Reincarnated Hero System - Chapter 1117 - 1117: Neutralization
“Evan!”
Arthur sprinted to Evan’s side, immediately activating his Time Pseudo-Authority.
Credit went to the Gazebind Aegis for absorbing most of the damage, as well as the malignant trace of destructive law energy that would have otherwise rendered the wound impossible to heal.
“And here I thought your sword was the only Deity-level gear you had…”
“Haha… The sword and shield came as a set…” Evan managed, forcing a grin through the pain.
“Then thank whoever created that set, because it’s the only reason the source code of your arm wasn’t obliterated,” Arthur muttered as he worked the time laws.
But as he began rewinding the damage to Evan’s arm, his expression grew grim.
“Ugh! Why the hell do I feel the pain in reverse?!”
Evan groaned as Arthur’s Pseudo-Authority mended his arm, restoring both flesh and the artifacts attached to it, but Arthur ignored his complaints and reached into his subspace.
He replaced the grenade launcher with a small circular disk engraved with etheric circuits, an Output Amplifier that his mother gave him along with the grenade launcher he had just used to destroy their opponent… twice.
It had the simple effect of amplifying both the quantity and quality of energy Arthur could release at once, but it put strain on his energy circuits, and prolonged use risked permanent damage.
Still, he had no choice but to use it now.
He couldn’t afford to take any chances.
“…not in this situation where our opponent…has Deity-level power.”
Arthur’s tone was grim as he assessed the situation. The energy radiating from their foe was undeniably on par with that of a Deity, and beings below that level could never achieve full Cosmic Superiority in the first place.
On top of that, Arthur could clearly sense that the man’s Destruction Authority surpassed his own.
“However, there’s something wrong with his power output…”
Evan, who had pushed himself up, caught Arthur’s murmur and asked.
“Power output?”
“Yes. If he could output Deity-level power, your arm wouldn’t even exist anymore, Evan,” Arthur answered, stating the grim reality, and Evan’s expression darkened at his words.
Placing two fingers against his temple, Arthur continued working through the puzzle of why their opponent wasn’t unleashing his full power.
“…is he not trying to kill us?”
No, that didn’t add up. The strike Evan intercepted would have killed Artemisia outright if it had connected, and the cosmic energy Arthur could feel gathering was even deadlier.
‘Then why?’
Arthur retraced every detail from the moment Artemisia had been incapacitated. He thought back to his opening grenade shot, which had annihilated their enemy’s body, yet the man had returned unharmed, launching a counterattack.
“…It was a clone!”
Arthur spoke aloud the only explanation that accounted for both the weakened output and the strange invulnerability.
But just as he said that, Artemisia’s voice rang out, correcting him.
“It’s not a clone. He has multiple bodies. I don’t know how many, but I’m certain he has more.”
Arthur turned toward her, her words aligning with the suspicion he’d carried since the chase on Aramis.
“…you’ve glimpsed part of his past, haven’t you?”
Artemisia nodded, and without needing further prompting, she disclosed their assailant’s true objective.
“He wants to absorb our souls and take our powers.”
She pointed to each of them one by one as she explained.
“Beatrix’s Spatial power.
Arthur’s Time and Destruction powers.
Evan’s Flames.
And finally, the catalyst to unify everything—my Evolution powers.
It’s all part of his plan to break free from his limitations and become an independent existence.”
“?!”
“…”
The group responded with varying degrees of shock and unease at the revelation of their enemy’s intentions.
Since their opponent had lured them to this planet for that purpose, Arthur reasoned he must have taken precautions to remain undetected.
That was when a chilling realisation struck him, sparked by Artemisia’s earlier warning that simply being on this world placed them in danger.
‘There’s no life…’
Arthur’s spatial perception, extending over millions of square kilometres, registered nothing beyond their own presence.
No birds filled the skies, no animals roamed the forests, no humanoids walked the cities.
The land was unnervingly vacant.
Though the facilities bore clear evidence of recent use, it was as though their inhabitants had vanished without leaving a single trace.
While Arthur was lost in thought, Evan quietly slipped his left hand into his inventory and grabbed the Akashic Page. He didn’t bring it out yet, but if the situation demanded it, he was ready to unleash the artifact’s power, causality be damned.
His other hand remained on the Unforged as he carefully scanned their surroundings, his eyes keen and alert.
Evan wasn’t the only one on edge. The others had sharpened their senses as well, every muscle tensed for what was sure to come.
Artemisia and Beatrix had already activated the SOS beacons their parents gave them, signals meant to summon aid in moments of extreme peril.
But these beacons didn’t deliver their signals instantaneously. The signals needed time to reach their destinations.
And Arthur had already contemplated another grim possibility: if their enemy had brought them to this world with the intent of harvesting their powers, then it was likely they had also taken precautions to prevent any outside interference.
That could mean suppressing the world’s presence from being detected by other Deity Realm Existences, or even preventing the SOS signals from escaping altogether.
Still, they had no other choice.
Arthur was depending on Jamie to notice the signal he had left behind on Aramis and come to their aid, while Artemisia and Beatrix placed their trust in their parents’ ability to locate their distress signals and intervene.
In silent understanding, they all shared the same objective.
Defeating the enemy was never the plan.
Setting aside the impossibility of that, their objective was simply to hold out for as long as they could.
To help them endure longer, Artemisia began casting buffs over the group using her Unique Skill.
As she worked, Evan raised an important question.
“You said he has multiple bodies, right? And Arthur’s already destroyed two. Wouldn’t destroying more just make things worse?”
Arthur turned to him, narrowing his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“If his power is spread across multiple bodies, then reducing the number might let him concentrate more power into the ones that are left.”
Arthur’s expression darkened at the suggestion, and Artemisia froze as she realised the logic in Evan’s point.
Evan’s observation was far from baseless.
Both he and Arthur had the destructive energy of their opponent spiking in intensity when they first arrived on this planet. When the second body attacked, Arthur had noticed it contained even more destruction energy than the first.
So Evan’s theory that eliminating the bodies could allow their adversary to consolidate his power made sense.
But there was an even worse possibility, that the longer they remained in this barren, desolate world, a place clearly prepared for their enemy’s schemes, the stronger he seemed to grow.
“What are our options, then?”
No one had any responses to Arthur’s question.
Attempting to seal their opponent’s bodies was one possibility, and Arthur knew a few sealing techniques, but mere knowledge wasn’t enough.
Could he successfully use them against a stronger target? What if he were interrupted mid-seal?
Worse still, what if multiple bodies attacked at once? They would still have to eliminate at least one just to level the playing field.
And if the main body, assuming there was one, decided to join the battle? None of them wanted to imagine how that would turn out.
Arthur tightened his grip on Lostvayne and spoke.
“If you’ve got any trump cards hidden, now’s the time to use them.”
His warning was unnecessary since they all understood the stakes.
Using the Divine Spark fragments Arthur had given her for her experiment as fuel, Artemisia activated her Queen of Evolution skill and used an ability she reserved for dire situations.
Its effect resembled Evan’s Limit Break, drawing energy from the environment to amplify base stat parameters.
Of course, it came at a cost.
“This is going to hurt later. A lot,” Artemisia warned as she cast ‘Evolve Ally: Overdrive’ on the group.
—If we survive this, was the part she didn’t voice aloud.
Just as Artemisia finished buffing them, Arthur was about to suggest setting up a defensive formation to cover every angle.
But the moment he opened his mouth, something entered his spatial perception.
He instantly turned towards the source, but a flood of system notifications filled his vision before a word could leave his lips.
|You are in the presence of an Aspect of the Concept of Destruction. Your Pseudo-Authority of Destruction has temporarily been neutralised.|
|You are in the presence of an Aspect of the Concept of Time. Your Pseudo-Authority of Time has temporarily been neutralised.|
Shock coursed through him as the ambient cosmic energy invaded his body, seeped into his soul, and coiled around his Pseudo-Origin cores, restricting their power and preventing them from manifesting in the physical world.
Simultaneously, Evan was suffering a similar debuff.
|You are in the presence of an Aspect of the Concept of Destruction. Unique Skill: Blessing of Destruction has been Neutral̷̨͋̕i̶̖͇͋̈́̋ẓ̵̳͜͝ȅ̷͕͔̚d̸͖͚́̓̆!̸͇͇̗͆̀?̷̞̇#̵̬̜͔̂͐#̵̡͉̠͑͝|
|Error#504|
|The Authority within Unique Skill: Blessing of Destruction resists neutralisation force.|
|Due to your Mortal Existence Realm, this force cannot be completely resisted.|
|Unique Skill: Blessing of Destruction: 2nd Activation has been neutralised.|
The Unique Skill granted by the EOTD was potent enough to withstand this mysterious neutralising force, but since Evan was still a ‘Mortal,’ he could not entirely escape its effects and his Destructive Resonance Field was nullified.
For Beatrix, the situation was even worse. Her time-manipulation powers simply ceased to function.
There was no resistance, no delay. They just stopped.
If even Arthur’s Pseudo-Authorities had been neutralised, then Beatrix, who had yet to comprehend laws or acquire Pseudo-Authorities, stood no chance.
Arthur’s Time Acceleration, fuelled by his Pseudo-Authority, was broken, and his movements slowed as the world around him seemed to stretch into slow motion.
The boy staggered, wincing from the pain of cosmic energy violently coursing into his soul, and then a shadow appeared on the ground before him.
Moments ago, it had been at the very edge of his perception. Now, it was directly in front of him.
Arthur reacted purely on instinct.
Perhaps it was because Lostvayne was unaffected by the temporal force restraining his movements, but he managed to raise his right arm just in time, angling the sword diagonally to shield his chest and face.
And just as he did—
BAMM!!!
‘Something’ struck him with devastating force.
Arthur couldn’t even register the attack before his body was hurled through the air. Destructive flames scorched his skin, and pain flared as fractures ran through his upper arm.
He crashed into the ground, tumbling violently, only to be seized by the neck and slammed back with crushing force, the impact carving deep fissures into the earth and sending shockwaves that threw the others into the air.
