Ch.1286Unexpected Descent

The body of the Thousand Murder Star was originally a vessel for Vanirgand’s soul to dwell in.

That’s why there existed a passage within the body’s interior connected to Vanirgand’s mind, through which Vanirgand had been able to glimpse Haschal’s movements until now.

Of course, this didn’t mean Vanirgand had been voyeuristically observing Haschal’s every move.

He had no interest in her personal private life so he ignored it, and when she awakened her divinity, his vision was blurred by that starlight, making detailed observation impossible.

In other words, awakening inside Haschal’s body at this moment was an unexpected, sudden situation even for him.

‘The body’s condition is… terrible. The soul has disappeared somewhere, and this empty vessel reeks of death.’

However, he was a being equal to gods who had reached ascension. Despite this sudden situation, it didn’t take long to understand what had happened.

‘I see. They tried to resurrect the goddess of death by filling a divine body emptied of its soul with death? The concept itself is innovative and bold… but truly disgusting.’

After briefly checking Haschal’s body condition, Vanirgand immediately understood Garmerlic’s scheme. And he felt extreme displeasure.

How dare someone steal the divine vessel he had prepared for the future and waste it on resurrecting some dead goddess.

It was like finding mice infesting meat stored in a warehouse.

Even if it was the doing of a former comrade who once stood under the same banner, now that their paths had diverged completely, it was merely the pathetic machination of a contemptible rodent.

“This body is mine.”

Haschal’s body, which had been glaring at the enemy before her—Vanirgand within her—slowly extended her left arm forward and grabbed Garmerlic’s head.

With just a little more force, he could crush it. It would be simple to annihilate him forever. After all, Garmerlic was also unable to move with his soul removed.

“This is not something a half-dead corpse should covet…”

However, Vanirgand did not crush Garmerlic’s skull. Not out of uncharacteristic mercy, but because thinking ahead, he had no choice.

The souls of Garmerlic, Haschal, and Hersella were currently isolated in the netherworld by Garmerlic’s power.

Judging by the structure of the power, if they defeated him in the netherworld, they could return to the mortal realm, but for that to happen, the power itself needed to remain active.

If Garmerlic’s physical body were destroyed before the souls fallen into the netherworld returned, the passage between the netherworld and the mortal realm would completely disappear.

If that happened, even if Haschal and Hersella defeated Garmerlic’s soul, they would have no way to return to the mortal realm and would remain lost forever.

Therefore, Vanirgand could not end Garmerlic’s life.

If Haschal and Hersella did not return, this body would remain his until its natural end, but that was not the outcome he desired.

Vanirgand had his own plans for the future. Plans he had never revealed to anyone, plans that were his alone.

And the core of that plan was to not reveal himself until the time was right.

His enemy could discern his hidden intentions just by seeing him acting openly, after all.

In other words, this premature manifestation was unwelcome even to Vanirgand, and despite manifesting, it was merely a half-freedom that made it difficult to act freely.

– Crack!

…Of course, that didn’t mean he would wait patiently like a trained dog for the wandering souls to return.

‘I just can’t kill him.’

Saying he couldn’t kill because killing would sever the connection to the netherworld meant that as long as that power wasn’t broken, he could do whatever else he wanted.

Yes, he just couldn’t kill him.

The problem of avoiding attention from his enemy was also simply a matter of not acting too excessively.

‘Fortunately… his gaze is currently directed toward the northeast. Rather than the obviously doomed resurrection of a goddess, he finds the frost giants’ schemes much more interesting.’

Even for a celestial god, it was impossible to observe the entire world at once.

His enemy was currently focused on the frost giants in the northern continent, so his gaze did not reach the war with the dead happening here.

This was natural.

As far as Vanirgand knew, what the frost giants of Utgard were attempting was to open a hole toward the celestial realm and teleport their fortress somewhere into the heavens.

They were trying to escape not only the constraints of Heaven’s Wall but also the great calamity that would sweep across the mortal realm within a few years, seeking semi-permanent peace.

‘The fact that his gaze is directed there means… unlike the goddess’s resurrection, the ascension to heaven is a feasible idea, so he must be watching with considerable interest.’

Therefore, unless Vanirgand revealed all his power and openly caused calamity, the chance of the enemy’s gaze turning here was low.

In other words, if he stopped at moderate rampaging, there was no need to worry about being discovered.

So without further hesitation, Vanirgand implanted his complete divinity into the dying vessel and awakened it.

– Gooooo…!

Baleful Divine Body.

Hersella’s secret technique that transforms one into the incarnation of murder karma by coating every cell in the body with the power of murder karma.

Led by the divinity of murder karma seeping from somewhere within, it advances toward the realm of transcendence as if stepping into a higher domain.

– Crunch, crack, crackle!

Within the red nebula-like mist that instantly covered the entire body, the flesh was being grotesquely torn apart and more powerfully reassembled with bizarre rupturing sounds.

Skin, muscles, skeleton, organs, blood vessels, nerves. Every component of the body was transforming into something stronger and more solid.

To make it a vessel worthy of containing the power of Vanirgand, the baleful god of murder karma.

And finally, the divinity of the Thousand Murder Star settled in the completed vessel and bloomed, mercilessly devouring the divinity of death that had been writhing inside.

– Grooooowl…!

The red nebula, no longer just covering and rippling over the skin, escaped the body and writhed, condensed, and compressed into a material form.

Sharp claws formed at the extremities of the limbs, wolf-like ears sprouted beside the crown, and a dark red tail extended from below the spine.

A silhouette reminiscent of an inferior hybrid werebeast with a human-like face mixed with some bestial features.

However, since all of it was covered in red nebula, distorting and boiling repeatedly, unlike a hybrid werebeast, its appearance was truly ominous and grotesque.

That appearance was the proper form that one bearing Vanirgand’s divinity should aspire to. The form a god dwelling in human flesh should take.

– Riiiiip!

Above the beast-eared monster covered in nebula, the space tore open as if being ripped apart, revealing a deformed halo.

Within a pair of blood-colored rings overlapping vertically and seemingly rotating, a black hole like a void that devours everything.

The halo of Vanirgand, god of hatred and predation.

—-

– Crunch! Squish! Crack!

With wet tearing sounds and intense rupturing noises, Vanirgand, having revealed his power, bestowed generous violence upon his defenseless former comrade.

Tearing off both arms and devouring them, severing all muscles and tendons, even pulling out the spine and breaking it into pieces. It was a violation that would have killed anyone ten times over if they weren’t an undead demigod.

Though the possibility was extremely low, if by some chance Garmerlic’s soul defeated Haschal’s soul and returned, he would be shocked beyond belief.

The body that had no wounds except for the pierced chest before falling into the netherworld had become disabled with only the face able to move of its own will.

Moreover, not just her body but also the dragon corpse had been completely pulverized except for the skull.

– Crunch, crack.

Those bone fragments were absorbed into the blood-red nebula covering Vanirgand’s body as soon as they touched it, reinforcing Haschal’s skeleton which had become somewhat thinner though denser.

The power Vanirgand gained as the baleful god of predation was to devour enemies and convert them into his own strength.

The dragon remains and divinity of death that Garmerlic had painstakingly prepared had, due to the presence of the baleful god he could never have anticipated, been reduced to mere prey and devoured.

Even a seemingly perfect plan can collapse with just one misjudgment.

The fact that Garmerlic couldn’t know what was happening in the mortal realm because his soul was still in the netherworld was actually a blessing and divine mercy for him.

If he had witnessed all his careful preparations, his mission and secret wish that was about to be fulfilled, collapsing so pathetically, he would surely have collapsed in extreme anger and perished on the spot.

And so, Garmerlic’s hope was devoured and shattered.

‘This should be enough. Next…’

Immediately after, the baleful god’s eyes, still unsatisfied, turned toward the battlefield beyond the black mist.

Prey was everywhere.

Unlike the trash that couldn’t be killed despite being powerless, making hunting no fun, these were vigorously alive prey that would be truly excellent to slaughter.