Chapter 228 – Alteration (2)

Recently, Reinhardt was in a very good mood despite having gone on the northern expedition.

The reason was precisely because of the ‘divine power of Callanon’ he had obtained in the north this time.

Even though he did not have certain faith, he became able to use the power of Callanon, the One Who Receives Lightning.

He had put the power he so desired into his hands.

Of course, with that power alone, he could not yet win against Deus Macalian.

No matter how much he became able to handle divine power.

Deus was already far ahead.

However, there was no such thing as Reinhardt’s mood sinking.

Because he realized from the moment he became able to use divine power.

The fact that this power becomes even stronger as the devotion deepens.

In other words, since it meant he could develop even further, his mood was at its peak.

If it were not for just one person who invaded his room, that is.

“……Deus.”

“What is it?”

“What are you doing in my room?”

“I am preparing to sleep.”

Deus Macalian.

The culprit who ruined the best mood was precisely Deus.

And that, at that, before he knew it, he had brought his bed into Reinhardt’s bedroom and was preparing to fall asleep.

“……Have you gone crazy?”

“I am perfectly normal.”

“Does a perfectly normal guy bring a bed to another person’s mansion and say he will sleep there without a word?”

“I think it falls within the category of normal?”

“It is abnormal, abnormal!!!!”

Deus shrugged his shoulders as if asking what the problem was.

Reinhardt, who let out a shout toward him, closed his eyes tightly as if his head hurt.

Since returning from the expedition, Deus started to follow his every move, so his stress was no ordinary thing.

As for moderately following, Reinhardt had no intention of saying anything.

But Deus.

He was completely copying Reinhardt’s daily life while following him around.

Waking up in the morning to pray and eating.

Practicing, eating lunch, and praying again.

Everything up to taking a nap leisurely!!

Furthermore, what was even more creepy.

Whenever Reinhardt used divine power.

“……”

It was the gaze staring with a cool, expressionless face as if that power should have been his.

It was all the time.

He stuck to him 24 hours a day and stared persistently with an expression mixed with a sense of betrayal and jealousy consistently.

Because he was so stressed that it felt like all his hair would fall out.

“Stop it, just stop it!”

Reinhardt screamed “Aaaack-!” and struggled.

“Good night.”

Deus naturally laid his body on the bed without a hint of agitation.

“Kwaaaaaaaack-!!!!”

Reinhardt let out a scream and seriously contemplated.

He should go to Marquis Palatio, no, the Marquis.

And plead, ‘Please bestow a little strength on that guy, no, Deus as well.’

####

The day after Lene arrived at the Palatio Marquis’s house.

Alon prepared to leave the Marquis’s house immediately with her.

Because it was just the time he was about to head to the Colony.

If there was anything different from usual.

“Will I be going after all……”

“Do you dislike it?”

“No, no, no, it is not like that, just because there is a bit much to research……”

It was exactly that Fenia would be together in this trip.

“That, the Linked Round Dance too? I want to see it a bit more, and I want to research the Step that Runs Through the Past as well, so, yes, yes, well, it is like that……”

Fenia, who was rolling her eyeballs here and there and subtly making excuses.

In fact, originally, Alon also had no intention of moving while taking Fenia with him.

Because he had noticed to some extent the fact that she felt burdened by moving with him.

The reason why he nonetheless tried to accompany her.

It was precisely to use the ‘Step that Runs Through the Past’.

Once a day.

Since it was sufficiently possible to use if Fenia was there.

He would be able to devote himself to training with Kailus during this trip.

“Fenia.”

“Ah, of course it is not that I do not want to go or anything like that. Since I am a person with so much curiosity? I am worried that I might not be able to focus on the trip a bit-”

“Do you see this?”

Alon presented the Tiger Gauntlet in front of Fenia.

“This is-”

“When this trip is over, I will also lend this for research purposes for a while, how about it?”

“……This is-”

When Fenia’s face was colored with curiosity, Alon used the Tiger Gauntlet immediately.

Crack!

As black smoke flowed out from the Tiger Gauntlet, the surroundings began to freeze in an instant.

At that.

“Oh……!”

Fenia now stared intently at Alon, no, the Tiger Gauntlet Alon was holding, with a face almost in love.

“Wow, what is this? Seeing this, it seems this magic is the magic that the Marquis used last time-”

“Just because you breathed in mana, from the arrangement of mana to the conversion of laws, did it all just come out combined within the artifact at once?”

“Ah, in addition to that! Looking at it, the quality of mana seems even better than usual? The reinforcement structure of mana itself also-”

Fenia, who was chattering incessantly.

“Are you a bit interested?”

“Yes!”

Before he knew it, her complexion completely flipped from ‘very much dislike going’ to ‘complete, complete excitement’.

“Now, then, let’s go, Godfather.”

With Lene’s words as a signal.

Alon’s group set out on the journey to the Colony.

Inside the peaceful carriage.

Alon asked while recalling the words Lene had said yesterday.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you say you were going to the Colony to find something?”

“Yes, that is right, Godfather.”

“Are you going to the ruins?”

At that, Lene nodded her head.

“That is right, Godfather. Because I discovered some interesting content in the recently discovered ruins.”

“Recently discovered ruins, huh.”

Alon momentarily recalled a few ruins in his head.

Because he was able to obtain many useful artifacts in the ruins of the Colony during Psychedelia gameplay.

He had periodically asked Evan to obtain information about new ruins.

Thanks to that, he looked through the information he had heard in the meantime.

‘……Presumably, it is not a ruin that appeared in Psychedelia.’

He realized that there was no familiar name among the ruins that appeared recently.

“I see.”

Alon ended the conversation by giving a light nod.

Lene smiled back while looking at Alon’s chest, no, his face.

####

Around the time when it became about the third week since Alon left the Marquis’s house in earnest and started the journey.

More precisely, on the fourth day after entering the desert along with the merchant guilds heading to the Colony through the forest.

“You say one more Gyeok was created?”

“Yes.”

Alon encountered Callanon after a really long time.

“Hmm-”

Under the moonlit night where the Milky Way was falling.

Callanon, who was contemplating while slightly furrowing her brow.

“Did you do something special?”

“……Recently, it seems there are those who worship Callanon as the god of knights.”

“It cannot be seen as a different Gyeok being created by that. Ultimately it is trapped in the name Callanon.”

“Besides that, I have no other guesses.”

As if the contemplation was deepening, Callanon let out a groan and tilted her neck to the side.

She only opened her mouth when her neck was almost completely tilted.

“Well, honestly, I am not sure either.”

“Is that so?”

“Right? Basically, for a new Gyeok to be created, one must do something worthy of being adored as a completely separate god and faith for that must be gathered. That faith was created even though you did nothing…… it does not make sense, after all.”

“I see.”

As Alon was agreeing, Callanon added.

“Still, it is amazing. If a Gyeok was really created, faith of at least dozens to hundreds of people would be needed, not just one or two.”

“……Is that so?”

“Of course. For faith to gather and not scatter but for something like a Gyeok to be created, that much is absolutely necessary. Well, if an existence with influence stronger than a god in this world offers faith, a Gyeok would be created even if only one or two individuals gathered, but-”

That was also a situation too far beyond the standard.

In the first place, the probability of such an existence offering faith to someone was low.

“I see.”

She asked Alon with a strange expression.

“Anyway, if you really did nothing, then a person who gathers those Gyeoks and even delivers them to the person named ‘Alon Palatio’ is needed, do you have no guess at all?”

A person who gathers Gyeoks and delivers them, huh.

Alon was lost in thought for a moment.

However, because no such person particularly came to mind no matter how much he thought, he shrugged his shoulders.

“Ah, it is all done.”

“What do you mean, it is all done?”

“The time.”

In time, Callanon bid farewell.

“……For the Gyeoks having accumulated quite a lot, the meeting time seems too short.”

“Actually, originally we could talk more, but I also have things I am doing in my own way……!”

“Things you are doing?”

“Yes, I will tell you this next time.”

‘See you next time!’ Callanon said while waving her hand.

With that appearance as the end, Alon came to his senses again in the muggy carriage.

But.

“Hm?”

Despite being in the middle of the hot desert, a cool chill was felt on his skin.

Looking around to see what the situation was.

“Uhyah-”

Fenia, who was embracing it with her limbs while having summoned a giant ice in the middle of the carriage as if she had thrown her dignity as a mage somewhere.

And he could see Evan, Basiliora, and Kkamangi, who were gathered around that ice and sitting with the most joyful expressions in the world.

‘Since Fenia is here, the quality of the journey has increased significantly.’

To the extent that he wondered if he was effectively Fenia’s pet.

Kkamangi, who had taken his place on her head and stuck there while enjoying the cold air.

As he looked at his face colored with happiness, the past where he always suffered while sweating profusely in the desert came to mind.

Unlike that, now.

Everyone is enjoying a comfortable journey thanks to the person named Fenia alone.

Therefore.

‘……Should I bring her next time as well.’

Such a thought naturally came to mind.

As if she had detected a sense of crisis.

Fenia, who had been sticking close to the ice with the most ecstatic expression in the world, began to roll her eyeballs left and right slightly anxiously.

At that point.

“……I think so every time I cross the desert, but I really feel like I’m going to die.”

“Indeed, Merchant Guild Master.”

Damuda, the guild master of the Janda Merchant Guild who was heading to the Colony with Alon, murmured while being exhausted by the sun shining hotly already.

In the midst of that.

“……Hm? Guild Master, do you see that?”

“……That?”

At the sudden question from the vice master, the guild master turned his gaze and moved his eyes toward the direction his finger was pointing.

He could see it.

Made in the middle of the desert.

An aberrant gate that was hidden between cliffs and not visible.

“……Isn’t that an aberrant gate?”

“It seems to be so?”

“Tell the rear. Turn the direction.”

“It doesn’t seem like anything is popping out particularly? Wouldn’t it be okay to just proceed like this?”

“What if something pops out then?”

Damuda, who realized that they had approached closer to the aberrant gate than thought since it was hidden by cliffs, gave orders immediately.

As the entire merchant guild was about to turn the path to the right accordingly.

“Hm-”

Suddenly, in the very front of the guild, a man appeared.

A man whose upper body was bare while wearing black pants.

And whose dark gray eyes flashed while having a scar similar to a human shape on his chest.

“What-?”

The vice guild master let out a question at the man who suddenly revealed his appearance in the desert where there had been nothing.

At the same time, the moment the mercenaries pulled out their swords.

Grin.

The man who twisted the corners of his mouth up.

“Finally found you-”

He murmured lowly and reached his hand forward.

Drop!

The black water droplet formed at the tip of his index finger began to fall to the floor.

Drip, drip.

Small water droplets fall further and further down.

Those things, which should have all been absorbed by the sand originally, gather and create black ripples.

“……!”

The vision of everyone there, including Guild Master Damuda, turns gray.

And, they saw.

A man with dark gray, hollow eyes.

And the hundreds and thousands of Agwis following behind him.

At that moment.

“I will start the feast.”

The man’s voice rang through the air.

Crunch!

With that as a flare.

At the same time as the vice guild master’s upper body disappeared in the air as if being deleted.

“A-Aaaaack-!!!!”

Screams began to ring out.

####

“Stop! Stop!!”

“Uh- uhhh? What is that?”

“This crazy-!”

“R-Run away!!”

Alon immediately went out of the carriage at the urgent commotion heard suddenly from outside the carriage.

Soon he encountered them.

The giant aberrant gate created near the merchant guild.

And the merchants who were being murdered more miserably than ever before.

“!”

His face was distorted at the sight of humans’ bodies being crushed or smashed suddenly in the empty air for a moment.

‘Could it be-‘

Alon guessed without difficulty who the culprit who created this situation was.

No, he had no choice but to guess.

Because at least as far as Alon knew, there was only one existence who could reproduce this unnatural situation.

But at the same time.

He could not understand.

At least as far as he knew.

Because right now that existence should not have been here.

Just why-

Alon, who was looking around while harboring doubt.

“Ah.”

He momentarily let out a lament at the figure that came into his vision.

Because his prediction had hit home without a single error.

A man approaching toward Alon while wearing a thick smile in the distance.

He was one of the four major forces.

The ruler who rules the Agwis of the inner world-

The Agwi.