I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 140 - Rikrakkamur (3)

Chapter 140 – Rikrakkamur (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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As the ground collapsed, Rikrakkamur fell with it.

The monstrosity struggled desperately to keep from plunging into the abyss.

But now there was no swamp left for it to move in, and its struggle only worsened the situation and turned back against itself.

In the end, with a horrible scream, Rikrakkamur plummeted below.

Alon followed it straight down into the abyss and thought,

That satisfies every condition I needed.

In truth, none of what had happened was supposed to be accomplished all at once.

Originally, the fight with Rikrakkamur in Psychedelia proceeded through three phases.

In the beginning, Elivan fought alone in the swamp.

Then his companions, who followed him there, turned the four capstans in the east, west, south, and north to drain the swamp water, and only then did the second phase begin.

And once even that stage was finished…

The floor collapsed, and the third fight began deep underground in a place like an abyss.

In other words, it was originally meant to be an extremely long battle.

But of those three phases, Alon had essentially skipped two.

He deliberately brought the Allied Army and had them turn the capstans in all four directions, thereby resolving the first phase and the monster waves that would otherwise appear in between.

Then he inflicted a meaningful wound on Rikrakkamur and forced it to expel black slime, which nullified the magic across the swamp floor that had been preventing collapse.

That broke the ground and allowed him to skip the second phase as well.

That meant only the third phase remained.

As he fell into the abyss, Alon swallowed a mana potion and formed a seal for the final part of the plan.

I may have to overextend myself a little, but if I want to kill it, there is no choice.

A quick decision.

Then, with a thunderous impact echoing up from below, which told him that Rikrakkamur had reached the bottom of the abyss…

“Connection…”

Alon recited the phrase as he completed the seal.

And when he finally descended into the underground depths, where faint blue moonlight still reached…

He stopped.

And became confused.

The Rikrakkamur that, by all rights, should have been convulsing and trying to destroy everything around it the moment it hit the underground floor…

…was not moving at all.

“…?”

The moment a small hook of doubt caught in his mind…

“…!”

He noticed one fact too late.

A hole.

At the center of the monstrosity’s upturned corpse was a hole even larger than anything Alon himself had made.

####

In truth, Alon had sensed that something was strange from the moment he first faced Rikrakkamur.

It was because of the eye.

This monstrosity was supposed to be dealt with through a total of three phases.

When its health dropped below thirty percent in the third phase, its eye turned red and it entered a berserk state for its last stand.

But when Alon first attacked, its eye had already been red.

In other words, before the battle even began, Rikrakkamur had already been enraged.

No matter how effective Alon’s opening attack had been, it had not been enough to inflict a truly life-threatening wound on Rikrakkamur.

Rikrakkamur was still a monstrosity.

Even Elivan, who grew at a ridiculous speed and possessed several absurd abilities because of protagonist privilege, would have struggled to land a truly decisive blow on Rikrakkamur in one strike unless he was on the mage route.

“…”

Alon stared at the fallen monstrosity.

There in the middle of its belly was an incomparably huge hole, one he had not made.

What is this?

His head tilted to one side on its own.

Of course, the situation itself was excellent for him.

He had been able to handle Rikrakkamur, a foe he had been prepared to kill even at some cost, far more easily.

Even so, he could not simply ignore the question.

Why did Rikrakkamur already have a wound like this? Or was it originally supposed to have fought someone around this time and been injured?

He thought on it, then shook his head.

No matter how he looked at it, that seemed unlikely.

For Rikrakkamur, whose regenerative power was not especially high, a wound that large should have taken decades to recover from.

Even then, the scar would have remained severe.

That left only one plausible scenario.

Someone had fought Rikrakkamur before Alon came to kill it.

So who could have fought a duel with Rikrakkamur?

It was not difficult to narrow down the candidates.

Not many beings both could fight the monstrosities guarding the cast-off relics of the Five Great Sins and could also inflict a wound this severe.

At best, a few hidden powerhouses and the Four Great Powers.

Of course, this world clearly held far more secrets than the setting Alon had originally known, so making firm deductions would be rash.

Even so, as far as he knew, only a handful of beings could inflict such a wound on a monstrosity.

Was it the work of the Cursed Maw?

He considered the possibility with an odd feeling, then shook his head.

The Cursed Maw would not act easily before its purpose became clear.

After thinking it through, he decided to move first.

The reason he had come to kill the monstrosity was, above all else, to obtain the cast-off relic of the Five Great Sins.

So Alon walked into the huge hole in the corpse of the dead Rikrakkamur.

If things had gone according to his original plan, he would have had to enter through Rikrakkamur’s mouth and suffer through dealing with the thorn-tentacles inside its body as well.

But now its belly was open.

There was no need for any of that.

Not long afterward, Alon discovered a vast hollow that could hardly be called the inside of a living creature.

And within that immense space there was one thing that immediately drew the eye.

At the very center stood a red spear.

One of the cast-off relics of the Sin of Wrath.

Alon found it at once.

He approached without hesitation and pulled it free from the ground.

The red spear came out with absurd ease, without requiring any special force.

Its appearance was strangely plain for something called a relic of the Five Great Sins.

Other than the round groove carved into the end of the shaft, it had no pattern or ornament at all.

There was no obvious sinister aura, nor any clear aura of sin.

Even so, Alon was certain that this was one of the cast-off relics.

He had seen it in the game already.

After securing it, Alon…

…noticed that the entire cavern was collapsing.

To begin with, the reason Rikrakkamur had been able to become a monstrosity at all was because of the cast-off relic inside it.

That meant that once the relic was removed, the body had begun to collapse.

The part that struck Alon as strange was the speed.

It did not collapse this quickly in the game.

He showed surprise for a moment, then moved to get out.

Then…

“Ah.”

He stopped with a quiet exclamation and looked around the area where the spear had been embedded.

The moment a red pearl entered his sight…

He snatched it at once and escaped back outside with it.

When Alon emerged safely, what greeted him was…

…Kkamangi absorbing the crumbling body of Rikrakkamur.

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The next day.

After dealing with Rikrakkamur, the expedition began moving back toward the border.

There was one regrettable point.

They never found the clue explaining why Rikrakkamur had been sending monster waves against the wall.

Even so, because the source of the problem had been dealt with, the expedition did not linger any longer in the swamp, or rather, in what should now simply be called a forest.

They returned to the border without any major difference from the way they had set out.

If there was one noticeable difference, it was this.

Every knight and soldier who had accompanied the expedition was staring hard at Alon.

And they were all doing so with eyes full of respect.

Alon turned his head slightly and looked over them.

That is a bit much.

Of course, he knew those looks came from admiration and awe, so he had no intention of reproaching them.

Still, the pressure of it remained.

Especially because, in the case of Rikrakkamur, Alon had not truly handled everything alone.

…Of course, he had delivered the finishing blow.

But strictly speaking, it felt closer to cutting off the last breath of something someone else had already nearly killed, which left him faintly uncomfortable.

Even so, separate from that, there was another matter occupying his attention right now.

Kkamangi hung from his chest.

It was looking around, then noticed Alon’s gaze and turned its head with a little squeak.

Is it really fine?

The day before, Alon had personally seen Kkamangi absorb Rikrakkamur’s collapsing body with its entire body.

Of course, about half of that enormous mass had already crumbled away and disappeared.

But the rest had been absorbed by Kkamangi, which had suddenly leapt out from his chest.

“…Hmm.”

Alon turned Kkamangi’s body from side to side.

It does not look any different.

There was no visible change at all.

It had not grown larger.

It did not seem specially stronger.

He had even tried using magic earlier just in case, and that too had remained unchanged.

Considering that it had absorbed such a tremendous monstrosity, the complete absence of visible change was deeply strange.

He had only just learned that a Death Shadow Dragon could absorb something in the first place.

And yet nothing seemed to have changed.

Rainisius said he understood Unity of Shade, but knew nothing about Death Shadow Dragons. Do I need to go ask Rine in more detail?

At Alon’s close inspection, Kkamangi merely tilted its head quietly.

It was daytime, and despite it being spring, the sunlight was rather strong.

####

Exactly three days later, right after the expedition returned to the border…

“You have returned, my lord.”

“Yes.”

“It seems you have made history again.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I did not hear the sounds myself, but judging by the reactions of the soldiers and knights, you must have done something again, no?”

It was just as Evan pointed toward the soldiers, who still had not managed to shake off the awe they felt.

“You have arrived, Brother.”

“Yes, Saint Yuman. We have only just returned.”

“That is fortunate.”

Yuman approached, still smiling.

Then, with a face even more serious than before…

“…Did Cardinal Yutia do anything?”

“…Cardinal Yutia?”

“Yes.”

“…No, she did nothing.”

Then Yuman leaned in and whispered yet again,

“…Brother, I must continue telling you this. Do not grow close to Cardinal Yutia.”

“Pardon?”

“She is dangerous.”

And once again Alon was left confused inside.

What now, all of a sudden?

Even so…

It was a safe return.