Reincarnated Hero System

“Boss!”

The sound echoed through Zara’s ears, and as her consciousness floated in a haze, she couldn’t immediately identify whose voice it was.

The scream pulled her back toward awareness, though her vision was still blurry. As her senses recovered enough to register her surroundings, she saw Varek’s face close to hers, along with…

‘Eliza…Laneford?’

Zara blinked at their pale expressions and forced herself to speak. “…How long was I out?”

“Just a few seconds,” Varek replied, his voice clearly strained. “But boss…”

His words stopped midway as though something held them back.

Zara tried to rise, only to realise she couldn’t put any strength into her body, and it was then she noticed that Eliza’s hands hovered above the right side of her body, glowing with powerful magic.

Zara then looked down toward her right arm, the one she had used earlier to tear off the defensive artifact attached to her belt buckle and empower her Tempest Wall in an attempt to block the skywhale’s divine attack.

That right arm was no longer there.

Everything from the midpoint between her elbow and shoulder had been erased. The wound was blackened by heat and flame, with very little blood escaping from it.

It wasn’t only her arm that had suffered damage. Sections of her body were burned and charred, and Eliza’s magic continued working to purge the residual law energy left behind by the attack so that the wounds could eventually be healed.

Zara’s right eye felt clouded, and through her left eye, where she still had some vision, she could see the skywhale floating above, its pale wings moving gently to keep it airborne.

Several explosions rang out as spells and magic attacks came from every direction, all aimed at the skywhale, but the translucent barrier of divinity surrounding it blocked every strike.

Even Leoniel’s powerful earth spells failed to pierce that defence.

The skywhale’s eyes remained locked on Zara even while it endured hundreds of cannon shots, but when Leoniel’s magic connected, its head lifted toward the island of Zera in the distance, instantly locking on Leoniel and marking him as the next greatest threat.

Before dealing with him, however, it intended to eliminate Zara.

Its massive jaws opened once more, gathering particles of light as it prepared another beam attack.

Zara could hardly believe that such a powerful beam could be fired in such rapid succession. Clearly, this creature existed beyond the bounds of her common sense.

Defending against that attack head-on was impossible, and as the light concentrated within its maw, Evan’s earlier words echoed in Zara’s mind.

[You’re not capable of handling the monster that threatens your islands.]

In that instant, Zara finally understood what had felt strange about Evan’s words before.

She had been viewing the situation as a simple tactical problem: Monsters flooding the ocean.

To her, it had seemed like just another dungeon break, something she had faced and dealt with multiple times.

When Evan had mentioned a “threat,” she immediately associated that word with the danger she was already witnessing: tens of thousands of monsters pouring out from the underwater dungeon and five bosses exceeding Level 800 lurking in its depths.

Moreover, at the moment Evan had spoken, his actions had wounded her pride and ego, dulling her ability to parse the subtle semantic difference in his words.

Now, confronted with the threat manifesting directly before her, the distinction between what she had assumed and what Evan had truly said finally became clear.

And then, as though reading her thoughts, Evan appeared directly in front of her. He crouched low so that his eyes met hers while she struggled to remain barely upright.

“Didn’t I tell you, Miss Zara?” he said quietly. “You’re incapable of handling the monster that threatens your islands.”

That was the difference she had failed to recognise before.

Evan had always spoken of a monster. Singular.

He had been referring to one entity the entire time, while Zara had interpreted his words as referring to the five bosses deep inside the dungeon.

Evan had never been concerned about the dungeon break itself. He had even made it clear that he knew she could handle Solen’s dungeon break.

From the beginning, his concern had been focused entirely on the creature currently hovering in the sky.

Extending his right hand toward her, Evan spoke again. “I believe that earlier, I said my offer lasts until the last moment. This is the last moment.”

Magic power coalesced around his fingers as the contract magic activated.

“So what do you say?” he asked softly. “Do you accept my offer?”

Eliza attempted to speak, but Kayla appeared behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head quietly to signal that she should not interrupt.

As for Varek, Kuro’s shadows silently wrapped around his mouth, preventing him from speaking and leaving Evan and Zara facing each other in silence.

Meanwhile, the divinity gathering inside the monster’s mouth continued intensifying.

Its attack built toward even greater power as it sensed Evan’s presence and reacted to the larger threat he represented, drawing in more divinity and ambient law energy to unleash a single blast capable of erasing both Evan and Zara together.

Zara could feel that level of energy building.

If that attack was released, she knew she would not survive.

Evan had already demonstrated the ability to teleport instantly, so he could just take Eliza and escape without hesitation.

That beam would obliterate her entire fleet along with several nearby islands, and considering the monster had already demonstrated the ability to fire that attack repeatedly, the next one would wipe out the entire archipelago.

Evan’s outstretched hand before her seemed to be her only hope. A hope she wasn’t even certain of the details of, and a hope that came with very obvious strings attached.

The divinity gathering inside the skywhale’s mouth reached critical density.

Sensing this, Zara reached out and grabbed Evan’s hand.

Immediately, the magic power surrounding his hand spiralled and intertwined with hers.

“The contract is finalised,” Evan said.

He rose to his feet, and Kayla immediately turned toward him, asking, [Master, are you going to fight that thing?]

Evan answered without hesitation. “Fight? No, no, no. This won’t be a fight.”

He walked toward the helm of the ship while continuing to speak. “Sometimes, displays of power are best executed instantly.”

Extending his right hand, he spoke a single word.

“Vanquisher.”

His sword appeared at his command, and the moment he gripped its hilt, an immense wave of magic power erupted from his body.

He raised the sword high with both hands as destructive law energy gathered around him, and from the blade, a towering pillar of crimson flames erupted upward into the sky, piercing through the clouds.

The magic circles within the skywhale’s eyes multiplied rapidly as it attempted to analyse Evan’s attack.

Facing those eyes with his grey eyes, the light of his active Mystic Eyes shining within them, Evan spoke.

“Your time has long since come to an end, uncontrollable relic of the old Aidos.”

Evan moved his right leg backwards, then swung the sword downward and spoke the true name of the skywhale in a quiet voice.

“Begone, Artificial Divine Messenger.”

Pseudo-Authority of Destruction: World Sunder.

The pillar of crimson light descended.

At the same moment, the monster released its beam.

In a blinding flash that lit the night sky like midday, the crimson pillar cut through the beam, dispersing the immense energy before continuing forward and crashing into the skywhale’s massive body.

It tore through the translucent barrier of divinity surrounding the creature and sliced directly through its head, cutting the entire body along the centre in a single clean arc and dividing it into two enormous halves that spilt blood across the ocean as they fell.

“Kayla,” Evan said.

Kayla responded immediately, combining wind and ice magic to slow the descent of the falling body. Massive pillars of ice rose from the ocean and held the two halves of the skywhale in the air, freezing them solid and preventing them from hitting the water and creating massive waves that could overwhelm the ships or reach the islands.

Because the body was frozen, far less blood poured into the sea, reducing the amount of clean-up the archipelago would later need to handle.

Satisfied, Evan lifted his sword, placed it on his elbow and muttered in a low voice, “Good job, Vanquisher.”

The weapon vanished, returning to his Inventory as he turned toward Zara.

“Monster eliminated,” he said calmly.

He walked past her and tapped her left shoulder while activating Mesarthim, engulfing her body in the GREEN flames of life.

Evan then glanced toward Eliza and said, “A little assistance for you, Liz.”

A faint smile appeared on his face, and then he activated Blink, vanishing without a sound, while Kayla elementalized into lightning and followed him.

Left behind, Zara could only stare blankly at the two massive halves of the giant creature frozen high above the ocean.

Her eyes filled with everything from simple shock to immense disbelief.

The monster capable of obliterating the entire archipelago with a single attack had been defeated by Evan with a single slash.

In that moment, Zara realised that Evan was infinitely more dangerous than the rumours had ever suggested.