Sorry for the delay on this release! Thanks to Yogi ($150) for sponsoring this chapter!
This was the despair of being faced with an overwhelmingly powerful predator… No, it was the despair of being inside the jaws of the predator, impaled by its sharp teeth.
“Why?! Why do the fragments of my body speak with your voice and refer to themselves by your name?!” Guduranis shrieked as he desperately resisted that despair.
He was irrationally angry and seething with hatred for Vandalieu.
“Well, I’m rather confused about that myself…” Vandalieu said.
The development of the Demon King fragments submitting to him rather than Guduranis, who was supposed to be their main body… was something that he had expected. But he had not expected the fragments to actually truly become him.
“I expected that if you were to make one last desperate attempt to get out of this situation using the little Mana you have remaining, you would make a suicide attack towards me and try to reclaim the fragments, so in the end, your attack ended up landing,” Vandalieu said.
“This must be some kind of joke! Why has my body become yours?! Why have I, the Demon King Guduranis, had my body stolen from me?!” Guduranis shouted, attempting to counterattack against Vandalieu and try to escape.
But his arms that he had been swinging with such power, the nose that allowed him to fly and fire air cannon attacks, the brain that assisted him in casting magic, the sebaceous glands, the paw pads – none of them were doing as Guduranis willed them to.
“I don’t think the question of ‘why’ needs to be answered,” Vandalieu said.
Even now, he was absorbing Guduranis’s body. With the dull sound of flesh and bone creaking, he was absorbing the arms that had pierced his heart.
“Survival of the fittest. It’s the law that you preached, and all that is happening now is that the strong is devouring the flesh of the weak. There’s nothing questionable or outrageous about that, is there?” said Vandalieu.
In the past, Guduranis had begun his invasion on the world of Lambda in order to live. He had no pretext for doing so, and he showed no mercy, no understanding, and no desire to coexist with this world’s inhabitants; he had simply waged war on them, contaminated the world, created monsters, and carried out slaughter.
And in this case, Vandalieu was a more powerful being, and he was crushing Guduranis and taking everything from him. There was nothing mysterious about it.
“Silence, you cowardly monster who is obsessed with being a human!” Guduranis snarled.
He was not the kind of being who would accept this retribution and gracefully resign himself to his fate. He gave up on attempting to regain control over his body, and with the Mana that was freed up, he created another Guduranis Shadow – an artificial spirit of death – and had it attack Vandalieu.
“You lot too! Go!” he commanded the Ghosts of Moriya and the others.
“Yes, Rikudou-san!” said Moriya.
Moriya created more artificial spirits of his own, while Johnny, Iguchi, Katherine, and Sugiura began using their abilities and reciting incantations.
But although their experience from Origin was reflected in their Skills, they were still just Rank 2 Ghosts, so their attacks were very much lacking in power compared to when Guduranis had been supplying them with Mana.
But with his Mana completely depleted after creating the Guduranis Shadow, Guduranis had no other way to keep up his futile resistance.
“GOOO!” shouted Nishikaga, who hadn’t been put to much use by Guduranis thus far.
He possessed the Guduranis Shadow and activated ‘Sleipnir,’ improving its strength even further.
The Guduranis Shadow howled as it attacked.
Vandalieu was unable to move while he absorbed Guduranis, and he had no way of resisting the Guduranis Shadow’s attack… or so it seemed.
“Arm, paw pad.”
An arm grew rapidly from Vandalieu’s back, and the paw pad attached to it deflected the Guduranis Shadow’s fist.
“What?!” Guduranis uttered in shock.
There was no mistaking it – this was an arm and a paw pad of the Demon King. But that wasn’t all. Vandalieu produced a tentacle from his back… or rather, an elephant-trunk-like nose of the Demon King, which swelled up as he pointed it at the Guduranis Shadow.
“‘Flame Prison Tornado Cannon,’” Vandalieu said.
A tornado of black-red flames erupted from the nose. Unable to avoid the attack, the Guduranis Shadow shrieked as it was engulfed in the flames.
“Ri-Rikudou–” Nishikaga gasped.
But he could not withstand this attack, as he was a mere Ghost, and he vanished from existence as his soul was devoured. The Guduranis Shadow, which survived, was sent flying in the direction of Heinz and his companions, who had just finished defeating the other artificial spirits.
The artificial spirits created by Moriya were swept away by Vandalieu’s overwhelming firepower, and he and the other Ghosts vanished from existence one after another as they were struck by ‘Hollow Bullets’ that had been cast with more power than usual. Johnny attempted to resist by using ‘Balor’ to sap the energy from the attacks, but the sheer volume of Mana contained in Vandalieu’s attacks were overwhelming – beyond what Johnny’s ability could absorb – and his ability was ultimately powerless.
Even with the abilities and the experience that they had gained in their previous lives, there was nothing these Rank 2 Ghosts could do.
“Y-you are already able to use the fragments of my body with complete freedom…” Guduranis muttered, more shocked at the fact that his body had been stolen from him than at the loss of Moriya and the others. “You! You’re watching, aren’t you?!” he suddenly shouted up at the sky. “Rodcorte! Release the other fragments of my soul that you hold, and allow them to converge upon me! If you aid me now, I can defeat Vandalieu! If I am devoured here, you will never have a chance to defeat Vandalieu for the rest of eternity!”
His words were not directed at the heavens, but at Rodcorte, who was undoubtedly watching from his Divine Realm. If Guduranis could regain the other fragments of his soul that Rodcorte held, he could recover his Mana and fight against Vandalieu once more.
In fact, if his soul were to become whole again, he might even be able to successfully reclaim the fragments of his body again.
But there was no response from Rodcorte.
“W-why?! As long as you destroy Vandalieu, you don’t give a damn about this world, do you?!” Guduranis screamed.
Rodcorte was listening. But he had been in a state of utter panic ever since Guduranis took over Rikudou and became resurrected, and he had lost the ability to calmly make decisions. Even so, he had hoped that the resurrected Guduranis might defeat Vandalieu, but Guduranis was already on the brink of defeat.
With his state of panic as deep as it was now, even with Guduranis offering him the choice of releasing more of the fragments of his soul, he wasn’t capable of taking action right away.
No, to be more accurate, he did try to do as Guduranis told him to, but the desire of self-preservation surfaced in his mind and prevented him from doing so.
In order to release the other fragments of the Demon King’s soul and deliver them to Guduranis, Rodcorte would need to embed the soul fragments in someone and have them reincarnated near Guduranis. The only candidate available was Da Long, the only remaining one of Rikudou’s subordinates in Rodcorte’s Divine Realm, but unlike Rikudou, he was just a human. He would not be able to withstand the fragments of Guduranis’s soul; he would be taken over the moment they were embedded in him.
And once this incomplete form of Guduranis was resurrected, would it really go to try and aid the Guduranis who was in this dire predicament? Would it not abandon it and attempt to escape from Rodcorte’s Divine Realm into another world? In doing so, would it not attempt to steal power from Rodcorte?
Given that danger, Rodcorte was unable to make a decision, even if it was for the sake of killing Vandalieu. From the very beginning, Rodcorte’s highest priority had always been himself. He didn’t have the time to implement a curse on Guduranis’s other soul fragments to prevent them from breaking souls, and if he were to resurrect them, they might take his power from him… In the worst-case scenario, they might even destroy him. If that were to happen, whether Vandalieu died or not, the fate of the world – none of that would matter to Rodcorte anymore.
“To think that you would be begging for the help of a god – the help of Rodcorte, no less – It seems that you’ve exhausted not only all of your Mana, but all of your options as well,” Vandalieu remarked.
Guduranis gritted his teeth in frustration. “Become hesitant, have you, Rodcor…” He stopped mid-sentence and began groaning in agony as he felt a terrible pain that was difficult to describe. But when he realized what that pain was, he felt a true despair and fear. “You bastard, you’re trying to devour my soul? The soul of the Demon King Guduranis?!”
“Yes,” said Vandalieu. “It’s safer to devour and erase you from existence than to seal you away. I can’t just let Rikudou’s soul go free, either, and Edgar is a mortal enemy of mine, too.”
Guduranis was not a human, and he would not die even if his body was torn into countless pieces and his soul was broken into fragments. But the destruction of his soul would mean a true end for him… a death that he could not be resurrected from.
Guduranis felt a primal, instinctual fear – a fear that he had believed he had conquered a hundred thousand years ago, before Vandalieu’s appearance in this world, by calling himself the Demon King and ruling over this world.
“How dare you! How dare you, how dare you do this to me?! This is why I hated you! More than that coward Bellwood! More than Alda, who was obsessed with that coward! More than that false champion chosen by Alda! I hate you!” Guduranis seethed.
Vandalieu tried to devour Guduranis, Rikudou, and Edgar’s souls as quickly as possible, but as one might expect from the soul of the Demon King, it was tough to chew and thrashing about wildly. It would need some time to chew properly.
Heinz and his companions had been forced to fight the Guduranis Shadow that Vandalieu had sent flying at them, but it was only a matter of time before they came this way.
The destruction of Guduranis was something that they would surely welcome, but it was unlikely that they would overlook their companion Edgar’s soul being broken… though this was convenient for Vandalieu, as it was better than them simply abandoning Edgar and fleeing.
“Great Vandalieu, I have cast a spell to close off space, with the Five-colored Blades and the Guduranis Shadow sealed inside. I believe that this should buy some time,” said Gufadgarn.
“Thank you, Gufadgarn. This guy is rather stubborn, so that helps a lot,” said Vandalieu.
“You piece of vermiiiin!” Guduranis shouted, the flames of his hatred burning fiercely.
That was all he could do; it was the only way he could withstand the fear and despair of his imminent erasure from existence.
“I curse you! I curse you, Vandalieu! Even if you devour my soul, I will never be destroyed! I shall become your blood, your flesh, and one day, I shall claim your soul and body as my own and be resurrected!” Guduranis screamed.
Fidirg, who resided in the Staff of Five Sins, shuddered at Guduranis’s terrifying curse. Any ordinary person would know that such a thing wasn’t possible, but even so, they would certainly become fearful and anxious of the ‘what if.’
But Vandalieu continued chewing Guduranis’s soul without hesitation. “You’re very welcome to try,” he said. “Try for ten years, a hundred, as long as you like. During that time, I will devour the rest of the fragments of your soul and continue to absorb fragments of your body. And in a thousand years’ time, your name will live on only in mythological tales.”
“Vanda–”
With the harsh noise of something being crushed, Guduranis’s voice was suddenly cut off.
“Thank you for the meal,” said Vandalieu.
Guduranis’s enormous black body disappeared, as if being sucked into Vandalieu.
“I hear words of hatred and curses on a regular basis. Though perhaps you’ve never listened to what spirits have to say,” said Vandalieu.
Vandalieu was surrounded by spirits every day, and he had grown sick of hearing words of hatred and curses. Thanks to his ‘Death Attribute Charm’ and ‘Guidance,’ almost none of them were directed at him, but… he was used to hearing those that were, due to his experiences since being reincarnated in this world.
Thus, he was entirely unfazed by the words of hatred and the curse spoken by Guduranis. However, he wasn’t one to let his guard down, so he began carrying out some checks.
He began checking with the numerous thought processes inside himself, examining himself and even the part of him that existed in Origin.
Me, have there been any changes to me after I devoured Guduranis’s soul?
My Mana has increased and new Skills have fused with others, but that’s about it. There is nothing that I should be anxious about.
I haven’t observed anything, either. I don’t think any change has occurred to me.
Well, I should observe periodically just in case.
There was nothing to suggest that Guduranis’s curse had become a reality.
The only thing that had occurred was an increase in Mana and the acquisition of new Skills, which hadn’t resulted from an increase in his Job’s Level. These abrupt changes were the result of him devouring Guduranis’s instinct, memories, and soul dust, as well as the souls of Edgar, Rikudou, and the other reincarnated individuals as well.
《Your Mana has increased by 20,000,000,000!》
《The Demon King’s nose, sebaceous glands, paw pads, right arm, left arm, and brain have fused with the Demon King’s body!》
《You have acquired ‘Demon King’s Instinct’ and ‘Demon King’s Memories!’》
《 ‘Demon King’s Body’ has awakened to ‘True Demon King!’》
《‘Demon King’s Instinct’ and ‘Demon King’s Memories’ have fused with ‘True Demon King!’》
… I see, so that’s what that curse meant.
How evil, to call someone a ‘True Demon King.’
Could it be that the gods of Statuses hate me?
Up until this point, Vandalieu had considered himself to be a human who possessed the Demon King’s body, so being called ‘True Demon King’ was something of a shock to him.
《You have acquired ‘Unlimited Development,’ ‘Increased Learning Speed,’ ‘Artificial Spirit Creation,’ ‘Copy,’ ‘Double Power,’ ‘Energy Absorption,’ ‘Sleipnir,’ and ‘Perfect Accuracy!’》
《‘Unlimited Development,’ ‘Increased Learning Speed,’ ‘Artificial Spirit Creation,’ ‘Copy,’ ‘Double Power,’ ‘Energy Absorption,’ ‘Sleipnir,’ and ‘Perfect Accuracy’ have fused with ‘True Demon King!’》
The Skills that he had acquired fused with ‘True Demon King.’ Of course, there was no way of losing a Skill that had been learned other than losing the divine protection that had been granted by a god, and it wasn’t as if he needed to announce every Skill he had gained, so he simply needed to keep it to himself.
“Vandalieu! It seems like you’ve eaten Guduranis! Are you alright?! Are you feeling unwell at all?!” Darcia asked, looking concerned.
“Bocchan! I have arrived!” said Sam, who had appeared after finishing his rescue operations.
“I’m alright, Mom. ‘Demon King’s body’ has changed into a Skill called ‘True Demon King,’ but I’m still me,” Vandalieu said reassuringly.
The sky was blue and beautiful, and the wind felt refreshing. He felt empty and pitiful as he looked at the mountain of rubble below him, but he was relieved to see that Silkie Zakkart Mansion, the Hero Preparatory School, the Adventurers’ Guild, and the buildings that he had built emergency shelters in were intact.
He felt affection for his family and companions, healing his heart that had become wild and uncontrolled during the battle.
Thus, Vandalieu was completely certain that he had not lost a single piece of his human nature or sanity.
There were surely some who would be willing to question his sanity, but there was nobody around who would do that now. After all, something even more important than that had happened.
“Vandalieu… You have accomplished the greatest thing in the history of this world,” said Vida, the Goddess of Life and Love, who had descended upon Darcia.
She praised Vandalieu, her child that she was so proud of.
“There are still fragments of Guduranis’s soul that remain, but you have ensured that that Demon King will never become fully resurrected for the rest of eternity. No matter what anyone may say, you are the savior of this world! On behalf of the gods, I thank you!”
《You have acquired the ‘Savior’ and ‘Demon King Slayer’ Titles!》
At that moment, the world of Lambda was freed from the fear of Guduranis ever becoming fully resurrected. It wasn’t just that the instinct, memories, and soul dust had been erased from existence. It had also been made clear that the fragments of Guduranis’s body that Vandalieu had absorbed would never return to Guduranis, even if Guduranis were to make direct contact with them and call for them to return to him.
Guduranis would never again regain the fragments of his body, even if he were to kill Vandalieu. No matter how fortunate Guduranis was, no matter how cleverly he conspired, and even if all of his schemes were succeeded perfectly, he could only ever be resurrected with not only parts of his soul missing, but with a significant part of his body missing as well.
As Vida had said, there were still fragments of Guduranis’s body that Vandalieu had not absorbed, and there were still fragments of Guduranis’s soul that were in Rodcorte and Alda’s possession. It was likely that these fragments would rampage out of control in the future.
This entire incident had been caused by the unsealing of the soul fragments that Rodcorte had been keeping in his Divine Realm, outside the world of Lambda. There was no guarantee that this would never happen again.
But if it did, the world would be able to survive it as long as Vandalieu was there.
Vandalieu interpreted these titles as signs of praise and trust, as well as a request that he carry out that role. “I am honored,” he said.
There were no cons for Vandalieu in accepting the roles of ‘Demon King Slayer’ and ‘Savior.’ He would simply keep doing what he had always done.
Absorbing fragments of the Demon King posed no risk to Vandalieu. If Guduranis were to be resurrected even in an incomplete form like in this incident, even large nations would fall… And if he were left alone, he would threaten even more danger upon this world. Thus, no matter where in this world he was resurrected, he could not be allowed to remain free.
Rikudou and Edgar had been destroyed, but it was still possible that Guduranis might somehow absorb the souls of this world’s people or monsters and artificially gain a Status again.
And the Titles of ‘Savior’ and ‘Demon King Slayer’ would surely be useful to him in his activities as the emperor of the Demon Empire of Vidal.
The howl of an artificial spirit echoed, bringing Vandalieu back to his senses.
“It’s troublesome that they don’t disappear even after Guduranis is destroyed,” Vandalieu said.
“It is likely that by gaining Statuses and Ranks, they became monsters that serve Guduranis, rather than creatures that were conjured by magic,” said Gufadgarn.
Yuuma, Borkus and the others were fighting the remaining artificial spirits. They had already learned how to deal with them, so they would likely be defeated soon enough.
The problem was the Five-colored Blades.
A harsh dying scream rang out, and at the same time, Gufadgarn’s barrier that she had created by manipulating space was broken. On the other side was the Guduranis Shadow, which was already vanishing, and Heinz’s party, who looked considerably exhausted.
“It looks like his ‘Heroic God Descent’ has come undone,” said Darcia.
“That’s good,” said Vandalieu.
Having devoured the Demon King’s memories, he was already able to see Guduranis’s very recent memories. According to them, Heinz’s attack, with ‘Heroic God Descent’ active, had produced a slight response in Guduranis’s ‘Danger Sense: Death.’
It was possible that it had only responded because being damaged by Heinz’s attack would ultimately result in him being killed by Vandalieu, but Vandalieu didn’t intend to put his own life at risk to test that possibility.
“Vandalieu-sama, if he is not using ‘Heroic God Descent’…” said Eleanora, who had come out of Sam’s carriage.
Having finished defeating the artificial spirits, Borkus and the others began pointing their weapons towards Heinz and his companions as well.
“Eleanora, everyone, I will be the main one to fight Heinz. Even without Bellwood, he has that holy sword,” said Vandalieu. “Randolf-sensei, you can watch, if you’d like.”
“Very well,” said Eleanora. “Allow me to accompany you to the battle.”
“The fate of you and your friends has nothing to do with me, but… you are still my student. It would be a problem for me as a teacher to do nothing but watch,” said Randolf.
Heinz was at an overwhelming disadvantage to Vandalieu in terms of the fighting forces each side had available, but Heinz was still an S-class adventurer. On the other hand, Vandalieu had a public position in society as the son of Darcia, an honorary noble, and as an underage student. Thus, if Heinz were to challenge Vandalieu to a battle, it would be problematic for Randolf, who had been temporarily hired as a teacher, to not stand on Vandalieu’s side.
Of course, that business-like logic wasn’t the only reason that he was standing on Vandalieu’s side.
“… Is Edgar’s soul already gone?” asked Heinz, who had apparently recovered from the fatigue of his battles, or the after-effects of ‘Heroic God Descent’ coming undone, or whatever it was.
“I crushed it with my teeth, devoured it, and destroyed it. Along with Rikudou and Guduranis’s souls,” Vandalieu replied as he immediately activated ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique.’
After devouring the souls of Guduranis and the others, his Mana had already fully recovered. Even if Heinz were to charge at him, enraged by Edgar’s death, he was confident that he could defeat Heinz.
But Heinz did not become enraged as Vandalieu expected. “I see… What happened to Edgar is unfortunate, but I don’t have any right to complain about it to you. I’m sure Edgar would have preferred that to continuing to be used by Guduranis. Besides, if I want to blame anyone for what happened, I should be blaming that god named Rodcorte, the one who messed with Edgar’s soul.”
“I think I’m the reason Rodcorte messed with his soul, since I’m the one who damaged it so severely in the first place,” Vandalieu pointed out.
Don’t you dare suggest that we should try talking it out again, he thought, groaning with hatred on the inside.
But Heinz shook his head. It seemed that he truly had no intention of blaming Vandalieu for Edgar’s death.
“I was willing to give my life to you once the crisis with the being who would do great harm on this world… once the crisis with Rikudou Hijiri was resolved,” he said.
Vandalieu could feel surprise and confusion coming from Eleanora and Randolf.
“And in exchange, you intended to request that I don’t harm any of your companions, the people of Alda’s peaceful faction, or Selen?” Vandalieu asked.
“Exactly,” said Heinz. “I wanted you to spare Delizah and Edgar as well, but…”
“No way! If you’re offering up your life, Heinz, it doesn’t make sense that I don’t offer up mine as well!” said Delizah in surprise, not having been told that this was Heinz’s intention.
“I see. If those are your terms, then I am willing to agree,” said Vandalieu. “However, I will also destroy the holy sword that you’re holding in your hand right now. And I can’t promise that I will never lay a hand on them under any circumstances. After all, I can imagine someone trying to plan and do something after your death out of resentment for this deal, or someone doing something undesirable after your death for other reasons.”
He was optimistically considering Heinz’s proposed deal. If he could destroy Heinz, who was capable of summoning Bellwood upon himself, then he could go after Delizah’s life later, as she was only capable of summoning a heroic spirit upon her body. And in the first place, he had never intended to try and do anything to those with connections to Heinz. Regarding Selen, he wanted to avoid any involvement with her as much as possible.
And as for his companions and Alda’s peaceful faction… That didn’t include the worshipers of Alda in the Amid Empire… nor did it include the God of Law and Fate Alda himself.
Even if he were to corner Alda and take his power from him after he lost the trump card that Heinz represented, or even if he were to declare war upon the Amid Empire and destroy it, the deal would not be broken.
It was likely that Heinz had never even thought of the concept that he, a worshiper, should be begging for the life of the great god that he worshiped. And as for the Amid Empire, even though he had originally come from the Mirg shield-nation, one of its vassal states, he had moved to the Orbaume Kingdom and become an honorary noble here, despite the fact that the Orbaume Kingdom had been an enemy of the Amid Empire since its foundation. He didn’t have any sense of belonging with the Amid Empire, so it was only to be expected that he had not thought about it when coming up with the terms of this deal.
And if the deal took place and Vandalieu killed Heinz, if Delizah and the others were to try and avenge Heinz, he could just kill Delizah then.
He didn’t intend to do anything to incite them to do so, and even if Delizah intended to live a quiet life without plotting anything, he would just need to wait a century and a few decades until she died of old age.
“So then, why are you still pointing your weapon towards Vandalieu?” Darcia asked.
Indeed, the tip of Heinz’s holy sword was still pointed towards Vandalieu.
“That’s because… the situation has changed,” Heinz said, gripping his sword more firmly. “I can’t make this deal with you now! You didn’t just destroy Guduranis’s soul; you devoured it, didn’t you?!”
Vandalieu was simply confused by this. “That’s right, but… don’t tell me you believe the nonsense that Guduranis spouted?”
“How can you be certain that it was just nonsense?” Heinz asked.
Vandalieu and his companions were shocked by this. They were lost for words at the stupidity of what he was saying.
“Guduranis is cunning and terrifyingly tenacious. Alda asked for Edgar’s soul to be treated, and the god called Rodcorte messed with Edgar’s soul – but I’m sure neither of them intended for Guduranis to be resurrected! And yet, his resurrection happened, and I think that can only mean that even the gods failed to take notice of the Demon King’s plans. I don’t believe that you can suppress the Demon King’s soul, since you’re not even a god,” said Heinz.
“Being told that I’m not a god by you doesn’t make me happy one bit, but… I suppose it’s reasonable for you to think that way,” said Vandalieu.
Heinz did not believe that Vandalieu could remain completely unaffected after devouring Guduranis’s soul. Vandalieu was a little confused by this, but at the same time, he accepted it as a result of the complete lack of trust between him and Heinz.
In truth, the reason was that how Vandalieu and his companions perceived Guduranis differed from how Heinz and his companions perceived Guduranis.
To Vandalieu, the act of devouring and absorbing Guduranis’s soul was an extension of eating food… In other words, it was just eating. After all, someone eating a broiled fish dish, wouldn’t mean that the fish could take over their brain. The same was true for tonkatsu, beef sirloin steak, and yakitori, and eating Guduranis alive.
But Heinz and his companions regarded the act of absorbing Guduranis’s soul as allowing him to exist in the same state as Rikudou Hijiri and Edgar had. That was how terrifying Guduranis was to them, and how little they knew about him. There was no telling what kind of power he had kept hidden.
Even if Vandalieu told them that he had crushed Guduranis’s soul with his teeth and devoured him, Heinz did not have the ability to see souls, so there was no way for him to believe that. Guduranis was capable of existing as fragments even after being broken to pieces, so he could not help but suspect that his consciousness was intact and simply lying dormant now that he had been absorbed by Vandalieu.
“Don’t you think Guduranis being absorbed by you went too much as you expected? If he allows himself to be absorbed by you, he can lie dormant and wait for an opportunity to take over your body, just like he did with Rikudou Hijiri’s,” Heinz continued. “By doing that, Guduranis can acquire the fragments that you gather and absorb, and be resurrected in a more complete state–”
There was some logic to Heinz’s argument. It was likely that others would think the same – gods of Alda’s forces and their worshipers… In other words, those who hadn’t been guided by Vandalieu.
Thinking about the matter a little more, Vandalieu had probably suspected that this would happen, deep down. Even if he hadn’t, those around him, like Darcia and Zadiris, would have taught him and encouraged him to reach a deeper mutual understanding. And he would have likely done as they said… if the one that he needed to reach that mutual understanding with wasn’t Heinz.
“Then there isn’t any meaning in saying anything more,” said Vandalieu.
Putting his confusion aside, as it was meaningless, Vandalieu transformed his armor into a more offensive form so that he could kill Heinz and his companions, and began activating Skills such as ‘Transcend Limits.’
“… Your current appearance, and more importantly, the sinister presence that you are radiating, looks just like Guduranis’s to me,” said Heinz.
“The perception of good and evil is easily influenced by one’s position and values. And more importantly… I don’t care about what you think!” said Vandalieu.
First, he attempted to close the distance between himself and Heinz. He knew that Heinz was a swordsman, and it would be more advantageous to fight at a distance, but he believed it would be more effective to keep Heinz suppressed in close-quarters combat while having Darcia, Eleanora and the others disrupt his coordination with Delizah and his other party members.
Despite his fatigue, Heinz drew forth what strength he had left and activated ‘Heroic God Descent,’ and Bellwood, who resided in an accessory that he wore, entered his body once more. He was using the Skill immediately after its time limit had already run out once, so it would last less than a minute this time. But he had decided that if he didn’t activate it now, he would be defeated by Vandalieu in seconds.
The moment before Vandalieu and Heinz collided, a fierce wind enveloped their surroundings without warning. There was no dust or mist in the wind, and yet it blocked everything from view, and then it stopped just as suddenly as it started.
But the members of the Five-colored Blades were gone.
“What is this…?” murmured Vandalieu.
“It seems to be Nineroad’s doing. I felt powerful Mana of the wind attribute. She descended for just a single moment to allow Heinz and the others to escape,” said Darcia and Vida.
With no target to bring his fist crashing down upon, Vandalieu’s face fell in disappointment.
“My apologies, great Vandalieu. Because it was the wind attribute used rather than the space attribute, I could not interfere in time,” said Gufadgarn.
“No, the interruption was too sudden. It’s only natural that you couldn’t respond in time,” said Vandalieu, undoing his ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique’ with a great sigh as he looked up again. “Well then, I suppose we should get to dealing with the aftermath of the battle… Helping with the reconstruction of the Church of Nineroad can come last… And first, we need to do something about those gates.”
Unlike Guduranis, who had been killed and was now gone, the countless gates still remained on the ground below, and Vandalieu began thinking about what to do about them.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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RayneVilanore
“… Your current appearance, and more importantly, the sinister presence that you are radiating, looks just like Guduranis’s to me,” said Heinz.
to me this shows that Hienz its just like Bellwood before the of sin chains, He knows whats best and basis thing on appearance not on actions or facts to justify him self. He, Alda and Bellwood are truly genocidal maniacs hellbent on looking like hero’s but not actually being hero’s.
theblasblas
This… honestly feels like such an asspull of a reason to get Heinz to fight against Vandalieu. Perhaps its Bellwood’s turn to knock some sense into Heinz?
SkipSteorra
Thanks Yogi for the donation and Yoshi for the chapter. How come it was anticlimactic that Van easily defeated Guduranis? I think Van had more trouble defeating enemies before. Well, maybe he was still in the “mortal level” then but still. I expected more. Maybe Aldiot will release the demon lord’s soul?
bookworm12
Thanks for the chapter, Yoshi! Guduranis experienced agonizing, humiliating defeat and Heinz came up with an excuse to still attack Van, as expected. I was getting some last chapter vibes right until Heinz changed his mind, since many things seemed to be wrapping up. So, Van got a lot of mana and some cheat skills, all rolled into his awakened True Demon King skill. 20,000,000,000 mana seems like a bit too much for him to gain considering that they repeatedly said that Van had a lot more mana than Guduranis in his half-resurrected state. Van’s base mana was only 17 billion or so, before the x2 multiplier. Maybe the 20 billion was after the multiplier was applied? I guess we’ll find out the next time Van’s stats are shown. For the True Demon King skill, I was half-expecting Van to say, in his usual deadpan way, “What a terrifying curse” and get himself misunderstood. But that curse shouldn’t be anything to worry about. A crushed/devoured soul is gone, after all. It’s not going to suddenly resurrect itself and take over. Plus, Guduranis wasn’t faking his pain and existential crisis. Heinz should have understood that as well, since he fully gave up on Edgar’s soul, but I guess he assumed god souls have special qualities in that regard. For the cheat skills he acquired, I think Increased Learning Speed and Sleipnir (the one that improves the performance of things being ridden) should have nice passive effects, Artificial Spirit Creation, Double Power, and Perfect Accuracy should be helpful if Van can learn how to activate them properly (remember, he couldn’t use the other cheat skills he devoured as is), and the other skills are redundant. I’m not sure if he could use Copy effectively.
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For Heinz, I can only imagine that he brought his original proposition up to make himself look good and maybe gain some time so he could summon Bellwood again. There’s no other reason to bring up a proposition he’d already decided against. Maybe he was even secretly hoping that Van would refuse and ‘force’ him to fight. But really though, why is Heinz suddenly acting like he’s the expert on souls? The greater god Vida is right there congratulating Van on his victory, and Van is obviously stronger than Edgar in that regard. Edgar had a severely wounded soul in the first place, held together by Guduranis’ soul dust, so it’s no wonder than he was influenced. But no, HEINZ thinks it’s inevitable that Van gets taken over and Guduranis resurrects himself again in Van’s body.
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Nineroad and Alda’s gods in general were absolutely no help in the real fight, but they can jump in and save Heinz from Van. Not a good look for them. I’m sure the people in the city heard Guduranis screaming at Rodcorte, but hopefully they didn’t hear anything about Van devouring Guduranis’ soul or the curse, which might make them agree with Heinz. If that’s the case, I’m guessing the people will confidently blame Rodcorte and assume that he’s one of Alda’s subordinate gods who betrayed him to resurrect Guduranis. There’s no evidence linking Alda to the resurrection, and it was essentially a betrayal in reality, so I don’t think Alda’s reputation will take a hit from that. The people probably won’t find out the whole truth about Edgar, either. That said, Van and his allies clearly did more to protect the city and will definitely do more to rebuild the city than the missing Heinz and Alda’s worshippers, peaceful or not.
no1
Oh yeah it’s funny how vandalieu thought his true demon king skill is the curse guduranis was talking about. I guess he isn’t worried about Guduranis reviving himself through him. I want to believe Vandalieu, that doesn’t mean I agree with Heinz. But it would be an interesting development if Guduranis tried to take over Vandalieu. Also some of us were worried Vandalieu would get Rikudou curse from devouring him, good to know we didn’t have to worry about that. Vandalieu seems fine
Chalky4Block
“Vandalieu tried to devour Guduranis, Rikudou, and Edgar’s souls as quickly as possible, but as one might expect from the soul of the Demon King, it was tough to chew and thrashing about wildly. It would need some time to chew properly.”
I have no words, this utterly killed me.
no1
That’s a good point. Vandalieu did say Guduranis soul was tough to chew, so maybe his soul is as durable and vigorous as his fragments. If he does come back after Vandalieu devours the rest of his soul fragment that could be interesting. Maybe he could get a skill called Guduranis like how mei has banda as a skill. Also Rodcorte definitely passed out this time or maybe even more damage since this is the most reincarnations he devoured in one go
Xias1
Nope, when Rikudou died in Origin Rodcorte did not pass out because Van was destroying a part of Rikudou’s soul.
Rodcorte interfered back than by descending with his hand onto Origin to pull out Rikudou’s soul from there and save it.
As a result that part of Rodcorte was wounded by Van’s soul destruction ability.
And that wound directly to his own soul caused Rodcorte to pass out.
This time Rodcorte simply watched from his divine realm and did not try to interfere directly in Lambda.
So he was not harmed by Van either.
no1
I remember when Vandalieu killed murakami’s group rodcorte did pass out from that
Doc
Incorrect. Rodcorte gets injured because his divine protection is given to each of the reincarnated people (except Van). His divine protection is connected directly to Rodcorte’s soul. So whenever Van devours a person with Rodcorte’s divine protection, it causes Rodcorte a great amount of pain. It’s not a lot of damage to Rodcorte, but he has such a low tolerance for pain having never been hurt before that his whole system basically shuts down from any amount of pain. Van destroyed the soul of one of Rikudou’s companions who sacrificed themselves to save Rikudou when Van tried to break his soul. That person had Rodcorte’s divine protection which is what caused him to pass out in his divine realm. Rodcorte was never on Origin physically to be attacked.
no1
alright I get it he’s just passed out from pain before. I still expect him to pass out from the pain this time since a lot of reincarnated individuals were devoured. And Rodcorte has taken very minor damage before when Vandalieu destroyed part of his curses during the reconstruction of his soul.
Doc
@no1 I was replying to xias1
bookworm12
I second Doc’s explanation here. The system didn’t shut down though, just him. His new angels were managing the system while he was passed out. And Rodcorte did plunge his hand through a weak spot in Van’s soul to grab Rikudou’s soul, he just wasn’t injured himself in the process. Rodcorte did pass out before when Van devoured other individuals with cheat abilities, including Murakami and Rikudou’s subordinates (I don’t think Rikudou really considered them to be companions) on Origin, so I seriously expected him to pass out here as well. I was slightly impressed by that, only for him to turn around and seriously consider Guduranis’ suggestion to release his entire soul before chickening out.
no1
Sorry about that doc. And yeah you’re right. Rodcorte’s system is connected to him and it will cease to exist if Rodcorte is destroyed. But it can still run if Rodcorte passes out. Hopefully, Aran, Izumi, and Kouya figure how to run the system without Rodcorte so they don’t have to go along with his stupidity forever
Doc
@bookworm12 By, “his whole system shuts down” I wasn’t talking about his reincarnation system. I meant Rodcorte’s bodily system. It’s a common expression when referring to somebody passing out.
Doc
@bookworm12 Also, we don’t know if Rodcorte wasn’t injured from Van devouring the souls of Rikudou and his subordinate ghosts. Rikudou’s soul was still intact when Guduranis requested Rodcorte release more of his soul and Rodcorte considered it. Only the interaction with Heinz and Nineroad saving them happened after Van destroyed Rikudou’s soul (who would have been the only one with Rodcorte’s divine protection on him) so we don’t know if Rodcorte got some backlash or not.
no1
@xias1. Rodcorte did pass out that time when he snatched up Rikudou’s soul before Vandalieu could break it and he passed out in a stupid position with his fist raised in the air
no1
Also @xias1 when Rodcorte passed out at that time. He passed out from Vandalieu breaking the souls of two of Rikudou’s minions along with the strain that came with Rodcorte exerting himself so much in that split second before Vandalieu could break Rikudou’s soul back on Origin
SupremeFanKai
So great and frustrating at the same time. Gudaranis was a sore loser to the end yet him experiencing true fear of death was nice to read, he deserved it. Heinz is such a tool, while he has good points, he mostly has bad ones, and I really hope his list of allies diminishes after this fight. All hail Vandalieu, slayer of evil!
jmoreno126
That was really frustrating to read. I know Heinz had to survive, because we are running short on antagonist for the next volumes. BUT REALLY? Deus Ex Nineroad? How OP is she? How can she pull that move in front of a battle ready Vida/Darcia and a fully restored True Demon King Vandalieu?
Alda knows that Van is a menace because he gets stronger everytime he kills. So why didn’t Nineroad used her OP wind powers to save: the Evil Breaking Swords, Curatos, Fitun, every single god and demigod that died protecting Peria and Botin, or any other victim that empowered Van?
It would have made more sense if Alda and his Gods went full artillery mode to hold back Van while Nineroad saved them. End of rant.
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I’m really hopeful for the politics to develop in the next chapters. Van became Orbaume’s savior, Gudurani’s slayer, and practically a mythical hero. While Heinz became a traitor that pointed his sword at Orbaume’s savior.
That could easily be used to suppress Alda’s Church and any political opposition. While empowering Vida’s Church and faction. I mean, Vida herself descended to fight Guduranis, while Alda sent Edgar who assisted Guduranis resurrection, and Heinz who turned traitor to Orbaume.
Libra D. Walker
Nineroad will pay for brief descending to mortal world quite dearly at that.
Gods descending without medium as Vida using Dacia will drain their power so bad they might get instant slumber. Not stunt they can pull multiple time, at worst, once every decade or more. It also shown that Alda was quite in the corner he need his diminishing ally to pull Heinz and co. out that way.
But this made Heinz in the ring again, though I don’t think he can go beyond Van at this point unless author pull some quick power up scheme that can made human go against rank 17+ monsters by themself, which shouldn’t had one consider the lore and past record.
bookworm12
Indeed, they mentioned before that true gods without bodies could only descend and wield their power on the surface for a few seconds before running out of mana and being forced to spend decade(s) in slumber. Otherwise, Alda would have attacked Van directly a few times by now. Nineroad should be out of the fight for a while after this. Also, I don’t think people will find out the details about Edgar or blame Alda directly, but both Heinz and Alda’s reputations should take a hit regarding their management of the situation and Heinz’s disappearance at the end after clearly threatening Van. Van’s attack on Heinz earlier in the fight might be construed as accidental friendly fire due to poor coordination, but Heinz can’t claim the same for his hostility at the end.
jmoreno126
Why do you think people wont find out about Edgar? Van is their savior.
The King and Dukes must acknowledge that if they wish to be on the good side of the True Demon King. If they don’t the Dukes on Van’s side will easily overturn the kingdom and choose to be part of Vidal.
Mossy Stone
When Vida was working on Van’s soul, she noted that now his growth would know no limits; she gave him a drop of her own blood. Rikudoos (sp intentional) absorbed skill seems superfluous.
Kiriaru
Rikudous skill, unlimited development might accelerate things even faster for vandalieu.
bookworm12
Increased Learning Speed should do that. Van already had essentially unlimited development thanks to Vida.
Jonathan Hurd
Great Chapter Yoshi :D.
So Heinz backed out of his ‘heoric’ sacrifice. Who didn’t see that one coming? Heinz has once again shown himself to be just a giant hypocrite who turns everything to make himself to be a tragic hero.
He used helping to kill Darcia into an epic story to help launch his career. He hasn’t really even helped any of Vida’s races like he claimed Darcia’s death inspired him to do. He made the most token of efforts and went on to continue slaughtering more of Vida’s races and ignore the plight of quite a few others. When confronted with the boy whose mother he killed he didn’t even have the decency to apologize.
Even showing up to fight against Rocudo was all really just for his own self satisfaction. Van clearly told him to stay out of it. That his help was not needed nor wanted, but he showed up anyways becoming much more of a hinderance than any kind of help and causing Guduranis to Resurrect.
Heinz then declaring he was willing to tragically sacrifice himself only after he has already decided not to do it is also just another example of his hypocrisy. He pays lip service and puts on a show but he never follows through with actions. There is always an excuse as to why he doesn’t need to help. Why it is okay that nothing changes even as people ‘usually Vida’s races’ suffer.
I will say I can’t be the only one who enjoys the irony of Heinz saying they have to kill Van because he could lead to Guduranis resurrecting when it was Heinz and his allies who literally resurrected Guduranis, lol.
The thing I always think back to when I see Heinz worming his way out of paying for what he has done is Van’s first meeting with Schneider. Schneider and his team did not have a direct hand in killing Darcia. However, they were tasked by Vida to save Darcia and they failed. The first thing they did upon meeting Van was to say ‘We are sorry. We were given a task and we failed and because we failed you suffered and lost your only mother. If you desire we are willing to let you kill us to make up for this mistake.’ They didn’t offer any excuses. They didn’t try to weasel out of it. They recognized they were wrong, apologized, and agreed to let the injured party take whatever amends they wanted/needed to make it right.
What I also find funny is the reason Bellwood got up and followed Heinz was because Heinz told him that he would show Bellwood the path to redemption. How to right his wrongs and make it up to his victims. Right now it seems like Heinz is running down the same road Bellwood did so long ago. Constantly reassuring himself that he is right and blinding himself to what a horrible mess he is making of everything in pursuit of ‘the greater good’.
bookworm12
I agree. Heinz isn’t the worst character in this story, but all he has is fighting strength and a bunch of lip service. He hasn’t actually helped any members of Vida’s races besides Selen, all he’s done is encourage a few people to be more moderate for political reasons, without really changing anything.
infinitestrats420
Nah. His arguments for “peace” with the Vida’s isn’t even to equalize their societies. Its more like “Guys, instead of slaying them all. Why not make them second-class citizens that we can tax and take advantage of since it’d be a waste?”. Remember that moment when Van freed the slaves from the mine and Heinz was angry because the tax revenue they made from their slavery benefited the humans a lot.
Phantom Knight
@bookworm12 I agree with you
Devimon
i knew it. with fast learning ability, Van will be fastrack even the tech.
cant wait for the development he will make
Irazori
Van is just simply proving that he’s more of a competent emperor than an incompetent tyrant like guduranis. And that the latter will ever measure up like how rikudou was already dealing with by being a knockoff/wannabe death mage. I also hope the aldiots heard all of guduranis’ burns towards them, even more so on the cowardly hypocrite (bellwood).
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As much as I hate to agree with basic b*tch H, I honestly do kind of worry about Van absorbing guduranis’ soul fragments. I have faith in Van to stay himself of course, but still hope that there isn’t some kind of hidden spiritual parasite like with guduranis pulling a voldemort on rikudou. Naturally Van is always vigilant in keeping himself in control, even more so with all the allies that have complete trust in him.
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Of course basic b*tch H would make the self-righteous assumption that Van is still guduranis like with the aldiot gods during the “Botin rescue” arc. All because Van is more of a real hero than he ever would be, a complete repeat of bellwood’s self-importance and jealousy towards Zakkart. Of course Jarodipus had already figured that this scenario would likely happen.
Jonathan Hurd
Honestly I wouldn’t worry to much about Guduranis taking over Van. The situation with Van and Rikodou are completely different. Basically what Rodcorte did to Rikidou was graft parts of the Demon Kings soul onto him. Basically they were two souls in one body. The stronger one leading the weak.
Van on the other hand has literally broken down the pieces of Guduranis soul and mixed them into the jumble he already has. Now I won’t say this would lead to no changes in Van, but I feel Van is especially careful to never throw away his humanity no matter how monstrous his body/soul become.
The big thing that annoys me with Heinz saying he’s the only one who could stop Van is that it ignores one very important fact. Vida and Van’s allies are not going to sit back and watch Van become Guduranis. There are way more of them and they are stronger than Heinz measly four people.
bookworm12
Yes, other people can monitor Van. That was true even back when Heinz decided to continue challenging Alda’s dungeon so he could confront Van directly with his concerns (and conveniently gain the strength to maybe survive the next time he met Van). What makes HIM qualified to judge anything Van does or can do? He knows nothing about death-attribute magic or souls.
RanmaChaos
An amazing chapter! Thank you! And a thank you to Yogi for the donation in these times, you rock!
I’m a little surprised Van didn’t fire off a super death lazer into the sky( and possibly into the god realm) out of pure frustration.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Phantom Knight
I am really confused on why the cheat skills were fused with the [Demon King’s Body] skill. Such a development is barely understandable, and it would make more sense for most of those cheat abilities to be absorbed by the [Golem Creation], [Great Demon King], [Demigod], or [Underworld God Magic] skills
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Any of those choices would have directly augmented the Vandalieu’s personal capabilities and talents. However, instead of directly enhancing Vandalieu, all of the cheat abilities were used to upgrade the Demon King Fragments.
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………..I can barely make sense of this development, and I can only assume the [Demon King’s Body] is treating the cheat abilities as new Fragments or is somehow distributing their power into every incorporated Fragment. The latter case would mean that all of Vandalieu’s Fragment can now use the [Artificial Spirit Creation], [Perfect Accuracy], [Sleipnir], [Double Power], and [Copy] skills.
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……On the other hand, the latter case would also mean that the Demon King Fragments are the real source of those new skills. He can share their abilities by giving his Fragments to others or by turning the Fragments into new weapons, but he will also be forced to rely on them for several combat situations and several spells.
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……….Sigh, honestly speaking, I was really looking forward to seeing a mutation in either the [Golem Creation] or [Underworld God Magic] skill. Vandalieu may have been able to create spiritual demons or death-attribute familiar afterwards.
Phantom Knight
P.S. If the latter case is true, then I better see some Zanpakuto or ego weapons in the future. At the least he should upgrade the weapons of Iris and undead weapon users in his Empire.
Irazori
Yeah, I remember that some of the skills Van had gained before, by murdering the murakami hit squad during the fitun fiasco, that all those cheats were merged with death attribute magic. Perhaps the new cheats he absorbed were because of guduranis using them in tandem with the fragments as parts of his makeshift body.
Jonathan Hurd
I think the Cheat abilities aren’t great enough to lead to a mutation of a level three magic skill. Mostly they probably got absorbed into [True Demon King] skill because most of them had effects on the body to begin with. Remember [True Demon King] has evolved past just being about the Demon King Fragments and body and has even absorbed Guduranis’ Instincts and Memories into it.
The other thing is that the cheat abilities aren’t really magic. They are more like things that can augment magic or other skills. Overall I do think there will be some effect on Van’s skills. Perfect Accuracy will definitely make his Artillery technique, throwing skills, and maybe even launching Hollow Cannons more deadly. Moriya’s skill will probably help with Demon Falls and also his Spirit magic using dead souls.
Phantom Knight
…..Uh, what I meant was that the previous cheat abilities were reasonably absorbed into the [Demigod], [Golem Creation], or his Death Magic previously. They became eurher new spells or new subsidary effects during the process.
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In either case, they became the personal power of Vandalieu. However, this new evolution of [Demon King’s Body] is super confusing.
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It has a very similar name to the [Great Demon King] skill, and it can now copy spells and create several other effects in one way. We don’t even know whether these new abilities are considered as individual “Demon King Fragments” or whether they have become the common powers among all spiritual and physical Fragments now.
Lord Rin
Maybe because Rikudou and Guduranis where basically the ones calling all the shots for Moriya’s group instead of them independently acting on their own that maybe the system interpreted that as their powers being inherent abilities of the the body made of DK fragments even though actually the powers belonged to ghosts haunting that body. I mean the ghosts barely did anything at their own discretion so the status system may have been treating them like they were just powers that happened to have personalities that belonged to the body that Rikudou created and Guduranis then usurped. If the status system was treating their powers as intrinsic to that body then it would make sense that they would then get absorbed into Van’s new skill which is the awakened form of Demon King’s Body since it’s also a skill pertaining to a body of fused fragments.
Jonathan Hurd
I think your confusion is coming from the fact that Van has a lot of skills, jobs, and titles with Demon King in it.
I believe [Great Demon King] is a job. Might also be a title it’s weird.
What became the [True Demon King] skill was the [Demon Kings Body] skill. That is the skill that eventually absorbed all the Demon Kings fragments and I think probably some other skills.
I can sympathize with your feelings that it feels like a cop out to shove all the cheats into [True Demon King], but I would personally argue that this group of cheats is a bit to generic to go to a specific skill.
I mean Unlimited Growth and learning speed increase obviously go in the body skill with the brain and treasure orb.
Slepiner I think is a movement speed increase ability (I need to look it up again because it wasn’t even used in the fight) so that’s also a Body skill.
Perfect Accuracy works for both magic and ranged weapon attacks so can’t be shoe horned into one so the general [True Demon King] it goes. Same for Double power and Energy Absorption since they work on everything.
Copy is kind of in a place of its own but it also had to do with the physical body if I remember correctly so can’t really go into Golem Master which deals in inanimate.
Artificial Spirits had a few places I could imagine putting it including Dark God Magic, Golem Master, or God Spirit magic. You could even argue adding to Demigod since it will probably affect Vans Demonfall ability. Since it could fit into all of those might as well put it with Demon King so it can affect them all.
Most of those skills being thrown into and absorbed by the [True Demon King] skill is definitely the author trying to cut down on the list of Van’s skills, but I do feel they also wouldn’t really fit being absorbed into any other ones. So if not in that skill they’d just be loose adding even more to Van’s already overwhelming list of abilities.
Phantom Knight
@Jonathan Hurd 😇😇 Thank you for understanding. Also, don’t forget that there is also [Great Demon King] skill for controlling all the Fragments.
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In personal opinion, i honestly feel like those cheat abilities should have been absorbed by the [Demigod], [Underworld God Magic], and/or [Golem Creation] skills. At worse, the [Great Demon King] could have absorbed some of the cheat abilities so that it could create new skills or enforce new effects onto Van and the Fragments.
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After all, we already seen several cases of these things happening in the previous chapters……However, you are probably right about the author trying prevent excessive increase or changes in all the various skills that van has.
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P.S. 😉😉😉 Just to clarify, the [Copy] ability can imitate any spell of a person, while [Slepnir] enhances the abilities of any mount or vehicle that the user rides. Honestly, both skills really were awkward enough to be absorbed by multiple other skills, but I just never thought the Fragments would take the abilities forf themselves.
Doc
I think Van’s reaction to getting the True Demon King title? Skill? Whatever was a bit silly. He already had “The Great Demon King”, “Dark Demon King”, and Body of the Demon King names all throughout his status. What does it matter tossing “true” in there at this point? If he wants to insist he’s just a human, being the “true” demon king can just be justified as saying he’s a human demon king. It’s all just semantics anyway. He gives out divine protections and is literally a god in another world (Origin) yet he doesn’t believe he’s a god, so this can just be the same situation.
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I found Heinz reasoning to target Van a little overly forced. But whatever, I guess there needed to be something to keep the series going as there’s very little threats to Van at this point. Nineroad never seemed like she was an Alda stan, so I find it a little off she was the one to save them, but I guess if that was Alda’s only option.
My guess is that Alda will be very angry at Rodcorte but they’ll still have to begrudgingly work together because Rodcorte has to rely on Heinz and co as the only possible way of defeating Van. Though I don’t know what Rodcorte could contribute to Alda’s side at this point. Rikudou was Rodcorte’s only trump card and he’s gone.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Van’s reaction to being granted True Demon King after eating Guduranis is more just feeling like getting a final insult from your dying opponent.
Heinz reasoning for fighting Van is forced, but that is pretty in character of Heinz. All of his logic has been pretty forced and self serving from the start. Why would it change now?
Alda is definitely going to continue working with Rodidiot because Alda has long ago crossed a point of no return. My guess is that in the future Alda is going to try and use all the remaining pieces of Guduranis soul and put them together with Rodidiots portions and try to figure out a way to throw them at Van. Of course this plan is going to backfire horribly, but the overall trajectory of Alda and Heinz seems to always have been making things amazingly worse while claiming its all for the ‘greater good’.
Doc
Heinz’s logic before was logically consistent. He didn’t want Van to kill him instantly and he needed leverage to negotiate protecting his friends. Something he wouldn’t have if he approached Van without being strong enough. I say his logic is forced because none of that prior logically consistent information is any less true now.
Lord Rin
Wow, Moriya and the others were merely Rank 2 ghosts? All this time I had been assuming they’d be much higher. Sure they’d only recently been incarnated onto Lambda and wouldn’t have likely had much time to gain XP to rank up but I thought maybe they’d be forcibly ranked up by Rikudou or Guduranis pouring mana into them. We’ve seen Van do that before with undead and ghosts: pouring his mana through them to have them rank up.
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I wonder if everybody else in the city heard Guduranis yelling to Rodcorte to free the rest of his soul fragments?
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Of course Heinz would go back on his word. He talks about the possibility that Guduranis is just faking being gone so he can take over Van’s body later when he let’s his guard down but let’s be honest here: that curse Guduranis yelled is just the howling of a loser and nothing more than empty threats. Heinz was just using it so he can have an excuse to continue to oppose Van. Heinz only cares about being viewed as the hero who saved the world. He only cares about looking good. That’s why he joined Alda’s Peaceful Faction and declared he would talk to Alda to convince him to stop persecuting (some of) Vida’s races: by taking that stance he would look good to the masses. Taking in a dhampir girl and caring for her after he tragically -and suspiciously- didn’t make it in time to rescue her parents from death makes him seem like he’s some all-loving hero who would even help a child of Vida’s races despite being a believer in Alda. His talk about offering up his life to appease Van would make him seem like a tragic hero who saved the world from the fury of the new Great Demon King. Now he’s got the excuse that he needs to kill Van in case Guduranis isn’t truly gone and is merely biding his time before he resurrects more powerful than ever and thus by killing Van he will be a hero.
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Anyways it’s annoying that Nineroad just had to butt in and rescue Heinz and his party. Still I don’t think this is going to look good for Alda’s Peaceful Faction: Heinz and his party suddenly escape after the battle without helping deal with the aftermath? The Peaceful Faction already barely did any helping and now the people who are basically their representatives suddenly ditch? Not a good look.
Irazori
Perhaps the reason why they didn’t rank up was because of gudura-baldie not having the requisites to encourage ghosts. All they did was order them around like sycophantic minions. Van on the other hand treats ghosts with respect and hear them out, tried to appease them or give them new purpose in their afterlife to accomplish their past regrets. So that’s another reason why Van was the better death mage than the knockoffs that only rely on terror and/or subservience.
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I really do hope guduranis’ declaration was as loud as his resurrection announcement. All to add more to the karmic fire made by basic b*tch A.
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I never had any expectations of basic b*tch H to begin with after already denying his sins during the meeting with Jarodipus. So I had expected him to pull a bellwood with the self-righteous assumptions on the aftermath of Van murdering guduranis. Plus, their sudden disappearance would also essentially put an implication that they had abandoned selen since it was a dhampir that had done their job for them (not that they’d ever managed to do so to begin with).
Jonathan Hurd
I think the reason the ghosts never leveled up is partly as Irazori said about Guduranis/Rocudo not caring about them, but also partly that those two only ever saw their followers as pawns and tools. Those two would never give power to others. They only worked by taking it from others so as long as their Cheat Skills could be used it didn’t matter to either one that they were only rank 2 ghosts.
The story did clearly state that Guduranis Screamed at the top of his lungs to the heavens for ‘Rodidiot to help him’. So I can’t imagine people didn’t hear that. I am looking forward to the conversation the nurtured hero’s are going to have with Alda’s gods as to why they got a Divine Protection from some random Evil God who Resurrected the Demon King, lol.
Selen is with a bunch of adventurers who are of Alda’s peaceful faction and its not like its the first time she was separated from Heinz and crew. So I don’t think she’ll take it as being abandoned. I mean worst comes to worst Van would freaking set her up someplace. Not near him of course, but a safe place to be protected and watched over.
CyberDre
Thanks for the chapter!
Let’s see here…
1) Rodcorte is known to be the primary cause of Guduranis’ resurrection.
2) Alda and all the gods of his faction would surely know that, keeping their alliance with him in question.
3) The chosen heroes, only a matter of time before this info spreads to the masses.
4) The top elite look upon Van favourably thanks to ending Guduranis, doubly so since the evacuation went splendidly thanks to their intervention.
5) There are several great gods on Van’s side…
Yeah, the peaceful faction is gone, there’s no conceivable advantage they have anymore, the Orbaume kingdom has zero reason to side with them
Jonathan Hurd
Another fun thing is that Guduranis let it out of the bag that Rodcort wants to abandon Lambda. Now it is the words of the Demon King, but considering that his entire resurrection happed because of Rodidiot’s moves and Rodidiot completely lied to Alda’s face about Rokudo being reincarnated that means Alda and crew have an even more extreme and pressing concern than Van.
What if Rodidiot abandons Lambda? There is two other circle of reincarnations on Lambda but those are for Monsters and Vida’s races which Alda has been trying to destroy. Now knowing Rodiot is ready and willing to take his ball and run away Alda might be forced to see the logic in why Vida made a circle of Reincarnation to begin with.
roseblack
the next most logical step that Alda could make was talking to Vida to separate themselves from Rodidiot reincarnation system. but the problem here is that Alda would never admit he was wrong and instead he will most likely believe what ever excuse from Rodidiot and since he saved heinz he can finally talk with Bellwood. Now that that the three greatest idiots are together and with Bellwoods guidance they probably will STILL think that Van is the biggest threat
Phantom Knight
Thanks for the chapter!!!! Not going to lie, Rodcorte became the biggest “Leroy Jenkins” right now.
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If his alliance with the Alda Faction is known by the masses, he will singlehandedly cause a massive lot of faith to a lot of gods. The aftermath will severely affect society in various unseen ways.
Irazori
At least in the Orabume kingdom. The aldiot empire is definitely screwed though.
Baru-san
thanks
xypherath
I just got around to making an account after reading this novel for over 5 years, I love it so much and as annoying as ketchup boy is van absorbing rikudou’s rodcorte skills is absolutely insane, his skill at magic and controlling it along with his unlimited learning ability is going to be insane, I wonder if it’s gonna be able to apply to his all of his skills as well as his leveling speed, he honestly might even be able to deal with the curses from rodcorte to be honest
Jonathan Hurd
Technically I think Van always had the ability to grow unlimitedly thanks to before he was reborn Vida sending him some of her blood, but the Unique skill might mean that Van will have less Walls in his development. Not like he has had too many thus far considering the things he kills for EXP are Gods at this point, lol.
Increased Learning speed is definitely going to be fun to see. It might mean he gains increased exp to level up his skills faster than ever before. Hopefully that helps him evolving more skills and maybe getting to tier 4 magic.
I would also really enjoy if God Devourer and Soul Devourer evolved into something further.
no1
That was amazing, just amazing. The title was a bad ass start to the chapter. Also now we know for sure even when Vida first met Vandalieu in person and said the fragments were always going to be a part of him. Even Guduranis is not capable of taking his body back from Vandalieu. Now he was over 80 fragments making up the demon king body. Now Vandalieu is a true demon king, wouldn’t be surprised if he also gained a title like that. Guduranis’ curse in the end has some potential. like what if Vandalieu does devour the rest of Guduranis’ soul fragments and the complete soul tries to take over Vandalieu from within. It would make for an interesting development. Also Vandalieu gained 20,000,000,000 mana from devouring an incomplete Guduranis soul plus Rikudou and Edgar. That’s pretty much around the same amount Vandalieu has, his mana pool doubled in this fight, cool. Also Rodcorte still has some Guduranis soul fragment left, so we can still expect Guduranis to come back somehow, probably, maybe. Wonder if Rodcorte would get so desperate as to try and use them himself to destroy Vandalieu, but there’s no way Rodcorte would ever take such a risk on himself. Also someone in a previous chapter called it, Heinz thinks Guduranis is infesting Vandalieu like what happened to Edgar and Rikudou and he’s still being a pain in the ass, like he thinks he’s some avenger or something. But man that was weak sauce to see Nineroad interfere like that, oh well guess this isn’t the big climatic battle yet. Later on Heinz might master Bellwood’s power more and be even more dangerous. Also the savior title is what Vandal deserves. The Demon King slayer title sounds cool, but Vandalieu is the Demon King, so that’s like a dog with a dog catcher job. Not sure if that makes much sense. Also yes Vandalieu got Rikudou’s cheats, but they fused with the true demon king, so did the abilities from Rikudou’s minions. Guessed since Guduranis was using them they are recognized as the Demon King’s power and fused with Vandaliue’s demon king body skill. Only one of Rikudou’s minions is left, maybe Rodcorte will use the Demon king soul fragments and him somehow. Oh and Vandalieu could never create spirits from his mana alone before, now he can, score. Almost forgot, Rodcorte was seriously considering giving Guduranis the remainder of his soul. Unbelivable, he would actually empower Guduranis just to destroy Vandalieu, there’s no way Alda can be fooled by Rodcorte’s lies even after this. If he is the Alda is a mega idiot. Oh yeah and Asagi is still here. He’ll most likely be a pain, but Vandalieu could just ignore him or break his bones, please be the latter. That’s about it, thanks for the amazing chapter Yoshi. This was this volume’s big final battle and now it’s closing, we’re just gonna see some things be settled and possibly Alda planning his next move. Looking forward to the next chapter and someday soon the next volume.
no1
Oh yeah and I was right Vandalieu stats are probably crazy now after winning this battle
Irazori
Yeah. I honestly hope that basic b*tch A’s legs would be broken. Hopefully this event proves to shouko and tendou that it’s essentially a waste of time to keep babysitting the wannabe and just join the rest of the people that went awol because they were tired of all this drama made by idiot gods and/or mortals.
Entropy
Nice conclusion to the fight. Not surprised NineRoads is as big a hypocrite as her allies. I remember her being very hands off on mortal affairs, but first chance she gets, she breaks her own rules. So aside from a few yes men, there are Alda, Nine Roads, Bellwood, and the Justice god that are worth mentioning in Alda’s camp. I suppose Yupeon, the god that made the ice spear is still on the team as well. Does make me curious if Bellwood ran to get help from Nine Roads to rescue Heinz and company. Wouldn’t surprise me since that would be just as hypocritical considering he promised to be a mere power boost for Heinz. Alda is slowly running out of allies, maybe he will start throwing evil gods at Van with the “promise” of forgiving them their past deeds only to kill them if they succeed for being unnatural to the world. At least now Heinz has more garbage logic to fight Van since in his eyes Van is the demon king. I am curious if he tells the peaceful Vida group that their goddess has joined forces with a version of the demon king, how they would react if at all. Looks like Van’s mortal enemies are now 4 down, one lost, and two to go. So Avalon had another supporter in Rodcorte’s realm, wonder if he will try get revenge on Van.
Sailon
Nah Heinz is only using excuse, the truth in my opinion Heinz true desire is not for the world be safe, but he be the one to save it, he is like Bellowod beliving he is in the roght he is the true Hero, him willing to die for Van, was in the believe that this would make him a hero tha safe the world, i think Heinz in the beghining was a “pure” person that whant to save other and be a hero, but sll his mistakes and crime like cwusing Darcia death , the Ghouks and other Vida races he killed without even knowing if they where really evil, broke him he get obsessed with the ideia he is a heto and all his mistakes can be blamed to the ” greater good”. But what happened now with Rodcorte and Alda actions the ones he believe where righteous, caused the world danger andhe was not the one to save the world, so that means all mistakes he did was not for ” greater good”, but for his greed and arrogance he cant deal with this guilt, so he hss to have a excuse to make himself a hero and Van absorbing Guduranis soul is the perfect reason, so now he trick himself to believes he is the only one that can save the world of the threat of Guduranis taking over Van. Using the fact that because happened with Rikudou can happen with Van, witch is the same excuse he used before when Van taked over Guduranis body parts, considering that the situation of Rikudou and Van are completely diferent his logic has too many flaws.
Sailon
What do you mean about peaceful vida group? If you mean the ones that join hands with “Alda peaceful faction” i think that many will follow Heinz even without the fact that Vida sided with the new True Demon King, becsuse this faction dont really follow Vida after all is the group that are willing to sacrifice Vida races that has rank in exchange of peace with Alda, si they where not really Vuda followers, altought the ones in the capital that see everything can possibly change sides to Van as their savior, after all was the servants of the new Demon King that protect them not Alda.
But well i think the next part of war is possible most pf Orabuhem kingdown will side with Van after all the leaders of the Kingdom see his powers where saved by him, and throught some of the heroes can testify that all this mess happened because Rodcorte that is sided with Alda making them choose Vida an Van that protect them, instead of Alda and Rodcorte that almost caused the country destruction.
In fact with all that happrned even many Alda peaceful faction that see everything choose to change sides and allied themselves with Van even if he is the true Demon King.
bookworm12
There’s the ‘fundamentalist’ faction that Van and Darcia are considered to be part of, and the rest that want to coexist with the peaceful Alda faction. I personally think that most people will assume that Rodcorte is some god who betrayed Alda to resurrect Guduranis, which means Alda is not at fault for that.
Irazori
I vaguely remembered that nineroad was essentially getting tired of the fighting and was the only of the few aldiots wanting to reconcile with Vida like with Farmuan. Before she was a pet shop worker and the manga showed her to be a rather meek person compared to bellwood and Farmuan when they were still mortal.
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I’m willing to give her some doubt, but that still depends on what we see in the aftermath.
Sailon
Nah she is just a hypocrite, when Faurmaun left Alda side he called to het, and she says was to late to regreat now and to change sides, even with everything that happened she still in Alda side, and she talked about peace, but never really try to do anything to make it happened, only give some half ass advices, so yeah she just one more Alda faction Hypocrite
monkeyfur69
I love to see the gods thoughts on this.
Lipesp
Well we already knew that there’s no way Heinz and vandalieu could settle things peacefully but I’m still a bit disappointed, well at least I can look forward for what Alda will do to rodcord after this demon king disaster
Metazoxan
Yeah it was a rather lazy way to keep the conflict going.
It was honestly rather pointless to have Heinz consider that plan at all given how easily he abandoned the entire idea.
It feels like the entire thing was only written in because the author wanted readers to view Heinz as more heroic and selfless, but still have him be an antagonist to Van.
Lord Rin
I think he only talked about that plan because it’s just another way to show how Heinz only cares about looking good. If he’d really sacrificed himself to Van then people would view him as a tragic hero who sacrificed himself in order to quell the rage of the new Great Demon King and thus by extension he would be seen as having saved the world. Once Guduranis yelled his sour grapes, it merely gave Heinz a new option he could latch on to that could make him look good. Now by killing Van he can say he’s a hero who’s saving the world bypreventing Guduranis from biding his time in a host before resurrecting more powerful than before.
Jonathan Hurd
I’m with Rin on this. The fact is that there was no practical reason for Heinz to declare his plan to sacrifice himself to Van there. Especially because the first he mentions it is when he has decided to go back on it. Its all just a self satisfaction thing. He is making up excuses as to why Van needs to be stopped and giving him a reason to kill Van when Van hasn’t really done anything to deserve it.
bookworm12
@ Jonathan Hurd I’ll third the opinion. Heinz’s decision back in Alda’s dungeon was the same. He phrased it as the need to get stronger so he could confront Van and confirm that he had a plan for after his death, but he was really just looking to survive and play the hero. Even this time, I bet he was actually hoping for Van to refuse his offer and attack. That would have made him look like even more of a hero, without the need to take it back.
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Also, @ Kingscumon, Yes, Heinz doesn’t know how the soul absorption or works or anything about souls in general. So, he really should be conceding to the experts on this instead of deciding that the being who just defeated Guduranis must die before he can be taken over. He keeps acting like he’s the expert on everything, so he’s the one who gets to judge things and decide on major courses of action. You can bet that if he’d somehow found out about the bits of Guduranis’ soul in Edgar earlier, he would have been begging Alda to save him, not trying to kill him right away on the (very real for Edgar) chance he might be taken over. That’s hypocrisy.
Kingscumon
I don’t take Heinz as an hypocrite, he born un a world where racism is stablished as norm. In fact Go against the general criteria it’s never easy. Don’t take me bad i’m not fan, but i’m a world where racism was common for 10000 is not like You could erease public perception un a bliss. I also think that his fear to Van after eat Guduranis it’s not baseless. Heinz don’t know how Van absortión works so its very normal to see a future where Van could becomes Guduranis 3. Contrary to his original view Van would be dangerous but not Evil, but now he can become both.
Kingscumon
The true hypocrites of this story are Alda and Belwood. The teaching of both was the cause of this world actual state. In a more criticar perspective Van is not preciselesly good, his aligment is Chaotic-Neutral, that make him a real problem in more than a sence. Even if Alda is a d*ck he has reason about Van beign more dangerous than Guduranis.
Dr.Siegbert_Dirk
Great stuff! Thank you for the chapter.