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The battle against Rikudou, who had unleashed Guduranis’s instinct, was extremely fierce… for the Five-colored Blades, at least.
Jennifer grunted as she crossed her arms to protect herself from an attack from Rikudou’s arms of the Demon King. But although she managed to withstand the blow, she could no longer move.
Using that opportunity, Rikudou pushed the attack.
“Die!” he snarled. “I shall kill you and become the only god of this world!”
A countless number of arms emerged from his back and were fired as projectiles, sending death-attribute-Mana-filled fists flying out. But they were not directed at Jennifer.
“The only god? It seems that you have finally lost the reasoning necessary to conceal your true intentions,” said Vandalieu.
He transformed his arms into the Demon King’s oviducts to deal with the black fists closing in on him.
“‘Flame Prison Death,’ egg rapid fire.”
He fired a barrage of egg projectiles filled with the Demon King’s fat that exploded on contact with the black fists, causing small explosions that turned them into ash.
Although the battle against Rikudou was not fierce for Vandalieu, he was forced to be cautious. Defeating Rikudou wouldn’t cause the monsters appearing in the city to disappear. If he tried to kill both Heinz and Rikudou at the same time, Heinz would end up aiding Rikudou to prevent that from happening.
And the circumstances were different for Jennifer and Diana than for their other three party members.
“Get back, Jennifer!” Heinz warned as he and Edgar swung their weapons at Rikudou.
With their support, Jennifer tried to regain her balance and get some distance from Rikudou, but someone interfered with that.
“‘Mud Snake Binding!’ ‘Single Flash!’”
A snake made of mud swiftly wrapped itself around Jennifer’s body, immobilizing her, and a staff with decorations in the shape of hearts and stars came swinging down at her.
Jennifer forcibly shook off the snake of viscous mud with her physical strength and Mana, which had been improved by ‘Heroic Spirit Descent,’ then grunted as she blocked the staff with her gauntlets.
“Why are you aiming for me?!” she demanded.
“Because you’re a nuisance, of course!” replied Kanako, the one who was attacking her.
“Wha… You guys, your enemy is Rikudou too, isn’t it?!”
“You and that Elf are nuisances that are stopping us from defeating Rikudou! ‘Fierce Talon Kick!’”
“Me and Diana?! What are you talking about?!”
As Kanako performed a kick with her leg that she had transformed into a talon, Jennifer twisted her body to evade it. Kanako tried to give chase and continue attacking, but she was forced to fall back to avoid the ‘Death Bullets’ that had suddenly been fired her way.
“… So that’s how it is,” Jennifer muttered with a vexed expression as she realized that the one who had fired the ‘Death Bullets’ was Rikudou, who had slipped past Heinz and Edgar’s attacks.
She and Diana were being used by Rikudou as shields to protect him from Vandalieu.
Vandalieu wouldn’t hesitate to kill Heinz, Edgar, and Delizah, the ones who had killed Darcia. He was currently prioritizing defeating Rikudou, but he didn’t care what happened to those three in that process. In fact, he wanted to kill them in the process.
But that wasn’t true for Jennifer and Diana. These two had joined the Five-colored Blades after Heinz and his remaining companions moved to the Orbaume Kingdom. In other words, these two were not responsible for Darcia’s death. Thus, Vandalieu was making a deliberate attempt not to kill them.
Rikudou had taken notice of this and was taking advantage of Jennifer and Diana in instances like this.
The proof of that was the ‘Death Bullets’ he had fired at Kanako to support Jennifer – so that he could continue to use her.
“They hadn’t taken notice of it yet. You didn’t need to make it obvious to them,” Rikudou cursed at Kanako.
He had a bitter expression as he dealt with Heinz and Edgar’s continued attacks with the arms of the Demon King. But even so, he began to ridicule Kanako.
“Tsuchiya-kun, who would have thought that you would be taking the initiative to willingly carry out the dirty work of disposing of these nuisances without even being asked, on behalf of an owner that you are very much unfamiliar with. How unexpected,” he said, his words dripping with contempt. “Quite the loyal dog, aren’t you? It seems that Vandalieu has been a more capable owner than Amemiya Hiroto was.”
“Hey, stop praising me all of a sudden, you’re going to make me sick,” Kanako retorted. “Right, Van?”
“Indeed,” Vandalieu agreed. “To be quite frank, it is disgusting… Have the fragments of the Demon King finally caused you to lose your mind?”
There were many who called themselves dogs, like Isla and Eleanora, so being called a dog no longer sounded like an insult to Kanako and Vandalieu.
“And if you’re going to compare me to an animal right now, I’d be a bird, right?” Kanako added.
With her transformation equipment activated, she was like a bird of paradise with its beautiful wings spread. However, her wings and talons were parts of her actual body that she had transformed, and the transformation equipment’s design itself was rather simple.
The main part of it was a leotard-type suit that left her back almost completely bare to allow her to create wings. There was a short skirt-shaped decoration around her waist, and high socks that came up to halfway up her thighs. Her arms were concealed by long gloves up to her elbows as well, so they looked very ordinary compared to the wings that she had created using ‘Chaos.’
Rikudou made a discontented noise. “Always have a comeback, don’t you? Using fragments of the Demon King and death-attribute magic for such foolish things… Vandalieu! Why do you not realize that your deeds are acts of contempt against your own power?!”
“I don’t know whether it’s because you’ve awakened your instinct, but it seems that you’ve become rather short-tempered,” Vandalieu remarked. “Also, your values are incomprehensible to me. I have no idea why you would think that I am showing contempt for my power by using it in a diverse range of effective ways.”
Vandalieu had created liquid metal with death-attribute magic, produced dyes with the Demon King’s ink sacs, and used ‘Golem Creation’ to turn the liquid metal into clothes. The beads and lamé fabric were also materials created from fragments of the Demon King.
Vandalieu felt no need to hesitate in using fragments of the Demon King and death-attribute magic for such things. He was simply using himself to carry out the things that he wanted to do.
That was Vandalieu’s reason to live; it was a way for him to connect to others, and it brought him joy. Although he could imagine what Rikudou’s values were, they weren’t something that he could understand or sympathize with.
“There is no reason to criticize me when all I’ve done is create equipment that performs well for my companions using materials that I am able to produce freely. In fact, given what happened in Origin, aren’t you the one who has shown contempt for death-attribute magic?” said Vandalieu.
Rikudou had used his own companions who were reincarnated individuals like him, as well as innocent children, in human experiments. In the end, he had left the world of Origin in a complete mess.
Thanks to him, death-attribute magic had a considerably terrible reputation in Origin, and the only thing preventing that reputation from reaching rock bottom was the fact that Vandalieu had prevented Rikudou’s attempt to carry out an indiscriminate massacre of the world’s population. The part of Vandalieu that had joined the God of Origin was sighing heavily, wondering when Meh-kun and Hiroshi would be able to return to their own world.
But Rikudou did not reflect on his past actions. “You shameless bastard…!”
His anger grew even fiercer, proving that Vandalieu’s observation of him having become short-tempered was right on the mark. His anger towards Vandalieu and his subordinates was rapidly becoming uncontrollable.
In his previous life, Rikudou had carried out his conspiracy behind the Bravers’ backs for about ten years. He had acted as Amemiya Hiroto’s best friend. Where had that perseverance and mental fortitude gone? Even he was beginning to ask himself this question.
[More importantly, the first priority is to kill these fools! Killing them will put an end to everything!]
His insignificant bewilderment was erased by the rage that was endlessly welling up within him, the sense of omnipotence given by the Mana that came with that rage, and most of all, the screaming of his instinct.
That’s right! Now that I am in a state where I have fully unleashed the instinct for battle and survival, while [my ability to reason is still intact], I am the most powerful being! There is no way I can lose!
“… In that case, allow me to test whether that equipment or whatever you call it can withstand my magic!” Rikudou said, turning his overflowing anger into killing intent and concentrating his Mana to create a new death-attribute spell. “‘Killing Blade Swarm!’ These blades will reap your lives! Take thiiiis!”
The death-attribute Mana took the form of a countless number of blades, and Rikudou unleashed them to stab and slash any living thing in the area to death.
“Damn it, an indiscriminate attack!” Heinz muttered.
“‘Extreme Provocation!’ … No, it’s not working!” said Delizah.
The blades of ‘Killing Blade Swarm’ seemed to automatically seek to kill every living thing in the area other than Rikudou, the spell’s caster; several blades were also released towards Heinz and his companions, not just Vandalieu and Kanako. Perhaps seeing this as a good opportunity, or perhaps trying to attack the Five-colored Blades while he was at it, Vandalieu cast ‘Hollow Bullets’ to try and smash the ‘Killing Blade Swarm.’
But the blades of death conjured by Rikudou sliced through the ‘Hollow Bullets.’
“How strange for that to happen, even though you have far more Mana, Van,” said Kanako.
“I suspect that by concentrating his Mana into the form of blades, the amount of Mana concentrated on the edges of the blades surpasses that of the great Vandalieu’s spell,” Gufadgarn said, analyzing the spell.
“I see, so it defeats the defensive power of a surface using an edge. He might be rotten to the core, but he’s got skill. Still, that just means that we have to avoid their edges, right?” said Kanako.
Kanako and Gufadgarn cast spells to repel the blades. Gufadgarn changed their direction by warping space, while Kanako manipulated boulders conjured by an earth-attribute spell to strike the flat sides of the blades.
Heinz and his companions seemed to have grasped what was demonstrated by Kanako’s attacks; with Jennifer and Diana falling back to focus on defense, they managed to deal with the ‘Killing Blade Swarm’ as well.
And since they had gathered in one spot, Vandalieu cast a ‘God Spirit Magic’ spell that caused Ghosts to take the form of a skull of black-red flames that closed its jaws on them.
“I know that you pride yourself on your skill. Of course, it’s not to an extent that we can’t deal with,” said Vandalieu.
“Indeed, the techniques that I have honed through much training are effective against you, but at the same time, your vast pool of Mana is problematic,” said Rikudou. “However, with the ‘Avalon’ ability, I am learning Guduranis’s power and expanding my own Mana pool as we speak! And not only that… My pawns have gathered!”
Monsters took flight from the city below, which had largely turned into rubble. They flew using wings, special abilities, or spells, and were trying to gather at Rikudou’s command.
“Do you really think there’s any point in bringing weak monsters into the fight at this stage?” Vandalieu questioned.
“Though they may be weak now, with my Mana… With the Mana of the Demon King Guduranis strengthening them, even you will not be able to defeat them so easily,” Rikudou said.
Rikudou could cast ‘Strengthen Lethality’ to increase the monsters’ offensive power and ‘Death Delay’ to ensure that they would continue to move for a while even after being fatally wounded. And it was possible that he would be able to immediately create some other new spells to strengthen them.
“Indeed, it would be a little troublesome if that were to happen,” Vandalieu said.
Heinz and his companions, who were left out of this conversation, and Kanako, who was preparing for the incoming situation, grimaced. Things wouldn’t just be ‘a little troublesome’ for them.
“Come monsters! Receive my power, and–”
But Rikudou’s voice was suddenly drowned out by the terrified screams and dying cries of the monsters.
The monsters were being struck down one after another by cannon fire from Cuatro, who had finished evacuating the people, as well as the attacks of Borkus and Godwin, who had given chase when they left the ground.
The most menacing of all was the Dragon-like being that was standing upright… Knochen, who had used ‘Elder Dragon Form.’ With his wings of bone spread out, he roared ferociously as he unleashed his ‘Elder Dragon Poison Breath’ at a corner of the city that the people had all left, including the adventurers and soldiers.
His poison was tremendously powerful, eating into even the Mythril and Adamantite Dragon Golems there, who would normally be considered immune to poison. They groaned as they rusted and fell apart.
But Knochen seemed to be uninterested in prey that did not have bones. With a bored groan, he tossed the wreckages of the Golems in a direction where there were no buildings, then headed for the next group of monsters to fight.
“Damn it! Monsters! [Hurry and come out from the Dungeon!]” Rikudou shouted, panicking as he watched the monsters falling before his very eyes before they could come in range for him to cast his spells on them.
But the monsters showed no signs of answering his call. No change could be seen among the monsters that either didn’t have the ability to fly or couldn’t because they were engaged in battle, nor in the rate at which new monsters appeared from the gates in the city, which was now emptied of people other than the adventurers and the knights fighting them.
Rikudou groaned in frustration.
“If your plan succeeded, it would have been a little troublesome, but… it doesn’t look like it will,” said Vandalieu.
His consciousness was connected to the Demon King Familiars that were fighting against the waves of monsters spawning inside the Dungeon. Thus, he knew that the rate at which new monsters entered the city would not increase.
Suddenly, there was a familiar hiss.
“Van, we’re here!”
“Vandalieu-sama!”
The ones who had come to the battlefield were not Rikudou’s monsters, but Pete and Pain. Pain was carrying Pauvina, and Luvesfol and Isla had arrived as well. There was also the silent Randolf, who was flying using spiritual magic.
“Vandalieu-sama, the king and his ilk have been safely retrieved by Sam’s group!” Isla reported.
“The evacuation of the people in the city is more or less complete, and Sam-san and the others are searching for any that might have been left behind. Knochen and Cuatro said they’re going to keep some distance, just in case! Simon’s group are doing their best to make sure nobody interferes, too!” said Pauvina.
“Ah, they’re keeping Asagi busy. Let’s let Simon know that if Asagi gets too disobedient, I don’t mind if he breaks his bones a few thousand times. Thank you, Pauvina and Isla,” Vandalieu said. “And Dandolip-sensei, what about the school… Hmm? Why have you dyed your hair, sir?” he asked Randolf, whose hair was back to its usual blonde color now that he had undone the spell that made it red.
Randolf was silent for a few moments, then hardened his resolve as he opened his mouth to speak. “There are no problems at the school. The students, the teachers other than myself, and everyone who came running to the school have evacuated into the Dungeon. Meorilith and the others are guarding its entrance, so monsters won’t be able to get inside. And I don’t think this is something that I should be revealing in a situation as tense as this, but–”
“Randolf ‘the True?!’ You’ve come as well?!” exclaimed Heinz. “Your aid will be most welcome now, given that the Demon King Guduranis might be on the verge of resurrection, even if you’re not our ally!”
“Read the room, you little brat! I was about to tell him myself!” Randolf said angrily.
The effort he had gone through to reveal his true identity had gone to waste.
I should have revealed my identity myself earlier after all, Randolf thought regretfully, but it was too late for that now.
“Huh? You’re Randolf? Not Dandolip-sensei?” said Pauvina.
Heinz’s voice had been loud enough for everyone present to hear the name “Randolf ‘the True.’”
But for some reason, there was someone who insisted otherwise.
“Wait a second, this isn’t Randolf!” said Kanako, someone that Randolf had great respect for. “There’s no mistaking this voice. This person is Rudolf… the traveling bard!”
Randolf had changed the tone of his voice and his mannerisms of speech since he began disguising himself, but it seemed that he couldn’t deceive Kanako’s ears.
“To think that the true identity of Dandolip-sensei and Randolf ‘the True’ would be Rudolf,” Kanako said in disbelief.
“I’m sorry, Kanako-sensei. Rudolf and Dandolip are both fake names and appearances that I disguised myself as. As that young brat over there blabbered just a moment ago, my real name is Randolf ‘the True.’ I’m an S-class adventurer who is supposed to be retired,” Randolf said.
When Kanako was holding regular performances in the city of Morksi in the Alcrem Duchy, she had hired the blue-haired Elf bard Rudolf as a local staff member. She had discerned that he and Randolf were the same person, mostly by his voice. That was impressive in and of itself, but… the truth was that ‘Rudolf’ had been a disguise as well.
“What?! You perform so spectacularly, but performing isn’t even your main profession?!” Kanako exclaimed in shock.
“Yes, I’m truly sorry. But it’s no lie that I was deeply moved by your music and the way you taught that music to others,” Randolf explained. “… Vandalieu, it’s also true that you put me on edge. I’m sure there are things that you want to say to me, but please forget them for now.”
The traveling bard that Vandalieu had previously encountered and one of the teachers of the Hero Preparatory School that he was indebted to were actually an S-class adventurer. It was shocking, but it wasn’t a betrayal or anything. Kanako was surprised as well, but that was it.
Thus, Vandalieu had no reluctance to accept that Dandolip was in fact Randolf.
“Very well,” he said. “This isn’t the place to be talking about those things. Of course, Rikudou himself seems to have enough on his plate as well.”
Rikudou was silent and staring at someone… A being so significant that it had stopped him from attacking and interrupting the ridiculous conversation between Vandalieu, Kanako, and Randolf.
“Vida… To think that a great god has secured a vessel capable of allowing her to descend for an extended period of time!” Rikudou murmured in disbelief.
He was staring at Darcia, the beautiful, black-skinned Elf enveloped in a divine glow, standing on top of Legion, who had gathered into a single mass once more. Rikudou had been told by Rodcorte that she was capable of summoning Vida upon herself, but he was astounded at the realization that she was able to sustain it for a long period of time.
“Umm, should I say it’s been a hundred thousand years? Or should I say nice to meet you? Either way, it seems that you are a being who is at odds with us,” said Darcia, who had summoned Vida upon herself and become one with the goddess, in a casual tone as she spoke to the being that was Rikudou, and at the same time, a mortal enemy. “By the way, the main owner of this body is Darcia, and I’m just lending her my power. Well, not that I care which name you refer to me by.”
Almost all of her tone of speech and behavior was Darcia’s, and her consciousness was mostly Darcia’s as well. But the presence and the power that was emanating from her entire body was immense.
In the past, Guduranis had been defeated by Bellwood, who had summoned Alda upon himself, with the support of Farmaun Gold and Nineroad. Rikudou possessed Guduranis’s memories, and he understood how powerful someone was when a great god was summoned upon them.
Damn it. If it were just a familiar spirit or a heroic spirit, it would be different, but she has summoned Vida herself… and from the looks of it, she can keep her summoned for longer than I expected, with no side effects. This is an unexpected situation… There won’t be any point in me having kept the Five-colored Blades alive! Rikudou thought bitterly.
He had viewed Darcia and Vandalieu’s companions with disdain and contempt. Vandalieu being unable to sacrifice the people of Orbaume and spreading his allies across the city to save them had gone according to his plans. But Vandalieu’s allies defeating most of the monsters, evacuating the people, and gathering any surplus forces was an unexpected development.
At this rate, even if Heinz were to summon Bellwood upon himself, he and the Five-colored Blades would be removed from the battlefield by Darcia and the others, and Rikudou would be forced into a battle with Vandalieu with nobody to use as a shield.
If that came to pass, it would be difficult for Rikudou to survive, even with the Demon king’s instinct and memories. In fact, the instinct was screaming at him, ‘Things will be dangerous at this rate!’ and the response from ‘Danger Sense: Death’ was only growing stronger.
But Rikudou was not the only one who was in a corner – the Five-colored Blades were in a corner as well.
“… Heinz, this is our cue to leave. Let’s go back to where Selen and the others are,” said Delizah, who could foresee that they would suffer the same fate as Rikudou – being removed by Darcia and Vandalieu’s other allies.
These were the allies of Vandalieu, who was trying to kill them along with Rikudou. Darcia in particular had previously told them that she would ‘never forgive’ them, and although it had only been a temporary body, they had dealt a killing blow to her. It was unlikely that they would just drive Heinz and his companions away without violence.
“You might be right. I suppose it’s time for us to go,” Heinz agreed.
If Vandalieu were to be defeated, Heinz, who could summon Bellwood upon his own body, and his companions were the only ones who could stop Rikudou. Although Heinz had rushed to the scene, Vandalieu had refused to fight together against the common enemy… even though that common enemy was one that had threatened the destruction of the entirety of the city of Orbaume, and possessed fragments of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis.
He had carried on fighting despite this because he had not believed that Vandalieu was certain to defeat Rikudou. And even when he tried to retreat, Rikudou had been cleverly closing the distance between them, manipulating their positions, and making sure that he couldn’t get away so easily.
But now that Darcia, who was capable of summoning the great god Vida upon herself, and Vandalieu’s other allies had gathered here, Heinz was certain that they would be able to defeat Rikudou… Guduranis, who was on the verge of resurrection.
And it was unlikely that Rikudou would be able to stop them from leaving the battlefield now. The problem was whether Vandalieu and the others would allow them to leave, but…
“As for covering our retreat–” Heinz began.
“I’ll do it!” shouted Edgar, flying forward.
[Now is the time to put your life on the line], said a voice inside him that spurred him on.
Edgar mistook this voice for that of his intuition as an adventurer, telling him that the one to help his party escape from unfavorable circumstances was him, the most experienced among his party.
He activated the fragments of the heroic spirit Luke inside his own soul, putting him in the same state as activating ‘Heroic Spirit Descent,’ and with a fierce roar, he leapt forth… towards Rikudou.
“‘Million Sla–?!’”
Why have I started attacking this guy?! Edgar thought, so bewildered that he failed to perform his martial skill and froze in place.
He knew that he had moved forward to cover his companions’ retreat. But why had he tried to attack Rikudou, who was half-surrounded by Vandalieu and his companions? That would only get him killed by Vandalieu and his companions, along with Rikudou.
Heinz and the others were unable to stop Edgar’s sudden charge – after all, he was the fastest member of the party.
And although Vandalieu and his companions were surprised by Edgar’s actions, they didn’t stop him or try to remove him from the battlefield. To them, Edgar was an enemy. An enemy making a reckless move and putting themselves in danger didn’t require any immediate action from them.
The only one who didn’t think this way was Randolf, but in an emotional sense, he was on Vandalieu’s side. His feelings of wanting to save Edgar weren’t strong enough for his body to move reflexively to do so.
And they were all unaware of what Rodcorte had done to Edgar.
The one to take immediate action was Rikudou.
[Kill him! And make contact with him and his soul!]
Rikudou did exactly as the instinct screamed at him to do. As Edgar froze in place, completely defenseless, Rikudou pierced his chest with the fingers of the Demon King’s arms, whose lethality had been strengthened.
“Ah, damn it,” Vandalieu muttered, realizing his error.
“EDGAAAAR!” Heinz screamed in heartbroken grief.
“W-wh… a-a-a-a-aat–” Rikudou stuttered, astonished by both Edgar’s actions and his own.
Edgar’s life ended, and at the same moment, Rikudou touched his soul. Of course, because of the curse that Rodcorte had placed on him, he was unable to break souls. However, he was able to touch them. Ordinarily, touching a soul would not even put a pinky-fingernail-sized scratch on it. But there was something inside Edgar’s soul, something that had been placed in there by none other than the same Rodcorte.
“–IS THIIIIIIIIS?!” Rikudou screamed in bewilderment.
His body began convulsing ominously. Even he didn’t know what was happening. As he screamed, the presence of the Demon King emanating from him grew stronger.
“‘Hollow Cannon,’ ‘Death Cannon,’ ‘Crimson Ice Execution Circle,’ ‘Dark Thunderbolt Spear,’” said Vandalieu, having a bad feeling about this and firing a barrage of offensive spells.
“Everyone who can move, attack!” Randolf ordered.
At his command, Darcia, Isla and the others all attacked Rikudou as well.
These attacks tore at, pierced, sliced, and burned his body. But these wounds quickly closed, and the Demon King’s presence grew even stronger. Meanwhile, Rikudou’s presence was shrinking, and only a tiny trace of it remained.
“I-I– IIIIIIIIII AAAAAAAM! R-RESURRECTED! Resurrection has come at last! I am the Demon King Guduranis!” the enormous black being that had once been Rikudou declared, radiating a wild and uncontrolled Mana that was different from Vandalieu’s or Mei’s, but even more powerful than Darcia’s with Vida descended upon her.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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nico92
It’s a shame they didn’t show Alda’s reaction and her features.
bookworm12
Thanks for the chapter, Yoshi! Also, congrats on your new job. I think I forgot to mention it last chapter.
Aldidiot
I wonder if Rodcarte might try and help Guardanis escape simply to use him as an anti-van personnel. If they would partner up, it might be the only way to get Alda to actually think that maybe genocide isn’t the only answer. Or he may just stick to his guns as Van whittles at his influence in peace.
CyberDre
Lol, nope, no way!!!! That coward would never, ever, ever let that monster anywhere near him, an idiot he may be, but not idiotic enough to throw away his life on the probability that Guduranis wouldn’t just whoop his ass and steal the cycle fr himself, the curses be put on Rikudou might still be in play, but Rodcorte would still be a loser in Guduranis’ eyes, working with him is literally beneath him.
jmoreno126
Don’t think so. At this point Rodcorte must be in his domain, eyes wide open, with his arms crossed, and his hand covering his mouth mutterin: Oh-oh. I didn’t see this comming.
bookworm12
At this point Rodcorte only cares about all of Van’s followers being killed so he is no longer attached to Lambda. Then he’ll cut it off like he tried before. He never cared about the genocide since Vida’s races were never part of his system; instead, he wanted the reincarnators to force the technological advancements shunned by Alda and increase the population of ‘humans’. Since Alda now clearly knows that he’s been lying and messing around with Guduranis’ soul, he’s probably desperate for Gudaranis to kill Van and all his followers ASAP so he can escape Alda’s wrath.
bk3k
Finally, the culmination of Rodcorte’s incompetence, in the flesh.
Welcome to the cliff.
Chiu ChunLing
Ah, yes.
Guduranis is indeed the perfect form of Rotcortex’s bumbling, he is the very god of incompetence’s cumulative errors made manifest.
Xias1
Whatever will come from this resurrection in this fight and further down the road in regards to Guduranis is just the expected development.
Every reader has known this to be coming when Rodcorte started using pieces of Guduranis to “restore” Edgar’s soul.
The really important question now is:
How will Alda react to the fact that Rodcorte did reincarnate Rikudou with the 2 soul fragments while having implanted powdered soul fragments into Edgar’s soul?
Basically the every reason the gods of Alda entrusted those soul fragments to Rodcorte was that those fragments would NEVER be available in Lambda to resurrect Guduranis.
And now it turns out to their horror that Rodcorte implanted those fragments into people living / reincarnating into Lambda.
If Alda does not break the connection to Rodcorte at this time then he would be an absolute incompetent id*ot himself.
Btw. I still say that Rodcorte is responsible for the existence of Guduranis in the first place.
After all the only way to obtain death attribute is being reincarnated with your memories intact while having all other magic attributes suppressed.
There the only one who could have caued Guduranis to be born with death attribute, be able to destroy souls and become the demon king due to that is none other than Rodcorte.
bookworm12
Interesting theory, but you’d think Rodcorte would have been careful about reincarnating people if he’d caused such a big threat to himself before. I think they even mentioned that it was his first time attempting to reincarnate people with their memories intact, after seeing how much impact the champions had in Lambda. He picked over 100 people to reincarnate for his plan because of his inexperience, and to hedge his bets. Also, didn’t Guduranis start out as a god in a world Rodcorte didn’t manage at all? Please correct me if you remember the author mentioning otherwise.
Chiu ChunLing
While it’s true that Guduranis became an Evil God in a world not managed by Rotcortex, that doesn’t prove that he didn’t come there from a world Rotcortex managed (nobody among the Evil Gods he led even could figure out his origin in their world, it would make sense that he originally came from another). After all, traveling between worlds was his own power (a bit like Van that way).
And Rotcortex has not demonstrated a tendency to learn from egregious errors…or rather, his idea of ‘caution’ is to make even worse mistakes.
The main problem is that you’d think Guduranis would remember his own origin story, and if it really had involved Rotcortex, I’d expect Rikudou to make fun of that, if only in his own thoughts. That said, it’s possible that the screwup that created him didn’t involve making him directly aware of Rotcortex himself. That’s especially true if Rotcortex simply ejected his soul from his own system after erasing his memories but found erasing Death Attribute affinity impossible (or just too troublesome). It could even have happened much longer ago when the system had a lower degree of ‘perfection’.
The main appeal of the whole thing is just that it’s too horrifying to imagine that there could have been some other being as incompetent as Rotcortex behind the origin of Guduranis…unfortunately, we already have Alda as another example. Which only means we’re imagining yet another such being…unless perhaps it was Alda somehow….
FrogAku
But the thing is, the last line from this chapter is contrary to what you suggested:
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“I-I– IIIIIIIIII AAAAAAAM! R-RESURRECTED! Resurrection has come at last! I am the Demon King Guduranis!” the enormous black being that had once been Rikudou declared, radiating a wild and uncontrolled Mana that was different from Vandalieu’s or Mei’s, but even more powerful than Darcia’s with Vida descended upon her.
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Granted, death magic seems very *similar* to the mana Guduranis uses, and may well be related, but Rotcortex has been pretty clear in his musings, and has never spent much time talking about the former demon king. And with his paranoia, he certainly wouldn’t have created anything that could risk injuring himself. So I’ll put it as a very unlikely.
Second, Aldiot really, REALLY wanted to punish Rotcortex after finding about Van, but was unable to do so. He still believes Rotcortex is free of the binding of Lambda. If I had to guess though, when he finds out about this, he’ll reflexively strike out at Roddy… and when it actually effects him, the punishment will be swift and (hopefully) and painful and longlasting as Vidas. Or well, at least until Van comes and eats Roddy, which is my guess for Van’s eventual fate as a new god of reincarnation for the worlds he’s in contact with.
SupremeFanKai
And nobody will miss Rikidouche and Edgar. I do wonder what Gudaranis will do considering he is weakened by not having all of his soul and parts of his body in Van, though if his instincts are an indicator he’s probably gonna be really mad.
Dr.Siegbert_Dirk
I gotta say, reading some of the comments raised my mental corruption to lvl. 10
Lipesp
So Guduranis retrieved the piece of his soul in Edgar and overwritten rikudou’s just like fittun did to the marionette guy, what piece was that and what will happen to Edgar’s soul now?
Kiriaru
I think it was the demon kings memories.
Darquesse
Edgar didn’t have a full fragment, they were basically the “Demon king’s Thoughts,” that gradually enroached his soul.
Lord Rin
It hasn’t been given a name yet if I recall but it’s only been referred to as a powder so maybe Demon King’s Powder would be more appropriate.
bookworm12
I believe Rikudou had the Power and Instinct, and Rodcorte thought it would be okay since he didn’t have any of the Memories. While Edgar had some powdered Memories (at least some of them) sprinkled on top of his damaged soul. The Instinct sensed that it would become more complete if it made Rikudou combine with the memories, and the memories remembered being part of the rest and nudged Edgar into putting himself in the wrong place. Since Gudaranis apparently can’t break or devour souls at the moment, I imagine Edgar’s soul would just go back to Rodcorte in a damaged state.
Lord Rin
They already mentioned Rikudou has Instinct and Memories. The Memories were what let him learn how to manipulate his dungeon. If I recall correctly Rikudou did want the Power fragment but Rodcorte thought he wouldn’t be able to handle it and instead gave him the Memories fragment because SOMEHOW he thought that Memories would be less dangerous than Power. Yeah I don’t know how he could come to that conclusion but it just further proves how stupid Rodcorte is.
Phantom Knight
Sigh, I don’t mean to defend all their actions, but I do feel somewhat sorry for Alda’s Peaceful Faction. After all, as a group of “humans” who don’t know the full truths, they are just a moderate faction who want to give full rights to the common races of Vida (who live among the Kingdom’s subjects).
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They never had much political power until recently, and if they discover the secrets of Alda and their world, they would probably rebel against Alda in their own ways. None of those clergy would want to support another war between gods or any future genocides of most mortals after all.
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For these reasons, I can only pity those unfortunate clergy. They had good and understandable intentions, but they could only choose the wrong patron.
Hobbes
“Full rights to the common races of Vida” eh?
Transference of status from fully disenfranchised peoples to mostly disenfranchised peoples ISN’T what I would call “full rights”…
Phantom Knight
😂😂😂 Well, they are a Moderate Faction who struggled against two radical factions for a long time. As a modern Earthling, I do understand the need and wisdom of creating changes one step at a time.
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However, as a reader of Van’s journey, I am also emotionally invested into Van’s struggles and chosen path. 😂😂😂….Well, all in all, this is just the voices of my mind and heart talking here.
Irazori
The fake peace faction weren’t giving full rights to certain known Vida’s races. It was mentioned way back in the aldiot dungeon before Van fought them the first time, that their conditions were only enough to have beastkin, dark elves, dhampirs, and titans be something like pets to humans, dwarves, and elves. Along with the continued denial of other demihuman types that are just disregarded as monsters.
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Perhaps they were trying to stop the fighting that was caused by the aldiots, but at the same time they’re not acknowledging that it was their religion that had caused the divide to begin with despite there being numerous evidence saying so. The elves and dwarves of the aldiots should possibly know about certain incidents in which the known Vida’s races were being treated unfairly more than the shorter lived humans, but likely just ignored it all because they assumed that aldiot and bellwood just favored them more and that the others were just followers of the “mad goddess”.
Phantom Knight
Well, I did say that they know the full truths of their world, so it is kinda hard to completely blame them when seeing how their current society is built on rewritten history and politics. 😅😅😅 i did mention how they only knew partial truth in an earlier message, after all.
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In the end, they were just trying to take that first step towards coexistence (even if we might think of those standards as being too subpar or incomplete)….. Unfortunately, both the Hands of Fate and the workings of society are so very twisted.
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🤣🤣🤣 Van is honestly the wierd one for being able to crush all common sense in so many unusual ways.
bookworm12
I think it’s less that they want to give full rights to the ‘common’ races of Vida (aka Titans, beastmen, merfolk, dark elves, and anyone else I’m forgetting who came from Vida and an original god of Lambda, who should have had full rights in the first place) and more that it’s hard to convince villagers, many of which worship Vida, that their neighbors are evil demihumans who need to be wiped out. There’s also the fact that their ‘full rights’ would take a long time to achieve and wouldn’t really set the affected races as equals in the end. I don’t see any reason to pity those who were reaping the benefits of a racist society, especially when Van and company are not planning to attack them just because of who they worship. Nothing will happen to them unless they’ve been actively mistreating members of Vida’s races or attacking women/children in general.
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As for what they might do if they discover all of Alda’s secret history, there’s one very high-status member of the peaceful Alda faction who knows everything and still worships Alda, and he was just preparing to run away from Rikudou. It’s not like any of them were prevented from switching to worshipping Vida if they decided they were worshipping the wrong god.
Irazori
It was kinda hard on who was getting angry at Van. Baldie-dou for whining about how Van was using his ingenuity/creativity to use death-attribute on things better than his unimaginative idiot self, or guduranis for whining about how Van isn’t using their respective mana on things not centered around war.
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Glad Kanako told that basic martial artist that she and the priestess are just outright burdens. Especially after shamelessly ignoring Van’s warning of to not get in the way with their basic b*tchery and that he would kill the original parent killers regardless.
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Guess Van will likely kill gudura-baldie for kill stealing. Not sad of edgar dying, but it is a shame that Van didn’t get the complete kill since he was mostly killed back in the aldiot dumgeon.
Baru-san
thanks for the chapter!(^ム^)
Lord Rin
If anything the most shocking thing to Van this fight was finding out Dandolip-sensei is actually Randolf. Guduranis’ resurrection? Pffah! That was always bound to happen once they heard Rodcorte was mucking about with Guduranis’ soul fragments.
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Anyways looks like this is the end of Heinz’s crappy faction. It doesn’t matter what excuse he may try to say, nobody will listen because all they’ll care about is the fact that one of his party was housing part of Guduranis’ soul and helped resurrect the Demon King regardless of the circumstances of how it happened. Eh it’s not like anything of value will really be lost if Alda’s Peaceful Faction dissolves because of this. Most of the people who were part of it only were because they just either wanted to take advantage of its popularity and get close to Heinz or they were just hypocrites. There’s probably very few members who sincerely wanted to coexist with Vida’s races and believers and the once who were will probably get guided by Van and Kanako soon (if Zadiris’ curse doesn’t get to them first).
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Meanwhile I bet Alda is flipping all the desks after seeing this.
Irazori
All the aldiots of fake peace wanted was demihuman slaves and/or the denial of other existing members of Vida’s races along with the human sellouts of Vida’s church. So yeah, they’re about as massive hypocrites as the 5 blades of fake peace.
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As much as I hate to defend them, but they can likely deny that edgar had guduranis soul fragments in him since it was done by rod-moron’s own braindead decision, since Van is the only one that could even confirm it.
Entropy
I doubt the peaceful fraction will know the whole story. My money is that Heinz and company will keep the whole them reviving Guduranis a secret by claiming that an evil god composed of multiple parts of the demon king obtained a part that caused the awakening. Sadly one of their teammates died trying to stop the evil god. I mean look at how upfront they were about getting Vida’s mortal enemies in their status. They may even claim that Van assisted in the revival to make the kingdom turn against them by saying he attacked them while they fought the evil god. Before saying who would believe them, they are the kingdom’s celebrities and heroes whereas Van is a new noble of some duchy that has an army of monsters thought to be untamable. In other words Heinz will tell his version of events and leave out anything incriminating.
bookworm12
I agree that Heinz and company will keep things quiet by glossing over the fine details of Edgar’s death (they don’t know what happened at this point either, exactly), but I don’t think Heinz will be the one to lie and try to incriminate Van. Aside from his hypocrisy about accepting Van’s actions and trusting him to control his followers, he expressed some admiration of the things Van actually achieved for Vida’s races and suggested that he might be willing to give up his life to Van in exchange for him forgiving his allies. It’s also pretty normal for the public to not find out every detail of incidents involving evil gods. Look at how Van helped cover up the Mimic Humans in the previous incident. Either way, I think the only hits the peaceful faction will take from this incident are the loss of one of the Five-Colored Blades, the priests being useless, and Van doing way more to evacuate and protect the residents of the city.
Phantom Knight
Well, I doubt that most people will know how Edgar helped the resurrection of Guduranis. The only exception are those people who are informed by Vida’s Faction and actually believe their words.
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As for Alda’s Peaceful Faction, they will probably be further weakened after this incident. The Five-Colored Blades lost a party member after all, and they saved less people than “those mysterious people who are affiliated with Honorary House of Zakkart.”
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Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. Heinz and company certainly know how to make a situation go from bad to worse. If they had listened to Van and stayed out of the fight, the demon king would not be resurrected so quickly. I do suspect he would revive in time. Rodcorte and Alda will probably have words, I do wonder if Rodcorte curse will still be in the demon king’s body. I also wonder if he will stick around or retreat to find the rest of himself. He is still probably weaker than Van in his current state considering he has less parts, and his soul is still broken. I also wonder if the ghosts loyal to Avalon will still obey him, I suspect so since they followed him when he was becoming more beast than man. I do suspect that if Guduranis tries to retreat, he may have to sacrifice some of his body parts to escape.
Irazori
Yeah. Van clearly warned them, but they were the once that listened to their own need to perform their usual basic b*tchery.
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I’m still not expecting much for aldiot and rod-moron to actually do anything to each other, since they’re just that incompetent in their own positions as deities.
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Perhaps the curses could probably still work since that body/soul is still apart of some basic b*tch knockoff.
Doc
Well, not how I predicted Guduranis being resurrected. My money was on Van beating Rikudou and the demon king soul fragments merging with Edgar with Edgar acting as the core. I didn’t think the author would basically treat Edgar as a Guduranis delivery method and nothing more, killing off the character after he did practically nothing. I mean I thought they established Guduranis’ personality was in Edgar and Rikudou had like all the other bits.
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Anywho, I imagine Heinz is going to stick around and summon Bellwood onto himself. I would like Vida to demonstrate power stronger than Heinz…but she’ll probably just evacuate everybody but Van to fight Guduranis 2.0
bookworm12
Why would Edgar become the core? He has a human body and his own affinities for magic, so he might not even be able to use death-attribute magic after the takeover. If Van took out Rikudou first and absorbed all the fragments, Edgar/Guduranis would be left with just a weak body to oppose an even stronger Van. Much better to resurrect Guduranis in part of his original body.
Doc
Because that’s more satisfying narratively. If death magic was a pre-requisite for Guduranis’ resurrection than Guduranis wouldn’t have been influencing Edgar at all to begin with. As I said, why bother setting Edgar up at all if his only purpose is to die several chapters later doing absolutely nothing, it’s a waste of a character.
As far as “being weaker” in Edgar’s body, the author can come up with all kinds of bs to suddenly increase Edgar’s power. Rikudou had a miniscule fraction of the mana Van has yet he somehow pulled way more out of the author’s butt just because. Just because Edgar could have been the core doesn’t mean the demon king fragments couldn’t have somehow went to him instead of Van.
Doing it that way also is a better way to keep Heinz and party involved. They don’t know Rikudou and were literally about to let Van handle things before Edgar rushed in. If Edgar was Guduranis’ core they would have been more emotionally invested and maybe would try to prevent Van from killing him in a misguided attempt to save Edgar. They’re still involved to get revenge for Edgar’s death but it’s just not as strong a narrative push as it could have been.
Chiu ChunLing
I’m sorry, but Edgar was always a relatively minor character compared to Rikudou, and he was effectively killed and replaced by a Guduranis fragment several volumes ago. Sure, it was a bit of a drawn out struggle for a few chapters, but for a long time it’s been over and we’ve had no reason to regard the character as anything other than Guduranis wearing an Edgar suit. So really we’re talking about whether the Guduranis soul powder or the Guduranis memory and instinct deserve more attention as the ‘core’ of Guduranis. Which is silly…they’re all equally Guduranis, and the point is that t’was idiotic to create a situation where they could be combined with a whole bunch of his body fragments.
Even if Guduranis still has some kind of use for Edgar’s corpse (or perhaps leftovers of his soul), that won’t make him the ‘core’ anymore than a donut becomes my core (I’d frankly give more points to the milk I wash it down with, cause nutrition facts).
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
monkeyfur69
Rodidot done did it again. Screwing everyone.
pepemattos21
And once again, Dumbcore’s moves bite him in the ass due to lack of thinking
Soress
I am extremely excited to see Alda stained with despair at the mad actions rodcorte has done. Rodcorte both lied about sending riki-boy to lambda but also gave him large fragments of guduranis’ soul and then also turned one of Alda’s most beloved pawns into yet another fragment of guduranis leading to his resurrection HAHAHA it’s so ridiculously funny. Ah this is truly beautiful I had been hoping to see guduranis resurrected and this was a truly satisfying way to do it I had initially expected it to be later and it be Edgar that was guduranis’ main vessel in a climax between van and Heinz but this works just as well.
Irazori
Definitely would laugh in the faces of the aldiot gods for how f-ed they are for trusting rod-moron before.
CyberDre
Thanks for the chapter
Well, I didn’t see that one coming, I’d say it was nice knowing you Rikudou but that would be a lie, as for Heinz, yup, no way he’s leaving now, not after witnessing this, me thinks when Van inevitably consumes Guduranis, he’ll believe Guduranis would take over Van like it did Rikudou.
no1
Good point. Heinz tries to justify that he’s here just in case Vandalieu fails, but it kinda feels like Heinz just doesn’t like the idea off leaving things to Vandalieu because some part of him doesn’t trust Vandalieu
Irazori
That was kinda already established because they’re no different than bellwood on wanting to continue to act on their own ego centered around satisfying their basic b*tchery.
no1
To be honest the title of this chapter gave away its climax. I am glad this chapter came this weekend. Honestly someone had to say it, Jennifer and Diana are in the way. Actually I just think all the five colored blades are in the way. I guess we now have a more accurate picture of how Vandalieu really feels about Asagi, telling Simon to break his bones ‘a few thousand’ times if he disobeys, lol. Before I thought Rikudou would be the first casualty, but I guess I was wrong. what’s left of Edgar was the first to go. The bits of Guduranis’ soul in Edgar transferred over to Rikudou that’s pretty badass. Sad that Vandalieu lost one of his revenge targets, now its just Heinz and Delizah. You could almost feel sorry for Edgar. Even to the end he didn’t realize something was really wrong with him, he just saw his actions as strange. A bit angry how Heinz ruined Randolfs big reveal and a bit annoyed at how Kanako thought Randolf was another alias and not his real name. I wonder if Rikudou is still alive somewhere in Guduranis’ body. This is getting interesting and I’m glad we came back to Vandalieu’s fight. I remember when a chapter mentioned the division of Guduranis’ soul. Personality and power were the other fragments, I’m not sure if there were others that I didn’t mention. And yet he’s this powerful, even stronger than Darcia with Goddess descent active, with only the memory and instinct fragments and a bit more from Edgar. That gives a some idea that a complete Guduranis is exponentially more powerful. I expect a big exciting fight next chapter thank you Yoshi and looking forward to the next one.
no1
Also there’s no way Alda and the others don’t notice this, they’re probably pissing themselves right now and Rodcorte is just as indifferent as always.
roseblack
Rodcorte is in FULL self preservation mode he WILL allow Lamda to be destroyed just to separate him self from it and to destroy van and vida’s reincarnation system
bookworm12
Yep, everyone saw this resurrection coming a long time ago. I think Rikudou had the Power and Instinct parts of Guduranis’ soul, and Edgar had at least some of the memories. Even Rodcorte wouldn’t want to put conscious parts of Guduranis’ soul inside multiple pieces of his original body. Rikudou could conceivably control the other parts and use them to defeat Van, but memories wouldn’t help with that.
Miaka_Mei
Oh my gosh. That’s nuts bro
jmoreno126
Sweet mother of cliffhangers.
Thank you very much for the translation