Chapter 88 Interlude 3-2 – The Goddess Returns

"Let's forget about that rat and talk about more important things.

Two of the 'Seven', have been discovered, we should move to secure them before the 'Demonic Hand' can find out.

I reckon the reason the demon attacked that town was also to take out the new generation hero who was in it."

The other members of the 'Five' who were seated at the table, nodded in affirmation upon hearing Altrishia's words.

All of them, except one.

Zaos heaved a sigh as he whispered something to himself before slamming his hand on the table to attract the attention of the other four.

"Of the new generation 'Seven Heroes', 'Three' have been discovered, not two."

Looks of shock flashed across the faces of the four who heard his words. The first to recover was Altrishia who asked the identity of the third.

"Who is it?"

"My daughter."

"""Huh??!"""

Kolvar, Altrishia and Rathal let out shocked voices upon hearing the identity of the newly discovered hero.

"It couldn't be one of those rascal delinquent-looking bratty daughters of yours, right?"

"First of all, none of my daughters are 'rascals' and 'delinquent looking brats'. That doesn't even make sense!"

Rathal let out a hearty laugh upon hearing Zaos' retort, though this only lasted until he was smacked in the head by Altrishia.

"Ignore the idiot. Which one of your daughters is it?"

"The last born, Abigail, right?"

Before Zaos could reply to Altrishia's question, Vulwin interjected with a guess he believed to be 90% accurate.

"You're right."

Zaos nodded as he confirmed Vulwin's guess, making a satisfied smile appear on the face of the dwarf as he stroked his beard.

"What's with him?"

"Nothing much, just that my daughter took an interest in smithing and he instructed her for a while. He said something about her being his best student ever."

"Oh..."

Zaos answered Kolvar's not so quiet whisper before turning to the rest of them and continuing.

"My daughter is most likely the 'First' of the 'Seven'."

"Hmmm...so like a thousand years ago, she'd be their leader, huh?"

"No."

Altrishia's words were refuted almost instantly by Zaos who proceeded to explain about how his daughter did not possess the 'Leader of the Seven Heroes' title.

"So, who's the leader then?"

"She told me that she would only know if she were to meet them."

"That's disappointing."

Altrishia spoke with a downcast gaze, her eyes brightening up the moment after as she slammed both hands on the table and spoke.

"Let's just kidnap all the new generation 'Seven Heroes' and gather them in one place. We'd figure out who their leader is and what their powers are too."

She nodded to herself with a satisfied smile, making the others shake their heads with a single thought in their minds.

p 'How does she act the least mature while being the oldest?'

◇　◇　◇

The goddess Artemisia pressed her fingers to her temples as she stared at the floating screen in front of her.

She had replayed the video currently showing on it, tens off dozens of times but she still couldn't wrap her head around how such a situation came about.

"I just stepped out to deal with those bastards, and this happens."

On the floating screen, a video showing the events of the battle between Evan and Xakon was showing.

Starting from the moments leading to the battle, where Xakon called all the knights of the territory into his castle and murdered them in cold blood.

Showing how he had prepared to make his exit the moment he was done with his plans for the next day, even the teleportation circle he prepared using the blood of the murdered knights.

Artemisia snapped her fingers and the two ringed teleportation magic circle that looked like a mix of various shapes shattered into particles of light.

She then watched how Xakon destroyed the adventurer's guild building and killed hundreds of adventurers and injuring dozens more.

She watched how Pride bought time for Evan to recover enough to join the battle. Saw how the high demon temporarily showed a bit of her true personality and power.

"MMMPH!!!!"

Evan's near mental breakdown was also witnessed in all its glory, with his adaptive evolution saving the day by reducing the amount of fear he felt.

The fact that his skill triggered itself in such a short time showed just how much fear Evan felt from the depths of his soul.

Nevertheless, he resolved himself and joined the battle at the perfect time, even dealing a major wound in the process.

The video showed how Xakon gradually recovered his power, his external injuries healing with each level up, until he met the level required to perform his 'True Form Release'.

Moving on, the scene of Xakon temporarily wiping the floor with Evan and Pride could be seen, also when he incapacitated Kayla, up until the point where Eliza who saw the cloud of smoke from the destroyed guild building rising into the air, urged the knights with her to move faster.

Artemisia didn't even bother to think about how Eliza and Laurene met in the first place, deciding to dwell on that matter later.

"GUMMPPPFFHHHH!!!"

She went on to watch how Eliza used her newly acquired 'Flower Cannon' skill to launch a beam of condensed magic power at Xakon, preventing his attempt to kill Evan.

The screen then showed how Evan and Pride turned out to be awake all this while and were waiting to strike when their opponent's guard was down.

It showed how they received healing from Eliza before activating demonic possession, allowing Pride to possess Evan's body and temporarily boost his strength over level 100.

Even so, it was not enough to take on the empowered level 140 Xakon so he used limit break together with it, giving him enough power to fight Xakon on equal footing.

Artemisia saw how the injured Kuro dashed out of Evan's shadow when the latter wasn't looking and squeezed out the last of his magic power and a bit of his life force to hold Xakon in place long enough for Evan's 'Vortex' to land a direct hit and end the demon's life.

"Vortex, huh?"

The goddess heaved a sigh as she thought about the all too familiar skill Evan had 'created'.

"MMMmmmPFHMM!!!"

It was then she finally took notice of the man who was tied up and gagged on the floor beside her, flailing around like he was trying to escape his restraints and say something.

Her gaze turned cold as she glared at the man with a look that could kill, causing him to shiver due to instinctive fear and curl up silently.

After this, Artemisia stood up from her throne and ran her slim fingers through her long black hair, heaving an exasperated sigh as she thought about how the child that she had sent to help with Aidos' situation almost died.

"After I went through all this stress to get him to come over, some fool decides to make an attempt on his life.

And I'm sure that fool was influenced by you rag tag group of foolish idiots."

She shot a gaze filled with disdain at the tied-up man as she spoke with glowing eyes.

Placing a hand on her chin, she wore a pensive look on her face as she began to make attempts to understand exactly what could have caused the demon who had planned to leave Geto, to suddenly change his mind at the last moment and attack a random hero who happened to be in town.

"The fact that he discovered Evan in the first place is suspicious in itself.

How did a demon who was planning to return to his home world silently suddenly decided to take a walk in the town and enter the adventurer's guild at the exact same time Evan was requesting a rank promotion?"

Artemisia couldn't wrap her head around how suspicious the train of events that led to Xakon discovering about Evan were.

"Tsk...that's a matter for later.

For now, I have to send the new system updates to him."

As she spoke, an illusory keyboard appeared in front of her and her hands flew over the it, her long fingers tapping the keys with just the right amount of force as she typed away.

Multi coloured Lines of code began appearing on the floating screen beside her and she was gradually getting lost in her work until a voice sounded in her ears.

The kind of voice that didn't require one's mouth to be open when speaking with it.

|It was quite suspicious that a reincarnator appeared in that world, as expected, you were the cause, huh? |

Artemisia turned her gaze to the man who was tied up on the ground beside her with narrowed eyes.

|You think you can stop our lord from getting what he wants? He will-|

|Devolve. |

The man's weird speech was cut off by Artemisia.

With one word, his pupils dilated due to fear but before he could say anything more, the light in his eyes went out.

|GUGU...GAGA! |

The man began making the kinds of noises one would hear from a one-year-old but Artemisia ignored him and silently went back to her work.