Reincarnated Hero System

After Caeril’s explanation about the Chasm’s origin, Evan nodded in silence, and though Caeril couldn’t read the thoughts running through his mind, he pressed on, hoping to convince him further.

“If Vonun fuses with Triffid and gains the power to influence the barrier that keeps Deities out of this world,” Caeril said, “then he could also change the nature of the barrier, preventing anyone from leaving this world without his permission… including you.”

This lime prompted Evan to raise an eyebrow.

“You sure about that?” he asked quietly. “You really sure about that?”

Evan had never once considered that there might be someone, or something, capable of stopping him from returning to his rightful place in time.

After all, it was the UNIVERSE itself that would forcibly pull him back once his time here ran out. If Vonun truly had the power to stop that, then he might as well kill him instantly and be done with it.

“It is possible,” Caeril replied, his gaze lowered. “If Vonun successfully fuses with the Tree of Creation, his Infernal Verdancy would mix with Triffid’s Creation, granting him a Pseudo-Authority over the law of creation, given that he is already a Superior-Stage Transcendent, then he may surpass mortality and become a Deity.

At that point, even we do not know what could happen.”

Looking up to meet Evan’s eyes, Caeril added.

“You asked me for reasons why you should join our war, so I will give you reasons.

To stop Vonun from achieving that fusion with Triffid, even if it’s still only a possibility at this stage.”

“More than that,” he continued, “you’re already a threat to Vonun. And you’ve escaped him once.

Considering he personally came after you and your companions, it’s clear that he sees all of you as serious obstacles, and he will not stop pursuing you until you are confirmed dead.

But we can protect you.”

Hearing his claim, Evan leaned back on his seat, arms crossed as he replied.

“Really? Because the guy whose body you’re currently possessing told me your people failed to protect a whole bunch of destruction users from getting wiped out by the Infernal Devils.”

The Elder Spirit’s face twitched, but after a short pause, he sighed.

“Yes,” he said. “I won’t deny that. We failed to protect many of them.

But in your case, I believe we can succeed.”

“As of this morning,” he added, “I received a message from Nature’s Dwelling, the Order of Spirits on the far side of the Chasm.

The report said that all three of your companions over there have been taken in by the Order. And the one among them who possesses the power of destruction has agreed to assist us in the war.”

This made Evan narrow his eyes skeptically.

“Arthur agreed to help you guys? And for what reason? Did you feed him a different story from the one you just gave me?”

To that, Caeril immediately shook his head.

“No, we didn’t do any of that,” he said. “In fact, the Prophetess herself was the one who directly informed your companion of everything, or so I was told in the report.

She explicitly said I should pass on this message to you if you asked why your companion agreed to fight.”

At this, the spirit repeated the words as instructed.

“‘I wouldn’t exactly be helping you. It’s more apt to say that I’ll be using you to get payback’.”

After the Elder Spirit finished relaying that line, Beatrix chuckled lightly and said, “Yeah, that sounds like something Arthur would say.”

Artemisia nodded in agreement and added, “Yeah. Definitely Arthur. There’s no way he’d let someone who tried to kill him just walk away free.”

“Especially since he has the power to do something about it. Arthur is strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Transcendents, after all,” Beatrix added, an evaluation of Arthur’s power they all agreed with.

“And he has that scary sword too.”

When Evan said that, Beatrix shivered slightly and replied, “Yeesh. VERY Scary sword. I definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of that thing.”

“Things would’ve gone a lot differently if they hadn’t ambushed us in that volcano dungeon,” she went on. “But maybe they realized that too. That’s probably why they didn’t go for a frontal fight and chose to ambush us instead.”

Just as their short exchange ended, the Caeril opened his mouth to speak again, but Evan cut in before he could.

“Arthur agreed to help you. Hurray for you,” Evan said with a flat tone. “But last I checked, I’m not Arthur.”

“I don’t know about the two of them,” he gestured to the two girls with him, “but I personally don’t have any desire—no, let me correct that. I do have the desire, but I don’t have the means to act on that desire.

Hence, I decided it would be best to avoid the matter completely.”

Seeing the confused look on the spirit’s face, Evan added with a tired tone, “I’m talking about getting payback against Vonun for trying to kill me out of nowhere, for reasons I didn’t even understand at the time.”

Now understanding, Caeril responded immediately, “But regardless of whether you want payback or not, Vonun will still try to hunt you down and kill you.

Your mere existence poses a threat to his grand design for this continent, and for the entire world at large. There is absolutely no way he’s going to let you walk away scot-free.”

He took a breath and continued, “And we, Vonun’s direct enemies, the ones who stand to lose the most if his plan succeeds, would never allow him to eliminate someone like you.”

“If you remain on your own,” Caeril added, “then who knows when you’ll be attacked by multiple Transcendents Infernal Archdevil Vice Commanders, acting directly under Vonun’s orders.

Just because Vonun is on the other side of the Chasm doesn’t mean he lacks minions on this side. Communication across the Chasm’s barrier is difficult, yes, but not impossible.

He can still send messages, and have his forces scour the land for you. But if his plan succeeds and he gains control of Triffid, then he won’t even need to search. He’ll find you himself, using Triffid’s parasitic connection to this planet to access the world’s records.

You won’t be able to hide.”

He paused for a moment, as if to let the weight of his words sink in before continuing.

“But if you come with us to Tír Síorghlas, Vonun will not be able to reach you there. Not even he would dare to attack any of our strongholds. No, it’s more accurate to say that neither side in this war dares to strike at the other’s core strongholds.

The same way we wouldn’t dream of launching an attack on any of the Infernal Archdevil Commanders’ bases, even someone like Vonun wouldn’t try to invade Tír Síorghlas or Nature’s Dwelling, not even with his armies at full strength.”

“As such, if you’re with us,” the Elder finished, “Vonun will never be able to get to you.”

But despite the words he’d spoken, Evan simply laughed.

‘Use the planet’s records to find me?’

Clearly, someone didn’t know that Evan’s existence didn’t properly register in planetary records to begin with.

However, setting that aside for now, Evan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and after pondering the man’s words, he said, “Hmm, excellent arguments.”

When he said that, Caeril’s expression immediately brightened with hope, but Evan immediately followed up with, “Don’t look so happy yet. I haven’t said I agreed.”

Hearing this, the spirit responded with, “What?”—his voice filled with disbelief, as he couldn’t understand what exactly Evan was dissatisfied with, especially considering everything he had just explained.

Evan then responded, “Come on, dude. You said I’m going to be safe with your main stronghold, but I’m not going to be there 24/7, am I?

The whole reason you’re going this far is because you want my power of destruction to help you in battles against Triffid’s vanguards that are somehow on this part of the continent. Is that not the case?”

The man nodded in affirmation, and to this, Evan said, “So that means I’m going to be involved in battles. If I’m going to be involved in battles, that means I’ll have to leave your stronghold to participate in those battles.

And during that time, what’s stopping Vonun’s Archdevils from coming after my life? Oh, are you going to say your Transcendent Level spirits will put their lives on the line to protect mine? Sorry, bud, but I definitely don’t trust you guys would be able to do that.”

Upon hearing this, Caeril’s expression turned dark, as he could already tell that Evan was seriously considering turning them down.

‘This is very bad, extremely bad, in fact.’

The Elder Spirit was afraid not just of failing the task the Prophetess had given him, but also of the far-reaching consequences of such a failure.

As the Prophetess had warned, Evan’s refusal to aid them could heavily influence Arthur’s decision as well.

As for how Arthur would even find out about Evan’s stance, it was entirely possible that Arthur might request to speak with Evan personally, and if they couldn’t produce Evan, then Arthur might realize that Evan wasn’t siding with them.

If Arthur believed that they had rubbed Evan the wrong way—which they already had—then Arthur’s impression of them would likely plummet.

This could leave them with no users of Destruction at all.

At this realization, the man bit his lip and thought to himself, ‘The Prophetess said to only use this line in the event that midway through our alliance, something happens that causes him to want to leave. But given the current situation, I have no choice.’

Just as Evan was about to open his mouth to speak, the man cut in and spoke.

“Creation can help you against the Wolf.”

“…”

For a moment after those words left his mouth, silence filled the area, and then Evan’s entire expression transformed.

“What did yOu JUsT sAy?¬|

“”?!””

Towards the end of the boy’s question, his voice had cracked like static, caused by an improper infusion of law energy into his tongue, and that sound startled everyone present.

They all flinched reflexively at the distortion, though Evan himself didn’t even register it.

Reaching out and grabbing the spirit’s chin, he asked.

“What did you mean by that?”

Seeing how that single line had caught Evan’s attention, Caeril quickly spoke.

“The Prophetess told me to inform you of that,” he said. “She didn’t tell me the meaning. She just told me to tell you that. ‘Creation can help you against the Wolf’.”

After those words were said, Evan fell completely silent, and seeing this, Beatrix turned toward him and asked, “What does he mean by that, Evan?”

But Evan gave no answer.

Evan’s reaction wasn’t surprising if one knew about the circumstances.

Over the past few days, while he had been recovering from his battle with Azzonnin, no, even before that, Evan had already begun formulating a very specific set of plans.

These were plans he had not shared with a single soul, and he had absolutely no intention of ever telling any living being across the entire universe.

Not even future Artemisia or Eliza would know of this plan. Evan intended to keep this secret entirely to himself until the day of execution.

That plan involved fighting a certain Wolf. And right now, just as he had hit a deadlock in his preparations and was searching for a way to accomplish a particular step, Caeril showed up with that line.

And the Prophetess who told him that line… Evan doubted she truly understood what it meant.

After all, the Wolf in question was undeniably Disaster Number Seven of the Eight Disasters that would plague future Aidos before the reopening of the dimensional rift and the reinvasion by the demons of Gozon, the Wolf of the END.

Evan stared silently at the man before him, tapping his fingers against his lap repeatedly as his thoughts swirled.

‘Thinking about it, I was focusing only on the law of knowledge since that’s what is primarily responsible, but creation can assist the law of knowledge.

With the two, it’s possible to generate a system image…of the entire planet.