The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 302: The sun’s wrath and the ceasing war drums

“Let us fight until we are broken and turned to dust!” said Gorn, his will to fight restored. “But Larpan, you guys retreat! Same for the gods who are nurturing future heroes!”

Larpan, the God of Mirror Images, began to protest, but he reluctantly fell silent and retreated from the Demon King’s Continent along with the other space-attribute gods.

These gods, who had become space-attribute gods after Guduranis was defeated and Alda punished Vida with the Stakes of Law, were a valuable part of Alda’s forces.

The great god Zuruwarn had fallen into slumber, and those among his surviving subordinate gods who had their own personalities had joined Vida’s side; the rest were machine-like gods with no personalities of their own and thus no will to create more subordinate gods.

If Alda hadn’t interfered by ordering them to create new gods, as properly managing the attribute and maintaining the world in a stable state was a necessary task, no new space-attribute subordinate gods would have been created.

The situation was different from other attributes such as the water or earth attributes, which had subordinate gods filling the roles of their respective missing great gods.

Thus, Alda’s forces had few space-attribute subordinate gods, as well as few time-attribute subordinate gods filling Ricklent’s role. In fact, now that it was clear that Zuruwarn and Ricklent had joined Vida’s faction, the subordinate gods that were simply maintaining the attribute’s power like machines could not meaningfully be counted as gods of Alda’s forces. Given that, the existence of Larpan and the other space-attribute gods was even more important.

Even though their hearts wished to fight alongside Gorn and the others to the end, acting on personal emotion and being destroyed or sealed away to bet on a tiny chance at victory would not be acceptable.

The same was true for the gods who were nurturing potential heroes. Being sealed away would not be so bad, but if they were devoured by Vandalieu like the God of War Horns Sirius, the divine protections they had given their potential heroes would disappear as well.

Brateo still had his doubts as to whether these potential heroes would actually be of any use, but they would certainly be more useful than demigods with bodies the size of castles in cities and villages where Vandalieu and his companions were acting covertly, even if they would not be as effective in battles such as these that took place far away from human lands.

Thus, Larpan and the others retreated.

“I shall accompany you to the end. There are many new gods of the wind attribute. And I am needed to re-gather the monsters that fled and control them, am I not?” said the God of War Drums Zepaon, choosing to remain.

Unlike Sirius, he had asked Nineroad to continue instructing the potential hero he had been nurturing before joining the forces defending Botin.

Even if he were to be destroyed and his potential hero lost their divine protection, Nineroad’s divine protection would remain.

“… I appreciate it,” Gorn said, and then raised his arms. “Great gods! Witness our answer!”

His Mana formed a boulder that was larger than a small tower in his hands, which he then hurled at the fleet of ships.

“Resume battle,” said Vandalieu.

“Beginning cannon-fire,” said the cannon-type Demon King Familiars as they produced a focused bombardment that destroyed the enormous boulder hurled by Gorn.

And so, the long-ranged battle between Gorn’s forces and the fleet led by Gufadgarn resumed.

Zepaon struck his war drums, and the surviving monsters that had scattered and fled obeyed, gathering together once more.

“You won’t win with monsters alone! Come forth, you bastards!” shouted Godwin as he killed monster after monster with his bare hands, his hunger for battle raging more fiercely after each kill.

It was a gruesome scene with flesh and organs flying through the air, and it was only a matter of time before the flesh and organs were those of the demigods rather than monsters.

“We have been open to conversation and shown that we honor the gods that we worship. That time is over, and we do not need to pay heed to the enemy any longer. Only extermination awaits them,” said Vandalieu.

He had already called for the enemy to surrender. And it was clear that their defeat was inevitable. Despite that, they were willing to fight to their deaths. There was no reason to show them mercy or try to capture them alive.

Vandalieu looked up at Botin and the other great gods just in case, but they said nothing, so it seemed that there was no problem with this.

Understanding his intentions, Gufadgarn began giving orders.

“Bakunawa, fall back. Those who have been on standby, move forward. Remove the disguises from the Orichalcum ships and put them to their intended use,” she said.

In response, three of the remaining eight fake Cuatros broke apart from the inside.

“Aaaaah! I can fiiiiinally stretch my back!” the Sun Giant Talos groaned loudly as he emerged from one of the ships.

“Brother, I know that the space was tight, but you do not need to shout,” said his younger sister, the Moon Giant Deeana, as she emerged from the second ship.

“You siblings get along so well,” said the Mountain Queen Elder Dragon God Tiamat – who had the lower body of an Elder Dragon and the upper body of a beautiful woman – as she emerged from the third ship.

“Ah, it’s Mama!” said Bakunawa, who was following Gufadgarn’s orders and falling back, running excitedly towards Tiamat and causing the ground to tremble with each step.

“Hmm, you have done well, my child. Did you have a fun meal with your grandmother?” Tiamat asked her son.

“Yeah, it was delicious! But Papa was the most delicious of all!”

“I-I see. But you should not eat Papa too much, understand?”

“Yeah, I’ll restrain myself.”

Other than the scale and actual contents of their conversation, it was a heartwarming scene between mother and child.

Perhaps irritated by this, or perhaps sensing that this was an opening to take advantage of, the demigods focused their attacks in their direction, but a single swing of Tiamat’s tail created a shockwave that blocked almost all of them.

The few attacks that managed to get past the shockwave bounced harmlessly off her scales, unable to pierce through.

“To take aim at a mother conversing with her son… The Elder Dragons that serve Alda seem to be nothing more than despicable snakes,” Tiamat said, provoking the enemy.

“You are the one trying to have a carefree conversation on a battlefield!” the Light Dragon God Ryularyus shouted in anger.

“If you want us to spare you, then leave first!” roared the Whirlwind Dragon Zanaffar.

Both unleashed fierce breath attacks, but Talos’s weapon moved into their path and stopped them.

“Hmm, I was a little uncertain when I was told to simply use this ship as a bludgeoning weapon, but there seems to be no problem,” said Talos.

The weapon he was wielding was one of the fake Cuatros that were made of Orichalcum, which had been part of the fleet moments earlier.

Meanwhile, Deeana was using magic to walk across a lake towards the enemy, also wielding an Orichalcum ship with both hands with which she was deflecting the enemy’s attacks. “Only the ships’ outer layer and mast are made of Orichalcum, but they are reinforced from within by fragments of the Demon King. They function as both shields and clubs, and when not in use, they are able to provide support independently. What superb weapons,” she remarked.

“Are you perhaps disappointed that they are not transformation equipment?” Talos asked Deeana. “I am your brother, after all. You can be honest with me, Sister.”

“… Brother, how many times must I tell you? That is not why I granted Zadiris my divine protection,” said Deeana in exasperation.

“But the popularity of magical girls is quite fierce, you know. If you utilize that to become the ‘Magical Girl Giant of the Moon,’ us demigods who are not pure gods may be able to gain even greater power.”

“Those who receive divine protections are guided by their gods. What kind of god relies on guidance from the ones they gave their divine protections to!”

As an outlet for her irritation towards Talos, Deeana swung her Orichalcum ship and smashed the iceberg that had been hurled her way by the Ice Colossus Mugan, turning it into a buckshot attack of ice particles that flew back towards the enemy.

In a way, the monsters and the demigods who had been defending Botin were caught up in their quarrel.

“I expected the flying Orichalcum ships to be a part of the battle, but to think that they would use them as weapons!” Gorn groaned in frustration, a deep frown on his face.

Demigods rarely used weapons and armor in battle – naturally, such equipment was not suited for Beast-Kings and Elder Dragons due to the shapes of their bodies, but this was true even for Colossi, whose bodies did not restrict them from doing so.

That was because the bodies of Colossi and equipment they made with their own magic was more powerful than crude equipment made of iron, Mythril, Adamantite, or even Orichalcum. And because the Status System did not affect them, they did not have the benefits provided by Skills.

The only exceptions were those like the Bronze Colossus Lubug and the Iron Colossus Nabanga, who governed over metal and specialized in tempering and strengthening it.

Of course, during the war against the Demon King’s army, Botin and the excellent disciples that served as her subordinate gods had used enormous, high-quality Orichalcum equipment tempered by the champion Hillwillow. However, these had been broken during fierce battles and Botin and her subordinate gods had been unable to repair them or create new equipment, as they had been sealed away.

“But the same should be true for you! Botin’s resurrection was only moments ago, after all!” said Mugan.

As Talos and Deeana closed in, Mugan ran past Gorn to meet them head-on. Creating an armor that covered his whole body as well as an axe and shield made of ice, he charged in.

The excessive physical strength that Colossi possessed made it unnecessary to learn martial arts, but for a Colossus, his movements were well-refined.

“Do you think you can withstand my attack with a blunt weapon that is merely durable?! You were in a stuporous slumber for a hundred thousand years!” Mugan shouted, swinging his battle-axe down upon Talos.

Talos roared as he stopped this blow using the Orichalcum ship as a shield. But the blade of the enemy’s weapon pierced the Orichalcum armor and partially buried itself inside. Talos stepped back, as if being overpowered by Mugan, but –

“Stuporous? The only stuporous ones here are you fools!” said Talos, his expression now completely different from the carefree one he had been wearing a moment ago as he took a step forward, breaking the surface of the lake that had been frozen by the chilled air radiating from Mugan.

Having lost his balance, Mugan groaned and tried to bend his upper body back to retreat, but Talos didn’t allow this.

“You were awake for the past hundred thousand years, and what have you done with that time?! Why is it that I can best you in a contest of strength, despite having awoken from my slumber only recently?!” Talos shouted, swinging the Orichalcum ship with such force that it seemed to sunder the very air itself.

Unlike Mugan, there was no sign whatsoever of any refined technique in his movements. It was an attack that relied entirely on its sheer power, wild and full of openings.

But Mugan was not in a position to take advantage of those openings. It took all of his effort just to raise his shield of ice to defend himself against the Orichalcum ship.

“It’s because you neglected your training! You were conceited and overconfident in your own abilities, and can’t use your brain!” Talos bellowed as he brought the Orichalcum ship crashing down upon Mugan, crushing his icy shield and the gauntlets of ice on the hands that were holding it.

Mugan groaned in pain. “Curse you! But allow me to say this – You have no ability other than to curry favor with humans! How dare you!”

But he wasn’t going down without a fight. He rejoined the shattered pieces of ice produced by his broken shield with cold air, forming an icy connection from his left arm to Talos and his Orichalcum ship.

And with Talos unable to use his weapons or either of his arms, Mugan struck the side of Talos’s torso with his icy axe.

A vast quantity of liquid splashed and sprayed around them. But it was not Talos’s blood.

“I-impossible!” Mugan uttered.

There wasn’t a scratch on Talos’s body. The moment Mugan’s axe touched him, it had melted.

“And you will suffer defeat today because you were aware of your own faults, and yet you never thought to learn from the humans,” said Talos.

The Orichalcum ship in his hand, burning hot with the sun’s power that Talos wielded, began glowing red.

“Are you saying that the one who made that thing was a human?!” Mugan muttered.

The searing-hot Orichalcum ship bent like a whip as Talos swung it, and then came crashing down on Mugan’s head. The moment it contacted Mugan’s icy armor, an enormous cloud of water vapor exploded outwards.

The water vapor slowly cleared, revealing Mugan’s lifeless corpse as it floated in the lake that was now bubbling and boiling.

“If the one who created this ship does not seem like a human to you, then that is because of your own actions. He was born as a human, and he will be a human until the day he dies,” Talos murmured.

In the next moment, Deeana’s fist came swinging into the back of Talos’s head, causing him to yelp in surprise.

“Did you forget what the one who created these ships told you, Brother?! He told you that maintaining Demon King Familiars is difficult if you heat it with all of your strength, so you should refrain from doing so until you’re forced to!” Deeana said.

She pointed at the Orichalcum ship in Talos’s hands, which was stretched out like a piece of melted candy, unable to maintain its original shape. This had also closed the hole that Mugan’s axe had created in it, but it was now too thin to use as a club.

The Demon King Familiar inside, which was responsible for reinforcing the other armoring, as well as maintaining and restoring the weapon’s shape, had been burned up with the final words of “I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Ah… Oops,” said Talos.

“So, you really forgot. It can’t be helped, you’ll have to fight with your bare hands now,” said Deeana.

“It’s been a while since I went all-out, so my stamina and Mana are already kind of… and I mean, I’m still recovering,” said Talos.

Having heated his body and the Orichalcum ship to the point that it instantly vaporized Mugan’s icy axe and armor, Talos was out of breath.

“Then think about pacing yourself to conserve your stamina and Mana! Have you actually become stuporous?!” Deeana said angrily as she walked off.

“Well, it hasn’t even been ten years since you were revived, has it? It cannot be helped that your body has dulled a little. Come now, and rest in us ladies’ shadow,” said Tiamat as she went after Deeana.

“Ah, I am sorry for causing so much trouble. For both you and my sister,” said Talos, taking her up on the offer and stepping back.

Even as this conversation was taking place between the three gods, the battle raged on. But long-ranged attacks did not come raining upon the worn-out Talos, nor did a new enemy come charging at him.

In the air, a fierce hand-to-hand battle was taking place between Godwin, the Majin King whose time as king would soon be over, and the Gale Colossus Pozeri.

“You cunning bastard, darting around everywhere!” Pozeri muttered.

Godwin laughed. “Gentle Breezy Colossus, all you are doing is blowing some refreshing cool air at me!”

“Curse you! You dare ridicule me?!”

“Hmm? Was I mistaken? I heard that in the previous battle, there was some coward who found himself in a disadvantageous position and fled with his tail between his legs, but I don’t remember so well.”

“YOU BASTAAAARD!”

Having been successfully provoked, Pozeri unleashed a barrage of countless blades of wind, but they were lacking in control. Godwin, who was over three meters tall but tiny in comparison to a Colossus, danced about like a leaf.

Blue blood sprayed into the air, but Godwin’s powerful regenerative abilities allowed his body to rapidly heal his wounds and replace the lost blood.

Godwin laughed in mockery once more. “A lukewarm attack! You’re nothing more than a gentle breeze after all!”

Using his sharp senses and intuition, he weaved his way between the blades of wind and unleashed attacks that inflicted damage on Pozeri at a steady pace.

“I’m going to become a Dragon Slayer this time for sure!” shouted Eleanora, making a declaration that would make Fidirg and Luvesfol tremble in fear if they heard it, swinging her blade at an Elder Dragon that was attempting to assist Pozeri.

Eleanora and Vigaro had fought against this Elder Dragon, the Whirlwind Dragon God Zanaffar, during the previous battle.

“You filthy Vampires who rely on toys to fight! Do you think that I will suffer defeat at your hands more than a single time?!” Zanaffar, roared.

His scales had been split apart by Eleanora’s sword, but at the same time, he unleashed blades of wind in her direction.

But Isla and Bellmond joined the battle as well.

“You’re nothing more than a lizard whose tail was cut off. Don’t make me laugh!” Isla said.

“This opponent is one that I am not very well-suited to fighting against, but…” Bellmond murmured.

These three beautiful women crossing swords with an Elder Dragon was truly a legendary sight, but… two of them were Vampires, and one of them was a Vampire Zombie, and half of humanity would not consider it to be so legendary if they knew that.

“Isla, it is good to be filled with a desire for battle, but I believe it would be best if you do not become angry,” said Bellmond, who was originally a forest-monkey-type Beast-kin and now a Vampire.

With ‘Illusion Thread Killing Technique,’ she manipulated her magic threads that flowed through the wind… the threads she had spun from those produced by Vandalieu’s silk glands of the Demon King. She wrapped them around Zanaffar’s fingers and severed them. At the same time, there were monsters attempting to interfere, so she used her Petrifying Demon Eye to turn them into stone statues. She was busier in this battle than she looked.

“He called the transformation equipment Vandalieu-sama created for me a ‘toy!’ You can’t expect me to not get angry at that, can you?!” Isla said furiously.

She was slightly apprehensive about using transformation equipment, but she was enraged to hear the transformation equipment itself being ridiculed. Was it a matter of women’s emotions being complex, or an Undead fanatic’s thoughts being very simple? … Incidentally, Tarea’s efforts had also been involved in the equipment’s creation.

But Isla’s furious expression suddenly loosened into one of joy, and her sword’s movements, which had been wild with anger, became smooth.

“Ah, yes, thank you, Vandalieu-sama! I shall dedicate this prey to you!” she said happily.

It seemed that the split entity of Vandalieu that was in Isla due to ‘Familiar Spirit Demonfall’ had spoken to her.

“… Danna-sama, did you say something to her?” Bellmond asked the split entity of Vandalieu that was in her own body.

“Yes. Though all I said was, ‘I’m happy you feel that way, but it’s no use having a verbal argument with your food. Let’s eat it together.’”

Bellmond gave a small sigh. “Danna-sama, I’m sure you said it with the intention of saying that everyone should eat together, but… I think she has interpreted it as you suggesting that you and her will eat with just the two of you.”

“Do you think so?”

Isla was so delighted that if she had a tail, one could imagine it wagging so hard it would fall off. And she had thrust her sword into Zanaffar’s eye and wrapped chains around the entire eyeball, causing him to scream as she attempted to gouge it out.

It seemed that she planned to take Zanaffar’s eyeball as her first offering to Vandalieu.

“Then I shall tell my main body to actually eat together with her so that I don’t disappoint her.”

The moment Vandalieu’s split entity said this, Eleanora and Bellmond, who had been supporting Isla in battle with expressions of resignation, immediately sprang into action.

“Wait, Isla! I will be the one to offer this prey to Van-sama!” Eleanora declared.

“I shall cut it into three slices and share it with Danna-sama!” said Bellmond.

Vandalieu’s split entities, which had only intended to share this food with Isla, were greatly bewildered by Eleanora and Bellmond’s behavior.

“Hmm? Huh? Umm… Help each other and coordinate your movements closely,” he said, deciding to just stop them from hindering each other rather than correcting himself in order to avoid disappointing them.

“Yes!” all three of them said in unison.

The real Vandalieu would have his work cut out for him later.

But the three Vampires’ voices were drowned out by Zanaffar’s scream. It was possible that he was the one on this entire battlefield who would meet the most gruesome fate.

Meanwhile, the demigods other than Zanaffar and Pozeri were being targeted by Cuatro’s cannon-fire.

“Don’t let any attacks through to Zepaon-sama! We must block them all!” shouted the Crab Beast-king Gabildes, raising his pincers and trying to strike down the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars.

Larpan and the other space-attribute gods had retreated, so Zepaon was merely staying invisible with his magic; there was no warped space around him to protect him from attacks.

There were few surviving tamed monsters left, but even so, they couldn’t afford to lose control over them, so Gabildes swung his pincers and spat acidic bubbles at the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars.

“To think that he would use magic to manipulate the air and light to make himself invisible rather than using an illusion,” said one of the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars.

“I suppose this is his countermeasure against me,” said another.

But even as Gabildes and the demigods following his orders attempted to strike them down, the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars were cleverly avoiding their attacks.

Right before colliding with Gabildes’s pincers or bubbles, they began moving sideways.

“But now that we are no longer relying on diversionary tactics, we can use the Demon King’s spiracles –” one of the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars said.

“So defending against us will not work,” said another, finishing the sentence.

The secret behind their movements was one of the Demon King fragments that had been used for training Vandalieu’s companions in sealing Demon King fragments away – the Demon King’s spiracles.

Spiracles are external respiratory openings normally possessed by insects, but Vandalieu had combined them with other fragments to turn them into openings to expel air at great force, allowing trajectory control and sudden evasive movements.

The cannonball-type Demon King Familiars had already previously been able to change course and home in on targets, but the absorption of the Demon King’s spiracles had drastically improved their maneuverability.

“Damn you!” cursed Gabildes. “Running around like flying insects –”

In the next moment, the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars that had slipped past his pincers found openings in his shell where his joints were and detonated, causing him to foam at the mouth and scream.

“There’s no need to rush. There’s still plenty of me left, after all,” one of the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars said.

As Bakunawa had fallen back behind Cuatro, there was nothing stopping the demigods who had been defending Botin from advancing forward. But there was also nothing stopping the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars from doing the same.

“And there’s no need to hold back anymore, either,” another Demon King Familiar added.

Gabildes shrieked in agony as the explosions of the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars reverberated through and scorched his sturdy shell. Cracks formed from the weak points at his joints, and the heat seared the flesh inside.

Rather than slipping past the shield to strike at the flesh behind it, Vandalieu intended to smash the shield and then burn the flesh. As the monsters under the enemy’s control were now few in number, Zapeon’s priority as a target wasn’t as high as Gabildes had thought.

Having realized this, Zepaon wavered as to whether he should abandon his control over the monsters and allow Gabildes and the others to act more freely, even if it came at the cost of lowering the overall total strength of him and his allies.

But in the next moment, a pillar of light descended from the sky. Perhaps it was reinforcements from Alda’s forces; Gufadgarn and the others prepared themselves.

“Don’t allow the Demon King Vandalieu to do as he pleases any longer!”

It was the heroic spirits of Zepaon and Sirius, the God of War Horns, who had previously been destroyed in battle. These were indeed enemy reinforcements, but they had thrown themselves onto the battlefield of their own will, rather than descending at Alda’s orders.

“Heroic spirits! I ordered you to remain on standby! And I also ordered you to serve Nineroad-dono if something happens to me!” Zepaon shouted.

But rather than respectfully obeying him, the heroic spirits charged into the battle against the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars, Deeana, Tiamat, and the others.

“We are your heroic spirits, Zepaon-sama, not Nineroad’s!” one of the heroic spirits declared. “What use is a heroic spirit if he does not aid the god he worshipped as a mortal in a time of need?!”

“And we are the heroic spirits of Sirius-sama! We will not allow ourselves to be disgraced any further!” said another one of the heroic spirits. “In the name of our lord, who was a mighty god of war, we shall strike back in vengeance!”

Heroic spirits served as fighting forces for the gods; these heroic spirits emerged from the pseudo-Divine Realm in which Zepaon was hiding without hesitation to repel the cannonball-type Demon King Familiars and cross swords with Godwin and Deeana.

They were human-sized and incomparable to demigods that were a hundred meters tall, but if they had a Rank, they would be between 12 and 14. With several dozen of them joining the battle, the situation on the battlefield turned slightly in their favor.

“Heroic spirits…!” Zepaon murmured, unable to stop his voice from trembling with emotion.

With a glimmer of hope in sight for the demigods, he felt his morale rising.

“Though you are my enemy, I understand how you feel,” said Gufadgarn, feeling sympathy for the enemy rather than discomposure at the unexpected arrival of the heroic spirits. “Thus, you should at least feel the comfort of perishing together.”

Behind the enemy, she could see the great gods holding objects in their hands, preparing to throw them.

“It’s true that I can’t leave this pseudo-Divine Realm… but that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything!” said Vida as she threw something that flew towards Zepaon’s pseudo-Divine Realm at a tremendous speed.

“He had the goddess throw one of his split entities?!” one of the heroic spirits exclaimed.

In order to protect his master Zepaon, he stepped forward and raised his shield to block this object. If it was a cannonball-type Demon King Familiar, he would not escape unharmed, but he would be able to survive the impact.

“No, I had her throw the real me.”

The object thrown by Vida was the real Vandalieu, who had activated ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique.’

“Wha –” the heroic spirit began to utter in shock.

Vandalieu, having covered himself in his own soul and turned his entire body into a projectile, struck the heroic spirit and left enormous holes in his shield and torso. Unable to survive this, the heroic spirit collapsed and turned into particles of light that scattered into the wind.

Meanwhile, Vandalieu continued on his trajectory, arriving at the pseudo-Divine Realm where Zepaon was, and –

“‘Dark Peak Death Flash.’”

He slashed at the enemy with a blade of concentrated death-attribute Mana produced at the tip of the Staff of Five Sins.

Zepaon groaned.

With the sound of something shattering, he became visible once more, his manipulation of the light and air to keep himself concealed now undone. His eyes were open wide in an expression of utter disbelief, as he stared at his war drums, which had been sliced in half along with his own arm.

“No!”

“Zepaon-sama!”

Gabildes and the surviving heroic spirits ran forward to try and protect Zepaon, but the object – or rather, person – thrown by Zantark, Botin, and Peria was faster.

“Follow after the kid! ‘Dragon Slayer!’” roared Borkus, raising his Demon-king-fragment sword as he flew through the air and burying it into Zepaon’s body, completely piercing through it and leaving an open hole behind.

Unable to even let out a dying scream, Zepaon began fading away and disappearing. With his strength lost and his soul wounded, he was on the verge of falling into a slumber.

But before he could disappear completely, an enormous blade of ice skewered Zepaon and delivered him a fate of destruction rather than a slumber.

“Z-zepaon-sama!” cried the heroic spirits.

“That was close,” Vandalieu said, ignoring them as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “It seems that gods naturally enter a state of slumber when they’re on the verge of death.”

When gods entered a slumbering state, they would become incapable of doing anything for a long time, but they did not die. They would listen to the prayers of their followers while in a near-unconscious state, and continue serving as a god.

And through one method or another, it was possible for them to temporarily re-awaken. Vandalieu was aware of this possibility.

That was why he was careful to destroy Zepaon instead.

“There are still heroic spirits left. What shall we do?” asked the water and earth-attribute Ghost Orbia, who had followed Vandalieu into Botin’s seal.

“Well then, since there’s a lake nearby, let’s go with something flashy. We’re done with our diversionary tactics, so we can use God Spirit Magic,” said Vandalieu.

“Okay!”

A vast quantity of Mana poured into Orbia through the Staff of Five Sins, and the lake that had been providing power to Madroza and the other water-attribute demigods began to transform.

“I suppose we can call this ‘Great Death Ice Mire Chaos Snakes,’” said Vandalieu.

The lake’s water and the mud at the bottom mixed together to form a countless number of enormous snakes made of frozen earth that unleashed themselves upon the heroic spirits and demigods.