Thank you to the sponsors Serge P. ($20), Christian B. ($15), John P Jr ($20), Rann D. ($25), John M. ($20), Peterson K. ($20), Alexander T. ($10), Sandra P. ($10), Etienne G. ($10), Mamerto C. ($50), Johari N. ($26), Charles G. ($5), Zachary H. ($20) [Extra length]
For some reason, the real Vandalieu had taken over a reproduced copy of himself. Having realized this, Curatos tried to call for assistance.
Though the challengers of this Dungeon could be resurrected over and over in this Dungeon no matter how many times they died, Vandalieu was able to destroy souls and thus grant his enemies a true end to their existence, even here.
As far as Curatos could tell, it seemed that even Vandalieu himself had not expected to be in this situation, but… even so, there could only be one outcome if he were to encounter Heinz and his companions. Curatos could not afford to lose the still-incomplete Five-colored Blades.
The outside of this Dungeon was being guarded by personnel from both Alda and Vida’s Churches in the Orbaume Kingdom. But in addition, there were heroic spirits and gods that were skilled in combat, ready to descend upon the world at a moment’s notice in the event that Vandalieu or the gods of Vida’s faction were to attack.
Curatos just needed to summon those gods into this Dungeon.
“I did not expect that he would enter the inside of the Dungeon directly, but this ends here,” Curatos muttered to himself.
As Vandalieu was in a copied body, he would not be able to exert his full strength, and once the gods entered this Dungeon, he would be repelled easily. Curatos had no doubt about that.
But he was astonished to find that his request for aid was not reaching the outside world.
“Impossible…! I have been meticulous in maintaining communication –”
Suddenly, Curatos let out a groan and staggered as he felt a sensation resembling the impact of a battering ram hitting his body. This sensation signaled that someone was trying to open the Teleportation Gates, the gates that connected the different spaces within the Dungeon, but was obstructed by the barriers that Alda, the god of law and fate, had erected.
Curatos knew who it was. With this event coinciding with Vandalieu’s appearance here, it could only be the gods of Vida’s faction.
But a direct intrusion into the inside of the Dungeon was the situation that Curatos and his master Alda needed to prevent the most.
That was why Alda had built sturdy protective measures while creating this Dungeon in order to prevent Zuruwarn, the god of space and creation, from entering the Dungeon directly.
“My lord’s protections are… cracking…!” Curatos murmured, shuddering in horror.
The battering-ram-impact-like sensations were continuing intermittently, and the cracks that were produced with each one were not small enough to be ignored.
But who? How were they doing this to what should have been a perfect defense?
“… Gufadgarn, the evil god of labyrinths. He has followed the ‘path’ that Vandalieu has taken into this place, spatially separated the inside of the Dungeon from the outside and is now trying to enter himself!” Curatos realized.
It was known that Zuruwarn had joined Vida’s side; this being his doing was one possibility. But considering that Gufadgarn had ceased his maintenance of the Trial of Zakkart, this evil god that created numerous Dungeons and increased the pollution of this world was the more likely answer.
Vandalieu had created a small tear in the Dungeon’s perfect defense by entering, even though it was only his mind that had entered. Now, Gufadgarn was making use of that tear.
“I can feel several other presences… strong presences… but I must deal with the situation at hand for now,” Curatos told himself.
He began repairing the barrier to buy as much time as he could while also creating copies of himself. These copies would act on his behalf, inform the Five-colored Blades of the situation and provide a way for them to escape. He also began making preparations for the worst.
In order to minimize the losses from this defeat.
While Curatos was performing these trial-and-error tests, Jennifer and Diana died and returned to the ‘town.’ He was terrified that their souls had been broken, but he was relieved to find that their souls were intact and had returned to their bodies. It seemed that Vandalieu had spared them.
However, there was no guarantee that he would spare the rest. Curatos quickly shut the ‘corridors’ to prevent Jennifer and Diana from leaving the ‘town’ to return to this floor, and also to prevent Vandalieu from entering the ‘town.’
However, while Curatos was performing these tasks, Edgar also fell into a dire situation.
“So, he intends to destroy their souls after all… he is devouring them?!” Curatos exclaimed in shock.
Edgar was almost completely out of Mana, and Luke, the heroic spirit of Niltark, the god of judgment, who had descended upon him, was in a critical state as well. Meanwhile, Vandalieu’s Mana had recovered, albeit only slightly.
Curatos recorded this phenomenon and realized that unlike the Demon King Guduranis, who had only destroyed souls, Vandalieu was capable of devouring them.
There was no longer any time to lose. Curatos sent the copies that had somewhat taken form, along with the ones that carried his own mind.
“No way, we can still fight! We can’t afford to lose this Dungeon –” Heinz began.
“Even if you are capable of fighting, it will be futile. As you are now, you cannot avoid defeat,” said Curatos.
He had instructed Heinz to destroy his own fake body, return to the ‘town’ and escape from this Dungeon, but as he had expected, Heinz wanted to stay.
However, Heinz was gravely misunderstanding the situation.
“It is possible for me to heal your wounds and restore your Mana. However, I cannot heal wounded souls,” Curatos said.
Indeed, Heinz and Delizah could certainly still fight. However, the souls of the heroic spirits that had descended upon them were already wounded. With time, they would likely heal and return to normal, but… if they continued to fight against Vandalieu and continued receiving heavy blows, it was possible that their souls would become damaged to an irreparable state.
If that happened, they would become mindless and broken. There would be no option left but to kill them and entrust their hopes to their next lives.
Rodcorte, the god of reincarnation who was an expert when it came to souls, might be able to do something about the situation, but… it would likely be impossible to restore the souls to their original states.
And Edgar was one step away from reaching that point. That was why Curatos had killed him and sent him back to the ‘town’ without giving him a chance to protest. Of course, Curatos wasn’t sure if he would become able to fight as he had done up until now.
“Soul? You said that just a moment ago as well, what do you mean –” Delizah began, bewildered.
“Vandalieu possesses the ability to inflict wounds that even us gods cannot heal. That is all you need to understand for now,” Curatos explained briefly. “That is why you must return to the ‘town,’” he said, pointing the tip of his spear towards her.
Even now, the copies that Curatos had created using his own power and divine authority, were fighting against Vandalieu and being destroyed. Curatos himself was taking damage as a result of this.
There was no time for long explanations.
“But he said that he would destroy this Dungeon if we were to run away. Can you prevent that from happening?” Heinz asked.
Curatos’s face twisted in frustration. “It is regrettable, but I cannot. I have no means of stopping that evil… the Demon King.”
So that’s how it is after all, Heinz thought as he heard Curatos refer to Vandalieu as the Demon King, but at the same time, he shuddered upon learning that even a god could not stop him.
Curatos would resist as much as he could, and if he could use his copies to chip away at Vandalieu’s Mana, then he would be able to evacuate this Dungeon… but even now, Gufadgarn was trying to enter, so that was impossible.
He did not know if Vandalieu was truly capable of destroying this Dungeon that had been created by Alda, the god of law and fate. But with the help of Gufadgarn, who was an expert in Dungeons, things that Curatos could not even imagine might become possible.
Curatos knew that he would not be able to prevent that.
If the damage to the Dungeon was stopped before it became irreparable, then the situation might be barely salvageable, however.
“Then can’t you produce more fakes like the ones that we’ve been fighting? This is still the 65th floor; it’s not the final floor. Shouldn’t there be a fake that can defeat Vandalieu? Like… a copy of the Demon King Guduranis,” Heinz suggested, not willing to give up.
It was good that he was not willing to give up; this was one of the qualities required of a hero, after all.
But despite admiring Heinz’s ability to display this quality even in this situation, Curatos shook his head. “It is true that I intended for you to fight against a copy of the Demon King Guduranis on a deeper floor of this Dungeon,” he said.
“Then bring that copy here right now –” Heinz began.
“If that were possible, I would have done that from the very beginning. The fact that I have not means that it is not possible.”
In order to deal with this unforeseen situation, Curatos had arrived onto the scene with as many fighting forces as he could muster.
In addition to the Demon King Guduranis, he had prepared copies of Bellwood, Nineroad and Farmaun, before they became heroic gods. There were also copies of S-class adventurers from varying points in history, including Randolf ‘the True’ and the ‘Thunderclap’ Schneider.
But he could not use them.
The copies had been programmed to treat other copies as allies and work together in order to fight against the Five-colored Blades.
The reproduced, materialized copies created by Curatos were mindless puppets, no matter how real their behavior seemed. However, they had been created based on records of them as they had existed in the past. If copies of individuals that were enemies in the real world were produced together on the same floor, they would end up fighting each other.
That would prevent them from serving their intended function as a trial for Heinz and his companions, so Curatos had programmed them to never fight against other copies.
If he were to summon copies such as the one of the Demon King Guduranis here right now, Heinz and Delizah would be exterminated, along with the copies that Curatos was occupying because they were different from the other copies… This might be a good option to return Heinz and Delizah to the ‘town,’ but this would leave Vandalieu unchecked as a result, and thus increase the risk of the Dungeon being destroyed.
There were many other restrictions; for example, Curatos could not move copies to other floors or the ‘town,’ nor could he produce multiple copies of the same individual on a single floor.
“But there are other copies fighting him on the other side of this wall!” said Delizah.
“Delizah, that is because I have taken additional steps so that they consider Vandalieu as their enemy. The stronger the copies are, the more time these additional steps take,” Curatos explained.
Powerful copies required large amounts of information to be recreated; even Curatos, a god, could not do this immediately. It would have taken several hours to add this additional programming to a copy of the Demon King Guduranis.
The copies that were fighting Vandalieu on the other side of the wall protecting Curatos, Heinz and Delizah were copies whose programming had just been modified a little so that they would fight Vandalieu.
Curatos had done all of this while preventing Gufadgarn from entering the Dungeon and struggling to open the Dungeon’s entrance that the evil god had sealed.
Even for Curatos, performing these three tasks simultaneously had been difficult, but even so, he had put thought into gathering as many fighting forces as he could and deliberately chose individuals that were Vandalieu’s allies and relatively quick to program, in order to cause him to hesitate at least a single moment longer before he defeated them.
“Therefore, you must fall back to the ‘town’ now. I will definitely open a path for you to escape, so you must wait until I do so. And you must stand up once more, resurrect Bellwood and defeat that monster… the Demon King Vandalieu, at all costs,” said Curatos, speaking in the most god-like tone that he could manage.
“… It can’t be helped, then,” said Delizah, closing her eyes and exposing her throat to the tip of the spear that Curatos was holding.
“Wait, Delizah,” said Heinz. “God, if we do return to the ‘town,’ will we be able to escape from this place?” he asked Curatos.
It seemed that he had still not given up. In fact, he had asked the question that mattered the most.
“There is something isolating this Dungeon, and it’s so firm that it is preventing reinforcements… the other gods, from coming. Isn’t that right?” Heinz continued. “Even if we return to the ‘town,’ we won’t be able to get outside, will we?”
Indeed, Gufadgarn had twisted space so that no gods could enter or leave this Dungeon now.
Even if Heinz and Delizah returned to the town, this situation needed to be addressed before they could escape to the outside world.
“I have a plan. If I use it, Vandalieu’s anger will be drawn to me, and he will no longer be interested in you. During that time, I will open the exit. You must wait in the ‘town’ for that moment,” said Curatos.
“I know I’m being insolent as I ask this. Is this guaranteed to succeed?” Heinz asked.
Gufadgarn was an evil god of the space attribute who specialized in labyrinths, and there was another unknown enemy god who was just as powerful. On the other hand, Curatos was a light-attribute god who normally had no association with Dungeons. The odds were not in his favor.
Even at the cost of his own destruction and considerable damage inflicted to the Dungeon, Curatos believed that the chances of Heinz and his companions escaping safely were about seventy percent.
“… I cannot say that it is certain,” he replied.
It was unclear as to whether he had answered Heinz’s question truthfully because he was the god of records who recorded things exactly as they were, or because of the extraordinary determination in Heinz’s eyes.
“Then I also have a plan,” said Heinz. “If it’s correct to assume that you are still able to create copies about as powerful as the ones that are fighting against Vandalieu right now –”
Curatos believed that the plan outlined by Heinz had a sufficient chance of success. It was not certain, but the resulting probability of being able to stop Vandalieu was more than seventy percent –
“Very well. However, if I deem it insufficient, I will interfere, no matter what you say… no matter how much you resent me for it afterwards,” said Curatos.
Heinz and Delizah nodded, and Curatos began creating the copies needed for the plan.
Combined with the plan that Curatos had intended to use… Heinz and Delizah would have a far greater chance of escaping than seventy percent.
“I see. I have gained a good understanding of just how valuable my Danger Sense: Death and my staff are,” Vandalieu murmured to himself, his shoulders dropping as he thought of the normally constantly-active spell that had helped him so many times, and the staff made from Gyubarzo that he didn’t have with him now.
On the 50th floor, he had mistaken the entire incident as a dream, and while he was fighting Heinz just a few moments ago, he had lost his composure and deliberately allowed himself to be attacked to set a trap. Thus, he hadn’t realized just how valuable Danger Sense: Death and his staff were. In this place… to be more precise, in his current state, the Danger Sense: Death spell had no effect.
This was likely because his body was a fake, so he could not die no matter what was done to him. The fact that he could not die was a good thing, but it was a little troublesome that the convenient spell that allowed him to sense his opponents’ attacks was not working.
And with the Gyubarzo staff, he would have been able to use magic even in his current state of having used up a large amount of his Mana.
But naturally, Vandalieu was the superior force in the battle between him and the copies. High Priest Gordan charged towards Vandalieu, whose fist went straight through Gordan’s shield and destroyed his chest cavity. Vandalieu then simply ran past Kasim and his two friends, using the Demon King’s wings as blades to cut them down.
He simply ignored the copied ‘Insect Swarm’ Bebeckett’s insects, closed in on her and snapped her neck. Incidentally, Vandalieu was unable to charm or equip her insects; they had simply turned into dust along with Bebeckett.
Other copies appeared in their place.
One of them was a man who appeared to be a hunter.
“Heheheh, I’ll catch –” he began, but Vandalieu cut him down instantaneously with his wings.
Another copy, a knight, appeared. “Red Wolf Knights, charge –”
Vandalieu cut him down as well.
He wasn’t sure who the hunter was, as he had cut him down from behind without getting a look at his face, but he had the feeling that the knight was someone called Karcan.
As Vandalieu vaguely recalled this, there was a sound like air exploding, and his right wing was torn to pieces.
He turned to see a copy of the Fifth Sword of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords, the ‘Five-headed Snake’ Ervine.
“I understand that they want to draw my attention to the copies, but if that’s the case, they should have made more copies of people like you, ones that I can’t ignore even if I want to,” Vandalieu murmured.
“Die! Serpent Fang Whip!” Ervine snarled, continuing his attacks.
The movements of the copy’s whip was close to those of the original Ervine’s. It would not have been strange for him to have gained the status of S-class if he had been an adventurer; Vandalieu could not ignore him even though he understood that he was simply there to buy time.
Ervine’s Orichalcum whip had also been accurately recreated, so it would tear Vandalieu’s soul that he had materialized with Soul Destruction Fighting Technique if it kept landing attacks.
But it was Vandalieu’s second time facing this opponent.
“Well, whether I can see your whip’s movements is still a different question altogether. Bloodlust,” Vandalieu murmured, hardening his defenses with Armor Technique and Shield Technique martial skills to withstand Ervine’s whip while casting the Bloodlust spell.
The blood that had been spilled by Ervine’s attacks turned into carnivorous microbes and attacked Ervine.
Ervine screamed, and his face twisted in pain. But even so, he showed no signs of stopping his attacks against Vandalieu.
“GAH! God-metal Whip Strike!”
The whip struck Vandalieu’s carapace directly, causing it to crack apart as if exploding.
“It seems that it will take some time to eat through the Vitality of someone who possesses strength beyond an A-class adventurer,” Vandalieu muttered.
It seemed that this was another drawback to Bloodlust in addition to Vandalieu’s inability to control it, though he was confident that it would reduce an average knight to bones within ten seconds.
“God-metal Whip Strike!” the copy of Ervine shouted again.
It seemed that the copies were a little too realistic; the extreme pain that the copy was experiencing was interfering with his attacks. He swung his whip in a broad motion, only vaguely in Vandalieu’s direction.
Vandalieu stopped the whip with his right arm and, at the same time, caught hold of it with the Demon King’s horns that were growing on it.
Ervine froze for a moment as he realized that he was unable to move.
“Death Cannon.”
Vandalieu’s spell struck him directly, turning him into dust along with his whip.
“… Your movements became sloppy. The real one would have discarded his whip immediately,” Vandalieu murmured. “Now then, it seems that all the copies have run out?”
Vandalieu had attacked the copies with the effects of Divine Enemy, God Devourer and Soul Devour, so the god who managed this Dungeon would have taken considerable damage as well.
I have to do something about this wall, or use one of the aces up my sleeve… If I choose the former, it will become a contest of strength between me and the god, and if I choose the latter, I won’t be able to maintain this form any longer, Vandalieu thought. Now then… Oh?
Just as Vandalieu turned to face the wall that divided this floor’s Dungeon in two, the wall disappeared like an illusion.
The Five-colored Blades, in an injured state, were waiting behind it.
“Vandalieu! Let’s put an end to this!” Heinz declared.
“Here we go, everyone!” said Jennifer.
Their entire bodies were emanating an extraordinary amount of spirit; it would have been correct to assume that they had already activated all of their Skills such as Heroic Spirit Descent and Transcend Limits.
“Mill… Awaken within us for this moment! Ultimate Awakening!” Diana cried, casting the most powerful enchantment that she knew.
This enchantment drew out the latent potential within her and her allies and pushed them to their limits.
And then the rest of the party activated their most powerful martial skills, what could be called their hidden abilities.
“Supreme Heavenly Radiant Slash!”
“Unlimited Sun Slashes!”
“Radiant Thundering Burst Blow!”
“Ultimate God Shield Shockwave!”
This was the same combined attack that they had used to defeat the copy of Legion. The shockwaves alone blew away every single tree on the Dungeon floor, stripping all of the green from the mountainside.
If this wasn’t a Dungeon, the mountain itself would have likely been demolished.
Of course, even Vandalieu would stand no chance if these attacks were to hit him directly. Even if he created barriers, no matter what he did, these attacks would destroy the materialized soul that had become his armor, and his body inside would be obliterated without a trace.
“Wall,” Vandalieu muttered.
He used the Labyrinth Creation Skill to recreate the wall that had disappeared in order to block the attacks.
Violent tremors and a thundering noise came from beyond the wall as it rose from the ground, but the Five-colored Blades’ greatest combined attack was blocked with ease.
… No matter how powerful they were, they could not destroy a wall that had been created by a transformation of the Dungeon itself. Vandalieu had created the wall close to them, so it was even possible that they had been wiped out by the shockwaves from their own attacks.
Now then, their plan was probably to make me think that they regrouped with the two that I sent back to the ‘town’ and came back fully recovered with the help of the god, but… where are the real ones? Vandalieu wondered to himself.
The Five-colored Blades that had just appeared before him had all been fake. Edgar in particular couldn’t possibly have made a full recovery. It was impossible for him to have returned to normal just by healing his wounds and recovering his Mana after all of the damage and devouring that Vandalieu had done to his soul.
In the next moment, the boulder behind Vandalieu… a boulder large enough for several people to fit inside if it were hollow, vanished into thin air.
“That was unexpected, but it can’t be helped… Here we go!” said Heinz’s voice.
Heinz and Delizah, as well as Riley and Martina who were supposed to be dead, emerged from the boulder. As he saw them, Vandalieu understood their plan.
They had planned to strike him from behind while he was unable to move from being forced to block the deadly attack from ahead.
Heinz, who seemed to have recovered like the failed copies, leapt forward.
“He manipulates Dungeons… I shall record this,” muttered Riley… Curatos, as he placed a hand on the ground.
Walls appeared on either side, forming a straight corridor that connected Vandalieu and Heinz.
“You refuse to give up even after your plan has failed, prevent me from escaping and have come to settle things one-on-one? … That’s convenient,” said Vandalieu, rearranging the joints in his neck and limbs to face backwards without turning around.
He reached out with his right arm, covering it with blood vessels of the Demon King that entwined around it in a helical shape.
“… Reproduce record. Ultimate Awakening, Radiant Life Blade,” Curatos muttered, reproducing the enchantments that doubled Heinz’s Attribute Values and imbued him with anti-death-attribute powers.
“Transcend Limits, Transcend Limits: Holy Sword!” Heinz shouted, emanating an incredible amount of spirit towards Vandalieu.
It was likely that he intended to unleash an attack equivalent to or even more powerful than the one his own copy had just used.
If Vandalieu tried to create a wall to block the attack like earlier, it would likely not form in time to block the attack, and Curatos was continuing his interference.
“Super Rapid Response, Surpass Limits: Fragments, Transcend Limits… All Demon King’s fragments, activate!”
Vandalieu ditched all of his cheap tricks and brought out all of the power that he could muster right now. The Demon King’s blood coursed through his entire body; the Demon King’s nerves were connected to everything and controlled by the Demon King’s sub-brains. Covered in the Demon King’s exoskeleton, carapace, horns and every other fragment, Vandalieu emanated a sinister energy that deflected Heinz’s spirit.
“Bloodlust!”
Blood sprayed from the blood vessels that had formed a lance on Vandalieu’s right arm and began moving as a red mist in a spiral pattern.
Vandalieu’s weapon, which was covered in a swirling swarm of carnivorous microbes, would gouge out Heinz’s entire body even with a grazing touch. Vandalieu raised it in front of him and charged towards Heinz.
“Evil Suppression! True Supreme Heavenly Radiant Slash!” Heinz roared, brandishing his sword that was glowing so brightly that it would sear the eyes of anyone looking at it.
“Ultimate Screw Charge!” said Vandalieu, thrusting his spear-shaped arm at Heinz.
Watching this unfold, Delizah instinctively sensed what would happen next – at this rate, Heinz would die.
Vandalieu intended to receive Heinz’s attack head-on. In exchange, he would impale Heinz with his arm and allow the microbes to devour Heinz’s body, destroying him along with his soul.
From the very beginning, Vandalieu was never going to suffer any consequences from dying. If this fake body was destroyed, he would simply be returned to his real one. Heinz and Delizah could not destroy or devour souls, so they had no way of preventing this.
“NO!” Delizah shouted.
But it was already too late. The distance between Vandalieu and Heinz was already too small.
But Curatos raised his hand, seemingly operating something. “I know,” he murmured.
The shining light radiating from Heinz crossed paths with Vandalieu’s crimson vortex, and a moment before their attacks would reach each other, a silhouette appeared between them.
It was facing Vandalieu, its back turned to Heinz.
Both of them reacted with shock.
At that moment, Vandalieu’s movements stopped, and the crimson mist turned back into ordinary blood. And then he tried to embrace the silhouette as if to protect it. But Heinz’s blade did not stop; it cut straight through both Vandalieu and the silhouette.
The shockwave tore through Vandalieu and continued traveling forward, cutting the Dungeon’s floor into pieces with a thunderous noise.
“No way… Why… Why did this…” Heinz whispered, trembling, still holding the handle of the sword that was still buried more than halfway in Vandalieu’s body.
“The truth is…” Vandalieu coughed. “… I always wondered.”
Still covered in his half-destroyed armor and clutching the silhouette in his arms, he glared at Heinz.
“If you really want to stop me, if you really want to distract me, this is what you should have done… Why didn’t you produce a copy of Mom earlier?”
The silhouette that had appeared was a copy of Darcia.
It was a fake Darcia, a copy of her from when she was still a Dark Elf, before she was burned at the stake by High Priest Gordan. This was Curatos’s trump card that he had planned to use if it became truly necessary, even if it meant being resented by Heinz afterwards.
Indeed, it had been greatly effective. Despite knowing that it was a fake, Vandalieu had instinctively stopped his movements and undone the effects of Bloodlust.
Despite Delizah staring at him in shock, Curatos felt a sense of relief now that Heinz’s victory and Vandalieu’s defeat were certain. He was a god who had originally been a familiar spirit with no personality; he had determined that it was more important to focus on dealing with Gufadgarn, who was still trying to enter the Dungeon, rather than think about the feelings of Heinz who had now once again committed the sin that he had finally forgiven himself for.
“I see. It was effective because you only used this tactic once, right at the critical moment… I see, I see. That was correct,” Vandalieu murmured as the copy of Darcia in his arms turned into dust and disappeared.
The soul armor encasing Vandalieu was disappearing as well.
The fake body that he needed to continue existing inside this Dungeon was ceasing to function.
“Wait, I… did not intend to use such a cowardly tactic!” said Heinz, trying to explain himself.
“I was right; the danger of you hurting Mom once more… became a reality,” Vandalieu whispered, grasping Heinz’s arm with his soul arm that was beginning to crumble.
The blade of the sword buried in his body dug in a little deeper.
“That is why I will destroy you here! Along with this Dungeon, that god and everything!”
In the next moment, Vandalieu’s soul armor turned into a slime-like state and coiled around Heinz as if binding to him.
“Do you intend to self-destruct?!” Delizah exclaimed, remembering the Flame Prison Death that she had been subjected to earlier.
But Curatos calmly cast several layers of protective spells on Heinz. Heinz had recovered all of his Vitality; with these protective spells, he would even be able to withstand Flame Prison Death.
But a black silhouette appeared a small distance behind Heinz, and Curatos realized that he had made a fatal mistake.
“Ah, I really want my staff. If I had it, I would have been able to control my Mana better,” muttered the second Vandalieu that had appeared, raising his palm towards Heinz and the Vandalieu that was coiled around both of them.
A terrifying amount of Mana converged on the surface of that palm.
This was the trump card that Vandalieu would play at the moment of his death.
Edgar and the rest of the Five-colored Blades had severed and cut off fragments of Vandalieu’s soul. These soul fragments had not been extinguished. Vandalieu had used the Group Control Skill surreptitiously to control the fragments and create a clone of himself without anyone noticing. The clone had produced the Demon King’s ink to camouflage itself from being seen, and cast Blind Spot to avoid being detected by the other senses.
The clone had been waiting for Heinz and Delizah to attempt to defeat the main Vandalieu and show an opening for it to destroy them with all of the Mana that Vandalieu could muster, along with the entire Dungeon.
That was why Vandalieu had fought the whole time with only his main body, not using the clone, not using Group Control to manipulate the parts of his own body that had been separated from him – in order to draw all of his enemies’ attention to himself. He had even refrained from using spells as much as possible in order to conserve Mana.
If the god hadn’t interfered and Vandalieu had been able to defeat Heinz and Delizah with just his main body, then that would have been fine as well. He would have simply needed to destroy the clone along with the Dungeon after that.
“But I never imagined that so many circumstances would favor me,” said Vandalieu.
Black Mana gathered in the clone’s palm. This was the Hollow Cannon that had once destroyed a floor of the Trial of Zakkart. However, there was several times more Mana this time.
“Ugh, this is…!” Heinz grunted as he returned to his senses and realized the situation he was in, trying to escape.
Vandalieu’s main body was completely devoted to binding Heinz in place, twisting around him and preventing him from moving.
And the walls that Curatos had created on either side were now preventing Heinz from escaping as well.
“I have done things to you and your companions that cannot be undone! But I cannot die here!” said Heinz, struggling with all his might.
His magic sword ignited with blue flames once more and burned Vandalieu’s body, but they could not cut through the Demon King’s blood and blood vessels.
“No! My protective spells are powerless before that magic!” said the copy of Martina as it hastily began to erase the walls on either side of Heinz.
“I must stop him!” said the copy of Riley, dashing towards Vandalieu’s clone.
But Vandalieu interfered with the Labyrinth Creation Skill, causing the walls to lower very slowly, and Riley’s spear could not inflict a single wound on Vandalieu’s clone.
“I don’t give a damn about your circumstances…” muttered Vandalieu’s clone, the mass of black Mana finally complete. “World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon!”
Curatos shuddered in fear as he gazed upon the strange power in the clone’s palm, resembling materialized nothingness itself.
“Fi –” Vandalieu began.
“Ultimate God Shield Shockwave!” cried Delizah, unleashing her most powerful martial skill at Vandalieu’s clone a moment before he could fire.
Vandalieu’s clone was completely occupied with controlling the Mana of the Hollow King Magic spell it was casting. Utterly defenseless, it crumbled to pieces as the shockwave released from Delizah’s Mana-imbued shield passed through it.
But the World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon had already been fired. However, its trajectory was hopelessly off the mark. At this rate, it would cause tremendous damage to the Dungeon, but both Heinz and Curatos’s main body would be spared.
An expression of relief and satisfaction appeared on Delizah’s sweat-drenched face… and stayed there as she froze in shock in the next instant.
“I apologize for my late arrival, my lord Vandalieu,” said Gufadgarn’s voice, echoing across the Dungeon floor.
A hole in space appeared in the middle of the World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon’s path, swallowing the spell whole.
At the same time, another hole in space appeared right behind Heinz.
“No!” Delizah screamed as the World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon flew out from the hole in space behind Heinz.
But before she realized it, Heinz’s spirit had been thrown outside of the walls.
“Sorry, Heinz. I’ll take your body for your own good!” shouted Joshua Arkum, the heroic spirit who had descended upon Heinz’s body.
“… All of this, for the battle to end in a draw,” sighed Vandalieu, realizing that the contents of Heinz’s body that he was holding had been replaced.
In the next moment, he was completely engulfed by the World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon.
“J-JOSHUA!” screamed Heinz as Joshua was destroyed without a sound.
But his voice was drowned out by the thunderous sound of the World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon destroying the walls and piercing through the 65th floor of the Dungeon.
“Record copy, complete. Gufadgarn managed to enter, but… temporarily shifting the spatial topology to isolate the 99th floor and beyond, successful… The destruction is limited from the 65th floor to the 98th floor… I was able to prevent him from being caught in the spell and destroyed… End in a draw? I can only think of this as a huge defeat,” Curatos murmured to himself, quietly stopping the movement of his hands as he stared at the World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon approaching him. “My lord Alda, Bellwood, I ask for rest now. Please forgive –”
And then, he was swallowed by the black torrent and destroyed.
Still mentally numb from what had just happened, Heinz and Delizah stared from the hole in the Dungeon and the place that Vandalieu had stood.
“No way… the heroic spirit… the god… were destroyed…” Heinz whispered.
His thoughts still hadn’t caught up with the situation, but he understood that Curatos had been destroyed. The copies of Riley and Martina, which Curatos had been using to act on his behalf, had silently vanished.
“This is the legendary… So, he truly is the Demon King,” said Delizah.
“So, you are in fake bodies, the heroic spirit was able to throw you out of your body by descending upon it,” said Gufadgarn’s voice.
Startled, Heinz and Delizah raised their weapons, but… they realized that Heinz was in an out-of-body state with no physical form, so he could not do anything.
“Who in the world are you?! Are you one of his allies?!” Delizah demanded.
“I am one of the servants who worship the great Vandalieu,” said Gufadgarn. “I suppose you would not understand if I were to say that it has been a while… I should not have spared you back then; I should have gathered you together and disposed of you all at once,” she continued, staring at them with an expressionless and yet hateful gaze.
These were two of the Five-colored Blades that had once challenged the Trial of Zakkart.
Heinz and Delizah flinched at the intense aura emanating from the Elf girl, but Gufadgarn silently directed her gaze behind them.
“What will you do, goddess?” she asked.
A woman appeared from a tear in space that Gufadgarn had created. She was a woman that lingered vividly in Heinz’s memories, the very woman that he had cut down along with Vandalieu just a few moments ago.
But her skin was considerably darker than he remembered… and more importantly, her presence was completely different.
“… I won’t do anything,” the woman said. “I can’t do anything to their souls, and we don’t have the time to seal them away inside something, do we, Gufadgarn-san?”
It was Darcia, carrying a metal staff and wearing strange clothes that were likely Magic Items. She was somehow dazzling, as if there should have been a halo over her head. Heinz couldn’t help but to squint and raise a hand over his eyes.
“That is correct. Alda’s subordinates will likely force their way into this place soon,” said Gufadgarn.
“Then let’s take this child home. If I had regained my original powers, I would have been able to do more,” Darcia lamented.
She was carrying black armor fragments in one arm. They were Vandalieu’s fragments.
“Is my lord safe?” Gufadgarn asked.
“He’s fine,” Darcia replied. “He just devoured himself; he’ll return to normal once he rests a little. Really, he is always so reckless!” she said as she turned to leave.
“Wait!” Heinz called out. “Why are you here… No, are you the real one?!”
Darcia exhaled a little before turning around to face him. “I have two things to say to you, ‘Blue-flamed Sword’ Heinz… I forgive you for what you did to me.”
Heinz’s face was filled with shock at these words. He understood that the Darcia before his eyes was real, that she was the Dark Elf whose death he had caused in the past.
“But ‘we’ will not forgive what you did to this child,” Darcia continued. “Heinz, Five-colored Blades, you are our enemies.”
The rejection contained in her words was so strong that Delizah took a step backwards and Heinz, who was nothing but a soul in his current form, was left shaking.
“As for the second thing… I’ll take back what I said about not doing anything. Let me take a little anger out on you, okay?” said Darcia.
She brandished her staff, and then Heinz and Delizah vanished.
“Did you kill them?” Gufadgarn asked.
“Heinz was only a soul, so I just drove him away a little strongly. I did kill the other one, though. She was very exhausted, and I caught her off-guard. In the end, it seems that they’ll just be resurrected on the floor called the ‘town,’ so it really was just taking out a little anger on them.”
Darcia, who had become Vida’s incarnation, took the fragments of Vandalieu she had gathered and returned home through the hole in space with Gufadgarn.
《Your Intelligence has increased by 5,000!》
《You have acquired the ‘Perfect Record Technique’ and ‘Surpass Limits: Soul’ Skills!》
《Materialization has awakened into Embodiment!》
《The Levels of the ‘Dark King Magic,’ ‘Chant Revocation,’ ‘Mana Enlargement,’ ‘Increased Mana Recovery Rate,’ ‘Transcend Limits,’ ‘Hollow King Magic,’ ‘Mana Control,’ ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique,’ ‘Super High-speed Thought Processing,’ ‘Throwing,’ ‘Scream,’ ‘Demon King Artillery Technique,’ ‘Armor Technique,’ ‘Shield Technique,’ ‘Surpass Limits: Fragments,’ ‘God Devourer,’ ‘Labyrinth Creation,’ ‘Soul Devour,’ Group Thought Processing,’ ‘Group Control’ and ‘Soul Form’ have increased!》
- Name: Vandalieu Zakkart
- Race: Dhampir (Mother: Goddess)
- Age: 11 years old
- Title:【Ghoul Emperor】,【Eclipse Emperor】,【Guardian of the Cultivation Villages】,【Holy Son of Vida】,【Scaled Emperor】,【Tentacle Emperor】,【Champion】,【Demon King】,【Oni Emperor】,【Trial Conqueror】,【Transgressor】,【Black Blood Emperor】(NEW!),【Elder Dragon Emperor】(NEW!)
- Job: Spirit Warrior
- Level: 100
- Job history: Death-Attribute Mage, Golem Transmuter, Undead Tamer, Soul Breaker, Venom Fist User, Insect User, Tree Caster, Demon Guider, Archenemy, Zombie Maker, Golem Creator, Corpse Demon Commander, Demon King User, Dark Guider, Labyrinth Creator, Creation Guider, Dark Healer, Disease Demon, Magic Cannoneer
- Attributes:
- Vitality: 99,221 (Increased by 2,790!)
- Mana: 4,363,438,160 (+2,618,062,896) (Increased by total of 787,395,619!)
- Strength: 13,858 (Increased by 2,883!)
- Agility: 9,649 (Increased by 1,209!)
- Stamina: 14,407 (Increased by 1,682!)
- Intelligence: 22,256 (Increased by 7,790!)
- Passive skills:
- Monstrous Strength: Level 1 (Awakened from Superhuman Strength!)
- Rapid Regeneration: Level 8
- Dark King Magic: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
- Status Effect Immunity
- Magic Resistance: Level 9
- Dark Vision
- Dark Demon Creation Path Enticement: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Chant Revocation: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Guidance: Dark Demon Creation Path: Level 7
- Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 10
- Strengthen Subordinates: Level 10
- Deadly Venom Secretion (Claws, Fangs, Tongue): Level 1 (Awakened from Venom Secretion!)
- Enhanced Agility: Level 7
- Body Expansion (Tongue): Level 8
- Strengthened Attack Power while Unarmed: Large
- Enhanced Body Part (Hair, Claws, Tongue, Fangs): Level 9
- Thread Refining: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Enlargement: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Increased Mana Recovery Rate: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Strengthened Attack Power while activating a Magic Cannon: Medium
- Active skills:
- Bloodwork: Level 5
- Transcend Limits: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Golem Creation: Level 5
- Hollow King Magic: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Mana Control: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)
- Cooking: Level 7
- Alchemy: Level 10
- Soul Destruction Fighting Technique: Level 2 (Awakened from Unarmed Fighting Technique and LEVEL UP!)
- Multi-cast: Level 10
- Surgery: Level 8
- Embodiment: Level 1 (Awakened from Materialization!)
- Coordination: Level 9
- Super High-speed Thought Processing: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Commanding: Level 9
- Thread-reeling: Level 6
- Throwing: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
- Scream: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Dead Spirit Magic: Level 8
- Demon King Artillery Technique: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Shield Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Armor Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Group Binding Technique: Level 5
- Surpass Limits: Fragments: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Unique skills:
- God Devourer: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Deformed Soul
- Mental Encroachment: Level 8
- Labyrinth Creation: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Demon King: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
- Abyss: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
- Divine Enemy
- Soul Devour: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
- Vida’s Divine Protection
- Earth’s Gods’ Divine Protection (Transformed from Earth’s Dark Gods’ Divine Protection!)
- Group Thought Processing: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Zantark’s Divine Protection
- Group Control: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
- Soul Form: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Demon King’s Demon Eyes (NEW!)
- Origin’s Gods’ Divine Protection (NEW!)
- Ricklent’s Divine Protection (NEW!)
- Zuruwarn’s Divine Protection (NEW!)
- Perfect Record Technique (NEW!)
- Surpass Limits: Soul: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Demon King fragments:
- Blood
- Horns
- Suckers
- Ink sacs
- Carapace
- Scent glands
- Luminescent organs
- Blubber
- Jaws
- Eyeballs
- Proboscis
- Fur
- Exoskeleton (Combined with fragment of the same name!)
- Jointed legs
- Antenna
- Claws
- Compound eyes
- Gills
- Auxiliary brain
- Tumors
- Blood Vessels
- Tongue
- Lungs
- Fins (NEW!)
- Venom glands (NEW!)
- Bones (NEW!)
- Skin (NEW!)
- Treasure orb (NEW!)
- Demon Eyes (NEW!)
- Nerves (NEW!)
- Stomach (NEW!)
- Membrane (NEW!)
- Wings (NEW!)
- Curses
-
- Experience gained in previous life not carried over
- Cannot learn existing jobs
- Unable to gain experience independently
- Mana decrease from Banda’s creation included in calculations
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Korath
I still dont get their reasoning. Sure, he has basically almost all the Demon King’s fragments collected and can use them without going out of control. I get this perspective. Especially with handling the undead stuff. I even wonder how I would position myself there, if it werent a novel and hes MC.
But how can they still be ok with the planned Vida race Genocide? The Alda faction plans to kill Dhampir girl Selen as well, no questions asked. Are they delusional? I really dont get it. There just is no peaceful faction. ^^
emergency3808
This was amazing. At least Curatos got destroyed permanently, I guess?
BVesperr
You realy need to rethink your lifes choices when the goddess of LIFE and LOVE curses you.
lazygeko
The most impactful part: Heinz “I didn’t mean to…” When he attacks through clone Darcia. If that was the case you wouldn’t have. After all, Van stopped his attack, but you didn’t feel it necessary…
And after this… you know the ‘gods’ on your side are sick and underhanded. And the Vida you are trying to help, is your enemy. At this point, if you really did feel regrets for you actions, you would either join Vida’s side (not that they would want you) or just stop getting involved in anything. But since all that regret and all your peaceful thoughts were actually lies all around, from here you will go on the genecidal warpath, while screaming that it is for the greater good or some crap.
Winter
I wonder how Heinz and Alda’s “peaceful” faction will deal with the fact that not only Vida’s races, but Vida’s incarnation and even Vida herself are their enemies now.
Honestly, at this point it would be completely shameless to even address themselves as an ally of Vida’s races, if even Vida herself doesn’t acknowledge them.
Incidentally, I feel like the moment Darcia said “we” it probably would’ve sounded like Darcia’s and Vida’s voices overlapping.
Akachi86
One of the best chapters, since it’s the first time Aldiot lost someone really important to him.
Lawless
Heinz changes, he went from self questioning and doubt to closed minded and self righteous. Wonder how that happened?
Edgar is trash, sewer scraping trash. He’s not closing his eyes to the contradictions of his actions and words, he just doesn’t care.
Jennifer and Diana are kind of on the fence of being decent people or not, because they can still be shaken by the truth. Just seem lost at this point
Delizah is too hard to get a read on, seems like she just protecting he friends. Never heard he deny or contradicting. Just seems loyal to Heinz and Edgar.
Van come a long way in 10 years, probably helps that he made his life long dream happen. Tried to talk it out, tried to not break Jen and Diana, and tried to wipe out what scares him. Even if he fell short on a few points he tried.
Darcia is just to kind. Hand me over To be tortured and burnt to death, I’d be a lot less civil.
Curatos been trash from his first appearance when he was trying to convince Alda to not stop killing Vidas kids. He’s got to be the character with the least growth in this entire story.
Alke
Despicable, coward, it makes me sick 🤬🤬. This god deserved to die and be devoured, I’m happy he was. The heroic spirit is dead instead of Heinz, I’m pissed off, I really I’m. I like what Darcia/Vida said : “I forgive you for what you did to me.”But ‘we’ will not forgive what you did to this child” 💔. I really regret thinking one day that Heinz didn’t deserve to have his soul broken, even knowing that it must be done because Alda would recuperate him as heroic spirit so it wasn’t possible to spare his soul. This hypocritical b*stard deserve a return to nothingness, as do all the Alda faction except those who are there just to take care of the world and are with Vida like the Pargtarta goddess (funny name 🙄). The result of this battle wasn’t good enough, but the war didn’t end, there will be other chances, successful ones I hope 😔🙏🤞🤞
Ladyhotcomb
Wow and I thought Alda’s faction couldn’t get any more despicable. I hope Van eats them all. >:(
Randy Rando
When she said “we won’t forgive you for what you did to this child” I’m pretty sure they weren’t talking about the wounds inflicted in the fight, but the permanent mental and emotional trauma from losing his mom. Vida isn’t a hypocrite. She understands that people get hurt in fights and the opponent can’t be blamed for defending themselves, unlike the God of blindness and hypocrisy over there.
Alke
Yeah! Vida is really a good goddess, a good mother actually, she loves all her children, and all her subordinates as family and never uses them as puppets or tools as does Alda. She is too forgiving, she too deserves revenge against the despicable genocidal b*stard who’s killing and torturing her children and her. The backstabber who took her powers and made her suffer for 100 000 years.
Zenden1st
not good enough i wanted the dungeon to crumble
Ereshkigal
It was a fake Darcia, a copy of her from when she was still a Dark Elf, before she was burned at the stake by High Priest Gordan. This was Curatos’s trump card that he had planned to use if it became truly necessary, even if it meant being resented by Heinz afterwards.
You MF! I wish I could tear off your fckin dck and feed it to yourself you sick fck! Curatos acts worst than the evil god themselves. You btch àss MF! Eating your soul would not be enough as a punishment you piece of sht! You call others evil yet you act like one!? You copy cat b@stard! I hope Van and the gods in Vida’s faction find a way to maintain the attributes of Lambda so that they can KlLL every single gods on Alda’s faction! Author-san really did his best on making such detestable characters, SALUTE!
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, the icing on the cake is that he’s only thinking about how he’ll inconvenience Heinz by reminding him why Van is completely justified in killing him, not thinking about how he’s completely justifying Van doing absolutely ANYTHING to destroy Alda’s entire faction.
Alke
Chiu Chun Ling : it reminded and reinforced the deep conviction in everyone’s mind that the Alda’s faction must be wiped out! I just hope that enough gods will recover, or join or be even created if it’s mandatory, to manage the world afterwards. It’s funny that this world who was once almost destroyed by a demon king, needed a new demon king to be saved from its past misery and tyranny 🙄
Vitor
Congratulations Curatos, you somewhat managed to enrage even more a being that was already considering murdering you all, sad that you won’t be here to see the fall of Alda and his goons
Alke
Ereshkigal : thanks for the round of curses, I really needed it! 🙏💯💯💯💯❤️❤️. I feel much better thx to you!
Bob, Son of Bob
Rereading the series and I just realized something: Heinz is Motoyasu from Shield hero. They have the exact same hypocritical self-righteousness, the same inability to accept responsibility, the same ability to deny reality even as it smacks them in the face and the same willingness to tie themselves into knots to absolve themselves of their own actions. They even both have a toxic party member who prevents them from bettering themselves by telling them what they want to hear (Edgar/Malty).
I just hope Heinz gets what he deserves.
Vitor
True… I guess he is also a pedo as well… someone should rescue Selen…
JKingSniper
Hope to see Heinz fall in despair and finally end his pathetic hypocritical life
Kuroky
“I have done things to you and your companions that cannot be undone! But I cannot die here!” said Heinz, struggling with all his might.
This mofo lmao.” I can take what’s yours but you can’t take what’s mine! ”
I am always disgusted to see this double standard kind of character
Chiu ChunLing
This is the kind of comment that makes me wish we could still do upvotes.
Van generally treats other people the way they treat him, with the proviso that this extends to how they treat others who have treated him well.
He’s just treating Heinz the way they’ve treated him and everyone he cares about.
That’s ALL he’s doing, he’s not making some kind of big moral stance out of it…because that’s just not necessary. Whether what he’s doing to Heinz is “right” or “wrong” or “good” or “evil”…it’s exactly what Heinz deserves in exchange for his own actions, nothing more or less.
ObserverBias
Ehhh… if it were properly “eye for an eye,” Van would put out a ‘request’ at Talosheim’s Explorer’s Guild (or perhaps Vida’s resting grounds?) for the capture/defeat of the Five-Colored Blades, and their delivery to himself (since that’s the ultimate limit of their direct involvement with Darcia, and the major beef he has with them).
.
Factoring /out/ how they have attacked settlements of Vida’s races (as he himself considers that those settlements were conceivably not completely “innocent” of claimed crimes), that would be the equivalent treatment.
.
However, he would never be able to forgive himself for being so careless/selfish, if subjects of his got themselves hurt/killed carrying out his revenge. Twisted the point to near breaking, he doesn’t trust the skill of his subjects /that/ much, disregarding that it would be their responsibility/hot-bloodedness in taking that request or making the attempt despite the potential strength gap.
.
Twisting it /back/, he doesn’t intend to put Selene (or any ancillary person tied to the Blades) through the same thing he went through, short of doing so “properly” himself.
Chiu ChunLing
To be properly ‘eye for eye’, Van would accept a request from the clergy serving Vida to destroy Heinz and his party, then ensure they were all gruesomely tortured to death as a preparation for exterminating all the non-Vida races. Van would then posture that he was actually trying to save the non-Vida races and Heinz was the only reason they had to be destroyed.
Sadly, Vida isn’t Alda, so she’s not going to do that, and Van isn’t Heinz, so he’s not going to even pretend like it’s Heinz’s fault even if Vida did want to destroy all non-Vida races.
Because at the end of the day Heinz isn’t worth it. He doesn’t deserve to be treated like his crime is anything more or less than his own crime.
Vitor
well, Van’s response is in the lines of “I don’t care, die”, time to time… his end will come… -.-
Igotdie24
I feel like his magic cannon skill should’ve leveled up lol. Didnt he just kill a God and a heroic spirit with it?
ObserverBias
Except that he used Hollow King magic for that spell. He got the ‘magic cannoneer’ job and has an enhancement for skills that use magic cannon, but no actual magic cannon active skill.
Adddmeeee
What a waste, he could’ve instantly maxed out another job if he changed it beforehand
Dr. Steel
I can’t wait for all his skills to start evolving. Demon King Armor/Shield Technique, maybe Magic Immunity, some Demon King version of Throwing, and all his stat and teammate boosting skills
Baldingere
I don’t know if this counts as a spoiler? Later on, we learn that Alda’s faction knows that sometimes their believers have to compromise and can’t follow their doctrine at all times. But the gods themselves should always, at allllllll times and places, follow these rules to be an example and fulfil their roles as righteous gods.
Yet here, in front of Heinley and Delizah, Curatos used Darcia as a schield. What. The. Hell.
Aaah, these gods of law have such fluid morals! They only keep them when it’s convenient.
Dera
I think many readers here dont quite understand. Van already knows that heinz and his companion are not evil nor bad persons. He just wants to kill them for safety reason and his own satisfaction. What has been done is already done, if Van wants to pay them back, he has the right to do so. It doesnt matter if its wrong or right, since he decides himself what is wrong and what is right.
Gohanangered
Nah he’s evil. Even when realizing he was killing Vida races all along. He still didn’t take responsibility for it. Not even looking into, if some of them were innocent or not. He was committing genocide on races. Just because they weren’t apart of Alda’s plan. Heinz name is very fitting for him, lets just say that. lol
Zauberbiest
i been binge reading this for awhile now to focused to have even created a account to comment with, when i always leave a comment.,it was quite unlike me. i felt like i was one with everyone’s comments in spirit form without actually having interacted with anyone lmao
its quite sad tbh i don’t think heinz is evil he is quite the misled manipulated hypocrite,
fitting to be chosen as a 2nd bellwood… and in all honestly behind all the bad choices heinz have made.. in the end his goal was to make peace with vida’s races no matter in what twisted fashion that goal came about
in the end he is Human. he kept saying how he wanted to meet the gods *alda* to question and answer, his idea of peace…. u know if only van could get past his hate, he could turn heinz over to his side,, the surprise on their face hearing van having met with 2 gods zantak and farman gold, shows how ignorant they r..
since he respects the gods so much. maybe just maybe if he met vida and a few of the other gods in person he could be converted fully to vans side. but things haven’t gone so smoothly, it would be the easy way out.. i thought for sure or hoped some of their misconceptions would be cleared after this encounter,but after things having come this far. i guess though that was not what the author’s intended path for heinz is. though i hope he gets the chance to meet vida and hear her side of this halfsided lore of the world,,, he is much like Farmaun Gold, ..
i still hate him though… cuz if that’s how far things would need to betaken for him to realize his blunder. that just gos to show just HOW much he is like bellwood naive and dense as well
hes not some 17year old emo protagonist after all minus the emo part maybe? lmao
so after he does Learn the whole truth and he still decides to stand on alda’s side.. then i can truly start to hate him cuz that will reveal his true colors if he can’t come to a hold point between the two sides if he wants to keep chasing his naive justice idea
though i want edgar to die seriously fuck that dude
and i want his companions to get slapped in the face atleast. they r basically pushing heinz more and more into that bad path by trying to justify their actions in a poor attempt to console heinz. he is so easily manipulated its hilarious, cant he think for himself and ask his party to shut up for once? wtf dude
so differently onesided from the usual heroes we read about where they try so desperately to gain the trust of the opposing faction by even allowing themselves to get hurt and then doing some hugging scene thing and saying its ok blablabla
apparently like van mentioned, it seems not even once has he tried to communicate with the ghouls or majin etc, other races or made much progress in this ”peaceful” faction other than carrying around a dampier , justice faction my ass.. he has just been going around gaining fame while carrying out guild requests to hunt down the very race he wants to make peace with not thinking of their side but just the humans he can see and touch
and then we have thunderclap chan.. man now he is the mvp even has the seed carrier title lmao
[quote tejing]
[Also, that mom-shield thing is super evil, and really says a lot about Alda’s side if you think about it. The fact that Curatos believed that would work means he fully understands that Van is NOT some pure incarnation of evil like they make him out to be, but understanding that doesn’t make him question the policy of total annihilation at all costs… at all. There’s no real way to argue that Alda’s side is just mistaken about him.]
KingJake122
no offence bro but i had to stop reading when i realized how long this comment was. but i read when up until you said heinz was a brainwashed hypocrite which is the very definition of every1 in his faction. i completely agree
WholesomeAF
I know a lot of people here might disagree, but heinz and his company aren’t bad people really. They save people and fight for what is right and do their best to change society and gaining the power to do so considering that they’re not bad they are just naive…. Very very very naive kids…..
Giorgos Giorgos
They’re not just naive, they’re also hypocrites (maybe not all of them, but Heinz, their leader, truly is). An extremely simple example of that is Heinz believing that what he did to Darcia wasn’t wrong. In the context of the law and whatnot, that’s true. Then he goes around telling people that after he watched a Dark Elf mother being burned just because she gave birth to a Damphir, and that caused him a change of heart. Therefore, his contradicting himself. He says that what he did wasn’t wrong, but he also says that that the very same thing was wrong and changed him. Also, he’s supposed to be preaching for Vida’s races to be intergrated equally into society, but when he hears from Van that Scyllas and Titans were being oppressed and enslaved, he said but what about the problems humans face because you SAVED them. The problem is, he doesn’t realize it himself, no, he doesn’t want to admit his faults. That’s what makes him a hypocrite.
mickeyduck
i don’t necessarily think that they’re evil. i hate them mosly because they are severely ignorant, naive, gullible e.t.c. van explained his reasons for why he did what he did (which were reasonable) and he explained that them how they were also in the wrong then curatos is like “nah fam he’s the demon king” and ketchup is like “of course you’re completely right because you support alda and alda is always right so i will never ever question his insane ideals because i love to kiss ass” POINT BEING, they’re not evil, but it’s still very easy to hate the blades
Vitor
He has just thrown a tantrum because he didn’t like hearing the fact that he killed Ghouls, Kijin and Majin without making sure they were at fault thought, what part of that isn’t evil?
Alke
Vitor: you’re absolutely right! It’s the most wicked part of the story :pple who think they are always right and who throw a tantrum and accuse others when they are proved wrong, like when he said that Vandalieu saving all these people put the “humans” in a dire situation to camouflage his own wrongdoings and change conversation! The worst of it is that he is confirming that anyway he thinks that there is lives that are much more important than others, he’s confirming that he is a hypocrite
DarkCarnage
i am curious what on the 99th flood the god wanted to protect, his copy of Bellwood or demon king? he gave his life to do it after all.
vamptacus
that would be bellwood, they already mentioned it several times that heinz was somehow going to resurrect bellwood by challenging the dungeon … that’s my thoughts at least.
Negakz
It is so satisfying that Darcia landed the final blow on them
polynesianvibez
even better than killing heinz. killing a god and a heroic spirit, i’ll take that trade. well done van
thanks for the chapter
Alke
It’s not better at all you know! After all, Vandalieu can be considered as the ultimate weapon to kill and devour gods, for me it’s kind of his ultimate mission for the development and happiness of his pple and the world in itself. It’s just sad that he couldn’t do something for himself, get rid of the ones that traumatized him till he got a deformed soul! I saw my own mother burning in front of me, it was an accident, but if it wasn’t, do you really think I would have prefered to see her murderer go to hell or something like his lawyer or bodyguard ?!
TruePath111
MC really went through extreme lengths unnecessary..
Kionzel
They created a copy of his mom to distract him for a final blow you Ignorant piece of shit.
“I did things to you that cannot be undone but I cannot die here!”- says Heinz
Fuck off.
polynesianvibez
he killed a god and a heroic spirit, that’s a w.
WholesomeAF
I hope your mom won’t die in your arms while those that did it plead that it was an accident so you won’t feel the same way MC did in this novel….
Aathma
Why do you even reading this novel you Truepath111 son of a prick?. What is wrong with you, you virgin obsessed fuc*er.
It seems you don’t even have a basic understanding of the language called English.
I SAID FU*K OFF.
Vitor
What part of exterminating a god of a faction that teaches that your and your friends existances are evil and you should be hunted to extinction is unnecessary?
Alke
Vitor: I have learned something all along the way while reading this book :NEVER reply or mind truepath111 😑😑😑I don’t know why he’s reading this, nor do I know if he is being serious or he’s just here to be a joy killer, maybe he can’t feel empathy or understand human emotions, either ways, just ignore him.
Yoki
Missed chance for another Unique Skill called Ouroboros, because Van-sama ate his own soul right?
SuicidalSkeletin
Haha I was thinking the same. Although ouroboros is essentially an endless cycle, so he wouldn’t gain something like that by simply devouring himself
Leonidas79
Maybe in the near future…
browngravy
Two things here:
1: I would count this as a victory for Van because not only did he kill a heroic spirit but he devoured Curatos as well. Even though he wasn’t a powerful god, I could see his abilities becoming really annoying later on. The only downside is this event will probably be what officially starts the second war between Vida and Alda. This was going to happen eventually so it was just a matter of when.
2: Okay, I know we all hate Heinz but can someone please kill Edgar! Heinz at least has a little bit of regret about his actions but Edgar has no remorse whatsoever! He seriously believes that every single one of his actions are justifiable and right. I honestly hate him wat more than Heinz!
FSGInsainity
Honestly though, Edgar is sticking to what he says. He may be a jackass, but he isn’t pretending to not be one. Heinz is saying he regrets it but is still following what Alda says, despite deciding that he disagrees with His degree calling himself the peaceful faction.
LordKira
I agree with you I hope the first one to have his soul devoured it’s Edgar
EdgeGod
I don’t know why I got Thanos vibes when Heinz killed Darcia again while in Vandalieu arm’s. Something like inescapable destiny with Heinz. Wish Heinz would just die already for all his sins against our great Vandalieu-sama
WolfLord_Jordon
Draw from vans perspective the feet from the Gods of order perspective.Thanks for the chapter on a good story
Blackpercher
this pain of catching up…
no1
Been a little over 2 weeks since this chapter was released, can’t wait for the next chapter.
Supreme king
Well we’re in October now didn’t seem as long as I thought it would
MeiOuSei
ALL PRAISE VANDALIEU-SAMA, ALL MIGHTY GOD OF ANTI-MATTER
Triduo
No. Not of ‘Anti-matter’.
Van is the God of Death and Retribution.
At least that’s how I see him ! ^^
Rexsaur
I feel like it should be good of death, undeath, resurrection, and retribution
Akuma the holy
All hail Yoshi master of our favorite novel
readerX
“But ‘we’ will not forgive what you did to this child,”
Who’s the one talking? Is it his mother or Vida? Or they share the mind and body to the degree they refer to themselves as we.
lazygeko
I cannot confirm, since it isn’t said explicitly in the chapter, but it is Darcia using Goddess decent. So it is both of them here, both Vida and Darcia.
Haraken
It is probable that it is both Darcia and Vida speaking in that moment.
Or Darcia being an incarnation of Vida has a certain connection with her that let Darcia feel some emotion and intention of Vida and therefore spoke on both their behalf.
Small difference, which for many people there isn’t a difference worth noting, but in one case that means that Darcia and Vida are sort of synched up as the same person (probably using Goddess Descent or something like lazygeko mentionned) and both are speaking, in the other is that they share stuff through their link and Darcia is relaying Vida’s and her own intentions.
PS: I would very much rather the 1st option as it would make the sentence that much more cutting to have Vida and Darcia say it both directly (with more possibility of a new title that may dismay Heinz (【Enemy of Vida】 perhaps)).
WholesomeAF
Yeah probably used goddess descent.
Vitor
both, that’s why they are talking in plural
F234K
So Heinz dont get any damaged? he’s fine all the way? because the one that get destroyed is record body created by Curatos?
Supreme king
He won’t take damage cuz Joshua the familiar spirit pushed Heinz’s soul out of the fake body And took himself place Heinz bodyless soul will return to his real Body but the familiar spite soul wasn’t destroyed Heinz soul would’ve been destroyed if it weren’t for that meddling spirit
SpudCaleb
The damage Heniz took is very little, but he did take a little(‘ish) damage from the ‘Bloodlust spell, so his attribute Values lowered just a little bit and a hundred or so mana was probably devoured.
I don’t think the damage caused to anything but mana would have any notable effects, as he probably leveled them up a bit during the fight on that floor against the copies and when fighting Van
Supreme king
Anyone knows how many more days till the next chapter?sigh~
Sebas Tian
Yoshi is still busy dealing with the Rugby World Cup event dealings and won’t be able to work on the chapter till October.
Supreme king
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Oldman Locke
Now is the time for Heinz to really wonder if Alda is really the right side. This last maneuver that proved Alda is his gods are willing to do anything to assert his own justice, while the “Demon King” is willing to ignore and don’t hurt certain people who didn’t hurt his beloved ones.
if he really thought a little he would realize that Alda’s teachings preach genocide and ignorance.
Rollrock
The self righteous always will find a way to rationalize their positions. Even if Van gave Heinz and his group an excursion to Talosheim and showed them the order, civilization and incredibly high, comparatively speaking of course, standard of life its citizens enjoy, he would still find a way to besmirch his accomplishments and twist the events that transpired in a way that would paint him as the villain. People living in harmony together with sentient undead? They obviously must be brainwashed. Sentient undead? That is just nonsense, it’s obviously just Van playing house with dead bodies and ghosts. People using dungeons to endlessly harvest food and materials effectively eliminating scarcity? Bad thing, dungeons create devil nests, devil nests = necessity for military intervention and culling of monster populations, no matter that this means that no one ever has to starve.
Vitor
that time has long passed, there is nothing for him to do now
fexaad029
Van just one punch a dungeon, spirit and god.
and of course Heinz survive… why? so he could play power rangers again!! hooray power ranger blue!! and no one fucking love you!!
it’s kinda weird, Van that could destroy gods like no one’s business having a tough fight with a group of adventurers even with an inferior copy of himself. For possible future reference how the hell is he going to win against amamiya that comes with built-in cheats and champion compatible like him, well let’s leave it to the author.
Sebas Tian
S class is when you reach god level in strength, so Heinz and co as a team can compete with weak gods like Fidirg was when he met Van.
Pwnzer
Curatos is the god of records so he isn’t good at combat and he doesn’t make dungeons either. He was simply weak for a god.
InfernoHomura
its disgusting that they used Darcia in the battle, although I understand that its strategy but come on man! Thats just messed up
Hobbes
The biggest issue is that they don’t see it as twisted. Alda and Co see it as ‘justice’ or ‘a necessary sacrifice for the greater good’… they have no brains and perhaps more importantly no hearts.
But Heinz’s words at the end of repulsion towards the cowardice that Curatos showed surprised me. That’s why I have a sliver of hope that Heinz will offer his head to Van eventually like Marshukzal in order to attempt to protect something greater than themselves and atone for their sins… bowing at the altar of the great god Van-sama lol
Just another account
I hope that when they get back, Darcia is going to tell everyone about what happened and then Heinz would get new titles like “ Enemy of Vida” or “ Alda’s puppet”
Tejing
That (‘enemy of vida’ at least) might happen just from vida’s declaration alone, even if they don’t tell anyone about it. She is a great god after all.
Ozarazil
Is Vandal so broken in the Light Novel? Jesus
Devimon
Yes! You should know about how his soul is.
Necessarious
His soul is terrifying even to the gods
cyberalejo17
Thank you very much for the chapter!
Let us all remember that the god of reincarnation has two orbs of the ancient demon god. I think I remember their memories and the other their power. I’m afraid they can use this last orb against Van.
Dtar316
i’m starting to think that alda and rodcorte might honestly release the demon king against van since it will be their very last option bc with how strong van is getting he’ll become strong enough to the point gudaranis will be the final boss of the game where van is the hidden final boss
Jonathan Hurd
My guess for a final boss is some kind of combo between the Avalon Hijiri and the Demon King Guduranis. I think Rodcortes going to get so desperate he just gives Hijiri all of the DKs soul hoping he’ll kill Van and not Rodidiot himself. I feel like the other Amameiya, Heinz, and Murakami have to fail first though before he gets desperate enough.
Darkhelios
Hmmm… I don’t think Alda will approve this kind of plan. He was already against Zakkart’s idea of asking Evil Gods to join them&fight against Gudaranis. And here, we’re talking about using the previous Demon King.
However Rodcorte won’t probably care about it. If he can destroy Vida’s races, he will be able to escape this world. So even if the previous Demon King returns, it won’t matter to him. Alda’s authority can now “punish him” so I guess he will probably do it once Alda’s forces are defeated.
Considering that Alda’s fighting to protect RodIdiot’s system, this betrayal will make all Alda’s efforts+fights+sacrifices go to waste.
Jonathan Hurd
Rocketed has five parts of the Demon Kings soul. He doesn’t want to give out the instincts or reasoning because those could lead to Guduranis return. That does leave him with three other parts of the DK to give.
From what I understand I think the two orbs are a separate thing from the DKs soul. My theory is they are powers from the four creation hero’s that Rodidiot put to the side after putting together the rest of the creation hero’s souls to make Vans soul.
Another theory I’ve seen written is that the orbs are Gungnir and Death Scythes abilities.
They could honestly be something completely different from either of those too. We’ll probably get to see after a while. I think after this whole fight cools off the next big event might be the battle against Murakami.
Sebas Tian
There are only five fragments of Gudu’s soul and Roddy has two of them, Memory and Power. Alda has one of the three remaining and the other two are with Alda faction gods that are considered elite forces. Alda is the one that decided not to give Roddy the more dangerous fragments. I told you before that there are no creation champion bits left over, he used literally everything remaining and mashed it together. Literally nothing remains of the creation champions’ souls.
Jonathan Hurd
Where did you read Rodcorte only has 2 out of five fragments of the DK soul? From chapter 194 it sounds like Rodcorte had all of them and refuses to hand out the three dangerous ones to Murakami or others.
Honestly why would Alda keep the most dangerous parts of Guduranis soul on Lambda. It was his biggest fear before Van showed up that Guduranis would revive. Why in the world would he keep the key pieces for that near the other parts. He doesn’t trust or like Rodcorte but Rodcorte is an expert on souls and separate from the world.
Also, yes, I have heard your opinion on there being nothing left of the champions souls. I don’t agree. I’m just giving a guess to what those two orbs could be since they are separate from the DKs soul but still stored in such a high security place. I accept I could be wrong. When we find out what the orbs are I will accept what they end up being.
Randomreader
My theory is that they are the souls of gods and he really shouldn’t have those
Morswin
Quoting from side chapter 12:
““That’s impossible; the Demon King’s soul was divided and its pieces were sealed by powerful gods! My lord, some of them should be with you!” shouted a heroic spirit whose name had echoed through the lands when he was still alive.
[…]
“Precisely. Even now, some of the Demon King Guduranis’s soul fragments are in my possession,” Alda replied reassuringly.”
Quoting from chapter 194:
“The Demon King Guduranis’s soul, which had been torn into five pieces – his reason, emotion, instinct, memory and power.”
Although I don’t remember in which chapter, but I believe that it was said by Alda that he has three pieces and that he gave two to Rodcorte.
The reason Alda gave Rodcorte only two (less important ones) was because he doesn’t trust him (and even if he had trusted Rodcorte to that extent, it is almost certain that he would have kept at least one fragment of DK’s soul with himself, after all no one can do something for you better than you yourself).
Jonathan Hurd
That makes some sense. It also makes sense that Alda wouldn’t want to store the whole soul in one place. Thank you for the quotes it stinks trying to look then up myself when I’m not sure where to start looking.
I think when Alda calls the memory and power unimportant I think he means that because they don’t contain the Demon Lords own Will. So even if they get free the person who gets it has the least chance of turning to Guduranis and wreaking Havoc in Rodcorts place.
It also means even if the DK fragments all got loose and rejoined they would be missing two essential parts that made Guduranis scary. That would give everyone in Llambda a fighting chance at resealing him before he figures out a way to Rodidiot and gets full power.
SuprGofi
…
Megamink24
How are the Demon Kings memories and powers not dangerous fragments? Those seem like ones I would never leave in the hands of an incompetent person like Rodcorte.
Tejing
You know, the more I think about it, the more I think the information Alda’s side got on Van from this encounter won’t help them at all, and it might even hurt. Although they learned about a bunch of abilities he has, the overall fighting style he was using here was primarily dictated by his unusual limitations due to the situation (like having no allies with him… which NEVER happens when he’s in his real body) and his secret plans; that is to say, it isn’t representative of his real strengths and weaknesses. Despite that, I think they’ll probably tune their powers and strategies based on the assumption that it is, and it will only make them get stomped harder next time.
Also, that mom-shield thing is super evil, and really says a lot about Alda’s side if you think about it. The fact that Curatos believed that would work means he fully understands that Van is NOT some pure incarnation of evil like they make him out to be, but understanding that doesn’t make him question the policy of total annihilation at all costs… at all. There’s no real way to argue that Alda’s side is just mistaken about him.
UnveilingSage
I always like playing the Devil’s Advocate. The use of Darcia is understandable for me. To them Van-sama deeply resembles their greatest enemy in the last War. So they are likely still in the “Greatest enemy” mindset where you must do anything to win. But other than that to them Darcia, a dark elf, is not a “person” So they can do that with no qualms not to mention they think of Van-sama as someone like…Hitler? Let’s go with that. They view him as if he is someone who looks exactly like Hitler and he even goes around to found a party named the Nazis. Alda’s Faction, being the WW2 Veterans in this analogy, veiw him and everything to do with him as evil. Even if it may not necessarily be so. For example, what would you think of Van-sama in this analogy? I would think, “What HITLER!?!? We must stop him at all costs!!!” Even if he isnt doing anything particularly evil. This statement is especially true for Alda’s Faction, given that they are veterans of that war.
I will say that this most certainly does not mean I’m on their side, but it’s always important to know why the other side thinks what they do.
fr13ndzlol
Fair point. But I believe what tejing meant was that Curatos very well expected Vandalieu to hesitate, which has nothing to do with justifying any action Curatos took. The point tejing tried to make was, to keep your analogy, that he counted on Hitler hesitating when confronted by his mother. He was counting on Hitler revealing a weak, human side to himself and make himself vulnerable, because he is NOT the evil guy everybody is trying to make him out to be. Which we know is true for Van, but bringing Hitler into this…better be careful with these analogys. Cheers
Jonathan Hurd
I get where you’re coming from that Alda and crew view Van as ultimate evil that has to be stopped at all cost. What I find funny about that mindset is the things it pushes Alda and his group to do. They round up and try to genocide entire races. They exploit and enslave people. They’re even willing to use a child’s mother as a shield to kill him.
Compare this to Van who has set some pretty severe restrictions for himself. He doesn’t indiscriminately attack. He refuses to attack those unrelated. Van wasn’t willing to kill Marshal Palpatacs servants and guards much less his family.
We can even compare Heinz and Vans fighting strat during this fight. Van could of just led with bloodlust spell. Kill Jennifer and Diana because Heinz and the rest are his enemies. He didn’t take the easy route instead fighting with a handicap. What about Heinz? He saw Darcia and yet still cut through her to get to Van.
If you ask me personally the one who resembles Hitler is way more Alda’s side. They even basically use Hitler’s rationale of the Ends justify the means. Alda and crew hurt anyone and everyone while calling it justice as long as it protects themselves.
Chiu ChunLing
If you’re going to go that far, then what’s the justification for saying that Guduranis doesn’t have an equally valid view of everyone else as “literally Hitler”?
Guduranis also didn’t think of the various ‘weaklings’ he destroyed as “people”. So that means everything he did was completely justified and nobody can complain, right?
Van, on the other hand, actually does acknowledge that his enemies are people with their own circumstances, so by your logic that means he’s wrong and everyone else, especially Guduranis who never thought of anyone but himself as a “person”, is right.
Mechamorph
I have to agree that using Darcia was a low blow. Not necessarily illegal or evil but definitely “not cricket” as it were. I would not put it past even Alda disapproving of such actions. He might understand why Curatos did it but using someone’s mother against them (whether they are people or not) is not the kind of thing I would imagine Alda wanting to get involved in. The thing about Death Mage is that no one is evil per say except maybe the previous Demon King. Alda is ultimately self-righteous to an almost tautological degree. He is a good god so what he does is both good and holy. Anything contrary to his views is, by definition, evil.
If you really think about it, trying to depict the Goddess of Love and Life as the Big Bad Evil One is really insane. Especially since Vida comes across as the Goddess of Moms. I think it is most telling that Alda’s nations are often corrupt authoritarian states and Darcia’s tend to be loosely knit egalitarian confederations.
Personally I believe that if Van ever replicates Curatos’ technique of materializing memories in a dungeon (not too far fetched with the Labyrinth Creation skill), he would use it in a radically different manner than Curatos did. I would put my money on Van someday recreating Zakkart from Vida’s memories not as additional fighting power but to give the goddess a chance to say goodbye to her Champion, to give her closure since he died suddenly during the war.
Draggador
Superb chapter. Can’t wait to see what happens next. Van was amazing as always!
Wyverius
Man, i misread superb as subpar and I was about to go off. XD
Devimon
Anyone know where i can download a compiled of chapters up to this point?
Mechamorph
Unbeknownst to Van, he might have taken a tactical defeat but scored a massive strategic victory.
He failed to achieve any of his stated objectives and gave the Five Coloured Blades more insight into his thought processes and fighting style. Overall in that case he lost more than he gained.
Killing Curatos and disrupting the maturation of Heinz the Ketchup Man however is a resounding win. The latter because Alda would have to invest even more of his scarce and diminishing power supply into strengthening Heinz if he ever wants him to match Bellwood. The former on the other hand…. Van is likely unaware that Curatos is effectively Alda’s Number Two and Chief Intelligence Officer rolled into one. Sure other gods might be more powerful but Curatos is the one Alda trusts most. Curatos is also the one who thinks up things on screen. It seems like much of Alda’s personal retinue are warrior gods but few of them are strategists. Basically a party of nothing but Paladins. If you’ve played D&D you probably know just how terrible such a situation can become.
More pertinently, this is the first casualty of a full on god in Alda’s faction. Some have been wounded yes, Alda himself has bled but nobody has actually *died*. Morale such as it is might take a blow but this more likely shakes the confidence of the Alda Faction. The first time around there were more of them and they barely defeated the Demon King. Now? The Demon King is not so much as in Vida’s faction as he calls her incarnation “Mommy”. Both sides are lessened but only Vida’s side can permanently end a god. Even multiple Evil Gods, including one of the few who is more powerful than during the Demon King’s reign, have joined their side.
Yeah, this might be a good time for Alda’s faction to really think if it is a good idea to go to war with Vida. Alda being Alda, he will likely escalate rather than talk terms. I think this will be some serious deja vu for the Bravers. First their sense of immortality is challenged and then the enemy suddenly gets reinforcements while your own side keeps diminishing in number.
As for Heinz Ketchup, I think he does try to be a good man. It is just that he is way too self-aggrandizing to actually attain virtue. If he was a real Hero rather than a pretend one, once he realized how powerful Van really is, he would have just bowed his head. A sincere apology and then an offer of his own life as restitution. Perhaps he could swing asking for the lives of his other party members to be spared; he was the party leader and he takes responsibility for what they had done. Van might, just might bite, end Heinz Ketchup and leave it at that. Worst case scenario, all three die but with significantly less collateral damage than would have otherwise occurred. Best case scenario, only Heinz dies and Van might even learn a little respect for the man. Heinz might be dead but he went out like a real Champion would have.
Of course this is not happening, never happening and I suspect that somebody by the name of Selene just might become collateral damage in the inevitable showdown.
UnveilingSage
You are most certainly right. However, Curatos’ death might actually scare Alda’s faction enough to make them personally descend. Remember Fitun’s belief, that what should happen is that as soon as you found someone who has the power to break souls he would immediately descend to kill that person. The entire faction might descend and charge right then, now that a sense of danger has finally been placed upon them.
Or, they retreat deeper into their turtle shells in fear as Alda tries to drag them down to descend, yet fails. Either way this is sure to cause great changes in Alda’s Faction
Mechamorph
If I believed that Alda’s faction was full of valiant warriors, I would agree with you. An existential threat like Van can be dealt with through throwing so many bodies at him that he gets overwhelmed through sheer numbers. The losses they would take would be horrendous but they would win. However I also agree with you analysis that this is relatively unlikely; such a tactic requires a committed fighting force willing to risk final death for the greater good. Alda’s faction does not strike me as possessing such ferocity. They seem to be more of the “knight in shining armour” types who tend to expect success in battle due to their own moral virtue as opposed to sacrificing themselves. Given that Bellwood and Heinz both fall into that mould, I don’t have a lot of faith in Alda’s subordinate gods, many of whom were likely once human, to do the “damn the cannons, charge” tactic.
Fitun and the God of Soldiers seem to be exceptions. Fitun enjoys worthy combat more than is healthy and I think it speaks well of the latter god that he chose his champion through character rather than combat ability. It is almost an unintended backhanded compliment when Curatos noted that the regular old soldier who became a Hero was lagging behind everyone else. He was chosen because he was willing to stand his ground and take a last stand to save an innocent. A model soldier rather than a powerful hero.
Jonathan Hurd
Knowing Alda I think the day they all descend is still a ways off. It would work for the short term goal of stopping Van but the end result would probably doom the world. If Alda were to lose everyone helping to maintain the world it won’t matter much if he does win the world still ends.
Add in that other than just fighting Vida’s side there is a second enemy force in the remaining old DKs army. So even if Alda wins through sheer sacrifice against Vida they could then swoop in and wipe everyone out.
Fitun’s suggestion made a lot of sense but only if done while Van was weaker. Pull the roots out before they could grow. Doing the strat now would lose to much. Van has to many forces and connections now they need to prepare for a full out war instead of trying to do a suicide charge.
I mainly see Alda going the turtle route because he’s not completely cornered yet. Losing Curatos does hurt greatly but the was never a part of the main fighting force. Heinz the main weapon is still alive and has proven he needs much more growth to fight Van. The other farm raised hero’s also need to get stronger to be useful. All in all I think what will happen is Alda will just go more extreme setting up defenses and try to ramp up the training programs.
Triopsate
I mean I highly doubt Alda’s side has a chance at winning a fight even if curatos didn’t die. I mean remember what it took for them to defeat the demon king in the first fight: ALL the gods, the entire population, all the heroes, and then they needed the defectors gods from the demon king side just to barely win.
Sure, we might not know how strong Van might be compared to the demon king currently but we know that van can grow infinitely so reaching the demon king’s power is only a matter of time. Not to mention there’s no way every God will fight against Van considering a good number of them are on his side plus the sleeping gods like the God of water might not choose to side with Alda after all he did to Vida. Plus Van’s not fighting the entire population either since he has his own country and there’s not particularly likely to be defectors given his guidance skills.
Alda’s side is fighting someone who’s probably going to be as strong as the demon king very quickly with half the forces they had when fighting against the original demon king at best
Mechamorph
I believe that your assessment is completely correct. At this point it is less that Alda is fighting the Demon King Faction all over again as it is he is fighting both Vida’s and the Demon King’s Factions at the same time.
On Vida’s side are four of the Eleven Great Gods and only two others are still slumbering so Alda cannot make up the numbers in any case. Considering that Tristan is on Vida’s side, it is likely that Perlia would side with Vida too. Botin is close to Zantark so she might join Vida as well. Both of them had Creation based Champions who were abandoned to their deaths during the war which I cannot imagine goes down well with them. Notwithstanding that a good half a dozen Evil Gods (and Luvesfol) have joined Vida’s faction one way or another.
Speaking of which, with Bellwood sleeping off getting his clock cleaned by an Evil God, only Nineroad is available to Alda; Farmaun is back under Zantark.Even if Van is not as powerful as the Demon King, I think at this point he is at bare minimum equivalent to one of the Champions. He even has the Job unlocked so he is something like a Champion that can use Demon King powers, something I am sure that gives Alda’s subordinates heartburn.
Strategically Alda has to devote much of his power, and that of his subordinates, to maintaining the world so there is a certain degree of his forces that cannot be deployed in any case short of risking an apocalypse. Vida’s subordinates on the other hand are devoting their powers to maintaining a seal that prevents Alda’s gods and spirits from entering their territory. Unless Alda can circumvent or brute force his way through that barrier, he would have long ago. Realistically, he has to rely on mortal champions to kill Van. Who has multiple Rank 10+ monsters and similarly S class equivalents in his forces if not his personal retinue. Guda by herself means that teleporting in any sufficient force to kill Van will be tricky at best.
It is true that Alda is the most powerful god extant on Lambda. However it was noted that VIda is recovering power at an unexpectedly astounding rate. I guess the Magical Girl Idol Preachers are earning their keep. Who knew that would be the key to reviving the Vida faith?
UndeadAnonymous
Looking at the Eleven great gods, 3 gods in charge of non human species, (dragon, beasts, giants) were killed in the first war. Their subjects either turned sides or eventually joined Vida to create new species.
Of the remaining 8, each in charge of an element, 7 summoned a champion, with the 8th actually bringing these 7 champions to Lambda. The 8th (space) would eventually side with Van, with his authority taken over by subordinate gods.
Of the 3 warrior gods, one died and her champion became in charge of wind element for Alda. One was labeled as insane and merged with evil gods with his champion eventually seeing reason and returning to him(fire). And Alda (light) and his champion sealed.
Of the 4 creation gods, Vida was labeled as insane despite literally doing what all the other gods did since the beginning, which was creating new intelligent species and stealing her authority(life) for himself. Another god (time) is confirmed to be on Van’s side with his authority also taken over by subordinate gods. The two remaining creation gods(earth and water) in slumber with their authorities under their subordinates under Alda. Despite what Alda may think are more likely to side with Van, the culmination of their previous champions.
Of the evil gods, those that betrayed Guduranis, sided with Vida due to her champion convincing them. While the remnants running wild.
Looking at all of this, Alda has literally turned his back on not only his remaining sibling gods but the Evil gods that literally chose to side with him in the war. Literally the only other warrior champion god left, he labeled insane and corrupt without even talking to him, despite being cognizant enough to choose a side, Vida’s.
The only god left on his side are his subordinates who are too busy maintaining the elements of gods who are either dead or on Van’s side and Rodcorte (reincarnation) who is so incompetent and impersonal to his job, most of his job is done by a automatic system which functions without him, which has been copied twice.
Now there is not anything wrong with an automatic system but when you cannot fix it, modify it, or even remake it despite being the creator, you know something is wrong. He is literally just a replaceable battery to it.
Jonathan Hurd
I will say as much as it hurts me to defend Rodidiot I do have to say he can fix and modify his own system. He’s been repairing errors Van causes by breaking souls this entire time. He also said a while back he could patch the system to handle souls breaking more naturally. Now don’t get me wrong he is probably the stupidest character in the entire story, but the the one thing he’s got is his job.
I would also say that things might be a little brighter in Alda’s corner than we give him credit for. He and his group are using their power to keep the world afloat, but they have been getting the majority of human prayers for a hundred thousand years. Vida on the other hand had Aldas stakes stopping her building power til recently.
I also feel there is chance Botin or Peria might line up behind Alda or stay neutral. I don’t think there is a chance they will agree with the actions he’s taken and be friendly with him, but they may think like Zantark that the best course is the one in which the world doesn’t end. There are no assurances the Evil God’s could support the elements. So there is a chance Vida winning would lead to everyone’s doom.
All in all I think most God’s realize that the truly insane God is Alda who is stuck in the past and is unwilling to let the world move on and evolve.
Triopsate
True there is a possibility of the two sleeping gods to join Alda but from the hints that the series has been dropping on us, it’s more likely that they either stay neutral or side with Vida.
As for the world ending, there’s a non-zero chance that Van can turn gods into undead to run the world. We haven’t actually seen Van do anything like that yet since he’s been eating all the gods he’s fought against so far but that does tell us he IS able to interact with a god’s soul and as long as he can interact with it, he should be able to stuff it into a body and make it an undead.
Necessarious
You know I’ve been thinking this from since we heard that Van was the result of a merging of soul fragments, but is it possible for Rodcorte to merge whole souls and fragments to buff people. I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that the final enemy will be a last resort effort by Alda and Rodcorte. I’d be willing to bet he will attempt to build the ultimate “soul” like he accidentally did to Van by merging the Demon King stuff he has with Amamiya, and souls/soul fragments like Heinz/his companions, many even Bellwood, and others later in the series. Any thoughts on this theory?
Jonathan Hurd
I feel like it is possible but not sure how useful it might be. The point would be to have a stronger weapon to fight Van of course, but not sure how well everything would mesh at that point. With Vans Frankensteined soul the point was more to keep it from Vida and try to make the loss of four people into a loss of three. He didn’t really need or expect any results from it.
If it’s just to add room and mana by adding more matter to another guy that seems possible, but as was mentioned even in Vans case. Just because you have more mana doesn’t mean you can really use it for much. Also Van only got to his mana total thanks to no cheats/fortunes and the curses anyways.
Maybe putting two souls together would allow more cheats but seems easier to merely divide them amongst people and input coordination, imo. I think Rodidiot and Aldas final play is likely to be Rodidiot prepares/gives Alda and his God’s optimized reincarnated bodies from the Bravers after erasing their personalities. Added to that I think he Gives the Avalon all of the Old DKs soul.
Randomreader
Also the soul of Heinz would be consumed by van not shattered.
Necessarious
Van seems like the type to me to have such low respect for Heinz that he wouldnt even eat the soul. He would just break it.
UnveilingSage
I think your wrong here. He’d probably say something like, “I don’t want their souls within me,” I think he did this with Riley and Gordon anyway.
Randomreader
Fair point
MintyMints
I agree that’s likely but with Riley and Gordon he hadn’t tried eating souls yet.
Jonathan Hurd
So I was thinking about Vans new ability from eating Curatos, Perfect Record Technique. One end goal Van wanted to achieve especially after saving the enslaved Titans was resurrecting people who had already passed into the Circle of Reincarnation.
I feel like considering what Curatos could do Van, if he masters this ability, might be able to make a perfect clone of a dead person’s soul. Then all he has to do is use something like Zakkarts plurecent cells or make soulless bodies in a dungeon. Put the reconstructed recorded souls in those bodies and wah lah you’ve got living reincarnations better than Rodidiot can do.
Jonathan Hurd
Just had a second thought. Assuming what I just posted comes true. Vida gave Van undead Zakkarts memories and it seems like Rodidiot is going to give the memories of some of the other creation champions to Murakami and his crew. Assuming Van beats them (which seems pretty assured at this point) and eats them (also seems highly likely to happen) absorbing those memories… He might be able to make revive all of the original creation hero’s using those memories as a base. If that comes true that would be awesome.
Sebas Tian
First, We don’t know the details on the Skill that Van got and people keep assuming it’s something that it may not be at all. What I mean is that it could be entirely unrelated to Curatos’s authority and thus not help with dungeons or souls or any such thing. Second, Vida did not give Van any memories, she used the last vestiges of muscle memory still intact in Zakkart’s corpse to get past the death attribute firewall that kept on eating everything she was trying to give Van so that she could place a blessing on him. Third, Van has not even a single time obtained memories from eating god or normal souls and considered the possibility himself but it’s never happened. Fourth, Roddy didn’t give Murakami and co any memories as he doesn’t have any creation champion memories to give them, the most he could have done is somehow salvage the cheats he gave to Kanata and Death Scythe since Van only broke their souls, not devoured them, and give those to Murakami and co.
Jonathan Hurd
So to respond in order…
I do understand we don’t know what the skill Van just picked up is. I would say that considering the case with the first God he ate giving him Mental Encroachment it seems fairly likely that the skill Van just got should still be in the realm of Curatos ability. Heck, even if I didn’t know Van got it from eating Curatos something like Perfect Record probably has some relation to memories. Will it work out exactly as I’m guessing? Probably not but I don’t think it’s useless to guess how Van would use a recording skill especially considering his previously stated goal to revive those who have already entered the cycle of reincarnation.
In ‘side chapter 5 Vida’ she sent and I quote ‘Vida scooped up the tiny amount of residual thoughts in Zakkarts remains. Wrapped them in the blood leaking from her wound and sent it to Vans soul.’ She sent the thoughts. You can say that is muscle memory but from the way I read it, residual thoughts is more than just that. Yes I am aware that Van has not recalled any foreign memories thus far. Doesn’t mean they couldn’t come back up later.
I also acknowledge that Van hasn’t absorbed others memories when he ate people before, though he also hasn’t had an ability like Perfect Record so that might change things.
I will say Creation champions memories/powers is just what my guess is for what Rodcorte is giving Murakami in those two orbs. I do think you might be right that those are the remnants of Gungnir and Death Scythe. That could make some sense since Murakami is familiar with their abilities and how to exploit them having worked together for as long as they have.
The counter arguments I can think of against it being those twos powers to be granted would be how bad the powers match up against Van. Van showed in his fight with Gungnir he just needs to block with his fists or dodge and he’s good. With Death Scythe his freezing ability doesn’t really stop Van thanks to out of body experience. Now they could still be useful, especially if properly hidden before the fight, but even then Van is aware of them and Rodcorte so the opening they grant would seem small.
To me there is a possibility there are leftovers from when Rodcort frankenstiened Vans soul together. Considering the strength of the champions he might of kept the parts with their powers to the side for a rainy day, and because the composite soul of four people was already a risk he definitely wouldn’t want to risk it reviving with powers thanks to its weird state.
Sebas Tian
Regarding residual thoughts, please trust me when I say that those have nothing to do with actual memories and what remained after 100k years is equivalent to remembering how it feels to sneeze or flick a finger.
Regarding the champion’s soul bits, there was nothing left to the side, he took four chunks and mashed them together. There was no reason to save any powers to the side as until he got the reincarnation idea he never had a reason to stockpile things like that. He watched the duct taped soul for a few hundred reincarnations to see if any weirdness would show up and nothing happened and he stopped watching. Literally nothing remains of the creation champion’s inside that soul and nothing was left out when mashing them into one.
Regarding Murakami, don’t forget about his cheat power Chronos and his super mana regen cheat as those deal with the weaknesses you mentioned and the weaknesses normally present in G’s and DS’s cheats.
MeiOuSei
Sebas-san, Sebas-san, someone up there wrote something about wanting to read a compilation of all chapters until now and I would like to volunteer for that, I guessed I would need yours and Yoshi’s permission so I’m asking you. Can I?
Supreme king
Oh heck yeah thank sure for the fast release Yoshi
Now then we’d suffer in wait for the next chapter which may probably be weeks from now again sigh~I don’t no if to Ben truly happy or not that this was released so fast
Feniz
Month 😝
Clyde
This is one of the best stories I have ever read. It’s so detailed and interesting in everything it does. I cannot wait for more!
Thank you for all your hard work!
Lord Rin
I wouldn’t call it a draw. Van only thinks so because he wasn’t able to break and consume the souls of Heinz, Edgar and Deilzah. He at least found out that there is no chance of working with the so-called peaceful Alda faction, he ate part of Edgar’s soul which will probably permanently injure him, got some cathartic release by being able to kill Heinz and his party even if it isn’t permanent. He also just destroyed Curatos who was the only one who could run this dungeon efficiently and honestly seemed like the brains of Alda’s faction. With him gone, now Alda will either have to personally run the dungeon which by his own admission he isn’t good at or delegate it to another person who will also not be good at it and also the already crappy intelligence gathering that Curatos was in charge of to get information on Van and his allies is now gone so any intelligence gathering Alda’s group does now will be even worse now that Curatos is gone. Not to mention that Van also now got a bunch a new skills including Curatos’ recording skill which he could probably use to make his own dungeon to train his own allies.
Also now that I think about it, can any of the new records and information Curatos just made during this fight even be sent to Alda and his allies? The dungeon has been isolated by Gufadgarn so I don’t think things can get out and Curatos just got completely annihilated and his soul destroyed so I don’t know if Alda can view his memories.
Oh good, I had a slight fear that Darcia would just forgive Heinz and not do anything. Instead, while she does forgive what they did to her, she ain’t gonna forgive all the pain and suffering it caused her son to go through and promptly ended them even if it isn’t permanent. You don’t piss off a mom. Especially one that’s at the level of a god.
HolyJolteon
I can see Alda’s faction having Rodcorte for intelligence gathering if they end up working together. It seems to be the only thing he is good for.
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair Rodidiots been trying to keep track of Van from the beginning and failing this hard already. I don’t think they’ll have a lot of luck using his. Main problem is the juicy info is only really in the dark continent and the southern part of the continent which neither sides info network reaches.
Rollrock
Using Rodcorte for intelligence gathering is defeating the point of “intelligence” in that phrase.
UnveilingSage
Just to throw in my two cents here, Rodidiot has better information gathering abilities than Alda’s faction currently does. After all, Alda’s faction can only gather information after the person they’re peeping on says a prayer. (Like in Iris prayer during the Gubamon fight) On the other hand Rodcorte can view all memories of the peopls in his Cycle of reincarnation, in real time, at any moment he wants. That’s a big step up.
Not that it will help them much.
MeiOuSei
That gave me a nice amount of laughter thank you >_<
UndeadAnonymous
What Alda lost with Curatos and can gain from Rodcorte is not intelligence gathering but record keeping. In other words the intelligence gathering of watching security cameras (live feed) from the sky and through the eyes of followers still exists but their ability to look up old tapes(records) for things they missed is gone and is replaced with a questionable third party in Rodcorte who can lie or omit information whenever it conveniences them.
You can also say they lost their data analytics department as without any records, they cannot make accurate measurements only guesses and estimates from eye witness accounts
Jonathan Hurd
Well to start I just want to say there is nobody in Aldas faction that is the brains lol. If they were they’d have been driven out by the stupid fanatics.
Overall though I do agree this was a win for Van even if it doesn’t feel like it since he couldn’t kill the three he hates and had to watch Heinz kill his mom again.
For the dungeon it’s still Aldas domain. Gufadgarn locked them out for a little but as was said at the end Alda and crew were breaking the door down soon. The Dungeon does now have a lot less floors and no one to refill the monsters and I believe Heinz and crew won’t be fighting them in risk free soul mode. So it will probably work like a normal life threatening dungeon instead of easy mode.
Rogal Dorn
This fight is a win on strategic level. But it came with a cost: Heinz do know some of the abilites of the real Vandalieu who needs to recover. They know about Darcia too. Alda and his allies will probably engage in the war sooner than expected, if they know about both.
wai311040
Now I am wondering, if Curatos can even made Demon King’s clone, why won’t he made a clone of himself? He would be able to deal with situation like this a lot easier.
lazygeko
It was probably the great god alda and a lot of his followers that created these clones. Curatos was in charge of the blueprints and construction but the power and materials were provided by alda and co. At least that is what I would think. After all, it said alda and co. spent a lot of time and power creating this trial.
Darkhelios
I guess Curatos didn’t do that for the same reason he didn’t bring out the Demon King’s clone to fight against Vandalieu: It takes time. The more complex/powerful the clone is, the more time Curatos needs. Moreover Curatos wasn’t a fighting god. So making a clone of himself would be a huge investment in term of time and would provide a few benefits.
However if you meant “why he didn’t create a clone of himself before Van’s invasion”, the answer is probably that he didn’t expect that Vandalieu would be able to come inside. After all, they were expecting an attack coming from the outside and Alda had seal all but one possibilities of entering the dungeon with teleportation.
Edit:
Oh. Forgot to mention one thing: Curatos creates clone by using his memory so I guess a clone of himself could be unable to react when faced to a situation that he never planned/encountered before.
Jonathan Hurd
Another potential issue for Curatos making a clone of himself would probably be the restrictions on his skill. It did say he couldn’t make multiple clones on one floor and they had to stay to their assigned floors.
Other than that basically the situation of Van invading was never even in the realm of possibilities for Alda and crew. They had plenty of counter measures posted outside and had sealed the doors. Hard to predict Van sneaking in followed by Gufadfarn closing the door behind them. Add in Alda’s side having no clue about Hollow Cannons power. In the worst case scenario they just kill Heinz and the rest before Van does and barricade the town waiting for reinforcements.
The current situation was brought by the fact that they had no clue what Van is capable of. They let their guard down and got cocky. That’s why they didn’t station anyone inside the dungeon other than its operator Curatos.
Brian P.
Thing is I don’t think any of the gods can make a Demon King’s clone, Van or the other guy. They can create a magical body, let that magical body have abilities like the ones they have recorded, and program them to do and say similar things but in the end it’s all just programming. It’s an elaborate and powerful android. That’s why Curatos couldn’t quickly change all the various dungeon people to attack Van.
It’s likely different when they shear off a part of themselves, like with the god living in the lance early one, the first god Van murdered. But there it’s like when Van created Banda; Banda has Van’s thoughts up to that point, his cognitive abilities and free will but it cost Van a part of himself in the form of mana to accomplish that.
So Curatos could almost certainly clone himself like that but it wouldn’t really be efficient for information gathering purposes to have 2 independent gods gathering information and then sharing it with one another versus 1 god gathering 2 times the information.
Funky K
Thanks for the Chapters!!!! Damn!! Does this make the 7th god Van has killed. Oh well there is too much to comment on in this chapter so I’ll just point out my favorite part.
Fake 5 blades unleash their chunni long named special combo move, and Vandalieu………”Wall”. And it goes right back in their face!!! Pffff HAHAHAHAHAAAA.!! IN YOUR FACE
Mr.Darkness
hahhahahahhahahahhahaha
Agreed
ZeroX1
i was hope MC kill Heinz, oh well at least he kills a god of Record and gets his thing
《Your Intelligence has increased by 5,000!》
《You have acquired the ‘Perfect Record Technique’ and ‘Surpass Limits: Soul’ Skills!》
wish i have 5,000 Intelligence and Perfect Record Technique i well 100% build a spaceship or huge robot-like my Favorite wing Gundam zero 😐
or read novel in Japanese language without wait for translator sad this real life and it sucks 🙁
lazygeko
Unfortunately, high Intelligence points in that world do not equate to actual intelligence or wisdom. I’m sure Alda and Rodcorte have really high Intelligence as gods but yeah… 🙂
Sebas Tian
Intelligence in the system refers more to how fast you can process information and how much you can process at once, not how well you do so in general.
UnveilingSage
Not to mention Spell Complexity! Like when Van-sama “Overheated” that time with Tarea
Nox
Thanks for chapter.
What a fight. Due to the despicable means ruined and leaving a bad after taste. Hopefully this will torment Heinz. Curatos is gone and his power/ability strengthns Van further but sadly now the gods know many of Vans abilities or will they? Funny of they were to know of all this and prepare counter measurements and Van fights them with new abilities. Would be funny
Randomreader
Isn’t that what happens every single time
Vampire hunter sees infant van knows is dangerous and good at surviving. Van pulls multi headed version out and undead army
Vampires expect the second coming of the damper (know I misspelled it) hero plus his army. gets a pissed off van all alone without an army
Evil gods expect mortal get god eating demon lord champion van.
I rest my case
Paps
Thanks for the chapter Yoshi, well damn that was a really good ending, is sad that Alda faction got a hold of so manny of Van skills, and technique but thanks to this figth he gained a lot as well, and can come up with more crazy strong tricks.
Lord Rin
I don’t know if they can get any information. Gufadgarn isolated the dungeon so nothing can get in or out and Curatos just got destroyed so they probably can’t view his memories later. Even if they still were able to get this new information, it’s misleading because Van was fighting in a weakened state and is actually much stronger. Any strategies to deal with him would be inherently flawed because they’d be made based off inaccurate information about Van’s power.
Jonathan Hurd
I am pretty sure Curatos and his info is gone but they can still probably draw on Heinz and Delizahs records to see some of Vans skills. While it will be annoying that they’ll finally realize how off their understanding of Van is. This does mean we get to have an Alda faction God council where they all start collectively shitting themselves watching the replay. I’m especially looking forward to Fitun. Let’s see how your little pawn compares to our Death Emperor!
Cr1m50nR3ap3r
Did van get the rest of the demon king fragments from killing curatos or the copy demon king Guduranis??
Darkhelios
Just quoting Sebas Tian:
He got them from the Pure Breed Vampires on Vida’s side who were sunbathing above Talos’s head.
taurussilver
If you are asking about the demon king fragments he has yet to acquire, then no because guduranis did not fight Vandaliue nor was he a physical body making obtaining the demon king fragments impossible. At least in my opinion.
Randomreader
Nah. To get the rest he merely needs to go to Alda’s faction members’ divine realms and steal them then systematically invade all countries to get the demon lord fragment weapons and the fragments are constantly trying to get to van and fuse so he will have them all eventually
Kazza
‘Ey. New Chapter.
I honestly feel bad for Heinz. Probably shouldn’t, knowing his track record, but I think he’s slowly starting to realize Alda and Co. aren’t really on his side as much as they want to make use of him.
I do like that he seemed shocked Curatos would use such a cowardly tactic as a Mom-Shield. However, my inner skeptic is predicting he is just going to sweep it under the rug. Not much worse than millennia of genocide, after all. He certainly didn’t mind the cowardly tactic of endlessly reviving, removing any and all threat.
One thing hopefully either Sebas or Yoshi can answer. During the last bit, when Darcia is talking to Gufadgarn, she refers to Van as “this child” twice. Is that a direct translation from the source?
I dunno. Just kind of seems detached. I mean, Darcia loves Van and doesn’t refer to him as anything but his name. I understand she’s under the goddess descent and all, but even if it was only Vida talking (which I don’t think is the case) … I guess it just bugs me. Maybe it’s some kind of cultural thing I’m not aware of?
Like, for me, when I hear a parent describe their child that way, it sounds abusive. As if they don’t see them as deserving of a name.
I know I’m making a big deal of two lines, and I’m not asking for it to be changed, I’d just like clarification on whether that’s directly from the source.
Sebas Tian
Vida refers to Van as Child. That was Vida and Darcia talking to Heinz, with mainly Vida speaking her thoughts.
Kazza
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Guess it just sounds weird to me.
Yoshi
It’s actually a result of the translation I guess. It’s perfectly normal sounding in Japanese
MeiOuSei
Thanks a lot for the chapter!
Jonathan Hurd
To me I still see no real redemption in Heinz personally. Both of them were given a second to decide to attack through Darcia to kill the other or stop. He chose to continue. Yes, it was short notice but that just means that was his gut reaction. Cut through a mom to get to her child.
It annoys me even after that he still can’t own up to it or apologize. Blames others and puts his life and needs ahead of others. To me this just solidifies him as scum.
I honestly disagree about him second guessing Alda and his crew. He hasn’t once gone against what they said or questioned it. I mean Van already told them Alda’s faction calls him the demon king, but moment one god shows up and says it… ‘yup Van evil and DK gotta kill him!’ Not like they needed an excuse to begin with.
For the wording on saying ‘this child’ that is as Sebas said what Vida always has referred to Van when they meet or she’s talking to him. That plus her saying ‘we will not forgive you’ is the author spelling out to us that this is Vida and Darcia’s stance in case we thought it was different.
Kazza
Oh, don’t misunderstand. I agree Heinz is going to rationalize still working with Alda and Co. I’m just trying to hypothesize how. I think it’s going to be something along the lines of “Van is too powerful for me to take on. Only Bellwood can stand a chance, or something similar. If I can still be the one to wake him… Etc.”
Something along those lines. I think Heinz can’t stand not being the hero in some way. The biggest red flag was that whole “I can’t die here!”
Kiarthros Toveke
Losing Curatos is going to suck for Alda.
Mr.Darkness
Yeah… Alda information network was awful, now it will be even worse…
Demonicmuffin
And that’s disregarding the fact Alda lost what was his best and most reliable friend in a particularly stressful time. He was already emotionally driven enough without his head strategist and confidant dying.
UnveilingSage
Unless they get access to Rodidiot’s records through his Reincarnation Cycle. Then it would actually increase their information gathering abilities.
Darkhelios
Edgar’s soul is damaged… and no god in Alda’s faction can heal this type of wound except maybe RodIdiot himself… I guess RodIdiot will do something stupid once again…
Lord Rin
Well we don’t call him RodIdiot for no reason…
Jonathan Hurd
I don’t know I kind of look forward to what amazing bumble Rodidiot will make this time. They seem to always help Van when he makes a move lol.
Darkhelios
Now that Vandalieu obtains Curatos ability, he will be able to send Alda a video showing his most loyal and precious retainer’s death. Again and again. Heinz&cie might also need a copy…
Nah. Just joking. Vandalieu isn’t mean enough to do that. ^^
lazygeko
Forward your suggestion to Van. It will probably be too bothersome to achieve though. I don’t think he wouldn’t though, after all, he went searching for a dungeon just to find the body of the dead blade, so when he eventually met Heinz again he could harass them with their former party member. If it is harassing Heinz, I can get behind it. 🙂
Jonathan Hurd
Why settle for a video when we can have a live reenactment once the war starts. Let’s see how Alda likes watching his friends die for his stupid war.
SirMetathyst
The death of Curatos is a HUGE loss for Alda’s side. Alda depended on him so much for information.
Bob, Son of Bob
So the first battle between Van and Heinz ends in a mutual defeat. This definitely a case of “No one wins, everyone loses”.
Heinz and Co got the crap kicked out of them (yay!), the seeds of doubt and discord have been sown within his party, their training ground was damaged, they lost a heroic spirit and their overseer god was destroyed.
Van failed to destroy or devour the souls of his mother’s murderers, he failed to destroy their training ground and he gave away a ton of information about himself and his abilities in the process.
Can’t wait for the next chapter!
akatsuki kuranashi
actualy he didnt used many spells and he havent really went all out since he lacked mana and in his case we are talking in the billions
picakcarson
He also was missing all the insects and plants he uses in his body normally, plus now they will have a harder time recording information on him, so this was mostly a minor loss for Van and a massive loss for Heinz and Co.
Bob, Son of Bob
Sure, he didn’t give away all his abilities, but he gave them more than he should have, considering they escaped to fight again. For example, he probably won’t be able to use Bloodlust or point-bank eye lasers as trump cards again.
You never want to reveal your cards unless you’re guaranteed a victory.
Lord Rin
Well they don’t have any way to defend against Bloodlust since they don’t know what it actually is and seem to assume it’s some sort of super disease or poison because they’re shocked that their resistances didn’t stop it. Also Van was fighting in a heavily weakened state with lowered stats, a new fighting style that he still isn’t used to and a lot of his skills and equipment he also couldn’t use so any information they try to use to create tactics to win against Van would inherently be inaccurate. Plus Edgar also got part of his soul devoured which should have a bad effect on him.
Bob, Son of Bob
They saw him transform his blood into the attack. They won’t let themselves get hit by his blood and they could destroy his castoff blood before he uses Bloodlust.
Yes, I know he didn’t give away all of his abilities and he was fighting at reduced capacity, but so were Heinz and his party. It’s still better to not give your enemies information about yourself.
Jonathan Hurd
I would say the big difference between what Heinz and Van showed is that Heinz has revealed all his cards especially against Borkus and the rest at the start. Van watched them fighting at 100 percent. Heinzs gain was that he saw that his data on Van is outdated. He didn’t get up to date data though. There are still a ton of holes in the info.
Van has showed quite a few things, but that is fine. In exchange for revealing some trump cards he destroyed the place Heinz was using to quickly grow stronger and ate an important God of Aldas.
Van has innumerable high level dungeons and skilled foes to practice with. Heinz however without this dungeon doesn’t have a lot of good threats to challenge himself. Without Curatos around the already existing copies can probably still be fought but I don’t think Alda has anyone to make more of them.
Personally I also feel the revealed trump cards are fine. Hollow Cannon for instance even if they know about it they have no way of stopping that. Van was going to use that somewhere Alda could see soon anyways since its his most destructive attack so that’s also fine.
For Bloodlust, I feel it has more extreme drawbacks to use than just about any of Vans other abilities. Remember Van can’t choose targets with it. They just eat anything that’s not Van with Soul/God Devour. That means Van can never use this attack with allies around. This dungeon when Van was completely alone is probably the only place Van would use this attack since he’s never going to eat his friends souls to get to an enemy.
Brian P.
No risk no reward. If you keep everything hidden until you have an absolute guaranteed way to get the other guy you’re probably just going to be killed without ever playing your trump card.
Fitoor
Holy shit. That’s a lot of turnarounds in one battle.
“We knew you’d survive those attacks so I ambushed you from behind.”
“I knew you’d ambush me, so I decided on a suicide attack.”
“We knew you’d do that so here’s a copy of your mom.”
“I knew you’d do that, so I secretly made a clone.”
“Surprise attack when you’re charging your Hollow Cannon. Now you can’t aim.”
“Surprise space portal to correct the aim.”
“Surprise heroic sacrifice to save the target.”
Kazza
As they say. All according to Keikaku.
Demonicmuffin
“I’m afraid you are the fool Curatos”
“Why?”
“Because I knew that you knew that I knew you would cheat, so I hid soul clones all over this place.”
Morgan
I wonder… is the author really talented or extremely hard working? this novel is simply the best. the chapters dont end on cliffhangers yet always leave the audience wanting more and the quality of writing is top notch. 10/10 for the translation too. You really bring out the story the way it should be written.
And I’m really excited to see how the author will stage Heinz’s death. will the audience be satisfied or unsatisfied?
Bob, Son of Bob
“is the author really talented or extremely hard working?”
¿Porque no los dos?
MeiOuSei
Ambos dos inclusive jajajajaja. Let’s give this guy a big applause
Wyverius
I believe the answer to your question is, “Both.”
Ericks6
Thanks for the update
Now I imagine how strong Vandalieu would get if he learn weapon techniques like sword, lance or hammer techniques and use with his demon king fragments, like the pure-breed vampires, Ternecia and Gubamon, Heinz will be doom.
Valeth
I figured after Schneider showed up he would eventually train in at least one handed weapons, spears, and Archery. To combine them with his Unarmed Fighting and Demon King Fragments.
I mean they said earlier that a lot of the Fragments are not even in their real shapes, as they are known to mutate to further their chances of finding each other and resurrecting the Demon King.
So if he could control their shapes better maybe the horns or some other part could become those weapons, or at least allow the full technique strength. He could then fight a lot like Schneider where he would then add his Death, and Dead Spirit Magic to create a new style.
Same for shield and Armor Techniques. He somewhat does this with throwing and the Horns, but hasn’t awakened that yet so.
This would make him impossible to predict as when you suspect a Unarmed Technique, he suddenly uses Axe, Mace, Sword, or Spear Techniques instead. Add in the variations created by using Death, and Dead Spirit Magic and it becomes impossible to predict unless he just repeats specific attack patterns over and over.
Supreme king
Honestly I hope his weapons are daggers like for instance the death god daggers or something it’d Be cool Andy it dose be the only kind of weapon I see him using maybe it can be like the daggers from solo leveling
Randomreader
I know this is a bit unoriginal but I want his primary melee weapon aside from himself to be a scythe. Don’t judge me
MeiOuSei
I totally agree
Joopy
So…
1. Alda can make a dungeon
2. A lot of the trouble (for alda) is caused by there being no way for Alda to communicate with people on the planet
3. In a dungeon, gods can create copies, through which they can communicate with people.
So why is there not a small dungeon below the holy church, through which alda communicates with his followers? If it was this easy to communicate with people, why haven’t they done so before?
Seems like a giant plothole to me.
Sebas Tian
because they want less dungeons in Lambda, not more. Making a dungeon for Alda’s faction also requires a large amount of divine power they aren’t willing to spend cause they need it in running the world and for emergencies with Evil Gods, and for keeping the DK fragments they have on hand sealed up.
Joopy
I’d say they are against dungeons, because ‘monsters’ live(and thrive) in dungeons. I for one never got that they are against dungeons, because ‘dungeons’.
So if a dungeon had a different purpose, I don’t see any reason for them to be against it. In fact, this training dungeon proves just that. If a dungeon is useful, they are all to willing to use them.
Sebas Tian
Dungeons are monster factories and sources of corrupted mana. Even Alda’s dungeon can spread a devil’s nest to the surrounding area if not managed properly.
Necessarious
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”-Einstein
Its kind of funny looking back at the story of Van’s rise to power through trying different things even though apparently all his allies KNOW he is “insane” and still choose to follow him. Then look at Alda who calls Vida, and her Gods supporters “insane” but we know that Alda is like the incarnation of the Einstein quote above. I know the definition of the word is vague but I love how many aspects of insanity are seemingly brought up in this story even if its not on purpose.
Jonathan Hurd
I gotta admit I always find it a little funny that they say Van is insane but I agree with his ideas and philosophy way more than any of the supposedly ‘sane’ people in the story.
Jonathan Hurd
There are quite a few problems with your idea. First is that it’s not easy for Alda to make a small discreet dungeon below his church. Another problem is Alda is very much in the anti dungeon faction. Who the heck is going to believe something in a dungeon saying it carries Aldas will. Third what would the Aldas messenger say that they haven’t sent a divine message about? I mean we know how blood hungry Alda is but the general public doesn’t believe it.
All in all it takes way less power to send divine messages to pawns like the new pope in the Amid Empire than to make a new dungeon and convince everyone Alda made it.
Rogal Dorn
They will resist. They will always resist. It matters not.
lazygeko
Rapid release. I like. Thanks for the hard work.
Good stuff. Nothing much to say. When Heinz sees the enemy of Vida title, that I assume he got when Mamma said “we,” how will he make it ok. How will he trick himself into thinking he is still the peaceful faction. Attacking the ‘holy son of Vida’ seems like a no-no for the peaceful factions leader.
Kazza
The same question can be asked of Alda. How can you say you love your sister and want her back when it was you who sealed her away and started killing her children?
To him, the ends justify the means.
Yeah, Heinz may be literally fighting against Vida, but he needs to because she’s “gone crazy” and is actually working with the New Demon King.
It’s crazy what a hero complex can do to ya.
Supreme king
Nahh fam I’d do the same if my sister was such a thot let’s be real no matter how much we like vida she a thot
Devimon
You mean “GOD” not “GODDESS” since Val is a Male
Sad
Um, that isn’t for his actual race. It’s for the parent race, the on that wasn’t a vampire. Darcia became a Goddess, hence it saying Goddess.
Riguru121
Is there no limit to his increasing mana?
i have long since stopped keeping tack of it.
Sebas Tian
Then it’s a good thing the status has been keeping track so you don’t have to.
V4NQU1SH
Thanks for this amazing chapter.
Niemand
I’m waiting for Heinz to get the “Enemy of Vida” or at least the “Enemy of Vida’s reincarnation” title.
Sebas Tian
Incarnation, Darcia isn’t literally Vida, so she’s just an Incarnation, not a Reincarnation.
VEreality
Holy mother of Van! The memes are killing me!LOL
Last chapter we had someone in the comment section describing the Bloodlust spell as a bunch of microbes with Van’s face that eat everything with an emotionless face.
Now we have Gufadgarn doing the biggest SIKE possible! I wish you could have seen my face when it happened. I really do.
And World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon has proven itself to be about……..100 nukes.
Maybe 200. Who knows. Like…….Holy Darcia that’s a complete game changer right there.
Thank you Yoshi-sama!
Diabell
am i the only one missing something…WHERE/HOW did he get 10 new fragments
Mossy Stone
The awoken individuals from Vida’s resting grounds.
Devimon
From gods also
Sebas Tian
He got them from the Pure Breed Vampires on Vida’s side who were sunbathing above Talos’s head.
Diabell
ah so those 10 are the ones they never told us about except for the fact he got fragments
Jonathan Hurd
Pretty sure the story did a quick ‘you have acquired…’ a few chapters ago. That was also when Vans venom secretion skill upgraded.
Diabell
they only pointed out the fact that van got a couple of fragments from the pure breeds i believe if my memory hasn’t gotten more messed up
Arha
Yep, Heinz is fucked. Last possible bridge has been burnt three times over. First with copy Darcia’s death, second with Curatos’ and finally with Darcia/Vida’s condemnation. Now even if he were to truly repent and embrace the values he’s only been fooling himself into thinking he holds, it’s too late.
Well, guess he’ll live about twenty minutes after meeting Amamiya. Just long enough to pass along the torch, the grudge and finally the refusal to apologize for past misdeeds.
lazygeko
It is never too late to take the right path. But just because you take the right path doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay for your past mistakes. 🙂
Arha
I mean it’s too late for peace between them. Van will never rest until he’s dead now no matter what he does, Vida himself hates the man who considers himself a champion of her people and on Heinz’s side he just killed one of Alda’s gods. There is no path for peace between the two even setting aside the fact that Heinz will probably bounce back from this without drastically modifying his beliefs.
The right path is closed to him. But really, I don’t think anyone here truly expected anything but implacable hostility between the two. Now it’s really just a matter of how much trouble Heinz causes while trying to “help.”
Jonathan Hurd
I gotta say the willingness to pay for your mistakes is why I like Marshakul way more than Heinz. Marsh realized he screwed up and angered Van and so he wants to offer his own head to make peace. Heinz still refuses to accept any responsibility or take a right action.
Bob, Son of Bob
I dunno, I kinda feel like Heinz has had too much character development to bite it without truly comprehending his mistakes. At the same time, I’m sure his final understanding in just how badly he fucked up will come the moment before he dies.
Or so I’m hoping.
Darkhelios
There wasn’t any possibility of peace to begin with…
For Vandalieu / Vida: Vida races & humans/elves/dwarves are equal.
For the Heinz (& for the peaceful faction): A few Vida races can become something similar to pets. If they become annoying to deal with, it’s possible to kill them again after looking for an excuse. If it’s annoying to protect them, you can just discard them. And if the females are pretty, well… you can have enslave them after having some fun, even if you need to create an excuse.
While Heinz probably wouldn’t do a lot of what I said, the fact still stand due to his willingness of turning a blind eye to problems like that if he consider helping them would create a downside for “normal races”. For him, those problems exist and things must stay like this.
SaMu
Thanks for the chapter
Sooo how did Vandalieu managed to get experience from this? He didn’t have to teammates around this time and his curse is still in effect.
Mossy Stone
Demon king eyeballs …he has gotten experience before through them.
_michaeli
When you use a skill continuously it levels up
Kendov
Doesn’t the copy somewhat count as companion? Just my guess, since that was not ‘really’ himself, even the soul body was just channeled through it
Sebas Tian
As I told SaMu, Van was already level 100 and ready to change his Job before he ended up inside the Trial of Bellwood.
Sebas Tian
He’s been getting exp from his people getting watched by DK eyeballs and DK familiars. He just hasn’t had the chance to change his Job yet and was already level 100 before entering the Trial of Bellwood.
Morgan
Experience earnt from stuff goes to the job level since you can level up without using skills. Skill experience is more like proficiency, you get better with practice but your status values won’t actually change
theultimatebaka
The biggest reason would probably be because he devoured a god, Curatos. While killing people himself doesn’t give him xp, devouring souls does.
Sebas Tian
Devouring souls does not give xp and never has. Van was already max level before entering the Trial of Bellwood and was planning to change his Job soon before the fight happened.
Jonathan Hurd
Van couldn’t get any exp from this little adventure. His mom on the other hand might of just maxed her current job by finishing Delizah. I think Heinz might of gotten some for killing Vans spirit body, but that’s about the only Exp gained in this fight.
farmer
“Alright folks, we can’t have Curatos’ sacrifice be in Vain. We gotta figure out his weakness from this record.”
“Obviously, we could just teleport his lazer beam back to his face. See if he likes the taste of his own medicine!”
“That’s a great idea! Now we just need to get a space attribute God to do just that! It’s time to call Rickl… oh, wait.”
It’s really cool that Van gets Curatos’ skill. I wonder if he could make a copy of himself or Vida.
_michaeli
😹😹
Jonathan Hurd
I like the idea just needed to point out that it’s Zuruwarn who is in charge of Space. Rickillent is Time/magic.
The Butt Wizard
A DRAW?! Dude, you managed to grow wildly more powerful at no risk and no cost to yourself. The enemy lost Edgar as a fighting force and Curatos was completely obliterated, all while you fought at an extreme disadvantage.
That was an epic win, your majesty.
KingSpy25i
*put on geeky glasses * “well technically what you said was right in the all out result, that was never the goal in Van’s view. So he sees it as only a cup half empty scenario. SO HA!!”
Hahaha sorry just trying to act smart and funny 🤓😋 ment no offense in my comment.
Xignum
the only loss is giving information about the skills he uses but it was well worth the cost
Kendov
The primary objectives, death of Heinz and Co, as well as destruction of the dungeon, both failed, crippling the heroes but not killing even one of them. He accomplished a lot, but none of the priorities, thus a draw. Preventing hostile objectives from completion is also a form of victory after all
Bob, Son of Bob
Yup.
Van didn’t actually accomplish any of his objectives. The only reason he even called it a draw rather than an outright failure was because Curatos and Joshua were destroyed (though he didn’t get to eat them) and the dungeon was damaged. Sure, he beat up the “heroes” and greatly delayed their training, but he missed his shot at revenge and showed them a ton of his abilities in the process.
Sebas Tian
He ate both Curatos and Joshua as the hollow cannon was imbued with soul devour
Mangydog1
He might have showed some of his abilities, but not the majority by a long shot. Besides that was just Van playing around by himself in a 1vrs. 5 scenario. It will be a big difference with a few of his allies there, or even just the pets he keeps in his body, not to mention ghosts and spirits.
Randomreader
And don’t forget his personal deity
Layzzz
Van should have gained the title Ouroboros since he did devour himsel
VEreality
Now the only question is how long does it take for him to digest himself?
Sebas Tian
That’s more likely to be a future Job rather than a Title as people would need to call him an Ouroboros for him to obtain the Title.
adabana
thank you for the chapter
Feniz
Thanks for the chapter
Madparadox99
Vandaru-sama is already a “prince of non-existence without even the title.
This felt like those missions from where one should let himself “win” in order to claim the rewards
In any case Alda does not understand that her dotrina is wrong, because of the millennia that passed in peace, Gurudanis did so much damage.
His brothers understood that and believe that Vandaru could be the pillar that gave that spark that they did not have at the crucial moment.
In Code Geass R2, chapter 21: A world like that will not bring changes, you can’t call that alive, it’s just a world of memories. Closed and Isolated.
Justice is an order, evil is revolution.
But because of Alda and Rodcorte’s inability,
All the evil of Vandaru Zakkart will be evolution.
Randomreader
I agree with this
MeiOuSei
Me too 👍
Diggydawg
Heinz still doesn’t get it after all this time, every misguided action he took is just digging himself deeper into becoming an enemy of the Vida faction, his lame attempts at “saving” Vida’s races are nothing more than Trophies for him to boast about and to boost his own ego, it is doubtful he ever met with an official priest from Vida’s side, everything he knows comes from Alda’s mouthpiece.
Jonathan Hurd
I would be happier if he made any attempts to help Vidas races at all. He doesn’t even go that far and just keeps telling people he’s helping and awesome.
Zauberbiest
not to mention he believes every single word righteously, the only thing he ever questioned was dracia’s death, while he keeps saying he want’s/has/wil to help vida’s races while still sticking this halfassed ”peace faction” accepting requests at human guild to kill more vida’s races while protecting more humans, is he even on the peaceful faction to begin with?, i doubt he has even interacted with the few humantype demi human titans or beastpeople within the peace faction that aren’t ghouls/majin/kijin etc and his companions r even worse far worse
conscript117
only a swing of her staff and Darcia-mama made them literally vanish, how awesome is that.
I wonder if mayonnaise is going to get a new title like “Goddess enemy” or something, I mean Darcia-mama did said they were their enemy and she being the Goddess reincarnation and all would make sense if that were to be the case.
PS:Thank you very much for the chapters! Thank you to the sponsors for making this possible too and may Vandalieu-sama grant you his divine protection!
JeKeBe
They already have the Holy Mother Killer title, it would be grand if they got the ‘Enemy of Vida’ title from the declaration since she’s Vida’s embodiment. Wouldn’t THAT be awkward in dealing with Vida’s races? Jerkass.
While not as satisfying as Van getting his revenge against Heinz and the other two, seeing Curatos buy it and Heinz taking some mental damage was… okay. With luck, Edward will be so shaken by the damage to his soul that he’ll be out of the fight for a good long while.
Also… Darcia-mama is a boss. End point.
Lord Rin
It would be funny though if Heinz and his party got a title that just said “Jerkass” or something like it.
Sebas Tian
Incarnation, not Reincarnation. Darcia is still her own person and is not Vida herself, she’s just able to be considered as Vida’s voice on Lambda.
Rifaman
Thanks for the update
Hypocrite Heinz and his party, just wait Van-sama will make a hell for you.
Mossy Stone
“But Vandalieu interfered with the Labyrinth Creation Skill, causing the walls to lower very slowly, and Riley’s spear could not inflict a single would on Vandalieu’s clone.”
EDIT: Wound?
Sebas Tian
Fixed now.
TheDerangedOne
Anyone want to bet that Heinz is going to have a bit of a breakdown next we see of him? This seems like major PTSD fuel to me.
Randomreader
If you win the bet I’m looking forward to his breakdown
Brian P.
Nah, Heinz will just find some way to justify it to himself and then his party’ll all be like “Well, you say so thus I’m convinced” and Heinz’ll be all like “Thanks Guidance skill!”.
I dunno what, but it’ll be some bullshit. Darcia’s alive now so what he did in the past isn’t that big a deal. Van is tampering with life and death and must be stopped because Alda told him so and Heinz a big boy who believes Shitty Dad!God. If this keeps up Van will kill all the gods and the world will stop working, so killing van is the only option because clearly he’s the aggressor here, not Alda’s crew.
Probably also they can’t change society so they just are okay with others, and possibly even themselves, continuing to murder and enslave innocent people like Ghouls and Majin. Y’know, because taking a stand would be hard and make people not like them, and they like being liked.
kazamakj
They will probably say for the safety of the world, the second demon king needs to be eliminated etc etc. War is probably coming soon enough. Wonder how the author will handle the power creep cause Van is basically a moving fortress by himself at this rate. Plus he actually has a moving fortress with troops built in, in Knochen.
lazygeko
The power creep solution is already in-built. Almost 100 reincarnators that can be brainwashed and made into adult bodies with a lifetime of skills and cheat skills by the alda faction gods to fight their war.
Lord Rin
Well a bunch of those reincarnators are being guided to Vida’s circle of transmigration by Banda.
tristo
while i do agree with you thinking his party and the gods probably convincing him that hes got to keep going or the world will end or something i do think Heinz will struggle with this deeply. its already been shown he struggles internally with the whole Van situation to begin with and this wont help it. but with darcia declaring them enemies and them seeing some of Van’s strength it’ll probably be easier to convince him to keep going. While he is hypocritical I never particularly disliked Heinz because his actions made sense with what most every character in his position would do with the knowledge they know, hell lots of main characters are written like Heinz so i always kinda hoped maybe in the end he could bridge the gap between Van and Alda’s believers post Van beating Alda’s forces but with even the voice of reason Darcia saying hes an enemy now i doubt he lives. I could be wrong though it seems like were a long way off from the end with that whole other planet situation going on so itll probably be awhile before it ends. at least not til the girl he saved and the dude with the same name come to this world, and their kid too probably
Arha
If Heinz was capable of just one of two things peace between him and Van may have been possible. If he could accept responsibility for his actions, genuinely apologize and agree to make up for his actions in a way Van could accept then Van might have been willing to forgive him. Alternately if he could admit when he was wrong and modify his beliefs accordingly rather than just pretend he was that might allow them to work together until they were both satisfied and then kill each other. But Heinz wouldn’t do either and now it’s too late. Not after copy Darcia.
Funny thing is, I give even odds that he might actually admit he was in the wrong after this, but turning back really is impossible now.
Feniz
I completely agree. Heinz would think like that. After all even though he knew he did wrong but he said i still can’t die. I think he would be thinking along the lines of he needs to stay alive so that he can save humanity from a new demon king or something along.
Jonathan Hurd
My best with Brian. Heinz is going to mental judo his way into saying killing Darcia is perfectly fine and he’s not to blame. He’ll keep going on about greater good or some other bull to make himself feel better. Then his loyal followers will congratulate him for being so awesome.
Lord Rin
Heinz will never admit his mistakes or have a breakdown because of being confronted with them. He’ll find some way to twist everything to conveniently put him in the right. Like maybe he’ll say that since Darcia is alive then what he did to her is fine or that Van and Darcia and by extension Vida are crazy and evil and must be destroyed for the good of humanity. He’ll just double down on how he’s in the right.
TheTrueDeathGod
Heinz will use a convenient interpretation like “‘Kouki,’ from Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou”
HolyJolteon
No Heinz is nowhere near as bad as Kouki. You can at least somewhat reason with Heinz.
FatqaFE
this is what i’m waiting for along time. great thanks to you
picakcarson
I wonder what new jobs will show up in the next chapter?
Also HEINZ YOU PIECE OF SHIT BURN IN HELL
picakcarson
Nevermind found it on the fandom, shame though 3 more chapters
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Mossy Stone
The smart thing for Heinz/Curatos would have been to head to the town and wait for reinforcements – knowing when to retreat (“give up”) is important you idiots; now Van has gotten stronger (and wiser) and all you get is a pyrrhic tie! The beginning of this chapter was frustrating to read …okay, the resulting happiness almost makes up for the initial frustration.
Goddess descent – it was satisfying to finally see this skill! Darcia was able to get some payback in a sense by letting the FCBs know she was alive, stronger than ever ….and that a mother’s wrath was now pointed at them. It also seemed to me to have been a rejection of them by the goddess Vida as well as a declaration of war to Alda.
Since he devoured his own soul, I wonder if he could have devoured Rodidiots curses as well (although the current status doesn’t reflect this); if not, maybe he will be able to devour them when his devourer skills level up??
Sebas Tian
He only devoured some of his soul, so is very possible that the curse is still on his status because the curse is only partially gone. Or it might be that even devouring his own soul didn’t do anything to the curse.
Randomreader
Then he should try devouring a different part of the soul. Maybe his soul leg has one of the curses concentrated in it
Jonathan Hurd
They talked about why Van can’t and shouldn’t mess with the curses in the chapter when he was talking to Vida and Ricklent. The curses have mixed into his soul. He could potentially destroy part of his soul and get rid of them. It could also end up lobottomizing him. Better not to screw around with your own soul.
Mangydog1
Does eating part of his soul count as screwing around with his soul?
LygarX
you will see why they couldn’t let the dungeon be destroyed. remember, there was a certain line that said that there was something on floor 99+ that was saved from the blast.
Jonathan Hurd
From what I remember the end goal of this dungeon was to awaken Bellwood. So I think the importance of protecting the last few floors is so they can let Heinz into the place Bellwood is currently sleeping.
I think Alda might try to salvage what’s left by getting Heinz to train more outside and then skipping him to the 99th floor. Curatos did say he had already constructed the high end bosses like the DK. So Alfa will probably just skip to them.
Xignum
There’s no way Heinz and co can deal with Guduranis as they are though
SaMu
Probably the tree fetishist
Mr.Darkness
Oh man… Alda already had a shit information network, but now not only that, he will be unable to record history and have organized information.
Worse yet, Van acquired “Perfect Record Technique”, so now not only he will have a much better information gathering network, information will be perfectly stored and organized…
It’s useless, Alda can’t win anymore.
I totally agree with Curatos “End in a draw? I can only think of this as a huge defeat”, this was a monstruous defeat…
Elloria
I think Curatos was talking about Van here, he meant this was Van’s huge defeat because neither could he kill Heinz nor could he destroyed the dungeon completely!
Jonathan Hurd
I think that feeling of defeat is more Vans side. For Curatos this was horrible. They managed to save Hienz yes, but at the cost of half the dungeon, one God, and a heroic spirit. In that whole exchange the most they got was a little more information on how Van fights. Information is important to Curatos but even for him it has come at way to high a cost.
bk3k
No he most certainly meant his own side got defeated. There is massive damage to the souls of Heinz’s party (especially Edgar). The dungeon almost entirely destroyed. Joshua Arkum (a heroic spirit) was already destroyed at that time …and Curatos said this watching Van’s attack approach knowing this was his end.
So no Curatos fully understood the gravity of the situation.
conscript117
why does it sounds as if you are supporting them not losing more than this?
Mr.Darkness
probably cuz i don’t speak english ^^”
Decaf [Invidia]
Looks like a combination of Rodcorte threatening to abandon earth, the incompetence of Alda’s forces, and Banda’s meddling has finally pushed the rest of *Earth’s* gods to bless Vandalieu with their divine protection.
Bout time.
Brian P.
It happened like a half-dozen chapters ago. That’s how Van knows how to make coca-cola, and he stopped off on Origin on his way back to create Banda.
lazygeko
Yup, same chapter he created Banda, he got the earth gods complete blessing. In other words, he got earth gods blessing before Banda was created.
havok038
In my honest opinion, I think Darcia did more damage to Heinz than a soul-destruction technique ever could with those few words. 😎
Randomreader
True. At least soul destruction would have been a quick slaughter but now Goddess incarnation Darcia made it long term
Mangydog1
And he was the first outsider to see a magic girl outfit.
lazygeko
As much as I wish this were true, this is a man who, “Yeah, I knew those ghouls were probably Vida’s children and not monsters or undead, but I still killed them all. Men, women, children, unborn children. And I’ll do it again. AND I am still the hero of the peaceful faction, bringing together all the races in peace and harmony.” as well as; “I know I killed your mom and hurt you and your companions, and for that you want my life, but I cannot die yet, so instead I shall kill you and your friends.”
TheTrueDeathGod
then add a complaint about taxes and your comment would be perfect
lazygeko
As someone posted in the comments of that chapter: Heinz: “But the TAAAAAAXESSSSSS!!!!!”
🙂
ReikoLupus
There are a lot of things to say about this chapter, but I’m only gonna say this:
Darcia killed the remaining Five Colored Blades XD.
no1
Yeah sort of, but they’ll just returned to the town
KingSpy25i
I think he means mentally
Kendov
Well, at that moment it was more Vida than Darcia if I understood it properly
Superboy8338
Well at least Van got stronger from this slaughter…
conscript117
Let’s remember that his strength was being tampered with.
no1
Great chapter and so soon compared to the last chapter, but I don’t get the part “devoured himself”.
Loki
Van devoured his own soul
xeb
the main part of him (that was holding heinz down) was caught up in his on attack that had soul devouring on it, so he ended up devouring himself
not sure how he’ll really be fine after that though, but that is what Vida said
no1
Really, hmm…. I’m very curious to see how this will affect him in the future. 🙂
Rael Hugh Mann
van’s soul is essentially play dough. what happened is something along the lines of shoving a pile of minced play dough into a bag made of play dough. it will take some time, but he will reform with no issues
Randomreader
Isn’t this play dough able to mold themself so it should take even less time
Jonathan Hurd
Considering how often Van keeps giving pieces of himself to other people I don’t forsee any long-term effects from this eating himself.
no1
It is really cool how Vandalieu is able to still be himself with only the pieces of his soul that weren’t devoured
Doom
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, OUR LORD SAVIOR, OUR-OUR-OUR-
ALERT. A NEW SKILL DEVELOPMENT MAY HAVE CAUSED MINOR ISSUES IN THE RECORD KEEPING. PLEASE KNOW THE SYATEM WILL NOW UPDATE TO PROPER ADJUST TO BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR OUR DEATH GOD’S NEW SKILL. IN THE MEANTIME, AN OLD UNUSED MESSAGE SHALL BE USED:
Mmmhhhhmmmm. That was tasty. Souls make good snacks.
Randomreader
Praise the van
KingSpy25i
ALL HAIL LORD AINS, THE GOD OF DEA……… I think I got the wrong story plot and now I’m going to excuse myself out of here. Bye, bye……..ALL HAIL LORD AINS!!!!!
Randomreader
Him too but mostly van
MeiOuSei
The world missed you Doom-sama
Blank
It may have been a draw but Van got some serious power ups during the fight, even though in the end he did lose the element of surprise for some of his attacks
Moonfang
Luckily Van’s more of a mage and a commander. He’s usually not forced to fight alone, and because he was alone he had to engage in close combat. It’ll be funny if Heinz and co’s anti-Van countermeasures focus on close combat after this, only for them to be unable to really get in close when the time comes.
Jonathan Hurd
What is nice is that thanks to this fight forcing Van into close combat it has greatly improved his skills in that department. His close combat fighting not only evolved but leveled up. Add to that his Shield and Armor skills that don’t usually get used, thanks to his barriers, going up. This fight has greatly improved Vans close range combat for next time. Never hurts to be more rounded. This’ll increase his fighting options past just being a mage or commander. He can finally frontline too.
bk3k
As Curitos pointed out while waiting for his doom… this is hardly a “draw”. Alda’s side lost a heroic spirit and a god. Heinz’s party took major damage directly to their souls. The dungeon is all but ruined.
Furthermore Van grew stronger though devouring them. That’s not getting into mental damage. So no sane person sees this as a draw. Van does, but that’s… he’s Van.
SamiNeptune
Oh, shit man. Van is really gonna annihilate the whole Alda faction huh? Can’t wait to see how much more op he becomes.
mexgema
OHHHHH! MY! GAHD!
Another Chapter So quickly?! THIS MUST BE THE WORK OF A STAND!
Edit: Curatos. You piece of shit. You fuck. You fucking pebble. How fucking dare you. You deserve a thousand times worse of what you got. You absolute imbecile. Die.
Sebas Tian
THE WORK OF AN ALLIED STAND!!!
SaMu
If only Van could zombify a god
Morgan
he can but said god would need to be reduced in power to the level of an ordinary mortal. but since no god would willingly be devoured only 99% of the way, he’ll likely never have the chance.
Valkit
Damn this was an amazing chapter
Sebas Tian
Yay Curatos has been devoured, but boo Heinz and Delizah are mostly fine. Hope you all enjoyed the fight and getting to see Darcia show up and bap Delizah to death in a single swing of her staff.
Zone Q11
Am I the only one that’s worried that Curatos completed a record before he got devoured? What will he even do with that record? Send it to Alda?
Armorpiercer
I think that is the case
bad but not much, Van still have plenty in store for these mofo
kazamakj
The record is basically just an outdated info dump. They did not fully produce what Van can actually do plus the fact he was not carrying his staff. Alda’s faction is basically operating on the side of outdated info in this ongoing war.
Jonathan Hurd
I don’t think Alda necessarily needs Curatos’ records of the fight he can probably watch the replay from Heinzs memories. Van has revealed quite a few cards but there were some good gains from doing so. He also got to see a lot of what Heinz has and he destroyed Heinz little training dungeon fairly completely.
Add in that Van broke the dungeon before Heinz could fight Schneider and Van has now hidden some of his war potential.
lazygeko
Considering the gods can use their followers as peeping cameras, it matters little, but the alda faction gods probably will receive everything he recorded.
chekage
Send it to the gods group chat
Superboy8338
DEATH TO THE RACIST, CONTROL-FREAK GOD, ALDA!!!! Oh–and death to all of his followers too…!
unwanted child
no no no, not all of them. iris was a believer before the resistance just kill the zealots
LmaoLN
No just the fanatics and killers of the innocent people of Vida’s races
Mossy Stone
Wonder if Van can now create a dungeon to train his people to fight FCBs? Also if the damage to the dungeon could somehow wake up Bellwood? Van seems to succeed where that failure of a human Heinz doesn’t after all.
EDIT: Bellwood isn’t “my hero”. Alda wants to see if Heinz can wake Bellboy up… I presume he was moved to somewhere on the 100th floor. Makes me wonder too if the evil god of sinful chains will become an enemy or an ally (the only good that could come from Van accidentally waking Bellbottom up)?
Randomreader
I’m sorry. Your ‘hero’ Bellwood has been sealed in a different dungeon.
Ryuuseiboy1
I think curatos likely leave a lass boss (maybe gudu-san or baka trio champion) copy for heinz to come back to train after recover enough. Although the boss would be nerf cause it creator got eaten so he cannot make adjustment anymore. As the dungeon for training, he already have a dungeon with Mikhail dummy so I think he might not bother create new one
bk3k
No he really is there, and Curatos barely managed to save him by temporarily shifting the position of the 99th and 100th floor… at the cost of getting caught in that blast himself.
Lord Rin
I don’t think so. They said Bellwood got struck down in the dungeon of the Evil God of Sinful Chains and this isn’t that dungeon. This is a dungeon that Alda’s group specially made. I’m thinking maybe the final floor has either a portal that leads to the dungeon that Bellwood is in or maybe a portal to Alda’s realm that was probably meant to turn Heinz and his party into heroic gods when they pass through before they go to challenge the other dungeon that Bellwood is in.
Sebas Tian
They didn’t say Bellwood was in a dungeon and Alda said he was placing Bellwood at the end of the dungeon he was making for Heinz so that Heinz could wake him up when Alda and co have been unable to do so. The Labyrinth of Sinful Chains isn’t a dungeon and was not referred to as one.
Mr.Darkness
I think this is that dungeon… And Bellwood being on the deepest floor is why Curatos protected the 98th floor onwards.
Jonathan Hurd
I like your idea there. Van seems to have absorbed Curatos ability to record things. If you combine that with Labyrinth Creation he might be able to make a dungeon just like what Curatos did here. That would be epic to let all of his forces do practice fights against Heinz and crew just like they were doing. Biggest difference being Vans records way more up to date.
bk3k
It won’t wake him. But I will very much enjoy the chapter when he does awaken – properly translated by Yoshi (sadly not for a very long while). What you already know from the novel so far is Bellwood went to fight “The Evil God of Sinful Chains” but he’s been sleeping ever since. For 50,000 years Bellwood sleeps.
Just a small non-spoiler hint – “The Evil God of Sinful Chains” is IMO a great hero who delivered the most delicious justice towards Bellwood. He can’t defeat Bellwood in combat, but his power is to show a person their sins, so figure that one out! You might speculate why I love that chapter even with terrible MT.