I Became the Patron of Villains

124. Half-Baked Mage (3)

Duke Komalon- ■■■ suddenly recalled a memory from the past.

A memory so old that even its colors had faded.

A fragment that he could glimpse only when he occasionally slept and dreamed.

It was a memory from when he was still a ‘disciple’ under his mage master.

‘Eat your vegetables.’

‘Don’t neglect your practice.’

‘Let’s go on an outing.’

‘■■■ is much better than you! Where did you bring this worthless husk from!’

The flowing memories were nothing special.

Memories of eating with his master.

Memories of being scolded by his master about magic.

Memories of going on a picnic with his master.

A memory of the master defending him, who was less talented than the other mage’s disciples.

Just memories that anyone might have, memories that might be found if one looked into a corner of their mind.

Insignificant.

However, to Duke Komalon, they were fragments of memories more precious than anything else.

Yet the Duke – ■■■, did not particularly like those memories.

Because the end of these fragments of memories.

Always converged to a single point.

The scenes of the memories Duke Komalon was peeking into flipped over,

‘It can’t be helped. ■■■. The moment the soul of the world filled up, it became inevitable.’

The voice of the master could be heard.

Even now, it was the same.

“!”

At the signal of that voice, Duke Komalon came to his senses.

Realizing that he had lost consciousness for a fleeting moment, he checked his physical condition.

His physical condition was not good.

His right arm was gone, and there was a hole in his abdomen.

However, Duke Komalon’s nerves were focused elsewhere.

He lifted his head and looked ahead.

There stood a man.

Wearing a dust-covered dark coat, looking down at him with an expression devoid of emotion, was Marquis Palatio.

A half-baked mage like him, standing in the ashen world, blocking his way.

“How on earth did you use the sentence?”

Marquis Palatio, showing not a shred of emotion.

Duke Komalon could not understand.

Surely, he had used the sentence.

“Even if it wasn’t a technique or self-manifestation, it was undoubtedly a sentence. How could you, who should be a half-baked like me, possibly?”

It was an incomprehensible point.

Surely, he had used the sentence.

Even if he had not reached the technique (術式) or self-manifestation (自性具現), it was ultimately a sentence, and it produced its effect.

Of course, that did not mean that Marquis Palatio was a complete mage.

No matter how much he inherited the sentences and achieved self-realization, he could never become a true sorcerer without reaching the technique.

He is, indeed, a half-baked sorcerer.

A half-baked sorcerer, like himself, who inherited the sentences from a true sorcerer.

“…Ha.”

Therefore, the Duke could not understand even more.

■■■ sneered.

“-You, who even inherited the sentences, why are you stopping me? Me, who embodies the wishes of all sorcerers?”

He must have seen it.

The end of this world.

The inevitable apocalypse.

He must have also known.

That the sorcerers protected this world from its end.

Therefore, he sneered.

At the half-baked sorcerer who, once again, tried to return the world that all sorcerers protected with their lives to nothingness, he felt an unbearable emptiness and sneered.

Therefore, at the moment he formed the seal.

“…!”

He hurriedly used a shield to protect his body from the danger he felt unconsciously.

And then.

Boom-!

The moment he was slammed into the ground, what he saw was.

“Master-! You’re a bit late!”

A blood-soaked beastman who shattered the grand intention he had created.

However, the Duke’s task did not change just because she joined the battle.

“Compound.”

The Duke.

■■■ formed the seal to kill him.

####

The battle continues.

“One point, dispersion, scattering, azure sky.”

From the mouth of Duke Comalon, phrases were continuously murmured.

It was a fragment of the dark arts he had accumulated over centuries, living in silence.

The dark arts that only he possessed, without any innate talent.

In a dark, ashen world, a galaxy unfurled.

Though he had not inherited the incantations, it was precisely because of this that he could perform such feats.

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of spheres rose into the air simultaneously, then fell to the ground like a meteor shower.

Along with them, faded memories that could only be recalled in dreams surfaced in the duke’s mind.

A voice emerged.

‘■■■, it’s a relief you didn’t become a sorcerer.’

Even as such a voice echoed.

Magic rained down on the beast who had ruined the grand cause.

On the half-sorcerer who sought to nullify the sorcerer’s will.

‘If you’re not a sorcerer, it’s just a futile death. So instead, I’ll entrust you with the future.’

The voice from a faint memory disturbed his ears.

And then.

Crackle-!

A golden flash.

“Cheonggwang (Clear Light).”

As if he felt no danger in this situation, the marquis evaded the magic with an indifferent expression.

‘Survive at all costs. That way, protect this world. The world that we, the sorcerers, have protected.’

He recalled the last memory.

The master’s final voice.

An old memory.

“Hoo-”

The Duke of Comalon let out a shallow sigh and looked ahead.

He knew.

His speed in chanting was overwhelmingly fast.

The speed of his magic’s manifestation was the same.

Surely, he was stronger than the half-sorcerer before him.

Yet, even so, his magic did not reach the opponent.

The fragments of magic he had trained for centuries did not work on the half-sorcerer who was just like him.

Once again, as always.

“……”

The Duke of Comalon looked at him.

The Marquis’s body was clearly covered in more small wounds than before.

Countless glass bottles were scattered on the floor.

Yet his expression remained indifferent, his hands in the pockets of his coat, facing him.

The dust-covered, dark-colored coat fluttered nobly.

In contrast, the Duke of Comalon’s condition was not so good.

The injury to his right hand, inflicted in a moment of carelessness, was gradually eating away at his mental strength, and the hole in his abdomen was clearly taking his life.

However, even in a life-threatening situation, his expression showed no pain.

Rather, he chuckled.

“You must know.”

Calmly.

“How foolish you are being.”

He opened his mouth.

“Even if you have inherited the sigil… If you survived without receiving the image, you would know. Soon they will rise, and the world will perish.”

His voice carried no emotion.

“There is less than half a year left until the souls are fully filled. If we do not settle this world, humanity, within that time, they will rise.”

There was not a trace of anger.

“Knowing this, do you intend to make the deaths of the mages, who abandoned everything to protect this world, in vain?”

“……”

He was just calm.

Calmly.

He only asked.

However, even in response to the Duke of Comalon’s question, the Marquis of Palatio’s face remained serene.

As if he did not empathize with the Duke’s words at all.

Erasing even the slightest fragment of emotion, the Marquis stared at him and spoke for the first time.

“Am I making the deaths of the mages in vain?”

A plain question.

The Duke chuckled again.

“You must already know, this world is sustained by the sacrifices of mages.”

####

Alon silently stared at Duke Komalon.

There was a sense of calmness in his eyes.

But paradoxically, because of that, it seemed like anger was lurking.

In that brief moment, Alon forced his sluggish mind to think.

Was what he just said true?

He couldn’t tell.

Then, was what he said a lie?

That too, he couldn’t tell.

Regrettably, Alon was not the half-baked mage the Duke mistook him for.

He was merely an anomaly.

Having encountered this world through a game called Psychedelia, he knew nothing of this world’s hidden past—

Strictly speaking, he was just an outsider.

Therefore, he couldn’t judge.

The man before him.

He couldn’t judge a single word the half-baked mage was saying to him.

Whether it was true or false.

“Answer me. Do you have a way to not let the sacrifices of those mages go in vain?”

Alon remained silent at Duke Komalon’s question.

Even if everything the Duke said was true, Alon couldn’t dare to make a judgment.

He wasn’t someone capable of quickly grasping the newly discovered information about this world, whether it was true or false.

He was merely an anomaly.

But if there was one clear judgment he made.

It was that he had to stop the man before him here and now.

Because Duke Komalon’s goal was the annihilation of humanity, or some ‘greater’ cause equivalent to it.

“I see.”

The Duke let out a low hum at Alon’s silence.

Alon still did not respond.

Alon and Duke Komalon faced each other, and formed a seal.

Even Duke Komalon and Alon realized it.

That any further conversation between them was meaningless.

Alon checked his magical power.

Thanks to the several bottles of potions he had consumed, his magic staff had already recovered quite a bit of power during that short conversation.

The moment he realized it.

The two of them chanted the incantations simultaneously.

“Diffraction.”

“Hundred Flowers.”

This battle no longer judged right or wrong.

“One Point.”

“Blossom.”

Nor was it a place to determine who was good.

“Condensation.”

“Raising Flowers.”

Nor was it a place to determine who was evil.

“Annihilation.”

“Diffusion.”

This was now merely a clash of two different beliefs.

At the end of the completed magic.

“I will kill you and achieve my purpose. The wishes of the sorcerers, my-“

Duke Komalon opened his mouth.

“-great cause.”

He manifested the magic.

The flower petals scattered around him spread out in an instant, eroding the surrounding atmosphere and erasing everything as if with an eraser.

In the midst of the fully bloomed magical flowers, Alon.

Thought for a moment.

And then.

“I am,”

With a small voice.

“──here.”

He snapped his fingers.

Soon, with a piercing white tinnitus that gnawed at everyone’s ears.

The beliefs of the two-

From noble mtl dot com

-The beliefs of the half-baked sorcerers clashed.