Chapter 229 (1/2)
The Gods of Alda's forces were observing the inside of the Boundary Mountain Range, including Talosheim However, the Gods' poere blocked off by the barrier that had been put up by the Gods of Vida's faction
Thus, the Gods had created a peephole in the Divine Realaze at the surface of the world fro information
If this was for the surveying of the Bahn Gaia continent's geography, the creation of an accurate map or the observation of weather and other natural phenohly successful
But the Gods were atteather information about a city-state on the world's surface
Of course, as superior beings, the eyes of Gods could see far further than those of mortals, but… they had their lih objects In the first place, they did not normally even need eyes
The Gods were able to learn of the world's surface through the eyes and ears of the believers that offered them prayers
The definition of 'offering prayers' was not a strict one Believers did not have to be fervent worshi+ppers who prayed every day at a certain ti their hands together at a Church, roadside shrine or in front of an ornah Of course, the stronger the believers' faith, the ained from them, but there were no other differences
… Well, this was so that all Gods were able to do as a baseline, rather than being a specialized power specifically for gaining inforh it was rare for them to answer the prayers of their believers, it would be entirely impossible if they couldn't hear their believers' prayers in the first place
Of course, this ability could not be used for gathering infore with the barrier shutting theion
However –
“Ugh!” one of the Gods groaned
It was Ryaon, the God of waves He had been observing the region with his eyes, but he was now collapsed inside the Divine Realm
“Ryaon-dono! Ryaon-dono has collapsed!” another God shouted
“Has he been watching Taloshei?!” said another
“I-I am fine I will recover if I rest for a while… But it seeer I will ask Yupeon-sama for another God to take my place,” said Ryaon
“Please do I will take over for you in the meantime,” said another God
Alda served as the head of the Gods ruling over the light and life attributes a his forces, but a hundred thousand years had passed with no great God serving as the head of the other attributes Thus, the other six attributes had representative Gods serving as heads and leading the Gods of their respective attributes
As Faro, it had been necessary to appoint a God as the head of the fire attribute, and the surviving Gods of the space and time attributes had all been those with no will of their own, so appointing new Gods for those attributes had been difficult It was difficult to say that these attributes were in a stable state
But the water and earth attributes had Gods who had served their respective great Gods as heads leading the Gods of those attributes, and had been relatively stable for the past hundred thousand years
“Get soood rest, Ryaon-dono,” one of the other Gods said “To think that he can eat into theVandalieu… what a terrible being”
Ryaon's mind had been eaten into by the mysterious patterns that had been painted on the roofs of Talosheis They rese in them, and yet they also resembled a child's random scribbles Each of the pictures on every roof felt like individual works, but at the saether to represent a single theme
These were not es with the effects of Vandalieu's 'Mental Encroachment' Skill
They were extraordinarily evil, cursed paintings that ate into the minds of the Gods that looked at them
The Gods st themselves
“Us Gods are able to resist this effect, but I shudder to think ould happen if our believers were to see these ies…”
“It seems that some men from the Amid Empire's army and the Sauron fa at the ion that was once the Scylla territory Even those with the 'Mental Resistance' Skill uard down”
“It would be fine if they merely lost their minds But so into the for They are no longer our believers”
“A Deuidance that the chauidance at that”
To the Gods looking at thes, but those who darkness buried within their hearts would be guided by the paintings into beco
The guidance was not an attack upon the uidance benefited from positive effects Thus, resistance Skills were ineffective against it
“Even in the city of Morksi, he and Vida's incarnation are coaxing children with sords, enticing and guiding them Ricklent-sama and Zuruwarn-sama's unexpected betrayal of Aldsama may also be because they have been driven insane by the De”
“… I cannot deny that possibility Especially after seeing the form that he takes His repulsiveness exceeds even the fearso Guduranis that I have heard from descriptions”
“He may indeed be more fearsome than Guduranis As we became Gods after the war that took place a hundred thousand years ago, we never saw Guduranis ourselves, but… it is clear that Vandalieu isand resilient”
“Are Rodcorte-dono's reincarnated individuals capable of defeating this cunning, resilient Vandalieu? Even the next generation's champion Heinz, who has received Alda's divine protection and is accompanied by Alda's heroic spirit, was heavily wounded and forced to retreat from battle And yet his opponent is a monstrosity who is able to materialize his soul, is able to repair that soul froe within less than a month, devoured the evil God of joyful life and has beco the blood of an Elder Dragon or Colossus”
“An evil God… Indeed, you are correct, but he likes to pretend that he has beco his people create enormous statues of himself”
The last God to speak pointed to a place where an enore that it would certainly becoenerations
“No, they will be able to kill hi as he possesses a physical body, death will come for him eventually Even those with limitless lifespans such as Vampires and Majin, and even Undead who have already experienced death once, cannot avoid their eventual destruction That even applies for ons and Beast Kings… The De his flesh torn into countless fragments and his soul separated into multiple pieces, but it was possible to seal hi?”
The other Gods agreed As Gods, they believed that there was no such thing as an ireat Gods and the De Guduranis had been destroyed, and Guduranis was under such strict seals that he was as good as dead
No being was an exception to this The only difference between beings was how long it would be before they met their end
“However… Even if ere able to kill him, ould we do then? I do not think that ould need to worry if he were an ordinary Dhampir, but he uses the Undead It is more than possible that he will turn his own corpse into an Undead at the moment of his death”
In history, there had been several Undead users, commonly known as Necromancers, such as the Pure-breed Vampires Gubamon and Ternecia They did not use the death attribute like Vandalieu; they had used the divine protections of evil Gods or used heretical life-attribute rant false life to and manipulate corpses
Some of these Necromancers had been able to turn their own corpses into Undead after suffering fatal wounds… though this had always been a futile struggle, as they had become mere Zo
But if Vandalieu were to do the sareat a threat as he hile alive
“Aldsa this, have they not? After Vandalieu is killed, Rodcorte-dono will use his authority as the God of reincarnation to capture and seal away his soul”
As the God of reincarnation, Rodcorte's authority did not extend to living humans It extended only to souls that had died and were destined for reincarnation
However, he was also able to intervene on souls in states that were considered dead after losing their bodies
He would need to extend a hand in the for upon the world of Lambda and take hold of the soul that was in its powerless state And then he would seal it away
Just as he had done with the soul frag Guduranis
“Souls are outside of our expertise, but Rodcorte-dono, an expert in the ly If we can kill Vandalieu, then Rodcorte-dono should be able to seal him away”
“Indeed, you are right We can trust in the power of Rodcorte-dono, the one who sealed away Guduranis's soul But do you think that the reincarnated individuals will be able to kill Vandalieu?”
The other Gods fell silent in response to this question
The Gods of Alda's forces were not well-informed when it cain as the Bravers But they were infor their activities after they were reincarnated in this world
Fro farinto account their future potential, it was questionable as to whether they would be able to defeat Vandalieu, so Gods
“The other question is, how effective are the cheat-like abilities that Rodcorte-dono speaks of?”
“And how row if us Gods grant them our divine protections and dispatch our heroic spirits upon them like we do for this world's heroes? Perhaps this depends on Fitun-dono, the God of thunderclouds, who has experience when it comes to battle”
“It see Nineroad-dono's co on his own, but… should we not have our heroes join Fitun-dono and have theether?”
“Wait If we approach Fitun-dono carelessly without knohat his plan is for the reincarnated individuals, it may hinder him instead Is anyone able to contact Fitun-dono or one of his heroic spirits or familiar spirits?”
The young Gods, ere feeling ered by Vandalieu, looked at each other But none raised their hand It seemed that there weren't any Gods who kne to contact Fitun or his subordinates
“As one of Nineroad-sama's subordinate Gods myself, I have attempted to contact hi his heroic spirits and familiar spirits as intermediaries,” said Bashas, the Goddess of rain clouds
She had taken over the observation of the Boundary Mountain Range in Ryaon's place; she was speaking without taking her eyes away from Talosheim
“But… they were not in Fitun's Divine Realm,” she said
“He wasn't there? Could it be that he has already been destroyed by Vandalieu…?!”
“No, that is impossible One of us Gods would have noticed if that were the case!”
“We can assume that Fitun-dono has left his Divine Realiven to the reincarnated individuals… It see that any of us can do Each of us should devote ourselves to the roles that we have been given,” said the God as in charge of the young Gods here “Incidentally, Bashas-dono, is everything alright? You have been perfor the task of observation before Ryaon-dono collapsed”
“There is no probleaze away fro myself to my role, just as you said”
“I see,” the other God said with a nod “I am sure that even Nineroad-dono ad if you feel anything abnormal”
With that, Bashas was left to her task But perhaps the other God should have looked at Bashas's face as she gazed upon Talosheim, even if he had to by force
Because in contrast to her dampened tone of voice, her eyes were filled with passion
Meanwhile, Vandalieu, one of the pair as coaxing the people with sords, was right in theso
In this di Wisp as its only source of light, he had gathered a group of those ere inexperienced
“Welco tempted by the darkness,” he said to them
Oswald, as a in response to Vandalieu's words
“I a… power, of a kind that none alk a white path filled with light ain everything you desire except for one thing You can live longer lives and eat more delicious food,” Vandalieu continued “But the price that I ask for in exchange for this is your freedom Those who fall into darkness may never return, and it is only for those who have prepared the difficult, so please letsuddenly
“What?! You were just getting to the good part!” Matthew said in a dissatisfied tone froether at the end of the rooht didn't reach
The other children voiced their displeasure as well, pleading for Vandalieu to continue his act
“That's right, you were so cool, Onii-chan!”
“You were really villain-like!”
“Keep going, keep going!”
The inexperienced ones lined up in front of Vandalieu… Marsha's rat Oswald and Matthew's young bat Nightwing, were squeaking and playing with their pet friends
As for why such a thing was taking place inside one of the orphanage's rooms… Vandalieu had revealed his true identity and the real reason he had come to the city of Morksi to Matthew and the others whom he had rescued from the evil influence of the Pure-breed Vampire Birkyne
And in response to that, the children were…
“You pro secrets froht?” Matthew said
“I did,” said Vandalieu
“And we asked you toand Maroru You replied, 'If you can taht?”
“I did”
“And everyone passed the test that you gave us, right?!”
“You all passed after your second atteh you needed three attempts, Matthew”
“Who cares about that! Anye asked you to help with casting a good-luck charer while you're at it, you nodded your head, didn't you?!”
“… I did, didn't I”
This was a roughly accurate description of the events that had led up to this
After the promise was made, it had taken teeks for the children to achieve the bare minimum for one to become a Tamer… to discipline their pets to an extent where it was possible to describe the when their names were called Now, Matthew and the other children were asking Vandalieu to turn their pets into monsters
“I never iined that I'd be ood-luck char to watch a poor actor like me do this?” Vandalieu asked
“That's not true! You're super talented! I'm sure any theater would hire you to act as a monster in an instant!”
“Thanks, Matthew I appreciate the thought”
Dead-looking eyes, white hair, wax-like skin and an ominous lack of presence Indeed, with these features, Vandalieu could be well-suited to playing the part of a monster, even if he couldn't act due to his expressionlessness and his flat-toned voice
… He could fly on his own and use the De's ink sacs to create his own special effectshis eyes black, so if there were a theater that specialized in horror, he could certainly ht away
“Deararound with an idle expression
He was the elderly Vampire who had been one of Birkyne's confidants, and he was now filled with the light-attribute after having been defeated by Chipuras and the other light-attribute Ghosts
“Ojii-chan, you were playing with us,” said one of the children
“Oh, is that right?” the Wisp said
“Jii-chan, you can't go that way Over here, over here”
Frorandfather playing with his grandchildren It see with his ht-attribute Ghosts
He had been one of the perpetrators of the incident with the orphanage, but it seeht as the old Vampire from back then
Incidentally, Birkyne's two other confidants other than hiisa had been turned into Undead by Vandalieu As the Elf noble-born Vampire's body had been completely destroyed, he had been turned into a Cursed Weapon, and the Dwarf noble-born Vampire Mortor's body had been intact, so he had been turned into a Vaisa
They weren't in this city; they were in Talosheihts' Order that was made of Vampire Zombies
Vandalieu watched the interaction between the children and the Wisp in a way that he see to escape from reality
“Hey, I wonder if ould be able to tarandpa?” Matthew asked him
“You could There are precedents of that happening,” said Vandalieu
Undead were considered to be impossible to taerous to try to tame for anyone but Vandalieu But it would be possible for people other than Vandalieu to tauidance
Prior examples of this included Iris who had tamed the Cursed Weapon that contained her father's soul, and the for Haj, who had ta Armors