I Became the Patron of Villains

31. What is the purpose of the duel? (3)

The white snowy field, reclaimed by a single flash, captured everyone’s attention for a moment.

As the fleeting moment passed and the snowy field returned to ashen, leaving only dust and snowstorms behind.

“……”

Everyone fell silent.

A space where even a small breath was not permitted.

In that place where only the sound of crumbling gravel and dust could be heard, the living gazed at Alon with various expressions.

In the eyes of the soldiers, there was awe.

In the eyes of the knights, there was hope.

However, Alon, who was receiving these mixed gazes of awe and hope, maintained a blank expression.

More precisely.

‘Please, please, please-‘

He was praying earnestly.

He sincerely hoped that with this strike, the foreign god would be annihilated.

But-

“Ah.”

With someone’s pitiful, low exclamation, Alon realized that his prayer had not reached the heavens.

There stood a giant.

Standing tall with both arms raised, facing the sunset with an expression of joy on his face.

With a huge hole in his chest.

[Strong.]

A low voice.

Despite his heart being pierced, the giant’s bright smile made the soldiers and knights feel a reverence that transcended even fear.

‘Ah.’

From Alon’s perspective, it was endless despair.

‘It’s over.’

His attack had certainly succeeded in delivering a clear blow to Ultultus.

The problem was that the blow had only managed to pierce the heart, not obliterate the entire body.

‘…Was the firepower insufficient?’

Objectively speaking, the fact that he, who had only just reached the third rank of magic, could project this level of firepower was due to several reasons, but the constraints played a significant role this time.

The use of Babylonian phrases and beastmen were clear constraints, but the constraints he placed this time were even more restrictive than usual.

Even specifying a ‘species’ or designating a specific enemy as constraints in the game purely amplified the magic power by over 100% and 200%, respectively.

In addition, the time spent placing the constraints and the incantation that took tens of seconds, which would normally be impossible to use in an attack.

It could only be used in a situation where the opponent could not avoid the attack.

By pre-setting the coordinates at the start of the magic implementation, he could produce a higher level of firepower with the help of auxiliary magic.

In short, the magic he had just used was the strongest and only card Alon could play at this point.

Thus, from the moment this attack failed to land properly, Alon’s defeat was certain.

His attack had struck the heart of the Outsider, but merely striking the heart of the Outsider was not enough to annihilate it.

As if to prove this, Ultultus stood there, still and proud, with a deep smile on his face.

His body was covered in burn marks, and his heart had a hole in it, but that grandiose smile never faded.

[Huh- Is that so. Indeed, you were carrying on the will.]

Muttering words that only Alon could hear, the giant’s cryptic words made Alon lower his hand that had formed the seal.

Even at this moment, the effects of the highest-grade potion continued to heal his body, so that now his body was sufficiently restored to move, albeit uncomfortably, but that was of little significance.

For Alon, who had already exhausted all the magic in his bracelet due to the recent spell, there was no more magic left to continue the battle.

Thus, behind his expressionless face, he was gloomy, and he raised his gaze with some doubt at what Ultultus said next.

“?”

At that moment, he could see it.

Ultultus’s body, slowly beginning to disappear.

Reflected in the sunset light, the giant’s figure began to vanish from the feet up, and Alon wore a bewildered expression.

‘Is he… vanishing?’

For a moment, a thought passed through his mind, but Alon shook his head slightly to cut off his thoughts.

He had never seen an Outsider vanish in such a manner.

Thus, his doubt was only momentary.

[Impressive, noble one. To think you already possess ‘rank’, I could not have imagined.]

Alon wore a bewildered expression at the Outsider’s words.

Thud!

With an unparalleled smile, he plopped down on the spot and propped his chin up, speaking.

[Noble one, though we exchanged blows only once, it was truly splendid. Indeed, the ‘black one’ and the ‘blue one’ are worth watching.]

“……?”

Alon, puzzled by the sudden voice in his head and the incomprehensible words, felt a sense of wonder.

Of course, his face remained expressionless, showing no change in his expression. Ultultus continued to speak.

[Having lost the duel, I shall grant you a gift. And bestow upon you authority.]

Grin.

[Remember the hand and mystery of the forgotten great god- the one who remembers us and carries on the will.]

Ultultus’s body, now nearly half gone, began to accelerate its disappearance, but he opened his mouth with a deep, benevolent smile.

[When the ‘usurpers’ crawl out from their bindings, call upon me. Call my true name instead of the false epithet steeped in lies.]

He continued speaking.

[You have the right to do so.]

And then.

[I-]

With those words.

[The supernatural forces.]

The ornament tied to the waist of the foreign god fell to the ground and completely disappeared.

…Leaving behind a thick smile of anticipation.

Thus,

“…?”

Alon, who had witnessed the disappearance of the foreign god right before his eyes, stared blankly at the ornament left behind with a bewildered expression.

With the sunset at his back, Alon’s expressionless face, staring at the spot where the foreign god had vanished, caught the eyes of the soldiers and knights.

“……”

Reverence spread among the living.

After the giant disappeared, the frozen land, which had been filled with the voices of the dead until just a moment ago, was now replaced by the sharp sound of the cold wind.

The dead, who had struggled in vain, all found peace, and the living began to collect the corpses of the dead.

About a day later, the expedition, having achieved its goal of capturing the foreign god, began to move back to Caliburn.

About two days passed.

Just as when they had come to the north, Alon, returning with the knights, experienced three significant changes.

“Chung-!”

The first was that most of the knights saluted Alon whenever they looked at him.

While the relationship between wizards and knights was not particularly bad, there was still a minimal sense of rivalry.

Especially, unlike the wizards who were close to researchers, the wizards who purely used magic for combat made the relationship between knights and wizards somewhat indifferent, and they did not particularly respect each other.

However, despite that, Alon was now being saluted by everyone, whether he was outside the carriage or outside the tent.

Regardless of the affiliation of the soldiers or knights, it was evenly distributed.

That was the first change that happened to Alon.

The second was.

“Deputy Tower Lord.”

“Yes, yes…?”

“I just have something to ask.”

“Wh-Whatever you want to ask…”

Penia’s delusion had grown strangely strong.

“……”

Alon, who had just started talking, looked at the trembling Penia and spoke with a troubled expression.

“I think there’s some misunderstanding-“

“Not at all, there’s no misunderstanding…! You’re the Count of the Second Rank, aren’t you?!”

Penia spoke exaggeratedly.

Even in the midst of it, her slightly trembling eyes were pitiful.

But this time, Alon became sullen for a different reason.

“…I’m of the Third Rank.”

“Th-That’s right!! You were of the Third Rank! Yes, I was mistaken…!”

Penia nodded frantically, startled by Alon’s calm but subtly disgruntled voice.

“…But why does the Deputy Tower Master of the Blue Tower use such honorifics for someone of the Third Rank?”

“Ah, is that so- No, is it? Then from now on, I’ll speak informally- I will…”

Alon looked at Penia, who started speaking informally like a broken doll, and spoke.

“…Do as you please.”

“Ah, understood. Thank you…!”

Penia bowed her head, expressing her gratitude in formal speech.

“……”

Receiving thanks for allowing formal speech made Alon feel like a cruel mastermind, and he soon spoke.

“Do you know anything about the black and the blue?”

“No? I don’t, I don’t know anything.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, really, I don’t know anything.”

Penia shook her head vigorously, as if she truly didn’t know.

“If you know anything, tell me.”

“Really, I don’t know, I don’t know anything. I’ve never seen the black or the blue.”

“……”

Alon, at a loss for words at her quick response, wondered if she had even thought about it, and soon realized it would be difficult to get an answer from her and nodded.

“Then, I shall be off…!”

Seeing her lips curl into a strange smile as she slowly looked down, as if escaping this conversation was such a joy, Alon felt oddly hurt.

As soon as he nodded, he saw Fenia running off into the distance and the wizard looking at her with reverent eyes, and Alon recalled the keywords the foreign god had uttered.

‘Black thing, blue thing, the forgotten great god’s beast and mystery, monstrous god, rank. The one who connects the will. Authority.’

Among them, Alon could infer only one thing.

‘The one who connects the will of the forgotten god’s beast and mystery was definitely the sound I heard when I cast the restriction through the ring of constraint… but other than that, I don’t know a single thing.’

Alon absentmindedly touched his head.

In fact, there were quite a few parts he couldn’t understand from his perspective.

Although it was fortunate, he still couldn’t understand why the foreign god, who shouldn’t have perished, was destroyed by that attack.

Was that all?

He couldn’t understand what Ultultus meant by ‘black thing’ and ‘blue thing’. He also couldn’t understand what ‘rank’ was referring to.

‘In this world, the only rank I know is divine rank. Of course, it can’t be that.’

He couldn’t understand the ‘monstrous god’ that Ultultus had uttered as his true name either.

‘…For something like that, isn’t Ultultus too different?’

He tilted his head at the exotic name that seemed more fitting for an Eastern god than the northern barbarian god he originally knew.

‘…Should I go there to find out something?’

Alon took out the ornament from his bosom.

The foreign god Ultultus—no, the monstrous god—had worn it, a leather ornament with three amethysts lined up in a row.

It was an ornament that could be obtained after defeating him in the game, and its effect was to precisely double the user’s damage.

However, since the damage received was also doubled the moment the item was equipped, players used to call it the glass cannon belt. And when Alon looked inside the ornament, he soon saw the sentence written there.

‘The one who connects the will, head to the ancient god’s city of Kahara.’

Seeing the letters that shouldn’t have existed on the belt, Alon easily guessed that it was a gift left by the foreign god and thought.

‘…It’s not difficult to go there.’

The ancient god’s city of Kahara, as the name ‘ancient god’ suggests, is a city that doesn’t exist in the current era.

But Alon roughly knew where this city was located.

That was because, in the game, this city was one of the secret dungeons that players could enter upon reaching the ‘Colony’.

So, looking at the sentence on the belt, Alon headed back to the carriage.

“…Were you here?”

“Ah, Deus.”

At some point, he looked at Deus, who was standing next to him.

With an expressionless face that seemed no different from usual, Deus began to follow Alon, who wore a strangely uneasy expression.

That was because Deus was the last of the three major changes that occurred when Alon returned to Caliban.

Of course, if you looked at it this way, Deus hadn’t changed that much.

He seemed to be putting a bit more strength into his body, but that was only a very slight feeling, and there wasn’t much difference on the surface.

But the reason Alon wore a strangely uneasy expression was.

“……Count.”

“Why?”

“May I kill the deputy tower lord?”

“……Why……?”

“Did he not speak informally to you, Count?”

……Since that day, Deus had been expressing his respect more aggressively.

“There’s no need for that.”

“……Yes.”

Although it wasn’t obvious, Alon could see that Deus looked somewhat disappointed.

“Then, Count.”

“……Why?”

“Shall I make an example of two of the wizards?”

“……”

Why are you like this……?

Alon felt dizzy……