Reincarnated Hero System - Chapter 1163 - 1163: Tense Alliance

The moment Evan landed on the surface and released Eliza, he was about to continue walking forward, but she reached out, grabbed his hand, pulled him back, and asked, her voice filled with worry, “Evan, are you okay?”

Evan blinked, confused. “Huh? Where’s this coming from?”

Taking a deep breath, she continued, “That wasn’t like you just now. What happened? You’re not usually this forceful. It felt less like you were trying to get Sloth to join the plan and more like you were sending a message or something…”

She seemed unable to find the words to explain what she meant, and at this, Evan blinked again before chuckling.

“Sending a message, huh? Yeah, maybe there was a bit of that in my intentions. As for being forceful, well, we don’t have much in the way of time, and if that’s the fastest way to achieve what I want, then I’ll do it.”

He wasn’t above using coercion to get what he needed to accomplish his goals, after all.

“In my trip to the past, Liz, I realised just how little power the current Aidos holds in the grand scheme of things. The existences beyond this world are beings powerful enough to make this—”

Evan spread his arms wide, and for the first time since returning from the past, he removed his concealment and unleashed all of his magic power.

“!”

The immense force instantly flooded every inch of space within the World Isolation Barrier, causing it to crack under the strain.

Quickly retracting it, he continued with a depreciating smile, “—look like nothing.”

Eliza stumbled back, both from shock and from the force of the magic power burst, and Evan reached out to stop her from falling as he went on.

“With threats like that, I can’t exactly afford to be very picky with my methods. After all, the Demon King is just one of our problems.”

With that, he turned around and said, “I’m going to check on Laurene and the others.”

He stepped forward, leaping into the air and shooting off into the distance, reaching his destination within seconds.

Evan landed a few hundred metres away from the broken dimensional realm and looked up to take in the wreckage around it.

Smoke and flames rose from every direction, corpses scattered across the ground, and in the middle of the devastation was a heavily breathing Laurene, with Venus glowing beside her.

The moment she realised it was Evan who had arrived, her guard dropped, and she immediately rushed toward him, asking,

“What the hell was that just now?!”

She was clearly referring to the magic Evan had released, but he waved it off casually.

“Nothing too serious. I was just explaining something to Liz.”

“Explaining what?” Laurene pressed, a trace of fear still in her expression.

But Evan simply shook his head in response.

“Again, Laurene, it was nothing serious. I was only giving a simple explanation about the scale of future enemies this world has to face. That’s all.”

He immediately turned his gaze toward the dimensional realm now covered with corpses. His Factor Mimic had been completely destroyed, but that didn’t matter much since his Einherjar was still standing with only a few scratches.

He extended his hand toward it, but before he could dismiss the Einherjar, the Unforged flew back into his open palm.

This made Evan blink in mild surprise before he started laughing, something that earned him a puzzled look from Laurene.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Well,” Evan said, “I didn’t call this guy back into my hands.”

Illusory question marks might as well have floated above Laurene’s head as she grew even more confused by his words.

“What do you mean you didn’t call him back? Then why did you stretch your hand out?”

“I stretched my hand to reabsorb the magic I put into that clone of mine, not to call my sword back,” Evan explained.

Laurene still didn’t immediately understand what Evan found strange about that, but Kayla, who did, appeared beside him, her gaze falling on the sword as she asked.

[Does its Ego still remain?]

“It appears so. Even though it was only a nascent Ego when the sword broke. Sometimes it flies back to me even when I don’t consciously will it.”

Hearing this, Laurene finally connected the dots. “Wait… your sword has a mind of its own?”

“It used to. Unfortunately, it broke before the Ego fully formed,” Evan replied, sheathing the blade.

Laurene didn’t recall Evan’s sword ever breaking, so she assumed it must have happened when he went to the past.

In reality, it had happened in his past life, a detail he hadn’t told her. To begin with, Laurene still believed Evan was Evansen and didn’t know he was Evankhell.

The only one in his inner circle who had even a vague idea that Evankhell wasn’t Evansen was Eliza, and even she didn’t fully understand the situation.

‘I guess that’s second on my list of things to tell her after we go see her parents…’

Evan thought this as he dismissed the Einherjar, reabsorbing the magic he had used to create it, though about 50% of it was lost in the process.

After doing so, he muttered quietly under his breath.

“I need to go to Earth V soon.”

Laurene heard his mutter as she drank a magic potion, but she naturally had no idea what he was referring to.

Kayla, who did, turned toward him with a puzzled expression.

[Why? What happened there?]

‘Nothing,’ Evan replied telepathically. ‘I just need to get my Human body there. If it was born from Kristine and Vincent, then it has Ancient-Breed Human factors.

I need them to help with the balance issues my current Draconic Human body is facing. This one’s Human side is ‘High’ breed, while the Draconic side is ‘Arch’. My soul is even higher.’

[I see. Ask Artemisia to send you there when you’re done with this country.]

At Kayla’s suggestion, Evan nodded in agreement.

‘Yeah, I’ll add that after she finishes explaining everything that happened between her and Beatrix. For now, I need her to erase every trace of this base’s existence.’

Evan turned to Laurene after replying to Kayla, appraising her before speaking.

“I need you to head back to GWE after this and get Yetu when he arrives. Once he does, bring him to Tarse with David.

I’ll need you three to meet Bianca, Liz, and me in Wikmery City of the Zhosa Region. We’ve got Hero business there.”

Laurene, curious, asked, “What exactly does this business entail?”

“Remember when I said I was planning to empower you all earlier? That’s what it’s about. I’ll explain everything in full on the day. Until then, I’ll be very occupied. Liz’s birthday is in two days, after all.”

“Right… Eliza’s birthday,” Laurene muttered, her expression changing as she shot Evan a suspicious look. “Don’t keep her occupied the whole day.”

“Excuse me, I’m DEFINITELY going to keep her occupied the whole day,” Evan replied with a grin before turning to Kuro and telling him to warp Laurene and Cheisnih through his shadow.

After saying that, he leapt off the ground and flew back toward the train, then returned to the ruined city to get Bianca before they continued their journey to Dragondune.

◇　◇　◇

Evan had left the Deadly Sin Siblings behind in Meekdune’s underground dungeon, where Sloth had been sealed, so their group was now three members smaller.

To say the atmosphere was tense would be an understatement.

Laurene and Cheisnih didn’t know what had happened with Sloth, but after Eliza explained everything, a lot of things began to make sense to them.

Meanwhile, Evan silently scanned the RHS Archive for information about the Master of Dragondune, though there wasn’t much available since, in Aidos Online—the simulated future of Aidos created by Artemisia and EOTD—the ‘Second Finger’ had gotten to them.

‘Glass Dragon, Rizass…’

Evan muttered the name in thought as he searched through the limited data, but nothing explained where Rizass had been before their fateful encounter with the ‘Second Finger,’ or why they had even left that place to return to Dragondune.

Speaking of Dragons, there was another group besides the Alpha Continent’s Dragondune, the Beta Continent’s Draidan, and the Dark Continent’s Dragon Empire that he needed to speak with.

The strongest family of dragons on the planet, the Iremiths.

Evan didn’t know how many of them had survived Aidos’ fall from its Intergalactic Hegemony Era or how many had lived through the first invasion of Gozon 1000 years ago, as that information wasn’t available in the game.

However, he knew that at least seven were still alive, and since each one was no less than Level 890, that made them ideal candidates for his Transcendence Project, just like Rizass.

At present, Evan knew the locations of seven Iremith Ouroboros Dragons.

Hydran resided in the Alpha Continent’s nation of Duscon, Ashe was in the Beta Continent’s Vuwhax, and Lios was in the Beta Continent’s Elven Empire, half-fused with the planet’s World Tree.

Another ruled a floating island kingdom in the Billowy Depths between the Dark and Alpha continents, and one was underwater in a ruined, submerged kingdom within the Dread Ocean that lay between the Beta and Dark continents.

‘As for the other two… well, I don’t need to concern myself with them until it’s time for the War against Gozon.’

Evan closed the interface after that thought, stood from his seat, and made his way to the next train car, where Bianca was.

“Hey, Princess. We need to talk and set a few things straight,” he said the moment he entered, closing the door behind him before sitting casually on the couch.

Bianca narrowed her eyes slightly at him without a word, and Evan continued speaking.

“Otherwise, you’d be working under some very big misassumptions about the scale of problems this world is facing.”

“Misassumptions, you say?”

“Yes,” Evan replied. “Misassumptions that not only you, but everyone else also has. But I’ll deal with the others later. Your case is a bit different.”

Leaning back in his seat, he went on.

“Time’s a serious constraint for me right now, so I’ll skip the long explanations and go straight to the main points, even if it means revealing things I’d usually rather not.”

Pointing at her, he began, “You and I may both be Heroes, but we’re not the same. And I’m not referring to our Hero Slot numbers or Mystic Eyes.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

“I mean that I wasn’t unilaterally chosen by the planet because I met the conditions or had the required Unique Skills like you. I was offered the position of Hero. It was an offer I could’ve refused.”

At this, Bianca’s stoic expression finally cracked, surprise appearing across her face.

“Offered? By who?”

“Who else but the goddess who governs this world? Obviously, Artemisia,” Evan said with a shrug, and before Bianca could respond, he continued.

“I’m telling you this because of the reason that offer was made to me. It’s a reason that not only members of my inner circle, but practically every National Leader or influential person I’ve worked with over the past few years has pretty much figured out, though I’ve never outright admitted it.”

Meeting the Princess’s gaze with full seriousness, he said,

“I have seen Aidos’ future.”

“…”

Bianca couldn’t easily deny or dispute the claim, since she had indeed heard rumours suggesting it.

Rumours that ‘Evan Eris knows the Future.’

It wasn’t surprising, given how he’d acted over the past few years, his involvement in the Disasters, and the way he had uncovered the Demonic Hand’s plans, knowing who would be where, when, why, and how.

The recordings he had left for his companions when he was sent back in time had already confirmed this fact to them, leaving only a personal admission from him.

Evan had mentioned that his plans for Aidos were divided into ‘Phases,’ and he had even named them.

Descent and Beginnings.

Dungeons and Headless Knights.

Wars and Giant Lizards.

False gods and Rifts in Space.