Years ago, Evan had tried to appraise Future Artemisia, but that didn't end well due to their level difference. However, the current Artemisia's level wasn't significantly higher, allowing Evan to scrutinize her status.
What first caught his attention were her titles.
'Firstly, that "Delgasso" guy Heather and I saw in the Hall of Statues is probably her father, given his tagline "He Who Is Benevolent to All" and her title as the "Daughter of the Benevolent God King".'
Evan montarily forgot about the race details he wanted to check, instead focusing on her titles. Specifically, the "Valmone's Favourite" and "Loved by the Universe" titles.
'How special do you have to be for the Universe itself to na you its favourite?'
He would have continued contemplating Artemisia's status if Arthur didn't continue speaking, casually dropping a bombshell that imdiately captured everyone's attention.
"Like now, I know your body is that of a Draconic Human, but your soul is sothing else. This isn't your real body, is it?"
"?!"
"Wait, what?"
Beatrix was the one who vocally reacted first to this, while Evan just snapped his head up to et Arthur's eyes, barely concealing his surprise.
'He figured it out with a glance…
Maybe, he knows what my 'Soul Race' is!!'
Evan's eyes glinted with the hope of finally discovering what was behind that censoring and at that mont, Artemisia spoke up, taking the chance to distract Beatrix from her earlier reaction to Arthur's words.
"Indeed, I was curious about that as well."
"Huh? You know that's not his real body?"
Beatrix successfully bought the bait and questioned Artemisia about this, with the goddess nodding in affirmation as she spoke about how she knew.
"My abilities are related to the law of Evolution. I can tell that the 'Evolution' of his body and soul don't match up.
I scanned him when he was unconscious and I noticed the discrepancy. It's like his soul has evolved more than his body…like it's older by a few years."
Artemisia's explanation was spot on and Evan barely held himself back from retorting that she was the reason behind that discrepancy.
Arthur nodded to confirm her words, revealing that he had used his Pseudo-Authority of Ti on Evan and noticed that his Soul's Age and his Body's Age didn't match up.
Suddenly, McEnda who was with Sigesi, stood up and moved closer, leaning towards Evan with narrowed eyes for a few seconds.
"My senses perceive him just the sa as any other Dragonkin to . I wouldn't even know his human side was a High Breed if you didn't ntion it."
He shook his head as he spoke, returning to the couch and sitting back down beside Sigesi. The man let his head fall into her lap while Evan just sighed defeatedly and spoke.
"I'm sighing a lot today.
Anyway, yeah. You guys already figured it out so I'm just gonna say it. My soul is indeed sothing else, but I don't know what it is."
Looking towards Arthur who had just claid to be able to tell anyone's race with a glance, he asked.
"Can you tell what it is with your powers?"
Evan did not hide his eagerness and anticipation and Arthur could clearly see this. For a mont, the godslayer had the thought of ssing with Evan, but he decided against it and decided to be upfront.
"Yes, I can. It's pretty obvious. You're actually a o̶̧̦̠͇̼̙͍̦̅́̈́̆̄̑̒̑͛͛̄͑̚͘̚g̷̢̲̭̋͊̉̓͘-"
Arthur paused the mont he heard a censoring sound accompanying his words. His expression shifted, and a smirk played on his lips as he continued speaking.
"This is interesting…
Soone's hiding what you really are from you. Whoever did so is quite strong and has a higher Universal Influence than mine.
Because of this, the Law of Causality gives their 'intention to hide it' precedence over my 'intention to reveal it to you'. As such, even if I tried to tell you, it'd be censored…"
"Tsk...!"
Evan very audibly clicked his tongue and Arthur didn't need to see his full face to know just how irritated he was right now.
'Really, Artemisia?! Why didn't you put this effort into hiding my status from them instead?!'
The boy genuinely wanted to go back to the future just to scold Artemisia for this. Sadly, he could not, so he could only hold back his annoyance and question Arthur.
"But you know what race it is, right?"
"Yes. There's no way I of all people wouldn't."
For so reason, Evan felt sothing off about Arthur's reply, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Evan's confusion was evident to Arthur and the Progenitor just sighed and shook his head.
'He missed the big hint I just dropped…'
"Too bad."
Arthur said this, before reminding everyone about the original topic of discussion: Fake Divines.
"A Human with 'Divine' factors that enable them to use Divinity is a Divine Human, just like you're a Human with 'Dragon' factors that allow you to use Draconic powers.
The Aramisians are making Fake Divine Humans, Elves and the like by stealing the Divine factors in natural born Divines and putting them into normal Humans to give them Divine powers."
Arthur casually went back to his earlier explanation, and Artemisia chid in after he spoke to shed further light on it.
"They're not evolving to beco Divine Humans like you did from Human to Draconic Human."
Evan wasn't even surprised to hear Artemisia figure out his body was originally just 'human' and silently allowed Arthur to continue with his explanation.
"That shit disgusted so I decided to side with the Demons even though they're the Invaders here.
Besides, being in this war ans more fights. More fights an more opportunities for to refine my techniques, create new ones, and take advantage of this Universe's System to Level up and grow stronger faster.
I have a goal of reaching Inferior Sovereign before I leave this planet in the next 7 months."
Hearing Arthur's goal, Evan gave him a look that asked if he was crazy. Couldn't bla Evan, as he knew people who'd spent decades to centuries in the Legendary Level without progress and here was Arthur, casually saying he wanted to go from Interdiate Legendary to Inferior Sovereign in just 7 months.
However, Arthur didn't mind Evan's gaze, completely understanding his words sounded crazy to Evan.
"See, I've pretty much accepted the fact that I'm an 'Irregular' by normal standards."
Arthur began, and just when Evan was wondering where he was going with this, the silver-haired boy dropped a tale that made Evan even more dumbfounded.
"I was born as a Master Realm, I spent 13 years as one due to complications with my energy which was too much for my own body.
I beca a Grandmaster at 13, and I was one until I was 16 due to other reasons. I had so spells I wanted to cast and stuff, and I wanted to do them before I beca an Epic."
"Wait…you're 17 right now."
"Yes, I am."
"And you're an Interdiate Legendary?"
"Indeed."
"…"
Evan went silent after Arthur's reply. Arthur said he was a Grandmaster at 16, having purposely remained as one for that long.
"So, you're saying that you went from Level 499 to Level 768 in the span of your 16th and 17th birthdays?"
"Yep."
Arthur casually admitted this and when Evan turned to the others to confirm his words, Alvey spoke.
"I don't know about the Grandmaster part, but he beca a Level 700 right before my eyes last October ending.
Now, it's March."
Alvey revealed that Arthur had skyrocketed from Level 700 to 768 in under five months. This made Evan wonder what kind of levelling speed Arthur had, as even he wasn't confident in increasing his level by that much in such a short ti,
'Well, I could do it if I focused on Levelling alone.
But on Aidos, I'm busy as hell— forging connections, making Living Legends owe favours, getting artifacts from the ga, and eting with national leaders keeps constantly on the move.'
Even so, Arthur being able to achieve this despite lacking Evan's extra Levelling efficiency perk was ridiculous.
"And yet people call Irregular for becoming an Epic within 4 years…"
"Within four years?"
"Yeah. I think I was Level 20 or so four years ago."
Evan casually responded to Alvey's question while trying to rember exactly what his level was four years ago, unaware that all the others in the room besides Arthur were giving him incredulous looks.
"You know that doesn't make you sound any less ridiculous than he is, right?"
Artemisia asked Evan if he knew this, while McEnda turned toward Alvey who was putting on his jacket in preparation to leave and spoke.
"Yeah, he's indeed a 'Less Ridiculous' version of Arthur."
Little did Evan know that his words had just given Alvey even more of a reason not to let him fall into the hands of the Aramisians.
Even when he was overly busy trying to increase his international influence, Evan could still gain 1-2 levels per week, for a total of 60 levels in one year—far more than most Epic Level Existences could gain.
If Evan was put in a situation where he had no international influence or unnecessary politics to think about, and most importantly, no Demonic Hand sches to plan against, solely focusing on levelling up—then the number on his level tab would have been 676 and not 576.
Alvey, having heard about Evan's ridiculous levelling speed that outpaced even other Heroes, was already strategizing how to deploy him on battlefields where his sole task would be to defeat enemies and grow stronger without distractions.
In his mind, Alvey was already charting Evan's potential power growth.
"I'm heading to Zefesh for a bit. I need to get so confidential files from Sylvan and Barron."
Alvey stated his destination and objective to McEnda and the man got up before saying he'd co with him since he wanted to go to the Rhigor Continent.
On Aramis, there were 5 continents.
Rhigor, Guwos, Plomux, Gledea and Zefesh.
At present, the planet was split between the Demons and its native inhabitants. The Southern Hemisphere, beginning with Rhigor where the Dinsional Rift was located, had been seized by the Demons.
They now controlled Rhigor and Guwos entirely, half of Zefesh, and a significant portion of Gledea—where Evan was currently.
Gledea was currently the main theatre of the war; a war where the demons were pressing the Aramisians greatly.
In fact, the only reason why Gledea hadn't fallen yet was because Alvey and McEnda were purposely pulling their punches so they could prolong the war for their personal gain.
Had it not been for this, Gledea would have already fallen, leaving Plomux as the Aramisians' final stronghold.
Alvey and McEnda were two of the 4 Four-Star Generals commanding the Gozonian Army on Aramis. They had a storied history of waging and winning Planetary Wars on other worlds and were feared as the 'Demon of Light' and the 'Demon of Darkness,' respectively.
Both were Level 990 , nearing the level of Higher-Existences, and their nonstandard natures allowed them to defeat other Transcendents with ease.
The Rulers of Gozon decided to send them to Aramis with armies, their campaigns resulting in the near-total domination of half the planet in less than 10 years
"You're heading back to Gozon?"
"Nahh. There's sothing I forgot on the Lunar Outpost last ti so I want to pick it up."
McEnda rose from his seat, smoothing out his clothes as he spoke and Alvey nodded, before telling Evan to follow him out of the office.
Arthur tagged along, slinging an arm over Evan's shoulder as he spoke.
"You're pretty 'Irregular' too, aren't you? Guess we're similar in that aspect.
How 'bout we 'Irregulars' stick together until your ti in this 'Past' expires? Either that or it's ti for to go back to Hell, whichever cos first."
"Where's the part where you're supposed to listen to my opinion?"
"You left that part in the future you ca from."
"So, I don't exactly have a choice in this…"
"Hahaha, of course, you don't have one."
Evan's brow twitched at Arthur's nonchalant responses, but this reaction only fuelled Arthur's amusent.
The mont Alvey stepped out of his office, he was imdiately surrounded by a throng of Demons adorned with star-marked uniforms, indicating their status as Generals.
However, they were all deferent towards Alvey and McEnda, underscoring their higher authority. The sight of the nurous Transcendents did leave Evan astonished though.
'Alvey's already this powerful even in this era, huh?'
Such a thought crossed his mind while looking at Alvey dish out order after order with High-Rank Demons obeying imdiately.
anwhile, Alvey himself was wondering how their group seed to grow ever larger with ti.
'It used to be just McEnda and I. Then Arthur ca along, then Artemisia and Beatrix. Now Evan had literally been blasted from the future and had fallen right near us.
I need to have soone proficient in the law of fate check us up. Sothing is obviously wrong sowhere.
Maybe it relates to that Parallel Path thing Arthur was talking about…maybe sothing big is coming.
Sothing that'd affect all of us…'
As these thoughts crossed his mind, Alvey had a High-Rank Demon guide Evan to his private quarters and stationed a few Shadow Demons to keep a constant watch on him, ready to respond to any unusual developnts.
He prepared to head to the Rhigor Continent, where he planned to use the Dinsional Rift to return to Gozon and report Evan's situation to his superiors—the Rulers of Gozon.
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