Why Does Rudeus Fight Orsted Again? Hitogami's Ultimatum Explained
Hitogami threatens Rudeus's family after Oldeus's warning. Learn why Rudeus challenges Orsted again, how the rematch ends, and why he changes his allegiance.
Rudeus fights Orsted again because Hitogami threatens his family unless he kills the Dragon God. Oldeus's warning has destroyed his trust in Hitogami, but Rudeus hopes that obeying the ultimatum might keep his loved ones alive. This is a coerced assassination attempt, not revenge for their first encounter.
Orsted wins the rematch. Rudeus survives and ultimately joins the very man he was sent to kill.
Spoilers: This explanation covers the Volume 15 story arc and the allegiance change afterward. Detailed motives and combat mechanics are corroborated in Rifujin na Magonote's original web novel, a separate text from the licensed English light novel. These illustrations are not anime episode stills.
The First Fight and the Rematch Have Different Causes
The first encounter happens while Rudeus is traveling with Eris and Ruijerd. He has not tracked Orsted down or prepared a challenge. They cross paths, and the conversation turns dangerous when Orsted learns that Rudeus recognizes Hitogami and receives his visits in dreams.
The rematch reverses the situation. Rudeus deliberately prepares to attack because Hitogami has made his family's safety depend on the outcome.
| First encounter | Second confrontation |
|---|---|
| An unplanned meeting while traveling | A prepared ambush |
| Orsted reacts to Rudeus's connection with Hitogami | Hitogami pressures Rudeus into attacking |
| Rudeus is caught badly outmatched | Rudeus builds equipment and plans ranged attacks |
| Establishes how frightening Orsted is | Changes which side Rudeus serves |
Season 1 Episode 21, "Turning Point 2,"covers the first encounter. The Season 3 Episode 11 preview,"Turning Point 4," introduces a mysterious visitor; that preview does not establish an anime episode for the rematch or confirm that all of Volume 15 is adapted in one episode.
Oldeus's Warning Does Not Tell Rudeus to Kill Orsted
Oldeus is an older Rudeus who has lived through a disastrous version of their future. His warning explains how apparently minor advice from Hitogami leads to catastrophe: opening the cellar allows a diseased rat to reach food that pregnant Roxy eats. Her fatal illness begins the collapse of his life.
Those losses belong to Oldeus's failed future, not a present in which Roxy has already died. The visitor arrives in Turning Point 4 before Rudeus repeats that mistake. The Oldeus timeline comparison separates the losses from what the warning changes.
Oldeus's advice includes consulting Nanahoshi, contacting Eris, and distrusting Hitogami without openly opposing him. The assassination demand comes from Hitogami, not Oldeus. Reading the diary gives Rudeus a reason to fear the Man-God; it does not make Orsted the visitor's chosen target.
What Does Hitogami Threaten to Do?
Hitogami explains that Rudeus's descendants can help Orsted bring about his defeat. The family is therefore more than a convenient hostage: its future is part of the threat he wants to eliminate. That is also the connection to why Hitogami wants Roxy dead.
He offers Rudeus a way to redirect the danger: kill Orsted. In the web novel's preparation sequence, he rejects the idea that merely attempting the fight, or dying in it, would satisfy the bargain. Unless Orsted dies, Rudeus's children remain targets.
Hitogami presents himself as protecting the world from Orsted. That is Hitogami's justification, not an objective account the reader has to accept. Their older conflict is what makes Rudeus's family useful to manipulate.
Why Obey Someone He Knows Is Lying?
Because knowing who the enemy is does not make that enemy reachable.
Rudeus cannot simply walk up to Hitogami and fight him. He also does not believe he can protect everyone around him indefinitely. Orsted, by contrast, physically exists in the same world. Terrifying as he is, he can be found and attacked.
Rudeus still doubts that Hitogami will honor the promise. He hopes removing Hitogami's enemy might make his family no longer worth targeting. Obedience is not renewed trust. It is a desperate calculation made under a threat.
How Rudeus Prepares for the Rematch
Rudeus tries to engineer an advantage instead of charging straight into another crushing defeat.
In the original web novel, Oldeus's diary supplies the basis for developing Magic Armor. Zanoba and Cliff help turn the idea into equipment, while Roxy and Sylphie support the work. Rudeus produces the hardened material. The diary gives him information, not his older self's accumulated combat experience.
The prototype is a bulky, roughly three-meter suit powered by mana. Its equipment includes a rapid-firing stone cannon on the right and a mana-absorbing stone on the left, as well as a shield. Nanahoshi helps draw Orsted into the planned encounter. The strategy favors powerful attacks from a distance before close combat becomes unavoidable.
Editorial reconstruction of the preparation described in the original web novel.
Does Rudeus Beat Orsted the Second Time?
No. Rudeus damages Orsted, but Orsted wins. The preparations make the battle more substantial than their first meeting without erasing the gap between them.
The equipment has limitations too. In the web novel's fight, the mana-absorbing stone interferes with Rudeus's own magical projectiles as well as Orsted's magic. Orsted eventually closes the distance, draws his sword, and destroys the armor. Rudeus is left badly injured and nearly out of mana.
Eris intervenes when Rudeus is in immediate danger of being killed. Her arrival prevents that moment from being the end, but she does not defeat Orsted either. Negotiation, rather than victory by Rudeus or Eris, resolves the confrontation.
Editorial reconstruction of the armor's defeat, not an announced anime still.
Why Does Rudeus Join Orsted Afterward?
Orsted offers a different way forward: abandon Hitogami and work for him. He recognizes Rudeus's usefulness, including his unusual resistance to Orsted's curse, and offers to forgive the ambush, heal him, and help protect his family from Hitogami.
It is not an entirely friendly recruitment pitch. Orsted also threatens to pursue Rudeus if he stays on Hitogami's side. Rudeus's decisive concern is whether his family can actually be protected.
When pressed for an absolute guarantee, Orsted admits that he cannot provide one. He does not know every aspect of Hitogami's power. Rudeus is choosing a possible defense, not receiving a promise that nothing bad can ever happen again.
The following web-novel installment confirms that Orsted heals him after his pledge and that Rudeus now considers himself on Orsted's side. The licensed light novel's Volume 16 description independently places him in Orsted's service.
Rudeus enters the rematch trying to save his family by obeying Hitogami. He leaves with a different plan: protect them by standing against him.