Several months had passed since the Five-colored Blades gave up on conquering the Trial of Zakkart and entered the mysterious Dungeon that had appeared before them.
Despite that, Heinz and his companions had not even managed to clear thirty floors yet. The trials imposed upon them by this Dungeon were, in a way, more difficult than those in the Trial of Zakkart.
A glowing knight stood before them… Joshua Arkum, a loyal knight who, in his past, had avenged his master who had been killed in a rebellion.
“You will never give up, you say? Then become the embodiment of your words!” the knight declared, swinging his magic sword at Heinz.
The blade of his sword produced a sharp shockwave that assaulted Heinz and his companions.
“Kuh!” groaned Delizah, the Dwarf shieldbearer, as she stepped forward and deflected the enormous shockwave.
“Aurora Rapid Reaction!”
“Super Rapid Reaction!”
Behind Delizah, Heinz activated a Holy Light Armor Technique martial skill while the female martial artist Jennifer activated an Armor Technique one. With their reaction speeds improved, they leapt forward at Joshua, whose sword had finished its swing.
Both of them were so fast that the eyes of an average adventurer wouldn’t be able to keep up with their movements, but a black shadow appeared behind Jennifer.
“That was close!” said the scout Edgar, deflecting the scimitar thrust by the shadow with his heavy knife.
The shadow was Luke, a heroic spirit of Niltark, the god of judgment.
“You must be finding this quite easy, for a scout to be focused on defense,” said Luke, taking its distance from Edgar.
“Shit, does this guy only ever make sarcastic comments?!” Edgar cursed.
“You’re our successors who slew a Pure-breed Vampire, something that even we could not accomplish. We came to test your character and found that you only amount to this much. It’s only natural for a dozen or two sarcastic comments to come out, isn’t it?”
In his previous life, Luke had almost been executed for a crime that he had no knowledge of. Receiving a Divine Message from Niltark, he had broken out from prison, escaped the law and gone on to judge a thousand evils. For such a heroic spirit, he was unexpectedly talkative.
However, the words of a heroic spirit could be communicated in an instant, so conversations took almost no time at all. Using the opening that Edgar had given them by stopping Luke, Heinz and Jennifer were closing in on Joshua – or at least, they should have been.
“Inexperienced! Inexperienced! You are overwhelmingly inexperienced!” shouted the man who was standing in front of Jennifer, stopping her.
“Gah! This guy… He’s so fast but heavy at the same time,” Jennifer groaned.
Her martial skill, using Unarmed Fighting Technique which mainly relied on her fists, was parried by the man’s own Unarmed Fighting Technique martial skill, allowing him to put in a counter-attack.
“At this rate, not only will you be unable to defeat the Demon King, but you will become corpses in an instant! You inexperienced fools!” the man shouted.
This man was Gorsh. He was a heroic spirit of the heroic god Bellwood, having given his life to protect Bellwood during the war against the Demon King Guduranis.
Meanwhile, Heinz was unable to even reach Joshua as well.
“To think that you’re not even budging. What a solid defense,” he muttered, his blade having been stopped by an Elf woman.
“To possess Radiant God Swordsmanship and Holy Light Armor Technique, only to amount to merely this much… Your abilities truly fail to live up to your Skill names. In the face of the Demon King, what you call light will be but the faint flicker of a firefly. It will be snuffed out in an instant,” said the Elf. “You should know that as you are now, you will not conquer the Trial of the Champion, even if you spend a thousand years here.”
The Elf was Firlietta. She was a heroic spirit of Nineroad; she had served at her side during the battle between Alda and Vida that had taken place a hundred thousand years ago.
And there was a female mage guarding Joshua’s back… She was Porla, a heroic spirit of Forgan, the god of dancing flames.
“Let us put this to an end. It seems that your priestess is almost out of Mana, and you will be unable to escape this spell,” she declared mercilessly.
Flames erupted from her staff, dancing through the air in a complicated pattern, and rapidly flooded in towards Heinz and his companions.
The moment Heinz felt his consciousness slip away, a hard impact on his back woke him up.
“Gah! … So, we only managed to clear thirty floors again…” he muttered in frustration.
His sweat-drenched fringe was stuck to his forehead, but other than that, nothing suggested that he had been in a fierce battle just a moment ago.
His wounds, including his burns, and even the damage to his equipment was gone. His body was tired, but even when he checked his Status, his Vitality had not decreased. If it weren’t for the fact that his Mana was still drained, the whole thing might have been a dream.
Heinz turned around to see that his companions were nearby. Of course, they were unharmed, just like him.
Diana’s Mana was completely empty, but even Delizah’s shield, which had been deeply damaged and on the verge of breaking, was back to normal.
“To think that we would have to continue fighting heroic spirits… I mis-allocated my Mana,” said Diana.
“Diana, it’s not something you should be concerned about. The one who needs to apologize is me, the leader who gives the instructions,” said Heinz.
“Nah, neither of you should worry about it,” said Edgar, giving the two of them a weak smile. “Three consecutive battles against heroic spirits… And the first battle was only one heroic spirit, the second was two, and then the third one suddenly had five. Nobody could have expected that. And our party formation is clearly coming together. It’s just a matter of whether we can win.”
Heroic spirits… these were souls who had been turned into heroic spirits by the gods after performing worthy heroic deeds while alive. They were generally similar in nature to familiar spirits, but they had a different role. If familiar spirits were civil officials who served the gods, then heroic spirits were the military officers.
They had the same duties of supporting the gods and guiding the people, but heroic spirits also had the tasks of protecting the Divine Realms and, in times of emergency, descending upon the world in order to vanquish evil.
As most heroic spirits were chosen from among exceptional fighters, it wasn’t uncommon for them to be more able in combat than gods who were not skilled in battle.
Thus, in many cases, the Heroic Spirit Descent Skill was considered a superior version of the Familiar Spirit Descent Skill, as it summoned a heroic spirit onto the user’s body.
If their strength was converted to a Rank it was said that they would be at least Rank 12, but having actually fought them, Heinz and his companions couldn’t help but think that this was an underestimated value.
Almost all of the heroic spirits had awakened superior Skills, and they used them masterfully in coordination with each other.
During the battle against the single heroic spirit, Heinz and his companions had been able to push through by relying on their numbers and coordination. This had also been possible during the battle against two heroic spirits. But against five, they had been overwhelmed.
“To begin with… heroic spirits don’t… Isn’t it said that they don’t descend upon the world even if a nation or two is destroyed? What are they doing in a Dungeon?” complained Jennifer, who was lying on the ground and still trying to catch her breath.
Indeed, heroic spirits descending upon the world and wielding their powers had only occurred a handful of times in the entire history of Lambda. They had not descended upon the world even when humans fought wars against each other, when monsters overflowed from Dungeons, when the Demon King’s fragments appeared or when evil gods were scheming in the shadows.
It was said that heroic spirits depleted much of their strength by descending directly upon the world, causing them to fall into slumber for ten thousand years afterwards, but that wasn’t the only reason.
If the gods sent heroic spirits to correct every evil in the world, the people would not develop. And since there was so much evil in the world, every heroic spirit would end up in slumber if they were sent so frequently.
If truly powerful evils were to make a move after that… such as the deranged Zantark, the Pure-breed Vampires that lurked in the Boundary Mountain Range or the hidden evil gods, the entire world would be put at risk.
Indeed, Heinz and his companions had been able to seal the Demon King’s nose, corner the Pure-breed Ternecia… and deal the killing blow to her.
It was said that the ‘Thunderclap’ Schneider had personally defeated evil Elder Dragons and gods, and Randolf ‘the True’ had fought against the Demon King’s fragments and the disciples of the evil gods when he was still active.
That was why the heroic spirits rarely descended upon the world, but… heroic spirits were constantly appearing on the thirtieth floor of this Dungeon, and they did not offer any blessings for Heinz and his companions.
“It’s probably because it’s a Dungeon, right?” said Delizah, wiping her sweat with her sleeve. “I don’t know the circumstances that the gods and heroic spirits face, but this Dungeon seems to be special. Even on the previous floors, there were monsters that only appear in myths and legends, and they all vanished like fog without leaving a corpse when we defeated them, didn’t they? Those heroic spirits might be the same.”
Up until the thirtieth floor, Heinz and his companions had defeated strange monsters such as Ghoul Wizards, Ghoul Amazonesses and Bone Forts, but they had vanished like illusions after being defeated, their corpses leaving no materials or Magic Stones behind.
This had happened for the entirety of the ‘Trial Dungeon.’
“Are you saying that they’re like illusions as well? I can’t really believe that, but…” Jennifer murmured.
Having exchanged fist-blows with Gorsh, Jennifer was inclined to believe that he was real. It wasn’t just his appearance; the way he breathed and the smell of his sweat made her think that he had to be a living human.
The monsters that they had defeated up until that point had all had the same sense of presence that made it difficult to believe that they were illusions, but the heroic spirits had seemed even more real than that.
“Yeah, Luke’s unpleasant comments, their coordination and ability in combat make it difficult to believe they’re just illusions,” said Edgar. “So then, aren’t they in a state where they’ve descended upon bodies that are illusions? The superior Skill of Familiar Spirit Descent is Heroic Spirit Descent, which summons a heroic spirit onto the body, so that might be possible.”
“Heroic spirits descended upon bodies created as illusions… Is something like that even possible, Edgar?” asked Heinz.
“Who knows. I just thought of this possibility and decided to say it out loud. You should know more about this than me, since you can actually summon heroic spirits with your Skill. Now then, let’s cut the chatter and head back to ‘town,’” said Edgar, standing up and walking towards the ‘town.’
… Indeed, there was a ‘town’ in this ‘Trial Dungeon.’ It was the first thing that had greeted Heinz and his companions as they entered the Dungeon.
It was a town with an old-looking architectural style, filled with humans, Elves and Dwarves wearing strange clothing. There were inns, bars, blacksmiths that repaired equipment and second-hand stores, as well as a Church that Heinz and his companions had never seen before. It was a Church that worshipped all of the great gods equally. Alda was one of them, of course, but there was also Vida and Zantark, as well as the gods that had already perished, like the Colossus god Zerno.
The one thing that was out of place in this ‘town’ was the single Job-changing room. If it weren’t for that, Heinz and his companions would have thought that this was a town that existed somewhere today.
From the corridor that was just outside this ‘town,’ Heinz and his companions would head for the floors that they had cleared so far. Every time they were defeated by the enemies, they would be returned to the town unharmed.
And they were unable to leave the Dungeon from the town.
“Still, you could have said this about the Trial of Zakkart, but the difficulty of this Dungeon is strange, in a weird way. There’s no telling how many times we would have died if this was a normal Dungeon,” said Edgar. “But at this rate, we have no idea when we’ll be able to get out of here.”
The enemies in this Dungeon were more powerful than the enemies that appeared in the Trial of Zakkart, but Heinz and his companions would never be killed by them. This was the perfect trial created by Alda to make them at least more powerful than heroic spirits without risking losing them.
“We’re being held up on the thirtieth floor. I don’t know how many floors this Dungeon has, but I can’t imagine that it will stop after the thirty-first floor,” said Jennifer. “It looks like it’ll be a while before we can see Selen again.”
Heinz thought of the Dhampir girl that had been left outside the Dungeon. She was like a younger sister or a daughter to him; even inside this Dungeon, there was not a single day where he did not think of her.
But there was something that concerned him even more than that.
“The ‘new Demon King’ that the heroic spirits mentioned… I wonder if Alda made this Dungeon appear before us so that we can defeat the ‘main body’ that the Demon King’s nose was trying to join,” he said.
Vandalieu explained the events that had led up to Gufadgarn creating and inhabiting a vessel in the shape of a beautiful girl. However, the misunderstanding that Zakkart wanted a beautiful girl had still not been entirely cleared up.
That was because there was no guarantee that it was entirely a misunderstanding.
The Moon Giant Deeana, the mountain-queen Elder Dragon god Tiamat, and the Kijin Ancestor seemed to show some understanding for Zakkart’s complaints.
“Well, he was a man. It’s normal for him to be interested in the opposite sex,” said Deeana.
“Back then, nobody, not even me, had the time for anything,” said Tiamat. “Meanwhile, Bellwood was walking around with women following him. Not that I think he was aware of it.”
“It was a complaint that he voiced while drinking, and it’s not surprising that he’d say things like that, since he hadn’t had any relationships with anyone. Zakkart’s physical age was reversed to his teenage years, too,” added the Kijin ancestor.
“Gufadgarn, what surprised us is that you yourself are residing in the vessel, not a spirit clone. We knew that you were hermaphroditic or asexual, but… I think you were a little too decisive,” said Deeana.
“I gave it some thought, and this was the best way to adhere to Zakkart’s wishes. With that being the case, there was no reason to hesitate,” said Gufadgarn.
“Even if that’s true, I think that a god would normally allow him to meet a beautiful girl rather than become one himself. It is not as if you are a goddess from the age of the gods.”
“… I did not think of that option,” said Gufadgarn, clearly taken aback despite her face still being mask-like and expressionless. “Such deep thoughts… I can understand why the Demon King’s army was defeated.”
“No, it isn’t anything special,” said Deeana, giving a bitter smile. “I have heard that Zuruwarn advocated that we should at least do that much for the champions, as they were summoned into this world that they have no connection to. Ricklent also said that the champions’ will would take root more firmly in this world if they had lovers and friends, and nobody objected to it.”
It wasn’t just Gufadgarn who was surprised by Deeana’s words.
“I’ve never heard that before,” said Tiamat.
“… I’ve never heard that either,” said Farmaun.
“Of course you haven’t. These conversations took place before you were summoned,” said Deeana. “And since there was no time to form relationships as the war grew fiercer, the only ones who ended up being successful in that regard were apparently you and Bellwood.”
It seems that the mythical tales of Bellwood left out these facts.
“Did Zakkart, Ark and Nineroad not do those kinds of things?” asked Vandalieu.
“Zakkart, Ark and the other creation-oriented champions didn’t go onto the frontlines much; things apparently didn’t go well for them because they spent a lot of time holed up in their workshops,” said Deeana. “In other words, they didn’t have any opportunities to meet people, even if Vida, Ricklent and the others who summoned them might have expected otherwise.”
“As for Nineroad, it must have been misfortune,” said Tiamat. “Shizarion and the other gods merely gave them the opportunities to form bonds with the opposite sex… to become more than friends. They did not set up marriage meetings. Well, we are not the ones who devised this scheme, so if you wish to know more, it would be best to ask those responsible directly.”
It seemed that the gods’ intervention was merely introducing people to the champions and then leaving the rest up to them.
“Could it be, that time…” Farmaun murmured, looking up at Zantark, but Zantark gave a vague smile and looked away.
“I apologize for my incompetence, Vandalieu,” said Gufadgarn, moving to get on her knees.
“No, no, just stay as you are now,” said Vandalieu as he stopped her; he had the feeling that if Gufadgarn had been ‘competent,’ the situation would have certainly been even more ridiculous than it was now. “By the way, do you have any seals on the Demon King’s fragments and the remnants of the Demon King’s army?” he asked, trying to change the topic. “If you do, I’ll dispose of them for our mutual benefit.”
The seals suppressing the Demon King’s fragments that were directly maintained by the gods were more secure than Orichalcum Artifact seals, but they also placed a great burden on the gods.
“Yeah, please do. But the ones I was in charge of are managed by Churches in the Amid Empire and Orbaume Kingdom, and I wasn’t able to bring them with me,” said Farmaun.
“Please do something about that,” said Vandalieu.
“Sorry, that’s impossible,” said Farmaun. “About 50,000 years ago, if I’d predicted that you would come, I would have forcibly brought some with me, but…”
Back when Farmaun left Alda’s forces, the Demon King’s fragments were still just dangerous objects to the gods, not things that would be suitable as an offering. He didn’t know how to turn them into Demon King equipment, and even if he could, it was difficult to imagine that the Majin and Kijin would be able to use such dangerous items.
“If he had concealed such items on him back then, we would have certainly suspected that he was up to something and driven him away,” said the Majin ancestor.
“And going to take them back now is impossible,” said Farmaun. “Alda is letting me manage the fire attribute to maintain the world, but… if I were to return, he might do something so that I can do nothing other than maintain it.”
“I see. That’s unfortunate,” said Vandalieu.
“A-are you going to devour me after all?! N-no! I don’t want to be destroyed!” Luvesfol cried, thrashing about in terror at the words ‘dispose of.’
“You don’t have to be scared. Van told you that the decision is on hold until we go back to Talosheim and see what Fidirg and the others think, didn’t he?” said Pauvina, gently embracing Luvesfol’s wings… or rather, holding them down.
“That’s right, calm down,” said Oniwaka, wrapping her arms firmly around Luvesfol’s head.
They were treating Luvesfol like a small animal, but due to the special seal on him, he had the appearance and the strength of a Wyvern. To everyone else present here, he really was as weak as a small animal.
“… Yes, I apologize for causing a fuss. I am alright now,” said Luvesfol, immobilized by Pauvina’s smile.
She was three meters tall and didn’t weigh much less than Luvesfol; it was entirely possible for her to crush him to death right now.
“That’s good,” Pauvina said cheerfully.
… Thinking about things calmly, Luvesfol realized that if he resisted and accidentally injured anyone, Vandalieu really would dispose of him.
But why is my judgment ‘on hold,’ while the remnants of the Demon King’s army that have been sealed by Zantark and the others will be ‘disposed of?’ Luvesfol wondered suspiciously. Unlike me, the other remnant evil gods haven’t directly caused him any losses.
But the answer was this: The difference between Luvesfol and the Demon King’s army was that Luvesfol had directly begged Vandalieu to spare him. In other words, Vandalieu had taken pity on him.
Considering that, one might feel pity for the sealed evil gods that would not have the opportunity to beg to be spared, but that was a result of their past actions.
There was no point in removing the seals and trying to convince them to become allies if they ended up trying to escape and causing damage to their surroundings.
Zantark gave a roar.
“Zantark is saying, ‘We have several fragments sealed. However, we cannot acquire the fragments in the hands of Alda’s forces in the current situation,’” said Gufadgarn, interpreting it. “Perhaps this cannot be helped, as Alda had three champions on his side when the Demon King was defeated, and their Divine Realms were compatible with the seals.”
On the other hand, Zantark had been insane and unable to participate in battle when the Demon King Guduranis was defeated. The sealed Demon King fragments he and his allies possessed were those that were entrusted to them when they rejoined Vida and her allies.
“When we retreated here after being defeated a hundred thousand years ago, we were throwing them and stuff at Alda’s hounds. Looking back, I was so naïve back then,” said the Kijin ancestor.
“… Kijin boss, I’m the one you were throwing them at,” Farmaun pointed out.
It seemed that the fragments had been used to slow down Zantark’s pursuers.
“I see. Alda and his followers proclaim themselves to be on the side of justice, so they couldn’t allow the fragments to go out of control. They were forced to retrieve and seal them, and so they were slowed down,” Gufadgarn murmured.
“We did actually stop, but… come to think of it, are you guys alright looking at us?” asked Farmaun. “Apart from the Undead, you’re humans… aren’t you?”
“I think it is enough that their only reaction is sweating…” said Tiamat.
The gods gathered here were powerful figures, but most of them were gods of this world. Thus, looking at them would not cause damage to the mind like evil gods would… though weak-willed individuals would still lose consciousness.
But there were also gods that had fused with evil gods, like Zantark and the bird beast-king Lafaz.
“Farmaun, none of them could be considered ordinary people. If they were so weak as to lose their sanity by looking upon us, they would have lost their sanity long ago by looking upon the champion,” said the Majin ancestor.
“Indeed. I apologize to you all, but Master has the stranger appearance,” said Luciliano.
“… Isn’t it rude to say it like that? Though it’s not like I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Vandalieu.
Vandalieu’s companions were not only accustomed to seeing Vandalieu in battle with the Demon King’s fragments activated, but all of them had abilities beyond ordinary people, including Luciliano.
For the Undead, insanity was their sanity. With all of these factors, the only effect that everyone felt was that they were sweating.
Vandalieu had the feeling that Oniwaka was coping by avoiding reality, however.
“There, there, good boy,” she said, focusing her attention on Luvesfol.
“Leaving the Demon King’s fragments aside, is it really alright for you to eat the evil gods in one sitting?” asked Deeana. “All of the ones we have sealed are the same kind as Ravovifard, so isn’t it better to devour them one at a time?”
“Now that you mention it, they might cause indigestion,” said Vandalieu, imagining the fatty lumps of meat.
They had been quite delicious, but it certainly seemed like it would be bad for the stomach if he ate them continuously. If it were real meat, he could put it on skewers, fry the excess fat off or add lemon juice to give it a refreshing flavor, however.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I was worried that it might have effects on your body or mind,” said Deeana.
“There is no hurry, Your Majesty, so let’s go with eating one evil god per day,” said Princess Levia.
But Vandalieu wasn’t very aware of this. He had once acquired the Body Extension: Tongue Skill after eating an evil god, allowing him to stretch his tongue.
It was decided that he would eat one a day, as everyone was worried that it might be problematic if such things happened multiple times at once.
However, there were no problems with the Demon King’s fragments, so Vandalieu absorbed them one after another.
“Phew, it is nice to be free from the Demon King’s fragments. It has been a while since I felt this good. It is truly moving to know that the one who has achieved this is the great-great-grandchild of Vida-sama… How about creating a race with me?” asked Tiamat.
“You’re too casual in inviting me to create a new race…” said Vandalieu.
“Bocchan already has several previously-arranged engagements!” Saria protested.
“Even if you’re a god, please wait your turn!” said Rita.
“Muh, if there are already arranged engagements, then it cannot be helped. I thought that I could create a third race, following the Kiryujin and Maryujin,” Tiamat murmured, withdrawing her offer.
TLN: Kanji-wise, Kiryujin and Maryujin are a mix of Kijin/Drakonid and Majin/Drakonid respectively
It seemed that things were different for a goddess like her, who had created children with various Elder Dragons, Colossi and beast-kings since the age of the gods.
Vandalieu and Oniwaka glanced at the Kijin and Majin ancestors, who were looking away and scratching their heads awkwardly.
“Many of our children were protected by Garess, the god of warriors, and Xerxes, the god of battle flags, but… because of that, there were less of our children that could escape with us.”
“Because of that, we thought that the gods would need more children to become their followers, so that they could recover their power… right?” said the Majin ancestor.
That was how it was. Apparently, near this land that had become Zantark’s Divine Realm, there was a large town inhabited by Kiryujin who possessed the features of both the Kijin and Drakonids, and the Maryujin who possessed the features of both Majin and Drakonids.
“We didn’t hear anything about this from Schneider, though?” said Vandalieu.
“We did not want our old friends Zorcodrio or Jurizanapipe to know about them,” said Tiamat. “It is a naïve thought.”
It seemed that the existence of the Kiryujin and Maryujin hadn’t been told to Schneider and his companions, as these races were not in any particular need of help.
It seemed that the parents of these races very much wanted to keep them a secret.
“Are you alright with telling me?” asked Vandalieu. “I’m not an old friend, but I suppose I’ve been invited to Vida’s Divine Realm before…”
“… It is regrettable, but we cannot keep silent about the matter forever because of our own embarrassment,” said Tiamat. “Also, we wish to ask of you things that Schneider and his companions cannot do.”
“I see. I understand… Well then, I will absorb your fragment, so please stay still,” said Vandalieu.
“Incidentally, the fragment that I have sealed is the auxiliary brain. Will there be no problems?” Tiamat asked.
The auxiliary brain – from what Vandalieu knew, he vaguely had the feeling that it was an organ that controlled the body. If he recalled correctly, it was not where memories were stored. He didn’t know whether there were any organisms that actually had auxiliary brains, though.
“Have you ever felt the Demon King’s will or seen his memories from it?” Vandalieu asked.
“No, I have not,” Tiamat replied.
“Then it should be fine.”
《You have acquired the Demon King’s retinas, lens, compound eyes, lips, tongue, gills, auxiliary brain, blood vessels and tumors!》
《The Demon King’s retina and lens have been added to the Demon King’s eyeballs, and the Demon King’s lips have been added to the Demon King’s jaws!》
Vandalieu absorbed numerous fragments including the auxiliary brain, but he couldn’t feel any signs of the Demon King’s will or his memories. However, the fragments began to clamor in an unusual manner.
We’ve reunited with the main body! We’ve reunited with the main body! We’ve finally reunited with the main body!
We will be resurrected, right here, right now!
《The Demon King Fusion Skill has awakened into the Demon King Skill!》
Before Vandalieu could stop them, the fragments let out shouts of joy and, in the next moment, Demon King Fusion awakened into a superior Skill.
It seemed that the fragments considered the Demon King to have been resurrected.
“… This might be a little problematic. Excuse me, I want to talk to you about something,” said Vandalieu, worried about possible effects of the Demon King Skill on him and deciding to consult the gods around him.
- Name: Heinz
- Race: Human
- Age: 28 years old
- Title: Blue-flamed Sword, New Vampire Hunter, Sword Saint, One who tears through the darkness
- Job: Immortality Slayer
- Level: 55
- Job history: Apprentice Warrior, Warrior, Swordsman, Magic Swordsman, Magic Warrior, Holy Warrior, Avenger, Sword Saint, Holy Guider, Sealing Magic Swordsman, Holy Sword User
- Attributes:
- Vitality: 78,800 (Increased by 6,850!)
- Mana: 47,498 + 4,749 (Increased by 11,347!)
- Strength: 9,450 (Increased by 975!)
- Agility: 12,529 (Increased by 951!)
- Stamina: 13,675 (Increased by 975!)
- Intelligence: 7,797 (Increased by 700!)
- Passive skills:
- Augmented All Attribute Values: Medium
- Status Effect Resistance: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- All Attributes Resistance: Level 9
- Strengthened Attack Power while equipped with a sword: Very large
- Mana Cost Reduction: Level 10
- Detect Presence: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Revenge: The Trial of Zakkart (Lost due to abandoning the Trial of Zakkart!)
- Strengthened Attribute Values while equipped with metal armor: Very large
- Guidance: Holy Path: Level 5
- Mana Enlargement: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Active skills:
- Radiant God Swordsmanship: Level 7
- Holy Light Armor Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Transcend Limits: Level 10
- Transcend Limits – Holy Sword: Level 1 (Awakened from Transcend Limits – Magic Sword!)
- Coordination: Level 10
- Light-Attribute Magic: Level 9
- Life-Attribute Magic: Level 9
- No-Attribute Magic: Level 2
- Mana Control: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)
- Clergyman: Level 6
- Heroic Spirit Descent: Level 1
- Etiquette: Level 4
- Transcend Limits – Holy Armor: Level 3 (NEW!)
- Unique skills:
- Non-living Killer: Level 1 (Awakened from Undead Killer!)
- Alda’s Divine Protection: Great Hero’s Destiny
- Evil Suppression: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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RayneVilanore
The only thing Holy about Hienz is the things Alda is sticking in his Holy areas….. lmao
emergency3808
I have to admit that training Heinz this directly was a fine play by Alda (he is even giving Heinz indirect knowledge about Amazonesses and Bone Forts). Although, can Alda actually convince/brainwash Heinz to kill a Dhamphir?
Winter
“If it weren’t for that, Heinz and his companions would have thought that this was a town that existed somewhere today.”
That’s actually pretty sad considering that it’s probably town from 100k years ago. Just goes to show how much Bellwood and Alda have held the development of the world back. Even on earth religion “only” held back society by a few centuries.
“Meanwhile, Bellwood was walking around with women following him. Not that I think he was aware of it.”
Bellwood was a dense isekai harem protagonist confirmed
Akachi86
Bellwood was dense in all aspects.
When you read chapter 305 you’ll understand what an unbelievable loser asshole he really is.
lawson
não concordo muito com sua opinião mas a respeito, e acho valido em alguns pontos da historia mas no geral a “religião” a católica em especifico independe de sua nacionalidade, ideologia e religião, eles estão por trás da criação de hospitais, faculdades, e muitos dos maiores inventores, estudiosos e filósofos eram religiosos, judeus, a religião qualquer religião tem um lado ruim vinda de seu clero ou crentes, mas os benefícios também são numerosos, diferente do que e se diz a religião estimula a criatividade e inovação mais do que o ateísmo, e só ver o mundo a “arte” nunca foi tão preguiçosa, pesquisas cientificas (de cunho social em especifico) nunca foram analisadas de forma tão banal, e só pesquisar, um grupo de estudantes publicou o livro de hitler como um projeto a favor do feminismo e foi não apenas aceito pela academia mas também elogiado, a religião tem seus defeitos mas muito menos do que muitos a acusa, só minha opinião, você e livre para concordar ou não com ela, mas se tiver outro ponto de vista e só falar com educação e de forma não vexatória ou de desdém, obrigado se teve a paciência de ler ate aqui.
Português Brasileiro e a minha língua nativa não sei se a tradução passara tudo corretamente mas agradesso sua leitura
God-stealth0
I remember that Heinz can’t go beyond to the human limits in this World because he don’t have the title “champion” and cant get that title because only the people from other World can get it so in really it supouse that for him is imposible be better than van…
Akachi86
Van’s stats are actually artificially low, because he hasn’t hit his growth phase yet. When he does they will rise immensely.
It’s a relatively unknown phenomenon, since Van is an unusual child. Usually no one undergoes so many job changes at such a young age.
Vitor
But there were also gods that had fused with evil gods, like Zantark and the bird beast-king Lafaz.
Wait, bird beast-king fused with evil gods? then I guess this one created the Harpy race with Vida
Zenden1st
The problem of solving how to keep the attributes from falling apart after the war seems so simple to me
Why can’t you take the many souls of the defeated gods from Alda’s fraction cleanes them of memories/will or something like that, combine them and insert them all into something (World’s Core) making a new entity but all-around power full enough to hold the various attributes.
I believe Van can do this because he can already do a lite version of what I explained ie. Manipulating memories/Puesdo Reincarnation/Spirit Manipulation/ Soul manipulation if you consider breaking them and devouring them manipulation, but I believe he’ll eventually get good enough at manipulating souls that hed be able to manipulate god souls outside of generically eating them.
It’s better than just letting Alda’s gods live after the war, they’re always gonna be plotting on betraying you if you get soft-hearted enough to let them free instead of sealing them and using only for them to hold the element. It’s better to wipe their memories and turn them into a new being that will easily hold the world’s attributes, similar to a Colossal Titan in WoW.
Chiu ChunLing
It’s not impossible, but there’s a problem with faith. While the gods differ on whether they exist for the sake of the people or the people exist for the sake of the gods, it’s a simple truth that the gods cannot continue to expend their power indefinitely without the belief of the people.
If Van were going to try something like this, the result wouldn’t be worshipped by anyone and so it would only be an expendable power source. It would probably be better for him to just devour most of the gods to gain their power directly and then be worshipped by the people to maintain his power. But Van himself doesn’t want this.
The optimum solution would be to have the defeated gods continue to maintain the world even as their worship eroded in favor of the gods of the Vida faction, but naturally this depends on the defeated gods being willing to expend their power to maintain the world.
There’s also an ethical issue, in that Vida’s faction is largely defined by their willingness to accept defectors from the other side while Alda’s faction wouldn’t. It’s Alda’s side that rejects the possibility of compromise out of determined prejudice against former enemies and refuses to ever trust them. While the god’s of Vida’s faction may set terms of contrition and repentance prior to forgiveness, they are on Vida’s side rather than Alda’s precisely because they believe in forgiveness. If not so, they would be on Alda’s side in the first place.
Van is similarly on that side. He’ll destroy and devour those who are beyond redemption, but he won’t judge them beyond redemption without given them a chance. He never has.
Ereshkigal
If you think about it, would a man that is being baby by a bunch of gods win against the boy who grind his ass to achieve his goals? I mean, yes Heinz is strong, strongest mortal pawn of Alda, before this trial he and his comrades also grinded their asses to become this strong. But now that even the god of LAW and ORDER intervene to their growth by creating a dungeon that cannot kill them, would they win against Van and the others who risks their lives to fight and win over stronger enemies? Even using underhanded tactics like making them fight Vandalieu’s companions without any risk… My anger towards Alda’s faction and Heinz just turned into disappointment.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, obviously they won’t win simply because this is not that sort of story. But yes, narratively speaking it is justified to say that Alda’s trial is actually weakening the character of the ‘Heroes’ even while strengthening their combat skills. To a degree this is probably intentional…Alda doesn’t want Heinz actually thinking deeply about which side is right, only about which side offers him the best chance to play ‘Hero’. But the blindness to the importance of seriously considering what is really right is to be expected…if Alda understood that he wouldn’t have encouraged Bellwood to betray the ‘inconvenient’ Creation Heroes and then go on to assault Vida.
Vitor
Alda didn’t encourage Bellwood to “betray” them, there wasn’t any need of him being encouraged, Bellwood was if not as bad even worse than Alda, and while Alda complains about Vida being influenced by Zakkart, he, to this day, isn’t aware that he himself was, and is, influenced by Bellwood, and he surely didn’t encourage Bellwood to assault Vida, Bellwood encouraged Alda to assault Vida
Vitor
While I agree, being fair, Gufadgarn also allowed the people from Vida’s side to survive even if they failed (as long as they didn’t get instakilled), and, regretably, also Heinz and friends
caccuhuy
Heinz need more trainning as Van can still oneshot him
Zenden1st
Heinz will always one shot….
The way I see it, if you don’t have millions or billions of vitality, you’re one good slow mana bullet away from becoming Exp.
FunniFear
A new race? It seems to be like starting a new session in Spore for the gods.
BaldTurtle
The demon king’s fragments sorta remind me of bucky balls. Like I would be building a dank ass cube but then they would be like nah fam and fall apart.
Jason
The demon kings tumors
Looks like he would’ve died even without them killing him
HA!
WizziBot
Yeah but he could have died after he destroyed everything soooooooo
Tongyanyao
Heinz has 3 times the attributes of Van while only having one third the number of jobs…unfair much? Of cos not including mana values
Tejing
It is that way for a reason, which should be revealed soon.
Chiu ChunLing
It’s not as bad as when Van was a newborn baby. We don’t get Heinz’s stats from then, but it was definitely more than a hundred times Van’s stats at the time (except for MP, of course). Even if Van’s 10 years older now, he’s still a little kid.
Besides, Heinz actually has a ‘build’ based on tens of thousands of years of careful analysis of optimum Job types instead of a sorta random selection of previously unknown Jobs.
Sailon
Has many reason like phiscal abilites is more hard to increase when you are young specially to Van a damphir with datk elf his body develop very slow, and has the type of jobs Heiz is the more warrior type of jobs that give high increase to streaght and other phosical values and the Van are jobs more magic focus meaning give more bonust to skill and magic stats like mana and inteligence or that give more bonust to certain skill instead of stats
Vitor
this is further supported by the fact that Vans Intelligence is getting real close to catching to Heinz
polynesianvibez
hmm internal struggle incoming?
thanks for the chapter
WolfLord_Jordon
P.Thanks for the chapter on a good story
Blackpercher
im catchig up!!
darkoneko
The longer Heinz’s group stay in there, the greater chance Selen get killed or worse, especially with the new pope an’ all.
LethalDose
The new pope is thame amid empire that’s on the other side of the continent i highly doubt that he has enough influence to transcend national borders like that
Chiu ChunLing
Her chances of getting killed actually go down, since there’s no way the trial will end until he’s throughly brainwashed enough to consider cute Dhampir kids pure evil.
Wsteven7o7
You might be right hope she survives she had done nothing wrong.
And it would be sad that she leaves before knowing what Heinz did and hating him.
Meth
Just meth
Aelia Aeldyne
Heinz seems weak as fuck, even in terms of raw attribute values…
However, his “holy whatever techniques”, are they related to what Van calls the Holy element ?
SpudCaleb
His attribute values are generally greater than vans tho?
And those are some seriously buff-heavy skills, not to mention an superior version of an anti-undead unique skill.
He’s probably going to be a major problem for our protagonists once he acquires specialized artifacts from Alda and if he keeps growing at this pace…
Well let’s just say that Van not only can kill gods, but the first time he killed one, he ate, on accident…
McDeathTheReapr
they aren’t generally greater, they are greater by multiples, especially Agility, Stamina and Strength
Valeth
However it should be noted that Van is still a child. While this may not have great bearing on Intelligence or Mana. It most likely affects his Strength, Agility, and Stamina. Possibly even his Vitality. So when he enters his next development phase those should potentially increase.
Especially sense van has underwent more job changes then Heinz and his companions.
Hobbes
Not quite. Holy element is just light element combined with life element. In other words Heinz’s & Alda’s magical attributes.
Next thing is a ton of Van’s multitude of skills are excessively versatile, but not necessarily battle-oriented. On the other hand, Heinz and his party (as well as adventurers in general) are heavily specialized for battle. Heinz has a ton of skills that stack and multiply his strength when used simultaneously.
Van has been creative and inventive about the applications of his abilities, but it’s not as if Van is a fighting genius like Heinz or his party members. Van’s just a genius of hard work and he has 3 different lives of experience to pull from for inspiration.
Plus you’re not taking into account something that the author stated explicitely rather early on… Van excels at taking care of armies and large numbers of moderate-to-high strength enemies, but he is weak to dealing with extremely skilled, battle-hardened, tough enemies who deal out tons of damage in every strike/in a single strike. In other words his battle style is weak to apex-level adventurer parties and he shows his greatest strength against other opponents.
Wsteven7o7
That might have change though.
Vitor
He is getting better at fighting those strong enemies thought, and more nightamarish with each battle, thought, Bugogan, Gordan, Kanata, Ternecia, Gubamon, Bugitas, Erwin… each time he looks even more inmortal, gets new Demon King fragments or new magics or simply learns from experience
Peerman04
I think the author means with insanity as not possessing rational thought. Undead without being guided by Vandalieu are driven by their hate or lingering regrets. This was mentioned a couple of times in the story. Sam, Rita and Saria, and the other undead in Talosheim, actually everyone in Talosheim are, yes, insane, but they still possess (rational) thought.
Wsteven7o7
No author is right about the way he describes Insanity.
At some point when your head starts going crazy you can take two paths only two no matter what you do if you try find another you will only take the worse one.
The First is either to give up on living or go insane and never recover or go psycho and start killing what you hate or anything you see moving.
Second is giving up on living but leaving a good message behind or having done everything you can or having no regrets the next closest is trying to find a escape route or try to cure it if is possible the next one the one I and Van are is being Calm Calm as the wind in a summer breeze but when something you feel treated scared or hate comes near you or does something to you your emotions cannot handle and you do the next most reasonable thing wich is exterminated. BUT a big BUT even do you go by your emotions at that moment inside your head you are still Calm and have rational thinking.
There are many options in each category but all of them corelate to each other.
Im Insane the same way Van is i cannot Say i have suffer more tham him but i can say that my head and thinking correlates. I Am truly grateful author gave Van many things to keep going and i feel grateful since i only have one thing i keep fighting for.
I can say that Van is scared of loosing what he loves and you cannot imagined the Pain he would feel just the though of it can shatter your mind and heart, I say this from experience im scared too im angry im sad im many things and many emotions but none at the same time i have no attachment to earth other than one thing.
Anyway keep living even do is hard i wont say you were weak if you leave i will wish to the Universe that you find what you wanted or needed.
Living is harder than dying for people like me and Van, if you have less things you truly love it makes it more hard to live. I hope you have strong willpower to enjoy life and try to be happy and smile remember to be the best you can you never know when you can die.
My eyes are watering i guess that’s one more tear on the ocean.
Kuro-san
I totally agree, even more so in TDM where there are no “villains” only many characters with opposing views of the protagonist, the so-called antagonists.
Alda himself is one of them, for he is theoretically the god of justice, but what is justice?
For a Goblin (Common) justice is basically invading villages to eat cattle, kill men and breed with women.
In Alda’s concepts the Goblins’ “justice” is the wrong one so he commands his followers to exterminate them.
OK, we agree with that because in our society it is wrong and Vandalieu would do the same.
But the Black Goblins of Vandalieu are completely different from the Gobins (common), they are civilazados.
But Alda would see them only as a more powerful and mortal version of the same Goblins (common) consequently their believers would exterminate them.
But he is not “wrong” considering the attitude of the Goblins (common) until then.
Now, to exterminate dozens of new races discriminately just because they inhabit a different circle of reincarnation, or because they were created through procreation with evil gods and monsters even though they have done nothing wrong, even being on another continent is a complete act malignant (at least in our standards), but in Alda’s standards such evil attitudes are justice. But he realized that he was wrong.
So much so that he realized how stupid she was, trying even to attach her sister’s circle of reincarnation to that of Redcorte.
But that does not change the fact that he did all this “evil”, and even that he does not regret what he did.
On the contrary, he is willing to let so much of his sister’s “Sons” go to the same reincarnation circle as the Goblins (common) and that attitude that makes him wrong.
Another example of this is the way Alda understands the evil gods.
For him the evil gods are nothing but filthy and cruel creatures. But the evil gods who began to dominate the world so far Alda is not “wrong.”
But Alda became the “wrong” story when he still saw even the evil gods who betrayed the Demon King in search of freedom like the others he had destroyed on the battlefield.
Being that in the beginning the evil gods are not really “bad” but only have their values of “Right” and “Wrong” contrary to the values of the lamdba gods.
In other words, your mentality can clearly change over time and to prove it, tell me how many gods have really shifted aside and yielded their allegiance to the eleven great lamdba gods? Merrebeveil, Fidirg, Lissana, among others.
But I’m already tired of writing so I’ll stop here, just think about what I ended up with what I said or tried to say.
bencachinit
Hmmm… something really long that my INT stat isn’t high enough for.
Supreme king
Well to be fair he already stated the problems with vida ‘sons’ it’s already been established in human society to kill them so at this point it’s sort of impossible to change not to mention humans themselves find it impossible to agree with things that are too different to them even I feel some aversion to some of those new species though this whole problem could be averted if Alda just called a truth and said for neither races to interact with each other and have designated parts of the world for them to separate them heck the whole system of transmigration thing isn’t now even a problem cuz vida has her own anyway it much better than having it go to rodcorte
On another note van himself is doing things I don’t agree with sure fine u wanna resurrect or keep alive people close to u but don’t just go doing that for every random joe
Wsteven7o7
Supreme Virgin is back!!
Hobbes
You started off well and then your thoughts kind of… scrambled.
You initially defined the subjective views and stated the contention between them as well as where things crossed the lines.
But afterwards, you rambled diverged from your initial point into nonsense. I don’t mean you’re wrong here. I just mean you made your thoughts as clear as mud.
Chiu ChunLing
This “Trial” is a good illustration.
Alda has already decided the outcome, it’s not a trial at all. It’s just a training program…one only offered to those Alda has already chosen.
The Trial of Zakkart Gufadgarn made was an actual trial, and Van cleared it without needing any special consideration. The only special consideration provided was the differing treatment of those who failed…and even that was based on their own actions in the trial, not any selection on Gufadgarn’s part.
Of course, Gufadgarn ended up realizing Van was Zakkart right away without even needing the trial, but didn’t interfere with the trial (till Van went and broke it anyway).
Vida’s side is open to evidence, while Alda is not.
Vitor
well… about not being villains… I don’t know you, but for what we know about the teachings of Hihirushukaka, taking into account what the Pure-breed vampires that serve him had shown, and, specially, what (SPOILER) “Byrkine” is going to show, I’m reticent to not consider at least him a villain