Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

Shifting his eyes elsewhere, Cassius saw Kaida. He also noticed Luna and Rika right beside her. They were talking about the Gate, sometimes mentioning his name. Though, every time that happened, Kaida's glare aimed at him worsened. Her flaming aura also appropriately grew, urging forth a searing heat that burned even the molecules in the atmosphere.

"She really doesn't like me…" Cassius said with a wry smile, wondering what he even did to make her so mad. "Perhaps she's just hiding her true feelings for me behind a veil of wrath?"

He chuckled the moment he said it, finding such a notion to be even more ridiculous than pigs suddenly learning how to fly.

Discarding useless thoughts, Cassius approached the face of the Japanese Hunters—Arden Stormcall. The man who possessed incredible control over the elements of Lightning and Wind. His expression wasn't looking too good right about now, but somewhere deep inside him, Cassius could see an unwillingness to give up just because something appeared impossible.

"Hey," said Cassius, tapping him on the shoulder. "Here, take this. Use it well."

"!??"

Arden—taken aback by being snuck up on like that—was even more shocked to find within the folds of his hand a small gem. He had no idea what it was or what it did, but he could tell without an ounce of doubt that whatever it may be, it was of an extremely high level. Far, far higher than the levels of any of his equipment.

However, seeing as Cassius had already begun his advance toward the Gold-ranked Gate, Arden left his reverie and called out:

"Friend Cassius, what is this thing??" he shouted. "Why did you give it to me???"

His shouting attracted the attention of nearly everyone in the vicinity. Their watchful eyes honed in on the backside of a figure walking alongside a purple-haired beauty. They watched as he halfway turned his head back, his eyes glowing like the calmest yet deadliest of swords.

"I gave it to you simply because I feel like if anyone deserves to live, then it should be one of the last human S-Rank Hunters," Cassius responded calmly. "I gave one to each of your party members as well. The human ones, at least…"

With that, he returned his focus to the massive Gold-ranked Gate. It had long since evolved beyond an Apocalypse Gate or Royale Gate, becoming something never before seen on a 0th Floor of the Ascension Tower.

"!!!" "!!!" "!!!"

It was around when Cassius and Viola vanished into the rolling gold energy waves of the Gate that Kaida, Luna, and the other humans noticed the gems in their hands. They had no clue how they got there, but they fully came to the realization that they had severely underestimated the prowess of the man who seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

Kaida, in particular, wore an ashamed, furious, and mildly embarrassed look on her well-sculpted face.

'Cassius…!!' she screamed internally. 'You're going on my sh*t list, right beside the Dragon Slayer! For shaming me like this, I'll make you accept my revenge!!'

The other gathered S-Rank Hunters had no idea about Kaida's inner ravings, but what they did know was that Cassius—their sub-target—had entered the Gold-ranked Gate. This was good. Very, very good…

Right then, the gazes of hundreds of Dissonants fixated on five Japanese S-Rank Hunters. Even the six non-human Japanese Hunters stared at them.

"???" "???"

"Why is everyone looking at us like that!?" Kaida asked, still livid because of Cassius. "Are they wanting to fight as well!??"

"I don't think they want to fight us," Luna murmured as her softly formed eyes keenly observed the hundreds of S-Rank Hunters staring at them like snacks. "I think they want to eat us…"

"What that Cassius fellow said just before he left with Viola," Rika added, her stance becoming increasingly defensive. "He spoke as if we were the only humans here… Could it be…??"

"Monsters in disguise," Luna stated while looking at Gideon, Ezekiel, Victor Rapido, and the World-class Hunters. "However, even if that is the case, their power levels make no sense. They're exactly the same as the genuine articles."

"Moreover, that's not even mentioning how it shouldn't be possible for there to be so many humanoid monsters," she continued, perceptively scrutinizing the predatory eyes cornering them from every direction. "To see even a single humanoid monster is rarer than finding a mine of diamonds as a blind, crippled person. For example, that dragon girl who fought the Wolf Deity was the first humanoid monster we have seen in years."

"Worse yet," Rika began, her tone grave and also concealing a large amount of anger. "If so many humanoid monsters were able to replace hundreds of S-Rank Hunters under our noses, then that means…"

"Humanity has fallen," Luna finished her sentence, her expression emulating her immense frustrations. "Humanity has fallen… to the Monsters."

"Errrr! Wrong!" A voice echoed from among the Dissonants. The voice belonged to the bulky Battlemonger.

The Battlemonger smirked, finally able to breathe and talk freely now that Cassius—that freakish monster—was gone. He had seen him stop by the Earth Crusaders Guild some time ago, and since that point, he had done everything within his ability to draw as little attention to himself as possible.

That human… or whatever the hell he was—was scary…

Now, however, the Battlemonger's fright vanished into the wind. Cassius's departure was as if ten tons worth of weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"What do I mean??" he mocked, his sharp, shark-like teeth entering the limelight. "What I mean is that we aren't monsters! But rather Dissonants! Or, as you commonly know us as—Aliens!"

Following that announcement, the human meat suits that the Dissonants were wearing rapidly melted off. Once completely gone, the true forms of the Dissonants were put on display, revealing the huge, ominously terrifying Kaiju forms that quickly filled the airspace.

"!?!?" "!?!?"

Arden, Luna, Kaida, and the others' expressions drastically changed. Never in their lives would they have expected to hear someone say they were an alien, let alone see hundreds of them in person!