Reincarnated Hero System

Upon reappearing several kilometres away from their previous location, Evan released the two girls and immediately took a deep breath.

Blink was never designed for such long-distance movement, and forcing it to cross several kilometres had drained a significant chunk of his magic reserves.

He retrieved a juice-pack potion from his inventory, and as he did, Artemisia looked around before turning her gaze to him and speaking.

“I don’t think the Blink skill is supposed to be capable of this…”

“It’s not,” Evan responded.

“Combining it with other skills lets it work, but the energy cost is ridiculous. I really want a proper teleportation skill, but unfortunately, my teleportation skill dispenser gave me one that causes damage at both the departure and arrival points…”

As he said this, he looked at Beatrix, and though she initially stared at him in confusion, it only took a second for her to realise she was the ‘skill dispenser’ he was referring to.

Narrowing her eyes, she rolled up her right sleeve, raised her fist and said, “Should I dispense my special teleportation punch as well?”

To that, Evan immediately replied, “No, thank you.”

Shaking her head with a sigh, Beatrix asked, “So, why did you take us and run off?”

She had assumed they would follow the spirits back to their stronghold, but Evan had clearly decided otherwise, whisking them away the moment he secured a map.

“Well,” Evan began, “in case you forgot, not even ten minutes ago, we were ready to kill every last one of them.

At the very least, I was ready. And they knew that.

So, I’m definitely not about to trust them to guide me across a continent I know next to nothing about. What’s to stop them from dropping us in a danger zone or something?”

He paused momentarily, then added, “Sure, they’ve got their prophecy, their prophetess, and all that talk about how I’m supposedly useful to their cause, but emotions can get the better of people, making them lose sight of the bigger picture.

So no, I wasn’t about to risk my life by letting them guide me anywhere.”

Artemisia and Beatrix quickly saw the logic in his words. Given how violently things had started, especially with two of the spirits injured by Evan himself, trusting them blindly would’ve been reckless.

Seeing their understanding looks, Evan went on, “What I also wasn’t going to do was waltz into their base without leverage. Every Elder Spirit in that place is definitely a Transcendent, and if Caeril tells them how our conversation went down, I’m willing to bet some of them won’t like me.

Which is why I need something that’ll make even the ones who don’t like me think thrice before trying anything.”

With that, he opened his inventory, reached in, and pulled out a massive obsidian-coloured metallic orb, nearly two meters in diameter. As he set it down, the ground beneath it dented from its weight.

Its surface reflected the surrounding light, and around its circumference were twelve perfectly symmetrical holes, each one meticulously carved with intricate runic symbols that pulsed faintly with magic power.

From the top and bottom sections, three short pipe-like extensions emerged, adorned with smaller, yet equally elaborate carvings that hinted at the orb’s role as a conduit for potent energies.

At the sight, Artemisia and Beatrix simultaneously blinked, sighed, facepalmed, then asked in unison, “”What is this, Evan?””

“Meet the Arcanum Eclipsor. It’s an artifact built for the sole purpose of absorbing Nuclear Magic. At least, as far as I know.

Stored inside is the Nuclear Magic spell: Gravitational Implosion.”

He’d acquired this years ago during the early stages of the Giant Lizards phase of his plans for Aidos. As for the spell, it had been sealed within the orb during his expedition to the ruined Mountain Kingdom of Verduracliff alongside Luke. (Chapter 547)

The device had been sitting unused in his inventory until now.

Opening his inventory again, Evan began dumping out magic stones by the hundreds, each one taken from monsters no weaker than level 500.

He then brought out a chair, sat himself down, and said, “I’m going to infuse all the magic power from these stones into this big guy. Mind lending a hand?”

Artemisia, giving him a flat stare, asked, “And what exactly do you plan to do with this… thing that stores a nuclear magic spell with a concerning name?”

“Oh, this?” Evan replied, brushing his hand over the orb’s surface. He dug his nails into a groove, opening a concealed panel lined with buttons, which he pressed in a sequence.

Taking a magic stone, he held it up to one of the twelve symmetrical holes on the orb. Within moments, the stone melted into the artifact, its energy completely absorbed.

Looking back at them, he continued, “I’m going to make a bomb.”

Unfolding the map he had received from the Elder Spirit, Caeril, Evan pointed at the largest location marked on it.

“One big enough to blow up an entire Tír Síorghlas-sized island.”

Artemisia and Beatrix’s eyes widened instantly as they realised exactly what Evan was planning. And to that, Beatrix could only respond with a muttered, half-laughing accusation.

“You motherfucking terrorist.”

◇　◇　◇

24 hours and 1,256 Level 500+, 1,423 Level 600+, and 1,074 Level 700+ magic stones later, the trio cleared out the rock Artemisia had carved an apartment into and began their trip to Tír Síorghlas.

Using the map, they located the towns and cities inhabited by humans, elves, and spirits alike that lay along their path, presenting themselves as travellers from other secluded settlements seeking knowledge about the state of the war and information about Tír Síorghlas.

In this way, they collected information to verify whether what Caeril had told them was true before finally beginning their journey to Tír Síorghlas.

When Evan had first heard about this stronghold of theirs, he had assumed it would, at most, be a military city. But after seeing how large it was on the map he’d received, he quickly realised that his ‘at most’ was actually the ‘at least’.

Tír Síorghlas, the domain of the Order of Spirits on the western half of the Iohodis continent, referred both to the central military city and to the entire country that surrounded it.

So even though Evan eventually reached Tír Síorghlas by joining a transport carriage from one of the satellite towns around it, he had not yet truly arrived at Tír Síorghlas.

It took Evan a few more hours before he finally arrived at the gates of the military city, and upon reaching them, he informed the guards conducting inspections that he had come at Caeril’s request.

And yes, Evan ‘alone’. Artemisia and Beatrix had remained behind in one of the satellite towns surrounding Tír Síorghlas, just in case the talks fell apart and Evan had to resort to his… failsafe.

It appeared Caeril had stationed personnel at the gates in anticipation of his arrival, as it wasn’t even a minute before another officer came rushing over to receive him and escort him to the Council Hall at the city’s centre.

Even from a distance, Evan could already sense the Level 900s moving through the city toward that same hall, likely summoned by Caeril after being informed of Evan’s arrival.

The room he was brought into was grandly constructed, with a circular table at its centre. Around it sat ten figures, men and women of varying ages, each exuding distinct elemental energies and the unmistakable auras of Transcendents.

While Evan could detect other Transcendents scattered across the city, none had auras as strong as these ten, indicating that Caeril had honoured his word and gathered all the Elder Spirits for the discussion.

Just to be sure, right before stepping into the hall, Evan activated Appraisal, and as he entered, his gaze swept across the room, ten status boards appearing in his vision simultaneously.

He confirmed the identities of everyone present, then glanced at the 11th seat that had clearly been prepared for him.

However, before taking his seat, he looked up and spoke.

“Well, some of you clearly aren’t thrilled to see me. Very well, then.”

He sat down, and just as one of the spirits, probably a typically hot-headed fire spirit, was about to speak, Evan opened his inventory and pulled out the Arcanum Eclipsor.

“…!”

“!!”

“What is that?!”

Their stunned reactions to the immense magic power radiating from it made Evan smile behind his mask. While they were still stunned, six transparent, fist-thick wires extended from the artifact’s pipes and latched onto his arms, each one siphoning a small amount of his magic power and lighting up with a dull golden glow.

“Greetings, Councilmen and Councilwomen of Tír Síorghlas. My name is Evan… though you probably know me as the boy with distorted time.”

Evan spoke with the tone of someone giving a formal presentation, raising his right hand to pat the orb beside him as he continued.

“What I have here is a device that won’t exist until roughly 9,500 years from now, crafted on one of the two most powerful planets in this galaxy, home to the strongest elf, dwarf and god Kings and Queens as well as the Empress of the Spirits across the entire universe.”

Then, Evan’s presentation-like tone changed, his entire demeanour turning cold as he once again cut off the spirits that were about to speak.

“To put it bluntly, it’s a fucking bomb. One with a blast yield of 150 gigatons, enough to kill virtually everything below Level 900 within a 950,000 square-kilometre area, reducing it all to dust and ash.”

Lifting his left hand, Evan began counting off on his fingers, each line ticking one down.

“If I die, it blows.

If I take damage, it blows.

If it takes damage, it blows.

If I go unconscious, it blows.

If I’m disconnected from it, it blows.”

Dropping his hand and crossing his legs, Evan leaned back and said calmly,

“Now that the playing field’s even, let’s start our conversation.”