To say that the Heroes were dumbfounded, surprised, or stunned by how much their power had grown would be an understatent.
Evan had practically laid out fodder for them, bags of EXP waiting to be collected, where all they had to do was deliver the final blows to gain them.
Naturally, most of the EXP went to Evan since he was the one doing the heavy lifting, but considering the thousands of enemies present, which included Level 700 high-ranking demons from other worlds, even the relatively small portions they received from finishing them were a substantial amount.
By the ti they had finished off hundreds of them, they had accumulated enough EXP to raise their levels to 700.
Laurene, David, Bianca, Kayla, Kuro, and Eliza were all boosted past level 700, and there was even enough EXP left for Yetu to reach level 700 as well, though he couldn't go past that mark.
Once again, they were reminded of just how much stronger Evan's trip to the past had made him.
As stated before, the current Evan was strong enough to battle Inferior Transcendents using nothing but pure physical strength, and with his magic and skills, Interdiates could get put six feet under, too.
Also stated before was the fact that Transcendents had the power to sink entire continents to the ocean's depths, landmasses spanning tens of millions of square kilotres. And that was only considering area, not the thickness of those landmasses or the reinforcent from the planet's flow of magic power and cosmic energy.
The current Evan had just as much power, while the thousands of Legendries he just defeated were capable of sinking a few islands at most.
What had happened here wasn't even a workout for him.
But even with all that power, Evan still openly admitted that Elder Keasatra, the Second Finger of the Demonic Hand, would still pose a problem for him. He also said the First Finger, Ferrid, would be troubleso, but only under certain conditions where Ferrid stopped limiting his power.
At this, Laurene, who was practising her law energy manipulation, referencing the mories of Yvonne—a forr Transcendent who had once comprehended universal laws—silently clenched her fists, crushing the orb of law energy she had created.
Looking up, she said, "When David told , I didn't want to believe it, but now there's no doubt anymore. To think 'he' of all people was the First Finger…"
For the longest ti, Laurene had been in disbelief, unable to accept the identity of the First Finger of the Demonic Hand even after Evan and David had hinted at it.
The wielder of the Child of Reincarnation skill, a man who was born long before the war a thousand years ago, lived through it, remained alive even now, and possessed the power to manipulate Fate.
And that man's na was Ferrid.
Laurene's arm trembled slightly as she felt a long-overdue fear.
"We've been in serious danger, Evan."
Slowly clutching her chest, she shouted, "I've been in serious danger! I walked up to that man and spoke to him. He could've killed right there!!"
Evan had said that the other Heroes had all t the First Finger of the Demonic Hand at different tis in their lives without realising who he truly was, and now, Laurene had just confessed that she had approached and spoken to him after revealing that she was a Hero—an existence Ferrid considered a target for elimination.
Her life had been at risk, and she didn't even know it.
"You did that in public, Laurene. The man has to maintain his alternate identity, so he wouldn't have done anything to you since there were a lot of people watching," Evan replied, his expression turning serious as he warned her right after.
"Also, Laurene, I don't know if you need to use magic or anything, but make sure to control yourself the next ti you see him. Don't let him realise that you know, or he might really take the risk to silence you."
Just as he said that, Eliza, who had finished wiping off the dirt on her boots, spoke up.
"There's sothing I've always been confused about, Evan, ever since you hinted at the First Finger's identity to David while we were in the dungeon in the Beast Kingdom."
Her words turned Evan's inquisitive gaze towards her, and eting his eyes, she asked, "If he's the leader of the Demonic Hand, then he should be a 'World Enemy', and you Heroes should be able to detect World Enemies. Why didn't Laurene's Hero title respond when she t him?"
That was a valid question, one Bianca was about to ask herself. Hearing it, Evan replied, "Ah, that. I'm not going to lie, that was a mystery to for the longest ti, but now I understand it's because he likely has a Higher Existence on his side."
Lowering his gaze to his phone, he unlocked his screen and continued, "Rember how I got sent back in ti by the goddess on the demon world's side?"
**CLANG!
The loud sound of tal striking stone echoed, and everyone's eyes turned towards the source, where a dumbfounded Yetu stood, having dropped the great sword he'd been cleaning the blood from.
Seeing the man's stunned expression, Evan chuckled lightly and said, "You heard nothing."
Yetu silently nodded, wishing he could erase the mory altogether. Considering Evan had just decimated thousands of Level 500s to 700s before his eyes, he certainly didn't want to know anything the boy might even vaguely consider secret.
Evan seed unconcerned with his discomfort, turning his gaze back to his fellow Heroes and continuing from where he'd stopped.
"As I was saying, being sent back in ti helped understand a lot more about what exists outside this world, and as I told the Princess earlier," he said, gesturing to Bianca, "there are existences beyond this world that possess things called Race Ruler Titles that empower them in myriad ways.
All possessors of these titles are beings that control anywhere from hundreds to thousands upon thousands of planets across the entire system of gravitationally bound stars and planets that we call our galaxy.
To summarise, there are Lords, Kings, and Queens for the females, as well as Emperors and Empresses.
Demon King Ginaroad is, well, a King, obviously, even though he only ets the requirents for a Lord. He's a King despite that because his father, Alvey, made a few… adjustnts to the system."
"Adjustnts to the system, you say?" David echoed.
"Yes, adjustnts," Evan replied. "You see, with these titles of Lords, Kings, and Emperors cos greater control over the universal system that allows us to absorb residual magic power, existential records, and a bit of soul power from slain foes in the form of EXP to 'Level Up'.
That sa system is also responsible for things like Skills and Titles."
"'Demon King' is a title," Evan continued. "One that Alvey himself possessed. Using his superior control over the system, along with his Irregular nature and a few other factors, he was able to cheat the system and pass his 'King' title down to his son, even though his son was just a mortal who hadn't even t the requirents for a 'Lord'. That's why Ginaroad was the 'Demon King' a thousand years ago.
The goddess who sent back in ti also possesses that level of Authority. She's a 'Queen', comparable in power to Artemisia."
Laurene and David frowned lightly as they began to understand that the scale of things was far greater than they had imagined.
"The god Queen who sent back in ti is likely working with the Demonic Hand, and she's likely the one who tweaked the system with her Authority, making it so that our Hero titles can't detect Ferrid as an enemy of Aidos."
There was silence for a mont after he spoke, and then Eliza asked, "This god Queen, you know her, don't you?"
Evan, wearing a wry smile, chuckled and replied, "Yeah, of course I do. The spell she used to send back in ti was one that sent to its caster's location, after all."
After saying this, Evan turned away, walking toward the now-destroyed gate of the estate as he said, "I hope you all understand that your current levels of power are to remain secret until further notice."
He was clearly ending the discussion on Race Rulers, and catching on, David sighed and replied, "Of course we do."
Hearing that, Evan raised his fist and gave a thumbs-up.
"Good. Now then, let's take our leave."
"Wait, Evan!" Laurene called out, gesturing to the devastation around them as she asked, "What if the other mbers of the Demonic Hand co to check on this place? This is where an Executive was.
Wouldn't they notice sothing's wrong once we disable our illusions and you bring down your barrier?"
At that, Evan stopped, turning around as he nodded.
"They certainly will, but I've got sothing to deal with that."
Raising his leg, he stomped it into the ground, releasing magic power from the impact point.
Before their eyes, golden lines of energy began spreading across the ground, and from above, one would have been able to see the lines forming an enormous six-ringed magic circle.
Then, spreading his arms wide, Evan said, "EOTD, I know you're watching. Take the blood and corpses of everyone here as an offering to feed your little pets, and please grant a miracle of Restoration."
For a mont, there was silence.
Then, the light from the magic circle engulfed every corpse present.
All the demons, demonic humans, elves, and dwarves were consud by the light, which then expanded outward as ti itself began to rewind.
It was like watching a movie in reverse as all the destruction vanished, buildings reassembled, and the devastated landscape returned to how it had been before Evan's group arrived.
The entire estate was restored completely, but without a single living soul in any of its buildings.
Raising a thumb up to the sky, Evan turned to his companions, dismissing the World Isolation Barrier as he said.
"That should buy us so ti."
It went without saying that the others were left completely speechless.
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