Reincarnated Hero System

Chapter 1278: Party Crasher

"So you mean to say that just the three...?" Leoniel asked.

"Four," Evan corrected.

Leoniel nodded, then said, "Okay, so four of us are going to attack the Demonic Hand base in those mountains. And this is the base of its Third Division, and has its Senior Members present?"

Evan nodded and replied, "Yeah, it’s a base of the Third Division, the third most important base in the Third Division."

He chuckled lightly after saying that, then continued in a slightly more serious tone. "Anyways, most of the forces usually stationed there are currently at their main base because they’re busy raiding the ’Tombs of the Barbaric Morass’, trying to locate Morass’ Crown within that massive labyrinth.

As such, the base isn’t as well defended as it normally is.

More importantly, while four of us will be hitting the base, I know a way we can bring in extra combat power to handle the small fry."

"And what way is that?"

"Spirit contracts," Evan replied. "Temporary contracts to be precise. I’ve got a large stockpile of items that spirits like, which I can trade to them in exchange for their temporary services, and the services I want them to provide are their combat power."

Leoniel nodded in understanding at Evan’s plan, and just then, the waiter brought Evan’s order, placing it in front of him before quickly moving away.

As Evan sipped his drink, he caught a flash at the edge of his vision and looked up to see that one of the many people taking pictures of him and Leoniel had forgotten to turn off the flash on their phone, revealing that they’d been photographing them.

He was certain their presence would end up all over Tharvoria’s news and soon international news over the next few days, though he didn’t mind since that was exactly what he wanted.

It wasn’t long ago that Evan had been confirmed to be in the Aelum Kingdom, just days after he was sighted in Isolon, and barely a day after heading to the Elven Empire, he was suddenly in Tharvoria. There was no way the news agencies wouldn’t start cooking up theories about what he was up to with these frequent travels across borders.

Evan finished the rest of his drink in one go, and just as he did, the people at the far end table he’d instructed the waiter to serve cold drinks to suddenly stood up, their eyes wide as they stared at him.

Noticing this, Evan turned and waved at them with a bright smile, and seeing this, Leoniel shook his head with a wry smile.

"You’re really having your fun, aren’t you?"

Evan just chuckled as he watched the intelligence operatives of Tharvoria who had been assigned to monitor Leoniel quickly retreat after realising they’d been exposed.

"All right, time to move," Evan said as he stood up.

Leoniel closed the newspaper he’d been reading, folding it and placing it on the table beside the few coins Evan had left to pay for their drinks.

Evan then reached out to Leoniel and placed a hand on his shoulder, saying, "Walking will take too long, so let’s just teleport."

He activated Farsight after saying that, glancing toward the hotel tower where Laurene and Eliza were staying, its top visible above the surrounding buildings, and used Blink to teleport straight to the rooftop.

Evan sent a message to Laurene and Eliza telling them to meet him at the rear gate of the city, a heavily guarded area that led toward the Kudatha Mountains, a region covered in fog and filled with various monsters.

The four of them easily scaled the walls, slipping past every security detection system installed along them, then moved into the mountains, vanishing into the fog faster than any of the lookouts could notice them.

As they moved, Evan had Kuro summon all the nearby spirits he could sense, with hundreds responding to his call now that Kuro had reached a higher rank among spirits.

Most of them were Low-Rank spirits, and a fair number were darkness spirits, but Evan didn’t mind since there were still a few Mid-Rank ones present, and even the High-Rank wind spirit that governed the area responded as well.

After finalising the temporary contracts, they crossed beyond the outer stretch of a small maze of hills that surrounded the base of the mountains, with Laurene taking the lead, her Mystic Eyes allowing her to see straight through the heavy fog that blanketed the region.

Evan used his Detection Field skill to locate the hidden entrance that the Demonic Hand members used to move through the mountains.

They used that entrance as their path, with Laurene still at the front, her Mystic Eyes of Truth seeing through their security formations and traps, dismantling and disabling them one after another with magic as they advanced deeper into the mountain range.

Soon, they arrived at the centre of the mountain range, where the Demonic Hand base was located, surrounded on all sides by towering mountains and dense fog that never seemed to thin.

The base consisted of five fortresses, with the largest one in the centre, surrounded by four others positioned at cardinal points, each heavily armed with mounted ballistae, turrets, and reinforced battlements, all connected by thick fortified walls that allowed movement between each fortress.

A wide moat encircled the entire complex, filled with black law-energy infused water, and residing in the moat was a Level 799 Demonic Sea Serpent.

The four of them stayed at the edge of the space between the mountains to scan the base, watching as tall searchlights swept across the fog-filled air at regular intervals, scanning for any intruders who might approach.

On the watchtowers, guards lounged carelessly, some drinking, others playing games, their behaviour showing complete confidence that no one could locate the base, and even less belief that anyone would dare to attack it.

After analysing everything and seeing that it was as he expected, Evan turned to face the group and spoke.

"Now then, the goal is to make the Demonic Hand aware that I’m here, and that I’m here with Leoniel. So I’m going to start things off with a bang."

"A bang? You’re planning to blow everything up, aren’t you?" Eliza asked in a flat tone.

Evan responded with a bright smile.

"Of course I’m planning to blow everything up. How else would I start things off with a bang?"

Evan said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world and didn’t need any further explanation, and hearing this, the two young women simply rolled their eyes.

"Well then," Leoniel said with a small chuckle, "who’s going to handle the one inside the lake?"

"I’ll take care of that one," Evan replied. "I’ve got a particular skill I want to use on it, so leave it to me. You handle the ones that look like trouble inside the south fortress.

Laurene, wipe out everything you see. Liz, support Laurene. Kuro, keep Liz protected, but don’t hold back on killing anything that you see."

"It’s a pretty simple plan for something this serious," Leoniel commented.

Evan, rousing his magic power, replied, "Sometimes simple works best."

Then he raised his hand and snapped his fingers, activating Vindiction’s Strike.

A dark portal rimmed with crimson-gold light opened in the sky above one of the fortresses, and as Evan lowered his hand, a massive beam of destructive energy burst from it, dropping toward the north fortress.

A loud sound echoed across the land as a brilliant flash lit up the entire area, the fortress’s defensive barrier activating and expanding across its structure in an attempt to resist the attack. However, Evan’s destruction energy easily overpowered it, causing the barrier to fracture across its surface like shattered glass before breaking apart entirely.

The beam then slammed into the fortress itself, tearing straight through its centre, erasing everything in its path and carving a massive hole deep into the ground beneath.

The land shook violently, the entire mountain trembling under the force of the explosion, the sound overshadowing that of the agonised screams of the Demonic Hand members who were unlucky enough not to have been killed by the attack.

The moment Vindiction’s Strike finished its work, Evan quickly activated several other skills.

’Stout Guardian + Tempest Avatar + Harbinger of Ice: Frostborne Colossus.’

All three skills activated in synchrony, merging into Evan’s Frost Thunder Guardian, a twenty-meter-tall armoured humanoid knight of ice, wielding a massive shield of magic power and a frozen blade crackling with lightning.

It manifested at the midpoint of the wall between the east and north fortresses, and with a single swing of its blade, it cleaved the wall apart, sending those standing atop it flying in every direction.

Simultaneously, the water in the moat behind it violently erupted outward, the massive black-scaled serpent with powerful fangs bursting out and unleashing a pressurised water breath toward the Frost Thunder Guardian.

Before the attack could connect, however, Evan snapped his fingers and activated Blue Judgment, calling down a blue bolt of lightning that slammed onto the serpent’s head with overwhelming force and knocked it back into the moat, causing its water breath to veer off course, tearing into even more sections of the connecting walls instead.

Evan leapt onto the shoulder of the Frost Thunder Guardian, pouring magic power into his voice as he shouted, [My dear friends of the Demonic Hand’s Third Division, your resident Hero Evan Eris is here to party!!! Let’s start this show with some beautiful fireworks!!]

At the mention of the word ’fireworks’, Evan activated Elemental Weapon Projection, filling the sky with thousands of flaming weapons.

Without hesitation, he sent them all down toward the fortresses, the supersonic projectiles slamming into the walls and barriers across all five fortresses.

Repeated impacts cracked the defensive barriers, punched through weakened sections, and opened gaps that more weapons followed through, detonating on impact and spreading further chaos across the entire base.

However, this was the Third Division of the Demonic Hand they were attacking. Even though the base wasn’t at full strength, it didn’t take long for the Senior Members still stationed there, along with stronger Intermediate members and their contracted demons, to begin responding.

Magic attacks curved through the air, all aimed toward Evan, who stood on the shoulder of the Frostborne Colossus, but he simply activated Elemental Shield and blocked every incoming attack, not a single one breaking through the spherical barrier of ice.

Anything that even looked slightly dangerous was intercepted by the Frostborne Colossus’s massive shield.

While the Demonic Hand members were distracted by the chaos Evan caused, Leoniel, Eliza, and Laurene moved around to hit them from the other bases.

Kuro commanded the army of temporarily contracted spirits and led them toward the eastern fortress of the base, while Laurene and Eliza dashed toward the west.

Leoniel left them behind and continued straight south, his fist swirling with law energy as he locked onto a Senior Member who rushed out of the fortress and looked toward the north, where Evan was causing chaos.

’Striking Pillar of the Earth.’

"!"

The Demonic Human snapped his gaze toward Leoniel upon sensing the skill activation, but it was already too late, as Leoniel’s fist was already in front of him, hitting without resistance and releasing quintillions of joules of force into the man’s face.

The impact caved the man’s skull inward, crushing his brain and ending his life instantly. His body was sent flying through the air and crashing into another Senior Member who was trying to cast magic to attack Evan.

Leoniel used his Ground Shrink skill, the distance between them becoming near zero as he grabbed the stumbling mage by the back of the neck and slammed him into the ground, then stomped on his chest and used two skills.

’Force Amplification. Seismic Break.’

His stomp crushed the man’s chest, blasting a hole straight through his body, and right after, a notification Leoniel hadn’t seen in a long while appeared in his field of vision.

[Level Up.]

"What an unexpected gain."

The increase in power from even a single level was significant at his stage, and Leoniel could already feel the rise in his stat levels.

**BOOOM!!

The sudden explosion pulled his attention away from the level-up, and he turned his gaze toward the north, seeing Evan’s Frostborne Colossus tearing through the base’s walls.

Standing on its shoulder, Evan summoned the Akashic Page and used World Magic Spell Number 9.

"Einherjar. Go wild."

He tossed his sword, the Vanquisher, toward the Einherjar, and as the replica of himself began wreaking havoc across the battlefield, he also created a Factor Mimic and sent it off to add to the disorder.

After that, he turned his attention back to the demonic serpent that was lifting its head after shrugging off the earlier lightning strike Evan had brought down on it.

Cracking his knuckles, Evan spoke with a grin.

"Let’s have some fun, snake."