Blade & Bastard

Iarumas wakes up dead inside the deepest, unexplored dungeon beneath the city of Trefl. The church magic that pulls him back to life strips away his memories of who he was before the crash, leaving only fragmented images of rotting flesh and the monsters he killed while a corpse. This grim reality sets the tone for a story where death is not a permanent end but a recurring trap that slowly erodes the soul.

He joins a ragtag party consisting of a stoic fighter and a reckless magic-user as they descend further into the dark. Their journey explores the psychological horror of repeated resurrections, a mechanic borrowed from the classic Wizardry video game franchise. Each time they die and return, their humanity fades, blurring the line between living adventurers and walking corpses driven by instinct.

Kumo Kagyū wrote the series with illustrations by so-bin, the artist known for her work on Overlord. Drecom Media launched the first volume under their DRE Novels imprint on December 9, 2022. By early 2026, six volumes had been released in Japan, with English editions distributed digitally by J-Novel Club and in print by Yen Press. [تعديل]