I Became the Patron of Villains

58. The King of Gluttony (3)

As soon as the eyes and ears of everyone present were blinded by the white light.

When their stolen sight returned, what the mercenaries and Alon saw before them was.

“……!”

A gigantic crater.

Nothing remained there.

Not the grass that had been growing.

Nor the ancient ruins, whose age was impossible to guess.

Even Argonia and Maverick, who had approached him closely, disappeared without a trace.

In the middle of that pit.

“……”

It was the foreign god, twisting his lips into a deep smile.

“……”

The mercenaries’ expressions began to be painted with despair.

Myaon, who had been holding a bow, and Heman, who had been casting a spell until just a moment ago, also opened their mouths in disbelief.

And then.

Hee-juk-!

The smiling foreign god moved.

“!”

The foreign god, who had appeared in front of Heman, who had been wearing a blank expression just a moment ago, slashed his hand from left to right without hesitation, as if sentencing him to death.

Of course, Heman, knowing what that action would result in, instinctively leaned back to avoid the invisible slash and immediately tried to use Blink.

“How will you avoid from top to bottom?”

With a mocking tone and a hand slashing from top to bottom.

Kwa-jik-!

By the time Heman’s body split in half and fell to the ground.

The foreign god had already approached Myaon.

“Gasp!”

Myaon, who had witnessed Heman’s demise and had already drawn her bowstring in preparation, tried to release it as soon as he appeared.

“Kahak-!”

But before she could release the bowstring, the foreign god’s kick executed in an instant, sent her flying into the ruins in the opposite direction.

“Now, only you are left.”

Kailas said, with a deep smile.

The current situation, where the four guild leaders were defeated without even putting up a proper fight, could be seen as the victory being practically decided.

For Alon, the current situation was the worst.

His plan had not been properly implemented from the very beginning.

The Ice Crystal Extreme, which had almost drained all of Alon’s magic power, had not caused any damage to the opponent.

And all the guild leaders who were supposed to buy time for Alon to prepare his magic had been defeated.

“…….”

Alon lowered his gaze slightly.

Two empty potion bottles were already rolling around on the floor.

Having taken the risk of magic addiction, he had consumed two bottles of magic potion, and his tiny magic hole was filling up at a fairly rapid pace.

But even as the magic filled up, his mind could no longer come up with the next plan.

The foreign god he had to face with his already shattered plan was overwhelmingly powerful.

Moreover, the real problem was the magic.

‘I’ve never seen that magic before.’

Alon knew well about Kailas’s abilities and magic, having faced him several times in Psychedelia.

The reason the guild leaders could hold out against the foreign god was because that information provided an absolute advantage in knowledge.

But just a moment ago, the magic Kailas used – the one that used phrases and sentences like his – was something even he had never seen before.

In other words, the informational advantage Alon had was already gone at this point.

And that wasn’t all.

‘……That’s magic.’

Alon felt a sense of futility as he looked at the crater behind him, where nothing remained.

Even though it was the same magic that used phrases and sentences, the foreign god’s magic was qualitatively different from what Alon was using.

……In other words, from skill to information to plans, everything was overwhelmingly disadvantageous, and even the mercenaries had lost the will to fight, merely looking up at the foreign god.

In this desperate situation that only led to death, Alon looked at the foreign god who seemed to be mocking him.

“…….”

After a brief silence.

“Famous of the snowy mountains-”

He unfolded his magic.

“Decision (決定).”

Following Alon’s words, the air gathered again, forming dozens of particles.

“Rotation (自轉).”

Following the next phrase, the particles began to rotate clockwise.

Hee-juk-!

With a deep smile, Kailas immediately moved his fingers.

A simple movement from left to right.

But.

Zzzeok-!

‘There is still hope.’

As the invisible slash heading towards Alon began to freeze upon hitting one of the particles floating in the air.

“Rine, help.”

The battle began once more.

####

There were many elements in the battles of wizards, but ultimately, two things were truly important.

The first was the speed of magic implementation.

The second was the mind game.

To win against a wizard, one had to predict what kind of magic the opponent would deploy and how, and act a step ahead.

Accordingly, one had to have a similar speed of magic implementation to seize the victory.

No matter how superior one was in the mind game, if the implementation speed couldn’t keep up, it was impossible to cope.

And, from that perspective, Alon and the foreign god’s fight was inevitably disadvantageous.

Chwarrr-!!

Currently, beside Alon was Rine, who would fend off the foreign god’s attacks.

Kwaggagak-!!

Even though it had been cast more than three times already, Rine, who was deflecting the invisible slashes squeezing through the remaining magic in an instant, was seen.

Alon felt his hands trembling.

The number of mana potions that had fallen to the ground had already exceeded five, and his skin was turning blue.

Mana poisoning symptoms.

The pounding heart and the mana hole recovering at an incomparable speed to its usual state allowed Alon to cast another spell.

-Zzzeok!

The slash was blocked as soon as the magic was implemented.

At that fleeting moment, Kailas, who had moved in an instant as if waiting, appeared before Alon’s eyes.

“Huh-!”

Chwarrr-!

The foreign god distanced itself and used magic again as it was fiercely shot by chains.

As if playing with a mouse, like a cat.

With the heart of an absolute being watching the final struggle.

Even though it could end it, it was merely toying with Alon.

However, despite such a humiliating situation, what filled his mind was not anger but cold reason.

In that state.

“Crystal (結晶).”

Alon, once again, continued to defend.

Defending,

Defending,

Defending,

Defending.

As if he had no strength left to attack.

With blue skin that had crept up from his fingertips to his shoulders, he continued to defend.

That desperate, almost frantic appearance.

“……”

Someone with eyes full of despair.

Someone with eyes full of disappointment.

Someone with eyes filled with emptiness and frustration.

Everyone watched.

But even in such a situation, Alon steadfastly blocked the slashes.

As if it were his final desperate act.

With eyes that had turned blue from magical intoxication.

He just continued to unfold the allowed magic.

And then.

Finally, the chains handled by Line, who was blocking the attack with Alon, broke.

Heh-

As if what was to come had come, at the moment Kailas’s smile appeared.

‘Now.’

With a brief thought.

“Crystal (結晶).”

Once again, setting up the particles to obscure Kailas’s view-

“Ice and Snow (氷雪).”

-Alon, preceded with a different phrase than before.

The white frost began to cling to the magic gathering before him.

“Form.”

The frost soon expanded its force around Alon.

“Of the snowy mountains, the famous-“

The sentence, barely spat out while forcibly swallowing blood, created a giant hexagonal crystal in front of Alon.

“Of the blind… Inevitability-“

The created hexagonal crystal rapidly expanded, devouring the surrounding atmosphere, and once again formed a spear, just like before.

No, it was so beautiful that it couldn’t even be called a spear.

But Alon, who had forcibly swallowed the blood boiling in his mouth, did not utter the final phrase.

‘This won’t do.’

It was the move with the highest chance of defeating the foreign god at this point.

He had drunk all the magic potions he had been holding for this moment.

From his position with a small magic hole, he had to continue the war of attrition, which was inevitably fatal.

With that, he succeeded in luring Kailas into a trap.

His body, now close to a state of near-death, unlocked another restriction he had set in advance.

A restriction that could twist the laws of the world when using magic in a near-death state.

Now, the only thing left was to prepare the final blow to kill him from the obscured view caused by the ice that blocked the slash.

But he knew.

That this alone wouldn’t be enough.

Nevertheless, the reason Alon implemented this magic was because of what it had said back then.

The next step of the natural order.

Self-manifestation.

‘But, you still know nothing.’

Alon recalled the words of the foreign god.

His words surely meant that.

So he had to do it.

The final move that he couldn’t block, to be shot in the moment the foreign god let his guard down.

He had to implement it here and now.

‘Think.’

His thoughts accelerated.

The head, about to burst from magic addiction, repeatedly conjured and erased countless thoughts in a frenzy.

The maddening throb incessantly pounded the heart.

A pain as if the brain was melting.

Yet, it did not stop.

In every place where thought could reach, he sought hints to advance to the next stage of the natural order.

And then, at that moment.

[It is the seal.]

A voice echoed in Alon’s mind.

From noble mtl dot com

[Delusion and enlightenment are fundamentally the same.]

[Upon reaching it, you shall obtain the key.]

With a black flicker, the entity that had spoken those words vanished as if it had finished its task.

Without even a moment to grasp its identity, Alon, having found the final piece to advance to the next stage of the natural order, unhesitatingly broke the seal he had maintained until now and formed a new one.

He clasped his left hand, with only the index finger extended, with his right hand, positioning them to touch each other.

The completed, Wisdom Fist Seal.

And then.

Alon saw it.

What had been a beautiful patterned spear just moments ago, twisted bizarrely, transforming into the shape of a key.

Along with it.

“!”

As the ice melted away, the figure of the foreign god, who had been leisurely until just moments ago, came into view.

His relaxed expression hardened, and before he could even blink, he appeared before Alon, reaching out without hesitation.

“!”

Shrrrrrrrrrrk-!

Rine’s chains, as if they had been waiting from the beginning, blocked Alon’s front.

And then, a variable emerged.

The foreign god, who had immediately turned his body, approached Rine, who was defenseless while protecting Alon, and flicked his fingers.

“Ah.”

Rine’s low exclamation, foreseeing death.

But.

Alon’s hand, having already anticipated the situation, was already pulling her in by grasping her clothes.

*Shraaak-!*

A narrowly missed slash.

“-“

In return, blood was gushing from Alon’s hand, who was leading her, but without hesitation, he formed the hand seal again.

“Ice Crystal Halberd (氷晶畫戟).”

He uttered the final phrase.

As the created key turned, embedded in the giant crystal-

-A glacier descended upon the meadow.