Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 295 : Sin of Greed (6)

Drrrrrr~!

As Alon spoke under his breath, eyes began to manifest upon Blackie’s previously featureless form.

First one, then two.

Soon, the count doubled to four.

The numbers surged rapidly until a multitude of crimson eyes coated Blackie’s entire frame.

“Wood Spirit.”

Following Alon’s quiet directive, Blackie’s tail glided like a serpent, coiling itself around Alon’s body.

“Linked Chain.”

In an instant, the dark shadows and ruby-colored eyes began to migrate, enveloping Alon completely.

“Transformation.”

The form of Blackie, which had been perched upon Alon’s shoulder, dissolved like melting frost and merged into his physical self.

Then, “Darkness.”

The shadows draped over Alon coalesced into a pitch-black circle behind him.

Resembling a dark halo, the shadow concentrated behind Alon’s head, swiftly tracing the shape of a grand ring.

Immediately afterward—

“Reverse Heaven.”

The moment Alon invoked the spell, from the center of the obsidian halo at his back—

Fwooosh~!

A crimson eye manifested.

Alon’s dark coat fluttered, rippling with the fluid motion of a shadow.

And then—

Woah.

Within a firmament choked by fire and cinders,

A celestial Milky Way began to take shape.

This was the first thought that crossed Alon’s mind as he observed the galaxy forming within the world of ash.

The Reverse Heaven technique demands the ceaseless birth of stars to discharge an ever-expanding flow of mana, creating a Milky Way.

Typically, this process inflicted agonizing pain upon the mind, yet now, it felt serene.

Alon was capable of activating this spell so fluidly only because of a technique he had recently acquired from Kylrus.

The function of the spell was straightforward.

It permitted Alon to achieve a total union with his shadow dragon—Blackie—allowing the creature to shoulder a portion of the complex mana calculations.

Consequently, Alon was able to scrutinize the unfolding events with a level of mental clarity he had never before experienced.

Of course, the magic Alon had obtained from Kylrus remained highly unrefined.

There was a specific reason for this.

Alon had not fully mastered the entirety of Kylrus’s sorcery—he had only grasped the specific elements required for this exact moment.

Essentially, the Awakening he learned from Kylrus provided no benefits other than computational assistance, and its active time was disappointingly brief.

The duration was almost exactly the same as the window in which Alon could manually sustain Reverse Heaven.

Nevertheless, that brief window was sufficient.

“Hoo—”

Releasing a soft breath, Alon descended from the fortress ramparts, snapping the fingers of his armored hand.

Crackle~!

Glacial frost surged across the gray world.

The encroaching ash was frozen mid-air, piling up into jagged peaks of gray soot.

Alighting upon one of those summits, Alon performed a hand sign without a second thought.

Then, as if reacting to his signal, the stars that decorated the sky like a Milky Way began to plummet toward the earth at his command.

—Hmm. For a rough prototype, it seems quite functional........... But Marquis, you really shouldn’t utilize this recklessly, okay?

Penia’s cautionary words resonated in his consciousness.

It was a legitimate concern.

This particular spell had been developed alongside Penia.

Not only was it far from finished, but Alon was nowhere near perfecting its completion.

Thus, it was not a power to be wielded without gravity.

The runaway energy generated by the calculations wouldn't merely strike the ash creatures—it threatened to lay waste to all of Greynifra.

Under ordinary conditions, that would indeed be the outcome.

However, that danger only manifested if Alon lacked the mental capacity to govern the Milky Way.

If Alon possessed sufficient processing power and a vivid mental image to guide it, the disastrous side effects could be suppressed.

Alon cast his gaze toward the heavens.

Orbs of mana drifted across the cinder-filled sky.

Even with his current mental support, their sheer volume made them difficult to govern entirely.

But that was of no consequence.

Because now, Alon held a mental image capable of managing the whole.

Bzzzzzz~!

As Alon formed another seal, the mana orbs above transitioned into slender threads, radiating in every direction.

The vision he summoned was the azure rift Radan had revealed via the Magic Orb.

While others perceived only a fracture, Alon had discerned a deeper truth within it.

A fundamental law that permitted the simultaneous command of infinite armaments.

Crack! Crackle~!

Crimson fissures tore through the sky.

In both form and function, they appeared identical to the one Radan had displayed.

However, the fractures Alon manifested were incredibly unpolished.

He had merely stitched the framework together in the simplest way possible to mimic the effect.

The drain on his mana was so immense that other techniques would have been far more practical.

Despite this, Alon continued to expand the number of fissures.

For Alon in his current state, the massive mana drain caused by the spell’s crude design was of little concern.

Just as it had happened when Radan conjured the Magic Orb—

The red fractures spreading across the sky rapidly consumed the horizon.

And then—

“What... is that?”

“No way~”

“This... This is the power of the Primordial Elf...”

The soldiers looked up in stunned silence at the Milky Ways radiating a crimson glow within the fractured sky.

“......!”

“Whoa—”

“That’s—”

Even Historia, Seolrang, and Radan—who had been busy butchering the ash monsters—stopped to stare at the heavens in a trance.

Finally, with every mana orb now under his control, Alon pointed his gauntleted hand toward the source of Greed—the Mother of Greed.

Directly toward the personification of the sin itself.

“Launch.”

His voice was barely a whisper.

From the heavens, a countless deluge of light rained down upon a singular target.

Then—

The resulting brilliance blinded everyone present.

“No way…”

Once the light receded, Ramu gasped in disbelief as his sight returned, his expression vacant with shock.

Even with the evidence before him, he struggled to accept it.

The Ash Seeders, who had looked poised to devour the very world, had been completely erased.

And that was not the end of it.

The ash motes that had been drifting toward Fildagreen were now literally disintegrating into nothingness.

Because of this, a flicker of hope began to shine in Ramu’s wide, startled eyes.

However—

Alon, the architect of this miracle, did not appear satisfied.

It was true that the Mother of Greed was no longer in sight.

But—

She remained.

With skin as pale as marble.

And emerald eyes locked firmly onto Alon.

The Sin of Greed

Still occupied that very spot.

Her physical state was disastrous.

Her frame seemed barely capable of remaining upright.

Her lower torso had been obliterated.

Her right arm dangled uselessly.

And more than half of her facial features had vanished.

She existed in a state that was closer to a corpse than a living being.

Yet, the reason Alon’s expression remained grim—

Regeneration.

She was mending those horrific injuries as if they were mere scratches.

And she was doing so at an impossible velocity.

Alon felt a surge of frustration, but he quickly steeled his resolve.

Even so, he couldn't abandon the task of halting the Sin.

The instant he attempted to circulate his mana—

Alon came to a realization.

And exactly as he understood the situation—

[How fascinating.]

The Sin’s voice resonated through the air.

One of the numerous paper talismans hovering behind her drifted lazily to the earth.

In that moment, acting on pure instinct, the three warriors lunged forward to intercept her.

Seolrang materialized above the Sin in a streak of light, plunging down toward her skull.

Rang-chang rang-chang—!

Historia sprinted to the Sin’s front, her blade leaving its sheath in a blur.

Four-Style—

Radan struck from the rear, trident in hand.

And then—

What followed—

Or rather, the sound they heard—

KABOOOOOM!!

A deafening blast erupted.

“Aaaaargh~!!”

“P-Please, someone help!”

The cries belonged to the elves.

When Alon turned his head—

He beheld the ruined fortress wall.

Beyond it lay a scorched wasteland where everything had been wiped out.

And at the perimeter of that carnage—

Tremble tremble

Stood Historia, her hands shaking as she clutched her sword, her entire form soaked in crimson.

“My... Lord—”

The words failed to leave her lips.

“Run—”

And she collapsed.

Only then did the truth dawn on Alon.

Every one of them had been crushed by the Sin.

As he scanned the area, his suspicions were confirmed; massive plumes of dust were billowing from multiple points, as if the land had been shelled.

And then—

[Why does something I distinctly deleted still persist here?]

The Sin of Greed had suddenly materialized directly in front of Alon.

Alon desperately tried to activate his mana.

Yet, it remained unresponsive.

No—it was worse than that—

Hack—!

Alon spat out a mouthful of blood.

Simultaneously, the Reverse Heaven spell shattered.

He finally understood why his mana refused to obey.

“My magic—”

[The design was quite basic.]

While utilizing Reverse Heaven, Alon’s sorcery functioned through the mana orbs suspended in the sky.

The Sin of Greed had inverted that very framework and usurped control over his mana.

Just as Alon had recently used a reverse logic to govern the orbs through the fissures—

It was a preposterous achievement.

But it was a feat only a Sin could accomplish.

Alon stared at her.

The Milky Way had vanished, and the world had returned to its gray monotony, with the Sin standing against the bleak backdrop.

Her empty, indifferent gaze looking down at him was enough to make him feel a sense of overwhelming pressure.

The people who were once filled with wonder and hope were now wearing masks of utter hopelessness.

And then—

When the Milky Way Alon had summoned was entirely gone and the gray returned—

[So, what is your next move?]

The Sin, who had been studying Alon, asked abruptly.

[There are no options left for you.]

“...You’re quite aware of that.”

[And yet, you still cling to hope.]

The Sin of Greed spoke those words because she detected that the light in Alon’s eyes was not that of surrender.

[Where does this hope come from? You should have nothing left to play.]

Her assessment was accurate.

Regardless of how one viewed the situation, it was undeniably catastrophic.

The three who had fought by Alon’s side were incapacitated, and Alon himself was in a broken state.

Even if he utilized divine power to fight briefly, with his mana hijacked, he had no tools left to use.

Despite this nightmare scenario—

Alon

Replied steadily, “I don’t need to do anything.”

From the start, Alon never believed he could finish the Sin with a single strike.

He was well aware that something so beyond logic—something capable of laying waste to a continent—would not be defeated so easily.

Yet, the reason Alon chose to attack the Sin was twofold.

One was to verify if this Sin of Greed, inhabiting another’s vessel, was the same entity he had encountered numerous times in the game.

And the other—

“The alarm has already been triggered.”

[...What?]

The Sin questioned him, but Alon shifted his focus elsewhere.

In the far distance, plumes of smoke were rising beneath the World Tree that surrounded Fildagreen.

Right where the other mana orbs, fired during Alon’s previous volley, had impacted.

And then—

[...Was it merely a fantasy?]

The Sin of Greed, who had shown a temporary spark of interest, wiped the expression from her face and looked forward.

There stood the elves.

A multitude of elves, all gazing at her with terror and hopelessness.

And then—

[I have grown weary.]

Mana began to erupt explosively from the Sin’s body.

“Guh—”

It was a simple release of power.

Yet that alone allowed the Sin of Greed to saturate all of Fildagreen with her mana.

“Ah... Ahhh…”

“It’s over... this is the end…”

The elves recoiled in dread.

Even Magrina, who had been stoic until now, widened her eyes as she realized the gravity of the situation.

[Let us conclude this instantly.]

Certain of her triumph, she began to weave a spell—

But she stopped.

Interrupted by a peculiar sense of wrongness.

The Sin looked back toward the elves.

They were still shivering in fright.

Similarly, when she looked down, Magrina still wore a look of shock.

Nothing had changed.

And yet—why?

As she stared blankly at the scene, the Sin finally identified the cause of her discomfort.

It was quite simple.

The elves were not looking at the Sin.

Even Magrina’s gaze was fixed elsewhere.

The moment the Sin realized this—

She noticed something else.

The dim sky above had turned pitch black.

She looked up.

In the previously ashen sky of Greynifra, a barrier had formed.

As if a solid surface had been constructed in the clouds—

[?]

No.

That wasn't it.

It wasn't a wall.

It was—

[A... hand?]

A hand.

One so gargantuan that it eclipsed the sky over Fildagreen.

A titan’s hand.

Cold sweat trickled down the Sin of Greed, a creature who had abandoned all emotion to reach transcendence.

And only then did she—

[!]

Realize.

[This is... something like me—]

That behind her stood a being of the same nature—

“No. Please don’t think of me that way.”

A voice spoke.

“I have no desire to be equated with you by Father.”

When the Sin turned, the first sight she met was hair that resembled living vines.

[You are—]

“Yes. That name fits me perfectly.”

The next thing she perceived

Were emerald eyes, glowing brightly even in the gloom.

And finally—

“Longing.”

A woman who offered a smile and a nod.

“Address me as Longing. I quite like that.”

[!]

And then—

A colossal hand descended, pulling the gray clouds into a vortex as it crashed straight down upon her.