One mont, the village was calm.
The villagers were going about their daily lives, children laughing as they played around trees.
The next, the entire village abruptly exploded into a raging inferno. Crimson flas surged past the buildings, consuming the forest around them, and reducing nearly everything to ash within seconds.
The source of the explosion lay on the ground in a small crater, having smashed through dozens of trees faster than the flas could swallow them.
His eyes stared blankly at the smoke-filled sky as he muttered,
"…what the fuck just happened?"
Yes, Evan was the one who swung the sword. Evan was the one who had just obliterated the village.
Yet he was utterly baffled.
He replayed the last thirty seconds in his mind, trying to make sense of what had happened.
He had swung his sword with the intent to behead Zula, but just before impact, his instincts, developed by years of combat experience, warned him of sothing, before even Danger Sense reacted.
But at such close range, there was no way Evan could halt or redirect the supersonic slash. The most he could manage was to quickly siphon so of the magic from the blade back into himself, which he did without hesitation.
The split-second the crimson flas began to recede, his sword made contact, and that was when the explosion erupted, flas bursting outward and engulfing the village in an instant.
And yet, despite being its cause, Evan was the one hurled away by the blast.
He landed on his back, but was completely unhard since his durability was far beyond what the impact could injure, and his own flas could never burn him thanks to his self-power immunity.
Still, the shock ca from what had knocked him back.
sarthim.
'I was hit by sarthim's flas.'
Evan sprang to his feet, his eyes narrowing as he looked in the direction he had been blasted from.
"That damn bastard... he sent my flas right back at ."
In that instant, Evan was able to identify one of his opponent's powers—Reflection.
But it wasn't just a simple reflection. There was sothing else laced within it that caught his attention.
It felt as though the flas had attempted to harm him, and yet because of his self-power immunity, they failed to do any actual damage.
Evan's self-power immunity functioned differently than normal.
It was not simply that he was immune to attacks he unleashed. Rather, it was that sarthim's flas could never harm him at all, with the only exception being if he overused Orange's self-immolation.
Even if soone else were to sohow wield sarthim's flas, they would still be harmless to him.
What caught his attention in this situation was that the mont his attack was reflected, it ceased to be considered his. It had effectively beco his opponent's attack, but since it was still sarthim's flas, it dealt zero damage to him.
'What's more, I had weakened the power of the attack at the last split-second, but what was reflected was as strong as a full-powered Hell Unleashed.'
This ant, in essence, that his opponent possessed Reflection, Damage Amplification, and quite possibly Attack Usurping.
'Or perhaps that last part was rely a consequence of the Reflection itself…'
Still, it was a troubleso line-up.
Just then, a voice echoed through the smoke and fire.
"You reduced your slash's power at the last second. You've got good instincts."
Erging from the haze was the village chief, calm and completely unscathed.
"And you're unhard? Ah, I see. Fla resistance? Or is it immunity? No, full immunity is impossible for a mortal. So it's probably just immunity up to a certain level, huh?"
Evan kept his eyes fixed on the man who spoke to himself, but as if unbothered by Evan's wary gaze, Zula asked calmly.
"Since when did you realize?"
Evan was silent for a mont before sighing. He let go of the Unforged, allowing it to float beside him as he crossed his arms and answered in a nonchalant tone.
"From the mont I saw you, Soul Devil Azzonnin."
The mont the words left his mouth, Zula—or rather, Azzonnin—reacted, his eyes widening slightly.
"You…!"
Azzonnin had not expected that. He had masked his devilish aura perfectly and maintained the perfect guise of a spirit, but to think Evan had seen through it easily.
What Azzonnin didn't realize was that Evan had been suspicious of spirits in general ever since his first day in this world, when he encountered an Infernal Archdevil masquerading as one.
Back then, his senses had been completely convinced he was looking at a genuine spirit, but the mont he used Appraisal, he saw sothing different.
She had used a powerful subterfuge thod, but Evan's Full Appraisal saw right through it and exposed her real status to him.
From that mont, Evan was cautious of spirits, knowing there had to be a reason why an Infernal Devil would disguise herself as one.
And yesterday, when he had been approached by multiple spirits, Evan appraised them, and just as he expected, they were all devils wearing the guises of spirits.
Expanding his perception field, Evan clicked his tongue and muttered,
"The people in the village… they were really all dead n walking, weren't they?"
Hearing this, Azzonnin, snapping out of his brief mont of shock, replied,
"Hmm, you're not too far off."
The Soul Devil's response made Evan shake his head.
All the people in that village, from children to the elderly, had, as Evan called it, been dead n walking.
Their bodies were already dead. They had simply been souls inhabiting and controlling corpses.
Perhaps it was the awakening of his Deity Soul after the First Stage release of his vision seal that made Evan more sensitive to soul-related matters.
Because of that, he had sensed sothing was off about Azzonnin from the very beginning. To Evan, Azzonnin seed like an existence made up of multiple souls crushed and fused into one.
That was why Evan had needed every ounce of self-control just to keep his expression composed the first ti he laid eyes on Azzonnin.
Anyway, as ntioned before, the others in the village, even the cultivators Evan had spoken with, were already dead. Evan suspected that Azzonnin was rely using their souls, likely bound under his control, to animate their corpses and give the illusion of life.
Besides Azzonnin and Evan, there wasn't a single truly living being in that entire village.
'Oh, right, there are still those devils who were masquerading as spirits. But I already took precautions to keep them incapacitated while I focused on this one, so they should be down for now.'
And while Evan had that thought, Azzonnin also narrowed his eyes slightly.
'They are all unconscious. But that boy's attack should not have been enough to knock out several level 700s. Unless...'
Azzonnin turned to Evan with a suspicious gaze.
'…he did sothing to them beforehand.'
He was right. Evan had done sothing.
Specifically, while he was exploring the village, he had planted a number of magic stones infused with his own power in certain locations, even burying a few underground.
When he launched his attack on Azzonnin, the wave of power from his slash triggered all of those stones. So of the devils had been standing directly over them without knowing it, and the resulting explosions hit them point-blank.
A few of them had died outright, while others were knocked unconscious or left severely injured.
Azzonnin clicked his tongue in annoyance.
'Useless. If I had my full power, I would have had stronger subordinates instead of this pathetic lot.
But I suppose this is to be expected. Archdevils would never listen to soone stuck at the Legendary Realm.'
He then turned his thoughts back to Evan.
'If I can get this boy's body, I should be able to regain my full power.'
Many thoughts crossed Azzonnin's mind, but it all took no more than a few seconds, for like Evan, he possessed a thought-acceleration skill.
His skill, quite literally nad Thought Acceleration, was precisely how he had managed to react to Evan's sudden attack—an attack that had caught him off guard since he had not expected Evan to strike so abruptly.
Still, he had maintained a level of wariness around Evan, and combined with his Thought Acceleration, he was able to deploy a reflector just in ti to send Evan's strike right back at him.
The man advanced a step, releasing his negative magic power to seize control over the ambient energy of the Law of Reflection.
In response, Evan grabbed the Unforged, once again imbuing it with crimson flas. This ti, however, he added Destruction Law energy to the mix.
Seeing this, Azzonnin chuckled. "It didn't work the first ti. What makes you think it's going to work this ti?"
Evan didn't respond. He simply kicked off the ground and dashed forward at lightning speed, closing the distance in an instant.
Just as he was about to bring his sword down on Azzonnin, he suddenly vanished, reappearing behind him and swinging at the man's blind spot.
However, the mont his blade made contact, the attack was reflected once more, and Evan was blasted backwards again.
This ti, though, Evan was prepared, so he flipped around mid-air and landed on his feet, his eyes locking onto Azzonnin.
'My sword never reached him. It was stopped by sothing atop his skin. A layer of law energy. That must be what's reflecting my attacks.'
As he thought this, Azzonnin turned to face him, shaking his head as he spoke.
"I told you that wouldn't work. You may possess the power of destruction, but my understanding of the Law of Reflection surpasses your understanding of Destruction. As such, I can easily reflect even your Destruction."
A smile ford on his lips as he added, "Besides, Reflection isn't my only power."
Activating his Thought Acceleration, he glanced at Evan's sword.
'That weapon…both the first and second attacks carried the sa amount of energy, yet the damage output increased. I didn't sense any skill activations, so it must be the sword's power.
Well, that won't be a problem. I'm not much of a weapon user anyway.'
And with that, he raised his hand and declared, "Weapons are Restricted."
The mont he spoke, a surge of magic power swept through the area, and instantly, Evan's arm dropped as if a massive weight had been chained to it, dragging his sword toward the ground.
Feeling the sudden force, he clicked his tongue in irritation.
'This…it's just like that bastard from the Kyrexi!'
It reminded him of an opponent he encountered in his previous incarnation.
"Tsk…damn restriction law…"
Hearing Evan curse under his breath, Azzonnin responded with a hint of surprise, "Oh? You're quite knowledgeable. But yes, Reflection and Restriction are the two primary laws I control."
The mont those words left Azzonnin's mouth, Evan felt a deep, inexplicable discomfort in his gut. He couldn't quite explain it, but sothing instinctive scread at him not to let Azzonnin continue speaking.
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