Bianca's attention was imdiately drawn to the glow, and recognition crossed her face when she saw the orb hovering above Laurene's palm.
"Venus?" she asked.
Laurene nodded. "Yes, it holds a third of Yvonne's soul."
This short explanation was enough for Bianca to understand.
"Yvonne always was the kind to set up fail-safes like that."
Laurene closed her palm, causing the orb to vanish in another flash of light before she explained, "Since it's only a third of her soul, it's still weak and hasn't gathered enough magic power to awaken, so it stays dormant for now.
I don't have all of Yvonne's mories because a third of them are stored inside that fragnt."
After Laurene finished, Evan, who had been searching through his inventory, spoke.
"Four of us on the Alpha Continent, with the remaining three on the Beta Continent."
Finding what he was looking for and taking it out, he continued, "I already know that one of them is Abigail Lowe, but I have no clue who the other two are, and finding them is going to be a pain."
He sighed softly after he said this, closing his inventory before carrying on.
"However, there's at least so consistency among us Heroes. For one, on the Alpha Continent, three out of four are royals. The one confird Hero on the Beta Continent is also royal.
So, I think our best lead is to search among royalty and high nobility when looking for the others."
Bianca and Laurene had also noticed this pattern, so they understood why Evan intended to focus on the upper circles of society when finding the remaining heroes.
"Do you intend for all seven Heroes to move as a unit?" Bianca asked, picking up on the implication in his words that he ant to gather them all.
"Only if the situation demands it," Evan replied. "Normally, I'd rather we spread out, but if sothing happens that requires concentrated effort, then I'd want us to move as a unit, or at least as many as can move together, so we can benefit from our Hero Title and Mystic Eye Series Skill Resonances.
I'd also like for us to beco much stronger than we are now to increase the power our Hero Title resonances can provide."
Evan already had a plan in mind to strengthen the Heroes of the Alpha Continent, but he wasn't going to focus on that for now.
First, he had to deal with the Master of Dragondune and the event taking place in two days. Only after that would he begin working on his plan to empower his fellow Heroes.
The atmosphere settled into a calm lull after that, with everyone occupied in their own way for the remainder of the journey.
Milena and Nadarus were absorbed in their crossword puzzles, Roselia was engrossed in her books, Leviah and Cheisnih were in another cabin, Laurene was tinkering with a magic catalyst, while Evan was with Eliza and Kayla watching a movie.
Ti passed like this until Kayla glanced out the window and tapped Evan.
[We're in range.]
Hearing that, Evan raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Already?"
He turned toward the window, seeing only endless stretches of desert sand with no visible landmark to distinguish one area from another. However, he did notice a few lower-ranked Earth Spirits drifting about, which made him realise how Kayla had known they had reached their destination.
"Ti to start stopping then…"
When he muttered that, Eliza stood and said she'd inform the train crew, heading toward the captain's cabin while Evan went the other way to gather the others.
The train began slowing soon after, and after so ti, it gradually ca to a stop in an area that was practically in the middle of nowhere. As they stepped off the train, Evan scanned the surroundings, seeing nothing but stretches of sand-covered hills in every direction.
He opened the RHS and projected a map, glancing around to locate the ancient city ruins that were their final destination in this region before turning to Bianca.
"Can you hide the train? So no monster passing by notices it."
Considering her Light and Mirror magic, he figured she was best suited for the task and decided not to use the illusion spell he had originally planned to.
Nodding slightly, Bianca extended her hand toward the train, releasing magic power that caused the sand surrounding it to begin swirling.
Before their eyes, she turned a large portion of the sand into glass, then used it to cover the train, reflecting the light of the surroundings onto the mirrored surface, effectively rendering the train invisible.
It was the most effective technique to use in environnts with a consistent background to replicate, such as the desert around them, which made real-ti sampling and seamless projection of the surroundings far easier.
Once that was done, Evan turned his attention to Laurene, closing the distance between them and lifting her onto his shoulder in a single motion.
"?! Wha—! Evan?!"
She exclaid in shock at being suddenly lifted like a child, but Evan only laughed and spread his wings as he said, "Brace yourself."
With those words, he kicked off the ground and shot into the air, rising several hundred tres in an instant while activating his concealnt skill to hide them from any flying monsters in the area.
Laurene scread the entire way up from the suddenness of the ascent, and the mont Evan stopped, she imdiately summoned Venus and smacked him on the head with it.
"Would it kill you to give a heads up?!" she snapped.
"But I did?"
"Yeah, sure! Like 5 microseconds ahead!"
Evan laughed at her quick response, earning himself a death glare. Still laughing, he pointed toward the ground and started to speak.
"Okay, Laurene… how about you do a little scouting for u—"
"I found it," Laurene interrupted, pointing toward a spot west of the train with her Mystic Eyes glowing.
"That dune over there. It's covering a pocket space. Maybe a dinsional realm or sothing."
Evan gauged the distance visually, confirming it was roughly 6 kilotres away, before descending without warning.
Laurene scread again from the sudden drop, and the instant he set her down, Evan folded his wings and slipped into her shadow to avoid her hand swinging through the air where his head had just been.
He reappeared behind Eliza, wrapped his arms around her, and spoke to the others.
"So our eyes in the sky have found our target. West. 6km out."
Several eyes turned in that direction, and just as Bianca was about to ask how they planned to get there, Evan continued speaking.
"I'll head over first. Kuro, you warp everyone through my shadow."
[I fear my magic power would not be enough for this group,] Kuro said as he leapt out of Eliza's shadow, where he'd been resting and looked around.
Teleportation consud more power the greater the number and strength of the targets, and for Kuro in his current state, their group was far too much to handle alone.
"Don't worry about magic power. Use mine. That's what the contract is for, after all."
Evan had more than enough magic power to share, and Kuro sensed this as well, nodding in response.
Evan then stepped away from Eliza, unfurling his wings again and beating them once, shooting into the sky. He activated Lethe and flapped his wings again, propelling himself toward the target and arriving within seconds.
He stopped a few hundred tres from the dune Laurene had pointed out, landed on the sand, and contacted Kuro to tell him to begin the teleportation.
His shadow, cast by the afternoon sun, expanded until it was more than twenty tis its original size, and after a few seconds, the rest of the group began erging from it.
"Now that everyone's here, let's go over our plan," Evan said, clapping lightly.
"We're going to split up. Deadly Sins, Eliza, and Bianca are coming with . Spirits, Cheisnih, and Laurene, you all go together. My group will draw so of them away, while the other group will use Kuro's teleportation to get in and finish off the rest that remain."
Hearing that, Laurene frowned, turning her gaze toward the dune before looking back at Evan.
"There are hundreds of them in there, Evan," she said, having already seen through the space and sensed the number of presences behind the dinsional barrier of the target realm.
"I know. I'll give you all so support."
Evan replied while raising the Akashic Page, its sheets flipping rapidly until stopping at the description of a specific spell.
"I'll use World Magic to back you up. I'll erase any buffs or support abilities they have, then send a helping hand."
After saying that, he turned to the Deadly Sin siblings and spoke.
"We're drawing them away to the south, toward the ruined city in the distance. We'll have to stop occasionally to attack them, both to rack up so kills and to keep them chasing us so they don't turn back."
The three nodded in silence, though Bianca's expression grew uneasy at his words. Evan didn't notice, as he was focused on casting a World Isolation Barrier over the area to block any SOS signals the base might attempt to send.
Once he finished, he stored the grimoire away, turned toward the dune Laurene had pointed out, and cracked his knuckles.
Seeing that, Laurene's eyes widened, and she reached out to grab him.
"Wait! You're not planning to punch it open, are you?!"
She vividly rembered the disaster that followed the last ti Evan used brute force to break through a dinsional realm and didn't want a repeat.
However, at her question, Evan only smiled and used Blink to teleport.
"Damn it! Everyone, back away!"
Laurene's warning rang out the sa mont Evan drew back his fist, coating it in sarthim's orange flas.
'Stellar Impact!'
Evan's fist crashed into the dune with a blinding flash of light, followed by a thunderous explosion that shook the air itself. The eerie sound of space tearing apart echoed as the dinsional realm's barriers buckled and broke under the imnse force of his strike.
Waves of magic power and law energy rippled outward, tearing through the surrounding terrain and collapsing an entire section of the realm's hemispheric barrier wall, leaving a massive entrance wide enough to fit four or five elephants standing in a line. The shockwave swept through the interior, flattening everything close to the walls and burning dozens of Demonic Hand mbers who were caught too close.
Panic broke out as the survivors rushed about, trying to put out the spreading fires while struggling to comprehend the source of the sudden, overwhelming blast.
Screams blended with the crackling of burning debris as disoriented Demonic Humans stumbled, dazed by the destruction. Frantic voices shouted orders and demanded explanations, but no one could make sense of what had just struck their stronghold.
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