Reincarnated Hero System

Imperial Army Hidden Camp

Cudjour Mountains

July 6th

Year 1053

Evan was seated in front of an Ice Sculpture. Well; it was actually a frozen monster.

Its expression was quite strange; as if it was about to roar, yet was frozen in that instant.

"No…this does not seem nice."

The boy snapped his fingers and the ice melted, allowing the monster to let out its roar, releasing a shockwave that shattered the empty bottle next to Evan.

Evan didn't care about the bottle since he had finished its contents, and Kayla who was nearby silently told the monster to thank its stars that he had, otherwise it would be faced with 'Demon Evan'—the form of an Evan whose strawberry drink was spilt.

Mid-Roar, Evan poked the monster's nose with his finger and the monster's body was frozen solid in an instant.

Naturally, the Monster's roar had been heard by all who were nearby and Heather jumped into the scene, only to see Evan in front of what appeared to be an ice statue.

"Evan…what are you doing?"

"Oh, Hello Heather."

After greeting the Princess, he gave a reply to her inquiry.

"Someone gave me the idea to 'start a shop to sell ice and rock sculptures with rare and realistic expressions for some passive income' and I thought…why not?"

Heather's eyes narrowed as she looked at the ice statue in front of her before asking.

"I don't think that's what they meant when they said 'Sculptures'. They probably meant the kind you make with a Hammer and Chisel."

She quickly figured the ice statue in front of Evan was the current form of the monster who had roared earlier.

"Huh? Then how would I get the 'Realistic' expressions?"

As Evan spoke, he poked the inside of the monster's mouth and sent a pulse of destructive energy inside it.

Heather flinched instinctively when she felt the crimson-coloured aura, but Evan didn't seem to pay her reaction as he held out a dagger and cut a hole in the ice, poking the monster's skin with it and activating the skill he stole from Maude.

Since the monster was now dead, Evan turned its internal organs to stone, before doing the same to its skin.

As she watched this phenomenon that was occurring to the monster through the half-transparent ice, Heather silently added 'Petrification' to the list of skills she knew Evan had.

"Perfect."

Evan remarked as he added another layer of ice around the monster before getting up and asking Heather.

"How much do you think a noble would buy this for?"

Heather silently turned her gaze towards what was once a leopard-type monster and shook her head.

"Besides eccentrics, I don't think anyone's gonna even want to buy it, knowing where it came from."

Evan gave her a strange gaze in reply to her words before his lips suddenly curled up into a smile.

"They'll never know.

They don't need to know."

For some reason, Evan's smile scared her quite a bit. The boy chuckled when he saw her reaction before using ice to craft an elevated platform for the ice statue and then spoke.

"A Life-Sized Monster Sculpture with an added Bonus of Master Level existence durability. Even if the whole town is destroyed, you can rest assured that the Sculpture would be intact!

It's perfect to decorate your house with, right?"

The boy laughed to himself as he returned it to his inventory, planning to take it out when he was back in the GWE and make a start-up out of it.

"Anyway, you guys have taken the Hillside Fortress. How's the plan of attack? Hope you know it would not be long before those at Brightwall Fort notice something's off."

"I know, we plan to attack at dawn."

"Oh…the same time for their regular check-ups. Okay, then."

Evan dusted the snow off his trousers before he then informed Heather about his own plans for movement.

"I'm heading towards the East to look for something over there. Contact me when you guys are about to take Vadvale. I want to fight the 'Stormbringer'."

"What are you after?"

"A purification Artifact. I'd certainly need it after the War."

That was all Evan said as he then hopped lightly, his gaze trained towards the mountain peaks. Taking a deep breath, he activated Farsight + Blink and disappeared, leaving only a bit of snow falling to the ground.

◇ ◇ ◇

The 7th of July was the D-Day of the Cudjour battle.

As Evan had said, Brightwall Fort had noticed something was off with the Hillside Fortress, but they could not pay much attention to it as that was when Beluar launched his attack on their forces in the West.

In addition to the 20% of the forces from Todbury he was given, the man had his own Army of around 70,000 men, excluding the soldiers left behind to control the captured states.

Due to these high numbers, Wolfen genuinely believed that this was the Imperial Army's main attack force.

They were prudent enough to keep a few battalions watching the East side, and this actually served to delay Amiyah's Army from getting closer.

Scouts from the walls of Brightwall Fort spotted the Sarxina, and Wallace flags being flown, 'confirming' that Amiyah and Beluar were the attackers.

This allowed them to 'verify' the intel that Lierin was still on her way from the East.

Due to the scale and decisiveness of the battle, it unsurprisingly was not concluded in a day. The sun set on the 7th with both sides temporarily retreating.

Of course, there were nighttime 'harassment' attacks from both sides, so they were on guard until dawn the next day when the attack resumed.

Just as the Wolfen Army was preparing to receive Beluar's Army, Lierin led her soldiers to burst out from behind the ruins of the Hillside Fortress, catching the Wolfen Army's flank and dealing devastating damage.

By the time their Generals could understand the situation and react appropriately, a great number of their soldiers had already been cut down by Lierin's powerful blade.

The morale of the Wolfen Army which had risen from holding back Beluar's forces began dropping and to make things worse, it began raining, effectively removing all Fire Attribute Mages from the battle.

Melee fighters were still good, but their efficiency was reduced due to the weather.

Beluar and Lierin believed they could end things without Amiyah having to intervene, but their beliefs were thwarted easily when the reinforcements from Agla arrived.

Wolfen's most elite soldiers joined the fray and Day two ended with the Wolfen Army succeeding in holding the Imperials back.

More reinforcements arrived for both sides towards the evening time, but instead of pressing forward, both armies retreated for the day.

The heavy rain fell throughout the day and way into the night, and it was under this cover of night and rain that Amiyah decided to launch her own attack on Cudjour's eastern gates.

The incursion into Cudjour did not throw them off as much as planned due to the 80,000+ reinforcements Cudjour had received during the day from Agla and Vadvale.

Part of those reinforcements split up from the main force to face Amiyah's army.

With attacks coming from the North, East and West, the Wolfen soldiers realised that their intel had been false, figuring that the GEE let that information leak on purpose.

After being briefed in the morning of July 9th, Wolfen's Defence Minister frowned as he adjusted the pieces on the board.

He then voiced out a question which had answers being sought by all the present members of the War Cabinet.

"Where is Evan Eris in all this?"

The Imperial Army's three-pronged attack on Cudjour; although not as effective as planned, still threw Wolfen off a bit.

The old Defence Minister in Agla meticulously studied all the reports, while watching the battlefields through the eyes of his familiars.

He scanned from battlefield to battlefield and saw no sight of Evan, and this left him wary. He sent word to the Generals on the ground and told them to be on guard in case of any sudden or unexpected attacks.

While he was doing that, another figure was watching the battlefield from above.

It was a muscular young man with wavy brown hair and eyes, along with slight facial hair.

He sat on what looked like a throne as he surveyed the battlefield with his eyes, scanning dozens of kilometres in a second and analysing the state of the fight.

Wherever he saw Wolfen's Army on the advantage, his lips curled up into a small smile but when he saw the Imperial Forces pressing forward into Cudjour, his smile disappeared and he clenched his fist laying on the throne's armrest.

If there was one other thing to take note of, it was the fact that this man's vantage point appeared to be one of the peaks of the Cudjour mountains.

But even if one were to go there, they would neither see nor sense a thing, after all, this man was not in the same 'Space' as the normal world.

He was in an Alternate Space, one with slightly differing yet overlapping coordinates with that of the main world.

For example, if the spatial coordinates of the mountain peak were 11:22:33:44, then the coordinates of the alternate Space he was in were 11:22:33:45.

A slight difference that gave a not-so-slight result.

As for the identity of this man who was viewing this battle from this Alternate Space, it was naturally the one the Wolfen Cabinet members referred to as 'Sir Esoti'.

Existence Level: Superior Legendary!

He was the strongest of Wolfen's few 'Living Legends', and from his ability to enter Alternate Spaces, it could be seen where his power lay.

"Should I? But if I do, the Beast Kingdom may intervene…"

On Aidos, there were restrictions that prevented Legendary Levels and above from participating in International Conflicts. Each Legendary Level could sink an island to the bottom of the ocean if they wanted, so having people with this kind of power fight Wars was just asking for unnecessary devastation.

These restrictions were set down by the Transcendents, and breaking them came with sanctions.

In the case of the current GEE-Wolfen War, Legendries affiliated with either country were not to make a move, unless one side was facing a threat of total Annihilation.

However, that was not the case here as the GEE was trying to 'conquer' Wolfen, not 'destroy' it.

If Esoti intervened in this conflict which only had beings of the Epic Level and below involved, then not only was he going to be sanctioned, but it also meant that the GEE could deploy their own Legendries without reserve.

The rule was that if one side sends out a Legendary, then the other need not hold back any forces of similar levels of power they had.

As a World Power, the GEE naturally had over 100 Legendries at its disposal. This excluded the hundreds more who were adventurers and not affiliated with the nation's government.

Wolfen on the other hand, didn't even have up to 20; and among them, Esoti was the only Superior Stage.

The man was thinking of taking advantage of his Alternate space and acting fast enough that no one would realise he had done a thing. After deliberating it for a few minutes, he sighed and spoke to himself.

"I can't let Wolfen become a GEE Vassal…!"

As he made his decision, rising from his throne with resolve, a resounding voice echoed through the Alternate Space, halting him in his tracks.

"If I were you, I would sit back down."

"?!"

Esoti's eyes darted towards the source of the voice, but they widened in disbelief as the temperature around him skyrocketed

Since he was at the top of a 6000+ m tall mountain, the air was supposed to be cold and he was meant to be surrounded by ice and snow.

But in mere seconds, the chill of the mountain air had been replaced by blistering heat, making him feel like he was in the middle of a Desert at the peak of Summer.

The snow that once blanketed the terrain had disappeared without a trace.

The cause of this was the man who casually walked up to Esoti; a middle-aged looking man with brown, short brown hair clumsily hanging over a chiselled, cheerful face. He removed his pair of brown tinted glasses to reveal a pair of deep grey eyes and then spoke.

"It wouldn't be a wise decision, Esoti."

Esoti ignored him and looked around, spotting two other new entrants in the Alternate space. Both of them were Legendries, at the Intermediate Stage.

He was confident in defeating both of them with ease, but if the grey-eyed man joined the mix, then his victory chances would plummet.

"What are you doing here, Human Flame?"