Chapter 1301: It’s all Calculated
"I asked it before, and I’d ask again, are you sure he’s on this continent?"
[The Great Spirit Undine had her High-Rank spirits check the surrounding waters,] Kuro responded. [The moment we got a certain distance from this continent, we started sensing Evan in the direction of the continent.
Regardless of the cardinal direction we left with, after a few kilometres, we started sensing Evan in the direction of the continent.]
"So he’s definitely fallen somewhere here..." Vulwin muttered.
"And he’s definitely injured," Zaos added, pointing out the most important detail about Evan’s current state. "He’s expended a lot of energy breaking past the atmosphere."
[And he must’ve gone quite deep considering how far off from the atmosphere’s upper levels that bomb exploded,] Rizass noted.
Kolvar frowned at Rizass’ words.
[Even we can’t go too deep into space and for too long due to radiation from our sun, much less Evan, who isn’t a Transcendent...]
"Huh? What do you mean, Evan isn’t a Transcendent?" Abigail interrupted, her expression confused.
"He’s not, Abigail," Laurene replied.
Abigail, however, was even more confused by Laurene’s words.
"What do you mean he’s not? He has Stage 6! You saw it."
"Stage 6 requires Level 900, not Transcendence," Laurene clarified. "Evan’s a Level 900 with the stats of a Level 950, but he’s definitely not a Transcendent."
Abigail was about to respond, but Eliza, who had stayed silent until then, finally spoke up.
"Whether or not Evan’s a transcendent doesn’t matter right now! What matters is the fact that he’s injured and we need to find him!"
She turned to Rizass and asked, "Did you check above the atmosphere? What if he’s stuck in orbit or something?"
[I inspected the blast site before I came down, and there was no sign of Evan,] Rizass responded.
Her mention of ’coming down’ sounded strange to everyone except Laurene, Eliza, Kuro and Kolvar, since they had no idea that Rizass didn’t live on the planet, but on the moon, along with several powerful dragons that even Altrishia didn’t know about.
"He’s not in space, and his signal is scattered across the entire continent...!" Eliza bit her lip in annoyance, while Laurene silently patted her back to comfort her.
Zaos, exhaling softly, then said,
"Wherever he fell, there’s no way he didn’t cause a big impact. The moment we hear any news of meteor falls or anything similar, we’ll be on it in seconds. Right now, there’s another problem we have to deal with besides Evan’s disappearance."
"True, what to explain to the masses," Vulwin agreed.
Eliza, however, looked up at the two men in confusion.
"Huh? How is that a problem?"
"It’s obviously a problem," Zaos responded.
"I don’t see any problems there," Eliza shot back instantly. "You tell them exactly what happened."
Altrishia frowned in displeasure at her words.
"You want to tell the civilians that there was a bomb that could destroy the entire continent?"
"Yes. Tell the civilians that the Demonic Hand planted a bomb that could blow the whole continent to oblivion, and make sure to include the part that Evan’s the one who saved them."
Eliza spoke calmly and firmly in a tone that made it clear she wasn’t going to accept anything less.
"That’s not a good idea, Eliza," Laurene said, trying to convince her otherwise, but Eliza wasn’t ready to be convinced.
"Do I look like I care if that’s a good idea or not?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "I only care if what’s being done is what Evan would’ve done."
"So you’re saying that he would induce mass panic across the people with such news?" Vulwin asked, his expression filled with disbelief.
To his question, Eliza replied with full confidence. "Yes, he would."
"That’s irrational!" Vulwin snapped.
"It’s calculated!" Eliza retorted instantly.
"I don’t see how any of that can be calculated."
Vulwin’s words made Eliza click her tongue in disappointment, and she looked at everyone in the room with questioning eyes.
"Have you all been blind to Evan’s recent actions? All the places he’s been to since he came here, and all the things he’s done?"
She didn’t pause even for a moment, her fist clenching as she raised her voice.
"And there are those foolish countries in the south trying to bar Evan from their borders with stupid claims! The countries of the Beta Continent clearly don’t know how much of a threat to this world the Demonic Hand is, so let this serve as an example!"
Altrishia wanted to speak, but Eliza cut her off, ignoring her displeased look.
"And I’m telling you that Evan would do this, not just to let them know of the Demonic Hand’s threat, but for a much simpler reason. He saved this world as we know it!
Evan saved virtually everyone who lived on the surface of this planet!
Even if they weren’t killed by the blast, even if they weren’t hit by the tsunamis and disasters that would have wreaked havoc across all coastal nations, they would still be affected somehow!
No country in the world is a complete monolith. They all rely on other countries in some way, so even if only the coastal nations of the other continents were devastated, the landlocked nations would still suffer.
Let’s not talk about the thousands of ships across the ocean right now.
If that bomb blew up, everything on the Beta Continent would be dead, maybe save for the few people that you," she paused, gesturing to Zaos and Vulwin before continuing, "would’ve been able to save in the seconds between you sensing the blast and it reaching you."
Eliza exhaled deeply, rising from her seat as she continued.
"So many countries’ interests and their citizens have been protected by Evan, so do you really think that Evan, who has been so focused on building intercontinental influence over the past few years, the same Evan who has told many of you here that he plans to create a coalition of countries across continents, would pass on this opportunity to expand his influence as the person who saved them all?"
Eliza didn’t even give them a moment to think before she answered the question.
"I think the fuck not. Evan would definitely, regardless of what any of you say, spread the news that he’s the one who saved everyone, and when he comes back, he WILL do just that."
Her expression then turned mocking as she added, "And personally, I want everyone to know he did it. I want those fools who can’t think with their empty skulls to understand the scale of the disasters Evan’s been protecting this world from for the past five years!
Bomb on Beta this year, or Dimensional Rift on Alpha last year. Either one of those succeeding would’ve left this world devastated, and Evan’s the one behind both of those disasters failing, and you know that, so how can you even think twice about this?
Tell the truth as it is. Let every single person on the planet know the Demonic Hand is responsible."
Suddenly, Eliza’s eyes widened as a flash of inspiration hit her.
"You know what, how about we publicise the names of the Demonic Hand Executives we know so they can’t hide in plain sight anymore? Cut off their ability to influence the world!
They designed this whole scheme to take Evan out because they’re planning something Evan can definitely stop! Something they don’t want Evan to stop."
Just when Eliza said that point, Vulwin raised his hand.
"That’s enough, Laneford child. We understand your point."
Laurene also got up and pulled Eliza back down to her seat, while Rathal just laughed.
[Evan’s got himself a good wife here, huh?]
[Not now, Rathal,] Kolvar warned.
Rathal, however, just shrugged casually.
[What? I’m saying the truth.]
Before Kolvar could say anything else, he looked back at Eliza and asked, [Besides, Matthias ’ daughter. Eliza, was it? There’s still something not adding up.
You guys say this was a trap to take Evan out, but no matter how I look at it, these guys were trying to bomb the whole Beta Continent.]
When she heard Rathal’s words, Eliza turned to him with a confused expression.
"What? You haven’t realised it?"
She glanced at everyone in the room, her confusion turning into disbelief as she realised they hadn’t figured out what seemed obvious to her.
Just then, Abigail, who was also confused by what Eliza was implying, blinked before she suddenly gasped.
"Fate’s Disciple!"
Laurene immediately snapped her gaze towards Abigail, her voice cold as she warned, "Don’t say any more."
Those two words were very familiar to every one of the Seven Heroes, and currently, it was for a bad reason.
Hearing Laurene’s warning, Abigail turned to her, confused, then shook her head.
"What are you on about? Ferrid’s skill is fate manipulation. He can literally see the lines of fate and the multiple branching pathways. He knew everything from the start! It was so fucking obvious, and we all missed it!"
"What was obvious?" Zaos demanded, slightly annoyed with the way they were speaking without explaining.
"This whole mess! The Demonic Hand’s trap was meant to ’take out’ Evan!
They knew from the start that the bomb was never gonna go off on the surface! The First Finger knew Evan would take it to space, and Evan did, and he got caught in the blast and is missing.
Evan has been ’taken out’! This current situation is exactly what the Demonic Hand was aiming for!"
Abigail’s words instantly made it click for several of them.
They’d been assuming the Demonic Hand’s plan to ’take out’ Evan meant to ’kill’ him, but clearly, it wasn’t that.
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