I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 94 - Artificial (5)
Chapter 94 – Artificial (5)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Array of Thunder…”
As crackling lightning began leaping over Alon’s body, he moved.
“Decomposition.”
The crackling lightning broke into grains, and at the same time he picked up the sword of a holy knight that had been flung away during the battle.
“Fusion.”
The blue grains were absorbed into Alon’s body.
“Universal Flux.”
His body wavered like an afterimage.
“Raijin Form.”
With the seal formed, he became lightning.
“T-the branches are getting in!”
The moment the top of the barrier was opened in accordance with Alon’s words, branches began pushing their way inside.
Despair entered everyone’s eyes at the sight.
And then Alon tore through the tree trunks crawling in through the open ceiling and shot upward into the sky.
Kwaaang!
Amid the wreckage of the shredded branches and that violent noise, all eyes caught sight of Marquis Palladio framed against the blue moon.
Suspended in midair like that, Alon looked at the branches beginning to shoot toward him.
As expected, they are slow.
The branches were coming, but they were not fast, and Alon felt reassured as he sensed the sword in his left hand.
It is close, but this is enough. The preparations are complete.
There were two reasons he had not been able to move quickly until now.
The first was that it had taken time to find Machina’s weak point.
Up to now, Alon had never tried to search for the weak points of Outer Gods.
Outer Gods that had not yet become incarnate gods basically followed the bodily structure of their pre-descent vessel.
On top of that, most of the Outer Gods he had met so far had bodies small enough to fit within the range of the magic he could manifest.
In other words, there had never been any need to exploit a weak point.
But this time was different.
Machina before him was so large that it made the range of Alon’s magic seem pathetic, and it possessed overwhelming regeneration on top of that.
In short, he could not erase the Machina in front of him by simply throwing magic at it blindly.
But at this moment,
Alon knew Machina’s weak point clearly.
Because of the item he had obtained in the Holy Kingdom, the Necklace of the Eye-Devourer, which in game terms slowly identified the enemy’s weak point after a battle lasted more than ten turns and raised the critical hit chance accordingly.
The weak point is the solar plexus.
After confirming the human-shaped blue light glowing at the solar plexus within Machina’s body of red branches and stone, he let out a deep sigh.
One chance. I have no mana left.
Mana.
That was the second reason Alon had not been able to move quickly.
Never expecting anything like this to happen, he had already spent most of his mana when Anderde first attacked, because he had used it to save Yuman.
Because of that, Alon had needed time to refill his mana.
Even leaving aside the regretfully tiny mana hall he possessed, simply manifesting magic for the less-than-one-second leap into the sky had nearly drained him dry again.
The mana left in him was only enough to manifest one spell.
Of course, thanks to the fact that he had swallowed two potions in succession despite the risk of mana intoxication, his mana was refilling little by little.
Even so, viewed generously, it would be more accurate to say he had only a tiny scrap of mana left.
Which meant, absurd as it was, that Alon could no longer use any powerful magic at this point.
Ordinarily, that is.
“Phew…”
Alon let out a long breath, stretched the sword in his left hand toward Machina, and
“Array of Thunder.”
spoke the phrase.
Crackle.
The instant he did, crackling filled Alon’s ears, and the little mana he still had was consumed, plunging him immediately into total mana depletion.
“Tch…”
Pain came with it.
His body convulsed, screaming that it could draw out no more mana.
But Alon did not stop speaking the incantation.
Because what he intended to use was not Raijin Form on himself.
“Decomposition.”
Ever since returning from Laxas, Alon had devoted himself to magical research, or more precisely the study of self-nature manifestation, and within that, especially the efficiency of mana use.
For him, whose mana was so pitiful that a single use of self-nature manifestation was enough to cause depletion, research into efficiency had been absolutely necessary.
“Fusion.”
In the end, however, despite half a year of countless experiments, Alon had failed to increase the efficiency of self-nature manifestation.
Even so, he had gained something.
That something was
“Universal Flux.”
a method of manifesting Raijin Form not on his own body, but on an object.
Pajijijik!
The sword in his left hand absorbed the blue grains and began to ripple like an afterimage.
It had been found only by chance.
A side product Alon stumbled upon while desperately researching ways to lower the mana cost of self-nature manifestation.
But at this very moment,
“Raijin Form.”
that accidental discovery manifested in the world as the strongest magic he could still use.
Pajijijik!!
The wavering sword in Alon’s left hand suddenly burst with blue lightning and sent white current radiating in all directions.
Alon, gripping the sword like a javelin, pulled his arm back and lengthened the arrangement of the spell.
What took shape was thin and long.
Pajijijijijik!
A spear carrying the vivid power of lightning.
The moment everyone, Yuman included, saw Alon under the blue moon holding that spear of lightning,
he hurled it with all his strength.
And then,
Kwaaaaaaaaaa!!!
with a tremendous roar,
lightning pierced Machina’s solar plexus.
* * *
The instant the lightning spear Alon threw sank into Machina’s solar plexus, everything stopped.
The roots that had been sinking through the Holy Kingdom as if intending to devour it all began to crumble into handfuls of ash.
The enormous hand that had been falling toward Yuman and the priests did the same and scattered away in white ash.
Thud – kuguguguguk – kwagagagagak!!!!
Machina too, which had until then held a clear form, began collapsing as its tree-like body turned to ash and scattered.
Everyone present, Yuman included, was no longer looking at the collapsing Machina.
They were looking at one man instead.
Under the blue moon, with white ash drifting like flower petals, stood the expressionless man who had slain the Outer God alone and yet showed not the slightest emotion, as though it were only natural.
Marquis Palladio.
And by the time a trace of awe had entered all of their eyes,
Marquis Palladio
This is bad!
was wearing a genuinely grave expression beneath that blank face.
Everything up to that point had gone according to plan.
Preparing the spell from open air where the vines could not interfere, in case his strength proved insufficient.
Using the Necklace of the Eye-Devourer to identify the weak point.
Drinking more than two potions without even checking for mana depletion.
All of it had gone according to plan.
The problem was that he had not thought through what would happen immediately after Machina was defeated.
No, more precisely, he had thought about it.
After attacking, he had intended to create an ice wall with magic, carve it into a curve, and use that to fall as safely as possible.
Of course, even using that method, he had known the odds of being injured were actually higher than the odds of not being injured.
Still, because this was the Holy Kingdom, he had assumed recovery would not be difficult.
Priests in the Holy Kingdom, once they were of bishop rank and above, could save almost anything so long as there was still life left.
But that only applied while life remained, and no matter how gifted a priest might be, no one could actually resurrect the dead.
I did not expect the spell arrangement for Raijin Form to take even more mana than that…!
He lamented the fact that adjusting the mana arrangement of Raijin Form had consumed more mana than expected, and as he wondered what to do now,
thud.
he realized his utterly helpless fall had suddenly slowed.
And soon he understood one thing.
“…Yutia?”
Something like a white cloud made of holy power had caught his falling body.
“You worked hard, Teacher.”
Then he saw Yutia’s face, smiling brightly beneath the blue moon.
Alon used the last of his strength and nodded.
* * *
In the end, Sironia’s Festival of Birth was completely suspended because of Machina’s sudden appearance.
That was only natural.
Although they had ultimately stopped it, the damage Rosaria had suffered due to Machina was enormous.
No matter that it was the Holy Kingdom, holding the festival in such a situation had become impossible.
And as for Alon, who had dealt with Machina,
“…Are you all right, Count? No, I suppose I should call you Marquis now.”
“I think I can move around a little now.”
he had spent about two days being treated in a hospital attached to one side of the temple.
Outwardly, he did not look as though he had any serious problem.
There were only a few injuries caused by his still imperfect control of Raijin Form, and none at all inflicted by the Outer God.
The real problem was his mana hall.
Mana depletion, and a week of recovery…
Even after swallowing two potions while factoring in the risk of mana intoxication, he had still ended up with mana depletion and had to spend a full week in the hospital.
But to be honest… Alon wanted to escape from this hospital as quickly as possible.
No, more than escaping the hospital, now that his business here was done, he wanted to leave the Holy Kingdom entirely.
That was because,
“Marquis.”
“What is it?”
“You are quite popular.”
“…”
During his stay in the hospital, Alon had been receiving extremely burdensome looks from the priests.
Watching the respectful gazes and greetings of the priests passing in and out beyond the door, he said,
“To be honest, I do not like it very much.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Of course, even Alon knew that being respected by other people was not in itself a bad thing, and in fact the reverent gazes from the priests right after he was injured had not felt especially bad.
Everyone had some basic desire for recognition.
But,
is this not a bit too much?
No matter what, having every single priest he met look at him with shining eyes was, honestly, rather burdensome.
And in truth, an even bigger reason he wanted to leave the Holy Kingdom sooner was
“Marquis, may I have a moment?”
“…Saint.”
“Yes, Marquis.”
Yuman.
“Ah, Marquis, come to think of it, I also need to go get some information, so I will step out for a moment.”
The instant Yuman arrived, Evan suddenly remembered an errand Alon had given him and left the sickroom.
Alon scratched his head.
“…Well, have a seat first.”
“Yes.”
Yuman sat down with astonishing speed and opened his mouth.
“How is your body, Marquis?”
“As I said yesterday, it is not particularly bad.”
“That is a relief.”
Yuman nodded as though truly relieved, then looked up at Alon.
With eyes full of respect and awe.
And Alon found that deeply burdensome.
Of course, being on good terms with Yuman was not a bad thing.
He was, after all, a man destined to become Elivan’s right hand in the future.
But having someone come visit every day and show that kind of admiration and reverence so persistently honestly made Alon uncomfortable and self-conscious.
“…I appreciate your concern, but you do not need to come this often.”
He tried to put it indirectly, meaning, please stop coming so often and go do your work.
But,
“I cannot do that.”
“…Why not?”
“Because you bear the same burden that I do. No, one heavier than mine.”
“…?”
“Knowing that, I have no intention of turning away from you.”
On the contrary, Yuman nodded as if strengthening his resolve, his eyes full of respect.
“…??”
And so Alon, with a face that only grew more confused,
“I will never turn away from you.”
could do nothing but stare at Yuman, who kept saying incomprehensible nonsense.