Reincarnated Hero System

‘Wind Magic: Sound of the Silence.’

A three-ringed magic circle manifested beneath Azzonnin’s feet, and immediately, the sound of his voice was trapped within a swirling wind barrier.

The devil scowled and stomped his foot, instantly shattering the circle. But in the few seconds it took him to break the spell, Evan had already activated Adamantine Might, flooding Destruction into his sword.

Then, with all his strength, he hurled the weapon like a javelin straight toward Azzonnin.

A loud sonic boom echoed as the sword tore through the air, but Azzonnin remained unfazed, casually leaping to the side to evade the incoming blade.

However, the moment he moved, Evan appeared before him in a flash, his fist cloaked in flaming lightning, driving a punch straight at Azzonnin’s face.

Yet despite the concentrated destruction energy behind the blow, his strike never reached its mark.

Just before it could connect, it collided with a thin layer of law energy spread over Azzonnin’s skin and was instantly reflected, blasting Evan backwards through the air.

Watching the Rogue Hero flip through the air and land on his feet, Azzonnin narrowed his eyes silently.

‘He tried to silence me with magic. Then he aimed for my face—no, not my face… my mouth.’

“…you were trying to stop me from talking.”

Realizing Evan’s intent, Azzonnin laughed and praised him.

“You have good instincts, kid. Too bad it won’t do you much good since all your attacks will just be reflected.”

He raised his hand slightly and continued, “As I said, Reflection and Restriction are the primary laws I wield. I can reflect your attacks and even amplify the reflected damage. I can also impose various restrictions on the space around me.”

He glanced down at his empty palm with a shrug and added,

“Unfortunately, those restrictions apply to me as well. For instance, since I’ve forbidden weapons in this area, I cannot use one myself.”

He didn’t really seem to care about that restriction though. He just looked up at Evan’s fist rapidly closing in on his face and smiled.

“Even telling you about my powers—that too is one of my self-imposed restrictions.”

The moment those words left his mouth, Azzonnin’s magic power exploded from his body, blasting Evan backwards before his fist could even reach the devil’s reflector.

“A former Hero of this world, who killed me before I became a Soul Devil, had this sort of power. I think he called it a Geass.”

Azzonnin’s magic power continued to rise, and right before Evan’s eyes, his level, which had been stuck at 799, began to increase until it reached 820.

Naturally, his stats rose accordingly.

All his stats that had previously peaked at X1+ with Stat Levels at 99/100, jumped to X2- with Stat Levels of 50/100.

His base stats had now increased to a level comparable to Evan’s. In fact, in some areas, he even had better base stats than Evan.

After all, while Evan did have some X2- stats thanks to the Starry Meal he had eaten in the Regal Void Expanse’s Garden of Stars, not all of his stats were on that level.

‘Wow, this just went from bad to worse… and I was still running tests…’

Evan was experimenting through trial and error to discover the limits of Azzonnin’s skill. The Law of Reflection, though immensely powerful, had its limitations.

It was precisely because of these limitations that it could be so powerful—an equivalent exchange, in a sense.

Evan was sure of this, as he was very familiar with a certain person’s power of Reflection.

Besides, if it had no limitations, Azzonnin wouldn’t have died and become a Soul Devil to begin with.

But Evan had to admit that Azzonnin’s reflection ability was impressive. It was even better than the one he was familiar with, at least in its earlier stages.

If it operated on the same principle of reflection he knew, then the layer of law energy coating Azzonnin’s body must have been composed of an equivalent amount of energy to what it reflected.

Considering the speed of Evan’s attacks, it was remarkable that it could gather and deploy that much energy in the brief instant before impact.

So remarkable, in fact, that if this Reflection had been a skill, Evan would have copied it long ago.

Unfortunately, both Azzonnin’s Reflection and Restriction were techniques he had personally developed, not standard skills, which was the only reason Evan was still stuck experimenting.

From his Appraisal results, Evan knew that Azzonnin’s entire combat style was centred around unarmed combat, with a little bit of magic sprinkled in.

This was why he had no issue restricting weapons. He simply didn’t need them.

‘Alright, Evan. It might look flawless, but there’s always a limit to how much power can be reflected. I just need to keep ramping up the force of my strikes until I find it…’

Evan activated Adamantine Might, Pierce Guard, and Fracture all at once, then charged straight at Azzonnin.

“This kid…” Azzonnin muttered, sighing in exasperation as he threw a punch that unleashed a devastating shockwave.

Evan easily avoided the shockwave with Blink, teleporting behind Azzonnin and spinning into a roundhouse kick aimed at the side of the devil’s head.

But just before the strike could land, Evan’s leg struck that barely perceptible layer of law energy surrounding Azzonnin’s body and was immediately blasted backwards.

As he flipped through the air, Time Difference activated, stretching the seconds, and giving him space to think.

‘He didn’t even glance my way, and the reflection still triggered. Is it automatic or manual? How does it handle ranged attacks? Is there a cooldown?

I’ve been spacing out my attacks, so I should try repeated strikes now.’

His time perception returned to normal just as he landed, and he immediately leapt back to avoid Azzonnin’s fist crashing down where he’d just been.

While mid-air, Evan activated Elemental Weapon Projection and unleashed a barrage of weapon projectiles, only to realize something as thousands of flaming blades came crashing down.

‘Wait! Didn’t he say weapons were restricted?’

He quickly tried summoning the Unforged, but as the sword got within a hundred meters of Azzonnin, it abruptly crashed to the ground, completely grounded and unable to move again.

‘So the restriction field has a hundred-meter radius around him, and it moves with him…

But it seems the elemental weapon projections are unaffected since they’re skill-based manifestations, not actual weapons.’

Even as Evan thought this, his hands moved, conjuring a complex magic circle before him.

“Nuclear Magic.”

“?!”

“Atomic Annihilation.”

A blinding light exploded outward as a searing beam of nuclear energy streaked toward Azzonnin on the ground, its momentum unstoppable.

The blast shook the area with a thunderous detonation, vaporizing everything in its path in a blinding wave of annihilation, only for the immense surge of energy to abruptly reverse course and cascade back toward Evan.

Evan easily evaded it with Blink, reappearing above, and then behind Azzonnin with another Nuclear Magic circle already forming on his palm.

Sensing the gathering magic power, Azzonnin spun with a shout.

“Magic Spells are Restricted!”

Law energy surged out from his body like a tidal wave, crashing into Evan and fracturing the forming circle.

Confident the spell backlash would stun his opponent, Azzonnin launched a full-powered punch, only for Evan to teleport once more, this time reappearing above him.

**BOOOOMM!!!

Azzonnin’s full-powered punch, packed with a devastating amount of energy, unleashed a shockwave that obliterated the earth behind him, carving out a massive crater as deep as the mountain Evan had crashed onto the day before was high.

In the split-second after unleashing the attack, when his stance was off and his body unbalanced, Evan activated Gravilife Convergence, generating a gravitational vortex that pulled the unbalanced Azzonnin toward it.

Before Azzonnin could rouse his magic power to fight against the force, the cracked earth behind him split wide, and a colossal stone fist burst forth, grabbing hold of him and squeezing tight. The instant it seized him, the fist shuddered, cracks spread across its surface, and then it exploded as the powerful force of its grip was reflected.

But the next second, a titanic fist of crimson ice, conjured by Evan’s Hammerfist Skill, came crashing down from above.

It landed cleanly, slamming into Azzonnin with immense force, and in the following second, Evan himself appeared behind him, delivering the final blow with his Six Skill Strike straight to the back of Azzonnin’s head, sending the Soul Devil flying into the crater his own punch had carved out moments earlier.

‘Direct Hit!’

Evan’s eyes gleamed as he felt the feedback of his strike which confirmed Azzonnin’s reflection hadn’t worked. Or more accurately, it had already been used up on the fist summoned by Gravilife Convergence.

‘This greatly reduces the chances of it being fully automatic. And even if it is, there seems to be a cooldown between activations.’

Evan landed on the ground, and immediately, his dragon wings unfurled from his back, and his horns extended from his head.

‘In that case, the key isn’t power…’

Orange Flames engulfed his wings and legs, then exploded from beneath the soles of his feet like a jet booster as he dashed forward.

‘…but speed!’

Evan closed the distance to Azzonnin in an instant, faster than the man could even lift himself off the ground.

His fist slammed down, but Azzonnin rolled to the side, evading the strike that split the earth with the force of a meteor.

Evan, however, reacted just as fast, immediately lifting his hand from the ground and activating Vindiction’s Strike, unleashing a beam of frostfire that roared toward Azzonnin.

Azzonnin barely managed to cross his arms in front of his chest, and the moment the beam touched him, it was reflected. Having expected this, Evan had already used Blink to teleport away, reappearing behind Azzonnin, both fists cloaked in fire and ice.

His fist reached Azzonnin in an instant, crashing into the devil’s crossed arms and sending him flying.

In that moment, Azzonnin’s Thought Acceleration activated and he clicked his tongue internally.

‘Damn it. I missed my timing!’

He worked his Reflection with timing. The key wasn’t just creating the reflector, but matching the exact moment of Evan’s attacks to reflect them. Perpetually maintaining a reflector wasn’t without an energy cost, after all. And what if the reflector layer wasn’t strong enough to match the attack?

The energy required to form the reflector layer had to be equivalent to Evan’s attack output.

No, not equal, but greater.

Azzonnin had already labelled Evan a non-standard, someone capable of battling those higher-levelled than him. He assumed that Evan’s attacks hit far harder than the raw energy behind them would suggest, so to compensate, Azzonnin poured more energy into his reflectors than Evan used in his attacks, calculating to match any hidden buffs or amplifiers Evan might be using.

And that’s how he was able to reflect Evan’s attacks despite the damage bonuses backing them up.

But this time, he didn’t have enough allowance to form a reflector fast enough or strong enough to completely bounce back Evan’s attack, so when it hit, only about 30% of the impact rebounded, striking Evan with a dull shock that wasn’t nearly enough to throw him off.

He staggered back slightly, feet skidding, but he immediately dug his heels into the ground to anchor himself. Meanwhile, the rest of his strike smashed into Azzonnin, knocking the Soul Devil backwards.

Evan’s frost fire ignited again, blazing hotter than before as he charged forward, and as he approached, Azzonnin’s pupils darted to the fire and ice interwoven around his limbs.

‘Opposite elements synergizing? And the flames around his feet are different coloured from the ones before…

Likely a skill that allows him to use a special flame type that can merge with elements it shouldn’t be able to.

Not a normal skill either…it must be a Unique Skill!’

With all those thoughts crossing his mind in a second, Azzonnin activated his own skills to counterattack while simultaneously gathering the energy of the law of restriction.

‘It’s a risk…

But he has no idea when I choose to lift the restrictions anyway.’

And just as Evan’s fist was about to collide with Azzonnin’s the soul devil declared.

“UNIQUE SKILLS ARE RESTRICTED!”

And that—

That was Azzonnin’s worst mistake.