Many thanks to this chapter’s sponsors: Jonathan B. ($80) Andrew A. ($35) David R. ($5) John D. ($10) Felix H. ($20)
Hello readers!
I would like to take this opportunity to talk about my current situation. I have recently been designated as a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case. I have taken a PCR test and tested negative, but I am still required to quarantine until the 15th of January. I will likely do a lot of translation during this quarantine.
At the time of this chapter’s release, the next chapter (chapter 270) is the final chapter of the sponsored chapter queue. At this point it is looking likely that the queue will become empty with my quarantine translation rate. The sponsored chapter queue has not emptied for four years or something (thanks to you awesome people), so I’ve never really thought about what to do if it does.
My three main options are:
- Simply stop translating until more donations come in.
- Translate and release chapters only when more donations come in.
- Translate and release chapters immediately, and have the community fill the donations in for them afterwards.
I have decided on option 3, so a lack of donations will not influence the upcoming chapter release rate (although donations to help me order food deliveries during my quarantine are very welcome!). After my quarantine I will eventually become busy and my release schedule will return to normal, so there shouldn’t be any problem with this (I think).
Thanks again to all of you readers for supporting my translations over the years, and an extra special thanks to those of you who do so in a financial way. This translation literally couldn’t happen without your support!
Yoshi
《You have reacquired the ‘Demon King’ and ‘Dark King Magic’ Skills!》
《Your ‘Demon King’ Skill has combined with the ‘Demon King’ Skill, and your ‘Death-Attribute Magic’ Skill has combined with the ‘Dark King Magic’ Skill!》
《The Demon King’s muscles, sweat glands, crystals, cnidocytes have combined with the Demon King’s body!》
《You have acquired the ‘Self-Regeneration: Cannibalism’ and ‘Augmented Attribute Values: Cannibalism’ Skills!》
《Your Strength has increased by 5,000, your Stamina by 10,000, and your Vitality by 100,000!》
《The Levels of your ‘Monstrous Strength,’ ‘Super Rapid Regeneration,’ ‘Dark King Magic,’ ‘Constant Mana Recovery,’ ‘Thread Refining,’ ‘Strengthened Attack Power while activating a Magic Cannon,’ ‘Transcend Limits,’ ‘Hollow King Magic,’ ‘Precise Mana Control,’ ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique,’ ‘Greater Multi-cast,’ ‘Thread-reeling,’ ‘God Spirit Magic,’ ‘Demon King Artillery Technique,’ ‘Armor Technique,’ ‘Shield Technique,’ ‘Staff Technique,’ ‘God Devourer,’ ‘Demon King,’ ‘Abyss,’ ‘Soul Devour,’ and ‘Group Thinking’ Skills have increased!》
《The Level of your ‘Demon King’ Skill has increased an additional amount!》
《‘Strengthened Attack Power while Unarmed’ has awakened to ‘Augmented Attack Power while Unarmed,’ and ‘Deformed Soul’ has awakened to ‘Deformed Multiple Souls!’》
《You have acquired the ‘Strengthened Attribute Values when Enveloped in a Soul’ Skill!》
Having listened to the long notification in his brain, Vandalieu looked at Zerzoregin’s now-motionless vessel with a complex mix of emotions.
He had regained both of the Skills that had been stolen, and he had acquired four fragments of the Demon King. On top of that, as a result of devouring the souls of Zerzoregin and presumably Forzajibal, his Attribute Values had increased and he had acquired Skills called ‘Self-Regeneration: Cannibalism’ and ‘Augmented Attribute Values: Cannibalism,’ though they weren’t very pleasantly-named Skills.
In my case, would cannibalism be eating another Dhampir? Vandalieu wondered. That would severely limit the number of opportunities I’ll have to use the Skills. I did preserve the body of the Undead Dhampir that I recovered from Ternecia’s hideout, I guess.
Cannibalism was the act of consuming a member of one’s own species. With that being the case, those that Vandalieu could cannibalize were exceedingly few.
To begin with, I don’t want to use it – wait, come to think of it, these are also ‘alike,’ Vandalieu thought, looking at the Cannon-type Demon King Familiars that he had created with his Demon King fragments and Mana.
“Yes, we are ‘alike,’” one of them said. “Would you like a bite?”
TLN: The Japanese word for cannibalism is 共食い/tomogui where 共/tomo means “alike” and 食い/gui means “to eat” so literally “eating (someone) that is alike (to oneself)”
“Well then, just a little,” said Vandalieu.
He took a little of its shell off and put it in his mouth. Naturally, it didn’t taste like anything other than himself, but… at that moment, he felt a small amount of strength rising inside him.
“It seems that the Skill activates on Demon King Familiars,” Vandalieu said.
“Now then, repair me, please,” said the Demon King Familiar.
“Of course.”
After this short exchange of words with himself, Vandalieu created a new part to replace the part he had eaten and repaired the Demon King Familiar.
Now that he knew that the effects of ‘Cannibalism’ triggered from the Demon King Familiars, he would be able to use it whenever he wanted.
‘Deformed Soul’ had awakened to ‘Deformed Multiple Souls,’ and this was likely a large change to the Skill.
Deformed and multiple… What has happened to my soul?
It was complicated and mysterious to begin with, and perhaps it hasn’t changed much other than just having become more complicated.
I think there isn’t much use in thinking about it too deeply.
That’s probably true.
The discussion in Vandalieu’s head ended quickly, and he decided not to pay the matter much thought… He had the feeling that his conversations with himself had become simpler, and perhaps that was one of the effects of ‘Deformed Multiple Souls.’
There was also the newly-acquired ‘Strengthened Attribute Values while Enveloped in a Soul’ Skill; this was likely a Skill that increased Vandalieu’s Attribute Values when his body was covered by his soul, such as when he used ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique.’
There were no problems with the permanent increase in Attribute Values, as Vandalieu’s Attribute Values had also increased on previous occasions where he devoured evil gods. Having higher Attribute Values could never be a bad thing.
Finally, the four new Demon King fragments. One of them was the Demon King’s muscles. It was not fat or flab; it was the tightly-packed flesh found in macho bodies.
It was the kind of flesh that Vandalieu admired.
“I never mentioned this before, but I always wished that the Demon King’s muscles existed and prayed that I would encounter them, and I have finally acquired them,” Vandalieu said.
Vandalieu admired muscles. He considered them to be a symbol of strength. He saw beauty in well-trained bodies, and because he wished to have such a body himself, he had been training his muscles regularly without missing a session.
However, despite his training, and despite the fact that the numerical Attribute Value representing his strength was over 40,000, and despite the fact that his ‘Monstrous Strength’ Skill was Level 5, his body had not become muscular. In fact, it hadn’t grown any thicker at all.
His arms were far from thick logs. His chest was narrow, and there was no visible trace of his abdominal muscles on his stomach. Even his legs were thin. He had believed that this was because of the physical predispositions he had been born with, and because of the laws of physics of this world.
Perhaps because Mana existed in this world, there was a large difference between the numerical Attribute Value that represented Strength and the actual amount of muscle that one possessed.
People like Borkus, Vigaro, Gizania, and Arthur had muscular bodies. However, there were also plenty of adventurers and knights who didn’t look muscular in appearance and yet possessed the strength to bend steel bars as if they were made of clay.
Vandalieu didn’t know what separated the two types of people, but he had considered himself as belonging to the latter.
With that being the case, he had half-given up on acquiring a masculine body through effort alone. That was precisely why he had yearned for the Demon King’s muscles.
“Normally, it would be strange to be relying on Guduranis’s… the muscles of someone else, but if I absorb them like this, they are my muscles. So, I’ll be using them without restraint,” Vandalieu said.
In comparison to this joyful development, the ‘Demon King’ Skill reaching Level 10 was but a small thing.
“Congratulations, Vandalieu,” said Gufadgarn.
“You’re going to use them already?! If you’re using ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique,’ we can’t see any changes in your appearance,” said Orbia.
Vandalieu’s materialized soul was currently covering his entire body like a suit of armor and helmet, so even if he used the Demon King’s muscles, it would be difficult to see any differences.
However, he was currently unable to remove his ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique.’
“There was a lot of smoke produced when Zerzoregin’s crystals fell to the ground, when he collapsed, and when the Cannon-type Demon King Familiars fired, so I don’t think they can see us, but there are probably a lot of people looking this way from the capital. It’s best to be safe,” said Vandalieu.
He had just used the Demon King’s fragments in a very visible manner, created black, skull-shaped flames, and done a number of other attention-drawing things. He had fought against Zerzoregin and defeated him while defending the city, but even so, it would not be good if his face were to be seen.
“Thus, I’ll just do a small, quick test. Demon King’s muscles, activate,” Vandalieu said.
He activated the Demon King’s muscles calmly, but put some force into it. The moment he did, strength filled every muscle in his body.
“… Van-kun? How is it?” Orbia asked.
“We can’t see any difference through your soul,” said Kimberley.
“I can feel that my muscular strength has increased, but it seems that there isn’t any large change to my appearance,” said Vandalieu. “Even though my strength has increased, my arms and chest aren’t getting thicker, and my abs haven’t become visible. Maybe I haven’t put enough Mana into it?”
When Mana was poured into Demon King fragments, they would exert more power, even if the manifestation of that power depended on the fragment. The Demon King’s horns would produce larger horns, and the Demon King’s exoskeleton would become harder.
It was possible that Vandalieu would gain the muscles he desired if he did the same with the Demon King’s muscles.
“That’s… I have a bad feeling about that, so I think you shouldn’t…” murmured Isla, who had poked her face out of Vandalieu’s shadow.
But it seemed that her words had gone unheard.
Deciding to test with his arms to begin with, Vandalieu poured Mana into his right arm.
His arm immediately swelled up.
The light-attribute Ghosts made astonished noises… and in the next moment, with a dull, creaking noise, Vandalieu’s arm burst.
“Arm, explode?!” Rapiéçage said in surprise, also poking her face out of Vandalieu’s shadow.
“… No, that’s not it. It seems that it’s just split?” said Orbia.
Indeed, Vandalieu’s single, ordinary arm had turned into multiple limbs that resembled tentacles.
“Your Majesty, what has happened?” asked Princess Levia.
“It seems that my muscle fibers expanded too much and my arm split into multiple limbs because it was unable to contain them,” said Vandalieu, wriggling his muscle tentacles that were enveloped in his black soul.
It seemed that he was trying to return these into a single, ordinary, muscular arm, but the muscle tentacles continued growing thicker and longer, showing no signs of coming back together.
“I strengthened the Demon King’s bones and skin as well, but all that’s happened is that flexible bones have formed at the center of the tentacles and a rubber-like skin has formed on their surface… For some reason, strengthening these fragments only makes the tentacles more robust. Why…?” Vandalieu wondered.
“The Demon King Guduranis was able to change his form in a variety of ways, but most of them were ways that those of this world would describe as grotesque. Perhaps that is the reason?” suggested Gufadgarn.
“… So, they’re someone else’s muscles after all,” Vandalieu sighed.
“It doesn’t seem to be going very well. However… If you are going to do any information manipulation, it will be time soon,” said Isla.
The smoke had almost cleared. It was only a matter of time before the people of Alcrem discovered Vandalieu and his companions.
After all, a grotesque, hundred-meter-tall giant had been seen here just moments ago. The battle that had taken place here was clearly a large incident that had determined the fate of the capital. It wouldn’t be strange if Dragon Knights were dispatched to check on the situation.
In fact, Bachem, the Guild Master of the Morksi branch of the Tamers’ Guild, and his Great Wyvern partner, had come to the capital at the same time as Vandalieu and was currently staying there. It was possible that the knights had asked him to cooperate with them.
Vandalieu wished to avoid meeting Bachem, whom he had become acquainted with only recently, in such a situation. However, teleporting back to the villa where Darcia and the others were would cause too much of an uproar.
The Mimic Human nest where Zerzoregin resided, the ‘Sacred Wastelands,’ had become nothing more than ‘an ordinary wasteland’ due to Vandalieu’s ‘God Spirit Magic.’ All that was left of the temple was a small amount of rubble –
At that moment, the ground suddenly began to tremble, and the ground upon which the temple had stood started collapsing. Vandalieu used ‘Flight,’ and he and his companions all flew off the ground. Right before their very eyes, the ‘ordinary wasteland’ turned into ‘a wasteland with a deep hole in it.’
“… It seems that there was a large, empty space beneath the temple. So the ground has caved in,” said Vandalieu.
The duke and his allies knew the truth; this place had been a nest for repulsive monsters, so perhaps they would consider it fortunate that it had collapsed without leaving any trace of itself behind.
But many of the people living in Alcrem knew that the ‘Sacred Wastelands’ were the location of a temple of Borgadon, who had sealed the evil god Forzajibal away, and home to the family of Goldie, the ‘Knight of Collapsed Mountains.’
Once they learned of this disastrous scene, they would assume that the evil god Forzajibal had returned and destroyed the wastelands, and some of them would begin panicking.
“When I was at the villa, I never imagined that things would come to this,” said Vandalieu. “Who would have thought that Zerzoregin would make himself so huge…”
“Leaving that aside, what shall we do?” asked Chipuras. “You seem to have promised to help the duke bring things under control.”
“That’s true… I suppose I’ll have the Cannon-type Demon King Familiars put up a smokescreen while I discuss things with the duke and the others,” Vandalieu said.
Gufadgarn’s Teleportation Gate formed a connection in space to the villa. Vandalieu gave a summary of the situation to Darcia as well as the duke and his allies, and then they hastily formed a plan.
And so began the battle to bury the truth.
On that day, the people living in Alcrem saw a legend unfold… no, a story that would one day become a myth.
The Evil God of Pillaging Forzajibal (Zerzoregin) had been seen sinking into a sea of explosions and flames amid thundering noises, but after the explosions continued for a while, his enormous body appeared once more, as if nothing had happened to him at all.
With a terrifying roar, it scattered black flames and lightning across the ‘Sacred Wastelands,’ and even the tough, reckless members of the Mercenaries’ Guild trembled in fear.
The resurrected evil god was destroying the temple of the god that had bound him. The people were in despair, believing that this rage would be directed at this city next.
But at that moment, an even more enormous being than the evil god (Zerzoregin) appeared from the earth. Its appearance was as if it were a mountain that had been turned into a giant. It began an assault upon the evil god, beginning with a bright beam of light.
What was this giant? The surprised, bewildered people learned the answer in a speech addressed to them by Duke Takkard Alcrem, who had returned to the castle and taken command of the soldiers.
“That giant is the incarnation of Borgadon, the God of Mountains, and it was awakened by the family that has protected the ‘Sacred Wastelands’ over the generations, at the cost of their lives!” the duke declared.
Shocked by these words, the people watched the giant fighting the evil god once more. What had been a mysterious, unidentified giant to them was now a great, benevolent god who was fighting against an evil god with no regard for his own life.
“However, Borgadon has not fully regained his power! The fact that his appearance is different from any statue we have of him is proof of that! Even now, his power fades with every attack he receives from the evil god!” said the duke.
The giant, which was supposedly the incarnation of Borgadon, was holding the evil god down with its enormous body, but with every blow delivered by the evil god, a large chunk of his body crumbled, sending earth and sand falling to the ground.
It grew trees on the surface of its body and extended their roots in an attempt to block as much damage as possible, but it didn’t look like it was very effective.
Fear appeared on the people’s faces once more.
But the duke continued to speak. “Led by Goldie, the ‘Knight of Collapsed Mountains,’ the brave Five Knights of Alcrem, the ‘Holy Mother of Victory’ Darcia-dono, and heroes of Vida will head to the battlefield and support Borgadon! They will help the God of Mountains and banish the evil god! Everyone, I want you to believe in our victory and pray to the gods… to Borgadon and Vida! Your prayers will become the strength that supports them!”
Duke Takkard Alcrem’s speech calmed the people, preventing them from falling into panic.
And as the duke had said they would, the ‘Knight of Roaring Flames’ Bravatiyu, the ‘Knight of Distant Thunder’ Serjio, the rest of the Five Knights of Alcrem, Darcia, and the rest of Vandalieu’s allies entered the battle and fought a fierce battle against the evil god alongside Borgadon.
‘Knight of Collapsed Mountains’ Goldie made wobbling, jelly-like sounds as he moved, however, as his role was being played by the Satan Blood Mimic Slime Kühl.
“It seems that everyone is here. This is like playing dolls by myself, which is quite boring, so I’m glad you came,” said Vandalieu with a sigh of relief as he saw Darcia and the others arrive.
He was currently being carried by Rapiéçage, flying two hundred meters above the ground.
“Pauvina, where?” Rapiéçage asked, squinting as she searched the ground for her close friend.
“Pauvina has gone back to the Dungeon in Morksi with Juliana, so she isn’t here. But you’ll be able to see her soon,” Vandalieu told her as she let out a disappointed groan.
As for what he was doing two hundred meters above the ground, he was controlling the evil god (Zerzoregin) and Borgadon.
The hundred-meter-tall evil god and Borgadon, who was even taller than that, were both enormous Golems – fake puppets – that Vandalieu had made using ‘Golem Creation.’
Assuming that the soldiers packed in the watchtowers would be watching the battle, Vandalieu had encased the Golem acting as Zerzoregin with the Demon King’s exoskeleton and applied color using the Demon King’s ink sacs, reproducing the real Zerzoregin’s appearance perfectly.
It wasn’t that he had cut corners, but for Borgadon, he had simply made an enormous Golem with earth and sand… This was because Vandalieu had never seen a statue of Borgadon, and because currently-existing statues were abstract creations, so if he tried to create one resembling them, people would realize that the Golem was a fake.
“Things would have been easier if you were in your ordinary state,” said Vandalieu.
He was talking to the soul that had been left inside his mouth after he devoured Zerzoregin’s soul – Borgadon himself.
“I am truly ashamed. How pathetic… Pathetic…” said Borgadon, whose soul was in the shape of a faintly-glowing sphere, lamenting the shame of having been used by Zerzoregin.
Approximately a hundred thousand years had passed since the time Borgadon was thought to have fallen into slumber, but because he had been assimilated by Zerzoregin and the people’s worship of him had been stolen, he had barely made any recovery at all.
He wasn’t in such a terrible state that he needed to fall into slumber, but creating a physical appearance was impossible, and materializing in order to do battle was out of the question.
“Same as, Chipuras?” asked Rapiéçage.
Borgadon’s presence as a god was so faint that he had been mistaken as a Ghost.
“No, I was never a human; I was a familiar spirit that Botin-sama herself created with the power of the earth and her own Mana, and I ascended to godhood. I may be glowing, but I am not like those Ghosts,” said Borgadon. “Also, my true form is nothing like that of a human… Even if the people of this age were to see it, it is uncertain as to whether they would recognize me.”
“I see. It seems that some gods of this world have inhuman appearances as well, like the God of Shadows Hamul… But maybe I should have built the fake Borgadon to be more durable,” said Vandalieu.
Even as he said that, the two Golems were grappling each other in a contest of strength… or rather, pretending to. The truth was that the fake Borgadon was about to crumble and collapse, so the fake Zerzoregin was supporting it.
It seemed that there were limitations to creating an enormous golem that was over a hundred meters tall using earth and sand alone.
“Maybe I will… send more roots. Van, help,” said Eisen.
She was sending out roots to help connect separate pieces of the Golem together, but it seemed that this wasn’t going very well because the Golems were humanoid-shaped and still moving.
“In that case, I’ll connect the pieces of earth and sand with threads,” said Vandalieu. “Also, do you need some blood?”
“I want some… Thanks,” said Eisen.
Vandalieu produced threads to help support the fake Borgadon while feeding Eisen some of his blood. She had long since become a blood-drinking tree.
Incidentally, the black flames produced by the evil god were being created by Princess Levia and the other fire-attribute Ghosts, and the lightning was being created by Kimberley and the other lightning-attribute Ghosts. The beams of light released by Borgadon were being created by Berkert and the other light-attribute Ghosts.
“Burn, burn!” Princess Levia sang.
“It’s surprisingly hard to make a show of producing ordinary lightning,” Kimberley remarked.
“Baaaaaaaack! And fooooorth!” shouted Berkert.
Of course, they were not actually attacking each other; they were simply burning and shining as they passed back and forth between the two Golems.
Gufadgarn and Yamata were in charge of the evil god’s roars. Gufadgarn was distorting space to amplify Yamata’s voice and make it echo.
“Van-kun, I’m kinda not doing anything, you know,” Orbia complained.
“Ice isn’t very visible from far away, after all. Once Mom and the others start attacking, I’ll be having you and Isla make the evil-god-Golem’s blood, so just wait a little bit more,” said Vandalieu.
Once the evil god was attacked, he was planning to create blood effects with Orbia’s ‘Fluid Manipulation’ Skill and Isla’s water-attribute magic.
“Well then, here’s the main act of this farce,” Vandalieu said.
In this main act, Darcia and the others made a show of performing an intense, focused assault on Zerzoregin, and Vandalieu manipulated the Golem to act the part of a tenacious, persistent evil god.
B-class adventurers of Alcrem, and Bachem, the Guild Master of the Morksi branch of the Tamers’ Guild, took part in the farce with no knowledge of the truth. However, the fact that attacks of regular strength couldn’t pierce the hard carapace of the Demon King covering the evil-god-Golem, and the Golem’s sheer size, fooled them into thinking that they were fighting against an otherworldly being. Nobody noticed that the evil god was a fake.
The people saw the great efforts of the Five Knights of Alcrem, the grace of the goddess who sent a familiar spirit to inhabit the body of the ‘Holy Mother of Victory’ Darcia, and the brave fighting of the heroes of Vida’s races – Gizania, Myuze, and Privel – as well as Arthur’s party, who were potential heroes, and Borgadon, who held down the evil god with everything he had despite being covered in wounds.
The ‘Knight of Collapsed Mountains’ Goldie died an honorable death in battle, and his family in the ‘Sacred Wastelands’ was wiped out. However, thanks to the efforts of Darcia and the others, the evil god was defeated and sealed away by Borgadon once more. Peace had been brought back to the Alcrem Duchy.
And so, the people learned a fabricated story and the truth was buried. Only a limited number of individuals who had been at the villa knew of the truth – the existence of the Mimic Humans and Zerzoregin, the Evil God of Cannibalism.
Because Goldie’s body could not be recovered, his damaged treasured sword was buried in his place at his funeral. His family, including his wife and children, were also replaced by mementos (or rather, objects prepared to act as their mementos) in their coffins and buried with him.
The court mages serving the duke’s house and mages of the Mages’ Guild later investigated the black crystals left in the wastelands and the Mana lingering in the battlefield, but no doubt was cast on this false story.
In fact, their investigations only further corroborated it.
“Even now, there is a terrifying amount of Mana remaining in this area. Simply standing in it makes me shiver uncontrollably. There is no doubt that only evil gods could possibly possess Mana that is this cold and repulsive,” one of the mages remarked.
The new Pope of the Great Church of Alda in the Amid Empire, Eileek, announced that the Demon King was pulling the strings behind the evil god’s resurrection in the Alcrem Duchy, and even within the Orbaume Kingdom, there were some people in other duchies who suspected that the truth had been replaced by a fabricated story.
However, the people of Alcrem didn’t believe them, and the dignity of the Alcrem house and its knights was preserved.
《The Levels of the ‘Super Strengthen Subordinates,’ ‘Thread Refining,’ and ‘Golem Creation’ Skills have increased!》
- Name: Levia
- Rank: 13
- Race: Satan Prominence Ghost
- Level: 22
- Passive skills:
- Spirit Form: Level 10
- Mental Corruption: Level 5
- Precise Heat Manipulation: Level 2 (Awakened from Heat Manipulation!)
- Flame Nullification
- Embodiment: Level 1 (Awakened from Materialization!)
- Augmented Mana: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Super Self-Strengthening: Subordinate: Level 1 (Awakened from Self-Strengthening: Subordinate!)
- Self-Strengthening: Demon King’s Blood: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Strengthening: Guidance: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Strengthened Attribute Values: Creator: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Active skills:
- Housework: Level 5
- Projectile Fire: Level 10
- Possession: Level 5
- Silent Steps: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Long-distance Control: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Shield Technique: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Surpass Limits: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Fear Aura: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Fire-Attribute Magic: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Control: Level 2 (NEW!)
- Singing: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Dancing: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Unique skills:
- Vandalieu’s Divine Protection
- Talos’s Divine Protection (NEW!)
- Name: Orbia
- Rank: 12
- Race: Deep Chaos Broad Ghost
- Level: 80
- Passive skills:
- Spirit Form: Level 10
- Mental Corruption: Level 6
- Water Attribute Nullification
- Fluid Manipulation: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Materialization: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Augmented Mana: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Earth-Attribute Resistance: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Strengthening: Subordination: 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Strengthening: Demon King’s Blood: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Strengthening: Guidance: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Strengthened Attribute Values: Creator: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Active skills:
- Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Fishing: Level 3
- Housework: Level 3
- Dancing: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Projectile Fire: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Long-distance Control: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- No-Attribute Magic: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Water-Attribute Magic: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Earth-Attribute Magic: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Control: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Singing: Level 2 (NEW!)
- Armor Technique: Level 3 (NEW!)
- Possession: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Unique skills:
- Merrebeveil’s Divine Protection
- Vandalieu’s Divine Protection
- Name: Kimberley
- Rank: 11
- Race: Evil Schwarz Blitz Ghost
- Level: 87
- Passive skills:
- Spirit Form: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mental Corruption: Level 3
- Wind-Attribute Nullification
- Lightning Manipulation: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Materialization: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Intuition: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Enlargement: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Strengthening: Subordination: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Strengthening: Demon King’s Blood: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Self-Strengthening: Guidance: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Strengthened Attribute Values: Creator: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Active skills:
- Silent Steps: Level 6
- Trap: Level 5
- Projectile Fire: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Possession: Level 5
- Long-distance Control: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Archery: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 3 (NEW!)
- Dagger Technique: Level 5 (NEW!)
- Surpass Limits: Level 4 (NEW!)
- Unique skills:
- Vandalieu’s Divine Protection
- Garess’s Divine Protection (NEW!)
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Naberisu
Imagine knowing that both mountain-sized giants were made by the demon king, poor duke 💀
Also, Van most likely would be able to move that mountain on Sauron dutchy now.
Sailon
The new Pope of the Great Church of Alda in the Amid Empire, Eileek, announced that the Demon King was pulling the strings behind the evil god’s resurrection in the Alcrem Duchy.
Ok so Alda send a menssage but forget to mention that the evil god had been fooling him for 100 000 and the demon king dint pull strings to ressucted, but in fact destroy the evil god, cleaning the mess he made.
Alke
DK muscles broke💪💔💔tako muscles 🐙🐙🐙. all my condolences, next time… Maybe… Not? 😅
Zenden1st
so i guess van didnt get the pillage skills ability
I guess that would’ve been too OP
Chiu ChunLing
The ‘Sacred Wastelands,’ had become nothing more than ‘an ordinary wasteland’ due to Vandalieu’s ‘God Spirit Magic.’–Except that ordinary wastelands don’t smolder quite that much.
At that moment, the ground suddenly began to tremble, and the ground upon which the temple had stood started collapsing. Vandalieu used ‘Flight,’ and he and his companions all flew off the ground. Right before their very eyes, the ‘ordinary wasteland’ turned into ‘a wasteland with a deep hole in it.’
–…
Treason
I’d just like to point out that Van is staging a super sentai battle between a giant monster and a mech for the people of Alcrem this chapter, even supplying the smoke machine, lights, and special effects with his ghosts and demon king familiars. I’m sure there’s even hit sparks whenever the monster and earth giant hit each other. Hell, they’ve even got the old school fight choreography down where they move in exaggerated slow motions because the actors can barely see through their heavy, cumbersome rubber suits and do a lot of test of strength grappling bits just so they can keep each other from falling down all the time and knocking over the cheap, flimsy sets and sky backdrop panel. All the while the people of Alcrem are holding up their hands in prayer to give the Hero earth giant their energy like Goku’s Spirit Bomb in DBZ.
Randy Rando
I love this comment.
Hobbes
Borgadon needs YOUR help! Do you believe in fairi~ I mean Gods? QUICK, clap your hands together to give Tinker Borgadon the strength he needs!
pandaman
Would’ve been hilarious if he had Borgadon do the Godzilla double legged dropkick
analina
Thanks for the translation, please take care, during this time the cases of covit have increased I hope you are healthy.
Chiu ChunLing
Amen to that.
prnewt
“Yes, we are ‘alike,’” one of them said. “Would you like a bite?”
I can’t anymore 🤣
Marco Hueber
Van: “The DK muscles will make me a macho man, right?”
DK muscles: “About that… yes, but actually no.”
Van: “…”
[You have acquired the Depression Skill]
Chiu ChunLing
Guduranis!!!
DarkCarnage
one day van will get his muscles, even if he has to remake the world’s laws to make it happen i swear 😛
ExplodingPenguinDood
For some reason the increased an additional amount made me giggle 😄 I knew the dk muscle won’t give Van what he wants, it’s too easy 🤣 poor guy probably gonna stay smol for a long time
I had the virus last September and it sucked so bad but thankfully nothing long lasting effects. I hope you don’t get it. Take care always
Jago
I hope all will go well. Best wishes.
I have been a supporter of Light Novel Bastion for years, practically only for Death mage. There is a way to direct the support on Patreon directly to you instead that the whole site?
Yoshi
Sorry, I don’t have Patreon and the current Patreon is for the site. If you would like to donate towards Death Mate translations, it needs to be through Paypal
CyberDre
Hope you get well soon, stay safe and thanks for the chapter!
Bushtuckrman
I had it last month, was literally nothing. I’ve had hangovers that were worse. Just a normal cold, got over it in 3 days. I am so opposed to this nazi authoritarian crap like you wouldn’t believe especially getting it and experiencing it.
Yoshi
Ok, and also it has literally killed millions of people. Just because you didn’t experience severe symptoms doesn’t mean that’s the case for the rest of the population. Maybe think about people other than yourself.
Richard333
Went to do some Math crunching plus comparing Coronavirus to the Flu.
Using the 2018 flu season which was from October 2017 to February 2018 of which is 5 months had 959 thousand hospitalizations and 61099 deaths in the United States, when comparing it to the population of 2018 at the time of 326.8 million the percentage is 0.2934% of the population being hospitalized and 0.01869% of the population dieing.
When this percentage is applied to the worldwide population of 2018 of 7.592 billion we get 22.278 million hospitalizations and 1.419 million deaths.
Coronavirus started in late 2019 so December or November, the total amount of Worldwide Cases (different than hospitalizations) is around 300 million total with Worldwide Deaths being around 5.47 million, the Worldwide population as of November 2021 was 7.9 billion.
Doing some rough Math the amount of Deaths from the Flu Worldwide during roughly the same time frame as Coronavirus and assuming the percentage of deaths stay the same this would result in 4.257 million Worldwide deaths assuming Coronavirus didn’t happen. This is also only the deaths during the Flu season which is only 5 months of the 12 months of the year.
As a result of comparing this data, we can say that Coronavirus has roughly the same, with possibly less lethality than the Flu.
I got these numbers by doing some simple googling. I chose 2018 flu season as it’s the latest data set not affected/influenced by corona.
Ultimately though it sucks if you end up dieing to any disease.
MR_V
While this place probably isn’t appropriate to discuss this, misrepresenting the severity of the current situation is dangerous.
Your numbers show that its worse than the flu. To keep it simple, consider only the USA and the number of deaths. Compared your number of flu deaths 61,099 per year to COVID deaths which for the USA is ~833,988 over 2 years or 416,994 per year. It is a startling comparison, 6 times more deadly.a
Your global numbers are wrong since your projecting data taken for 4% of the global population onto the entire population. To see why this doesn’t work, using the above annual death and your methodology the global covid death estimate would be ~9-10 million, which is 2x higher than the actual.
Jago
To add to MR_V post, if you look at the global data here: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, you will notice that China declares to have had a grand total of 4,636 deaths, a ratio of 3 dead for every million persons. The USA has a ratio of 2,553 every million citizens.
I doubt that China’s data are accurate.
Checking that table, the majority of the nations with low mortality are nations the kind of governments that will try to downplay the losses or third world nations with very little public health services.
Even with the dubious data, the world average is 703 death for every million population. The real number is, probably, double that.
In Italy, the number of dead for million because of the flu is around 113. Considering that the death for COVID where in two years, if we use the low official number the mortality is 3 times that of the flu. If we consider the more probable value of 1,400 death for million, 6 times that of the flu.
And that without considering the long-term consequences. My director had COVID and he had to do 1 year of physiotherapy to recover 98% of his pulmonary capacity. A 2% was permanently lost. Plus some, luckily small, damage to the heart and kidneys.
Jago
I seem I can’t edit my post, so a further clarification here.
Italy, yearly mortality for the flu 113/million, COVID, 2 years, 2,292/million, so yearly 1,146/million.
That is TEN TIMES the mortality of the flu.
Richard333
Honestly any data involving corona is sketchy at best. For example: the United States a 1st world nation with pretty good healthcare has ~833,988 deaths but India which has a population 3 to 5 times greater than the US has 483K. Was hard to find any data on Flu deaths past 2018 with the data did find being from 2019-2020 flu season which was released around April 2020 and from the CDC with completely different wording and a general trend of trying to avoid giving an answer, with the answers being 2 extremes ie:12000 – 72000 for deaths.
Also my global numbers I got for the flu are probably too low, because remember that’s for a 1st world nation, not the rest of the world. So for most of the rest of the world it’d be higher. It’s also only for 5 months of the year and not the whole 12 months.
I’m sincerely sorry if I have ended up offending someone, and this is indeed not the place to be discussing this.
Chiu ChunLing
The problem is that more people would get the vaccine in a timely manner if they left it to the market for people to decide their relative risk-reward instead of having mandates, which do nothing but distort the supply chain and generate pointless resistance.
The people imposing mandates KNOW this, they know that the mandates are actually impeding effective use of the vaccine and increasing the number of deaths, they’re imposing mandates because they want more people to die.
Humble Bumblebee
No one cares how opposed you are to the rules set to limit the spread of a pandemic, you colossal crybaby.
nadirku
Yoshi, I hope you, and any friends/family that were also exposed, or who caught covid-19 are safe.
I had a cousin recently spend a week in the hospital because of catching covid-19… they had held off on getting the vaccine beforehand, thinking they would be “unlikely to be exposed, and thus did not need the vaccine”…I have had a number of other extended family member also come down with covid-19 in the last two months, no deaths yet, and only the one hospitalization so far, as far as I have heard.
Yoshi
Thank you, I’m vaccinated (but with no booster) and with a negative test and no symptoms I’m ok for now
Irazori
Shockingly the aldiot pope was half-right for once. Though it still doesn’t erased the fact that the aldiots still haven’t done a thing that was actually worth a damn, so of course it’s a perfect chance for Vida and Botin’s subordinate to get recognition for things that are mostly true..
Jonathan Hurd
Well remember the reason Aldiots Pope got that position is because he’s especially good at receiving Divine Messages. It’s not hard to be right when your God literally tells you what happened. Now convincing people of that truth… that’s the hard part, lol.
Doc
I find it unlikely Alda told the actual truth to the pope. If he did then the Amid Empire would know Van killed an evil god and saved a subordinate god to Botin.
Lord Rin
It’s not like Alda is compelled to tell the specifics of the truth. All he has to say is that the Demon King was behind everything and that’s all. He can still keep everyone on message in the Amid Empire like that without being forced to admit how his side screwed up and were forced to have Van clean up their mess.
asdsdsffdhffggkl
or just drop it, someone will pick it and not ask $150 per chapter lol, there are lots of translators that do it for free or small donations.
Irazori
A. Shut up
B. The only other translation of this series is long forgotten because of how half-assed it was. We should be thankful this site and Yoshi are working hard to translate with such dedication.
Yoshi
Genuinely don’t understand comments like this. I assume that you don’t donate. So why does it matter to you?
kuraba susumu
would you like to eat expensive but delicious food, or eat free food that tasted like literal shit?
and you don’t even pay to read this novel anyway
the donators do, but not you i bet
Nobody2
Shut up you asshat. Yoshi puts in the effort to make the story work. Good translations take time and effort worth the money.
Tejing
Given that people are willing enough to donate that the queue hasn’t run out in so many years, what do you care? On the other hand, if someone else picked it up, the translation quality would *definitely* drop. Leave us alone. We like things how they are.
Buphido
Been a while since I last thought about the magic types that exist in this world, but iirc there are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Life, Space and Time (and Death with Van of course)?
So Van has Ghosts of 4 of those attributes (Fire, Water, Wind (more like Lightning) and Light), I‘m wondering whether he‘ll ever complete his collection.
Though, thinking about it, it seems a little unlikely, as he already has earth magic covered in the form of golems, space magic would replace Gufadgarn, I can’t really imagine a Ghost of the Life attribute and all that remains is Time. Which is also quite the abstract attribute for a ghost to have.
But we‘ll see I guess.
BurstThrough
He has space ghosts.
Just that they were in too frail of a state.
They are the souls that Gufadgarn stopped from reaching reincarnation likely in an attempt to stop information about the trial from leaking too much. None of those ghosts has a human form so far, as many weren’t even adventurers and even those who were got degraded to nearly nothing. Now they all are deathly afraid of possibly being Martina of the five colored blades.
Irazori
Life Ghosts are rather contradictory. It might be possible if Van found ghost of some healers.
Jonathan Hurd
Orbia the Broad Ghost is more like a mix of Earth and Water than pure water so while not her specialty I think Van might be able to do some Earth Spells through her possibly.
Nobody2
Place your bets people how will Alda and his followers convince themselves that van killing this evil god and letting the mountain god take credit is an act of evil.
Vhncent
I say cuz he used the opportunity to spread Vida’s influence or something along those lines
Irazori
Pretty likely for the aldiots to do that. Especially since they continue to fail at their jobs of destroying the actual evil gods.
Jonathan Hurd
My bets on some long winded speech about leading people down the wrong path and a bunch of nonsense about not being true justice. In the end it will probably just sound like a ton of sour grapes. Especially when you remember nobody on Aldas side noticed the traitor among their midst for over a hundred thousand years, and they needed the new demon king to take care of him, lol.
Doc
I guess Alda or a subordinate god told the Amid Empire Pope to blame everything on Van then?
How dickish of them considering Van is cleaning up their messes. Removed two actually evil gods from play for good. And he recovered one of their comrades safely. Though I assume he’s going to side with Vida after being rescued (well, I suppose he’d side with Botin, but since Botin will likely side with Vida once she’s rescued, he’ll side the Vida regardless).
Van has so far done far more good for Lambda than Alda’s faction has ever done. Van eliminated the evil god of joyful life and his large vampire crime network. He’s reducing the risk of demon king fragments causing chaos by assimilating them. And he’s lowered the number of unstable, chaos bringing reincarnated people, down significantly.
Lord Rin
As expected, the previous Demon King and Dark Mage King skills from Van combined with his newer versions and leveled up.
It’s a good thing that Van’s new cannibalism skills still work with autophagy (self-cannibalism).
Of course it was too good to be true when Van got the Demon King’s Muscles. He thought he’d got a buff body like something from Conan the Barbarian but instead it sounds like he got something from Akira with that wriggly and tentacle-y mass of flesh.
It’s always entertaining to see how far Van will go in fabricating a story in order to disguise the truth. He’s made two giant golems as puppets to play the role of gods fighting each other and having his subordinates help produce special effects. It’s like he’s filming a giant kaiju movie. Pity that Van couldn’t make one of the golems look like Godzilla. Van has even roped in Duke Alcrem and the remaining Knights to make the whole thing more believable while simultaneously also using this to spread praise and worship of Vida since Duke Alcrem made a speech praising Vida’s heroes and insinuating that Borgadon is on Vida’s side. For Borgadon’s part it does look like he’ll join Vida’s faction. He didn’t object when Duke Alcrem insinuated that Borgadon is on Vida’s side and Borgadon was sealed before the schism between Alda and Vida so he has no ideological views tainting him from looking at the Alda/Vida conflict from an objective standpoint and finally choosing a side. Anyways given the amount of support Duke Alcrem is giving Van, I think it’s safe to say that the Alcrem Duchy is going to become a permanent ally of Van and Vida. As for Goldie and the Human Mimics, Van has just made them martyred heroes to cover up the truth about them so that the normal citizens believe they sacrificed themselves to help defeat the Evil God Forzajibal (Zerzoregin). Then the whole thing has gained legitimacy from the testimonies of all the knights and adventurers who unknowingly took park in this farce like Bachem and those mage researchers surveying the aftermath.
Of course Eileek tries to tell the truth but no one believes him. Both because he’s from an enemy country and because Eileek kept the identity of the true culprit vague by just saying that the Demon King was behind this instead of just outright telling them that Van is the Demon King.
Doc
I would assume Borgadon would pick whatever side Botin picks. Though being rescued by what is essentially Vida’s right hand man likely tips things in Vida’s favor. Considering Botin also needs rescuing, it’s likely the both of them will side with Vida (as will Peria who’s just been waiting for Van to do that before switching sides).
no1
YESS! We see that Van got his skills back, they were redundant and ended up combining and neither skill awakened to a superior skill. Van eating his familiars, which essentially him eating himself, hilarious. Also Van’s arm bursting open from misusing the demon king’s muscles. HA, let’s be honest who didn’t see that coming, him being careless due to his muscle fixation. So Borgadon is still alive, could maybe a new ally. The battle is over and Van is still getting stronger. Guess things are going to quiet down a bit for Van and his group. According to the raw web novel, we have one more main chapter after this and 2 side chapters then, what looks like, 2 information summary chapters. Then vol 12. Thanks for the quick release Yoshi, hope to see the next one soon. 🙂
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. Glad to hear that you are alright. So makes me wonder if Van is going to eat the mountain god, probably not. I wonder if he gained any skills from the pillaging evil god since that god’s soul was also eaten. I do wonder if the mountain god will join Vida, but I suspect considering his condition he will vote to stay out of the war between Vida and Alda since he would be little more than a cheerleader in his form. I wonder how long it will take for him to regain his original power. I do wonder if Van would gain cannibal boosts from eating dark elves, demigods, gods, and vampires since he can be considered part of all of those races. In addition he is also a living assortment of plants, bugs, undead, and whatever else he can contain within him so his cannibalistic skill might be more powerful than any other. Considering all of the races he has contained, he might be listed as every known race. I do wonder if he will gain the same boost from eating other reincarnated bravers considering he can be included in that group as well. I guess time will tell.
Dr. Steel
I don’t think the plants/bugs/undead/everyone-else-he-carries will count for the cannibalism skill, but even so it’ll be super powerful if it works on the other races you mentioned! God-bane! I also don’t think Van’ll eat the mountain god, he seems chill.
Doc
Why would Van eat Borgadon? He was having friendly conversation with him. It’s very likely he’d join Vida’s faction or at least wait until Botin, his superior, is recovered before making the choice.
And I’d say it’s unlikely Van would have the skill active for undead, insects, or plants. He is neither of any of those things. He has a job which gives him control over plants and insects but that doesn’t mean he physically is them. Even when he is hiding bug or plant monsters within himself, they’re still separate beings. Same with undead. He technically doesn’t control undead, he charms them. Making them friendly toward him or more willing to cooperate with him.
Lord Rin
Forzajibal’s power probably got integrated immediately into one of Van’s skills. Forzajibal’s power is to take the abilities of others and Van has already shown multiple times that he takes the abilities of whoever’s souls he devours though they usually then get integrated into already existing skills.
Well Van can endlessly spawn new Demon King Familiars to eat so having a greater range of who he can eat to activate the cannibalism skills would be pointless. Besides it’s not like he gains a greater increase in power boost due to any expanding range of targets he can choose for eating.
Jonathan Hurd
Considering Vans history he clearly doesn’t kill people who lack hostility towards himself. Also as you said Borgadon is so weak right now he really couldn’t affect the balance no matter who he sided with.
For the Canabalism I was thinking similar to you that Vans race might specifically be Dhamphir, but he is a distinct mix of God/Vampire dhamphir. So I would assume he might get even more boosts when he uses God Devoured when fighting God’s. I also hope he will get even greater benefits from consuming God’s with the Canabalism skills. If not that then hopefully Pillaging got him something for that.
For the plants, undead, and so on… I think while Van does have a close connection to those groups and is linked to them. I’m not sure I’d say he is them. At least not enough to count as Canablism for me.
An interesting part I wonder is since Van can eat DK familiars and gain stats/regen. Could he eat the cast off parts of DK fragments. Like fired off horns or Bones. This could mean that Van might be able to treat his own blood potions as buff and regeneration pots.
I have to say I never expected Van getting skills related to canablism could be this useful,lol.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Tejing
‘Deformed Soul’ awakened? Huh… I didn’t think skills with no level could awaken. There goes that theory. Has this happened before and I missed it? Or is this the first time?
I knew the Demon King’s muscles were too good to be true. Van will never be muscular… Poor guy.
I guess that ties up the situation nicely for the people of Alcrem. It also sounds like, as a side effect, the Duke and the 5 Knights are pretty much committed to sticking with Van from now on, too. So, finally a foothold in human political powers?
Congrats to Levia on rank 13 and the Embodiment skill. Why does she have Shield Technique though? And Orbia has Armor Technique, and Kimberly has Archery and Dagger Technique… hmm. I’m not sure what to make of that.
Dr. Steel
Further support of the theory that eventually Van’s ghosts will turn into gods? Their main power is their elemental magic, but they’ll also have physical forms and can fight with weapons, combining them with their god-magic to enhance them, or even conjuring weapons OUT of their elements
Lord Rin
Since Levia is already Rank 13 she already counts as a low ranking god. Also they all all have the Materialization or the higher ranked Embodiment skill so they don’t need to go through the trouble of spending a large amount of their power to create a physical body like other gods. That’s one of the main reasons that prevents Alda’s faction from just blorping down to the mortal world to physically fight Van.
Irazori
No it’s a first for a superior no-level skill to awaken. Before “Deformed Soul”, it was “Grotesque Mind” at level 10, and evolved when Van first met Vida in the “Trial of Zakkart”.
Jonathan Hurd
I can’t remember if we’ve seen a similar case to Deformed Souls evolution into a new skill before. The closest example to me would be how the skills like Enhanced Body Part X. Turned into Augmented Body Part X.
To be fair Van has always been a pretty special case. For instance usually rapid healing was not really supposed to be able to become rapid regeneration, but Van managed to cross that threshold.
I’m also interested in what the Ghosts have been training with to get up those skills. Add in some of them learning Singing and Dancing and it looks like we’ll have some very interesting Ghostly Magical Girl Idols soon, lol.
Chiu ChunLing
Of course we’ve seen Skills evolve before…Deformed Soul was itself an evolved form of Grotesque Mind, which evolved from Mental Corruption. Though if you mean this is the first time we’ve seen a third evolution of a Skill, you might be right, but on the other hand I think Van’s had a lot of Skills that have evolved at least twice.
Knocken doing a show with all kinds of Ghosts and backup dancing skeletons would be awesome.