Reincarnated Hero System

“…what?”

That word involuntarily escaped Evan’s lips, and the reactions of the two who heard it varied.

Belphont smirked, silently mouthing the words ‘got you’, while Kayla’s hand flew over her mouth. She turned around with her eyes trembling, and her expression was one of someone who just realised something.

That they’d just fucked up.

Evan had initially planned to ignore Belphont. Sure, Kayla was acting suspicious, but he could always grill her for answers after they had dealt with the FCDs.

But when Kayla responded to him, everything changed.

“…you aren’t the real Great Lightning Spirit?”

[No, Master I am!]

“No, she’s not.”

[SHUT UP!!!]

Kayla turned around and blasted the Illusion Clone who interrupted her to bits, but a dozen more manifested a second later, all of them laughing as they stared at Kayla’s anxious expression.

[Master, don’t listen to his nonsense. He’s trying to mislead you!]

“Nonsense? If it was really Nonsense, you wouldn’t be trying so hard to stop me from talking, now, would you?”

One Belphont spoke with a teasing grin, and another appeared beside Evan and continued.

“And here I decided to be nice and enlighten your dear ‘Master’.”

**WHOOSHH!!

Kayla’s form blurred and the Illusion Clone was instantly ripped in two halves, but the remaining Clones continued talking.

“I only wanted to make him awar-!”

[SILENCE, BELPHONT!!!]

Kayla unleashed her powerful lightning, reducing all the Illusion Clones to dust in an instant, and her eyes trembled with growing anxiety.

Suddenly, ambient energy condensed, forming a giant illusion of Belphont’s face in the air. His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

“You…you flinched when I said the word ‘Aware’.”

[?!]

Kayla’s body shook at his words, inadvertently confirming Belphont’s suspicion. She wanted to attack the giant face, but it dissipated and reappeared behind her, posing another question.

“What about that word made you so rattled that you couldn’t control that much of your reaction?”

[…]

The Spirit’s expression fell. Offering no reply, she raised her hands, activated her Pseudo-Authority, and conjured a giant orb of lightning above her palms. Without hesitation, she slammed it into the ground.

**BOOOOOOOOM!!!

A cataclysmic explosion ensued, lightning and energy erupting in a blinding flash. The sheer force shattered the surrounding walls and sent debris flying.

Despite being near the point of impact, Evan didn’t take a single lick of damage as Kayla enveloped Evan in her power, shielding him from its effects.

However, the devastation was short-lived. The Dream Dimension began to self-repair almost immediately. The shattered walls reassembled, the debris vanished, and the hall returned to its pristine state as if nothing had happened at all.

Seeing her actions, a single Belphont appeared in front of them and spoke with a sigh.

“I always had doubts when Prisma said you gave up your power after the war. He was lying, wasn’t he?

You never gave up your power…you just sealed it away.”

Kayla ground her teeth as she searched through all her millions of memories for a method on how to break out of this Dream Dimensional Realm.

She needed to get Evan out of here as fast as possible. She didn’t want him to hear what Belphont had to say at all.

Her emotions and intentions spilt over to Evan via their connection, and the Spirit was too unsettled to notice she had lost that much control.

“…”

She also didn’t notice that Evan had switched off BoD and lowered his sword—almost as if he had no intention of trying to break out.

Belphont, however, noticed this. The man looked straight at Evan, his eyes narrowing to slits as he continued speaking.

“You see, Hero boy, some truths are too painful to stay hidden forever. And our dear Kayla has a past that’s just begging to be unveiled.”

Belphont’s voice dripped with mock sympathy, and Evan silently looked at Kayla’s expression, witnessing a mixture of guilt and fear.

“It’s fascinating, isn’t it? How the past can resurface at the most inconvenient times. Like now, where you have no means to escape and have no choice but to let me say whatever I want…even if you don’t want me to.

From the way you don’t want him finding out, and your reactions. Did you perhaps use an Awareness-type Sea-!”

[SHUT UP!!]

Kayla finally reacted, screaming to silence him as she grabbed the clone and ripped its head right off. However, she knew this was futile and this ‘crisis’ would not end until she killed the real Belphont.

“You messed up, big time right there, Kayla. I was only making a wild guess, but you just helped me confirm it.”

Although Belphont said this, on the inside, his thoughts were vastly different.

‘So, it seems Faulin was correct, after all…It’s really an Awareness-type Seal.’

He glanced at Evan, understanding why Kayla was so hell-bent on trying to get him to shut his mouth.

“The one who is tied to your seal…it’s your ‘Master’, isn’t it? He’s the one who needs to be Aware.”

“…”

Having the focus turned to him, Evan sighed softly, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts.

He’d known for a long while that Kayla had her secrets. He knew Artemisia was probably aware of said secrets. He would also not deny that he wanted to find out what these secrets were.

But after seeing the way Kayla was reacting, and feeling the fear slipping through their connection, he asked himself if this was really how he wanted to find out.

One of Belphont’s Illusion Clones appeared beside him and was about to place a hand on his shoulder when Evan’s fist blurred and punched his head off his neck.

The Clone dropped dead, and a new one appeared a few metres away, touching its bleeding nose as he spoke.

“Your Destruction Essence is more potent than it looks. To think I actually received damage from that. I’m…surprised.”

‘?! Actual damage?’

Evan’s mind zeroed in on Belphont’s words. Nevertheless, he didn’t take everything at face value, as there was always the possibility that the man was lying to get him to drop his guard in some manner.

‘But if he took damage…then it means he’s not projecting his Illusions from afar?’

“Come on, boy. Aren’t you curious? Ask me questions or something. Haven’t I already said enough things to make you suspicious of her by now?”

Belphont wiped off the ‘blood’ and barraged Evan with questions, disappearing and reappearing all over the Hall so he or Kayla couldn’t attack him.

“Don’t you want to find out what happened to the real ‘Great Lightning Spirit’? Don’t you want to find out who your dear Spirit really is?

She’s not as young as she makes herself out to be, you know?”

“And what guarantee do I have that you wouldn’t just feed me a bunch of lies?”

Evan spoke as he stealthily infused his aura into the ground, trying to see if he could find the real Belphont underground. He had to do this slowly, so Belphont wouldn’t notice a thing.

His words made Kayla’s eyes brighten up and she quickly spoke.

[Yes! Master, he’s lying! Don’t listen to anything he says!]

Kayla’s words made Belphont laugh and he formed an Illusion Clone at the throne before replying to Evan’s question.

“Guarantee? You have one right in front of you.

The more she tries to stop me from talking, the higher the level of truth in my words.”

[NONSENSE!]

Kayla sent a bolt of lightning in his direction, but he just blocked it with a simple celestial energy shield and looked at the spirit.

“Pray tell, Kayla…why are you sticking to just lightning? What about your other elements?”

[You talk too much!]

Kayla glared at Belphont, electricity crackling at her fingertips as she spoke, her voice laced with barely controlled fury.

Belphont chuckled, his illusionary form flickering in and out of existence as he replied.

“Oh, but Kayla, isn’t it better to get everything out in the open? After all, your contractor deserves to know what kind of spirit he’s aligned himself with.”

Another Belphont manifested beside Evan, his hands crossed behind his back as he walked forward and asked.

“Hey, Hero of Aidos Prime. Did you know that behind the beautiful appearance of your dear Contracted Spirit, lies a monster far worse than the Demons of Gozon you fight against?”

“…”

Belphont casually dropped a line that Evan could not ignore even if he wanted to, and Kayla’s ever-increasing fear and anxiety weren’t helping matters.

The light of curiosity sparked in his eyes, and Kayla became even more unsettled when she saw this.

Evan silently turned towards her and she shook her head silently, small teardrops beginning to escape her eyelids.

[…please…]

It was the same expression he had seen on her face the day she first revealed her Spirit Raiment to Evan…on the day they defeated Dominik Velak.

He could see the unspoken words in her eyes, begging him not to ask.

But even if Evan didn’t ask, Belphont was all too eager to provide an answer. His voice echoed through the hall, dripping with amusement.

“I tell you no lies, Hero.

Let me enlighten you, and make you Aware of the things she doesn’t want you to know.”

When Belphont said this, Kayla waved her hands and conjured a 4 ringed magic circle, casting the strongest sound isolation magic spell that existed on current Aidos.

She used this to block the sound of Belphont’s words from reaching Evan, before turning to the Celestial with the intention to speak.

However—

**CRACCK!

—the spell broke in the next moment and Kayla’s expression changed from fear-filled, to straight-up despair.

She couldn’t be blamed, as the one who had broken the spell was not Belphont…but Evan himself.

[M-master…?]

Kayla begged him silently with her eyes, not even making any futile attempt to hide her emotions from slipping through their connection.

Evan could feel it all.

Buried deep beneath her anger at Belphont, her anxiety, and her desire to not let Evan become ‘Aware’ of whatever Belphont wanted to say.

Buried deep beneath it, was pure fear.

Kayla’s fear…of being hated by him.

However, despite everything being laid bare, Evan only silently looked away, and that single action was the final nail in the coffin for Kayla.

Kayla’s body collapsed to the ground, crumpling to her knees like a puppet with its strings cut.

The light in her noble golden eyes dimmed and faded, leaving them blank and lifeless.

Belphont snorted when he saw this, shaking his head as he turned towards Evan and asked.

“Do you know what an ‘Awareness-Type’ Seal is?

Assuming you don’t, it’s a type of Sensory Seal. Sensory Seals are the epitome of equilibrium.

They have very strong sealing forces, capable of holding down even the strongest powers…but in return, they are rather simple to unlock.

Well, they are simple compared to other seals out there. Anyway, an Awareness-type seal seals a ‘target’ and designates a third party as the ‘Key’ to that seal.

As far as that Key remains ‘Unaware’ of certain things, the seal remains. But if that Key becomes ‘Aware’, then the seal loosens depending on their level of Awareness.”

After saying up to his point, Evan pretty much understood where Belphont was going. There was some sort of Seal on Kayla, and he was the ‘Key’ tied to her seal.

Belphont could tell Evan had arrived at that conclusion from the boy’s expression, so the man moved on to the next thing on his list.

“You’ve seen her Spirit Raiment, haven’t you?

I wonder, did that broken Crown look familiar to you? Perhaps it reminded you of the crown worn by a certain ‘Spirit King’?”

An Illusion Clone of Belphont materialized next to Evan, hands clasped behind his back, his voice dripping with insinuation.

“But here’s the twist: it’s not that her crown resembles the Spirit King’s Crown. No, it’s the Spirit King’s Crown that mimics hers.”

It was a simple case of reversing the order of which came first. But this simple reversal hinted at a deeper, more complex truth.

Not giving Evan time to digest that twist, all the Illusion Clones of Belphont disappeared except the one seated on the throne who spoke up.

“The Demons of Gozon have been conquering Worlds for millions of years, but do you know who has done even more than they have?

Conquered more worlds, decimated more planets and wiped out even more civilizations?”

Belphont’s eyes seemed to glow as he fixed his gaze on the silent Kayla whose head hung low, and he began calling out a list of titles.

“Dominator of Worlds.

Scorcher of Dimensions.

Ruiner of Realms.

The Star of Lightning.

‘She who broke the chains of fate.’

One of the Five Race Emperors—the peak of powerhouses of the Universe.

Spirit Empress, Kaylatheurge.”