The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 353: A truth revealed and Guduranis resurrected

The battle against Rikudou, who had unleashed Guduranis’s instinct, was extremely fierce… for the Five-colored Blades, at least.

Jennifer grunted as she crossed her arms to protect herself from an attack from Rikudou’s arms of the Demon King. But although she managed to withstand the blow, she could no longer move.

Using that opportunity, Rikudou pushed the attack.

“Die!” he snarled. “I shall kill you and become the only god of this world!”

A countless number of arms emerged from his back and were fired as projectiles, sending death-attribute-Mana-filled fists flying out. But they were not directed at Jennifer.

“The only god? It seems that you have finally lost the reasoning necessary to conceal your true intentions,” said Vandalieu.

He transformed his arms into the Demon King’s oviducts to deal with the black fists closing in on him.

“‘Flame Prison Death,’ egg rapid fire.”

He fired a barrage of egg projectiles filled with the Demon King’s fat that exploded on contact with the black fists, causing small explosions that turned them into ash.

Although the battle against Rikudou was not fierce for Vandalieu, he was forced to be cautious. Defeating Rikudou wouldn’t cause the monsters appearing in the city to disappear. If he tried to kill both Heinz and Rikudou at the same time, Heinz would end up aiding Rikudou to prevent that from happening.

And the circumstances were different for Jennifer and Diana than for their other three party members.

“Get back, Jennifer!” Heinz warned as he and Edgar swung their weapons at Rikudou.

With their support, Jennifer tried to regain her balance and get some distance from Rikudou, but someone interfered with that.

“‘Mud Snake Binding!’ ‘Single Flash!’”

A snake made of mud swiftly wrapped itself around Jennifer’s body, immobilizing her, and a staff with decorations in the shape of hearts and stars came swinging down at her.

Jennifer forcibly shook off the snake of viscous mud with her physical strength and Mana, which had been improved by ‘Heroic Spirit Descent,’ then grunted as she blocked the staff with her gauntlets.

“Why are you aiming for me?!” she demanded.

“Because you’re a nuisance, of course!” replied Kanako, the one who was attacking her.

“Wha… You guys, your enemy is Rikudou too, isn’t it?!”

“You and that Elf are nuisances that are stopping us from defeating Rikudou! ‘Fierce Talon Kick!’”

“Me and Diana?! What are you talking about?!”

As Kanako performed a kick with her leg that she had transformed into a talon, Jennifer twisted her body to evade it. Kanako tried to give chase and continue attacking, but she was forced to fall back to avoid the ‘Death Bullets’ that had suddenly been fired her way.

“… So that’s how it is,” Jennifer muttered with a vexed expression as she realized that the one who had fired the ‘Death Bullets’ was Rikudou, who had slipped past Heinz and Edgar’s attacks.

She and Diana were being used by Rikudou as shields to protect him from Vandalieu. Please visit 𝓃𝑜𝓋𝓮𝓁-𝒏𝑒xt.c0m website to read fastest update

Vandalieu wouldn’t hesitate to kill Heinz, Edgar, and Delizah, the ones who had killed Darcia. He was currently prioritizing defeating Rikudou, but he didn’t care what happened to those three in that process. In fact, he wanted to kill them in the process.

But that wasn’t true for Jennifer and Diana. These two had joined the Five-colored Blades after Heinz and his remaining companions moved to the Orbaume Kingdom. In other words, these two were not responsible for Darcia’s death. Thus, Vandalieu was making a deliberate attempt not to kill them.

Rikudou had taken notice of this and was taking advantage of Jennifer and Diana in instances like this.

The proof of that was the ‘Death Bullets’ he had fired at Kanako to support Jennifer – so that he could continue to use her.

“They hadn’t taken notice of it yet. You didn’t need to make it obvious to them,” Rikudou cursed at Kanako.

He had a bitter expression as he dealt with Heinz and Edgar’s continued attacks with the arms of the Demon King. But even so, he began to ridicule Kanako.

“Tsuchiya-kun, who would have thought that you would be taking the initiative to willingly carry out the dirty work of disposing of these nuisances without even being asked, on behalf of an owner that you are very much unfamiliar with. How unexpected,” he said, his words dripping with contempt. “Quite the loyal dog, aren’t you? It seems that Vandalieu has been a more capable owner than Amemiya Hiroto was.”

“Hey, stop praising me all of a sudden, you’re going to make me sick,” Kanako retorted. “Right, Van?”

“Indeed,” Vandalieu agreed. “To be quite frank, it is disgusting… Have the fragments of the Demon King finally caused you to lose your mind?”

There were many who called themselves dogs, like Isla and Eleanora, so being called a dog no longer sounded like an insult to Kanako and Vandalieu.

“And if you’re going to compare me to an animal right now, I’d be a bird, right?” Kanako added.

With her transformation equipment activated, she was like a bird of paradise with its beautiful wings spread. However, her wings and talons were parts of her actual body that she had transformed, and the transformation equipment’s design itself was rather simple.

The main part of it was a leotard-type suit that left her back almost completely bare to allow her to create wings. There was a short skirt-shaped decoration around her waist, and high socks that came up to halfway up her thighs. Her arms were concealed by long gloves up to her elbows as well, so they looked very ordinary compared to the wings that she had created using ‘Chaos.’

Rikudou made a discontented noise. “Always have a comeback, don’t you? Using fragments of the Demon King and death-attribute magic for such foolish things… Vandalieu! Why do you not realize that your deeds are acts of contempt against your own power?!”

“I don’t know whether it’s because you’ve awakened your instinct, but it seems that you’ve become rather short-tempered,” Vandalieu remarked. “Also, your values are incomprehensible to me. I have no idea why you would think that I am showing contempt for my power by using it in a diverse range of effective ways.”

Vandalieu had created liquid metal with death-attribute magic, produced dyes with the Demon King’s ink sacs, and used ‘Golem Creation’ to turn the liquid metal into clothes. The beads and lamé fabric were also materials created from fragments of the Demon King.

Vandalieu felt no need to hesitate in using fragments of the Demon King and death-attribute magic for such things. He was simply using himself to carry out the things that he wanted to do.

That was Vandalieu’s reason to live; it was a way for him to connect to others, and it brought him joy. Although he could imagine what Rikudou’s values were, they weren’t something that he could understand or sympathize with.

“There is no reason to criticize me when all I’ve done is create equipment that performs well for my companions using materials that I am able to produce freely. In fact, given what happened in Origin, aren’t you the one who has shown contempt for death-attribute magic?” said Vandalieu.

Rikudou had used his own companions who were reincarnated individuals like him, as well as innocent children, in human experiments. In the end, he had left the world of Origin in a complete mess.

Thanks to him, death-attribute magic had a considerably terrible reputation in Origin, and the only thing preventing that reputation from reaching rock bottom was the fact that Vandalieu had prevented Rikudou’s attempt to carry out an indiscriminate massacre of the world’s population. The part of Vandalieu that had joined the God of Origin was sighing heavily, wondering when Meh-kun and Hiroshi would be able to return to their own world.

But Rikudou did not reflect on his past actions. “You shameless bastard…!”

His anger grew even fiercer, proving that Vandalieu’s observation of him having become short-tempered was right on the mark. His anger towards Vandalieu and his subordinates was rapidly becoming uncontrollable.

In his previous life, Rikudou had carried out his conspiracy behind the Bravers’ backs for about ten years. He had acted as Amemiya Hiroto’s best friend. Where had that perseverance and mental fortitude gone? Even he was beginning to ask himself this question.

[More importantly, the first priority is to kill these fools! Killing them will put an end to everything!]

“I’m sorry, Kanako-sensei. Rudolf and Dandolip are both fake names and appearances that I disguised myself as. As that young brat over there blabbered just a moment ago, my real name is Randolf ‘the True.’ I’m an S-class adventurer who is supposed to be retired,” Randolf said.

When Kanako was holding regular performances in the city of Morksi in the Alcrem Duchy, she had hired the blue-haired Elf bard Rudolf as a local staff member. She had discerned that he and Randolf were the same person, mostly by his voice. That was impressive in and of itself, but… the truth was that ‘Rudolf’ had been a disguise as well.

“What?! You perform so spectacularly, but performing isn’t even your main profession?!” Kanako exclaimed in shock.

“Yes, I’m truly sorry. But it’s no lie that I was deeply moved by your music and the way you taught that music to others,” Randolf explained. “… Vandalieu, it’s also true that you put me on edge. I’m sure there are things that you want to say to me, but please forget them for now.”

The traveling bard that Vandalieu had previously encountered and one of the teachers of the Hero Preparatory School that he was indebted to were actually an S-class adventurer. It was shocking, but it wasn’t a betrayal or anything. Kanako was surprised as well, but that was it.

Thus, Vandalieu had no reluctance to accept that Dandolip was in fact Randolf.

“Very well,” he said. “This isn’t the place to be talking about those things. Of course, Rikudou himself seems to have enough on his plate as well.”

Rikudou was silent and staring at someone… A being so significant that it had stopped him from attacking and interrupting the ridiculous conversation between Vandalieu, Kanako, and Randolf.

“Vida… To think that a great god has secured a vessel capable of allowing her to descend for an extended period of time!” Rikudou murmured in disbelief.

He was staring at Darcia, the beautiful, black-skinned Elf enveloped in a divine glow, standing on top of Legion, who had gathered into a single mass once more. Rikudou had been told by Rodcorte that she was capable of summoning Vida upon herself, but he was astounded at the realization that she was able to sustain it for a long period of time.

“Umm, should I say it’s been a hundred thousand years? Or should I say nice to meet you? Either way, it seems that you are a being who is at odds with us,” said Darcia, who had summoned Vida upon herself and become one with the goddess, in a casual tone as she spoke to the being that was Rikudou, and at the same time, a mortal enemy. “By the way, the main owner of this body is Darcia, and I’m just lending her my power. Well, not that I care which name you refer to me by.”

Almost all of her tone of speech and behavior was Darcia’s, and her consciousness was mostly Darcia’s as well. But the presence and the power that was emanating from her entire body was immense.

In the past, Guduranis had been defeated by Bellwood, who had summoned Alda upon himself, with the support of Farmaun Gold and Nineroad. Rikudou possessed Guduranis’s memories, and he understood how powerful someone was when a great god was summoned upon them.

Damn it. If it were just a familiar spirit or a heroic spirit, it would be different, but she has summoned Vida herself… and from the looks of it, she can keep her summoned for longer than I expected, with no side effects. This is an unexpected situation… There won’t be any point in me having kept the Five-colored Blades alive! Rikudou thought bitterly.

He had viewed Darcia and Vandalieu’s companions with disdain and contempt. Vandalieu being unable to sacrifice the people of Orbaume and spreading his allies across the city to save them had gone according to his plans. But Vandalieu’s allies defeating most of the monsters, evacuating the people, and gathering any surplus forces was an unexpected development.

At this rate, even if Heinz were to summon Bellwood upon himself, he and the Five-colored Blades would be removed from the battlefield by Darcia and the others, and Rikudou would be forced into a battle with Vandalieu with nobody to use as a shield.

If that came to pass, it would be difficult for Rikudou to survive, even with the Demon king’s instinct and memories. In fact, the instinct was screaming at him, ‘Things will be dangerous at this rate!’ and the response from ‘Danger Sense: Death’ was only growing stronger.

But Rikudou was not the only one who was in a corner – the Five-colored Blades were in a corner as well.

“… Heinz, this is our cue to leave. Let’s go back to where Selen and the others are,” said Delizah, who could foresee that they would suffer the same fate as Rikudou – being removed by Darcia and Vandalieu’s other allies.

These were the allies of Vandalieu, who was trying to kill them along with Rikudou. Darcia in particular had previously told them that she would ‘never forgive’ them, and although it had only been a temporary body, they had dealt a killing blow to her. It was unlikely that they would just drive Heinz and his companions away without violence.

“You might be right. I suppose it’s time for us to go,” Heinz agreed.

If Vandalieu were to be defeated, Heinz, who could summon Bellwood upon his own body, and his companions were the only ones who could stop Rikudou. Although Heinz had rushed to the scene, Vandalieu had refused to fight together against the common enemy… even though that common enemy was one that had threatened the destruction of the entirety of the city of Orbaume, and possessed fragments of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis.

He had carried on fighting despite this because he had not believed that Vandalieu was certain to defeat Rikudou. And even when he tried to retreat, Rikudou had been cleverly closing the distance between them, manipulating their positions, and making sure that he couldn’t get away so easily.

But now that Darcia, who was capable of summoning the great god Vida upon herself, and Vandalieu’s other allies had gathered here, Heinz was certain that they would be able to defeat Rikudou… Guduranis, who was on the verge of resurrection.

And it was unlikely that Rikudou would be able to stop them from leaving the battlefield now. The problem was whether Vandalieu and the others would allow them to leave, but…

“As covering our retreat–” Heinz began.

“I’ll do it!” shouted Edgar, flying forward.

[Now is the time to put your life on the line], said a voice inside him that spurred him on.

Edgar mistook this voice for that of his intuition as an adventurer, telling him that the one to help his party escape from unfavorable circumstances was him, the most experienced among his party.

He activated the fragments of the heroic spirit Luke inside his own soul, putting him in the same state as activating ‘Heroic Spirit Descent,’ and with a fierce roar, he leapt forth… towards Rikudou.

“‘Million Sla–?!’”

Why have I started attacking this guy?! Edgar thought, so bewildered that he failed to perform his martial skill and froze in place.

He knew that he had moved forward to cover his companions’ retreat. But why had he tried to attack Rikudou, who was half-surrounded by Vandalieu and his companions? That would only get him killed by Vandalieu and his companions, along with Rikudou.

Heinz and the others were unable to stop Edgar’s sudden charge – after all, he was the fastest member of the party.

And although Vandalieu and his companions were surprised by Edgar’s actions, they didn’t stop him or try to remove him from the battlefield. To them, Edgar was an enemy. An enemy making a reckless move and putting themselves in danger didn’t require any immediate action from them.

The only one who didn’t think this way was Randolf, but in an emotional sense, he was on Vandalieu’s side. His feelings of wanting to save Edgar weren’t strong enough for his body to move reflexively to do so.

And they were all unaware of what Rodcorte had done to Edgar.

The one to take immediate action was Rikudou.

[Kill him! And make contact with him and his soul!]

Rikudou did exactly as the instinct screamed at him to do. As Edgar froze in place, completely defenseless, Rikudou pierced his chest with the fingers of the Demon King’s arms, whose lethality had been strengthened.

“Ah, damn it,” Vandalieu muttered, realizing his error.

“EDGAAAAR!” Heinz screamed in heartbroken grief.

“W-wh… a-a-a-a-aat–” Rikudou stuttered, astonished by both Edgar’s actions and his own.

Edgar’s life ended, and at the same moment, Rikudou touched his soul. Of course, because of the curse that Rodcorte had placed on him, he was unable to break souls. However, he was able to touch them. Ordinarily, touching a soul would not even put a pinky-fingernail-sized scratch on it. But there was something inside Edgar’s soul, something that had been placed in there by none other than the same Rodcorte.

“–IS THIIIIIIIIS?!” Rikudou screamed in bewilderment.

His body began convulsing ominously. Even he didn’t know what was happening. As he screamed, the presence of the Demon King emanating from him grew stronger.

“‘Hollow Cannon,’ ‘Death Cannon,’ ‘Crimson Ice Execution Circle,’ ‘Dark Thunderbolt Spear,’” said Vandalieu, having a bad feeling about this and firing a barrage of offensive spells.

“Everyone who can move, attack!” Randolf ordered.

At his command, Darcia, Isla and the others all attacked Rikudou as well.

These attacks tore at, pierced, sliced, and burned his body. But these wounds quickly closed, and the Demon King’s presence grew even stronger. Meanwhile, Rikudou’s presence was shrinking, and only a tiny trace of it remained.

“I-I– IIIIIIIIII AAAAAAAM! R-RESURRECTED! Resurrection has come at last! I am the Demon King Guduranis!” the enormous black being that had once been Rikudou declared, radiating a wild and uncontrolled Mana that was different from Vandalieu’s or Mei’s, but even more powerful than Darcia’s with Vida descended upon her.

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