Spoiler Latest Chapter Discussion Thread for Death Mage Raws

If I remember right, the duke called him great demon king because he found him much more scarily effective than Gudu who only reigned with fear instead of how Van convince you one way or another to follow him on your own volition. Then he got the tittle after metting the gods in Garland.

 

Guduranis= follow me or die

Van= follow me and I'll give you lots of stuff and protect you.

 

Alchem thinks to himself about how he absolutely shouldn't cross Demon King... no, Great Demon King Vandalieu, then Van goes to check his jobs and [Great Demon King] is one of the first of the new jobs on his available jobs list. But Alchem has the appraisal knight, so he may have been referring to the [Great Demon King] job before Van was aware it was there. The order of cause and effect is surprisingly nebulous!

Don't you mean "follow me, I have acorn cookies"?

 

We have a traitor in our mitts! Chocolate chip cookies!!!

 

IT IS ONLY CAKE!! OH MY GOD, THE ONLY WAY SKY CAKE TASTES GOOD IS IF UP IN THE SKY, THE SKY COOKIE AND SKY PIE PEOPLE CAN'T HAVE THE SKY PIE!! THAT'S THE ONLY WAY SKY CAKE TASTES GOOD!! I DID NOT SPEND MY LIFE NOT RAPING AND KILLING PEOPLE TO NOT GO UP TO THE SKIES AND HAVE CAKE!! SKY CAKE!!!

...This is also becoming weirdly on topic, as this is kinda Alda.

 

Yup, we've been over this before and it's something that has ebbed and flowed. It's always good to revise these arguments in light of new data. Dogmatically clinging to a particular set of expectations is the same sort of failing that characters within the story show, and are criticised for.

We have a number of clear examples in the story where Van has evolved his viewpoint. So, in the right circumstances, it would not be "out of character" (or out of alignment with the rest of the story). Whether it'd feel satisfying or not would depend on Heinz's attitude. If he comes across as arrogant or narrow minded or similar then we'd probably be chanting "kill him already!". But if takes a more apologetic and cooperative stance then it would be much less satisfying to kill him.

The author did recently refer to Van as a "vengence fundamentalist" which rather implies that it's an intentional character flaw. It would be rather ironic if Bellwood told Van something like "I know just how dangerous it is to take beliefs to extremes".

During the recent battle, Van was willing to let the demi-gods who no longer wanted to fight to flee. Even though they're a potential future threat.

Yep. Revenge was essentially his original "call to action".

But things have moved on a lot since then. The closer Van is to "winning" overall, the higher the risk it is for him to start new conflicts by being dogmatic about revenge.

Botin has already asked Van to consider what'll happen to the undead if/when he dies. Which is something Heinz wants to ask too. So if Van has already investigated the problem and prepared a solution by the time Heinz gets a chance to ask the same question then Botin's guidance (in the general sense of the word) would have been quite timely.

Selen might become directly involved still... as a hostage. I think the biggest reason why Van would be reluctant to trust Heinz is if Heinz changes his mind again he'd become a real threat. Heinz might offer up Selen as a hostage to show his sincerity. (Note, this doesn't mean that other scenarios that have been discussed with Selen can't happen first. It's not like Heinz and Van are going to meet immediately).

 

she might be a hostage in all but name.

 

After all there was that one merchant guild master guy who had all the intention to used Van to further his agenda. Who is to say Selen is not being used for the same thing by the people looking after her? Or not even those two, but the nobles and people in power in general?

 

I think selen is definitely being used due to her being a dhampire by the peaceful Alda faction as she's a rare species of vidas races and they are usually killed on sight/birth along with their families due to the vampire parent.

Out of all the known vida races, dhampire are treated the worst universally (excluding vampires as they, in the eyes of the masses, betrayed vida and joined joyful life)

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Van's death attribute mana is passively amplifying his negative emotions and affects.

He got the title after freeing Botin.

That character flaw is such an essential part of Van's character that I'm not sure if Van could ever overcome it for good. The most anyone can do is persuade him that revenge is not necessary, or that justice is better carried out a different way.

That's because it wasn't revenge. Van tried to settle things peacefully at first because he didn't want to kill the demigods guarding the seal, but they insisted on fighting him off anyway. In other words, they were only enemies because they were in Van's way. Once they failed their objective and gave up, Van had no reason to attack them anymore.

 

Also botin was watching and van probably wanted them to spread the message "surrender is an option, but if you take up arms, expect to lose them along with your life"

 

I would say the biggest reason is because that-one-water-god-whos-name-I-can't-remember and others told him that if possible to not kill the enemy gods unnecessarily since they are needed and because he didn't want to give Botin and Peria a bad first impression since he wanted to get along with them if possible.

 

Why do I find that funny? And it actually sound like something he would say.

 

Perguttalta is the name of that water goddess

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n1745ct/369/

 

Actually, that guy did not have the ability to see the names of jobs in the job history. He could only see the names of skills, and of stats that were actively in use. (thus the reason he was unable to see Van's mana since the food stall was being heated by Princess Levia's fire with no magic input from Van.)

He did see that Van had the "demon king" skill, but nothing about the job (or even titles.)

Yep, and this is exactly the reason I am bringing this up again. It is because more and more the external threats are becoming less and less of a threat. The biggest threat I think Van is facing right now is internal, that threat being his own character flaw.

In fact, I think the big climactic event might be a large round-table discussion in which everyone tries to persuade Van to not go down this path of vengence. Ironically enough, Bellwood very well may be the most crucial voice in this discussion, but Botin is going to be an every bit as crucial factor as well as the mediator.

No, until Van killed the Hililushukaka vampires, Damphirs were still treated worse. The vampires, at the very least, had a support network where other vampires wouldn't kill them on sight. (they might still be killed because they made psyco pure-breed Gudu's shadow angry, but at least they weren't explicitly targeted for death from their birth by other vampires.) Damphirs faced enemies on both sides of their heratage, and the vampire enemies were arguably worse than the human enemies.

 

I meant the one who is the guardian god of the merpeople country. He told Van not kill asshole traitor ice god if possible. He have a really ungodlike name.

 

Ok I thought you meant the God who told van not to attack the alda gods when they ran recently, my bad.

Yeah, that's true except that the vampires under joyful life did like to backstab each other a lot. But yeah dhampire have the short straw when it comes to mercy from either Alda or evil vampires.

 

This is because jobs and titles can't be actively used. Their effects are only passive.

Tristan.

 

She did? Don't remember that, I just remember her seen some of his bullshit level physical skills and cooking and then running when her ability was countered by Abyss.

And how many dhampir are there now? 'cause I remember only 3 (Van, Selem and "old" lady)

 

That's the one! I knew I was thinking about Yu-Gi-Oh! characters for a reason!