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Because gods did not have a physical body, it was possible for them to experience a living hell of pure agony that was so painful that they could not even lose consciousness. Rodcorte had experienced that pain first-hand, and he was still collapsed face-down, unable to stand up.
Rodcorte had suffered the pain of not only Rikudou Hijiri’s soul being devoured, but the souls of Moriya and the others that had become Ghosts being devoured as well – the souls of seven reincarnated individuals in total, all at once.
But even as he lay there, Rodcorte was thinking.
In the end, Guduranis was devoured by Vandalieu. Given this outcome, maybe I should have done as he told me to?
He was questioning his decision of not sending Guduranis the fragments of the Demon King’s soul in his possession.
The phrase ‘Once past the throat, the heat is forgotten’ was perfectly applicable here.
TLN: This is a phrase in Japanese whose literal meaning is that no matter how hot the food/drink is, it doesn’t burn after it passes the throat. The figurative meaning is that all struggles/suffering are forgotten once they are over. The closest English equivalent is apparently ‘The danger past and God forgotten,’ but even as a native English speaker I can’t say I’ve heard that one before.
However, this incarnation of Guduranis had indeed been precious to Rodcorte, in the sense that there had been a chance of him defeating Vandalieu. He had possessed fragments of his own soul, Rikudou’s soul which he had absorbed, and Edgar’s Status, along with the Ghosts of Rikudou’s subordinates. On top of that, he had possessed a body made from fragments of the Demon King. There were problems with this, but it was a fact that Guduranis had demonstrated great power by possessing this combination of things.
It would be difficult to create another being as powerful as that… No, it would be impossible. It wasn’t just the fragments of Guduranis’s soul or the souls of the reincarnated individuals that would be impossible to procure. The fragments of the Demon King’s body would be, too.
Most of the fragments of the Demon King in the Orbaume Kingdom had been absorbed by Vandalieu. The only ones remaining were the ones that Prime Minister Tercatanis had failed to gather.
The Demon King’s arms were a combination of numerous fragments such as the Demon King’s right thumb, left pinky, and left palm. The Demon King’s brain was also a combination of fragments, such as the Demon King’s cerebellum, cerebrum, and frontal lobe.
It was possible that other arm and brain fragments were still out there somewhere, and Vandalieu was missing them, but not so many that their function could not be carried out by other fragments.
It had been recorded in mythology that Guduranis’s body had been torn into pieces. But of course, that didn’t mean that there were a thousand fragments of Guduranis’s body. ‘In pieces’ was just an adjective meaning that it had been divided finely into many pieces.
TLN: The Japanese phrase used here for ‘in pieces’ is 千々に which literally means “in thousands.”
Back then, Bellwood and the others had been seriously vigilant about the risk of the remnants of the Demon King’s army plotting Guduranis’s resurrection, so they had never recorded or told anyone exactly how many fragments there were.
And the Bahn Gaia continent was the most prosperous continent in all of Lambda. The Orbaume Kingdom accounted for a third of this continent’s landmass, and a proportionally large number of fragments had existed in it. However, most of them had been absorbed by Vandalieu. And it was likely that he had also already absorbed the fragments that were kept by Vida’s side.
In other words, the only fragments left were those in the Amid Empire and its vassal states, which made up the remaining one-third of the Bahn Gaia continent.
In order to create another suitable body with fragments of the Demon King, it was likely necessary to gather the majority of the fragments that existed in the Amid Empire.
Of course, even if that were to be done, the problem would be whether Guduranis would have any chance of victory without his instinct or memories, and without the benefits of a Status. To think that Vandalieu would completely absorb the fragments to make them a part of himself… Where was he a hundred thousand years ago when we needed him?! Rodcorte thought.
He repeatedly pounded the floor of his Divine Realm with his fists in frustration, but… given the chronological order of events, it would have been impossible for Vandalieu to appear a hundred thousand years ago.
It was none other than Rodcorte himself who had gathered the fragments of the souls of Zakkart, Ark, Solder, and Hillwillow and joined them into a single soul that he then placed in the cycle of death and reincarnation on Earth for a hundred thousand years before it was born as Vandalieu.
Rodcorte suddenly came back to his senses. “That’s right! I don’t have the time to be thinking about things like that…!” He stopped his unreasonable blaming and scrambled about to get onto his feet. “I must somehow cover up this incident! I must think of something before Alda comes to question me!”
“That’s impossible,” Aran and the other familiar spirits muttered in the distance.
But Rodcorte was so panicked that he couldn’t hear them at all.
The matter of his embedding of the Demon King’s soul powder in Edgar was likely manageable. It was Alda who had left the treatment of Edgar’s damaged soul in Rodcorte’s hands, and it was Alda who had made an impossible demand… asking that Edgar be returned to fighting form as quickly as possible.
Rodcorte had simply done as he had been asked. But he was indeed at fault for keeping quiet about the fact that he had used a part of Guduranis’s soul for the treatment, even if it was just the soul powder. Rodcorte believed that there was room for him to apologize for that.
However, Rodcorte had also implanted Guduranis’s instinct and memories into Rikudou and even went as far as to help prepare a body made from fragments of the Demon King. When questioned about this by Alda, he had brazenly lied and deceived him. There was no explanation for that.
If Rikudou… If Guduranis had killed Vandalieu and every single person in the nation he ruled, Rodcorte would have returned to being a god who was almost completely unknown to the inhabitants of Lambda, and then he would have been able to flee and leave the world of Lambda behind. If that had happened, it wouldn’t have mattered what Alda thought, or what became of the world of Lambda… Even if the world were to be destroyed as a result, it wouldn’t have been of any concern to Rodcorte.
He would just have one less world whose circle of reincarnation system he managed. It was a world that he had already tried to cut off once in the past, even though it would have come at the cost of cutting off Earth and Origin as well. He would have considered himself lucky if he wasn’t forced to lose Lambda, but even if he was, it wasn’t something that would have bothered him.
But such a future was still nothing more than a hopeful dream. Despite the current state of Rodcorte’s cooperative relationship with Alda, it would be bad for him if that cooperative relationship were to collapse entirely.
The only reincarnated individual left to use as a pawn is Da Long, who is in a stupefied daze after Rikudou was destroyed. I cannot gather the forces needed to kill Vandalieu on my own. I will have to leave everything to Alda and his subordinate gods. And Guduranis told Vandalieu that I am after not only his life, but the lives of all of his people! Vandalieu will definitely come to kill me one day!
It was unclear as to whether Vandalieu was capable of invading Rodcorte’s Divine Realm, and even if he was, whether he would do something as reckless as destroying Rodcorte, given that he governed the circle of transmigration systems of numerous worlds. But to begin with, it didn’t matter to Rodcorte whether Vandalieu would simply destroy him recklessly, or whether he would take measures to prevent any problems from being caused by Rodcorte’s destruction before destroying him. After all, Rodcorte would be destroyed either way.
Rodcorte’s most realistic chance of surviving was to further strengthen Heinz and his companions, who had survived, and have them defeat Vandalieu.
But before Rodcorte could ponder the matter any further, a majestic-sounding voice echoed in his Divine Realm.
“Rodcorte…”
A moment later, Alda appeared.
He’s already here?! Rodcorte thought, flustered.
He hadn’t come up with any ideas yet, but he decided to give Alda some lip service to buy himself some time to think of a plan.
“Alda, listen to–” he began as he looked up to face Alda.
But as he looked up, he saw Alda’s pale face and his arm – which was wielding a stake that was brought down upon Rodcorte’s face.
After letting out a series of ear-splitting screams, Rodcorte finally fell silent, spasming quietly on the floor of his Divine Realm. Alda looked down at him and finally lowered his arms.
“I simply impaled him out of anger, but… to think that my divine authority, the Stakes of Law, would affect Rodcorte despite the fact that they should only affect gods who belong to Lambda…” Alda murmured.
He had become infuriated after realizing that Rodcorte had deceived him and even caused the resurrection of Guduranis. He had brought his stakes down upon Rodcorte, unable to resist striking him out of anger, but he hadn’t thought that his divine authority would have any effect on him.
“Come to think of it, Guduranis said… that he would kill not only Vandalieu, but destroy his nation, too. I see. Your existence has been acknowledged by the races created by Vida, and you have become a god of this world. Is that why you were so panicked? Because you had been driven into a corner?”
Rodcorte, impaled by numerous stakes, didn’t have the ability to answer. But Alda accepted this as the likely reason.
And there was something more important for him to confirm first. Depending on the situation, he would need to remove all of the stakes from Rodcorte right away.
“Familiar spirits of Rodcorte! Answer me!” Alda commanded.
“Y-yes! Ask anything you wish!” said a male familiar spirit who was wearing peculiar clothing that would never be seen in Lambda – Endou Kouya – as he came to stand before Alda.
He had presented himself in the hope that if Alda were to unleash his wrath upon him, he could sacrifice himself and allow Aran and Izumi, who were more experienced with Rodcorte’s system, to be spared. But that turned out to be a needless fear.
“Is the circle of transmigration system functioning without problems even as my divine authority is punishing Rodcorte?” Alda asked.
It seemed that Alda had felt some satisfaction after impaling Rodcorte with numerous stakes; he was more rational than Kouya and the others had thought.
“Yes. It’s not really without problems… When problems occur, repairs and maintenance carried out by Rodcorte will be required, but if there are no problems, then there are no issues with leaving it as it is for a while,” Kouya said.
Rodcorte’s circle of transmigration system was near perfect. Even if Rodcorte was unable to carry out any work on it at all, it would continue to carry out reincarnation automatically as usual. And because Kouya and the others had become experienced with handling the system after becoming familiar spirits, they were capable of carrying out simple maintenance and handling errors.
But in this instance, the near-perfect nature of Rodcorte’s system was his undoing.
“What are these problems you refer to, and how long is ‘a while?’” Alda questioned.
“Problems are caused when Vandalieu destroys souls,” Kouya replied. “But even then, we can make do for a while. And by ‘a while,’ I mean a few years to a decade.”
“And that is true for not only Lambda, but for all worlds whose reincarnation is governed by Rodcorte?”
“Yes. It’s true for the reincarnation of every world.”
“I see… Then I suppose there is no need to remove the stakes.”
Having learned that no problems would be caused by Rodcorte’s absence, Alda decided to not remove the stakes and leave him as he was. If the circle of transmigration system required frequent maintenance by Rodcorte, then Rodcorte might have gotten away with only experiencing a hellish agony and terror, but…
“In that case, I will have you three carry out maintenance on the circle of transmigration system for a while. And believe me, it is pointless to try to save your master Rodcorte,” Alda said.
“Understood! We won’t think about anything unnecessary and focus on maintaining the circle of transmigration system! Now then, please excuse me!” said Kouya with a bow, and then he returned to where the system was.
Ordinarily, familiar spirits would be concerned for the well-being of their master, but Alda found himself perplexed that Kouya showed no concern for Rodcorte whatsoever. But he simply assumed that this was likely due to Rodcorte’s lack of virtue.
“To think that he cannot even form good relationships with his own familiar spirits… However, the issue of reincarnation has been solved for the time being. With this, I won’t have to worry about Rodcorte or his reincarnated individuals,” Alda murmured to himself. “All I must worry about now is Heinz’s party and the potential heroes… It is fortunate that Heinz has regained consciousness, but the loss of Edgar is a painful one. And to think that I might lose Orbaume, in terms of worship.”
Because he had created a Dungeon to strengthen Heinz and his party, Alda had lost the power necessary to descend upon the world. And it would have been dangerous to descend to fight against Guduranis, due to the risk of being attacked by Vandalieu.
But even so, asking the people of Orbaume to understand his circumstances would be impossible. Vandalieu would have appeared to be a ‘Savior’ in their eyes – no matter how vile and evil his true nature was. After all, Vandalieu had indeed saved them.
Heinz and his companions had fought as worshipers of the gods of Alda’s forces, but their achievements in this battle were far less impressive than Vandalieu’s. Fortunately, it was still unclear to the people as to how exactly Guduranis had been resurrected. Edgar’s death was likely to become known as a tragedy. However, the only thing the potential heroes who had been fighting at ground level would remember was that Edgar had died.
It seemed that the potential heroes felt distrust for the gods, who had instructed them to receive ‘Rodcorte’s Divine Protection.’ It was likely that some of them would cut the gods off, like the previous potential hero chosen by Rubicante.
And several of the duchies of the Orbaume Kingdom would do the same.
“The original plan was to unite the Amid Empire and the Orbaume Kingdom under Heinz and Eileek, amass a fighting force and then strike Vandalieu, but… I suppose I have no choice but to focus mainly on the Amid Empire now,” Alda muttered.
Nineroad had evacuated Heinz and his companions to a place far from Orbaume. Alda decided to send them a Divine Message instructing them to continue running and head for the Amid Empire.
He also needed to send a Divine Message to Eileek, the new Pope, so that the Amid Empire would take Heinz and his companions in. They had been born in the Mirg shield-nation, a vassal state of the Amid Empire, but they had become honorary nobles and based themselves in a nation that had been the empire’s enemy since its foundation. Some knew of this, and many called Heinz a traitor to his nation.
But the people of the Amid Empire were sure to see Heinz differently once they learned that he had awakened Bellwood from his slumber and carried his holy sword. No, they would be forced to.
And so, Alda quickly sent a Divine Message to Heinz.
《The Level of the ‘Labyrinth Creation’ Skill has increased!》
《‘Shadow Group Binding Technique’ has awakened to ‘Demon World Binding Technique!’》
After Guduranis was defeated and Heinz and his party escaped, Vandalieu and his companions immediately set out to deal with the aftermath of the battle.
“… Look, the gates are moving in a row, like ducklings. I must be so tired that my eyes are failing me,” said Hendricksen, his mouth half-open dumbfoundedly.
“Get a hold of yourself, Hendricksen-san. What you’re seeing is reality,” said Arthur.
“How about some medicinal herb tea?” offered a Demon King Familiar.
Vandalieu was leading the gates away. “I didn’t want to have to do things like this,” he said. “This is all Rikudou… This is all Dark Avalon’s fault.”
The gates that Rikudou had created all over Orbaume had remained after Guduranis took over his soul and even after both of them were destroyed.
The Dungeon beyond the gates was still intact as well. Most of the monsters had been exterminated, but as time passed, more would spawn.
If something wasn’t done about that, rebuilding the city of Orbaume would be impossible. However, it was impossible to destroy a Dungeon or stop it from functioning.
For a Dungeon that was governed by a certain being, such as Alda’s Dungeon of Trials and the Trial of Zakkart, it was possible to stop their function by destroying that being. But for other Dungeons, the most that even Vandalieu could do was create holes in their floors.
Thus, Vandalieu had decided to use the ‘Labyrinth Creation’ Skill to gather all of the gates to one place, and then move all of the gates inside the Dungeon, leaving only one gate behind.
This resulted in a complicated state where the inside of the Dungeon contained multiple entrances to itself, but with this, it was now an ordinary A-class Dungeon with only one entrance connecting it to the outside world.
Vandalieu had been hesitant to make it publicly known that he had the ability to move Dungeon entrances, but… he had already done much more than that, so he had decided that it was already too late to be worried about such things.
With only some exceptions, the people who had evacuated into the shelters hadn’t come out yet. Having them stay inside the shelters was safer than hastily letting them out into the rubble-strewn wasteland outside, and this way, there was no risk of criminals looting houses while the city was in such a state.
Incidentally, the food needed to feed them was being procured from the monster corpses that filled the city’s streets.
“Hendricksen! Stop escaping reality and get back to cutting the meat!” the adventurer next to Hendricksen scolded him.
“No matter how much I cut, there’s no end to it… Though for some reason, a lot of the corpses don’t have any bones, so it’s easier than it normally would be,” Hendricksen said.
“We will be buying the materials not used for food in bulk, so please gather them over here!” Isla shouted to the adventurers.
“They can really buy up all of these materials? These materials are from monsters with really high Ranks, too. Isn’t the Adventurers’ Guild going to go bankrupt?” muttered one of the adventurers who was dismantling the monster corpses.
Indeed, he couldn’t be blamed for worrying about that.
Even materials taken from a Rank 7 monster could be sold for large sums. And yet, a countless number of monsters above Rank 10, whose existence was only spoken of in legends, had appeared in the city. Some of the monsters had been so violently destroyed that there were no usable materials to be harvested from them, but even so, there was a mountain of materials that had belonged to legendary monsters.
There was no telling how many tens of millions – how many hundreds of millions of Baums would be needed to buy them all.
“I’m sure the country will subsidize it,” one of the male adventurers said.
“I mean, look around. This is the country that’s going to pay for that?” said the other male adventurer next to him as he shaved the skin off a mass of meat.
“Huh, I guess you’re right,” said the first adventurer.
Half the city that had been in a perfectly fine state until this morning was now rubble, and the rest of the city had buildings that were still standing but in a half-destroyed state that rendered them unusable. Apparently, the slums had been particularly thoroughly destroyed. That couldn’t be helped, because the buildings there had all been dilapidated to begin with, but…
There were sections that had been left miraculously unharmed, but if one excluded buildings like Silkie Zakkart Mansion, only a very tiny portion of buildings were completely undamaged. And one of the most curious things was that even from here, it was clear that the royal castle hadn’t collapsed and was looking as majestic as usual, but…
Wait, was the royal castle always shaped like that? It has more towers now… No, I feel like it’s moved? the man thought, confused as he realized that the castle that he was used to seeing had changed shape. No, I suppose it’s just my imagination. The castle is full of holes, and it’s in an unusual state where there’s a huge flying ship, a mass of flesh, a centipede, and an Elder Dragon floating around it. The castle was right beneath the battle with Guduranis, so I suppose it’s only natural for it to change shape a little.
And with that, the man turned his mind to another matter. “But what’s going to happen now? The Five-colored Blades disappeared somewhere and haven’t come back yet. And weren’t they arguing? With the ‘Savior,’ I mean.”
“… I have no idea. They were pretty far away, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying…” said the man next to him.
These men, like Hendricksen, were potential heroes… the individuals chosen and granted divine protections by the gods of Alda’s forces. Some of them were also party members of the potential heroes. They had been anxious when they heard that Rodcorte was the reason behind Guduranis’s resurrection, and they had been confused when they heard that the Five-colored Blades and the ‘Savior’ Vandalieu had apparently argued with one another.
In times of peace, it wouldn’t be strange for Heinz, a worshiper of Alda, to be arguing with Vandalieu, a worshiper of Vida. But why would he argue with Vandalieu immediately after he defeated the Demon King Guduranis? Even if they worshiped different gods, shouldn’t he have shared in the joy of the world having been saved?
To begin with, Heinz and his companions were a part of Alda’s peaceful faction, who advocated for reconciliation with Vida’s worshipers and the members of the races she had created. Vandalieu was the Dhampir who had been praised as ‘Savior’ by Vida; why would Heinz and his companions cause trouble for him?
The more the potential heroes and their companions thought about it, the more they found it difficult to imagine what Heinz was thinking. Of course, while Vandalieu and his companions fought against Guduranis in the sky, the potential heroes had been fighting at ground level… and away from Vandalieu and the others. Thus, they weren’t familiar with the situation.
They had been able to hear Guduranis’s declaration of his own resurrection, and his roars, as well as Vida’s praise for Vandalieu. But they hadn’t learned of the details regarding the situation and the timeline of events. So perhaps there were some circumstances that they weren’t aware of. Or perhaps they were simply misunderstanding things.
However, the Five-colored Blades, the ones who would normally be questioned regarding those circumstances, had vanished somewhere… through a god’s power, no less.
But even the gods that the potential heroes worshiped were not sending any Divine Messages with instructions.
“Hendricksen! Arthur! Haven’t you guys received any Divine Messages?!” one of the men shouted, unable to handle his growing unease any longer.
It was Hendricksen who answered him first. “No, nothing. But what if the gods are thinking that there’s nothing they need to say right now?”
He had become completely calm after having recovered from the unbelievable sight of Vandalieu moving Dungeon entrances, which were supposed to be completely immovable.
“T-there’s nothing that they need to say?!” the man repeated incredulously.
“What do you mean by that?!” said another.
This time, it was Arthur who answered. “The resurrected Guduranis has been defeated. And we are doing what we can to rebuild the city. Is that not enough?”
The men, who were now accustomed to Arthur’s ferocious appearance, gasped as they realized that he was right.
“I see. I suppose there’s some reason to that,” one of them said.
“Indeed… Now’s not the time to be doing things like this. If we get the chance, we can ask the ‘Savior’ or Isla-san later,” said another.
Pretending that he hadn’t heard that, Vandalieu continued gathering the gates in one place.
“Danna-sama, I would like to ask two things,” said Bellmond, who was walking beside Vandalieu like a secretary. “The first is… Do we not need to denounce the Five-colored Blades and the gods of Alda’s forces?”
“No, we don’t,” replied Vandalieu, who had cast a spell to ensure that this conversation couldn’t be overheard. “Or to be more precise, that isn’t something that we need to do just yet. We’re worshipers of Vida, and if we proactively criticize Alda and Heinz, people will end up harboring animosity towards us. The people who evacuated didn’t see or hear what happened, after all.”
The lives of the people of Orbaume had been saved thanks to Vandalieu, but that didn’t mean that they would blindly believe whatever he said. Even if Vandalieu and his companions were to denounce the gods of Alda’s forces and criticize Heinz, many of the people who worshiped gods of Alda’s forces would only doubt him further rather than believe what he said.
From their perspective, everything had been peaceful up until this morning, when monsters suddenly attacked the city, forcing them to flee for their lives and evacuate. Even if the gods they worshiped were to be blamed for it, they wouldn’t understand.
Although the truth was clear as day for Vandalieu and his companions, it was not so clear for the people. And it wasn’t as if there was proof to convince them.
“We just need to speak the truth calmly to the people in a manner that is easy to understand. Let’s keep the fact that Guduranis’s soul dust was implanted into Edgar’s soul a secret,” Vandalieu said. “Dark Avalon, the name that Isla spread for us. Rodcorte, whose name Asagi blabbered out loud. The Five-colored Blades, who left Orbaume despite the fact that the city needs to be rebuilt… Even without us raising our voices, it’s clear as to what the people will think. And I’m planning to outsource the task of proactive criticism.”
“I see. To the ones who are currently talking to one another inside Knochen, I presume?” Bellmond said. “And you are the ‘Savior’ who defeated Guduranis. As you and the rest of us put effort into the rebuilding of Orbaume, the people will think more favorably of you and have a more positive impression of beings like Undead and Demons.”
“That’s right,” said Vandalieu. “So, what is the other thing you wanted to ask?”
“Ah, yes… When will I be able to have you suck my blood?” asked Bellmond, her cheeks turning slightly pink.
Vandalieu gave her a perplexed look.
“I mean to say, I have heard that you consumed the blood that you preemptively took from me and transplanted into Jeena and Borkus, but… I would like to have you suck it from me directly, Danna-sama… And come to think of it, I heard that you used a proboscis to suck blood from Zadiris and the others. Is there some meaning to that?” Bellmond asked.
“No, I just thought that a mark left by a proboscis would fade away faster than marks left by fangs. Zadiris and the others don’t have the ‘Rapid Regeneration’ Skill, after all,” said Vandalieu. “So, regarding an opportunity to suck your blood, Bellmond… After this, I’ll be combining the Dungeon’s gates into a single gate, making adjustments around the entrance, and restoring the walls protecting the city of Orbaume using ‘Golem Creation.’ I’ll need to use a lot of Mana, so I’ll suck your blood after that.”
Vandalieu was capable of repairing the buildings by turning the rubble into Golems, but he didn’t intend to repair the entirety of the city that way. It would leave construction workers out of a job, and… it would become troublesome later on.
He did intend to carry out repairs on the things needing immediate attention – the area around the Dungeon’s entrance, the city’s walls, and the building of each Guild.
“There is also the task of renovating the slum district. I feel at ease knowing that, as it seems that I, Pauvina, Gizania, Privel, Myuze, and Eleanora will all be able to have turns at having our blood sucked soon enough,” Bellmond said.
“… Don’t blame me if you all become anemic afterwards,” said Vandalieu.
Vandalieu was merely the son of an honorary noble, even if he was the ‘Savior,’ so ordinarily, he wouldn’t be allowed to carry out this work without the permission of the king and nobles. Ordinary repairs might have been fine, but renovating the slum district without permission would be outrageous.
However, Vandalieu and his companions were certain that it wouldn’t be a problem. After all… they had already gained the agreement of King Corbitt and the others.
A white castle – or rather, Knochen, who had transformed to create a castle of bones, stood in front of Orbaume’s royal castle, which had collapsed in various places. In the reception room was an enormous round table made of countless bones, and it was surrounded by the few people who had been let out of the shelters – King Corbitt, Marshal Dolmad, and several others.
All of them looked terribly pale; some of them were as ashen as corpses, and others were trembling so violently that they couldn’t even drink the tea that had been prepared for them… There were some who looked like they were suppressing their feelings of irritation, and others whose faces were red with anger, but they were in the minority.
“Now then… Let us begin this emergency council of the Orbaume Kingdom,” King Corbitt said, his voice filled with a heavy fatigue. “I ask you to draw forth all of your wisdom so that it is not the Orbaume Kingdom’s last.”
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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RayneVilanore
“Ah, yes… When will I be able to have you suck my blood?” asked Bellmond, her cheeks turning slightly pink. this section reminds me of the suck no you suck it tik tok
EjPuzatiy
It made me laugh my ass out loudly when Alda juat sent his stake out of irritation, but was shoked that it actually struck Rodcrote, AND THEN, INSTEAD OF STOPPING OUT OF SHOCK, HE CONTINUED TO ATTACK HIM TILL HE STOPPED SCREAMING
This is what i call The Domino Effect
bookworm12
Thanks for the chapter! For once, the chapter title referred to something at the beginning of the chapter instead of the last sentence. So satisfying to see Rodcorte get staked! But Alda is still as self-righteous as always, insulting Van’s nature after he saved the world more effectively than Bellwood did. Guduranis will never be able to resurrect again. And Alda still doesn’t realize why his stakes worked on the Evil God of Sinful Chains, even though he figured out why Rodcorte was affected. His new plan for Heinz will absolutely result in the peaceful faction losing all influence in the Orbaume Kingdom. Heinz was seen pointing his weapon at the ‘Savior’ before vanishing and coming back later with the enemy Empire’s army. No way to spin that away from him being a traitor and abandoning his beliefs about peace with Vida’s races. The worst part is, they could have still managed to come out on top of the rumor mill IF Heinz had provoked Van into attacking first by using his words and pretended to not defend himself, knowing he would be evacuated by Nineroads at the last moment.
.
.
As for the rest of the chapter, Van is busy ostentatiously rebuilding the capitol and is leaving the destruction of Heinz’s reputation to others. Good choice.
Chiu ChunLing
I mean, the Reconciliation faction was pretty much doomed the moment Vida awoke, let alone made Darcia her incarnation, but once Vida revealed herself in the battle against Guduranis and then proclaimed Van the Savior and Demon King Slayer…
And the Conservative faction isn’t likely to fare too well either except by keeping their heads down. Like, on the ground.
BeiBei G6
But even so, asking the people of Orbaume to understand his circumstances would be impossible. Vandalieu would have appeared to be a ‘Savior’ in their eyes – no matter how vile and evil his true nature was.
How self-righteously can one be? He just saved the world from a imperfected demon king that resurrected with a half ass method so rather than thanking him he still trying to gather heroes to try and kill him instead.
FrogAku
So, now that I’m done snickering over Rotcortex getting a sliver of his just desserts, I wonder if Aran and company are going to directly contact Van at this point. Think about it, outside of Van’s happy company of grotesques and gods, they know the most about him. Despite how he acts, they KNOW he’s capable of managing a cycle (minor so far) of reincarnation, and he’s proven that he’ll work with the former bravers as long as they aren’t hostile – and that’s been their priority. I’d look forward to them contacting him, possibly through Asagi’s (not Asagi though) or the other former bravers, and finally clearing up WHY some of the soul/reincarnation issues are so important.
You have to admit, them INVITING Van into Rotcortex’s realm, or pointing out that Zum and CO know how to get there already, and Van literally being served Rotcortex as a steak-on-a-stake is just the chef’s kiss of justified vengance.
no1
@frogaku. You make a good point. Those three couldn’t contact Vandalieu directly because Rodcorte was there. Now that Rodcorte is incapacitated and unable to move, they should be able to do all the things they couldn’t do before. I thinks it’s a little too hopeful that they can invite others into Rodcorte’s divine realm, I doubt Rodcorte gave them that much authority in his divine realm. I am looking forward to Vandalieu one day storming Rodcorte’s divine realm and finally getting his revenge. I mean we all know he’s going after Rodcorte one of these days. Also “steak-on-a-stake” that’s clever.
no1
So overall, Alda punishing Rodcorte might come back to bite him later
bookworm12
I’ll third the opinion. Rodcorte’s ‘angels’ did mention wanting to contact Van before, and Alda didn’t consider giving them any other orders. So, nothing is stopping them from contacting Van for peace talks or reincarnating any dead Bravers from Origin as normal babies inside Van’s influence instead of reincarnating them as fully-grown, mind-wiped pawns for Alda like Rodcorte pretty much promised to do. And I’m fairly certain that the gods from Vida’s faction could bring Van along to Rodcorte’s realm in the same way that they brought his soul to Origin/Earth before.
Doc
The only former Bravers Aran knows Van works with are Kanako, Melissa, and David. Aran is traumatized by Kanako and thinks she’s more evil than Rikudou ever was. Plus he’s just as stupid as Heinz is in their self-righteousness, so he might also think Guduranis will somehow take over Van because of Guduranis’ dying words and will continue his efforts in trying to seal death magic and the demon king fragments away.
no1
@Doc. Don’t you mean Asagi instead of Aran
Tejing
I believe you mean Doug, not David.
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Also, yeah, you must mean Asagi, not Aran.
Battletoad
Ah, these translations are great.
Thanks for the chapter!
Doc
“But even so, asking the people of Orbaume to understand his circumstances would be impossible.”
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Ah yes, Alda’s “circumstances”. Why won’t more people be cool with mass-genocide against nearly all of Vida’s races (and casual racism against the few he “tolerates”, dark elves, titans, and beast people).
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Seeing as Alda pretty much lost all of the potential heroes in Orbaume, those Evil Breaking Swords in the Amid Empire better be plot hole level strong to provide any kind of actual fighting force to go against Van and crew.
RanmaChaos
Justice at last! Suck Stake Rodcorte! IDIOT!
Big thanks to Fallen for the donation!
no1
When I first read this chapter I thought Rodcorte ate a stake to the face, LMAO. Alda won’t admit it but it’s thanks to Vandalieu for telling everyone within the Boundary mountain range about Rodcorte, that his stakes of law actually works on Rodcorte.
Lord Rin
Rodcorte did indeed get a stake in the face.
DarkCarnage
he had it coming for a long time. and Ada likely only undo it enough for him to work later when needed for a long while I bet just to vent due to him not helping 100k years ago and now reincarnation the Braves and Van into his world at his whim.
bookworm12
He did, that just won’t kill gods as easily as it would a person.
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. I am curious how the remaining bravers will get new bodies since Rodcorte was more hands on with their bodies. Also have a bad feeling about Avalon’s last loyal servant being left up there. I am betting Alda will regret this in the future. If Rodcorte was confused about his loyalties, he is not anymore. He might join forces with the demon king in a mad attempt to deal with Alda. Find it funny that now Heinz will appear to be a petty loser that attacked the hero after failing to beat the demon king. Looks like the kingdom may become a vassal state to Van’s growing empire. I am curious how the king will save face since his kingdom was responsible for the the demon king’s resurrection. Rodcorte helped but the kingdom gave the parts.
Lord Rin
Da Long can’t do anything. His cheat has no offensive applications since it’s just meant for surveillance and gathering information and to reincarnate he would need Aran and the others to do it for him since Rodcorte can’t do anything now that he’s been staked and there’s no way Aran’s group would ever do something to make an enemy of Van. Plus right now he’s mind broken after seeing Rikudou/Guduranis get his soul eaten by Van. Aran’s group will probably just reincarnate him normally without past memories just like any other soul.
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I don’t think the king needs to save face. It was all Tercatanis acting alone abusing his authority to collect the fragments for Rikudou. Van will be understanding.
Doc
The bravers are set to reincarnate in Lambda automatically. Rodcorte only intervenes if they strike a deal to hunt Van. Otherwise they reincarnate in Lambda as babies like all the bravers who refused Rodcorte’s deal. Remember, Melissa, Kanako, and David only have adult bodies because they were apart of Murakami’s group who agreed to kill Van. They immediately betrayed him and Rodcorte once they were on Lambda.
Da Long is of zero threat to anybody so it’s doubtful he’ll be used for anything in the future. This chapter was pretty much the author saying we’re done with Rodcorte for the foreseeable future. His last card to play was Rikudou / Guduranis and he failed. It’s Alda’s turn to be the primary antagonist now. Since Alda’s got the majority of human worship power on his side, he’s the strongest enemy Van has to face left.
I don’t see how the King would be blamed for anything. It was the Prime Minister’s fault the demon king fragments were gathered and he did that in secret without the King’s permission.
bookworm12
I agree that it should be automatic as long as they are reincarnated as babies. It might not happen before the conflict is over, but hopefully the ones left in Rodcorte’s realm are able to at least influence where they are reincarnated so Van can protect them.
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Superiors are blamed for their subordinates’ actions all the time, with the reasoning that it was the lack of supervision/discipline that allowed the crimes to occur. He also doesn’t need to be convicted of anything for it to cause major damage. Just a loss in trust in the government would leave the kingdom in ruins.
Tejing
I doubt the remaining bravers getting new bodies will be an issue, since it’s unlikely any more will die before the conflict is all over anyway, and Da Long is in no shape to participate.
Phantom Knight
…..Mmm, the skill info is interesting in this chapter. I never would have guessed that [Shadow Group BindingTechnique] would awaken into the [Demon World Binding Technique] skill.
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Heck, I didn’t never even the word “World” would appear in the superior skills name either, but….. it does make sense in retrospect. After all, the original Binding-type skills would create an internal space for certain types of familiars and would then allow you to equip parts of those familiar inside oneself.
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Van’s [Shadow Group Binding Technique] was connected to the [Demon King’s Shadow] and the [Inner Worlds] skill. It was also influenced by Pandemonium, Qliphoth, Demon Ruler, and other similar jobs.
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I just wonder whether the [Demon World Binding Technique] would amplify the effects of his past jobs. Also, I do wonder whether his [Inner Worlds] will increase in size or accessibility now.
Tejing
His inner worlds scale with his mana pool iirc, so actually they should have gotten notably bigger from the boost he got from eating Gudu.
Phantom Knight
Thanks for the chapter!!! Heh, it was so refreshing to see Alda punish Rodcorte for being a “Leroy Jenkins.”
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As for the aftermath issues, I also agree that Alda is basically screwing over the Peaceful Faction in Orbaume Kingdom. We acknowledge that he is trying to nurture Heinz, but this foolish god kees screwing over the national politics.
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His unilateral decision will force Heinz to abandon Selene, his friends, and many of his connections. Even the Alda Peaceful Faction will take a major hit, and Heinz will earn a bad reputation as a traitor.
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……..Talk about pig teammates. Sigh
Chiu ChunLing
To be fair, the Reconciliation faction has been formally abolished by Divine fiat now that everyone knows Darcia is Vida’s incarnation and Van is her Champion. And Selene and everyone else is frankly a LOT better off without Heinz.
As for Heinz himself…the alternative was basically having his soul devoured and then Van telling everyone he lost it and attacked him because of Edgar’s death and whatnot. That wouldn’t help his reputation either, and it’s not like his reputation would even matter anymore.
Lord Rin
This is the only time Alda has ever done anything helpful: staking Rodcorte in his stupid face. OK sure he was only lashing out in anger and wasn’t even AWARE that his stakes could affect Rodcorte but at least now Rodcorte is out of the picture for now anyways.
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Well then, Alda’s Peaceful Faction are truly done for now. The people that are supposed to be their representatives -Heinz’s party- were seen pointing their blades at the person publicly acknowledged by Vida as the ‘Savior’ right after Guduranis was defeated. Then they suddenly disappeared and eventually the public will hear about how Heinz’s party have gone back to the Amid Empire so they’ll most likely conclude that they deserted and betrayed the Orbaume Kingdom. They might even start a conspiracy theory that Heinz was really a double agent sent by the Amid Empire to go undercover in their enemy’s nation to steal national secrets and learn any weaknesses the Empire could exploit before they returned to the Empire. Van was right that they don’t need to do anything themselves to criticize and denounce Alda and Heinz. The rumor mill will do it for them. Van doesn’t even need to reveal Edgar’s role in Guduranis’ resurrection at this point. Anyways yeah the Peaceful Faction is through. Besides learning that Heinz has deserted the Kingdom and gone back to their enemy’s nation, the vast majority of people that had been part of the Peaceful Faction weren’t even true believers. They either were part of it because they could take advantage of it to benefit themselves personally or they were only there because they wanted to follow Heinz. Also the faction barely did anything to help during this crisis. They just tried to hole up in their own shelters for the most part. If there are any true believers that sincerely wished for peaceful coexistence then most likely they’ll just be absorbed by Van’s faction.
Entropy
The peaceful fraction may retreat to the empire. Considering their options that would probably be their best bet. I do wonder what will become of Selen. I figured she would be used as a figurehead or tool eventually but thought that Heinz would prevent that while still alive. Pity she will be used for that even sooner now, she might even sacrificed for some dumb reason. The true believers are probably not going to be accepted by Van since they want Vida’s races as either slaves or scapegoats. Their faith is also barely relevant to either Vida or Alda.
Lord Rin
That might be hard for them to retreat to the Empire. They wouldn’t be able to survive crossing over the Boundary Mountain Range so the only methods they could try is either by sea or go through the Sauron Duchy which has the former Scylla territory now filled with undead and honestly the Empire probably wouldn’t even accept them since regardless of also worshipping Alda, they’re from enemy nations that have been at war on and off again for thousands of years.
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As for Selen she was already used as a tool. We’ve seen before Heinz specifically use her as bait to lure out Alda extremists so he could ‘guide’ them and the dialogue during that time implied that that’s something Heinz does often even if he doesn’t let Selen know he’s using her.
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The people you’re talking about that want to make Vida’s races as second class citizens and slaves aren’t true believers. Those are just hypocrites who want to take advantage for personal gain. A true believer would be somebody like that one Alda priest from the city of Morksi who didn’t have any problems with Van’s spreading of Vida fundamentalism and didn’t try stop his group’s religious efforts. People like him want true peaceful coexistence with Vida’s races and Van’s message of Vida fundamentalism is to treat all races as people so it probably wouldn’t be hard to absorb those few true believers into his faction especially since he’s got Kanako on his side who can guide them which then makes it easier for them to be guided by Van in turn.
bookworm12
I don’t think I’d accuse Heinz of using Selen as bait, but it’s true that he did benefit from intercepting and guiding those attackers. I agree that the peaceful faction is in for some hard times thanks to Heinz and Alda’s gods, but they can’t run to the Empire as they’d just get branded as heretics like the priests of the greater gods who sided with Van, who told people that their gods were siding against Alda. Ironically, it might have been better for them if Nineroads communicated with Heinz beforehand and arranged for him to provoke Van into attacking him first. They can’t blame Van for responding in kind, after all.
no1
It’s unlikely the peaceful faction will relocate to the amid empire. The empire is prejudice against all Vida’s races and the peaceful faction is supposedly advocating for coexistence with vida’s races. They wouldn’t find any if at all support in the Amid empire. Even if Heinz has bellwood and the holy sword
Irazori
I think the aldiot empire would allow the fake peace faction within their country. After all, said faction advocates for pro-slavery, so the empire would likely legalize it to continue their discrimination practices while the fake peace blades will continue to believe in their illusion of doing good like how they ignored the titan slaves in the pro-aldiot duchy in Orabume for being recognized as criminals and not bothering to check.
Lord Rin
They already legally have slavery of Vida’s races in the Empire. They don’t need to take in a faction that at least outwardly claims to want better treatment of Vida’s races. Also the hypocritical stance is something coming from their representatives like Heinz and other people with influence who are just taking advantage of the group’s stated goal and there probably are at least some people who genuinely want coexistence. Those people probably will get disillusioned once they hear how Heinz bailed on the Kingdom as traitors that are going back to the enemy nation and those people will probably just leave the faction where they’ll be ripe for being guided by Van and Kanako.
YohaoShakur
Rodcorte is incredibly dumb for a god, Alda is dumb too but at least he has some mind to thinking of tactics and strategy. Rodcorte should have reincarnated Rikudou as a baby on the Amid Empire so that he could plan out and build a full trap for Vandalieau, instead he used Rikudou like a hammer, but again forgot Vandalieau has a high af resistance against blunt damage.
Utsuho
“Rodcorte should have reincarnated Rikudou as a baby on the Amid Empire so that he could plan out and build a full trap for Vandalieu”
Even if Rocorte wanted to do that, he was unable to. Rikudou was a demigod at the moment of his death, he was unable to be reincarnated as a regular human baby. Which is why Rikudou plotted all of his thing with the Prime minister and the DK fragments
DarkCarnage
Rodcorte is dumb but it is mostly because he was highly specialized in dealing with souls and his system. he did not interact with other gods much and lacked any social wit or combat as he sat it all out 100k years ago.
he just sat in his room like the NEET he was and polished his system so he could relax and do the bare minimum he needed to to gather power and connect to more words while acting high and mighty.
no1
I wonder if he thought he could talk his way out of this because he thinks himself as just that cunning, valuable to Alda’s forces as an ally, or if he thinks Alda is just that dumb
bookworm12
He couldn’t reincarnate Rikudou as a baby because of his ‘god’ status. Even without that, there are reasons why Rodcorte reincarnated the other attackers into adult bodies. Van is getting stronger at a rapid pace, and Rodcorte does not have time to wait for them to grow up and finally start taking jobs to catch up.
Thk
You know since they were swinging around at least mountain splitting -probably way stronger- attacks, the landscape around the city should just be chasms, such attacks don’t just stop because they missed. and this is assuming they actually kept attacks mostly horizontal to save the city some.
Tejing
I suspect they were actually high enough in the sky that most of the missed attacks landed outside the city.
Chiu ChunLing
Actually, most of the really dangerous attacks used were the type that DO just stop if they miss. And relatively few of them were the kind that are purely physical and thus suitable for razing mountains and stuff.
But more important, Van was actively defending the city as much as possible. So while Rikudou actively tried to destroy everything, and Guduranis certainly didn’t make any effort to avoid it, it’s not like we need an extensive description of how Van used DK familiars and his followers to mitigate the damage from every missed attack. It got mentioned a few dozen times in the preparations leading up to the fight and the early stages of the fight itself, any more than that would be boring and repetitive.
Irazori
Now that the honorary aldiot is out of the way from making things worse, all that’s left is to deal with Lambda’s initial core problem.
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I’m completely unsympathetic towards basic b*tch H and his party for essentially being deported from Orabume and forced back to the aldiot empire by the very same deities they worshipped. Which also means that the fake peace faction is definitely doomed once they hear that their only fighting force had bailed on the kingdom and are going back to their shameful pro-discrimination country roots. Honestly also can’t help but pity selen, since it kinda does mean that she was just figuratively left alone thanks to the aldiot gods interfering.
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It definitely would cause too much of an uproar to denounce the fake peace faction on Van’s part. So I feel optimistic that the public would make the right conclusion since said faction didn’t really do a damn on the evacuation support while more/less relying on their fake peace blades to do it for them thanks to poor planning.
jmoreno126
Oh damn. I knew Rodcorte would be impaled by Alda, by I didn’t expected it to be so soon. So that means Rodcorte is out of the story for now?
Great move on Van and the author for not using the chance to immediately lash out on Alda and Heinz. To manipulate, you gotta be careful. First you go for the head (King and Dukes), then you go lower.
no1
I knew it Rodcorte did feel a lot of pain this time. Also is Rodcorte seriously asking where was Vandalieu 100000 years ago, that’s ridiculous. I agree with you @libio. The one thing Alda did that wasn’t the most idiotic. I called it previously that Alda should just lash out at Rodcorte and hope it sticks. And it works. I guess Alda is not as angry anymore since he knows he can hurt Rodcorte. And Rodcortes reincarnation system still works, but aran, izumi and Kouya can maintain it for a decade at most. Hopefully it works out. Rodcorte was seriously considering raising another Guduranis incarnation to fight Vandalieu. This dude doesn’t learn. If the method wasn’t close to impossible then he would do it. Also now we know there’s more fragments and only in the Amid empire
I’m really looking forward to how the fragments react when all of them are reunited within Vandalieu. I remember in a previous volume when a lot of them came together in Vandalieu, they said they will be resurrected. Can’t wait. Also now we know what Alda plans to do next. Also Bellmond is so adorable. Asagi might show up next chapter since he’s still in the capital and he’ll be a pain. Wonder what Heinz and co will be talking about in the upcoming chapters. Lastly I feel sorry for the king and his retainers, they’re terrified using an undead as a temporary castle. Thanks for the chapter Yoshi and looking forward to the next one
bookworm12
I believe the fragments mentioned resurrection after Van awakened to the Demon King’s Body skill. But yes, I imagine there will be a special reaction if Van collects all the fragments before the story ends.
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I also had to shake my head when Rodcorte asked where Van was 100,000 years ago when they needed him as a savior. He was exactly where you put him, genius.
Baru-san
thanks.
Libio
Thanks for chapter.
Yes! I can’t believe I’m saying it, but good job Alda!
Stake to the face, perfect! I would want more of them being used, not just one, but with how weak is Rodcorde to pain, this should be enough. Theoretically, Rodcorde should be able to defend himself, because stakes of law needs to strike to take effect and Rodcorde is more powerful that Alda and it was his divine relam etc., but Rodcorde doesn’t have any fighting experiences, so he is just big target and he was taken by surprise. Anyway Vida is going to get new wave of believers. Smart move from Van to not criticise Alda publicly. Alda shouldn’t have much moves left to play. I can only think about abandoning some duties of demigods and gods to concentrate fighting strength in Empire. I don’t mean duties like managing world attributes. If I remember right, some demigods duties were clearing dungeon and devil nests so they don’t grow. That is important job for Alda’s dream of returning world to its original form (and ultimately useless, because grow is still faster that it’s clearing), but now, they have bigger problem, so giving something up is logical choice. But with Alda’s personality, I’m not sure, he can make such decision. He will probably just continue do, what he did until now.
Sailon
Nah he can easily abadon things in the sake of him being in control, remneber when the war against Guduranis ended many remnants still fre causing chaos, and they still are most only go quiet for fear of Van, but insted of focus on them, he start a war against Vida, so yeah Alda is full of Hypocrisy, and in the matter of demigods dealing with dungeons and Devil Nest is not useless, because prevent that they spread more, if bot the twerritory humans could live would be even less, but Alda can easily sacrifice them for “the greater good”.
Libio
I don’t think, he is incapable of sacrificing it, for shake of victory. It’s more like, he is incapable of seeing big picture and realizing that it’s worth of sacrifice. This kind of decision is more like war God, that law God Alda. He was already criticised by war focused Gods before for his indecisive nature. Like that sacrifice of one continent to stop invasion or using all power on Van, when they learned, he could hurt them. Also, we are talking about guy, who is still trying to return world to its pre-DK form, so abandoning activities, that are key for it, could be too much for him. I used ultimately useless, because even if they have some effects for now, they are just delaying inevitable. Humanity will need to adapt to new world, no matter what Alda thinks.Him delaying it, could be in the end worse things, because they are wasting energy and time, that could be used to help people with adaptation to changes. So yeah, they are short term help, but in long run, they could do better.
Irazori
The fitun fiasco is definitely a clear example of the aldiots doing whatever it takes to enforcing their self-righteous claims of defeating the demon lord.
bookworm12
Even if he abandoned some dungeons and devil’s nests now, I don’t think they’d get much worse before the story ends. And he does have a record of abandoning the ones away from his worshippers.
Irazori
As much as I hate it admit it as well, but aldiot really did do something useful for once like basic b*tch A. Rod-moron was definitely making things worse, but aldiot and bellwood are still the main cause for the last 10000 years.
Phantom Knight
Now that you mentioned the subject of dungeons, I do wonder whether Van-sama can handle this future problem. More specifically, with the [Demon King’s Memories], I am kinda hoping that Van-sama can learn one or more methods that can reduce or undo dungeonsin the future.
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At the very least, he can probably use [Hollow World God Magic] to create a spell for destroying dungeons permanently. He would really help out the future Lambda if he can accomplish such a thing.
DarkCarnage
maybe he can figure out how to unmake or at least minimize their effects on the world with the new info and from the memories and the faster learning traits he picked up. i mean Van got a mental upgrade going from a multi-core to now a highly overclocked one thanks to faster learning as well as group thought lol.
bookworm12
They’re useful for materials, and I think they were concentrating miasma that might otherwise affect the surface where people live, so I don’t think Van should get rid of them completely. However, replacing the ones he doesn’t control with new ones where the monsters don’t attack people might be very much appreciating by the normal people. All the benefits with no risks.
Chiu ChunLing
Simply being able to move Dungeons to areas where they are more beneficial than harmful is plenty. If Van can adapt that multiple entrance trick to work with low-level dungeons, then Lambda could have a transportation infrastructure more advanced than Origin in short order. Even without that, simply getting human nations to stop meaninglessly killing the Vida races with Ranks is enough to ensure that the spread of Devil’s Nests and Dungeons isn’t a problem.
I would maybe understand Alda’s concerns if there were any danger of Vida races exterminating humanity, but given that most the Vida races with Ranks don’t have a male progenitor and thus end up as all-female races dependent on humanity for their reproduction, such concerns are too laughable to even be funny.