Evan was smacked right back out of the Cabinet Meeting Room and onto the floor, crashing in the middle of the hallway while the guards stationed at the far end turned in shock.

They quickly snapped out of it and began rushing over, but Eliza, who had stepped aside just before Evan was sent flying, raised a hand to stop them before turning her gaze toward Kayla, who was holding Evan tightly.

"Nice to see you again, Kayla. How've you been?"

Evan spoke with a small laugh as he rubbed the spirit's head, but she only buried her face in his chest, holding onto him as tightly as she could.

He sat up, about to say something, when something caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

"Hmm?"

Evan glanced toward Eliza just as she looked away and stepped into the room, and for a moment, he silently stared after her.

'Am I tripping, or did Liz just glare at Kayla?'

He didn't say it aloud, but the thought was clear on his face, and someone, easily guessing what he was thinking, responded.

[Your eyes were likely not deceiving you, Master.]

He turned toward the source of the voice and saw a large cat with a chalky black coat and eyes of the same colour approach him before bowing lightly.

[Welcome back, Master.]

"Yeah, I'm back, Kuro."

Evan ruffled the shadow spirit's fur, then stood up, lifting Kayla with him. Without a word, the spirit transformed into a cat that looked just like Kuro, only with gleaming golden fur, and nestled herself comfortably in his arms.

[I was worried.]

Her voice echoed in his mind, and hearing it, Evan raised an eyebrow.

'Didn't you—? Oh! Right, I almost forgot. You didn't know what happened after Cruotis Prime, did you?'

It finally made sense to him why Kayla, of all people, was also worried about him. He smiled, rubbing her head gently as he spoke.

"Don't worry, I'm not going off again."

Stepping into the Cabinet Meeting Room and closing the door behind him, Evan glanced around the room and addressed everyone present.

"Good to see y'all again. You've got no idea how much I've missed you all."

He spoke with a hearty laugh as he set Kayla down on one of the cushion chairs, and just before Rudeus and Lloris could open their mouths to speak, the doors slammed open again and someone else barged in.

Evan turned around to see the polo-jumper-wearing, pretty-faced girl who was his fellow hero, her chestnut-coloured hair now much longer and curlier than he remembered, and her height visibly higher as well.

He met her blue eyes with a smile, and she, too, was about to return it, only for those eyes to suddenly widen in shock, so much that she dropped the glass pen in her hands.

It fell to the ground with an audible crack, and the shock was clear on the faces of everyone who knew the source of that pen.

It was a gift from her elder brother, Richard, on her last birthday, something she treasured deeply and always kept safe. Because of that, Rudeus, her father, was naturally dumbfounded to see her drop it in such shock as she stared at Evan.

"…you…wha-…how…"

She stammered, unable to find her words as she raised a hand to point at him, then lowered it and pressed it to her head, before looking back up at him again, still in disbelief.

"…what happened to you?"

Her question left everyone confused, and the Deadly Sin Siblings all turned to Evan, their eyes scanning him for anything different.

Of the three, Leviah was the first to notice something off, thanks to one of the many skills she'd stolen, followed by Roselia, whose instincts warned her of 'danger'.

Eliza's eyes snapped to Evan as she looked him over from head to toe again, confused about what had shocked Laurene.

There seemed to be nothing wrong with him, but the look of realisation on Evan's face made it clear that he understood what she meant.

"Ah…I forgot to switch them off."

Evan muttered as he finally deactivated his Mystic Eyes, the golden glow fading from his grey irises, but not before David managed to stand and catch a glimpse.

"Dude…what the fuck?"

He had a similar reaction to Laurene, and now worried, Eliza narrowed her eyes at them.

"What's wrong? Evan, explain."

Evan only laughed, waving Eliza off as he answered.

"It's nothing serious."

"Nothing serious?!

You went from Stage 4 to 6 in less than a year!!"

Laurene instantly snapped, her shaky voice revealing exactly what had caught her attention.

Evan's Mystic Eyes were now Stage 6.

As a Hero herself, Laurene knew that the requirement for Mystic Eyes Stage 6 was Level 900.

With that much information, it wasn't hard for her to infer Evan's current strength, even though she couldn't sense an iota of magic power from him.

"…how long were you there?! What did you go through?!"

She couldn't make sense of how Evan had gone from Level 500+ to Level 900+ in just 9 months, so her mind immediately concluded that he must have either spent years there or gone through something unbearable to level up that much in such a short time.

"It was only 9 months, okay?" Evan spoke up to clarify before Eliza could misunderstand anything, then, with a sigh, he added, "As for what I went through, well, let's just say it was 'a lot'."

He spoke with a shrug, turning around to meet Eliza's suspicious eyes.

"Details. Now."

She'd held back because Evan mentioned that if he was going to explain what happened, he'd rather not have to repeat himself, but Laurene and David's reactions were wearing down her restraint.

"I'll fill you in. Let's all sit down first, okay?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders and guided her to a seat, and after sitting her down, he dropped into the chair beside her and spoke.

"Alright, everyone, do I start with talks about the way forward, or regale you with a short tale of my misadventures down the timestream?"

"Evan," Eliza called his name, her face blank and eyebrows scrunched up, and Evan silently raised his hands in mock surrender.

"The latter it is."

The others present were also curious about what had happened, especially after Laurene and David's exaggerated reactions to him.

"Well, as you already know, I got blasted to the past during our fateful battle against the FCDs.

The visible cause was the spell cast by 'Sun Celestial' Conroe, but I've been told that Kayla informed you of the real cause. Conroe was only a proxy used by a goddess to get me out of Aidos."

"Wait, another goddess?"

Rudeus blinked in surprise, and seeing Lloris, Isobel, Luke, and Gavin just as surprised, Evan raised an eyebrow in confusion.

[I only informed your close companions.]

Kayla's voice echoed in his head at that moment, and realisation dawned, and he nodded before speaking.

"Yes. Another goddess who isn't exactly on good terms with Artemisia. She's the one who revived Conroe when he was supposed to be dead, and she used him to send me back in time since I was being a bit too much of a pain in the behind to the Demonic Hand and ruining their plans to tear open the Dimensional Rift."

Confused looks appeared on the faces of those present, even his companions, and Evan quickly spoke before anyone could interrupt.

"Now, you're probably wondering why a goddess would want me out of the way, but the answer to that's pretty obvious, isn't it?

I'm not the only one who's close with one of the 'Supreme' god Queens of this universe. Our dear leader of the Demonic Hand seems to have a connection to one, too."

It was a heavy revelation that completely clashed with the casual tone Evan had used.

Without waiting for any questions, he continued, wanting to finish the talk so he could focus on the Tarse plan.

"I was sent back in time to Year 1054 of the 50th General Calendar, and I ended up on what's called a 'Battlefront World', a term used to describe worlds being invaded by our lovely friends from the other side of the rift on the Delt—ah, Dark Continent."

Kayla was the only one not stunned by this revelation since she already knew Evan had ended up on Aramis in the past.

"Prime World, Aramis. That was the planet I crash-landed into, smack dab in the middle of Demon Territory, just seconds away from three of the most dangerous entities on that planet."

Eliza's expression grew tense when she heard that, but Evan simply smiled and brushed her face lightly to reassure her before continuing in a calm tone.

"When a Hero gets disconnected from their World like I did after being sent back in time, they become something known as a Rogue Hero—a potential 'free' Hero for any planet.

Even without meeting the requirements for being a Hero on that world, Rogue Heroes can take on that role, and I even did once."

Memories of the Infernal Dimension Saga crossed Evan's mind as he spoke.

"Anyway, Aramis didn't have any Heroes, and I'd just fallen from the sky straight into the territory the world's invaders had taken over.

Because of that, I had to strike a deal to make sure they didn't mark me as a foreign threat to eliminate, and as a result, I ended up fighting in the war for Aramis."

"Eh? You fought…with the demons?"

Laurene asked, her surprise visible, and Evan, leaning back in his chair, shrugged.

"Yeah. The only other option was being marked as a potential enemy Hero and getting eliminated. What would you do in my position?

Besides, I couldn't care less about the fate of Aramis. It's not the world I'm trying to save from an invasion, and taking part in that war not only let me gain a huge amount of power, but it also gave me the chance to visit other worlds and see how they operate, learn their tactics—which are still relevant since they used those same tactics against Aidos 1000 years ago."

Holding up a finger, he added, "Most importantly, I got the chance to visit their world and meet their rulers. ALL 72 of them."

"There are 72 of them?!"

David sat up in shock at Evan's words, and before Evan could continue teasing him, Roselia spoke up.

"The '72 Demon Kings' has been defunct for several thousand years now. He's messing with you."

Evan immediately shot her a look. "Come on, don't ruin my fun."

Chuckling, he turned back to David and continued.

"But yeah, she's right. I met the Demon Kings when most of them were still alive."

David wanted to say something, but Evan's expression suddenly turned serious as he went on. "Sadly, I never did get to find out what I wanted the most—why Prime World Gozon targets other Prime Worlds like ours and how they make them 'disappear'."

His gaze shifted to the three demons present, and they each reacted differently. Roselia stayed silent, Nadarus frowned, and Leviah simply crossed her legs and spoke calmly.

"That's information meant for high-ranking Demon ears only."

At those words, Evan smiled wryly and replied, "You give the exact same answer Alvey did."

"!"

Roselia immediately reacted to the name, her body jerking up as she shot Evan a shocked look.

"What did you—"

"Oh, you didn't hear me wrong," Evan said, cutting her off before turning his attention back to the rest at the table and continuing without giving her the chance to speak.

"Anyway, I spent several months on Aramis, went to Gozon, and three other battlefront worlds. I even came to Aidos of the past, and I've got to say, we've declined a lot."

That aside, I ended up in another dimension, met the Infernal Devil King who put the 'Fallen' in the titles of the Celestial Deities we fought in Tarse last year, and got a new pet Tree."

The last part left everyone confused, and Evan simply clapped his hands and spoke.

"That explains just about everything."

"Just about?" Eliza repeated, her suspicious eyes fixed on him, and right after, Laurene spoke up.

"That doesn't explain Stage 6, Evan. You know as well as we do the immense amount of EXP needed for that. What else happened?"

At this, Evan sighed, drumming his fingers on the table as he spoke.

"What else, huh? Well, I killed a planet."