Chapter 472: Evan’s ‘Personal System’
’The Red flames possess pure destructive might. The Orange flames buff him and the Yellow flames are for purification.
I’m curious what the remaining four colours do...’
While he thought that, Marcel’s reddish-brown eyes glowed with light as he ascended high up into the air, his gaze locked on Evan every second of the way.
Seeing the law energy building up around the spirit, Evan took a deep breath and pulled back his sword in preparation for a thrust.
Crimson gold ice surged from the blade, and then a layer of destructive essence covered it next, and then his prismatic flames surged and completed the third layer.
"Elemental Destruction Fusion."
[Glacial...Descent]
Marcel activated his skill as he plummeted down with incredible force, reaching Evan in but a mere second and swinging down his claws.
Evan disappeared right before they hit, reappearing behind Marcel and thrusting his sword towards the Spirit’s back.
"Vortex!"
A spiralling mass of power surged from the sword and barrelled towards the spirit’s back, however, Marcel was able to turn around in a split second and swing its claws to block the attack.
**KAABOOOMM!!!!
A shockwave of frost clashed with the prismatic flames and destruction energy mix in an explosion that engulfed the entire space inside the barrier.
The force of the explosion caused the ground to tremble violently, sending debris flying in every direction. Shards of ice and fragments of rock were propelled outward, adding to the chaos of the scene.
Also being propelled outward, was the body of Evan who had unsurprisingly lost out in this clash of powers.
His back slammed onto the wall of the barrier, sliding down to the ground with blood leaking from his nose.
Marcel’s eyes glowed as the spirit got ready to finish the job, condensing divinity around his claws while Evan forced himself to his feet, his horns radiating magic power in preparation for an attack.
His sword flew into his hand and his energy surged through it as he raised the sword intending to thrust it forward.
Silence pervaded the area for a second and in the next, both Margaux and Marcel charged towards Evan at supersonic speed.
The Rogue Hero also thrust his sword forward, sending forth a swirling mass of energy towards them.
"I-"
"V-"
|¬Alright everyone, be still. ¬|
Arthur’s clear voice rang out and the entire world around them turned monochrome, their movements stopping as if someone had pressed the ’pause’ button on reality.
Even as the world around him had gone still, Evan still retained his consciousness.
’This familiar feeling...time has stopped!’
"Good work, Evan. You’re a lot stronger than I expected."
Arthur’s voice rang out in his ears as the Progenitor casually walked through the barrier wall and past Evan, instantly allowing the Rogue Hero to know he was left conscious on purpose.
"I’d like to study that Blessing of Destruction more later. It could give me inspiration for mine."
Evan watched as the silver-haired teen walked up to the frozen mother and ’son’ pair, his hands in his pocket as he continued.
"First off, you lost soul. I’m not good at dealing with souls so I’d leave it to the guy who does."
His right hand came out of his pocket and he grasped empty air before commanding.
|¬Come forth, Lostvayne. ¬|
**BZZZZTTT!!!!!
Reality Glitched.
That was the best way Evan could describe what just happened before his eyes. Space cracked and the colours of the world inverted for a split second.
In the next, there was a jet-black blade in Arthur’s outstretched hand.
’DANGEROUS!!!’
That was the first thing his instincts told him when he saw that sword.
His soul screamed at him to shut off his Mystic Eyes and not even dare to look at that blade with them.
The mere sight of the sword, triggered one of his trump cards to automatically activate.
|Threat of Imminent True Death to Host Detected ⚠|
|Reincarnated Hero System Stored Authority Consumed|
|Activating ’Survival Enhancement Mode’|
|Host is advised to FLEE!!|
|Host is advised to FLEE as fast as physically possible! |
That was the stream of notifications that appeared in Evan’s field of view, as whatever this ’Reincarnated Hero System’ he had was, it was capable of detecting a portion of the real threat the Rule Breaker Arthur wielded posed.
It should be noted that this thing had not activated when he was fighting against Margaux earlier, because although he could not win the fight, he wasn’t going to die since the woman was aiming to capture him alive and use him as a hostage.
The ’System’ had also factored Arthur’s presence into the equation and concluded that Evan wasn’t at threat of imminent Death.
Lostvayne’s mere presence, however, changed that.
"Oh my. You’ve finally attuned yourself to me completely, huh?"
Arthur spoke with a bit of joy in his voice as he saw that the lines running through Lostvayne’s blade were no longer dark red but silver.
His Silver.
The sword’s blade trembled as if it was confirming his words, and Arthur chuckled before raising it with the intent to stab Marcel with it.
It was at that moment, that he noticed a surge of power coming from Evan, and when he turned around, his eyes widened in shock.
Cracks spread around the layer of black and white surrounding Evan’s body, and in the next second Evan broke out of Arthur’s time stop.
"...what just happened?"
Evan himself appeared to be surprised by this phenomenon as well, and Arthur stabbed Lostvayne into the ground before inching closer to the Rogue Hero with glowing eyes.
"How did you do that?"
Granted, he had only used a Basic Time Stop on Evan and had even done it partially, leaving him conscious, however, Arthur had an Authority over the Law of Time itself.
His decree for ’Time to the Stopped’ was supposed to be inviolable by anyone without a Pseudo-Authority of theirs.
What’s more, if that person was weaker than he was.
Yet, Evan had just violated that decree.
’Was it the System? Did it break me from the time stop because it wanted me to ’FLEE’? That’s pretty useful...’
Evan theorized the reason for this, but he couldn’t spend too much time dwelling on it as Arthur’s inquisitive gaze bore down on him.
Cosmic energy surged from Arthur’s body and lifted Evan into the air, scanning him completely before the Progenitor raised a surprised voice.
"What’s this? Someone stuffed a Pseudo-Authority into your soul? No...it’s not the Authority itself but the charges of the Authority.
And they’re replenishable too!"
’?!’
Evan’s eyes trembled when he heard Arthur’s words but the Progenitor paid no mind to this and dropped him back onto the ground.
"Very interesting..."
Arthur pivoted on his heel, retracing his steps to retrieve Lostvayne. He stabbed Marcel with it like he originally planned, and Evan watched as the Vengeful Spirit let out an agonized screech, its existence slowly devoured by the sword.
’The Sword can eat souls?!’
He finally understood the reason why his ’System’ was so scared of Lostvayne and was still telling him to flee even to this point.
The world around him regained his colour, and his senses caught on to something he had missed earlier.
’A bounded field? When did it get deployed?’
He noticed the boundary line delineating Arthur’s ’Hall of Fractured Time’ behind him, right before Margaux’s scream of pain rang out.
"MARCELLL!!!!!"
It went without saying that she had instantly noticed that her son’s spirit was no more, and Arthur who was standing before her with a sword could only be the one responsible.
"DIEEE!!"
She thrust her spear towards him with all her might, however, Arthur just sighed and activated Gravitemporal Harmony, creating a localized gravitational field that slammed her down onto the ground under the pressure.
Still, Margaux screamed manically as she tried to resist it with her divinity, unfortunately, she couldn’t do so.
"Revenge, huh? Logically, I understand your desire for it, but I cannot empathize with it as I’ve never been in such a situation.
I’m not saying you are wrong for this, and I’m not right for stopping you either.
But unfortunately for you, Margaux Bonnet, you just so happened to be on the side that was against me.
As such, your revenge has come to a premature end."
Arthur stabbed Lostvayne into the ground and allowed the sword to savour its meal as he lifted Marguax by her neck and slammed her into the ground with a force equivalent to 50 times Aramis’ gravity.
It wasn’t enough to kill the Legendary Realm existence, but it was more than enough to put her body under immense strain and reap her consciousness in an instant.
Arthur lifted her body with his gravity law energy and then turned to Evan as he deactivated his Bounded Field and spoke.
"We’re done here."
He tapped the Rogue Hero on his shoulder and in an instant, all the damage he had sustained during the earlier fight disappeared as if it never even happened.
Lostvayne slowly shimmered out of view as he unsummoned it, and he deactivated the spatial barrier around them while walking out with Margaux’s unconscious body.
He was about to ask if Evan could use his ’Everlasting Chains’ to restrain her when something fell out of her pocket and onto the ground.
Arthur flicked his fingers and it flew into his palm.
Upon examining it, he discovered it was a Spatial Map to a specific location somewhere in Northern Gledea, deep into Elven territory.
It was shaped like a cube and upon peering into it with spatial law energy, one could see the three-dimensional map inside it.
"Maybe that’s the location of her hideout? Oh well, I’d go check it out later."
He tossed the map into his subspace and then turned to Evan who was just looking at him in silence.
"What’s up? Never seen someone beat an opponent so easily before?"
"Huh? No, it’s just...you’re a lot more absurd than I thought. Guess there’s always someone better out there."
Evan had always been called ’Irregular’ and ’Anomaly’, with people telling him he had strength that seemed absurd for his age and he agreed with them too.
But here was Arthur, only a year older than he was yet much stronger and much more ’Absurd’.
’He also saw through the System’s ’Stored Authority’ at a glance...’
Hearing Evan’s unfiltered thoughts, Arthur burst out laughing before responding.
"Everything in existence is Absurd.
I just happen to rank higher amongst the absurdities, nothing too serious."
Turning around, he cast Greater Teleportation and warped them out of the area, back to Militopolis.
