Chapter 172 – Sin of Greed (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Ahaha. Was that really enough to surprise you so much?”

“Emil…!?”

Rine’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Seeing that reaction, the apostle of Greed burst out laughing, as though genuinely entertained.

Her attitude was like that of someone greeting a close friend.

And yet.

“…”

At Rine’s abnormal reaction, Evan, who until just moments ago had still looked fairly relaxed, drew his sword at once.

Even though he had not yet reached the master’s realm, instinct told him how dangerous the existence that had suddenly appeared before them was.

At the moment the tension reached its peak.

Thwack.

“Kgh.”

A blow struck the back of Evan’s head and his body tilted.

“Ri…ne?”

The moment he realized that what had hit the back of his neck was the golden crown Rine used, confusion spread across his face.

“I am sorry. But this is the best option.”

With Rine’s voice growing faint as it reached him, Evan lost consciousness.

“Oh my. Clever. Or is it because of some other reason?”

“Shut up.”

At the apostle of Greed’s mocking remark, Rine shot her a savage glare.

Then Rine used the golden crown to send Evan away to the opposite side.

“Why are you so angry? I do not think we were ever on such bad terms.”

“You really think now is the time to say that?”

“Of course. Who do you think it was that taught you how to use the Library in the first place?”

“…!”

The Library.

At that word, Rine’s body twitched slightly.

“I never needed any of this…”

“Do you really believe that?”

Emil laughed easily, utterly at her leisure.

Rine’s face twisted as though she needed no further conversation and her lips moved.

At the same time, the golden eye that had not been visible until then revealed itself.

Kwagagagak.

The golden crown shot out of that eye toward Emil at a speed so fast it was almost impossible to blink.

It violently scraped across the surrounding pillars and marble as it flew.

And yet.

“Hm. I did already read the information, but that is quite an interesting thing you carry around, Rine. At a glance, is it from the Ilanef Empire?”

The golden crown, which should have bored dozens of holes through the apostle’s body, was blocked the instant it reached her.

Kagagagak.

By branches that flowed out of empty air the moment the apostle scattered her sinister aura.

“!”

Rine’s frown deepened.

But Emil, the apostle of Greed, only smiled easily and flicked a finger.

At the same time, the branches that had only blocked the golden crown until then began crawling along it like vines.

“!”

Rine immediately withdrew the crown.

“What a shame.”

A voice completely without sincerity, despite the words.

As though she were showing mercy, the apostle did nothing more than respond to the attack and did not launch a counterattack of her own.

Even while trying to figure out why the apostle of Greed had appeared here, Rine desperately sought some way to break through the situation.

What do I do?

If this had not been underground but outside, she would have been confused, but not impatient.

If they were outside, she could use Pluto without restriction.

Even then, she could not be sure she would win.

Because unlike ten years ago, she now fully understood what the being before her was.

But this place was underground.

And not just underground, but far too small a subterranean space to use Pluto safely.

If she steeled herself for the collapse of the cavern, she might perhaps be able to try.

Even if the cave collapsed, Rine was confident that she herself could survive.

But the problem was.

Alon and Evan.

If she acted carelessly, both Alon and Evan might be caught up in it.

Rine furiously turned her thoughts in search of a way to overcome the present situation.

But.

The apostle of Greed merely watched the utterly tense Rine with a relaxed expression.

As though she were looking forward to seeing what choice Rine would make.

####

Meanwhile, in the ash-gray world.

“Answer me, magus. I asked whether you were the one who summoned me.”

At Kailus’s utterly cold gaze, Alon came back to himself and answered.

“…It is true that I summoned you. But I do not know where this place is either.”

“You do not know?”

“That is right.”

Kailus’s brow drew into a deep furrow.

He stared at Alon as if trying to determine whether he spoke the truth.

Then, without warning, he unfolded one finger and drew a straight line through the air.

Drrrrk.

Blue mana unlike the one he had used during their battle in the labyrinth streamed from his hand, scratched through the empty air, and vanished.

After confirming that, Kailus looked somewhat exasperated.

“What nonsense are you speaking, magus? It makes no sense that you do not know this place.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“…You truly know nothing. How did you manage to pull off such an absurd act with such ignorance?”

A deep sigh echoed through the air, as if he found it utterly incomprehensible.

“I will explain it only once, so listen carefully, brat.”

Demoting Alon in an instant from magus to brat, he continued.

“This place is a mind-image world. A world different from the one you live in. Every person who has achieved a deed possesses one unique world of their own.”

“Then is this your mind-image world?”

Alon thought his own inference sounded plausible enough.

Judging from what the golden dragon Rainisius had said, the magus before him had some record of fighting the black things, whatever his end had been.

Then perhaps this is a mind-image showing the world after he fought the black things?

Alon silently looked over the ruined world.

Merely seeing it was enough to remind him of the danger of the black things.

…A world from a thousand years ago is even worse than what the game showed.

In Psychedelia, the black things inflicted great damage upon the continent, but in the end they were stopped by Elivan and various powerhouses.

Things had never reached this level there.

But a world that failed to stop the black things was the destruction of all things itself.

It was enough to leave even Alon, whose face remained expressionless at almost all times, standing blankly stunned.

At that moment.

“…Ha.”

“?”

Kailus let out a dry laugh.

“What absurd nonsense are you saying, brat? This mind-image world…”

Then an even more absurd line dropped from his lips.

“Is yours.”

“…What?”

Alon’s mouth opened of its own accord.

“My mind-image world?”

“Yes. To begin with, for one like me who has had everything taken away, there is no way I would possess such a thing.”

Apparently you do not even know something this trivial.

After muttering that, Kailus briefly looked around and shrugged.

“In any case, brat, this is your mind-image world.”

“…When you say mind-image world, do you mean the same thing I think you mean?”

“Yes. Though for one like you, who possesses no proper formulae, it is only that strong memories are replacing the mind-image world itself.”

At Kailus’s explanation, Alon swallowed his confusion inwardly and tried to continue the thought.

But.

“So then, brat. Why did you summon me?”

At that follow-up question, he stopped his train of thought.

After a brief silence, Alon answered.

“Because I had something to ask.”

“Something to ask.”

Kailus stared at him for a moment.

Then he slowly sat down on a heap of stones.

“Go ahead. Since you did defeat me, I will answer at least that much. But make it as concise as possible.”

Urged on by him, Alon thought for a moment.

There were quite a few things he wanted to ask.

After taking that time, he posed the first question.

“…I heard about the golden dragon Rainisius. That originally, you were a magus.”

At those words, Kailus’s expression shifted strangely.

“You met the golden dragon?”

“I did.”

“So he is still alive.”

At Alon’s nod, Kailus relaxed the frown he had worn until now and let out a quiet sigh.

“…That is a relief.”

The murmur was so low that even Alon barely heard it.

He briefly wondered whether he ought to explain in what state the golden dragon Rainisius was surviving, but before he could decide.

“…Very well, brat. Is what you want to know why I, a magus, appeared as an Outer God?”

“It is.”

Alon nodded at Kailus’s question.

“Simple. For revenge.”

“…Revenge?”

That concise answer came back at once.

“Yes. In order to take revenge on the black things, I abandoned everything and became a goblin.”

####

“Is that even possible?”

“No. Ordinarily, it is impossible.”

Perhaps recalling the past for a moment, Kailus’s brows twisted.

“In the battle against the black things, I lost everything. My companions, my close friends, all of them. Nothing remained around me but corpses.”

“And I too, in that heat, stood in a position where death was not far away.”

“But I did not want to die. I wanted revenge on the black things that had killed my companions and my friends. I wanted to erase them with my own hands.”

A strange light glimmered in his eyes.

“So I searched for a way to live. I wrung my shattered mana hole to a point beyond recovery just to barely maintain my life and forced my mind to keep working. And at that moment, goblins appeared.”

And yet his expression itself remained endlessly calm.

“Those goblins, hundreds or perhaps thousands of them, who had dug burrows underground and hidden there because they were crushed by the presence of the black things, held a feast with the corpses of my companions.”

Kailus’s eyes blazed as if he were once again standing before the scene itself.

Only then did Alon begin to grasp the nature of the strange light in those eyes.

“The hand of a magus who had been joking with me the day before was being chewed into a goblin’s mouth without mercy.”

“The head of a magus who had worried for a student only a day before had become a goblin’s toy.”

“The torso of a young magus who had been dreaming of the future until the previous day had been minced into meat and fed to young goblins. And then…”

It was fury.

A calm, quiet fury, and for that very reason an even more violent one.

“In that situation, I found a way to live through the goblins who were devouring the corpses of my companions.”

The next words came from Alon’s mouth.

“The god of the goblins.”

As if confirming that his inference was correct, Kailus continued in the same flat tone.

“I squeezed out what mana remained in me and turned myself into a goblin.”

“With my broken mana hole, I slaughtered goblins and gained fear.”

“I seized the corpses of my companions before the goblins’ eyes and then returned them, and in doing so gained worship. I reduced the corpses of my companions to nothing more than lumps of meat and received the reverence of those vile things stuffing them into their mouths.”

In Alon’s mind, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

Why Kailus, a magus, had appeared as an Outer God in the shape of a goblin.

Why he could no longer use the Shadow Dragon.

“My mind-image, my formulae, my magic, my honor, my dignity, my companions. By throwing all of it away, I…”

As he spoke without pause, his face twisted.

“Became Outer God Kailus.”

Only then did Alon fully realize where the strange fury in Kailus’s eyes was directed.

It was not fury toward the black things.

It was not even fury toward the goblins.

It was.

“That is why I was able to remain alive in this world as an Outer God.”

Fury toward Kailus himself.

A vicious loathing and rage toward the self that had survived in such a miserable, humiliating way for the sake of revenge.

“…”

Alon could not say a word.