The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time Chapter 118.5

Scylla

A race born when Vida, the goddess of love and life, mated with a monster (in truth, with Merrebeveil, the Evil God of Slime and Tentacles).

They are a unisexual race of only women, who possess the upper bodies of beautiful women and lower bodies with eight tentacles resembling those of octopuses.

Their upper bodies often look like those of humans with green-colored hair and eyes, but depending on their parents, there are cases where they resemble Elves, Dwarves, Dark Elves or Beast-people. In addition, if they possess Titan blood, their lower bodies become more enormous as well as their upper bodies.

But no matter what race their father is, they are always beautiful.

In most cases, their lower bodies have eight tentacles like octopuses, but there are occasional cases where they have nine or more tentacles. Also, legends say that the Scylla of the past had the heads of beasts such as wolves, snakes and dragons on the ends of their tentacles, but this has not been observed in the present day.

It is currently theorized that Bellwood and the other champions exterminated all of the mutant Scylla that existed back then, or that this is simply a fabrication by those who wanted to portray the Scylla as an evil race.

Perhaps due to the monster that is one of the Scylla race's parents, many Scylla possess affinities for the water and earth attributes, and there are also many who possess an affinity for the life attribute as well.

Because they possess the Water Adaptation, Night Vision and Superhuman Strength skills from birth, contrary to what their beautiful appearances may suggest, they are capable of becoming powerful warriors and mages. Also, many Scylla acquire the Ink Secretion and Enhanced Physical Ability (Lower body half) skills while spitting ink and using their lower bodies.

The roots of the lower body's tentacles contain their own sub-brains, allowing separate action from the upper body. Therefore, a high portion of Scylla individuals possess the Parallel Thought Processing skill compared to other races.

Incidentally, if the tentacles of the lower body are severed, as long as the Scylla receives good nutrition, they will regrow.

Their lifespans are as long as four hundred years; they grow at the same rate as humans up until their mid-teenage years, and after that, there are individual differences in aging, but upon reaching a certain age, their aging stops entirely. Scylla individuals are acknowledged as adults once they reach this point.

They have bright, cheerful personalities, but they often hold grudges if angered once. Although they are a unisexual, female-only race, they do not really have a female supremacist view. But since many believe that men are those who should be protected, it may feel like they hold such a view. Scylla themselves would say that this is simply how roles are divided.

There are no Scylla who have registered as adventurers in the Bahn Gaia continent, but when they do become adventurers, they have flexible qualities that make them suited for fighting both on the frontlines and from the back. However, it is said that they are not well-suited for being scouts. This is due to the fact that while they are able to perform well in open air and inside Dungeons that mimic open areas, the size of their lower bodies become an obstacle in confined human cities and Dungeons that mimic ruins.

However, in aquatic environments, they are likely the most powerful allies one can have after Merfolk.

Many ordinary Scylla become hunters, fishermen or farmers, and there are also many who are exceptional at dancing and singing as a part of their religion.

There are some craftsmen who make dyed fabrics with special dyes created by mixing the ink they secrete with materials such as plants, but the ones who actually do the work are often the husbands and sons of the Scylla.

Scylla are born with the qualities of a Rank 3 monster, and they are strong enough that new adventurers cannot face them on flat ground. Even ordinary hunters and fishermen are hard to hold down with several average soldiers.

They often build villages in marshlands, lakes and coastal areas. Small villages may be comprised of a single family, but the largest groups of Scylla are the five large villages, each with a thousand Scylla, located in the Sauron Duchy (currently occupied by the Amid Empire) in the Bahn Gaia continent.

But what they all have in common is that they do not completely distance themselves from other races; they build their villages relatively close to other races. This is because the Scylla are a unisexual race, so men of other races are required for reproduction.

However, they have long been persecuted as targets for extermination by nations and groups of people who are strongly influenced by the Church of Alda, so it is said that they have never formed a nation like the humans.

They were once feared for having an insatiable craving for human males, but this is not the case. They eat marine products, meat, vegetables, fruit and even grains. The Scylla that live in their own territory in the Sauron Duchy in particular have been cultivating rice for tens of thousands of years, and it is even said that their farming technology has surpassed that of humans.

They mainly worship Vida, her subordinate gods and Merrebeveil, who is said to have become the heroic goddess of the Scylla.

There aren't any races that treat them as an enemy as a whole, but they are very wary of believers of Alda, the god of law and fate, as they have a long history of being persecuted by these believers.

Their view on love is typical of Vida's races; they marry particular husbands, but their relationship is then cut off about ten years after their child is born. They cooperate while their child is still small, but after ten years, the child grows to some extent and no longer needs so much care, so there is no problem in the parents separating after that.

Of course, most married couples have feelings for each other even after ten years pass, and it is more common for couples to continue their married relationship after that.

Also, although it is called marriage, it is common for a single husband to be surrounded by multiple Scylla, and for a single Scylla to serve multiple husbands.

Though its origin is unknown, the Scylla have a peculiar marriage proposal ceremony where they make a courting display by dancing and singing with their upper bodies visible above water, and the marriage proposal is established when the man accepts by approaching the Scylla and calls out to her or embraces her.

Misunderstandings can easily arise from this marriage proposal ceremony; many men mistake the singing, dancing Scylla for drowning human women and try to save them, and this ceremony was often seen as the Scylla pretending to be drowning women and trying to make the men that try to rescue them drown.

The ceremony has become disused in the present day; it is now only performed by shrine maidens during religious ceremonies or by old-fashioned couples.

Scylla are fertile, and lay around three eggs on average in a single clutch. The eggs hatch after about a year, giving birth to new children.

The world that the Demon King Guduranis and his army came from

The Demon King Guduranis and the evil gods that were his subordinates appeared in Lambda during the age of the gods, but almost nothing is known about the world in which they originally existed.

This is because the Demon King's army is comprised of monsters created by the Demon King himself and his evil gods, so there is no way of learning this information without interviewing one of the evil gods.

Also, perhaps the Demon King and his evil gods didn't leave records in books or stone tablets, or perhaps they simply didn't possess the concept of leaving information behind in such ways. There are almost no documents that could be referred to.

Documents detailing the things that the champions saw and heard in the midst of battle and the items left behind by the Demon King and his subordinates after they arrived in this world make up the few research materials that are available.

It is said that there is a detailed document of words exchanged between evil gods and their high-ranking subordinates, directly heard by Zakkart, the champion of the goddess of life and love Vida, Solder, the champion of the goddess of water and knowledge Peria, Ark, the champion of the genie of time and magic Ricklent, and Hillwillow, the champion of Botin, mother of the earth and goddess of craftsmanship. However, it is unknown as to whether this document actually exists.

The information detailed below is a collection of the information that has been announced to date, considered to be from highly credible sources.

The name of the Demon King's world

Unknown. The Demon King Guduranis and his evil gods referred to it using the words, “the world we were originally in.” From this fact, it is thought that this world had no designated name.

At the same time, it has been deduced that the Demon King and his subordinates' journey to our world (Lambda) is the only time they crossed to another world.

If they had been to multiple other worlds, they would have likely given their own world an individual name, but if they didn't know of the existence of any other worlds, it would have been fine for them to simply refer to their world as “the world.”

The Demon King's world

There is no information whatsoever regarding the Demon King's world itself in terms of geography, climate, wildlife, history or nations.

Due to this fact, it is thought that the Demon King and his evil gods did not possess a culture of passing information from generation to generation through written text or word of mouth.

However, it is not entirely shrouded in mystery. It is possible to make conjectures as to what kind of world it was from the forms of the Demon King and his evil gods, as well as the monsters that they created.

It is thought that their world had harsh environments that cannot be compared to this one, and though many monsters lived on their own, those of the same race likely formed groups in a world of carnage where all living things fought a fierce struggle for existence.

The gods of the Demon King's world

The identity of the one responsible for the creation of the Demon King's world is unknown. But considering the state of that world's gods, it is very different from this world.

The gods of the Demon King's world are “superior beings with strength that allows them to transcend regular living creatures.” Once one became strong in the Demon King's world, they reached the state of being called a “god,” and all beings who had reached such a state were known as gods.

It wasn't that they became gods because many worshipped them; it was because they became gods that they created followers who worshipped them.

The being who was most powerful among them were known as the Demon King, and it is thought that the Demon King Guduranis defeated the previous Demon King to become the Demon King.

The creatures of the Demon King's world

The natures of the creatures of the Demon King's world can be guessed from the monsters that the Demon King and his subordinates have created. It has been recorded that the monsters created by the Demon King's army in the early years of their arrival in Lambda were vastly different from the creatures that already existed in this world.

However, it is also recorded that because they were too different, they couldn't adapt to this world and went extinct within a short period of time.

According to these records, there was no coherence to these creatures, such as dragons, snakes and crocodiles with scales, creatures with tentacles or made entirely of tentacles, beasts with multiple heads and over five limbs, or with only a single limb.

It is said that many of these creatures had sinister appearances that would cause us to feel revulsion and fear towards them.

All of this information is nothing more than a collection of records of rumors and conjectures. However, seeing the statues worshipped by the believers of the evil gods that are squirming in the darkness in the present day, as well as the form of the few surviving early-age monsters, this information seems credible.

But the lifestyles, culture and values held by the creatures of the Demon King's world can be deduced in detail from the lifestyles of monsters.

This is because new subspecies and new races of monsters formed after the champions defeated the Demon King, but the lifestyles and culture of monsters have remained almost unchanged.

Does it not seem likely that in the Demon King's world, creatures gathered knowledge and trained their skills on an individual basis, with no culture of passing on information to the next generation or creating tools?

As proof of this, some monster races form groups and some even form primitive villages, but in general, the passing of knowledge and skills from parent to child is poor.

It is easy to understand if one takes Goblins and Orcs as an example. They create the next generation by producing many offspring, and the superior individuals among them independently observe and steal knowledge and skills from adults in the group in order to learn. Incidents of individuals with dispositions to become mages being taken as apprentices have been reported at the Adventurers' Guild, but these are rare cases.

Their creation of tools is even poorer. Many individuals simply swing appropriately-sized tree branches as clubs, and these monsters largely rely on plundering equipment from their victims. There are some individuals who create spears, bows and arrows, but the majority of them only use these for themselves or offer them to their superiors; they do not distribute them to the entire group or teach other individuals the process of creating these weapons.

Monsters such as Lizardmen and Noble Orcs, which are considered to be more intelligent, train their children and distribute equipment among their entire groups, but considering monsters as a whole, these races are in the minority.

Considering these facts, it is thought that the creatures of the Demon King's world did not possess the culture… the concept of using tools, and they used what they were capable of with their bodies and the magic that they had mastered in order to deal with all situations.

Also, it is thought that they did not possess the ability to farm, and instead depended on hunting and gathering… living lifestyles similar to beasts.

However, it is said that they might have bred members of inferior races as livestock and used them for manual labor or as a source of food as necessary.

Vandalieu closed the old book and asked Fidirg, the Dragon God of Five Sins, a question.

“That's what it says in this book, but how much of it is true?”

“It is largely factual.”

“But to be discussing us for tens of thousands of years…”

“Humans are really interested in us, ain't they?”

Fidirg, who had slumbered for tens of thousands of years after the war between Vida and Alda and awoken to find himself separated and isolated from human society by the Boundary Mountain Range, was exasperated by the curiosity of humans.

However, it wasn't a bad thing that humans had an interest in these matters. Their feelings of awe were similar to worship, too… though no matter how much the Demon King's army of the past was feared, it meant nothing to Fidirg as no records of his existence remained in historical records.

“I was also a member of a race known as ■■■■■.”

“In this world, I believe they are called Experience Points? Well, I ate a lot of them and became a god.”

“Ah, you can't make it out, can you? It doesn't exist in this world's words, so pardon me.”

Those were hard times, Fidirg thought with a distant look in his eyes.

“And that's how I began calling myself the 'Dragon God of Five Sins.'”

“Incidentally, there are evil gods with similar names, and it means that they were originally of similar races.”

“Maybe like a cheetah or tiger? They might be completely different, but in that world, those kinds of differences are nothing at all.”

The gods of the Demon King's world didn't need to gather believers and propagate their religion in the normal sense. The members of the race that they originated from would simply become their believers. If there weren't any, they simply needed to create some, and if there were any inconveniences arising from two gods having similar names, they would simply kill one another.

This was why, although Vandalieu was unaware of it, gods with similar names came to exist, such as the Evil God of the Magic Tome and the Evil God of Foreign Writings*.

TLN*: They are more similar in Japanese than in English; they share a kanji.

“Well, it was a real shock when we came to this world.”

“Most of the creatures here only have one head, and there are almost none with tentacles. Ah, but there were quite a lot with scales, so I still felt alright.”

“The tentacle gods like Merrebeveil-san were really surprised.”

Fidirg's heads all expressed the surprise he felt when he first came to Lambda. It seemed that from his point of view, Lambda was the more bizarre world.

“If that's how you felt, why did you accept Zakkart's proposal?” Vandalieu asked. “I know that you didn't like the Demon King, but from your perspective, it must have seemed like a suspicious proposal made by an unfamiliar creature.”

Despite everything, Fidirg and others had accepted Zakkart's proposal and joined Lambda's side. Hearing this story, Vandalieu had to question what made them want to even begin communicating in the first place.

Had Zakkart possessed some kind of special negotiation technique?

“Ah, that was good timing. Bellwood and the others had come out, and although the Demon King's army was in the superior position overall, the small-scale defeats were occurring more frequently…”

“Also, the monsters we'd created had started stealing arms from the humans and using them for themselves…”

“It was a time where we saw this world in a different light. I ordered the Lizardmen to use the arms created by humans as a reference to make their own, too.”

And so, one of the champions had come to meet them for something other than battle, and because this was an unusual event, they heard him out and found his offer attractive.

It wasn't clear whether it was mere coincidence or whether Zakkart had chosen the right timing, but… if it was the latter, then perhaps Zakkart had been one with an eye for strategy.

“By the way, from our point of view, it is strange that you didn't make tools. Why didn't you make tools while you were in the Demon King's world?” Vandalieu asked.

From the perspective of Vandalieu, who had learned in school the process by which civilization had developed on Earth, it was quite strange that intelligent life would have a culture without tools. But Fidirg's response to this was quite easy to understand.

“Ah, we were also asked this by Solder and Ark.”

“Our world had materials such as trees and rocks as well, but…”

“Those materials are far weaker than the skin or fangs of anyone with a bit of strength, so we didn't need to use them. We had magic, too.”

It seemed that special metals that existed in Lambda, such as Mythril, Adamantite and Orichalcum, hadn't existed in the world the Demon King had come from.

In reality, it might have existed, but in order to discover and make use of it, the technology to mine and refine ores would need to exist, and it was unlikely that anyone had had the time to develop this technology.

Creatures that had no need for stone tools wouldn't suddenly develop the technology to refine and process copper and iron.

“That's how it was, so the situation was that only weak, inferior creatures used tools. Because of this, using tools was proof of being livestock to be used as food for superior beings.”

“There were races that made tools, though they were weak. But the Demon King decided to leave behind everyone that wasn't a god, so he didn't bring them here.”

“And that's why we looked down on the humans of this world, who used arms to fight. But then we were divided into those who were defeated by the champions and those like me who changed our way of thinking.”

It seemed that the Demon King's army had also learned from experience after coming to Lambda, but few of them had changed their sense of values.

“Well, no matter what, monsters' technology will never catch up to the technology of humans.”

“Even among us gods, the ones who used weapons and armor were in the minority.”

“Humans can't be underestimated, after all.”

“… I've come to see the Demon King's army in a new light,” said Vandalieu.

According to Fidirg, most of the gods who had zealously made their monsters create tools had accepted Zakkart's proposal and changed sides like he had.

Fidirg was the creator of the Lizardmen. They had been stolen away at some point by Luvesfol, the Raging Evil Dragon God, but the Lizardmen created by Fidirg in the marshlands created and used arms that were not inferior even to those used by human soldiers.

And Merrebeveil, one of the parents of the Scylla, had made them develop advanced farming technology.

If Zakkart hadn't made Fidirg and the others change sides, this world might have fallen to the Demon King, Vandalieu thought.

Chapter end