Dealing with Hidden Sage!

Max quickly exits the church and then teleports to Unit 2 Daffodil Street in Tingen.

Max knocks on their door. While knowing everything happening in the house, seeing Klein getting ready for work.

Melissa opens the door for Max and immediately blushes a little when seeing him because of his godly charm. But after hearing some things from Klein about his work and the kind of being Max is, she was first alarmed and then a bit understanding of him after thinking through. She also told him of her desire to become a Beyonder along with Benson after Klein asked them about it.

"Please come in Your Excellency." Melissa says to Max in a respectful manner. Max feels a bit weird after hearing such a title from Melissa.

So he immediately said to her, "No need Melissa, you can just call me Max like I asked you yesterday." Melissa just nods to this and smiles a bit looking pleased because of something.

Max looking at this scene thinks, 'Women's mind really works very differently from men.' While inwardly shaking his head.

"So I assume Klein told you many things yesterday?" Max says vaguely to maintain an impression like he doesn't know what happened.

"Yes he told us about Beyonders, about his job, about the apocalypse and that you will be his new superior who is close to the level of a God." Melissa answers Max concisely while having a red face. "He also told us that you promised him that you will help us his siblings a chance to become powerful Beyonders if we want to."

Max just nods at that and asks, "So what did you choose? Do you or your brother want to become a Beyonder?"

"Yes! And both me and my eldest brother Benson would like to work for you as well in return for this favor. I have already discussed it with Benson." Melissa says with an excited expression.

"Alright I will consider it. Though the gathering of materials will take a bit of time, about a week at most for you to become a Beyonder. Do you have any idea about which Pathway you want to become a Beyonder of?" Max asks Melissa.

"No I don't know much about Beyonders, just what Klein told me." Melissa shakes her head.

Max then places a finger on Melissa's forehead and transmits most of the knowledge about Pathways till Sequence 2 of all Pathways using the analyzed Knowledge Authority.

Melissa just goes starry-eyed understanding what Max had done. She then answers him.

"I want to become a Savant Pathway Beyonder."

"Yeah I thought so too, considering that it's perfectly made for you." Max says while making his appreciation known causing Melissa to blush. Klein walks into this scene and looks stunned.

Max noticing Klein tells Melissa, "Ask Benson about his Pathway choice and then tell me about it by tomorrow morning."

"Klein let's go, we have important work to do." Max tells Klein who is still statuesque. This wakes Klein up who just nods and follows Max who is going outside. Melissa wants to nag Klein like always but because of Max's presence stops her from doing so.

After getting out of the house before Klein says something or asks him anything, Max asks him, "So how did you deal with the Ince Zangwill situation?"

"I contacted Captain Dunn and told him about the situation that I found out about Ince Zangwill from a demigod who will come visit today. After that we retrieved his body, and I am going to receive some sort of reward. Captain also asked about 0-08, but I answered that I didn't know about it." Klein told Max about the events of last night. "And thank you for the warning about the Moon."

"Alright let's go and solve another one of your problems as I promised." Max says to Klein. And Klein looks back with a relieved and grateful expression.

Of course while Klein is looking at Max. Max is running calculations in his mind and the feasibility of his plans for today and how much they will be beneficial in the future. 'Yep I have to do this.'

He then holds out his hand and gestures for Klein to grab it. And then teleports to the entrance of Blackthorn Security Company.

Max and Klein enter the company together.

The receptionist Rozanne looks at the new person accompanying Klein and asks, "Who is the handsome gentleman beside you?"

"He is here to meet Captain Dunn on important urgent business. So I hope you don't mind and tell me where Captain is." Klein asks her.

She first looks towards Max and then answers, "He is with the new arrivals from Backlund in the basement."

Klein then hurriedly goes to the place mentioned. And Max just follows him at leisure.

Just then a man comes out of a room. He looks to be in late 30s and has receding hairline with light brown hair, straight nose and sharp gray eyes.

He is Dunn Smith, the Captain of Tingen Nighthawks.

[Appearance of Dunn Smith]

Captain Dunn first looks towards Klein and then Max. His eyes turn darker in shade when he meets eyes with the man trying to pull the person in a nightmare.

"Dunn don't test me. You are not worthy." Max says in a scolding tone. Captain Dunn looks alarmed and suffers a slight backlash rather than severe because Max's mercy.

"That was not a nice thing to do Dunn Smith, as Captain you shouldn't just do stuff like that to a complete stranger unless necessary. Especially because Klein told you about me coming last night."

"I am sorry Your Excellency. It is my fault because I forgot about it, my memory is getting bad. If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me who you are Your Excellency?" Dunn asks Max.

"My name is Maximilian Hendrix and I am a Blessed of Evernight Goddess." Max says while leaving both Klein and Dunn stunned. Klein is even feeling a bit incredulous.

"Pardon me for my rudeness but do you have some proof of it." Dunn asks politely.

Max nods and takes out the insignia given by the Goddess. Dunn then asks for them to follow him.

They enter a room filled with materials containing spirituality. Old Neil is also present in the room. Max can also sense the presence of connection to Hidden Sage via an eye on Old Neil, though the connection is currently weak.

"This is Neil Townsend but all we call him Old Neil. This is His Excellency the Blessed of the Goddess, Maximilian Hendrix." He introduces both of them. "Now Old Neil help me set up a prayer ritual to confirm something."

[Appearance of Old Neil]

Old Neil first greets Max and then helps Dunn set up the ritual. They confirm the validity of Max's statement easily without any incidents.

While Old Neil and Dunn were preparing a ritual. Max explains to Klein that he took the identity of the Blessed of the Goddess just today to make certain things easier. Klein is even more surprised after hearing something like that.

"Your Excellency I hope you understand my actions of confirming." Dunn says while bowing.

"Yeah it's no big deal, if I was in your position I would probably do the same." Max answers and then turns towards Old Neil. "Though I have to say that you have to stay even more vigilant."

"What do you mean?" Dunn asks in confusion.

"I mean to say that you should have noticed Old Neil getting corrupted by Hidden Sage." Max says in a straightforward manner.

Dunn is alarmed at this. He looks towards Old Neil as if asking "Is it true?" Old Neil just looks down with a guilty expression.

This makes Dunn's face even more grave.

"But you don't have to worry, since I am here. I will take care of this corruption since it's not deep." Max says in a reassuring manner.

"Thank you very much, Your Excellency." Dunn says with a grateful expression.

"Leave this room for now and only come back when I ask you to." Max tells Klein and Dunn who nod at this and leave the room.

"Thank you for your kindness to this old man, Your Excellency." Old Neil says to Max, who just nods in return and focuses on what he is about to do. After all the task he is about to do is both dangerous and easy.

He first looks at the eye that is present here behind Old Neil and then says, "Close your eyes Old Neil and don't open them."

'Ah this is going to be fun.' Max first muses and then goes into action.

He first uses the Error Authority to create a Bug that changed places of this eye with the real body of Hidden Sage. As soon as it happened a heavy pressure descended in the room but it disappeared as soon as it appeared.

This is because Max used Door Authority to seal off Hidden Sage from real, spirit and Astral World. He created the strongest seal possible with Anti-divination properties.

Max then started bombarding Hidden Sage with all the different types of Attacks. Mainly by using the Authorities of Sun, Tyrant and Hanged Man. He created a system through which the attacks kept happening.

Max also made a prophecy using Envisioning Authority.

It said. "After Maximilian Hendrix ambushed Hidden Sage unprepared, due to relentless attack on the pretender. Hidden Sage succumbed after 3 days and dissociated into Knowledge Emperor characteristics and Hermit Uniqueness, this is reasonable."

While this was happening, Max also used his trump card which can also be called bait. He used his analyzed Knowledge Authority to suck out the knowledge from Hidden Sage constantly.

'Now this will enhance my knowledge to new levels. And since this is Hidden Sage's only route to escape he might try to escape through knowledge entering me to try and possess me. But then he will be gone forever.' Max thinks inwardly. 'I really am a genius.'

He then stores sealed and weakening Hidden Sage in another one of his sealed Inventories.

He then purifies the corruption on Old Neil. Max also made sure to sever all of Hidden Sage's connections to outside world by grafting all of those connections to him by using Fool's Authority.

'Can't believe I just accomplished such a feat.' Max smirks inwardly while outwardly showing concern for the old man.

He then calls for Dunn and Klein who are outside.

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So that was the chapter. Hope you liked it.

If you thought that MC handled Hidden Sage easily, then that's true. But then again why wouldn't it be easy? He has so many Authorities on True God level while Hidden Sage is not actually a True God.

Give me suggestions on the story if you have any. This confrontation wasn't long because it was too one sided. Other fights will hopefully be better.