Reincarnated Hero System - Chapter 1195 - 1195: Evolution’s Bitter Pill II

As the elf’s unhinged laughter echoed through the domain, the goddess clutched her chest in agony, the black cracks spreading further across her skin.

His words rang in her ears, and the mention of a ‘virus’ made her reflexively activate several anti-virus abilities to detect and neutralise the infection within her.

However, the virus she’d been infected with was an Anti-Evolution virus, and these anti-virus abilities were derived from her power of evolution.

The moment she activated them, the virus spread faster, forcing her to shut them down almost immediately.

Still, the short time her abilities had been active was enough for her to gather sufficient data to theorise the virus’s nature and how it operated.

And neither aspect looked favourable for her.

First, the Anti-Evolution virus targeted her directly through the powers she’d gained via evolution.

The modifications she’d made to her existence over thousands of years, the additional abilities she’d artificially acquired by fusing her body and soul with catalysts obtained from various existences and locations—all of those were points of attack.

The greater the number of abilities she possessed, the stronger the virus’s effects became and the faster its spread advanced.

And that was only the beginning, because once it infiltrated her through those abilities, the virus would inevitably begin affecting what they were all linked to: her soul itself.

Mallory wasn’t the only existence in the universe that comprehended the law of evolution.

There were many others who could also modify their existence and alter their evolutionary paths like her.

However, there were only so many changes one could make before their soul eventually became too distorted to retain its original structure.

Mallory, however, didn’t seem to share that limitation at all.

She’d modified her existence so extensively and acquired so many artificial abilities that some began questioning whether she was truly a goddess or something closer to a chimaera, just as the elf had said earlier.

After all, goddesses weren’t meant to possess arthropod-like appendages, nor were they meant to bear the wings of the angel race, and Artemisia had revealed both wings and arthropod-like limbs.

And those were only two examples among the many abilities she’d granted herself over the thousands of years she’d lived.

Those many modifications were a core pillar of her power and the reason she was far stronger than other Race Rulers on her Existence Level.

They were also among the reasons she’d been able to fight multiple Old god Kings simultaneously and succeed in killing several of them during the Divine Civil War.

But now, these numerous abilities were working against her.

Because she possessed so many, the Anti-Evolution virus had hundreds of channels through which it could reach her soul.

The only way to counter the virus was to sever those channels entirely. In other words, she had to purge herself of every acquired ability before the virus could do it for her.

Essentially, the virus was designed to forcibly strip her existence of all evolution-derived modifications, resetting everything she’d done and returning her to her default state without those added powers.

But by the time it reached that stage, the virus would have already penetrated her soul, since the only way it could remove those abilities was by travelling through the links between them and her soul.

It would use those connections to detach each ability and then move onward, unleashing destruction directly upon her soul itself.

So, Mallory had no choice but to purge herself of every ability she’d acquired over thousands of years.

It sounded simple, didn’t it?

It wasn’t simple in the slightest.

Mallory had accumulated thousands of abilities across millennia, many of which weren’t even categorised as Skills that would appear on her status board.

If she tried to purge all of them from her existence at once, the soul damage she’d suffer would be beyond comprehension.

The pain and agony that would accompany such damage could’ve killed her outright if not for her inexplicable immortality.

Beyond that, very few were capable of willingly doing something like this to themselves, even if they possessed her kind of immortality.

Very few would choose to endure soul damage that felt as though innumerable fragments of their soul were being violently torn away.

Even knowing it was their only chance at survival, not many had the resolve or mental fortitude required to carry it out.

Many would rather die and rely on reincarnation than endure that kind of suffering.

After all, if they attempted it, failed, and died anyway, reincarnation wouldn’t even be possible, since a damaged soul couldn’t reincarnate.

The elf had been confident Mallory wouldn’t take this route, the one that required her to willingly relinquish all the power she’d accumulated over several thousand years.

Even if she did, it would already be too late by then.

That confidence was exactly why he didn’t expect Mallory to suddenly raise her left hand, her nails elongating into claws as she stabbed them into her own chest, burying her palm inside her body and grabbed her heart where her divine spark was embedded.

Before the elf’s stunned gaze, Mallory did something he couldn’t fully comprehend, manipulating an energy he couldn’t perceive and didn’t even know existed.

Then, with a burst of divinity that swept across the entire domain and cracked the surrounding space, ‘something’ erupted from Mallory’s body.

The goddess screamed, throwing her head back as a jagged vertical column of energy glowing in a bright orange-to-red gradient burst from her chest.

Radiating from its centre were dark red and neon pink branches resembling a cross between lightning and an anatomical nervous system.

Attached to some of the branches were several black-gold orbs resembling floating pupil-less eyes, varying in size and scattered unevenly across the branching structure.

‘What in the nine dimensions is that?!’

The elf’s brain couldn’t process the images his eyes were sending to it.

But as more and more of those structures continued spilling from Mallory’s body, each new branch releasing bursts of imperceptible cosmic energy that flooded the domain, realisation dawned upon him.

‘Are those…her evolution-acquired powers…?!’

The branches extended several hundred metres into the sky, and if each branch represented an ability, then…

‘…she really wasn’t fighting…with the intent to kill…’

That was the elf’s last thought before the domain shattered under the eruptions of cosmic energy, hurling them back into mainstream space.

◇　◇　◇

The instant the domain collapsed, massive floodlights from several battleships swept across the region, and multiple True Voices rang out in quick succession.

|Lady Artemisia!|

|Your Excellency!|

|Lady Delgasso!|

Powerful auras erupted from the battleships at the same time, dozens of beams of light streaking toward Mallory’s position.

The goddess breathed heavily as the expanding columns and branching streams of energy spilling from her body finally faded.

The moment the first wave of gods from the battleships reached her, she immediately raised her right hand and issued an order with a strained voice.

|Restrain that elf… Now!|

Half of them split off immediately, multiple binding seals and Authorities activating together, sealing his body, soul, and even his consciousness completely.

Among those who rushed to her side, the first to reach Mallory was her direct second in command, the goddess of Life, Aphine.

“Lady Artemisia!”

She grabbed Mallory’s body, attempting to activate her Authority of Life to heal the damage, but Mallory gripped her hand and stopped her.

“No. Don’t. Return. Base.”

Hearing this, Aphine looked up and shouted, |Start up the inter-dimensional gate!|

Almost immediately, a True Voice responded, |Already on it!|

The voice echoed the moment space began to distort as three of the battleships overhead powered their warp drives, each releasing a beam of spatial law energy that converged at a single point, swirling together into a portal that led directly to Mallory’s Dimension in her home galaxy, Orithyia.

As Aphine began dragging Mallory toward the forming gate, Mallory grabbed her arm and shouted, “My vault!”

Aphine frowned at the command.

It was one thing for Mallory to stop her from administering immediate treatment, but it was entirely different for her to insist on being taken to her vault instead of a medical facility.

She didn’t respond, and Mallory quickly realised that Aphine was planning to disregard the order and prioritise medical care.

That was a normal decision given the circumstances, especially as Aphine had no idea what was even wrong with Mallory.

But Mallory didn’t want that normal decision.

She dug her fingers into Aphine’s arm with enough force to make the goddess’s bones creak, shouting again, “My vault!”

Lightning crackled along Mallory’s arm, and she winced as the dark markings along the sides of her face spread further.

Seeing this, Aphine bit her lips before silently pulling Mallory straight through the warp gate.

The moment they emerged on the other side, a team of gods already briefed on the situation rushed forward to begin treatment.

But they couldn’t get close as Mallory opened her palm and released a wave of divinity that pushed them all back while repeating the same words to Aphine, “My vault!”

Aphine clicked her tongue but still obeyed, teleporting Mallory, who could barely stand by this point, directly to the vault.

As soon as she appeared, Mallory reached out and placed her hand on the reinforced door, opening it, then used pure magic power manipulation to force her limbs to move as she pulled herself inside.

The instant she stepped into the pocket-dimensional space nested within her personal dimension, which also served as her headquarters, she began purging every alteration she’d made to her spatial abilities over thousands of years.

All the modifications that enhanced her spatial capabilities and allowed her to construct this layered set of dimensions were forcibly stripped away.

As they vanished, the pocket dimension that followed her everywhere collapsed, and everything stored within it was violently expelled outward from her body.

Countless valuables, forbidden relics, forgotten cosmic artifacts, and treasures spilt onto the floor, and it was only then that Aphine fully understood why Mallory had been so insistent on reaching the vault first.

Had Mallory been forced to purge her spatial modifications anywhere else, many of those items might have been lost.

The moment the spatial alterations she’d made were removed, her senses dulled drastically. Her base spatial abilities, however mediocre, were barely functional at this point.

Aphine was standing less than 5 feet away, and Mallory’s spatial perception couldn’t even register her presence.

This was another consequence of purging modifications she’d added to abilities she already possessed.

The original abilities or traits, which she’d modified and amplified, were temporarily weakened to a level even lower than they’d been before she enhanced them.

Mallory heaved a deep breath, her pale complexion regaining a hint of colour as the speed of the virus’s spread slowed drastically.

Forcing herself to her feet, she turned toward Aphine and asked.

“Where’s Kirone?”

It was the first thing on her mind.

She hadn’t finished expelling all the abilities that needed to be removed to fully rid herself of the virus, but right then, she needed to know Kirone’s location.

“The outer galaxies came under attack. She’s handling things there.”

Hearing that, Mallory’s eyes widened as she grabbed Aphine’s arms, her voice urgent. “I can’t contact her. Send a messenger. It’s—”

Before she could finish, her vision blurred, and she lost consciousness, collapsing against Aphine’s body.

|!—Authority of Life!|

Aphine activated her Authority without hesitation, her eyes immediately widening in shock as she perceived the full extent of Mallory’s soul damage.

She didn’t waste a second, carrying Mallory out of the vault as the doors sealed behind them, rushing into the group of medics already waiting outside the restricted access area.