Chapter 360: The stakes are swung, and post-battle Orbaume

Because gods did not have a physical body, it was possible for them to experience a living hell of pure agony that was so painful that they could not even lose consciousness. Rodcorte had experienced that pain first-hand, and he was still collapsed face-down, unable to stand up.

Rodcorte had suffered the pain of not only Rikudou Hijiri’s soul being devoured, but the souls of Moriya and the others that had become Ghosts being devoured as well – the souls of seven reincarnated individuals in total, all at once.

But even as he lay there, Rodcorte was thinking.

In the end, Guduranis was devoured by Vandalieu. Given this outcome, maybe I should have done as he told me to?

He was questioning his decision of not sending Guduranis the fragments of the Demon King’s soul in his possession.

The phrase ‘Once past the throat, the heat is forgotten’ was perfectly applicable here.

However, this incarnation of Guduranis had indeed been precious to Rodcorte, in the sense that there had been a chance of him defeating Vandalieu. He had possessed fragments of his own soul, Rikudou’s soul which he had absorbed, and Edgar’s Status, along with the Ghosts of Rikudou’s subordinates. On top of that, he had possessed a body made from fragments of the Demon King. There were problems with this, but it was a fact that Guduranis had demonstrated great power by possessing this combination of things.

It would be difficult to create another being as powerful as that… No, it would be impossible. It wasn’t just the fragments of Guduranis’s soul or the souls of the reincarnated individuals that would be impossible to procure. The fragments of the Demon King’s body would be, too.

Most of the fragments of the Demon King in the Orbaume Kingdom had been absorbed by Vandalieu. The only ones remaining were the ones that Prime Minister Tercatanis had failed to gather.

The Demon King’s arms were a combination of numerous fragments such as the Demon King’s right thumb, left pinky, and left palm. The Demon King’s brain was also a combination of fragments, such as the Demon King’s cerebellum, cerebrum, and frontal lobe.

It was possible that other arm and brain fragments were still out there somewhere, and Vandalieu was missing them, but not so many that their function could not be carried out by other fragments.

It had been recorded in mythology that Guduranis’s body had been torn into pieces. But of course, that didn’t mean that there were a thousand fragments of Guduranis’s body. ‘In pieces’ was just an adjective meaning that it had been divided finely into many pieces.

Back then, Bellwood and the others had been seriously vigilant about the risk of the remnants of the Demon King’s army plotting Guduranis’s resurrection, so they had never recorded or told anyone exactly how many fragments there were.

And the Bahn Gaia continent was the most prosperous continent in all of Lambda. The Orbaume Kingdom accounted for a third of this continent’s landmass, and a proportionally large number of fragments had existed in it. However, most of them had been absorbed by Vandalieu. And it was likely that he had also already absorbed the fragments that were kept by Vida’s side.

In other words, the only fragments left were those in the Amid Empire and its vassal states, which made up the remaining one-third of the Bahn Gaia continent.

In order to create another suitable body with fragments of the Demon King, it was likely necessary to gather the majority of the fragments that existed in the Amid Empire.

Of course, even if that were to be done, the problem would be whether Guduranis would have any chance of victory without his instinct or memories, and without the benefits of a Status. To think that Vandalieu would completely absorb the fragments to make them a part of himself… Where was he a hundred thousand years ago when we needed him?! Rodcorte thought.

He repeatedly pounding the floor of his Divine Realm with his fists in frustration, but… given the chronological order of events, it would have been impossible for Vandalieu to appear a hundred thousand years ago.

It was none other than Rodcorte himself who had gathered the fragments of the souls of Zakkart, Ark, Solder, and Hillwillow and joined them into a single soul that he then placed in the cycle of death and reincarnation on Earth for a hundred thousand years before it was born as Vandalieu.

Rodcorte suddenly came back to his senses. “That’s right! I don’t have the time to be thinking about things like that…!” He stopped his unreasonable blaming and scrambled about to get onto his feet. “I must somehow cover up this incident! I must think of something before Alda comes to question me!”

“That’s impossible,” Aran and the other familiar spirits muttered in the distance.

But Rodcorte was so panicked that he couldn’t hear them at all.

The matter of his embedding of the Demon King’s soul powder in Edgar was likely manageable. It was Alda who had left the treatment of Edgar’s damaged soul in Rodcorte’s hands, and it was Alda who had made an impossible demand… asking that Edgar be returned to fighting form as quickly as possible.

Rodcorte had simply done as he had been asked. But he was indeed at fault for keeping quiet about the fact that he had used a part of Guduranis’s soul for the treatment, even if it was just the soul powder. Rodcorte believed that there was room for him to apologize for that.

However, Rodcorte had also implanted Guduranis’s instinct and memories into Rikudou and even went as far as to help prepare a body made from fragments of the Demon King. When questioned about this by Alda, he had brazenly lied and deceived him. There was no explanation for that.

If Rikudou… If Guduranis had killed Vandalieu and every single person in the nation he ruled, Rodcorte would have returned to being a god who was almost completely unknown to the inhabitants of Lambda, and then he would have been able to flee and leave the world of Lambda behind. If that had happened, it wouldn’t have mattered what Alda thought, or what became of the world of Lambda… Even if the world were to be destroyed as a result, it wouldn’t have been of any concern to Rodcorte.

He would just have one less world whose circle of reincarnation system he managed. It was a world that he had already tried to cut off once in the past, even though it would have come at the cost of cutting off Earth and Origin as well. He would have considered himself lucky if he wasn’t forced to lose Lambda, but even if he was, it wasn’t something that would have bothered him.

But such a future was still nothing more than a hopeful dream. Despite the current state of Rodcorte’s cooperative relationship with Alda, it would be bad for him if that cooperative relationship were to collapse entirely.

The only reincarnated individual left to use as a pawn is Da Long, who is in a stupefied daze after Rikudou was destroyed. I cannot gather the forces needed to kill Vandalieu on my own. I will have to leave everything to Alda and his subordinate gods. And Guduranis told Vandalieu that I am after not only his life, but the lives of all of his people! Vandalieu will definitely come to kill me one day!

It was unclear as to whether Vandalieu was capable of invading Rodcorte’s Divine Realm, and even if he was, whether he would do something as reckless as destroying Rodcorte, given that he governed the circle of transmigration systems of numerous worlds. But to begin with, it didn’t matter to Rodcorte whether Vandalieu would simply destroy him recklessly, or whether he would take measures to prevent any problems from being caused by Rodcorte’s destruction before destroying him. After all, Rodcorte would be destroyed either way.

Rodcorte’s most realistic chance of surviving was to further strengthen Heinz and his companions, who had survived, and have them defeat Vandalieu.

But before Rodcorte could ponder the matter any further, a majestic-sounding voice echoed in his Divine Realm.

“Rodcorte…”

A moment later, Alda appeared.

He’s already here?! Rodcorte thought, flustered.

He hadn’t come up with any ideas yet, but he decided to give Alda some lip service to buy himself some time to think of a plan.

“Alda, listen to–” he began as he looked up to face Alda.

But as he looked up, he saw Alda’s pale face and his arm – which was wielding a stake that was brought down upon Rodcorte’s face.

After letting out a series of ear-splitting screams, Rodcorte finally fell silent, spasming quietly on the floor of his Divine Realm. Alda looked down at him and finally lowered his arms.

“I simply impaled him out of anger, but… to think that my divine authority, the Stakes of Law, would affect Rodcorte despite the fact that they should only affect gods who belong to Lambda…” Alda murmured.

He had become infuriated after realizing that Rodcorte had deceived him and even caused the resurrection of Guduranis. He had brought his stakes down upon Rodcorte, unable to resist striking him out of anger, but he hadn’t thought that his divine authority would have any effect on him.

“Come to think of it, Guduranis said… that he would kill not only Vandalieu, but destroy his nation, too. I see. Your existence has been acknowledged by the races created by Vida, and you have become a god of this world. Is that why you were so panicked? Because you had been driven into a corner?”

Rodcorte, impaled by numerous stakes, didn’t have the ability to answer. But Alda accepted this as the likely reason.

And there was something more important for him to confirm first. Depending on the situation, he would need to remove all of the stakes from Rodcorte right away.

“Familiar spirits of Rodcorte! Answer me!” Alda commanded.

“Y-yes! Ask anything you wish!” said a male familiar spirit who was wearing peculiar clothing that would never be seen in Lambda – Endou Kouya – as he came to stand before Alda.

He had presented himself in the hope that if Alda were to unleash his wrath upon him, he could sacrifice himself and allow Aran and Izumi, who were more experienced with Rodcorte’s system, to be spared. But that turned out to be a needless fear.

“Is the circle of transmigration system functioning without problems even as my divine authority is punishing Rodcorte?” Alda asked.

It seemed that Alda had felt some satisfaction after impaling Rodcorte with numerous stakes; he was more rational than Kouya and the others had thought.

“Yes. It’s not really without problems… When problems occur, repairs and maintenance carried out by Rodcorte will be required, but if there are no problems, then there are no issues with leaving it as it is for a while,” Kouya said.

Rodcorte’s circle of transmigration system was near perfect. Even if Rodcorte was unable to carry out any work on it at all, it would continue to carry out reincarnation automatically as usual. And because Kouya and the others had become experienced with handling the system after becoming familiar spirits, they were capable of carrying out simple maintenance and handling errors.

But in this instance, the near-perfect nature of Rodcorte’s system was his undoing.

“What are these problems you refer to, and how long is ‘a while?’” Alda questioned.

“Problems are caused when Vandalieu destroys souls,” Kouya replied. “But even then, we can make do for a while. And by ‘a while,’ I mean a few years to a decade.”

“And that is true for not only Lambda, but for all worlds whose reincarnation is governed by Rodcorte?”

“Yes. It’s true for the reincarnation of every world.”

“I see… Then I suppose there is no need to remove the stakes.”

Having learned that no problems would be caused by Rodcorte’s absence, Alda decided to not remove the stakes and leave him as he was. If the circle of transmigration system required frequent maintenance by Rodcorte, then Rodcorte might have gotten away with only experiencing a hellish agony and terror, but…

“In that case, I will have you three carry out maintenance on the circle of transmigration system for a while. And believe me, it is pointless to try to save your master Rodcorte,” Alda said.

“Understood! We won’t think about anything unnecessary and focus on maintaining the circle of transmigration system! Now then, please excuse me!” said Kouya with a bow, and then he returned to where the system was.

Ordinarily, familiar spirits would be concerned for the well-being of their master, but Alda found himself perplexed that Kouya showed no concern for Rodcorte whatsoever. But he simply assumed that this was likely due to Rodcorte’s lack of virtue.

“To think that he cannot even form good relationships with his own familiar spirits… However, the issue of reincarnation has been solved for the time being. With this, I won’t have to worry about Rodcorte or his reincarnated individuals,” Alda murmured to himself. “All I must worry about now is Heinz’s party and the potential heroes… It is fortunate that Heinz has regained consciousness, but the loss of Edgar is a painful one. And to think that I might lose Orbaume, in terms of worship.”

Because he had created a Dungeon to strengthen Heinz and his party, Alda had lost the power necessary to descend upon the world. And it would have been dangerous to descend to fight against Guduranis, due to the risk of being attacked by Vandalieu.

But even so, asking the people of Orbaume to understand his circumstances would be impossible. Vandalieu would have appeared to be a ‘Savior’ in their eyes – no matter how vile and evil his true nature was. After all, Vandalieu had indeed saved them.

Heinz and his companions had fought as worshipers of the gods of Alda’s forces, but their achievements in this battle were far less impressive than Vandalieu’s. Fortunately, it was still unclear to the people as to how exactly Guduranis had been resurrected. Edgar’s death was likely to become known as a tragedy. However, the only thing the potential heroes who had been fighting at ground level would remember was that Edgar had died.

It seemed that the potential heroes felt distrust for the gods, who had instructed them to receive ‘Rodcorte’s Divine Protection.’ It was likely that some of them would cut the gods off, like the previous potential hero chosen by Rubicante.

And several of the duchies of the Orbaume Kingdom would do the same.

“The original plan was to unite the Amid Empire and the Orbaume Kingdom under Heinz and Eileek, amass a fighting force and then strike Vandalieu, but… I suppose I have no choice but to focus mainly on the Amid Empire now,” Alda muttered.

Nineroad had evacuated Heinz and his companions to a place far from Orbaume. Alda decided to send them a Divine Message instructing them to continue running and head for the Amid Empire.

He also needed to send a Divine Message to Eileek, the new Pope, so that the Amid Empire would take Heinz and his companions in. They had been born in the Mirg shield-nation, a vassal state of the Amid Empire, but they had become honorary nobles and based themselves in a nation that had been the empire’s enemy since its foundation. Some knew of this, and many called Heinz a traitor to his nation.

But the people of the Amid Empire were sure to see Heinz differently once they learned that he had awakened Bellwood from his slumber and carried his holy sword. No, they would be forced to.

And so, Alda quickly sent a Divine Message to Heinz.

《The Level of the ‘Labyrinth Creation’ Skill has increased!》

《‘Shadow Group Binding Technique’ has awakened to ‘Demon World Binding Technique!’》

After Guduranis was defeated and Heinz and his party escaped, Vandalieu and his companions immediately set out to deal with the aftermath of the battle.

“… Look, the gates are moving in a row, like ducklings. I must be so tired that my eyes are failing me,” said Hendricksen, his mouth half-open dumbfoundedly.

“Get a hold of yourself, Hendricksen-san. What you’re seeing is reality,” said Arthur.

“How about some medicinal herb tea?” offered a Demon King Familiar.

Vandalieu was leading the gates away. “I didn’t want to have to do things like this,” he said. “This is all Rikudou… This is all Dark Avalon’s fault.”

The gates that Rikudou had created all over Orbaume had remained after Guduranis took over his soul and even after both of them were destroyed.

The Dungeon beyond the gates was still intact as well. Most of the monsters had been exterminated, but as time passed, more would spawn.

If something wasn’t done about that, rebuilding the city of Orbaume would be impossible. However, it was impossible to destroy a Dungeon or stop it from functioning.

For a Dungeon that was governed by a certain being, such as Alda’s Dungeon of Trials and the Trial of Zakkart, it was possible to stop their function by destroying that being. But for other Dungeons, the most that even Vandalieu could do was create holes in their floors.

Thus, Vandalieu had decided to use the ‘Labyrinth Creation’ Skill to gather all of the gates to one place, and then move all of the gates inside the Dungeon, leaving only one gate behind.

This resulted in a complicated state where the inside of the Dungeon contained multiple entrances to itself, but with this, it was now an ordinary A-class Dungeon with only one entrance connecting it to the outside world.

Vandalieu had been hesitant to make it publicly known that he had the ability to move Dungeon entrances, but… he had already done much more than that, so he had decided that it was already too late to be worried about such things.

With only some exceptions, the people who had evacuated into the shelters hadn’t come out yet. Having them stay inside the shelters was safer than hastily letting them out into the rubble-strewn wasteland outside, and this way, there was no risk of criminals looting houses while the city was in such a state.

Incidentally, the food needed to feed them was being procured from the monster corpses that filled the city’s streets.

“Hendricksen! Stop escaping reality and get back to cutting the meat!” the adventurer next to Hendricksen scolded him.

“No matter how much I cut, there’s no end to it… Though for some reason, a lot of the corpses don’t have any bones, so it’s easier than it normally would be,” Hendricksen said.

“We will be buying the materials not used for food in bulk, so please gather them over here!” Isla shouted to the adventurers.

“They can really buy up all of these materials? These materials are from monsters with really high Ranks, too. Isn’t the Adventurers’ Guild going to go bankrupt?” muttered one of the adventurers who was dismantling the monster corpses.

Indeed, he couldn’t be blamed for worrying about that.

Even materials taken from a Rank 7 monster could be sold for large sums. And yet, a countless number of monsters above Rank 10, whose existence was only spoken of in legends, had appeared in the city. Some of the monsters had been so violently destroyed that there were no usable materials to be harvested from them, but even so, there was a mountain of materials that had belonged to legendary monsters.

There was no telling how many tens of millions – how many hundreds of millions of Baums would be needed to buy them all.

“I’m sure the country will subsidize it,” one of the male adventurers said.

“I mean, look around. This is the country that’s going to pay for that?” said the other male adventurer next to him as he shaved the skin off a mass of meat.

“Huh, I guess you’re right,” said the first adventurer.

Half the city that had been in a perfectly fine state until this morning was now rubble, and the rest of the city had buildings that were still standing but in a half-destroyed state that rendered them unusable. Apparently, the slums had been particularly thoroughly destroyed. That couldn’t be helped, because the buildings there had all been dilapidated to begin with, but…

There were sections that had been left miraculously unharmed, but if one excluded buildings like Silkie Zakkart Mansion, only a very tiny portion of buildings were completely undamaged. And one of the most curious things was that even from here, it was clear that the royal castle hadn’t collapsed and was looking as majestic as usual, but…

Wait, was the royal castle always shaped like that? It has more towers now… No, I feel like it’s moved? the man thought, confused as he realized that the castle that he was used to seeing had changed shape. No, I suppose it’s just my imagination. The castle is full of holes, and it’s in an unusual state where there’s a huge flying ship, a mass of flesh, a centipede, and an Elder Dragon floating around it. The castle was right beneath the battle with Guduranis, so I suppose it’s only natural for it to change shape a little.

And with that, the man turned his mind to another matter. “But what’s going to happen now? The Five-colored Blades disappeared somewhere and haven’t come back yet. And weren’t they arguing? With the ‘Savior,’ I mean.”

“… I have no idea. They were pretty far away, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying…” said the man next to him.

These men, like Hendricksen, were potential heroes… the individuals chosen and granted divine protections by the gods of Alda’s forces. Some of them were also party members of the potential heroes. They had been anxious when they heard that Rodcorte was the reason behind Guduranis’s resurrection, and they had been confused when they heard that the Five-colored Blades and the ‘Savior’ Vandalieu had apparently argued with one another.

In times of peace, it wouldn’t be strange for Heinz, a worshiper of Alda, to be arguing with Vandalieu, a worshiper of Vida. But why would he argue with Vandalieu immediately after he defeated the Demon King Guduranis? Even if they worshiped different gods, shouldn’t he have shared in the joy of the world having been saved?

To begin with, Heinz and his companions were a part of Alda’s peaceful faction, who advocated for reconciliation with Vida’s worshipers and the members of the races she had created. Vandalieu was the Dhampir who had been praised as ‘Savior’ by Vida; why would Heinz and his companions cause trouble for him?

The more the potential heroes and their companions thought about it, the more they found it difficult to imagine what Heinz was thinking. Of course, while Vandalieu and his companions fought against Guduranis in the sky, the potential heroes had been fighting at ground level… and away from Vandalieu and the others. Thus, they weren’t familiar with the situation.

They had been able to hear Guduranis’s declaration of his own resurrection, and his roars, as well as Vida’s praise for Vandalieu. But they hadn’t learned of the details regarding the situation and the timeline of events. So perhaps there were some circumstances that they weren’t aware of. Or perhaps they were simply misunderstanding things.

However, the Five-colored Blades, the ones who would normally be questioned regarding those circumstances, had vanished somewhere… through a god’s power, no less.

But even the gods that the potential heroes worshiped were not sending any Divine Messages with instructions.

“Hendricksen! Arthur! Haven’t you guys received any Divine Messages?!” one of the men shouted, unable to handle his growing unease any longer.

It was Hendricksen who answered him first. “No, nothing. But what if the gods are thinking that there’s nothing they need to say right now?”

He had become completely calm after having recovered from the unbelievable sight of Vandalieu moving Dungeon entrances, which were supposed to be completely immovable.

“T-there’s nothing that they need to say?!” the man repeated incredulously.

“What do you mean by that?!” said another.

This time, it was Arthur who answered. “The resurrected Guduranis has been defeated. And we are doing what we can to rebuild the city. Is that not enough?”

The men, who were now accustomed to Arthur’s ferocious appearance, gasped as they realized that he was right.

“I see. I suppose there’s some reason to that,” one of them said.

“Indeed… Now’s not the time to be doing things like this. If we get the chance, we can ask the ‘Savior’ or Isla-san later,” said another.

Pretending that he hadn’t heard that, Vandalieu continued gathering the gates in one place.

“Danna-sama, I would like to ask two things,” said Bellmond, who was walking beside Vandalieu like a secretary. “The first is… Do we not need to denounce the Five-colored Blades and the gods of Alda’s forces?”

“No, we don’t,” replied Vandalieu, who had cast a spell to ensure that this conversation couldn’t be overheard. “Or to be more precise, that isn’t something that we need to do just yet. We’re worshipers of Vida, and if we proactively criticize Alda and Heinz, people will end up harboring animosity towards us. The people who evacuated didn’t see or hear what happened, after all.”

The lives of the people of Orbaume had been saved thanks to Vandalieu, but that didn’t mean that they would blindly believe whatever he said. Even if Vandalieu and his companions were to denounce the gods of Alda’s forces and criticize Heinz, many of the people who worshiped gods of Alda’s forces would only doubt him further rather than believe what he said.

From their perspective, everything had been peaceful up until this morning, when monsters suddenly attacked the city, forcing them to flee for their lives and evacuate. Even if the gods they worshiped were to be blamed for it, they wouldn’t understand.

Although the truth was clear as day for Vandalieu and his companions, it was not so clear for the people. And it wasn’t as if there was proof to convince them.

“We just need to speak the truth calmly to the people in a manner that is easy to understand. Let’s keep the fact that Guduranis’s soul dust was implanted into Edgar’s soul a secret,” Vandalieu said. “Dark Avalon, the name that Isla spread for us. Rodcorte, whose name Asagi blabbered out loud. The Five-colored Blades, who left Orbaume despite the fact that the city needs to be rebuilt… Even without us raising our voices, it’s clear as to what the people will think. And I’m planning to outsource the task of proactive criticism.”

“I see. To the ones who are currently talking to one another inside Knochen, I presume?” Bellmond said. “And you are the ‘Savior’ who defeated Guduranis. As you and the rest of us put effort into the rebuilding of Orbaume, the people will think more favorably of you and have a more positive impression of beings like Undead and Demons.”

“That’s right,” said Vandalieu. “So, what is the other thing you wanted to ask?”

“Ah, yes… When will I be able to have you suck my blood?” asked Bellmond, her cheeks turning slightly pink.

Vandalieu gave her a perplexed look.

“I mean to say, I have heard that you consumed the blood that you preemptively took from me and transplanted into Jeena and Borkus, but… I would like to have you suck it from me directly, Danna-sama… And come to think of it, I heard that you used a proboscis to suck blood from Zadiris and the others. Is there some meaning to that?” Bellmond asked.

“No, I just thought that a mark left by a proboscis would fade away faster than marks left by fangs. Zadiris and the others don’t have the ‘Rapid Regeneration’ Skill, after all,” said Vandalieu. “So, regarding an opportunity to suck your blood, Bellmond… After this, I’ll be combining the Dungeon’s gates into a single gate, making adjustments around the entrance, and restoring the walls protecting the city of Orbaume using ‘Golem Creation.’ I’ll need to use a lot of Mana, so I’ll suck your blood after that.”

Vandalieu was capable of repairing the buildings by turning the rubble into Golems, but he didn’t intend to repair the entirety of the city that way. It would leave construction workers out of a job, and… it would become troublesome later on.

He did intend to carry out repairs on the things needing immediate attention – the area around the Dungeon’s entrance, the city’s walls, and the building of each Guild.

“There is also the task of renovating the slum district. I feel at ease knowing that, as it seems that I, Pauvina, Gizania, Privel, Myuze, and Eleanora will all be able to have turns at having our blood sucked soon enough,” Bellmond said.

“… Don’t blame me if you all become anemic afterwards,” said Vandalieu.

Vandalieu was merely the son of an honorary noble, even if he was the ‘Savior,’ so ordinarily, he wouldn’t be allowed to carry out this work without the permission of the king and nobles. Ordinary repairs might have been fine, but renovating the slum district without permission would be outrageous.

However, Vandalieu and his companions were certain that it wouldn’t be a problem. After all… they had already gained the agreement of King Corbitt and the others.

A white castle – or rather, Knochen, who had transformed to create a castle of bones, stood in front of Orbaume’s royal castle, which had collapsed in various places. In the reception room was an enormous round table made of countless bones, and it was surrounded by the few people who had been let out of the shelters – King Corbitt, Marshal Dolmad, and several others.

All of them looked terribly pale; some of them were as ashen as corpses, and others were trembling so violently that they couldn’t even drink the tea that had been prepared for them… There were some who looked like they were suppressing their feelings of irritation, and others whose faces were red with anger, but they were in the minority.

“Now then… Let us begin this emergency council of the Orbaume Kingdom,” King Corbitt said, his voice filled with a heavy fatigue. “I ask you to draw forth all of your wisdom so that it is not the Orbaume Kingdom’s last.”