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It was roughly 50,000 years ago when Fitun lived as a human. It was a staggering amount of time for a human to imagine… and a considerably long time even to a god.
At his core, Fitun was a fanatic for combat, a thrill-starved battle junkie.
As a human, he had desired strength. Power was necessary. Weak soldiers on a battlefield were not combatants, but worthless things to be used as a meat shield. They did not have the ability to enjoy combat or feel any thrills; they were simply cut down like weeds.
In order to be able to continue enjoying battle, the strength to survive was needed. The archery skill to shoot down mounted foes, the agility to dance around a heavily-armored soldier, the combat prowess to mow down lightly-armed fighters – all kinds of strength were needed in order to survive battles against mages, adventurers and mercenaries.
After going through the effort to become a mercenary, after all of the training that had left him vomiting blood, a single battlefield wasn’t enough for Fitun. He wanted to experience as many battlefields as possible, and to experience each for as long as possible.
But naturally, Fitun had desired not only strength, but money as well, in addition to fame, drink, food, women and every other pleasure conceivable. But the reason he desired these was because he wanted to steep his body with the feverish excitement that came with the taste of battle.
Money was necessary to attain proper equipment. In order to be hired to fight on the battlefields that Fitun found so fascinating, he had needed fame… achievements.
The alcohol, food and women to enjoy between battles were also important. In order to feel the thrill of being so close to death, Fitun needed to be living. It was because he was living a fulfilling life that he had been able to feel the raw thrill of death.
He was paid to kill, enjoyed his food and drink at banquets, and made love to women. The next day, he would resume his training and look for his next battlefield. His lifestyle had consisted of endless repetitions of that cycle.
Thus, Fitun had thought that he would die on a battlefield one day.
But before he knew it, he had been the one who was leading a mercenary band, and as a result of their rampages across the land, the war had ended.
The nation hiring Fitun had achieved victory in a messy war and risen to become a great nation, ending the era of war between rival warlords.
Fitun had hastily searched for his next battlefield, but unfortunately, the minor conflicts between small nations had not been enough to satisfy him. Even if he wanted to betray the great nation that he had once served, there had been none in that nation more powerful than Fitun.
He had been left with no choice but to wait for the next war. He would have to endure until the great nation fractured once more, and a new powerful foe was born.
But despite being a living legend, in the end, he was still a human. His incredible Vitality had allowed him to live for over 120 years, but in the end, he had reached the end of his lifespan before the great nation ever fractured.
The people had mourned him as the hero who had helped in the foundation of their nation, the one who had brought them victory after victory on the battlefield. They had thanked him for ending the chaos and bringing them peace.
They had been unaware that Fitun was the one who had desired more than anyone for that peace to become undone.
But thanks to the people’s prayers, Fitun had joined the ranks of the gods after his death. As someone who was filled with regret that he had not been able to die on the battlefield, this was more than he could have ever asked for.
He would become a god and throw himself into battles against the remnants of the Demon King still lurking in the shadows of the world as well as Vida and the gods who served her within the Boundary Mountain Range of the Bahn Gaia continent.
His blood would boil and his flesh would dance once more, and he would even be facing evil gods whom he would have stood no chance against when he was a mortal. He had expected and hoped that he would fight fierce battles unlike any that he had ever experienced before.
But those hopes had been betrayed. What had awaited him was the task of adjusting the power of the wind-attribute that filled Lambda, in order to maintain and manage the world. And the task of leading the believers who offered him prayers, nurturing them just as he had been nurtured before becoming a god.
He had spent his days tending to the world like a gardener would tend to his garden, and guiding his believers with far less effort and care than he had taken when training new soldiers as a mortal.
Of course, he had not forgotten that enemies did exist, such as the remnants of the Demon King’s army, the gods who served Vida, and Zantark, the god of fire and destruction who was said to have descended into madness. It had been decided that if these enemies were to make a move, Fitun would lead the heroic spirits in battle along with the other war-gods.
But the evil gods that had once been a part of the Demon King’s army would only move their followers in their plots and schemes; they would never take action on their own. The gods of Vida’s faction had holed up within the Boundary Mountain Range, and Zantark on the Demon Continent, showing no signs of wanting to leave.
Fitun and his subordinates were fully prepared, but they had no choice but to continue their tedious work, as they were not blessed with the opportunity for actual combat.
Fitun was aware that he had been given an honorable task, one that could only be performed by a god.
But it was not the heated, stimulating, thrilling role that Fitun had desired.
Gathering the members of his former mercenary band who had died before him and become familiar spirits and heroic spirits of other gods, gathering believers, granting pointless divine protections.
He had nothing to do but gather promising individuals and watch as they fought for their lives in the ‘Dungeon of Trials’ that he had created.
During that time, the great nation that Fitun had worked for had fallen, and even its name had been forgotten. A world of conflict had come about once more, and Fitun had felt envy as its inhabitants enjoyed the war. But he had been unable to descend upon the world himself; he could do nothing other than watch.
Before he knew it, ten thousand years, twenty thousand years had passed. The memories and desires Fitun had felt as a mortal had been forgotten, and he had become just another one of the many other gods serving Alda.
But with the emergence of Vandalieu, the desires slumbering with him had awakened.
And Vandalieu had fulfilled those desires, far more than Fitun had even imagined. Of course, those desires being fulfilled too much would be problematic.
Fitun liked battles to the death, and did not dislike combat in which he was at a disadvantage. But he felt anger when he was wounded. And it was not that Fitun wanted to lose.
Even now, he was suffering from the pain in his entire body, having been eaten from within by Vandalieu’s ‘Bloodlust.’
He had healed his body’s injuries with healing magic, but he was unable to heal his own soul. He had no choice but to endure this pain, but…
Speaking of pain, what happened to the others? he suddenly wondered.
The ‘Curse of Consequence of Action’ caused Fitun to feel not only the pain that he himself had caused, but also the pain inflicted by the heroic spirits serving him. But the instances of that pain had become fewer and fewer before he realized it.
The transparent, membrane-like wall of space was isolating this area from the outside world, but Fitun could see Kanako and her companions fighting against Bobby and the other heroic spirits on the other side of it. It seemed that the heroic spirits were at a disadvantage as they had lost one member, but they seemed to be holding on.
But what had happened to the other heroic spirits?
The fact that the instances of pain I feel are fewer, it means that they are inflicting less wounds upon the enemy. Have they been killed? Now that I think about it, the city is unharmed. The battle is continuing outside the gates, but that’s all, Fitun thought. Damn, I suppose this is the best we could do with a hastily-made plan.
In order to secure fighting forces, Fitun had prepared improvised bodies for his heroic spirits to be incarnated in, and also prepared arms that they could use even after using ‘Heroic Spirit Transformation.’
But as expected, it had been impossible to prepare the exact arms that they had wielded fifty thousand years ago. Some of them had been preserved by being enshrined in Churches and such, but there were many cases where they could not be recovered straight away because they had been lost or now belonged to someone else.
Thus, much of the armor used by the heroic spirits were items that they had chosen from the treasure boxes and treasure chamber of Fitun’s own ‘Dungeon of Trials.’ But this had not been an option for their weapons. Their enemy was Vandalieu, who in some ways wielded the fragments of the Demon King even better than the Demon King Guduranis.
If they were to kill him, they would need Orichalcum weapons or Demon King equipment.
Thus, Fitun had sent Divine Messages to the clergymen of a Church that worshiped him and commanded them to open their secret treasure chambers. He had thus acquired several pieces of equipment, including equipment made with the Demon King’s bone marrow, as well as the Orichalcum scimitars that he had used himself when he was a mortal.
Although there had still not been enough equipment for all of the heroic spirits, Fitun had used his power as a god to refine Orichalcum and coat Mythril and Adamantite weapons with it to create improvised Orichalcum weapons.
And even that wasn’t enough… but they’ve done very well if they’ve inflicted that much pain on Vandalieu’s pawns. I’m sure his reinforcements aren’t arriving because they’re either exhausted from fighting my subordinates, or because he’s mistaken to believe that they were victorious, Fitun thought. But I don’t have any reinforcements either. Well, that can’t be helped. If I am to be honest, it was not a pleasant plan to begin with.
“Now then, we’re out of time. I’ll have you help me this time, Akira,” Hajime Fitun said to Akira, who was still looking at the smoke from the explosion that had incinerated Misa Anderson.
“Help you out? … Just do as you like. Go ahead and let out some lightning powerful enough to break these walls of space or erase the ‘Bloodlust,’ if you want. We’ll be coming back,” said Akira.
“Coming back? What are you talking about, Akira?” groaned Murakami, who had been sent flying by Orbia, as he got to his feet.
Like Akira, he was almost completely unaffected by ‘Bloodlust,’ as Vandalieu had used all of it as fuel for ‘Flaming Prison Death.’
He pulled out the knife that was still lodged inside him and drank a foul-tasting Potion. Now healed, he was able to continue fighting. He possessed the ‘Super Mana Recovery’ Skill, so Mana wasn’t a problem either.
His failure earlier was due to the fact that he had not expected that Vandalieu would still have a Ghost like Orbia up his sleeve, but he would not fall for the same trick twice.
Akira stared at Murakami in disbelief. “What do I mean?! Misa’s been devoured! Don’t you understand? We’re at a disadvantage here! One that can’t be overturned, at that! We should retreat! It’s troublesome to have to die and do things over, but it’s better than having our souls broken. Don’t you understand that? Don’t tell me you’ve been infected by this god’s fanaticism for battle!”
Murakami gave Akira’s words some consideration. Indeed, Akira was certainly correct.
Vandalieu had become much more powerful than Murakami had expected, and they had lost Misa. It was possible for them to continue fighting, but it was difficult to imagine that they would be victorious if they did so.
The fear of having one’s soul destroyed… that fear was actually difficult to feel for someone who was a mortal rather than a god. For an atheist who believed in no religions, one could say that this fate was no different from death.
But to reincarnated individuals like Murakami and Akira, having one’s soul destroyed and having their existence extinguished was true death.
Of course, the situation had changed since the last time Murakami and his companions returned to Rodcorte’s Divine Realm. It was even possible that Rodcorte would deem Murakami and Akira useless and return them to the circle of transmigration like every other dead soul.
Their souls would remain intact this way, but… to Murakami, who was a mortal rather than a god, being reincarnated as another organism with his memories and personality erased was not much different from having his existence extinguished.
But if he continued to fight here out of the fear that Rodcorte would give up on him, was there any hope of victory?
I came to this battle thinking that we have no choice but to make a gamble, even if the odds aren’t in our favor, but… I suppose we had no hope from the moment Vandalieu closed off this space and used ‘Bloodlust.’ We might have had more of a chance if we’d formed an alliance with Fitun and provided him with information from the very beginning rather than try to leave it all to him, Murakami sighed to himself. With that being the case, it seems that it would be best to do as Akira says – Retreat for now and wait for someone from Origin who’s likely to join us to die and be reincarnated here.
“Alright… I’m going to kill myself. I’m sure Rodcorte’s making a big fuss in his Divine Realm right about now, but he shouldn’t have any problems recovering our souls,” Murakami said.
Akira gave a sigh of relief, seeing that Murakami seemed to have come to his senses.
Both of them pressed the slightly difficult-to-use switches in their minds. The pain would only last one second. Their hearts would stop, and their souls would leave their bodies in less than a second.
But during that single moment –
“‘Lightning Fate Grasp!’” Hajime Fitun murmured from behind.
Murakami and Akira groaned as they were pierced by the powerful lightning released by Hajime Fitun.
The shockwave produced by the lightning destroyed the walls of space, causing the space-attribute Ghosts to groan and scatter.
Hajime Fitun gave a satisfied smile as he looked at Murakami and Akira, who had just attempted to kill themselves.
“What do you think? I did as I liked. Did you not know how fast lightning is? I don’t even need a single second to shock you!” he said triumphantly.
“W-what is… the meaning of this?!” Murakami gasped.
He and Akira turned to face Hajime Fitun. Despite their bewilderment, they were trying to retaliate.
But their bodies would not move, and Murakami’s abilities would not activate despite him willing them to.
“There was an opening before your souls left your bodies, so I made use of it! I used electricity to force your hearts to move, and sealed your souls within your bodies using my power as a god!” said Hajime Fitun.
Hajime Fitun had seized Murakami and Akira in that single moment it had taken for their souls to be recovered by Rodcorte. The ‘Marionette’ ability did not have the power to seal souls within bodies, but this feat was possible for the lightning of Fitun, the god of thunderclouds.
This was normally a way to maintain cardiopulmonary functions and hold the soul inside the body in order to save someone on the verge of death, but in this case, Fitun had used it to put Murakami and Akira in the palm of his hand.
“W-what? Did you… really want to… kill us that badly?” Murakami groaned, still in pain.
“I did, but that isn’t why I did it!” he sneered. “I did it so I can use those abilities of yours to kill Vandalieu!”
“You bastard! You damn… brat…!”
Hajime Fitun gave a loud laugh. “You’re still trying to act like you’re my teacher? … Don’t look down on me! I’ve shut your soul in your bodies, and I’ll control you with my electrical currents! Rodcorte won’t be able to interfere so long as your souls are still inside your bodies! I’ll release you once the battle is over… though your nerves will probably have burnt out by then, so you’ll die the second I do. But you don’t mind, right? You’re intending to die either way! Now then, let’s work together, Murakami-sensei!”
Having lost control over his body due to Hajime Fitun’s lightning, Murakami felt fear. How would things turn out if the battle against Vandalieu continued in this situation? Murakami’s soul would be devoured if Hajime Fitun lost, and even if he won, it was possible that Murakami might lose his sanity from the pain.
To begin with, there was no way that Hajime Fitun would be able to achieve a flawless victory against Vandalieu. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that he would use Murakami’s body as a shield at some point during the battle, causing his soul to be devoured in the process.
But Hajime Fitun currently controlled even the activation of Murakami’s abilities. There was nothing Murakami could do.
Hajime Fitun snickered. “I’ve now got companions that share my mind in different bodies. It makes me sick, even though it’s only through electrical currents, but I’ll endure it for your sake. Now then… where is he coming from?” he murmured, noticing Vandalieu’s footsteps coming through the smoke that still hadn’t faded away.
Fitun knew that Vandalieu was hiding in the smoke and waiting to see what move he would make.
The truth was that Vandalieu was not simply hiding; he had cast ‘Death Delay’ when Murakami and Akira tried to kill themselves. Even with their ‘Death Attribute Resistance,’ it would have taken them at least a minute to die. Vandalieu had intended to use ‘Flaming Prison Death’ once more during that time, killing them with the explosion and devouring their souls.
As Hajime Fitun had acted first, Vandalieu had not needed to resort to this, a method that could have caused him to be burned by his own spell.
“But there is no time for us to be trying to stare at each other through this smoke,” Hajime Fitun muttered.
As Hajime Fitun was wielding his power as a god with the ‘God Transformation’ Skill active, he would die if he exceeded his limits. That was true even considering the fact that Hajime was a reincarnated individual with a body that had been created through the divine power of Rodcorte.
“I’ll make my move first! ‘Twin Flying Lightning Blade!’” Hajime Fitun shouted.
He used a martial skill and unleashed a shockwave by swinging his Demon King equipment curved swords in a cross pattern… not towards the other side of the smoke, but towards the city of Morksi that was visible in the distance.
The city was between one and two kilometers away, but such distance did not matter. In this world, an A-class adventurer could split a small mountain in two if they unleashed their full strength. Considering that Hajime Fitun was the physical incarnation of a war god, it would be easy for a full-power shockwave produced by his Demon King equipment weapons to destroy a mere city wall.
But Vandalieu leapt from inside the smoke in front of the shockwave, revealing himself.
“‘Steel Wall,’ ‘Steel Form,’” he murmured.
He activated the Demon King’s carapace on both of his arms, with his liquid metal armor and the Demon King’s exoskeleton protecting his body, and blocked Hajime Fitun’s attack.
But it seemed that this move had been anticipated.
“Stop!” Murakami shouted.
One of Vandalieu’s arms was frozen in place.
“‘Divine Lightning Enchantment!’ ‘Twin Crescent Flying Slash Dance!’” Hajime Fitun shouted, sending a series of even more powerful shockwaves towards the now-immobile Vandalieu.
Unable to withstand this, Vandalieu’s carapace and exoskeleton were torn to pieces, along with the Demon King’s skin beneath. However, none of his blood was spilled.
Hajime Fitun’s lightning enchantment had burned Vandalieu’s wounds shut.
“This is your way of dealing with ‘Bloodlust,’ I see. Then I think it is best that you don’t attack the city, however,” said Vandalieu.
The reason Hajime Fitun had not attacked from a position where he could target the city of Morksi thus far was because he intended to use the city’s people as hostages against Vandalieu.
He did not mind applying a moderate amount of damage to the city, enough to kill a little over a thousand people. But he had made sure not to attempt to inflict enough damage to kill most of or all of the citizens.
The reason for that was because… what would happen if Vandalieu abandoned the city, and the city’s people lost their value as hostages? Hajime Fitun had known the answer to that, even before experiencing the pain of ‘Bloodlust.’
But this hostage-taking plan hinged on Fitun’s belief in a certain thing – the fact that Vandalieu would continue to defend the city even at the cost of having to put himself at risk to do so. If Fitun was unable to believe this fact, then his plan would not work.
“Are you expecting me… the enemy that you are fighting to the death, to have a conscience, a sense of justice, a sense of compassion, because you will protect the insects in the city until your dying breath?!” Fitun muttered.
Believing that the Demon King would continue to defend the weak, in order to defeat the Demon King.
Such a thing would likely have been impossible for the Five Colored Blades. But Fitun was absolutely certain that Vandalieu would truly try to defend the city until he was no longer able to.
On the battlefield, there were many people who would risk their lives for reasons that others would consider worthless. As a human, Fitun himself had been a mercenary who risked his life in order to be paid.
These reasons included love, friendship and justice, and Fitun knew that people were willing to truly lay down their lives for these reasons.
That was why it was possible to believe that Vandalieu would risk his life for a reason that Hajime Fitun could not comprehend at all, at least for the ‘previous’ Hajime Fitun.
But it seemed that the ‘current’ Hajime Fitun was unable to believe that.
“That’s impossible! When your life is really at risk, there’s no question that you’re going to abandon them! After all, there are plenty of other cities, but you only have one life!” he shouted.
This was why he had used ‘Death Scythe’ to stop one of Vandalieu’s arms and stop all of his movements, fixing him in mid-air, then attempted to put all of his effort into this one moment.
“I see,” Vandalieu said with a nod.
Using the Demon King’s eyes that had opened on his forehead and one of his palms, he unleashed beams of mysterious-looking light at Murakami – in order to erase him and undo the ‘Death Scythe’ ability.
He had destroyed the previous owner of the ability, Konoe Miyaji, simply by reflecting the ability with the ‘Abyss’ Skill, but… as Murakami had a physical body, reflecting the ability back onto him would have no effect other than immobilizing Murakami’s own arm.
As the beams of light unleashed by fragments of the Demon King were not spells, they would be unaffected by Murakami’s original ability, ‘Chronos.’ He would be unable to avoid the beams and simply die as they created holes in his body.
However, with clumsy movements, Murakami avoided the beams – as if he had predicted that they would be aimed at his head and stomach.
Akira had not foreseen the attacks and instructed him to dodge – and yet, Murakami’s movements could only be seen as those of someone who had seen the future.
“Their thoughts are being shared by a connection between the biological electrical currents in their brains?” Vandalieu murmured.
“So, you’ve realized it!” said Hajime Fitun.
Hajime Fitun had taken over not only Murakami and Akira’s bodies, but their brains as well – and through that, their abilities and senses.
Right now, the ‘Odin’ Akira’s eyes were Hajime Fitun’s eyes. Hajime Fitun had used that to see the future and make Murakami dodge Vandalieu’s attack.
“But you’re still lively, aren’t you? Well then, I’ll cut you down to size! ‘Thunderbolt God Spear!’” Hajime Fitun roared.
He stopped his shockwave attacks and cast a wind-attribute spell. With a thundering noise, a bolt of lightning, equivalent to the spear of a god, shot forth… towards Kanako and the others who were fighting Gordon Bobby.
“Wha –?!” Kanako began to scream, but she wasn’t the only one.
“C-Commander?!” Bobby Gordon shouted, as Hajime Fitun’s spell was certainly large enough to engulf him as well.
Legion immediately attempted to shield her allies, but she was engaged in battle with the other heroic spirits and would not make it in time.
But Vandalieu stood in the path of Hajime Fitun’s spell, with a considerable amount of time to spare. He had severed the arm that had been immobilized by ‘Death Scythe.’
“‘Magic Absorption Barrier,’ ‘Demon Steel Shield,’” he murmured, putting up a barrier.
The lightning collided with the wall of death-attribute Mana, gradually fading away as its Mana was absorbed, but –
“I won’t let you!” shouted Hajime Fitun, sending a shockwave with his Demon King equipment and tearing the barrier open.
As what was left of the spear of lightning struck Vandalieu, he collapsed backwards, and a violent pain wracked Hajime Fitun’s body. Hajime Fitun was certain that he had pierced through Vandalieu’s ‘Magic Resistance,’ inflicting great damage that incinerated his internal organs.
Indeed, great damage that incinerated his internal organs…
Hajime Fitun screamed in agony. “W-why…?!”
His own organs were incinerated, his chest was pierced, his body was frozen, and he felt himself being crushed by an unbearable force. Unable to withstand the extreme pain that made him feel like his soul was about to crack, Hajime Fitun collapsed to his knees.
He had been prepared to withstand the same pain as that felt by Vandalieu, but this was clearly a different pain. What was it? What was this pain that even Akira’s eyes had not been able to see?
With his eyes watering from sheer agony, he looked up at Vandalieu to see that the space behind him had been unnaturally distorted.
“Great god of war, it seems that you have enjoyed the mirages that I conjured,” said the voice of the light-attribute Ghost Chipuras.
When Vandalieu was struck by the lightning and Hajime Fitun’s attention was focused on him, Chipuras had conjured mirages, which were now fading away.
Behind Chipuras, Hajime Fitun could see Kanako and her allies attacking Gordon Bobby and the other heroic spirits with spells… No, Hajime Fitun was mistaken. Those spells weren’t from Kanako and the others.
Princess Levia, Orbia, Daroak, having received Vandalieu’s Mana, had joined Kimberley to attack with ‘Dead Spirit Magic.’
“I have been quiet up until now, but I will burn you now!” Princess Levia shouted.
“Your opponent is me this time!” Orbia said to her foes.
“Super grateful for the reinforcements!” said Kimberley.
Daroak let out a mad cackle. “Go, light!”
“I’m grateful for the backup, but aren’t we worrying too much about Vandalieu’s reputation?” questioned Doug.
“Well, if we’re being asked to put on a show, we have to live up to expectations!” Kanako replied.
“Not that I think we’re visible from the watchtowers,” said Melissa.
The three of them were casting their own spells, so from a distance, the Ghosts’ spells would likely look like their own. Incidentally, Legion was actually crushing a heroic spirit underfoot.
“Bobby… Those useless fools! But why am I feeling the pain from their defeats?! It’s not my magic that is causing their destruction!” Hajime Fitun shouted.
The ‘Curse of Consequence of Action’ was supposed to be a curse that caused the cursed target to feel the pain that they had inflicted upon others. So why was Hajime Fitun feeling this pain?
“Unlike Bobby, Gordon and the members of the Flame Blades that you have used as vessels are not your subordinates; they are simply victims who have had their bodies stolen from them. I think it’s only reasonable that the pain felt by those victims is returned by the ‘Curse of Consequence of Action’ back to the one who caused it, don’t you?”
“Then the pain that I’ve been feeling up until now… Damn it, no wonder no reinforcements have arrived,” Hajime Fitun muttered.
The pain that he had thought was the pain inflicted by his subordinates was actually a combination of that and the pain of the wounds that had been inflicted upon the bodies used as their vessels.
And since Bobby and the others had been defeated by dead spirit magic, their souls had been devoured by Vandalieu. As their Commander, Fitun felt that pain returned to him as well.
“But… don’t get too full of yourself! I can still fight. Pain is just that – pain. It won’t kill me,” Hajime Fitun muttered, letting out a low laugh. “Nothing will change from a bunch of loose traitors and the remains of a group of insane fanatics joining the battle. In fact, they just make more targets for ‘Marionette!’”
Vandalieu had been able to deal with ‘Marionette’ due to his abnormal strength. But Kanako and the others could not do the same. She, Melissa and Doug were reincarnated individuals, but as they had betrayed Rodcorte, Vandalieu did not know whether they would still be protected from the abilities of other reincarnated individuals.
Legion had no nerves or brain, but their muscles moved in response to electrical signals.
If Hajime Fitun were able to control any of them and take over their abilities, the tables of the battle would be turned.
There was no end in sight for this battle… this fight to the death.
“Now then, let’s continue…” Hajime Fitun began, but in the next moment, he screamed and fell to his knees once more.
A soul-warping pain prevented him from standing, and Murakami and Akira’s bodies, which were under his control, began convulsing in a peculiar way as well.
Impossible! Bobby and the others have already been destroyed! Why am I still feeling this pain?!
“That’s because of the souls of the heroic spirits that were defeated by my allies on their way to the city. Gufadgarn and Sam collected them and brought them here for me,” said a faint, semi-transparent Vandalieu as he appeared before Fitun.
His cheeks were a little expanded, as if he were sucking on some candy.
“Wha – a clone?!” Hajime Fitun uttered in shock.
“No, I used ‘Out-of-body Experience’ inside the smoke. The one you have been wounding so far is the me that consists of just my physical body,” said the newly-appeared Vandalieu.
“The one that has just arrived is the me that consists of just my soul,” said the physical Vandalieu.
“In other words, both of us are the real me,” the two of them said in unison.
Well, Vandalieu was controlling his physical body with the ‘Group Control’ Skill, so it was likely more accurate to say that the soul-Vandalieu was the main body.
In any case, when Vandalieu split in two inside the smoke, his soul had climbed into Sam’s carriage, filled his mouth with the souls of the heroic spirits that Sam had gathered for him, and even changed Jobs while he was at it.
He had considered choosing ‘God Destroyer’ in order to inflict more damage against gods, but Hajime Fitun was currently a physical incarnation; he was not a pure god. Thus, he had decided upon ‘Divine Enemy,’ since it seemed that it would be useful against a wider variety of enemies. There had been several other new available Jobs, but Vandalieu would need to wait until the next opportunity to consider them.
He would reflect on the improvements to his Skills later as well.
“I thought that my physical body would be able to block most things, you see. Now then, shall we continue our fight to the death?” said the soul-Vandalieu as he continued chewing on whatever was in his mouth.
At that moment, Hajime Fitun felt even more violent pain. Judging from this pain, the sense of loss that he was feeling and the words Vandalieu had just spoken, Hajime Fitun sensed that something was happening to him.
H-he’s eating them?! The souls of my heroic spirits, right in front of me?! Fitun thought in disbelief.
Though he did not have much in the way of compassion, this act of Vandalieu’s was enough to render him speechless. But both Fitun and his heroic spirits had come to battle Vandalieu to the death.
They knew that they could be devoured and extinguished from existence. They had prepared themselves for this… in fact, they had believed that there was no purpose in coming here if that possibility did not exist.
Stand up. Resist the pain and take his head. Not the physical body’s one, but the soul’s head! With Demon King equipment, it should be possible to inflict a deep wound on the soul, even if I can’t break it! Wounds of the soul can’t be healed with magic or Skills, so this is my big opportunity! Hajime Fitun told himself. Now, while he is still gloating with his guard down –
As Hajime Fitun stood up, his face pale, his mouth opened. A single, quiet word escaped his trembling lips. “N-no…”
His feet began carrying him not towards Vandalieu, but towards the forest.
W-what?! Hey, wait, what is the meaning of this?!
“No, I don’t want to die! There’s no way in hell I want my soul to be broken! I… I DON’T WANT THIS!”
M-my body, Hajime’s body isn’t obeying me?!
Hajime Fitun – no, he was no longer in a state that he could be referred to by that – screamed and broke into a run, trying to escape from Vandalieu.
Stop! Don’t you run like a fool, like a cowardly villager who has been conscripted to fight against his will! Our enemy isn’t one that you can escape from! Fight until the very end! Your body is going to collapse anyway, you know?!
Fitun, the god of thunderclouds, currently existed inside Hajime’s body. But he did not have control over that body anymore.
“Shut up, shut up! I’m not going to listen to you anymore! Making me a hero, a champion, all of it was bullshit! I listened to you, and look at what happened – rather than defeating him and becoming a hero, I’m in pieces!” Hajime shouted.
Control over his body had been returned to him. Unlike the hosts who had become vessels for the heroic spirits, Hajime had not been rendered disabled; the two of them were now fused, as if Hajime’s soul had been swallowed by Fitun’s.
Up until now, Fitun had been using Hajime’s body, Skills and ability as his own.
But having had his soul wounded numerous times during the battle with Vandalieu, and with his mental fortitude having been worn down by the pain from the ‘Curse of Consequence of Action,’ Fitun had become unable to suppress Hajime’s soul and retain control over him.
Under Fitun’s influence, Hajime’s personality had changed, but he had now returned to his original, cowardly self. He was exposing his defenseless back to Vandalieu, but his control over Murakami and Akira through electrical currents remained intact, so he was attempting to run, with the two of them following him.
But of course, he was bound to get chased.
“Of course, we can’t let him get away, can we? I heard him calling us ‘loose traitors,’ after all,” said Kanako.
“Yes… Vandalieu, use your mirages, please,” said Melissa.
“Yes, yes. I’m counting on you, Daroak,” said the soul-Vandalieu.
Kanako suddenly appeared right before Hajime’s eyes.
He let out a high-pitched scream. “GET AWAY, DON’T COME NEAR ME, YOU DAMNED BITCH!”
It’s an illusion! Don’t stop! Fitun’s voice said inside Hajime’s head.
But driven by his trauma, he ignored Fitun’s voice. He made Murakami immobilize Kanako with ‘Death Scythe’ and thrust his Demon King equipment towards her.
However, the Kanako that had appeared in front of him was an illusion created by ‘Dead Spirit Magic.’ Even ‘Death Scythe’ could not stop the movement of an illusion.
I told you! Fitun’s voice shouted.
Mentally shaken, Hajime stopped moving, and he heard the sound of something exploding behind him as a warm liquid sprayed over his body.
Hajime turned around and screamed as he saw Akira, with Vandalieu’s arm protruding from his chest.
“I have no grudge against you, but… you are troublesome. Just accept that you picked the wrong side and give up,” said Doug.
He had used ‘Hecatoncheir’ to manipulate the arm that Vandalieu had severed earlier as a weapon. Naturally, Akira’s soul had been devoured.
Covered in the red of Akira’s blood and fragments of flesh, Hajime fell backwards onto the ground.
Sam appeared in front of him with a triumphant laugh. “Dying like a squashed frog is a very fitting end for you!”
As a result of his repeated training, Sam had strangely achieved his goal. He had become able to have his carriage run through both ordinary space and the space of another dimension, separate from this one, at will.
Thus, rather than having appeared in front of Hajime, it was more accurate to say that his carriage had run through space in the alternate dimension and then returned to the ordinary dimension at that location.
But to Hajime, it made no difference.
“S-stop him!” he screamed in panic, instinctively trying to have Murakami stop Sam with ‘Death Scythe.’
Dodge him yourself! shouted Fitun’s voice.
“Now! Charge!” said Saria’s voice from inside Sam’s carriage.
“Your soul will become Bocchan’s meal, too!” said Rita’s.
The two sisters leapt out from the carriage to strike while Hajime had stopped moving. Hajime attempted to stop them with ‘Death Scythe’ as well, but… they did not stop.
The two of them were Living Armors. If their arms were immobilized, they would simply leave them behind, and if their heads were immobilized, they would leave those behind. Disassembling them to pieces and leaving their immobilized ones behind, they attacked Murakami relentlessly.
Their weapons had been immobilized as well, but… they were Rank 12. Their fists and kicks had plenty of lethality.
Murakami let out a grunt as the sisters’ blunt attacks struck him. In the next moment, Vandalieu’s arm, under Doug’s control, devoured Murakami’s soul just as it had devoured Akira’s.
“Now, retreat!” said Sam.
His daughters leapt back into the carriage, and he disappeared back into his alternate dimension.
I’m saved, Hajime thought for a moment.
But then a voice spoke from behind him. “You’re the last one, aren’t you?”
A low growl accompanied that voice.
Hajime turned around to see Akira with a hole in his chest, and… Berserk, who had infested his corpse and was covering around half of it. Isis, who had transformed a part of her flesh to form her face. And finally, Vandalieu.
Hajime screamed.
“Since we were well-acquainted in our previous lives, I suppose I will finish you off. Do you have any last words?” said Isis.
“W-wait, don’t eat me!” Hajime shrieked.
Stop this unsightly nonsense… I didn’t come and fight a battle to the death to meet an end like this!
“This is all a mistake! I was tricked by this god called Fitun, I was under his control the whole time! I didn’t want any of this, I swear! Please believe me!” Hajime begged, now free from Fitun’s control.
“That’s a lie, isn’t it?” Vandalieu said emotionlessly. “Even partway through, you should have been able to resist if you wanted to. And at the very least, when your first-person pronoun changed from ore to boku, I’m sure your influence was greater than his.”
TLN: This is a part of the story that simply can’t be translated into English, sorry readers. There are multiple pronouns for Japanese people to refer to themselves – the equivalent of the English “I” or “me.” This is based loosely on gender and men generally use 俺/ore or 僕/boku in non-formal situations. Fitun uses ore while Hajime uses boku. All of Fitun’s thought dialogue uses ore. All of Hajime Fitun’s spoken lines in this chapter use boku, indicating that Hajime had regained some control. Hajime Fitun also used boku once in the previous chapter, in the dialogue line: “You bastards, do something! If you don’t, [I’ll] use my power to purge this entire place along with you traitorous sons of bitches!”
Hajime’s face twitched as he realized that the truth had been discovered.
Still staring at him, Vandalieu applied ‘Bloodshed Enhancement’ to Berserk and ‘Deadly Venom’ to the Demon King equipment that Hajime had dropped, as the hand of Akira’s corpse picked it up.
“It seems that you remember things very clearly,” said Vandalieu.
“W-wait, I didn’t do anything wrong –” Hajime began.
“I’m not devouring your soul because you are in the wrong. I am devouring you because it would be troublesome if you came to try and kill me again, and because you are a nuisance. That’s all.”
“It seems that you can go ahead,” said Isis.
Akira’s arm, controlled by Berserk, came swinging down. Hajime was paralyzed by fear and defenseless; his neck put up only the smallest amount of resistance as his head was sliced clean off.
And so, the final battle of Fitun, the god of thunderclouds, ended in Hajime Fitun begging for his life in an unsightly manner and a subsequent decapitation.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Winter
It’s good that Fitun died a pathetic death on his knees that he probably feared the most.
Akachi86
Yeah. He wouldn’t care if he died and was devoured during a glorious battle to the death, but in the end he lost control over his host body and died when it was groveling.
Alke
Sa.yo.na.ra 🎵🎵🎶😏😏😈😈👌. U*ly evil god and hindrances eaten😏. Gochisousama deshita 🙏🥢🥢🥢
Alke
Sa.yo.na.ra 🎵🎵🎶😏😏😈😈👌. Ugly evil god and hindrances eaten😏. Gochisousama deshita 🙏🥢🥢🥢
Illuvatar
Although I’d rather had him choose a guider job the divine enemy one is aslo acceptable since they’re prob gonna be his next serious opponents
Zenden1st
In any case, when Vandalieu split in two inside the smoke, his soul had climbed into Sam’s carriage, filled his mouth with the souls of the heroic spirits that Sam had gathered for him, and even changed Jobs while he was at it
…… Just give up by now
Pikaku
I feel kinda bad for fitun, he wanted a “proud death” even tho he was using really dirty tactics, but he ended up dying in a really pitiful way, having his body be taken over and begging for his life and being decapitated.
Vitor
Well… just remember that he was trash, he used his followers as puppets sending them to their deaths, and you may say that Gordon and the Flame Blades were things that were very close to being criminals, but there were far more, and it’s not certain that everyone was like them, also you say “having his body be taken over”, but it was him who took over the body of Hajime, and while Hajime’s also at fault because one can’t say that he was a good person to begin with, he lied and tempted him into becoming his “hero”, gradually brainwashing him in order to turn him into a vessel so he could fight Vandalieu, and it isn’t even as if he is like most of the “new” gods (being made gods after the war against the Demon King) who simply believe the lies of Alda and that he is the chief of the gods and his oppinions law, it’s not that he did all of this as “necessary sacrifices” in order to bring the “second coming of the Demon King” down, he did all of this, and even attacked a city with innocent people on it, planing to murder several of them, and taking the others as hostages, just so he could experience the battle he loves so much, this isn’t on the level of “wanting a proud death”, they are the acts of a sociopath, also, when Kaido Kanata arrived in Lambda, he lied to Alda and his direct superior Nineroad, not because he thinks that what they do are wrong, not to change sides, just in order to let Vandalieu live and grow stronger, when Alda has already designed him as a danger for the whole world after he destroyed the souls of Gordan and Ridley, and even in top of all of this stands the fact that he sides with Alda, which automatically turns him into a racist genocidal wannabe, so… felling bad? hell no, he deserved it
Hobbes
Sorry can’t relate to that. I reserve sympathy & empathy for beings that aren’t trashy, scummy, parasitic, & overall pure evil. Fitun & his allies fall so far on the negative side of that scale it isn’t even funny.
Yoki
When you’re late to the chapter release, so the actual chapter is only two fifths of the page…
P.S.: Can someone tell me Van age now?
Vitor
11 or 12
a_really_original_name
This was the most satisfying chapter I’ve ever read. Just Murakami and Akira dying back to back while Fitun is helpless is the best thing ever. I feel like I got a brain massage or something
InfernoHomura
It seems that Fitun and the others, bites za dusto
Inea
Lord Rin
Well at least Fitun and Murakami were able to figure out where they went wrong in their plans -apart from trying to kill Van in the first place. Fitun realized his problem was that he was too impatient and created a hastily-made plan. He probably would have had a higher chance of succeeding if he and his subordinates trained their host bodies more so they could bring out more of their god powers and they could have probably gotten better equipment too if they had more time. As for Murakami he realized that his problem was that he relied too much on Fitun doing all the work for him so him and his group didn’t train enough.
It’s good that Fitun forced Murakami and Akira to stay and continue fighting instead of letting them flip their suicide switch. Van could have prevented them from dying too with Death Delay but it’s good that Rodcorte won’t learn that. Also this makes it even more obvious that Rodcorte wouldn’t have even been able to take Van’s soul once he dies since Van can cast Death Delay on himself or even move his soul elsewhere and control his physical body remotely.
Heh Fitun is such a non-threat that Van not only took a break to eat a snack during the fight but he also went ahead and changed jobs.
And now Fitun doesn’t even get the type of death he wished. No heroic end where he gave his all in a battle to the death. Just him sniveling like a coward and begging to be spared.
I wonder if Van devouring Murakami’s, Akira’s, Misa’s and Hajime’s souls will give him their cheats? Van previously got Buburdura’s Mental Encroachment and Curatos’ Perfect Record when he devoured them. Fitun and his subordinates will probably only increase Van’s stats since they don’t really have any unique abilities.
I wonder what new jobs will Van have available now? He just killed a god of war so it’d be funny if he got a job called Kratos. Anyways I assume that the reason we haven’t been shown Van’s stats yet is because he probably already maxed out the new Divine Enemy job he just picked after getting all the XP from this battle and will be picking another job shortly.
Daoist_Blaze
Hey! Has anyone seen that @Truepath111 dude… Haven’t seen him for more than a dozen chapters now
Vitor
Hopefully he understood that if he doesn’t like the story and the characters there is no reasong in him reading and complaining
Chadd
Yuumy. 4 Reincarnators and several gods. With this there are no more people actively hunting down Van in Lamba. I guess we will be seeing more activity in Origin next. I wonder if Van will be able to use the reincarnator’s abilities properly.
-Souls Destroyed (6)-
Kaidou Kanata (M/Gungnir) – Ex-Bravers – Ignore interference
Konoe Miyaji (M/Death Scythe) – Murakami (Betrayed) – Spends mana to paralyze parts of the body after seeing his victim’s face.
Misa Anderson (F/Sylphid/Elf) – Hostile Faction (Rodcorte) – Turn body into gas
Murakami Junpei (M/Chronos/Human) – Hostile Faction (Rodcorte) – Spell/Skill Delay + Broken Gungnir + Broken Death Scythe
Hasamada Aki (M/Odin/Human) – Hostile Faction (Rodcorte) – See few seconds into future
Inui Hajime (M/Marionette/Human) – Hostile Faction (Fitun) – Body Manipulation
-Lamba (13) –
Vandalieu [Amamiya Hiroto] (M/Undead/Dhampir) – Vandalieu Faction – None (Death Magic)
Minuma Hitomi (F?/Gazer/Legion) – Vandalieu Faction – Future Sight
Tsuchiya Kanako (F/Venus/Chaos Elf) – Vandalieu Faction – Copy and Paste
Melissa J. Sautome (F/Aegis/Chaos Elf) – Vandalieu Faction – Barrier
Doug Atlas (M/Hecatoncheir/Human?) – Vandalieu Faction – Telekinesis, Omnidirectional Perception, Force Vision
Asagi Minami (M/Mage Masher) – Sealing Van Faction – Magic Canceler
Shouko Akaki (F/Ifrit) – Sealing Van Faction – Heat/Flame manipulation
Tendou Tatsuya (M/Clairvoyance) – Sealing Van Faction – Vision related abilities
Mao Smith (F/Noah/Dwarf) – Neutral Faction – Storage space
Mackenzie (F/Urðr/Baby) – Neutral Faction – See into past
Sarua Legston [Sameshima Yuuri] (M/Perseus/Baby) – Neutral Faction – Halt movement of target
Sieg [Tanaka] (M/Skanda/Baby) – Neutral Faction – Speed Boost
Gotouta Kaori (F/Super Sense/Elf) – Neutral Faction – Enhance 5 senses
-Origin (79)-
Amemiya Hiroto (M/Braver) – Bravers – All Attributes Affinity(Not Including Death Attribute or Time while on Origin), Chant Revocation, Multi-Cast, Ignore Defense (4 others)
Amemiya Narumi (F/Angel) – Bravers – Telepathy, Joint Sensation
Iwao ???? (M/Titan) – Bravers – Gravity
???? Baker (?/Hermes) – Bravers – Object Creation
Joseph Smith (M/Druid) – Bravers – ???
Rikudou Hajiri (M/Avalon) – Avalon (Fake Bravers) – Learning Speed, Unlimited Development
Moriya Kousuke (M/Shaman) – Avalon – ???
Shihouin Mari (F/Metamorph) – (Brainwashed by Avalon) – ShapeShifting
And 71 others
-Purgatory (3) –
Rodcorte Angels:
Shimada Izumi (F/Inspector) – Former Braver – See through lies
Machida Aran (M/Laplace’s Demon) – Former Braver – Calculation/Predictive Analysis (Based on known facts)
Endou Kouya (M/Oracle) – Former Braver – Predictive Analysis (Based on information known by souls in Rodcorte’s system)
Doc
You have a question mark for Doug’s race. I believe he became a “Dark Human”
Cydean
What a satisfying way for Fitun and Hajime to go out. Now I want to see what Darcia and the crew have been up to! I feel a little bad cause Darcia’s certainly going to be embarased after using her magical girl- I mean special liquid transformation equipment. Wonder how they tried to put a blanket over thier powers with all the guild masters and the strongest adventures available right behind them. Van might have a long cleanup with mental encroachment ahead of him ; )
As a side note, I wonder what Heroic Spirits taste like.
Thank you for another great chapter as always!
ExplodingPenguinDood
Got dayum I think Sam has the biggest upgrade in threat besides Van if he can attack when he is in the other dimension
Kinda like someone erasing a picture, the shenanigans someone in a 4th dimensional space could do
V4NQU1SH
nice ending for a battle junkie god.
Thanks for the chapter~!
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
What a way to die for a god of war especially someone like Fitun who ignored his job/responsiblity as a god in order to fight.
Ozarazil
Ok, this fight has given us a lot of information. For example that Rodocorte cannot just swoop in and take any soul he wants. If he could the 3 reincarnator’s souls would’ve been saved by him (unless he deemed them useless or something) and also he cannot just descent and take Vandal’s soul either since Vandal goes out of his own body all the time and Rodocorte has never tried to take him. So the plan the gods had of killing Vandal and having Rodocorte take his soul quickl is not posible.
I’d say that the threat are the other reincarnators. The group of the one that is an unbearable guy that forces his sense of justice on others. Those people are looking for ways of first sealing Vandal’s death magic and then kill him.
gomezseba37
We are assuming that van cant injure rodcorte but at this poijnt im fairly certain that he can. and in origin when van became an undead because of the nature of his magic he was insanely powerfull so much that the braves did not know how to defeat him the only reason they beat him was because he lowered his guard so if this van became an undead he would be unimaginably powerfull. heck we havent seen him use mana to enhance his body because it would explode
Ltshrek
Battle to death?more like catch,clean and cook
Metazoxan
I hope the next chapter is soon I want to see those status updates.
nadirku
Not specific to this chapter, but I really want there to be a quality anime made for this series… at the moment, I think the earliest we could expect one 2023, or 2024
Eddy
Maybe 2021 or 2022 will surprise us, who am I kidding, this is one of those that will most likely not see an anime adaptation soon, not only because of the content, but because the first arcs of the story are somewhat slow and important at the same time. in manga he has skipped some important details (although I still like him)
gomezseba37
In order to adapt meaningfull content it would need to be a 50 episode anime and it would be f****** filled with fanservice. it will probably be one of those crappy 12 episode animes that get forgotten the first season
Eddy
Like the one of the two protas with magic traps? Unfortunately, the story begins to take course and have good battles after almost 50 and skipping the chapters is not an option because there is always one or another relevant data
HeyaUser
I absolutely love this story! Keep up the g!ood work
Doom-sama
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, THE GREATEST AND MIGHTIEST GOD, OUR DEATH GOD, AS HE DECAPITATES HERETICAL SCUM AND DEFEATING VILLAINOUS GODS! THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
Heroic Spirit souls are quite tasty! Might be even better with ketchup!
Gawain
Hmm, I prefer my heroic spirits with mustard. Ketchup just doesn’t quite give it the right kick.
VEreality
You fiend! I couldn’t even dream of eating that without some hot sauce. They are so sour from losing that I need something to numb my tongue lmao
Who Cares
Then you are using a hotsauce that is (currently) too strong for you. A good hotsauce accentuates the every other flavor while (if it isn’t just the stuff that is made to be hot and nothing else) adding some itself.
B-kun
Oof. The comment is gravely coincedental with what happen in France this saturday. The timing is not the greatest and aligned to what happened.
Just hoping the teacher’s soul find peace and closure
Death God
Thank you Yoshi hope your doing well. I wonder if Van will absorb their cheat abilities, like how he absorb abilities from other Gods
“Mental Encroachment” and ” Perfect Record Technique”. Just imagining how more broken Van will become and the reaction of Rodcort excites me.
Jonathan Hurd
I so want Van to get Odin’s skill. The other abilities could be fun, but Odin’s would make Van so OP, hehe.
Soulzer1
Wait aren’t all (or at least some) the powers of the “cheat abilities” given by Rodcort originally a part of his own power? Plus don’t they also have that idiot God’s blessings and a God’s blessing is part of their power? If so………………… Oh Holy Jebus that lotion will only go back back in that basket Empty levels of F*ck the Hell Yes 🙂
Lightnovelfan
Man what a great chapter, Thx Yoshi.
The battle was awesome but most of all I´m looking forward to a major power-up Van is sure to get.
Let´s recap:
At least a dozen devoured heroic spirits
Devoured four reincarnated individuals
Two (Rodcorte´s?) familiar spirits
One God
One Fragment of the demon King
One job change
A lot of experience from his comrade´s battles
Already a good amount of levels in his new job, maybe even close to the next job change
Skill experience from this hard battle
I am so excited to see the results
Jonathan Hurd
More than one Fragment of the Demon King. The Bone Marrow was in the Bow Heroic Spirits quiver, but Fitun’s blades also had their own Demon King Fragment. I think there might of been another one or two mixed in with other Heroic Spirits.
Entropy
I forgot Van gained that marrow or bone fragment of the demon king. I wonder if that includes the entire skeleton, suspect it does. I am also curious to see what his allies evolve into next since they all probably ranked up. I don’t recall Rodcorte sending his familiar spirits or those reincarnators that are his lackeys. I am betting there were about 20-25 heroic spirits, but Van probably gained a ton of new abilities and stats from all of those gods he ate.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Rodcorte probably took a small part of his power and used them as Familiar Spirits for Odin and Murakami. Last time we peaked into his realm he had put the Familiar Spirit Braver’s in charge of watching Origin so he could completely concentrate on Lambda. So I think they’re probably still doing that job. I also don’t think his familiars spirits would be exactly willing to go down and risk being eaten by Van to help Murakami’s crew they hate, lol.
no1
Finally, this battle is over, thank you Yoshi. I wish we could have seen Van’s new status at the end of this chapter at least. It is still a good chapter though. So not only did Van’s spirit form go off to eat the heroic spirit souls, but he also went to change jobs. If Van has the leeway to split his focus like that, then Hajime Fitun stopped being a threat to him since the last chapter. Well Fitun is now dead and so is Hajime, this battle started 8 chapters ago, 9 including the side chapter, and now it is over. Finally murakami is dead, I thought his character was kind of irritating. Hope to see the next chapter soon.
Jonathan Hurd
Considering Van just killed Three Reincarnators and a God I think the reason we’re not being shown Van’s status is he is now ready once again for a new Job. So would be pointless to show the abilities and then have him gain new ones immediately after.
Entropy
Poor Fitun, that has got to hurt his pride. Not only was Van not going all out, he had time to go grab a snack during the fight. I am curious about his new stats and job as well. I do wonder if he will gain abilities from his classmates. The turning into gas ability is kind of useless at least in a fight as already shown, but freezing time and seeing a few seconds into the future could come in handy. The future sight is better than his death sense ability.
Doc
I’m not so sure Odin’s ability was better than Van’s death sense. Van’s sense death ability is always passively active. It doesn’t require him to trigger it and it’s an omnipresent sense. Meaning no matter what direction an attack comes from, if it’s strong enough to kill him, he’ll be aware of it in advance. Meanwhile we’ve been clearly shown the weaknesses of the future sight ability. In fact all the reincarnators that had a similar ability to see into the future have had major drawbacks or weaknesses because of it. The member of the Bravers who turned to drugs and eventually became part of Legion. The “oracle” who became one of Rodcorte’s familiar spirits, and “Odin”. Meanwhile, Van has never once been led astray by sense death.
The only area where these future sight abilities have an edge on sense death is in being able to counter attacks that aren’t strong enough to kill Van. The issue though is Van’s sense death ability detects death on a scaling system. So if there’s the slightest chance an attack may kill Van than he becomes aware of it. So attacks that don’t even enter that threshold are of so little concern to him at this point.
Giorgos Giorgos
A fitting death for Fitun and Murakami’s group. Also, Van had to fight him with his feet and hands tied behind his back while wearing a blidfold in order for Fitun to even prove to be a challenge.
Kazza
HEY, SPOILERS!
I really liked that chapter. Lots of playing around with characters and connections. Some things I noticed:
So, Fitun, funnily enough, has a very similar kind of backstory to many of the reincarnators. Instead of being allowed to choose how he would use his power as a god, he was instead pushed towards what Alda thought would be the best use. And in doing so, he sowed dissatisfaction, ultimately leading to betrayal. Granted, Fitun’s is more of a case of disinterest, while most of the reincarnators dealt with mental issues and trauma, but still an interesting connection.
In the end, Murakami, who used the powers of two defeated reincarnators, is then turned himself into basically a disposable power by someone he betrayed. Ultimately a fitting end, I’d say. Irony! That’s a good term.
I suppose there’s also a bit of something in that Hajime was worried about being put into a vegetative state, unable to die and return to Rowdy Roddy, only to then turn said nightmare back into Murakami, the one he was worried would do it. Maybe that’s more foreshadowing, I don’t know.
And finally, time for me to bite the bullet. Haven’t seen anyone else comment this yet.
Looks like Doug is now ARMED and dangerous, eh? Anybody? Please?
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I mean I’d downvote myself if I could, but someone had to say it.
Tejing
Oh, good point about Hajime inflicting the very thing he was so afraid of on Murakami. I hadn’t noticed that connection. I’m not sure it counts as foreshadowing, but it’s definitely interesting.
nadirku
I feel like this arc/fight had a number of call backs, and poetic justice.
I had not thought about Hajime’s concerns about being unable to die, but I had noticed that, as a call back to when he died in Origin, Hajime was again caught by surprise when someone could control their body without using their brain.
Also, there is how Misa Anderson was killed by Flame Death Prison, which is basically the Baba Yaga ability that killed her in Origin, and Akira (Odin) being killed by an attack from behind which he could not see coming.
I am not sure if there are any other references which I have missed.
Bob, Son of Bob
Just further evidence of Alda’s incompetence. Who thinks it’s a good idea to make a battle junkie into a god of clouds?
Jonathan Hurd
Admittedly when Alda was recruiting Gods there was a severe lack of Wind Gods. Beggars can’t really be choosers at that point. I feel like Thunder Clouds seems like a pretty war like one, heh.
Valeth
I think a larger part of the issue is weather Alda talked with the remaining gods about who he chose to become gods. I mean from what we know Fitun did not seam very religious.
The issue with Alda’s gods is all of the gods in his faction were of the same ideology as him. Just look at the Goddess of Water and Knowledge Peria. Most of the gods in her domain are completely with Alda 100%, but what happens when she wakes if she disagrees with him.
That’s exactly how Ricklent and Zuruwan felt with Alda’s actions. I mean sure the God of Wind and Music was gone, but I think Nineroad or one of the older remaining Gods/Heroic Spirits of Wind and Music should of chosen the new gods not Alda.
Jonathan Hurd
As far as I can remember looking back at Alda’s conversation with Curatos I think there were two criteria to be made Herioc God’s/Herioc Spirits. It was Piety and fighting ability.
The reason High Priest Gordan was being considered for a position was he was a fanatic, but not that strong. Alda was also considering Riley because he had some power and was being hailed as a hero.
After the war against the Demon King and then turning on about half of the survivors of that war. They were pretty low on original Gods and rife with paranoia. So it makes sense that Alda had two priorities for new recruits. Strength and loyalty. Sadly these qualities always come together so that is why you have some Gods being Alda Fanatics while others couldn’t care less about religion and are just battle junkies.
I will say Peria waking up is going to be a very interesting event. I can imagine a bunch of the Gods who were around before the Demon King and under her will follow her choices. There will definitely be some who have decided to follow Alda after a hundred thousand years. The interesting part to me is the rift that will start opening if even Peria wakes up and doesn’t join Alda.
You’re able to kind of dismiss Rinklent since he has always been a trickster and is a bit of an oddball. For Zuruwarn he is probably closer to an Evil God in appearance and mind set than Alda anyways, but if even his sister who was asleep for all those years will not stand by him and instead goes to Vida… People are finally going to have to ask themselves if they’re on the right side.
Who Cares
A tyrant.
I’ve been thinking that for probably 50 chapters now but Alda is merely masquerading as the god of Law while his real portfolio is Tyranny. Which he gained when he backstabbed Vida when she didn’t do as he demanded.
Bob, Son of Bob
Agreed. The combination of having no other active great gods to keep him in check and one hundred thousand years of listening to yes-men has led Alda to be little more than an authoritarian dictator. I bet the only reason Lambda isn’t even more screwed up is because he’s so limited in his ability to directly influence the world.
Also, it’s really funny to me that Alda seems to have no trust at all in Rodcorte (for good reason, admittedly), yet he fights tooth and nail to preserve his system of reincarnation. Meanwhile, Vida saw Rodcorte was untrustworthy so she went and started her own reincarnation system with
black jack and hookerswith her own new races.I guess I’d say Alda is less lawful evil and more stupid lawful.
Eddy
And with this comes the end of this battle, Hajime Fitun had the most painful and sad death possible for a battle addict, dying fleeing, crying and pleading, I imagine that the last moments of Fitun were strangling Hajime’s soul
Apokryphos
Thanks for the chapter~
..And good riddance….
Triduo
And so, the god of war who wished for a battle to the death, encountered Death but couldn’t endure its gaze as the punishment for his sins downed on the god of war.
It’s with an ironic turn of events that the story of the god of war came to an end :
The one unafraid of death, dying after begging for his life.
Noctyrannus : That was so good, I came ! ^^
Paradoxe : Classy. -__-
VEreality
I vote for this one to go in Van-sama’s book. Right next to Doom-sama’s quotes. Anyone else?
Eddy
yes
Entropy
Poor Fitun, a war god killed while begging for his life and after watching his allies turned into potato chips for Van. Looks like I was right about the order, a little surprised that Fitun turned on his allies, but since they were trying to abandon him, I guess it makes sense. So much for the self destruct buttons the reincarnators had. Looks like Rodcorte will have to think of some other self destruct button since Vand can delay it and render it useless. I wonder how Vand’s stats will change since he just got done eating four reincarnators and at least twenty lesser gods and one regular god.
Giorgos Giorgos
The funny thing is that Van didn’t have to intervene with the death buttons due to Fitun, so that means that Rodidiot still doesn’t know that he can do that. I’m also pretty sure that his new job leveled up completely, due to killing Fitun and absorbing his and his followers souls. That’ll be a chance to see his new jobs.
Entropy
Van is so unusual, it isn’t even funny. I remember the ghoul blacksmith had maybe four jobs her entire life. Van, he needs to change jobs every 3 or 4 chapters. I remember one job he had that he outgrew in two chapters and had no idea what it did. I wonder what his next two jobs will be, I hope they are either the proper nouns or another guider job. Kind of curious to see what his allies evolve into.
Eddy
To be honest, the fact that Van goes so fast is both a curse and a blessing to his enemies, because even with so many jobs, Van had to wait for his growing pains to access a number of statistics proportional to the number and type. of jobs he has, can you imagine Van with an already developed body capable of acquiring 100% statistics per job?
Doc
If I read the story correctly, Van *DID* interrupt their mental kill switch. He cast delay death on them so that their death wouldn’t happen for at least a minute. The part that he didn’t have to do anything was in the follow-up. Fitun hijacked their bodies and locked in their souls without Van needing to use his dead spirit magic to clean them up. The reason nobody discovered Van did this is because Fitun pulled his stunt immediately upon noticing they were trying to kill themselves.
Superboy8338
WAY TO GO VAN AND THANK YOU, YOSHI!!!
Superboy8338
That’s another bunch of annoyances out of the way.
Rogal Dorn
And so the filth is cleaned
IRONMAN000elas
im just wondering how much of a trump card is amemiya’s daughter and banda are in front of amemiya cause when she will die she will reincanate in lambda and amemiya coming there in order to kill vandalieu will find his own daugther and maybe son too leaving their lives to the fullest with Van that would be hilarious
VEreality
You shall stop right there! Stop whatever you are doing to my kids!- said Amemiya while entering the castle.
Vandalieu stops moving while holding plates with Mei and Hiroto’s favorite food. He then walks away from the kids.
Van: Sorry kids. You heard your father.
Mei and Hiroto: oh come on! DAD!!!
Jonathan Hurd
Would be funnier if Mei was playing with Van’s giant tongue like Jadal and Pauvina liked to when they were young, hahaha.
Doc
That would imply that his daughter would die before him. I don’t see Ameniya living a full life to old age what with Avalon’s various schemes put in motion in Origin. Which would make his daughter still a little girl by the time he likely dies to become relevant to Van’s story.
Also how would his daughter even get to Lambda? The members of the 8th guidance’s souls were grabbed by the god of Space before they could go through Rodcorte’s system. Otherwise everybody else goes through his system upon death. I guess it’s possible that being connected with Banda would mean she goes through Vida’s network of reincarnation instead but then she’d be born as one of Vida’s races and as a newborn without memories.
TheTrueDeathGod
Mei is part of Vida’s circle of reincarnation because she was guided by Van and Banda, one of Rodidoit’s familiar spirits said so when the were checking the error in Origin’s circle
Dyneamaeus
Exactly. Eighth guidance had his mana but needed divine assistance to cross worlds. Mei has an actual piece of Van’s now-divine soul, which should work as her ticket.
Personally, I’m curious to see how old Mei gets before she inevitably dragged into Avalon’s scheming. On the one hand I don’t doubt for a second that Banda’s going to find himself in some kind of drawn out shadow war with Avalon’s secret faction. I’m also fairly certain that Amemiya catching wind of it will be the start of the fight that brings them all to Lambda. So the question is how long will Banda be able to keep it under the radar.
Doc
How would Van being a demi-god now be her “ticket” in? Banda is a version of Van before he acquired that status so Banda doesn’t have the ability to do anything to Mei’s soul.
I do agree Mei and Banda will likely play a big part in whatever Avalon is scheming but I don’t see how she could make her way to Lambda and still have her soul remain the same. If she went through Vida’s system of reincarnation she would be reborn as one of Vida’s races with no memories of being Mei in Origin. She’d likely still have Banda attached but she’d be a newborn.
Dyneamaeus
A solid point, but if we assume that Mei is bound to Vida’s system(which might actually be questionable as I’m thinking about it) then her soul would be brought automatically to Lambda in order to be reincarnated because as far as we know Vida’s system is Lambda-only. Since Banda is Vandalieu, he would know the location of himself, and by extension Mei, as soon as Banda arrives. Even assuming that Banda personally can’t just hop off the reincarnation train with Mei in tow when they arrive, once in Lambda Vandalieu should still reasonably be able to do something. If Vida’s system can bring her to Lanbda, then Banda, Vandalieu, or both being able to interfere before she’s actually reincarnated is kind of a given.
Of course, there’s a pretty big unknown factor here. We know for a fact that Mei is attached to Van, and for that reason it’s assumed that means she’s in Vida’s system. Thing is, the source of that info is Rodent-cart, and all he knows for certain is the souls have left his system. He’s assuming they’re going to Vida. I’m gonna go read Vida’s awakening again to check, but I don’t think we’ve gotten confirmation on whether Van is actually guiding souls into Vida’s system. Everyone we’ve seen die or reincarnate so far has had their soul go through Van, and it wouldn’t be the first time Roe-on-carp was wrong about something.
Doc
Van’s numerous “guider” jobs and his status as a holy son of Vida mean everybody he guides leaves Rodcorte’s system and becomes part of Vida’s. That much is known for sure. Van has no power over the souls themselves (that isn’t completely accurate. Like he did in his dreams, he can impart gifts to his followers directly to their souls but he still doesn’t have the ability to directly decide where they go). Which means even if Mei reincarnates in Lambda and Van becomes aware of her through Banda (who I assume would be able to communicate with Van at this point much like the familiar spirit clones Van has in his companions) she would just be a baby with no memories. It takes a full God to take the soul and reincarnate it without that memory loss process.
Dyneamaeus
See, I’m not so sure. It’s a bit of a pet theory at present, but I thinks it’s very possible that as Van himself doesn’t differentiate between the living and the dead, his guidance doesn’t either. Everything we’ve heard about guider jobs implies they are based on the holders beliefs, and we know his guidance works on the dead. So far we’ve never seen anyone actually pass on into Vida’s system after being guided by Van. Couple that with the fact that Van has already personally reincarnated several people and it seems likely that he IS his own reincarnation system. That also means that if Van does get to reincarnate Mei she should keep her memories. The only person he’s done that for who hasn’t is Pauvina, and it was somewhat implied she chose not to keep them.
Eddy
Isn’t that exactly why Robcorte and Arda are so terrified of Van, why are people from the reincarnation circle going through? For that reason they cannot see the people who have been guided by Van, even the familiar spirits confirmed that Mei is no longer in the circle of incarnation
Doc
We know people are going into Vida’s system because Rodcorte tells us this a few times. All the humans Van hangs around long enough that he guides were essentially viewing glasses for Rodcorte and his new reincarnator spirit employees/slaves to spy on Van up until they were guided to Vida’s system.
Also the reincarnation Van did a few times isn’t really the same thing as Vida, Rodcorte, or the former demon King’s networks. He was taking a dead soul and stuffing it into an unborn fetus. In the case of Pauvina it was the baby the noble orc had with her former body. Similar thing was done for the minotaur impregnated women. In every case Van didn’t pull some far off soul and give it a brand new vessel that was no different from the old one. And by the way, this kind of pseudo-reincarnation obviously has its issues. Pauvina couldn’t remember most of her past memories (granted she was just a spirit for awhile) and the part minotaur girls also appear to have personality issues.
Doc
Being in Vida’s circle of reincarnation doesn’t alter the problem I brought up. She would just be born as one of Vida’s races without memories of being Mei. Banda is a version of Van before he became a demi-God, as such Banda can’t bring her soul to Lambda the same way the god of space did for Legion’s personalities.
ExplodingPenguinDood
I assume they could bring mei to lambda by actually taking her soul from origin with the help from the genie or space time god or the one who brought van there the first time
Lord Rin
Her soul will end up in Lambda because she is part of Vida’s circle. Rodcorte has no power over souls from different reincarnation circles. He can’t just pluck her soul and hold it hostage or anything because of that and her soul would automatically travel to Lambda. Rodcorte is unable to interfere with souls from different circles. That’s just how it works. For instance Zuruwarn had to negotiate with EARTH’s gods so that he could summon the 7 champions to Lambda and transfer their souls from whatever circle of reincarnation EARTH had and place them in Rodcorte’s circle. That’s why the Inspector, Calculator and Oracle are hoping more of the Bravers get guided to Vida’s circle because then Rodcorte wouldn’t be able to use them against Van and they’d be safe from having their souls devoured.
Doc
…I’m not sure how this is a response to anything I said. I never doubted how Vida and Rodcorte’s system works nor do I state that Rodcorte would try to get her soul. I said Van specifically can’t reincarnate Mei in Lambda. Somebody said that Mei is already out of Rodcorte’s system because of her connection with Banda according to the story which means she would end up in Lambda eventually but what I’m saying is then she’d just be born as one of Vida’s races with no memory of being Mei in origin like every other normal reincarnation works. It requires special circumstances for them to keep their memories and sense of self. Rodcorte did it for the reincarnators from Earth to origin and then Lambda. The god of space did it for the 8th guidance members into Legion.
TheTrueDeathGod
Vida and the gods of origin will more in likely intervene like they did with the eight guidance
Cydean
Honestly given how long it’ll probably be before cheat boi dies, I think it’s probably more likely that Narumi will find out about Banda throuhg Angel and they’ll have to come to terms with Banda, who probably wouldn’t lie about being a spirit clone of the Undead. Banda will already be close to both kids by that point I’d assume, and since he’s a spirit being it’d be hard to do anything to him in the first place. I’d say that they’d be grateful to Van unless something happened to where Banda was somehow recalled and Mei or Hiroshi was hurt as a result.
On the other hand, if Van is ever able to world-hop safely without descending as a giant soul monstrosity (like when Zuruwarn took him around last time), then there might be some issues lol. If I were Van with Banda’s information once Avalon starts hanging around the kids, deleting Avalon would be a high priority. Death magic is Van’s domain, and you do not poke the death god or his favorite kiddos!
Kiriaru
Awesome. Now to clean up the messes that were made and absorb the demon kings bone marrow.
VEreality
Me at the start of the chapter:
-F-ing idiot is going to die fighting. Even when he dies he is such a jerk.
Me at the end of the chapter:
-Yes. Do it. He shall have no satisfaction from this epic battle. He death shall be as useless and pathetic as his life.
On a real note now, I really want to know how his death is going to change anything within the ranks of Alda’s gods. The return of Bashash (that one goddess who looked too much at Van’s paintings) perhaps.
Thank you Yoshi-sama!
Jonathan Hurd
This is definitely going to shake the crap out of Alda’s forces. Losing Curatos hurt, but that was a complete random accident. Add in that Curatos was never a Warrior God so it wasn’t so strange that Van could kill him.
Fitun on the other hand was supposed to be a leader for War against Vida and Evil Gods. He also lost in a battlefield he set up himself after purposely preparing to fight. Add in that he has lost so one sidedly he didn’t even manage to take anything with him. I’m looking forward to the Side Chapter about Alda’s side, hehe.
nadirku
I also wonder if/how they will factor in that the “evil” Demon King won while defending a city full of people from the rampaging monsters loosed by the “heroic” god Fitun… .
Bob, Son of Bob
It’s not just the loss of Fitun, either. Fitun pretty much fed himself and almost all his heroic spirits directly to Van after giving them a ton of experience and skill ups. So the balance of power isn’t just a loss to Alda’s forces, it’s a huge blow to Alda and a huge boost to Van/Vida.
Rean ColdSteel
Thanks for the chapter and nice one Van, killed that little b**** Hajime Fitun like he deserved.
Devimon
I really wanted the stat level up (this just mean the battle still on going)
Jonathan Hurd
I think there might still be a few Heroic Spirits to round up. The ones in front of Morksi Gate and the one fighting Miles. After that’s done I think Van will be choosing a new job again so I think till then we’re not going to get Van’s stats/skills.
Matchu
I think they would just chalk it up as ‘a necesarry sacrifice’ of course not All of Them are gonna agree but thats mostly going to be the gods that still have a bit of human in them
Darkhelios
Things are looking bad for Alda. After all, Fitun&cie were quite a major part of his military strength. Now he will have to fully rely on Heinz and his group or wait for Rodidiot’s champion (Amemiya) and hope for the best… While, in the meantime, Vandalieu will continue to become stronger.
Jonathan Hurd
I don’t think Alda was ever really counting on Fitun. All of Alda’s eggs seems to be in reviving Bellwood. Everyone is just a tool to helping him wake Bellwood up. That includes Heinz. I think he intends to make Heinz wake up Bellwood and them become a host for him and Fitun was just being used as a distraction.
I think as far as Alda is concerned everyone is replaceable except for Bellwood and him. I mean Fitun was originally a human who was ascended. Given a few thousand more years a replacement should be able to be found.
Ozarazil
I’ve always thought that that was weird, Alda is such a Bellwood simp that is almost creepy…
Plaird
It’s been hinted at a few times that Bellwood had some sort of charm ability it’s possible that Alda has been completely brainwashed
Dyneamaeus
I’ve lately hit on an idea that I think would be super interesting. What if Bellwood was actually a really good person? I mean, there’s been something of a buildup of his character as an extreme eco-warrior anti-civilizationist or some such, but what if that was only a misunderstanding? Perhaps he was advising steady, safe advancement to avoid damaging the worlds societies, and since the Alda faction didn’t have the same frame of reference they went extremist with it. Sort of like what Gufadgarn did with the elf girl comment. Bellwood’s been effectively dead for the majority of Alda’s reign. It would be very amusing when he awakens to find he’s completely horrified by the stuff Alda’s done in that time.
Tejing
It’s not really “the majority”… it’s half. Bellwood went down 50k years ago, so he was around and involved in all this stuff for the 50k years before that. Also keep in mind Bellwood was the biggest advocate for attacking Vida and her children.
Jonathan Hurd
A big thing to remember is that Bellwood was at the forefront of trying to kill Vida. It was his idea to begin with and his plan to kill her because she’s become corrupted.
A problem with Alda taking Bellwoods words out of context is that he has been following Bellwood to the letter for years. He even had someone like Curatos record everything Bellwood said exactly so he could always rehear it.
I get where you’re coming from with maybe Bellwood could be good. I will say though I don’t think Bellwood is evil. Misguided and drunk on his own righteousness? Yes. I think Bellwood whole heartedly believes in what he spouts and says it with the best of intentions. That’s not a bad thing in itself.
He doesn’t really listen to others or take other peoples opinions into account. This too is also not really that terrible of a trait overall. The problem for me is that Bellwood is obsessed with Good versus Evil, and he has decided he is on the side of good so anything that opposes or disagrees with him is evil.
This belief was why he was so ready and willing to turn on Vida immediately after the war with the Demon King. She didn’t follow him and join hands with him therefore she must of been evil and must be destroyed.
Doc
I agree with much of this. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, but there’s a character from that who reminds me strongly of how Bellwood has been described so far. This character, Kouki, had a warped sense of justice and if something didn’t fit into his idea of what justice was it was either wrong or not worth considering. He would spin narratives so that any opinions would fit his world view and if they didn’t he would reject them. This character was essentially given the Amenyia treatment from this story in that he was given the hero treatment immediately upon entering the fantasy world his classmates found themselves in which only fed into his warped sense of justice problem.
This is how I see Bellwood. He was summoned to another world. Given great power and told he was essential to saving their world from a great threat. He let that responsibility get to his head and figured anybody else who didn’t join him in the cliché hero’s journey was not to be trusted (which is what happened with Zackart)
Where Alda fits into this is that all he cares about is restoring the planet back to a time before Guradanis (before Vida’s races even) and in adopting some of Bellwood’s ideas since he believed Bellwood when Bellwood talked about the problems of Earth and how to avoid them in Lambda.
Jonathan Hurd
I’ve read a descent bit of Arifutreta. I definitely can understand comparing Kouki to the likes of Ameiya and Bellwood. I will say though that Death Mages writing is a bit higher quality though.
Kouki was a bit of a one note idiot who had basically twisted everything in his head through denial. I feel like Bellwood and Ameimiya have better setups and growth as characters.
The things to keep in mind with Bellwood is in his original world he was an Eco Terrorist. From the get go he came from a place of ‘it’s okay to hurt people if it’s to help the world’. You can kind of see this stance reflected in his decisions and policies often times.
He had no problems turning on his old allies if he thought they were going to hurt the natural order. His first instinct isn’t to talk things out and reason otherwise he wouldn’t of joined a terrorist group. You can also see this in how vehemently against Gun Powder being made he was. Ignoring the fact that with ranks, levels, skills, and magic gun powder is basically useless as a weapon.
For Amemeiya it’s pretty clear he is just one guy who is stupidly in over his head. All of his moves make sense and were thought through at least to some degree, but the biggest issue was it was only the thoughts of an originally fifteen year old boy. There was no way he could understand the long term ramifications of his actions.
In the short term it makes sense. The fact is the world governments were getting suspicious of a lot of them, and there were no assurances they wouldn’t ‘suddenly disappear’. Making an organization to declare their neutrality and also consolidate their position makes sense. This was a good starting point but he really needed to think about their end game.
They never really decided on where to draw the line for themselves. Therefore they started taking on more extreme responsibilities as time went on without thinking about the consequences. They started out as super heroes saving people from natural disasters.
Going out and fighting the Undead probably felt like a natural part of being a super hero. Someone made a Frankenstein monster and you the brave heroes need to put it down. Problem was while they were having fun playing pretend they didn’t understand the weight of the responsibilities they were taking on.
Ironically I think that the ever increasing burden Amemeiya gains with each failure makes it harder for him to see the next pit fall. For instance he was so consumed with guilt over the secret of the Undead being a reincarnator that he didn’t properly handle and lead the fight against the Eighth Guidance. That then lead him to having even more guilt losing more friends further hampering his sight.
Doc
I recommend continuing to read Arifureta. Kouki is given much more depth later on (especially in the web novel after the events of the main story). And while I agree Death Mage’s writing is more comprehensive, I really wouldn’t say a character who is referred to every once in a while “has more growth” then one of the main characters in another story. Kouki might have a simple outlook on life but just through sheer numbers of words on page its more detail than Bellwood’s few details we’re given.
Also where are you getting Bellwood was formally an eco terrorist from? I don’t recall that backstory. I feel like you’re inserting your interpretation of his character in place of what was actually written. From what I remember reading, Bellwood was not against gunpowder because he valued the planet more then the people on it. He didn’t think the people summoned from Earth should interfere with the technological development of Lambda. He also believed things like gunpowder led to higher casualties on Earth. He rejected Zachart’s idea to use nuclear weapons because of environmental concerns but that’s also understandable. His viewpoints came from wanting to protect people, not because he hated them. Like the comparison with Kouki, he had a simplified black and white viewpoint of the world.
And as stated before, Alda is for genocide. Bellwood may have fought Vida’s subordinates but it was Alda who wanted to return everything to before she created them.
Jonathan Hurd
I misremembered eco terrorist. What I was misremembering was the line in Volume 3 Character sheet: “He had a handsome face and a charisma that attracted people, was successful in his studies and possessed athletic ability. He was a person blessed with many things, but after he began focusing on radical nature conservation activities, people drifted away from him.”
I think I did this a while ago too. Need to work on that one, lol.
Tejing
Bellwood was an “environmental activist, university student, and passionate speaker”. Nothing in the story says he was an eco terrorist, though the community around the novel describes him that way sometimes because of how he turned out in Lambda.
Lord Rin
He may not have been one but he probably wasn’t far from becoming one before getting summoned to Lambda.
Doc
I feel like that’s projecting. It’s quite a leap to go from “environmental activist” to full blown eco terrorist. We’re really not given enough information on Bellwood for people to be making that kind of leap of logic. From what I remember reading he really didn’t seem like that bad a person. He was misguided, yes, but it’s not like his concerns had no basis. Introducing technology to a society which is not advanced enough to handle it is a very valid fear to have and he’s correct that things like gunpowder, factorization, nuclear weapons, etc led to massive amounts of death and major environmental hazards.
Where he went wrong was thinking that there was no validity in turning members of the demon King’s army to their side like Zackart and Vida wanted to do and that he needed to treat Vida as an enemy just because Alda said so.
bk3k
Bellwood did push to “restore the world as it was before” the invasion although Bellwood never once saw that world. However Alda had his own ideas that aligned with that – to destroy Vida’s circle of transmigration. Which involves mass genocide of all those connected to it. I assure you if you view Alda as some victim of Bellwood… you are quite mistaken.
Jonathan Hurd
Oh don’t get me wrong. Alda is a big God and able to make his own decisions. Even if he was charmed by Bellwood, Bellwood has been sealed for over 50k years. That is a long time to work on your own. The fact also remains that even if Alda was charmed when he did some of the stuff that doesn’t mean he gets to shirk responsibility for his actions. He also has never once tried to make amends with Vida his own sister. Even deciding to try and knock her down from Godhood to get his way.
Farmaun Gold already showed its possible to break away from Bellwoods influence after he’s gone and try to make amends. So its not that Alda can’t its that he won’t.
My biggest issue with Alda is less that he was led astray and more that he refuses to take responsibility for anything. There seem to be signs that he realizes the path that he is on is wrong, but he’s to scared to admit that wrong doing that he just keeps adding to those sins. Basically Alda is trying to wash the blood off his hands by dousing them in more blood.
My problem with Bellwood was more along the lines that he arbitrarily drew the lines of good and evil and was willing to turn on anyone including his former comrades.
bk3k
I don’t want to go into spoiling much, but the case is that Bellwood really was misunderstood most of all by himself. The evil god of sinful chains IMO is a far greater hero. Alda thinks somehow Bellwood was struck down by the evil god of sinful chains. But the truth is even better than that, and something Alda simply cannot imagine. That part of the story where they really cover this is… satisfying. But I don’t want to spoil it. I greatly look forward to when it is properly translated, though that won’t be soon.
Lord Rin
Y’know I bet Alda will claim that Fitun’s actions were not something godly so Alda can keep claiming the moral high ground and keep presenting himself as the ultimate good god but for all the denouncement of Fitun, I bet he will try to do the same exact thing: have Heinz become Bellwood’s host and then have Bellwood completely take over Heinz’ body. That’s just the sort of tone-deafness I’d expect from Alda.
Jonathan Hurd
I honestly think having Heinz be Bellwood’s host was the plan from the very get go. Now I think he might try to convince Heinz to hand over his body for the greater good more than brute force it like Fitun did. If only so that Bellwood doesn’t go out like Fitun did, lol.
It should be interesting though. Allowing a God to inhabit your body isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That is what Darcia and Vida are doing. The problem more lies in the method. Vida is basically a guest in Darcia’s body and they work together. Fitun was more a burglar.
I think Darcia and Vida’s method is probably the best way to go. They took full advantage of each persons strengths to go to greater heights. Darcia handles combat abilities and Vida handles the magic.
Fitun basically ignored everything Hajime had to offer other than his cheat skill and then tried to restructure Hajime to fit himself.
Will be interesting to see if Bellwood would follow in either of their footsteps or go a completely different route instead.
Ozarazil
At this point i don’t think that even Amemiya will be a threat. I think the last boss will be either Alda, Rodocorte or Rokudou. I mean look at this mess, 4 reincarnators. One of them could see the future and the other was possesed by the God of War and even in the middle of that hell Van had the audacity to grab a snack. When Amemiya finally dies Van will be far too monstruous to be hindered by Amemiya.
If all of them were to go at it together, all of the reincarnators that still work for Rodocorte it might be a whole other matter. But they are scattered all over the place. They go and fight Van selfishly and separately and even more, relying solely on their cheat abilities (that at this point in the game are just normal abilities, calling them “cheat” is an overstatement)
Tejing
Well, we still don’t know about many of Amemiya’s cheats. Some of them might be a big advantage. Also, I don’t think it’s at all certain that Amemiya will be an enemy. I agree there’s no way they’ll all work together though. Rikudou’s done too much to drive everyone apart.
Doc
Amemiya has a cheat ability which allows his attacks to ignore any and all defenses. He’s got more cheat abilities as well but that one alone will be tough for Van to come up with countermeasures for. It’s not like gungnir which requires an explicit target to be defined which allows for Van to simply use a different method to attack. None of the demon king parts or Van’s skills can be used as defense against an ability that just ignores all of that.
Honestly the only way I see Van dealing with Amemiya is through talking with him. I honestly don’t think Van could win in a fight, even at his current broke power level. That ignore defense ability is just too difficult to deal with.
Jonathan Hurd
To be honest pierce all defense sounds OP until you remember that’s basically exactly what pieces of the DK and Orichalcum do already.
Another part to remember is vitality. In Origin or earth one good bullet could probably kill someone so one shot with that would be amazingly deadly. However in Lambda you need to exhaust the opponents Vitality fully to kill them. We’ve seen pure breed vampires regeneration from just a head. Going to need more than just defense piercing to put that down.
Also just thinking about it but I think there is a very simple answer to fight the defense piercing. Attack. Unlike Gungnir it can’t select to go through your attacks it can just pierce your defenses. So if Van is shot at with magic he just needs to fire magic back, block attacks with attacks, dodge, or eat the hit and regen. I think Van can probably handle that cheat.
Doc
Amemiya’s ability is not like DK parts or oricalcum weapons. Those are able to damage Van, not ignore his defense completely. His ability allows him to take completely free shots directly at Van’s vitality or soul (assuming Van splits off from his physical body) regardless of whatever Van tries to do.
Also just having a large vitality base isn’t really a factor here. Yes, he likely can’t be offed in a single hit but what difference does it make if Van can’t defend himself from attacks. I’m not really sure if counter attacking would even prevent Amemiya’s ability from reaching him either.
I still think the best chance Van has in this scenario is simply talking things out. Amemiya’s wife was the person Van initially tried to save. A piece of him has been protecting his daughter (which Van is aware of). And unlike Bellwood it seems like Amemiya does listen to others when making decisions. There should be more than enough common ground for Van to prove he isn’t the reincarnators’ enemy and that Rodcorte can’t be trusted.
Lord Rin
Ignore Defense only works on the Defense stat. Vitality is an entirely separate defense stat. It had already been discussed among Van’s friends.
Ozarazil
Well we just saw Van getting his neck almost cut off, his torso bursted, a chopped off arm and used his own body as a meat shield to protect the city from Fitun’s shockwaves and it seemed that he still was pretty far from being killed.
Yeah piercing defense sounds really op, but will Amemiya be able to hurt Van enough to kill him before Van does something? And Van’s army just won a battle agains’t an entire army of Heroic Spirits led by a god, how much exp will that make?
Also Van has something that Amemiya doesn’t have (well as far as we know) the parallel thinking and super rapid thinking skill o whatever. Those 2 inhuman skills that only Van can do because he has like 100 DK subbrains scattered all over his body,
My theory is that Amemiya will be made Bellwoods vessel.
Tejing
I commented on this in reply to your earlier post, but just to clarify for anyone reading this exchange, the blocking attacks with attacks thing is officially explained as a weakness of the cheat in the story, specifically side chapter 19.
Tejing
Side chapter 19 says:
It’s not like it’s impossible to defend against. You just have to actively intercept the attacks with your own attacks, which Van would have no trouble doing.
On top of that there’s the possibility of dodging, as well as the defensive advantages of high vitality and high regeneration which aren’t possible in Lambda.
All told, I think ignore defense is actually pretty useless in a fight against Van. It’s only enough to force him to alter his approach somewhat, not enough to be an actual threat.
Jonathan Hurd
I’m with you on that. To stop Van dodging you could try to take innocent civilians hostage like Fitun did in this chapter, but I feel like that would hurt Hiroto’s conscious too much and still not stop Van just matching blow for blow.
Tejing
huh… just happened to be rereading this comment and realized I wrote “aren’t possible in Lambda” when I meant “aren’t possible in Origin”… that was probably confusing to read >.<
Lord Rin
I don’t think Amemiya would even be Van’s enemy. I mean he named his kids after the two most well-known Death Attribute users. Hiroshi is an alternate way of pronouncing the name Hiroto which is Van’s previous name and Amemiya internally confirmed it was referring to Van. Mei meanwhile comes from Meiousei which is the Japanese name for Pluto and Mei itself means “Dark”. Then there’s the fact that Mei is a Death Attribute user who is being protected and taught by Van’s alter ego Banda who is also thinking of teaching Hiroshi no-attribute magic. Also there is the fact that Van did try to save Amemiya’s wife in their previous lives. I think all of that would be enough to at make Amemiya hear out Van first instead of fighting him and that it’d open up the possibility of him getting to know Van isn’t an enemy. Sure Rodcorte wouldn’t like that and might try to convince him but he’s incompetent so I highly doubt he’d be able to convince Amemiya that Van is an enemy.
Jonathan Hurd
Those points are all true, but we shouldn’t forget that Hiroto has been thinking the Death Attribute should have never existed. Like when he was on the mission to capture Pluto and the rests bodies.
He also doesn’t yet know his daughter has Death Attribute mana. I am looking forward to seeing how he internally deals with that and if that changes his view on things at all.
It is possible by the point he dies in Origin and gets full information he might at that point just blame Van for all the things in his life that went wrong. It was killing Van that started the Bravers down the anti terrorism path. Van gave the Eighth Guidance their powers when he helped them. He might think Hijiri wouldn’t of gone so crazy for power if not for Death Attribute Mana.
Of course we all know that none of the fault of all this really lies with Van, but its hard to tell if by the point Hiroto passes on he will be mentally stable enough to accept that. All in all a bunch of things to look forward to.
Ace o laemons
for the boku and ore problem perhaps u can try to use “the humble me” and “the great me ” or something to make it easier?
Thk
I mean at this point it kinda doesn’t matter right? The situation has resolved itself.
Tejing
That just looks incredibly unnatural. If you wanted to actually make it fully immersive in english, you’d have to make up a reasonable difference in verbal habits in english that could be identifying, and replace the boku/ore thing with that, but at that point you’re almost retelling rather than translating. I think what Yoshi did is probably actually the best approach.
Jonathan Hurd
To me I think Yoshi did a good job making their speech different enough to be able to see changes, but not so different to be jarring. Hajime’s speech being yelling and wild while Fitun being more organized makes a bunch of sense.
Soundwave
As per usual everyone underestimated Van-Sama too much especially Murakami and his cronies at least the people who use to be a part of his team were smart enough to run away than to fight him or they joined him. I can’t wait to see more of the reincarnated individuals come to Lambda I wonder what the next reincarnated individuals plan to do and I wonder now what Nimrod and Alda both plan to do after this failed attempt at killing Van-Sama. Theres a part of me that wanted an actual fight and not a anti-climatic one but its fitting for Fitun to get that sort of death. As for Murakami he was dumb he should have waited longer than to go and fight Van-Sama it was not smart to fight right there and then they could have watched the fight and gotten information on his skills but oh well.
Superboy8338
Their info would instantly become out of date once Van killed and ate Fitun.
Doc
But it is a good point that Murakami had the option of waiting until more reincarnators appeared. They’d likely have more Intel from Rodcorte’s divine realm from them as well. He thought the three of them would be enough and that was his downfall.
Death God
Honestly Murakami deserved what he got. Three lives and he wasted all of them.
Jonathan Hurd
I think there were two problems for Murakami. There was definitely overconfidence that they can win against Van, but I think the bigger issue is a sense of urgency. Murakami had no choice but to join in Hajime’s battle because he honestly doesn’t really have any reinforcements coming.
Any coming Braver’s would be those he betrayed before who will refuse to work with him, or those who betrayed him like Hijiri who he can’t trust. Maybe he could make some kind of deal with them, but he’s already had four of his former comrades betray and run away from him so trust for him is probably very strained.
As far as Alda’s group goes he can trust them even less than the coming Braver’s. I mean look at what happened with Hajime. Add in they can’t really trust Rodidiot to not lose faith in them and decide to just erase their memories and give their bodies to other Gods. Taking this chance was probably the best shot he had. Add in the belief that they could hit their kill switch and escape if things went to bad.
Entropy
Well Murakami and company aren’t really to blame, they wanted to leave the fight as soon as it turned ugly. Fitun just had to stop them, although Van would have stopped them either way. Reminds me of some other villains in a different book. Goes to show what ignorance and arrogance will get you. What I am curious about is how will Alda explain this to his followers. Don’t worry, we won’t turn you into living brain slaves, unless we decide to.
Dyneamaeus
That definitely felt like the key to their downfall. They were convinced they weren’t in any real danger since they could just kill themselves at any point. They didn’t even consider the idea that it could be interrupted, while both Van and Fitun both suspected and were prepared for just such an event.
Bob, Son of Bob
Agreed. From their perspective Murakami and co could afford to be reckless with their lives. They had what they thought were instant, perfect escape options and the protection of a major god. They can’t really be blamed for not knowing how easily their suicide abilities could be sabotaged.
Doc
What I find satisfying is how two of Van’s oldest abilities, abilities he’s had from pretty much birth are still so relevant and make him so difficult of an opponent. His ability to sense death means he has a spidey like sense for when attacks would be strong enough to kill him or eventually lead to his death. And his ability to delay death means even if he, his companions, or even his enemies are about to die, he can prolong that period for as long as he needs (pretty much to the point of immortality).
And even though he has used these two abilities in some form constantly, often in front of his enemies, since they are intrinsic to his death attribute mana and don’t require him to say anything out loud, none of Alda or Rodcorte’s forces are aware he has those abilities.
Mr.Peyton
Thank you!
Dyneamaeus
Worst of all for Fitun, Vandalieu literally took an intermission in the middle of the fight. The supposed war god was such a nonthreat that Van could grab a snack and an upgrade while effectively suppressing him with one hand.
Really liked his misunderstanding with the curse though. It was reasonable, made complete sense, and was very in character.
Jonathan Hurd
I expected Van to eat the Heroic Spirits because they might escape. I did not expect Van to be so relaxed to just go and change jobs, lol.
I like that the misunderstanding was also hinted to throughout the fight. For instance after Densuke told us one of the Heroic Spirits broke some ribs he then switched to Van’s fight where Fitun felt the pain of breaking some ribs.
Entropy
It could have been worse, Van could have asked Fitun to hold his beer while he ate those souls. I am just kidding, you are right. The vampires were fought with more care than Fitun. Alda’s side is look like evil gods now, whereas Vida seems like a misunderstood hero. I wonder how many deities will abandon Alda to join Vida.
Jonathan Hurd
Hey! Van is way to young for Beer. Its ‘Hold my blood and watch this!’, lol.
Doc
Personally I find it a bit confusing to keep referring to all the former demon king subordinates as evil gods. I mean, “evil” implies malcontent, where many of the former demon king subordinates defected to Vida’s side. While there’s still some, like the ones Van’s already faced and destroyed, as well as others in hiding, who still desire power to do evil things I feel like referring to them all with the same descriptor is unfair.
I guess it’s quicker shorthand than to refer to them as “former demon king subordinates” but still.
bk3k
If you prefer, invader gods. They are after all gods who invaded from another world. But there are some that have truly become gods of this world (thus also vulnerable to Alda’s ability).
Valeth
Could just call them Dark Gods or Old Gods as we would see them…
I feel the ones who refused to change should be Evil Gods, and the ones who honored their oaths and aided the gods could be Dark God.
I mean its Alda’s own teaching they should be offered the chance for redemption, and yet he is the one most adamant that they be denied that.
Entropy
Maybe foreign gods would be a better definition than evil gods or invader gods since they are not really as evil as some of the locals or invading any longer since that kind of implies they are still fighting.
Jonathan Hurd
The reason behind calling them ‘evil’ Gods is mostly just propaganda from Alda’s group. Mainly it just means they came from the Demon Kings world. He calls them all ‘Evil’ Gods because to Bellwood and him they all had to be destroyed he didn’t care about those who defected.
I think part of the reason everyone uses it is because Gods are affected by how people recognize them. Since the majority of the human population calls them that. I think it just naturally reflects in their actual name.
If you want to change how we talk about them in the comments section we could go with Van’s God faction, heh.
Doc
I know why Alda’s side would call them that. But everybody refers to them that way. Even other “evil” gods refer to themselves that way. Your explanation about why they’d be referred to that way feeds into the gods’ powers doesn’t really track. Their actual individual names aren’t actually “evil god”, that’s just the descriptor the author chose to convey the gods who invaded the Lambda with the former demon king. Alda’s camp isn’t any stronger because people pray to the ambiguous word “gods”. People need to pray to specific gods for that god to receive power.
My point here is while I said, “it’s confusing” it’s not like I’m actually confused. I just mean it’s a poor naming convention that applies a negative descriptor to an entire group that isn’t necessarily deserving of said descriptor. The names everybody who responded to my comment came up with are all better names for them and wouldn’t hurt the story at all if they were to be used.
Jonathan Hurd
Well remember there are two ways to be prayed to. One is through prayers the other is through fear. For instance the reason Gufadgarn is so strong now is adventurers link her with dungeons spawning and feel fear towards her whenever dungeons pop up. People don’t really pray to her as much as feel despair.
If you ask me there are a few reasons why they’re called evil God’s. The first is they all started as members of the Demon Kings army when they came originally. That was how they were first seen and accepted. Considering what Merribele had to do to change her own image I think they’re stuck with the Evil God in their name unless they risk their life to try to change their form.
For Vidas group it doesn’t matter that their God is labeled as Evil because they would also be labeled as monsters themselves. The only one who refuses to make a distinction is Aldas group and they were never going to change anyways. In fact being feared by those idiots also increases their power so I think it’s to Vidas God’s advantage to keep the Evil God label.
Being an Evil God for Vidas group isn’t something to be ashamed of for them.
Doc
I feel like you’re not tracking the argument being made here. I know why they were originally called evil gods as they were all subordinates who followed the clearly evil demon king. What I’m saying is they shouldn’t all be called that *now*.
Also I’m not sure why you’re being so overly defensive here. Not every decision made in a story is a 100% flawless decision that is above discussion or improvement. In your argument regarding Gufadgarn it still doesn’t apply to this case. Labyrinths are still a specific enough subject. Feeling fear or despair toward labyrinths is particular enough that authority can be concentrated in just a few gods. “Evil” is just too generic a term. You might as well be making an argument that praying to the word deity itself gives all gods power.
Jonathan Hurd
Sorry if I’m coming off as defensive.
To put this as plain as I can. They’re called Evil God of such and such because that’s their name and there is no real reason to change it.
Does that answer your question?
If you want reasons why they probably don’t want to change the name I once again point at what Merrible went through to change her image.
Chiu ChunLing
There’s also the fact that the things they’re gods of are, well, evil.
At least from the perspective of Lambda’s peoples.
But that’s okay. Just like it was the Dark gods of Earth that first gave Van their blessing, the Evil Gods ruling over Evils doesn’t mean they have to do bad things.
Just like Fitun, despite ruling over an aspect of nature that is not inherently Evil, was able to choose to do bad things with his power.
Lord Rin
Personally I’d go with “Outer Gods” since that is what they are: gods from outside Lambda. Plus they are mostly Lovecraftian anyways.
Mossy Stone
It might not be so easy to change, as was explained in Chapter (110).
JeKeBe
Van just chilling with the souls in his cheeks like a couple pieces of hard candy was the part that got me. This chapter was so very satisfying, even if I know that the reincarnators’ deaths are going to give Roderp and Aldork even more fodder to use to whip up the troops to rally round the flag. Even though they were the ones to start it, Van finished it so that clearly makes him TEH EBIL! Haaaah.
Well, here’s hoping that not all of the ones who get reincarnated are as stupid as Murakami and crew.
Jonathan Hurd
Lets look on the brightside. From the beginning Alda didn’t trust the reincarnators, and after seeing how Hajime destroyed Fitun’s chances. I think his trust in them is going to plummet further. As for the Reincarnator’s, looking at what Alda was willing to do to them I don’t think they’re ever going to trust his side.
The death of Fitun and Murakami’s crew will definitely cause panic, but at the same time it is probably going to destroy any chance of the two sides truly joining forces.
D.D.D
what I think rodcorte is going to do now if the reincarnated don’t want to fight is wipe there memories and spawn them in alda churches basically try and brainwash them as alda puppets but because of the spirit clone who is looking after mei-kun some of them are going to be guided into vida’s reincarnation instead.
Jonathan Hurd
Some of the reincarnators were admittedly one step away from guidance. Considering Vans personality I think Banda will definitely look for them if they come meet Mei.
Going to laugh my butt off when Alda realizes more reincarnators are joining Vans side than his. That’ll be an awesome day.
Doc
You’re right that Alda’s side certainly won’t care what the circumstances were. I mean Van was using his own body to defend a city of mostly Alda worshipping humans but there’s zero chance Alda would recognize that.
Jonathan Hurd
Aldas in to deep to let silly things like the truth and remorse stop him now. We are still far from the point that Aldas fellow God’s are going to look at themselves and have to ask… are we the baddies?
IPlayZed
What a delightful ending for that god.
Lucian
How it started:
Fitun: “I’m gonna die a hero’s death.”
How the world will remember it:
[…] thus Fitun “Crybaby” Hajime died a worthless death.
VEreality
Rest in pieces b******. R.I.P!
Entropy
Reminds me of a colonel in Dr. Who, whose nickname became Colonel RunAway. Fitun will probably go down in history as crybaby. Centuries of fighting reduced to one bad day.
Tejing
Murakami and Akira getting done in by Hajime Fitun was easy to see coming, but the specific way it happened was a good surprise. I just expected them to get in each other’s way, but this was way better.
Really a very fitting end for Fitun there. No “glorious” or “thrilling” death in battle, just an execution while miserably begging for his life. Also, it was his own actions coming back to bite him due to him hijacking Hajime in the first place.
I look forward to catching up with Van’s status changes soon. We’ll see what the divine enemy job gave him. The divine enemy skill doesn’t have levels, so I wonder what it will boost? Also, that job was probably leveled up right away from finishing Fitun, so I wonder what he’ll choose next?
Jonathan Hurd
The fight certainly took a turn after Hajime took over, lol. It does really feel fitting that Fitun who tried to drag so many people in to die in a way he saw fitting. Eventually be dragged down by the first of his victims and lose everything he worked for.
Also good to see Hajime go out like the complete and utter scum he always was, lol.
I’m with you on looking forward to Van’s new status. He definitely maxed the Divine Enemy Job after killing a God and a whole bunch of Heroic Spirits, hehe. If I had to guess what he’s gained from the job I think what probably happened is Divine Enemy has evolved into a new skill. Probably something like Divine Slaughterer. Probably a skill that increases damage to Gods even more than before and causes Van to instill fear into enemy Gods. That’s just my guess.
Renrobt
He probably reached max level with his job, but this proped up an idea: What if his growth reaches a point where not even a god like Fitun is enough to max out his level? Well more like when will he reach that point?
Just imagine what kind of power he would have by the time he needs to eat multiple gods per job.
Also I seen others ask whether Van got the reincarnators’ cheats, but I saw no one ask:
Did Van get Fitun’s authority? Curratos didn’t have a thing he ruled over like Fitun so this is a completely new situation. Like he was the god of thunderclouds, and while Van is not wind element, so it’s not like he can properly manage it. Also would this mean that suddenly thunderclouds can’t form? Or just they can but they are now out of control storms all the time? I wonder if Van can then give the authority over to a wind atribute god on Vida’s side, or even just elevate Kimberly to becoming the new god of thunderclouds.
Okay that last one. I know its unlikely but now I hope that happens.
Dark God of Thunderclouds Kimberly.
Also just imagining Alda’s reaction for this, after all this is something only he should be able to do, taking away and bestowing authority.
Jonathan Hurd
I am totally up for Kimberly becoming the Dark God of Thunderclouds in the future, but sadly it is way too early for him to achieve that title right now. I don’t think he’s even hit Demigod rank quite yet so God rank is out of the question for now.
For Fitun’s authority I’m not a hundred percent sure how much effect on actual nature his death will have. They did say there were multiple Cloud Gods so they’ll probably have their burden increased with his loss. I can imagine some clouds going wild, but I think the biggest effect will probably be at the temples. This is admittedly the first time we see a God as high rank and influential as Fitun die. Even Curatos was basically an evolved Familiar Spirit to subordinate God.
I do agree with you that Van is probably going to absorb something from Fitun, but I honestly have no clue what that might be. I don’t think Van’s going to suddenly pick up control of the Worlds Wind Attribute from him though.
The way I see it I think what Alda’s Gods are doing is basically like Atlas. They are carrying the world on their backs. So instead of giving Van something for eating him I think what this means for the Worlds elements. Alda’s group is will have one less person sharing their burden.
When Van eats Gods he definitely gets stats and then basically their Unique skill they specialized in. For example, the Mental Corruption book God’s skill and Curatos’ Perfect Record. There have been cases where Van ate a God and didn’t get any new skills though like the case with Ravivford and the minor Evil Gods Zantark had caught.
I think if Van can’t absorb the reincarnator’s skills normally like how he ate Murakami and Odin. Then he’ll get Hajime’s Marionette skill by eating Hajime and Fitun together, but that’s just my guess.
Renrobt
Yeah I agree its far too early for Van to be able to create what amounts to subordinate gods. The most unique thing about him eating Fitun is that he is the first god that was actually involved in maintaining the world.
And yeah the Nature of Authority is questionable, expending on the Atlas analogy, its more like each authority is a pillar that needs to be maintained. Should no one be able to handle the maintenance it can be divided, like the the authority of clouds being divided to thunderclouds and rainclouds (these 2 are the ones we know but there should be at least 1 more).
But the question is whether these “pillars” are titles/job posts that can be just given and taken away by the boss (Alda in this case) or its more like a skill that Alda has authority to seal away and extract. If the later then its very much possible that the true authority to manage the thunderclouds is absorbed by Van. I do not think he would hold onto for long tho, likely giving it to one of Gods in Vida’s faction, slowly leaching away control over the very world.
Also if its the former, it is likely that one of the gods who have authority over other clouds will get it, which might very well be Bashas, the goddess of rainclouds, the goddess that has already been guided by Van. She is likely fit for the jobas well, as it was 50,000 years ago that Fitun and her were not strong enough to handle the authority of cloud alone. And while Fitun is a war god so warriors and adventurers might pray to him, Bashas is likely far more prominent with masses, as Rain is kinda indispensable for agriculture. Considering this she might even get the whole unified Cloud authority now that there is a need to reorganize anyways.
And considering that she is guided? The Authority might as well have fallen into Van’s lap anyways.
Doc
For the record regarding people guided by Van, it’s not brainwashing. They aren’t beholden to doing whatever Van wants. It just means they’re more inclined to not view him as an enemy and to think positively of him. So it’s not like Van gets Bashas God authority just because she was guided to his side.
It does mean she’s more likely to help Vida’s side in secret and act as a spy in Alda’s midst.
Renrobt
Oh I do not consider it an absolute control or brainwashing. But at the point when someone is guided they can already be considered to be an ally of Van.
But as a counter to my point: We are only assuming she is guided. It is not confirmed whether Bashas is actually guided or only favorable impression was implanted. After all she is being affected by the painting, even if its not a rejection. And Van mentioned that these painting should affect those that are unaffected by his enticement or guidance skills. So it might just mean that she doesn’t consider Van hostile,unlike the other gods.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Van’s painting actually instill his Enticement into a physical form and directs that at the viewer. The reason why people go crazy looking at it is their minds reject the lure and basically their brain starts a war at itself trying to reconcile the part that wants to join his side and the part that abhors it.
Considering how deeply Bashas is looking at Van’s city I think there’s a fairly high chance she is most likely to be on Van’s side at this point. Its hard to tell if she can be truly guided as a God, but if anyone could do that Van’s the man for the job.
Who Cares
You can only get guided once you consider the guider, for a lack of better description, friendly and you willing to listen to them.
That is what happened the first time when Rodidiot lost a whole bunch of souls from his cycle of reincarnation. Those people saw Vandalieu as a savior, not too strange seeing that he did save them, while the people nominally working for Alda were the ones he saved them from.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…