Became The Patron Of Villains Chapter 593

[ … words ]

“This is ridiculous—”

Penia’s hollow voice reached Alon’s ears.

A voice filled with the emptiness of someone witnessing something impossible to oppose.

“……”

Alon felt the same emotion.

Crackagagagak────!!!

The world folded.

The land they stood upon—

Was folding beneath the power of the Karma seat before them.

An utterly overwhelming sight.

But naturally—

“!”

—Alon had no intention of going down so easily either.

Wooooong—!

Stars rose into the sky dyed by the red sunset.

And along with them appeared purple threads.

“Tch—!”

Though he had been stunned for a moment, Deus quickly regained his senses and immediately began using the purple threads to create an enormous breakwater in order to stop the folding world.

Crrrrack—!

Unfortunately, the purple threads Deus created did not last long before crumbling apart helplessly.

And the moment Deus ground his teeth—

“Deus, Penia—!”

At Alon’s shout, Deus snapped back to himself. He looked toward Alon and immediately understood his intent without difficulty.

“Ugh—!”

In an instant, Deus moved to Penia, grabbed her, and immediately reached Alon.

And the moment he reached him.

Alon recited the final phrase.

Sun’s Eye.

A sun appeared before Alon.

The point-blank-range magic he had used in the battle against the Karma seat of War.

The magic he could use because within that space, he absolutely could not die.

And then—

────────In a single instant, the burst of light swallowed the world.

The sun devoured sight and hearing.

Even the Karma seat before them.

And after a short time passed.

“Lord Alon!? Are you alright!?”

Along with Penia’s voice, what returned vision and hearing revealed was—

The world that had been lit by sunset moments ago had become a pitch-black enormous cavern.

And.

[Interesting.]

The Karma seat looking at Alon’s response with apparent interest.

And.

“I’m fine.”

Unlike before, when facing the Karma seat of War—

There stood Alon, looking at the Karma seat without a single injury.

####

Alon looked at the dark cavern.

No, he recalled the sunset as he thought.

What he had done was simple.

He had created a hole with magic so they would not be crushed inside the world folded in half.

The only issue had been that he needed to use Sun’s Eye at point-blank range.

‘It worked better than expected.’

Fortunately, one of the new spells he had learned from Heinkel had been enough to support that.

And so Alon looked at the cavern where blackened melting sounds echoed and turned his gaze back toward the Karma seat.

‘…As expected, it didn’t work.’

Alon looked at the Karma seat of Salvation.

Its appearance was no different from before.

Still wearing robes that resembled a clown’s ceremonial attire, standing there as though nothing behind the mask could be read.

And looking at that Karma seat, Alon felt a sense of incongruity.

As it had personally explained, its ability was to fold, unfold, and twist space.

But could the attack from earlier truly have been handled merely by twisting space?

“……”

Alon’s gaze reached the cavern.

The entire cavern was burning hot.

That was because Alon’s magic had created a subspace.

There was nowhere inside this cavern untouched by Alon’s magic.

Meaning there should have been nowhere for the Karma seat to evade to.

And so, while examining his surroundings, Alon’s gaze soon fell beneath the Karma seat.

[As expected, you’re quite skillful.]

At the Karma seat’s words, Alon slowly opened his mouth.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

[What is it?]

“What do you mean by incarnation of self-destruction?”

Alon recalled what had happened earlier.

‘The incarnation of self-destruction would never take my hand.’

The words the Karma seat had spoken to him when it extended its hand before the world folded.

No.

Words spoken as though it knew Alon.

Alon already knew that the Karma seats remembered some degree of the first timeline.

But this was the first Karma seat that had spoken as though it actually knew him.

That was why he asked.

But—

[If you desire salvation, there’s no reason I cannot tell you.]

It answered calmly.

“I don’t want to know badly enough to go that far.”

[Why? You know it too, don’t you? In the end, only pain awaits your future.]

“……”

[And by your choice, those two beside you will walk the same path of thorns.]

“Shut up. You’re not the one who decides whether it’s a path of thorns or not.”

Penia’s hostile reply.

At that, the Karma seat, which had maintained a relaxed expression until now, turned its gaze toward Penia.

[…….]

An expression twisted deeply enough to be obvious even beyond the mask.

[…Do you truly believe salvation within a path of thorns is real?]

The Karma seat’s mutter lingered only briefly.

Then, as though giving up, it let out a deep sigh.

[Fine. Then, just like before, there’s only one path.]

It raised its hand.

At that moment.

“Unfortunately, that isn’t true.”

Alon answered.

Crunch—!

And the Karma seat saw it.

The floor of the cavern, where nothing could be seen moments ago, beginning to crack apart.

[What—]

The Karma seat frowned as though unable to understand the situation.

But Alon answered with an endlessly calm expression.

“Did you really think I came to this Empire intending to face you alone?”

[…What?]

The hole in the floor widened.

And what appeared along with it was—

[Q-kyu—!]

Blackie.

Blackie was tearing apart the space beneath the floor.

[!]

Only then did the Karma seat’s eyes widen behind the mask as though it finally understood the situation.

But by the time Blackie appeared, Alon, Penia, and Deus—already gathered together—were falling downward.

“Then, until next time.”

The Karma seat reached Alon only after the delay.

But the group fell beneath the hole faster than that.

####

Immediately after Alon’s group fell through the hole below—

Before he could properly recognize anything.

At some point, Alon found himself standing on solid ground.

“Did… we come back?”

At Penia’s voice beside him, Alon turned his gaze.

“……”

What he saw was the desolate land of the Western Empire he had seen before.

“Looks like it.”

At Deus’s words beside him, Alon let out a sigh and thought.

‘Fortunately, everything proceeded as planned.’

Naturally, Alon had never intended to fight the Karma seat alone.

Even so, the reason he came to the Western Empire was because he intended to act as bait himself.

He could never have been confident enough to do otherwise when he did not even fully understand the Karma seat’s authority.

That was why, from the moment Alon learned the Wanderer was a traitor and learned a Karma seat was here, he established two plans.

The first was to completely deceive the Wanderer by fully entering the Western Empire.

The second was to meet the Karma seat, extract as much information about it as possible, then later regroup with the others and deal with it together.

That was also why he refused Rine’s suggestion.

He had never intended to settle things with the Karma seat in a single battle from the start.

[Kyuuu—]

Alon continued his thoughts while stroking Blackie, which slipped into his chest pocket as though it had been waiting.

‘…Though the second part turned out somewhat ambiguous.’

He had never intended to settle things in one battle with the Karma seat, but he had intended to gather as much information as possible.

Information was extremely important in any battle.

Especially if that battle was against a Karma seat.

Because of that, Alon deliberately stalled for time to understand the Karma seat’s abilities.

And he had indeed grasped part of them.

Folding space, unfolding it, twisting it.

At the very least, that was what Alon had learned while inside there.

However.

‘…There are too many strange things.’

Separately from that, Alon still felt unease regarding the Karma seat’s abilities.

The Karma seat had admitted its powers itself, yet unresolved questions and discomfort remained.

‘Even if its authority is limited to usage within that space, the strangeness still—’

For example—

“Lord Alon.”

At the voice interrupting his thoughts, Alon turned his gaze and Penia spoke.

“We need to move quickly.”

At Penia’s words, Alon came back to himself and nodded.

They had escaped thanks to one of the Divine blood abilities Blackie had devoured before—an ability that “gnawed through space”—but if they were dragged back into that space again, the situation would worsen.

Of course, authorities were not omnipotent and therefore carried risks, so the Karma seat could not immediately abduct them back into that space.

“Agreed.”

Still, Alon immediately called for Basiliora in order to leave the area as quickly as possible.

[Got it!]

Responding instantly to Alon’s call, Basiliora rapidly grew larger.

And seeing Blackie wrap itself around Basiliora’s body as though it had been waiting for exactly this, Alon’s group climbed onto it.

“Hoo—”

Perhaps because the situation was what it was, Deus let out a deep breath as though trying to endure without knocking himself unconscious.

And with that, Alon rose into the sky.

As the ground rapidly grew distant beneath them, Alon’s group began moving toward the sealing formation within the Empire.

“Hoo—”

Watching that, Alon exhaled, then turned his head and looked behind him.

Penia and Deus let out relieved breaths as though they could finally relax, though their expressions remained somewhat dark.

Alon understood their reactions.

Their attacks had not reached the Karma seat at all.

And so, the group glided onward in a somewhat sunken atmosphere.

Not long after, the Empire became visible in the distance.

“If we go just a little farther—”

The moment Penia said that.

“Huh?”

She let out a confused sound, as though she could not understand something.

“Why are you—”

As Alon turned his gaze.

“…?”

He, too, could not help showing a puzzled expression.

Because.

There was something in the sky where no one should have existed except them.

No.

“…A dragon?”

There was a dragon.

A dragon moving through empty air just like Basiliora.

However.

“!”

Not long afterward, Alon realized it.

That was not a dragon.

That was—

“…A centipede?”

A centipede.

A grotesque centipede whose legs were all giant human fingers.

“Ugh—”

And the moment he recognized it—

[Ugh—!?]

Basiliora let out a groan and immediately began diving toward the ground.

“Basiliora!”

[This is not my will! Something is dragging me down!]

Basiliora’s shout.

“Ugh—!”

And so, while clinging onto Basiliora, the group began falling toward the ground.

And after dropping beneath the clouds, Alon—

“!?”

Soon widened his eyes at the sight below.

Was it because the ground approached faster than expected?

No.

The reason Alon was shocked—

“What is this now—”

Was because the land had changed.

The landscape of the Western Empire he had seen before had been dry wasteland.

But what was he seeing now?

In the distance stood cherry blossom trees.

Beyond them rose gigantic mountains that looked as though they belonged in some martial arts fantasy.

And finally—

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■—

Monsters hideous enough to make one frown, completely opposite to that beautiful scenery.

A giant crab-like creature whose legs were fingers and whose face resembled a massive human head.

A monster devouring cherry blossom trees while tangled limbs writhed inside its open mouth.

A rabbit whose two enormous ears had transformed into skinned human arms.

An unknown beast moving with dozens of connected arms fused together.

Looking at that sight—

“…This is insane.”

—At the Monster Paradise, Alon let out a sigh.