Reincarnated Hero System

Gozonian Interstellar Outpost

High-Level World, Zath’ruun

April 14th

Year 1054 (50th General Calendar)

What kind of beings would live on a planet with a size that’d make even Brown Dwarf stars look tiny?

Giants, that’s what.

Zath’ruun was once a world ruled by towering, hulking giants of varying forms, imposing against the vast landscapes.

Some had bodies of hardened stone, their skin resembling jagged mountains and rough boulders. Others were made of flesh, their muscular forms rippling with raw power.

Yet, there were also giants whose bodies were flames, living infernos whose mere presence scorched the ground they walked upon.

Despite their physical differences, the giants currently on Zath’ruun all shared one common trait: collars bound around their necks, wrists, or legs, as though even their immense strength was subject to constraints.

At one point in time, Zath’ruun was a giant-dominated world.

Emphasis to be placed on was, as currently, Zath’ruun had fallen to the might of Gozon. The demons of Gozon had stormed the planet, subduing its powerful inhabitants, and adding it to the empire’s ever-expanding list of conquests.

Zath’ruun was now a world under demon rule, not a place where one would expect to see enemies of the demonic race—certainly not beings like angels, celestials…or gods.

However, most of the time, things weren’t always the way they should be.

Here, in this very world of enslaved giants and their demonic overlords, a goddess had arrived. But not just any goddess—a god-Queen, ‘Supreme’ among her kind.

She soared through the air at a speed incomprehensible to those below. The land and its inhabitants, be they demons or giants, did not even notice her swift passage.

How could they, mortals and lesser Deities, comprehend something moving at the speed of light itself?

The goddess was a blur, a streak of divine energy moving faster than thought, intent on her destination: the towering control hub of the Gozon Interstellar Army Outpost Headquarters on Zath’ruun.

Within seconds, she reached the topmost spire of the outpost, its ominous structure looming above the planet’s surface.

With a mere gesture, she flung open the reinforced window and entered the luxurious break room inside, her landing, smooth and silent.

Sitting across from her, seemingly unbothered by her sudden appearance, was a man sipping his afternoon tea.

“Jamie! What’s up?!”

She spoke loudly as she entered the room, and its original occupant raised his gaze from his tea to take in the appearance of his sudden guest.

It was a woman with long white-coloured hair and black eyes, dressed in denim jeans and a top that matched. She was undeniably a beautiful woman, elegant facial features, full lips and smooth, alabaster skin gave her an ethereal, almost otherworldly allure.

But this man was not fazed by her beauty. Instead, he turned his gaze to the door of the room, and then back to her before speaking.

“Rilene. This room has a door. Use it.”

“I’d use it when I feel like.”

Such was her reply as she plopped down on the couch opposite him and the man just shook his head with a sigh.

Right then, the door opened and someone else walked into the room.

Contrasting the woman who entered earlier, this man had deep black hair, with sharp, angular features, a strong jawline and a gaze that seemed to pierce through everything with his golden-brown eyes.

He wore a sleek, dark trench coat over a tailored black shirt, paired with fitted pants.

Seeing him, the woman’s eyes lit up and she called out to him.

“You’re slow, Uvton.”

The man ignored her and turned to the original occupant of the room who was pouring himself a new cup of tea and greeted him.

“Hello, Jamie.”

And ‘Jamie’ responded in kind.

“Hello ‘Sensible person who knows how to use a door’.”

Hearing this, the woman, Rilene, had her brow twitch repeatedly.

“Oy! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Exactly what you think. It’s a diss at your sanity.”

Jamie’s frank response left Rilene dumbfounded and in that time, Uvton glanced out the open window and then back at Rilene.

“You actually used the window?”

“…why are you all fussing about using a door?! It doesn’t matter if we use it or not since we can all teleport!”

Rilene asked with a frown and in response, Jamie used her words against her.

“It would have made more sense if you had teleported inside here. But noooo, you chose to fly in through the window like an uncivilized person.”

“Indeed, Very Uncivilized.”

Uvton added to Jamie’s words, before requesting some tea in an excessively polite manner, an action that only served the piss Rilene off even more.

They realised this, so they proceeded to silently sip their teas while looking at her, before setting the teacups down soundlessly and using small tissues to dab their lips.

“Fuck you two.”

“Careful with the language, Rilene. You’re in the presence of gentlemen,”

Jamie couldn’t hold back a smirk as he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms casually while speaking. He cast a glance at Uvton, who nodded in exaggerated agreement.

Rilene rolled her eyes, folding her arms with an irritated huff.

“Gentlemen, my ass. You two are just messing with me at this point.”

Uvton, still in his overly polite demeanour, gave a mock bow.

“I assure you, we only mean to uphold the highest standards of decorum.”

Jamie chuckled softly before to the side, resting his elbows on the armrest of his couch.

“Alright, enough banter. Why are you two here? You don’t normally pop into Gozonian territory unless something important’s going on.”

He shifted the conversation to the most important topic, questioning what brought this pair a ‘Supreme’ god King and Queen here.

In this room were three of the Universe’s very few ‘Supreme’ Rulers.

‘Supreme’ god Queen of Space: Rilene Xagna.

‘Supreme’ Benevolent god King: Uvton Delgasso.

‘Supreme’ Demon King of the Void: Jamie Westley.

“I came to ask about that stuff from last week. Or was it last two weeks? Anyway, I came to ask about the Space-time distortion I told you about.”

“Oh, that.”

Jamie’s eyes betrayed a flicker of recognition when he heard her words and she shifted his position on the couch once more before responding.

“I found what was the most probable source of the distortion. It came from Aramis Prime.”

Uvton’s brow raised in curiosity when he heard the name of the world Jamie had called. The man had only come here as a chaperone for Rilene, to make sure she didn’t do anything silly in Gozonian territory and he didn’t actually know why she was coming here in the first place.

Now, he’d heard the name of the planet his daughter was on—acting as a chaperone for Rilene’s daughter.

“Someone was sent back in time over 10,000 years.”

“Ten thousand?! That’s surely enough time to generate such a large distortion.”

Rilene couldn’t help but be surprised by the amount of time involved here, but she also rationalized things and guessed that such time travel was surely capable of causing the distortion she sensed.

“Sargon-boy reported it to McEnda and me last week. We got a little Rogue Hero guest from the future.”

Hearing the name Jamie called, Uvton’s eyes flashed with recognition as he spoke.

“You mean Alvey Sargon, right?”

“Yeah.”

At Jamie’s reply, Uvton placed a hand on his chin and sunk into his thoughts. A few moments after he began speaking.

“You know, when you told me about my daughter being there, I initially wanted to bring her back to Aidos myself, but I saw something with my Authority of Fate that made me change my mind.

Artemisia and Beatrix had their threads of fate entangled with that world’s. Despite not liking it, I also saw that it was entangled with that Alvey Sargon, the youngest McEnda and that Progenitor godslayer.”

As a god King, the existence of a Progenitor of ‘godslayers’ was a matter of deep concern for Uvton. Since Arthur had already taken interest in Artemisia because of her Evolution powers that could resist his ‘Progenitor Authority’, the man decided to have Artemisia study him and send reports back.

This way, he would know if Arthur truly presented a threat, or if antagonizing him would be an unnecessary endeavour that would instead herald the deaths of the trillions of gods he ruled.

Upon revealing this talk about Fate Lines that Jamie hadn’t heard before, Uvton went silent for a bit. He was just about to speak up once more when he heard a very familiar voice.

[Hey Mum!]

“Hello, my dearest little girl!”

The two men turned their heads to the only woman in the room, seeing her holding up a tablet with a live image of a teenager who looked just like her projected on the screen.

“She went ahead and called her daughter in the middle of the conversation….”

“She really did…”

Jamie and Uvton deadpanned Rilene and hearing their voices, Beatrix who was on the other end of the line called out to them.

[Is that Uncle Jay?! And Uncle Uvie!-BAAAMMM!!]

A sudden blast noise filled their ears, and Beatrix who was physically closest to the source, had her eyes widen in shock. She turned around instantly, inadvertently turning the camera of her tablet in the direction of the blast’s source and revealing it to the three Race Rulers.

There, they saw Artemisia, holding a bloodied knife, with a bloodied…mass of flesh and bones at her feet.

The instant Artemisia realised the camera had turned to her, she moved at sonic speed and in a second, the thing on the floor vanished along with the knife in her hand.

She then turned to the camera with her hands behind her back and her usual stoic expression.

Seeing this, Uvton narrowed his eyes at her and spoke.

“You forgot to remove the blood on your cheek.”

[…what blood?]

Again, she moved at sonic speed and wiped her whole face, before acting like her father hadn’t just called her out.

[You must have seen wrong.]

“There’s a knife in your hand, isn’t there?”

Artemisia raised both empty hands and looked at them, confusion flashing in her eyes as she asked.

[Knife? What knife?]

There was silence for a good 10 seconds after Artemisia spoke, and Uvton pressed his fingers to his forehead before asking.

“You’re not dissecting anything, are you?”

[No, father. I am not dissecting any Living being.]

Artemisia told no lies. However, this was her father she was speaking to. The man knew her like the back of his palm.

‘She specified ‘Living Being’…’

“You’re not dissecting anything dead, are you?”

[No, I am not dissecting anything.]

“You’re not dismembering anything either?”

[Except in a fight where I need to immobilize my opponent without killing them, I do not fancy dismembering things.]

“…”

Uvton went silent when he heard her reply. Artemisia’s expression didn’t shift even once so it was hard to tell what she was thinking without being physically next to her.

Just when Rilene thought this little interrogation was up and was about to speak up, Uvton asked one last question.

“You’re not responsible for reducing the amount of body parts that something has, right?”

[…]

Artemisia did not reply and immediately, Uvton’s brows narrowed.

“…Artemisia…”

[Do I have a right to remain silent?]

“No, you do not.”

The man didn’t miss a beat for his reply. Immediately, he turned his gaze towards Beatrix and ordered.

“Turn the camera.”

Beatrix silently turned the camera and showed the appearance of the thing that Artemisia had kicked away earlier.

“Artemisia. Explain.”

[…I’m only responsible for it losing its arm. I am NOT the cause of it ending up like that.]

The teenage goddess needed to be very specific, or her father might just assume she was responsible and place another ban on her.

[If my guess is correct, then that thing was once a ‘Fake Divine Human’ created by the Aramisians.]

“”?!!””

The two god Rulers had their eyes widen in shock when they heard the words spoken. Immediately after, Rilene’s expression contorted.

The god Kings of the Aramis Faction were people Rilene did not get along with and the fact that they let the Aramisians create Fake Divines was one of the reasons why.

[Arty and I are currently exploring some ruins and we found some partially damaged records that led us to believe the place we are is where failures of the ‘Fake Divine’ Project’s earlier stages were disposed.

If I’m guessing correctly, there’s definitely a Fake Divine Factory around here somewhere.]

Beatrix spoke as she brought the camera closer to the thing on the floor, giving the three Race Kings a closer look.

Rilene had no words.

It was a humanoid body, one a bit bigger than normal, but it was still vaguely humanoid. Its flesh had ballooned up all over, making it resemble a mass of flesh from afar. Where its left arm was supposed to be, there was nothing but a few broken bones.

What would have made up its left arm had exploded earlier when Artemisia tinkered with it using her skill.

The most disturbing part of it, however, was its face.

It had none, and therein lay the problem.