Evan's reunion with Kristine felt far more like that of a parent and child who hadn't seen each other in years than the reunion he'd had with Vincent.
To begin with, Gabrielle had removed herself from the situation, and it was obvious to everyone present that Eliza's existence and her relationship with Evan had left her deeply shaken.
Evansen also stepped away to process the bombshell revelation Evan had revealed, so it ended up being only Evan and Eliza who accompanied Vincent to the Bourne household to et Kristine.
Unlike her earlier eting with Vincent, Eliza found herself inexplicably nervous about eting Kristine, though that anxiety proved unnecessary, as Kristine welcod her far more warmly than she'd anticipated.
The woman even prepared an early family dinner and invited Eliza to join, and only after the al and so light conversation did Evan finally take his leave.
As for Eliza, Kristine wanted to spend much more ti speaking with her future daughter-in-law, and in that way, it was decided that Eliza would have a sleepover on another planet.
Evan would've preferred to remain as well, but he had urgent matters to address on a different planet, which he was currently handling alongside Artemisia.
Their destination was Denerth Pri, the cultivation world which was one of the hegemons on the intergalactic stage.
When Evan had been sent back in ti, he, Arthur, Artemisia, and Beatrix had travelled to Denerth Pri at Jamie's invitation to take part in a 'Secret Realm Exploration' organised by the Denerth Sect, a journey that eventually resulted in them spending over 2 months within the Infernal Dinsion.
Waves of nostalgia washed over Evan as he and Artemisia made their way toward one of the dinsional realms within Tengqiu, the tropolis where the Denerth Sect, the ruling power of the planet, established its headquarters.
"Thousands of years and their sense of aesthetics hasn't changed one bit," Evan remarked, slipping his hands into the pockets of the black and white Denerth Sect robes he'd changed into so he could blend in.
Artemisia, walking at his side, nodded lightly while ignoring the stunned and confused expression the Inner Sect Elder they had just passed directed at her as she replied, "If what they have functions perfectly well, then there's no reason to introduce changes that might cause instability."
"That sounds like sothing Shaoting would say," Evan murmured, pausing to buy a flower-styled hairpin from a roadside stall.
"That is his governance creed."
Artemisia's answer confird that those words had indeed been spoken by Chang Shaoting, the Sect Master of the Denerth Sect, who had governed the planet long before the Great Valmone War and continued long after it concluded.
After placing the flower hairpin into his Inventory, Evan rejoined Artemisia as they continued toward the dinsional realm ahead, one that contained a tropical forest environnt.
At present, thousands of Inner Sect mbers occupied this realm, hunting monsters to earn sect contribution points that could be exchanged for rare artifacts and valuable resources to enhance their strength.
Evan and Artemisia weren't here to participate in the hunt, of course, as they had only co to observe one of the many groups that had co together among the Inner Sect mbers.
There were around 30 of them, and they'd gathered into a raid squad to fight and defeat a giant beetle-like monster whose power was at the Superior Stage Low-Tier Deity Realm, their coordination impeccable, with not a single movent wasted as they closed in around their towering opponent.
Evan and Artemisia watched in silence as the squad steadily reduced the monster's health, and when it hovered on the brink of death, Evan turned toward Artemisia and spoke.
"Did you bring them here?"
"No," the goddess replied. "I only gave them a list of suitable locations and showed them where they could find remnants of pre-Great War technology."
"Oh. So that's how they got the spaceships."
Artemisia nodded once at Evan's words, then turned her gaze toward the entrance of the dinsional realm as she responded to the telepathic ssage coming from Sect Master Chang, who was questioning why she was on his planet.
While she handled that exchange, the battle against the giant beetle was drawing to a close.
Near the end of the fight, the giant beetle, barely holding on, deflected one of the weapons aid at it, sending the two-ter-long great sword hurtling in Evan's direction at supersonic speed.
Evan silently activated Adamantine Might along with a bit of body-strengthening magic and extended his right hand, catching the sword by the handle, the force behind it forcing him to take a step back.
He glanced down at his arm and muttered, "Oh wow, even with the body strengthening, I still cracked my bones a bit trying to catch that, huh?"
The fact that simply reaching out to catch the blade that had been knocked away from the beetle's claws caused his bone to crack, despite him using Adamantine Might and body-strengthening magic to reinforce himself, showed just how much force was behind it.
As he examined his arm and then summoned his GREEN Flas of Life to nd the minor damage, the battle finally ended, and the one whose weapon had flown off turned his gaze toward the small hill where Evan stood.
Sensing that gaze, Evan looked back at him, tossed the weapon in his hand up into the air, caught it by the blade, and then threw it back to its owner, who caught it with ease.
But even though Evan had returned the man's weapon, the man continued to cast a wary gaze in his direction, and he wasn't alone, as the rest of his companions were also eyeing Evan with suspicion.
Evan was wearing the uniform of the Denerth Sect, so they assud he was a fellow mber just like them, and within this dinsional realm, where the ongoing competition to hunt monsters for contribution points was taking place, poaching was allowed.
It was only natural that they'd be cautious of soone who had been silently standing by, watching their fight.
Understanding this, Evan smiled lightly and spoke, "Don't look so wary. I'm not here to poach your kill. Not that I could, even if I wanted to."
When he said that, the one to whom he'd returned the weapon finally spoke up. "Then what're you here for?"
"Just ca to check on you guys, that's all," Evan answered calmly.
"Check on us?" the man asked, confusion written across his face, and Evan nodded.
"Yeah. I'm just a kid from your hotown who ca to check on you guys and make sure you're all still alive."
The mont those words left his mouth, the man's confused expression shifted into suspicion.
At that exact mont, Artemisia finished her exchange with Shaoting and turned her attention toward Evan.
Naturally, the group that had just defeated the beetle-like monster now caught sight of Artemisia's face, and every single one of them recognised her.
Artemisia, however, only spared them a sideways glance, disregarding their stunned expressions as she looked at Evan.
"Are you done?"
Evan nodded. "Yeah, I've seen all I wanted to."
He then waved at the group and said, "See you guys in a few years."
Before any of them could call out to either of them, Artemisia snapped her fingers, teleporting both herself and Evan out of the dinsional realm and off the planet entirely.
"That was Artemisia!"
"Why was she here? And who was that boy?"
Those questions lingered in the minds of the group left behind, but there was no one present to provide the answers they sought.
◇ ◇ ◇
Artemisia and Evan returned to Aidos, not to Earth V to pick up Eliza. Kristine planned to send Eliza back once she was done speaking with her, and Evan trusted Kristine completely, so he had no objections.
Besides, he and Artemisia weren't finished with their business.
Their next destination was the Dark Continent of Aidos, forrly known as the Delta Continent.
The reason they ca was to check on the dinsional rift that led to Planet Gozon, which was located on that continent.
Evan wanted to personally inspect the seal with his own eyes and determine how much ti remained before it inevitably broke open.
There was virtually nothing within several million square kilotres of the dinsional rift. The blackened soil couldn't support any form of plant life, leaving the land barren, and none of the monsters of the Dark Continent fancied such an environnt, so none of them resided there either.
The imnse battles that had taken place there a thousand years ago during the first invasion by Gozon, especially the final and greatest clash between the forr Dragon Lord Gorm and Demon General McEnda IV, had devastated the land so thoroughly that even after a thousand years, it still hadn't recovered.
Coming here for the first ti since his reincarnation on Aidos, Evan couldn't help but shake his head at the desolate sight.
He crouched and grabbed a fistful of the black soil, and as it sifted through his fingers and fell back to the ground, he muttered, "This is definitely the McEnda family's Corrosive darkness."
Artemisia affird his words. "Yes. McEnda III gave his son his staff, and it contained a replenishable charge of his Corrosive Darkness Authority."
Hearing that made it clear why the land remained blackened even after a thousand years.
The corruption and corrosion were caused by the Authority of soone powerful enough to be regarded as a 'Supre' Demon King, Jack McEnda III, one of the Demon Kings currently missing and presud dead, alongside his wife Sigesi and her younger brother Zareon, who was the father of Vaeri Valren, the contracted demon of the Second Finger of the Demonic Hand.
"Where is it? Gorm's corpse?" Evan asked.
"Still on one of Altrishia's islands," Artemisia replied.
Evan nodded and began walking forward, bypassing the magical restrictions and enchantnts placed by the dragons of the Dark Continent's Dragon Empire, who watched over the dinsional rift to ensure no one approached.
Because of them, even the First Finger of the Demonic Hand couldn't just approach the rift and try to force it open, since the dragons, including several Ancient Breeds and many Elder Breeds, would attack him all at once, which would be a death sentence even for him.
Evan preferred that no one knew he was there, since dealing with those dragons would be troubleso, so he had Artemisia temporarily nullify their traps and detection enchantnts, allowing them to approach the rift without interruption.
Even from hundreds of ters away, the dinsional rift was visible in all its magnitude.
It was a massive, gaping, 500-ter-wide diagonal tear in spaceti, a rip in the fabric hovering in mid-air at roughly a 30-degree angle from the ground.
Threads of law energy pierced through the fabric of space above the tear, resembling a rip in cloth that had been stitched together with thread and needle.
In this case, however, it wasn't cloth fabric but the fabric of space and ti itself, and the thread binding the tear was woven from sealing, spatial, temporal, gravitational, and causality law energies.
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