If Apocalypse's power had filled Evelyn with bone-deep terror, then the way Herman crushed him left her completely stunned—her mind couldn't even process what she'd witnessed.
How could one person possibly command such overwhelming, terrifying power?
That Apocalypse had seemed godlike—divine and demonic all at once—yet the wizard who had hired her had annihilated that so-called god with effortless ease.
"You... you... you're really just a wizard?"
Evelyn stood there, dazed, for a long moment.
Only when Herman withdrew the divine energy that had formed the protective barrier around her did she begin to recover. Her eyes met his, her expression a complicated tangle of awe, confusion, and disbelief.
If she had belonged to any faith, she would have sworn Herman was the incarnation of some deity. Otherwise, how could he have "judged" the godlike Apocalypse?
"Hard to believe?"
Herman raised an eyebrow slightly.
Evelyn nodded without thinking. "Hard to believe" didn't even begin to describe it—she half wondered if she had already died in the desert and this was some strange near-death hallucination. What other explanation could there be for something so impossible?
"You're not dead," Herman said calmly. "Nothing is more real than what you're experiencing right now. What you see now… is the world's true face."
"The extraordinary," he continued, glancing up at the sun that had reemerged in the clear sky, "has always existed—in every corner of the world, in every crevice of time."
The sandstorm Apocalypse had conjured was gone, and with it vanished the ancient pyramid—a treasure of history reduced to nothing.
Where Herman and Evelyn now stood, there was no trace of any structure. Everything had been reduced to fine dust by Herman's power.
"Don't tell me those old myths were actually the real history books…" Evelyn started to scoff—
Then froze, her expression shifting sharply.
"You can really read minds!" she gasped, realizing that Herman had responded to a thought she hadn't even spoken aloud.
She was certain now—he had to have telepathy.
"It's just a small… gift," Herman said with a light laugh. Evelyn's flustered reaction amused him more than he expected.
"Gift? You mean all wizards can read minds?"
Without realizing it, Evelyn pressed a hand over her chest—as if that could somehow block her thoughts from being read.
The gesture was so nervous it was almost endearing. If she really wanted to hide her thoughts, she should've covered her head… though that wouldn't have helped either.
"Only a few talented wizards have such a rare gift," Herman replied with a perfectly serious expression. "Just like not every wizard can be as powerful as me."
He said it with such conviction that Evelyn found herself momentarily convinced, his straight-faced tone worthy of an Oscar.
Still, doubt lingered in her eyes.
"Even if you are a powerful wizard," she said hesitantly, "that mutant calling himself Apocalypse claimed to be a god. No matter how I think about it, there's no way you should've beaten him so easily."
Herman smiled faintly. "That's where you're mistaken. Apocalypse was nothing but a false god. Even if he had been a true one, it wouldn't have made a difference."
"To wizards of greater power, gods themselves are merely prey. They wield forces strong enough to conquer world after world."
He spoke with the casual tone of someone recalling a legend, borrowing from the old fantasy tales he'd once read before crossing into this world. In this era—where web novels didn't even exist—his words left Evelyn completely dumbfounded.
"Hunting... gods?" she whispered, stunned.
She couldn't even begin to imagine the level of power such wizards must possess.
This was nothing like the wizards she knew—the ones who prayed to deities, performed rituals, and begged for power in exchange for devotion. Had she not witnessed Herman's strength with her own eyes, she would have dismissed his words as pure fantasy.
But treating gods as prey?
That idea was beyond comprehension.
Evelyn wanted to shake her head in denial, to reject such blasphemous nonsense—but the memory of Herman effortlessly annihilating Apocalypse flashed through her mind.
The argument died on her lips.
If this man before her was already this powerful, then the thought of wizards even greater than him hunting gods... suddenly didn't seem so impossible.
"That's right. In truth, we wizards think much like Apocalypse does. We feel no reverence for the gods you humans worship. To us, they're merely stronger life forms—and any being with power can be surpassed."
"Wizards are gods. Wizards believe only in their own divinity. That's why they dare to challenge any and all authority."
Herman had once been fond of reading Western fantasy novels about wizard factions, so spouting such ideas came easily to him.
Evelyn, being Western herself, was completely taken aback by these grand, otherworldly notions. The sheer audacity of it all left her speechless once again.
Her beautiful eyes blinked rapidly in disbelief, yet she didn't sense a single falsehood in Herman's words.
After all, she had seen his power with her own eyes. To her, a wizard that strong had no need to brag to an ordinary woman like her.
"...Maybe when I get back, I really should study this ancient, mysterious profession of wizardry! Perhaps those ancient Egyptian priests really did possess incredible powers!"
The curiosity burning in Evelyn's heart toward "wizards" was now overwhelming.
After everything she had experienced, her once-materialist worldview had already begun to transform beyond repair.
"I remember the library has plenty of books about wizards. I always thought those strange stories were just fantasies born from the ancients' lack of scientific understanding. But now… maybe behind the history of science, there really are countless hidden truths."
Evelyn recalled her time as a librarian, flipping through all sorts of books out of boredom. Now, she couldn't help but wonder if every fantasy or magical tale might secretly record a real—but forgotten—extraordinary history.
Especially that one book, The Secret Village Chronicles. It had once left a deep impression on her, describing something called "The Fungal Lord's Blessing." She used to think it was nothing more than the product of ancient imagination—but now, Evelyn was beginning to suspect that it might actually have been a genuine travel journal from long ago.
"Maybe someday, I should follow the route described in that book and visit that so-called secret village myself…"
The history-loving girl had already begun planning in her mind.
Once she returned home, she would study those books in depth—
And she would search the world for proof of the extraordinary.
At that moment, Evelyn had no idea that this single thought would one day change the entire course of her life.