At the boundary between the Hartner Duchy and the Farzon Duchy, a battle was taking place in the form of a war etiquette that had not been practiced for a very long time. But the rather silly atmosphere created by this etiquette was shattered in an instant by an intruder.

This intruder’s appearance resembled a willow tree at first glance. But instead of drooping branches and leaves, it had countless tentacles, and what should have been its trunk was flesh-colored, covered in mucus, and had thorns and mouths everywhere.

“WHERE ARE THE CHAMPIOOONS! I WILL KILL THEM! BELLWOOD, FARMAUN, NINEROAD! I WILL TEAR THEM LIMB FROM LIMB!” it screamed.

Luvesfol, the Evil Raging Dragon God, recognized it. “That’s Zovuberogia, the Evil God of Ruinous Greed! That’s impossible…  He should have been sealed away by Bellwood and the others a hundred thousand years ago, even before Zakkart and the others were killed by Guduranis!”

“So that means his seal was removed?” asked Pauvina.

“Yes, Pauvina-sama,” Luvesfol replied. “But I heard that his seal was protected by the great gods. Therefore, the seals of the evil gods and the gods of Vida’s faction should have been in the possession of Alda, the God of Law and Fate. So why is he here now…? No, it can’t be!” he gasped before standing on his hind legs to shout out loud. “So, Alda undid his seal! What is he thinking?! Even if he means for us to destroy one another, the Farzon Duchy’s army is here! Does he intend to get his own worshipers involved in this?!”

“Luves, why are you shouting so loud? I can hear you perfectly fine, and it’s not like you’re actually angry or panicking, right?” Pauvina said.

“There is a reason for this, Pauvina-sama,” said Luvesfol as he finished his act of pretending to be shocked and angry, returning his front feet to the ground. “I did this to relay this information to the Hartner Duchy’s army, and because he was screaming for Bellwood’s blood, it was also to prevent those of the Farzon Duchy from mistakenly believing that this was the doing of Vida’s faction.”

The roars of Luvesfol, who had regained his original form as a demigod with a body length of around a hundred meters, carried wide and far. If he roared at the top of his lungs, people would be able to hear what he was saying from more than ten kilometers away.

He had used this to relay information to the army that was allied with him, as well as to relay the truth to the enemy army to try and lower their morale.

Indeed, Luvesfol could already see the discomposure in the soldiers of the Farzon Duchy’s army.

“So, how about we make the Farzon Duchy’s army fight against Zovuberogia while they are impaired by their low morale, and wait until both are exhausted? This would ensure victory for us with minimal danger,” Luvesfol whispered.

Naturally, neither Pauvina’s voice nor Luvesfol’s whispered suggestion were audible to the Farzon Duchy’s army.

“Mmm… I guess so,” said Pauvina reluctantly.

“That’s… kind of cowardly, I think, but it can’t be helped, can it?” said Reinhardt, also looking reluctant.

“Yes, it’s an enemy army, after all. Though I do feel sorry for them,” said Juliana.

Still, they agreed to this plan, remembering that the Farzon Duchy’s army were their enemies. These soldiers were not powerless civilians nor people who had just happened to get involved in all this.

To the Farzon Duchy’s army, this was a situation that they had not foreseen, but from the perspective of Pauvina and her companions, it just meant that the Farzon Duchy’s army would be fighting against Zovuberogia rather than them.

“Indeed. Personally, if they surrendered and asked for protection, I would like to consider it, but… they’re not the Demon Empire of Vidal’s army,” said the horse-type Demon King Familiar serving as Juliana’s mount, offering Vandalieu’s opinion. “Let’s leave their lives up to their choices and effort, and the commander in charge of the Hartner Duchy’s army.”

It seemed that saving the lives of the Farzon Duchy’s army was low on Vandalieu’s list of priorities, too. Although he was a worshiper of Vida, the Goddess of Life and Love, his desire to save them wasn’t enough for him to override the commander of an allied nation’s army.

They were the ones calling this war a holy war, after all, so fighting a proper, unconverted evil god would be just what they wanted, in a way.

“However, it seems that this Evil God of Ruinous Greed has had a fragment of Guduranis’s soul embedded in him by Alda, so we can’t just leave him be,” the Demon King Familiar said.

Surprised to hear this, Pauvina and the others looked up at Zovuberogia’s grotesque form. They had been told that Alda intended to use the fragments of Guduranis’s soul, but they hadn’t expected for him to have a fragment infest a great figure in the Demon King’s army who was still spoken of in the modern age when mythological tales were told.

“That is… not good,” said Luvesfol as he broke out into a cold sweat, wondering what to do in this situation.

If possible, he didn’t want to fight against Zovuberogia. The Evil God of Ruinous Greed had been one of the commanders of the Demon King’s army, and he was far stronger than Luvesfol. And there was one more reason – Zovuberogia knew something that Luvesfol did not want others to know.

“Would it not be best for your main body to come right away and devour him…?” Luvesfol suggested hopefully.

There were no monsters or humans that had been driven mad worshiping Zovuberogia in the modern era like there had been a hundred thousand years ago, so he would weaken over time and, if things went well, eventually be extinguished from existence. However… that would take years, and his seal had only just been removed. He had plenty of both murderous intent and energy.

If possible, Luvesfol wanted Vandalieu to come and just devour him along with the fragment of Guduranis’s soul.

“Ah, sorry. I have other things to take care of, so I’ll need a bit more time before I can come here,” said the Demon King Familiar.

“H-how heartless of you!” Luvesfol cried.

“Come on, Luves. You can’t put Van on the spot like that,” said Pauvina, scolding him.

“She’s right. It’s for times like these that we’ve been training all this time, isn’t it?” said Juliana.

Meanwhile, Zovuberogia remained unaware of the conversation taking place on the ground. The mouths on his trunk continued speaking the champions’ names with a voice filled with murderous intent. “Zakkart, Ark, Hillwillow, Solder, I will squeeze them until their organs are gushing from their mouths!”

A tremendous killing intent was emanating from his grotesque form, but it was thankfully merciful to the people of both armies. The fact that he was angrily shouting words in human language reduced the sense of him being inhuman, reducing the effects his presence had on their minds.

“General, now is not the time to be fussing over etiquette!” said the high priest, who had joined the Farzon Duchy’s army.

“I know that, High-Priest-dono! We will form a battalion of elite men and attack the Evil God of Ruinous Greed! Send a messenger to the Hartner Duchy’s army to call for a temporary truce!” ordered the general.

The Farzon Duchy’s army was made of elite soldiers from every region, each having either directly received Divine Messages or gathered as a result of a Divine Message, and the force of priest-warriors from the Church of Alda. This combined army had been split into two to deal with the Hartner Duchy and the Birgitt Duchy at the same time.

Its core was the army that had always existed, and devout worshipers of the gods of Alda’s forces who were not soldiers had been added to that army. It was unified, with a sturdier chain of command than that of the Crusader Army sent by the Holy Nation of Amid.

However –

“Temporary truce?! How foolish!” spat the priest. “The plan should obviously be to attack them while they are disoriented by the sudden appearance of this evil god and push all the way to the Boundary Mountain Range!”

“W-what nonsense are you speaking?!” the general exclaimed. “High-Priest-dono, have you lost your mind?! And did you not hear what that Elder Dragon said?!”

It seemed that this unity and chain of command were only effective as long as they were fighting in the ‘holy war.’

The general commanding the Farzon Duchy’s army was a worshiper of Alda who believed in the holy war’s cause and rejected the Demon Empire of Vidal, who accepted Undead and Demons as people. But in the end, he was still a soldier. As an army’s leader, he would obey the orders of Duke Farzon, but his actions and decisions were grounded in common sense.

In contrast, the high priest – the leader of the priest-warriors of the Church of Alda who had joined the army – wished nothing more than to fight in accordance with Alda’s will, even if doing so led to death. And he believed that other worshipers should do the same. In other words, he was a fanatic, not much different from Eileek.

The battalion of former elite soldiers were willing to wait for orders, but the potential heroes who had been adventurers were quick to abandon the army now that it was incapable of functioning as a unified force.

“What are the general and the high priest doing?! How long do we have to wait for orders?!”

“Damn it, are they telling us to just stand here and die?! I’m going to do as I please, then!”

“No matter how we look at it, defeating that evil god has to come first! ‘Familiar Spirit Descent!’” one adventurer shouted.

This decision was extremely reasonable, and the right thing to do as heroes who had received the divine protections of the gods.

“… There!” Zovuberogia snarled, noticing this adventurer’s activation of Familiar Spirit Descent and knowing that he must be a servant of the champions. “Your deaths will nourish me, army of the champions!”

His flesh trunk bent as he swung his countless tentacles like whips. Unfortunately for the Farzon Duchy’s army, these tentacles were capable of extending dozens of times past their original length.

Evil gods were considered to be Rank 13 at minimum. As a former commander of the Demon King’s army, Zovuberogia, the Evil God of Ruinous Greed, possessed great power and was among the more powerful evil gods.

The potential heroes and the former elite soldiers were able to fight back, but the soldiers, knights and priest-warriors who could only be considered somewhat stronger than average had no way to trade blows with this foe. Zovuberogia’s Kraken-like tentacles sent them flying into the air like leaves in the wind.

Screams filled the air as half of the Farzon Duchy’s army came under attack, sending everyone flying except the potential heroes, the former elite soldiers, and a few lucky others.

But for some reason, many of those who were attacked were still left alive, and they begged for aid as they lay where they had fallen.

“Gah, someone help…” one soldier groaned.

“Wait, I’ll bring you a Potion right away!” said another, rushing to his aid.

“Rescue the injured and support the retreat!” someone shouted in command.

“The general, the general’s been hit!” a voice reported from somewhere.

The Farzon Duchy’s armies collapsed in an instant. That was only to be expected – Half of the army that had been attacked; a small number of them were dead and the rest were heavily wounded.

“Come on, drink this–” began the soldier who had rushed to his comrade’s aid, but a moment later, he coughed up blood.

He had been stabbed by the very comrade he was trying to give the Potion to.

“Ah… So this is the guilty pleasure of betraying a comrade…!” the injured soldier murmured in an ecstasy-filled tone, still holding the sword that was impaling his would-be rescuer’s stomach.

“Y-you bastard, wha–?!” a nearby knight shouted in rage, but a moment later, he fell as he was stabbed in the back.

The soldier behind him laughed triumphantly. “This knight is always acting so important, but look at him now, dying like a dog after I stabbed him in the back!”

Another soldier laughed magically. “I don’t care who, just let me kill someone!”

“Fine, kill me! Kill me! No, I’ll do it myself! I’ll break the commandment that forbids suicide and just die!” a female soldier exclaimed.

“Kill him!” screamed the army’s general. “Kill that shitty old high priest who dared to insult me! Aren’t you going to obey your general’s commands?!”

A meaningless bloodbath of friendly fire began, as if the soldiers had suddenly all forgotten their common sense, their conscience, and all of the rules and laws of the army. The Farzon Duchy’s army completely collapsed as an organized force.

If they had simply lost half their fighting forces, their fanaticism would have allowed them to continue fighting. But instead, half of their fighting forces had turned against them as enemies, and they were completely helpless.

Zovuberogia, the one who had caused this, rose into the air and let out a suffocating, sickening laughter.

“Everyone, let’s defeat that thing!” said Pauvina, unable to watch any longer after seeing this unfold and deciding to go on the offensive. “Reinhardt-kun, you and the others tell the commanders of the Hartner Duchy’s army to get everyone to retreat if they don’t have the ‘Status Effect Resistance’ and ‘Mental Resistance’ Skills or Magic Items that grant similar effects!”

If they just left the situation alone, the evil god would gain power from the Farzon Duchy’s army who had become his worshipers. And although Zovuberogia wasn’t aware of it yet, he would eventually be taken over by the fragment of Guduranis’s soul inside him, causing an incomplete resurrection of the old Demon King.

Pauvina got on Luvesfol along with Yamata, while Juliana rode her Demon King Familiar Mount, and they all took flight and approached the Evil God of Ruinous Greed.

“Hmm? You… You’re Luvesfol, aren’t you? I think your appearance is somewhat different from before, but yes. I have something I wish to ask you. Where are the champions? Where have Guduranis-sama and our other brethren gone? Answer me,” Zovuberogia demanded.

He recognized Luvesfol, but did not realize that he was an enemy. He seemed slightly confused, but faced Luvesfol in an arrogant manner as he asked for information.

“Yes! I shall answer you. The champions are–” Luvesfol began, pretending to divulge the requested information. But in the next moment, he roared, “There is no need for you to know! DIIIE!” while unleashing his Torrential Breath.

Zovuberogia received a direct hit from Luvesfol’s attack and fell wordlessly upon the ground.

“Y-you bastard! Have you gone mad?! To oppose me is to oppose the Demon King himself! And have you forgotten that I was the one who did you the favor of convincing the Demon King to let you join us?!” Zovuberogia screamed, slamming his tentacles against the ground and making the earth tremble.

Luvesfol made a vexed noise. “How dare you bring up the past I did not want Pauvina-sama, Reinhardt-kun and the others to know…!”

Indeed, when Luvesfol, the Evil Boar Beast-King Bododo, Zozaseiba (who wasn’t currently present) and many other gods betrayed the gods of Lamdba to join the Demon King’s army, it was Zovuberogia who had convinced Guduranis to accept them, saying that it would be amusing to use them against their own world.

Of course, Luvesfol’s past was already known to not only Pauvina and Reinhardt, but to the entirety of the Hartner Duchy’s army as well, and none cared about it now. Pauvina, sitting atop Luvesfol’s head, simply nodded with a “Hmm” and nothing else.

Even though others might tell Luvesfol that his past was nothing that he should worry about now, it was still something that he didn’t want known to others.

“I see! You are planning to slay me while I am still weak from being released from my seal so that you can take my place! How, how… excellent!” Zovuberogia said gleefully. “Right now, in this moment, I sincerely consider you to be one of our true brethren for the first time!”

It seemed that Zovuberogia’s mind was still stuck in the era during which he was sealed away – a hundred thousand years ago, when the gods of Lambda were battling against the Demon King’s army, and the seven champions were still alive.

And in his mind, Guduranis still commanded the Demon King’s army, and Luvesfol had betrayed his world to join it as one of the lowest-ranking gods.

Luvesfol let out a stiff scream and flinched from the unpleasantness of being praised in this way.

“But even if you do share the same values as I do, I will never forgive anyone who opposes me!” Zovuberogia declared, swinging his tentacles at Luvesfol.

“Hey! Don’t make fun of our Luves like that! ‘Detonating Club Smash!’” shouted Pauvina, standing on Luvesfol’s head and breaking and repelling the Tentacles with a single swing of her club.

“My main body will come here soon, but just to leave reinforcements before going off to another location, so please hang in a little longer,” said the horse-type Demon King Familiar.

“Reinforcements? Who–?” asked Juliana.

But before she could finish her question, two staves fell from the sky. They writhed in mid-air as they fell, then transformed into fearsome forms.

Fidirg, the Dragon God of Five Sins, an Elder Dragon with five heads and one tail, whose body resembled an enormous hand with one-eyed snake heads instead of fingers.

And Zozogante, the Evil God of the Dark Forest. At a glance, he resembled an enormous tree, but he had eyeballs growing from his branches instead of fruit.

“I was never told I’d be thrown into a battlefield with such a big shot! But we’ve got no choice!” one of Fidirg’s heads said.

“But I at least wish he dropped us a little further baaaack!” shouted Zozogante.

Both of them were evil gods who had been low-ranking members of the Demon King’s army, and they had done the opposite of Luvesfol – they had left the Demon King’s army to join the gods of Lambda.

“Couldn’t we get better reinforcements than this?!” Luvesfol shouted as he saw them.

“What?!” Zozogante said indignantly.

“It may be true, but it’s still a terrible thing to say to us!” cried all five of Fidirg’s heads simultaneously.

In terms of fighting strength, they were about even with Luvesfol, and even the three of them together would not be enough to fight against Zovuberogia.

“Hmph, three low-ranking scum banding together to try and replace me… Good, good! I couldn’t ask for better! But I will kill you all the same!” Zovuberogia screamed.

“As the soldiers watch this battle, I wonder how long their morale… no, their sanity, will last,” murmured the ‘Knight of a Thousand Blades’ Baldiria, knowing that a fierce battle was about to take place.

But it seemed that Vandalieu had also left reinforcements that would be gentler on the soldiers’ minds.

Randolf ‘the True,’ holding a dagger in each hand, and Meorilith, the former principal of the Hero Preparatory School, were also standing in front of Zovuberogia.

“Kids, I know you’ve graduated, but it’s time for class. The subject? Music,” said Randolf.

“Randolf, enough with the jokes,” Meorilith sighed.

Meanwhile, Heinz and the rest of the Five-colored Blades ran into an ambush prepared by Vandalieu on their way across the region within the Boundary Mountain Range towards Talosheim.

Because Vandalieu had created a valley in the Boundary Mountain Range to release the monsters he used as a diversion, it had also left a hole in the barrier created by the gods of Vida’s faction. Heinz and his companions had entered the region inside the Boundary Mountain Range through that hole. But Vandalieu wasn’t naïve enough to deliberately leave an open hole for his plan and just leave the inside of the Boundary Mountain Range defenseless.

Mythril and Adamantite Golems of all shapes and sizes stood in the way of Heinz and his companions.

“Everyone, treat this as a warm-up and get your bodies moving. Make sure not to expend your strength,” said Heinz.

“Make sure to not expend our strength? Fighting these things properly does expend strength!” said Jennifer.

Indeed, they had been built in an unpleasant way that made it impossible to fight them without expending strength.

The magical metals used to make them would normally stand no chance against the Five-colored Blades, who wielded weapons made mainly of Orichaclum. However, their bodies were hollow and filled with problematic contents – explosives that ignited and sent fragments flying in all directions, adhesives that made weapons become stuck to the Golems’ wreckages, agents that aerosolized into a poisonous gas upon contact with the air, and airborne pathogens.

Some were even filled with liquid metal Golems that attacked from within as soon as the outer Golem was destroyed.

“Should we not retreat, regroup with the Crusader Army behind us, and fight against the evil gods that contain fragments of Guduranis’s soul that Bellwood and Nineroad spoke of?!” suggested Diana. “If we leave Guduranis be, Selen and the whole world will be in danger!”

But Heinz shook his head. “I’m sorry, but if you’re going to go back, then you and Jennifer go without us.”

“Why?! Is it to prioritize defeating Vandalieu?”

“No, it’s because it would have the opposite effect if Delizah and I went.”

Jennifer made a puzzled face.

“What do you think would happen if we – especially Heinz – went back and regrouped with the Crusader Army?” said Delizah. “Do you think the Demon Empire of Vidal… Do you think that Vandalieu would call a truce with us to fight the evil gods?”

“That’s… no,” admitted Diana.

“Yeah, it would be a three-way fight, the same as the one with Rikudou Hijiri,” said Jennifer, remembering the battle against Dark Avalon.

“No, not the same,” said Heinz, correcting Jennifer. “Vandalieu would probably prioritize defeating us over the evil gods – to protect the army of the Demon Empire of Vidal from us.”

Heinz believed that if the Five-colored Blades returned the way they came and rejoined the Crusader Army in order to defeat the evil gods that Alda had unleashed with fragments of Guduranis’s soul embedded in them, Vandalieu would prioritize protecting the army of the Demon Empire of Vidal that was present.

After all, the evil gods were rampaging on a battlefield not over Orbaume, a city filled with innocent people, but a battlefield where only allies and enemies were present. Vandalieu very clearly differentiated between those he ought to protect and those he deemed not worth protecting.

“And even if Alda has embedded the evil gods with fragments of Guduranis’s soul, they should still be far weaker than Rikudou Hijiri was. So Vandalieu will have more freedom to attack us than he did back then,” Heinz continued.

Though he was a worshiper of Alda, he too believed that unleashing gods with fragments of the Demon King’s soul embedded in them was an act of insanity, but he did also believe that Alda would not unleash beings that were more powerful that Rikudou Hijiri.

Thus, Vandalieu would not be as pressured, and he would certainly not consider forming a truce with Heinz and his companions.

“If we returned, Vandalieu would rush over there to protect the Undead and monsters that are his allies – even if Alda has unleashed evil gods in other locations, too. After all, from Vandalieu’s perspective, we are greater threats than those evil gods,” Heinz said as he continued neutralizing the Golems one after another.

“How can you say that for certain?!” said Jennifer.

“That’s because this ambush is too tepid for something that’s meant to slow us down… Because Vandalieu should be here himself, but he isn’t!”

If there was an elite force that had passed through the hole Vandalieu had deliberately created in the barrier, it was highly likely that they were the Five-colored Blades or a group of elite individuals with the Five-colored Blades at its core. And yet, there were only some Golems that were a little troublesome to defeat – It should have been Vandalieu or his split entities coming after them.

It was possible that the Golems they were currently fighting were nothing more than an opening act prepared to deal with potential heroes in the event that they followed Heinz and his companions here.

The fact that Vandalieu himself wasn’t here meant that there were things that he was prioritizing over attacking them. For example, if fragments of Guduranis and evil gods had been released in locations other than the battlefield in which the Crusader Army was fighting against the army of the Demon Empire of Vidal, it was possible that Vandalieu was traveling from location to location all over the world to defeat them.

But if Heinz were to rejoin the Crusader Army outside the Boundary Mountain Range, his priorities might change. And if he prioritized killing Heinz and his companions in order to protect his allies from them, the evil gods would be left free.

“In other words, you’re going to let Vandalieu clean up the fragments of Guduranis’s soul?! You know we’re trying to defeat him because Guduranis might take over him, right?!” said Delizah.

“If the end result is that casualties caused by the other evil gods are prevented, then that’s fine,” said Heinz. “Whether Vandalieu has already been taken over by Guduranis or not when he appears before us doesn’t matter if we defeat him. After all, Vandalieu can deal with the fragments of Guduranis’s soul that have been scattered all over the world faster than we can.”

Unfortunately, Heinz and his companions did not possess the ability to travel all across the world in the blink of an eye.

And it was indeed true that Vandalieu would likely prioritize killing Heinz if he were to rejoin the Crusader Army in order to protect Ziggurat, who was an Elder Dragon that belonged to Vida’s faction.

Vandalieu would go all-out to kill Heinz while protecting the army of the Demon Empire of Vidal from the rampaging Ziggurat. On the other hand, the Five-colored Blades would have to go all-out just to protect themselves. The shockwaves produced by such a battle would wipe out the Crusader Army and inflict great damage on the Mirg shield-nation.

After all, the lives of Borkus, Budarion, Schneider, Vigaro, Ziggurat and everyone else were far more precious and important to him than the lives of the people of the Mirg shield-nation, an enemy nation, whose names and faces he didn’t even know.

And while Vandalieu did this, Vandalieu’s companions would continue to face the gods that Alda had unleashed all over the world. If they failed, Guduranis would once more undergo a partial resurrection. Neither Vandalieu nor Heinz wished for that to happen.

“But if we continue onwards, won’t Vandalieu come back to protect Talosheim before he defeats the evil gods?” asked Diana.

“No. Talosheim is no longer here, or even if it is, it will be a fake city with no residents there. That’s why he can afford to just keep watching us,” Heinz said.

Vandalieu had deliberately created a hole in the barrier for his diversion tactic, and prepared traps behind that hole. There was no way he would leave a city that was so important to him behind those traps.

He was capable of moving the mountain range, so it was certainly possible that he was capable of moving a city. There was nothing that Vandalieu deemed worth protecting at the end of this road.

And so, Heinz continued waiting for Vandalieu’s arrival.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep