The squirming Demon King and his fragments

Dargzobon, the evil god of mad disaster, squirmed in frustration inside his seal.

He had lost his power after being defeated by Ravovifard, and then Zantark had taken that opportunity to seal him away for several thousand years… and now, after more than ten thousand years, the seal suddenly loosened.

Naturally, Dargzobon did not let this chance slip away. He used all of his strength to throw off the seal, achieving his revival. It was fortunate that he had managed to regain about half of his lost power while he was sealed away.

And then, the moment he leapt out from his seal, he was sent flying by a breath attack from Tiamat, the mountain-queen Elder Dragon god.

“It has been a while. Go back to sleep!” Tiamat hissed.

After that, Dargzobon was immobilized by the endless attacks of the Moon Giant Deeana.

“Don’t send him flying away! Did you forget that we agreed to attack him on the spot until he stopped moving?!” Deeana shouted.

The relentless blows of Zantark, the war-god of fire and destruction, and the champion Farmaun Gold, rained down upon Dargzobon next.

Dargzobon hadn’t noticed during the chaos of the eclipse, but now that he recalled, it had seemed like there were other evil gods who had been revived as well.

It was likely that Zantark and his allies had gathered Dargzobon and the other sealed evil gods in one place to manage them. Upon sensing the seals weakening, they had come and leapt into action immediately.

Unable to escape, Dargzobon was sealed away once more. This was the only possible outcome, as he had reappeared in the midst of his enemies with only half of his original power.

Now, he had less than a tenth of his original power. His current state was equivalent to a human being riddled with wounds, on the verge of death. It would be an impossible task to make a full recovery from this state unless he somehow gained an enormous number of followers.

“Curse you… Curse you…” he groaned.

His hatred for Zantark, Farmaun, Tiamat and the others deepened, but hatred alone wouldn’t return his power.

There was no telling when Dargzobon would be able to escape the seal. The only thing that he could do was curse those who had sealed him until the seal somehow loosened once more. Or at least, that was supposed to be the case.

“The seal will… loosen once more… HUH?!”

Suddenly, the seal warped and came undone, without Dargzobon even struggling against it. He had been freed.

It was possible that the gods’ seals had all loosened together due to some event, just like before. Dargzobon decided that he would not let this opportunity slip past this time; he would certainly make his escape.

He leapt forth from the seal, gaining speed to try and take to the skies.

He had to get as far away from this dangerous place as possible and set up his Divine Realm to heal his wounds. Exacting vengeance could come afterwards.

“KIHAHAHAHAHAHAHABEH?!”

His elated laughter was cut short as he crashed unexpectedly into a ceiling. He was not damaged, as he was currently in an illusion-like spirit form, but this was greatly surprising to him nonetheless.

“WHAT IS THIS PLACE?! A DUNGEON?!”

Indeed, Dargzobon’s second resurrection had taken place inside a Dungeon. The sky was clear and blue, but this was actually an enclosed space, and there was an invisible ceiling that prevented ascension beyond a certain height.

Even though the attacks of his foes several days ago had reduced his power to a tenth of its original amount, he was still an evil god. No ordinary wall or ceiling would contain him. But that didn’t apply for the walls and ceilings of a Dungeon.

If Dargzobon was the master of this Dungeon, then he would be able to do as he pleased, but he had no memory of creating such an unpleasant Dungeon with clear blue skies and green forests.

With that being the case, he would have to exit the Dungeon normally like a human. But he had little strength remaining. Though it pained him to admit it… it was likely that he would be defeated if he were to encounter a Rank 10 monster.

Fearful and wondering whether he would be able to make it, Dargzobon turned towards the surface. In the next moment, his mucus-like body froze as if solidified.

The Demon King was up there.

“GUDURA… NIS…?” Dargzobon murmured, recalling his former master, the dog who had been defeated by the champions. “No, it’s not him!” he realized as he saw Vandalieu, who was floating in the air with a staff in his hand.

Vandalieu’s presence and Mana bore enough similarities to Guduranis’s to be mistaken for a moment. But he was a different being entirely.

“So, you’re Dargzobon, the evil god of mad disaster. The one who is said to have caused numerous disasters during the age of the gods as a member of the Demon King’s army, and laid waste to the Dark Continent as well after the Demon King was defeated,” Vandalieu said, addressing Dargzobon… the evil god with the appearance of a mass of thick mucus with eyes and a nose on its surface. “I am the successor to the champion Zakkart and the ‘Holy Son of Vida,’ Vandalieu Zakkart,” he continued, not waiting for a response. “You can obey me, or be devoured and destroyed. Make your choice.”

“…”

Obedience or destruction. Given this choice, Dargzobon found himself unable to move right away. He understood that despite Vandalieu having the appearance of a mere boy, he possessed the power to destroy him, just as he said he would.

The proof of this was that Dargzobon could detect a familiar scent coming from the staff in Vandalieu’s hand, which was longer than the height of his body.

Gyubarzo… So, it is made of that fool’s bones and Magic Stone.

The staff had been created by Tarea, using materials from another former subordinate of the Demon King – Gyubarzo, the evil god of dark seas.

But Dargzobon could not sense Gyubarzo’s actual presence in the staff at all. This meant that Gyubarzo had already been destroyed.

Vandalieu’s presence was similar to the Demon King, and he possessed an overwhelming quantity of Mana that Dargzobon could sense even from this distance. In his hand was a staff made from the remains of an evil god.

Dargzobon knew that even if he were to recover all of his original power, it would be dubious as to whether he would even have a fifty percent chance to be able to defeat Vandalieu.

If he refused to obey, only destruction awaited him. Understanding that, he made his decision.

“ALRIGHT,” he replied, approaching Vandalieu. “I… would rather be destroyed than obey the likes of you!” he shrieked, suddenly accelerating towards Vandalieu in a suicide attack… or at least that was what it appeared to be, but he flew directly past Vandalieu.

Dargzobon chose to gamble on the small possibility of escape.

But at that moment, a countless number of vines extended from the trees below, piercing through Dargzobon. A five-headed, one-eyed Elder Dragon with a single tail leapt from the forest, releasing projectiles of light from three of its heads.

“ZOZOGANTE?! FIDIRG?! CURSE YOU!”

With only a tenth of his original power, Dargzobon could not withstand the attacks of other gods. He began falling helplessly to the ground, and his spirit form began collapsing, exposing his soul.

“Fire,” said Vandalieu, using Telekinesis to fire a Demon King’s horn from a cannon barrel created from the Demon King’s blood, aiming directly at Dargzobon’s exposed soul.

Unable to even give a dying scream, the soul of Dargzobon, the evil god of mad disaster, was consumed and destroyed by Vandalieu.

“Taking physical form for the first time in so long was truly excellent,” said Zozogante.

“Indeed… Taking physical form makes me truly feel like I exist,” said Fidirg’s first head.

The two of them were nodding in agreement with one another, having had their spirit forms converted to physical forms by Vandalieu’s death-attribute spell, Materialization.

“Our surprise attack went well,” said Zozogante.

“The best thing is that we can eat the offerings made to us right away,” said the second of Fidirg’s heads.

“I’ll be undoing the spell now, since I’m running low on Mana,” said Vandalieu.

He couldn’t maintain the spell forever, so he undid the spell and began descending towards the ground. Zozogante and Fidirg immediately lost their physical forms, silently returning to their semi-transparent, ghost-like forms once more.

He could manage Materializing ordinary Ghosts, but doing so with gods, even those who had lost most of their power, was quite the burden on Vandalieu despite his vast Mana pool.

It was unlikely that he would have even considered it if he didn’t have the staff made from Gyubarzo.

“Did you gain the Experience Points?” Zozogante asked Vandalieu.

Vandalieu checked his Status. “Well, I gained more than defeating ordinary Monsters. The flavor wasn’t bad, either,” he said.

Dargzobon, the evil god of mad disaster, had been a moderately powerful figure amongst the Demon King’s army, but considering that, Vandalieu hadn’t received that many Experience Points. But then again, Dargzobon had possessed not even a tenth of his original power… to be more precise, less than a year had passed since Zantark and the other gods had beaten him into a state of complete incapacitation.

In other words, when he came out of his seal, Dargzobon had been severely wounded and on the verge of death… essentially right by death’s door. He had only been able to move in that state because he was an evil god.

It wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t provided many Experience Points.

“Come to think of it, do gods receive Experience points as well?” asked Vandalieu. “I’ve heard that gods don’t have Statuses.”

The Status System was something that Ricklent, the genie of time and magic, had created for humans, and the Demon King Guduranis had manipulated it to apply to monsters as well.

Thus, the gods who had existed since before the Status System and were superior beings to humans in the first place did not have Statuses.

The only exceptions in which they gained Statuses was when they possessed vessels or were reincarnated.

“There is no meaning in Experience Points for us,” said one of Fidirg’s heads.

“But when we’re feeling good and physically eat our enemies, we might gain strength… maybe,” said his second head.

“To be honest, it’s our first time having an overwhelming victory over a god, so I don’t really know,’ said his third head.

It seemed that Experience Points had little significance to Fidirg and the other gods.

As Vandalieu reached the ground, Tarea emerged from inside him, having been equipped with the Group Binding Technique Skill.

“That was splendid, Van-sama!” she exclaimed, scooping Vandalieu into her arms with a well-practiced motion and bringing her face close to his. “So, how did the staff feel to use?”

Vandalieu was the only thing that she could see… because if she didn’t do this, she would accidentally end up seeing Fidirg and Zozogante’s forms.

Even Fidirg, whose appearance was not particularly grotesque among evil gods, would still appear to be a shocking, horrific monster from up close to Tarea.

“… Um, maybe we should keep our distance?” suggested Fidirg’s third head.

“I am actually able to camouflage myself as an ordinary tree. Shall I do it?” asked Zozogante.

“I-it is fine! I am not the kind of woman who would interfere with the friendships of gentlemen!” said Tarea with a stiff voice, inadvertently squeezing Vandalieu harder.

“As you can see, the Gyubarzo staff is fine,” said Vandalieu, holding out the ominous-looking staff made from the bones of an evil god with a dark blue Magic Stone glinting at its tip.

Mages’ staves possessed the function of preventing wasted Mana as it flowed and concentrated during spellcasting, making the Mana easier to control. Considering their convenience, they were considered essential items for most mages.

Even monsters like Goblin Mages would always wield crude handmade staves, though the performance of such staves was truly poor.

However, Vandalieu had never wielded a staff up until now.

“It didn’t explode as I passed the Mana through it, and it doesn’t even have a scratch,” Vandalieu continued.

Any staff wielded by Vandalieu would be immediately destroyed the moment he cast a spell, unable to withstand the sheer volume of his Mana.

But this staff, despite having been wielded by Vandalieu during battle, didn’t have a single scratch on it. Perhaps it was to be expected of a staff created from the corpse of Gyubarzo, an evil god.

“That is a relief… though to be honest, I could not perform much processing on it and merely shaped the bone, so I cannot take much pride in it,” said Tarea.

She had already acquired the ‘Skilled Artisan’ Job that she had only dreamed of in the past, but it seemed that materials taken of a god had been too much for her to handle.

“It cannot be helped that I could not assist with the Alchemy part of the process, but I wanted to create a staff that would be just as functional as Vandalieu-sama’s transformation staves… It seem