Chapter 83

Chapter 83 is the eighty-third chapter of the Dead Mount Death Play manga.

Official Blurb
The Corpse God extends his hand to some potential new allies.

Synopsis

 * Other World

Amidst the ruins of the Byandy Empire's capital sits Shagrua Lugrid, contemplating the existence of another world. Easlies Swordfrail approaches him to dub him a 'softie'—in that he has risked his life and traveled so far to pass along the final words of the Corpse God. Those words were "Master, I'm sorry," scrawled hastily in the diary Shagrua had found in the labyrinth's library in the wake of Corpse God's vanquishing—so hastily that Shagrua wonders if Corpse God truly wanted the apology passed along.

Easlies says that she taught Corpse God techniques to guard his heart, due to his high empathy for the dead, but that those safeguards failed and, as a consequence, Corpse God became a suspect in the emperor's assassination. The greatest mistake of her life, admits Easlies, is the tampering of Corpse God's soul by enemy necromancers.


 * Earth

Lisa Kuraki informs Corpse God via cell phone that the Shinoyama Security network has returned to normal and that Youtoukorou will meanwhile investigate certain matters. Once the call ends, she informs Rinne and Hiiro Horojima that a sniper shot at their "business partner in Shinjuku" over a distance of more than two kilometers—a feat she asks if the Horojima siblings are capable of performing. Rinne intimates that they are not, but that the two snipers with whom the siblings tussled the other day might be.


 * Yesterday

The Horojima siblings, surveying Shinjuku from a skyscraper's vantage point, prepare to descend and lose themselves in a crowd—though this may be difficult since "almost everybody in Shinjuku has disappeared." Hiiro wonders what caused an earlier explosion, but any worries that he might have are tempered by the "good pay" and the safety that his and his sister's dangerous reputation assures them.

A bullet slams into the box that Hiiro carries on his back. Rinne and Hiiro drop to the ground and, through their binoculars and scope respectively, locate the provocateurs: a boy and a girl on a faraway building, the former of whom carries a large sniper rifle. After Hiiro warns his sister not to return what was a warning shot, lest they be noticed by the police or media, the siblings discuss the impressive fact that the sniper's shot crossed a 2.5 kilometer distance—one kilometer short of the world record. Rinne, still staring at the boy through her scope, states that the duo must be affiliated with "Atelier."


 * Present

Corpse God ends his phone call with Lisa and makes no attempt to leave the Abandoned Building's rooftop, despite the foiled assassination attempt. An attempt on whom, asks Framrodia—on Corpse God, or on Polka Shinoyama—whose body, Framrodia notes, would have been unresurrectable had it been hit by a shot of that force. In the case of the latter, Corpse God wonders if Polka would be better off remaining ignorant of his origins, and to what extent Rozan Shinoyama was or was not ignorant about his wife.

Rejoining Takumi Kuruya and Misaki Sakimiya downstairs, Corpse God prepares to speak with the "veytoelka soul vessel" known as Civil A. Sabaramond—though he first explains that a Veytoelka is a human who, via sorcery-based reproduction, is birthed to "[inherit] the constitution of a specific individual." An artificial human like a homunculus, he says. More like a clone, says Takumi. Arius Sabaramond's sorcery was largely dependent on Arius' body's unique constitution; vetroelkas in the Other World were used to pass on sorcery of this idiosyncratic nature.

Corpse God turns to address Civil, Lulu, and Soara Habaki, who are assembled on his couch with Sayo Shinoyama and Xiaoyu Lei close at hand. With a self-deprecating smile, Civil says that he is indeed a "sham human"—sham in that his birth was unnatural, he awkwardly clarifies, when Corpse God questions his word choice. Corpse God points out that his personal situation is far more unnatural than Civil's, regardless of his personal beliefs on necromancy's so-called unnaturalness—though not quite regardless, for he nevertheless immediately digresses into a long topical excursus that Takumi forces him to summarize. His point, it seems, is that there is no reason for Civil to view his life as lesser on account of his birth—though he shall not call Civil a vetroyelka if it makes Civil uncomfortable.

Civil brushes off Corpse God's respect and, in a change of subject, asks what Corpse God—a wizard who made a pawn out of the emperor he assassinated—plans to do with him and his companions. Smiling, Corpse God concedes that the emperor might be his pawn—

—but the Corpse God is his pawn in turn, declares Framrodia, whose partially manifested appearance surprises the onlookers. The accomplices together impress upon Civil the vulnerability of his position: he is and will be lacking in magical strength for the foreseeable future, as it will take a long time for him to replenish his exhausted stock of Elementals; he moreover cannot rely on the protection of the Great Elementals, who have fallen silent in the wake of last night's battle. In short, Civil is utterly helpless.

Civil asks why they do not seize the opportunity to kill him lest he someday return to kill them; Corpse God reminds him that his goal was not to kill him but befriend him. A toothless quibble over who struck the first blow ensues, after which Civil promises to tell all about the Bastard Children of Sabaramond in exchange for his companions' safety being guaranteed. What Civil does know, however, is limited: he was only ever his faction's figurehead rather than a true leader, and, as his faction never "got along" with the others, the other factions might willingly risk losing Civil to collateral damage should they attack Corpse God themselves.

In exchange for the trio's cooperation, Corpse God offers to teach Soara how to command magical beasts, Lulu how to converse with Elements, and Civil formal sorcery. Civil is stunned silent while Corpse God elaborates on the manner of 'cooperation' involved: he expects the three to assist his and Framrodia's integration into this new world—in other words, to become his accomplices in his deception of Earth.


 * Other World

When Shagrua asks whether Easlies regrets making Corpse God her apprentice, Easlies replies that she does not. As his teacher, she trusts him and in the day that he will become a complete necromancer: the day when he is able to choose his path of his own volition.

Referbacks

 * The story of how Shagrua came across Corpse God's journal, fled Nyanild and entered the Byandy Peninsula, battled Easlies and Romelka Rimelka, and was brought to the capital is detailed in the Episodes of Volumes 01 through 04.