I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 151 - Assault (2)

Chapter 151 – Assault. (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Everything had happened in an instant.

Alon could not understand the current situation.

His brow twisted on its own.

He stared at Scorpirion as it smashed through the wall and pushed farther inside.

It was darker than he remembered, drenched in a murky black sheen, but it was unquestionably Scorpirion.

The monstrosity that carried one of Pride’s cast-off relic.

“Why is the monstrosity here?”

As far as Alon knew, Scorpirion was supposed to remain dormant inside its cave until the protagonist came to deal with it.

In other words, it was never supposed to be roaming around like this.

As Alon struggled to understand what he was seeing.

“O…ppa?”

Seol Lang’s voice trembled from nearby.

Alon turned toward her instinctively.

Seol Lang, who had been holding Kkamangi only moments before, was staring at Scorpirion with shaking eyes, as if she simply could not believe it.

Following her gaze, Alon looked up.

“Ah.”

Only then did he realize that there was a wolfkin standing atop Scorpirion.

A wolfkin with ash-gray hair.

The moment Alon recognized that presence.

The man looked straight at him and grinned.

Then he vanished in a trail of black lightning.

“Acceleration.”

Alon formed a seal and threw himself backward on pure instinct.

He had not even had time to judge the situation.

His body simply moved first.

And that instinct saved him.

Kwang.

Black lightning struck the spot where he had been standing only a heartbeat earlier.

“Wow, quick, aren’t you? Honestly, I didn’t think you’d react. That’s a shame.”

The ground had been completely smashed apart.

Through the rising dust, the man stepped forward with a deep smile still hanging on his lips.

Confronted with his casual attitude, Alon rapidly turned his thoughts over.

No matter how hard he thought, he could not place the identity of the wolfkin standing before him.

No.

It was not that he could not remember.

“…This is the same situation as with Duke Komalon.”

This was someone who had never appeared in the original work.

Realizing that, Alon’s face tightened.

“…Who are you?”

The wolfkin finally stepped completely out of the dust and opened his mouth.

“Me? Well, how should I introduce myself? The older brother of the idiot staring behind you? Or perhaps I should say I am an apostle who serves the great Pride?”

“…An apostle?”

Alon’s thoughts tangled immediately.

He had heard only a few words, but even that was already enough to force him to begin inferring the situation.

But.

“Seol Gak… Oppa?”

When Seol Lang whispered again, Alon’s gaze had no choice but to return to her.

After seeing the apostle’s face properly, the corners of Seol Lang’s eyes were trembling faintly.

Unlike Seol Lang, however, the man called Seol Gak still looked completely at ease.

“Yes, Seol Lang. It is your older brother.”

“H how?”

She sounded as though she could not believe any of this.

Like someone wandering through a dream.

Seol Gak, however, did not care about his younger sister’s reaction in the slightest.

The smile never left his face.

“What are you curious about, little sister? Are you wondering why I am alive? Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the sort of situation where we can happily catch up. I have something I need to do.”

Then he looked back toward Alon.

And in the next instant.

He was standing in front of him again.

Seol Gak thrust his fist straight toward Alon’s heart.

It was so fast that even Alon could not properly react.

But the punch never pierced his heart.

“…What exactly are you doing, Oppa?”

Seol Lang had stopped Seol Gak’s fist.

“…Bingo.”

Seol Gak’s smile deepened further.

“…What are you doing?”

“What am I doing? I’m doing what needs to be done.”

“What needs to be done?”

As if she could not understand him at all, Seol Lang asked again.

Seol Gak tapped her head with his free hand.

“Yes. What needs to be done. Something I absolutely must do so that my younger sister can be reborn as a vessel worthy of a great being.”

Seol Lang’s face remained full of questions.

Seol Gak let out a disappointed sigh.

“Really, you were troublesome even in the past and you’re troublesome now. I clearly prepared everything in advance before I left, yet somehow you still managed to hold together this long without breaking.”

“What are you even saying?”

Seol Lang’s voice shook.

Her eyes were full of confusion.

But whatever emotion Seol Lang showed.

“Well, don’t bother trying to understand, little sister. From here on, I will make you into the sort of being that suits you.”

Seol Gak grinned.

At that moment, Alon remembered the conversation he had once had with Rainisius.

“Not at all. The bodies for descent are made by the apostles in the first place.”

“…Apostles?”

“Yes. They often take people with high talent and break them mentally as thoroughly as possible so they will be suitable for descent.”

It had been a short conversation.

Remembering it did not suddenly let Alon understand everything.

He still had no concrete information about the apostle of Pride standing in front of him, and the same went for Seol Lang’s past.

The only thing he knew was that her village had once been wiped out.

There was nowhere near enough information to judge the full chain of cause and effect.

But there was one thing he could predict clearly.

“Now then. I’ll leave the most precious part for later. First, let’s clean up this patchwork rag our little sister worked so hard to stitch together.”

That was what was about to happen next.

Crackle.

Black lightning flashed.

And the guild building where the Golden Mane clan had gathered began exploding apart in an instant.

####

At that same time.

The royal castle of Colony had also descended into chaos.

“What in the world is that?”

Karsem’s eyes opened wide.

The enormous monstrosity had already crushed the wall completely, torn through the capital, and was now pushing into the inner castle itself.

Fear, terror, and helplessness gripped his whole body.

Even if he had learned magic for a little over half a year and reached the first rank, there was nothing he could do in a situation like this.

And so, as Karsem stared at the monstrosity drawing closer and closer.

“Your Highness. You must retreat.”

Only after hearing the knight’s shout did he finally turn with a short groan.

He also wanted to face that monstrosity himself.

But he already knew.

If he faced it now, it would accomplish nothing but a dog’s death.

Worse, if he did something that foolish, the knights who followed him would die with him.

Unlike before, Karsem now understood not only the authority that came with the title of prince, but also the responsibility attached to it.

Trying to make a rational decision, he turned away and joined up with the knights.

“For now, we have to evacuate until the Baba Yagas arrive.”

But at that moment.

“Kk.”

A small cry made him turn his head.

It came from a young maid.

She had twisted her ankle and fallen to the ground, looking up at Scorpirion, which had already entered the inner castle and reached the garden, with frightened, powerless eyes.

The instant he saw that.

Karsem slowed.

Even in that moment, he knew the truth.

Even if he went now, the odds of saving that maid were terribly low.

Which meant that rushing to save her was the act of a fool.

He knew that.

And yet Karsem hesitated.

Of course he knew he was not a hero.

He knew he was not even a man with the power to become one.

And yet, despite knowing that, the same scene kept replaying in his head.

The sight of Marquis Palladio and Seol Lang saving Filian without a moment’s hesitation when death had been about to claim him.

The sight of him saving Merkillan territory without demanding anything in return, as if his own safety meant nothing.

What about himself?

Why had the man who had once been a walking pig worked so desperately over the last half-year?

Because Karsem wanted to become like that.

“Your Highness.”

“Run forward.”

The moment he shouted that, Karsem pulled the wand from his robes and summoned wind.

For someone who had not yet even studied magic for half a year, he cast with remarkable skill.

He seized the young maid in an instant.

Then he rolled hard to the side.

Kwang.

Scorpirion’s enormous pincer slammed down with perfect timing where he had just been.

The floor turned black and corroded the instant the pincer struck.

Seeing that, Karsem sprang up at once and ran madly toward the decorative well linked to the underground waterway.

“If I get underground, it won’t be able to follow.”

He cast again, freezing the ground.

An icy path formed between him and the well in an instant.

He slid across it, dodging another of the monstrosity’s attacks, and tried to throw himself down into the channel.

Then.

“Ah.”

Despair spread across his face.

The entrance to the well he had struggled so desperately to reach had caved in from the earlier impact and was completely blocked.

The monstrosity’s shadow fell over him.

Karsem looked up at the creature as it raised its pincer once more to bring it down on him.

And just as he clenched his teeth.

“You held out well.”

“…Huh?”

Karsem saw her.

A girl standing before him with strange eyes behind her back.

And beyond her.

Dozens of golden coffins pushing back Scorpirion’s pincer.

Scorpirion let out a crazed roar, enraged that things were not going as it wanted, and swung its pincer violently.

The golden coffins that had been summoned one after another began breaking apart beneath the merciless assault.

But.

“If this kind of thing happens while Godfather is resting, that would be troublesome.”

Rine did not lose her composure.

…If this had happened just one day earlier, she would never have been able to stay calm in a situation like this.

With the power she gained only from fully awakening the Eye, it would have been obvious that she could not stop Scorpirion.

There was only one reason Rine could remain composed today.

Yesterday, after Alon departed for the ruins.

Rine had used the first clue given to her the moment the Eye of the Follower awakened, found the hidden ruin somewhere in this desert, and uncovered a secret that did not even exist in the library.

The information she gained there was not much.

No.

Only two things.

That the Eye of the Follower was a key.

And a method to activate the Eye, even if only in a limited way.

But that much was enough.

Because while she still did not know how to properly use the Eye of the Follower, she did know what kind of being it could call forth.

Which was why.

“Well, I was going to need to test what I learned this time anyway. So this works out nicely.”

With a relaxed face.

“Gather.”

The moment she spoke the words.

A halo formed behind the huge eye at her back.

Then countless golden coffins erupted around it and began forming a shape.

The first thing to take form was a skeletal frame.

Then more golden coffins twisted over it and wrapped around that frame.

Again, countless coffins tangled chaotically around it and solidified the shape.

And thus.

What was completed at last was a colossal gate, wide and tall enough to make the city wall look insignificant.

And then.

“Imperial Ilanef magitek weapon. Pluto.”

With a roar powerful enough to shake heaven and earth, the circular gate opened.

What emerged from inside was something that overwhelmed even Scorpirion.

“…A hand?”

Even Karsem, who had been drowning in despair, could only stare blankly upward.

It was a gigantic mechanical hand, made of countless components and golden coffins, so vast it felt as though it could grasp the entire sky in a single fist.

Its mere existence made the world feel alien.

That gigantic hand descended over the royal castle and blotted out the sun.

“Limited deployment.”

Rine gave the order.

“Divine Punishment.”

And the overwhelming hand of god crashed down toward the earth.

To punish the monstrosity that had no right to exist in this world.

Kwaaaaaa.