Reincarnated Hero System - Chapter 924 - 924: Decision Time
“Evan, you’ve got pineapple wine in your inventory, right? I wanna borrow some.”
“Ohh…but it’s not gonna be for free.”
“Come on, bro. Can’t you help a friend?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll give you a discount.”
Artemisia calmly diverted her gaze from the two discussing a strange transaction, focusing instead on Arthur, who was retrieving the bodies of the attackers she had left alive for questioning.
Since they were unfamiliar with the Dimensional Realm’s name, its races, and the reason for the ambush, she deemed it necessary to keep some assailants alive.
“Before we talk about questioning, you need a change of clothes, Artemisia.
Any more and I’d be able to see your underwear. You too, Beatrix.”
Arthur remarked, pointing at Artemisia’s wet shirt, now stained with blood. With a sigh, Artemisia glanced down at her shirt, then turned her gaze toward the culprit responsible—Beatrix, who flinched and darted behind Evan to hide.
Evan reached into his inventory and pulled out a foldable portable changing tent, which he had from a past impromptu swimming date with Eliza.
Not bothering to question the specifics, Artemisia set up the tent and entered to change her clothes, while Evan and Arthur turned their attention to the remaining assailants.
Beatrix, leaving the boys behind, followed Artemisia into the tent, only for them to hear a loud whack followed by Beatrix’s scream.
Arthur and Evan shrugged it off, assuming Beatrix had annoyed Artemisia and was facing the consequences.
They focused instead on the unconscious assailants, their hands glowing with destructive energy as they prepared to wake them up rudely.
Arthur muted the sound in the area to prevent the two girls from hearing what was about to happen, before letting a thin tendril of Destruction energy seep into the first attacker’s body.
The man’s form visibly withered, his skin cracking like dry parchment as his durability was rapidly drained, forcing him to wake with a gasp of pain.
“Good morning.”
Arthur said casually, his voice almost cheerful as the man convulsed at his feet.
Evan chuckled and targeted a different unconscious assailant, sending his destruction essence deep, brushing against the man’s soul. Soon the man was gasping and wide-eyed in terror.
He activated Mesarthim and crouched beside the writhing man who was now barely conscious, then pressed a single glowing finger to the man’s cheek.
The flesh beneath instantly sizzled and bubbled as the flame sank deep, past skin and muscle, directly into the bone.
The smell of burning flesh filled the air as Evan leaned in.
“Here’s how it works. I’ll start with the surface, melt your skin, and work my way down to your soul. Or… you could tell me all I want to know.”
As he spoke, his other hand was covered in crimson-gold ice and Evan placed it on the man’s other shoulder.
His flames burned with searing agony while the ice froze nerve endings at the other end, causing the sensation of being ripped apart by both extremes.
“Shall we start from why you attacked us unprovoked?”
The combination of freezing cold and scorching heat was beyond what even his superhuman endurance could bear.
He screamed, but the sound didn’t travel very far since Arthur didn’t let it.
Evan continued speaking, taking reference from the memories of Arlan Maddox that he possessed. His voice was steady, almost conversational.
“I’m waiting for an answer. Or do you want your insides to feel like they’re thawing out of an eternal winter?”
“…!…”
When the man refused, teeth chattering through clenched jaws, Evan’s Blessing of Corrosion activated.
The crimson-gold ice gained a dark tint and the speed with which it spread intensified. The man’s skin rippled and decayed under the blessing’s power, his veins turning black as the corrosion sank into his bloodstream.
As the man’s life drained away, his eyes glazed over in terror, unable to endure the suffering.
But just as death approached, Arthur snapped his fingers and rewound the man’s state, pulling him back from the precipice of death, restoring him to his tortured form moments before the soul-rending pain had begun.
The man gasped in renewed agony; his body healed but his mind was broken by the knowledge of what was coming next.
Arthur then crouched beside Evan and smiled coldly.
“Shall we start again?”
Within moments, the man broke, blubbering incoherent apologies as he spilt all Evan wanted.
Of course, just asking one person wasn’t enough so the two boys politely asked all the others for answers, without discriminating by gender.
For any who were stubborn, Evan ‘specially interrogated’ them, and once they teetered on the edge of death, Arthur would bring them back, forcing them to relive the agony over and over until their wills broke completely.
Evan, feeling adventurous, employed the aides of some tools to speed up the process.
It didn’t take long for their resistances to crumble and their voices cracked, spilling every secret in a desperate plea for mercy.
◇ ◇ ◇
“…what happened here?”
Artemisia couldn’t help but ask as she stepped out of the tent, now dressed in fresh khaki trousers and a black shirt, only to be greeted by a gruesome sight—the ground drenched in blood, with even the nearby stream running red.
At Arthur and Evan’s feet knelt the surviving attackers, broken and tearful, begging to be killed.
‘What did they do?’
She wondered, noticing how spotless the boys were, while Evan casually stowed away a crowbar.
‘I’m very curious, but my instincts are telling me NOT to ask.’
Suppressing her curiosity, Artemisia stepped over the bodies and asked.
“So, what did you guys learn?”
“That Evan’s good at using crowbars to eviscerate internal organs whilst keeping the target alive?”
“…”
A silent glance passed between the goddess and Evan, who shrugged.
“My predecessor was a man of many talents. Information extraction was one of them.”
“…”
Again, Artemisia resisted the urge to dig deeper and refocused.
“I meant what you learnt about this place.
“Oh, that.
Honestly, not much.”
As Beatrix emerged from the tent, Arthur began explaining the limited information they had managed to extract from their tortured captives.
The group had learned that they were in a Dimensional Realm called Iklaque, which contained only one small city with less than 10,000 inhabitants.
Strict ‘Commandments’ dictated that children could only be born during specific ‘holy years’, with any children born outside those periods deemed ‘Unholy’ and shunned, along with their parents. It was also rumoured that those who disobeyed faced the wrath of their god.
Despite the average level of the city’s inhabitants being between 100-200, they had unusually short lifespans—living no longer than 100 years, even for Elves or Legendary Realm existences, whose natural lifespans should be much longer.
The oldest recorded age was only 134.
Artemisia noted the similarity between the ‘holy years’ for childbirth and a commandment they had seen in the temple outside the realm and Evan speculated that the city’s people might be survivors of a catastrophe that destroyed the ruined city outside.
Arthur added that they were attacked for approaching the city’s ‘Ritual Grounds, ‘ which the locals believed would be desecrated by the presence of outsiders, and after hearing this, Beatrix called them unreasonable.
“I have no problem with whatever Religion a bunch of random people want to follow.
If they had simply spoken to us like civilized people, I’d have agreed not to go to their Ritual Grounds.
But they tried to kill us without even a word? NOW, I want to desecrate those Holy grounds.”
The girl rolled her eyes as she mentioned the last two words, turning to Arthur and asking him what direction they were so she could go blow the place up.
“That may not be wise, Beatrix.
I understand your anger, but there’s something else you should know first.”
Evan spoke up to deter the goddess from venting on the poor Holy grounds, and when she demanded to know his reasons, he mentioned something that quickly cooled her temper.
“I don’t know how true it is, but they said that there exists a ‘Guardian’ of some sort here. This guardian is tasked with killing all Outsiders who enter their Holy Lands.”
To emphasize the danger, Evan pointed out the thick death energy in the bullets the attackers had used and referenced the explosion caused when Arthur detonated one.
He also revealed that this Guardian was responsible for imbuing the bullets with death energy and had sent the attackers to scout them.
“However, the decision to kill us was theirs—or so they said.”
Hearing this, Artemisia raised a brow, intrigued by the phrasing of Evan’s words.
“You don’t believe them, do you?”
“I do.
I highly doubt they’d lie to cover up for this ‘Guardian’. The reason being, that this ‘Guardian’ isn’t well-liked amongst them.
Even under torture, they still displayed clear disdain for the ‘Guardian’. They hate the ‘Guardian’, from the depths of their hearts.”
Evan was certain of his observation, and when Artemisia looked at Arthur, who was toying with a Death energy bullet, the Progenitor nodded in agreement.
Even under torture, their hatred for the Guardian was clear, suggesting the Guardian had broken one of their sacred Commandments.
Arthur also added that while the bullets contained death energy similar to a Transcendent’s, his familiarity with Death laws confirmed the Guardian was a weaker being, under Level 900.
With this new information, Artemisia asked Arthur if he still wanted to explore, knowing the Guardian was aware of them.
While Artemisia, Beatrix, and Evan were cautious, especially with the mention of additional Level 700 existences in the city, they could sense Arthur’s interest in continuing.
His fascination with the death energy bullet hinted that he had a deeper reason for wanting to investigate further.
Feeling the scrutiny of the three, Arthur sighed and spoke.
“I’m sensing a huge source of divinity up ahead. It’s hidden behind some sort of veil, but I can tell it’s there.
Another thing I can tell is the fact that the Death energy in these bullets emits a frequency similar to the Divinity I sense beyond that Veil. However, the source of the energy is somewhere inside this massive forest.
I’m curious about why I sense two sources, and I want to find out what that Divinity Source is, to know if I can absorb it to make myself stronger.”
As a godslayer, who could grow stronger by devouring the Divine Sparks of gods, he was compelled by the potential power.
“You guys can leave. I know how to handle myself alone and worst-case scenario, I’d release Lostvayne to buy time for myself to use my Cosmic Teleporter.”
He gestured to the wide bracelet on his forearm, the same Artifact that allowed him to traverse Universes.
Arthur wasn’t gonna shy away from using it to escape if he sensed a great threat to his life.
“…”
Artemisia and Beatrix exchanged glances, while Evan pondered what he meant by ‘releasing Lostvayne’.
‘He said that Sword is the Weapon of a Higher Existence, does he mean to release that Higher Existence-Level power sealed inside it?
There’s no way he wouldn’t pay some sort of price for doing so…’
He turned towards the two goddesses and the three huddled up in a corner, having a short discussion with sound isolation magic activated.
After a minute, they turned back to Arthur with their decision.
“I’ll join you. Stronger opponents mean more levels for me. Plus, we could all benefit from that Divinity Source.”— Artemisia said.
“Divinity is useless to me, I’m just tagging along for the EXP.
If I land a few full-powered hits against whatever you fight, I’m guaranteed EXP from the Level 700+ opponent. My EXP boost would make my level spike just like when I let loose on Crarox’s Army.”— Evan added.
“As for me? I just want to have fun. Besides, no way I’m separating from Arty.”— Beatrix chimed in.
Hearing their reasons, Arthur chuckled, shaking his head in amusement at their enthusiasm.
“You’ve made your decisions, don’t chicken out later.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”
Beatrix replied, retrieving a spear coated in dense spatial power from her inventory.
“Your mum’s not the only one who gave her kid stuff to ensure their survival.”
Hearing her words, Evan frowned and muttered with a dejected tone.
“Too bad my mum is in the future…”
Beatrix burst into laughter at Evan’s statement, and Arthur joined her, while Artemisia held herself back and attempted to console Evan.
Arthur tossed the Death energy bullet and an extra magazine into his subspace, then glanced at the bodies around them.
“This burnt flesh smell is pretty annoying.”
The silver-haired boy released a burst of destruction law energy, and Evan blinked.
When his eyes opened again, there was nothing on the floor. The 24 bodies supposed to be on the ground before had vanished.
At that moment, he noticed a phenomenon that he recalled seeing when he and Arthur had encountered the dryads in Northern Gledea—he saw dust being blown away in the wind and he instantly realised that it wasn’t that the bodies had vanished, they’d been turned to dust.
Arthur, who was responsible, raised his hands and used Temporal Reversal.
The world around them shimmered as if flipping back the pages of a book. Burnt trees mended, scorched earth healed, and blood vanished from the stream, restoring clarity.
Every trace of battle was wiped clean, and Arthur erased the signs of his time manipulation, ensuring no deity could detect the rewind.
Lowering his hand with satisfaction, he turned back to the others and nodded.
“Much better.”
“Dude, ignoring how you rewound time just now, I’m more curious about how you silently turned those guys to dust.”
Evan expressed his curiosity to Arthur and the boy gave a simple reply.
“I used my Null.”
“Null? That strange destructive silver power you have?”
“My Null is actually something higher than ‘Destruction’. It’s Nothingness, the ‘source’ of Destructive abilities.”
Arthur elaborated on why his strongest technique—which was considered a ‘Skill’ in Valmone—created by tapping into his dormant Null power, was called ‘Extreme Nothingness.’
As they continued deeper into the forest, Evan and Arthur engaged in conversation while the two teenage goddesses trailed closely behind.
