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The issue with Asagi had been resolved, but that was far from the only problem on Vandalieu’s mind.
“How do I become stronger than I am now? That’s the question,” he said.
He didn’t know how to proceed with his own training.
“Do you even need to be stronger than you are now?” Randolf asked, looking surprised.
Meorilith nodded, seeming to be questioning the same thing.
The two of them were essentially listening to the champion who had defeated the Demon King and saved the world insisting that he wanted to become stronger. And indeed, it was a reasonable question for them to ask.
But Vandalieu wasn’t satisfied with his current strength. “Of course I need to become stronger,” he said. “You could perhaps count me among one of this world’s most powerful people. But I’m sure that Alda and Heinz believe that they can defeat me. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be trying.”
Although the resurrection of the Demon King Guduranis had been incomplete, there was no denying that Vandalieu had defeated him. He did not consider himself to be weak. But he didn’t believe that he could not be defeated by anyone.
“They could just be mistaken. People believing that they can do it and then meeting their ruin when they actually can’t. It’s a tale as old as time. And from what you’ve told us, gods are capable of making the same mistake, aren’t they?” said Randolf.
His words were indeed convincing. Rodcorte and Alda had both made this mistake repeatedly. And those repeated mistakes were why Vandalieu was here now.
“That’s true, but it isn’t like I’ve overcome everything that’s come my way without struggling,” said Vandalieu.
Reincarnated individuals, worshippers of the gods of Alda’s forces – it wasn’t as if Vandalieu had defeated these enemies with ease.
If he had been less diligent with his preparations and his efforts to become stronger, or if he were a little less lucky, Vandalieu could have been defeated… or at least, that was what Vandalieu believed.
“If Alda truly aims to defeat me, even if he is mistaken in believing that he can, it’s dangerous to simply do nothing,” Vandalieu said.
Vandalieu believed that Alda’s forces had some kind of secret plan. Even if they didn’t and were simply under the delusional impression that they could defeat Vandalieu, he believed that it would be safer to assume that they did have a secret plan.
After all, Alda possessed the fragments of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis.
According to Vida, the Goddess of Life and Love, after the war against the Demon King, the fragments of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis had been split among Alda and Vida – the surviving great gods – as well as Rodcorte, who had kept his distance from this world. This had been for the sake of preventing Guduranis’s complete resurrection.
When Alda defeated Vida in the battle that followed, he had taken possession of the fragments of Guduranis’s soul that Vida had been given charge of.
Alda had not been aware that Rikudou Hijiri was a reincarnated individual, and Heinz and his companions had not known about Rikudou Hijiri at all. Given that, it could be assumed that Rodcorte was the one who had planted the fragments of Guduranis’s soul in Rikudou Hijiri.
One could consider this as a sign that Alda was keeping proper guard of the fragments of Guduranis’s soul in his possession, as a god should, but… Vandalieu did not believe that this was the case.
“The sealed fragments of Guduranis’s souls remain in Alda’s hands, including those that he stole from Vida. And I’m sure he recovered the fragments that Rodcorte was watching over… There is no guarantee that he will not unleash them during the battle against us,” Vandalieu said.
Alda had kept proper guard over the fragments of Guduranis’s soul up until now. But thanks to Rodcorte, he had learned that Guduranis would be able to put up a good battle against Vandalieu, and more importantly, he had learned that even if Guduranis was unleashed, Vandalieu would be able to defeat him.
That was why it was possible that Alda would use Guduranis during the battle. However, if anyone were to hear Vandalieu say this, they would call it an irrational line of thinking – they would say it was no different from Heinz insisting after Vandalieu devoured Guduranis that the Demon King could one day become resurrected within him.
“Of course, this is assuming the worst-case scenario in a war against the Holy Nation of Amid. I don’t intend to make that statement to the world at large,” Vandalieu added.
“Well, it’s true that there’s no proof… We have no way of knowing what gods are normally up to,” said Meorilith.
“The topic at hand to begin with was whether you need special training or not. And I see clearly now that training is indeed necessary,” Randolf agreed, grimacing as he realized that things could end in a battle against the remaining fragments of Guduranis’s soul.
During the previous battle against Guduranis, Randolf had barely managed to fight off a single one of the artificial spirits that had been created through Guduranis’s magic and a cheat-like ability of one of the reincarnated individuals; he hadn’t managed to put up a proper fight against Guduranis himself at all.
That was likely the result of a long time having passed with him having only fought enemies vastly weaker than himself, but he still could not deny his own lack of strength – despite being the S-class adventurer, Randolf ‘the True.’
Randolf looked at Schneider as if to ask his thoughts.
Schneider clicked his tongue. “I watched the footage of the battle projected by a Demon King Familiar, and I don’t think I could defeat Guduranis, either,” he said, shaking his head with a bitter expression.
Randolf’s eyes roamed over to Bone Man, then one of Knochen’s split entities, and Lissana, who was an evil god. All of them gave the same answer: “Impossible.”
“If it were just one fragment of his soul… Depending on its host body, I might have a chance. I’d need to summon Vida, though,” said Darcia.
“The same is true for myself. Against a single fragment of his soul, I believe I would be able to buy time against it, though I would not be able to defeat it – though I cannot deny the possibility that it may hinder my usefulness to the great Vandalieu while I perform that task,” said Gufadgarn.
Darcia possessed high prowess in combat due to her specially-created body, her transformation equipment, and her ability to summon Vida upon herself. She would not be able to face a whole Guduranis, but it was likely that she would be able to defeat or forcibly seal away a single fragment of his soul that had taken over a suitable host.
Against such a fragment of Guduranis’s soul, Gufadgarn would be able to buy time by evading using her manipulation of space, though she would be unable to defeat such a foe.
But like the space-attribute Ghost Jane Doe, Gufadgarn was capable of providing support all over the battlefield to greatly influence the overall situation. It would be a tough loss to have her be focused on dealing with a single fragment of Guduranis’s soul.
“In other words, if Alda… or rather, if the Holy Nation of Amid unleashes the soul of Guduranis that is currently sealed away, it’s absolutely certain that Vandalieu, our main combatant, would be the one to have to deal with it,” Meorilith said in summary. “… I do have to question the fact that the emperor himself is our main combatant, but we’ll have to ignore that for now,” she added.
Indeed, once Guduranis was unleashed, it was completely certain that Vandalieu would be the one to have to deal with him. However, Vandalieu was not some foot soldier; he was the emperor of the Demon Empire of Vidal, and he was the core of the empire’s fighting forces.
Incidentally, Vandalieu had already received the documents of Asagi and his companions’ research on the method of safely sealing away Demon King Fragments from Duke Gerald Birgitt.
However, the method researched by Asagi and his companions was for sealing away fragments of Guduranis’s body; it was unclear as to whether it would be effective on fragments of Guduranis’s soul.
And even if it was effective, the method required the host to be defeated before the sealing could be performed, so it didn’t change the fact that Vandalieu and his companions would need to fight against the fragments first.
In the scenario that Vandalieu and the others were worried about, Asagi and his companions’ research was of dubious usefulness – not entirely useless, but it would be dangerous to be overly reliant on it.
“Well, the Guduranis I defeated last time had multiple fragments of his soul – his instinct and memories, as well as the powdered fragments. He had a body made entirely of fragments of the Demon King, and he had the souls of Rikudou and Edgar, along with the help of the Ghosts of reincarnated individuals with cheat-like abilities. That was why he was that strong,” Vandalieu said. “If it’s just a single fragment with a normal, random host, it’s possible that Randolf-sensei, Schneider, Bone Man and everyone else would be able to fight against it well enough.”
“It does sound convincing when you’re the one saying it,” said Schneider.
Vandalieu was the one who had brought up the problem, but he was the one lightening the atmosphere that had been growing increasingly serious. Vandalieu had devoured not only fragments of Guduranis’s body, but fragments of his soul as well; his words did indeed sound convincing.
But Randolf brought up a point that made the atmosphere even heavier than before. “With that being the case, if there’s anyone capable of thinking in the Holy Nation of Amid, they wouldn’t just release one fragment,” he said. “It’s possible that they’d release two or more, and have them use a special body rather than just a randomly chosen one.”
Alda had likely watched Vandalieu’s battle against Guduranis; it was more than possible that he had analyzed it in the same way and come to the same conclusion as Vandalieu.
Even Alda wouldn’t want to resurrect Guduranis, but there was no telling what the enemy would do when cornered. And there was little evidence to argue that Alda’s sense of how much would be acceptable wasn’t completely twisted.
“… I’m starting to feel like I’d rather deal with Marshukzarl,” Schneider muttered.
Marshukzarl was cold-minded but rational, and more importantly, he was a mortal who lived in the physical world. As another mortal, Schneider could at least have a bare minimum level of belief in Marshukzarl… the belief that no matter how much he was cornered, he wouldn’t take an action that could result in the destruction of his own nation.
But that was not the case for Alda. He was a god who dwelled in his Divine Realm. Even if the Holy Nation of Amid perished, he had believers elsewhere in the world, outside the Bahn Gaia continent, so his existence would not be extinguished. That was why they had no choice but to believe that Alda would be willing to do anything when cornered.
Although Schneider and the others were unaware of this, Alda was willing to allow the world’s surviving population to be reduced to around three thousand if that was what it took to defeat Vandalieu and his companions, just like in the battle against Guduranis that took place a hundred thousand years ago.
Of course, however, Schneider would never have thought that until things turned out this way, and it wasn’t him who removed Marshukzarl from his position; it was Alda and his fanatical worshipers.
“So, going back to the topic of training… There are no more methods for me to grow dramatically stronger in a short period of time,” said Vandalieu.
Even now, Vandalieu was receiving Experience Points through the Demon King Familiars that were accompanying the explorers of the Demon Empire of Vidal in Dungeons. And it had already been decided that the fragments of the Demon King that were being kept by the dukes’ houses and Churches across the Orbaume Kingdom – those that Tercatanis hadn’t managed to gather – would be handed over to him.
However, Vandalieu would not grow dramatically more powerful than he was now. That was a testament as to how powerful he had already become.
If one used numbers to think about it, someone with 10 strength improving that to 20 strength would be a dramatic increase in power. But for someone with 1,000 strength, that same increment to 1,010 strength would be nothing more than a rounding error.
“I don’t doubt that,” said Randolf. “It’s a situation that everyone who has reached a certain level of strength faces. It can’t be helped.”
Indeed, once someone reached a certain level of strength, their growth tapered off – and this was a completely separate problem from walls in growth that made it extremely difficult to gain Levels.
The reason for that was that the gap between the Experience Points one earned and the Experience Points one needed to grow stronger widened.
The amount of Experience Points a rookie adventurer needed to go from Level 1 to Level 2 after their first Job change could not even begin to compare to the amount of Experience Points an S-class adventurer would need to do the same after having changed jobs numerous times.
There was also an enormous difference in the number of Experience Points needed to increase an ordinary Skill from Level 1 to Level 2 and doing the same for a superior Skill.
And most importantly, the more powerful one became, the fewer enemies there were that were of the suitable strength to fight against.
If one entered a Devil’s Nest, it would not take very long before they encountered a Rank 3 monster. But Rank 10 monsters did not exist even in the deepest parts of the average Devil’s Nest. More difficult Dungeons were fewer in number as well.
Even if people wanted to train against each other in practice battles to polish their skills, practice battles were nowhere near as effective as real battles.
And yet, only fighting opponents weaker than oneself would earn fewer Experience Points, causing the growth rate of their Job Levels to gradually decrease and their Skill Levels to increase even more slowly.
That was why adventurers of A-class and above were inevitably faced with a choice between being satisfied with their current level of strength or dedicating a long period of time to steadily train.
Schneider and the Storm of Tyranny had found powerful enemies to defeat – evil gods and Elder Dragons – but even that had a limit.
“So, I’ll give up on finding a way to do special training,” Vandalieu said in conclusion.
It was difficult for Vandalieu to find enemies that were of suitable strength to train against, so he was giving up on the idea of doing special training and changing his line of thinking. “I’ll have everyone else receive my special training instead.”
In a hellish landscape, a barren wasteland beneath a sky covered in ash-colored clouds, nodded with deep-crimson ponds, there was a horde of countless Demons, surrounding a certain area from a distance.
This was one of Vandalieu’s Inner Worlds – where the Demons lived.
Here, Bone Man, the ‘Sword King’ Borkus, and Vigaro were facing their ‘enemies.’
“Jyuooh…” Bone Man groaned.
“Phew… There’s no end to this,” said Borkus.
“Yeah,” Vigaro agreed. “But more importantly…”
There was an enemy with no fixed form – consisting of a black-red fluid encasing a number of crystal-shaped objects, presumably based on a Slime-type monster. It let out an unconvincing, monotonous groan.
Another enemy had the form of a quadrupedal rhinoceros beetle. It had four arms, wielding a staff, a shield, and sharp claws. This one was presumably based on insect-type and humanoid-type monsters. It was making strange, monotonous clicking-noises.
A third enemy had the form of an enormous winged tiger with numerous eyes and horns, presumably based on beast-type monsters. “Grrrr,” it growled in monotone.
It was clear that each one of them was more powerful than a Rank 13 monster. And they all possessed ‘Status Effect Immunity,’ great resistance against both physical and magical attacks, and abnormally powerful regenerative abilities.
And most of all, despite their appearance, they were all exceptionally skilled.
“More importantly, Vandalieu, can you stop making those distracting noises?” Vigaro said.
These monsters were Demon King Familiars created by Vandalieu.
“Grr… Vigaro, you shouldn’t talk to me during the training, should you?” said the beast-like Demon King Familiar.
The ‘special training’ that Vandalieu had mentioned involved what were very close to real battles against Demon King Familiars that he created.
The strongest among Vandalieu and his companions was Vandalieu himself. In other words, Vandalieu could become a perfect or even a slightly stronger opponent for his companions as effective training.
And he was capable of creating split entities of himself – Demon King Familiars.
Vandalieu was capable of creating considerably formidable Demon King Familiars if he created them with a large quantity of Mana with the purpose of battle in mind. And by choosing different fragments of the Demon King to build them with, or by changing the way they acted in battle, he could match the way they fought to the person undergoing the training… effectively imposing trials on them.
“But Vandalieu, I can’t help it. It really is distracting,” Vigaro said.
Demon King Familiars were split entities of Vandalieu, so their acting ability was absolutely terrible.
“I see… Would ‘funyaoh!’ be better than ‘grr?’” the Demon King Familiar asked.
“Please, spare us,” Vigaro sighed.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s it, kid,” Borkus agreed.
“I believe silence would be preferable, my lord,” said Bone Man.
“Very well. Let’s continue, then,” the Demon King Familiar said.
In the very next moment, the Demon King Familiars began to radiate a blood-chilling killing intent and began to move with fearsome speed.
“Jyuooh! ‘Flowing Water Slash!’” Bone Man roared.
The Slime-type Demon King Familiar closed in with peculiar movements, and Bone Man separated all of the bones in his body. With his swordsmanship and ‘Bone Blades,’ he was capable of cutting through liquids, but the Slime-type Demon King Familiar’s body… the blood of the Demon King, was extremely viscous. And the crystals inside its body could move freely to evade the blades. And even when one or two blades of the crystals were cut, they quickly returned to normal.
Bone Man’s task was to cut through all of the crystals inside the Slime-type Demon King Familiar’s body at the same time.
“‘Transcend Limits!’ ‘Dragon Slayer!’ ‘Twin Elder Dragon Hunter!’” roared Borkus.
“‘Steel Wall,’ ‘Steel Body,’ ‘Gale Flow,’ ‘Screw Thrust!’” countered the Demon King Familiar.
A fierce clash between the rhinoceros-beetle-warrior-type Demon King Familiar and Borkus erupted, the noises of their weapons echoing. Borkus and Vigaro’s tasks were simple – defeat the enemy before them.
But the Demon King Familiar that Vigaro was facing was, despite its appearance, attacking him from far away.
It fired beams of light from eyeballs that were embedded in the sides of its torso and breathed fire with liquid oil it secreted from its mouth. Its tail, which had the form of an elephant’s trunk, spewed compressed air and blood. Its muscles vibrated rapidly, creating electricity that it fired from its horns.
Vigaro needed to block these attacks with the shield held by his spirit-form arm and either close the distance or defeat his opponent with his meager options for long-ranged attacks.
The Demon King Familiars were engaged in combat while holding almost nothing back. If Bone Man, Borkus, or Vigaro were to lose focus because it was only training, they could be fatally wounded… though ‘Death Delay’ would be cast the instant they received such a wound, preventing their death while copious volumes of Blood Potion was poured down their throats.
The killing intent given off by the Demon King Familiars was actually the effects of a spell – ‘Great Killing World,’ with its potency lowered and direction given to the killing intent. Without that, there was no way that Vandalieu could generate genuine killing intent towards his own companions.
Vigaro and the others were aware of all of this, but fatal wounds would hurt even if they were healed immediately afterwards, and they didn’t want to embarrass themselves in front of the Demons that were watching, so they were fighting with the same seriousness as they would in a real battle.
And once the Demon King Familiars used up all their Mana, they would be extinguished, leaving behind the materials that had been used to create them – their horns, bones, and flesh. But even if Vigaro and the others fought a battle of attrition with that outcome as their goal, that would not count as overcoming their trial. Vandalieu would simply recreate the Demon King Familiars.
And because this was special training rather than a battle against a Dungeon’s boss, there was no particular reward for victory. They would receive words of praise and thanks from Vandalieu, but they could receive those even without overcoming these trials.
And on top of that, once they did overcome their trials, Vandalieu and the Demons observing the special training would conduct a review, determine what the next special training would involve, and then engage in that training next.
After all, the objective of the special training was not just to succeed in the training itself, but to become strong enough to defeat an imperfectly resurrected Guduranis.
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