Chapter 201 - A confirmed defeat

Chapter 201 - A confirmed defeat: Resurrection

Death Mage 201 – A confirmed defeat

The grotesque form that Vandalieu had transformed into… It had the silhouette of a human, but the black skin that reflected no light had tumors and tubes with unknown function on its surface, and there were large eyes and mouths placed haphazardly on it as well.

It was far too bizarre, even when pared to the most grotesque monsters. Heinz and his panions’ brains froze, as if to prevent them from acknowledging what they were seeing.

Thus, they were one step late in reacting to Vandalieu leaping towards them. With a swift movement that left no openings, unimaginable for a being with such a strange form, he threw a fist in Heinz’s direction.

There was a dull thud.

“What are you spacing out for?! This guy has always been our enemy from the very beginning! Hurry up and get ready to fight!” shouted Delizah, who had blocked Vandalieu’s fist with her Orichalcum shield.

She had not participated much in the previous conversation; she had been keeping an eye on the situation so that she would be ready to act whenever Vandalieu made his move.

“Y-yeah, you’re right!” said Heinz, ing to his senses and raising his sword.

“Sorry!” said Edgar, getting ready for battle.

The party had been exhausted after fighting the copies of Vandalieu’s allies, but thanks to the conversation that had just taken place, they’d had time to drink Potions to pletely heal their wounds and recover their strength.

However, Vandalieu had started that conversation knowing that this would be the case.

The mouths that were scattered all over the surface of his body simultaneously opened to let out a brain-piercing scream. It was Vandalieu’s Scream Skill, loaded with the effects of Mental Encroachment.

Edgar groaned and covered his ears. “Status Effect Resistance doesn’t block this?!”

“He’s simply attacking our minds with his scream! It’s not a Status Effect!” said Heinz, having been stopped in his tracks.

But Delizah was the one closest to Vandalieu; she was the one affected by the scream the most. She let out a pained groan and staggered.

With the opening given to him, Vandalieu aimed a kick towards her.

“Mill, grant peace to our minds. Mind Protection!” recited Diana, praying to Mill, the goddess of slumber, for her protection.

At the same time, she strengthened the party’s mental defenses with a life-attribute spell.

Heinz, Edgar and Jennifer recovered from the mental attack of Vandalieu’s Scream and unleashed attacks of their own.

“… Instant Shining Slash!”

“Shining Slash!”

“Shining Thunder Fist!”

Vandalieu blocked one attack with his arm, another with his knee and avoided the third. Releasing a few Death Bullets to keep Heinz and his panions back, he fell back and put some distance between himself and his foes.

But he hadn’t gotten away unscathed; several wounds had appeared on his black body. The wounds themselves disappeared quickly, but Vandalieu’s movements had given Heinz’s party a lot of information.

His appearance is strange, and his spells are bizarre as well, but… his movements themselves are nothing spectacular? thought Heinz.

His physical abilities are not poor. They’re equivalent to an A-class adventurer; in other words, they’re not much different from ours. But we still have Heroic Spirit Descent. And his speed is worse than mine, never mind that head-hunting demon, thought Edgar.

His technique isn’t anything special… Mine is better, thought Jennifer.

He’s strong, but not as strong as that Undead Titan, thought Delizah.

Vandalieu’s Attribute Values were not much different from those of Heinz and his panions except for his Mana. In fact, his Agility was lower than theirs.

On top of that, his Unarmed Fighting Technique had only just awakened into Soul Destruction Fighting Technique a few moments ago. It was far inferior to the Skills of Heinz and Edgar, never mind Jennifer who’d possessed a superior Unarmed Fighting Technique Skill for a long time already.

And for some reason, he was currently not using the fragments of the Demon King.

In other words, putting together all of these facts, Vandalieu was not an undefeatable foe. In this five-on-one situation, Heinz and his party could definitely defeat him.

“If that’s all you have, maybe you should have just e at us with the other fakes rather than use them to buy time, Emperor-san,” Edgar taunted as he looked for an opening.

The party had decided that it was possible to defeat him, but they could not decide on a method to do so.

He said that’s his soul, but what does that mean? Does it mean that this form is his ‘soul,’ and we should destroy the body on the inside? Or should we be thoroughly destroying the outside layer? Edgar wondered, carefully thinking the situation through despite smiling arrogantly on the outside.

But before he could find an opening or an answer to his own questions, Vandalieu responded.

“Those were elaborate copies of my allies, but they were being controlled by a god. With that being the case, it was possible that they would have attacked me rather than you,” said Vandalieu. “It was convenient that you defeated them for me. I saved myself the pain of having to kill them, even if they were fakes.”

His words sounded very calm. His voice was so steady that it was hard to believe that it was ing from the grotesque being before Heinz and his party.