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Hans (ハンス) was a Deadly Poison Slime and one of the Devil King's Generals. He infiltrated Arcanletia to wipe out the Axis Order by poisoning the hotsprings that serve as their primary source of revenue, leading to a confrontation against Kazuma's party after being driven crazy by the the Order's constant harassment.
Appearance[]
Hans' human form is a muscular and tall man, with close-cropped brown hair and purple eyes, sporting a goatee. His attire consists of wearing a dark green vest, a golden necklace with a red pendant, leather gloves, a black sleeveless t-shirt, pants, and fur boots.[1]
His real slime form, however, is a vast and round purple-black blob, without any trace of a human shape, and bigger than a house.[2] After his defeat, he assumed a smaller slime form similar to a jellyfish, with yellow eyes and a human mouth.[3][4]
Personality[]
As a monster with a lifespan much more longer than a regular human, Hans used to be a patient man, willing to work for years poisoning Arcanletia hot springs.[1] However, due to the daily interaction with the fanatic Axis Order followers, he became ill-tempered, having no patience for the antics of those around him. Hans was also very proud of his status as Devil King's General, as well as the threat he once posed.[4] Hans was ruthless too, since, as a slime, he instinctively consumed anything and anyone on his path.[2]
In the anime version, Hans ended up becoming traumatized by the constant harassment from the members of the Axis Order, sometimes just murmuring about their soap and detergent while alone[5] or answering that he is already clean when no one is talking with him.[6] It reached the point of, even with his instinct of devour anything around him, Hans couldn't consume the Axis Order soaps even though they are actually eatable.[3]
History[]
Being a mutant breed of Slime specialising in obnoxious poisoning, Hans was supposedly unpopular to others and thus joined the Devil King's Army out of spite.[3] He soon rose to become one of the Devil King's Generals, and had an especially big bounty even compared to his peers put upon him.[2] Yet despite killing a friend of Ozuma Zatou,[7] his prowess meant nothing to Wiz, who froze him stiff during her storming of the Devil King's Castle.[8]
When the Devil King's Army came up with the plot to destroy the troublesome Axis Order through destroying the hot springs of Arcanletia that was the main source of its income, Hans wearing his human form infiltrated the city, where he bid his time identifying the springs he needed to ruin.[9] During the period, an incident involving the hot springs turning into Gelatinous Slime occurred, and the knights' heightened reaction prompted Hans to keep himself inconspicuous.[10]
After the turn of the year, the time for the plan to act finally came, just as Hans' temper reached the boiling point from endlessly facing the traumatisingly persistent con tactics that the Axis followers had suddenly employed for converting others to their faith. Subsequent to starting his sabotage by poisoning the secret springs behind the Axis main cathedral, Hans held a rendezvous with Wolbach at some inn's mixed-bathing springs when she went there for a curing dip, where he grumbled his woes to his colleague as well as expressed relief at their conspiracy about to bear fruit. He was surprised when Kazuma suddenly barged in on them, though the Slime's worries about their conversation getting overheard appeared to be unfounded when the young man did nothing but stare at the naked Wolbach, and thus Hans decided to take his leave.[11]
(In the anime, the embarrassed Wolbach left the hot springs first, following which Hans like Kazuma took a massage, before having the Axis Order's conversion forms on top of their soaps and rinses forced upon them, much to his enragement)[5]
Hans proceeded to poison other hot springs owned by various inns one after the other, but the next day the local Adventurer Guild responded with alarming swiftness by placing him on the wanted list.[1] (In the anime, on the day following him and Kazuma's first meeting, Hans had two big baskets full of forms, soap, and rinses forced upon him, driving him to resentfully mutter those lunatic cultists' claims of them being edible before furiously dumping the baskets into the lake right in front of the onlooking Kazuma and Megumin, subsequent to which he quickly made himself scarce when noticing Wiz's approach)[5]
In order to quickly poison all of the hot springs in one go, Hans attacked and devoured the old man in charge of maintaining the main spring on top of the mountain behind the cathedral from which all the hot springs water gush out, so that he could assume his shape and get past the followers of the Eris Order who stood guard at the gate leading there. First experimentally spreading some of his poison into a small part of the source, he was satisfied with the effects it caused all over the city, and thus headed back the following day to finish the job. Dissolving an attacking Beginner's Bane to the bone, the Slime reverted to his regular human form and began pumping his poison into the distribution ponds he ran into on the way to the source reservoirs at the top of the mountain.[2]
(In the anime, Hans went straight to full-out poisoning the main spring on the night after he noticed Wiz, despite the bones of the old man in his body still not yet completely dissolved)[3]
He got interrupted when Kazuma and his companions ran into him spreading poison, so Hans attempted to lie his way out, only to have Wiz unwittingly unmask him as a Deadly Poison Slime working for the Devil King's Army. With Kazuma's party blocking his attempt at departing, Hans at Kazuma pompously challenging him decided to engage as a Devil King's General. Surprised when Kazuma upon hearing his might turned tail and fled down the mountain with the others in tow, the General after chasing them down for a distance decided to leave the puny Adventurer alone, instead opting to head back and continue poisoning the source reservoirs.[2]
When the contamination of all the source reservoirs were nearing completion, Aqua leading the others came back to challenge him, and in the ensuing conversation Hans revealed how he had devoured the old man who maintained the main spring. This murder of a non-combatant, however, enraged Wiz so much she froze half his body with Cursed Crystal Prison. Pressed to finish the contamination, Hans ripped off the frozen portions of his body and regenerated new parts made of slime that he tossed at the uncontaminated reservoir, one of which despite Kazuma Sniping them out of the air managed to land on target. As Aqua and Wiz hurried to respectively purify and contain the contamination, Hans reverted to his gigantic slime form and began devouring everything around him.[2]
(In the anime, Hans reverted to his slime form after Wiz froze half of him, and began spraying poisonous slime all around, forcing Aqua to purify the source springs that got contaminated while the Axis followers who trailed her started throwing things at Hans, which the Slime simply ingested except for the soaps and rinses)[3]
As Hans approached Aqua and threatened to consume her, Kazuma distracted him with Arcan Manjus, followed by Megumin blowing him up with an Explosion and Darkness shielding the others from Hans' toxic fragments that splattered everywhere. The reduced bits of Hans were subsequently frozen by Wiz, before Aqua purified them all with a powerful Purification.[2]
(In the anime, Kazuma distracted Hans by acting as bait to lure him towards a nearby gorge. Chasing Kazuma who jumped in and devouring him till all his flesh were melted off his bones, Hans was next Exploded by Megumin before his fragments contained within the enclosed space were frozen by Wiz. He still managed to free himself despite getting reduced to a smaller tentacled form, yet just as he was about to devour the nearby Wiz and Darkness, Aqua approached to stop him with God Blow. As the fanatical chanting of the Axis followers began empowering her, Hans realised too late that Aqua was the goddess worshipped by the hated lunatics, before he got obliterated by her powerful God Requiem)[3]
A shard of Hans though survived Aqua's purification, despite having lost the memories of what it is and only retaining an instinctual urge to devour and grow, thus it spent months foraging around the mountaintop for morsels.[12]
During this interim, a copy of him in the form of a physical illusion originating from the traumatic memories of Kazuma's party was also spawned by the Mystery Tower, and alongside Beldia faced them on the top floor. As they fought the hated party and their companions, whenever one illusion was defeated he would immediately be regenerated by the other. But Kazuma then instructed Wiz to freeze Hans at the same time Aqua purified Beldia, which took out both illusions at once. While the fake Hans was about to disappear, as a final act he sprayed concentrated poisonous slime at Aqua in hopes of melting her to sludge. It though to his disappointment did nothing more than soil the hagoromo that shielded Aqua, following which Hans disappeared in regret.[13]
In the anime, Hans along with Beldia reached from the river to pull Sylvia over to their side after the Growth Chimera was shot clean through by the Railgun, yet Sylvia's will to live instead dragged them back into the world of the living in a chimeric body composed from characteristics of all three Devil King's Generals and the Mage-Killer. Hans proceeded to join Sylvia in seeking revenge on Kazuma's party as well as battle Wiz and Vanir, though he was in the end blown back into death alongside Sylvia by Megumin and Yunyun.[6]
Later on, the shard of Hans cajoled wild Gelatinous Slime into traversing the city's spring water pipelines to steal food for it, until one day Megumin with Cecily and Yunyun in tow approached. The shard which Cecily named "Cappy" began remembering who it was as well as its mission upon seeing Crimson Demons and an Axis follower, though his dialogue kept getting interrupted by the bickering girls. Following a brief battle with Yunyun who managed to encase him in a Cursed Crystal Prison, the shard prepared to introduce itself in addition to explaining how it escaped purification, only to be incinerated by Megumin's Explosion before it could actually do so.[12]
Abilities[]
Even among the Devil King's Generals, Hans was extremely powerful and dangerous, with a reward higher than the other generals.[2]
Deadly Poison Body: As a Deadly Poison Slime, Hans' true body is extremely poisonous and acidic, potent enough to kill a person with direct contact and reduce them into bare-bones after extended contact. He is also able to break off portions of his body to pollute natural water reservoirs, with said resulting pollution being deadly enough to kill off the entire local population.
Temporary Appearance: Hans can assume a human form, and even take on the appearance of those whom he had eaten.
Special Physical Resistance: As a Slime, Hans is described as possessing a high resistance to any physical attacks, like Kazuma's Snipe, thanks to his viscous body.
Magic Resistance: As a Slime, Hans is described as strong against magic, demonstrated by surviving Explosion and receiving Wiz's magic attacks head-on.
Trivia[]
- The Devil King used to have headaches with Hans polluting the stockpile by eating something there by himself instead of asking for it.[14]
- The design of the Slime Shogun might have been based off Cappy.[15]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 4, Chapter 4
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 4, Chapter 5
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Television Anime Season 2, Episode 10
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Explosion Light Novel Bonus Volume 2, Chapter 3
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Television Anime Season 2, Episode 9
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Legend of Crimson
- ↑ Television Anime Season 2 Blu-ray Disc Volume 5, Special Short Story Booklet
- ↑ Consulting Light Novel, Chapter 5
- ↑ Explosion Light Novel Volume 3, Interlude Theatre: Act IV
- ↑ Explosion Television Anime, Episode 8
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 4, Chapter 3
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Bonus Explosion Light Novel Volume 2, Chapter 3
- ↑ Labyrinth of Hope and the Gathering Adventurers, Main Story at the Mystery Tower
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 17, Chapter 4
- ↑ Labyrinth of Hope and the Gathering Adventurers
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