Rikudou Hijiri, having failed to receive Rodcorte’s Divine Message, finally put his plan into action. Following that, ‘Balor,’ ‘Artemis,’ ‘Sahadeva,’ and other reincarnated individuals fell one after another.

That was acceptable. This was a battle between reincarnated individuals, so Rodcorte had expected some deaths. If they had begun killing each other when he first reincarnated them in Origin, to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to promote the development of Lambda, he would have been saddened. He would have been disheartened and lamented the inherent conflict in humanity.

But now, Rodcorte’s objective was to kill Vandalieu, destroy the nation he ruled, and reduce the number of people in Lambda aware of Rodcorte’s existence.

To that end, the development of Lambda and the continued existence of Origin held no importance for him. To put it bluntly, even if this battle resulted in the extinction of all life in Origin, he wouldn’t be the least bit bothered.

He had previously attempted to sever Lambda from his transmigration system, even though it would have meant severing Origin and Earth as well. In other words, Origin was a world he had already considered discarding. He couldn’t care less if it were destroyed or annihilated.

However, he was concerned about whether Vandalieu would break souls. Although Origin was a world Rodcorte didn’t care about sacrificing, it was still connected to his transmigration system, so the system would be affected if souls in Origin were broken.

And above all, he didn’t want the souls of the reincarnated individuals broken, as he needed them to kill Vandalieu.

But the situation had spiraled far beyond his expectations.

The souls of ‘Balor’ and the others remained intact, but Balor’s mind was shattered. Even now, he was weeping in terror. Rodcorte wouldn’t be able to use him to fight Vandalieu.

The minds of those not directly killed by Vandalieu – ‘Sleipnir,’ ‘Artemis,’ ‘Ares,’ and ‘Sahadeva,’ who perished particularly quickly – remained unharmed, but they were terrified by Balor’s broken state.

And as for ‘Copy’… His soul wasn’t broken, but it was so damaged that he was on the verge of complete inaction. He would be useless.

Well, Rodcorte could simply erase their memories and personalities before reincarnating them in Lambda, but the first problem was Amemiya Hiroto.

Rodcorte had hoped Amemiya would reject the death attribute, like the ‘Mage Masher’ Asagi had. But while his relationship with Banda wasn’t exactly amicable, it wasn’t hostile either. Given that, Amemiya was unlikely to fight Vandalieu even after the Rikudou incident.

Although he wasn’t a prominent god, Rodcorte was still a god, and he perceived religious values as very important to humans. He had expected Amemiya Hiroto to reject the death attribute out of a hatred fueled by such values.

But in reality, Amemiya Hiroto’s hatred for the death attribute stemmed from the numerous sacrifices made during its research and the creation of mages capable of wielding it. He rejected it on ethical grounds, not religious ones.

Thus, he had no intention of harming Vandalieu, his daughter who already had an affinity for the death attribute, or the victims of the research. Rodcorte had never anticipated this.

Rodcorte could perceive everything Amemiya Hiroto saw, heard, and thought, but he didn’t understand his personality and ideals.

And now, Rikudou Hijiri had achieved his own reincarnation and attained the power of the death attribute.

“To think that Rikudou Hijiri would build a transmigration system and become a god. At this point, it’s hard to tell if the divine protection and fortune I gave him are still functioning…” Rodcorte murmured.

Rikudou believed he had become a god, and he had. He had become Origin’s first demigod – a god with a physical body.

His Mana and strength were inferior to even a Colossus or Elder Dragon, let alone Vandalieu. But the essence of a god wasn’t combat prowess – this much was clear, given Rodcorte’s own godhood.

By carrying out reincarnation – the work of a god – Rikudou Hijiri had achieved godhood.

Given that, it was questionable whether Rodcorte’s divine protection and fortune still held sway. However, given that his cheat-like abilities seemed to remain intact, they were unlikely to be entirely lost.

The reincarnated individuals who had become Rodcorte’s familiar spirits watched him.

“I must ask – what will happen to Rikudou now?” Aran inquired.

But Rodcorte had no answer. “I do not know.”

He normally never granted divine protections or fortunes to humans. He had no idea what would happen if a human with his divine protection became a god.

Furthermore, there was no Status System in Origin. Thus, there was no way to confirm whether Rodcorte’s divine protection and fortune still applied to Rikudou.

“They do seem to be in effect for now. His escape from Vandalieu’s split entity is clearly a result of his fortune. But whether they will remain… More importantly, even if Rikudou were to die, would I be able to recover his soul?” Rodcorte pondered aloud.

Not only had Rikudou become a god, he had created a new transmigration system to which he now belonged. Thus, Rodcorte would be unable to do anything to his soul as long as that system functioned.

But because Rikudou ruled over that system, it was possible that it would be destroyed upon his death, and if that happened, Rodcorte might recover his soul.

In other words, there was no way to know until it happened.

“Why is everyone acting outside my expectations!” Rodcorte exclaimed in frustration.

But he couldn’t abandon Rikudou now, nor miss the opportunity to use him now that he had become so powerful.

And it seemed that Rikudou’s demise was imminent. Rodcorte considered intervening and recovering his soul… but ultimately, he abandoned the idea, fearing to touch Vandalieu’s dome-shaped ‘Embodied’ soul surrounding Rikudou’s headquarters.

I’m sure he has another scheme. I must remain vigilant, Rodcorte told himself as an excuse.

Not anticipating Rikudou severing his own limbs, Banda was a few moments late in pursuing him. He hastily discarded the limbs still impaled on his claws, extending his tongue and tentacles to try and seize Rikudou again.

“Explode!” Rikudou roared, manipulating his blood to gain distance.

Banda immediately ceased his attempt to grab him. The temperature of Rikudou’s limbs was rapidly rising.

Rikudou was employing the same technique as Baba Yaga’s ignition ability, using his own limbs as fuel. Noticing this, Banda had no choice but to use his membrane to cover Rikudou’s limbs, preventing the others from being harmed by the explosions, even though he knew this was exactly what Rikudou intended.

A dull explosion echoed, and smoke billowed from the gaps in Banda’s cape-like membrane.

Amemiya tried to pursue Rikudou, but the blood surging from Rikudou’s body suddenly evaporated, forming a poisonous mist that blocked his path.

“Damn it! ‘Powerful Wind!'”

With a spell that did exactly as its name suggested, he produced a powerful wind that dispersed the poison. But Rikudou had already moved to turn the tide.

“DIE!” Rikudou screamed, unleashing a shockwave of death.

Banda immediately returned to where Mei and Mari were to provide additional protection, and Amemiya and the others instinctively braced themselves.

But they wondered why Rikudou would unleash another shockwave at such a time. Surely, even Rikudou was aware that no one here would be affected.

But a moment later, dying gasps and quiet screams were heard – from the ‘Shaman’ Moriya Kousuke, the ‘Knight’ Nabeshima, and the ‘Issun-Boshi’ Yazaki.

“Rikudou… sa…” Moriya groaned.

These three were enemies, and therefore not equipped with transformation equipment. Until this point, Rikudou had excluded them as targets for his shockwaves.

But this time, Rikudou had deliberately included them.

“That bastard! Did he just kill his subordinates now that he’s finished using them?!” Iwao exclaimed in astonishment.

“No, that’s not it… I should have killed them first,” said Banda, scratching at the floor with the claws of his jointed legs in frustration as he saw where the spirits of Moriya, Nabeshima, and Yazaki had gone.

Rikudou, still missing all his limbs, let out a triumphant laugh. “I am complete! I, too, have obtained spirits that obey me!”

He floated in mid-air, the three spirits now beside him.

Having been enveloped in Rikudou’s death-attribute magic, they had become Ghosts, and they were smiling. Their worship and loyalty for Rikudou remained unchanged despite their deaths.

“What do you think?! Do you still believe me to be imperfect?!” Rikudou roared at Banda, madness in his eyes. “Now, the only difference between you and me is the size of our Mana pools!”

But Banda felt no irritation or disgust towards Rikudou.

He didn’t for a moment consider them the same, but he knew that even if he tried to explain, Rikudou wouldn’t understand. In fact, his greater concern was that by not killing Moriya and the others from the start, he had exposed Mei and Hiroshi to abhorrent behavior that could set a bad example for children.

But it seemed that Amemiya, who had known Rikudou for a long time, had his own thoughts.

“Seeing you now, I realize that what you said in the past was right,” Amemiya stated. “When I said that research into the death attribute should be prohibited, you told me: ‘The death attribute is the same as the other attributes. In other words, the problem lies in the people using it.’ And you were right. In my eyes, you and Banda are different – Not only in the amount of Mana you have; there’s a fundamental difference between you.”

The limbless Rikudou, surrounded by the Ghosts like a robe, radiated a sinister aura not inferior to Banda’s. But his actions and words were the exact opposite.

Rikudou had willingly sacrificed his own worshiping subordinates to survive and become a special being. Vandalieu had sent a split entity to protect his killer’s daughter, and even sent his ‘Embodied’ soul from another world to protect those who worshipped him.

To Amemiya, it was clear who was good and who was evil, and Rikudou was the embodiment of the kind of death-attribute users he hated.

Moriya, Nabeshima, and Yazaki, now Ghosts, responded to Amemiya’s words with insults.

(The following sections are translated, but the formatting for the dialogue is lost in the text-based translation. I have attempted to maintain the essence of the dialogue, but the original line breaks and paragraph structure are lost.)

(The rest of the translation continues in the same manner, maintaining the essence of the dialogue and character interactions, but losing the original formatting.)