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Having paid a considerable sum to repair his jaw with healing magic, the ‘Strong Arm’ – or rather, ex-‘Strong Arm’ Gordon left the city of Morksi several days after the duel, a day after he lost his Title.
“Shit… Damn it… Shit…!” he cursed under his breath repeatedly as he walked at a quick pace away from the city.
Those who were heading towards the city seemed uneasy with his presence and averted their eyes from him. That didn’t bother him.
But he was very bothered by the gaze of the people who had also left the city of Morksi.
Gordon couldn’t stand the stares of pity, contempt and disdain from those who had witnessed the duel or heard about it.
The injuries Gordon had received from losing the duel had been healed, and there would be no lasting effects. Simon and Natania hadn’t taken money from him, nor had the Guild imposed any penalty, nor had he been caught and punished by the guards.
But Gordon was someone who had made his way through life using his strength to bully those around him. Large damage to the reputation of such a person could become fatal.
Even though the people around him held grudges against him, they would not be able to do anything to him as long as he was ‘strong.’ But due to recent events, he had lost the ‘Strong Arm’ Title.
That meant that there were now less people who feared him as the ‘Strong Arm’ than people who had decided that he didn’t deserve to be called that.
Gordon had left the city that he had based himself in and come to the city of Morksi only recently. Considering that, the news that he had been defeated in a duel would not have reached the ears of those he had harmed… the adventurers whose money and monster materials he had taken from them by force and the relatives of the women he had bedded by coercing their consent.
But once it did… what would happen if the people who had thought that they could not stand up to him, fearing even worse things, decided that they could stand up to him after all?
“Even if they’re D-class or lower, I wouldn’t be able to get through all of this unharmed if they formed groups. Shit, I’ll have no choice but to start over in another duchy,” Gordon muttered to himself.
That was why he had left the city of Morksi. He had been unable to endure the gazes of the city’s people, and the great influence of the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael and Vandalieu, the master of the Ghouls.
But escaping from the Alcrem Duchy would be an effective choice for Gordon. He was a little extreme, but he wasn’t a criminal. He hadn’t ever killed anyone other than criminals such as bandits, and even when taking things from others, he had always only taken a small portion; he had never stripped anyone of all of their possessions.
As for the women… even though he had left them alone, he had never been charged for his actions.
Thus, information regarding him wouldn’t spread widely like it would if he were someone with a bounty on his head. If he went to another duchy, there would be almost nobody staring at him with pity and contempt.
And if he dedicated himself to quietly completing requests at the new city that he chose to base himself in, his reputation would return as well. The Guild hadn’t given him any penalties, and although he had lost the ‘Strong Arm’ Title, the Skills that he had trained so far were still there.
As a C-class adventurer, he would be more than capable of making a living.
One day, as Gordon continued down the highway, it had been a few hours after he left a village along the road. Just as he began to think that he should have a simple meal with some dried meat and water in a flask, his feet suddenly stopped.
His gaze wandered towards the snow-covered grasslands that extended away from the highway.
“… Why don’t I just leave the highway and go that way?” he said to himself.
He didn’t know why, but this seemed like a good idea to him. He headed in the direction of the grasslands, making up reasons for obeying this hunch in his mind such as that this would get him to another duchy faster than the highway, and that although this would be dangerous for ordinary travelers, someone as capable as himself would be fine.
He began treading the snow beneath his feet. Ordinarily, one would realize that it was wiser to follow the highway rather than venture into a snow-covered wasteland, even if the highway was the slightly longer route, but… Gordon continued onwards, as if guided by something.
And after a while… a flash of lightning stretched upwards towards the sky.
“W-what is this?!” Gordon shouted in alarm as he looked up at the clouds.
“… This is the ‘Lightning of Purification,’” said a boy’s voice, naming a wind-attribute spell that Gordon didn’t recognize.
Gordon looked down again to see that a boy had appeared in front of him.
“Having spirits watching over someone isn’t as effective as having Undead or familiars tailing them,” the boy continued.
“W-who are you?!” Gordon demanded.
The boy, who had a medium build and hair that stood up on end, was in his late teenage years. He was wearing leather armor of the sort that would be sold at any arms store, and was holding an equally ordinary axe.
From his appearance alone, he looked like the kind of new adventurer that one would find in the Adventurers’ Guild of any city, other than his peculiar hairstyle.
But the pressure that was emanating from him told Gordon that this was not the case.
“… Y-you’re no ordinary guy. Who are you? Wait, are you even human?” Gordon asked, taking a step back and raising his axe.
But the boy… Hajime Inui, did not look at Gordon; he simply continued staring at the sky.
“I suppose spirits are perfect for watching over people, since humans can’t see them unless they are ‘Spiritualists’ or have very special Skills,” Hajime said, continuing to talk to himself. “But my spell will have cleared away the spirits in the area… Gah, he has some spirits keeping their distance? How many spirits has that bastard sent?” he cursed under his breath. “‘Lightning of Purification!’”
Twice more, he released the spell towards the sky. But it seemed that he was not satisfied with the result.
“They’re too far away, huh. It can’t be helped; I’ll leave the rest. It’ll be too much of a pain to purify them all. And it’s not like he hasn’t noticed my presence anyway,” he murmured, finally turning his gaze towards Gordon. “Welcome, Gordon. I’m relieved that I was able to call you here despite your questionable level of religious devotion.”
“Y-you called me here? What are you talking about! I don’t know you! I’ve never even seen you before!” said Gordon.
“No, you should know me. Though it is true that you have never seen me before,” said Hajime.
Gordon did not feel anger towards Hajime and his cocky tone of speech. His mind was filled with the fear of not knowing what Hajime was.
But something might happen to him the moment he turned his back to Hajime. Sensing this danger, he could not take his eyes away from the boy in front of him.
“Now then, Gordon, the defeated loser. I have some good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you can become a hero. Your name will be left behind in history, and stories of you will be passed down from generation to generation,” said Hajime.
“W-what’s the bad news?!” Gordon asked in a panicked tone.
Hajime’s mouth twisted in an unpleasant smile. “The bad news? That’s… the fact that although your name will be left behind in history, your consciousness will not.”
A magical light gathered in Hajime’s hand.
Gordon knew that he would not be able to get away if he ran. And so, he let out a shout and charged towards Hajime. With footsteps so powerful that it was difficult to believe that he had been unable to move until just a moment ago, he charged and raised his axe.
“You fool,” said Hajime.
Before Gordon could come within a distance where his axe could reach his foe, lightning was released from Hajime’s hand. Gordon screamed as the lightning struck him directly.
Gordon dropped to his knees, but the lightning from Hajime’s hand did not stop.
“Th… that’s enough… Commander…!” Gordon managed to utter.
The moment the word ‘Commander’ left Gordon’s mouth, Hajime stopped the lightning. With his body burned by the lightning and white smoke rising from it, Gordon gasped and gulped down a Potion taken from his pouch.
“Tastes disgusting! Seriously, what a weak body. To think that this is a C-class adventurer! The quality of adventurers these days really has fallen!” said Gordon… or the person who was once Gordon, as his burns healed.
“That can’t be helped. The times and the world have changed since you were an active adventurer, ‘Mountain Breaking Strong Spear’ Bobby,” said Hajime, referring to Gordon by the name of someone else, a certain hero.
The ‘Mountain Breaking Strong Spear’ Bobby was a hero who had lived several tens of thousands of years ago. He wielded a powerful spear made of Obsidian and an Adamantite core that even a Titan warrior could not carry, and it was said that he was capable of breaking mountains with it.
He had been a member of the mercenary band that Fitun, the god of thunderclouds, had led as a human. After his death, he had become a heroic spirit.
Ordinarily, he would not exist upon the world’s surface unless someone had summoned him through ‘Heroic Spirit Descent.’
But the being that was speaking through Gordon’s mouth now recognized itself as the ‘Mountain Breaking Strong Spear’ Bobby.
This was all the doing of Hajime… or rather, Fitun, who had taken over Hajime’s body.
“Is that how it is? But… I thought I’d be staying back this time,” Bobby said.
“Sorry, his compatibility was good for summoning you, and it’s quite hard to find capable vessels,” said Fitun.
At first, this had been a simple countermeasure to prevent Vandalieu from destroying Hajime’s soul while he was defenseless, before his spirit clone could descend upon him.
When familiar spirits, heroic spirits or spirit clones descended onto this world, a pillar of light accompanied them from the sky. This was visible even from very far distances. Thus, doing so would be like sending a signal to Vandalieu saying, “Please attack us.”
Thus, Fitun had thought that it would be best to have the spirit clone that would descend upon Hajime stay close to Hajime’s physical body at all times. He had intended to give Hajime equipment containing his spirit clone… an Artifact, and have the spirit clone enter his body without giving Vandalieu the opportunity to strike.
But the compatibility between Fitun and Hajime, as well as his ‘Marionette’ ability, was greater than he had imagined.
In the process of fusing with Hajime, consuming him, Fitun had acquired knowledge about how brain cells functioned, knowledge that should have been impossible to acquire in Lambda.
And then it had occurred to him: Combining the ‘Marionette’ ability with his own authority as the god of thunderclouds, could he not have the heroic and familiar spirits that served him descend upon the world as well?
If the body was hardware and the soul was its software, then the ‘Marionette’ ability was hacking.
Fitun had made contact with Gordon’s body with lightning, replaced the information in his brain with ‘Marionette,’ then downloaded the ‘Mountain Breaking Strong Spear’ Bobby from his divine realm and overwritten Gordon’s soul.
That was a rough metaphor for what had happened to Gordon’s body.
“Capable, huh. My body is heavy and my senses are dull,” said Bobby.
“If you’re going to complain, complain to Vandalieu who just appeared out of nowhere. Thanks to him, I had to rush to find a vessel for you,” said Fitun.
Heroic and familiar spirits could not descend upon and be given just anyone’s body. First, they needed to have at least a little religious faith in Fitun. They didn’t need to be as pious as to pray to him for victory at every battle or go to a Church once a week, but it was certainly impossible to have a heroic spirit descend upon someone who had never prayed to Fitun in their lives.
And humans to be used as vessels needed to have a certain extent of compatibility with the downloaded heroic or familiar spirit. It was desirable to have vessels of the same race and gender, and if possible, of similar physique. It would be best to have bodies that were well-trained to some extent.
“I suppose if you’re searching for a body like that around here, your options are limited,” said Bobby.
“Yes, because if I were to look for a vessel from another duchy or from the Amid Empire, having them come to Morksi would be far too much effort,” said Fitun. “But this is part of the pleasure of a battle to the death.”
It was rare for one to be perfectly equipped and in perfect health during a battle to the death. In fact, it was far more common that one would need to damage their already-chipped blades and fight with a fatigued body. Their enemy would come for them regardless of such things.
That was best. It was a thrill that didn’t exist in duels carried out with perfect preparations on a predetermined date and observers watching it happen. And there was more strategy to it.
How to defend against the enemy’s attack with damaged equipment, and how to kill them. How to withstand fatigue and wounds. To Fitun, a battle without these factors was nothing but a game.
The heroic spirits who served him thought this way as well.
Bobby chuckled. “That’s very like you, Commander.”
“If you’ve got time to be laughing, hurry up and check your Status. Your body wasn’t that of a hero with the ‘Heroic Spirit Descent’ Skill; it’s the body of a defeated dog. There are no abnormalities with its Attribute Values or Skills, are there?” Fitun asked.
“Alright. ‘Status!’ … My name is Gordon Bobby. I suppose my Attribute Values and Skills are not too bad. I think this body would break within minutes if I used my full strength, however.”
Bobby, or rather, Gordon Bobby, who had consumed Gordon’s soul and taken over his body, frowned.
“I’d expect as much. But some of the others that I found wouldn’t have lasted a minute,” said Hajime Fitun. “Those ones are currently being trained in my Dungeon.”
Fitun wasn’t classified as an evil god, so he would normally have been unable to create a Dungeon. But it was possible for him to forcibly stretch his power to create a Dungeon, just as Alda, the god of law and fate, had done to create a Dungeon for training Heinz.
But Fitun had forcibly stretched his power for this purpose over thousands of years, tens of thousands of years before Vandalieu was reincarnated in this world.
Even so, his Dungeon wasn’t on a scale that could be compared to Alda’s, however.
“You are training them in the Labyrinth of Thunderclouds? That is a trial for those who desire your divine protection, Artifacts or to become heroes, is it not? You are rash as always,” said Gordon Bobby.
Though it was inferior to Alda’s Dungeon, Fitun’s Dungeon was difficult enough for B-class adventurers to struggle with it. Facing it with a body that one was unaccustomed to would be like being pushed into a bottomless ravine.
“They’re all those like you who were my subordinates in their previous lives, or those who stood out from the small fry believers. They were actually enjoying it, being able to experience fighting for their lives again because they’ve become weak,” said Hajime Fitun. “You’re the last, so you don’t have much time, but you should do some warming up before the battle to the death against the Demon King.”
“Yes, yes… Ah, come to think of it, the goddess of rainclouds tried to make contact with you, Commander. Though she gave up and left quickly, realizing that she didn’t have any acquaintances in your divine realm,” said Gordon Bobby.
“That gloomy woman,” Hajime Fitun muttered.
Hajime’s face grimaced as Fitun remembered Bashas, the goddess of rainclouds.
Bashas had become a goddess at around the same time as Fitun… Though they had actually become gods several centuries apart, it was but a small difference to gods.
Gods that were related to clouds had originally been led by a god who was one of the more powerful gods among the subordinate gods and a confidant of Shizarion, the god of wind and art. However, like Shizarion, that god’s soul had been destroyed by the Demon King Guduranis.
The champion Nineroad, who had become a heroic god after her death, had appointed a new god of clouds, but a single young god did not have enough power to fulfill this important role on his own. Thus, the role was divided into multiple – including ‘thunderclouds’ and ‘rainclouds.’
Thus, Fitun did not think positively of Bashas, as she was someone who represented the fact that Fitun lacked power as a god despite being an accomplished hero on the battlefield.
“Leave her alone. She hasn’t descended upon the world, so she can’t interfere unless she does something like send heroes with her divine protection to fight us,” said Hajime Fitun.
Fitun already inhabited Hajime’s body on the surface of the world of Lambda. There was nothing that Bashas could do to interfere with him now.
“Very well… Speaking of heroes, I wonder why the other gods are not doing what you are doing, Commander?” said Gordon Bobby, following behind Hajime Fitun. “It would be possible to have devout believers offer their bodies for heroic spirits or what have you descend onto them, even without that ‘Marionette’ ability.”
The gods had chosen many quality individuals and were raising them as heroes to be led by Heinz as fighting forces against Vandalieu.
But wouldn’t it have been more efficient to have heroic spirits incarnated in their bodies, as Hajime Fitun had done?
“Are you a fool?” Hajime Fitun laughed. “Only a fiend like me who doesn’t think of my believers as people would come up with and carry out an idea like this. This is an accomplishment that that sophisticated lot would be incapable of!”
Fitun was certain that he would be impaled by Alda’s stakes once he learned of what he had done. It was only natural. Gods were supposed to lead the people, not use their believers as disposable resources.
But there had apparently been a saying in the champions’ world.
‘History is written by the victors.’
If the Demon King Vandalieu were defeated, Fitun would gain glory regardless of the method he had used to achieve it, and if he failed, he would simply be destroyed.
It was a very simple, easy-to-understand plan.
Doug Atlas grimaced at the stench that he had been familiar with in his previous life.
The smell of burning houses and fields, and the stench of blood. If there was gunpowder smoke in the air as well, it would have been identical to the smell he knew, but that was absent.
There were the remains of a man and woman, presumably a married couple or lovers, piled one on top of another in the snow that was red with their blood.
“… This isn’t the city of Morksi, is it?” Doug said.
“No. It looks like a village that has been attacked by bandits or something else,” said a black-haired girl wearing a snow-white one-piece dress… Pluto, one of Legion’s personalities.
“Yeah, I think you’re right. But… Why did we teleport here? We were supposed to go to the city of Morksi, right?”
Doug and Pluto had planned to teleport from Talosheim to the city of Morksi using the ability of Jack, another of Legion’s personalities.
But after a moment of feeling like they were being suspended in mid-air, they were faced with this terrible scene. For a moment, they had thought that an unexpected emergency situation was taking place in the city, but… they had quickly realized that that wasn’t the case. A quick glance at their surroundings had immediately told them that this place was clearly not a trading city.
Doug’s question was a roundabout way of asking, ‘What were you thinking, bringing me to a place like this?’
But as he looked at her, searching for an answer, she simply looked back at him.
Her eyes, which had been praised as being mystical by her worshipers in Origin, were wavering in confusion.
“Hey, Doug… Where might this place be?” she asked.
“You… Are you seriously just lost?!” Doug exclaimed.
It seemed that Legion hadn’t brought him here with some intention in mind; they had simply teleported to the wrong destination.
“It’s not our fault, is it? We’ve never been to the city of Morksi ourselves, and Vandalieu is suppressing his death-attribute Mana more than he did in Talosheim… We can make mistakes if there’s a death-filled, tragic scene like this along the way,” said Pluto.
“I guess that’s how it is,” Doug muttered.
Legion’s teleportation was not something achieved through space-attribute magic like Gufadgarn’s. It was an instantaneous movement across space, guided by the presence of death and death-attribute magic that they detected. It was Jack’s death-attribute spell.
Doug had been aware that they sometimes teleported to an intended location because they mistook the presence of death with the presence of their companions. That was part of the reason why Jack had been given the codename ‘Jack-o’-Lantern.’
“So then, this is a village somewhere between Talosheim and Morksi. Can you bring us to Morksi from here?” Doug asked.
“Yes, I think we should be fine to do that… but could you wait a minute? There’s something that we want to test first,” said Pluto.
“That’s fine. Well, it looks like I have a bit of work to do as well,” said Doug.
The two of them looked at their surroundings once more.
They were being surrounded by a group of armed silhouettes who had their faces hidden by cloths and masks, appearing one after another from the shadows of the buildings.
“You two… Where did you come from? Are you survivors of this village?” one of them asked, sounding bewildered.
Doug was lightly equipped in leather armor, with dark skin and a distinctive hairstyle. In contrast, Pluto had white, candlewax-like skin and black hair and black eyes, which were rare in this area. On top of that, she was floating in the air. No matter how one looked at it, the two of them were clearly not villagers.
“We’re something like lost travelers, but you guys don’t look like villagers or guards either,” said Doug, giving a safe answer.
One man, wearing a particularly peculiar mask among the group of masked silhouettes, burst out laughing. “Travelers, huh? I like that. Your journey through life will come to an end here, as you face your demise by becoming sacrifices to our god!”
“That person is quite the poet, despite his appearance,” Pluto remarked.
“Yeah, everyone is a traveler on their journey through life… Wait, that’s not what we should be focusing on right now, is it?” said Doug.
It seemed that the unfortunate villagers had been attacked not by bandits, but by these fanatics that worshiped an evil god. Bandits might have spared their lives in exchange for food or money, but such things were of no value to fanatics who had come to slaughter them as a sacrifice.
Because of that, the village had been so thickly surrounded by death that it had caused Pluto to mistake this place for her destination.
“This will be the final sacrifice for today! If we sacrifice these two… perhaps not that man, but the pure-looking maiden, then Tubereese-sama, the evil god of wicked blood, should speak to us once more!” the man with the strange mask shouted, and the others shouted with him.
“Tubereese-sama!”
“For our god!”
The fanatics approached, raising their weapons that were stained with the blood of the villagers.
Doug frowned. “So, what are we going to do, ‘pure maiden’ Pluto?”
“Let’s do the thinking after we kill them all, ‘that man’ Doug,” Pluto replied.
“Yeah… It’d be too much of a pain to bring them all back as gifts for Luciliano-ossan.”
As the fanatics shouted and charged forward, Doug began crushing them with the telekinesis of ‘Hecatoncheir.’
“Huh?” the man in the strange mask, who seemed to be the founder of this cult, muttered in shock as he came to his senses.
He was watching his subordinates being crushed as if they were dolls made of clay.
A boy who wasn’t even properly armed was somehow slaughtering his men in an instant. The cult’s founder was simply unable to comprehend what was unfolding before his eyes.
But he was also seeing something that was even more impossible to comprehend. The girl he had thought was a pure maiden was expanding from the inside and transforming into a mass of flesh with multiple voices coming from within it.
“Doug looks bored,” said Hitomi.
“Yeah, he likes fighting, not killing people,” said Enma.
“What he prefers is actual combat rather than a one-sided massacre… That is very brave! I hope that I can be spoken of in such a way as well!” said Valkyrie.
“Pluto, wouldn’t it be faster if I set them all on fire in one go?” suggested Baba Yaga.
“But you’d burn up all of the villagers’ corpses that way as well,” said Pluto.
With squelching noises, the girl was transforming into a sphere that was made of an endless number of flesh mannequins entangled around one another.
Trembling, the masked man dropped to his knees, and his weapon fell onto the ground. “A-ah, god, my god, grant… grant me salvation…!”
“First he called you a pure maiden, and now he’s calling you a god,” said Ereshkigal.
“Then as your god, this is my command to you. We got lost because of you, so die,” said Pluto.
Countless hands reached out towards the masked man from within Legion, took hold of him and began tearing him to pieces. The man screamed, but Legion’s fingers gripped his flesh and tore it apart methodically.
And so, the fanatical worshipers of an evil god were slaughtered so that they would never create a scene of death to confuse Legion’s teleportation navigation ever again.
And Legion discussed things with some spirits and succeeded in carrying out things that they had wanted to try.
Several hours later, the knight Abel arrived at the village, leading a group of troops. Having received the divine protection of Yunos, the god of pure water, he had been chasing the cult of Tubereese, the evil god of wicked blood. But by the time he arrived, nothing was left.
“What… What in the world is this?! There are large numbers of bloodstains, burned houses and several severed heads of the fanatics who attacked the village, but the villagers’ corpses are missing…!” he muttered in shock.
Abel conducted a deep search not only inside the village but in the surrounding area as well, but he could not get a lead on Legion, who had left this place through teleportation.
Incidentally, Tubereese, the evil god of wicked blood, had abandoned these fanatics long ago and fallen into a slumber to bide his time until the threat of Vandalieu had passed, so nothing more came of this incident.
《Vandalieu has acquired the ‘Enhanced Attribute Values: Worshiped’ Skill!》
《The Levels of the ‘Enhanced Attribute Values: Reigning’ and ‘Enhanced Attribute Values: Worshiped’ Skills have increased!》
《You have changed Jobs to ‘Whip Tongue Calamity!’》
《You have acquired the ‘Whip Technique’ Skill!》
《The Level of the ‘Body Expansion: Tongue’ Skill has increased!》
Late February. Though spring was close, the weather in this area made that difficult to believe.
Up until now, Vandalieu had established a wide-range surveillance network of spirits, and put effort into gathering information from nearby cities, villages and outposts, including the city of Itobam, though he did not rely on this information network too much.
However, he had been unable to acquire any important information regarding Murakami or Hajime.
Murakami’s group seemed to have sent what seemed to be the ‘Sylphid’ Misa Anderson out on a scouting mission on one occasion, but had not shown any further movements.
There weren’t any signs of people being hired to bring them food and other necessities, never mind them directly entering or leaving the city of Morksi or any nearby cities or villages.
It was likely that they had somehow stocked up on food and other necessities beforehand before entering the Alcrem Duchy in order to conceal themselves in the wastelands, not entering any city or village and keeping hunting to a minimum.
It was also possible that other reincarnated individuals had died in Origin and joined them, allowing the use of other abilities, but Vandalieu thought that was unlikely.
Hajime had been caught in the spirit surveillance network once, with some spirits saying that they had spoken to other spirits who said that they had seen him with the former ‘Strong Arm’ Gordon. But that was all.
The spirits that had seen them directly had been purified by Hajime’s spell, so the precise details of the interaction weren’t known.
“He’s either become a ‘Spiritualist’ or acquired a special Skill… If not, he’s become assimilated by a familiar spirit or other servant of a god, or a god himself,” said Vandalieu.
The only ones who could see spirits in this world other than death-attribute mages were those with the ‘Spiritualist’ Job, gods and their servants.
There were also Magic Items that allowed the user to see spirits, so that was a possibility as well.
And Hajime’s trail had ended there.
Vandalieu consulted not only Melissa, but Kanako, Legion and Doug as well – everyone who knew the reincarnated individuals.
“A god’s servant fusing with him… there are some eccentric gods out there,” said Kanako.
“Was there a god of sex crimes or a god of gynophobia?” Pluto wondered.
“I don’t think there are… a ‘puppeteer god’ seems too specific, too,” said Vandalieu.
None of them could figure out what kind of plan Hajime had.
Considering his ‘Marionette’ ability, it could be assumed that he was somehow controlling people in a continuous manner and using them, but… even Vandalieu and his companions had never imagined that Alda’s forces, who were not evil gods, would execute a plan that required them to use their own believers as disposable resources.
Vandalieu had struggled with gathering information, but everything else was going smoothly.
The construction of the enormous statue in Talosheim was proceeding at a particularly astounding pace, considering that Vandalieu was not assisting the project. There were no large mistakes being made, and no injured workers.
“I am continuing my protest activities, though,” said Vandalieu.
“You call those protest activities? The Demon King Familiars that stand at the ends of streets to not get in the way of the construction, holding placards silently so that the workers don’t get distracted?” said Doug, the last to leave Talosheim, as he recalled the protesting Demon King Familiars.
The Demon King Familiars were too inconspicuous to be called demonstrators; people would have believed them if they were to say that they were cleaning the streets… After all, they really did clean the surrounding areas after their protest activities.
“Nobody will take any notice of them unless you have them shout and take up whole streets like protests on Earth,” said Doug.
“… I don’t really want to go that far. I feel hesitant to selfishly deny the voice of my own citizens,” said Vandalieu.
Thanks to his attitude towards the workers, the construction was proceeding smoothly, causing him to gain Experience Points and reach the maximum for the ‘Demiurge’ Job.
Some peculiar new Jobs had appeared – ‘Balor,’ ‘Apollyon’ and ‘Demogorgon’ – but Vandalieu had recently been using ‘Unarmed Combat Technique’ often, and he had acquired the Demon King’s tentacles which could serve as whips, so he had changed Jobs to the ‘Whip Tongue Calamity’ Job.
Once he learned ‘Whip Technique,’ he would be able to fight with something other than ‘Unarmed Fighting Technique,’ making his combat methods more diverse.
Matthew and the other children of the orphanage were attending beginner seminars at the Tamers’ Guild, and a reconciliation process was proceeding between the orphanage and the Communal Church. Meanwhile, the recipe for Gobu-gobu was spreading all the way to poor farming villages.
“Leaving that aside, what are we going to do now?” asked Melissa.
“It’s certain that they are nearby… I’ve sent out Undead insects, so I think I’ll find them if they’re hiding nearby,” said Vandalieu.
“It seems that they sometimes get crushed by normal adventurers, but they’re less likely to cause a commotion like Demon King Familiars would,” said Pluto.
This was a plan that Vandalieu didn’t really want to have to resort to, but he had sent out Undead insects around the city of Morksi. This would allow the gathering of more concrete information than just stationing spirits around.
… However, this came with the risk that they were discovered by ordinary people and cause a commotion.
They had already been noticed by a number of perceptive adventurers, and subsequently crushed, captured or reported to the Adventurers’ Guild. However, the Undead insects were not bees or scorpions; they were ordinary, non-venomous insects. With only a few reports coming in, it seemed that the Guild didn’t sense any danger yet.
The furthest they had gone to was putting up commissions for adventurers to go around and check whether there were any hordes of Undead appearing near the city just in case.
“In any case, let’s just wait while maintaining the surveillance network and being ready to move at a moment’s notice… though I can roughly guess the timing that they’ll come for me,” said Vandalieu.
- Name: Legion
- Age: 2
- Title: Holy Flesh-wife
- Rank: 11
- Race: Eclipse Legion
- Level: 90
- Job: Eclipse Flesh Master
- Job level: 35
- Job history: Apprentice Mage, Mage, Apprentice Warrior, Warrior, Meat Sphere Warrior, Enormous Meat Sphere Warrior, No-Attribute Mage, Flesh Manipulator, Thief, Assassin, Dark Fighter, Mass Caster
- Passive skills:
- Mental Corruption: Level 7
- Composite Soul
- Magic Resistance: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Special Five Senses
- Physical Attack Resistance: Level 8
- Form Shift: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Super-speed Regeneration: Level 8
- Superhuman Strength: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Enlargement: Level 4
- Vitality Enlargement: Level 1
- Strengthened Attribute Values: Consumable Meat: Level 7
- Fire and Lightning Resistance: Level 4
- Strengthened Attribute Values: Creator: Level 2 (NEW!)
- Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 3 (NEW!)
- Active skills:
- Limited Death-Attribute Magic: Level 10
- Size Alteration: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Commanding: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Surgery: Level 7
- Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Dagger Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Fusion: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Charge: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Chant Revocation: Level 4
- Long-distance Control: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- No-Attribute Magic: Level 6
- Mana Control: Level 6
- Surpass Limits: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- High-speed Travel: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Strengthened Regeneration: Consumable Meat: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Throwing: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Cooking: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Assassination Technique: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Lockpicking: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Assassin Combat Technique: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Dark Fighting Technique: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Silent Steps: Level 2
- Trap: Level 2
- Magic Fighting Technique: Level 2
- Singing: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Dancing: level 1 (NEW!)
- Familiar Spirit Demonfall: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Unique skills:
- God of Origin’s Divine Protection
- Zuruwarn’s Divine Protection
- Ricklent’s Divine Protection
- Gazer: Level 5
- Encroachment Fusion: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Vandalieu’s Divine Protection
- Deeana’s Divine Protection (NEW!)
- Large Volume Parallel Thought Processing: Level 1 (Awakened from Parallel Thought Processing!)
Title explanation (Written by Luciliano):
True Ruler of the Entertainment District
There are Titles such as ‘Ruler of X’ and ‘Influential person of X,’ that represent the fact that the Title owner is an important person in a certain region. These Titles cannot be acquired unless one is extremely well recognized or peculiar (For the same reason that Master does not acquire obvious Titles such as ‘Eclipse Emperor of Talosheim’).
In Master’s case, it can be assumed that he has acquired this Title because of the fact that the most influential person in the entertainment district is a boy, and that there was a surface ruler in the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael.
The Title’s effect is an increase in influence and charisma in that region.
Skill explanation (Written by Luciliano):
Large Volume Parallel Thought Processing
A Skill that Legion has awakened from the ‘Parallel Thought Processing’ Skill. It is likely a Skill that is unique to them, as a multiple-personality consisting of multiple fused souls that each have separate minds.
… As I thought, acquiring a superior Skill of a Skill that humans cannot ordinarily acquire means becoming even less like a human.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Luke The Stinky Dwarf
‘Just Stop Oil!’ could learn a thing or two from Vandalieu’s familiars instead of blocking ambulances and committing acts of vandalism.
emergency3808
Van’s familiars must look ironically pathetic, protesting to not make a statue while everybody else ignores him and makes a gigantic statue anyway
Akachi86
Tubereese is a smart evil god, unlike Hihiryushukaka, who couldn’t get over his hurt feelings.
Hobbes
Envy is one of the 7 Sins for a reason. It’s a very hard feeling to simply let go of.
Alke
We see once again that the REAL evil gods are in the Alda faction using their worshippers as a disposable material 😒🙄. Meanwhile, Vandalieu is protesting gently while cleaning the streets : “stop making a statue of me” 😇😇😇😂
Alke
. “A-ah, god, my god, grant… grant me salvation…!”
“First he called you a pure maiden, and now he’s calling you a god,” said Ereshkigal.
“Then as your god, this is my command to you. We got lost because of you, so die,” said Pluto.
Countless hands reached out towards the masked man from within Legion, took hold of him and began tearing him to pieces. The man screamed, but Legion’s fingers gripped his flesh and tore it apart methodically.
And so, the fanatical worshipers of an evil god were slaughtered so that they would never create a scene of death to confuse Legion’s teleportation navigation ever again.😂😂😂☠️☠️🤣😅😅😅
Zenden1st
next chapter onwards!
SmerchOleg
I have just wanted to say what a failure of God of Justice having bandits at every corner while in the Boundary Range under Vida’s influence there are only battle junkies and some traitors under influence of an evil God, just to find out that those were just abandoned fanatics
Del1a
The village that was sacrificed by the evil god worshippers wasnt inside the boundary mou tain range. It was somewhere between Talosheim and Morksi.
NjShade
Well most battle junkie will not touch ordinary people, but they will challenge the strongest instead.
Illuvatar
One of the few things that annoy me in the novel is def what he chooses for jobs. Like really among all thoses good/handy jobs you choose a tongue job.
felinoel
Ughhh, saaaaaame.
I especially hate when he decides to take a job BEFORE checking to see if there are new jobs to choose from and when he sees that there ARE new jobs he doesn’t even consider them he just goes with his first decision??
LmaoLN
Late February. Though spring was close, the weather in this area made that difficult to believe.
Is Morski a lambda version of a British Country because that’s our weather
Yonko
Vandalieu has acquired the ‘Enhanced Attribute Values: Worshiped’ Skill
->The genkidama skill
Ozarazil
The god of sex crimes hahhahahaha
Chiu ChunLing
Cough*Alda*cough*Bellwood.
Paps
Thanks for the chapter, well some Gods are acting up while others are hiding away!!!!! Van as always keeps up his protest and gaining exp after been worshiped.
InfernoHomura
Since Bashas is a guided god, does she want a collar too?
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
Fitun is behaiving like a god from the demon king Guduranis fraction and he is deliberately seeking death or rather with passion as compared to other gods.
It is something that I realized now but aren’t the people around Van-sama “different” compared to “normal” people in Lambda and I think a couple of them will become gods or subordinate gods and like the gods from Guduranis world they’re going to look different.
Phantom Knight
Thanks for the chapter!!!! I am surprised no one is making a bigger fuss about Legion though. They evolved [¥] into a unique variant that might depend on the amount flesh they have, and along with their superior skills of [Vitality Enlargement] and [Superspeed Regeneration] which makes them hard to kill, their [Dark Fighting Technique] might be something very tricky to deal with.
Assuming that only one death spell is infused into their Unarmed Fighting Technique, we can imagine how dangerous some of the possible effects of the evolved combat technique can be. I personally think that Ereshkigal is the most likely one to have infused her spell into the fighting technique. If it’s true, all her opponents could possibly suffer a passive counter curse which could end up reducing the time lag that Heinz and other strong opponents could take advantage of, or the passive effect might reflect the accumulated damage to one or more assailants.
In either case, Legion would end up being much more dangerous to fight against. You would have a hard time killing them, and you continuously suffer the damage you inflicted on a creature who has unbelievable healing speed. I can see how they alone could make others feel despair in combat
ObserverBias
I imagine no one’s making a fuss because Legion (and a number of races Van has wound up creating) are unique unto themselves? Like, the closest existence to Legion thematically is probably a fleshwife from the Noble Orc Empire (I forget whether they’re still calling themselves that these days or not), and they’re really not cut from the same cloth to begin with, so it’s a horribly unfair comparison all around.
Vastorn
Is there even a way to kill Legion at this point…? You’ll probably deplete your own life long before you can hurt them in a meaningful way…
Jonathan Hurd
From the dungeon training Heinz and crew underwent the answer to killing Legion is continuous massive damage. You need to hang up on them and outpace the regeneration. Of course they can always teleport away I’d they find themselves at a complete disadvantage so good luck finishing them.
Eshrikagals ability is certainly strong but the weakness remains that it only affects the last hit. So as long as you do a small cut after any massive attack it’s not to big a deal.
Chiu ChunLing
But that only worked because the copied Legion never tried to learn how to avoid the second hit. The real Legion now knows about that tactic, and can disguise themselves in a number of different forms, making it awkward to time the second hit.
By managing to evade the second hit a fraction of the time, the tactic goes back to a slower version of committing suicide than an all-out attack. Or Legion can dodge the first hit and then ‘walk into’ the ‘light’ hit. With two strategies they can adopt to ensure the full damage is received despite the technique of a light second hit, along with a bunch of shape/movement abilities FCB has never seen before, it becomes impossible to maintain in a real fight.
Realistically, you need to assemble a team of attackers/support who have a total vitality/recovery pool in the same class as Legion and just continuously attack to ensure only a fraction of the attacks can be countered, without playing any fancy games with ‘light’ attacks (which are far more likely to be dodged). But to make it work you’d need dozens of A-class and higher fighters who could be cycled through, and you’d need to be fighting only Legion, and you’d need a way to keep them from teleporting away or having reinforcements arrive when things weren’t going their way.
In other words, you have to kill Van first.
So gud ruk wit dat.
Raidanzoup
Everyone’s already commented about the interesting stuff, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen Doug, and while I remember him being something of a hapless gofer…
“Yeah, everyone is a traveler on their journey through life… Wait, that’s not what we should be focusing on right now, is it?”
Did my guy always have this incredibly tame nori tsukkomi side to him? Sharpen your retorts, Doug!
Chadd
I guess Alda is going for quantity over quality when he is choosing his subordinate gods. I’m rather curious as to the total number of gods he has on his side.
Skarbrand
any of the Great Gods were destroyed or incapacitated by the Demon King, and Alda had to govern the Life attribute after sealing Vida. Therefore, they needed a lot of weak gods to make up for the loss of the major ones.
Seeing as there are eight magic attributes (excluding the Death-Attribute), I am going to say there are anywhere from 30 to 60 gods on Alda’s side. But most of them are weak like Curatos.
Jonathan Hurd
I feel like the number should be over at least a hundred. I mean he’s had 100k years to ascend people. Hero’s might be rare but not that rare. Besides Alda kind of let the standards slip so you just had to be stupidly devout like high priest Gordan or a strong hero who murdered people on Vidas and Evil God’s side like Fitun. You’d think they should be both, but hey beggars can’t be choosers.
SilverEagleLive
So far Vans been able to get through fights without much loss whatsoever. For some reason, I feel like that won’t apply this time.
It might be the fact that he won’t be fighting in his highly defended capital. Also, his information game is pretty weak atm and modern wars have taught that information is an important key to victory. There’s also the fact that Fitun can get rid of spirits, so if any of Vans allies get killed they could go away for good (at least back to the reinacarion system).
Then again, it’s not like his enemies are 3D chess masterminds. They’re taking measures against the powers they know he had awhile ago and he’s training up heroic spirits. But, if Fitun loses here, Van would deal a significant blow to Alda by getting rid of Fitun and all the heroic spirits under him. Also, if Fitun had teamed up with Alda’s hero army, they would most likely beat Van. But hey, Fitun is kind of a muscle head.
As for the other reincarnated, I don’t know. It feels like they’re just gonna cook up some half-baked plan then convince themselves it’ll work.
Oh well, the battle is close at hand now.
gomezseba37
I think if any of vans friends die vida would stop their soul from entering her reaincantaion system so van can revive them of they already are in vans system so he decides if they live lol
Gohankuten
I mean Van is doing better in information gathering than his opponents. Van has pretty heavy counter intelligence on his side so the enemy can’t really get anything useful on him that would threaten him. On the otherhand he knows some of what the enemy is doing and is formulating countermeasures against them.
Irazori
Huh, so even Van can lose in a round in Intelligence gathering. It’s not like he hasn’t created countermeasures over countermeasures like Cautious Hero Seiya. So even if fitun had managed to hide his minions expertly, they’ll just be destroyed or weakened by Van’s god-killer skills since a soul is tied to one’s status values.
Damn, I was hoping for Van to get Eclipse Cursecaster, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have another physical range skill other than throwing technique and scream.
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair Birknye did manage to sneak in under Vans radar. I think Van might need to expand his methods since his enemies are getting a bit to used to his current methods. Maybe figure out a way of using/taming normal insects or animals could help.
I’m with you on thinking the next job could of been Eclipse Cursecaster, but it is nice that Van has now gotten a new physical skill. He’s already evolved his Artilery and unarmed skill. I think whip technique being added to some of his unarmed techniques could be really interesting.
Chiu ChunLing
The key to an effective trap is to make the prey think they might be able to get the bait without getting caught.
Just like Van has to let his enemies think they can use the city as hostages, he also has to let them sneak into the trap.
Kazza
*Not an Origin continuation*
CRAAAAAAWLING IN MY SKIIIII-
Ok, probably should’ve expected that, but still disappointing.
Overall, this was a fine chapter. Mostly just some more worldbuilding. I think Densuke is giving Fitun too many powers as a god, because now he’s got soul overwriting (?), dungeon creation and spirit purification (?). And they’re tenuously linked to thunderclouds? Eh, I guess I’ll accept it.
It is interesting that Fitun has apparently erased Gordon from his body, but the status still says “Gordon” Bobby. Is it a sign that Gordon hasn’t been erased, just changed to the degree that he and Bobby aren’t different enough for there to be a distinction?
And although the gods of Alda and Co. would disagree, Fitun is absolutely right about the winning thing. If he wins (which he won’t, but let’s say he did), he’d become such a big figure that those people would be swept under the rug. My proof? Think back to when Ervine sacrificed two Familiar Spirits just to get a surprise attack on Van.
The gods don’t speak about him with scorn, they instead weep that his strategy didn’t work. Even Niltark himself, the god whose spirits were destroyed, doesn’t insult him.
See, that’s where you’re at Alda and Co. Fitun is the smartest among you. That just has to sting.
Anyways, I think Van needs a clever chant for his protestors. How about:
“THE DEMON KING, HE MAY BE ODD.
THE HOLY SON, BUT NOT A GOD!”
Nobody2
Everything Fitun is doing has been previously set up so I think it’s fine. We knew other gods could create dungeons if they tried hard enough and Fitun being a battle god it makes sense he would. Both wind and lightning have been linked to purification for a long time. And gods have always been able to descend into vessels Fitun has just used hajimes power to make it easier and hide it better.
a_really_original_name
Well, I think that fitun just kills the guy and takes over or imprisons the soul in the body. And the dungeon thing was never stated ti be specific to alda. Soul purification is a given since gods are just oversized souls.
ObserverBias
In fairness, it’s less a power being “given” to Fitun and more just enough overlap in personality with Hajime (of all people) that their abilities (a cheat and a literal god) had particular synergy. The dungeon creation (based on the comparison to Alda) seems to be something any god “could” do, but none/very few ever bother to.
As for purification, I imagine it would be a bit of an odd limiter for a god to be able to perceive spirit-spies and not be able to do anything about those within reach?
bk3k
As the chapter stated, he built it over a long period of time, unlike the far more powerful Alda who built something better instantly. It wasn’t originally for this moment, but is very handy in this moment. In any case most gods won’t be able to build anything worthwhile in a shortened time frame so that’s largely irrelevant to training those to fight Van.
Jonathan Hurd
Everything Fitun has done has been done before just mostly by Evil God’s. Raviford and Hirushakyu showed God’s can descend on their worshippers and push out the owners soul to take over. Almost all the Evil God’s have made dungeons they just needed to be related to their area of expertise.
I would say a big reason Aldas dungeon is so much better than Fituns is because Aldas could borrow power from the other God’s in his faction to make his dungeon. Alda went so far to have a God assigned to making all the monsters for his dungeon to fight Heinz and crew as well. It’s not surprising that Fitun who also has to help keep the Wind Element running would not have as much energy to pour into his dungeon side project.
Dr. Steel
My like just for that rhyme.
Kiryl
I wonder if Legion “ate” all the corpses. I see some fusion skills which leveled up 😀
Jonathan Hurd
I’d say yes for cultist bodies and no for the villagers. I’m just guessing but I think Taloshiem got a whole bunch of new immigrants.
ExplodingPenguinDood
Strong-arm Gordon is so forgettable to me that when I read the title I thought it was talking about priest Gordon and I thought maybe Rod got upgraded god powers and can reconstruct destroyed souls.
Fitun is shaping up to be the most competent god there is so far, downloading sub gods into people but wouldn’t that be noticeable if someone looked? Thunderclouds god is gone and his thunder buds so where are they? 乁( •_• )ㄏ
Lord Rin
Alda’s faction already know Fitun is doing something and are angry that he is working alone instead of with Alda but they don’t know what exactly he is doing since he closed his divine realm so that he can’t be contacted. Also him and his subordinate gods have descended into people so the other gods can’t stop him anyways since they got no easy way to descend physically to Lambda.
Tejing
The high priest was Gordan, not Gordon.
Jonathan Hurd
I’m not going to lie I thought they might be talking about high priest Gordan when I read the title as well, lol. I will say I’m a little concerned that maybe the author was bullied by a guy named Gordon or something and this is his way of releasing pent up stress.
From a previous chapter Aldas God’s definitely know Fitun and his group are gone. Some of them were annoyed because they want to help, but I think overall it was probably best for Fitun to not take them with. I can’t imagine many being happy with his methods. I will say though he really is the most practical amongst Aldas God’s. I am however looking forward to Van eating him.
Triduo
The God of Thunderclouds, retrieving his army from the Gods’ Domain and training them to slain the Demon King, Vandalieu, while being oblivious to his capabilities ?
…
Yup, he’s screwed, bring in the next challenger ! ^^
Paradoxe : Could you, at least, let the Reincarnators try their plan before condemning the final boss of this arc ? -__-
… Nah, we all know that they’ll be defeated easily by Vandalieu and his companions ! ^^ <I wonder how they'll act if their allies from Origin comes to fight them with him !)
Paradoxe : You're wondering too much and boring. -__-
ObserverBias
In fairness, he’s one of a number of people keeping an eye on Van’s capabilities (to the extent he can without risking retribution). Also, given Fitun’s focus on “definitely” either winning or being killed, I get the feeling Van will catch that and, cautious of a trap, deny him death (as either a god or a person).
Jonathan Hurd
I get the feeling that lacking complete info on your enemy is just making this battle to the death more thrilling to Fitun. It seems to fit into his mindset of battle to the deaths not always being on the perfect stage you set yourself.
For the ending I will Van has never been one to care about the losers script. This climatic battle is going to be one to enjoy.
Skarbrand
I am betting that Fitun and Murakami’s group are going to get in each other’s way at a critical moment, giving Van the opening he needs to devour their souls.
Tejing
That would certainly be fitting.
WholesomeAF
Isn’t basha the guided god?
Tejing
Bashas is, yes.
Triduo
I don’t know what to hope from there ! O_O’
Paradoxe : She’ll most certainly side with Van but I wonder what she’ll do…
Kuro-san
The rain dance.
Jonathan Hurd
What would be hilarious is if she spelled out a warning in the clouds for Van. I wonder if after he eats Fit in he might give her some of the gained power upgrading her to Goddess of Clouds.
CCaprice
I wonder if she will start getting more powerful after being guided by Van.
WholesomeAF
Update woohoo! Thanks for the chapter! Sir rashad, thank you!
Kuro-san
Thanks for the chapter!
It’s been a while since I asked one of my stupid questions; so, not to lose the habit, how should the Giraffe-Type Beast-Kin be? Do they have the taller than 3ft of neck or do they just have a neck similar to the neck of Candace Gertrude Flynn (sister of Phineas and Ferb)?
WholesomeAF
Nah.. Knowing anime it’ll be like a hot human with human facial features except the ears and possibly those horn thingy giraffes have…
Kuro-san
Well thought. It is also possible that the biggest difference in the physical appearance of the relatives of giraffe-type animals in relation to humans, in addition to the characteristics you highlighted, is that the body type of the relatives of giraffe-like animals as a whole is what humans consider tall, thin and with long limbs.
LethalDose
Did you know that alot I mean like ALOT of male giraffe are gay so that shit hot yaoi written all over it
Alex-dono
thanks for the chapter i can’t wait to see what gordon bobby cooks next on beat bobby flay or kitchen nightmares.
VEreality
New chapter! Thank you yoshi-sama!
I am not going to lie, but I am a bit disappointed that Legion didn’t let those cultist live as their servants. It would have been funny and it could have marked their first step toward godhood.
Other than that I really like the direction those jobs take. The Appolyon/ Abbadon (they are the same but in two different languages) job could make Van a beast of apocalypse. I like that.
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair they didn’t recruit the cultists, but I think the reason the hero who came by couldn’t find any villagers bodies is Legion brought the bodies and souls with them to have Van bring them back as undead. Who needs a bunch of idiots who can’t see the one true death God.
I’m honestly curious about the Demogorgon personally. I have no clue what that one entails.
Strowy
Demogorgon etymologically stems from Demiurge (originally considered a misreading/mistranslation of the latter).
But in general, it basically implies a primordial being, mostly demonically aligned, who’s name is unknowable / not to be known. So basically some cosmic horror whom even knowing its name is a super bad idea, which fits Van perfectly.
Blackpercher
Nah, i dont want them following van, sacrificing woman and children with delirious eyes….
ObserverBias
They likely still wound up following Van as spirits, though? Considering none of Legion has the Soul Break skill, and they likely followed along anyway.
WBee
Legion doesn’t have death attribute: charm so maybe not.
Triduo
That job is probably the mix of his Diseases-related skills, his Death-Attribute Magic and his Demiurge job…
Paradoxe : Soooo, this job could potentially increase the lethality of his already mortal diseases by mixing in some more Death-Attribute Magic while also make it reach the soul of the victim ? … Yup, I’m now waiting for the chapter where an army tries to take on Van who’s alone ! ^^
Noctyrannus : Haaaah, Death… Sweet, sweet Death… ( -u-) <Seeing a single person getting rid of an army with powers they can't escape from makes me feels things… )
Dimhélios : That was disgusting AND disturbing… O_O'
Chiu ChunLing
Pluto is already worshipped in Origin anyway, that’s how Van ended up getting to meet Mei-kun.
It’s a little weird that Pluto is worshipped enough to be a significant aspect of the Gods of Origin, but “The Undead”, whom she worshipped, isn’t. It’s not like anyone who knew about Pluto wouldn’t know that she worshipped “The Undead” and that he was a real being of significant power.
Whatever. Now that Banda is borrowing the mantle of Eighth Guidance to cover his own activities, it’s probably only a matter of time before fans and believers of Eighth Guidance figure out that “The Undead” is still around.
Which makes for a funny cycle…”The Undead” granted miraculous salvation to Eighth Guidance, so they worshipped him and in the process granted miracles to various people in Origin, so Pluto became worshipped, which influenced the Gods of Origin to invite Van to Origin, leaving Bander with Mei and contacting various others, which will inevitably cause more miracles attributable to “The Undead”, further strengthening the legacy of Eighth Guidance.
No need for these wretched worshippers of the Evil God of Wicked Blood.
Lord Rin
So that explains why Fitun went after the Flame Blades. I always wondered about that because Fitun doesn’t seem particularly dumb so I was wondering why he would go after the Flame Blades when he is undoubtedly gathering info on Van and must know about Natania and her relation to the Flame Blades so going after them would end up alerting Van to his presence. Turns out he went after the Flame Blades because they just happened to be compatible with some of Fitun’s heroic spirit subordinates that he could then use to possess the Flame Blades and allow his subordinates to gain physical bodies. Also he didn’t have much choice in picking the Flame Blades because of how hard it is to find compatible people and that it would take too much time and effort to go look for other compatible people in other duchies. Anyways now Gordon has also been taken over by one of Fitun’s subordinates. As for the others, they’re training in a special dungeon that Fitun made so that their possessed bodies can get stronger and handle more of their power as heroic spirits. Honestly Fitun and his subordinates seem like a more credible and competent threat than Murakami’s group who so far don’t seem to have a real plan other than “kill Van somehow” or the rest of Alda’s faction and Rodcorte.
Those evil god worshipers had horrible luck. First their god abandons them because it’s scared of Van and then all of the death they caused in an attempt to contact their god ended up messing the death-based teleportation of Legion and making Legion and Doug teleport to their location whereupon they get killed brutally. They would’ve been killed shortly afterwards anyways even if Legion and Doug didn’t teleport there since some knight who is probably one of the heroes that Alda’s faction is raising came by the village in pursuit of them shortly after Doug and Legion killed them all.
It’s really amusing picturing Van’s Demon King Familiars protesting by standing quietly holding up signs and then cleaning up after themselves. So now Van got the Whip Tongue Calamity job. That job has been available for so long that I was wondering if he would ever pick it. As for his new jobs, I’ve heard of Balor and Demogorgon but I’ve never heard of Apollyon.
Jonathan Hurd
The DK familiars being such helpful protesters just amuses me, lol. I just imagine one of the workers reaching for tools and the familiar just keeps handing them over one by one. All the while still holding the sign, lol.
ObserverBias
Heard Apollyon before, but didn’t have a proper description; googling translates/altnames it to (Hebrew name) Abbadon, described as a “place of destruction” and “angel of the abyss”
Darkhelios
Hmmm… Don’t know about Fitun’s group being more a competent threat than Murakami’s. After all, Fitun is planning to do a full frontal assault… against Vandalieu who is like a mobile fortress armed to the teeth…
At the very least, Murakami’s group acknowlegded that it was a bad idea to do such things and are more planning to do an assassination = don’t want a fight / want to end Vandalieu as fast as possible and are waiting for an opening.
Concerning Apollyon, he’s more known as Abaddon (“doom”) or as the Destroyer. He has several aspect depending on the text: A place of destruction and an angel of the abyss, the realm of the dead. He’s also described as the king of locusts.
Lord Rin
Well I say he’s more competent because he is actually training himself and his forces before taking on Van. Murakami’s group haven’t really been shown doing that. They’ve only been shown trying to gather information on Van once and the Sylphid got scared that she’d be noticed and is no longer trying to gather information on Van or his allies. Also they aren’t even training to get stronger because they’re afraid that the spirits of the monsters they kill will end up going to Van and alerting him about their whereabouts which is why they have stopped going into dungeons ever since they entered the Alcrem Duchy. And yet they think that somehow they would be strong enough to assassinate Van despite them possibly not having any level 10 skills or awakened ones which you would probably need if you plan to do a one-shot kill assassination. Remember, Murakami’s group hate Lambda and are rushing to get this task of killing Van done quickly so that they can then have their promised blessed fourth life from Rodcorte. They aren’t going to want to take too much time developing skills because of that.
Who Cares
Just keep in mind that Fitun is horribly (for his side) or hilariously (for Vans side) unprepared. By the time he gets those lackies out of his dungeon to fight Van it is quite possible that Van won’t even notice anything after Fang and the rats use them as chewtoys. That is how scary those guidance skills that Van has are.
Nobody2
I know this isn’t easy but could someone go through all the jobs Van has related to mythology, theology, and philosophy and give brief backgrounds on them. You know those big jobs like demiurge, and Tartarus, and pale rider. All the ones in that vain
Darquesse
Ok.
Previously taken jobs, there aren’t many that have a background in mythology, theology or philosophy.
Demiurge: Creator god/ Creator of the universe, or subordinate of the supreme god depending on the source
Bestower: someone who grants gifts.
Thats basically it for the previous jobs
Jobs that have not been taken, I’ll start with the ones he just unlocked
Balor: Irish Mythical monster, leader of a group of Giants, and possesses an eye that unleashes destruction when it is opened. Considered to be the embodiment of the scorching sun. (expected bonuses to Eye based abilities)
Apollyon:The Hebrew term “Abaddon”, and its Greek equivalent “Apollyon” appear in the Bible as both a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss. In the Hebrew Bible, abaddon is used with reference to a bottomless pit, often appearing alongside the place שְׁאוֹל, meaning the realm of the dead. (Yes, this is copied from wikipedia.)
Demogorgon: Demogorgon is a deity or demon, associated with the underworld and envisaged as a powerful primordial being, whose very name had been taboo.
Pale Rider: Reference to Death of the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse
Tartarus: Greek Mythical abyss used for the torture and suffering of the wicked, and imprisoning The titans (the ancestors of the greek gods).
Kurifoto / Qliphoth: Jewish Mysticalism for evil/impure spirits, literally means husk/shell
all of the mystical things either mean “death” “destruction” “abyss” or “evil” in basically every earth culture.
VEreality
At this point they could just give him the job Destroyer and be done with it.
Jonathan Hurd
Thank you for the detailed summary of the words. Saves me spending a few hours googling through everything.
Dyneamaeus
Y’know, Balor could have interesting synergy with Abyss. “An eye that unleashes destruction” could believably be activated by “the Abyss gazing back” I mean. Then anyone who scries on Van would be auto-destructed.
Dr. Steel
Yeah, but I think Apollyon and/or Tartarus is more likely to upgrade abyss, and Balor will have something to do with his Demon King’s Demon Eyes skill, maybe it will give him the Demon Eyes of Destruction (or a better/different version of it, like Demon God’s Eyes of Destruction or Demon Eyes of Death), and then they’ll fuse.
Sinfulmass
I was curious about those new job titles…. Balor or Balar is often described as a giant with a large eye that wreaks destruction when opened. Apollyon” appear in the Bible as both a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss. Demogorgon is a deity or demon, associated with the underworld and envisaged as a powerful primordial being, whose very name had been taboo. So yeah pick the tongue whip.
Jonathan Hurd
I also enjoy it when Van picks up the weirder jobs, but considering how close the fight with the reincarnators is I think it’s smart for Van to pick a close combat related job for now. It also helps with the Demon Kings tentacles so that should also be useful. I think an update/evolution to Vans martial arts could help too considering how much of it Aldas group had on record.
Sinfulmass
No doubt and I’m glad he finally got it, that job had been up there for ages. It’s just he has these new epic jobs that are definitely powerful and Van’s like oh you know I’ve got tentacles now and my tongue is crazy already let’s up all that instead of getting more or these god jobs.
gomezseba37
the author is probably saving those for later those jobs will rpobably give him such an insane ammount of power ups that it would be insane and van seems to level up like every chapter so it might not take that much time
SaMu
Thanks for the chapter.
Van doing a very considerate peaceful protest. Didn’t work though because he is still getting a statue. “Protest” “Statue”
Jonathan Hurd
He’s got the peaceful part down. Now he just needs to work on the protest part, lol.
Kiriaru
Awesome awesome chapter, thank you very much. Goodnight!
no1
Yay for long chapter Yoshi, thanks. So Gordon sound like the stereotypical bully and has been “indoctrinated” into Hajime Fitun’s army. It is crazy, so Hajime Fitun can use his marionette to overwrite a person’s soul and have a familiar spirit descend into the body, completely overwriting their personality and minds. Yeesh if Fitun has no problem doing this to people, then he sounds like more of an evil god instead of a regular god. Also this line “Gordon Bobby, who had consumed Gordon’s soul and taken over his body”. I feel that a part of this line sound a lot like Van’s soul devour skill. Can Hajime even be considered Hajime anymore, can we assume that Fitun has completely taken his body? Also I guess we know exactly what happened to the flame blades in the previous chapters. Next it is pretty cute that even thought Legion is quite skilled and experience, they can still get lost. Also Van is mostly aware of Hajime or Fitun’s current position and capabilities. Is he protesting the building of his statue? Although Van said he can guess when they’ll come for him, was he referring to Murakami’s group, or Fitun’s group or both?
Jonathan Hurd
I feel there is a big difference in what Fitun and his cronies did to people’s souls and what Van or even Guda did. The big difference I think is basically conservation of the soul. Guda and Van when they break a soul it ends up with less of it. Fitun more absorbed and then overwrote it.
Another distinct difference I feel is the only reason Fitun could do that to Hajime and the others is because very specific circumstances were met. What Fitun is doing with Marionette is less overwriting people’s souls but more reorganizing the body to better fit the requirements. I don’t think they need to change the brain to descend on someone and push out the host, it’s just the prep makes the process smoother.
The biggest difference between Van and Fitun though is that Fituns method can only work because the people he’s using it on are so different in level of power. Van can break anyone’s soul.
It seems Fitun also understands his actions are closer to Evil God’s than the high and mighty Aldas. I will say though I think as Alda becomes more desperate we might see Alda resort to similar methods as Fitun has here.
Lord Rin
Only Van can actually eat souls. When they say that Bobby consumed Gordon’s soul I think that just means he’s absorbed his soul and it’s still there just that it can’t do anything. I guess I’d compare it to Bobby’s soul covering Gordon’s soul like a blanket.
Superboy8338
The reincarnation God is a LAZY IDIOT, Alda is a huge racist, and Fitun is just an ASS. Lambda will be a much better place when Van eats them.
Decaf [Invidia]
Wow. This chapter was… a lot. Thanks for the chapter!
How far away from Human is vandelieu, who has awakened several superior skills at this point?
Superboy8338
Van hasn’t been a human since his 2nd death, he is a dhampir that has just obtained godhood.
flannan
You might have heard of “Lovecraftian Horrors”, meant to scare even somebody living in the 20th century? Well, Vandalieu is one of them.
He even makes Art Man Was Not Meant To Know.
Tejing
Goodbye Gordon. A fitting end for a guy like that.
So Bashas and Fitun don’t get along, huh? Interesting. I wonder if Bashas will clue Van in on what Fitun’s up to somehow?
I’m kinda wondering why Densuke bothered to name that knight and even tell us what god he worshiped. Will he be important later?
“Enhanced Attribute Values: Worshiped” will certainly be a nice bonus for Van, and should be active pretty continuously at this point.
Whip Tongue Calamity has been sitting on the shelf for a while. No big surprises with the job, but a new weapon skill is definitely a nice addition to Van’s toolbox, especially since it can also be used with parts of his body, just like Unarmed Fighting Technique. Also, it looks like “Body Expansion: Tongue” has maxed out. I wonder how it will awaken?
Van seems plenty vigilant, though he hasn’t figured out that Fitun is in the mix yet. I can’t see him being taken too much by surprise though.
Tejing
As for Van’s new jobs, I’m thinking ‘Balor’ is related to the demon king’s demon eyes, ‘Apollyon’ is probably related to the ‘Abyss’ or ‘Hollow King Magic’ skills, combined with Van having become a demigod, and ‘Demogorgon’ is probably a continuation of the ‘Demiurge’ job.
flannan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon – Wikipedia says it’s a misread form of “Demiurge”, but has taken a life of its own.
Irazori
The so-called hero was probably just one of the aldiots that were already in the Oribame Kingdom.
Tejing
He wasn’t called a hero, just a knight, but it still could be that I suppose.
Edit: On closer inspection it says he received a divine protection, so that’s almost definitely it.
Jonathan Hurd
I will say I didn’t particularly like Gordon but that end seemed a bit too harsh for him. If he was scheming revenge on Van then yeah that would of been a pretty ironic fate. Basically getting the power to carry out his revenge but losing himself in the process. The fact that he understood to get out fast and early made him one of the wisest mini antagonists we’ve seen in the story.
WBee
I’m curious how much exactly Enhanced Attribute Values: Worshiped does. Does it just make him stronger while he is worshiped or does it also increase his worship XP gain?
ObserverBias
Would imagine the former, as it pertains to attribute values instead of returns
Morgan
Thanks for the chapter!
Vandalieu getting even shadier jobs now. Apollyon is (from what I learnt from the SCP foundation) a cataclysmic existence that can destroy an entire world.
I wonder if legion will ever get proper death magic. maybe if Van becomes a god and his divine protection becomes stronger? Perhaps if that happens, everyone with his protection will gain his various basic death-mage skills.
Also, who else thinks Van will “accidentally” become a god before the fight with the other gods?
And Lucilliano is looking a little jealous in that skill explaination. Seems like he wants to stop being human so he can get skills like PTP
Superboy8338
He already is, demi-gods are just gods with physical bodies in this universe.
Rainbow Dash
whos Hajime?
Morgan
He’s the Marionette guy that died fighting the Eigth Guidance. He was trying to take out Kanako (i think) in the chaos and they both got killed by one of the member of Eitgh Guidance.
Lord Rin
He tried to kill Isis and said that he would rape her. Whether before or after killing her, I don’t know. Isis was immune to Marionette since she was effectively braindead and moved her body with her soul so Marionette couldn’t control the nerve impulses in her body since she had none and she detonated a bomb in her head to heavily injure Hajime. Then Kanako showed up and killed him since the government agency they were working for thought his power was too dangerous to let him live and ordered him to be disposed of.
Doom-sama
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, OUR ONE TRUE GREAT DEATH GOD, AS HE COMMANDS HIS LEGIONS TO GATHER INFORMATION, AND HIS FORCES CRUSH EVIL CULTS! THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
How do you even pronounce these job titles?
Superboy8338
IDK, but if you find out, PLEASE tell me.
flannan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaddon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balor
They seem to be pronounced like they are written, except “y” in Apollyon is pronounced like “i”. I had to open the Russian wikipedia articles for that, though, because Russian language actually has rules on pronouncing words.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…