aris was so weak that she hadn’t even been able to break its egg earlier on. However, the core that created the Imp Lord seemed like a different story.

As if it sensed extreme danger from her attack, even with its body blasted away and in pieces, it hastily released its power, prioritizing defense over regeneration.

However.

[Lattice Reconstruction]

[Life Manipulation]

[Flow Interruption]

Strictly speaking, dispelling magic worked by analyzing an opponent's spell structure and calculating its inverse, operating on the assumption that one fully understood it.

The reason the Immortal King, the First Lich Nyx, was no match for Davey was partly because the man had witnessed his magic countless tens of thousands of times.

Of course, the Imp Lord's power was different from magic, so a straight Dispel wouldn't work on it.

Unfortunately for it, though, the power it drew upon was nothing other than vitality. Whether it was the scraps or the impurities roaming the dimensional rift, its foundation was all about vitality.

Across all worlds, in terms of vitality, no one possessed greater influence than Davey, with perhaps the only exception being Goddess Freyja.

In other words, Davey had used his insane skill to instantly conjure unique magic that no one had used in the past, no one was using contemporarily, and no one would ever use again in the world.

When Davey instantly reversed the flow of vitality gathering toward it, the energies it intended to defend against Aris’s attack scattered completely.

The Imp Lord frantically began to use its backup plan and regenerate in a desperate attempt to survive, but it lacked the time to restore the crystal that served as its core.

“If it weren't for you... so many people wouldn't have died!” Aris let out a cry filled with deep regret as she drove her sword forward, “Get out of this land... Get out of this world right now!”

Her shout rang out as her sword pierced the Imp Lord’s flimsy defensive magic, swiftly reaching its core.

Crack!!

At the same time, the crystal began to break. Davey surreptitiously activated an empty special magic stone he had prepared beforehand. He’d planned ahead of time, ensuring she would get the last hit while he would get to retrieve the loot.

The Imp Lord, an unseen threat that had shaken the entirety of Troy, began crumbling into dust from her final blow.

Although it was incredibly strong, it couldn't endure the attack on its core after losing all its limbs and having its power reversed. The power it possessed instead began flowing into the special magic stone Davey had created.

The beings that had seized control of the entire extreme region all began to collapse simultaneously. Starting with the Imp Lord turning to dust, the remaining mutated monsters began to scream and collapse, and the imps also started to disintegrate into powder as well. They had no recourse, as their central pillar had been vanquished.

The tentacles that had poured out of the cracked earth shriveled up, eventually drying out, splitting, and crumbling away.

Aris wore a stunned expression, as if she couldn't believe she had ended the Imp Lord with her own hands.

Davey’s attention was elsewhere, focusing on the dimension's behavior rather than emotional sentiments.

The Imp Lord was dead, as they’d intended, but it had died far too easily. Filled with vain confidence, the dimension began to suck up power like a madman. It was most likely thinking that it could easily handle this much and would be fine against other things.

However, it was only natural that eating too much would cause indigestion.

The dimension of Troy, which had fundamentally strayed from its original laws, began showing abnormal signs. It was as if the world itself had encountered an error after receiving far more power than it was ever meant to handle.

A strange energy wave began to spread across the entire land. The dimension started to become extremely unstable, and all systems fell into chaos.

Then, just as the turbulent dimensional energy was about to run wild, the massive power of the goddess, which governed the chaotic dimension, descended.

If letting it run half out of control only made it harder to manage, Davey figured letting it run completely wild and adjusting everything afterward could be the better choice.

In the process, Aris's finishing blow caused even greater confusion in the dimension.

Davey tapped a finger against her forehead.

“Huh?” A faint pattern briefly glowed on her brow before disappearing. “Davey? What was that?”

“Nothing special, just a little blessing.”

Just as he had done when he created the saintesses in the past, he’d melted a portion of his power into her. It was an insurance policy for his hero, just in case the adjusted dimension ever caused problems again in the future.

“That's incredible... It's so warm!”

Some might argue that if he'd never come to their world, things would never have gone so far. Perhaps they'd say that after countless sacrifices, and with Aris burning herself out to create an opening, Troy would've realized it had absorbed too much power and slowly corrected itself.

The logic suggested that his interference derailed a process that should’ve unfolded without issue, nonetheless intervening without a second thought. Yet he'd done it simply because he was tired of watching as Aris, the expedition, and everyone who followed along became sacrifices.

However, if the dimension was going to misbehave and cause trouble over his actions, then he would have no choice but to make it face a fitting reality.

‘Why didn't I think of this brilliant idea before?’

Of course, getting lost in thought was a foolish move.

By making the Troy dimension run wild, he had exceeded the normal boundaries set by the world's laws. Even though Willow could now interfere, a dimension that had gone berserk couldn’t just be instantly returned to normal.

The berserk dimension began to develop errors in every aspect, starting with the sky tearing open.

Just then, a gigantic eye made of immense flames appeared in the sky.

“W-what?! What's that in the sky?!”

“Look at the sky!!”

“Oh my goodness... the Imp Lord isn't dead yet?!”

“No way... What in the world is that...”

Perhaps this was what it felt like to witness a divine judgment. The expedition, now freed from petrification, looked up at the world's sudden change, having completely lost their will to fight.

“That's not the Imp Lord!” the Great Saintess cried out, her face pale with shock.

Mary mumbled with an exhausted expression, “What do you meeeean?!”

“It feels like... the world’s falling apart,” The Great Saintess solemnly told them.

Aris didn't understand what she was seeing. “What in the world...”

“It's the reset process.”

‘The reset process...?’

Everyone turned to Davey with questioning looks.

He clarified, “This troubled dimension is trying to reset everything.” It would mean wiping out all life within the dimension. “That thing in the sky was created for that same purpose.”

Once he finished his explanation, the expedition members looked utterly hopeless.

“We fought so desperately... just to survive.”

“And now we all die like this?”

For the world itself to decide to erase everything within was nothing short of an immature dimension's privilege and arrogance. Completed dimensions, after all, simply fixed certain laws and evolved gradually according to the situation. They showed no radical movements—most certainly not something like the imp movements.

“If you just leave it be, everyone will die.”

“Haah.”

In their despair, everyone couldn't help but drop their weapons onto the ground.

“Then what were we even fighting for,” one argued. “Was the dimension taking the Imp Lord's side all along?”

Those who didn't know the full story simply muttered amongst each other in resignation.

Then Aris, who had been silently gazing at the sky, said, “Davey, you came from a different world, didn’t you?”

“Pretty quick on the uptake, aren't you?”

“I have good instincts,” she responded with a bitter laugh. “Go back before it's too late. I'll handle things here somehow.”

He wondered if she was trying to do something dramatic again.

“If this is the end determined by the god who made me a hero, and not the Imp Lord... then I'll offer up my life in prayer.”

She would pray for a single act of mercy. She still seemed woefully unaware of the difference between the dimension and Goddess Freyja.

Davey recalled Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon. He had let off enough steam, and no longer had any intention of fooling around anymore.

Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon instantly merged.

“Aris,” he called out.

“Yes?”

“Stand back.” Davey, who spoke calmly, took a deep breath.

Boom!!!

At that moment, the entire ground shook, and the power within him began to visibly manifest.

“Ugh?!”

The surviving high-level knights instantly foamed at the mouth and passed out, while the transcendental beings, though not unconscious, collapsed to the ground with pale faces.

“W-what?!”

“What an absurd amount of power!!”

[Divine Manifestation]

Davey's form instantly changed, becoming slightly more slender. Having completely transformed into the genderless figure of a god, his long hair flowed as he tightly gripped Super Ribbon, which had become a longsword, with both hands.

“Da... vey?”

“Ga...” Mary, who felt Davey's power firsthand, dry-heaved and stared at him as if he were a monster.

“The Imp Lord... and that eye in the sky. They were meaningless to you from the start. You were never human to begin with...”

Then the Great Saintess added on her curiosity, remarking, “The sacred will... the vast Saint Sanctuary... and the source of that solemn power flowing from your body, a power that makes one unable to even lift their head... Davey... you... no, Your Grace...”

The Great Saintess seemed to be gravely misunderstanding his true identity.

She instinctively bowed her head. “O Merciful Goddess Freyja. We, your foolish creations, dared not understand your divine will and mercy! We humbly beg you to rebuke our sins and grant us one more chance to move forward!”

Seeing her bow her head as if greeting a god, Mary, Girul, and the rest of the people also bowed their heads.

Only Aris stared blankly at Davey.

“Mary, isn’t Goddess Freyja a goddess? I mean that figure’s too slender to be a man, but the chest is too...” Girul commented in confusion.

Mary was horrified by his honest assessment and kicked him in the back of the head. “Shut up, you idiot! What if the goddess gets mad?!”

Then she bowed her head again, reasoning, “We've never actually seen the goddess. Therefore, everything we assume about the goddess is purely our own arrogant judgment.”

Girul seemed somewhat convinced by Mary’s arbitrary explanation.

Seeing that, Davey felt playful again. His words laced with divine authority, he solemnly declared, “Those who harm their own kind for excessive greed shall meet their inevitable punishment.”

The Great Saintess's eyes widened, and she bowed so deeply it looked as if she were trying to bury her head in the ground. Even her long ears drooped down in a gesture of deference. “W-we shall keep it in mind!”

“Just kidding.”

The others lifted their heads with blank expressions. “Excuse me?”

“But it's not wrong. Don't accumulate evil deeds. The world is far more meticulous than you think.”

Davey focused on his sword.

Soon, as if the dimension intended to erase the entire world around Davey, it gathered all the power it had collected and fired a colossal pillar of superheated energy, like a Supreme King Ray.

“A dimension has no right to randomly kill the creations inside it.” Davey stared directly at the catastrophe hurtling down at an incredible speed and poured his divine power entirely into Super Ribbon.

Then he swung her upward, directly toward the beam descending upon the earth.

Crack!!

The pure white blade energy of divine power that stretched out from Super Ribbon shot up to the sky, drawing a crescent shape. It clashed with the beam and began to push it back.

Dimension Troy's berserk laws seemed to recognize the resistance was stronger than expected, thus enlarging the eye in the sky and unleashing an even more powerful beam, layering it on top of the first.

“The nerve of this thing.” Davey set Super Ribbon down and looked up at the sky, letting out a hollow laugh as he called out, “Willow.”

Following his call, the void tore open, and a beautiful girl in sky-blue winged clothes stepped out. “Did you call?”

He simply responded, “Middle finger.”

She simply looked up and sighed. “I guess I won't be seeing the family for a few days...”

She then raised her middle finger straight toward the eye floating in the sky.

“God said.”

[Go screw yourself.]

At the same time, his divine magic, using her as a medium, manifested.

Crack!!

The sky tore apart as massive middle fingers made of light appeared one after another and collided with the eye floating in the sky. The unimaginably immense power quickly crushed the eye, and so the beam was instantly cut off.

Taking advantage of that opening, the giant sword energy shot up at an absurd speed, like a sports car accelerating from zero to sixty. It sliced the entire eye, including the surrounding sky, in two.

With the sound of shattering glass, the berserk system fell silent.

“What a pain to go through, all because of you, Dad.”

“I was just trying to make one hero,” he insisted.

Willow frowned and asked, “But what about Sis Reina? Her obsession is no joke, you know?”

“She retired, though.”

“I'd bet my arm that she’ll flip out the second she hears you got another hero.”

“Well that’s a shame. Your arm is my precious daughter's limb.”

Davey suddenly decided to trust in Reina.