I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 152 - Assault (3)

Chapter 152 – Assault. (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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It was obvious that Alon knew very little about apostles.

That made sense.

He had never encountered one while playing Psychedelia, and the game’s settings had never properly explained the apostles of the Five Great Sins.

But there was one thing he understood clearly now.

Kwang.

They were strong.

Alon looked at the scene in front of him.

Over the ruins of Seol Lang’s guild building, yellow lightning and black lightning traded blows at a speed his eyes could not possibly follow.

And.

“Keh.”

Seol Lang was losing.

Kwang.

Seol Lang was blasted backward with a deafening impact, and the apostle lunged in with his fist to land another strike.

Alon moved immediately.

He caught Seol Lang as she crashed down and spread a shield.

That was not all.

“Reinforcement. Fixation.”

Using the catalyst to strengthen the spell and layering it with Multi-Manifestation, he deployed three overlapping shields at the exact point where the apostle’s punch was coming.

But.

Kkrrrack.

The shields shattered as easily as glass.

As though a shield was so meaningless it was laughable.

Still, during that brief instant, Alon managed to pull Seol Lang completely out of Seol Gak’s range.

“Oh. A mage?”

Seol Gak stopped where he was and watched with interest, as though he had no intention of pursuing them further.

Alon lowered his gaze and looked at Seol Lang.

The light in her eyes was going dark.

Not the confusion she had shown while instinctively fighting Seol Gak.

Something worse.

Something that was visibly dying out and turning dull.

And in that condition.

“Even so, you’ve gotten pretty strong, little sister. Worth praising, really. To think the weakest one in our tribe came this far.”

Seol Gak spoke to his sister with the same smile as before.

Seol Lang said nothing.

She only stared at him with trembling eyes.

Her expression was far worse than before.

Alon immediately realized the situation was turning in the worst possible direction.

Was the apostle’s strength a problem?

Of course it was.

But the greater problem was Seol Lang.

Seol Lang valued family above anything else.

Perhaps even more than her own safety.

She carried that much attachment to the very concept of blood and family.

In her mind, family was something that came before everything else, something sacred, something that had to be protected.

And now, in front of that same Seol Lang, the one blood relative she had believed dead had suddenly appeared and personally destroyed the beings she held precious.

Before she even had time to stop him.

Brutally.

Alon swept his eyes across the ruins.

All he saw were corpses.

The bodies of the Golden Mane clan Seol Lang had built because she wanted a family again.

This was bad.

His gaze moved to Seol Gak.

The apostle of Pride, who claimed to be Seol Lang’s older brother, had been watching all of this with ease ever since the first clash.

No.

He was not merely watching.

He was waiting.

Waiting until Seol Lang’s mind had been driven to the limit.

Alon frowned deeply.

What was he supposed to do?

He still did not know why Seol Lang’s brother had become like this.

The one thing he knew for certain.

Was that this situation had to be stopped.

Even so, there were two reasons he still could not move carelessly.

One was that he had not yet fully grasped Seol Gak’s abilities.

The other was that his preparations were not finished.

Preparations he had been building from the moment Seol Gak appeared.

But Alon no longer had time.

He did not know how far Seol Gak would go to provoke Seol Lang.

And on the other side, he did not know how much longer Seol Lang could endure it.

…But in the end, what mattered most was Seol Lang.

Alon’s eyes quietly examined Seol Lang’s face.

Regardless of whether this had anything to do with becoming a Sin, Seol Lang herself was clearly getting worse.

He could not delay.

He formed a seal to deploy magic.

Then.

“Oh dear. That won’t do.”

Kwang.

Black lightning appeared in front of him at a speed that utterly surpassed his perception and kicked him away in an instant.

“Master.”

At the sight of him being thrown into the shattered ruins, Seol Lang immediately tried to strike Seol Gak.

But.

“Kuh.”

Her fist never reached him.

“Ghk.”

She struggled desperately to break free.

But Seol Gak only smiled.

“Little sister, stop wasting your effort. No matter how hard you struggle, you won’t escape my hand. And don’t worry. The mage didn’t die.”

He sounded almost mildly surprised.

“Still, this is interesting. The little sister I remember should be sobbing by now. Hm. Perhaps you’ve grown a little more composed with age. Not that it’s a particularly good change.”

He chuckled softly.

After a moment of silence, Seol Lang asked in a dark voice.

“…Did you join hands with them?”

Seol Gak’s smile widened.

“Join hands? With who?”

“…I’m asking whether you joined hands with the black thing that turned the village into ruins.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because your body reeks of that bastard.”

Seol Gak briefly looked down at himself.

Then he let out a short sound of realization.

“Ah. I see. Come to think of it, I still haven’t released the restriction I put on you back then.”

“Restriction?”

“Yes. I’d forgotten, but thanks for reminding me, little sister. Now I won’t even have to go through the trouble of moving around.”

“What are you talking about?”

Seol Gak smiled at her.

A smile more playful than anyone else’s.

And more malicious too.

Then he flicked a strand of black lightning toward Seol Lang’s head.

“Kk.”

At the sharp pain that followed, Seol Lang flinched.

Looking into her eyes, Seol Gak said,

“Little sister, let me tell you a very interesting fact.”

Then his smile curled upward.

“The one who killed the people of our village wasn’t that being.”

At the sight of that sneering face.

Seol Gak’s voice grew distant.

And the past Seol Lang never wanted to remember began playing before her eyes.

A world in black and white, streaked with noise.

Ash.

Then flames that seemed ready to devour even the gray world.

Then corpses.

The bodies of the blood relatives she had treasured.

Everywhere she looked.

Corpses.

Bodies cut in half.

Bodies burned to death.

Bodies missing their heads.

Bodies with the upper half torn away.

Corpses.

Corpses.

Corpses.

Countless corpses filled her vision.

And holding her by the throat was the hateful Black Dragon.

The same ash-gray nightmare she always saw when she dreamed.

The Black Dragon twisted its lips into a sneer.

Then her world changed again.

The gray world became so real it gave her back every lost sense.

The pain squeezing her breath away.

The heavy smell of blood from her clan.

The sensation of blood running down her fingers.

The salty taste on her dried tongue after crying over and over.

And.

Her brother’s face.

Holding their mother’s severed head in one hand and smiling in a warped way.

That face told her the hidden truth.

The truth she had desperately wanted to forget.

Then the present Seol Gak, layered over that monster from the past, opened his mouth.

“Well, little sister? The one who destroyed the clan was…”

Kwang.

Seol Lang saw him.

Seol Gak, still gripping her by the throat, was blown backward and slammed into the remains of a ruined building.

The next thing she felt.

Were two hands quietly covering her ears.

“Don’t listen.”

A familiar voice.

“Don’t listen, Seol Lang.”

She slowly looked up.

He was there.

Not with the blank expression she always saw.

But with a face that seemed to be genuinely worried about her.

Alon.

Her eyes widened.

####

After blasting Seol Gak away, Alon frowned slightly.

When the attack hit him, he had once again minimized the damage by using shield and wind magic together as reactive force.

At the same time, he had secretly been constructing a spell without letting Seol Gak notice.

Ordinarily that should have been impossible.

But one of the new sigils Alon had obtained through recent research made it possible.

A sigil that reduced mana’s offensive force in exchange for concealing the mana itself from others.

That allowed him to cast in secret and blow Seol Gak away.

But not injure him.

“Now that’s interesting. I didn’t sense your mana at all. How did you prepare that?”

Then Seol Gak looked at Seol Lang and laughed lightly.

“But what’s the point of working so hard to cover her ears? She already remembered everything anyway.”

At that, Alon let out a short breath.

While secretly preparing the spell, he had already understood what Seol Gak was trying to reveal and what would happen before and after it.

He understood how much damage that truth would do to Seol Lang.

Because there was only one thing Seol Gak could possibly be trying to say.

“How does it feel, little sister? To remember that the one who killed the people of the village and the rest of the family was this older brother of yours?”

There was not a trace of guilt in the grin on his face.

The words were exactly what Alon had expected.

Not even a single word off.

So Alon pressed his hands against Seol Lang’s ears again.

He knew it was meaningless.

She had already understood.

Just before he finished the spell, he had seen Seol Gak release the restriction on her memories with that strand of black lightning.

Even so, he could not bring himself to remove his hands.

Because he knew what family meant to her.

Seol Gak went on speaking.

Each word like a blade.

Telling her how enjoyable it had been to kill their own kin.

Talking about the neighbor she used to play with, and how he begged before being torn apart.

Talking about the child from the forge, whose parents were killed in front of him before his eyes were gouged out.

One cruel truth after another.

All of it meant to drive Seol Lang to the edge.

Then Seol Gak finally asked.

“Well, little sister? How does it feel to see the truth you never knew?”

Seol Lang, who had kept her head lowered all that time.

Slowly raised it.

And both Alon and Seol Gak froze.

As though time itself had stopped.

Seol Lang looked at them both.

And said.

“So what?”

Her face was perfectly calm.

####

Seol Gak could not understand what he was seeing.

No.

He truly could not comprehend it.

Seol Lang’s response was infinitely far from what he had expected.

She brushed away Marquis Palladio’s hand and stood on her own feet.

That was not how this was supposed to go.

In his original design, she should have been pouring every possible hatred and malice at him by now, breaking apart.

In the end, she should have killed the mage she cherished and awakened as the Sin of Pride.

That was why he had spared her.

That was why he had put the memory restriction on her.

After staring blankly for a moment, Seol Gak deliberately provoked her.

“There’s no point forcing yourself to hold it in. A moment ago you couldn’t even hide your feelings. What good do you think pretending will do now, little sister?”

Seol Lang only tilted her head.

“What are you talking about? I never hid my feelings even once.”

“…What?”

“Why would I hide them?”

She asked it as if she genuinely did not understand.

Seol Gak stared.

“A moment ago your eyes were completely shaken.”

But Seol Lang only answered as though it were obvious.

“Of course they were. I was in a situation where I couldn’t protect Master.”

“What?”

“Oppa, you’re strong. I understood that after fighting you. That’s why I was scared. Because I was in a situation where I couldn’t protect Master.”

“That was all?”

“No.”

Seol Lang asked back.

“What else should I have been shaken by?”

Seol Gak’s expression distorted.

Seol Lang looked at him calmly.

“Did you think I’d be shaken by your pathetic little game?”

“…You’ve become cynical, little sister.”

“No, Oppa. I still love my family. Paun, Yuseon, everyone you mentioned. They’re all part of my precious memories. But if I get shaken by emotions like that…”

Her tail swayed once.

“Then I won’t be able to protect the precious people I still have left.”

A silence fell between them.

Then Seol Lang added.

“And I think you’re mistaken about something.”

The light in her eyes turned cold.

“I’m already angry.”

“…”

“Because you tried to kill someone precious to me. My Master.”

Silence deepened.

Then Seol Gak burst into laughter.

“Ha. Hahaha. Fine. Fine. You really did get smarter in the ten years that passed. I’ll admit it, little sister. I underestimated you. I never thought that little brat would grow enough to think this far. Even so.”

Crackle.

“You still aren’t a match for me.”

He fired black lightning toward Seol Lang.

His fist followed.

Seol Lang’s hand moved again.

This time faster than before, as though she had already adjusted to his movement.

At the same time, a faint golden current began to form around her hand.

Seol Gak saw it.

A phenomenon he had never seen before.

A threatening change, nothing like before.

Even so, he did not wipe the smile from his face.

He had been surprised by the change in her hand, yes.

But Seol Lang still looked like she could not fully control the ability.

So Seol Gak thought.

All he needed to do was knock her down.

Then twist the mage’s neck right in front of her eyes.

He could already see the future.

His younger sister broken exactly as he wished.

And upon the basis of that body, the descent of that being who possessed everything.

But.

Tak.

That future shattered.

His eyes widened.

A transparent wall had appeared in front of him, and his fist was breaking through it.

The surrounding space warped as though mirrored surfaces had multiplied, twisting into dozens and hundreds of polyhedral planes.

The mage.

The instant Seol Gak realized that.

A low voice reached them.

“Seol Lang. Calm yourself. And remember. You’ve already reached the next stage.”

Alon’s voice continued.

“So all you need to do is trust it.”

He added one last thing.

“And remember this too. Hold the lightning inside you.”

At the next moment.

“Ah.”

Seol Gak saw her.

Seol Lang smiling brightly as if she had suddenly understood something.

Her body dyed in golden mana.

Her reverse eyes turning gold as well.

“Oppa. I forgot to say it, but I don’t need to be afraid of you anymore.”

At the same time, he understood what that was.

An ability that no longer existed in this world.

An ability passed down only among those who possessed the Essence, and only after surpassing even the fifth royal stage of succession and reaching the sixth.

“Because thanks to you, I obtained it.”

Lightning God Transformation.

“The strength to protect Master.”

And then.

“Die.”

Seol Lang’s fist drove down white lightning.