Chapter 1300: Where is the Hero?
Zaos had already launched himself into the sky the moment Evan breached the lower atmosphere, convinced that Evan would need support after expending so much power to carry something of that magnitude beyond the atmosphere.
However, the instant the cosmic explosion expanded outward through the upper layers of the sky, the shockwaves reached him before he could even try to protect himself. His body was violently thrown off course, his descent turning into an uncontrolled fall that tore through the air as he was flung downward like a falling star.
He would have become a meteor crashing into the surface if Altrishia, in her full dragon form, hadn’t teleported behind him and caught him mid-fall.
She immediately generated layers of magical barriers around them, translucent walls forming in rapid succession as the cosmic shockwaves continued to roll through the atmosphere.
However, her hastily created barriers cracked within seconds, forcing her to reinforce them just to keep them from fully collapsing.
The sight of this made Zaos’ expression darken as he thought of Evan, who was definitely caught within the actual blast whose mere shockwaves could crack a Transcendent’s barrier like glass.
[Zaos. What the hell is going on?]
"It’s those Demonic Hand bastards," Zaos cursed as he answered Altrishia’s question.
"They tried to bomb the continent."
[! That thing was on the ground?!]
"Yes, it was. But that’s not important now."
Zaos quickly freed himself from Altrishia’s hold and used wind magic to keep himself airborne, his pupils darting rapidly as he spoke.
"We have to find him. That blast could’ve sent him anywhere across the continent!"
[Him? Find who?] Altrishia asked, polymorphing into her humanoid form with wings lightly flapping behind her.
"The one who flew the bomb into space. Evan Eris. That Hero."
Zaos reached out and grabbed Altrishia by the arm, then spoke hurriedly. "Search west. I’ll search east. You’re looking for a Transcendent-level presence that’s definitely weakened."
Without another word, Zaos turned and shot off toward the western side of the continent, his magic power bursting outward and sweeping across the land below in search of Evan, leaving Altrishia behind with more questions than she had fingers to count.
Zaos called all the High-Ranked Wind Spirits he was contracted with, about to order them to assist in the search, but just as the spirits appeared beside him, a powerful wave of energy swept across the skies.
"! This presence...?"
The High-Elf recognised it as he’d met its owner barely two days earlier in his own palace, and immediately the High-Rank Spirits around him began groaning.
[Wha—my head?!]
[This is...? The King?]
[No...it’s greater!]
Zaos turned worriedly toward the spirits, but before he could speak, their groaning stopped, and one of them muttered, [Her Majesty?]
’Her?’
As far as Zaos knew, the ruler of the Spirits of Aidos was a ’King’, not a ’Queen’, so hearing a High-Rank Spirit say ’Her Majesty’ instead of ’His Majesty’ naturally left him confused.
But his confusion was unresolved as the spirits immediately began chattering among themselves.
[Her Majesty is furious!]
[She said to find Evan!]
[Who’s Evan?]
[That Hero guy! Don’t you watch the news?!]
[I barely leave the forest! How can I watch the news?]
[He’s got a point.]
[That doesn’t matter right now. Her Majesty said to find Evan! She’s pissed!]
[Ah! Right!]
[At least she let us know what he looks like!]
Exchanging such words among themselves, the High-Ranked spirits immediately dispersed like the wind they were born from, scattering in all directions to begin a full-scale manhunt.
Zaos was left without answers to his questions, but he quickly pieced things together, thinking of the reaction of the Great Wind Spirit Sylph on the 16th and the fact that spirits who should have been unaware of what truly happened had suddenly received orders from a ’Her Majesty’ to search for Evan.
’That Lightning Spirit of his. I knew she wasn’t any normal Great Spirit after Sylph’s reaction, but it seems she’s far higher up the Spirit Hierarchy than I thought.’
However, Zaos didn’t spend time speculating Kayla’s rank among the spirits and quickly returned to the more important matter, searching for where Evan had been blasted by the immense kinetic shockwaves of the explosion still lighting up the night sky.
He ordered the Elven Sovereigns under his command to join the search, and Vulwin later arrived as well, bringing his dwarves with him as they swept across the continent in search of Evan.
But even with three Transcendents and thousands of spirits combing the continent, there was still no trace of Evan when dawn broke.
◇ ◇ ◇
The world was in a state of shock and fear.
The reason didn’t need to be said.
Even after hours had passed and the blast had long since died down, the effects left in the sky that still hadn’t returned to normal reminded the world that what they’d seen and felt wasn’t a lie.
The upper atmosphere was still fractured in the regions above the Beta Continent, with thin sections of space still leaking faint streams of ionised light that spread across the horizon like slow-drifting auroras.
The planet’s magnetic field continued to oscillate in uneven pulses, sending waves of pale radiance through both day and night skies, visible even under sunlight as faint shimmering curtains.
At irregular intervals, distant ripples of energy passed through the atmosphere, creating brief distortions where the sky seemed to bend or shimmer before stabilising once more. The remaining cosmic radiation still interacted with the upper layers, leaving parts of the skies in a constant state of unstable glow.
The whole world wanted to know just what the hell had happened, and what had caused that immense wave of power everyone felt, and these auroras so bright that they could be seen even in the day.
People looked to their national authorities for answers, but those authorities were just as confused as the people they ruled over.
To prevent things from descending into chaos, with people screaming ’it’s the end of the world’, the Transcendents quickly issued official statements to let people know that there was no threat and that a full explanation would be provided soon and people were to remain calm.
These statements were released through the various leaders of the planet’s nations to reassure the people.
However, this was only a temporary measure, because although the people would be calm for a while since the Transcendents had spoken, there was still paranoia, and if they didn’t receive answers soon, things could still go bad.
After issuing this statement, the Transcendents all gathered for a meeting to discuss the situation.
Rizass, who was normally on the moon, returned to Dragondune, and Rathal, who was in an underground dungeon on the Alpha Continent, returned to the surface because of this matter.
It was the first time Aidos Transcendents had met since their numbers increased.
’Dragon Lord’ Altrishia.
’Elven Emperor’ Zaos.
’Beast King’ Kolvar.
’Smith King’ Vulwin.
’Strongest Human’ Rathal, and
’Dragondune’s Master’ Rizass.
Altrishia, Zaos and Vulwin were the ones who called the meeting, and Kolvar, Rathal and Rizass were attending virtually since they were at separate locations on another continent.
Also present in the meeting were the individuals who knew everything that had occurred last night from start to finish: Laurene, Eliza and Abigail.
Abigail started the explanation to the unaware Transcendents about how the Demonic Hand had devised a trap to take out Evan, and how Evan had, after finding this out, decided to bring Zaos into the fold and dive headfirst into the trap and neutralise it with overwhelming power.
Laurene then revealed the true nature of the trap being the Thermal Accumulation Bomb, which was connected to the magma layer of the planet and was absorbing heat, and how the whole plot was designed taking Evan’s elemental affinity into account.
She then concluded with how Evan had decided to fly the bomb into space before it could detonate its transcendental cosmic energy payload.
When they were done explaining everything, there was a heavy silence for a few moments before Kolvar finally spoke.
[I knew Evan had become a problem for the Demonic Hand, but not to the level where they’d use such a bomb to deal with him...]
"They weren’t trying to deal with him, they were trying to kill billions and displace billions more," Altrishia immediately countered. "They were trying to crumble the world as we know it."
[This is on a much larger scale than just trying to open a Dimensional Rift,] Rizass remarked.
Right after she spoke, Rathal asked the question which Abigail and Laurene’s explanation hadn’t given him an answer to.
[Where’s Evan now?]
His question made Eliza’s expression darken, and she silently clenched her fist, and that was enough for them to know Evan’s whereabouts were currently unknown.
[The kinetic shockwaves from such a blast could have sent him skipping like a stone across the continent. There’s also the possibility he could have been thrown off the land and into an ocean,] Rizass muttered.
[What about his contracted spirits? Have them try to sense his location,] Kolvar suggested.
Just as he said that, Kuro leapt out of Eliza’s shadow and onto the table, then shook his head.
[It’s no use. We can sense that Master Evan’s definitely somewhere on this continent, but not exactly where. There’s something scattering the signal that should lead straight to him across the entire continent.]
When Kuro said this, the tan-skinned dwarf with a muscular physique that contrasted his height and a long red beard tied in multiple sections, sitting beside Zaos, Smith King Vulwin, asked, "I asked it before, and I’d ask again, are you sure he’s on this continent?"
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