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The gods of Alda’s forces were observing the inside of the Boundary Mountain Range, including Talosheim. However, the gods’ powers were blocked off by the barrier that had been put up by the gods of Vida’s faction.
Thus, the gods had created a peephole in the Divine Realm in which they existed in order to gaze at the surface of the world from above the clouds… a rather unreliable method of gathering information.
If this was for the surveying of the Bahn Gaia continent’s geography, the creation of an accurate map or the observation of weather and other natural phenomena over a wide area, it would be highly successful.
But the gods were attempting to gather information about a city-state on the world’s surface.
Of course, as superior beings, the eyes of gods could see far further than those of mortals, but… they had their limits. And they did not have the ability to see through objects. In the first place, they did not normally even need eyes.
The gods were able to learn of the world’s surface through the eyes and ears of the believers that offered them prayers.
The definition of ‘offering prayers’ was not a strict one. Believers did not have to be fervent worshippers who prayed every day at a certain time; giving short prayers before eating and putting their hands together at a Church, roadside shrine or in front of an ornament in their house every week or month was enough. Of course, the stronger the believers’ faith, the more detailed the information that could be gained from them, but there were no other differences.
… Well, this was something that all gods were able to do as a baseline, rather than being a specialized power specifically for gaining information. Though it was rare for them to answer the prayers of their believers, it would be entirely impossible if they couldn’t hear their believers’ prayers in the first place.
Of course, this ability could not be used for gathering information inside the Boundary Mountain Range with the barrier shutting them out and not a single believer inside the region.
However –
“Ugh!” one of the gods groaned.
It was Ryaon, the god of waves. He had been observing the region with his eyes, but he was now collapsed inside the Divine Realm.
“Ryaon-dono! Ryaon-dono has collapsed!” another god shouted.
“Has he been watching Talosheim for too long?!” said another.
“I-I am fine. I will recover if I rest for a while… But it seems that it will be difficult for me to continue any longer. I will ask Yupeon-sama for another god to take my place,” said Ryaon.
“Please do. I will take over for you in the meantime,” said another god.
Alda served as the head of the gods ruling over the light and life attributes among his forces, but a hundred thousand years had passed with no great god serving as the head of the other attributes. Thus, the other six attributes had representative gods serving as heads and leading the gods of their respective attributes.
As Farmaun had left Alda’s forces around fifty thousand years ago, it had been necessary to appoint a god as the head of the fire attribute, and the surviving gods of the space and time attributes had all been those with no will of their own, so appointing new gods for those attributes had been difficult. It was difficult to say that these attributes were in a stable state.
But the water and earth attributes had gods who had served their respective great gods as heads leading the gods of those attributes, and had been relatively stable for the past hundred thousand years.
“Get some good rest, Ryaon-dono,” one of the other gods said. “To think that he can eat into the minds of us gods. The Demon King Vandalieu… what a terrible being.”
Ryaon’s mind had been eaten into by the mysterious patterns that had been painted on the roofs of Talosheim’s buildings. They resembled abstract art that seemed to have some hidden meaning in them, and yet they also resembled a child’s random scribbles. Each of the pictures on every roof felt like individual works, but at the same time, the entire city’s pictures seemed to come together to represent a single theme.
These were not merely unorthodox works of art; they were cursed images with the effects of Vandalieu’s ‘Mental Encroachment’ Skill.
They were extraordinarily evil, cursed paintings that ate into the minds of the gods that looked at them.
The gods murmured amongst themselves.
“Us gods are able to resist this effect, but I shudder to think what would happen if our believers were to see these images…”
“It seems that some men from the Amid Empire’s army and the Sauron family have already lost their minds after looking at the monoliths and ground paintings in the region that was once the Scylla territory. Even those with the ‘Mental Resistance’ Skill must not let their guard down.”
“It would be fine if they merely lost their minds. But some of them have been lured by him and vanished after walking into the former Scylla territory, as if drawn in by something. They are no longer our believers.”
“A Demon King with the power of guidance that the champions possessed, and a troublesome form of guidance at that.”
To the gods looking at them, they were cursed paintings, but those whom the gods saw as having darkness buried within their hearts would be guided by the paintings into becoming fanatical worshippers of the Demon King.
The guidance was not an attack upon the mind; those who received the guidance benefited from positive effects. Thus, resistance Skills were ineffective against it.
“Even in the city of Morksi, he and Vida’s incarnation are coaxing children with sweet words, enticing and guiding them. Ricklent-sama and Zuruwarn-sama’s unexpected betrayal of Alda-sama may also be because they have been driven insane by the Demon King.”
“… I cannot deny that possibility. Especially after seeing the form that he takes. His repulsiveness exceeds even the fearsome form of the Demon King Guduranis that I have heard from descriptions.”
“He may indeed be more fearsome than Guduranis. As we became gods after the war that took place a hundred thousand years ago, we never saw Guduranis ourselves, but… it is clear that Vandalieu is more cunning and resilient.”
“Are Rodcorte-dono’s reincarnated individuals capable of defeating this cunning, resilient Vandalieu? Even the next generation’s champion Heinz, who has received Alda’s divine protection and is accompanied by Alda’s heroic spirit, was heavily wounded and forced to retreat from battle. And yet his opponent is a monstrosity who is able to materialize his soul, is able to repair that soul from any damage within less than a month, devoured the evil god of joyful life and has become an evil god despite not possessing the blood of an Elder Dragon or Colossus.”
“An evil god… Indeed, you are correct, but he likes to pretend that he has become a benevolent god. Look. He is making his people create enormous statues of himself.”
The last god to speak pointed to a place where an enormous statue of Vandalieu was being constructed. It was so large that it would certainly become a tourist attraction for Talosheim’s future generations.
“No, they will be able to kill him,” another god interjected. “As long as he possesses a physical body, death will come for him eventually. Even those with limitless lifespans such as Vampires and Majin, and even Undead who have already experienced death once, cannot avoid their eventual destruction. That even applies for more advanced beings, such as evil gods, Colossi, Elder Dragons and Beast Kings… The Demon King Guduranis continues to live despite having his flesh torn into countless fragments and his soul separated into multiple pieces, but it was possible to seal him away. Am I wrong?”
The other gods agreed. As gods, they believed that there was no such thing as an immortal being that could never cease to exist. Indeed, even great gods and the Demon King Guduranis had been destroyed, and Guduranis was under such strict seals that he was as good as dead.
No being was an exception to this. The only difference between beings was how long it would be before they met their end.
“However… Even if we were able to kill him, what would we do then? I do not think that we would need to worry if he were an ordinary Dhampir, but he uses the Undead. It is more than possible that he will turn his own corpse into an Undead at the moment of his death.”
In history, there had been several Undead users, commonly known as Necromancers, such as the Pure-breed Vampires Gubamon and Ternecia. They did not use the death attribute like Vandalieu; they had used the divine protections of evil gods or used heretical life-attribute magic to grant false life to and manipulate corpses.
Some of these Necromancers had been able to turn their own corpses into Undead after suffering fatal wounds… though this had always been a futile struggle, as they had become mere Zombies with none of their memories or personalities remaining.
But if Vandalieu were to do the same, it was highly likely that he would remain as great a threat as he was while alive.
“Alda-sama and Rodcorte-dono have come to an agreement regarding this, have they not? After Vandalieu is killed, Rodcorte-dono will use his authority as the god of reincarnation to capture and seal away his soul.”
As the god of reincarnation, Rodcorte’s authority did not extend to living humans. It extended only to souls that had died and were destined for reincarnation.
However, he was also able to intervene on souls in states that were considered dead after losing their bodies.
He would need to extend a hand in the form of descending upon the world of Lambda and take hold of the soul that was in its powerless state. And then he would seal it away.
Just as he had done with the soul fragments of the Demon King Guduranis.
“Souls are outside of our expertise, but Rodcorte-dono, an expert in the matter, has proclaimed this strongly. If we can kill Vandalieu, then Rodcorte-dono should be able to seal him away.”
“Indeed, you are right. We can trust in the power of Rodcorte-dono, the one who sealed away Guduranis’s soul. But do you think that the reincarnated individuals will be able to kill Vandalieu?”
The other gods fell silent in response to this question.
The gods of Alda’s forces were not well-informed when it came to the other reincarnated individuals’ activities in Origin as the Bravers. But they were informed to some extent regarding their activities after they were reincarnated in this world.
From what they knew… they were developing far more quickly than any ordinary humans, but even taking into account their future potential, it was questionable as to whether they would be able to defeat Vandalieu, someone who was even capable of destroying gods.
“The other question is, how effective are the cheat-like abilities that Rodcorte-dono speaks of?”
“And how much more powerful will the reincarnated individuals grow if us gods grant them our divine protections and dispatch our heroic spirits upon them like we do for this world’s heroes? Perhaps this depends on Fitun-dono, the god of thunderclouds, who has experience when it comes to battle.”
“It seems that he has incurred Alda-sama’s wrath after leaving Nineroad-dono’s command and acting on his own, but… should we not have our heroes join Fitun-dono and have them fight together?”
“Wait. If we approach Fitun-dono carelessly without knowing what his plan is for the reincarnated individuals, it may hinder him instead. Is anyone able to contact Fitun-dono or one of his heroic spirits or familiar spirits?”
The young gods, who were feeling more and more endangered by Vandalieu, looked at each other. But none raised their hand. It seemed that there weren’t any gods who knew how to contact Fitun or his subordinates.
“As one of Nineroad-sama’s subordinate gods myself, I have attempted to contact him to tell him not to act on his own, by using his heroic spirits and familiar spirits as intermediaries,” said Bashas, the goddess of rain clouds.
She had taken over the observation of the Boundary Mountain Range in Ryaon’s place; she was speaking without taking her eyes away from Talosheim.
“But… they were not in Fitun’s Divine Realm,” she said.
“He wasn’t there? Could it be that he has already been destroyed by Vandalieu…?!”
“No, that is impossible. One of us gods would have noticed if that were the case!”
“We can assume that Fitun-dono has left his Divine Realm as a part of the plan that he has given to the reincarnated individuals… It seems that there is nothing that any of us can do. Each of us should devote ourselves to the roles that we have been given,” said the god who was in charge of the young gods here. “Incidentally, Bashas-dono, is everything alright? You have been performing the task of observation before Ryaon-dono collapsed.”
“There is no problem,” Bashas replied, still not moving her gaze away from her task. “I am simply devoting myself to my role, just as you said.”
“I see,” the other god said with a nod. “I am sure that even Nineroad-dono admires your dedication. But be sure to say something if you feel anything abnormal.”
With that, Bashas was left to her task. But perhaps the other god should have looked at Bashas’s face as she gazed upon Talosheim, even if he had to by force.
Because in contrast to her dampened tone of voice, her eyes were filled with passion.
Meanwhile, Vandalieu, one of the pair who was coaxing the people with sweet words, was right in the middle of doing so.
In this dim room with only a faintly-glowing Wisp as its only source of light, he had gathered a group of those who were inexperienced.
“Welcome, feeble souls who have now gathered before me after being tempted by the darkness,” he said to them.
Oswald, who was among the people gathered here, began trembling in response to Vandalieu’s words.
“I am one who can grant you something… power, of a kind that none who walk a white path filled with light may receive. If you receive this power, you will be able to gain everything you desire except for one thing. You can live longer lives and eat more delicious food,” Vandalieu continued. “But the price that I ask for in exchange for this is your freedom. Those who fall into darkness may never return, and it is only for those who have prepared themselves that I will lead, and – this is getting difficult, so please let me stop, Matthew,” he said, stopping suddenly.
“What?! You were just getting to the good part!” Matthew said in a dissatisfied tone from among the group of children huddled together at the end of the room where the Wisp’s light didn’t reach.
The other children voiced their displeasure as well, pleading for Vandalieu to continue his act.
“That’s right, you were so cool, Onii-chan!”
“You were really villain-like!”
“Keep going, keep going!”
The inexperienced ones lined up in front of Vandalieu… Marsha’s rat Oswald and Matthew’s young bat Nightwing, were squeaking and playing with their pet friends.
As for why such a thing was taking place inside one of the orphanage’s rooms… Vandalieu had revealed his true identity and the real reason he had come to the city of Morksi to Matthew and the others whom he had rescued from the evil influence of the Pure-breed Vampire Birkyne.
And in response to that, the children were…
“You promised to do anything to make up for keeping secrets from us, right?” Matthew said.
“I did,” said Vandalieu.
“And we asked you to make Nightwing and the rest of our pets like Fang and Maroru. You replied, ‘If you can tame them properly,’ right?”
“I did.”
“And everyone passed the test that you gave us, right?!”
“You all passed after your second attempt, though you needed three attempts, Matthew.”
“Who cares about that! Anyway, when we asked you to help with casting a good-luck charm to make our pets even stronger while you’re at it, you nodded your head, didn’t you?!”
“… I did, didn’t I.”
This was a roughly accurate description of the events that had led up to this.
After the promise was made, it had taken two weeks for the children to achieve the bare minimum for one to become a Tamer… to discipline their pets to an extent where it was possible to describe them as having been tamed, such as the pets coming when their names were called. Now, Matthew and the other children were asking Vandalieu to turn their pets into monsters.
“I never imagined that I’d be made to put on this kind of act for casting a good-luck charm. Isn’t it boring to watch a poor actor like me do this?” Vandalieu asked.
“That’s not true! You’re super talented! I’m sure any theater would hire you to act as a monster in an instant!”
“Thanks, Matthew. I appreciate the thought.”
Dead-looking eyes, white hair, wax-like skin and an ominous lack of presence. Indeed, with these features, Vandalieu could be well-suited to playing the part of a monster, even if he couldn’t act due to his expressionlessness and his flat-toned voice.
… He could fly on his own and use the Demon King’s ink sacs to create his own special effects makeup such as dying his eyes black, so if there were a theater that specialized in horror, he could certainly make a debut right away.
“Dear me. What was I doing?” said the Wisp, floating around with an idle expression.
He was the elderly Vampire who had been one of Birkyne’s confidants, and he was now filled with the light-attribute after having been defeated by Chipuras and the other light-attribute Ghosts.
“Ojii-chan, you were playing with us,” said one of the children.
“Oh, is that right?” the Wisp said.
“Jii-chan, you can’t go that way. Over here, over here.”
From the dialogue, this scene would sound like a grandfather playing with his grandchildren. It seemed that his maliciousness had been washed away along with his memories after being defeated by the light-attribute Ghosts.
He had been one of the perpetrators of the incident with the orphanage, but it seemed that the children did not see this pale ball of light as the old Vampire from back then.
Incidentally, Birkyne’s two other confidants other than him and Magisa had been turned into Undead by Vandalieu. As the Elf Noble-born Vampire’s body had been completely destroyed, he had been turned into a Cursed Weapon, and the Dwarf Noble-born Vampire Mortor’s body had been intact, so he had been turned into a Vampire Zombie like Magisa.
They weren’t in this city; they were in Talosheim working as apprentices for the Dark Night Knights’ Order that was made of Vampire Zombies.
Vandalieu watched the interaction between the children and the Wisp in a way that he seemed to be trying to escape from reality.
“Hey, I wonder if we would be able to tame Wisps like that grandpa?” Matthew asked him.
“You could. There are precedents of that happening,” said Vandalieu.
Undead were considered to be impossible to tame, and they were actually monsters that were dangerous to try to tame for anyone but Vandalieu. But it would be possible for people other than Vandalieu to tame monsters that were under his guidance.
Prior examples of this included Iris who had tamed the Cursed Weapon that contained her father’s soul, and the former fake resistance members including Haj, who had tamed their Living Armors.
“Well, it also depends on whether you are suited for it or not. Even if they are friendly to me, that doesn’t mean that they will be friendly to people other than me,” Vandalieu added.
“That’s true for taming living things as well, right? With that being the case, if there are any new kids coming to the orphanage with their parents’ spirits, you should let them see each other. If it’s possible for them to be together, they wouldn’t have to say painful goodbyes,” said Matthew.
“I don’t mind doing that,” said Vandalieu with a nod, seeing no problem with this request. “It would depend on whether they actually want to see their parents and what kind of condition the spirits are in, though.”
In this world, he had his mother Darcia, but his parents on Earth had died before he was old enough to be aware of it, so he knew what it was like to not be able to meet one’s parents.
He felt no burden in using ‘Visualization’ that allowed spirits to be seen by ordinary people or turning them into Undead in order to reunite children with their parents.
He had already done this for the victims of the ‘Hyena’ Gozoroff’s illegal human trafficking.
Of course, he would be hesitant if he were asked to introduce random spirits to a living person and lie to them that they were the spirits of their parents, or join together some corpses and make Zombies that resembled people’s parents.
“Really?! There’s one new kid who just came to the orphanage and sometimes cries that they want to see their parents, so that would be great,” said Matthew.
“There is no guarantee that their parents’ spirits are around them, though. If they died near this city, then they might already be around me, so I’ll have a look,” said Vandalieu.
“I wouldn’t ask for anything more than that. Man, if you refused, I’d have let you out of the Demon King act and begged you, but I’m glad you agreed so easily.”
“… Am I still allowed to refuse?”
“No.”
“I thought not,” Vandalieu sighed, dropping to his knees.
“But there’s not much time, so skip to the part where you transform our pets,” said Matthew.
“Alright. Umm, let’s see… You who desire power, receive the blessings of my crimson blood and join the ranks of my followers of darkness,” said Vandalieu, resuming the act.
As he recited the script that he had memorized with the effects of ‘Perfect Record Technique,’ he cut his own palm with one of his sharp claws.
Crimson blood dripped into a soup bowl on the floor. Oswald, Nightwing and the others rushed over to the bowl and began drinking Vandalieu’s blood.
Many of the children’s pets were carnivorous or omnivorous small animals, but they were not species that normally drank blood. The sight of such animals drinking the blood in a frenzy like starved beasts was strange indeed.
And as the pets continued to drink blood, a creaking, grinding noise rose from their bodies as they began to mutate.
Oswald became a Rank 1 Giant Rat, Nightwing a Giant Bat and the rest of the pets also transformed into Rank 1 monsters.
“With this, you have become my servants. Betrayal will not be forgiven… Be sure not to forget that,” said Vandalieu. “Well then, we’ll all be going to register at the Tamers’ Guild together tomorrow, so don’t forget,” he said, putting an end to his act.
“Yeah!” the children said excitedly.
“Yeeeaaah,” the Wisp said, joining in on their excitement.
“I know, but you could have at least let me enjoy the atmosphere a bit more!” Matthew complained.
But Vandalieu had reached his limits for the acting.
Vandalieu’s mind had been immune to the attacks of evil gods, but it had been hard-pressed by Matthew’s script. It was a fearsome script after all… perhaps.
It could also just have been Vandalieu making a big deal out of it.
Just then, Seris and Vestra entered the room.
“Matthew, everyone, what are you doing? Shutting all the windows in the middle of the day and asking Vandalieu-san to do these strange things, aren’t you causing trouble for him?” said Seris.
“Something smells strange…?! B-blood?!” Vestra exclaimed.
The two of them had been aware that the children’s pets would undergo mutation today, but it seemed that they had come in after sensing that something was strange.
Seris and Vestra who had turned out to be Subordinate Vampires and the orphanage’s director who had turned out to be a Dhampir had decided to continue operating the orphanage under the guise that they were humans.
Although the Dhampir director was fine, the Vampires Seris and Vestra were legally considered to be monsters, and the Adventurers’ Guild would designate them as targets for extermination if it were discovered that they had disguised themselves as humans living in the city.
Revealing their situation might result in them merely being exiled from the city. But it was also possible that the entire orphanage would be denounced for having been a facility for raising more pawns for the Pure-breed Vampires.
Vandalieu had formed a favorable relationship with Earl Morksi and trusted him a reasonable amount. But Earl Morksi was not a ruler with absolute authority.
He likely had political opponents among nobles ruling other regions, and apart from that, there was also the influence of religion that declared that although Dhampirs could be accepted, Vampires were evil without exception.
Even if Earl Morksi were to fight these opponents on a political level, there was no telling which way Duke Alcrem, the duke that Earl Morksi served, would judge.
The duke was currently investigating Vandalieu and his companions related to the topic of Juliana, but it was just an investigation with no definite hostile intent. But if he learned of the truth behind the orphanage, there was no guarantee that he would not use it as a reason to attack Vandalieu.
In this complex situation it would be more peaceful to bury the truth and stay silent for a few months than have Earl Morksi risk his political neck and potentially even trigger Vandalieu having to invade the Alcrem Duchy.
In the future, Seris and Vestra would move to Talosheim, and the children would follow them in turn.
After that, the fact that the director was a Dhampir would be revealed, and she would tell the story that she hid her identity and face in order to avoid being discovered by the people who had killed her parents.
“Everything’s fine, Nee-chan. Right, Vandalieu?” said Matthew.
“Yes. My wound has healed already,” said Vandalieu.
He had cut himself to collect his blood in the soup bowl, but the cut had already healed due to the effects of the ‘Rapid Regeneration’ Skill. There was only a small bloodstain where blood had flowed from the cut.
“I see… I was surprised because you let out more blood than I’d imagined… and it seems that Oswald and the others have really become monsters,” Vestra murmured with a hand placed nervously on her chest.
“Everyone, they seem to be Rank 1 just like Vandalieu-san said. We should be able to handle them,” said Seris, looking around at the mutated pets.
Rank 1 monsters like Giant Rats and Giant Bats were nothing more than large rats and bats. They were about as dangerous as stray dogs or even less so. If they were held in the arms of their owners like Matthew and Marsha, they were no different from ordinary dogs and cats.
Even young children could handle them, and there were many cases of Tamers taming monsters from Rank 1 by educating them from a young age.
There were quite a few cases of Tamers beginning their careers at the age of ten or younger, taming Rank 1 monsters received from their masters.
… With that said, this would still astonish Bachem of the Tamers’ Guild tomorrow. Even though these young Tamers had only tamed a single Rank 1 monster each, the Guild’s members would increase more than twofold.
“That’s good. I was a bit worried about what we’d do if they suddenly became Rank 3 or 4,” said Matthew.
“I’ve started to get a general idea of what Rank monsters will be produced when mutating from animals,” said Vandalieu.
He had caused mutation in several species so far, and he had become able to estimate how strong an animal would become after mutating, based on the information gathered by his apprentice researcher Luciliano.
Small animals such as rats and bats would become Rank 1 monsters. Dogs, cats, capybaras, horses and birds of a certain size, such as ducks, would become Rank 2 monsters. And although he hadn’t tried other species, animals such as large birds of prey and bears were likely to become Rank 3 monsters.
In summary, it seemed that the stronger the animal used as the base, the stronger the mutated monster would be.
“It’s easier to predict the results than turning the dead into Undead. It was possible that there would be differences between individuals, but I haven’t seen that happen so far… like rats that are stronger than cats or weak-bodied foxes,” said Vandalieu.
“But it’s fine! You might be weak for now, but I’m going to boost your Rank up like Fang and the others in no time. Right, Nightwing?!” Matthew said excitedly to his companion.
… But Nightwing was still busy drinking Vandalieu’s blood.
“It’s too early for that, Matthew,” said Seris.
“W-why?!” Matthew protested.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Even if you and Nightwing were to work together, as you are now, who knows if you’d even be able to defeat a single Goblin. Make sure you learn how to fight first.”
“I-if we go with Vandalieu –”
“You can’t go with Vandalieu-san. If you do that, you’ll be completely reliant on him, won’t you? Nightwing’s partner is you, isn’t it, Matthew?”
Matthew fell silent and thought about it for a moment. “Alright,” he said, his shoulders dropping.
“I’m glad you understand, Matthew,” Seris said gently, putting her hand on Matthew’s shoulder as if she really were his older sister. “You don’t have to rush; things are only just getting started for you. You can take things slow.” She turned to look at Vandalieu. “Vandalieu-san, we need to clean your hand. Even if the cut has healed, it’s no good if… it’s still covered in blood… so we need to make it clean…”
The gentle look in her eyes were replaced with a fiery light, and her cheeks turned red as she took Vandalieu’s hand in both of hers.
“We need to… make it clean…”
For some reason, she swallowed loudly. It was clear exactly just how she intended to clean Vandalieu’s bloodstained hand.
“Ah! Seris-neechan has become like Nightwing!” Matthew shouted.
“Hmm, I didn’t know that she would be taken over by her urges so strongly that she would forget herself. Let’s try erasing the scent of my blood with ‘Deodorization,’” Vandalieu decided.
“Seris, calm yourself!” said Vestra, having realized what was going on from Matthew’s shout.
She hastily used her arms to pin Seris’s shoulders from behind.
“If you do that… you’ll become like Elea… like the other Vampires, and you won’t be able to return!” Vestra groaned.
“Vestra, I know. I know that. But… I’m so thirsty, my throat is so dry that I can’t help it!” said Seris.
“… It’s kind of like my blood is some strange drug,” Vandalieu remarked.
“How can you be so relaxed! Hurry up and use that ‘Deodorization’ spell or whatever!” said Matthew.
“Matthew… I’ve already cast it.”
“Are you serious?!”
It seemed that Seris’s switch had already been flipped, and there was no use in erasing the blood’s scent.
And even Vestra, who was supposed to be stopping Seris, now had a fever-like expression on her face.
“U-ugh, it-it’s no good… I’m also…”
She slowly stopped holding Seris back and joined her in staring at the blood on Vandalieu’s arm.
“Even Vestra-neechan’s lost her mind?! Vandalieu, can’t you get them off you?!” Matthew shouted.
“It wouldn’t be impossible, but… that would need me to forcibly swing them around and throw them off me, so that would be a little dangerous. For everyone else, that is,” said Vandalieu.
As Seris and Vestra were Subordinate Vampires, despite having slender bodies, they possessed more strength than ordinary people. They had enough muscular strength for Matthew to make fun of them for being like gorillas.
As Seris was gripping Vandalieu’s arm with all of that strength, it seemed that Vandalieu couldn’t escape so easily. Of course, being a little rough with her wouldn’t harm her, but… that might be dangerous for the nearby children and pets.
“And if everyone were to hate me for treating these two respected people too violently, my heart would not go unscathed,” Vandalieu added.
As Seris and Vestra attempted to get Vandalieu’s bloodstained hand closer to their own faces, Vandalieu extended his other clean hand to hold them back. He got the feeling that they were a little too old for him to be treating them this way, as if they were little girls.
“Then do something. What do you do when Eleanora-neechan and the others become like this?!” Matthew demanded.
“I let them drink my blood,” Vandalieu replied simply.
“You can’t do that!”
“Then let’s satisfy them with something other than blood,” said Vandalieu. “Though to be precise, blood makes up more than half of its contents… Matthew, there are small bottles in the inner pocket of my clothes. Could you please get them out for me?”
“O-okay,” said Matthew, attempting to take the bottles as instructed.
But the other children seemed to have mistaken this as a continuation of the ritual.
“What are you doing?”
“Onee-chan and Matthew-niichan are trying to drink the blood and receive the ‘blessings of darkness!’”
“We have to stop them! They’re going to become real gorillas! Matthew-niichan is always calling them gorillas, after all!”
Four of the children began trying to stop Seris, Vestra and Matthew.
“No, this isn’t my fault!” said Matthew.
But he was the one who had suggested the chuunibyou-like ritual and asked Vandalieu to perform it, so it was indirectly his fault.
“… It can’t be helped. I’ll feed it to them myself,” said Vandalieu.
With the Demon King’s tentacles, he took two bottles of Blood Potion from his inner pocket… the Potion made from Vandalieu’s blood. He uncorked the bottles in front of Seris and Vestra.
Their attention immediately turned from the blood on Vandalieu’s arm to the Blood Potion, and they began drinking as if possessed.
“Phew,” said Matthew, sighing with relief as he saw them regaining their ability to reason as they drank the Potion. “With that, the two of them are… Wait, is this really alright?” he wondered, realizing that there was no difference in terms of the fact that they had consumed blood.
“I think it’s better for children to see them drinking it properly rather than licking it from my arm. And it would also be less embarrassing for them once they returned to their senses,” said Vandalieu.
“I-I suppose you’re right,” Matthew agreed.
“Wow, did Vandalieu-niichan’s Rank increase?!” one of the children exclaimed.
“Then will you become gigantic like Oswald, Onii-chan?” asked Marsha.
“… I think I want to be in the future,” said Vandalieu.
With that, Seris and Vestra regained their senses after drinking the Blood Potion to satisfy their urge to drink blood, and put an end to the ritual.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Hobbes
Sadly, Van still can’t drink his own blood to get “swole” like he desperately wishes to.
Akachi86
““Even in the city of Morksi, he and Vida’s incarnation are coaxing children with sweet words, enticing and guiding them. Ricklent-sama and Zuruwarn-sama’s unexpected betrayal of Alda-sama may also be because they have been driven insane by the Demon King.”””
The amount of copium is amazing.
Those children were raised to be snacks, and aldiot’s gods didn’t bother to train heroes who could destroy the evil vampires in a 100000 years, which further proves they don’t care about humans, they just don’t want humanity as a whole to go extinct. But they still rant about who is “good and just” and who is “evil”.
And funny how they didn’t notice Bashas was guided 😀
Zenden1st
DKV and taming services
Ereshkigal
“Get some good rest, Ryaon-dono,” one of the other gods said. “To think that he can eat into the minds of us gods. The Demon King Vandalieu… what a terrible being.”
You guys says some interesting thing considering the fact that you peeping
.
He would need to extend a hand in the form of descending upon the world of Lambda and take hold of the soul that was in its powerless state. And then he would seal it away.
I mean, the fragments of DK have already fuse with his soul… He also have soul related skills, if you think about it, I don’t think he will be on powerless state when he died. What more, he should be stronger as he can easily manipulate the DK fragments, controls over death and even interfere with reincarnation. ALSO, Vida, other gods, and his companions would not stand idle.
SmerchOleg
“He would need to extend a hand in the form of descending upon the world of Lambda and take hold of the soul that was in its powerless state. And then he would seal it away.”
So that is how Rodcortex wants to die. At least he will have one less hand.
Temp950
So why doesn’t Van have those countermeasure images in Morksi? It would prevent Sylphid from spying on him. Not to mention Alda’s faction.
Utsuho
First of, Vandalieu want to deal with the opponents who are still roaming around and aware of his position. Namely, Murakami’s group and Fitun.
Next point, and not a little one, to apply those countermeasure, Vandalieu currently need to paint on the roof of stranger’s home. They probably won’t be happy about it and that is not his goal.
XPotato
Gods: peep into van’s house
Van: puts countermeasures in place
Gods: “To think that he can eat into the minds of us gods. The Demon King Vandalieu… what a terrible being.”
Baldingere
Ryaon, traitor to Tristan! Get rekt!
Basha, traitor to Alda? Welcome!
NsP7737
I think she got encroached, and I think she’ll not be the only one
Vitor
more like traitor to Peria, thought
Alke
Well she would not be traitor to Peria anymore, Peria is with vida’s faction.
MeiOuSei
Guys, guys, a random thought, who do you think woukd win in a fight between Vandelieu and Arnos Voldigoad??
MintyMints
That would interesting since they both dabble in the soul but I think Arnos would win since he should be able to strategize more calmly then Vandelieu and has more experience in battle.
Kerlark Dgrayman
I actually feel a little pity to those minor gods and goddesses that are caught up with Rodcorte’s and Alda’s pathetic way of dealing with their problems when even their problems are themselves.
Van acting as a demon king in his age will really look like a chuunibyou and it’s really cute to imagine him.
no1
So still after all this time, Heinz and his party are still recovering? They still haven’t made any progress in completing the “trial” of Bellwood. I use quote on trial because that labyrinth does not stand out that much from the average dungeon. Dang if Heinz and his party finally finish the trial, it won’t make any difference because Van could become more powerful and since the trial was suppose to make Heinz and his friend Bellwood’s successors and make them more powerful than Van, Heinz and his party are screwed. Also what about Selen, has she been waiting outside the trial all this time? I wonder that if they all met again with Van, will Van tell Selen what Heinz and his party did to his mother?
Renrobt
Well Curatos mentions in his last moments that he has isolated the 99th floor and beyond. So technically Heinz and co. can continue their training in the dungeon. Just with 1 caviat: the god that reproduced their bodies, recreated all the challenges, enemies? Dead. Once they clear a floor they can no longer fight it again. I do not know how deep it goes, but there is supposed to be a reproduction of the actual Guduranis and likely even a perfect reproduction of Bellwood, and while the fight on the 65th floor was impressive it probably goes far deeper, as that level is definitely nothing in front of a Demon king that threatened the whole world. So it’s not like they can’t continue training. Just they skipped from lvl 65 to 99 with no training, damage to their souls and mental stability, and effectively 1 life. Well at least they will learn how to run away and regroup. So as bad as this situation is for them it might actually make them stronger and much better at surviving, even against Van.
Also considering that Heinz was using the story of Darcia to bolster his popularity/admit his guilt, it is likely that at least she knows part of the story. Honestly I don’t think that Van would outright tell her, after all while he can be quite revenge oriented he doesn’t take it out on those that he considers bystanders, heck he made sure to just eliminate the 2 who were not his target for revenge before focusing on Heinz and the others even tho they were his party members, so I would rather imagine that he just tries to ignore her. Though if Selen notices Van and starts pestering him, and saying stuff like Heinz can protect them and all? He might drop a few truth bombs here and there.
Lord Rin
No everything can still be recreated and the dungeon can still function as it used to except that it’s probably gonna take a while to fix everything Van destroyed. It’s just that with Curatos gone, none of the recreations will be as effective as Alda pointed out because no other god can control the recreated dungeon enemies as well since they don’t have the Perfect Record technique.
no1
Yeah, Van acquired that skill when he devoured Curatos, Alda eat your heart out
Reidakh
Nooo i cought up and cant binge it anymore nooo
Orianbrian
Honestly, I just find it hilarious that he originally left his home to become an adventurer but before he could do that he ended up as emperor and he resurrected Darcia which was his ultimate end goal like half way through.
Renrobt
Well along the way he got scary sounding titles and jobs. Just looking at Ghoul King and Death Attribute Mage, the first title and job he got, we can see how that would raise some eyebrows, but still could be explained.
Then we start going down the list what he got and just the 3rd job he got is already something thought to be impossible: Undead Tamer. Then the 4th Soul breaker. All of these jobs while he was really busy establishing himself in Talosheim so that he can take care of the Noble Orc empire (which lets not forget was thought to be hostile) and going over to Hartner duchy to finally establish himself in an actual human society.
Then poor guy got even worse titles and jobs and pretty much gave up on trying to take normal sounding jobs. If not for the loophole that guildgirl told him he probably would have either given up or use some backdoor method. Or mental encroachment to erase the memories, but he doesn’t like to use it due to the possible damage it does to the mind.
Kazza
So, because I’ve gone back to reading from the beginning (as I assume most of us have), I have a question I’d like to ask the other readers who have gone back.
Where, in your opinion, does the story start to get “good.”
Now, that’s not me saying that the first few chapters are bad, I promise. I just think they’re more exposition heavy, which loses its luster on repeat readthroughs. And the only real criticism I have is the lack of the Eigth Guidance, but Densuke probably didn’t think of them at the time.
Now, I’m not trying to say the prologue was poorly written, because it’s exposition, it’s supposed to be a bit slow while the setting, characters and conflict are established. Personally, I hate In Medias Res openings because it feels like the author thinks I can’t handle some slow stuff and has to let me know shit will go down eventually.
But the issue, for me, still stands, because I don’t feel I’ve gained anything from rereading mythology I’ve already pretty much memorized. Especially when information Densuke offhandedly mentioned kind of clashes with that.
For instance, was anyone else reminded that Hihiryu was actually a subordinate god to another Evil God? It’s mentioned in the vampires introduction, but it hasn’t been mentioned since, especially that god’s fate.
So, to my ultimate question, when would everyone say the novel really picked up? For me, I would say it’s around the fight with Bugogan, when Van is being crowned Ghoul King. It’s our first real taste of Van’s fighting ability, as well as his unusual tactics. It also heavily features side characters like Vigaro, Zadiris and Basdia, something that the novel hasn’t been doing as well as more characters have been introduced.
Now, I want to say this one more time: If you were hooked on the prologue, that’s perfectly fine. That’s not even in a “You-have-low-standards-but-thats-ok” kind of way; I might be the weird one who finds it boring. That’s mostly why I want to ask, to see where the majority lies.
Absolute Zer0
I think i was hooked on prologue when i was seriously depressed because novel i was writing on my notebook was not going well. At that time my head was full of negatives so revenge theme got me in.
Renrobt
The first thing that came to mind for me was the preparation for and fight with Bugogan or maybe the arrival to and establishment in Talosheim.
The former I just love the feel of finally things are getting into shape for Van, even if his life with the ghouls was already thousands of times better than in previous lives. The later I just love the Ancient civilization vibe in general, but also because this is where we finally see Jobs and finally Van gets some time to start inventing, discovering that there may be a way to revive Darcia, and a lot of other things that are set up to make it into the “Central Hub” in general.
And while I agree that In Medias Res can be annoying it’s all about execution and if you ask me I here it was pretty good. After in the prologue all we start with the very reason why Van gets reincarnated the way it happened. Yes it is accompanied by a lot of exposition, after all you are entering a world of magic, but in a sense it isn’t even really starting in the middle as we get all we need to know about his 1st life, it was miserable, seen his 2nd life pretty much through, and finally his final interaction with Rodcorte who instead of giving time for him to cool down Cursed him and sent him off. We just saw Hiroto’s transition to Vandalieu. In the prologe we effectively followed Van’s birth (psychologically at least).
Kazza
Oh, I’m not saying Death Mage’s prologue is In Medias Res. No, like I said, I think the prologue and opening chapters do their job well, it’s just on repeat readthroughs the information is less relevant and I therefore tend to skip a lot of it.
No, Death Mage In Medias Res would be like starting with the Siege on Talosheim, and Gordan just knocked Van’s head off. And then some terrible soundtrack starts playing and Van goes:
“Ayep, that’s me. I guess you can say I lost my head there. Anyways, I’m sure you’re wondering how I got here. Well…”
Etc.
No, the lore has plenty of historic events that already occurred, but the central character’s story began at that point, and all events have chronologically followed in a consistent manner. I would never accuse Death Mage of In Medias Res.
Wannabe
I didn’t really care about the prologue, it was sad but I’d read the reviews and knew it was coming. The bit of Van listening in on everyone gossiping about how Darcia died got me viscerally. Actually going back and looking at it now I didn’t remember how Heinz didn’t even acknowledge that Darcia and a vampire might have just married for love, instead of for immortality or because she was evil somehow.
I kinda skip through a lot of the early combat on rereads of the first volume, and look for more stuff about how the cultures formed and the ways he tries to solve the problems that make the Ghouls obligate enemies of humans. I went and just looked at the chapter titles and the one that jumped out at me was Van’s perspective on meeting Eleanora. I especially liked the way he needs to explain exactly why he’s about to do something horrific to Sercrent. Like “this isn’t to avenge my dad or anything, I never knew him” and explaining why he hates him. It kinda sets the tone for the way he still can’t let Heinz go.
Tejing
Honestly, I think it’s “good” pretty much as soon as it’s done with Darcia’s death (I have no objection at all to the early tragic events. A character like Van wouldn’t really make sense without them, but that still doesn’t mean I enjoy rereading them.), but it doesn’t truly “feel like Death Mage” to me until somewhere between the fight with Bugogan and the defense of Talosheim against the Mirg Shield-nation’s attack. During that period, Van changes from being afraid and just trying to survive to being proactive about building and protecting his home and family. He really comes into his own at that point, roughly starting with the conversation with the ghouls where he reveals his past and Vigaro helps him get over his fear of the reincarnators, and ending with his resounding victory over the Mirg Shield-nation, and the confidence it inspires in him.
Blackpercher
it started getting good when the MC get access to a job changing tool…
and in my mind -whew~ finally!-
Reidakh
One could argue because every arch introduces new characters and so on. For me it was the attack on talosheim that got me hooked and would reccomend starting again from.
LethalDose
Chapter twelve because that’s when the wn overtook the manga at the time
WholesomeAF
For me it was when he starts collecting demon Lord fragments….
Chiu ChunLing
The story was pretty compelling from the start. But if you’re talking about when it shifted from “full of suck” to “made of win”, I’d say the turning point was Chapter 5, when Van discovers that he can gain XP by leveling his companions.
From that point, we can clearly see the possibility of him ruling an entire army of powerful undead, and the fact that one curse had such a flaw implies that the other curses may be less effective than they appear. That also makes his quest to resurrect Darcia seem like a serious possibility (frankly, once he raises Sam, Saria, and Rita as various types of undead, it seems like he’s being too particular about bringing Darcia back to “life”, though it also seems like there’s no pressing need).
But like I said, the story was compelling right from the prologue.
Vitor
I also believe that it’s in the fight against Bugogan, things quickly get good when Van starts facing strong enemies and doing things that make them piss themselves, such as his barriers against Bugogan, regrowing his head against Gordan, using Kanata to test his new Dead Spirit Magic, using his own body as bait against Bellmond, and starting using the Demon King’s Blood aginst Ternecia are great moments in which you realise that not only they’re (in most cases) not going to defeat Van, but their fights against him only achieving giving him even more powers and making him even more difficult to kill
Sinfulmass
Was she “guided” or is this something to do with the subplot from that water God.
Tejing
She was guided, at least partially.
Oldman Locke
There is a question to think about: Can Van really be killed? He has the ability to manipulate his own soul, organs, blood, etc. He can also replenish himself using fragments of the demon King and has an absurdly high Mana that only grows more and more. The only way to kill him would be with a similar power, to break souls, and from what has been said, none of the Gods has that power (I don’t know if the Idiotcorde does). Maybe this is the Final Battle, Van against that guy who is still in the previous world, who wants the power of death, maybe he can steal that of the heroes’ daughter and fight Van with a similar power.
Renrobt
Well at this point even the gods are thinking of sealing him, as they know/suspect that just killing wouldn’t be enough. But for that they need to kill or at least bring Van to near death state.
As nearly impossibly difficult as that is it isn’t impossible: you need to have him use up his mana. While he has insane Mana pool and an incredibly powerful constant Mana regeneration, most of his death magic eats Mana like there’s no tomorrow. If he is forced to use Soul Destruction Technique (where he clads his own body in his soul and fights like that), Hollow Cannon and other high power attacks left and right he could very well run really low on Mana.
Of course drinking blood replenishes that so they either have to prevent that or make him run out of blood potions and keep away anyone else.
Another possibility would be to fight somewhere where Van has to hold back, like Talosheim, tho that advantage won’t last too long as most people can evacuate into the dungeons, but even then he must be careful with attacks that could damage or destroy the dungeons.
The biggest chance would be to somehow force Van to use his soul as his body again, like in the fight against Heinz in the training dungeon. There Van was forced to materialize and any damage done to him was actually direct damage to his soul, reducing his Max mana. If they can force a situation like this and prevent Van from scattering Large chunks of his soul to escape, then they can finally deal enough damage to him to cripple or even try to seal him.
Of course its near impossible for Alda’s forces to enter and even approach Talosheim especially unnoticed, and they would be ambushed on the way if noticed. Also the only reason Van was dragged to the training dungeon was because Curatos’ perfect recreation of Van triggering the Abyss skill of his. So the last 2 points are near impossible.
Well killing and pushing Van into a corner is near impossible anyways
Jonathan Hurd
Van definitely has an insane level of regeneration, but then again so did Gubamon, Ternecia, and ‘Birknye’. Everything has a limit. If you constantly destroy his body eventually he will run out of stamina and energy to regenerate the body. I mean Heinz and his crew were able to kill the copies of Legion and Legion probably has the most insane health total and regen of anyone.
After the physical body is defeated you beat down the soul in a similar fashion. The problem in this scenario is that to really pull it off you need to trap Van. Aldas side however has no really strong space or time God’s. They have no one who can really make dungeons. They could probably make a specially sealed room, but you have to drag Van in and make sure to keep him in and Gufadgarn out.
I think that if Alda and a majority of his followers descended they can probably kill Van, but that really defeats the reason they are trying to seal him. I mean who cares if you beat the Demon King who can kill you all if you all die in the process.
Renrobt
Well to beat out the regenartion you need to deplete the Mana. in the fight against Birknye this was confirmed as his regeneration’s slowing was attributed to him using up a large portion of his mana, imitating Van’s soul destruction technique. So if they can actually surpass his regeneration then one can consider that he is also loosing a lot of Mana in the process maintaining his regeneration and/or Materialization, later of which would use more Mana as all damage done like that is also direct damage to his soul.
Van has a decent regeneration but his strongest point by far is his Mana Pool, so if they can beat his body his soul is just as weakened.
And yeah I agree that they would need to go for an all out assault sacrificing a large number of themselves, or at least exhausting to the point that they can’t contribute to maintaining the world anyways. Aaand that is definitely not their goal.
no1
Good question. Van has survived having his head cut off, soul broken, cut, multiple demon king fragment fusing into his body, limbs and organs broken and or ruptured. Overall, he has survived a lot. He really is almost like Guduranis in terms of vitality. With all that in mind, who knows if it is even possible for Van to be sealed away like Guduranis
Absolute Zer0
This won’t be easy. Even if there was miracle after miracle and they fullfilled every condition to fight against only Vandelieu, this will be only temporary. No more than few moments later every Gods on Vida’s faction and dozens of Demi-god level Vampires, Majins, Kijins etc then his own hero-level companions will come rushing with help of Gufadgarn and Zuruwarn. With Van’s almost infinite mana and vitality he will more than survive that long if he only focus on defending himself even against Gods and Heroic spirits. Maybe even few of lower level Gods will die in process if there is any. And Alda’s faction will weaken beyond recovery so they are not making move themselves in the first place. If Vida’s faction knows they are making such big move then they will leave everything aside to save Van since he has ability to guide souls to Vida’s system. So in conclution if Alda’s side takes this kind of action then only one benefiting from this will be remnant of Demon King’s Army.
gomezseba37
Tf my boi van guided a god through roo paintings wtf.
They are also overestimating rodcorte. there is no way rodcorte can grab vans soul not without a lot of struggle heck he even strugled against ricklent and zuruwan when they created legion. and I refuse to belive rodcorte can tank the world piercing hollow cannon
Yuraya
Even if there was an opportunity for Rodcorte to do that, considering how incompetent that dumbass is, he would still find ways to mess up.
Renrobt
Lets be fair, Rodcorte is a god of souls. Ricklent and Zuruwan are the god of time and space respectively so the fact that he could chase after them, while they were inbetween worlds is just incredible. And lets not forget that the 2 of them also had the cooperation of the God(s?) of Origin who also held back Rodcorte as much as it could.
The fact that even with all that the 2 gods got cornered to the point where they needed to drop all the souls in as one, instead of one by one as they originally planned, shows just how much power he has when it comes to souls.
If Rodcorte would be smarter, he would be an incredible threat, and he more than likely has the power to snatch Van’s soul before he turns himself undead if someone manages to kill Van.
Enigma
Van is part of Vida’s circle so I doubt Rodcorte can do anything.
Renrobt
He is still the God of Souls. As long as he knows where Van is and/or someone uses a sealing artifact/magic to at least temporarily bind his soul there, it wont matter that he is already In Vida’s circle of reincarnation.
Also imo Rodcorte could dismantle Vida’s cycle by himself if he would accept some risk to himself. Don’t forget: He is really powerful just an utter idiot.
Lord Rin
He only has authority over souls in his reincarnation circle. He is just one of multiple gods that control reincarnation circles. He is not the end all be all god that controls all souls. The reason he could follow Ricklent and Zuruwarn was because they were still in the space where it is considered part of his reincarnation circle’s territory which is also why he could attempt to grab the Eighth Guidance’s souls to use a hostage while in transit between Origin and Lambda. If it is outside his circle of reincarnation then he can’t do shit. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been opposed to Zakkart and the others being summoned from EARTH which was a world that was governed by a different circle of reincarnation that he didn’t rule. He was only able to collect the creation-oriented champions’ soul fragments because they had left EARTH and its circle of reincarnation and where now in Rodcorte’s.
(BTW: EARTH is a different planet than the Earth that Van and the other Bravers are from in case you needed to know)
InfernoHomura
noice a god from Aldiot’s faction is “guided” now that’s what you call a good sign
Blackpercher
and my stress disappears~~
whelp yoshi is still alive!! thanks!!
Cr1m50nR3ap3r
Alda’s faction says that van is an evil God they should have a good look at their leader personal history and say who is the evil god. As I for one think that what vida did creating new races to bring the population back up from vertically zero but then gets back stabbed and stolen from by Alda, which is an definition of being an evil God by being a greedy power hungry asshole
Ac3
I agree that alda was an a$$hole but he isn’t a power hungry mofo like you think he is. Zuruwan even said that alda truly cares about the world and that he thinks vida is corrupting the world by creating races with evil gods,undead etc. It’s just that he is stuck in the past and can’t change his ways because the world is unpredictable and he just wants it to resemble the good ol days.
Tejing
Alda doesn’t *think* he’s power hungry, but that doesn’t mean he actually isn’t. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there’re some really ugly, selfish motivations underneath that he’s hiding, even from himself.
Chiu ChunLing
Even leaving aside his hidden motives, he’s clearly power-hungry even if his protestations of the reasons he desires that power were taken at face value.
Alda is not content to simply live and let live, as is the case for most of Vida’s faction.
Renrobt
So my idea of what the Gods’ planning to do is surprising spot on. Or not that surprising considering just how powerful and grotesque he is, especially to the other gods. Plus don’t think that even Rodcorte would want to risk Van’s soul ever getting in a situation like this, so instead of giving him a new life in another world, possibly without magic (like originally planned, ya know the 4th life that is mentioned in the title).
Anyways as unlikely it is that Van gets killed, after all he could casually reattach his head when he got beheaded, and sealed, not as easy after all he can break magic seals just by being around them and also he already has “practice” in turning himself undead. Lets assume that they somehow do it:
I still don’t think that would be the end of it. I mean they only seal the Main Van, the soul that is in Van’s body. What about all the Mini Vans (lol) that are attached to thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people as “familiar spirits” and “divine protections”. They all share the same consciousness as Van and what they see and hear gets transmitted back. If the Main Van gets sealed, I could imagine the Mini Vans congregating and reforming a pseudo Van that will act effectively the same as Van but with likely reduced capacity.
If that happened it could be that he regroups with Vida and the others and organizes an assault to undo the seal and free himself. And I don’t think that Alda and co. would be ready to handle a second Van EVEN if they caught the Main Van by surprise and alone.
Just imagining the trauma that would inflict on the gods itself makes me giddy.
Jonathan Hurd
I will just say if they managed to kill and seal Van once there are no assurances they couldn’t do it again.
The God’s probably think leaving Vans soul with Rodcorte would be safe since he is separate from Lambda and other worlds, but sadly for him Rodidiot is stuck as part of Lambdas God’s because of Van spreading word of him.
Tejing
“I will just say if they managed to kill and seal Van once there are no assurances they couldn’t do it again.” Wait… what? Who? When?
Jonathan Hurd
That was a response to Renrobt saying the Mini Vans could unsealed the main body. If Aldas group really did win the first fight and seal Vans soul. I think that they could probably fight and seal his familiar spirits/spirit clones.
Renrobt
My point is more like they need to exhaust a lot of resources and their own powers, even if temporarily, to be able to actually corner Van to the point they can seal him.
From preventing Legion and Gufudgarn to prevent emergancy teleportation to Van or taking him away, even though they barely have gods that manage space and time. Or needing to keep Darcia at bay who is the incarnation of Vida and when it comes to Van in danger you can bet she will be going with double Mom power.
And lets not forget the army of Monsters, Vampires across all ranks, live and undead, all resistant to sunlight, and a literal empire worth of forces where most individuals are already capable of taking on a good handful of soldiers or even trained knights. Also lets not forget about the incredibly unique monsters, literal or figurative, that would be considered never before seen or only seen in the great war over 100k years ago. Knochen and its near inexhaustible forces just alone is a threat that most not be ignored, even by the gods. And so on, where we could list most of the main cast.
And I don’t think that there is a possibility that they get the drop on Van where he would have to fight completely alone, or at least without him being able to call for help.
With that in mind I think that even if the Second Van that formed is a lot weaker, the gods themselves would be definitely weakened, maybe even to the point that he fights his way to the seal and even undo it. After all even if he is weaker, the ability to consume souls probably remains. And weakened gods seems to be such good snacks.
Tejing
Ah, okay. That makes sense.
Ac3
What you said about the mini van is the exact same thing that happens to demon King gurandis though there are some difference between them since d.k gurandis fragments are trying to rejoin based purely on instinct and mini van has a fraction of vans soul inside. If anything it’ll be like a new Banda if they come together.
Absolute Zer0
Well, i think Vandelieu will be God by the time they gathered enough man-power to seal him. And one of the reason he is in Orbaume Kingdom is to make allies too. So he might be able to new guider jobs too. Since guider jobs have large stat-up it will give hime more growth. Also there is Idiotcore doing something with DK soul fragment so maybe he will get some of Guduranis’s abilities.
SheepySenpai
Thanks for another Chapter!
I was wondering how often scheduled chapters come out and how much money is required for a sponsored chapter? Thanks
Renrobt
The long wait this time was due to Yoshi being swamped with work, as translating this is only a thing he does on the side. Also there is no schedule but so far under normal circumstances there was about 4-5 chapters a month.
Yoshi
There’s an FAQ here: https://lightnovelbastion.com/death-mage-translation-and-donations-faq/
Should answer most of your questions!
SheepySenpai
Thank you
no1
Vandalieu pretending to be all demonic and “demon kingly” felt cringey from just reading it. If the kids like it so much they might ask him to do it multiple times. Which would suck because being called the demon king was cringey enough for him and acting like it pretty much kills him
InfernoHomura
the only way to kill Vandalieu, is to kill him with shame
TheDerangedOne
Aye, get him to cringe at himself so hard he implodes… probably the only way really.
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
Aldas team watching over Talosheim and the rest thinking of gaining some information about Van-sama and his friends not realizing that they’re harming themselves and more gods are joining the God of Death.
Lord Rin
Those are some dumb as fuck gods. They’re talking about how Van will die anyways. Like did they forget the time Van got his head cut off and he just plopped it back on? Also they don’t know a damn thing about Rodcorte. They are saying that Rodcorte physically descended to Lambda to seal Guduranis except he didn’t. Alda forced the soul fragments onto Rodcorte and they were probably already sealed when they gave them to Rodcorte to guard and place more seals on. These guys are talking about Rodcorte being able to descend to seal Van except they should know that he can’t easily do so. It takes a considerable amount of energy for a god to descend physically to Lambda and none of the Lambdan gods can do that anymore even with all the faith energy provided by their believers so why would they expect that a god that has no believers would have the energy to be able to descend? Even if he does, Rodcorte is a coward who won’t do anything if it has even the slightest chance of hurting himself. Even more so, Rodcorte has zero combat experience so if he somehow manages to convince himself to risk exposing himself to danger to seal Van, he’s basically nothing more than a giant slow-moving target that has no idea how to defend himself against Van and his allies. Let’s not even get started on the fact that all of this is moot because while Rodcorte can exercise great control on souls, that’s only on souls in his system and Van isn’t part of his system.
Meanwhile it looks like Bashas is being guided by Van and will probably defect to Vida’s faction. I wonder if any more gods will be guided by Van’s doodles? Incidentally Basha’s is the name of a supermarket chain here where I live <.<
Heh Van was forced to do a chuuni act by Matthew to mutate their tamed animals. Anyways being able to tame animals in two weeks is probably very impressive for new tamers especially since they're only age 10 and younger. Bachem will be very happy to have so many promising new Tamers. I wonder how Nineroad would feel since she's the God of Tamers? Meanwhile Seris and Vestra hope they don't become like Elea… like the other Vampires.
Santoso
Tbf, they don’t know rod personally
Lipesp
The gods do know that van is outside rodcord’s system but since he is an expert in souls he probably can use his authority to pick a soul manually and interfear with it, what they don’t know is that van already reached divinity and thus he is equal or above rodcord in soul authority
Metazoxan
He’s not equal not by a long shot.
Souls are Rod’s authority and he’s had it as his authority for countless years.
Van … doesn’t exactly have an authority yet. He has divinity but it’s weak and vague.
Even if Van could enforce authority over souls he’d at best be a lesser god in terms of souls and reincarnation while Rod would be the chief god.
HOWEVER, while van can’t beat rod in soul authority (at least not yet) it’s likely he could at least resist being pulled by Rod before he could either revive himself or turn himself into an undead.
AND THAT is assuming that the death of his physical body doesn’t just cause him to become a full god freed of his moral form in which cause rod wouldn’t even get a second to touch him.
Lipesp
I was betting on him becoming a full God, the concept of authority is a little vague, van can already perform soul surgery perfectly and even got the skill to create his own reincarnation system so I thought he was already was above rodcord
TheDerangedOne
In the nitty gritty soul manipulation skills? probably. In regards to reincarnating souls? mmmmm… not sure, kinda doubt it.
Different specializations in the same general field.
no1
The gods of Alda’s faction make their assumptions based on Alda’s opinion and their own biased views of what they thing a demon king is. Wonder if they plan to fight Van in the future?
Jonathan Hurd
I think part of the reason why the God’s on Aldas faction are clinging to the idea Rodidiot can do something is that they are just that afraid. They are people who thought they had escaped death and now suddenly they feel the grim reaper’s blade at their throats. They need hope and so they are grasping at any straws that can provide that precious hope.
Renrobt
Well we can assume that due to Van’s actions, how Rodcorte got anchored to Lambda, he can now Descend more easily. And he doesn’t need to descend “physically”. It was only mentioned he needs to descend. I would assume that rather than creating a body of his own and descending as a full god (as that in off itself would take considerable power and make returning to his divine realm more difficult), he would rather temporarily take over one of the reincarnated group similarly to Darcia’s goddess descent, except since they are not attuned the Rodcorte would take over completely. Also let’s not forget that he has more at stake here than against Guduranis, as back then he could just cut of the world from himself, so it could be that he actually means to do it.
Plus likely this plan assumes that to even get to Van you need to obliterate his allies and they are trying to be incredibly vary of him, as he already has a precedence of returning as an undead when killed, so likely they don’t think they have enough time to perform a seal on the level of sealing a (demi)god (after all DK fragment’s seals rapidly erode in his pressence, and those are “weak” single fragments already sealed and believed to be inert, I don’t think a seal of that level would last more than a couple seconds, if at all considering how enormous Van’s soul is) and that is why they need Rodcorte to descend and snatch.
Whether Rodcorte actually realizes and acts in a timely manner to actually do this, is again a wholly different question. After all I can easily imagine him not wanting to go down until he is sure that there is no danger and waiting too long before Van is resurrected or turned undead or taken by one of his allied gods.
Jonathan Hurd
I think as part of Rodcortes authority on souls he can pick up newly released souls without endangering himself. We saw him do that when Zakkart and the other creation champions souls were broken and even more recently when he tried to snatch Pluto and her groups souls to hold ransom against Van.
Considering how self interested Rodidiot is, and how there were no assurances that Pluto and the rest would make actual decent hostages. I don’t think Rodidiot would grab them if there was any risk to him.
Renrobt
Ah reasonable. Forgot that as much of a giant idiot he is, he is also at least that powerful.
So fair considering he had enough power to chase and try to grab the souls of Pluto and co. while hindered by the gods of Origin and cornering Zuruwarn and Ricklent. So it is not unimaginable that the moment Van’s soul gets unbound even for a moment he can snatch it.
Whether there are conditions that apply is another question, and one that I hope we don’t get too see for a while at least.
Jonathan Hurd
Rodidiot is so incompetent it’s hard to think of him as a threat, lol. There are also no assurances that Van wouldn’t be able to bite Rodcortes hand as he reaches out to grab him. Considering Rodidiots complete lack of experience to pain, I think one nibble would cause him to flee.
SilverEagleLive
It’s like a lot of the gods are playing a game to see who can make the most incorrect assumptions of Vandalieu, and they’re all winning.
Entropy
Sounds like some of Alda’s gods are going to Vand’s side. So the orphans are becoming mini-Vands in terms of monster tamers. I find it hilarious that the gods are still relying on Rodcorte to stop Vand. I wonder if the vampires and maybe the dhampir that are drinking Vand’s blood potion will evolve into those of the same race as the other vampires serving Vand, I forget their race names, I think it is eclipse vampires. Anyone else think that Matthew and a few of the orphans will become dark humans, etc eventually.
Jonathan Hurd
I believe the Vampire mutation was Abyssal. I can definitely see Seris and Vetra are definitely going to end up turning lol. For the Director not as sure she’ll mutate quite yet. That takes a more conscious effort on someone like her who doesn’t actually have a rank and only a job.
For Matthew and the kids, I’m not sure if they’re fanatical enough to transform into dark humans quite yet. Who knows though we might get more like Emma who after being reunited with their parents take the plunge.
Renrobt
Well to turn into abyssal vampires they had to be heavily damaged before consuming it. Like Miles and many of the Pure vampires, they literally stood in sunlight to burn themselves and drink the blood potion when they were seriously weakened. Like this most turned instantly.
Tho it was mentioned that Elanora and others also turned Abyssal overtime after drinking his blood and blood potions for a while. So yeah if they indulge in it for a while they will likely turn as well. And considering Van’s current state it is possible that his blood is more potent than it was back then, so the day they turn abyssal might not be far off.
Also yeah probably the orphanage will turn into full on Dark. And maybe even Kest will join in (the nice guard, dog/wolf beastperson), after all he has been already guided at least to some extent.
Strowy
That isn’t the case, in regards to damage.
They were burning themselves constantly in order to gain Sunlight Resistance; Blood Potions are exceptionally effective healing potions for Vampires, so they were using them to deal with the damage caused by sunlight, since their natural regeneration abilities were neutralized by it.
Becoming an Abyssal Vampire appears to require said Sunlight Resistance Skill, since they’ve all transformed into one after obtaining the Skill. Since the two Sisters already have Sunlight Resistance, it may well be significantly easier for them to transform into Abyssal Vampires. The fact that they are significantly weaker than any other shown Abyssal (they’re Subordinates, everyone else has been Noble-Born or higher) may have some effect though.
Tejing
Transforming into abyssal vampires doesn’t require sunlight resistance. The transformation requires blood potion to actually heal something, many times. (Remember how Eleanora and Bellmond transformed?) Sunlight is just the most convenient way to create damage for the potion to heal, since it’s easily available and suppresses the rapid regeneration of vampires. It would, in fact, be notably more difficult to become abyssal if you have the sunlight resistance skill, since you’d need to get hurt in other ways and the potion would be competing with the rapid regeneration skill.
See chapter 124:
In order to become an Abyssal Vampire, one needed to drink Blood Potion and make it exhibit its effects… in other words, the Blood Potion needed to heal wounds.
However, Vampires were a race with the Rapid Regeneration skill. Wounds like cuts would heal within seconds.
Drinking Blood Potion while undergoing drastic surgery like Bellmond’s where she had all of her skin and the underlying components replaced or continuing to be damaged by sunlight or silver so that the Rapid Regeneration skill would not take effect were the effective methods.
It was also possible to suddenly undergo the transformation if one regularly drank Vandalieu’s blood like Eleanora did. However, with this method, a large amount of time, blood and Blood Potion was necessary.
Jonathan Hurd
I don’t believe any of the vampires instantly turned by just drinking blood potion. There was an entire chapter about them burning themselves for months and drinking blood potion before turning for the Pure Breeds.
I think the orphans are to young at this point for Van to okay transforming them. Give them some years and growing up and I could see him giving them his distilled blood if they ask.
Entropy
I agree that the vampires will probably not change quickly, but there is a key difference between Vand’s blood potions at that time and now. Vand did not have the mutation ability. I do not know if it have any power over vampires, but time will tell. I suspect that they might change in roughly the same time period as the vampires that were mentioned by drinking blood potions without the need of being continuously damaged by sunlight or something along those lines. I do suspect that the healing process does not cause the change from vampire to abyssal vampire, but speeds it up. The kids will probably need a lot more time to become followers of Vand in order for the blood potion to have an effect on them, but I do think that they will evolve into dark human eventually.
Tejing
Vandalieu is not made for chuuni. I can just imagine how embarassed he was doing that. But that was what made it so adorable. He loves those kids.
Ever since I knew Alda’s guys were keeping on watching Talosheim despite knowing about the mental encroachment paintings, I’ve been expecting something like this to happen eventually. Welcome to the team, Bashas, and may more follow in your footsteps.
Poor Seris and Vestra… I hope they find a balance they’re comfortable with.
Also, I’m really skeptical that their plan would work even if they managed to kill Vandalieu. “He would need to extend a hand in the form of descending upon the world of Lambda and take hold of the soul that was in its powerless state.” Powerless state? I seriously doubt Van would be powerless, even after you killed him. They’re dreaming.
Jonathan Hurd
The plan really does seem stupid, lol. I mean Van already fights by manifesting his soul. How would he be powerless with just his soul. I think this is mostly desperation talking and they’re trying to comfort themselves, but to us it just seems more delusions than anything.
Aircat386
Once you kill Vandalieu, you get to fight his second form, where he no longer needs to worry about getting wounded or killed. The only thing that would hold him back is protecting all his family and friends.
Wannabe
I’m interested to see if they explain why the guidance works on Bashas. Rain clouds, so gods with a gloomy or “dark” theme? Or will it be something about their lives before they became gods? His guided tend to be the broken and downtrodden sort when they aren’t some sort of monster theme.
I could honestly see a couple gods secretly being a fan of him from his actions, depending on what their theme is. Like, if there’s a minor god that is focused on helping out tiny villages that has been rooting for him ever since the cultivation village fiasco.
SilverEagleLive
They said something about those with darkness in their heart being guided to him. So I’m guessing she’s got a bit of darkness as a god or pre-god
Tejing
It’s only “darkness” from the point of view of Alda & co. It’s really a matter of whether any part of them is willing to accept Van and what he stands for or whether they’re violently opposed to him from the core.
TheDerangedOne
“Sometimes the only difference between Good and Evil is their public relations department.”
Jonathan Hurd
Well if you remember back to when Van was setting up the murals and stuff what he painted wasn’t actually an attack on the mind. The mental encroachment he made was an invitation inviting anyone who views it to join the Demon Path. The reason it drove certain people insane was that they were fundamentally against joining Van. Basically they’d rather die than join him so that was why they had such a violent reaction. Their mind was literally tearing itself apart as one part said they should try joining and the other said never.
It is clear not all Gods on Alda’s side are fanatical worshipers of him. So there are definitely some who his guidance could appeal to and welcome in.
Metazoxan
You’re thinking of his death attribute charm ability. THAT works on people who are broken or “dark”.
His guidance works on anyone willing to follow him and his paintings “ENTICE” people to accept his guidance. Jonathan Hurd already explained the function of guidance in detail so I won’t repeat that part.
But basically anyone who is dead or “as good as dead” will be charmed by his charm skill which will cause them to be automatically enticed onto his guidance since they obviously wouldn’t resist the “invitation” in such a state.
Wannabe
Sorta. He hasn’t had death attribute charm on its own since he became a guider. He gets some sort of ” ____-path enticement” skill that mirrors a guidance skill since chapter 98, which had death attribute charm as a base. Currently dark demon path.
I’ve been assuming that the enticement just gets a bigger net with each upgrade. Dark path enticement for people who have died or are near death and want to be undead. Demon path enticement widening to include demons and people who like demons or have “stepped off the path of righteousness”.. which feels pretty vague. Like is there a system that decides if you’ve “stepped off the path”, or is it something you feel about yourself?
If it’s the latter maybe it is hitting gods who haven’t been feeling like they were working with the good guys already. They feel like they might actually be with the bad guys, thus the skill gets its hooks in them?
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair Death Attribute Charm has hit weirdly in certain groups before based on names. For instance we have the case of the Death Bees which Quinn was originally. They weren’t undead or ghouls, but were affected by the charm since their name included Death. Considering Bashas is the Goddess of Rain Clouds which have connections darkness and depressed moods I think his charm could potentially work on her because of that.
An important part of the guidance though is choosing to resist it or not. At a certain level of strength you can spend energy to keep its effects at bay as seen with Borkus. Now it’s a different t story if you don’t try to resist and you jump on in which seems to be what Bashas has done.
I will say though if anyone would balk at Aldas rule it would probably be the Wind God’s. Everyone else basically has a fanatical leader who worked under Aldas rule from the start like Yupeon or is in utter chaos because they have no leader like fire, time, and space. Wind is the only place with a solid leader who is ambivalent to Alda instead of a lackey. Nineroads has already clearly stated she won’t interfere with others decisions like with Fitun so it makes sense they might consider Vans side.
Another part of this might be just hedging their bets. I mean Vans side can destroy souls. Aldas can only seal. It’s probably safer to be on Vans when the fighting starts. If it looks like he’ll lose you just go to Alda and claim brainwashing, madness, or whatever. They’ll probably have to take you back just to keep the world going. In the worst case you’re sealed but not killed and released eventually.
For the Demon path itself and what it means overall… I think it is considered its own unique thing. The skill description way back said it was the hardest path to bring people onto because it doesn’t really follow common sense and is more monstrous. Part of the reason why a lot of Vans early members mutating was because they followed the Demon Path.
jonnymad7
thanks yoshi-sama for the chapter and tommy for sponsoring it
I love really van play the demon king role really really funny.
P.S. he had created a legion of tamer already.
Jonathan Hurd
It’s not enough for Van to tame all sorts of creatures. Now he is taming tamers. The next logical step is he has his tamers tame other tamers. The minions keep increasing making Van the ultimate tamer, lol.
Lipesp
Seems like idiotcord still haven’t learned his lesson, once again he underestimates vandalieu a little too much, vandalieu is already a demigod and even gained the skill to create his own reincarnation system, he probably already have even more authority over souls than idiotcord, my guess is that someday in the future someone does manage to (temporarily) kill vandalieu and when idiotcord tries to seal vandalieu he will get devoured instead
Jonathan Hurd
I disagree with the ‘little’, lol. I think more likely that Rodidiot has completely underestimated Van and he just keeps doing it.
TheDerangedOne
The Idiot Ball’s been made into membership pins and those have been distributed around it seems.
Chadd
Oh boy, now we have Gods defecting. Poor Poor Alda.
Pretty much all those authorities they are having trouble with have other owners anyway. Alda usurped the life authority from Vida.
Irazori
Idiot faction doing/speaking idiot things because they’re idiots. Good to see/read that the anti-clairvoyance method also works with the aldiot gods. Still doubt they can get any reliable information. I wonder how it would affect the reincarnate individuals If they tried to spy on Van’s nation again?
Van also unknowingly recreating Zakkart’s “gods defect to they’re side, due to having no future within the incompetent faction”, starting with the rain goddess.
Matchu
I think if the Reincarnated People try looking they are gonna end up like the People trying to spy on the former scylla teretory and go insane trying to go to him and get guided
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair I don’t think any of the reincarnators are stupid enough to try the aerial view again. Clairvoyance was the main one who could and he refuses to try looking at Taloshiem or any of Vans other bases because of those paintings.
Kiriaru
Thanks for the Translation! Very much appreciated!
Looking forward to the kids going to the Tamers Guild!
Dean1997
“Then let’s satisfy them with something other than blood,”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
hungsayori
“Demon King’s tentacles, activate.”
serapheid
Again? Sigh… [UNZIPS]
Zauberbiest
”Demon King’s Tongue Activate. ”
Kidd
Was thinking the same thing 😂😂
ZeaZ
WHAT THE F- =/=
Superboy8338
THANK YOU FOR THE UPDATE, YOSHI!!! This chapter ended, up making me a little bit aroused… Was anyone else?
VEreality
I kinda fear the day Van is going to become legal… there is a loooong line already formed.
kenjitamura
I believe Basdia called dibs on the front of the line early on in the series. But if Van can clone himself I’m not sure what distinction that really has other than she might have the claim on the original body.
iamleejn
It won’t be a line, it will be a mosh pit.
Neiden
Van can have multiple bodies, so there’s no need for a line.
It will just be an orgy.
SilverEagleLive
Fingers crossed this series continues to when he’s more mature. So far it’s been around 1 year per novel so it’ll still be awhile unless they timeskip.
franz941
I like how this chapter confirm that gods can be guided and it seem gods don’t know it could happen, confirming once and for all that the worst person in this story is Bellwood.
He guided Alda and the other gods in a path of genocide and familicide, in name of his ecologist agenda, while also destroying any scientific advancement the people of Lambda could have done.
It’s true that to be guided you have believe at least a little in that ideology, but we never would know if Alda would have declared Holy War if wasn’t for Bellwood Radicalization (maybe it could have taken a thousand years considering how slow Alda is in Taking actions).
Also how many gods do you guys thinks will betray Alda once the war versus Van begin, I say about a third of them all of them guided by just watching some roofs LOL.
VEreality
I think a third is a bit too much. We don’t know if all the gods are taking turns or just a couple of them. For now I say around 10 because… let’s be serious… this gods were once human. I don’t belive online one of them had darkness in their heart.
TheTrueDeathGod
maybe more as he gets the other guidance jobs.
Darkhelios
How many? Hmmm…
I think we should first take a look at the effects of Vandalieu’s paintings. There are two different effects.
1) Mind attack.
2) Guidance.
Gods who are being guided don’t seem to have receive an attack… but why? Why do most Gods receive an attack while a few others don’t and are instead being guided? Well… We already know the answer to this question: In order to be guided, someone need to not be completely hostile.
Now… How many Gods in Alda’s factions have this kind of thinking? How many of them aren’t completely hostile but prefer to keep a more neutral stance? The answer is probably “just a few” as Alda mainly recruits people who think like him = are extremist = can’t be guided.
However, in the future, I expect that more gods will leave Alda’s faction to either join Vandalieu’s or to become a totally neutral side. I do expect this because of Rodcorte… After all, he’s on Alda’s faction too and is the very reason of their war against Vida. And I do expect him to continue doing stupid things… like “releasing the previous Demon King when he realizes that his pawns can’t beat Vandalieu”.
Tejing
It’s not really 2 effects. It’s 2 different results of the same effect: very forceful demon path enticement. The damage isn’t caused by the paintings, it’s caused by the viewer’s fierce resistance. So the more willing they are, the less damage they receive.
Listek
I’m curious what new job will appear on the Van job list after guiding god
FishEater
“Bellwood, but not stupid”
Dr. Steel
But that ain’t possible. Take that away and there is nothing left.
Treason
People seem to be fixated on the chuuni lord of darkness act, but I think the REAL takeaway from this chapter was the reveal that Van’s murals on the roofs of Talosheim when viewed by a 3rd party aren’t so much abstract art as they are child’s scribbles. Think about that for a moment. Vandalieu, our littlest Demon Lord, can do mental damage to/brainwash both people AND Gods with the equivalent of a kid’s crayon doodles on the wall. That’d be like if the Necronomicon was revealed to actually be baby Cthulhu’s coloring book (complete with stickers AND rainbow glitter). I suppose that would make Van’s followers kinda like doting grandparents sharing a heartwarming moment looking at their grandkid’s drawings. Maybe somewhere on one of Talosheim’s many roofs there’s a stick figure family portrait complete with a house in the background and a sun with a smiley face.
hungsayori
Narration is always depicted from the POV of whichever party is currently conversing, so it’s proved Alda and co. view the murals as child scribbles, and vice versa for those being guided. Besides, the line between scribbles and abstract art is extremely ambiguous if our modern art is anything to go by :^)
VEreality
I for one thought of them as something like runes. I don’t think runes or anything else like them are a thing in this story.
They usually look like some scribbles to me in games and any forms of media. Perhaps it will evolve into runecraft in the future.
VEreality
Thank you Yoshi-sama! This is an awesome chapter.
I died when Van tried to act all chunny. It is such a weird image and I love it. It hit me right in the kokoro.
Another thing that I love is the ever growing stupidity in Alda’s ranks.
One of the gods: Hey guys! We can look down at Talosheim from up here. I mean yeah there are mind eating cursed images on like … every roof, but I am sure that if we take turns and let the most amount of people see them we will be alright.
The other gods: Oh yeah that sounds like a good plan!
Really? … I mean yeah 10/10 Vandalieu supporters would recommend. Go ahead. Bashas is into it already might as well join her.
franz941
Honestly it seem to me that Gods don’t know that they can be guided, like they talk about the mind devouring but not about guidance. Similar to how lustefol(ex god that now is a Wyvern, i suck at remering names so idk if i wrote it wrong) didn’t know he could ge a divine protection.
VEreality
True, but they know that it is eating their minds and this alone should be a big NO. They really are scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas here.
Dr. Steel
Yeah. Like what are they gaining by staring at the rooftops? Other than mental damage (not like they need any more of that though).
Darkhelios
Well… “Information” is something very important during war and can decide the outcome of a war so I guess it’s normal that Alda’s faction is trying to obtain some. Moreover, some Gods have less fighting power/abilities than others but they might still want to contribute… Probably not really a nice feeling to see your brothers-in-arms prepare to go to the frontline while you aren’t doing anything so I guess it’s understable that they decided to spy even if Vandalieu already put some countermeasures / even if they could get hurt. However I guess they wouldn’t have done it if they knew that some of them (those who have a more neutral stance than the rest) could be guided by Vandalieu.
Jonathan Hurd
I think a big reason why Aldas group is taking such risky actions is because they’re scared. Heinz their best hope is currently out of commission and the young heroes they’re raising are nowhere near ready.
So part of it is probably to try to see any piece of info they can. I think another part though is they’re scared that Van will lead a full scale invasion from Taloshiem. I think the biggest reason they’re watching is in case there are giant troop movements from Vida or Vans side. They know there are two tunnels near Taloshiem to their side of the continent so if there was going to be an invading army it will gather in Taloshiem.
Julian Skilton
It isn’t actually that dumb. They are treating it like demon King Encroachment from DKFs. As long as the encroachment doesn’t become dominant, the fragment can’t do permanent damage, and the encroachment will recover eventually. What they don’t realize is that it isn’t affecting their minds and bodies, but their souls, which barely recover with time, so all they are doing is recovering from the symtoms while their souls are getting more and more damaged/warped. Bashas is clearly guided by this point, but considering how the guidance works on higher beings, I doubt this was her first time.
Alex-dono
It is finally time my comrades. Also i wonder did van really become an evil god or are they calling him that because he didn’t come into existence naturally or is it because he wasn’t made a god by alda’s faction?
Absolute Zer0
I think term ‘Evil God’ is used to refer Gods from other world or those with foreign/never seen before and ‘abnormal’ Authory. So if we take those in account Vandelieu is indeed Evil God to Alda’s faction.
Zauberbiest
they just like using the word ”evil” before every sentence, they can’t accept van being a god so ”evil god” sounds better for them
Jonathan Hurd
I’m with Zauberbiest, Aldas group has deluded itself into thinking they’re the good guys. So anyone who fights the good guys must be Evil. They already labeled Van the Demon King of course they’ll call him Evil too.
no1
Thanks for the chapter Yoshi. Another slow chapter, but it is good to know about the developments with Vandalieu and Alda’s gods. It seems that Bashas, goddess of rain clouds, might become Van’s ally. So now we know that Van’s influence is powerful enough to lure in gods of Alda’s factions. Van might get a spy within Alda’s faction. Hope to see the next chapter soon.
hungsayori
“If you do that… you’ll become like Elea… like the other Vampires, and you won’t be able to return!” Vestra groaned.
That’s right, behave yourselves! Otherwise you orphan caretakers are going to become submissive collar fetishists, like Elea… like the other Vampires!
GashBello
Wow! More gods to Van’s side, that is nice!
Absolute Zer0
Prayers for God of Translation Yoshi and Gods of Editing. Thank you for blessing this pitiful soul with this Holy Chapter.
Kazza
My prayers have been answered!
We got an interesting look at the unimportant gods, and even some updates. There’s also a few things I found interesting…
1. So, the gods refer to Roddy as Rodcorte-dono. Now, I’m not well-versed in honorifics, but that’s usually reserved for bosses, generals and such, right? Leaders and authority figures? “Sama” is the equivalent of “Lord” and “Dono” is like “Master” or “Sir”? So, below Alda, but higher than any other god? Honestly, correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s still a sign of respect and reverence, right?
‘Cause think about that. All gods under Alda know Rodcorte is responsible for Van being there in the first place. Yet, despite this, they still treat him with respect over Vandalieu.
It really shows Alda’s priorities. He’s even acknowledged that Van, by and large, isn’t much different than any other ruler on Lambda, and as such isn’t an “outsider.” And yet, Rodcorte is a literal outsider (to his knowledge) who has shown a clear disrespect for his authority and willingness to hypocritically break his own rules!
Like, I understand he’s low on options and can’t necessarily get rid of him, but he knows Rodcorte isn’t worthy of respect and yet hasn’t forbade his followers from doing so? Despite the fact he forbade worship of his sister, a title for Van in the beginning, and any and all foreign influence.
I mean, pointing out Alda’s hypocrisy is beating a horse so dead it’s literally crude oil, but still, I always find the small subtleties interesting.
2. “Especially after seeing the form that he takes. His repulsiveness exceeds even the fearsome form of the Demon King Guduranis that I have heard from descriptions.”
Ok, putting aside the idea of “he’s more horrifying than I read in that book!” I’m really curious what form they’re taking about. It’s probably not his Dhampir form, but either the mish-mash soul form or his reconstructed soul form.
Problem is, how could they have seen those? They only appear when in another god’s divine realm, but he hasn’t visited any of Alda’s. He’s been in the Mububu…Benge?
.
.
.
Evil god of Being Fat and Lazy’s Realm and Vida’s Realm, both of which are below the impassible barrier. The Reconstructed Form exists only in his own semi-divine realm, and Mil/Heinz could hear him roar, but could they see him?
Maybe that’s what Nuaza and Co. are building? If so… damn it Manga, hurry and catch up. I want to see the giant statue to Demon King Van!
3. So, Fitun had been outed as a traitor. Now, again, dead-horse-crude-oil, but Alda, you just said you were upset Hihiryushukaka got eaten because he empowers Van! Now, on the not-so-off chance Fitun fails, he’s going to get a major Lambdan god and a reincarnator’s soul!
Alda, he’s a Lambdan god, seal him! I don’t care how long it would take, leaving him to his own devices will only screw you harder in the long run! Why’d you let him go free after finding out?
Why are you so stupid? Are you trying to make it so Van’s eventual victory is less impressive? Planning to kill yourself before Van even gets there?
And the orphanage kids continue to be cute. I see a future branch of Talosheim’s military focused on taming the untamable like Undead/insects. Now they need a kickass chuuni name.
Brotherhood of the Dark Beasts?
Legion of the Evil Tamers?
Inheritors of the Forbidden Wild?
observer6322
To point 2 :
It’s probably about the form Van used in his fight against Hainz, Delizah and Edgar in the Dungeon made by Curatos.
Kazza
Shit, forgot about that. That makes more sense, and reinforces the “You-Ain’t-Seen-Nothin-Yet” thing Alda and Co. keep ignoring.
Nobody2
I like brotherhood of dark beasts the best. But if you wanted to make it more military like you could change it to order of the dark beasts. Also I don’t think fitun has been outed as a “traitor” they just know he is working on his own plan to battle van. Their mad he’s working on his own but probably don’t think it’s worth the effort to find and seal him when he is a battle god working with reincarnated individuals like they were planning to do anyway and is trying to beat Van. It’s dumb but so are their plans so?
Kazza
Thing is, it specifies he left Nineroad’s service, which seems more drastic and permanent than simply pursuing his own goals. There also the fact this reveals he lied to Alda and everyone about Kanata, preventing Alda from understanding Rodcorte’s interference much earlier and allowing him to act without supervision, which in turn gained Van three allies.
And its not so much that he’s doing it, it’s the cost of his potential failure. Not only would they be down one god and his multiple heroic spirits, Van would gain so much EXP and power from it. The cost of losing would far outweigh the cost of sealing him, as he contribute his management of Thunderclouds or whatever even if he’s sealed.
And even further, think about it like this. He took Hajime and has encroached on his mind. That’s essentially stealing and breaking a weapon from your group to fight alone while they’re preparing for an assault, because you don’t have the power to do so on your own. They’ve only got about 93-ish of these guys, and now he’s wasting one against orders.
Tejing
Mububujenge, Evil God of Degenerate Corpulence.
Yeah, those evil gods’ names are hard to remember.
Kazza
Damn! So close!
It’s not even that they’re hard to remember per se, but a lot of them don’t appear much so you don’t think about them until they come up again. I remember Merrebeveil and Hihiryushukaka much easier because they’ve been featured over multiple chapters.
Lord Rin
Pfft! Evil God of Being Fat and Lazy…
I assume they call Rodcorte with the -dono honorific because these are gods that where originally Alda’s believers before ascending to godhood and they’ve been raised in an environment where they unequivocally respect their seniors due to how hierarchical Alda’s church is. Like even if they think Rodcorte is a piece of shit, he’s older than them so they have to still at least refer to him with respectful honorifics because that’s how they’ve been taught.
I don’t think they think Fitun has actually betrayed them yet. Alda is just angry that Fitun has acted without informing him. They know Fitun has left Nineroad’s command but it sounds like they think he’s just doing things his own way and that his goal is still the same as Alda’s. They think he’s looking to seal Van in his own way, not knowing that Fitun just wants to fight him and will do anything to get a good fight even if he has to screw his former allies over. Also it doesn’t sound like they are aware that he concealed knowledge about Gungir being a reincarnated individual. It’s not like Rodcorte would go out of his way to inform Alda’s faction that Gungnir was a reincarnated individual because he doesn’t think it’s important to tell them the name of somebody who already got his soul broken. If they knew that Fitun has betrayed them then Alda would be more than just angry at him. He’s not trying to send people to stop him or sending Divine Messages that Fitun has gone rogue. Also none of these gods are acting frantic like you’d expect if they knew he had betrayed them.
Kazza
Maybe I should’ve changed it to Evil God of Being My Cat…
About Fitun, though, my counterargument is that Alda specifically asked Fitun if Kanata was a reincarnate based on his name. The only reason he bought Fitun’s lie is because he didn’t consider the possibility Rodcorte would reincarnate someone, because he refused to do this exact thing when Lambda was in danger from Gudurandis. So I world expect him to at least remember this.
Then again, Alda’s faction being morons and screwing themselves over based on a lack of information is practically their M.O. at this point…
Sinfulmass
Thank the gods
JNMeiun
Yoshi Lives.
Paps
HAHAHAHA, i love this fun chapters a lot. Mathew sure knows his Demon King performances!!!!!!
Santoso
Guys, help it’s been so long who is iris, rin, and haj?it’s been so long and this kind of novel is worth more with the character and world building also, their story too, please
xeb
the rebels from sauron duchy, iris is the the girl captured by gubamon that van accidentally saved and haj (rin too i think) were the fake rebels who were caught by rapie and the undead hydra
Santoso
Iris who? The rebel?
flannan
Yes, Iris was the Liberating Princess Knight or something like that.
Tejing
Iris is the former leader of the Sauron Liberation Front, now a succubus, and Haj is the former fake resistance guy, now an armor tamer. “Rin” isn’t in this chapter… or this novel. Not sure where you got that.
ValiantHex
It’s apparently common for children age 10-12 to have tamed rank 1 monsters, hmmm so just like Pokémon.
xeb
and apparently it’s also common for professor-i mean mean masters to give these children these monsters as gifts
Lord Rin
Heck there’s even enemies that are as incompetent as Team Rocket.
ValiantHex
What’s this? Fang is ranking up *Pokemon Evolving theme* Fang has ranked up into a… Cerberus
WholesomeAF
Thanks for the chapter! And thanks to Timothy H for sponsorship!
Doom-sama
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, THE GREAT GOD EMPEROR KING, AS HE PROCEEDS TO THWART HIS ENEMIES SUBTERFUGE AND BECOME A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN HISTORY! THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
…
Unfortunately, today’s sacred message has been canceled as Van-sama is far too busy running from the crowd of vampires who are addicted to his blood to give a comment. Please stay tuned!
Zenden1st
can confirm, i was the blood
RipDisqus
There’s just something so bizarre with a City having Statues of a blank faced kid lmfao
SilverEagleLive
It’ll be worse for Van when he’s older. He won’t be able to walk around without seeing a statue of his child self.
V4NQU1SH
Thanks for the chapter~!!
Lipesp
Seriously though I hated the chunny act but at least we learned that even gods (most likely only those who are open minded and without prejudice) can be redeemed by vandalieu’s guidance
Santoso
More like my quess is she’s already under him because het weak mind and become another loyal follower or shotacon
Lipesp
Mental strength has nothing to do with it, remember this isn’t a attack, the painting merely invite the subject to vandalieu’s path and it only cause mental damage if the subject completely rejects (strictly speaking the subject damage themselves by fighting the envitation), she didn’t received damage because she didn’t reject vandalieu’s ways
Lipesp
“There is no problem,” Bashas replied, still not moving her gaze away from her task. “I am simply devoting myself to my role, just as you said.”
in contrast to her dampened tone of voice, her eyes were filled with passion.
(Me: (evil laugh) ahahahah another lost child finds her way towards the great demon king vandalieu I wonder how many like her (open minded and without prejudice) are among Alda’s forces and how they will join vandalieu (and if they are going to do chunny stuff too like kneeling in front of vandalieu and start calling him master))
Diggydawg
Vampire wisp Jiijii FTW.
Mintlin
Vandalieu is so gosh darn cute trying to act like a demon king, and we have Matthew to thank for that.
We’ve see rats and dogs rank up so I wonder how bats and ducks will rank up.
Thank you for the chapter, Yoshi <3
Kidd
I literally screamed when I saw this and I haven’t even read the update yet but thank you so so much for the chapter Yoshi and Timothy for sponsoring!! Boy am I glad everyone’s safe and sound, phew.
WholesomeAF
FINALLY! GAD I CAN’T EVEN COUNT HOW MANY TIME I REFRESH AND CHECK OUT EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY!
ninjazackzx
me too in the same, during my free time I would see if a chapter was added
Superboy8338
Same!
Kiryl
I use a combination of novelupdates and an app called notifications for novelupdates to keep myself updated. Most of the time I get a notification within reasonable time of the release (seen from how few comments there are under the chapters when I load them)
Irazori
Novelupdates take too long. It’d already be on lightnovelbastion before the notification on novelupdates.
Kiryl
Sure there are some delays. This is however the only way I know of you can be notified rather than having to refresh this page all the time. It is also useful if you follow other novels than just death mage.
I personally didn’t check this page more than maybe 2-4 times a day (if at all) so for me the notifications work better.
Tejing
You can get notifications through Discord. Those with the ‘Death Mage’ role on the server get pinged with every new chapter. Those pings generally go out within a couple of minutes of the chapter upload. There’s a circular discord icon at the bottom of the page you can click to get to the Light Novel Bastion server.
Enigma
YES FINALLY! New chapter so gooooood!
JeKeBe
Doesn’t matter if they’re gods or vampires, Van’s a real (unintentional) ladykiller. Hahaha.
Superboy8338
And that makes him EVEN COOLER!!! (*Insert DBZ Cooler GIF and/or meme*)
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Rob Anybody
Hey yoshi, thanks for the new chapter and thanks to Timothy for sponsoring it. I was getting a bit concerned after the shit show in the last chapters comment section that you might have quit translating. Keep up the good work dude.
Apokryphos
wait wait wait what? there was a shitshow? i hope it’s nothing too bad… I really like reading Van’s adventures and feel thankful to the translator for working on it…
Edit: Ah, yes. it was because of the note at the end….. i read the thing as soon as it came out and there wasn’t that many comments at that time, but coming back after reading the comments explained the.. .”shitshow”…
Tejing
Yoshi wouldn’t quit over just that. Though I could hardly blame him if his motivation faltered some.
Lightnovelfan
All hail to our Translator God Yoshi who offers us guidance after the long wait.
Thx for the great translation, always worth the wait