Alda, the G.o.d of law and fate, was working to create something in order to train Heinz and his companions and in order to awaken the heroic G.o.d Bellwood, who remained in slumber after he and the evil G.o.d of sinful chains struck each other down.

“If I was able to borrow Ricklent and Zuruwarn’s powers, it wouldn’t have taken this long,” he muttered to himself.

Alda was struggling; it was a large task that he was performing alongside maintaining the light and life attributes, and one that was certainly outside his field of expertise.

If he had the cooperation of Ricklent, the genie of time and magic who was exceptional in the use of magic, and Zuruwarn, the G.o.d of s.p.a.ce and creation, the task would have gone much more smoothly despite them not being in their ordinary conditions, but…

There is no use in expecting anything from G.o.ds that were still in slumber, Alda thought as he directed his mind elsewhere.

“But I must finish it at all… costs?”

Suddenly, half of Alda’s vision was filled with crimson. He touched his face with a hand and was shocked to feel a wet sensation.

“I’ve been wounded? I, in my Divine Realm…!”

His own blood was flowing from his forehead; it was the first time he had seen his own blood in about a hundred thousand years. The moment he realized this, he felt a series of dull pains.

The familiar spirits working in his Divine Realm made an uproar.

“Aldsama?!”

“Who is it! Harming Aldsama, the chief of the G.o.ds, is a grave, unforgivable sin!”

“Calm yourselves,” said Alda.

The pain was still continuing. At this very moment, he was still being wounded by someone.

Alda quickly checked the conditions of the Artifacts that he had made himself.

“The only one that I can think of is…”

If it was beings that could inflict damage upon a G.o.d like Alda, the first thing that most people would think of was the remnants of the Demon King’s army, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It didn’t seem to be an attack from the G.o.ds of Vida’s faction, either.

Alda was a great G.o.d, the one with the most followers praying to him. The damage that he was currently receiving was nothing more than scratches. Naturally, it would have no effect on the maintenance of the world, and it would only interfere with the task that he was currently performing for a few minutes.

He couldn’t imagine that the remnants of the Demon King’s army or the G.o.ds of Vida’s faction would make a move to inflict such a small amount of damage to him.

The most likely possibility was that Vandalieu had destroyed Artifacts that Alda had created or a familiar spirit summoned by one of his believers. But as far as Alda could tell, there were no signs of this.

“No, my currently-existing familiar spirits have grown fewer in number. Artifacts that I cannot check… my divine authority… Vida!”

Instances of Alda’s power that existed in a place that Alda could never see. There were no such instances other than the stakes that he had driven into the body of Vida a hundred thousand years ago, who was supposed to be slumbering in the Boundary Mountain Range now.

Having realized this, Alda hastily commanded his familiar spirits to the two G.o.ds that were his confidants.

“Check upon Curatos and Niltark!”

In addition to the stakes that were Alda’s divine authority, Bellwood’s Artifacts were also impaling Vida. Among them were not only the Artifacts created by Alda, but also those created by Curatos, the G.o.d of records, and Niltark, the G.o.d of judgment.

If the stakes had been destroyed, it was only natural to a.s.sume that the Artifacts had been destroyed as well. This prediction was confirmed to be true by his familiar spirits’ reports.

Fortunately, it seemed that the damage itself by those two G.o.ds was not very significant.

But the fact that they had received damage at the same time as Alda signified an emergency situation.

“Vida has been released. Just who could have removed a divine authority?”

Alda was the G.o.d of the light attribute, and at the same time, he was the G.o.d of law. Thus, he was able to wield his divine authority to punish G.o.ds who had made mistakes. That was what those stakes were.

The stakes greatly inhibited the recovery of power of the G.o.d impaled by them, and there were great limits on the actions that they could take as G.o.ds. As they could not target any G.o.ds except those of Lambda, they had not been of any use against the Demon King’s army except for the traitors, but it was an extremely powerful divine authority.

Due to its properties, it should have been impossible for any G.o.ds other than Alda to remove them, let alone destroy them. So then, why?

“Is it a power of the evil G.o.ds that serve Vida? No, since they are G.o.ds, it should be impossible for them to remove my divine authority. If it was possible, they would have done it long ago,” Alda muttered. “Could it be… Vandalieu? Does this mean he has gained enough power to break my divine authority?!”

Vida slumbered inside the barrier set up around the region contained within the Boundary Mountain Range. Vandalieu lurked within that southern region of the continent.

Alda knew that Vandalieu had broken Yupeon’s spirit clone, but the fact that he had gained enough power to break the divine authority of a great G.o.d meant that he had already surpa.s.sed Alda’s wildest imagination.

The subordinate G.o.ds who had gathered here during this time of emergency offered their opinions.

“Alda, what will we do? At this rate, no matter how much we train Heinz and other humans as heroes, would they not still be insufficient to defeat him?”

“In fact, Vida should steadily recover her power from this point onwards. She will need at least several thousand years to make a full recovery, but unlike you, she is not involved in the maintenance of the world. She is able to move more freely as long as she stays within the barrier.”

Alda shook his head. “Everyone, the situation has already reached a point of no return. If we wish for this world to continue, we cannot avoid a confrontation with the ‘Demon King’ Vandalieu. If we leave him alone, the world will one day be engulfed in a maelstrom of chaos and all order will be destroyed. He is a true enemy who surpa.s.ses Guduranis,” Alda declared with conviction.

The subordinate G.o.ds held their breaths. They had underestimated Vandalieu… they had believed that he would be certainly defeated once the G.o.ds made their move.

“Guard the lands in which my sisters Botin and Peria slumber,” Alda ordered, having stopped the bleeding from his forehead. “It is highly likely that Vandalieu will preemptively remove their seals and harm them while they are still unable to regain their power. If Vida still has a single shred of her sanity remaining, she would not allow him to do that, but… we cannot expect too much.”

“As you will!”

The G.o.ds received his orders and left his Divine Realm one by one.

『The Levels of the Automatic Mana Recovery, G.o.d Devourer and Soul Devour Skills have increased!』

『The Archenemy Skill has transformed into the Divine Enemy Skill!』

『Vida’s Divine Protection is now displayed in the Status!』

『You have acquired Increased Mana Recovery Rate and Earth’s Dark G.o.ds’ Divine Protection!』

The moment Vandalieu heard the announcer’s voice in his mind, he lost consciousness. It seemed that his body had not been able to completely withstand using so much Mana in a soul-only state.

He would normally have used Out-of-body Experience before fainting, but he was unable to do this in time in this case, as it was an unexpected situation.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was in a resting room inside Vida’s Resting Grounds.

“The Pure-breed Vampires awaken from time to time, and this is one of the rooms in which they spend that time,” explained a n.o.ble-born Vampire.

“I never expected that we would end up leading you here first,” said Gizan, the Dark Elf nation’s chief, who was wearing his black robe uniform.

These two had carried Vandalieu here.

“And you were holding a red gem at some point, too. What happened, Bocchan?” Rita asked.

“That isn’t a hardened piece of Kühl, is it?” said Saria.

Vandalieu was holding a fist-sized gem of a similar color to the Deep Blood Slime Kühl – in other words, it was blood-red.

Though Rita and Saria thought that this was strange, it seemed that they had simply carried him here without questioning it. Their father Sam was near the entrance of the resting grounds, as a wagon could not enter the building.

“Incidentally, Darcisama and the others are waiting with Sam. It seems that Darcisama, who is a spirit, and Princess Levia and the others who are Astral-type monsters, cannot act freely inside the resting grounds,” said Bellmond, who was straightening her crumpled clothes.

“We thought that we should stay with them as guards just in case, but the Vampires took that role for us,” said Bone Man.

Gizan lowered his head apologetically. “Spirits and Astral-type monsters have never attempted to enter the resting grounds before, so I did not know. My apologies,” he said.

“No, don’t worry about that. It doesn’t seem like their spirit forms have received any damage or been purified,” said Vandalieu.

If Darcia and the others were at risk of real harm, Danger Sense: Death should have reacted. Since that hadn’t happened, it wasn’t likely to be very dangerous to them.

As Vandalieu thought this, he looked around the room. There were Mana reactions, though weak, in the walls and ceiling. It seemed that someone had placed a weak anti-spirit charm to ensure that no impure beings could influence Zakkart’s remains.

It would likely harm the Vampires or Zakkart’s remains if it were too powerful; it had the effect of merely making spirits sleepy or unable to move well.

“I’m sorry for surprising everyone, especially you, Bellmond. Thanks to you, I was able to wake up quickly,” said Vandalieu.

The reason he had woken up after less than an hour despite having almost no Mana left was because Bellmond had fed him her blood.

Bellmond’s Unique Skill, Offering, allowed her to rapidly regenerate the Mana of those she gave her blood to.

“No, this is merely a part of my duty… But I was a little surprised when you kept sucking after you woke up,” she said.

“You must have used a lot of Mana. You kept your mouth on Bellmond for quite a while, Bocchan,” said Rita.