Reincarnated Hero System

Chapter 1295: The Whaijan Incursion

The Demonic Hand had hundreds of bases scattered across the world, and while a large majority of them were usually situated in remote regions such as forests, mountain ranges, and uninhabited areas, often hidden behind barriers that blocked detection and kept people away from them, there were also many that weren’t concealed at all.

These served as the public faces of the Demonic Hand, the shell corporations and industries the organisation used to extend its influence across the world.

The Fourth Division base in Whaijan that they had chosen to sacrifice in order to trap Evan was one of those.

Arc Limited, a multinational corporation with its headquarters in Whaijan’s capital city of Eplil, occupied one of the largest sections of space within the city’s industrial district, spanning several acres of land.

Because the industrial district was located far from residential areas, there was very little chance of the coming clash causing civilian damage, as the district usually shut down at night.

Tonight, however, Arc Limited’s headquarters, although it appeared to have shut down like all the other businesses around it, was filled to the brim with close to a thousand individuals with strength levels of at least Level 400.

The Demonic Hand’s forces were already on alert, expecting an attack soon.

Before midnight, several of the Elven Empire’s clandestine military units had already surrounded Arc Limited’s compound.

Zaos had only informed Whaijan’s rulers of the bare minimum and had ordered them to stay out of the operation to avoid complications. Evan and Laurene had come along to ensure that no Demonic Hand affiliates leaked information back to the organisation and warned them beforehand that Evan wasn’t arriving alone or with a small group.

When the Elven Empire’s forces arrived, their advance teams quietly disabled the security surrounding the compound and began slipping in through blind spots in surveillance, moving through shadowed alleys between factory blocks and exploiting gaps in presence detection magic formations that Laurene had already mapped out with her Mystic Eyes.

The outermost ring of lookouts posted by the Demonic Hand was the first to disappear, taken out without sound reaching beyond their positions, their signals cut off before alarm protocols could spread.

At the same time, teams within the perimeter began disabling the layered security systems protecting Arc Limited’s grounds. Magic traps buried in the terrain were isolated and neutralised before they could reach activation thresholds, while presence detection wards were overwritten with false-null readings.

Each section of the outer compound fell into a controlled silence as more elves slipped further inside, their advance made easier by the traps already disabled by the forward teams.

They split up to eliminate the remaining watch posts, their movement spreading inward as they took down more Demonic Hand members while pushing deeper into the compound.

The operation remained coordinated and silent until it reached a point where that could no longer be maintained.

The shift came when one of the targeted Demonic Hand Senior Members proved stronger than expected.

What was meant to be a rapid removal turned into a prolonged exchange, and in that extended moment of combat, the first real resistance shattered the quiet.

The Senior Member managed to withstand the initial elimination attempt long enough to retaliate, and that single escalation was enough to trigger full awareness across the entire base.

Alarms blared throughout all buildings within the compound, and every Demonic Hand operative inside the facility instantly realised they had been breached.

They immediately began activating defensive protocols, and in response, the Elven Empire’s units executed the next stage of the operation without hesitation.

Several Level 700s pooled their magic power together and cast a large-scale concealment barrier from multiple anchor points around the compound, sealing off external detection and suppressing all outward magic fluctuations, ensuring that whatever followed would remain contained within the designated kill zone.

Inside that sealed space, the silence that had been maintained for hours broke within seconds.

Explosions began echoing across the outer compound as hidden trap formations were forcibly triggered, throwing the Demonic Hand’s first responders into confusion over the true locations of the enemy.

The elves took advantage of the chaos to accelerate their advance, pushing from the outer grounds toward the central buildings.

On an airship flying high above the industrial district, Evan, Eliza, Abigail, Laurene, and Zaos watched the unfolding operation from the observation deck.

Laurene’s pupils moved constantly as she detected traps concealed within the inner compound, pointing out multiple positions across the ground forces’ tactical spread, guiding the elven units toward the hidden cores of the Demonic Hand’s magical security network.

Each time a large-scale trap formation showed signs of imminent activation, Laurene, her hand resting on Abigail’s shoulder, immediately activated an ability of her Mystic Eye’s Stage 4.

[I grant you the Privilege of Truth.]

A hint of blue was infused into Abigail’s purple eyes, and she was temporarily able to see the world through Laurene’s vision, long enough for her to note the placement and structure of the formations below, allowing Abigail to use her Mystic Eyes of Destruction to erase them before they could finish activating.

The same process was repeated across multiple sectors as the airship circled the compound. Laurene identified major defences the Demonic Hand attempted to deploy, and Abigail intercepted each one through their temporarily shared perception, disrupting them before they could cause damage to the elves.

Laurene kept up her aerial support alongside Abigail until the elven forces had cleared all targets outside the main complex and pushed into the building.

She could still see through the building’s walls and track magical signatures and other traces, but everything inside had become too clustered, increasing the risk of misreading certain details, so she chose to stop at that point.

"Look for non-humanoid high-energy signatures," Evan said as he looked toward Laurene. "Let’s see if they’ve got any special and powerful weapons hidden around here, or some method of calling in reinforcements."

"Already on it," Laurene replied, taking her hand off Abigail’s shoulder while her pupils continued to rapidly scan across the battlefield below.

A moment later, her brows furrowed lightly, and a tear slipped from the corner of her eye, but she quickly wiped it away before anyone else noticed.

Evan, however, still caught sight of the movement from the edge of his vision, making him raise an eyebrow as he appraised her condition.

’There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. Her magic power is dropping fast, which is understandable considering the amount of strain she’s under, but nothing else of note.’

Laurene was continuously using her Mystic Eyes to scan dozens of acres of land. Even as a Level 719, it was still taxing for her to use her Eyes across such a wide area while searching with extreme precision.

"Okay, I’m picking up a few things that look like weapons," Laurene suddenly said.

"Locations," Abigail demanded immediately.

Laurene immediately grabbed her shoulder again and shared her vision with her, allowing Abigail to properly use her Mystic Eyes on the targets Laurene had identified while simultaneously relaying instructions to the elven forces on the ground.

Eliza wasn’t just standing around watching everything unfold either. She continuously applied enhancement buffs to the elves fighting below, and quite a few of them were visibly shocked by the sudden increase in strength her buffs granted them.

However, Eliza’s strongest buffs came with the drawback of short durations, forcing her to constantly reapply them. She also had to stay quick while doing so, since any elf relying on those buffs to match a stronger opponent could easily expose an opening the moment the enhancements faded, so she had her work cut out for her as well.

Buffing hundreds of elves at the same time, including several Level 700s among them, was no simple task even for Eliza. Fortunately, Evan stuck beside her the entire time, continuously supplying her with magic power she could convert into life energy and use to keep empowering the elven forces below without interruption.

Suddenly, Laurene’s eyes narrowed as she continued zooming her vision past several floors of the building and deeper into the underground layers.

"I think I’m picking up high spatial law energy readings. Maybe some of them are trying to escape through teleportation...?! Oh my goodness, they’ve got a dense spatial barrier covering something below the ground floor, and this amount of spatial energy gathering..." Laurene’s expression changed suddenly. "Huh? A teleportation? Gate?"