The battle taking place on the border between the Hartner Duchy and the Farzon Duchy had become something that was even more outlandish than the wildest mythological tales.
Zobuberogia, the Evil God of Ruinous Greed, was facing off against Luvesfol.
Zobuberogia laughed out loud. “Good, very good! To think that you would not hesitate to allow humans to ride on your back in order to rise to the position of a commander in the Demon King’s army!” he said, openly praising Luvesfol. “And that is precisely why I shall kill you!”
But despite his praise, there was no hesitation in the murderous intent he poured into his tentacles.
“Because I am the one who acknowledged you, I wish to see the look on your face when the ambitions that you threw even your pride away to achieve come crashing down! I wish to hear your screams of despair and regret! Now die!”
Zobuberogia thrust his tentacles out like spears, swung them like whips, and delivered overhead blows with them like hammers. They came in all kinds of shapes – some had blade-shaped tips, others were entirely covered in a countless number of sharp thorns, and others still had their sides covered in suction cups or mouths with sharp teeth.
“I don’t understand a thing you’re saying!” said Luvesfol, taking Zobuberogia’s attack head-on and parrying it while unleashing his own counter-attack to begin a close-quarters battle.
“‘Permeation Strike!’ It’s troublesome that he’s so strong despite talking and acting so weird!” said Pauvina, who was on Luvesfol’s back, as she parried Zobuberogia’s attack head-on and began a counter-attack to start a close-range battle.
Some tentacles moved with more power and dexterity than Luvesfol could deal with; Pauvina smashed and repelled them with her club instead. The rest, Luvesfol repelled and parried with his tail and claws. When Zobuberogia showed an opening, he struck from long range with a Breath attack.
It was truly human-dragon fusion*. Even without verbal commands from Pauvina, Luvesfol had acquired the ability to adjust his own movements based on the shifts in her weight that he could feel from the movement of her feet.
TLN*: This is a reference to a term that seems to mainly be from ‘Cardfight!! Vanguard’.
“You fools of the Demon King’s army have always been like that! Too many of you can speak words but can’t have a conversation! Even when you invited me to join you and I accepted, I was terrified that you would kill me anyway!” shouted Luvesfol, his discontent that he had believed buried in the distant past seemingly surfacing once more.
But in the end, it seemed that he had been ignoring the fact that he had indeed changed sides.
But before Zobuberogia could respond, it was Zozogante, the Evil God of the Dark Forest, and Fidirg, the Dragon God of Five Sins, who argued back first.
“Objection!” said Zozogante.
“Don’t put us in the same boat as him!” said Fidirg.
“Even I do not know what they are saying most of the time!” Zozogante protested.
But neither god was letting up on their attacks.
Zozogante fired beams of light from the fruit-like eyeballs that grew on his branches, fired seeds like bullets, and attempted to bind Zobuberogia with his split entity’s vines.
“I don’t want you to lump me in with all the rest of the Demon King’s army!” Fidirg said with the head that was the ‘pinkie finger’ of his hand-shaped body while his other four heads fired a barrage of projectiles made of light.
Most of Fidirg’s attacks were avoided by Zobuberogia, but Fidirg’s real target was the Farzon Duchy’s army, which had become a resource for Zobuberogia to use.
Each light projectile landing on the ground wiped out a large number of soldiers, knights, and adventurers belonging to the Farzon Duchy’s army. There were a few tougher ones who managed to escape the explosions and attempted to attack Fidirg, but they were defeated by Rapiéçage and Juliana before they could reach him.
Still, most of the ones killed by Fidirg were the ones who had started attacking their allies after being driven insane by Zobuberogia, so a quarter of the Farzon Duchy’s army had managed to survive.
“R-retreat! Retreeeat!” one of the survivors screamed.
As Fidirg was raining projectiles of light upon any who were in his line of fire, the soldiers who managed to retreat had only barely gotten away with their lives.
As a result, the humans who could become a source of energy for Zobuberogia were fleeing, but the evil god was so focused on the battle that he didn’t even look at them. Either he had gained enough power from them, or his head was filled with nothing but fulfilling his own desires… Well, it didn’t need to be said that it was the latter.
Randolf, wielding his spiritual magic and a dagger made from Vandalieu’s bones, weaved between Zobuberogia’s tentacles and attacked his torso that resembled a pale plant stalk.
“Don’t get confused by their words and actions! Just ignore it unless it’s important information! Just think of them as monsters that make noises that sound like that!” Randolf said in advice.
“Randolf, he’s not showing any signs of taking any damage even though you’re attacking his torso as well as his tentacles,” Meorilith pointed out. “He probably has some other weak point.”
Indeed, even though Randolf was cutting not only the enemy’s tentacles but his torso as well, so deeply that it caused bodily fluids to spray out of the wounds, Zobuberogia showed no signs of suffering.
The bodily fluid sprays quickly stopped after the wounds were opened, and it was not a scream or an angry shout that came from the evil god, but lively laughter. “Traitors, monsters, Undead, humans, Elves – a battle that transcends race! Just like the champions’ army! Beautiful, truly beautiful! And the moment those bonds break shall be even more beautiful!”
As Zobuberogia laughed as if he were intoxicated, his tentacles secreted a suspicious-looking mucus that coated their surface and sprayed outwards.
It was the same poison that had affected the minds of half the Farzon Duchy’s army and driven them insane.
“Van!” Pauvina shouted in alarm.
However, Pauvina and the others were accompanied by Demon King Familiars, split entities of Vandalieu, who could even use ‘Erase Poison’ on the cursed poison of the Evil God of Cursed Poison Dobopezepaluo and undo seals created by the champions and Alda, the God of Law and Fate himself.
“Whether it’s a curse or a poison, leave it to me,” one of the Demon King Familiars said.
Of course, just because the Demon King Familiars were there didn’t mean there was any reason to deliberately receive attacks, so Zozogante and Fidirg used light beams and light projectile explosions to block most of the mucus.
Some of it did hit Luvesfol, but a poison created to drive humans mad would not work so easily on a demi-god like him.
Luvesfol grunted as a tentacle did graze the side of his head, sending scales and blood flying into the air. He felt a little dizzy and his vision went blurry.
“Luves!” Pauvina shouted.
Luvesfol roared as his body responded immediately before his mind could think. That was how well Pauvina had trained him… or rather, how well she had developed her bond with him.
He twisted his neck and sank his teeth into the tentacle that had grazed the side of his head, tearing it off. At the same time, a Demon King familiar neutralized the poison that had started to take effect on him.
“In terms of skill as a tamer in the regular sense, Pauvina is above Vandalieu,” Meorilith remarked.
Luvesfol groaned. “His words and actions were always strange, even a hundred thousand years ago. But he is too aggressive. If memory serves me well, he was not the kind to personally fight on the frontlines.”
“You’re right, that wasn’t how he was a hundred thousand years ago,” Fidirg agreed.
“To begin with, he wasn’t even particularly interested in battle, though it wasn’t as though he was weak,” said Zozogante.
Indeed, what Luvesfol and the others remembered of Zobuberogia was true. He had prioritized driving humans, plants, and animals mad rather than standing on the front lines of battle, even before the champions were summoned to this world.
They had not been on friendly terms with Zobuberogia; in fact, they had almost never come into direct contact with him at all. Still, even though they had been among the lowest-ranking members of the Demon King’s army, Zobuberogia had been one of its great commanders, so rumors and information about him had reached their ears. And since he’d had no reason to go as far as to lie and downplay his achievements, they were likely true.
Zobuberogia would not ordinarily insist on continuing to fight here; he would flee and hide, and then scheme from the shadows.
And although Luvesfol and the others hadn’t noticed, Zobuberogia was driving people mad in a different way. When he did so for the Farzon Duchy’s army, most of them had simply betrayed their comrades and commanders, whereas in the past, he would normally corrupt them in all kinds of ways or plant destructive desires in their minds.
Insuppressible desires and impulses towards both members of their own sex and the opposite sex who had spouses or lovers, towards young boys or girls or very old men and women, and even animals. Rape, stealing others’ lovers, defiling the dead, a desire for the cannibalism of members of their own races on a daily basis… there was no form of madness that he would not hesitate to bring out in humans.
Considering that, perhaps the Farzon Duchy’s army was fortunate that there was a fragment of the Demon King embedded in Zobuberogia. Evil gods were strange beings, and Zobuberogia was one who considered humans in a state of madness to be more ordinary.
“And so what?! If I am being aggressive, can you defeat me?! Why don’t you go ahead and try!” Zobuberogia screamed.
Indeed, Zobuberogia was being driven mad by the fragment of Guduranis’s soul, and it was gradually taking over him. He was not in an advantageous situation in his battle against Luvesfol and the others.
Many of his tentacles had been severed and crushed, but he was very durable. His tentacles regenerated and returned to normal immediately after being destroyed. As Meorilith had pointed out, Randolf’s attacks on his torso weren’t fatal, either.
Even though Fidirg had wiped out the humans who had served as a source of power for him, his momentum hadn’t declined at all. He was indeed an evil god of a different class.
“Indeed, you’re right,” one of Fidirg’s heads said.
“We can’t deny that,” said another. “However…”
“There is no reason for us to win on our own, you fool,” said Luvesfol.This chapter is updated first at novelping(.)com.
Neither Luvesfol nor Fidirg were wearing grim expressions.
“What? Have you lost your minds after realizing just how much of a difference in power there is between us?” Zobuberogia said in disbelief. “If you beg for mercy right now, I may even spare one of you.”
“No. You are no longer in a position to say that,” a voice said suddenly.
Zobuberogia reflexively swung a tentacle in the direction of the voice. But that tentacle was immediately burned and torn to pieces by a black, skull-shaped flame.
“Because I’m here now,” the voice said.
It was Vandalieu, who had just arrived after removing and devouring the fragments of Guduranis’s soul from the two Beast-Kings.
From the very beginning, Luvesfol and the others had no intention of defeating Zobuberogia on their own. They had only been buying time and keeping Zobuberogia pinned down here until Vandalieu arrived… though Pauvina and Juliana had indeed intended to defeat him before that.
“Van, is our time up already? We can still keep going, you know?” said Pauvina.
“How vexing! We could not even land an effective blow, let alone defeat him…!” said Juliana.
Rapiecage let out a frustrated groan as well.
“Yes, you’re out of time. And besides, Luvesfol and Fidirg are begging me with their eyes to finish this,” said Vandalieu.
Luvesfol and Fidirg glared at Vandalieu as if to say, ‘Why did you have to go and say that?!’ Luvesfol was looking particularly reproachful, fearing that this would be an excuse to make his training even stricter. But Pauvina stepped back, accepting this decision.
“Also, Randolf-sensei, Meorilith-sensei, come over here. It looks like we’ll be short on numbers in the Mirg Shield-nation, so I want you to go and help out,” Vandalieu said.
“An encore, huh. Very well,” said Randolf.
“Randolf, you should take a long break after we get through this battle,” said Meorilith.
Vandalieu let them into his Inner Worlds with his ‘Demon World Binding Technique,’ switched places with a Demon King Familiar for a moment, then returned.
He had delivered them to the destination battlefield in that single instant.
And even as this conversation was taking place, Zobuberogia was continuing to attack Vandalieu with his tentacles.
However, they were being scorched and burned to pieces one after another.
Zobuberogia roared in rage. “HATE! What is this hatred?! What is this irritation?! What is this wrath, this rage?!”
Although losing a tentacle was not a fatal wound, the damage was certainly not just a mere scratch. And he was feeling pain greater than the damage he was actually receiving.
Even so, he could not stop attacking – that was how intense the negative emotions Zobuberogia felt towards Vandalieu were. Although he had praised Luvesfol and tried so hard to kill him, he had completely forgotten about Luvesfol now.
“Why?! This isn’t me, being driven by hatred and anger! This is not how I should be! What is the meaning of this?!” Zobuberogia bellowed in bewilderment, even as he continued his fierce attacks.
Vandalieu sensed that something was different about him compared to the other commanders of the Demon King’s army infested with fragments of Guduranis’s soul that he had encountered so far, and decided to try talking to him. “It’s because you’ve been infested with a fragment of Guduranis’s soul. I’m sure that’s why you feel a powerful anger and hatred towards me.”
Of course, Vandalieu was still blocking Zobuberogia’s attacks and burning, crushing, and slicing up his tentacles. He didn’t even expect Zobuberogia to be able to respond.
But surprisingly, Vandalieu’s words did reach the evil god.
“W-what?!” Zobuberogia uttered in shock. “This anger and hatred is not mine, but Guduranis-sama’s… And you speak of fragments of his soul. That means that Guduranis-sama was defeated?! Then… is there something that can be done about this fragment of Guduranis’s soul?! Is there no choice but for me to be sealed away?!”
He had dropped the ‘-sama’ honorific from Guduranis’s name and was begging for something to be done about the soul fragment.
“Answer me, quickly! I cannot endure this much longer!” Zobuberogia begged, finally stopping his attacks on Vandalieu, his whole body trembling with the effort of doing so.
Some gods in this state had begged to be killed, but so far, none had managed to completely stop attacking – not even the gods of Vida’s faction.
And so, Vandalieu decided to help him for now. “I will remove it. Stay still.”
Even if the evil god betrayed him afterwards, it wouldn’t be a problem. He had already instructed everyone to fall back through the horse-type Demon King Familiar that Juliana was riding proudly.
“I-I’m begging you, save me! I’ll do anything! I obeyed Guduranis because he possessed overwhelming power, but I can’t bear to be taken over by a defeated being whose body and soul have been split into countless pieces!” said Zobuberogia.
Guduranis was defeated by the champions’ army, but so was Zobuberogia, so he cannot say much,Luvesfol thought, a safe distance away.
But Fidirg and Zozogante, who were evil gods, realized that there was likely no value in swearing loyalty to another being of equal standing to oneself.
Vandalieu extended his spirit form and touched Zobuberogia’s soul.
“Th-thank you. To think that you would save me, a former commander of the Demon King’s army. Thank you so much. My saviour… my true saviour. That’s why… I will take revenge! DIE!” Zobuberogia screamed.
With a movement so swift it was difficult to believe that he had been suppressing his impulses just a moment ago, he moved all his tentacles at once and wrapped them around Vandalieu. And with a round mouth located on the part of his body where the tentacles were protruding from, he swallowed Vandalieu whole.
He let out a triumphant laughter. “I did it, I devoured him!”
Guduranis had been defeated, and it was true that Zobuberogia had been unable to endure being dominated by the fragment of his soul that had been embedded within him. He had sincerely begged to be saved from the bottom of his heart, and he was truly grateful to Vandalieu for doing so.
And that was why he had betrayed Vandalieu. He had repaid the favour with vengeance, destroying and ruining everything, including himself. That was the nature of Zobuberogia, who possessed the title of ‘Ruinous Greed.’
That was why he would gladly endure anger, hatred, and the impulse to attack, no matter how painful and difficult it was.
He laughed and cackled madly and uncontrollably.
It was unlikely that Zobuberogia would regret anything, even if this resulted in him being completely taken over by Guduranis – that was how much pleasure that he felt in this moment. And if Luvesfol and the others felt vexed over what had happened, that would be even more splendid, but…
Luvesfol was not vexed whatsoever.
“I told you, didn’t I? There would be no point. I told you that he would just betray you,” Luvesfol said, calmly conversing with the horse-type Demon King Familiar that Juliana was riding… or rather, Vandalieu, who had switched places with it.
“Yes, I was 99.9% sure that he would. But there was a point in doing it,” Vandalieu said with a whinny, pretending to be a horse.
“HAHAHA… Huh…?” Zobuberogia’s laughter suddenly ceased.
“Umm, so what was the point in it? Also, could I please have a new horse?” asked Juliana, who was still riding proudly – but now, on Vandalieu’s small back instead, as her horse-type Demon King Familiar had been replaced by Vandalieu.
Vandalieu pointed at Zobuberogia.
“W-why are you, th-th-th-there?” Zobuberogia groaned in agony, trembling unnaturally. “W-what happ–BLURGH.”
As the mouth that had just swallowed Vandalieu opened, a dark, blood-colored mist spewed out of it.
It was ‘Bloodlust.’
“With the Demon King Familiar inside his body, I’m attacking him from the inside,” Vandalieu said.
Although Zobuberogia was unaware of this, Vandalieu had become able to switch the position of his main body with that of any of his split entities. That was why it was entirely pointless to restrain and swallow just Vandalieu’s main body. It was possible that the inside of Zobuberogia’s body was magically separated from the outside, but… Vandalieu was even capable of destroying the Divine Realms of great gods. Such measures would certainly be of no use against him.New chapters come out on NovelPing first.
Zobuberogia screamed and choked. As countless microbes devoured his flesh and his soul from within, he extended a tentacle towards Vandalieu.
Was he trying to deal at least one blow on his foe before he perished, or was he trying to beg for his life once more?
It didn’t matter either way to Vandalieu.
“Now then, this is the end,” he said.
In the next moment, Zobuberogia’s body swelled up violently from the inside.
And with an explosive noise that drowned out his last words, Zobuberogia burst from the inside.
《You have acquired the Demon King’s Sadism and Divinity: God of Ruinous Greed!》
《The Demon King’s Sadism has combined with ‘True Demon King’ and ‘Divinity: God of Ruinous Greed’ has combined with ‘Demigod!’》
The ‘Beheading Shadow’ Leonardo had only ever lived by the sword. He had spent all his gold on his sword and improving his skill; food was nothing but a source of energy for him, and women were nothing more than tools to satisfy his sexual urges. He had even turned down medals and decorations; he had done nothing but finding and cutting down targets that were worth cutting down.
And before he knew it, he had become a part of the Fifteen Evil-Breaking Swords, the Amid Empire’s trump card.
But even then, Leonardo never changed. Even after the empire became known as the ‘Holy Nation,’ he had no loyalty or piety; only a desire for targets to cut down.
“And you are the last worthy one. Be thankful that you are thought of so highly by a swordsman as great as myself!” said Leonardo, who had red-black blood vessels visible on his face like some kind of pattern, as he swung his sword.
“Who’d be thankful for that! Being praised by a bastard who cuts people down is nothing but bothersome!” said Schneider, parrying the sword with his bare hands.
Schneider was concentrating his Mana in certain parts of his body to increase their hardness.
This was how he had fought numerous skilled foes armed with Orichalcum weapons in the past.
But several cuts were being made on Schneider’s arms – though they had already mostly stopped bleeding.
Schneider clicked his tongue. “Damn you, switching to that disgusting sword!”
“Disgusting? How rude. This is one of the Demon King Equipment swords that are very popular in the Holy Nation right now,” Leonardo said.
The sword he had initially been using had broken soon after his battle with Schneider began, and the sword in his hand now was his second weapon.
It was a straight, black, double-edged blade with a sharp point. It was a piece of Demon King Equipment, created using a sealed fragment of the Demon King.
“‘It’s the Demon King’s Rostrum, apparently. The long, sharp jaw of a fish called ‘marlin,’ or something like that, according to His Majesty the Pope when he gave this to me! Not that I care!” Leonardo laughed. “And you, your wounds are healing way too fast even though there’s no signs that you’re using any magic.That’sdisgusting.”
“Yeah, I stopped being a human just a bit, you see!” said Schneider.
The wounds inflicted by the slashing attacks of Leonardo’s Demon King Equipment were closing and healing rapidly. Schneider had already become a Dark Human.
“I’m still human, though technically not quite! And it wasn’t my intention to be compared to that sword and body of yours!”
“I see! It makes you even more worth cutting down, so that’s fine with me! Soon, you won’t ever have to worry about your health ever again! Demon King’s Heart, fire me up!” Leonardo shouted.
The Demon King’s Heart within him began beating with such force that it could be felt in the air.
Name:Leonardo
Race:Human
Age:42
Title:Beheading Shadow, One of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords, Goddess’s Nemesis
Job: Dark Night Swordsman
Level: 80
Job history: Apprentice Warrior, Warrior, Swordsman, Magic Swordsman, Thief, Assassin, Dark Fighter, Slaughtering Swordsman, Magic Sword User, Magic Fighter, Fighting Swordsman, Executioner Swordsman, Sword Demon, Great Swordsman
Passive skills:
Enlarged All-Attributes: Small
Enlarged Attack Power while equipped with a Sword: Very Large
Augmented Agility while equipped with Non-metal Armor: Medium
Strengthened Attribute Values: Command: Level 5
Self-Strengthening: Slaughter: Level 10
Slaughter Healing: Level 10
Detect Presence: Level 7
Mental Corruption: Level 4
Intuition: Level 2
Demon King Encroachment Degree: Level 1
Active skills:
Slaughtering Swordsmanship: Level 10
Dagger Killing Technique: Level 10
Armor Technique: Level 10
Transcend Limits: Level 10
Silent Steps: Level 10
Lockpicking: Level 3
Trap: Level 4
Magic Fighting Technique: Level 8
Assassin Fighting Technique: Level 10
Transcend Limits: Magic Sword: Level 10
Coordination: Level 3
Commanding: Level 1