The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

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Chills ran down Evelyn's spine as she looked through the status of the array disk again and again, as if unable to believe it. "N-No, wait! E-Evelyn, d-don't panic! Y-You're fine…"

Even more than the two other thrones, Evelyn dreaded the presence of her 'benefactor', Chronos. She had no idea when he would return to 'collect the debt', and she would become no more than a glorified slave, if not worse.

How long had it even been since she got rid of that piece of soul hiding inside her?

Evelyn had no issue 'repaying' him, but she wanted to be in a position where she could at least negotiate her own terms, and for that, she needed sufficient strength.

At this point, she was far from prepared. Not to mention anything else, she didn't even know just how strong Chronos really was. If they met at this time, she would be completely helpless.

And to make matters worse, she had already tampered with his 'monitoring', making it all useless. She was like a prisoner who had broken out of her cell, but was still within the facility. Compared to being spotted by a guard while still within her cell, the terror of being caught outside could be imagined.

Not to mention Bree, who was already tugging at her sleeve with worry, even Ruru started showing signs of stirring awake from her exhausted sleep, perhaps feeling her distress through their connection.

"Mama…?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Evelyn patted the little girl's soft hair, perhaps taking more comfort from her than the other way around. "Go back to Ruru, Bree. I'm fine."

The blonde girl looked at her in confusion before nodding hesitantly. "O-Okay…"

Evelyn took a few more moments to calm herself before going through the description again. "J-Just because the name looks like that, and the description is also… ugh, whatever. So what if it could be related to Chronos? He's not here, anyway, I still have time!"

Clenching her fist, the pink haired girl reaffirmed her determination with a nod. "Right."

Feeling a lot better after calming down, she finally started analyzing the purpose of the ability. "A grade nine skill, right? This is not a cultivation method, presumably… the array disc is also broken, so it's not as — No! This could mean it's even worse! If this is still considered grade nine even in this broken, incomplete form, the perfected version would definitely be far more terrifying."

Of course, it was also possible that the grading was based on the completed version instead, but Evelyn would rather assume the worst. "If I understand correctly, this 'Watcher of the Skies' is an enslavement technique that requires a piece of living tissue from the target creature…"

The pink haired girl felt a shudder run through her spine when she thought about it. Even compared to her 'Calamity', this was far more terrifying.

Although the description stated that the more crucial the tissue, the better, didn't that mean that anything would work, as long as the user was willing to cover the penalty for it? Even losing a single drop of blood could allow these people to turn one into their slave?

"No one is so careful while fighting, that they would keep track of every single drop of blood they lost, right? Not to mention anyone else, even Aurora had been considerably injured that day when she fought Mantis. If someone collected a sample from there…"

Evelyn shook her head. "No, I'm overthinking this. Aurora is fine, I'm fine. Anyway, now that I have this array, there's no need to be so terrified anymore, right? Although the Terrans will probably go crazy—!"

Her eyes lit up as she suddenly realized something. "Right! No wonder they were putting in so much effort to 'rescue their Crown Prince!', Craig still had this… no, I see now…. Ahaha… ahaha…."

Taking out the small pouch from before, she grinned. "This little thing contains whatever tissue of the beast they wanted to enslave, right? I don't know what's in there, and it's probably best not to open it without Aurora, but I can guess… ehehe…"

The pouch didn't seem to have much weight, and the contents seemed to in the shape of a sphere. Evelyn felt it in her palm she made a guess. "A testicle? An eyeball? Probably an eyeball, right?"

Even when she was 'younger', Evelyn hadn't taken any baths with either her father or mother, and only Amara had really taken care of such needs for her. Needless to say, she hadn't seen male genitalia very often.

Trying her best to recall the shape of the testicle, Evelyn could only think of the buff man in the survival test all those years ago. "I-Is it really so perfectly round? I don't think it was, right? This is definitely an eyeball, then!"

The thought of eyeballs made her recall the Thousand Eyed God, but she shook her head with a chuckle. "No way, right? Where would he even—!"

Evelyn frowned. "Wait a minute, Craig did have the chance to do it, right? H-He was standing right next to it when it happened... If so, it would explain why the 'Thousand Eyed God' flew into a rage like that." 

But that brought up even more questions than it answered. "Craig was less than level eighty at that time, while the 'Thousand Eyed God' is probably much, much stronger, right?! If this thing really holds one of its eyes, how did he do it?"

No matter how she thought about it, it made no sense. None of the artifacts in Craig's inventory would enable him to pull off such a thing, and the 'Thousand Eyed God' even defended its eyes so carefully, retracting them inside its body before attacking.

Evelyn shook her head. "No, forget it. I'll show this to Aurora and confirm it first. I don't even know if it's not something else, after all."

Of course, even if the body part inside the isolation artifact belonged to some other beast, that still left the question of why Craig hadn't used such a great trump card even till the end.

"It does say that the higher the level of the enslaved beast, the higher the amount of vitality that needs to be sacrificed, right? Oh, and the last condition seems to be separate from everything else."

Evelyn went through it again, before nodding to herself. "So in conclusion, every usage will damage the vitality of the user, this should be a pretty small amount, I think? If the vitality of the enslaved beast is lower, the second penalty doesn't apply, but if it's not… both the difference in the enslaved beast and the user's vitality as well as the type of tissue being used to enslave will decide how much vitality is drained."

Thinking about it for a while, the pink haired girl smiled. "Well, whatever. I definitely need to show this to Aurora. I'm sure she'll be happy to finally know what the Terrans were planning."

Of course, this would also mean she would get scolded for going out to do such a dangerous thing by herself, but Evelyn had a pretty good grasp of Aurora's character by now.

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Evelyn spent a few more minutes organizing everything in her inventory before setting out to look for her teacher. Thankfully, her friends were still all inside the Gilmore sisters' room, and with Bree and Ruru asleep, she could quietly sneak out after leaving a note.

"Going out to get some milk, will be back soon, byebye~"

Given that the closest location for decent milk that could be considered edible for spirit physiques would be the Eastern Forbidden City, this should give her enough of an excuse to stay out for a while. Hopefully, Aurora would be able to arrange some anyway, she could use a little more variety in her treats.

Although there were still many things that she had to take care of, such as the purification of the toxic beast corpse and understanding Bree's ability, the grade nine enslavement technique and dismantling the Terran plot took priority over anything else. 

Of course, this wasn't because she held a grudge against Terrazyme because of Craig or even Rufus, but because of her position as a Knox.

Evelyn could care less if the Lavinian Empire won the war, or if the Terrans ended up conquering the entire continent. But she definitely couldn't remain indifferent, knowing that her family might get wiped out in the process.

Since they even dared to try sinking their fangs into the normally invincible Ancient Academy, it showed that they were either desperate, or overly confident. Neither of which was good news as far as Evelyn was concerned.

Of course, with her pawns in the Lavinian Royal family, Evelyn could also be considered to have a stake in the war. Given that Bree had paid such a huge price to get her those slaves, she would certainly prefer it if they could still be of use later on. In the best case, the Lavinian Royalty would remain strong, and she could get her pawn into a position of power.

But that would have to depend on how the war went, and in the worst case, Evelyn could only hope to save her family as best as she could. With Aurora's help, it shouldn't be impossible.

"She did say she'll be busy for a while, but I'm sure she'll understand why I came to bother her once she sees this… Hopefully, it won't be too hard to meet her today."

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