Reincarnated Hero System

The planet was wounded—that alone explained the scorched, lifeless earth surrounding the Chasm, as if every trace of life had been drained away. It also accounted for the massive wall of law energy spilling skyward, likely continuing far beyond the upper atmosphere.

After giving the girls a moment to fully process the information he had just shared, Evan spoke up again. “Now then, on the bright side—”

“What?”

Artemisia interrupted him with a raised eyebrow, her gaze alternating between him and the deep, darkness ahead. “There’s a bright side to this?”

Evan turned to face the Chasm once more, staring into its depths before replying, “Yeah. There actually is a bright side to that.” Then he looked back at her. “For starters, it’s shrinking.”

“That sounds like good news…” Artemisia muttered.

“It is,” Evan agreed with a nod. “Wounds heal, after all. This one’s no exception. Once the wound fully heals…”

“It’ll close up,” Artemisia said, finishing his statement.

“Exactly,” Evan confirmed. “And when it does, the law energy bleeding into the atmosphere will stop. Once that happens, people will be able to pass through the area without issue.”

Beatrix, who had been silent up to that point, finally spoke. “And that means we’ll be able to get to Arthur, Hibiki, and Crim without any problems.”

Evan nodded again.

“And we can start figuring out how to get the hell out of here. No, actually, scratch that. We don’t need to figure anything out.

Arthur has that weird teleporter artifact on his arm. He can just kaboom tube us out of here.”

This reminded them of the fact that Arthur had crossed universes using that artifact, so it stood to reason that escaping the Infernal Dimension would be possible, provided, of course, that nothing was interfering with the artifact’s function.

Beatrix then asked, “But wait, Evan, does it say how long it’s going to take?”

Evan shook his head and replied, “Nope. I have no idea how long it’s going to take, but it’s definitely shrinking.”

At that, Artemisia crossed her arms and asked, “What if it’s one of those wounds that takes years to heal?

The area went silent after that question, until Evan clicked his tongue, breaking it.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a pain if it’s that kind of wound.”

He paused, then added, “Perhaps we’ll have to go across to the other side of the planet just to get around to the other side of this continent. But we don’t even have a map of whatever region on this continent we’re currently in, much less one of the entire continent.”

Dragging a hand down his face with a weary sigh, Evan brought the conversation to a close.

“Well, we’ve seen the Chasm, we’ve gotten our results, let’s head back to camp and handle Beatrix’s issue, okay?”

Beatrix was about to say something but Artemisia spoke first, “Yes, let’s handle that first. Before we even start thinking about whether we’ll be going around the entire planet, we need to make sure that we’re all in top condition.”

At those words, Beatrix lowered her head and quietly muttered a small ‘thanks’ under her breath, and Evan, ruffling her hair, replied in a light tone, “Don’t worry about it. Just know that, uh, you owe me one after this.”

When he said that with a smug smile, Beatrix glanced up at him in silence for a few seconds, then finally responded,

“I’ll cook you dragon meat later, when I have the skills to actually handle it that properly.”

“Ooh! I want it with—”

Evan paused mid-sentence, lifting a hand to his chin in thought.

“Hmm… actually, no. I’ll call in my favour for something else. I’ll have Liz cook the dragon meat instead. She should be able to purify it with her life energy.”

He said all of this casually as he walked ahead, and Beatrix, looking at him with curiosity, asked, “Liz? Who’s that?”

Glancing back, Evan replied, “My fiancée. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve mentioned her name to you guys before, have I?

“I’m not entirely sure you should,” Artemisia commented.

Waving it off with a light chuckle, Evan replied, “Don’t sweat the small stuff, Artemisia. Anyway, let’s get moving.”

And so, they returned to the eagle, who, without any hesitation, turned around and began flying away from the area. Before long, they left behind the blackened and lifeless terrain and gradually returned to regions filled with sparse vegetation, soaring across long stretches of uninhabited land.

◇　◇　◇

About halfway through their return trip, Evan suddenly sighed, sitting up as he spoke,

“I can’t ignore this shit anymore. Hey, eagle, land.”

The eagle obeyed immediately, and as it landed, both Artemisia and Beatrix turned to Evan with puzzled expressions.

“Huh? Why are we landing?” Beatrix asked.

Evan simply raised a finger.

“Wait for it. In five… four… three… two…”

And just as he said ‘one’, the girls’ eyes widened in sudden realization.

Seeing how both of them immediately went on guard, Evan turned to the Eagle, patting its side as he said.

“Hello there, Mr. Eagle. It seems your contract with us has just been terminated by spiritual intervention. Fly away.”

The eagle didn’t need to be told twice. It immediately launched back into the air, vanishing into the distance.

Evan laughed at how fast it ran away, then turned to Beatrix and said apologetically. “Sorry about this, but you’re going to have to prep a teleport for us.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Well, let’s just say that it’s been happening for the past two days and after everything I’ve experienced since ending up in this dimension, I’m not in the mood for any dialogue.

I’m going with force.”

Though he didn’t elaborate further, Artemisia immediately reached for the hilt of her sword, already understanding what he meant.

Evan caught sight of this from the corner of his eye and smiled wryly as he addressed Beatrix.

“Put me in the middle, closest to the one in front. Place Artemisia behind, to the left, and you take the right.

Use those little portal thingies you do with your spear. Artemisia, Tempest Avatar.

We cool?”

Both girls gave silent nods in response.

“Alright then,” Evan said. “On my count. Three… two… one… go.”

At his signal, Beatrix’s divinity surged, spatial power wrapped around all three of them, and in the next moment, they vanished.

◇　◇　◇

Artemisia reappeared right behind two members of the group of seven who had been discussing something behind a hill, a few hundred meters from where they had disembarked.

The moment she materialized mid-air, she delivered a crushing kick to the back of the head of the first person in front of her, slamming them face-first into the ground with immense force.

Her body spun through the air, and as it did, her right arm shot out, striking the side of the second person’s face and sending them crashing into the rock wall beside them.

She landed a moment later, her feet pressing down on the back of the first person she had kicked to the ground. Without hesitation, her left hand drove her sword into the ground beside his neck, while her Tempest Avatar skill activated, summoning the giant lightning avatar that reached into the air, grabbed the second person, and began crushing them with its crackling lightning-forged arm.

Simultaneously, Beatrix appeared several meters away, in the space between two others. The moment she materialized, both individuals froze completely as their bodies from the chest down were locked in place by stopped time.

Her spear materialized in her grip and she thrust it through a portal that opened in front of her. Five more portals appeared around the upper bodies of her two targets, with identical copies of her spear protruding from each one and halting just as the tips touched their skin.

At that same moment, Evan appeared and immediately activated Space Warp, shifting himself a few centimetres forward from where his feet had initially touched down. The spatial pulses released from both his departure and arrival sent the person in front of him crashing onto their back, while the one behind him was also knocked flat to the ground.

The third, who was positioned to his right, was seized by golden chains that burst from the ground and wrapped tightly around their body. Then, three serpentine dragon constructs emerged from his back, one of flames, one of ice, and one of lightning.

The lightning dragon lunged forward and bit down on the shoulder of the chained target, forcing them to their knees. The ice dragon wrapped itself around the second target, the one that had fallen behind Evan, and bit into their midsection, immediately causing frost to spread and freeze them solid from the neck down.

As for the one in front of Evan, he stepped down with his left foot on their chest, then stomped his right foot on their left palm while the flame dragon clamped its jaws around their right arm.

It all happened in an instant.

The group of seven spirits were stunned, not only by the fact that they had been detected but by how effortlessly all seven of them had been subdued before they could even react.

But this was only natural. Evan had entered his half-dragon form and simultaneously activated BoD. Beatrix and Artemisia had activated their Unique skills, and the latter was also buffing all three of them.

Given that, an instant and total neutralization wasn’t all that surprising, to them, at least.

But to the ones lying immobilized in the dirt, it was a different story. They were completely, utterly shocked.

Evan didn’t care much for their shock, though.

He summoned the Unforged and rotated his body slightly, shifting his gaze toward the one behind him, the one frozen from the neck down, and spoke aloud.

“Nobody move a goddamn inch.”

Locking eyes onto the female spirit gaping at him in disbelief, he demanded.

“You have thirty seconds to explain why you’ve been following me for the past two days.”

He lowered the tip of his sword, now pointing it at the one under his boot.

“Any unsatisfactory answer, and he loses a body part. Your time starts now.”

Instinctively, the female spirit exclaimed, “What are you—?!” But she couldn’t even finish.

“Unsatisfactory,” Evan cut her off coldly.

Without hesitation, his sword came down, slicing off the wrist of the spirit beneath him. A scream erupted immediately as the man thrashed beneath his boot, trying to gather his magic power and resist, but Evan raised his left leg and stomped down hard on his chest, the force cracking ribs.

Blood gushed out of his mouth as the jagged edge of a broken rib had likely punctured a lung.

“Your scream irritates me. Another body part,” Evan muttered, raising his sword, about to swing it down again, when Beatrix, who now fully understood what Evan had meant by saying he was ‘going to use force’, suddenly snapped her head in a different direction and shouted.

“Evan, behind!”

Her Unique Skill was active, and this space was now under her Chrono Space Dominion. Within it, she could see illusions of events moments before they happened.

The moment she shouted, someone flashed in behind Evan, and Danger Sense immediately blared an alarm.

However, Evan simply turned his head slightly and muttered, “Got you, bastard.”

The moment those words left his mouth, Evan vanished and reappeared behind the person who had suddenly rushed in to attack him. A rose of flames bloomed on the side of the attacker’s face, and though they were quick enough to react to Evan’s teleportation and turn around, they weren’t fast enough to stop his lightning-coated fist from crashing into the burning rose that had just formed on their cheek.

Fracture met Electroflame, and just like the combo he always unleashed alongside Kayla, the lightning rebounded violently, triggering a double impact. A bright explosion followed as the force of Evan’s punch drove the attacker’s head straight into the hill beside them, pulverizing it instantly.

The blast sent shockwaves rippling through the surroundings, toppling trees, scattering debris in all directions, and sending any remaining monsters in the vicinity fleeing in terror.

Immediately after, a gust of wind swirled, and with a wave of her hand, Artemisia cleared the smoke and dust in one massive tornado that spiralled into the sky.