This chapter was sponsored by Trank ($150). Thanks so much!

 

“Hmm? I’m in… the sky?” a certain god murmured in confusion as he suddenly regained consciousness, noticing that there were clouds floating below him.

The last thing he remembered was being on the ground, so why was he now so high up that he could look down upon a sea of clouds? He couldn’t remember at all.

He was Wisewarn, the God of Concealment. He was a subordinate god of Zuruwarn, the God of Space and Creation, and he ruled over concealment… places that were concealed.

He possessed the head of a cat, the wings of an owl, the torso of a gecko and a long tail like that of a snake. It was a bizarre form befitting a subordinate god of Zuruwarn, who took the form of a four-headed lion.

But he was unmistakably a god of Lambda, and he had joined Vida’s faction as Zuruwarn had instructed him to before Zuruwarn entered his long slumber.

During the battle against the Demon King’s army, he aided the champions’ army greatly by allowing them to use his concealed chambers and passageways. However, in the battle against Alda that followed, the enemy knew his methods. Light-attribute gods saw through his concealment and sealed him away when he tried to flee.

“That’s right, I should be sealed away. So why am I in the sky? Why has my seal been undone?”

If he had been rescued from his seal, then why was he so far from the ground, where he had been sealed away? And where was the one who had removed the seal? He couldn’t think of any possible answers to these questions. However, he couldn’t afford to take his time to ponder them, either.

Despite the altitude, Wisewarn was in a state where he had descended upon the mortal world. Even now, he was expending energy just to exist here.

But where was he supposed to go?

Based on the last events I remember, I must have been imprisoned by Alda or his servants. So I must be here because my seal was undone for some reason. With that being the case, it would be suicide to return to the Divine Realm of the one who was in possession of my seal… Alda’s forces.

But on the ground, I can feel Guduranis’s presence in several places for some reason… Could it be that the seals on Guduranis were removed as well, rather than just ours?

Wisewarn and the other gods did not possess a radar that allowed them to sense the accurate locations of other gods or evil gods belonging to the Demon King’s army. Thus, it was impossible to learn the location of a hiding god who had erased their presence without finding them. That was why Zakkart and the other creation-oriented champions had failed to notice Guduranis himself being present among the monsters approaching them when they were killed a hundred thousand years ago.

That was also the reason the remnants of the Demon King’s army had managed to remain in hiding until Alda and Bellwood found them.

But the senses of gods were not so dull that they could not notice the flow of large quantities of Mana.

Alda had embedded fragments of Guduranis’s soul in gods of Vida’s faction and evil gods from the Demon King’s army, then forced them to descend upon the mortal world. They were expending tremendous quantities of energy, and they were also in a berserk state, screaming and rampaging.

Since they were making such a conspicuous uproar, it was impossible for a god to not notice their presence unless they were in a similar state of madness themselves.

“This presence is… The presence of Zantark-sama and some others has vanished. Farmaun’s presence has vanished too… Did Lafaz defeat him? Vida-sama’s presence is… It feels like it is coming through a person, but I can still feel it. It’s also far away from the great presence that is similar to Guduranis’s. I suppose I will head there first to gain an understanding of the situation.”

Wisewarn decided to distance himself from the great Guduranis-like presence (Vandalieu) and hurried towards Vida’s presence – unaware that someone had removed the fragment of Guduranis’s soul from him.

 

 

 

In Nineland, the capital of the Hartner Duchy, a fierce three-way battle between gods was taking place.

Six years ago, Nineland had suffered a tragedy with the castle tipping on an angle and treasures being taken from its treasure chambers, but in more recent years, it had been recovering.

However, when they saw an enormous being that transcended human knowledge appear in the sky, many instinctively sensed that even that was coming to an end.

It was Gidragdra, the Evil God of Mad Slaughter, one of the commanders of the Demon King’s army. He had the form of a crustacean with countless legs that had pincers or claws at their tips.

He let out a maddened roar. “A nest of inferior life forms! First, I shall slaughter every living thing in this area! And I shall begin with you!”

He attacked the bizarre-looking god that had appeared next to him – one that, upon first glance, appeared to be an ordinary cloud other than its sinister shape. But as Gidragdra’s attacks struck him, he let out strange, ghost-like noises and revealed his true form.

He changed his entire shape other than his enormous mouth so that the rest of his body was nothing but countless tentacles, and he was still made entirely of gray, nearly-black clouds. This was Basbalulu, the Evil God of Abandoned Clouds and Demon Rain. He seemed to be criticizing Gidragdra for attacking him despite them both belonging to the Demon King’s army.

“What?! Do you really think I need a reason to kill you?! Am I not allowed to kill my allies without a reason?! The Demon King’s army needs no such weak fools! So I am not even killing an ally!” Gidragdra screamed.

Unfortunately for Basbalulu, Gidragdra was the Evil God of Mad Slaughter. He was a mad god who gained strength not from the prayers of his worshipers, but from the screams of those he killed and those who feared being killed by him.

Although he was a commander of the Demon King’s army, his madness had been a source of trouble even for Guduranis, and this madness had been accelerated by the fragment of Guduranis’s soul that had been embedded in him.

Basbalulu screamed as he flew around to avoid Gidragdra’s attacks, but perhaps deciding that his situation would only worsen, he attempted to go on the offensive. In order to regain some stability, he produced rain from his body that was made of clouds and attempted to put some distance between them.

However–

“Shut up, you wretched remnants of the Demon King’s army!” shouted a Colossus as she sent Basbalulu flying before his rain could reach the ground.

She was beautiful and imposing, wearing an armor of crystal that reflected the sunlight. The people on the ground looked up, hoping that Alda had sent this god to save them. But naturally, they were wrong.

“I will never forgive you vermin or myself. Nor will I forgive Alda, Bellwood, Nineroad, Farmaun, or anyone who worships them! I will crush you!” she declared, her voice filled with rage and hatred, making the people realize that they were mistaken.

She was Nadia, the Crystal Colossus. She was a Colossus of Vida’s faction who had been defeated and sealed away during the battle between Vida and Alda.

“I remember that crystal!” said Gidragdra. “It was probably me who killed the Crystal Colossus before you! Now allow me to test whether you are worthy of killing as well!”

Basbalulu roared fiercely.

“I shall avenge my ancestor! DIIIE!” shouted Nadia.

The impacts of the clash between the three gods were felt on the ground. People took cover to avoid being knocked off their feet, and stained-glass windows in Churches shattered.

Bugs, rats, snakes, and lizards crawled from back alleys and hidden corners, and a countless number of crows took flight into the sky, causing the people to scream.

These small animals… were Demon King Familiars disguised as such.

“So, this is the next location,” one of them sighed.

“I never thought I would ever come here again,” murmured another in exasperation.

They joined to become an enormous swarm… and then fused, twisting their countless small limbs together to form a sphere.

And then Vandalieu appeared in the middle of that sphere.

“People will suspect me of having political motives, so let’s make this quick. According to Ricklent, I still have a lot more places I need to be, after all,” he said.

But like the demigods, Vandalieu was hundreds of meters up in the air, higher than the tips of the castle’s spires. Nobody on the ground could notice that he was there.

“I-it’s over… We’re all going to die…”

“Why! Why did four of them have to appear above us?!”

The answer to that was that Alda had set his eyes on this city because Vandalieu had a history here, and because it was in a duchy adjacent to the Boundary Mountain Range… but the city’s inhabitants had no way of knowing that.

I’m explaining things to Katie and Lucas’s representatives right now. I’m sure they’ll manage, Vandalieu thought.

Although he held no animosity for the people of Nineland, he felt no affection for them either, so he didn’t intend to do them any courtesy beyond that.

The two evil gods, who had been sealed away when Guduranis was still alive, froze in confusion as they sensed Vandalieu’s presence that resembled his.

“This presence is Guduranis-sama?! No, it’s different?!” exclaimed Gidragdra.

Basbalulu made a similarly shocked noise.

“‘World-piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon.’”

Basbalulu, the Evil God of Abandoned Clouds and Demon Rain, let out a dying noise as Vandalieu took this opportunity to fire a black beam of light that pierced him.

Although his body was made of clouds, making him resistant to physical attacks, he stood no chance against Vandalieu devouring his soul.

“Alright, I’ve successfully achieved one of the goals I came here for,” Vandalieu said.

One of the reasons he had come to the Hartner duchy after rescuing Luzemazera, the Goddess of Regeneration, was to destroy Basbalulu.

In the Demon King’s army, Basbalulu had been one of the subordinates of the Evil God of Cursed Poison. He was a fearsome god who robbed people of land to live on by condensing corrupted mana into a liquid that rained onto the ground, causing Devil’s Nests to spread in the blink of an eye.

If Vandalieu had left Basbalulu alone, Nineland would have quickly been turned into a Devil’s Nest, rendering it very difficult for ordinary humans to live there.

 

 

 

《You have acquired the Demon King’s Appetite!》

 

 

 

It seemed that Alda had embedded Basbalulu with Guduranis’s ‘Appetite.’ Why had he given ‘Appetite’ to an evil god whose body was made of clouds? Rather than making him stronger, Vandalieu suspected that it had made Basbalulu’s original instincts clash with the fragment, rendering both ineffective.

No, maybe he deliberately embedded an incompatible fragment in Basbalulu because he would be just as troubled if Basbalulu actually became stronger and spread more Devil’s Nests in a short period of time? Whatever, it doesn’t matter.

With that, Vandalieu pushed the thought from his mind and directed his attention towards Gidragdra and Nadia.

Both remaining gods attacked him.

“You bastard! How dare you kill Basbalulu! He was my prey! How dare you defeat him without even tormenting him!” Gidragdra screamed.

“Hmm, having murderous intent directed towards me for a reason I can’t really understand makes me feel calmer,” Vandalieu said.

“Die, you poor imitation of Guduranis!” yelled Nadia.

“No, I’m going to live. And so are you.”

Vandalieu deflected Gidragdra’s pincers with his arms, wrapped himself around the evil god’s joints in an attempt to destroy them, and counter-attacked with a punch.

He stopped Nadia’s sword, stretched out his other arm to fire ‘Barrier bullets,’ then attempted to tie her down by wrapping himself around her limbs.

And with his arms, he also blocked falling fragments of crystal and the spells that Gidragdra was firing, which occasionally were aimed towards the city.

“To think that I would be literally short on hands,” Vandalieu said to himself.

The other reason he had come here was to save Nadia, who was currently swinging her crystal sword in a frenzy.

Nadia was a Colossus, and unlike Luzemazera, she did not expend tremendous quantities of magic just to exist in the mortal world.

But as Vandalieu watched through the eyes of his Demon King Familiars, Nadia had started fighting the evil gods who had fragments of Guduranis’s soul embedded in them like her.

At this rate, Nadia would be defeated. She was just a single Colossus, but her foe was the Evil God of Mad Slaughter, a commander of the Demon King’s army. It was impossible for her to be victorious in that battle.

And another large factor was that Vandalieu had not positioned any fighting forces in Nineland other than his Demon King Familiars.

After all, I never imagined that Alda would unleash three gods here, with one of them being a commander of the Demon King’s army.

The Hartner Duchy was adjacent to the Boundary Mountain Range, but there was no way to directly cross the barrier, and Vandalieu and his allies were already aware of the locations of tunnels passing through.

And there was only one person Vandalieu was only just barely friendly with in Nineland – the reincarnated individual Katie.

Vandalieu had not expected that Alda would deploy so many forces here.

Gidragdra shouted in exertion as he fought, then chuckled. “It seems that you have started to understand the joy of taking lives, too!”

Using his pincers, he deflected, pierced, and severed the countless Demon King arms that Vandalieu was extending. But Vandalieu created thorns before the pincers impacted his arms, produced Jaws of the Demon King in the wounds where they were stabbed, and detonated severed arms using ‘Flaming Prison Death.’

At the same time, he used other Demon King arms to fire ‘Death Cannon’ and ‘Hollow Cannon,’ creating several holes in Gidragdra’s body.

“Well, I’ve grown stronger by feeding on the enemies I defeated, so I can’t say I don’t know what you mean,” Vandalieu said.

But it wasn’t that he was toying with Gidragdra.

He couldn’t commit to any large attacks because Nadia was resisting him more fiercely than he had expected.

“Why!” Nadia demanded. “Why won’t you attack me, imitation of Guduranis! Are you trying to say that I am not your enemy?!”

Nadia, the Crystal Colossus, was significantly weaker than the Colossus of Roaring Thunder Brateo, whom Vandalieu had fought against in the past. She was perhaps a little stronger than his son Radatel, the Colossus of Lightning.

But the way she struggled was troublesome. If Vandalieu used his arms to grab her arms or legs, she screamed as she attempted to tear off her own limbs to free herself without any hesitation.

“It’s precisely because you’re not my enemy that I’m struggling so much here,” Vandalieu said.

Having no choice, he hastily let her go.

If she were his enemy, he could just wait for her to destroy herself, but since he was trying to save her, he couldn’t allow that to happen. This made it very difficult to apprehend her.

And Gidragdra seemed to have noticed this; he was directing his attacks not only at Vandalieu, but at Nadia as well, only making the situation even more troublesome. “Then I can kill her, right?! I can kill her?!” he said gleefully.

… On top of all this, Vandalieu had to ensure that no harm came to the people of Nineland. And even at this very moment, his other Demon King Familiars – his split entities – were fighting against the other gods released by Alda.

Vandalieu had regained some of his Mana from devouring Basbalulu’s soul, which had dissolved quickly and tasted sweet like cotton candy, but it wouldn’t be long before he spent it all again.

If he was honest, he was short on hands. He wanted reinforcements, but Fidirg, Zozogante, Randolf, and Meorilith had already gone to where Pauvina was.

And to make things even worse, the knights’ order and adventurers of Nineland were attacking the three gods in the sky in order to protect their city… in other words, they were attacking Vandalieu as well – though Katie and the civil officials in her castle who had been informed about the situation were desperately trying to stop them.

Gidragdra cackled in joy. “I’m going to kill you both!”

“How much must you make a mockery of me before you are satisfied! I will sacrifice my pride and my life to defeat both of you!” Nadia declared.

“… Let’s stop caring about appearances,” Vandalieu decided, deciding that he was at his limit.

He unleashed the Demons waiting inside one of his ‘Inner Worlds.’

“Hahah! We have our orders from the great Vandalieu-sama! Defend them with your lives!”

“Protect the humans that crawl about on the ground!”

Vandalieu had kept these Demons waiting in the ‘Inner World,’ as they lacked the skills to serve as main fighting forces. But they were over a thousand in number.

Fragments of crystal and carapace the size of carriages were falling from the sky, and the Demons were capable enough to stop them from landing on the city. Vandalieu had refrained from releasing them due to the risk of causing more panic among the people on the ground, but he was no longer in a situation where he could afford to care about that.

“W-what?! Where did all these Demons come from?!” shouted a bewildered adventurer who had flown into the sky, prepared to give his life in order to stop the ‘three evil gods.’

“A human who is not crawling on the ground! What shall we do?!” one Demon said.

“Let us have him protect the other humans, too! Come, human!” another Demon shouted.

The adventurer shouted in panic as he was dragged off by the flock of Demons.

“Are you short on hands? Then shall I bring you the hand of a land-dwelling beast known as a cat?!” snarled Gidragdra, swinging a particularly large pincer downwards like a hammer.

TLN: This comes from the Japanese phrase “猫の手も借りたい” which literally means “to want to borrow a cat’s hand.” It is an expression to say that one is so short on hands, they would even accept the help of a cat.

“No thank you, I have plenty,” said Vandalieu, stopping the attack by raising one of his arms.

The pincer bounced off it spectacularly, and Gidragdra lost his balance as he was pulled along with its weight.

“W-what?!” he exclaimed.

Vandalieu had produced a paw pad of the Demon King on the arm, using its elasticity to bounce the pincer off it.

“Now is my chance!” shouted Nadia.

She attempted to skewer both Vandalieu and Gidragdra upon her crystal sword. Vandalieu deliberately let her. The crystal sword buried itself deep in him, and dark blood gushed out.

But it was Nadia who screamed. It was no ordinary blood that was splashing onto her. It was the slippery and highly viscous Demon King mucus, stained by the Demon King’s ink sacs.

And a new shadow appeared, causing the people of Nineland to feel true despair.

“Lafaz, you came to help,” Vandalieu said.

A fierce crow echoed across the sky.

It was Lafaz, the Bird Beast-king. Although he looked sinister because he had fused with an evil god, he still belonged to Vida’s faction.

With another loud crow, Lafaz beat his wings to hold Gidragdra back with shockwaves and blades of wind while tossing the orb in his beak to Vandalieu.

“Nice pass. Well then, there’s no need to wait, so I’ll undo this seal right now,” Vandalieu said.

He opened the Orb… the seal that Farmaun Gold had placed upon himself and Darmatark, the God of Purifying Flames. He then bit into and broke the fragment of Guduranis’s soul embedded in Darmatark.

 

 

 

《You have acquired the Demon King’s Malice!》

 

 

 

With that, Vandalieu swallowed Darmatark into one of his ‘Inner Worlds,’ forcefully sealing him away once more. Unlike the Demon King’s continent, there were no pseudo-Divine Realms near Nineland, so he had no other choice.

“W-what happened to me? Where am IIIII?” Darmatark shouted as he vanished.

“You bastard! Farmaun, I will kill you this time for sure!” snarled Gidragdra.

“I don’t need to hold anything back against you!” said Farmaun, grasping the situation as soon as he was freed and flying forward towards the remaining evil god.

In the meantime, Vandalieu dealt with Nadia as he had done with Darmatark.

 

 

 

《You have acquired the Demon King’s Vengefulness!》

 

 

 

It seemed that Nadia had been attacking gods embedded with fragments of Guduranis’s soul, including herself, because the ‘Vengefulness’ embedded within her had combined with her own desire for vengeance.

Nadia coughed weakly and went limp, still covered in mucus, no longer having the strength to move.

Still holding her with Demon King arms, Vandalieu turned to face the last remaining enemy. “Now then, let me give you a hand.”

He tore off one of his Demon King arms and hurled it at Gidragdra.

Gidragdra clicked his tongue. “Another exploding arm!”

Without even looking at it, he cut off one of his own pincers and sent it flying to block the Demon King arm which exploded as he had expected, but… it was not flames that emerged from within, but a black-red mist.

“What?!” Gidragdra exclaimed in confusion. But a moment later, he began screaming in pain.

Vandalieu had transformed the Demon King arm into ‘Bloodlust,’ flesh-eating microbes that even devoured gods. They entered Gidragdra through the many wounds all over his body, tormenting him as he had demanded of Vandalieu, slowly but surely feasting on him.

Realizing what it was, Farmaun and Lafaz raised their guard, believing that they would be devoured as well, but… they felt no pain.

“…? I thought ‘Bloodlust’ was an attack that doesn’t discriminate between its targets?” Farmaun murmured.

The black-red mist ignored Farmaun and swarmed around Gidragdra.

“I’ve become able to control it,” Vandalieu said.

The flesh-eating bacteria that Vandalieu had transformed his blood into was still a part of him. In other words, the ‘Bloodlust’ was Vandalieu, and Vandalieu was the ‘Bloodlust.’

With the power of things like the ‘Pale Rider’ Job, named after a being that spread contagious diseases, Vandalieu had succeeded in becoming able to control ‘Bloodlust.’

As Gidragdra was slowly devoured, Vandalieu dealt the finishing blow by impaling him with Demon King horns to save Mana.

“Thank you for the help, Farmaun, Lafaz,” Vandalieu said. “You two take Darmatark somewhere safe. Or are you still able to keep going?”

“… I might be able to manage one more location, but I think my strength is less of a problem than the fact that it makes no sense for me to be fighting on Vida’s side,” said Farmaun.

He was considered a god of Alda’s forces in human society; if he fought on Vida’s side now, it might come back to haunt him. He spoke frankly, hoping for Vandalieu’s understanding.

“Then please be on standby in Borgadon’s Divine Realm. I think someone somewhere will call for you when they’re short on hands,” said Vandalieu, rejecting Farmaun’s concerns because he could even use a cat’s help right now.

“Wait, but…” Farmaun began to protest.

“Lafaz seems to want you to do your part. Or to be more precise, he seems to want to say, ‘If you’ve got time to think about things that are going to happen much later, get moving already. This is a time of emergency.’”

“Ugh, he’s right, but…”

“Most of your worshipers are adventurers, and almost none of them are the kind of worshipers who engage in harsh training to increase their devotion, or the kind who worship you because they believe you’re an ally of Alda or Bellwood. They understand that they can’t hear your thoughts through Divine Messages,” Vandalieu continued in order to persuade Farmaun.

With human society believing that Farmaun was a god of Alda’s forces, in order to inform them that he had joined Vida’s side, he would have needed to send them Divine Messages.

But the majority of his worshipers only prayed to him lightly and carried his holy symbol for good luck. There had never been anyone with the devotion necessary to hear his Divine Messages even if he sent them.

And Farmaun was hesitant to actively spread the word that he had joined Vida’s side. How was he supposed to hold his head high and proudly declare that, after all that he’d done?

“But my request is that you put your shame aside and lend me your strength,” Vandalieu said.

He understood what Farmaun felt, but even so, he pressed the palms of every Demon King arm that was free together to form pairs of praying hands, praying to Farmaun.

“… If you’re praying that hard, I don’t have a choice, do I? Alright, I’ll be on standby in the Divine Realm of the God of Mountains,” Farmaun said.

As an unimportant god, if prayers were offered to him, Farmaun had no choice but to answer.

Lafaz gave a quiet crow, as if to say, “Finally.”

“Now then, I’m headed off somewhere else,” Vandalieu said.

He stored Nadia, who was still in a daze and covered in mucus, safely inside one of his ‘Inner Worlds.’ The Demons and the countless Demon King Familiars around also returned to him, and then he vanished.

 

 

 

《You have acquired the Demon King’s Murderous Intent!》