Reincarnated Hero System

Artemisia nodded in affirmation, but when she saw the look on Evan's face, she quickly figured out what he was thinking and spoke up to stop him from having any misunderstandings.

"No. I am not in any relationship with him."

"I wasn't thinking that."

"I'm 110% sure you were."

The goddess sighed and shook her head before continuing.

"His lover is someone who can control any form of water in existence and though I am also friends with her, I do not wish to get on her bad side by going after her man.

I don't want to be remembered as a goddess who died by drowning."

Whoever this Progenitor's Lover was, Evan could tell that they were certainly stronger than Artemisia was, and this got him very curious about them.

"Enough about that idiot. Is there anything else you wish to ask me regarding the Slayers?"

"Are there Humanslayers on Aidos?"

"No. There are none whatsoever. Not even half breeds."

The goddess' reply was quick and Evan heaved a light sigh of relief at this. It was good to know that there were fewer of his natural enemies walking around Aidos.

"Is there anything else?"

"I certainly have a lot of questions for you but I'd leave them for when I have more clues."

He shrugged as she spoke, before pulling up the system interface and scrolling through. Seeing this, Artemisia narrowed her eyes lightly and tried to figure out the meaning behind his statement, but she couldn't think of anything.

This was expected, as she did not know what had transpired inside Evan's Soul Realm when Agnes was there.

She did not know that Evan knew of the existence of that 'Apocalyptic Scene'.

"Anyway. The real reason I contacted you in the first place, was to inform you that I would be leaving for a while."

"Haven't you always suddenly disappeared for months without warning? What's special about this time?"

Somehow, Evan's words struck a nerve, but Artemisia didn't let it show as she replied.

"Precisely that. I don't want to have to deal with you whining in my ears about 'abandoning' you again."

Hearing that, Evan burst into laughter when he realised the reason why she said that. It seemed that Artemisia still hadn't forgotten how he acted after the Geto City incident last year.

'I was just messing with her though…'

"Don't worry, Miss Forsaker. I would not complain."

The goddess' brow twitched repeatedly and Evan only laughed lightly before asking.

"Can you bring Liz over for a bit? And create a path she can use to go back to Askal afterwards?"

"Okay."

Artemisia spread out a tiny bit of her divinity and locked onto Eliza's spatial coordinates in Askal, after sending the girl a notification, she warped her from her location, much to the shock of the GEE Empress she was speaking to.

She then reappeared in the air and fell right into Evan's outstretched arms.

"Wha-?! Evan?"

"Whatsup?"

Eliza turned to the side and saw Artemisia seated on a couch, greeting the goddess who just acknowledged her with a nod.

Artemisia then created two portals with her spatial power, one for Eliza, and the other for Evan.

"When you're done, enter them and you'll be returned to where you were before."

After saying her piece, Artemisia patted Kayla's head a bit before disappearing from the planet and returning to her domain, leaving Evan and the dumbfounded Eliza.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing too serious. There was a slight issue that we needed to talk about and when we finished, I told her to bring you over."

"Ohh…why though?"

"Because I was suddenly filled with the desire to hug you."

As Evan spoke, he fulfilled that desire and Eliza only smiled wryly and ran her hand through his hair.

"Hey, Liz."

"What is it, Evan?"

"I'm about to embark on a journey through the Cudjour mountains and there'd be a slight detour in the middle.

When that happens, I'd send you a signal and I need you to relay a message to Emperor Isaac for me."

Eliza silently shook her head, saying a silent prayer for the poor Emperor who had gotten caught up in Evan's schemes.

◇ ◇ ◇

Unnamed Planetoid

Domain of goddess Artemisia

June 29th??

Year 1053

Artemisia just finished speaking to a few of her subordinate gods before closing her eyes and reassimilating with the split-off portion of her consciousness she had sent to speak to Evan.

The body the boy had spoken with was not her real body but an Avatar she forgot on Aidos when she was creating the Tower of Trials.

She looked up and dismissed the people in front of her, ignoring the strange gaze Aphine gave her as she sorted out the floating screens hovering on her desk.

"Don't ask any questions. Just make sure everything works properly while I'm away."

"…yes, my lady."

Aphine bowed before teleporting while Artemisia got to her feet and tossed on a black coat, knocking down a picture frame on her desk in the process.

Picking it up, she sighed as she looked at the photo on it.

It was taken during one of the most memorable periods of time in her life, which spoke volumes considering she was over 10,000 years old.

Even though she had seen 10 millennia, Artemisia was quite young for a god; a 'child' even, when compared to others out there.

But despite being so young, her power was greater than a lot of theirs, and this was something that they didn't like.

'How dare this little kid wet behind the ears surpass us in power? We cannot accept it!'

And thus, such a childish reason was why Artemisia had many enemies among the Old gods. Even some of the New gods also hated her because she was far more talented than they were.

Most importantly, she was 'Valmone's Favourite'.

Her thoughts returned to the picture of six people in her hands.

Two Men, two boys and two girls.

A young red-eyed man wearing a wry smile, a silver-haired heterochromatic-eyed boy who was smiling brightly, his hand across the shoulder of the teenage Artemisia herself, then beside her was the 'someone' she had just mentioned in her earlier conversation with Evan—a white-haired and hazel-eyed girl who was looking at the red-eyed man on the left.

There was also another silver-haired man, with clear blue eyes and fangs peeking out from his parted lips, with his arm around a grey-eyed boy who wore a mask that covered the lower half of his face while holding the remote that controlled the camera which took the photo.

Artemisia's blank expression changed to a smile for the first time in a long while, however, the smile vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

"I wonder if we'd ever have that reunion we spoke about?"

She put the picture back down on the table before continuing.

"Maybe this time, we'd kill him for good…that bastard Bewusstsein."

Artemisia held up her hand and grasped the empty air. The space around her arm squeezed up like foil and when she pulled her arm back, it ripped open.

She dipped her hand into the torn space and pulled out a sheathed blade. The space returned to normal afterwards and Artemisia grabbed its hilt and drew the sword.

"All right, Rule Breaker. Time for you to drink a 'little' golden blood."

With that line, she broke open a Spatial Gate and disappeared into it, departing from the Orithyia Galaxy into unknown territory.

◇ ◇ ◇

After sending Eliza back to Askal with a message for the GEE Emperor, Evan took some time to bulldoze through Floors 40-50 of the Tower of Trials.

By the time he was done, killing Level Normal 500s was not so much of a problem for him.

He then entered the gate Artemisia created and he reappeared right in the middle of the meeting room in Todbury where the GEE Generals were discussing their plan of action.

Naturally, seeing Evan emerge from a Spatial Gate that emanated a staggering amount of divinity surprised them, especially the religious ones who had ties to the Holy Kingdom.

As for Evan, he was thankful Artemisia saved him an extra trip. He glanced at Amiyah who was looking at him while blinking dumbfoundedly and asked.

"Have you told them about my idea?"

"Huh? Oh yes. "

"Cool."

He plopped down on an empty seat and leaned back before asking the Generals and advisors present.

"So? What do you guys think?"

"I'm up for it."

The first reply came from Heather who was also present and though Evan acted like he didn't care much whether she agreed or not, he was internally jubilating.

Lierin seemed to have some misgivings but a single glance from the Princess was enough to keep her silent and Evan appreciated this as he really didn't want to deal with Lierin right now.

'I'm in a good mood after seeing Liz, after all.'

Seeing that there were little objections, Evan then decided to add a little twist to his plan.

"Let's use a Misdirection."

"Meaning?"

"We let information about our movement slip to Wolfen, but we'd misdirect them.

Basically, despite our main force going East, we'd tell them that our main force is going West. Just let a few of the government officials or Commissioned army officers 'accidentally hear' someone talking about it.

There's a 100% chance that they have some secret means of contacting Cudjour that we are not aware of yet."

"It'd have to be pretty believable for this to work. They aren't stupid."

Amiyah pointed this out and Evan nodded before pointing towards some Generals. They were subordinates of Amiyah's who weren't completely in favour of splitting their forces and also didn't fancy taking the long detour through the east.

"Let them do it.

Since you guys don't like the plan all that much, it'd be like you're 'expressing your discontent at me proposing we should go through the West Route despite you proposing a better plan of action and yet because I'm a Hero, my plan was accepted'."

When Amiyah heard Evan's words, she thought about it and nodded in affirmation.

"That could really work…"

She knew the personalities of the two Evan had pointed out very well so she knew they could pull it off without much issue.

"Then that's settled. If you excuse me, I have a few things to handle before we move out."

Evan then got up and moved towards the door, with Heather following him a moment after. The princess rushed up to him and he turned to her with a raised brow, his expression questioning why she followed him.

"About earlier…with Luna. I'd like to apologize for her actions."

Heather had gotten a full report on how Evan had made things easier for them to take Todbury, as well as how he had also helped in Liegan and Tomond as well, so she didn't want him to be displeased and have second thoughts about allying with the GEE because of what happened earlier in the day.

Though it looked like she was implying he was narrow-minded, that would only be the case if the wolf that attacked him was that of a random soldier and not the Imperial Princess' mount.

However, what would have been a small issue had been given the potential to blow up simply because an Imperial Royal was involved.

Evan's reaction to this apology of hers was a lot tamer than she expected, as he simply nodded and told her not to worry about it.

The boy was in a good mood after some canoodling with Eliza so he didn't really feel like making things hard for her.

As he spoke, he glanced at Heather's hand and noticed the ring on her right index finger, a small smile appearing on his face as he thought.

'The 'Key' is here…now, let's go to where the 'Treasure Chest' is.'