Chapter 61 - side story-132

Side Story Chapter 20: The mastermind reveals himself, but the stage is set in Lambda (From Origin to Lambda)

After the light faded from Pluto's eyes, Amemiya Hiroto felt a sense of disheartenment that he couldn't easily rid himself of.

In order to atone for destroying the 'Undead' without realizing that it had been one of the 101 reincarnated individuals, he had tried to save the members of the Eighth Guidance who had been saved by the Undead. Despite that, he had ended up killing the last remaining member with his own hands, even if it was to save the life of his own wife, Narumi.

And to make things worse, he had done so at the moment when Pluto had noticed the small life harbored inside Narumi's body and sacrificed herself to protect it.

I just ended up making the same mistake as I did with the Undead…

He had definitely made a mistake. This was the only thing he could think after how things had turned out; he felt an urge to let out a shout.

"… Let's at least burn their remains. I'm sure they would have wanted that," he said.

No matter what he did, time couldn't be reversed.

"You're right…" Narumi agreed as she closed Pluto's eyes. "I'm sorry that this is all we can do, even though we couldn't save the one who was important to you…"

"You might have forgotten this, but the United Nations have appealed for us to retrieve the bodies, so… alright. We just have to make it seem like we ran into unexpected resistance and couldn't retrieve the bodies, right?" said the 'Avalon' Rikudou Akira with a bitter smile, shrugging his shoulders. "But we should be prepared to face a lot of criticism. Everyone who is watching this through Angel right now is an accomplice."

This plan was one that had been created by the Bravers. As a result, they had succeeded in wiping out the Eighth Guidance, but the special forces of the various nations had also been almost completely exterminated, even if it had been a result of them making moves on their own.

And Amemiya Hiroto would be harshly blamed if the Eighth Guidance's corpses, the clues to death-attribute magic that the leaders and high officials of every nation so desperately wanted, could not be recovered.

"I don't mind that," Hiroto said.

He had prepared himself for that. A spell glowed in his hand. But before he could release it, news came through Angel from Iwao and the others who were keeping watch in the tunnel, telling him that circumstances had changed.

"Hiroto, Murakami and the others are here! They're saying some crazy stuff!"

"Some nonsense about them being undercover investigators!"

"Undercover investigators?" Hiroto replied. "You mean Murakami is…?!"

Through Angel, he could see Murakami, along with his three companions including Tsuchiya. They had finally shown themselves, holding identification papers from a federal state.

It was difficult to believe, but the identification papers looked genuine.

This is bad.

Hiroto didn't know how Murakami and his group had become undercover investigators for a federal nation, but he knew what they were here for. They were going to demand that the remains of Pluto and her companions be handed over.

If he let that happen, Pluto and her companions would lose their dignity. Not only that, tragic beings like the Undead and the Eighth Guidance would be created for the purpose of researching the death attribute.

Hiroto hastily began re-casting the spell that had been interrupted by the unexpected communications. "Akira, you take care of that boy's body -"

At that moment, the voice of the 'Venus' Tsuchiya Kanako, who shouldn't have been connected to Angel, came through.

"Okay, stop! If you damage Pluto and Enma's bodies any further, we'll arrest you for obstructing our search!"

"Wha -?! Why are you connected to Angel?!"

Hiroto looked at Narumi in surprise to see that she was wearing a surprised expression as well. But her surprise signified something different from Hiroto's.

"Huh? Why did I leave her connected to Angel? Why did I think she was an ally…?"

Seeing Narumi in this dazed state, Hiroto instinctively realized what Kanako had done.

"Kuh, she used her ability!"

Hiroto groaned at the fact that he and his companions hadn't understood Kanako's ability, and in disappointment in himself for not realizing it. But even so, he tried to burn Pluto and Enma's bodies. However, Akira stopped him.

"Akira, why are you stopping me?!" Hiroto demanded.

"Hiroto, it's too late. Now that we've been seen by Tsuchiya, our excuses won't work. Or do you intend to be arrested for obstruction of investigation?"

"This isn't the federal state!"

"That's right; we're in a nation in the European Union. But do you think the European Union will cover for you? If you became a criminal, the Bravers could become disassembled. At best, the United Nations might send a new supervisor to take charge. I don't want that.��

"That's… kuh!"

Hiroto tried to think of a way, using whatever abilities, magic, information and connections possible, to protect his Braver companions while not handing over Pluto and Enma's remains.

He couldn't trust the United Nations, which was ruled by the European Union and the federal state that had made Murakami's group into undercover investigators.

Kanako had already seen that Pluto and Enma were dead.

And every high government official and wealthy person in the world desired the death-attribute Mana that lingered in Pluto and Enma's corpses.

"… Sheet."

Unable to find a way to fulfil both of his wishes, Hiroto chose to protect his living companions and the Bravers organization.

And then Murakami Junpei entered the room with a proud… or rather, bitter-looking expression, with Kanako behind him.

"What's the matter? Your face looks pretty pale considering you're the ones who chose to leave us," Hiroto said.

"It wasn't a complete victory for us, either. There were unexpected situations happening one after another, and we only narrowly came out victorious," Murakami replied.

Murakami hadn't exposed his identity as an undercover investigator to the Bravers because he'd wanted to. He had been left with no other choice; he had only done this because it was the final option he had been left with.

It would have been best if we'd managed to kill Pluto and retrieve the corpses without these guys noticing, or snatch the corpses after these guys killed them, but… I didn't think they'd sympathize with the Eighth Guidance and try to burn the corpses. Are they crazy? Don't they know how much those corpses are worth? Murakami thought bitterly as he pointed his chin towards the door, signaling for Hiroto and his companions to leave.

"Now then, we'll be collecting these. You guys go clean things up elsewhere," he told them.

"It'd be troublesome if you got in our way, you know!" said Kanako cheerfully.

Neither party wanted to look at each other's faces. Now that there was nothing more that could be done, Hiroto had no objections to leaving the room.

"… Before that, I want you to tell me something," Hiroto said. "Were you the one who set off a bomb in the Bravers headquarters and killed Izumi and Aran?"

He asked this question in the end. Previously, Kouya had investigated with Oracle and come up with the answer that the crime would have been impossible to commit with the abilities that Murakami and his nine companions possessed.

"Ah, that incident," Murakami said with a nod. He closed his eyes, as if reminiscing.

The truth was that it was indeed Murakami Junpei's doing.

Using a certain contact, he had received a hand grenade from the 'Gungnir' Kaidou Kanata, and using his Chronos ability, he had kept it for a long time, using his Chronos ability to delay the activation of Gungnir.

He had then thrown the hand grenade through the walls of the Bravers headquarters to kill his two targets.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but it wasn't us. It was the Eighth Guidance guys. I don't know what methods they used, though," Murakami said.

There was no reason for him to be honest and tell the truth.

"Is that true?" Hiroto asked.

Of course, he didn't simply believe Murakami's words immediately.

But Kanako gave him an ill-natured smile. "Do you have any proof or anything to use as a basis to doubt us?" she asked.

Hiroto let out a noise of frustration.

Both the 'Inspector' Shimada Izumi and the 'Laplace' Machida Aran, who possessed the Calculation ability, would have used their abilities in situations like this, but they were the ones who had fallen victim.

"Well, you'd just need to ask the Oracle once you return, wouldn't you?" Kanako continued.

Though Hiroto and his companions didn't know this yet, the 'Oracle' Endou Kouya had also already been killed.

"As long as we're here, we won't let you do as you please," Hiroto spat as he left the room, glaring bitterly at Murakami and Kanako.

Murakami and Kanako let out large sighs as he left.

"Does that person think that we're doing as we please?" Kanako said.

"We've got a lot of trouble ahead of us. Us villains have our own problems, you piece of sheet," Murakami muttered.

The two of them began their work, starting with the retrieval of Pluto's corpse. If they didn't take it back with them, they would lose their statuses as undercover investigators, so this was necessary for them as well.

Within the day, Murakami and Kanako, as well as the surviving 'Aegis' Melissa and the 'Hecatoncheir' Doug, were at the federal nation's national department of defense… a building that was in the shape of a hexagon, commonly known as the Hexagon.

The headquarters of the intelligence agency that had employed them was located elsewhere, but beneath the Hexagon was a top-secret research facility, sheltering the few surviving researchers from the hidden laboratory that had originally discovered the death attribute.

That was why they had been summoned here, bringing the Eighth Guidance's corpses with them.

"Haah… everything's so serious here," Doug muttered.

"We're the ones who found employment at such a serious place," said Melissa.

"And I feel pretty depressed."

"We almost failed, after all. I hope they don't cut our rewards."

With the dissatisfied Doug and Melissa behind them, Murakami and Kanako headed into a place that was like a waiting room, led by some other employees.

Beneath the Hexagon, the corpses of Pluto and the others would be thoroughly examined and used for conducting research into the death attribute.

The corpses of Shade, Izanami, Isis, Baba Yaga and Ereshkigal had been impossible to recover, but through great effort, they had managed to collect the corpse of Enma as well as Jack o' Lantern's corpse, Ghost's corpse, Valkyrie's blood and Berserk's remaining fragments.

These would be analyzed, and inhumane research and experiments that Hiroto and his companions would want to avert their eyes from would be conducted here.

With the justification that this was for the benefit of the entire human race.

Murakami and his companions had experienced being in contact with the Eighth Guidance members over a long period of time while they were still alive, so they had been brought here to be questioned to aid the research as well.

"You think they'll come to interfere with us?" asked Doug. "If they do, I'll gladly fight them. I didn't get to go crazy last time."

"Doug, if you're talking about the Bravers, there's no way they'll come here. This is the national department of defense. Coming here would start a war. There's no way that Amemiya Hiroto, the good boy, would allow that," said Melissa.

"And thanks to Shade, he doesn't have the time for that, either," Kanako added.

The Bravers were currently being showered in criticism from the entire world. Thanks to the false information spread through the internet by the 'Oracle' Endou Kouya, whose body had been possessed by Shade, there was now a great fuss about him having been a devil worshipper, and him and the other Bravers having obtained their abilities by making contracts with the devil.

Unfortunately, the devil had never been confirmed to exist, Amemiya Hiroto and his companions had no way of proving that this wasn't true.

There was no way to prove that they hadn't signed a contract with a being whose existence hadn't been proven.

It literally was the 'Devil's Proof.'

Note: 'Devil's Proof,' or 'probatio diabolica,' is a law term. The Devil's Proof is the logical dilemma that while evidence will prove the existence of something, the lack of evidence fails to disprove it.

There were all kinds of other rumors as well, such as that the Bravers had deliberately let the special forces soldiers of the nations perish, that Kaidou Kanata's evil deeds had been ordered by Amemiya Hiroto, that Amemiya himself had given the order to kill the 'Metamorph' Shihouin Mari because she had discovered the truth.

"Well, all of that is baseless nonsense. After a while, that information will become known to be the crazy words of the mad Oracle or fake information leaked by Shade. The suspicions surrounding the Bravers will clear, but the number of people who can't trust them will increase. Things turned out perfectly, didn't they?" Doug concluded.

"I see, so that's how it is… hey, can you not just appear out of nowhere and scare Sensei like that, Rikudou?" said Melissa.

Doug and Melissa looked in surprise at the fifth person in the room, the 'Avalon' Rikudou Akira.

But Akira was unperturbed by his presence being noticed; he gave Murakami a slight bow with a gentlemanly smile on his face. "It seems that you've managed to accomplish the minimum of what was requested, but it was quite the crude work, wasn't it?"

Indeed, it was the 'Avalon' Rikudou Akira, who was still a member of the Bravers. He was the mastermind behind Murakami's group.

He had persuaded the secluded individuals, Murakami Junpei and Tsuchiya Kanako, to betray the Bravers; he had planned things so that Murakami could obtain a hand grenade from Kaidou Kanata; he had arranged for Murakami's group to meet the top leaders of the intelligence agency of the federal nation whom he had brainwashed secretly beforehand; he had even had a hand in the kidnapping of the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi, who had been receiving treatment in a facility.

And it had also been him who had helped Shade kill Endou Kouya of the Bravers, without even Shade himself realizing it.

"It is our first job, after all," Murakami said.

"Everyone has a first job. But results are desired from professionals, even when it is a first job. Isn't that right?" Akira said.

"… That's true," Murakami muttered to his former student before falling into silence.

Their previous relationship on Earth was no longer valid here.

Akira had requested Murakami to do four things: Secure Pluto's corpse and hand it over to the federal state; dispose of Gazer, Marionette and Death Scythe before the mission was over; hand over any other body parts of the Eighth Guidance members that could be obtained; and erase any traces of what couldn't be collected.

The final part, the disposal, had been done by the Bravers of their own will, but all of the requests had been cleared.

However, three companions had been lost and the fact that they were now employed by the federal state had been revealed to Hiroto and his companions; if this was an exam, Murakami had just narrowly avoided a failing mark.

"But Akira, you were there as well! Couldn't you have helped us a little? Don't act like you're so important!" Doug said, lashing out at Akira.

"Doug, don't say such stupid things!"

Melissa and Kanako hastily tried to stop him.

"It's fine," Akira said, his smile not faltering at all. "He just misunderstands something. I… Rikudou Akira, was never there. The one who was there was her."

"Eh? What are you talking about, Rikudou-kun, you were with the Bravers the whole time - ?!" Kanako began.

Akira's appearance changed into that of a woman, right before the confused Kanako's eyes. Kanako and Murakami knew that woman well.

"The 'Metamorph' Shihouin Mari…?!"

"Yeah, don't call her by her name too much, though," said Shihouin Mari, who was supposed to have died in an explosion that occurred at her isolated cell. She was speaking with the exact same expression and tone, as if she had been taken over by Rikudou Akira himself. "I've carefully brainwashed her with magic and drugs, but it's not an ability, so it can't be called perfect. There might be sudden moments of noise, so be careful, just in case."

And then she transformed back into the 'Avalon' Rikudou Akira once more.

The one who was with the Bravers back then was not Rikudou Akira himself, but the 'Metamorph' Shihouin Mari, who had transformed into him.

Murakami felt astonishment and fear upon learning this fact, but at the same time, it made sense.

I did think it strange for the mastermind himself to go out there, but it was a double right from the start.

It had also likely been Akira who had pulled the strings behind Shihouin Mari being blown up. He had placed a different corpse there in her place, and brainwashed the real Mari to add her to his collection of pawns. Though this had been treated as the doing of the Eighth Guidance, the real culprit was among the Bravers, and this had occurred after Shimada Izumi and Machida Aran died.

It had probably been simple for Akira, as he was deeply trusted by Amemiya Hiroto.

That scrupulous mastermind gave a bitter smile as Murakami looked at him.

"… Ah, don't misunderstand. I'm not blaming you, nor am I reducing your rewards. This is just a little bit of idle talk," said Akira, who was even more of a villain than Murakami, through Mari who was apparently now no more than a relay device in the form of a person.

"What?" said Doug, seeming bewildered.

"Since you completed the minimum requirements of what I requested, I have no complaints. That's what I mean. You'll be paid the promised rewards, and you'll be employed in the intelligence agency with the treatment that you were promised. It will be difficult to have you treated like leaders right away, but I'll arrange for work to be sent your way so that you can build your achievements," said Akira, listing out favorable conditions one after another.

"Are you sure you can promise stuff like that?" Murakami asked.

"Of course. Despite my appearance, I'm controlling the intelligence agency of a superpower nation from the shadows, and nobody knows about it except for you four, you know? It's simple."

"Then I'm grateful, but…"

At that moment, an announcer's voice came in through speakers, calling for Murakami and his companions.

"It looks like it's time. Now then, I'll excuse myself," said Akira, transforming into a Hexagon employee as he left.

In an operating space, where the underground laboratory could be seen through a layer of reinforced glass, there were workers in lab coats questioning Murakami and his companions.

Doug, Melissa and Kanako were cooperating with the investigation without any signs of unhappiness, as Rikudou Akira had assured them that their futures were secure.

However, Murakami felt a strange discomfort at how Rikudou Akira had behaved.

Something is off.

No matter what, he couldn't shake off this unpleasant, sinister feeling.

What was so off about him? His behavior? The way he'd talked like an important person? … No, that wasn't it!

It's the words he said, the words we wanted to hear! I said similar things to Death Scythe and Marionette! If you're going to kill them anyway, empty promises are fine!

So then, the reason he asked us to come here and hand over Pluto's body, with which he was so obsessed, was…!

Having suddenly realized something, Murakami stood up from his seat, driven by his sensation of fear. He approached the reinforced glass to look at Pluto's corpse, which was under investigation.

"What's wrong, Murakami-sensei?"

Ignoring the surprised voices of the others, Murakami looked at Pluto's corpse just in time to see an employee touch Pluto's corpse with a dissecting scalpel.

"STOOOOOOOP!" Murakami screamed.

But the scalpel didn't stop, and it broke through Pluto's skin. And then something resembling a black gas erupted from that point with incredible force.

"What?!"

"Death-attribute Mana detected! This is… already beyond critical levels!"

Inside the laboratory, the researchers who were wearing protective equipment that included magical defense as well crumpled onto the floor, one after another. An alarm sounded, and operators' screams filled the air.

Nobody knew exactly what had happened, but Murakami was the only one to instinctively realize it.

This was the 'death' that Pluto had accumulated for almost ten years. This immense amount of death that had been supposed to be poured into Narumi, but now that Pluto had died, it had nowhere left to go and it was overflowing!

"Sensei! What happened?!" Doug shouted.

"Don't think about it, we're getting out of here!" Murakami shouted back with a completely different expression. "You're in the way, move!" He cast a spell towards the exit that was flooded with Hexagon employees, blowing them away along with the door.

Screams echoed in the room as blood and fragments of bone and flesh filled the air.

"What are you doing?! If you slaughter the employees of the national state of defense, you'll be questioned for treason!" Melissa shouted at the apparently deranged Murakami.

Doug and Kanako stared at him, dumbfounded.

"I don't give a sheet! Hurry up and start running!" Murakami said as he broke off into a sprint.

When the other three looked behind them, the black fog was somehow closing in on them through the reinforced glass.

Melissa, Doug and Kanako watched the smoke make contact with a young female operator, who let out strangled noises as she was mummified in a matter of seconds. Their expressions changed and they hastily ran after Murakami.

However, they quickly caught up to him.

"Th-this is bad, we're surrounded!" Murakami muttered.

The passageway in front of him… the passageway that led to the elevator that would take them to the ground surface, was filled with black smoke.

The black smoke had moved more quickly than they had thought.

"Melissa, use Aegis, protect us with Aegis!"

"Yes!"

"Doug, break the ceiling! We'll escape through there!"

"Alright!"

The four of them quickly took refuge inside the Aegis's shield. And then Doug opened a hole in the ceiling with his telekinesis. Rubble rained down, but Doug sent it flying with his telekinesis as he tried to continue digging.

If he could continue digging like this all the way to the surface, they would be saved. Or so the four of them thought, but then Doug suddenly began convulsing.

"Doug?!"

"What is this smoke, it's mixing in with the rubble… Touching it even with your abilities is bad…!"

Kanako let out a scream. Right before her eyes, the moisture was stripped from Doug's body, leaving behind only skin and bones. He collapsed with a dull thud.

"You can't touch it with your abilities, either?! Melissa, you…!" Murakami began as he turned around to see that Melissa was already dead, having become mummified where she stood. "Even Aegis doesn't work?!"

"Wall of Water and Wall of Ice disappear right away as well! This fog absorbs Mana?!" Kanako was trying to build walls with spells, but it seemed that the black fog absorbed not only life force but Mana as well; her spells simply vanished like mist.

And with Melissa's death, the Aegis had been undone. The black fog closed in on the remaining two relentlessly.

"Chronos!"

Murakami used Chronos on himself and Kanako, trying to delay the effects of the black smoke, but he could only do so for a few dozen seconds.

His Mana was absorbed with incredible speed; even his second ability, Super Mana Recovery, couldn't keep up with it.

Kanako screamed in despair. "This, I don't want to die like this, why?! Why?!"

"SHIIIIT! You knew this would happen, and you set us up, Rikudou! Damn it! CURSE YOOOUUUU!" Murakami roared.

The two of them watched each other turn into mummies as they perished.

The death attribute that the federal state's Hexagon had been researching went out of control, causing the deaths of all Hexagon employees inside the building at the time, as well as Murakami Junpei and three other former Bravers.

The black, fog-like substance engulfed the grounds of the national defense department and tried to spread even further.

The army was urgently summoned to counteract this, but they weren't even able to slow down the spreading of the fog.

Just as the flustered cabinet ministers started pressing the president to fire a nuclear missile at the Hexagon, the Bravers, whom the entire world was viewing with eyes of suspicion, arrived on the scene.

At the 'Avalon' Rikudou Akira's suggestion, the Bravers used a plan centered around light and life-attribute magic, utilizing Amemiya Hiroto's powers, to dispel the black death-attribute fog that covered the Hexagon.

At a meeting where the most important of his cooperators were gathered, Rikudou Akira was repeatedly joining his fingers together and separating them again, seeming to be restless.

"What's the matter, Rikudou?" said one of his cooperators, calling out to him. "It's unusual for you to be so restless, isn't it?"

Akira gave a bitter smile. "This is a bad habit of mine that I've had since the past. I feel uneasy when things go too well. If there was a plan that I would consider a great success if it accomplished seventy percent of its goals, and then it went and accomplished ninety percent of them, I can't be blamed for finding it hard to believe, right?"

The chain of events for which Rikudou Akira had pulled the strings. Everyone who was an obstruction or a danger to him had now disappeared, save for one person.

Those who had been obstacles to his plans, forcing him to build roundabout plans - the 'Oracle' Endou Kouya, Calculation, Inspector, Gazer and one more person.

Those with abilities that had posed a danger to him - Death Scythe, Marionette and Mage Masher.

The ones he had used to dispose of the above-mentioned individuals, the ones who had known that he was the mastermind, vulgar people whom he couldn't trust because they would betray their allies for unimportant reasons - the 'Chronos' Murakami Junpei and six others.

And those who obstructed him and his cooperators from monopolizing the death attribute - the Eighth Guidance members who harbored death-attribute Mana within them, as well as the survivors from the military nation's secret laboratory who had been hiding in the Hexagon to conduct research into death-attribute magic.

Akira had succeeded in having all of them die without using his own hands, except for one.

"The only one left is Amemiya Hiroto, huh," one of his cooperators murmured.

"The Braver… the hero is tenacious, after all," said another.

"No, it's not like that at all. If he, the leader, were to disappear, there's a chance that ability-users in the Bravers organization would scatter. It's more convenient for all of them to be gathered in once place. It's more convenient to utilize them, and dispose of them, that way," Akira explained, correcting his cooperators.

In fact, he had made his plans to ensure that Amemiya Hiroto wouldn't be killed by Pluto. It wasn't Hiroto who was in the way.

"Naruse Narumi… no, Amemiya Narumi. To think that Pluto would stop herself from killing her."

The death of the 'Angel,' Naruse Narumi. This was the only objective of this chain of events that had not been accomplished.

"It was unexpected that she was in the early stages of pregnancy, but… I suppose the most unexpected thing was that Pluto was more of a romanticist than I'd expected," Akira said.

"Unless you were being served by the goddess of destiny, bringing about all of your desired results under those circumstances would have been impossible. Or is that one of the abilities you possess?" asked one of the cooperators.

"No. As I explained to you people, the abilities I possess are Increased Learning Speed and Unlimited Development."

The 'Avalon' Rikudou Akira. He was the reincarnated individual who had received the plainest cheat-like abilities among the Bravers. The ability to learn knowledge and skills more quickly than others, and the ability to develop as a person with no limits, were not abilities that he could show others and say, "Behold, my powers!"

He hadn't been used to draft plans like the 'Oracle' Endou Kouya, nor had he been noticed like the 'Noah' Mao for the convenience of his abilities. He was also unable to act on the field using only his abilities, like Death Scythe, Hecatoncheir and Gungnir had done.

But using his abilities, he had studied diligently and had become one of the technical personnel of the Bravers… a magic specialist. This was the result of him focusing solely on increasing his skill with magic while the other reincarnated individuals struggled to learn to use their abilities.

And because of this, Akira had a certain ambition. He had gathered people to join his side to turn these ambitions into reality, and they had now assembled for this meeting.

Members of the Bravers just like Akira, religious officials, those in the political and business fields, military personnel - powerful people from all kinds of backgrounds.

Akira separated his fingers once more and pointed at the monitor that displayed all of these people as he addressed them.

"Now then, let's leave the reflection at that. Today is a celebratory party. From this point onwards, we will nurture humanity, stepping onto a road towards a new human race that has evolved both physically and spiritually. First of all, we will acquire the power of the 'Undead'… the person who was supposed to become the 101st Braver!"

Quite early on, Rikudou Akira had arrived at the truth that the 'Undead' had been one of the reincarnated individuals… probably Amamiya Hiroto, whom Naruse Narumi had mistaken Amemiya Hiroto for.

He had come to this conclusion from the fact that the 'Undead' had enjoyed rice at the research laboratory in which he was raised.

The Undead had desired not meat, fish or sweets, but rice. He had been Asian, but raised in a European culture. Despite being raised in a laboratory, where the only food he knew should have been what was fed to him, the Undead had desired rice.

Other people might have simply assumed that he had heard one of the workers at the laboratory talking about rice, but Akira was different.

The time he was born is around the same time as us, too. Wasn't he reincarnated from Japan as well?

Having instinctively realized this, Akira had destroyed the document recording the fact that the Undead had desired rice.

And then, with the hypothesis that the Undead was a reincarnated individual, he'd started his own independent research into the death attribute.

"This is reasoning stacked upon reasoning, but let me declare this. Our hands shall reach the death attribute! And through the death attribute, we will evolve into a new humanity!" Akira said.

Akira's cooperators stirred and cheered, and they gave a round of applause.

Rikudou Akira's ambition was to develop in a way that truly transcended all limits.

Due to the effects of Unlimited Development, it was possible for him to develop his stamina, Mana and skills endlessly, becoming a superhuman.

But even then, he would still be within the restrictions of being a 'superhuman.'

If he continued studying diligently for the decades to come, Rikudou Akira would likely leave his name behind in history as a mage with the magical mastery of a god.

But he would not be a god.

Even if he pushed his skill with magic to the limits, one day, he would grow old and die. From an average person's perspective, he may appear to be omnipotent, but in reality, he would be limited in all kinds of ways, far from omnipotent.

Most importantly, his body was too frail.

No matter how much it develops, the time it takes for the brain's commands to reach the nerves cannot be shortened. Sensory organs, internal organs, muscle, bone, they're all too weak. My ability only removes the restriction of development, after all. It isn't something that can make me evolve from something other than a human.

But if he were to master death-attribute magic -

That will be the moment I become a member of a new human race beyond the Homo sapiens… No, I will become a god!

As his cooperators gave him a standing ovation, the genius with the burning desire to become a supernatural being reaffirmed his determination to achieve his ambition, even if that meant using others as seeds to nurture his growth.

Murakami Junpei, Tsuchiya Kanako, Doug Atlas, Melissa J. Sautome, deceased.

Remaining reincarnated individuals: 79.

Completely unrelated to these events, the god of Origin was moving.

Like the god of Earth, it was a being that had been created after humanity's birth, from humanity's religions, fears and imagination.

It was far smaller than Earth's, but it had split into numerous divine beings modeled after legendary and mythical beings, and these all existed simultaneously.

It was in a state where angels and demons were constantly in direct contact with each other, and thus, its separate components had interfered with each other ever since its birth.

As a result of a negotiation with Zuruwarn, the god of space and creation, a god from the foreign world of Lambda, the god of Origin moved with a single purpose.

That purpose was to deliver the souls of the members of the Eighth Guidance to Zuruwarn, who resided in the foreign world of Lambda.

Normally, the rebirth of all souls was under Rodcorte's jurisdiction. Interfering with this was a grave violation of the rules.

However, the god of Origin had plenty of reason to commit this act.

After all, Rodcorte had reincarnated a hundred and one individuals in Origin from another world, without any previous warning, and even given all but one of them special abilities.

And the reason he'd done that was so that they could use Origin as a tutorial… a practice ground, before being reincarnated in Lambda.

Both the god of Origin's divine beings and demons alike had become enraged by this.

That was why god of Origin cooperated with Zuruwarn.

As the souls of the Eighth Guidance tried to obey the rules and return to Rodcorte, one of the divine beings in charge of the afterlife and reincarnation stopped them and sent them to Zuruwarn. As Rodcorte tried to interfere with this, all of the remaining divine beings drove him off.

As a god, Rodcorte had the upper hand in power and personal history. However, this was Origin. The only ones who knew of Rodcorte's existence were the reincarnated individuals, of whom about eighty remained.

There was no way that all of the gods of Origin's human race would be defeated by him.

The god of Origin had the feeling that it had accidentally picked up one different soul, but a divine being of love, among many others expressed the opinion that it should be sent along with the rest, and many of the demons, demon kings and spiritual monsters disliked the idea of going through the trouble of separating that one soul out, so the god of Origin simply sent all of these souls to Zuruwarn.

Zuruwarn, the god with the appearance of a winged, four-headed lion, awaited the souls of the Eighth Guidance.

Vandalieu had already created a vessel for them to be reincarnated into once the souls were received.

"At first, he simply intended to use Vida's relic to create them, but… though it's a coincidence, it's incredible that he's taken the base form of life with no soul and the base form of a spirit with no life, and then joined them together. As expected of Vandalieu, who was once those four."

Zakkart, Ark, Solder and Hillwillow. Vandalieu was living up to the expectations of possessing a soul born from the soul fragments of those four.

"Now, all there's left to do is to place the souls in the vessel in order, and wait for new lives to be born. I'm looking forward to it~"

Zuruwarn had always had the personality of a trickster. One of the things that he was looking forward to was this endeavor that would likely enrage Alda, the god of law and fate.

His original goal had been to send Vandalieu allies to prove that he was not Vandalieu's enemy, however.

"The god of earth's reactions are slow; the new siblings are still wandering about. Ricklent is still groggy from overusing his power… Aren't I amazing for continuing to work under these circumstances?"

As Zuruwarn talked to himself in a normal, informal tone of speech, the Eighth Guidance's souls arrived.

"Alright? … Hmm? It seems that there's one unneeded one? … Hmm, hmm, so that's how it is."

Deciding that this didn't matter, Zuruwarn went to put the souls, including that of the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi, into the vessel created by Vandalieu.

But at that moment, Rodcorte's enormous hand extended towards him.

"Hand those souls over!" Rodcorte demanded.

"Zuruwarn! Take those souls and pull back for now!" shouted Ricklent, the genie of time and magic, as he tried to stop that enormous hand. However, he couldn't even buy any time for Zuruwarn.

"How persistent of you, to chase me all the way to Lambda!" Zuruwarn muttered.

Rodcorte's hand sent Ricklent flying aside and grasped at Zuruwarn, trying to take the souls that he was holding.

This place was a part of Lambda, the world where Zuruwarn and Ricklent were worshipped. Normally, just like the god of Origin, they would have been able to repel Rodcorte.

However, unlike the god of Origin, Zuruwarn and Ricklent were in wounded states; they had continued using their powers despite not having completely recovered from the injuries they sustained in the battle against the Demon King.

For Rodcorte, this was little more than taking candy from a baby.

I won't let you take them so easily! Zuruwarn thought as he sunk his fangs into Rodcorte's arm. It was a small, mostly-meaningless act of resistance. The amount of damage that Rodcorte took was equivalent to welts appearing on his arm.

However, that damage caused Rodcorte's arm to stop.

"Now's the time! Go, my souls!"

Using the single moment given to him, Zuruwarn drove all of the souls that he was holding into the vessel.

"The reincarnation has already been completed! Leave this place!" Ricklent shouted.

With a groan of frustration, Rodcorte's arm vanished. He had likely realized that there was nothing more that he could do.

No matter how much power he had, he could not step outside his jurisdiction. Having only a single authority was Rodcorte's weakness.

Zuruwarn let out a sigh of relief from all four of his heads. "Are you alright?" he asked Ricklent.

"It's nothing serious. But…" Ricklent looked at Zuruwarn with a grimace.

Zuruwarn nodded. "I know. Things have become troublesome. Rodcorte has found out that we've become Vandalieu's allies."

Up until this point, Rodcorte would have been under the assumption that the gods of Lambda were not Vandalieu's allies, at least among the divine that were currently active.

However, Zuruwarn and Ricklent were Vandalieu's allies… How would things turn out now that Rodcorte knew that they had started directly interfering with him?

But Ricklent shook his head, as he continued grimacing at Zuruwarn, his brother. "No, that's not it," he said. "Brother, you have ignored all of the procedures that I set as the god of magic, haven't you?"

The souls of the Eighth Guidance were supposed to be reincarnated into the vessel one at a time, with a few minutes between them. With Ricklent casting several spells during the process, even.

But Zuruwarn had simply driven all of the souls into the vessel at once.

"… Ah," said Zuruwarn.

"That's not what you should be saying."

"But it was an emergency situation… Look, the vessel seems to contain the souls now, so hasn't the reincarnation succeeded?"

"Indeed, the reincarnation has happened."

The two gods looked at the vessel… the basic life form that Vandalieu had created using Vida's relic, as it burbled and squirmed fiercely.

"… Even I can't imagine what form they will be reincarnated in," said Ricklent.

Have I messed things up for the first time in a while? Zuruwarn wondered, but he decided to blame everything on Rodcorte.

"Well, I'm sure it will work out. And Rodcorte is the one at fault. Now then, I'm going to return to the negotiations with the god of Earth, so I'll leave the rest to you," Zuruwarn said, and then he left.

"He ran away…" Ricklent let out a deep sigh and decided that for now, he would keep watch over the vessel containing the souls of all of the members of the Eighth Guidance and the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi.

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Chapter 121: The meaty visitor in the dead of the night

As the 'thing' gained consciousness, it fell into a state of panic.

It didn't know its own state, where it was, or even what it was.

Its thoughts were a jumbled mess of different pronouns.

In this chaotic state, it tried to move, but its body wouldn't move the way it wanted it to.

What is this? What is this? What happened? Why?"

With this chaos turning into total confusion, the 'thing' desperately tried to move its body around. One of its movements managed to touch something silver.

When the 'thing' touched this object, it felt strangely calm, content and happy.

That's right, I, I, I, grr… don't care.

Within that happiness, the 'thing' abandoned the thought of analyzing itself. It also abandoned the thought of unification and separation.

The 'thing' realized that its current state was normal for it.

More importantly, the 'thing' wanted to move quickly.

"Ooohhh…"

Because this was the place that the 'thing' had dreamed of. It was the place that it had dreamed of and desired more than any paradise.

Quickly, I must be at his side!

Driven by this maddening desire, the 'thing' that had been named Lump-of-flesh-chan floated into the air, and in the next instant, it vanished.

"Vandalieu, wake up. It's still night, but there's a visitor."

Vandalieu awoke to the voice of his mother, Darcia, whose spirit resided in a small bone fragment.

"A visitor?"

Vandalieu could hardly be described as an ordinary boy, but even so, physically speaking, he was a nine-year-old child. Due to this fact, he slept long hours during times of peace.

Everyone knows this, so there shouldn't be anyone visiting me in the dead of the night unless it's an emergency, Vandalieu thought in confusion as he looked around. And then he saw the 'visitor' that Darcia had mentioned, and froze.

That 'thing' had the most bizarre appearance that Vandalieu had ever seen in any of his lives.

The 'thing' was floating in the middle of the air, and it had an overall spherical shape.

But it was made of countless human limbs, torsos and heads twisted around each other to form something resembling a sphere; it had an entirely abnormal appearance.

It was more flesh-colored than pink, and it didn't appear to have skin, hair or even eyes.

Overall, there were more female-looking parts, but there were also some male-looking ones, and there were even animal-looking parts in a few places.

If it were to be given a description, something like 'a sphere, three meters in diameter, created by a mad artist by twisting and combining flesh-colored mannequins made of clay' might have fit.

If this royal castle hadn't been built for the Titan race, whose males could reach heights of up to three meters, it would likely have become stuck against the ceiling.

"Nice to meet you," Vandalieu said, addressing the 'thing's' numerous, eyeless faces that consisted of only outlines. "Excuse me, but who would you be?"

He had been surprised at first, but he had quickly become accustomed to the 'thing.' He often grew numerous heads and limbs himself, and this 'thing' even resembled the Zombie Giants that had been created by combining multiple corpses. Vandalieu thought that compared to Merrebeveil, who consisted of bundles of tentacles forming the shape of a Scylla, the 'thing's' appearance wasn't all too surprising.

"OOOOHHHH!"

The 'thing,' still floating in the air, froze for a moment and then tear-like mouths appeared on its faces, skillfully producing expressions of grief.

And then it expressed its emotions by clutching its heads with its numerous arms, flailing its legs and twisting its torsos.

It had apparently been hurt by Vandalieu's words.

"Vandalieu, I'm not sure if I should call it a child or children, but they seem to love you," said Darcia. "Just now, it said, 'we finally met him…'"

"Did it say that?"

"Mmm, it just said, 'oooh,' but that's what it felt like."

"I see."

Vandalieu believed Darcia's unreliable translation that was based on nothing more than what she felt. It was his mother's words, after all.

And he had suspected what the origins of the 'thing' might be, so he thought that it wouldn't be strange for Darcia to be able to understand its feelings.

"Its body looks like Lump-of-flesh-chan, but what's inside?" Vandalieu wondered. "Did it grow something? Hmm, I don't know. It does look like a soul has firmly attached itself, though."

Lump-of-flesh-chan, the failed product that Vandalieu had created while trying to use Vida's relic, the resurrection device, to create a body for Darcia. Something had inhabited it, and now it was the 'thing' before Vandalieu's eyes.

Considering that, perhaps this 'thing' could be considered to be something like Darcia's identical twin.

However, the question was, what had inhabited it?

"Oooohh… Aaaahhh…"

The soul residing in the 'thing' that was trembling sorrowfully. Because Lump-of-flesh-chan had been a life form without a soul to begin with, it was difficult to imagine that one had been spontaneously created inside it.

With that being the case, Vandalieu considered the possibility of the spirits floating about nearby entering it on their own, but that didn't seem to be the case, either. The number of spirits around hadn't decreased, and if that was possible, it should have happened much sooner. Lump-of-flesh-chan had been around for over a year.

So then, what is it? Vandalieu wondered.

"Bad boy!" Darcia said, interrupting his thoughts. "You can't just make a girl cry and then leave her alone!"

Vandalieu was being scolded for leaving Lump-of-flesh-chan alone to its sad feelings.

Vandalieu did feel some doubt as to whether Lump-of-flesh-chan could be classified as a girl. However, it was a fact that he had hurt someone who had a liking for him and then left them alone.

I suppose I can analyze it later.

Vandalieu stepped down from his bed and called out to the 'thing.' "I'm sorry for saying something so callous. I didn't intend to make you sad. Would you like to be my friend?"

Vandalieu apologized earnestly and offered out his hand. The 'thing' froze in the air for a moment. In the next moment, several arms extended outwards, ignoring Vandalieu's hand and wrapping around him to embrace him.

From an outside perspective, it might have appeared that it intended to prey on him.

"AAAAHH, UWAAAAHH," it groaned.

"I'm glad you made up," said Darcia.

The 'thing' clearly had no hostile intentions. Even Vandalieu, who was being embraced, didn't have any discomfort.

Overall, it's soft and squishy, and some places feel muscular, and its body temperature is a little low?

Rodcorte stared at his minorly-injured arm in disbelief.

His hand was supposed to be holding the soul of the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi, as well as those of the Eighth Guidance, which he had intended to use as hostages against Vandalieu.

But his acquisition of these souls had been obstructed by the god of Origin, as well as the gods of Lambda - Zuruwarn, the god of space and creation, and Ricklent, the genie of time and magic.

The injuries that Rodcorte had received from Zuruwarn were minor. They were so small that they would heal quickly before long.

However, Rodcorte had never been attacked by another god before until now. Since he ruled over reincarnation, far away from every world, he had never become involved with any humans, gods or beings that were hostile towards gods.

Because of this, Rodcorte had no resistance at all when it came to pain. That was why he had faltered and allowed the souls of the 'Gazer' and the others to get away, but the cause of Rodcorte's current discomposure was not the shock of his failure.

"Why are Zuruwarn, Ricklent and the god of Origin interfering with me… no, why are they acting as Vandalieu's allies?"

Zuruwarn and Ricklent might have reacted with, "You really don't know why?!" if they heard Rodcorte, but Rodcorte was truly surprised.

In his mind, since ages long past, he had always just been acting within his own domain, prioritizing his work.

The exception was when he had sent reincarnated individuals from another world to the world of Origin, and Vandalieu himself had been one of those individuals. Rodcorte thought that Zuruwarn would have no reason to become Vandalieu's ally.

"But then, what is the meaning behind Zuruwarn and Ricklent interfering with me? It is also likely that Zuruwarn was the one who had made the god of Origin act as well. The god of Origin, like the god of Earth, is a collective god that is branched out into countless divine beings. There is no way that it would move with a single purpose unless the existence of its world hung in the balance."

In the past, it had been Zuruwarn who had negotiated with the god of the foreign world of Earth when he summoned the champions from that world. There was no mistaking it.

Note: Reminder that italicized Earth is the world that the champions (Bellwood, Zakkart, etc) came from, not the Earth where everyone was reincarnated from.

But even with this experience, it couldn't have been simple for Zuruwarn to conduct negotiations when he still hadn't recovered from the damage he had suffered during the battle against the Demon King.

With that being the case, that meant that Zuruwarn had been acting for a considerable amount of time in advance. It meant that he had been negotiating for years at least.

"Just when did Zuruwarn and the other gods of Lambda become aware of Vandalieu's existence? No, more importantly, why are they interfering… showing hostility towards me?"

Rodcorte had thought that all of the gods of Lambda were slumbering other than Alda, the god of law and fate. It had been unexpected for these gods to be active, even if it was only two of them, and them showing hostility towards him had been even more unexpected.

After all, showing hostility towards Rodcorte would surely yield no benefits for them.

Unlike the Demon King, he had no thoughts of invading Lambda, and didn't desire its destruction. In fact, he wanted the world to develop. In that regard, Rodcorte could even be considered an ally to the gods of Lambda, in the broadest sense of the word.

In fact, he had sent reincarnated individuals there for the purpose of stimulating the world's development.

The only thing that could be achieved by defeating Rodcorte was a suspension of the function of the circle of transmigration system, which governed the transportation of the souls of Lambda's people.

If that happened, Lambda would be overrun by monsters, or become a world where only the races created by Vida would live.

Could that be what the gods of Lambda were after?

"I see. Zuruwarn and the others have chosen the circle of transmigration system created by Vida over mine. That is why they are allying themselves with Vandalieu, who is guiding the souls of even humans, Elves and Dwarves to Vida's system!"

Rodcorte hadn't expected any of the prominent gods who had sided with Vida to ally themselves with Vandalieu except for perhaps Zantark, who had lost his sanity after fusing with an evil god. He felt surprised by his own conclusion, but at the same time, he was convinced. This was certainly plausible.

And then he felt a strong sense of danger. If the world of Lambda as a whole chose Vida's circle of transmigration system, and his own system lost the foundation upon which it was based, Rodcorte would lose one of the sources of his power.

That wasn't where the problems stopped. If Vida was revived and she perfected her circle of transmigration system, it was possible that Zuruwarn would tell the god of Origin how to recreate circle of transmigration systems.

Rodcorte didn't know if this was how Zuruwarn had negotiated with the god of Origin, but considering the effort that it had put into its actions, it was certain that the god of Origin had its misgivings towards Rodcorte. If those misgivings were large enough, it would likely change its world's circle of transmigration system.

Such movements might spread beyond the worlds of Lambda and Origin.

For Rodcorte, who had no believers and was not known to any people in any world, his circle of transmigration systems controlling fewer worlds was a matter of life and death.

If more and more worlds chose Vida's circle of reincarnation system, he wouldn't even be able to turn into a specter, fairy or demon like other fallen gods; he would simply vanish like mist.

One or two worlds less wouldn't cause any problems. He would simply need to find newly-born worlds and obtain the authority to govern the circles of transmigration for those worlds. However, worlds were not born with great frequency, and there was no guarantee that he would be able to obtain authority over their circles of transmigration.

"Before that happens, I must kill Vandalieu at all costs!" Rodcorte concluded.

"… No, why is that the only conclusion you can come to? Our boss's way of thinking is too rigid," said a voice from below.

Rodcorte looked down to see the 'Calculation' Machida Aran and the 'Inspector' Shimada Izumi, who had become his familiar spirits, and the 'Noah' Mao Smith nearby as well.

"If it were me, I would apologize and ask him to not spread Vida's circle of transmigration systems to the other worlds, then completely give up on Origin and Lambda," said Izumi.

"If you can't cut your losses, things will progress to a point of no return. I agree with these two," said Mao.

There was the other dozen or so reincarnated individuals who had recently died as well. They had already been informed that there was a third life waiting for them through the 'instant information transmission' method.

"You… since you are my familiar spirits, my ruin will be your own ruin as well," Rodcorte said, wishing that his servants would at least share some of the sense of danger that he felt.

Izumi and Aran simply stared back at him through half-closed eyes.

Having no other choice, Rodcorte looked around at the other reincarnated individuals, including Mao. "… Quite a lot of you have died all at once," he remarked.

This caused the reincarnated individuals to either react with frowns like Tendou and Kouya, or avert their eyes awkwardly like Murakami's group.

They hadn't died because they'd wanted to, but it seemed that they didn't want to protest and point this out to Rodcorte, the one who had granted them power and a new life.

"And it seems you are surprisingly deeply hostile towards each other. Even though your lives were but a tutorial before the real thing…" Rodcorte murmured.

It seemed that these words couldn't be ignored by the reincarnated individuals.

"You should have told us that first!" shouted the 'Chronos' Murakami Junpei.

"That's right! If we knew that something was coming afterwards, we wouldn't have done such reckless things!" protested the 'Venus' Tsuchiya Kanako.

Several others looked at those two with suspicious eyes, as if doubting their words, but they didn't appear to be fazed by this.

It seemed that they were mentally tough individuals.

"I agree," said the 'Mage Masher' Minami Asagi, who had been arguing with Murakami Junpei until just moments ago.

Since they had no physical bodies, punching each other caused no effect other than a vague sense of pain, so it seemed that he had been unable to put up with Murakami.

… Despite the fact that he had been advocating for his companions to reunite as one up until Murakami and his group died.

"Life and death are important things for humans. And we aren't optimistic enough to think that we could be reincarnated a second time just because it happened once. It was correct for us to think that we had only one life left, and desperately do our best to live it… even if what these guys were aiming for was completely wrong," Asagi added, glancing in Murakami and Kanako's direction.

The 'Oracle' Endou Kouya had more to add. "Living with the purpose of gaining experience to prepare for the next world. I can't say that there are none who live with that purpose. But we're not like that. We were desperate to achieve the dreams and goals we had for our second lives. With that being the case, it was only natural that our opinions would oppose each other and we would go our separate ways from time to time. This is only something I realized now that our second lives are over, though."

In other words, it seemed that Kouya wanted to say that the reincarnated individuals had been desperate to make the most of their second chance because they had never been told that their time in Origin was a tutorial.

"Hmm…"

Hearing these words, Rodcorte realized that it might have been a mistake to keep quiet about the fact that they had a third life ahead of them.

The truth was that people being reincarnated with the memories and personalities of their previous lives intact was not common at all. At the very least, this was the only time that Rodcorte had carried it out.

There were probably cases in which individuals were reincarnated with the memories and personalities of their previous lives due to errors and bugs in some circle of transmigration systems, but this was impossible in Rodcorte's systems, which he maintained scrupulously… Vandalieu was causing great damage to Lambda's system, but such reincarnations had not occurred as of yet.

With that being the case, these individuals could not be blamed for living their second lives in a desperate fashion.

Still, you all came from the same background, and many of you were acquaintances who studied at the same school, Rodcorte thought, but even he would not say this out loud.

He was a god who governed circles of transmigration. He knew that humans were creatures that formed firm bonds with each other astonishingly quickly, but they were also creatures that would betray and kill each other for astonishingly stupid reasons.

And one of the reasons he had gone out of his way to reincarnate a hundred and one people at once was so that there would be no problems if ten or twenty percent of them were to be killed at each other's hands, or if some, like Kaidou Kanata, became absorbed in their own power and disposed of other reincarnated individuals and other people living in their world.

However, it was far past the time to tell the reincarnated individuals that they had a third chance.

"Well then, do you think it would be better if I were to tell the rest of them now that they have a third life?" Rodcorte asked, already knowing the answer.

It was the 'Chronos' Murakami Junpei who responded. "No, it's too late. I think things would become even worse if you were to tell them," he said.

"What are you talking about, you sheetty teacher? Everything turned out like this because nobody knew that we have a third life ahead of us," said Asagi.

"I don't mind being called sheetty, but stop it with the 'teacher,' you muscle-brain Asagi," Murakami retorted. "What you say is true; if we'd known that we had a third life ahead, we wouldn't have betrayed you and made you our enemies for our third lives. But that only applies if we'd known from the beginning."

"Huh? Be clearer."

"… Sensei is saying that it's too late," said the 'Marionette' Inui Hajime, still hugging his knees. "It's true that if the Bravers were to be told now that there is a third life, they would try to live with more dignity and justice. There wouldn't be any more like me and Kanata. If they knew that they would be reincarnated one more time and that they would be questioned after their deaths by Inspector-sama here who's become an angel, they wouldn't be able to do any bad things unless they'd totally given up on themselves."

If they did anything bad in life, rather than being sent to hell by a god, they would be killed by the waiting reincarnated individuals the moment they were reborn. No, perhaps they would be reincarnated as livestock or work-horses with the memories and personalities of their previous lives intact.

Being reincarnated as livestock with a human's mind would be a more fearsome punishment than being sent to hell.

In fact, a certain reincarnated individual's parent on Earth had apparently been reincarnated as a tortoise, so such a punishment was certainly possible.

"But if we told Rikudou Akira and those cooperating with him, do you think they'd stop now?" Hajime continued. "He pulled the strings from the shadows, brainwashed the Metamorph, disposed of me, Sensei and the others, as well as the death attribute researchers along with the entire department of defense of the federal nation, and he is continuing to betray Amemiya and the other Bravers.

"That's… it seems impossible for him to change," said Asagi.

All of the people that Akira had supposedly disposed of knew everything that he had done. Even if he knew this… Rikudou Akira was unlikely to change his behavior.

And people in Origin's political and business circles were among Akira's cooperators. Explaining reincarnation and such to them would not be an option.

In fact, it was highly likely that Akira's actions would become even more radical if he learned that he had a third life awaiting him.

"That's how it is. Therefore, we cannot tell the remaining individuals in Origin about their reincarnation to Lambda," said Rodcorte. "Of course, the immortality that Rikudou Akira has made his goal is very inconvenient for me. I will take action against him eventually, so I wish for you to turn your attention towards your reincarnation in Lambda."

"Alright, Kami-sama. So, what kind of punishment is waiting for us?" Murakami asked, sounding like he had already resigned to a punishment.

"… Punishment? What are you talking about?" said Rodcorte.

He didn't understand why Murakami was asking such a thing.

"As we thought," Izumi and Aran whispered to themselves.

Both Murakami and Asagi, who had been arguing fiercely with him earlier, showed expressions of bewilderment.

"I mean, you saw everything, right? The things we did. I'm even the one directly responsible for killing those two, who became your familiar spirits, you know?" Murakami continued.

He had played dumb when questioned by Amemiya Hiroto, but since there was no need to hide things from people who knew everything, he confessed his own deeds. The ones he had killed were even present, but he ignored them.

"Is there something wrong with that?" asked Rodcorte.

"I mean, something wrong, you say…"

Not only did Rodcorte show no signs of criticizing Murakami's crimes, he seemed to be completely uninterested. Murakami's confusion grew thicker.

Because he was the master of this Divine Realm, Rodcorte understood what he was thinking, and began his explanation, taking a little care in choosing his words.

"I am not responsible for delivering justice in Origin. Therefore, I do not intend to blame you for the crimes you committed in Origin. To begin with, laws are decided by humans to judge other humans. They have nothing to do with a god such as myself. If I were to punish every single human for killing others, what would I do with the great number of murderers that appear every time a war occurs on Earth or in Origin?"

Rodcorte was a god who governed the circles of transmigration… only the circles of transmigration. He would normally never reward anyone no matter how good they were, nor would he punish anyone no matter how evil they were. Indifferently, he simply welcomed the souls of the dead, immediately loaded them into his system and had them reborn.

"And if you want to speak of murderers, the others are not so different from you. Minami Asagi in particular has killed many," said Rodcorte.

Being called out suddenly, Asagi protested in surprise. "Wait a minute! I don't remember killing anyone but terrorists and dangerous criminals! And it's not like I intended to kill them!"

"Even terrorists and dangerous criminals are just humans to me," said Rodcorte.

Asagi's face stiffened as he fell into silence.

Aran continued explaining things to him and the others. "Everyone, for Rodcorte… this god, both good and evil people are just humans. No matter what motives and background there is for a murder, it's still just a murder. Our killing of terrorists to protect the many, murders committed by deranged serial killers, soldiers killing enemy soldiers to protect their own nations, it's all just murder."

Aran believed that murder could be considered a good deed depending on the circumstances. At first, Rodcorte's opinion of "no lives are more or less important than others, so the act of taking them is simply murder, no matter what motives are behind it" might sound like Rodcorte believed that each life was important, but the truth was that this was the absolute worst sense of values from a human's perspective.

Rodcorte was completely indifferent to humans' good or evil qualities; he felt no value in life itself. It was fine as long as lots of people were born, lived and died. That was what he thought.

"He does think that it would be a problem if someone planned to wipe out all life. But that's all it is," said Izumi, adding to Aran's explanation. "It looks like he doesn't intend to blame you for killing us… though personally, I can't forgive you."

"I see, that's good," Murakami sighed, realizing that Rodcorte really had no intention of punishing him.

The fact that he showed no signs of concern over Izumi and Aran's cold gazes might have been because he felt no sense of guilt to begin with.

"Well then, the problem is what comes after we're reborn. Asagi, Konoe, if you don't like me, shall we try to kill each other once we're reborn?" Murakami suggested, turning his attention towards his next life.

"If you're still up to no good, then yeah," said Asagi.

���Of course! If I see you in our next lives, I'm going to kill you with Death Scythe right away!" said Kyuuji.

"No, that would be problematic," said Rodcorte. He had been uninterested in events on Origin, but he stepped in to stop them now. "Unlike in Origin, my objective is to have you reborn in Lambda to stimulate the development of the world. It would be problematic if you were to reduce your own numbers by killing each other. And I have something I would like to request of you."

"Is it killing that Vandalieu guy you were talking about earlier? We're not hired assassins," said Murakami.

"Considering that you don't care about anyone as long as they can't wipe out all life, it makes me shudder to imagine trying to kill someone you consider 'necessary to dispose of,'" Asagi added.

"If you tell me who he is, I'll kill him right away with my Death Scythe. So don't interfere with me killing this sheetty teacher!" said Kyuuji.

The reincarnated individuals didn���t seem to be too enthusiastic about this. Izumi and Aran gave a simple explanation.

"It's the first among us reincarnated individuals who died. He was in Murakami's class; he was my and Minami's classmate. It's Amamiya Hiroto, who fell into the sea as he saved Narumi when the ferry sank," said Izumi.

"In Origin, his name was the 'Undead.' It's the one that Hiroto and the others faced, the one who saved the Eighth Guidance that you were fighting and gave them powers," Aran added.

The reincarnated individuals froze as they heard this explanation, and their faces stiffened as they comprehended the meaning of these words.

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Chapter 122: The threat lying in wait and the threat closing in

Upon receiving the information from Rodcorte that Amamiya Hiroto had been reincarnated in Origin as the 'Undead' and was now Vandalieu, the faces of the Bravers, as well as Murakami and the others who had deserted them, grew pale. The 'Oracle' Endou Kouya reacted particularly severely; he collapsed onto his knees.

Of course, the reasons the two groups turned pale were different, however.

"How could this have happened! To think that the Undead was him… Amamiya Hiroto, one of our companions!" Minami Asagi shouted. He clutched his head at the realization that he and his companions had exterminated a former classmate as a mere Undead and unknowingly handed the Eighth Guidance, the ones that this former classmate had saved, to a research laboratory for further inhumane research to be carried out on them.

Tendou, Akaki and Mao felt the same way, but it seemed that Asagi felt even more shock because Amamiya had been his own classmate.

"What have we done to such a good guy, someone who risked his life to try to save Narumi!" Asagi groaned.

"Eh?! Minami, you remember Amamiya-kun?!" Izumi asked him.

She had been the class representative and even she didn't remember Amamiya Hiroto; it was very surprising that Asagi remembered him.

"Of course, how could I forget such a good guy!" Asagi said.

"What specifically do you remember?"

"Specifically, you know, when Naruse was about to fall, but he saved her and fell into the ocean instead. Not just anyone could do something like that. And we did something like that to such a guy."

"No, that's a story you heard from Narumi; you didn't see it with your own eyes, right? Do you remember anything other than that… you don't, do you."

Asagi's eyes wandered around restlessly as he searched his memories. "No, but he's a good guy, right?" he said in the end.

"It's true that I've never talked to him before. But I never heard any bad rumors about him, so I thought he was a good person…"

It seemed that both Asagi and Izumi simply remembered that they didn't remember anything about Amamiya Hiroto.

Other than Asagi, the 'Death Scythe' Konoe Kyuuji and the 'Venus' Tsuchiya Kanako had been Amamiya's classmates as well, but judging from the fact that they weren't saying anything, it seemed that they didn't remember anything about him either.

"I've realized the weakness of my Inspector once more…" Izumi once again realized that she couldn't detect falsities that she herself assumed were true.

"Who cares about memories of a guy on Earth? Nobody remembers him anyway," said the 'Chronos' Murakami Junpei, who had been the homeroom teacher of Amamiya Hiroto's class, forcefully changing the topic. "The problem is that it's highly likely that he resents us, and the question is whether we can kill him."

Murakami and his group had turned pale not because of a sense of guilt, but because of the fact that there was a being waiting for them in their next life who would have a desire to kill them.

And that being was the 'Undead'… the one who had given the Eighth Guidance their powers. For Murakami, this was quite a bad situation.

"Gazer and the Eighth Guidance are with him as well, right? He already resented us before, but now I'm sure he'll be wanting to kill us even more. Sheet!" Murakami cursed.

"No, he was unexpectedly indifferent… Murakami-san, you've received the information that Kaidou Kanata experienced as well, haven't you?" asked Aran.

The information that Rodcorte had given the reincarnated individuals included the fact that the second reincarnated individual to die, the 'Gungnir' Kaidou Kanata, had tried to kill Vandalieu and then been destroyed.

Several of them had muttered, "Scum will always be scum, even if they're reborn," but the truth was that before destroying Kanata, Vandalieu had said that he didn't care about the reincarnated individuals as long as they didn't get involved with him.

"After he was exterminated by us… the Bravers, in Origin, and he'd just arrived here, he was angry to the point of losing his sanity, but now, the environment around him has changed and time has passed. As long as you don't accept this idiot's stupid idea and don't do anything stupid, I think it'll be fine," said Aran.

"Aran, when you say 'idiot,' are you perhaps referring to me?" Rodcorte asked.

"That's right, I'm referring to you, idiot," said Aran.

He was an angel, calmly insulting a god that was his own boss. Of course, Rodcorte showed no signs of caring about being called an idiot. He had known from the beginning that Aran and Izumi had no respect for him, and he was aware that their objective was to ensure their companions' safety; they were against his plan of using them as assassins to kill Vandalieu.

"And Vandalieu is capable of destroying souls," Izumi added. "Because Kanata said something stupid about him continuing to be reborn and going after Vandalieu no matter how many times he died, if you try to kill Vandalieu and are killed in return, you won't just die. I'm sure no matter what you say, your souls will be broken and your existence will be extinguished."

She clearly explained the risks involved with showing hostility against Vandalieu. Even after being told that their souls would be broken, normal people wouldn't really be able to fear how fearsome that was, but these people were those who had already experienced reincarnation and died twice; they understood what this would mean.

A final, irreversible end. They would not return to Rodcorte once more; there was not even the smallest chance of a miracle that could make that happen.

"Looking at it another way, he's the only one who can break souls. As long as you don't become his enemy, your soul won't be broken," Izumi said, imploring her companions to not show hostility towards Vandalieu.

"No, that's impossible," said the 'Death Scythe' Konoe Kyuuji, cutting her off.

"Oi, Kyuuji, what do you mean?" asked the 'Hecatoncheir' Doug.

"Doug, do you really believe what Vandalieu said? The words from the mouth of a person whose thoughts you can never tell, whose expression doesn't budge an inch even as he's killing people? And they're words that he said after Kanata pretended to kneel on the ground. How can you be sure that those words weren't an act as well? Or are you saying that one of you can declare with absolute certainty that he'll do exactly as he said?!" Kyuuji shouted at everyone else.

Doug nodded. "That's true. The records we got from this god showed that he has eyes like those of a dead fish. The fact that he shows no expression is creepy, and his voice sounds so monotone that it sounds like he's reading a script. It doesn't look like he's clearly trying to deceive us, but he's not someone we can trust."

It wasn't just him; it seemed that the 'Clairvoyance' Tendou and the 'Noah' Mao were doubtful of Vandalieu's words as well.

After all, this was a person whose existence they couldn't even remember from the time they lived on Earth. The reincarnated individuals couldn't see a single thing that suggested that he might be trustworthy.

"Shimada, can't you use Inspector to find out?" asked the 'Ifrit' Akaki.

"This happened before I became a familiar spirit, so I don't know anything but what I saw in the record. But what I do know is that he really said those words to Kanata," said Izumi.

When she looked at a record of the past, her Inspector could only tell whether that record itself was real or not.

"Well then, I can't really believe him, either," Akaki said. "I feel bad, but…"

"I mean, he does do all of those things."

"He makes Skeletons and Zombies, commands monsters, spreads a biological weapon to slaughter six thousand people, sews corpses together or feeds them to his minions… and he's killed several people by drinking their blood, hasn't he?"

"He brainwashes people as well, and he's a cannibal, too. He acts more like a demon than Rikudou does."

As the reincarnated individuals unanimously agreed, from their perspective, the acts that Vandalieu had committed up until now were almost purely evil. The individual events had their own circumstances, but Vandalieu being insane and the fact that he would sacrifice others for his own benefit were both real facts.

However, the reason the reincarnated individuals thought this way was because the information about Vandalieu that Rodcorte had given them was biased.

Being a god of reincarnation, Rodcorte could see the records of what the souls in his system had experienced. This was the information that Asagi and Murakami had.

However, Vandalieu was often surrounded by only those who were outside Rodcorte's system - those of Vida's races and Undead. And since he had acquired the Demon Guider Job, even the humans and Dwarves who were supposed to be a part of Rodcorte's system were led to Vida's circle of reincarnation system, so the information that Rodcorte could obtain was terribly limited.

As a result, Rodcorte could only show the reincarnated individuals records of the things experienced by those of races such as humans before they came under Vandalieu's guidance, or Vandalieu's enemies who could not be guided.

Of course, there was a limited amount of favorable feelings towards Vandalieu recorded in this information.

"So, the plan to trust Vandalieu and try to convince him that we won't get involved with him, isn't it impossible after all?"

"Haah… Even if the risk is too high and it isn't worth it, it would be nice if he could understand us."

Whether out of trust or fear, as long as the reincarnated individuals avoided Vandalieu, their souls wouldn't be destroyed. Of course, Lambda was filled with plenty of dangers other than Vandalieu, but as long as their souls weren't broken, they had the hope of another life.

"But Kouya, hadn't you learned of the situation with your Oracle beforehand?" Mao asked. "Even if nothing could be done right after he was born, I think that things wouldn't have turned out this way if we'd found him and rescued him before he turned into the 'Undead.'"

Kouya, who was still on his knees, suddenly returned to his senses and raised his head, but he quickly shook his head. "If you're asking me whether it was possible or not, then I think it was possible. But I wasn't careful enough; I didn't notice. I realized that Amamiya Hiroto had been reincarnated quite some time after we defeated the 'Undead.'"

"Quite a useless oracle, aren't you?" the 'Death Scythe' Konoe Kyuuji muttered.

His eyes seemed to be saying, "If you did your job properly, the Eighth Guidance would have never formed, and I wouldn't have been killed." They were filled with clear, unfounded resentment.

"Kyuuji, shut up for a moment. Now that I've become a familiar spirit, and you're still just a spirit, it would be simple for me to beat the hell out of you," Aran reminded Kyuuji, glaring at him.

Kyuuji clicked his tongue and fell into silence.

Aran turned his gaze away from him and looked at Murakami and Asagi. "You guys, too. Feel free to discuss things, but leave the arguing for later. We won't get anywhere otherwise. You hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah, alright," Murakami said reluctantly.

"Alright. I just have to be the bigger person here, right?" said Asagi, being obedient for once.

"Thanks, Aran," said Kouya. "I'll preface this by saying that my Oracle doesn't send me prophecies like its name might suggest. Just like how Odin isn't actually a Scandinavian god, and how Chronos and Venus aren't a god of time or a goddess of love, either. It's just a codename that was given to me because it seemed like an oracle."

The Bravers' codenames had been decided back when they were still a non-governmental organization that conducted relief work for disasters and accidents, after consultation with each other and those whom they were close with in Origin.

To put it bluntly, it was a strategy to build an image for themselves.

Because of this, there weren't many that used titles that would easily generate a negative image. They didn't use the names of saints and gods of currently-existing religions, either. They didn't want to face backlash from the people of those religions.

Thus, many of them were named after ancient Scandinavian and European gods, as well as well-known fairies and youkai.

Those who didn't fit under this description had codenames that straightforwardly described the effects of their abilities, like Inspector and Gazer.

The Oracle ability was a powerful one, so it was given that name.

It answered questions with almost a hundred percent accuracy. It wouldn't have been strange for the people of Origin or even the reincarnated individuals and Endou Kouya himself to believe that these were messages sent by an all-knowing, omnipotent god.

"The reality was different. Isn't that right?" Kouya asked, directing his question at Rodcorte.

"Of course," Rodcorte replied immediately. "I, the one who gave you your powers, am far from all-knowing and omnipotent. How could I give just one of you a power that allows you to ask an all-knowing, omnipotent being your questions and have it answer them?"

The Oracle was just another one of the abilities given by Rodcorte to the reincarnated individuals. It was one of over a hundred.

Thus, of course, it was not a power that surpassed Rodcorte's own.

"And I deliberately applied restrictions to that power. You have asked it numerous questions in various forms, trying to find out what has become of Earth now. What was the answer you received to those questions?" Rodcorte asked.

Most of the reincarnated individuals other than Kouya frowned. They had asked Kouya to ask those kinds of questions themselves.

Because the reincarnated individuals had suddenly died unreasonable deaths at the hands of terrorists, the curtain had been closed on their lives in an abrupt fashion. It was only natural for them to be curious as to what became of their families on Earth.

However, Kouya had asked the Oracle these questions and received no answers.

This was because Rodcorte had placed limits on Oracle's power. He had made it so that it would not give answers regarding worlds other than the one its owner currently resided in.

If he had made its power encompass multiple worlds, it would have too much of a burden on a human's mind and Mana, so the person possessing the ability would become a vegetable.

Rodcorte had also thought that there was no point in knowing about things happening in other worlds.

Telling the reincarnated individuals how their families on Earth were doing might have been good for their mental states, but Rodcorte was a god who not only didn't consider these feelings important; he thought very little of them. If he wasn't like this, he wouldn't have prepared a hundred and one reincarnated individuals… enough so that there would be no problems even if some were to be destroyed, like the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi.

And he hadn't thought that telling them about Lambda while they were in Origin was necessary for his original purpose of Lambda's development.

If he was the kind of god to take such indirect actions, he would have explained everything to the reincarnated individuals when he'd gathered them in his Divine Realm after they died on Earth. And if he had intended to support them so attentively, he would have told the other reincarnated individuals about Amamiya Hiroto early on and asked them to save him.

"In fact, I do not understand why you were so over-reliant on the Oracle," Rodcorte said. "I had thought that you would keep your use of the Oracle to a minimum."

From his point of view, it was incomprehensible that Kouya and the others had relied so heavily on an ability that provided answers from an unknown source, a source that gave different answers to the same question depending on the words and nuances used in asking the question.

"… Now that you mention it, it's exactly as you say. I relied too much on the Oracle. So then, please tell me. What was the Oracle, the being that answered my questions?" Kouya asked.

He had once investigated what the Oracle answering his question was. Even if he asked the Oracle itself, its answer was always different, so he had investigated himself by studying psychological and magical theory, myths and legends, and even asking Aran to use his Calculation to help investigate while he was still alive.

Even so, in the end, he never knew what was answering his questions.

"I suppose you cannot make full use of it unless I explain…" Rodcorte said. "It is the information that the souls of my circle of transmigration system know or once knew. While you were alive in Origin, you could have thought of it as the memories and knowledge of all of humanity and all plant and animal life in Origin. As an ability, it should have been named 'Archive' instead of 'Oracle.'"

"I see," Kouya murmured. "No wonder I couldn't understand what it was that was answering my questions."

Nobody had ever known what the source of the Oracle's answers were, so there was no way for the Oracle to answer what its own identity was. It was only natural for different answers such as "probably a god" or "perhaps the will of the heavens" to be given based on people's assumptions.

"Then why couldn't he use it to find Amamiya Hiroto? Back then, he was a soul that existed in your system as well, wasn't he?" Murakami asked Rodcorte.

But it was Kouya who answered this question. "This is only something that I know now, but he probably didn't think of himself as one of our companions. You all just said it a moment ago, didn't you - you don't remember him. He was probably aware that none of us remembered him."

"I see. And he didn't receive anything from the god before being reincarnated in Origin. He fell outside your search criteria," Murakami muttered.

At the time, none of the reincarnated individuals, including Kouya, had known about the circle of transmigration system. That was why Kouya had narrowed his search criteria to 'reincarnated individuals who received abilities from a god,' but that had done more harm than good in the end.

"And after he became the Undead, he was removed from the system, so there was no way to detect him at all," Kouya added.

"Wait, then how did you realize afterwards that Amamiya Hiroto had died after that? After he reincarnated in Lambda, nobody in Origin should have known about him. Including the Eighth Guidance," said Tendou.

As he said, even the Eighth Guidance had been unaware that Amamiya Hiroto, who had turned into the Undead, was a reincarnated individual from Earth.

However, the beings that the reincarnated individuals had regarded as inferior had known the whole truth.

"When Amamiya Hiroto awaked to the death attribute, the spirits around him would have known everything. As they were wandering as spirits, they were outside of my system, and they returned to my system when Amamiya Hiroto was exterminated at your hands," said Rodcorte.

At the time, because Amamiya Hiroto's ownership over his own body had been stolen from him, he had spent his days as a spirit outside his body, talking and listening to the spirits around him.

But these spirits were his enemies, the ones who had conducted research on him while he was alive. Though he listened to what they had to say, he seldom spoke back to them.

However, the spirits had been around him when he muttered words of resentment towards Rodcorte, who had failed to give only him any power at all, and the other reincarnated individuals who weren't coming to save him.

"I see… I understand why. I understand why, but… nothing can be done about it now," said Kouya.

Amamiya Hiroto… Vandalieu, wouldn't care, even if the reincarnated individuals explained why they hadn't noticed him and ended up exterminating him.

Even if he had been serious when he said that he didn't care about the reincarnated individuals as long as they didn't get involved with him, the moment they contacted him to explain the situation, they would become 'involved' with him.

If it was a lie, there was nothing to even think about.

"Now that I have finished explaining things, I will have you make a choice," said Rodcorte. "The first choice is to accept my request and eliminate Vandalieu. If you choose to do this, I will grant you all of the rewards you wish that I am capable of granting, just as I promised Kaidou Kanata. The second choice is to reincarnate in Lambda without accepting my request. Even if you choose this option, there will be no punishment or penalty. As long as you cooperate in Lambda's development, I do not mind. I do not mind allowing you to ascend to become familiar spirits as Shimada Izumi and Machida Aran have done, but be aware that if you do this, it will not be easy for you to become a human again."

Whichever the reincarnated individuals chose, Rodcorte would make adjustments and help them, just as he had done with Kaidou Kanata, or perhaps to an even greater extent.

After hearing Rodcorte's promises, the reincarnated individuals remained silent, looking at him suspiciously.

"Everyone, my Inspector isn't responding, so he's telling the truth," said Izumi.

"Of course I am," said Rodcorte. "As I said before, it would be troublesome if you were to die in Lambda so easily. I want you to understand that the situation has changed for me since the time you died on Earth and you were reincarnated in Origin."

In other words, Rodcorte was in a position where he couldn't afford to easily lose "a few of the hundred" reincarnated individuals in Lambda, unlike in Origin.

"There's no lies in his words," Izumi said, assuring the reincarnated individuals.

And then an argument between them began. Whichever they chose, the threat of Vandalieu would still exist, so they felt that it would be dangerous for one person to make a decision on their own.

��I don't mind if you argue for several days, but please give me an answer within a month. If you cannot come to an answer, do as I, Shimada Izumi or Machida Aran suggest," said Rodcorte.

And while he waited for the reincarnated individuals to make a choice, he turned his thoughts towards perhaps answering Alda's request, which he had put aside and left for a while.

"… If Vida, the manager of the system, could be destroyed, or at least removed from her position as a god, then is it possible?"

Upon laying eyes upon the thing, the man showed astonishment, and then he began trembling, tears flowing from his eyes. He was so filled with emotion that he had become completely immobilized, on the verge of soiling himself.

The thing he was looking at was what had become of the person he had looked up to as his master.

There was a boy with white, wax-like skin and eyes like those of a dead-fish, half-buried inside the sphere of what appeared to be flesh-colored clay mannequins entangled around each other.

Unable to endure his emotions any longer, the man let out his voice in a shout. "Master! You are the greatest! You did not create a living creature from a pre-existing base life form; even if you did use the relic of a goddess, you created life from nothing at all! This is truly the work of a god!" shouted Luciliano, who, as a life-attribute mage, had been moved to the heights of emotion.

The lump of flesh that had absorbed Vandalieu began to tremble as well.

"Luciliano, please be quiet. Legion is clinging onto me strongly out of fear, and there is a risk of me suffocating," said Vandalieu.

The morning after Lump-of-flesh-chan had become a new life-form, Vandalieu had summoned all of his important allies that he could gather.

So that he could share the information that he had gained from Lump-of-flesh-chan, who had been renamed 'Legion.'

Mouth-like tears had formed on Legion's numerous faces; some were groaning, some were shrieking and some were simply breathing. Even Luciliano had been doubtful as to whether it was possible to understand it, but when Vandalieu extended his spirit form towards it and fused a part of himself with it, communication had become possible.

It was difficult, however, as he would hear a new, different voice take over after several seconds or a minute at most, and sometimes he heard multiple voices at once.

Communication using this method was probably only possible because Vandalieu possessed the Parallel Thought Processing skill and he normally had his spirit form heads split into multiple.

"If there is a chance that Vandalieu-sama is going to suffocate, then perhaps it is time that you let him go?" said Eleanora, sounding a little envious.

"Van, I want to hug Lump-of-flesh-chan as well! She looks soft and pleasant!" said Pauvina; her words were rather dangerous as she could easily crush a log by hugging it.

"It kind of looks like… it would be delicious if it were cooked. I don't mean any harm though," said Basdia, who hadn't eaten breakfast yet, causing Legion even more fear.

Incidentally, the Scylla Privel had collapsed onto the floor, wearing an expression that was as if the world were about to end.

"No way… I can't even win in terms of number of legs… I can't even compete… It's over for me!" she cried, bursting into tears.

"Privel, it seems that you have become confused, so how would you like some tea to soothe your heart?" said Bellmond, offering Privel a cup of tea. "Incidentally, Danna-sama… What would that Legion…dono, like for breakfast?" she asked, seeming confused as to how to address Legion since it contained many female parts but several male parts as well.

Legion seemed to be a life-form, not an Undead. Thus, food was certainly necessary not just for enjoyment, but to maintain life, but… from its appearance, it was difficult to imagine what it would eat.

It looked able to eat things normally, and it didn't seem like it would only eat raw meat.

"It seems that anything will do. Meat, fish, vegetables are all fine. It can apparently absorb any organic matter through its body surface. But if possible, meat is best," said Vandalieu.

"So, it is like a Slime," Bellmond said.

Her words seemed to trigger a hostile response in Kühl; it trembled and began repeatedly trying to change its liquid body's shape to resemble Legion's, failing and collapsing again.

"By the way, is this the kid's kid? Or does this make it his aunt?" asked Borkus.

Legion was a failed product created by Vandalieu trying to create the body of Darcia using Vida's relic, the resurrection device. It seemed that Borkus was curious as to its relationship to Vandalieu.

"Everyone, calm down! Vandalieu has something important to say, so please listen," Darcia urged everyone. "Also, don't scare Legion-chan. She was only just born, after all."

"Still, it'd be great if it'd stop trembling whenever me and Levia-ohimesan get close to it," said Kimberley.

"Uu, Your Majestyyy. I was supposed to spend the whole day within fifteen centimeters of you today. You promised that we'd go to visit Zandia together," Levia complained.

"It can't be helped; Kimberley is made of lightning and you're made of flames, Levia. She seems to be weak to fire, too. I'll join you, so don't be like that," said Orbia.

The Ghosts were muttering their complaints a short distance away.

We'll get nowhere if I don't quickly explain things, Vandalieu thought as he started speaking.

"A number of the guys who will possibly become my enemies… the reincarnated individuals, have died in Origin. About ten of them," he said.

The memories of the Eighth Guidance and the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi remained within Legion.

Name: Legion

Age: 0

Title: None

Rank: 1

Race: Living lump of flesh

Level: 0

Job: None

Job level: 0

Job history:

Passive skills:

Mental Corruption: Level 7

Composite Soul

Magic Resistance: Level 1

Special Five Senses

Physical Attack Resistance: Level 1

Form Alteration: Level 1

Super-speed Regeneration: Level 1

Active skills:

Limited Death-Attribute Magic: Level 10

Size Alteration: Level 1

Commanding: Level 3

Surgery: Level 5

Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 3

Short Sword Technique: Level 2

Fusion: Level 1

Unique skills:

Rodcorte's Divine Protection → Lost due to moving circle of transmigration systems!

New good fortune of reincarnation → Lost due to moving circle of transmigration systems!

God of Origin's Divine Protection

Zuruwarn's Divine Protection

Ricklent's Divine Protection

Gazer: Level 5

Race explanation:

[Living lump of flesh]

A mysterious combined life form created from a mixture of 'Lump-of-flesh-chan,' who seemed to be a base form of life, the disappearing silver that Vandalieu created, and the souls of all of the Eighth Guidance members as well as the 'Gazer' Minuma Hitomi, which Zuruwarn did away with various procedures and hammered into the body.

The souls were supposed to be inserted one at a time, separate from the lump of flesh and gain bodies resembling the ones they had in their previous lives, or bodies that were at least appropriately-shaped even if they were slightly different.

It has the appearance of a sphere around three meters in diameter, made of flesh-colored clay mannequins entwined around each other. The shapes of the outlines of their heads might share some familiar features that could possibly be recognized by those who knew the Eighth Guidance Members and Minuma Hitomi well.

As it appears, it is made entirely of flesh; it contains no organs such as brains or eyeballs, nor does it contain any bones. In a way, it could be described as a Slime made of flesh.

It has the ability to float in mid-air, but it can also move around by rolling across the ground.

Also, it is the failed product of trying to recreate the body of Darcia, a Dark Elf, so it possesses the Magic Resistance skill that all Dark Elves possess.

Its numerous souls have partially fused with one another, and its mental age has regressed due to having been reincarnated. However, it does possess memories and knowledge from its previous lives, even if they are a little damaged in places.

It has limited death-attribute spells (the abilities of the Eighth Guidance Members), the cheat-like ability 'Gazer' that predicts the future, and various other abilities from its previous lives other than magic of the other attributes as skills.

However, because its body is too different from any of its previous bodies, it is likely difficult to make use of all of these skills.

From its Status, it seems to be similar to Vida's races, but as there are no precedents of such a life-form, it is unknown as to how it will develop from this point onwards. However, it possesses the divine protection of multiple gods, so it is highly likely to become a powerful being.

It had also originally possessed Rodcorte's divine blessing, but because the reincarnated individual Minuma Hitomi was led to Vida's circle of transmigration system, it has disappeared.

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