As always, big thanks to this chapter’s sponsor: Delsin D. ($150)
Meanwhile, in Origin, several days after Vandalieu’s twelfth birthday in Lambda…
The people of this world conducted Mana measurements on children after they turned three years old, though the timing of these measurements differed slightly from country to country. Public medical institutions carried out tests to determine children’s affinities for each attribute – which were characteristics that people were born with – and it was required by law to report the results of these tests. That was true even for the children of high-ranking government officials, celebrities, gang and mafia members, and it was true for the children born to parents who belonged to the Bravers.
A week had passed since Amemiya Mei’s third birthday, and her family took her to get the tests done. To the people of this world, the test at three years of age was equivalent to Shichi-Go-San celebrations.
TLN: Shichi-Go-San is a Japanese celebration when children turn three and seven years old (for girls), and five years old (for boys).
The test itself was simple and it didn’t take long for its result to be known. Many families enjoyed a meal at the restaurant or held a party at home after the test, making it a bigger celebration than the child’s third birthday.
Having taken leave from work for this day, the Amemiyas intended to do this as well.
The hospital staff had taken a sample from Amemiya Mei… a sample of cells taken from the inside of the mouth. But inserting this sample inside the machine that extracted Mana rather than DNA had not yielded a result.
“… This is strange. Why isn’t the test result appearing?”
“A problem with the machine?”
“That’s not possible. The machine is functioning normally.”
Machines that measured one’s affinity for each attribute were commonplace in modern times. These affinities generally never changed over the course of one’s life, so these machines were only ever used once for each person, but even clinics in countryside regions and remote islands were required by law to have them.
Operating them was even simpler than an X-ray machine; no special qualifications were required. Anyone could operate them after taking a several-hour course on the handling of personal information.
Maintenance on the machine had been carried out according to regulations, and it was functioning normally today. And yet, Amemiya Mei’s sample – and only hers – had produced no result other than ‘Error.’
“Maybe the sample was contaminated. Can you get them to provide another?”
“Very well…”
The staff had come to the conclusion that they had contaminated the sample by mistake… Perhaps part of another person’s sample had been mixed into Mei’s, causing the machine to not produce a correct result.
In other words, they believed that it was the result of human error on their part. Naturally, they weren’t convinced by this explanation. But given that the machine was functioning as normal, that was the only possibility.
People in this world possessed an affinity for at least one of the seven attributes – earth, water, fire, wind, life, light, and space. These affinities were possible to measure once the Mana in a child’s body stabilized, at around the age of three.
This was common knowledge. An eighth attribute had once been discovered, but to the people of this world, that was like a single albino crow among the world’s entire population of crows, and it was not something that was actually taken into consideration.
One of the staff immediately went to where the Amemiyas were waiting, and after explaining the situation, they came back with another sample from Mei.
With an unusual amount of care and attention to detail, they put that sample in the machine and began the test. But the result was the same ‘Error’ as before.
“What… could this mean? Should we ask for another sample?” said one of the lower-ranking male staff.
“No, the result will probably be the same no matter how many samples we take. It’s likely that the problem is not with our procedure or the machine, but with Amemiya Mei-chan herself,” said the more senior staff member.
“P-problem?!” the male staff member said in astonishment.
The Amemiyas… They were world-famous people and known for being heroes, and the senior staff member was suggesting that there was something happening in the body of their daughter.
But this conclusion was not such a serious one.
“The Mana in her body is likely still unstable. There are individual differences in development, after all. Though it is extremely rare, cases of Mana not stabilizing by the age of three have been reported to the medical association,” the senior staff member said.
“I see. That’s a relief… Then what are we going to do about the test result?” asked the male staff member.
“Let’s have them come back for another test in half a year.”
It was very important to determine one’s affinities for the attributes. The type of magic one would learn and the kind of profession they would go into in the future depended on them, after all.
If one wanted to be a firefighter, it would be easier to learn to cast water-attribute magic to be able to produce a generous volume of water than achieve the extremely high level of technique and control in fire-attribute magic required to start and extinguish fires at will.
However, the children being tested were at a stage before they even received elementary education; there was no battle against time here. None other than the most education-obsessed parents would care much about learning their child’s affinities for the attributes half a year later than other children.
“Alright,” said the male staff member, moving towards the door to go and explain the situation to the Amemiyas. “Then let’s… go…?”
But suddenly, he stopped in his tracks in an unnatural manner. The other staff members in the room also stopped moving entirely, as if time had been frozen.
“What’s the matter?” the senior staff member asked in confusion, but the other staff members didn’t even look at him. “Hey, stop messing… around…?”
And then he saw it. The thing that the other staff were staring at.
In the corner of the room, a blind spot of the security camera, there was something resembling a person.
“Hello,” it said.
It looked like a man with white hair and a white face, wearing a fur coat. But its voice, despite having a flat tone, was of high pitch, so perhaps it was a woman.
However, the staff quickly stopped thinking about its gender as they noticed that its face had four eerily-glowing eyes.
The staff attempted to scream in fear and escape to call security. But their bodies… they were completely frozen, and they couldn’t even move their eyes.
“It doesn’t seem to be very effective at this distance. I need to open my eye wider,” said the creature… Banda, as he opened his mouth wide to the point that it was larger than a human head.
He revealed the inside of his mouth, which was lined with sharp teeth, and an enormous eyeball protruded from within.
The eyeball emitted an ominous glow that swept the men’s consciousness from their bodies. However, their bodies did not collapse to the floor; they remained as they were.
“You people will now do exactly as I say. Switch Amemiya Mei’s sample with that of a child that has an affinity for only the light attribute, and run the test again. After that, dispose of both the real sample and the replacement using your standard procedures. Your normal standard procedures, that is,” Banda instructed them. “Once you have done that, forget these instructions and forget that I even exist. Do you understand?”
Seeing the staff nod in response, Banda gave a satisfied nod and closed his mouth, then undid his ‘Embodiment’ Skill to go to the security room next.
Banda had expected that an ordinary test machine would not be able to produce a result for Mei during the test that would take place when she was three years old. Ordinary machines couldn’t detect death-attribute Mana, after all.
So, Meh-kun did have an affinity for the death attribute after all, he thought.
This was the only possible conclusion, given the fact that this ordinary test machine had failed to give a result for two consecutive tests.
What would Banda do in the event that Mei did possess an affinity for the death attribute? He had pre-emptively consulted the ‘Druid’ Joseph Smith, who had become his ally, as well as several others that he had guided through dreams, to come to a decision.
He would brainwash the hospital staff to fabricate a result stating that Mei had an affinity for only the light attribute. With the light attribute, elementary-level education only involved producing a light at the fingertips and controlling the strength and color of that light. During these exercises, Banda would be able to fool those around Mei using his luminescent organs.
Yes, fooling them during that time was the best he could do.
In the future, it would become impossible to hide Amemiya Mei’s affinity for the death attribute. Or at least, if she wanted to live in this world’s society, it would be impossible to avoid this secret becoming known. Magic was an everyday part of life in this world, after all.
The only thing that Banda could do was buy a little more time before her secret was discovered.
Well, I’m not even so sure that I’ve managed to buy much time with this.
He was on his way to brainwash the security staff to make them alter or delete security camera footage, but despite doing all of this, the amount of time he had bought was very small… Banda suspected that it wouldn’t even be more than a few days, let alone years.
A mysterious being that was not a ghost had previously entered the Amemiya residence, and Banda had disposed of it. If this was the doing of an underling of the ‘Avalon’ Rikudou Hijiri, the traitor among the Bravers, then Mei was already being targeted.
With that being the case, it was only a matter of time.
I’ll need to make bolder moves moving forward.
Fortunately, he had recently resynched with his main body, Vandalieu, and updated his abilities… He was surprised that he had become a father, but that was the least of his worries right now.
When the time comes… If it turns out that Meh-kun can’t find happiness in this world, I’ll summon my main body and have him materialize… But what should be done about the Amemiyas? I think it wouldn’t be so bad to make my main body suffer like I’m doing now.
Banda had already come to a decision on what to do about Hiroshi, Mei’s older brother, as well as Joseph on the others. The only problem was Mei and Hiroshi’s parents.
With the test at the hospital over, the Amemiyas returned to their home, believing the result that their daughter possessed an affinity for the light attribute, and hosted a party as they had planned.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming here to celebrate my daughter today. Forget about work for a day and enjoy yourselves. Cheers!” said Amemiya Hiroto, raising his glass.
The Bravers in attendance and the friends that the Amemiyas had made in this world raised their own glasses with a “Cheers!” in response.
The ‘Hermes’ Baker and the ‘Titan’ Iwao were exchanging small talk with glasses of champagne in their hands.
“Amemiya and Narumi are a great couple, huh. I gotta do my best to keep up,” said Baker.
“Baker, you said the same thing when Hiroshi turned three,” Iwao pointed out.
“Ugh! I-it can’t be helped, alright? The person I was dating at the time broke up with me!”
Their conversation then turned to those who had died and were not here.
“Back then, that Asagi was trying to show off some crappy magic trick and messed it up, just as everyone expected, huh,”
“Yeah. That guy had that kind of side to him… Akagi, Tendou, Mao, Endou. Those guys were all laughing back then, too. I wonder what they’re doing now? Is there a heaven, or have they been reborn somewhere?” Iwao wondered out loud, staring off into space.
“I’m not sure about Mao, but the others have been reincarnated and are doing well. According to the information network of Duke Alcrem’s house, anyway,” Banda replied, fully aware that Iwao couldn’t hear him.
According to Duke Alcrem’s information network, Asagi and his companions were apparently working as adventurers employed by the Birgitt Duchy while conducting a research project on seals for Demon King fragments.
Banda’s main body, Vandalieu, was impressed with the way they had established themselves in Lambda’s society far more quickly than he had, likely due to the fortunes and destinies they had received from Rodcorte.
As for their research, Vandalieu was unable to deal with Demon King fragments that went out of control in distant locations, so he was hoping that they would produce some results… though he had no intention whatsoever of reaching out to them and assisting them.
Asagi and his companions were surely being provided with information regarding Vandalieu by Rodcorte and the Birgitt house, but the fact that they hadn’t come to interfere with anything he was doing was likely a sign that they, like him, had no intention of making contact.
As for the ‘Noah’ Mao Smith, even the Alcrem house’s information network didn’t reach beyond the borders of the Bahn Gaia continent, so he’d only heard rumors from merchants. According to these rumors, her trading was going well.
Either way, the information gathering that the Alcrem house had conducted as part of its intelligence activities had been done with the instruction of gaining any information on new adventurers who had signed exclusive contracts with the Birgitt house, and a strange female Dwarf who had left the Bahn Gaia continent, rather than an instruction to investigate reincarnated individuals. Thus, it was possible that another investigation would turn up new information.
“That’s enough with the gloomy talk. Those guys would hate for us to be talking about them when we’re supposed to be celebrating,” said Iwao.
“You’re right… Then let’s make this the last of that. Cheers,” said Baker.
And with that, they clinked their glasses together and focused on celebrating Mei’s affinity for the light attribute.
Incidentally, Kanako, Melissa, and Doug weren’t mentioned by the Bravers. The Bravers considered them to be traitors like Murakami, and this was actually true, so they couldn’t be blamed for that.
I understand that, but it’s still unpleasant, Banda thought.
“Banda?” said Mei, who was sensitive and sensed that Banda wasn’t in a happy mood.
“It’s nothing, Meh-kun,” said Banda, clearing these thoughts from his mind.
“Hmm? What is it, Mei?” asked one of the Bravers, the ‘Echo’ Ulrika Scaccio. “What is Banda…?”
“Oh, don’t mind her. It’s a friend that only Mei can see,” said Narumi.
“A friend that only Mei can see… Is she okay?” said Ulrika, sounding concerned.
It was not Narumi, but Iwao, who answered.
“It’s fine,” he said. “It’s what’s known as an imaginary friend, you know. Friends that only you can see, when you’re a small child.”
“Is she really alright? It isn’t some form of trauma from the incident, is it?” said Ulrica, worried that this phenomenon might be an effect of the incident in which Mei and Hiroshi were kidnapped along with their babysitter and bodyguard.
She herself was suffering mentally due to her harsh missions, and was reliant on the regular use of medicine to stay mentally stable, so she couldn’t just ignore this.
“Ulrika, like Iwao-kun says, it’s fine,” Narumi assured her. “Mei’s been talking about her friend Banda since before the incident happened.”
She possessed the ‘Angel’ ability that allowed her to share a consciousness and sensations with others, but she had not used it on Mei to attempt to see Banda – because she was convinced that it was just an imaginary friend that her young daughter would have only temporarily.
She believed that exposing that Banda was just an imaginary friend would be similar to telling her that Santa Claus didn’t exist, so after discussing it with her husband, she had decided to simply keep an eye on her daughter. It would probably be discussed again if Mei could still see Banda after reaching elementary school age, however.
“Banda,” said Mei, reaching out towards Banda.
“Come on, you promised not to pay too much attention to Banda today, didn’t you?” said her older brother Hiroshi, scooping her up into his arms.
Banda had asked him to take care of Mei during the party as he would not be able to use ‘Materialize’ with the guests around.
“Thanks, Hiroshi. Though you probably can’t hear me right now,” said Banda.
“Nii-cha, he says thanks,” Mei told her brother. “What about wriggle-wriggle?”
“You’re welcome. And no wriggle-wriggle,” said Hiroshi.
“No wriggle-wriggle?”
“Definitely not.”
“I suppose transferring myself into Hiroshi isn’t possible. I don’t have a physical body, after all. Ah, but it might be possible with his shadow,” Banda said to himself.
Banda was a split entity of Vandalieu, created by putting fragments of his soul together. Thus, he did not have a physical body. However, perhaps it was possible to transfer a part of himself with someone’s shadow, something that also didn’t have a physical form.
“I’ll try it out next time,” Banda decided.
If successful, it would increase Hiroshi’s power. His acquisition of no-attribute magic was proceeding smoothly, but this alone was unlikely to be of much use against Rikudou Hijiri. It was worth attempting.
“You know, Banda says he’s gonna try it out,” said Mei.
“Try what out?! Stop it, don’t do anything weird to me!” said Hiroshi, who was still holding Mei, as he anxiously spun around in circles to try and see Banda.
The adults around the children laughed.
Just as this scene was filling the room with a lighthearted atmosphere –
“Hey, sorry I’m late.”
The ‘Avalon’ Rikudou Hijiri arrived. Behind him was the ‘Shaman’ Moriya Kousuke.
“You sure took your time. I thought you’d decided not to come,” Amemiya said jokingly.
“Sorry about that. Some leader somewhere decided to spend some time with his family, and that’s made things harder for the rest of us, you see,” Rikudou said with a smile.
“Such harsh words. But I’m sure you can manage, right, leader in the shadows?”
Amemiya and Rikudou shook hands, and a lot of the people nearby, including Narumi, Iwao, and Baker, welcomed Rikudou as well.
There were some exceptions – the people who had been guided by Vandalieu through dreams, including the ‘Druid’ Joseph Smith, who was being careful not to show the nervousness he was feeling inside.
Seeming not to take notice of this, Rikudou Hijiri began talking to Joseph.
“I haven’t seen you for a while, Joseph. I heard that counseling has been going well for you,” he said.
“Yeah. It’d still be difficult for me to go back out on the field, but I think I’ll be of use researching plants and supporting the agriculture industry,” said Joseph, startled but managing to produce a friendly reply.
“That’s good to hear. The truth is, there are a number of Bravers who had some mental problems, including you, and all of you started recovering around the same point in time. Do you have any idea why?”
“That’s… Sorry, but nothing comes to mind.”
In reality, it was because he had been guided by Vandalieu, but he couldn’t say that.
“It’s just a coincidence, isn’t it?” Joseph said, trying to play it off.
“I suppose so… All of you were in treatment for a while, and the psychiatrists assigned to you weren’t collaborating in any way. I suppose it should be thought of as a coincidence,” said Rikudou. “Either way, I’m happy for you.”
“Y-yeah. Thanks,” said Joseph, who was feeling bewildered.
He didn’t mean to doubt Banda, but was Rikudou really conducting illegal death attribute research?
Rikudou was behaving so naturally, as a friend, and certainly didn’t seem like he was plotting anything.
That sentiment was shared by the other Bravers whom Banda had made his allies. And Joseph wasn’t the only one desperately trying to stay calm.
It was the ‘Shaman’ Moriya Kousuke.
There’s no mistake about it… There’s something here! In this room… right next to me!
He was capable of creating an artificial spirit using his own Mana, and he could instinctively sense Banda’s presence.
What a tremendous quantity of Mana. As much as the ‘Undead,’ or even more. And it is clearly on its guard against me… no, against Rikudou-san. Once we achieve what we came here for, we should leave as soon as possible.
As Rikudou’s underling, Moriya had conducted many intelligence-gathering missions and assassinations. It was this experience that allowed him to sense the invisible threat that was Banda… though there was almost nothing that Moriya could do in this situation despite being able to sense this threat.
Seeming not to take notice of Moriya’s behavior, Rikudou finished up some more small talk with his colleagues and then approached Mei and Hiroshi.
“Hey, Hiroshi-kun,” said Rikudou. “Would you let me hold the adorable star of today’s party?”
“Uh, y-yeah.”
Banda had told Hiroshi that if Rikudou Hijiri were to speak to him, he should do what he was told. And so, Hiroshi handed Mei, who had suddenly fallen very quiet, over to Rikudou.
“Hello, Mei-chan. You’ve grown big, haven’t you?”
Mei looked up at Rikudou with a curious expression as he held her. Behind him was Banda, who was ready to take action if he tried anything, even if that meant being seen by the other Bravers.
Banda had his mouth wide open, ready to bite Rikudou’s head off at a moment’s notice. His four arms, which were capable of tearing through iron plates like they were made of clay, were wrapped around Rikudou’s body in a near-embrace. It seemed that Mei found this very curious.
On top of that, a part of Banda was already hiding in Rikudou’s shadow. He was capable of either instantly killing Rikudou or immobilizing him if he showed any strange behavior, activated some device, or cast a spell.
And the soul of Vandalieu was ready to immediately tear open a hole in space and enter this world if needed.
… This isn’t Rikudou.
But being this close, Banda realized that the person before him was not Rikudou. He… or rather, she, was the ‘Metamorph’ Shihouin Mari, who had transformed herself into Rikudou Hijiri.
“What’s the matter?” ‘Rikudou’ said. “Or maybe this is to be expected. It’s the first time I’m meeting you like this… I’m?”
“You okay?” asked Mei. “Have you figured it out? Who you are?”
“I-I wonder what you’re talking about. It’s me, Uncle Rikudou. I’m friends with your mom and dad… Huh?”
Rikudou had been wearing a calm, easygoing expression, but now, his face was completely drained of blood and it was covered in beads of cold sweat. His smile was now strained and forced.
“I-I am Rikudou Hijiri. Rikudou, Hijiri? Y-yes, Hijiri. This place is, I am… I am? Dad… Mom?”
‘Rikudou Hijiri’ began convulsing in an unnatural manner and looked like he would start foaming at the mouth and collapse at any minute.
“Rikudou-kun!” shouted an alarmed Narumi, hastily taking Mei from his arms.
“Rikudou-san!” exclaimed Moriya as he grabbed hold of ‘Rikudou’ to stop her from falling. “I’m sorry! Rikudou-san seems to be feeling a little unwell, so we’ll excuse ourselves! Enjoy the party, everyone!”
“H-hey, is Rikudou alright? Shouldn’t we cast some healing magic…?” said Amemiya, looking concerned.
“Don’t worry, we have medication for him. But it takes a while to take effect, so we’ll be leaving,” said Moriya, firmly refusing his offers of help, as he was aware that the person that he was holding was not Rikudou Hijiri.
He was acting desperately to control the situation; if the disguise of ‘Metamorph’ became undone here, revealing the supposedly dead Shihouin Mari, there would be no way to play this situation off.
Many were bewildered by this series of events and watched with concern as ‘Rikudou Hijiri’ was taken away.
The real Rikudou Hijiri, having seen what had taken place at the Amemiya residence in real-time, smiled in satisfaction. He was now certain that his great ambition would be fulfilled.
“As I thought, Amemiya Mei has an affinity for the death-attribute and death-attribute Mana.”
According to her test result, she had an affinity for the light attribute, but Rikudou hadn’t believed that for a second. After all, the shadow of the Eighth Guidance lurked around her… though it was actually Banda.
Rikudou believed that if something strange had happened at the test… if the test was redone, or if the hospital staff he had bribed refused to listen to his orders, or if the security camera footage was mysteriously deleted, then the conclusion was that Mei had an affinity for the death attribute, regardless of the result that came out on paper.
“I must acquire her and research her at any cost.”
This was the second person to be born in this world with an affinity for the death attribute, the first being the ‘Undead.’ Researching her was certain to help unravel the death attribute’s mysteries.
Her parents, Amemiya Hiroto and Narumi, as well as the Bravers who often had contact with them such as Joseph, would cause problems in acquiring her. The yet-unidentified ‘remnants of the Eight guidance’ were also more than problematic, but… it had to be done, even if Rikudou had to make some sacrifices and reveal his true identity.
With these thoughts in mind, Rikudou began counting the cards he had up his sleeve and the methods he could use.
“It’s unfortunate that ‘Metamorph’ has fallen out of good condition at a time like this, but whatever. I’ll have her help me with some human experiments before she breaks. Experiments to artificially acquire an affinity for the death attribute, that is.”
Why did the ‘Undead’ – Amamiya Hiroto, and Amemiya Mei, possess an affinity for the death attribute? Why did Pluto and the other members of the Eighth Guidance only have an imperfect affinity for it?
None of them had an affinity for any other attribute; they had that in common. So what had set them apart?
It was the experience of death.
“Though it goes without saying, us reincarnated individuals, including the ‘Undead,’ experienced death on Earth. But Pluto and the others, although what they experienced was close to death, they did not actually die. Isis, who entered a state of brain death. Valkyrie, who entered cardiac arrest. Berserk, who lost most of his body. Shade, who lost all of his… None of them died completely. But it’s likely that Amemiya Mei died completely once. When she was a fetus.”
It had happened when Mei was so small that her mother, Amemiya Narumi, hadn’t even been aware that she was pregnant with her. She had been killed by Pluto. When Pluto poured ‘death’ into Mei’s mother Narumi, it would have taken some time for Narumi to die. But Mei had been smaller than a fingernail, and she had not been able to withstand it.
But Pluto had reabsorbed the ‘death’ immediately afterwards, and Mei had been revived along with her mother. This had been possible because Mei had been a fetus, in a state where she depended on her mother to exist.
Rikudou had been there, and he was certain that this was what had taken place.
“To acquire the qualities for the death attribute, one must experience a complete death. I see. That explains why no research institutions have managed to produce any death-attribute users thus far.”
Plenty of research institutions had likely conducted experiments where they stopped the hearts of experimental subjects through various methods and then revived them. But none had caused brain death as well as cardiac arrest in the subjects before reviving them. Or even if they had, it was unlikely that they had attempted to test whether the subjects were capable of using death-attribute magic afterwards.
After all, dying a complete death was a requirement, and Rikudou Hijiri had only become aware of this because he knew that the ‘Undead’ was a reincarnated individual, and because he himself had also experienced death once.
“All there is to do now is to figure out how to revive the brain after brain death. If we erase the subjects’ affinities for other attributes before killing them, implant devices like the ones used on the ‘Undead’ so that we can control their Mana… Hmph. To think that I would end up creating Frankenstein’s monster in another world.”
Rikudou’s research up until this point had been like fumbling blindly in the dark. Believing that he could now see a path to success, he struggled to suppress a laugh… and failed, bursting into loud, triumphant laughter.
“I would certainly like ‘Metamorph’ to produce some results. After all, if she succeeds, I will not have to kidnap my friend’s daughter!”
But unbeknownst to Rikudou, Pluto and the others, despite having died completely in Origin, were still only able to use death-attribute magic in limited aways after being reincarnated in yet another world as Legion.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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RayneVilanore
all the Villains in this novel are the dude from national geographic alien meme. With “Van” replacing “aliens”
Naberisu
So Banda noticed it was metamorph and decided not to help?? Bro what????
Hobbes
What exactly was he supposed to do? If Metamorph’s ability doesn’t come undone like a Devil Fruit when the user loses consciousness nothing COULD really be done while Rikudou’s secretary Moriya was directly managing her.
After all, unless Banda had a surefire way to undo Metamorph’s transformation in a semi-peacful manner in an instant it wouldn’t work. Banda appears to be a true monstrosity… so based on appearances who are the party’s attendees going to side with without irrefutable evidence?
Sagastiel
this rikudou has a very strong Aizen vibe in megalomaniac scientist mode
Winter
It’s unfortunate that Mari wasn’t rescued here 🙁
It’s honestly weird that they just let the fake Avalon out of their sight so easily after he seemingly has a seizure.
Rogal Dorn
I must say: I am looking forward to have Rikudou realising what he is about to piss of
Rollrock
The celebration was a quite amazing scene, Banda chapters are always high quality.
Saronin Jayhart
I think the requirement for death attribute is more about the soul itself being destroyed or contaminated. As we all know Van’s soul is made from the remains of the broken souls of the three champions and Rodidiot has already said that he did the same with many others to patch up some of the errors caused by Gurundis. Who’s to say that Mei isn’t one of them as well.
Humble Bumblebee
It’s contamination rather than destruction. Mei in particular is a good example, as her soul was never harmed.
Blackpercher
I feel sorry for metamorph lass
Humble Bumblebee
It’ll be alright. You’ll see. 😊
DarkCarnage
and this will lead to more ‘Heros’ dying to pester Val..
kirmirikirig
Rikudo = belwood incarnation?
ClapClay
Come on, Bellwood was a dumb idealist who unknowingly brainwashed others into also becoming dumb idealists, but he definitely was not a mustache-twirling evil mastermind with god complex.
Humble Bumblebee
I think Rikudo has a lot of parallels to that Yuuki guy from Slime Tensei. A learning ability (or claiming to have one), a false persona, conspiracies, etc.
bookworm12
No way, Bellwood was made into a god and is currently sealed at the bottom of Alda’s dungeon waiting for Heinz to wake him up.
Ltshrek
Little did he know,the clone and the real one is onto him….also more of this banda and meh interactions!
Ignitra
Mei doesn’t know tho 🙄 she’s just repeating what banda is saying
Fug Ha Jinsung
Hm~ qual o requisito para o atributo morte? Será como uma essência? Depende unicamente da compreensão de casa um?
Irazori
Pro: More Banda, Mei, and Hiroshi.
–
Con: More basic wannabe hero interactions as they still idiotically ignore the idea of internal dangers on the sole reason of just being reincarnators.
–
Kanako, Melissa, and Doug becoming traitors with murakami couldn’t be helped since they never wanted to be apart of the wannabe/normie hero organization made by asagi and amemiya. Really hope Mari gets guided soon.
Humble Bumblebee
I promise you, dude: the arc coming up is NOT what you think it will be. It is amazing from start to finish. Far, far better than the Eighth Guidance / Braver showdown. Even Google Translate’s hatchet job translation didn’t ruin it.
hidefreek
The world is unfair to every of them.
But the Braver organization put them on the worst way possible.
Cheat ability is depend on personality, you can say it’s their nature which reflect on the Cheat ability.
Braver organization exploits over those Cheat rather which it’s members have higher level of depression.
Kanoko could lead public service as her likes.
Metazoxan
So my theory regarding Mei is she simply has higher affinity because she was bathed in death mana as a Fetus.
The 8th guidance were not only older but Van never planned to give them death attribute inthe first place. He was just vaguely trying to fix their problems after the scientists destroyed their bodies. If he had flooded them with more mana maybe their power would be a bit more complete.
In the first place we don’t even know how Mei’s affinity ranks.
Rikudo seems to be assuming she’s the second “Undead”. But he was the literal source of the death attribute mana inside of Mei and his soul was made from 4 others. So Rikudo is incorrect in assuming the two can be considered equal in the first place.
So far the only power she’s demonstrated is a powerful sight to see spirits and even the souls of the living given she recognized Metamorph.
Xias1
I assume that the conditions for having a complete death attribute affinity is not only having no affinity for other magic types but also having no fate and no destiny in the world you are born into.
After all Van was born into Origin without any of that due to Rodcorte’s mistake with Van’s original name and Amemiya Hiroto.
And Rikudo is actually mistaking Banda’s deeds and abilities for being part of Mei’s abilities.
Even if Rikudo knows of Banda’s existence from the shaman Moriya he probably assumes that it is a creation or summon by Mei’s powers.
So while Mei actually only has a partial affinity to the death attribute Rikudo mistakes it for a complete affinity due to Banda.
Lord Rin
Rikudou may be smart but he’s nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is. All the scheming in the world he does won’t mean anything when a Lovecraftian entity tears through the fabric of reality and slaps him down.
Metazoxan
He’s working entirely based on flawed information.
Since Van died in that world while having barely spoken to anyone and since Van only really understood what the death sttribute was in Lambda Rikudo is basing all his info off of lab experiments by scientists stupid enough to accidentally kill Van in the first place.
He’s also basing his knowledge of assumptions made from events that only happened once. To make a proper theory you need repeated data but all he has to work with are isloated incidents so he’s stringing together the only common threads he knows of between those incidents.
Ltshrek
No chance for reincarnation RRIP
Humble Bumblebee
You are really, truly going to love the arc coming up soon. 😊
Randy Rando
Mei looked up at Rikudou with a curious expression as he held her. Behind him was Banda, who was ready to take action if he tried anything, even if that meant being seen by the other Bravers.
Banda had his mouth wide open, ready to bite Rikudou’s head off at a moment’s notice. His four arms, which were capable of tearing through iron plates like they were made of clay, were wrapped around Rikudou’s body in a near-embrace. It seemed that Mei found this very curious.
On top of that, a part of Banda was already hiding in Rikudou’s shadow. He was capable of either instantly killing Rikudou or immobilizing him if he showed any strange behavior, activated some device, or cast a spell.
And the soul of Vandalieu was ready to immediately tear open a hole in space and enter this world if needed.
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Hmmm… How about you follow along and do as I say for a bit. Picture a scene, a perfectly normal loving room, on the bottom floor of a perfectly normal two story house nestled in a completely average and idyllic neighbourhood which itself is a part of the sprawling suburbs surrounding one of the many large cities that form hotspots of population density inside the country in which they were built, which in turn can be linked together to show the continent’s on which those countries were founded. Inside the aforementioned living room, a party is occurring. The children’s toys that are usually scattered around the floor have been hastily tidied up, the spare cups and plates that usually waste away in the back of the cupboard have all been called to active duty and filled with snacks and drinks to fill the needs of the multitude of guests, all having come to celebrate one of thier friend’s children’s growing up. In the midst of all the smiling, chatting, laughing adults are two children and an grown-up. One of the children is the guest of honour and the other is her older brother. The adult is holding Mai, the three and a half year old star of the party in the crook of thier arm gently smacking at her. With this, you should have an image of a completely normal party in your mind, the kind that has no significance whatsoever in the groan scheme of things, it’s memory unlikely to outlive the last of it’s attendees. Now that you have that image in your head, try to follow along once more. Completely undetectable to the vast majority of the people in the room, towering over the adult holding Mai is a grotesque, terrifying, creature. With it’s multiple arms, each covered in a carapace harder and more durable than any known material, and each capable of tearing through sheets of reinforced titanium multiple feet thick as though they were sheets of tissue paper wrapped tightly around the torso of the adult, ready to spring into action at the slightest hint of danger to pop the person they are clinging to like a soap bubble before gently scooping up the child before she hits the ground. The creature’s head is also primed and ready to annihilate any hint of danger. With it’s mouth open wide enough to swallow a watermelon, filled with teeth so sharp and strong that even the most durable materials would be like so much gelatin before them, jaws ready to instantly spring closed faster than the speed of sound, jaws that obliterate anything between them the instant the creature who bares them desires such, jaws that hold between them the life and head of the smiling adult who is still completely oblivious to the horrifically powerful monstrosity looming threateningly, menacingly, behind them. At this point in time, most people would think that the biggest danger would be the… Thing, standing behind the adult.
Most people are wrong.
The only thing they fear in this situation is the being standing behind the adult is because they know nothing of the sheer might and phenomenal cosmic power residing within the tiny confines of the body of a small, pale, fragile looking eleven year old boy.* A boy whose presence is so thin he looks an if he may disappear the moment you glance away. A boy who has powers on par with gods in thier Devine realms and Lovecraftian horrors dwelling in the abyss. A boy living his life as best he can in a world that just so happens to be in another dimension.
Randy Rando
Phew. I thought I accidentally tapped off the site after devoting the better part of 45 minutes to typing that up. Thankfully, either I hit the “post comment” button which causes the page to reload, or this site has a feature to automatically post whatever you’ve been writing. Probably the former. Whatever, I was mostly done anyways.
*yes that was an Aladdin joke.
Randy Rando
Just read through this in full for the first time. A quick edit. He wasn’t smacking at her, he was smiling at her.
bookworm12
Yay, Banda! Well, Mari meeting up with Banda went pretty much exactly as I expected, though the setting was different. I don’t understand why Banda let Moriya walk out of there with her, though. As Moriya said, there would be no talking their way out of it if her disguise came undone at that moment and with her mind in that state. Without that smoking gun evidence that Rikudou has been involved in nefarious acts, Banda will have a much harder time convincing Mei’s family that Rikudou is behind the eventual attack and that he himself is on their side. Plus, Mari just got carted off for one final experiment where she’ll probably be killed and resurrected repeatedly. Even Banda should know that they won’t continue to use her as an alibi/puppet after this incident.
Irazori
Banda doesn’t have a physical body, so he can’t use embodiment and invisibility at the same time. Plus, Mari hasn’t been guided yet.
There’s also the issue of those idiot wannabes self-righteously acting out again. So it’d end up as another repeat of Van’s first time in Origin.
Randy Rando
Except this time he’d be on his guard. The only reason that Van (at that time the Undead) didn’t slaughter most or all of the people trying to kill him is because he was effectively backstabbed. Banda could easily slaughter most if not all of the bravers if he wanted to, he just doesn’t want to.
bookworm12
He managed to break that kid’s fall (the one in the playground who got bit by a ghost puppy) without anyone noticing, so I think he could have tripped this guy. On the other hand, I missed the fact that Banda managed to split off a part of himself and stick it in Mari’s shadow. So hopefully he’ll be able to track her, identify more Rikudou conspirators, and stop them from doing anything permanent.
A_wandering_otter
Why are the chapters updated so frequently recently? Not complaining in fact it’s great, I’m just curious.
Yoshi
Funnily enough it’s because I got covid and I’m stuck at home lmao
dogma4demon
Thanks for your hard Work and the multiple releases latly. And get well soon
Irazori
Please don’t overwork yourself, and stay healthy.
Tejing
Yoshi is stuck at home right now, sick with covid. Hopefully he pulls through with no significant problems. There’s a silver lining for us though, in that he has lots of time for translating.
Randy Rando
Yoshi got Covid? 🙁 As someone home sick with… Pinkeye? A really bad cold? The flu? Some combination of the three? I don’t really know, anyway, being sick sucks. Hope Yoshi gets better soon!
Dyneamaeus
Heh, oh he’s way off base. Close perhaps, maybe even an accurate piece of the process, but considering Meh-kun received Van’s guidance before she was fully cognizant, there’s no way that’s all there is to it. My money’s on needing a clean soul (one empty of fate, which could explain Meh-kun as dying before being born likely wiped her fate) while also meeting some other requirement. Possibly receiving the blessing of a being that already possess it, though how that explains Gurandis remains a mystery.
Actually, are we sure Meh-kun even has full command of Death-attribute mana? If not, it could just be a fully Gurandis-sourced ability, given all its users lead back to him.
Doc
Not sure where you’re getting the idea Gurandis was the source of the death attribute. If he was, Alda and the other gods on Lambda would have been aware of the attribute as well as Rodcorte long before Van came to be.
There is only 1 “source” of the death attribute, Van, and Van developed his affinity before any contact with Gurandis’ fragments. All other instances of it branch off of Van. The 8th guidance were test subjects saved by Van, his involvement gave them their partial death attribute affinity. Mei has it due to what Pluto did.
As to how Van developed it in the first place, I think it was a product of Van having an enormous amount of mana coupled with his will to survive and live a happy life. People born without affinities aren’t that rare in Origin so its not just a case of being a blank slate. Van is also a special existence made up of the mashed together souls of a few former Lambda Champions, one of which, Zakart, was undead before he was defeated by Alda’s side. It’s highly likely Van’s death attribute is linked to this and why all experiments without Van fail.
Darquesse
It was mentioned in a previous chapter, don’t know when, that the stains of Gurandis’s power when he broke the heroes souls that became Van likely gave him the affinity when his “attribute slots” became empty.
bookworm12
@ Doc: They repeatedly mentioned that Van is using the same magic as Guduranis. It just has some slightly different qualities since they are different people, as in feeling more sticky/clingy or colder/aggressive. Van developed it in the first place because it was lying dormant in his soul after Guduranis broke the creation champions’ souls and Rodcorte slapped them back together into one soul. Rodcorte sent that soul to a world without magic as a precaution, so the magic never resurfaced until Rodcorte carelessly sent Van into his hellish second life. There he had no attributes but lots of mana, and they tortured him until death-attribute magic finally leaked out of his soul and made his mana usable. People without mana might exist in origin but having mana but no attributes was obviously extremely unusual/unheard of. That’s why the researchers were so convinced that he had an affinity for an eighth, undiscovered attribute, and why they tortured him until it came out. I’m surprised you remembered that Van was the combination of the champions’ souls but forgot that those champions’ souls were broken by Guduranis using magic similar to Van’s and that Zakart was turned into an undead using residual memories left behind AFTER Rodcorte took the other fragments away and combined them. The undead Zakart was defeated after that, but the remaining fragments of his soul had no way to reunite with Van before he awakened his death-attribute magic and thus have nothing to do with it (although I seem to remember Vida adding them to Van’s soul when he reincarnated in Lambda.) Also, other souls have passed on after becoming undead and none of them have developed death-attribute magic. But I agree that Rikudou’s experiments will likely fail without Van or some other source of death-attribute mana to stimulate that attribute in his experimental subjects/victims.
Doc
Incorrect. They repeatedly say Van is able to break souls like Gurandis not that they used the same magic. And even Van’s ability to break souls is different from Gurandis. Van can consume souls, something Gurandis could never do.
If you can find me a quote where the author directly says Gurandis used death magic I’ll stand corrected. Understand that Van has a lot of skills and abilities outside his death attribute. He also has no attitude magic.
Randy Rando
Doc: this is from vol. 4, chapter: Fire.
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“Damn it, if I could just use magic, I would have more options!” Ternecia’s head was in pain from using advanced martial skills in quick succession. The mysterious Mana in the Demon King’s fragment had poor compatibility with other attributes of magic. Because of this, when the Demon King’s horns were active, Ternecia couldn’t cast any magic other than no-attribute magic.
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More might follow if I find it before I go to bed and forget about it but I think I remember van being able to use no attribute and death attribute mana while fragments were active while other people can’t use any of the other attributes. Aka, DK fragments are only compatible with death attribute mana. I bet if Pluto Or Ghost from eighth guidance had a fragment they could also use death and no attribute magic. Van is DK#2 so his entire body is basically made of DK2 fragments which are all incompatible with all other mana attributes. Gurundis was also able to create magic and physical impact nullification barriers just like Van and I doubt he’d show off stuff like killing bugs or mold and viruses with magic which are some of the only other death attribute magic spells van has learned that don’t require ghosts and aren’t “shoot beam/ball of death that way”. Tired. Sleep soon.
phoenix559
@Doc, I seem to recall that the soul-breaking ability was the same. That’s the reason that Rodcorte was able to recover the Kanata’s fragmented soul and gave Murakami a reconstructed version of Gungir. The soul-breaking skill eventually evolved into a soul absorption skill (don’t recall if it combined with another skill, or if it evolved after level 10). Because of this skill they did start comparing him to the demon king, which is why he earned the demon king title.
I also don’t recall the author straight up saying that the fact his death attribute is due to the interaction between Guduranis and the 4 champions that make up Van’s soul, and I can personally see it going both ways. On one hand, it is possible that breaking their souls did taint them, and that Van being thrown into a magic-filled world in a pretty much humongous empty vessel allowed the death attribute to emerge. On the other hand, It could be pure coincidence. I don’t know if the fact that his soul is an amalgamation of the four souls of the creation heroes was planned out from the beginning, or if it was something that the author came up with much later. Who knows, maybe the author will eventually make this point, or someone else with a good memory or plenty of time to look it up will find specific details that prove that point.
bookworm12
Hey Doc. I eventually got around to scanning for some quotes for evidence of my theory; next time it is your turn. I see some other people chimed in as well. You are correct that they did not specifically say that Van uses the same magic as Guduranis or call Guduranis’ magic death magic, but they do identify multiple similarities. Van’s soul break ability is a bit different from Guduranis but the main difference is just that Van does it faster for some reason. Van only became able to consume souls after he got the Soul Break skill and leveled it up while using the status system and jobs until it awakened. He got the Abyss skill as a bonus from a new job. Guduranis did not have access to the status system (at least for himself, he got the monster ranks in there before Ricklent locked it away) and as such did not receive as much help with leveling up skills as Van did. There is also the difference in personality, as in, Guduranis is more ‘stand against me and be destroyed, my strength is all I need, etc.’ and Van is the type to take whatever he can to gain power to protect himself and his loved ones. Guduranis not resurrecting the dead is a bit weird, but then again, the only dead he could resurrect during that battle were the weak humans or the disposable monsters he made (so making new monsters would be easier and more efficient than making undead that were weaker than the originals), and he probably figured that anyone who died was worthless. Also, I just realized that Guduranis made his own reincarnation system, which basically takes the souls of monsters and recycles them into newly spawned monsters, essentially raising the dead. Van has also done pseudo-reincarnation (especially with the soul-less monsters spawned by Van’s dungeons- he stuck spirits in so he could tame them) so there is another similarity. Like Guduranis, Van also created new types of monsters using his mana and created dungeons by spreading his mana around. I didn’t get quotes for some of these because I got bored with cherry-picking chapters and started re-reading the whole novel again, so I might add them later. The ones I did find I will post below.
I never claimed that Van has no skills or abilities aside from the death attribute magic. I said he had no (affinity for) other attributes. No-attribute magic does not count as an attribute and did not exist on Origin until Banda arrived and taught it to Hiroshi, thus the researchers would obviously not take that into account when deciding to experiment on Van in his second life. This is also why it is possible to use no-attribute magic with the demon king fragments (it popped up in quite a few chapters that it is impossible to cast elemental magic while using the fragments) and why Asagi can stop death attribute magic with his mage-masher ability but not no-attribute magic (a goblin or something almost caught him by surprise in a dungeon with this as I remember). (Dead) Spirit magic is like no-attribute magic in that Van is just transferring his mana to ghosts (normal spirits for spirit magic) and having them cast attribute spells for him. Thus, Van only has the affinity for death attribute magic. I notice you didn’t try to correct me about the timing of undead Vakkart joining up with Van. You said “As to how Van developed it in the first place, I think it was a product of Van having an enormous amount of mana coupled with his will to survive and live a happy life. People born without affinities aren’t that rare in Origin so its not just a case of being a blank slate.” I just think my theory is more likely than it being a coincidence that Van gets his soul broken and then develops the ability to break souls and other similarities and that Van instead developed DEATH-attribute magic based on his will to survive and be happy. As for the part about people born without affinities not being rare, they contradict that in this chapter right before Mei’s test and in the prologue which I will now proceed to quote.
Prologue: “it was common knowledge that everyone had at least one attribute out of those seven that they had an affinity for…”
If you start from there, you will see a description of Van’s second life as an experimental subject. They were very clear about how the researchers were so convinced that he had an affinity for an eighth, undiscovered attribute, as I said before:
“In Origin, there were seven attributes of magic that could be used – the four elements of earth, water, fire and air as well as the additional attributes of light, life and spatial magic. It was common knowledge that everyone had AT LEAST one attribute out of those seven that they had an affinity for.
However, Hiroto demonstrated no aptitude for any attribute whatsoever, let alone any affinity. In other words, he was an existence that defied logic, inferior to even an ordinary person.
But the people of the laboratory realized that Hiroto owned a vast Mana pool that was far greater than that of an ordinary person.
He had incredible amounts of Mana even though he had no aptitude for any attribute. This was a bizarre contradiction in the eyes of the researchers. And among them, one suddenly came up with an idea.
「It’s not that this experimental subject has no affinity for any attribute. Rather, there’s another attribute that we’ve not discovered that this subject has an affinity for. Isn’t that possible?」(Researcher)
From that point, their research began. It was around then that Hiroto’s memories of his previous life returned.
After several years of research with Hiroto as a human subject, they discovered the eighth attribute – the attribute of death. The researchers had Hiroto learn the death-attribute magic that they had discovered and reconstructed his entire body, including his brain, to continue their research and experiments.”
I think I was being a bit dramatic when I said that they tortured the death attribute out of him. What they actually tortured out of him were his memories of his past life at the age of 10 months (this age came from chapter 1) instead of 5 years or so as planned by Rodcorte (Volume 2, side chapter 1: Rodcorte talks about how memories wouldn’t return before the age of 5 unless something ’hugely unexpected and troublesome occurred’. Also more references to the same later on regarding Katie Hartner and the other people reincarnated as babies in Lambda). It was more like an extremely Spartan training to develop magic for an unknown attribute, complete with electric shocks and eventually brain surgery to make it easier for him to use it. I doubt Van was feeling much hope and will to live at this time, although they did mention him working hard to improve his magic in the hope of rewards and hoping for the other heroes to rescue him after they completely took control of his body and mana away from him at the age of 10, long after he started using death-attribute magic. They might have actually done him a favor with helping him develop death-attribute magic, as painful and ridiculously unethical as it was. Rodcorte told him before he reincarnated that「In exchange, your soul has a large『empty frame』that is different from the others that are being reborn. In place of special powers, this『empty frame』will likely contain a tremendous amount of Mana within your body. Though since you have no aptitude for magic, you will not be able to learn any of the magical attributes that exist in the world you are about to be reborn into,『Origin.』Therefore, it will be quite wasted on you.」(God). In other words, Rodcorte did not give him any aptitude/affinity for any of the attributes, so whatever he had must have been his own, pre-existing affinity. (I honestly don’t know why Rodcorte though he wouldn’t normally have an affinity for some attribute though, maybe just because Earth didn’t have magic.) But with Rodcorte’s words and without such ruthless training, I think Van would have just accepted not being able to use magic and not gone through the extra effort it probably needed to develop death-attribute magic without a proper image or idea of what it was supposed to do (they first had to figure out it was the death-attribute and not the flower-attribute or something). The combined soul that eventually became Van spent all its time on Earth where there was no magic, so there was no opportunity for any of its reincarnations to use death-attribute magic even if the affinity for it was lurking inside. Once he reincarnated in a world with magic, he was free to use it as long as he could actually develop the spells for it.
Besides this, the only description of Van’s death-attribute mana in the prologue is that Rodcorte thought his soul was ‘covered in sinister Mana’ when it appeared before him the second time. Rodcorte only ever encountered Guduranis in sealed form and he’s an idiot, so I wouldn’t put much stock in him not recognizing the mana.
For the remaining quotes, I looked for where Van met with various gods and also points of view from those gods, since they would be the only ones able to compare Van’s mana to Guduranis’. Eventually I got bored and started rereading the whole novel. I think it should be enough to support my theory to a reasonable extent. Yoshi’s titles for each chapter helped a lot.
Volume 3, side chapter 5: Vida’s account of events. The Demon King’s barriers are described – they match Van’s barriers. “A barrier that nullified all magic and a barrier that nullified all physical attacks. With these two different barriers, he would be surrounded by an impregnable defense.” and “After investigating the barriers, he had noticed that they were not like hard walls that repelled attacks, but had properties resembling membranes that absorbed energy.
He had also determined that the simultaneously-present barriers, the anti-physical-attack barrier and anti-magic barrier, were independent and didn’t affect each other at all.
In other words, if the anti-physical-attack barrier was broken by an extremely powerful attack it couldn’t absorb completely, the anti-magic barrier would continue functioning as normal.”
Description of how Rodcorte took away the fragments of the champions’ souls before Vida turned Zakkart into an undead using some residual memories. She took Van’s soul, tried adding various things to it but everything was absorbed by that strange but “somehow familiar” mana around him. Randy Rando quoted something where the mana in the Demon King’s fragments have poor compatibility with and tend to interfere with or absorb other attributes of magic. Finally, she managed to mix some of her blood with Zakkart-zombie’s residual memories and add that in. This was meant to improve destiny, remove limits, make it easier for new jobs to appear. It may also have been why Van felt his head was clearer after reincarnating (early chapters) and why he has created so much since. Vida almost recognized the mana but said “it can’t be” as she sent Van’s soul off.
Volume 9 chapter 187: right after Van awakened the Demon King skill out of the Demon King Fusion skill. Comparison of Guduranis’ mana to Van’s mana. Aggressive vs sticky. Mentions how individuals have differing mana properties (aside from affinities or attributes, although that is also part of it) that can be used as ID. This part should have been enough to prove to all Alda gods who were around for Guduranis that Van is not Guduranis reincarnated, but then again, they’re incredibly stupid and biased against him. None of the chapters featuring them were helpful at all for reference since they basically assumed ‘can break souls’ led directly to the conclusion that ‘Van is Guduranis resurrected’. However, this does show how rare the ability is. Literally no one else is the story/history has the ability to break souls besides Van and Guduranis. That’s why people find it hard to believe they aren’t connected, despite Van evolving it into soul devour using the status/skills system as mentioned before. Similarly, no one besides Van has been able to retain their personality despite using Demon King fragments freely. They mentioned other users of the Abyss skill (in a different chapter) who were all killed by Guduranis since they had something he didn’t. But again, Van got the Abyss skill as a bonus from a job (I think Divine Enemy, along with the Hostility skill, but I could be wrong about the specific job) and Guduranis did not experience the benefits of the status system personally (ranks or jobs and the bonuses they give to skills).
Chapter 188: a released Evil God states that Van’s “presence and mana bore enough similarities to Guduranis’ to be mistaken for a moment”. We can infer that this extends to the attribute Van is using, although the activation of Demon King fragments might also have something to do with it. On a side note, in Volume 8, chapter 162, Vida tells Van that he is taking over the Demon King fragments and turning them into a part of him rather than a part of Guduranis. So, shouldn’t the Demon King fragments Van has absorbed be emitting Van’s presence instead of Guduranis’? Chapter 187 made it sound like it felt different when Van was using them as well.
Hopefully this super long thing posts. Again, it’s your turn to provide proof next time.
bookworm12
I found a couple of more quotes during my reread. Some of them are like Randy Rando’s quote from Ternecia at the beginning of Chapter 95. They indicate that it is impossible to cast elemental (attribute) magic while using the Demon King fragments because Guduranis’ mana absorbs it. No-attribute magic still works because it doesn’t have an attribute at all, and for some reason Van’s death attribute magic works just fine…
Also, a correction to my long post regarding the Abyss ability. Van got it from his first Demon Guider job in chapter 98 along with mana enlargement and guidance skills.
A few more direct quotes before I stop pursuing the subject. Two of them directly address your concerns, Doc.
Chapter 117 Hihi… notes that Van possesses an enormous amount of Mana similar in quality to the Demon King’s which allowed him to use the fragments masterfully to defeat Gubamon
Chapter 153: the report to the Amid emperor about Van’s abilities after the fight with the 5 headed snake Ervine and company. “From this information, we can imagine that he has either reversed the effects of the life attribute, or… is using the magic of death that was said to be wielded by the Demon King Guduranis.” — See, there was one case where they directly called Guduranis’ magic death magic- you can stand corrected. This was from the prejudiced Amid Empire’s records, but there must have been reasons for them to refer to it as ‘the magic of death’.
Chapter 170: Rodcorte after he realized the origin of Van’s soul: “Perhaps the Mana of the Demon King Guduranis or something else had stained these broken fragments, and this was the cause of the manifestation of the death attribute. Could Rodcorte really deny this possibility?” — Even Rodcorte, the expert on souls, thinks my theory is reasonable.
Finally, on my reread I noticed a few examples of you declaring someone ‘incorrect’, only to be presented with direct quotes which you subsequently ignored as you doubled down on your own opinion. Let’s have an evidence-based discussion, please.
Easykiln
In a way, it’s probably not wrong to say that death magic comes from Gudaranis: in these specific worlds. Although the death attribute seems to be part of the larger “cosmic laws,” it isn’t present in the local world laws, which are biased toward life. It’s because Rodcorte, an external entity, handles issues of reincarnation that would normally require a death attribute god, who in reigning over that attribute in the world establishes it in the local laws and makes it accessible to residents of the world. You can think of Rodcorte’s worlds as garden flowers that can’t grow outside a greenhouse, and worlds like the chaotic world the demon king is from as resilient and independent weeds.
Those who can use death attribute mana in the story so far are those with a connection to this “foreign contaminant.”
bookworm12
I think it’s due to having their soul soaked in death-attribute magic while in a vulnerable state. Van’s soul was mixed together with Guduranis’ magic when Rodcorte casually slapped together the broken pieces of the creation champions’ souls. It was then brought out by trauma in his second life (where he didn’t have a clean slate), and he continued to use it after that in his third life. Mei was maybe just getting her soul when she was soaked in the mana from Pluto. Then she was guided by Van in a world where using mana is common. I think Rikudou will have limited/no success with his experiment because of complications related to why Legion can’t use full death-attribute magic despite being reincarnated in a new body. Perhaps they would have full usage if they had been soaked in more death-attribute mana after death but before reincarnating, but I doubt it. I feel like Mari having attributes that she has used will interfere with her gaining death attribute magic, although Rikudou claims to have a way to “erase the subjects’ affinities for other attributes before killing them”. I don’t know how exactly he would do that considering their affinities are part of their souls and have been shown to not change throughout their life, but I guess we’ll find out. He also didn’t mention soaking their souls in death-attribute mana (because he can’t get any), just killing them and bringing them back to life. That last part will probably doom his experiment to failure.
ObserverBias
@bookworm: It’s been mentioned that his mana has /similarities/ to Guduranis, but other intrinsic properties (likely tied to general attitude) are otherwise very different (a weird sort of tentacle hug as opposed to a murderous cactus).
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To which end, considering the soul was in spin-cycle on ‘Earth’ for a number of years (Amamiya and ‘Undead’ just being the most recent/remembered lives in the line), and comparing Edgar’s condition to how Van was the second time he encountered Rodcorte, factored AGAINST every description of the world the dvil gods were initially from… perhaps the shards of the other creation champions tempered what Guduranis had into something that could be ‘useful’ (because it’s not like it was “mostly” Guduranis with champion sprinkles, but “what was left” of each champion with some stained glass mixed in).
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To which end, effectively, Guduranis has some primeval not-attribute (because he’s not native to Lambda either), but it has a lot of similarities to what Van has been molding to his own ends for years now.
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And the only being that could explain that is one who caused it by accident because he wasn’t paying attention when he did it.
Randy Rando
I think it’s more like Van’s mana is like a warm, comforting fireplace quietly yet merrily burning away while Gurundis’s was like a raging forest fire hungry too devour everything in its path. Both Van and DK#1 use wood as fuel to produce heat but they just feel very different. In this metaphor, the other attributes are stuff like oil and natural gas and no attribute mana is oxygen.
BurstThrough
I so far agree with the group that say that those infused with death mana at some point likely before birth are those that are true users but I think that it requires the mana blocking to happen while in a situation of unstable mana(affinity not being set) to make one a death mage which explains why Legion only has partial usage and why Van could despite having a past life(world with no magic).
Another point is that no one mentioned Abyss. Van’s most odd still that for some reason Guduranis feared and killed all the beings he found to have it. My theory is that it’s the reason why Van can eat souls while Guduranis can just break them. As an abyss can easily accumulate things.
no1
Yeah another chapter, so soon and one with Banda and Mei. Mari could possibly wake up in the future and Hijiri’s explanation for the affinity for death attribute kinda makes sense. This was a good way to start my day. I hope to see another chapter soon. Thank you Yoshi
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Libio
Thank for chapter
I think, one need to be born with it. Maybe because getting rid of original attributes wasn’t perfect and to get death attribute, one need perfectly clean slate to get it. I feel little sorry, that metamorph wasn’t found right there (couldn’t Banda catch someone leg from floor to stop them long enough or something like that?), but I am happy for Mei. She will have peaceful home longer.
I just imagine Van getting summoned in his demon king form and God of Origin appear too(so countless gods and Pluto) to greet him and help him. Just imagine that madness!
Doc
Any action Banda could have taken to detain Metamorph would have exposed his existence and led to chaos. Breaking through Avalon’s brainwashing and getting her to understand her own identity is enough of an action to be meaningful for now.
bookworm12
Maybe, but he admitted that Mei’s affinity for the death-attribute will probably be figured out in months/days (or immediately by Rikudou, as it turns out), so he’s only delaying the inevitable for a short time. I also think he could have managed to delay Moriya or knock him out without revealing himself completely (someone tripping doesn’t necessarily imply that there is an invisible presence in the room), and the chaos from ‘Rikudou’ turning out to be a not dead and clearly brainwashed Mari would have only helped him in his battle against Rikudou. Plus, that would have gotten Mari out of harm’s way.
Metazoxan
Yeah the “must stay secret at all cost” is a bit of sloppy writing on the author’s part.
At this point his existance is known to his enemies and while he may have mixed feelings about the Amemiya couple staying secret is only making it harder to protect Mei.
Elitinating enemies while he has the chance with minimal effort to avoid showing his true power would be ideal.
Doc
His existence is not known to his enemies. All the Shaman knows is there is an invisible presence with a shit ton of mana present around Mei and Avalon assumes the 8th guidance is involved somehow. Nobody but the people Banda has revealed himself to know what he is or is capable of.
And for freeing Metamorph right then, time and place. Banda does not control all the variables in a room filled with bravers. In the worst case he’s mistaken as an enemy by the bravers like he was when he was the “undead”. That party was not the place to start things.
Lord Rin
He doesn’t want to reveal the secret because he doesn’t know how the Amemiya couple will act and he doesn’t want that to hurt Mei. Van’s and Banda’s by extension actions aren’t guided by logic; they’re guided by emotion. While it would be easier for Banda to reveal his existence right then and there and bite off Moriya’s head before revealing Rikudou’s plans he won’t because he cares about Mei and doesn’t want to traumatize her or potentially put her through the experience of her parents possibly turning on her for having the Death Attribute.
ObserverBias
So, “he doesn’t know it yet, but GIGO.”