Reincarnated Hero System

“Well, these Vanguards of Trifid aren’t like the main one, right? They don’t have flame resistance, do they?”

Hearing Beatrix’s question, Holone blinked again and answered, “Trifid has resistance to flames? I’ve never heard of that.”

“Eh? But Caeril said Trifid had a resistance to being burned,” Beatrix replied, then turned to Artemisia and asked, “Didn’t he?”

“Not exactly. He just said it regrew after being burned. He didn’t mention any resistance to the act itself.”

“Oh…” Beatrix nodded, then shrugged.

“Regardless. They’re tree-types, and those are usually weak to flames. In that case, neither of us is doing anything here. After all, this guy over here—” she gestured toward Evan as she spoke, “—is the incarnation of fire.”

Evan, who had been silently locking onto the Vanguards of Trifid charging forward with fervour, trying to reach his position, chuckled and responded,

“Well, I appreciate the praise, Beatrix. Unfortunately, I’m not the Incarnation of Fire. The real one is a pain in the behind on future Aidos that I have to kill, and you just reminded me about him. Good thing I have ice powers. I’ll be able to freeze the bastard.”

Of course, Evan’s words had absolutely nothing to do with the sudden chill that ran down the spine of a certain man on another planet, 10,000 years in the future. Totally unrelated.

Their casual conversation was so fluid that it could easily sweep someone up in its pace, and for a brief moment, Holone actually forgot that an invasion was underway.

She quickly snapped back to her senses and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get a word out, Evan cut her off.

“Holone. Leave the balcony.”

The balcony, which seemed to be where the city lord would usually stand to address the entire city during significant events, was fairly spacious, a semicircle with a diameter of about six meters.

Just as Holone took a few steps out of the balcony, Evan extended his hand and said, “Let’s go with Hydra, about x3, for starters.”

Before anyone could make sense of his words, elemental law energy rapidly condensed in the space behind him.

From the churning pool of energy that formed, massive serpentine dragons burst forth, and the sudden sight of them made Holone stumble back in shock.

Three sets of three serpentine dragons, each trio composed of a flaming, a lightning-clad, and a frozen dragon.

Elemental energy gathered in their gaping maws, and in the next second, each dragon fired a beam of its respective element across the city, arcing down toward the invading devil forces.

The flaming dragons, in particular, targeted the Vanguards of Trifid that were attempting to scale the city walls.

“Blessing of Corrosion.”

Evan raised his hand, held up two fingers, then dragged them downward.

“Distant Strike + Vindiction’s Strike.”

The newest addition to Evan’s vast skill arsenal debuted alongside Vindiction’s Strike, resulting in the instantaneous descent of a beam of flaming destruction from a crimson-gold portal that abruptly opened in the sky, annihilating the group of Infernal Devil mages who had been erecting barriers to block the Hydra attacks coming from behind him.

|Distant Strike;

Type: Rare Active Skill

Effect;

Extends the maximum range of attacks by 300% without any reduction in power.|

It had been Azzonnin’s one and only ranged skill, though one the Soul Devil only used once during his fight with Evan, as most of their fight had been in close-quarters.

It was also why Evan’s Hydras could unleash their breath attacks and hit targets over 50km away in mere seconds, with no loss of power.

Naturally, Evan’s sudden bombardment drew the attention of both sides of the battlefield, and when the devils saw the Vanguards that they had relied on to break the spirits of their enemies reduced to ashes and scattered by the wind, they immediately realised what they were dealing with.

“The law of destruction!”

Ukath, the Vice-Commander leading the attack, roared upon spotting the flames that swept through his forces like a plague, incinerating both devils and Vanguards alike.

Water magic couldn’t extinguish the fire, and ice magic proved just as ineffective. Even after their targets were reduced to ashes, the flames continued to burn the ground where they had stood, preventing others from stepping into the same area.

Rising from his seat, Ukath stormed out of his command tent, waves of magic power erupting from his body as he activated a Unique Skill technique.

“Graviton Wave!”

He swung his fist upward, and a wave of gravity law energy erupted from it, colliding with Evan’s next Vindiction’s Strike beam and pushing the flames back into the crimson-gold portal from which they had emerged.

The devils erupted in cheers at the sight, while Evan calmly raised a hand to his chin while deactivating Hydra.

“Gravity, huh? The AOE is quite large. Let’s see how much range he has on that…”

Snapping his fingers, he activated Elemental Weapon Projection, instantly filling the skies with crimson-gold blades of ice and lightning.

Before Ukath could even retract his fist after countering the Vindiction’s Strike, the blades descended with terrifying speed, some slamming into airborne devils and blasting them from the sky in bursts of light, while others struck the ground below, exploding whether or not they made contact with an actual target.

Evan didn’t spare a glance at the destruction he was causing, instead scrolling through his skill list for any crowd control skills.

“Uh… Gravitational Maelstrom.”

A quarter of the airborne devils were immediately dragged together by an amplified gravitational pull and crushed together in a devastating collision.

“Glacial Gavel…”

His Hammerfist + Harbinger of Ice combo activated, and magic power surged from him, darkening the sky above. A moment later, the clouds parted to reveal a colossal crimson ice construct—a massive fist.

“Ah… too slow,” Evan muttered, shaking his head.

Right as he spoke, a concentrated blast of gravity energy erupted from the devil encampment, colliding with the descending fist construct and shattering it into pieces.

Evan immediately recovered as much magic as he could, causing the falling ice to dissolve into mist.

Then, turning slightly, he called out,

“Hey, Holone. That guy punching my attacks out of the sky is the Vice-Commander, right?”

Even as he addressed her, Evan’s left hand moved, repeatedly rising and falling, and with each motion, beams of destruction energy rained from the sky, piercing devils, destroying their magic barriers, creating openings for the spirits to bombard them with attacks.

“…yes, he is,” she answered after a brief pause.

‘Now that I think about it, Azzonnin had a similar title, didn’t he? This guy’s also as strong as he was.’

“He’s pretty strong,” Evan remarked casually, turning to watch as several Level 800 spirits flew up to engage the infernal devil in mid-air combat.

“That guy’s a Sovereign. Probably Intermediate Stage,” Beatrix added, watching as bursts of light erupted across the sky, followed by a massive explosion that sent one of the spirits crashing down.

Evan raised a hand and created an ice platform beneath the falling spirit, stopping their descent before they could crash into an allied platoon and crush them to death.

“To my knowledge, there are other Transcendent Infernal Devils besides the Three Commanders. So shouldn’t they be the Vice-Commanders?”

In response to Evan’s question, Holone, having regained more of her composure, replied,

“There are Lesser and Greater Vice-Commanders. The Level 800s are considered Lesser, while the Greater title is reserved for the Level 900s.

All Level 800s with Vice-Commander titles are irregulars capable of defeating opponents far above their level, and they all possess rare or special traits and powers.”

Hearing her explanation, Evan nodded.

‘For this guy, it’s probably his Gravity Manipulation. It’s troublesome, but not as bad as Azzonnin’s Restriction was. And since he’s not carrying any weapons, he’s most likely a purely unarmed fighter.’

That makes his combat style easier to predict. Gravity users who fight barehanded all tend to follow the same patterns.

If that’s the case…’

“It should be doable.”

“Huh? What should?” Holone asked, blinking.

“The Vice-Commander,” Evan replied casually.

“[Ehhhh??!!]”

Both Holone and the Elder Spirits watching Evan through the cameras embedded in her glasses reacted with shock, but before Holone could even act on the bad feeling she had, Evan vanished.