I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 57 - King of Hungry Ghosts (2)
Chapter 57 – King of Hungry Ghosts (2)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Alon lowered his gaze slightly and looked at the thing frozen into the shape of a crescent moon, then turned his eyes and glanced once at Maverick before speaking.
“I told you. Get a hold of yourself.”
“!”
After confirming that Maverick hurriedly pulled himself together and rose to his feet at those words, Alon turned his gaze away and looked at it.
No, he looked at the Outer God.
The one dressed in black robes of eastern style, the one who until just moments ago had been looking at him with eyes full of boredom and arrogance.
Why has the situation gone wrong?
Alon looked at the Outer God with a tense expression.
According to the reports, he was supposed to reach the fifth floor not now, but three days from now.
Even that estimate assumed the Outer God suddenly accelerated. Under the original projection, the extermination force had judged that it would take more than five days before the Outer God descended here.
That had been the expectation.
And yet the Outer God had already reached the fifth floor.
“……”
Alon lightly shook the hand that had gone numb without him noticing.
The Outer God before him had taken the form of a goblin.
Ears far too large to belong to a human, green skin, and a hooked nose made it unmistakably clear that he was a goblin.
But.
Including Alon, no one here thought that thing was merely a goblin.
Argonia and Hyman, who had gained eyes that brought them a little closer to the truth of the world, did not.
Even the mercenaries who lacked those eyes did not.
Everyone here was no longer recognizing that being by appearance alone.
The presence that naturally leaked from him was enough to overwhelm the very space itself.
Alon, who understood that fact, was the same.
And then.
“…Ho.”
It opened its mouth.
The arrogance in its eyes had not disappeared.
However, the boredom had been replaced by interest, and that interest put a smile on its lips.
“You do amusing things, little creature.”
The finger he had raised slowly curled as he idly stroked his chin.
Watching that, Alon quietly spoke.
“……Kailas.”
Because he had been insignificant, he had pursued knowledge.
Because he had been insignificant, he had reached the end of that pursuit, awakened the Law, and attained the rank of a god by his own effort.
The king of all hungry ghosts.
When Alon spoke Kailas’s name, the interest in his eyes deepened.
“You even know my name? How commendable.”
He brushed back his hair once, then unlike before, showed a cheerful smile.
“Good. I happen to be in a good mood right now, and those things also seem to be attached to you. I shall grant you one mercy.”
“……”
“Leave. Then I will spare you.”
A proposal.
But Alon.
“Prepare for battle.”
Used an order to the extermination force as his answer instead.
“Tch. I meant to spare you because you were an interesting little creature.”
After hearing that reply, Kailas stared at him as if looking at a fool.
“But if you insist on drinking the cup of punishment, then so be it, little creature.”
He raised his hand forward once more.
“Battle positions!”
Argonia’s voice, meant to shake off fear, signaled the start of the battle.
* * *
From the moment the Outer God reached the fifth floor ahead of schedule, Alon’s original plan had become completely useless.
His plan was one that required an entire day of preparation to execute.
But that did not mean he had given up on exterminating the Outer God.
No matter how badly the plan had gone wrong, he still thought they had enough to kill him.
There were two main reasons.
First, unlike Ultultus, Kailas had not progressed as far into the incarnate-god state as Alon had expected.
Second, unlike when Ultultus was exterminated, the mercenaries had at least made some preparations against an Outer God.
Tsst.
Magic shot from Kailas’s hand and flew toward Alon and the mercenaries in an instant.
But.
Crash.
With the sound of something breaking, Kailas’s invisible slash was blocked by the sword in Argonia’s hand.
“A dispel sword…! You brought something interesting…!”
What Argonia held was one of the fewer than one hundred blades on the continent capable of cutting magic, a dispel sword.
It could not cut people, but it had been made solely to cut magic.
Against Kailas, who had not yet become an incarnate god, it was enough to cut through his spells.
Boom.
Having gained certainty, Argonia kicked off the ground and rushed Kailas, and the battle began in earnest.
Like him, Maverick, who had taken Alon’s advice and armed himself with a dispel sword, joined the fight, and Myaon also immediately moved around the perimeter and began firing arrows.
Three against one.
Numerically, they held an overwhelming advantage.
On top of that, thanks to Alon, the mercenaries already knew most of the kinds of magic Kailas used, so they clearly pressed him as opponents who would not be easy to handle.
Yet even after realizing that the combined assault of the four mercenaries and all of his own magic had been countered.
His lips twisted upward.
Kailas grinned as though the situation pleased him, then brought his index and middle fingers together in a hand seal and leisurely raised them.
And then.
Monsters suddenly formed from the ground and rose up as if the earlier calm had been a lie.
The fifth floor instantly turned into chaos.
Naturally, Alon did not leave himself any room to relax.
“Hoo.”
Exhaling white mist, Alon spoke a phrase.
“Ice and snow.”
Watching white frost begin to gather before the seal he formed, Alon thought.
I need to finish this as quickly as possible.
The battle between Kailas and the mercenaries was holding at a balance for now, but he already knew it would not last.
He could see it.
The dispel swords held by Argonia and Maverick were already slowly cracking after blocking only a few spells.
And Hyman’s expression was growing darker by the second.
“Form.”
When he uttered another phrase, frost bloomed around Alon.
And then.
“Renown of the Snowy Mountain.”
The round sphere formed before Alon’s middle and ring fingers froze and began to produce snow crystals.
“Blind necessity.”
The ice flower bloomed.
The hexagonal crystal that had formed instantly swelled in size, devouring the surrounding air and taking on a massive shape.
Crack.
And from the center of that crystal, a spear beautiful enough to arrest anyone’s gaze appeared before Alon.
At that exact timing.
“Hoo.”
Rine, who had been standing behind Alon, pulled a book from her arms.
“E-setra-i ama tia…”
She muttered quietly.
Rattle.
The grimoire spread open in an instant, letting out a harsh resonance.
And then.
From empty air, more than dozens upon dozens of black chains burst forth and immediately shot toward Kailas.
“!”
Apparently he had not expected that situation at all, because the Outer God widened his eyes for an instant as he looked at the chains.
But.
Before he could do anything, the chains that flew at him ravenously wrapped around his body and restrained him.
Having gained a chance faster than expected thanks to that unforeseen help, Alon.
“Frost Crystal Painted Halberd.”
Implemented the magic without hesitation.
And then.
The spear that had bloomed from the ice flower shot toward the Outer God, swallowed him in an instant,
and with a violent crack,
froze everything around him.
“”……””
Silence fell over the fifth floor.
* * *
The monsters stopped moving.
In response, the mercenaries who had been desperately dealing with the ones crawling out of the ground also stopped moving.
Then all of them turned their eyes toward one place.
The old ruins.
The giant ice flower that had formed in the middle of those ruins.
The Count Palladio who had made that ice flower.
Reverence poured out from the mercenaries.
Likewise, the guild masters who had been fighting the Outer God until moments ago stood there with their mouths hanging open.
Even Alon let out a small sigh.
But.
Crack.
“!”
At the sudden, jarring sound of something breaking, everyone’s eyes snapped toward the giant ice flower.
Crack, crack.
With a sharp noise.
The enormous ice flower that had been drawing everyone’s reverent gaze began to collapse.
And then.
“!”
From between the collapsing petals of ice, the Outer God calmly walked out.
Despair entered the mercenaries’ eyes.
The guild masters who had been fighting him looked stricken.
But the Outer God who had given everyone despair and dismay only wore a faint smile as he spoke.
“That landed a hit, little creature.”
Seeing Kailas speak with an easy smile as though that attack had been quite enjoyable, Alon could not properly process the situation.
According to his calculations, since Kailas had not become an incarnate god, taking that attack head-on should have caused him to dissipate.
“But you still know nothing.”
As Alon stared at him with an expression that said he could not understand, he noticed something.
There was not even a single shard of ice on Kailas’s body.
Only fragments of broken ice remained around him.
Did he grind all of Frost Crystal Painted Halberd apart with those slashes…?
At the moment Alon showed shock behind his blank face at that absurd method of neutralizing his attack.
“Still, thanks to that, I’m getting excited, little creature.”
Kailas spoke with a delighted smile.
“So I shall humor you in kind. Well, in this state it will not be a perfect implementation, but even so, it should make for fairly decent amusement.”
He wrapped his right hand around the raised index finger of his left hand and formed the wisdom-fist seal.
“Release.”
At that moment, mana spread out.
Argonia and Maverick sensed danger on instinct and, without either one being first, instantly kicked off the ground toward the Outer God.
“Vibration.”
Myaon, who had let her guard down only a moment ago, immediately drew and fired an arrow in that state.
Hyman raised his staff and cast instantly, trying to interrupt the Outer God’s spell.
But.
Just before Argonia’s and Maverick’s swords reached the Outer God’s neck,
just before Myaon’s arrow reached his heart,
just before Hyman’s magic reached his throat,
the mana that had already spread around him made the atmosphere vibrate in accordance with his phrase.
“Expansion.”
Together with the softly heard phrase from the Outer God.
Crunch.
Alon saw it.
He saw Maverick’s and Argonia’s bodies crumple in midair as if compressed.
And with them, the spray of blood that burst out.
“The nameless law.”
He heard that low murmur come from the twisted lips of the Outer God.
And then.
A pure white light covered everyone’s vision.