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There was a species that toyed with its prey.
Whether it was because they could absorb Mana more efficiently by inflicting suffering upon their prey, or because it allowed them to display their strength to the individuals around them, it was originally a necessary behavior.
But the species evolved once more, and as they gained intelligence, they began to experience pleasure when carrying out this behavior.
As the entire species found the greatest pleasure in playing with and tormenting others, one of them finally attained divinity.
That was Hihiryushukaka.
Unable to resist the flames that were burning him, Hihiryushukaka let out a scream of terror and defeat.
With every passing moment, the flesh that was his vessel and the Demon King’s tentacles turned to ash and crumbled, and a part of his very existence was erased as if someone were cutting away at his soul.
Hihiryushukaka had blocked the first attack directed at him when he first took over this vessel by using the Demon King’s shadow as a shield, preventing damage to his soul. But it was impossible to shield himself against three cannonballs coming from three different cannons, and he was now on the verge of being burnt to ashes.
Even after being taken over by an evil god, Birkyne’s body possessed the characteristics of a Pure-breed Vampire. Thus, the wounds inflicted by the light-attribute dead spirit magic imbued in the cannonballs were barely regenerating at all; his flesh was simply being burned away.
So, this is destruction! This is what it means to be erased! This is the primitive fear that Guduranis once inflicted upon the gods! … How dare he, how dare he do this to me! Hihiryushukaka thought.
Having no Mana and being barely able to move, the fear in his mind turned into hatred and envy.
These emotions were, of course, directed at Guduranis and Vandalieu.
So, this is the despair and fear that they inflicted! Upon the gods of this world, upon Zakkart and his friends, upon my servants Ternecia and Gubamon! And now me, the evil god of joyful life! Even though it is I who should be gaining joy from toying with others’ lives. Even though that was the reason I became a subordinate of the Demon King!
Hihiryushukaka had become one of the Demon King Guduranis’s subordinates for this reason. By becoming a subordinate of Guduranis, who was more powerful than Hihiryushukaka and possessed the ability to break souls, he could feel the joy of toying with all of the gods and creatures in this world.
As the Demon King’s subordinate, he would take joy in the despair of those who were invaded and destroyed.
This was also his reason for trying to kill Vandalieu. It was true that he felt a sense of danger after the appearance of another being who possessed the ability to destroy souls, something that Hihiryushukaka himself did not possess. But more importantly, he felt envy.
He could accept the Demon King possessing this power. But he could not accept that a mere Dhampir, who had only received half of the blood of a Vampire that was one of his servants, possessed the ability to toy with souls.
He had been unable to overlook the humiliation he felt towards this fact.
That was why he had ordered his servants to erase Vandalieu, but… this was the result.
There was no way to corner him… My servants gave him time to become more powerful, and they were killed by him one by one. Even I knew that I had little hope of winning, but I was cornered in such a way that I had no choice but to bet everything I have on that small hope.
The Vampire organization that worshiped the evil god of joyful life, which had ruled the darkness of the Bahn Gaia continent for tens of thousands of years, had been forced to the brink of destruction by Vandalieu over the course of a little more than ten years.
Among the three who ruled over the three separate factions of the organization, Ternecia and Gubamon had been destroyed, and Alda’s forces had begun to make a move as well.
Birkyne had restructured the organization, but even he had intended to go into hiding after forming a nonaggression pact with Vandalieu. If this had gone as planned, Birkyne would have likely survived, but… Hihiryushukaka couldn’t allow that to happen.
Even if Vandalieu didn’t try to meddle with Hihiryushukaka’s affairs, the fact that Alda’s forces were in motion would not change. They were looking for enemies to use as nourishment for their hastily-made, developing heroes as if they were starving carnivores.
The Noble-born Vampires and Subordinate Vampires that Birkyne had abandoned would be devoured by these heroes. And among these heroes, one of them capable of defeating Hihiryushukaka and sealing him away could emerge.
Even if this did not happen, once the battle between Vandalieu and Alda’s forces reached its conclusion, the next target would be Hihiryushukaka and the rest of the remnants of the Demon King’s army, regardless of who won the battle.
The only uncertain thing about this was whether it would be Alda’s forces that had defeated the powerful enemy that was Vandalieu, or Vida’s faction with its power fully restored.
Even if Birkyne could manage to hide on the world’s surface, Hihiryushukaka would one day be cornered in his Divine Realm.
In order for Hihiryushukaka to survive, he needed to kill Vandalieu here, take the Demon King’s fragments from him, acquire their power and defeat the heroes of Alda’s forces.
… He also had the foolish idea of simply holing himself up in this Dungeon along with Birkyne’s body, as he had been prepared to take over Birkyne’s body at any moment.
And now, Hihiryushukaka was on the brink of defeat and destruction.
Have I been defeated because I am the evil god of joyful life?! Why can I not have victory by taking joy in toying with life?!
Birkyne’s plan against Vandalieu and the fighting ability that Hihiryushukaka possessed now that he was using Birkyne’s body as a vessel were both things that an ordinary hero would have had no hope against.
But Birkyne had created this plan without seeking Hihiryushukaka’s aid, and Hihiryushukaka had attempted to utilize his plan in order to kill Vandalieu.
If the two of them had joined their knowledge and power… become one as Darcia and Vida had done and challenged Vandalieu together, the result may have been different.
But Hihiryushukaka would never realize this. After all, he was an evil god who took joy in toying with others’ lives. Those below him were not comrades, companions or even confidants; they were pawns to be used, things to be toyed with and tormented.
“CURSE YOU! JUST HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE IS THERE BETWEEN YOU AND ME?!” he screamed.
The three Cannonball-type Demon King Familiars imbued with the magic of the light-attribute Ghosts exploded with a brilliant light and tremendous noise, sending a shockwave across the Dungeon.
“A wall,” said Vandalieu, using the ‘Dungeon Creation’ Skill to create a wall.
Normally, no wall would be able to withstand such force and heat unless it were made of Orichalcum, but the wall of a Dungeon was an exception.
“Van-sama!” Eleanora said happily, diving into Vandalieu as she and the others quickly leapt onto the other side of the wall.
“Little girl, making use of the confusion in order to cling onto Vandalieu-sama… Well, it is fine,” said Isla.
“Try not to cause him too much trouble,” said Bellmond.
The entirety of the Dungeon floor was shaken by a massive shockwave.
If the buildings of this Dungeon were the same as those in the real city of Morksi, destruction and fire would have consumed it.
“Fighting inside a Dungeon was the correct decision. Cannon and Cannonball-type Demon King Familiars have a lot of firepower, but the blast waves are incredible,” said Darcia.
“I-indeed,” Eleanora agreed.
“I hope the shaking hasn’t reached the basement where the exit is. Juliana-san and Natania-san are there… Well, Tarea-san, Levia-san and Orbia-san are with them, so I think they’ll be alright,” Darcia said.
“Yes, I think they’ll be fine,” Eleanora said with a stiff nod.
She had tried to leap at Vandalieu and wrap him in her arms, but he had already been scooped up into the protection of Darcia’s arms. Unable to stop her momentum, Eleanora had ended up embracing Darcia with Vandalieu squeezed between them.
Not bothered by this, Darcia had caught Eleanora and protected her along with Vandalieu.
Incidentally, Vandalieu was unable to speak, as his face was currently buried in Eleanora’s chest.
“Darcia-sama, the flames have not stopped yet, but the shockwave seems to be over,” said Bellmond.
“Ah, you’re right,” said Darcia, releasing Eleanora from her arms. “Eleanora-san, sorry for surprising you like that.”
“N-no… I apologize for my behavior,” said a crimson-faced Eleanora as she staggered away.
She was confused, feeling something mother-like in Darcia, upon whom Vida had descended.
“CURSE YOU! JUST HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE IS THERE BETWEEN YOU AND ME?!” Hihiryushukaka’s ugly, echoing voice screamed enviously, shattering this atmosphere. “Vandalieu, the new Demon King! You have been reincarnated here from another world to take lives, toy with them, destroy souls and bring chaos in your quest to invade and rule over this world!”
A half-melted tentacle appeared at the top of the wall. Isla reflexively swung her sword and cut it down, but a second and third tentacle crept over the wall, and there were more tentacles behind them.
“What is the difference between you and me?! I know everything! That you have taken nourishment in human blood, that you have turned the dead into Undead, that you have turned plants and animals into monsters, that you have created new races and even the fact that you have created an imitated method of reincarnation! The only difference between you and me is that you are strong and I am weak… that you have won and I have been defeated!” Hihiryushukaka’s voice continued. “Am I wrong, Vida?!”
In the next moment, Hihiryushukaka appeared at the top of the wall, climbing over it with tentacles. He was in a pitiful state. The part of him that was Birkyne’s body had almost completely turned into ash; he appeared to be a mass of tentacles emerging from a pile of charred remains. It wasn’t even clear how he was managing to speak.
Flustered, Chipuras vanished, and Daroak and Berkert flew off somewhere as well.
“Am I wrong, my former worshipers! You may believe that Vandalieu is different because he treats you well; he is kind and compassionate. If you think this, then remember that your masters were the same in the beginning! They fed you and tamed you!” Hihiryushukaka screamed. “Watch carefully. Once he rules this world, Vandalieu will one day become arrogant and oppress you… He will oppress everything that exists!”
Birkyne’s incredible regenerative ability that could grow back lost limbs seemed to have been exhausted; Hihiryushukaka fell from the top of the wall in the same pitiful state, laughing loudly.
Vandalieu and his companions had been listening to his words silently, but Isla and the light-attribute Ghosts suddenly spoke up.
“Vandalieu-sama, it doesn’t look like he is trying to curse us or planning to enrage us in order to create an opening,” said Isla.
“I checked the corpses of Birkyne’s confidants, thinking that he had hidden something within them, but it was a needless fear. There was nothing of the sort,” Chipuras reported.
“Miles’s battle with the Dwarf Noble-born Vampire took some time, but he was victorious,” said Daroak.
Hihiryushukaka stopped his laughter, surprised by the business-like actions of Vandalieu’s companions. “W-what are you fools talking about?”
“We thought that you would try something, but I suppose you are merely voicing your grudges now that you are on the verge of death. With that being the case, there is no value in listening to you,” said Bellmond.
“That’s right. To say that the only difference between Van-sama and others is power alone… You could never be described as sane to begin with, but it seems that the ‘Soul Devour’ Skill has made your soul collapse significantly and caused you to lose your mind entirely,” said Eleanora.
The two of them surrounded Hihiryushukaka from either side.
“The way you’re saying it isn’t quite right, but you’re not entirely wrong,” said Vandalieu.
Unlike his companions, he had taken in Hihiryushukaka’s resentful words that were essentially a desperate accusation.
He had in fact used the blood of the bandits he killed for nourishment in the past. More recently, he had turned the stray dog Fang into a Hellhound and carried out Juliana’s pseudo-reincarnation.
He had the feeling that all of his actions would have drawn bioethical questions if he were on Earth.
“But I’ve already been told as much by Asagi and Heinz, and I have great reason to question whether you are qualified to lecture me,” Vandalieu continued. “To begin with, I never fought you thinking that I am on the side of justice and that you are evil. I am killing you and your worshipers because you are a nuisance. That goes both ways, doesn’t it?”
From the very beginning, Vandalieu had never thought that there was some great cause or justice behind this battle. It was nothing more than a fight to the death.
“I have two more things to say,” said Darcia. “In the end, the thing that shows the difference between you and Vandalieu the most is the fact that you never called me by my name. And… don’t try to have a say in how I raise my child!”
With that, everyone but Vandalieu raised their weapons and brought them crashing down upon Hihiryushukaka all at once.
“A say in how you raise your child?!” Hihiryushukaka repeated in astonishment.
In the next moment, he let out his dying scream. With his body destroyed, his soul was devoured by Vandalieu along with the Demon King’s shadow and completely annihilated, leaving not a single fragment behind.
This was the end of Hihiryushukaka, the evil god of joyful life that had brought disasters across Lambda for a hundred thousand years, and the three Pure-breed Vampires that had ruled over the darkness of the Bahn Gaia continent.
Even after being devoured, the Demon King’s shadow… the fragment of Guduranis’s soul continued to exist. It had been weakened from being used as a shield by Hihiryushukaka, and now that its host Birkyne was no more, it was now nothing more than a hollow, false image.
Thus, it tried to become the shadow of Vandalieu, the one who had devoured it.
But within Vandalieu, another Vandalieu already existed.
“Hello. I’m the other Vandalieu. Nice to meet you, shadow who is trying to become yet another me,” it said.
This was the ‘false image Vandalieu,’ the one that had appeared at the Trial of Mirrors in the Trial of Zakkart and merged with the real Vandalieu.
This image had become one with Vandalieu. Thus, it continued to exist as a part of Vandalieu’s persona.
The Demon King’s shadow froze, unable to comprehend the situation that it found itself in. But the false image Vandalieu continued speaking to it.
“I don’t think introductions are necessary. After all, you are already me,” it said.
TLN: The following is confusing because the Demon King’s shadow uses 我/ware to refer to itself, while Vandalieu uses 俺/ore. Both of these mean I/me in English.
“I (ware) am… I (ware) am… I (ore) am…?”
The Demon King’s shadow asked itself, ‘What am I (ware)?’ And it could answer, ‘I (ore) am me (ore).’
I (ware) am not me (ware), but me (ore), and I (ore) am not me (ware). I (ore) am me (ore), a part of me (ore), and me (ore).
“I (ore) am me (ore), and the same me (ore) as me (ore).”
With that, the false image of Guduranis vanished, and Vandalieu gained a new part to himself.
《You have acquired the Demon King’s shadow!》
《You have acquired the Demon King’s tentacles!》
《The Demon King’s physical fragments have combined into the Demon King’s body!》
《You have acquired the ‘Forceful Vitality Enchantment,’ ‘Soul Binding,’ ‘Dominate Created Undead’ and ‘Life Erosion’ Skills!》
《The ‘Forceful Vitality Enchantment,’ ‘Soul Binding’ and ‘Dominate Created Undead’ Skills have merged with the ‘Dark King Magic’ Skill!》
《The ‘Life Erosion’ Skill has merged with the ‘Mutation Induction’ Skill!》
《 ‘Group Binding Technique’ has transformed into ‘Shadow Group Binding Technique!’》
《The Levels of the ‘Monstrous Strength,’ ‘Dark King Magic,’ ‘Chant Revocation,’ ‘Enhanced Agility,’ ‘Strengthened Attack Power while Unarmed,’ ‘Enhanced Body Part (Hair, Claws, Tongue, Fangs),’ ‘Mana Enlargement,’ ‘Increased Mana Recovery Rate,’ ‘Strengthened Attack Power while activating Magic Cannon,’ ‘Enhanced Attribute Values: Reigning,’ ‘Golem Creation,’ ‘Hollow King Magic,’ ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique,’ ‘Greater Multi-Cast,’ ‘Embodiment,’ ‘Coordination,’ ‘Super High-speed Thought Processing,’ ‘Commanding,’ ‘Throwing,’ ‘Dead Spirit Magic,’ ‘Demon King Artillery Technique,’ ‘Shadow Group Binding Technique,’ ‘God Devourer,’ ‘Demon King,’ ‘Abyss,’ ‘Soul Devour,’ ‘Group Thought Processing,’ ‘Group Control’ and ‘Soul Form’ Skills have increased!》
《‘Strengthen Subordinates’ has awakened into ‘Super Strengthen Subordinates!’》
Having defeated Hihiryushukaka, Vandalieu and his companions had increased their Skill Levels and gained awakened Skills, but they left all of that aside for now and returned to the fake orphanage.
“‘Princess Knight’… Iris and Juliana are princess knights, so it’s still fine. It should still be fine…!” Eleanora muttered.
“Danna-sama, ‘Imperial Butler’ refers to a butler of the emperor rather than an emperor that is a butler,” Bellmond stressed to Vandalieu.
“Perhaps you two should be more proud of your awakened Skills than worried about your new race titles?” suggested Isla, looking at them with an exasperated expression.
“I don’t think you need to dislike magical girls so much. I think ‘Magical Girl’ is a good Job,” Darcia whispered gently.
But all of them completely ignored her words. It was possible that Bellmond was continuously speaking into Vandalieu’s ear to prevent herself from hearing Darcia’s words.
All of them were highly wary of becoming magical girls.
“We can’t let our guard down, even though we did our best to prevent Birkyne from calling us magical girls!” said Eleanora. “And even without that, I’ve recently acquired the ‘Leader’s Mistress’ Title… Well, the ‘leader’ is Van-sama, so it’s fine.”
“I think that the ‘Leader’s Mistress’ Title will be removed once we stop our infiltration of the organization, so I don’t think you need to worry about it too much,” said Vandalieu. “Anyway, let’s think about the new race titles and Jobs later.”
Despite all of his flaws, Hihiryushukaka had been a physical incarnation of an evil god, so defeating him had caused Rank increases and large Level increases of Skills. It would likely take an entire day to examine all of the changes, so it was decided to leave it until later.
Gufadgarn, Melissa and the people of the orphanage, who were now freed from Birkyne’s brainwashing and Vandalieu’s spirit form, were waiting inside the fake orphanage.
“Congratulations on your victory,” said Gufadgarn.
The children were crying in confusion, and the orphanage’s head and the nuns were trying to console them, but it didn’t seem like there were any large problems.
“I already told your clone, but it seems that the brainwashing has been removed. As you can see, Birkyne’s orders are no longer in effect… though it seems that they still have their memories from when they were brainwashed,” Melissa whispered to Vandalieu.
She had undergone some degree of training against brainwashing and interrogation, and she had diagnosed the orphanage’s people based on the knowledge she had gained from that.
“But you should ask them and examine them yourself to find out more details. Even with my training from my previous life, I wouldn’t know what symptoms people would have after being brainwashed by the Demon King’s shadow. Gufadgarn said that she doesn’t know, either,” Melissa added.
“Guduranis did not use roundabout methods such as manipulating others with his shadow. Until Birkyne did so on the people of this orphanage, I never imagined such a thing was possible,” said Gufadgarn.
Guduranis had possessed tremendous power; unlike Birkyne, he had been able to control others through power and fear alone, though it was possible that he had used his shadow outside of Gufadgarn’s knowledge. Gufadgarn had never been closely associated with the first Demon King; in fact, she had held an insignificant position in the Demon King’s army.
But a small amount of black smoke had apparently come out of the ears and noses of the orphanage’s people around the same time that Vandalieu and his companions defeated Hihiryushukaka.
It was likely that this black smoke was the fragments of the Demon King’s shadow that Birkyne had planted in their minds, though it wasn’t clear whether he had planted the shadow in everyone he manipulated or only in the orphanage’s people in order to have better control over them as hostages.
“If the brainwashing’s effect was to produce responses to Birkyne’s voice, presence or use of the Demon King’s shadow, it’s probably fine now. Their brains weren’t altered that much either, were they?” said Melissa. “By the way, sorry to change the subject, but… was that big explosion made by those Demon King Familiars? I managed because we were far away from the blast, but if it were at close range, we would have died if I were too late to put up my ‘Aegis.’”
“You’d be fine, Melissa,” said Vandalieu.
“That’s right. You won’t ever be ‘too late.’ Have some confidence in yourself,” Darcia told her encouragingly.
“… That amount of trust is troublesome. Especially coming from both mother and child,” Melissa groaned quietly as she stepped back.
With Vandalieu being her guider and Darcia being her race’s ancestor, it seemed that she had no choice but to live up to their expectations.
“Well, there’s no guarantee that I’ll use them again,” Vandalieu added. “By the way, do you know where Miles, Eisen and the others went?” he asked as he looked around, realizing that more than half of the companions that were supposed to gather here were absent.
“Vandalieu-sama, it seems that they are in the back garden. Look,” said Eleanora, pointing at the part of Pete’s tail that was visible in the shadow of the fake orphanage. “It seems that they were thoughtful enough to stay hidden there so that they don’t scare the children.”
“… I see,” said Vandalieu. “Well then, I’ll help calm the children down and explain the situation –”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Melissa. “It might be better to leave the orphanage’s head and the nuns to deal with that for a little longer.
According to Melissa, the ones who had taken action first immediately after the brainwashing was undone was Holly, the head of the orphanage, and the nuns Seris and Vestra. Confused, they had burst into tears and started blaming themselves.
But upon seeing the children burst into tears as well, they had come to their senses and put their own emotions aside in order to take care of the children.
That was why Melissa and Gufadgarn had waited for Vandalieu rather than try to help calm the children down.
“Well, even if I were to try and help, I’ve never taken care of children before,” said Melissa.
“I could have made them stop crying,” said Gufadgarn.
“… You mean you would have just told them, ‘Please stop crying,’ right?”
Despite these words, Vandalieu did doubt whether watching silently was the right thing to do, but one of the children, Marsha, noticed them. Still crying, she came running over.
“Onii-chan, I ate some weird wobbly stuff!” Marsha wailed.
“… That would be the spirit form I put in your mouth so that you wouldn’t bite your tongue. It’s fine, you didn’t swallow it. I just undid my ‘Embodiment,’” Vandalieu told her.
“I didn’t swallow it?! Really?! I won’t get sick or anything?!”
“You won’t, you won’t.”
Relieved, Marsha burst into tears again, louder than ever. “I’m so glad!”
It seemed that to her, this was the most serious thing that had happened today.
Vandalieu was relieved that the brainwashing had been undone without any side effects like memory loss.
Matthew ran over next. “Vandalieu!”
“Matthew, if you’re wondering about the wobbly stuff in your mouth, you didn’t swallow it,” said Vandalieu.
“That’s not what I want to talk about, you dummy! There’s something I want to tell you,” Matthew said, lowering his head with a serious look on his face. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault!”
Vandalieu opened his mouth, intending to tell Matthew that he didn’t need to worry about having been controlled by Birkyne and luring him here.
But Matthew meant something else.
“I’m sorry about tomorrow’s festival!” he said.
Vandalieu had visited the orphanage today to help with preparations for tomorrow’s festival. But apparently, the festival had never existed to begin with.
“That stupid Birkyne guy came and told us to invite you over to help prepare. So, we invited you over, but he appeared again this morning and… you know the rest,” Matthew mumbled.
From this explanation, it seemed that Birkyne had thought of numerous events to shorten the distance between Vandalieu and the orphanage in order to make the orphanage’s people function as hostages.
Of course, this had all begun from the time when Matthew attempted to steal from Vandalieu’s food cart and Vandalieu subsequently made donations to the orphanage. It seemed that Birkyne had used the Demon King’s shadow to move in and out of the city more frequently than Vandalieu had thought.
Birkyne had likely decided that the orphanage’s people would serve as hostages after the incident in which Aggar and the other corrupt guards attempted to kidnap the children. It seemed that he had decided not to go ahead with the fake festival and simply lay his trap for the day of the preparations. But that wasn’t the important part.
“In other words, there were no preparations for any festival…” Vandalieu muttered, staggering in shock.
He had never expected that Birkyne would have left such a cruel parting gift after his soul was devoured.
“Yeah, sorry. We never expected you to be so excited to make preparations,” said Matthew. “By the way, why were you looking forward to it so much?”
“… Even if I was alone in my real childhood, I would be able to feel a sense of unity and accomplishment if I helped prepare, right? That’s why,” said Vandalieu.
“Huh? I don’t get what you’re saying. It’s too complicated.”
Matthew had lived at the orphanage for as long as he could remember, so it was apparently difficult for him to imagine the loneliness that Vandalieu had felt as a school student on Earth.
But even Darcia, Vida’s incarnation, didn’t know about the festival. This now made sense, as the festival had been made up to begin with.
“The Communal Church’s Priestess Paula didn’t know about it either, so I was sure that the peaceful faction and fundamentalists held different festivals on different days, but I guess that wasn’t the case,” said Darcia. “Umm, Vandalieu, how about we have a celebration for defeating Birkyne and Hihiryushukaka instead of the festival? If everyone at the orphanage is okay with that.”
“Seriously?! Will there be tasty food?!” Matthew exclaimed, immediately clinging onto Vandalieu.
The rest of the children, who had now calmed down, heard ‘tasty food’ and looked at Darcia, their eyes shining with expectation.
“Yes, of course. The festival will be tomorrow, though,” said Darcia.
“Yay!”
Around half of the children cheered loudly in excitement.
Despite recently having become able to eat until their stomachs were full, the words ‘tasty food’ seemed to have an effect on the children.
The other half of the children were telling Vandalieu and the others about what they had seen.
“Onii-chan, do that thing again where you turn black and fly through the sky!”
“Hey, Vandalieu-oniichan, where did those shiny old guys go?”
“Darcia-neechan, there was a huge centipede, a centipede. I’m telling the truth!”
“More importantly, there were a bunch of bee-women! And the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael!”
Rather than the fear they had felt while being manipulated by Birkyne, it seemed that they were more interested in Vandalieu sending Birkyne flying with a kick using ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique,’ Pete, Quinn and Miles, also known as the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael who ruled over the entertainment district and the slums.
The children also seemed to be interested in the others.
“Ah, this old woman is scary!” one of the children cried, looking at Isla.
“W-what?! I was hiding in the little girl’s shadow so that I would not scare the children… It seems that the children of human societies are more delicate than I thought,” Isla muttered.
“Who are those girls? Are they new girls at the orphanage?” asked another child, looking curiously at Gufadgarn and Melissa.
“I do not live at the orphanage,” Gufadgarn said in a flat tone.
Birkyne had tried to order the children to commit suicide, but before that, he had ordered them to be silent. Perhaps their emotions had been paralyzed at that point.
… But perhaps Isla, half of whose face and body could still be seen behind Eleanora, was still very scary for them.
“I’m Eleanora, and the one behind me is called Isla. It’s alright, she’s not scary,” Eleanora said gently.
“I am known as Bellmond. Nice to meet you, everyone,” said Bellmond.
Seeing how the children were, it seemed that Birkyne had been telling the truth. He had only ordered them to approach any Dhampirs they encountered, and had not brainwashed them to force any other large changes in their behavior.
As most of the children had calmed down, the orphanage’s head and the nuns were now free of work. The three of them bowed to Vandalieu.
“Vandalieu-san, everyone…” the orphanage’s head murmured. “Thank you for saving our children and nuns.”
“Thanks to you, all of us were saved, Vandalieu-san,” said Vestra.
All of them had swollen, bloodshot eyes, but it seemed that they were no longer filled with the confusion and emotions that Melissa had described earlier.
“No, Birkyne’s target was me,” said Vandalieu. “Don’t blame yourselves too much… but that said, you seem to be handling it better than I expected.”
With Birkyne’s brainwashing undone, they had remembered who they truly were, and the fact that they had been offering orphans to an evil god on the Vampires’ behalf.
It wasn’t that they had offered every child in the orphanage. However, Seris and Vestra were actually Subordinate Vampires, and had lived longer than their appearances would suggest. Many children had been sacrificed to Hihiryushukaka over that time.
“Yes. We were very confused immediately after our memories returned, and I was so filled with regret that I thought of using these claws to end my own life, but… the children were right in front of me,” said Holly, extending her claws.
Vandalieu and the children were all shocked to see this.
“Are you a Vampire as well?” Vandalieu asked.
“No, I am a Dhampir, though I had forgotten this fact until moments ago…” murmured Holly, who looked to be somewhere in her forties or fifties.
Apparently, as one of his experiments to create special Vampire servants who could operate in daylight, he had conducted an experiment where he turned pregnant women into Vampires.
He had likely thought that under these special conditions, the women would give birth to a special kind of Vampire who did not possess the typical weaknesses, such as the weakness to sunlight and silver.
But the majority of the women had miscarried, and Holly, the only successfully-born baby, had been born as a Dhampir, not a Vampire.
The reason he had not disposed of her after that was because… perhaps Birkyne had not wanted Ternecia and Gubamon to know that his own plans had created a Dhampir, even if it were unintentional. Or perhaps he had refused to write the experiment off as having achieved nothing…
In any case, Birkyne had destroyed the orphanage’s head’s crimson eye and brainwashed her, making her watch over the other children in the orphanage when she was a child. As Dhampirs did not age, he had created wrinkles and saggy skin on her face using drugs when she was an adult, then made her the head of the orphanage in Morksi.
“That was why you always wore gloves, never showed any skin other than your face and only talked to my mother instead of me,” said Vandalieu.
It was currently January, the coldest time of the year with snow falling periodically. And although Vandalieu hadn’t noticed anything strange as he had always been actively playing with the children, now that he thought about it now, Holly had always kept her distance from him.
Birkyne had likely been afraid that his plans would be exposed if Vandalieu had somehow noticed the mismatch between the appearance of Holly’s face and the age of her body.
“Indeed, though when I was under his command, I didn’t think to question why I was doing that…” Holly murmured.
“Even I didn’t notice. Your back is unusually straight, but I thought it’s not that rare at your age,” said Darcia.
As Birkyne had planned, nobody had noticed that Holly was a Dhampir. But perhaps thinking that this distance from Vandalieu had decreased her effectiveness as a hostage, Birkyne had made Seris and Vestra stand in front instead during the negotiations in the chapel.
“Vandalieu-san, until this morning, I thought that I was three times as old as Seris and Vestra, but the truth is that the two of them have lived for twice as long as I have. I must add ‘-san’ to everyone’s name from now on,” said Holly.
“Director Holly, you don’t have to worry about our age! Please speak to us as you always have,” said Seris.
“Up until now, we’ve also been under the impression that we were eighteen years old. Even though we’ve now remembered that we’re over ninety, we still don’t really feel that way,” said Vestra.
As the two of them were Subordinate Vampires, they did not age.
Even if Birkyne had tried to apply drugs to their faces to make them look older like he had done to Holly, there was a large difference between a Dhampir’s ‘Rapid Healing’ and a Vampire’s ‘Rapid Regeneration.’ While Holly had to apply the drugs once a month to maintain the aged appearance of her face, Seris and Vestra would have needed to apply them every day.
Acquiring such large quantities of drugs may have caused suspicion. That was why the two of them had been rotating around the various orphanages operated by Birkyne under the setting of being freshly-trained nuns sent from a nearby monastery.
It seemed that their memories were sealed away every time they moved between orphanages, resetting them to being freshly-trained nuns.
“… Sorry for the stupid question, but how did he trick you about your Statuses? You can see them yourselves, can’t you?” asked Melissa.
Vestra sighed. “Yes, we were able to see our own Statuses. But we couldn’t perceive them correctly. We were fooled into believing that our ages, races and Skills were all exactly as Birkyne had told us. That’s true for both of us and the director.”
It seemed that the brainwashing of the children that were used as livestock had been simple, but Birkyne had been more careful in the brainwashing of the orphanage’s head and the nuns, who were his tools.
“Knowing him, he probably did not erase your memories entirely because he wanted to see you suffer in self-hatred one day when you regained them,” said Gufadgarn.
“Probably. I mean he was the Demon King’s shadow all along, but that was the kind of guy he was,” said Eleanora.
This probably wasn’t wrong; after all, Holly and the nuns had wanted to kill themselves when the brainwashing was removed.
“More importantly, we need to discuss what to do from here on out… Can I believe that you no longer intend to commit suicide?” Vandalieu asked.
Holly and the nuns nodded quietly.
“When we started crying, the children burst into tears as well. We were then busy desperately trying to comfort them, so we missed the timing for killing ourselves. No matter what we do, the sins that we have committed will not change, but… the goddess forbids suicide,” said Holly.
Darcia, Vida’s incarnation, gave her an approving smile.
“Vestra and I were desperately trying to stop each other from harming ourselves, so I don’t really know what’s going on anymore,” said Seris.
“The children were telling us to stop fighting… It’s hard to believe that we’re in our nineties, isn’t it? And… now that we are in a calm state of mind, you people don’t intend to let us atone for our sins through death, do you?” said Vestra.
“Of course not,” said Vandalieu.
If the three of them had been intent on trying to atone for their sins through death, Vandalieu had intended to brainwash them through ‘Mental Encroachment’ or turning them into Undead after their deaths to have them remain in this world.
They were innocent; the one at fault was Birkyne, the one who had been controlling them. And since there was no heaven or hell in this world, death would only atone for one life’s worth of harm.
Furthermore, Vandalieu was no protector of the law or impartial judge. He was a ruler whose decisions were guided by his emotions.
“If you believe that you have sinned, then I will accompany you for your atonement. For decades or centuries, until you are satisfied that you have completely atoned. I will stop all who may try and kill you, including yourselves,” said Vandalieu. “With that out of the way, shall we get started right away?”
“Huh? Straight away? Where are we going…?” Holly asked.
“To Birkyne’s hideout. I got the location from his confidants. After that, we’re going to some orphanages, mines and brothels. We can go around very quickly using Gufadgarn’s power to travel,” said Vandalieu. “There are some facilities that are likely to continue operating as normal even if abandoned, but there are others that are in danger.”
“See you later, Vandalieu. Leave the food cart and tomorrow’s feast to me!” said Darcia.
“Nee-chan, where are you guys going?!” asked Matthew.
“It’s alright. We’re going to bring some new friends,” said Vandalieu. “Now then, first of all, we’re heading to Birkyne’s base.”
With the three confused adults of the orphanage accompanying him, Vandalieu and his companions began teleporting around the endangered facilities that were now abandoned with Birkyne’s death.
- Name: Eleanora
- Age: 14 years old (20 years old at time of Vampire transformation, 34 years old in total)
- Titles: Eclipse Emperor’s Loyal Dog (NEW!), Leader’s Mistress (NEW!)
- Rank: 13
- Race: Abyssal Vampire Princess Knight
- Level: 0
- Job: Transforming Sword Princess
- Job level: 0
- Job history: Slave, Servant, Apprentice Mage, Apprentice Warrior, Mage, Demon Eye User, Vassal Warrior, Slave Warrior, Vassal War Princess, Time-Attribute Mage, Magic Swordsman, Blood-sucking Swordsman, Life-Attribute Mage, Great Magic Swordsman, Demon Combat Swordsman
- Passive skills:
- Dark Vision
- Super Self-Enhancement: Subordination: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Superhuman Strength: Level 10
- Rapid Regeneration: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Status Effect Resistance: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Intuition: Level 6
- Mental Corruption: Level 3
- Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Detect Presence: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Sunlight Resistance: Level 5
- Allure: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Enlargement: Level 4
- Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Enhancement: Transformation: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with Transformation Equipment: Small (NEW!)
- Active skills:
- Mining: Level 1
- Bloodwork: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Time-Attribute Magic: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Life-Attribute Magic: Level 8
- No-Attribute Magic: Level 4
- Mana Control: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Time Combat Swordsmanship: Level 1 (Awakened from Swordsmanship!)
- Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Silent Steps: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Steal: Level 1
- Housework: Level 4
- Shield Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Armor Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Surpass Limits: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Chant Revocation: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Magic Combat Technique: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Surpass Limits: Magic Sword: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- High-speed Flight: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Unique skills:
- Charming Demon Eyes: Level 8
- Vandalieu’s Divine Protection
- Name: Bellmond
- Age: Approximately 10,000 years old (18 at time of Vampire transformation)
- Title: Eclipse Emperor’s Loyal Dog, Leader’s Mistress (NEW!)
- Rank: 13
- Race: Noble-born Abyssal Vampire Imperial Butler (Forest-Monkey-type Beast-person)
- Level: 0
- Job: Transforming Kunoichi
- Job level: 0
- Job history: Apprentice Hunter, Apprentice Thief, Thief, Assassin, Servant, Thread-user, String Master, Tailed Beast Warrior, Mage, Executioner, Kunoichi, Kunoichi Master, Kunoichi Butler
- Passive skills:
- Dark Vision
- Superhuman Strength: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Rapid Regeneration: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Status Effect Resistance: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Super-Self-Enhancement: Subordination: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Super Mana Recovery: Damage: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Detect Presence: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Intuition: Level 5
- Mental Corruption: Level 7
- Enhanced Physical Ability (Tail): Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Strengthened Attack Power while equipped with Thread: Very Large (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Enlargement: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Enhancement: Transformation: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with Transformation Equipment: Small (NEW!)
- Active skills:
- Archery: Level 2
- Throwing: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Dagger Technique: Level 9
- Bloodwork: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Wind-Attribute Magic: Level 4
- No-Attribute Magic: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Control: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- High-speed Flight: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Silent Steps: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Trap: Level 7
- Dismantling: Level 4
- Transcend Limits: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Housework: Level 10
- Illusion Thread Killing Technique: Level 2 (Awakened from Thread-reeling Technique!)
- Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Assassination Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Magic Fighting Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Unique skills:
- Offering
- Petrifying Demon Eye: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Vandalieu’s Divine Protection
- Name: Isla
- Rank: 13
- Age: Approximately 30,000 years old
- Title: The Eclipse Emperor’s Hound, Leader’s Mistress (NEW!)
- Race: Vampire Chain Lord Zombie
- Level: 0
- Passive skills:
- Dark Vision
- Status Effect Resistance: Level 10
- Monstrous Strength: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Rapid Regeneration: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mental Corruption: Level 8
- Slaughter Healing: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Intuition: Level 6
- Strengthened Attribute Values: Loyalty: Vandalieu: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Detect Presence: Level 2
- Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Enhancement: Transformation: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with Transformation Equipment: Small (NEW!)
- Active skills:
- Bloodwork: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Water-Attribute Magic: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Fire-Attribute Magic: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- No-Attribute Magic: Level 4
- Mana Control: Level 6
- Corpse Massacre Swordsmanship: Level 2 (Awakened from Swordsmanship!)
- Transforming Chain Armor Technique: Level 1 (Awakened from Armor Technique!)
- Transcend Limits: Level 2 (Awakened from Surpass Limits!)
- High-speed Flight: Level 5
- Pursuit: Level 9
- Torture: Level 6
- Commanding: Level 4
- Housework: Level 2
- Coordination: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mount: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Unique Skills:
- Transformation: Level 7
- Vandalieu’s Divine Protection
Job and Race description (Written by Luciliano):
The Job changes and Rank increases experienced by Eleanora, Bellmond and Isla on this occasion have, of course, resulted in new Jobs and race titles.
It can be assumed to be related to Master’s transformation staves… or rather, transformation equipment.
Incidentally, the Job changes were done after the battle against Hihiryushukaka.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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TherapyKitten
Gotta disagree with Vida on suicide, people get to decide when they are done.
Shadow1
That’s a very odd thing to say. People get to decide when they are done, when they want to die? Unfortunately, it is never the case.
Even if someone chooses suicide, it will never be his/her own choice, but the circumstances and his own lack of resolve.
Normal people never want to die, it either happens naturally, or they forced to.
the curious one
Chekhov’s gun finally fired
Vitor
“‘Princess Knight’… Iris and Juliana are princess knights, so it’s still fine. It should still be fine…!” Eleanora muttered.
“Danna-sama, ‘Imperial Butler’ refers to a butler of the emperor rather than an emperor that is a butler,” Bellmond stressed to Vandalieu.
Problems of succesfull people in Lambda, that, and being Magical Girls
Retribution
i imagine that the three versions of Vandalieu correspond to the Id,the Ego,and the Superego.
the original Vandalieu is the Ego,the balance between Logic and Emotions.
the Mirror Vandalieu is the Superego,the reason and logical of the three,since it originates from a programmed trial.
the recent addition,Shadow Vandalieu,is the Id,emotional and impulsive,as it comes from the Shadow Fragment of Demon King Guduranis,an impulsive,violent and dominating monster.
Hobbes
Interesting symbolism to be sure.
dicloniuslord
“I don’t think you need to dislike magical girls so much. I think ‘Magical Girl’ is a good Job,”
Last I checked, being mecuga is suffering
Zenden1st
Hiryushaka: You are me.
Shadow: I am you
Van: …..
Shadow: I am van
OrccatcherEd
With apologies, I’d like to make a few grammar comments.
First, I’d like to put in a plea for “strive” and “have striven”. Although “strived” is acceptable and increasingly widespread, it’s use is jarring and awkward to people who are aware of the other past tenses. Also, it’s just not as much fun.
Second, I’m seeing some problems with “may”. Don’t feel bad, I’m seeing the same problems in places like newspapers, which really should know better. “May have” indicates uncertainty over whether something happened. For example, “Acquiring such large quantities of drugs may have caused suspicion.” indicates that it’s uncertain whether it did or not. “Might have” indicates something that was a possibility at the time, but didn’t actually happen. I suspect that “might have caused suspicion is what was meant here. “Might have” is always the correct phrase for the “then part of an if-then sentence, because such a sentence specifically discusses something that could have happened under different conditions, but did not in reality. For example: “If I had realized how addictive this story was and how good the translator was, I might have read it earlier.” Not “I may have read it earlier”, which should only be used if I have forgotten whether or not I already read the story. Who could forget this story?
Dr. Steel
I’m curious as to what function all these parts of Van serve. We know Banda is his Spirit Clone, the mini Vans are his familiar spirits, but what about the False Image Van and Shadow Van? What is their purpose as part of Van? I wonder if he can use False Image Van as a clone similar but superior to his spirit clones (not the godly Spirit Clone, but the ones he uses to fight), and Shadow Van to encroach on other people’s souls?
Baldingere
THE PRINCESS CURSE STRIKES AGAIN
Tenderizer
“Race: Noble-born Abyssal Vampire Imperial Butler (Forest-Monkey-type Beast-person)”
That’s one long race title.
johnson
thanks for the chapter
hungsayori
《You have acquired ‘Dominate Created Undead’ Skill!》
Isla is gasping and shivering in anticipation.
Vitor
…that’s no different from her usual self thought?
Rollrock
Delicious deicide.
RanmaChaos
Thanks for another excellent chapter. I appreciate the way you did the Ware/Ore conversation. It may have been a little clunky, but the scene was properly conveyed. Well done.
no1
With everything that has happened. We haven’t seen much of Borkus, Vigaro, Basdia and Zadiris(even if she was briefly mentioned). I wonder how much stronger they have gotten since we last saw them. Also I hope we can see a new adventure in the next chapter soon.
Phantom Knight
On another note, has no realize the truth behind the new racial evolutions of Eleanora, Bellmond, and Isla?……..The princess curse is real. Although, she was barely safe from magical girl titles (lol), she still got the princess part which Zandiris had originally cursed them with. Lol
Not to mention, no matter what they say, it is a farm that their Transformations have created unique skills and evolutions. Lol. They have all taken a step closer towards the line of no return.
Jonathan Hurd
Hmm, while Elanora’s definitely leans closer to being a Princess. From what we have seen in the story Princess Knight seems more a title describing a female General more than an girly princess which they feared becoming. The others problems are closer to Bone man’s not wanting to seem like they intend to take leadership away from Van.
They are passing the line but they have definitely diverged from magical girl. They seem more like transforming hero’s like Kamen Rider. In Islas case considering all the chains maybe a villaness lol.
Phantom Knight
Thanks for the chapter!!!!! Lol. We finally got a peek into the spells of Guduranis. It seems that he really did specialize in surgical/transplant operations when looking at the skills, and we still kept the natural necromancy abilities that traditional users of Death-attribute Mages should naturally have.
Well, luckily, those skills/spells have now upgraded the prowess of Vandalieu-sama’s current skills. I never expected for him to mutate [Group Binding Technique] into the [Shadow Group Binding Technique] skill. Van-sama can now finally summon and absorb his companions without touching them or revealing his Demon King Fragments.
As for the he other skills that were absorbed, I am super curious and unsure of the effects…… I can only hope that [Life Erosion] only reduces the resistance to racial changes of the original [Mutation Induction] skill. Moreover, while I don’t think Dominate Created Undead, Van-sama will at least be able to buff his and other’s survival ability with [Forceful Vitality Enchantment] spell and can probably create a security mechanism or something via the [Soul Binding] spell. He even has Life Gold and Spirit Silver to help both spells
Jonathan Hurd
I will say I am also hyped for these new skills, but I think they’re less Guduranis and more to do with Hirushaku and the Shadow.
Hihi definitely could dominate created undead considering how his holy symbol in Gubamons undead stopped them from obeying Van. Forceful Vitality Enchantment and Life Erosion could be from one time he cursed the Vampire that killed Vans Dad. The curse made the vampires skin turn into rats rise up and then burrow its way back in. The process kept going taking away life but also refusing to let him die. Tools for torture are definitely Hihis specialty.
For using the DKs Shadow to move and transport friends or even mind control them. I believe last chapter they said Guduranis never really used his shadow like that. He was definitely a master in Magic so I think he relied on that more.
For the worries of Mutation Induction, remember gaining new effects never leads to losing the old. He doesn’t have to strip the life force of friends he mutates. What this might mean is that Van could mutate something like Cancer into the opponents body and have it eat away at them from within. It could probably even get past Status Effect Resistance since it would be the person’s own body attacking itself instead of an outside source. This might lead to a safer version of Bloodlust.
ObserverBias
From the explained difference between Hihi and “Vida” (Darcia), it could be said that despite the material for his descent into the mortal plane being “not half bad,” Hihi himself didn’t exactly pass the bar when it came to having worthwhile abilities.
.
… On a reread, you were pointing out that Guduranis didn’t seem to pass on anything via the shadow, so I’ll pivot. The shadow itself awakened the binding technique in an odd direction (considering it relatively recently became “group binding” to begin with), and not having a solid characteristic about itself /was/ its primary characteristic. It could be said that it “playing” as Birkyne was a mid expression of what it was capable of (Birkyne thought himself clever, so “Birkyne” thought himself clever, so it tried to use itself in clever ways) but that’s not to say that either version of himself was genuinely inspired or capable, so the range of what it could do was vast, but too vague to pin down, much like a shadow.
Ozarazil
Guduranis’s shadow seems like a special kind of fragment. I know it imitates the host but it still seems to have a conciousness to some extent.
InfernoHomura
Soooooo, is Van-sama gonna be like JIn woo coz you know, shadow
Absolute Zer0
I can see Shota Van extending his hand toward corpse and saying “ARISE”.
Supreme king
Thought I was the only one thinking this waiting for a new Jon title saying shadow lord/sovereign/monarch
Dust
He has gained Sung Jin Woo’s shadow storage
TheWorldRoseanna
So who do you all think is stronger between Eleanora, Bellmond, and Isla? I know Bellmond was claimed to be the weakest of Ternecia’s “dogs”, but she was kind of treated like crap and talked down to overall. I never really bought it. Prior to the various deities allying themselves with the group, the way battles with the group played out always gave me the impression that she was the second strongest in Vandalieu’s court after Borkus.
Meanwhile, Eleanora has definitely had the most improvement and received the most focus over the course of the series. And while we’ve been told Isla is strong, and she was made captain of the Dark Night Knights; we haven’t gotten many chances to see her fight. But her impressive showing in this battle, along with her saving the other two with her speedy retreat, has kind of made me think she might be the top dog among the trio.
Entropy
I think overall Eleanora is the strongest of the group due to her range of abilities. Bellmond is a great long range fighter while being terrible at close range whereas Isla is the complete opposite and is the better of the three at tracking. Eleanora is the most versatile when it comes to fighting.
Phantom Knight
That is a good question. In my opinion, I think Eleanora has the greatest potential as the damage dealer among the front line fighters. However, we can’t forget that Isla has the most experience, best tracking ability, and possibly the best sustainability in battle.
This is especially the case with the recent evolutions. Time magic has few yet powerful spells but probably uses a great deal of Mana, so we can also assume that her new [Time Combat Swordsmanship] will be Mana intensive. On the other hand, although having less potentially overbearing prowess, it is likely that [Corpse Massacre Swordsmanship] had copied the effects of the Torture skilll so as to gradually dismember and inflict pain onto targets and that [Transforming Chain Armor Technique] will use the transformation outfit to restrain and bound targets. You can see how their directions are greatly diverging now.
As for Bellmond, she stays true to her style that controls the battlefield in favor of her companions. Most would let their guard down due to her being a string user, but ignoring her is one of the most fatal mistakes. Awakening the [Illusion Thread Killing Technique] has now made her into a threat like no other……. especially she probably copy the effects of Assassination Technique, Silent Step, or Trap skill into the her strings now
Negakz
Wait I just remembered in one of the earlier chapters before Van went to Morski, Van said that in 3 months he’d have Murakami or Birkyine’s head or both. So now I’m waiting for Murakami’s group to show up.
Morgan
well, a human born dhampir would live for 300-500 years. so they probably wouldn’t show physical age until about 70% of that lifespan had been used. which would be 280-350 years. or maybe dhampirs don’t physically age past full maturity.
Jonathan Hurd
I think they might just stop aging after adulthood. I mean consider Zadris case. She isn’t immortal but after she got pregnant as a ghoul even though she was on her last days she still looked like a teenage girl. I think similar stuff happens to others in Vidas races like the titans.
Otakukamikazes
Your explanation was most appreciated
no1
Hihiryushukaka final moments were quite pitiful. He kept accusing van for being no different than he is, even though there is an obvious difference in how they both treat life. Hihiryushukaka toys with the lives of his pawns and enemies while Van preserves the life of his allies and condemns the lives of his enemies.
GLWD
Lol, so what’s Van’s Deific kill count now?
1 God
Multiple divine and Heroic spirits
And 2 Evil Gods
(Or was it 3? The “Itchy” one in the book, Hihi, and I don’t think he killed that dragon EG, but I feel like I’m forgetting one.)
Kazza
The fish one, when he was heading to the Dark Continent. It was like “Gyobarzo” or something.
Nobody2
Your forgetting the evil god of release. Also he killed a spirit clone of the god of ice don’t know if you were counting that under the multiple spirits or not.
Entropy
He has killed a lot more evil gods, there were three after the god of release, but they were mentioned only for being unable to follow him. He also killed that one during the eclipse. So I think that is six so far. If you count the three pure blood vamps as lesser god level then he has killed quite a few others. Plus he did wound three major gods when he freed Vida, rondcorte or whatever the reincarnation god’s name is, and yupeon.
GLWD
Well, nice to see I’m not the only one losing count I guess, though at the rate he burns through opponents, they can’t all be super memorable – pretty sure the only reason I remember itchy is because I actually burst out laughing at the comedic abruptness of his end.
He will be remembered – when I need a chuckle. RIP
Looks like my personal take away here is that Van must keep the Death Mage Wiki editors busy.
“Killed by Vandalieu, Chapter ###”
Lord Rin
Uh let’s see:
Yupeon’s spirit clone
2 of Niltark’s spirit clones during the fight with Ervine
Heroic Gods Joshua and Luke during the fight with the Five-colored Blades
Curatos
Buburdura the evil god sealed in a book
Ravovifard the Evil God of Release
Gyubarzo the Evil God of Dark Seas
Dargzorbon and two other unnamed evil gods sealed on the Dark Continent
Hihiryushukaka the Evil God of Joyful Life
Birkyne/Shadow Guduranis
Ternecia and Gubamon are also considered lesser gods
I think he also killed the Evil Raging Dragon God Luvesfol’s spirit clone but I’m not entirely sure.
Entropy
By the end of the story, it might be easier to list which gods Vand did not kill rather than the ones he did.
Tejing
Luke, like Joshua, is also just a Heroic Spirit.
Lord Rin
Luke got his soul broken enough to expire. Now Rodcorte is using his soul fragments -along with some Guduranis soul fragments- to try to heal Edgar.
Negakz
Van has killed 7 evil gods, 1 normal god, and 2 Heroic Spirits.
Dr. Steel
and 3 demigods (pure-breed vamps are demigods)
Kazza
Hey, new chapter.
Not much to talk about. Mainly cleaning up Hihiryushukaka’s mess and some nun exposition. Nunsposition?
Gotta love Hihiryu tryin’ to pull off the classic villain “We’re not so different, you and I.”
Kind of an overused trope, if you ask me. It really kind of shows how overconfident a villain is. ‘Cause that kind of sentiment should only be shown by villains like the Joker, or Darth Vader. The Joker knows how Batman thinks because they’re both victims of that one “Really Bad Day,” and Darth Vader knows how vulnerable Luke is to falling to the Dark Side because he experienced that fall first hand.
They need that personal connection to the hero, and that reflective quality.
Like, I understand he’s wrong, and the story even takes steps to explain why he’s wrong, but it’s still so pathetic he even tried it.
Buh-Bye Hihiryushukaka. He died as he lived: Going out like such a bitch, in the end, not even his last words did any damage. And come two chapters (I’ll be generous and give him three) everyone will forget about him.
VEreality
I mean, yeah you could call it famous last words, but he was right though. He and Van do have some similarities that go beyond just doing some nasty stuff here and there. However, its the differences that sets them apart. They are also the reason why Van is never going to end up like him. Let’s be serious here, it does look like Van doesn’t have a moral compas most of the time and yet he is still respected by a whole empire.
Jonathan Hurd
I would say Van has a very strong moral compass it just differs from people like Heinz and Asagi. He honestly follows that moral compass better than Heinz or Asagi ever did.
Van doesn’t kill more than necessary. He respects life as best as he can. He doesn’t destroy souls unless they truly deserve it. He has yet to break any of those rules. They are pretty good rules to follow for about anyone in Lambda especially. The only weird parts are he considers life to include undeath and the ability to break souls.
Compare that to Asagi and Heinz. Those two just kill anyone who stands in their way. For Heinz he made this big thing about the regrets he had killing Darcia and what it did to Van. Yet in the end he ignores everything Van says and tries to kill him. Asagi says the undead are evil but completely ignores the horrible things done to the Eighth Guidance.
Neither of those two ever learned from their mistakes or take responsibility for their actions. They also vehemently refuse to believe they deserve hostility from those whose lives they destroyed. Van knows and accepts his actions create enemies. He has no problem with that. He will kill anyone who tries to kill him. If there is an alternative he will try to aim for that though. Van has no illusions that he is good so all who oppose are evil. He is just trying to protect himself and those precious to him while avoiding trampling innocent bystanders in the process.
MintyMints
“Neither of those two ever learned from their mistakes or take responsibility for their actions.”
Is this a spoiler?!?!
Kazza
What similarities do you mean, though? From where I’m looking, there’s next to nothing between the two that are similar.
Hihiryu is all about using his followers and throwing them away, while Van never wants them in any danger and actively faces threats himself.
Hihiryu is about exploiting the weak, and while Van has no moral imperatives to help, he understands both pragmatically and ethically that deals are more stable in the long run because it reinforces goodwill.
Hihiryu has made no effort to assimilate into Lambda, enforcing his own philosophy bred from a world of constant conflict – which ultimately tore the organization apart due to everyone trying to grab power instead of cooperate.
Van, meanwhile, has grown up in Lambda and is willing to accept multiple different races, viewpoints, and modes of thinking among his followers. While he may be the leader of the boundary mountain ranges, he doesn’t dictate how they should live and doesn’t desire any more unnecessary control over them.
Philosophy, personality, goals. These are all important aspects of a character that neither share.
Really, the only two similarities I can think of are:
1. They’re both powerful, and are willing to use “evil” means/powers to achieve their goals.
2. Are both alien to Lambda.
But those are way too broad to say Van could end up like Hihiryu given a couple millenia. Especially since these are both lacking critical context.
By the same logic, a tiger and a cockroach are:
1. Both animals.
2. Not something I want to find in my cereal.
But no one treats them the same, because the more you think about it, the more divergent they become. And if you only focus on one or two aspects that are similar, ignoring the differences, you can apply this method of thinking to everything.
It’s basically saying, “When you think about it, these two are the same, except for all their differences.”
VEreality
There are more similarities.
1. They both try to have a life that would make them happy. Even if they find happiness in different things, the whole description at the beginning of this chapter was meant to put this into light.
2. They both HAVE to be cruel toward their enemies. Van has to because his enemies are hellbent to destroy him and everything he made. Hihi has to because it is a biological need for his species. Just like his species, he thinks that Van would one day come to love this acts of cruelty toward those that go against him.
3. They are both playing with fire all the time. Van broke every possible law that made it hard for him to have his happy life. Hihi played with the soul of the creature that could destroy him for good should it ever be revived. They made a habbit out of pushing the boundaries of reason in doing so.(keep in mind that Hihi was also able to create undeads even if they were less effective)
4. They both try to reach the top. This is the only way they can have the life they wish for.
5. They had to get followers in order to continue with their plans. They created two different things, but lately Van’s people had been doing exactly what the vampires did for tens of thousand of years. Manipulate and infiltrate.
6. They are both fueled by less than noble felings. Van is angry at the gods and heroes of this world and Hihi is envious and prideful.
Entropy
The only similarity is that Vand is ruthless and will use enemies as stepping stones. I can see a possibility of Vand ending up like him, but with so many friends and family, I doubt it and that is only possible if Vand were to lose everyone. I think that god’s last words were more meant to make Vand doubt himself and be used to torture himself, so at least the god stayed true to what he was. I can at least respect him more than Alda. Alda has admitted that he made a mistake with Vida’s races, but says it is too late to turn back. The evil god at least tried toying with his enemies with his last words and actions.
Tejing
It could be that he just wanted to shake van or his followers, but I also think it’s plausible that he honestly doesn’t understand how Van is any different from him. Probably both, really.
Morgan
Bellmond takes the lead for longest race title in the world!
Also, did Van obtain the Demon King’s Brain? I know he has the auxillary brain but i can’t remember if he got the primary brain or not.
Jonathan Hurd
I love the yet there, lol. That fragment is probably out there somewhere. Though considering the talk of the DKs soul I think it’d be better to get his memories or experiences if you want his knowledge.
Morgan
no, my thoughts are, the brain is a physical fragment, so van can’t get demon king’s body without it.
Jonathan Hurd
Van has enough pieces to make a body of the Demon King. There are definitely quite a few important parts missing but he will keep adding to them. He doesn’t really need the brain to make a body especially considering the soul is desperate, there’s magic, and Guduranis seems more inspections/crustacean than humanoid. So he can probably operate without a brain similar to a cockroach.
Dr. Steel
Remember the fragments don’t have anything to do with what Guduranis actually was, they all morphed over time into different body parts. We don’t know what Guduranis actually looked at, but he probably wasn’t some conglomeration of body parts from insects, octopi, hedgehogs, and other animals.
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
Is the orphanage now going to be opened in Talosheim or will it be left in this town in order to further spread Vidas’ religion? What about Hihiryushukakas’ body? And it was kind of disappointing that Hihiryushukaka and Birkyne/Guduranis shadow just had two DM fragments.
Jonathan Hurd
Two DK fragments might sound disappointing but remember quality trumps quantity. The Shadow showed itself to be an amazingly powerful tool for movement and control. The tentacles are also some of the strongest body parts you could aim for.
Also keep in mind activating two fragments at once is kind of the limit even for Evil God’s. Activating three at once while not Van would just be immediately giving up your body.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Van will keep the orphanage running for now just so Earl Morksi doesn’t have a heart attack, lol. After he leaves he might leave a skeleton crew to continue finding orphans and sending them over to Taloshiem.
Paps
Thanks for the wonderfull chapter. I only noticed now that this names: Pete, Quinn and Miles heavely reminds me of Marvel.
Jonathan Hurd
You make a good point lol. Hadn’t thought about that, but now that you mention it that does seem true.
Paps
I know rigth?? It just hitted me when they were presented toguether.
GashBello
Thank your for one more piece of art.
no1
Thank you Yoshi, great way to end the conflict. So now the demon king’s shadow is now a part of Vandalieu, all the fragments now form the demon king’s body and somehow Vandaliue’s fake image from the trial of zakkart has resurfaced along side the demon king’s shadow. Wow a lot happened in the conclusion, was not expecting the fake image to reappear after all this time.
Chase Eldredge
The original, the mirror, the shadow, and there’s also Banda so technically there’s 4 in the council of Van. But since one of them has a REALLY long commute there’s only going to be 3 showing up to meetings for the foreseeable future.
Dr. Steel
With the Mini Van Army spectating and acting as cheerers to support the team when things are going well, or when they need uplifting
Faaaan
Please fix the printing mistake
bk3k
If you are asking to fix some mistake, shouldn’t you also point out what the mistake was? I can’t say I noticed one.
Tejing
He was most likely referring to Isla incorrectly having her rank listed as 11 instead of 13. It’s been fixed.
Kiriaru
Thank you for the epic conclusion!
__
Thanks for the chapter. 💙
Triduo
What’s the difference between Van and the Evil god ?
Vandalieu : A wall.
NO IT’S NOT !!!
Nighthydre : Inner Van met Shadow, Shadow became Van and Van gained another Van ! ^^
I’m confused… O_O’
VEreality
The difference between them is this:
Hihi-san : he lived to cause suffering to many
Van : he causes suffering to many by living (not that we care about them suffering ’cause they are the enemy)
Also, only one is still alive 🙂
Jonathan Hurd
Basically one causes suffering to everyone for the fun of it. Van avoids causing suffering as much as he can. He’s not doing that to be good and list others as Evil. He does it to live.
Jonathan Hurd
For Shadow becoming Van the way to think of that is that when the Shadow was Birknye it was Guduranis pretending to be Birknye. The Shadow kept Guduranis personality, thoughts, and instincts. What has happened now is Van has completely incorporated the DK shadow. The DK shadow isn’t Gudaranis pretending to be Van. It’s now truly a copy of Van himself. It has Vans personality, thoughts, and instincts not Gudas.
Basically Van won’t have any moments like Birknye did when Birknye thought ‘the smart move is to pledge subservience!’ And the Shadow said ‘pledge subservience to him? No way!’
Alex-dono
wow I literally just fell asleep when this was uploaded
Doom-sama
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, OUR LORD SAVIOR, OUR CHAMPION, OUR DEATH GOD, AS HE ESTABLUSHES ORDER, SAVES THE PEOPLE, AND GAINS NEW POWER. THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
Error404GuduranisNotFound
CrossBit
More like he got debug lol
Gawain
Well, Pete didn’t really fight much against Guduranis’ shadow, so it’s not THAT buggy…
Sturmi
“He had likely thought that under these special conditions, the women would give birth to a special kind of Vampire who did not possess the typical weaknesses, such as the weakness to sunlight and silver.”
He wanted his own Daywalker
Superboy8338
May the 4th be with everyone!!!
Faaaan
・名前：アイラ
・年齢：約三万歳
・二つ名：【蝕帝の猟犬】 【首領の情婦】(ＮＥＷ！）
・ランク：１３
・種族：ヴァンパイアチェインロードゾンビ
・レベル：０
・パッシブスキル
闇視
状態異常耐性：１０Ｌｖ
剛力：３Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
高速再生：８Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
精神汚染：８Ｌｖ
殺戮回復：１０Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
直感：６Ｌｖ
能力値強化：忠誠：ヴァンダルー：１０Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
気配感知：２Ｌｖ
自己強化：導き：５Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
自己強化：変身：１Ｌｖ(ＮＥＷ！)
変身装具装備時攻防力強化：小(ＮＥＷ！)
・アクティブスキル
業血：５Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
水属性魔術：８Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
火属性魔術：８Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
無属性魔術：４Ｌｖ
魔術制御：６Ｌｖ
惨殺屍剣術：２Ｌｖ(剣術から覚醒＆ＵＰ！)
変鎖鎧術：１Ｌｖ(鎧術から覚醒！)
限界超越：２Ｌｖ(限界突破から覚醒！)
高速飛行：５Ｌｖ
追跡：９Ｌｖ
拷問：６Ｌｖ
指揮：４Ｌｖ
家事：２Ｌｖ
連携：５Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
騎乗：２Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
格闘術：３Ｌｖ(ＵＰ！)
・ユニークスキル
変幻：７Ｌｖ
ヴァンダルーの加護
Thk
why?
GashBello
That is Isla status, in the raw you can see that her rank rank is 13, not 11.
Jonathan Hurd
That definitely makes sense. Thank you for looking that up in the raws.
Lord Rin
During the entire scene with Hihi-chan, the You Are Dead song was playing in my head. For those who don’t know it here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4hnA8jXwo
Nice to see that Mirror Van from the Trial of Zakkart wasn’t forgotten.
Also it was funny that Van thought that there being no festival was such a cruel parting gift from Birkyne.
So turns out Holly was a dhampir. I remember somebody once suggesting that she could be since she had an eyepatch that could cover her crimson vampire eye. Turns out it really was just an eyepatch but the eye that was in there really was a crimson vampire eye. So will Van regenerate her eye or transplant a new one? I’m not sure if he can regenerate it since it might be treated like a normal status now like Simon’s arm. Anyways what will Van do with all 3 of them now? They can’t just have Holly keep taking that medicine to age her face -if there is any left- and that will definitely raise questions and her race will end up being discovered. Meanwhile Seris and Vestra can probably just go to Talosheim before people start wondering how come they don’t seem to age but if they question Holly then it seems likely that their own races will be revealed.
Eleanora, Bellmond, and Isla seem to be happy they got the Leader’s Mistress titles even if they don’t say anything about it. They’re still wary about getting the Magical Girl title though. However the twin Goddesses of Magical Girls Vida and Darcia think it’s a fine title. And now Eleanora and Bellmond have become Rank 13 and both awakened their swordsmanship and thread-reeling techniques respectively. I am a bit surprised though that Isla is only Rank 11 though she has awakened both her swordsmanship and armor technique and she also should have more combat experience than the other two so she can probably still keep up with them.
And now on to dismantle what’s left of Birkyne’s organization.
TheTrueDeathGod
Isla is undead and had to start from a lower rank after she was killed and zombified.
Tejing
Her rank did decrease upon becoming undead, but she started pretty high, too. At any rate, rank 11 is a typo. The raw of this chapter says she’s rank 13.
Kazza
If I could make my own recommendation: Green Day’s “Ha Ha You’re Dead!”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=55btGpGsuDo
As for the nuns, I don’t think he necessarily needs to reveal their species to keep the ages reasonable. Lambda has a ton of races that have incredibly long lives, so simply passing them off as part elf could work.
And that’s ignoring that he has a direct contact with Earl Morski, so if he just explains only what he needs to I’m pretty sure the Earl would lend him some assistance in hiding them for a favor in the future.
LycanChimera
“Birkyne had likely been afraid that his plans would be exposed if Vandalieu had somehow noticed the mismatch between the appearance of Holly’s face and the age of her body.” Holly the GILF confirmed.
Faaaan
Isla’s rank suppose to be 13 not 11
Tejing
Ah, thanks for pointing that out. I thought it was odd but didn’t check the raws. Now that I have, I see you’re right. Isla is rank 13.
Nobody2
I didn’t, but for a split second I almost felt sorry for Hihiryushukaka. I mean he was born as a species that has toying with other life ingrained in it as a necessary action. Then I got over it and was excited to see him die and improve van and his allies.
Lightnovelfan
Didn´t think my prediction of the fragments combining to form the demon kings body would turn out to be true so soon. But the way it is written makes me think. It clealy states the demon kings physical fragments. That means he will sooner or later get his non-physical/spiritual/soul fragments.
His other new skills are also pretty impressive.
Shadow binding seems self-explanatory.
Soul Binding might be some Kind of enslavement magic.
To be able to forcefully enhance vitality might also come in Handy, but wouldn´t life erosion be pretty much the exact opposite of that? Don´t know why they have been added to different skill-branches.
Willv97
Could be similar to how soul destruction chips away parts of the soul and removes mana, maybe life erosion removes life span or something like that. If it did that would really screw Heinz and co. Since exchanging blows would take years from you until eventually you just drop.
I’m not sure about forcefully enhance vitality, no one has ever tried to block having their vitality enhanced to my knowledge, I dont know why a buff would need to be forceful
TheTrueDeathGod
It might shorten their lifespan as a side effect, kind of like the strength boost drug in “One Piece,” or the life boost in “World Teacher – Isekaishiki Kyouiku Agent”
Kiriaru
I don’t think the combination of all the Demon King Gundaris fragments into the Demon King Body means that he has all the physical fragments, he has just enough now to actually mostly complete the body instead. We know of at least 2 or 3 physical fragments that he is missing. Demon Kings eggs is one of them, it was with another one when the A rank “retired” hero saved those 2 girls from the minotaur (Juliana and Natania) and delivered them to Sam while he had 2 fragments sealed with him.
Dr. Steel
We know he’s missing the nose, the needles, the oviduct, one other unnamed fragment that the S-Rank Randolf got from the minotaur but was already sealed, plus all the unknown fragments in the churches. I’m wondering when some of the fragments that were heading to the boundary mountain range will arrive. Surely not all of them were got by monster that could control them like the minotaur or sealed by the “heroes” that Alda’s faction roughly put together.
SaMu
Thanks for the chapter
It rankles me that there is no heaven nor hell in that afterlife of theirs. It seems kinda pointless to have one without the fire and brimstone…
VEreality
We still have hope that Van will soon change that. But then again, hell would be filled in the same day it would be created.
Superboy8338
The evil Vampire faction is now officiallly defunct, all that’s left is Racist Alda’s faction and the remnants of the Demon King’s faction. Let’s see where this goes.
Haraken
Other Vandalieu: “Hi Demon King’s shadow fragment, I heard you and Hihiryushukaka were talking shit about my other self.” (*Sadistic smirk forming on his face*)
Shadow’s Fragment: (*blood curling internal scream*)
Tejing
Goodbye Hihiryushukaka, and good riddance. His backstory made a lot of sense. Also, Darcia is awesome.
That scene with the bit of Gudu’s soul was confusing, but I at least can tell that Van’s decision to absorb the false image back then made it possible for him to cleanly absorb the Demon King’s Shadow. Chekhov’s Gun enough for you?
‘Shadow Group Binding Technique’, eh? I’m guessing that’ll be a significant improvement on his ‘Group Binding Technique’, but I’m not real clear on what the specific improvements might be. Looking forward to finding out.
‘Dominate Created Undead’, and ‘Life Erosion’ sound pretty straightforward, though I’m not sure why ‘Life Erosion” got combined into the ‘Mutation Induction’ skill, since that’s normally something he uses on his allies, and ‘Life Erosion” doesn’t sound connected to that. ‘Soul Binding’ could mean several things, but I think I get the gist. ‘Forceful Vitality Enchantment’, though… what does that mean?
I’m wondering if the Demon King’s physical fragments joining together has any significance beyond keeping Van’s status from getting stupidly long. Anyone have any ideas what effects that might have?
Huge list of skills that levelled up there, and I think several of them are getting quite close to awakening. I did note that ‘Mana Enlargement’ was in there, so we can expect a sizeable chunk of extra max mana in his next status. ‘Enhanced Body Part (Hair, Claws, Tongue, Fangs)’ should be level 10 now. Also, ‘Abyss’ went up. Was it due to absorbing the shadow? Anyway, the level of ‘Abyss’ is getting pretty far up there, so it may not be too much longer before it awakens, should be interesting.
The orphanage director actually turned out to be a dhampir! I remember thinking it was a huge long shot when some people suggested that, but they were right!
Eleanora, Bellmond and Isla are coming along nicely, though I’m a bit surprised that Isla’s rank is as far behind the other 2 as it is. I thought she was even with them.
Edit: Apparently the Isla thing is a mistranslation. She’s rank 13 in the raws.
Jonathan Hurd
I think the way to read the shadows conversation would be…
“I am… Guduranis? I am… Vandalieu?”
Just substitute ‘ware’ with Guduranis and ‘ore’ with Vandalieu. That’ll probably make more sense in English.
My guess for Shadow Binding Technique is it will expand Vans group Binding effect. So one he’ll be able to take people on and put of his shadow. Another part is I think it might allow him to forcefully bring enemies into the shadow/binding effect as well. We’ve currently only ever seen Van use the binding technique on friends. Would be fun to see him basically catch and imprison foes.
For the induce mutation skill we should keep in mind it is still a fairly newly added skill. We have seen the immediate effects on allies who have consumed some of Vans blood. That doesn’t mean there couldn’t be bad mutations. We could consider the people taken over by Demon King Fragments put in their bodies could count as induced mutations. This might open a new window for the skill.
I also felt like Isla was closer in rank to the other two but I think part of the reason she’s behind is when she became undead she dropped a few ranks becoming ‘broken’. Now she makes up for the lack of stars with skill and experience she has gained as Ternecias Mad Dog so she is still probably a bit stronger than Elanora and Bellmond just going by sheer combat experience.
Tejing
About the shadow’s conversation, yeah, I got that from the TLN. Still hard to follow though.
That idea about the ‘Shadow Group Binding Technique” is interesting, and what you’re saying about the ‘Mutation Induction’ skill makes sense too.
The Isla thing is a mistake though, she’s rank 13 in the raw.
Lord Rin
Maybe he can put people in his shadow now with the Shadow Group Binding Technique. That might make it so that the people he binds no longer need to absorb his nutrients and probably survive in his shadow without needing nutrients.
Forceful Vitality Enchantment sounds like a doping technique to forcibly make the target stronger.
VEreality
Taking into account all the people that have Van’s divine protection and all the skills that make his allies stronger, we can say that Talosheim’s soldiers are super soldiers -_-
Jonathan Hurd
Oh that’d be fun. Basically Vans shadow works as him own personal item box.
mexgema
Looks like Talosheim is about to get busy again.
VEreality
I have been saying that Van is not a force of evil and neither one of good for a while now, but it feels great to have him saying it. I mean, this has to be the biggest middle finger he could give to Hihi-chan at this point.
Hihi: You are no better than me!
Van: Never said I was *kills him not really caring about his fate*
Also, there is some H.P. Lovecraft level of isanity going on in the depths of Van’s mind. It’s getting crowded in there. We might not realize it all the time, but the evil gods do have a reason to fear Van. He IS scary.
Thank you yoshi-sama! Have a good day!
Jonathan Hurd
I mean he can break souls. He brings the fear of death to those who never knew it or felt they had escaped it. That makes him a terrifying being to anyone but especially the God’s.
He honestly scares Visas God’s a bit too. Thankfully for them though he has no intention of abusing his powers. They also realize if you don’t antagonize him he won’t hurt you. Weirdly to them he’s even respectful to them considering he is so much stronger than them, lol.
Superboy8338
I’m pretty sure that most people who’ve read this far know that Van is an anti-hero.
Dark Templar
He’s well past the point of being a hero or anti-hero. He’s at the point of a natural phenomenon. He purely just IS. He doesn’t even fit on a scale of morality anymore, he’s in his own.
Superboy8338
LOL That sound like something DC’s Darkseid would say about himself.
VEreality
But it is true 🙂
Jonathan Hurd
That just makes me imagine Van telling Heinz… “I reject your morality and substitute my own.” Lol
TheTrueDeathGod
The author did say a few years back he had enjoyed reading H.P. Lovecraft and is where he first realized he wanted to be a writer.
Catwiz15
Still super suprised this was translated mostly by one person and not a team, i always thought it was at least 2+ people alternating chapters
Nobody2
Yoshi is incredible.
Jonathan Hurd
He is our hero in these dark times.
WizziBot
よしさまはすげえな
Darquesse
I am always disappointed when the “scream” skill doesn’t improve. Imagine being able to shatter minds, devour souls and shred bodies using just your voice.
VEreality
I think that the Scream skill is already as good as it can be. Instant isanity for your enemies is already an…well…insane skill to have.
Jonathan Hurd
Scream is definitely a powerful skill. The downside to it I’d say is it doesn’t discriminate on targets. There is a high chance of friendly firing with it so I think that’s why Van doesn’t rely on it to often. Unless like the fight with Heinz he is fighting alone.
Negakz
The moment Scream can shatter souls is the moment Metal music gets introduced in Talosheim
Negakz
I’m so happy that the other Van from the Trial of Zakkart reappeared. Though that does mean there are 4 Vans now.
mexgema
4? We have OG Van, Banda, And Shadow Van. Who’s the fourth Van That You’re referring to?
Jonathan Hurd
I think Mirror Van would be number 4
Lord Rin
Mirror Van from the Trial of Zakkart…
Nobody2
The one we saw this chapter now known as false image van. So the list of vans is as follows in order of when he got them.
Og van, has existed all along (or well since he was born)
False image van, acquired during the mirror trial in the trial of Zakkart
Banda, created when van split himself apart in order to leave mei a friend/protector
Shadow van, created when van incorporated a hollow piece of Guduranis into himself and it became him
mexgema
Oh! I just figured FI Van and Shadow Van were the same thing now? I thought FI Van and Shadow Van merged just now, did they not?
Tejing
I read it that way as well, but it’s not real clear. Could be either way.
Lord Rin
So if there was a Van made of hail would you say he’s Van Hailin’? Eh eh? I’ll see myself out.
Negakz
All of the different Vans consider themselves to be Van. It’s just that FI Van and Shadow Van both now reside within the original Van.
Jonathan Hurd
I think they’re somewhat similar to Banda. Basically Spirit clones now. Considering how Vans soul works though I’d assume they are separate but also one.
Dr. Steel
You forgot to include the Mini Van Army(read: cheer squad)
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Rainbow Dash
heyyo