The Death Mage Who Doesn t Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 354: The roar of an unleashed Evil Elder Dragon
Edgar’s soul had been heavily damaged by Vandalieu during the battle in Alda’s Dungeon of Trials. Rodcorte, the God of Reincarnation, had been asked by Alda, the God of Law and Fate, to treat him. In doing so, he had used a part of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis.

As for why Rodcorte would do such a terrible thing – it was because the part of Guduranis’s soul that he had used wasn’t something that he considered to be a threat or danger at all.

They were the tiny, meaningless pieces that had been produced when Guduranis’s soul was broken into multiple fragments. It was best described as the Demon King Guduranis’s soul dust.

If a soul were metal or wood, this soul dust was the equivalent of the tiny metal scraps or sawdust created when cutting it. Naturally, this soul dust had no significant power, and Rodcorte had merely used it as an adhesive to close the wounds on Edgar’s soul.

As a result, Rodcorte’s treatment had been as successful as one would expect from an expert of souls. He had defied Edgar’s initial prognosis of being completely disabled or unable to continue to work as an adventurer. Not only that, but Edgar had been able to return to his activities as an adventurer very quickly.

After that, he had used fragments of the body of the Demon King Guduranis to serve as a body in which to reincarnate Rikudou Hijiri, who had become a demigod. He had transplanted Guduranis’s instinct and memories into Rikudou, then applied a curse so that he would not be able to break others’ souls.

Rikudou’s reincarnation in Lambda had also been successful.

But Alda, who had depended on Rodcorte’s expertise when it came to souls, and Rodcorte himself, had made an error. That error lay in the fact that although Rodcorte was proficient in handling ordinary souls – the souls of people, animals, and plants – he was not an expert when it came to the souls of beings that were different from ordinary creatures, such as Guduranis.

Rodcorte had believed that Guduranis’s memories would serve as nothing more than a supplement to Rikudou’s own experience and an aid in creating new death-attribute spells, but Guduranis’s thoughts and emotions from the past were engraved upon his memories in great detail, and these had not changed when Rikudou drew that information from the memories.

Rodcorte had believed that Guduranis’s instinct would simply improve Rikudou’s intuition in battle and act as the necessary lubricant to control his body that was made from Demon King fragments, but this instinct had slyly misled and manipulated Rikudou. It had done so in order to survive – not as Rikudou Hijiri’s instinct, but as the instinct of Guduranis.

And the greatest danger that Rodcorte had overlooked was the fact that the instinct and memories he had placed within Rikudou and the soul dust he had placed within Edgar could sense each other and work together. Although they had been a single soul to begin with, Rodcorte had never imagined that they would be able to communicate with each other after being separated and placed in different souls.

And so, Guduranis had succeeded in gathering Rikudou and Edgar on a single battlefield, unnoticed by both Rodcorte and Alda. Following that, after several failed attempts, he had succeeded in having Rikudou kill Edgar.

What is this? Edgar wondered. Something is escaping me… Me? Who am I? Edgar? Luke? Why is there a hole in my chest? … Ah, that’s right. I’m an adventurer, and today, I’m going to the Guild with Heinz, Delizah, Riley, and Martina…

The soul dust that sealed the wounds in Edgar’s soul seeped out as it was absorbed by Rikudou. All that was left was Edgar’s heavily wounded soul and the fragments of the soul of the heroic spirit Luke.

That, along with the fact that Edgar’s body was approaching death, rapidly clouded his consciousness.

[They are coming back! My will, my emotions, my thoughts! They are faint, but they have returned!] thought Guduranis’s memories and instinct, which had absorbed the soul dust and fused into one, as it trembled in joy.

The soul dust was indeed little more than debris created in the process of cutting Guduranis’s soul into multiple fragments. But that debris had once belonged to the various parts of his soul… his will, his emotions, his thoughts, and other parts as well.

As Rodcorte believed, the soul dust had no power on its own… At most, it had slightly strengthened Edgar and affected his personality. But by fusing with other fragments of Guduranis’s soul, the powdered pieces had regained the functions of the missing parts.

It was still far from sufficient to return the soul to its original state. However, there was someone available to use to make up for that.

“W-wh… a-a-a-a-aat–” Rikudou stuttered.

What is this?! What is happening?! he thought, utterly bewildered.

His body was moving on its own, and he couldn’t speak properly. His emotions were a jumbled mess; his mind was filled with a powerful nausea, an ominous sense of exhilaration, and a horrifying sense of loss, as if his body were falling to pieces from one end to the other.

“–IS THIIIIIIIIS?!” he screamed.

M-my body… My body is far away?!

His senses were separated from his body. His vision receded into the distance, as if it were footage being played on a screen that he was moving further and further away from.

What is the meaning of this?! Didn’t I acquire the power of the Demon King Guduranis?! And I was supposed to become the only god of this world–

[That’s right! You acquired my power, and you shall become the most powerful god, the only one who stands at the apex of this world!] said a voice that, in contrast to the senses of his body that were fading into the distance, echoed louder than ever before.

This voice, don’t tell me–?!