The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

117 Dear younger brother

When the Familiar Spirit sent after Gubamon activated the Familiar Spirit Descent skill was destroyed by Vandalieu, Hihiryushukaka, the Evil God of Joyful Life, felt both surprise and relief.

Having a bad feeling, he had immediately dispatched a weak, replaceable Familiar Spirit, minimizing the damage he suffered.

If he had dispatched his own spirit clone to save Gubamon, it was likely that he would be writhing in agony right about now, experiencing pain similar to having his flesh and bone smashed to pieces.

"... I suppose he is destined to be broken like Ternecia now."

As Hihiryushukaka had predicted, Gubamon had been defeated and his soul was in Vandalieu's grasp. But in return, he had managed to acquire more information for Hihiryushukaka than expected as well.

Considering the overall benefits of Gubamon's work over the past hundred thousand years, Hihiryushukaka thought that Gubamon might have been a capable subordinate god.

But seeing Gubamon go mad and kill his subordinates who were Hihiryushukaka's believers, Hihiryushukaka had half-given up on Gubamon. Gubamon hadn't offered his believers as sacrifices; he had simply slaughtered them and reduced their numbers too much.

But since Ternecia had been destroyed and Hihiryushukaka had no plans to obtain a replacement for her, cutting Gubamon off completely would have meant reducing the number of cards in his own hand.

That was why he had watched things unfold for a while, but thanks to that, he had learned that the Dhampir possessed dangerous skills other than the ability to break souls.

"First, he possesses an ability that allows him to tame Undead. Because of this, the forces that Gubamon created were almost meaningless. Second, he has an enormous amount of Mana that is similar in quality to the Demon King's, allowing him to use the Demon King's fragments masterfully."

The ability to tame existing Undead created by others was a complete upgrade on Hihiryushukaka's divine protection.

The volume and properties of Mana that allowed the simultaneous use of multiple fragments of the Demon King, something that would normally cause the Demon King Encroachment Degree skill's level to increase instantly, burning through the wielder's sanity and Mana and sending the Demon King's fragments on a rampage.

The latter was extremely dangerous in particular. The Demon King's fragments were powerful. There were differences between individual fragments, but a single fragment would allow the wielder to do battle against a hero equipped with Upper-class and Legendary-class arms made of Mythril and Adamantite.

But in the end, this was borrowed power. Gubamon and Ternecia had come up with ways to combine it with their own martial skills, but even so, it was difficult to say that they had used that power to their full potential.

However, Vandalieu was using this power masterfully as if it came to him naturally. And in addition to the Demon King's blood that he had acquired and the horns that he had taken from Ternecia, he even possessed the suckers and ink sacs that were supposed to be in the possession of Merrebeveil, the Evil God of Slime and Tentacles.

That god, who had been taken in by Vida, had only acted through the Scylla for the past hundred thousand years. Considering this, the Demon King's fragments had likely been given to Vandalieu rather than stolen.

Through Gubamon's eyes, Hihiryushukaka had seen that there was a Scylla Ghost among the Ghosts that followed Vandalieu.

And now, with the Demon King's carapace taken from Gubamon, Vandalieu possessed five fragments.