Five Heroes

The Five Heroes are the small alliance whose failed victory defines the world inherited by Eugene Lionheart. Three centuries before his reincarnation, Hamel Dynas travels with the Great Vermouth Lionheart, Wise Sienna Merdein, Faithful Anise Slywood, and Brave Molon Ruhr. Together they kill the Demon Kings of Carnage, Cruelty, and Fury and penetrate farther into Helmuth than any human force before them. They do not complete their public mission: Hamel dies in Babel, the survivors swear an oath with the Demon King of Incarceration, and the expedition disperses. Yet that apparent failure is also a containment strategy. Vermouth's true purpose is bound to the recurring Demon King of Destruction, and the oath preserves a future in which his companions can gather again. (Chapters 1–3, 85–86, 145–146, 207, and 270–274)

The party matters because Damn Reincarnation is not merely a story about Hamel obtaining a better body. It is the delayed completion of the Five Heroes' journey. Their monuments, weapons, religions, kingdoms, descendants, and deliberately distorted legends shape the present, while each reunion forces Eugene to replace a simplified heroic myth with the cost paid by the people who created it. By the final campaign, the five no longer resemble their old configuration: Hamel is Eugene, Anise shares a body and divinity with Kristina Rogeris, Sienna has passed through deathlike suspension and spiritual transformation, Molon has endured centuries of solitary battle, and Vermouth is both prisoner and vessel of Destruction. What reunites them is not an unchanged party roster but the trust and unfinished responsibility formed on the first expedition. (Chapters 57, 106–160, 251–319, 398–425, 573–615, and 625)

Structure and operating principles

A party of equals around Vermouth

Vermouth is the expedition's center without being a conventional sovereign. He recruits or gathers companions capable of surviving a war against Demon Kings, possesses the widest mastery of weapons, and supplies the plan that reaches Babel. Later civilization elevates him above the others as the supreme hero and founder of the Lionheart line, but the battlefield arrangement depends on five complementary specialists rather than one commander surrounded by retainers. Hamel can challenge Vermouth, Sienna argues from her own judgment, Anise condemns choices she finds cruel or foolish, and Molon acts from a direct personal code. Their disputes do not erase hierarchy in planning, but they show that membership rests on demonstrated equality under extreme conditions. (Chapters 13, 57, 156, 173, 207, and 214)

Their closed number is part of the identity. Later people can inherit their techniques, carry their weapons, revere their names, or fight beside the reunited heroes without retroactively becoming one of the Five. Kristina is the important complication: she is Anise's successor, reincarnated counterpart, and co-resident soul rather than a sixth original companion. Eugene likewise does not replace Hamel as a different seat holder; his reincarnation is the continuity that lets Hamel finish the expedition. The party's history should therefore distinguish original members, later forms, and allied forces instead of treating every participant in the final war as an expanded roster. (Chapters 24–25, 65–86, 126–160, 217, and 267–275)

Complementary combat roles

The Five Heroes are built to answer different kinds of opposition. Vermouth is an overwhelmingly adaptable front-line warrior who can wield numerous weapons and divine armaments. Hamel is a mobile multiweapon combatant whose instincts, endurance, and willingness to take dangerous positions let him support any failing part of the formation. Sienna supplies high-order magic, analysis, barriers, and large-scale control. Anise sustains the group through healing, protection, miracles, and the Holy Empire's sacred power. Molon provides physical force and the ability to meet gigantic or otherwise overwhelming enemies head-on. The arrangement is practical enough that the group can change tactics when magic, blades, or blunt force prove ineffective. (Chapters 156, 164, 214, and 302)

Their effectiveness is not reducible to five simultaneous attacks. Members understand one another's habits well enough to exploit openings without lengthy orders, and their trust allows risky divisions of labor. Anise can concentrate on survival and recovery because the front line protects her; Sienna can commit to complex magic because the warriors hold space; Hamel can improvise because Vermouth understands the intention behind the movement. The final battles retain this logic even after their powers and bodies change. The party succeeds when each member acts as a distinct expert toward the same objective, not when the others imitate Vermouth. (Chapters 173, 207, 214, 302, and 573–615)

Trust, secrecy, and the cost of the mission

The group is founded on absolute battlefield trust, but its greatest failure is incomplete truth. Vermouth knows more about Destruction and his own condition than he tells his companions. The others know that he is bearing an exceptional burden, yet they cannot evaluate choices whose premises he conceals. Hamel's death intensifies that fracture: the surviving heroes accept the Oath with Incarceration and then separate, each carrying only part of the plan and part of the guilt. Their legends preserve hope for humanity while concealing the bargain, Destruction, and the degree to which their “victory” was unfinished. (Chapters 86, 139, 207, 251, 270–274, and 580–588)

The second journey corrects that structure. Eugene repeatedly refuses to be managed as the ignorant Hamel of public legend. Sienna, Anise, Molon, and eventually Vermouth have to explain what they did after Babel and why. Reunions are therefore acts of accountability as well as affection. By the final campaign, the heroes can still withhold tactical surprises from enemies, but the central burden is shared: rescuing Vermouth, breaking Incarceration's confinement, and ending Destruction are recognized as one collective problem. (Chapters 251–319, 398–425, 426–552, and 573–615)

History

Companions on the road to Helmuth

The original expedition forms in an age when Demon Kings dominate Helmuth and humanity lacks a force capable of carrying a war into their territory. Vermouth's strength and charisma make him the obvious public center, but his companions do not join as interchangeable followers. Hamel brings the experience and aggression of a warrior who has survived without noble pedigree. Sienna's magic gives the party an intellectual and strategic reach no weapon alone could provide. Anise joins sacred authority to the unsentimental discipline required to keep reckless warriors alive. Molon contributes both extraordinary strength and a simple loyalty that does not depend on court politics. Their different temperaments create friction, but the friction also prevents the expedition from becoming a single person's unchallenged obsession. (Chapters 13, 57, 106, 156, 164, 173, and 207)

The companions become a closed unit through repeated campaigning. They learn which member can be trusted to hold a front, recognize the onset of Sienna's large magic, obey Anise when injury overrides pride, and rely on Molon to meet enemies other warriors cannot stop. Hamel's later memories emphasize quarrels and humiliation as readily as glory, undercutting the polished monuments of the present. This ordinariness is important: the Five Heroes become legendary because a group of incompatible people repeatedly chooses to continue together, not because they begin as flawless icons. (Chapters 57, 156, 173, and 214)

Three Demon Kings fall

The expedition kills the Demon Kings of Carnage, Cruelty, and Fury. These victories establish the public basis of the heroic legend and demonstrate that Demon Kings are not untouchable. They also leave concrete inheritances: weapons, techniques, scars, political authority, and stories later institutions use to define themselves. The victories do not produce a secure peace. Helmuth still contains Incarceration and Destruction, and every advance exposes the party to forces whose nature ordinary human strategy cannot fully explain. (Chapters 3, 145–146, 207, 251, and 270–274)

The campaigns also deepen dependence inside the party. A single member's absence creates a tactical gap that cannot simply be filled by another strong warrior. This explains both the magnitude of Hamel's death and why the later world misunderstands the original group when it treats him as merely Vermouth's coarse subordinate. Hamel may be the least celebrated in later propaganda, but the party that reaches Babel is a five-person formation. The loss of one member changes what the other four can attempt and helps force the compromise that follows. (Chapters 1–3, 86, 145–146, 207, and 214)

Hamel's death in Babel

Hamel dies during the advance toward the Demon King of Incarceration. At the opening of the novel he interprets his end through bitterness: he believes he has failed to surpass Vermouth, worries that his companions will remember his weakness, and dies before seeing the promised conclusion. Later revelations make the death more complicated. His soul does not simply pass into an ordinary afterlife; Vermouth's plans, the Demon Kings' powers, and the later creation of a false Hamel's Death Knight all show how heavily enemies and allies invest in Hamel's identity. (Chapters 1–2, 86, 139, 270–274, and 580–588)

For the survivors, the death is both personal devastation and strategic collapse. Anise cannot heal a companion already lost, Sienna's magic cannot restore the party's old balance, and Molon's strength cannot batter through the metaphysical problem in front of them. Vermouth bears responsibility for knowledge he did not share and for a plan that required his friends to advance without understanding Destruction. The expedition continues far enough to meet Incarceration, but it no longer has the conditions for the victory later legend claims. (Chapters 86, 207, 251, and 270–274)

The Oath and the dispersal

The four survivors make an Oath with Incarceration rather than finishing the war. Public history can present this as a heroic settlement, but the private logic is delay. Incarceration is not defeated, Destruction remains the deeper threat, and Vermouth's own condition is becoming inseparable from that threat. The bargain preserves lives and creates time for reincarnation and preparation, but it also condemns the companions to three centuries of isolation, secrecy, and incomplete work. (Chapters 2–3, 85–86, 139, and 267–275)

Each survivor then follows a different path. Sienna becomes the Wise Sienna of magical history and leaves institutions and legacies that reshape magic. Anise's sacred role is absorbed into the Church's doctrine while her soul becomes connected to Kristina. Molon becomes the founder and symbol of Ruhr, then takes on the concealed duty of fighting Nur so the world's recurring destruction does not advance unchecked. Vermouth founds the Lionheart line and becomes the greatest public hero, even as his real struggle removes him from ordinary history. Their separation multiplies their influence across the world, but it is not a peaceful retirement: each life is another front in the unfinished expedition. (Chapters 24–25, 39–40, 65–86, 107–160, 217, and 267–275)

Hamel returns as Eugene

Hamel reincarnates as Eugene Lionheart, a descendant of Vermouth's collateral family. The new body's extraordinary potential initially feels like an individual second chance, yet the Lionheart name places him inside Vermouth's institutional legacy from childhood. Access to the family, its weapons, and its version of heroic history lets Eugene test what the world remembers against what Hamel actually experienced. His recovery of the Moonlight Sword and contact with traces of his former companions turn reincarnation into the first stage of the party's reconstruction. (Chapters 2, 17–25, 57, 65–86, and 126–139)

Eugene's identity changes the meaning of membership. He is not trying to imitate a dead hero; he is Hamel with new advantages, unresolved resentment, and a growing willingness to admit that he loved and depended on the people he once insulted. The new name also gives him room to build relationships outside the original five and to reject the self-sacrificial assumptions that shaped Babel. When companions recognize him, the reunion is not complete until they accept both continuities: Eugene remembers Hamel's promises, but he is entitled to make different choices with his second life. (Chapters 57, 126–160, 217, and 267–275)

Sienna and Anise return

Sienna's recovery is one of the first full restorations of the old party. Her legendary status has concealed injury, isolation, and the consequences of pursuing answers after the expedition. Eugene's presence confronts her with grief she has carried for centuries and with Hamel's refusal to remain the person she mourned. Their reunion restores magical strength to the alliance, but its greater consequence is the recovery of honest conversation: Sienna can explain Vermouth, Babel, and her own failures to the person most affected by them. (Chapters 106–121, 135–160, and 251–269)

Anise's return is inseparable from Kristina. Kristina is raised inside a religious system shaped around the Saint's image, while Anise persists as a soul whose faith and anger do not match the Church's uncomplicated legend. Sharing existence forces the old hero and her successor to negotiate agency rather than treating Kristina as a vessel. Eugene's bond with both women becomes part of the group's new form. Anise brings her old memories and standards; Kristina brings a living present, new faith, and the right to stand beside Eugene in her own name. Together they restore the party's sacred support without erasing the cost at which it survived. (Chapters 126–160, 251–269, and 283–319)

Molon's lonely war

Molon's public legacy is a kingdom built around bravery and strength, but his hidden life is defined by Nur. For centuries he fights manifestations tied to Destruction, preventing them from advancing while receiving little recognition for the real task. His isolation exaggerates his simplest qualities—endurance, duty, and readiness to strike—until they become almost self-destructive. When Eugene reaches him, the reunion is therefore a rescue from an endless assignment as much as the recovery of a warrior. (Chapters 398–425)

Molon's return completes the available companions around Eugene and exposes the scale of Vermouth's burden. It also restores humor and directness to a group increasingly entangled in metaphysical plans. Molon does not solve secrecy through analysis; he judges whether his friends are present, whether an enemy must be struck, and whether a promise remains. That simplicity becomes stabilizing when the final campaign demands action despite incomplete certainty. (Chapters 398–425 and 426–552)

The second journey through Helmuth

The reunited companions and their allies enter a Helmuth transformed by three centuries of politics, demon culture, and Incarceration's rule. This is not a repetition of the first expedition. Eugene has relationships and forces beyond the original five, the surviving heroes possess centuries of additional power and trauma, and their enemies understand the legend they are invoking. The party's purpose is also clearer: defeat Incarceration where necessary, reach Vermouth, prevent Destruction from using him, and refuse another settlement that merely transfers suffering into the future. (Chapters 350–386 and 426–552)

The campaign repeatedly tests the difference between public symbolism and operational trust. Enemies deploy Hamel's name through the Death Knight, exploit Vermouth's image, and use heroic expectations to provoke the companions. Eugene rejects the false Hamel precisely because identity is more than copied memories or appearance. His companions' recognition confirms that the party is held together by lived relationships—arguments, failures, debts, and choices—that no manufactured legend can reproduce. (Chapters 350–386, 426–552, and 580–588)

Incarceration, Destruction, and Vermouth's rescue

The final struggle brings the party's two unfinished enemies together. Incarceration embodies the oath and the prison that halted the first expedition; Destruction is the recurring cosmic catastrophe tied to Vermouth. Eugene and the others must fight at a scale beyond their historical selves while keeping rescue, rather than simple execution, at the center of the plan. Vermouth is dangerous as Destruction's vessel, but he remains their companion. Treating him only as a target would repeat the logic that let one hero carry the truth alone. (Chapters 573–615)

The companions' specialized roles again matter. Eugene supplies the decisive front-line will and the identity that links Hamel's promise to the present. Sienna's magic contends with the battlefield's scale and structure. Anise and Kristina sustain and protect life against forces designed to erase it. Molon meets overwhelming physical threats. Their combined action creates the conditions to reach Vermouth and end the cycle rather than merely surviving another recurrence. The result validates the original party without pretending its first journey was complete or correctly remembered. (Chapters 573–615)

Ever After

After Incarceration and Destruction are overcome, the Five Heroes no longer need to exist solely as a weapon pointed at Helmuth. The surviving companions can acknowledge relationships and futures deferred by the expedition. Their continued connection matters more than preserving an old marching order: Eugene has a life built after reincarnation, Sienna and Anise/Kristina have identities beyond monuments and doctrine, Molon can leave his solitary station, and Vermouth can be treated as a rescued person rather than an unreachable founder. (Chapters 615–625)

The ending does not erase the dead or the damage created by three centuries of delay. It changes ownership of the story. The Five Heroes are no longer only the statues and titles maintained by nations and churches; they are again people capable of speaking to one another about what happened. That restoration is the party's final victory because secrecy, isolation, and heroic self-sacrifice were as central to its collapse as any enemy's strength. (Chapters 615–625)

Membership and authority

No formal second-in-command, voting procedure, or permanent internal rank is established. Vermouth leads the original expedition because he has the plan and the greatest breadth of power; Eugene leads much of the renewed campaign because he gathers the survivors and refuses to repeat their compromise. In both periods, authority follows knowledge, immediate responsibility, and battlefield function more than a written hierarchy. (Chapters 207, 214, 398–425, and 573–615)

Major operations and achievements

The Five Heroes do not personally perform every operation carried out in their name. Nations, the Holy Empire, Lionheart forces, students, descendants, demon allies, and Eugene's newer companions all contribute to the final outcome. The party's special significance lies in providing the historical objective, the relationships necessary to interpret Vermouth's plan, and the core capabilities needed to reach the decisive battlefield. (Chapters 426–615)

Arms, legacies, and resources

The party has no centralized treasury. Its resources are the personal weapons, sacred tools, magical inheritances, political legacies, and relationships created by each member. Later holders may inherit or borrow those resources without becoming Five Heroes.

The greatest resource is accumulated continuity. Eugene carries Hamel's memories in a new body; Sienna contributes three centuries of magical work; Anise and Kristina combine old knowledge with a living successor; Molon brings centuries of combat against Nur; and Vermouth's concealed history finally becomes shared strategic information. Their institutions provide reach, but the final party is strongest when knowledge no longer remains isolated inside those institutions or one heroic individual. (Chapters 251–319, 398–425, and 573–615)

External relationships

Lionheart family and heroic descendants

Vermouth's Lionheart family turns the Great Vermouth into a hereditary civic and martial foundation. Eugene's reincarnation inside that family gives Hamel access to the founder's descendants while also confronting him with a culture that ranks Vermouth above the other heroes. The family is not the Five Heroes, and most Lionhearts do not know the expedition's secrets. It is the most important institutional bridge between the old party and Eugene's present. (Chapters 2, 17–25, 57, and 65–86)

Aroth, Ruhr, and the Holy Empire

Sienna, Molon, and Anise each become foundations for later powers. Aroth preserves and develops Sienna's magical reputation; Ruhr builds national identity around Molon's strength; the Holy Empire turns Anise's sainthood into doctrine while shaping Kristina as her successor. These institutions preserve resources and public hope, but they also simplify their founders. The reunions expose the difference between honoring a title and understanding the person who bore it. (Chapters 106–160, 217, 267–319, and 398–425)

Helmuth and the Demon Kings

The party is defined by opposition to Demon Kings, but Helmuth is not a single undifferentiated enemy. The slain kings create the old victories; Incarceration becomes both adversary and party to the delaying Oath; Destruction is the final recurring catastrophe; later demons can oppose, assist, or pursue interests separate from those kings. The second campaign succeeds partly because Eugene judges current actors by their choices instead of reproducing the first expedition's simplest categories. (Chapters 270–274, 350–386, 426–552, and 573–615)

Eugene's later companions

Eugene's allies, family, lovers, students, and military supporters make the renewed campaign possible. They are not lesser imitations of the Five Heroes, and the story does not require them to surrender their own affiliations to participate. Their presence is one of the clearest differences between Hamel's first life and Eugene's second: the final burden is distributed across a larger community, even though the original five retain a unique responsibility for the promise made in Helmuth. (Chapters 426–615)

Current status

The party's original historical form cannot be restored literally. Hamel's old body is dead, Anise's continuation includes Kristina, and the companions' powers and responsibilities have changed across three centuries. Nevertheless, the five identities are present again by the conclusion: Eugene carries Hamel, Sienna and Molon survive, Anise acts through her shared existence with Kristina, and Vermouth is rescued from Destruction. The Five Heroes therefore remain an active relationship even after their founding war ends. (Chapters 615–625)

They no longer require a permanent marching headquarters or a new Demon King target to validate the name. Their current status is best understood as reunited companions whose foundational objective has been completed. Each can return to personal and institutional responsibilities while retaining the knowledge that the others are alive, reachable, and no longer carrying the old expedition's secrets alone. (Chapters 615–625)

Identity and legacy

Public history needs the Five Heroes to be clean symbols: Vermouth the incomparable leader, Sienna wisdom, Anise faith, Molon bravery, and Hamel the crude lesser companion who died on the way. The actual group is more valuable because it is less orderly. Hamel's anger challenges Vermouth's isolation, Sienna's feeling complicates wisdom, Anise's severity complicates sainthood, Molon's loneliness complicates bravery, and Vermouth's imprisonment complicates triumph. Their imperfections explain both how they reached Babel and why they could not finish there. (Chapters 1–3, 57, 86, 207, and 251–274)

Their civilizational legacy includes bloodlines, magical schools, churches, kingdoms, heroic weapons, and the political confidence created by killing three Demon Kings. Their more private legacy is a model of complementary companionship. No member possesses every answer; even Vermouth's attempt to carry the central truth alone becomes a source of disaster. The successful second journey is built on revealing burdens, accepting changed identities, and allowing rescue to matter as much as victory. (Chapters 106–160, 267–319, 398–425, and 573–625)

The Five Heroes deserve a page separate from any one character or item because they are the novel's long-form subject. Hamel's reincarnation gives one hero another life, but the story resolves only when the entire relationship is reinterpreted and restored. Their first journey creates the world, their separation shapes its institutions, their reunions uncover its hidden history, and their final cooperation ends the threat that their legend had concealed for three hundred years. (Chapters 1–625)