Chapter 294: The Sin of Greed (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 294: The Sin of Greed (5)
The Sin of Greed had been born.
The moment Alon realized this, the first thing that crossed his mind wasn't the grim despair that a Sin had appeared.
"Magrina."
"Yes, Brother..."
"Don't tell me—"
Alon couldn't finish his sentence.
It wasn't because he lacked the words. The words were there, clear as day in his mind. It was simply that he lacked the courage to ask. As his voice trailed off, Magrina spoke.
"Don't worry, Brother. The seal is perfectly fine."
At her words, Alon let out a long, involuntary sigh of relief. The churning in his stomach began to settle. To him, the fact that Line hadn't become the Sin of Greed was far more important than the fact that the Sin itself had manifested.
It was a true mercy.
It was a somewhat unfamiliar side of him—different from the old Alon, who would have prioritized stopping the birth of a Sin above all else. Yet, Alon himself didn't notice this change as he calmly resumed his tactical assessment.
‘The fact that there are four Ash Scatterers means the Sin of Greed has already been fully born.’
This wasn't a half-baked entity like the Sin of Jealousy he had encountered before. The Sin of Greed Alon faced now was the complete version of ‘that’ Sin he had fought in Psychedelia.
A monster that could ruin a kingdom just by appearing.
A creature that devoured hundreds of thousands of lives.
A calamity that would drive everything toward destruction until its own death, eventually leading the entire continent to ruin.
Alon looked at the Ash Scatterers approaching Phildegrin. Magma erupted incessantly from their bodies. Green trees were ruthlessly crushed under their every movement. The Ash Scatterers—no, the ‘Mothers of Greed’—were devouring everything in their path, living up to their name.
And in the very center of those Mothers of Greed...
“...”
It stood there.
The first thing he noticed was skin so pale it couldn't possibly be human. Then, he saw the numerous wing-bones protruding from its back, twisted at grotesque angles. They were bare skeletons, devoid of a single feather. However, pinned to those bones were hundreds of slips of paper covered in indecipherable writing, fluttering like makeshift wings.
Finally, he saw the eyes—inverted eyes. The black sclera and the emotionless green glow of the pupils stared forward with chilling intelligence.
“...”
Alon let out a short, sharp breath at the sight.
Normally, it took some time for a Sin to reach its complete state. Therefore, when a Player faced a Sin, they were usually given an advantage—fighting it while it was still incomplete and weak, or while one of its key skills was sealed.
Unfortunately, the Sin before Alon’s eyes looked as though it had already finished adapting.
As he brooded over this, a voice reached his ears.
“H-How... how are we supposed to deal with those things—?”
It was the murmur of an elf watching the scene beside him. The situation was dire. Some were paralyzed by terror. Others were gritting their teeth to keep from being consumed by fear, though the anxiety in their eyes betrayed their true state. Some simply stared ahead with hollow expressions.
The Mothers of Greed, marching toward Phildegrin and devouring everything in their path, were greedily stripping the soldiers of even the words ‘courage’ and ‘hope.’
In this desperate moment, he had to be even more composed. As Alon calmed his mind and continued to think, Seolrang called out to him.
“Mentor.”
Alon turned his gaze toward her.
“Should I just get rid of all of them?”
At Seolrang’s question, Alon coolly assessed their combat power. His deliberation didn't last long.
“Seolrang, Ladan, Ria. Help me.”
* * *
“Your Majesty, you must evacuate. Right now—!”
Ramu, who had been assessing the situation from the castle wall alongside Alon, looked ahead with a frantic expression. The Mothers of Greed were still moving toward Phildegrin, as if they intended to swallow the entire city whole at any moment.
“Your Majesty! Please!”
Ramu cried out urgently once more. However, Magrina, who had been staring straight ahead with an unreadable expression, finally spoke.
“Ramu, do not worry so much.”
Her voice was incredibly serene.
“This isn't just a simple worry, this is a truly dangerous situation...!”
Ramu thumped her chest in frustration. As a former member of the Black Leaf, she knew exactly what kind of power those things possessed.
‘There’s no way we can win against that...!’
Of course, Ramu was well aware that the situation now was different from back then. She could use mana now, and the Primordial Elf who had handled the Ash Scatterers before was with them. But Ramu’s belief that they were in danger remained unchanged.
She knew. She knew that this wasn't the end of it.
At that moment.
“W-What on earth is that—?”
A voice filled with horror rang out. Ramu immediately looked down.
“—”
She let out a breath of pure despair.
There,
■■■■■■■■—!
Grey-skinned creatures—the Ash Powder—were emerging from the red magma and charging toward the castle walls. The expressions of the elves, who had been trying their best to find courage, were instantly clouded by despair. Ramu also squeezed her eyes shut at the overwhelming scale of the assault.
The number of Ash Powder was beyond counting. There were enough of them to cover the elves' entire field of vision in grey.
“Ha...”
A soldier let out a hollow laugh at the overwhelming spectacle. No one scolded him. Anyone seeing this sight would have let out the same bitter laugh. The Ash Powder were just that overwhelming.
“Your Majesty—!”
Ramu shouted toward Magrina again, but Magrina continued to stare ahead silently, her face showing no emotion. Just as Ramu was about to speak once more—
“Heave-ho—”
A small voice drifted over. Ramu naturally turned her gaze toward the sound. There, she saw Seolrang standing at the edge of the wall, twisting her waist back and forth to warm up.
Ramu let out a dry laugh. She had felt it instinctively—that this beastkin was strong. But to see her preparing to charge in so nonchalantly after seeing those numbers... it was incomprehensible. No matter how strong she was, Ramu couldn't imagine her driving back such an absurd number of enemies.
“Stop this madness—”
Just as she was about to stop her,
Zap!
Lightning began to leak from Seolrang’s body.
Crackle! Zap!
The lightning, starting from her golden gauntlets, spread across her entire body in an instant. And then—
CRACKLE!
The moment Seolrang erupted with golden lightning and became the Thunder God, a quiet murmur escaped her lips.
“Swaying Spear (狼槍狼槍)—”
It was an incantation that might have sounded almost cute in another context. But immediately after—
“!”
Ramu saw it. Seolrang, who had clearly been standing before her eyes just a second ago, vanished as if she had never existed.
And then.
Flash.
BOOM—
A brilliant yellow flash erupted, and the Ash Scatterer leading the charge let out a horrific scream.
■■■■■■■■■■──────────────!!!!
The golden Thunder God had fallen from the sky. Under her hands, the Ash Scatterer was ruthlessly blown apart.
“Crazy...”
It was an impossible sight. But—
Step!
As if this were only the beginning, Historia kicked off the wall and began to plummet headfirst into the middle of the Ash Powder. Even though the Ash Scatterer was dead, the Ash Powder didn't hesitate to thrust their weapons upward to deal with the enemy diving from above.
With only a few seconds left before Historia’s body hit the ground—
Click!
Her posture shifted. She crouched, gripping the sword at her left hip. Finally, at the very moment Historia’s body was about to touch the earth—
Second Form.
The Ash Powder rushing toward Historia froze. As if time had stopped, they stood perfectly still. Historia landed lightly on the ground.
Click.
The moment she sheathed the sword she had swung faster than the eye could follow—
White Moon.
Upon the grey-covered earth, a massive moon of vegetation rose.
And immediately after Historia swept away the swarming Ash Powder—
“Hup—!”
Ladan, who had been calmly catching his breath, finally kicked off the wall and leapt into the air. Jumping far higher than Seolrang or Historia, Ladan reached into the void.
Crackle! Zap!
With a grotesque sound, as if tearing a rift in the air, a weapon was pulled into Ladan’s hand. It was the Greatsword—the same one from Ladan’s treasury that had dealt with a monster dozens of times larger than a ship not long ago. The overwhelming Greatsword, capable of bisecting the blue sky itself, was summoned through the rift.
“What... what is that—!”
The despairing soldiers looked up at Ladan in shock. At that moment, the Greatsword began to fall toward the earth.
Ladan did nothing else. He had simply summoned the massive Greatsword; he took no further action. Unless he was at sea, Ladan couldn't "eject" his relics.
However, the colossal sword, large enough to split the heavens—
──────────!!!!
By its sheer existence alone, it proved its worth.
KABOOM—!!!!!
The Greatsword crashed into the ground like a divine judgment, ruthlessly crushing two Ash Scatterers. A massive cloud of dust erupted from the impact.
“...”
The elves, who had been steeped in despair until a moment ago, were now filled with awe. Ramu, who had been staring blankly at the scene, wore an expression of trembling shock.
“Whew.”
The last one to step forward was Alon. He couldn't fully grasp the state of the battlefield yet. But one thing was clear: Alon had to deal with the remaining Ash Scatterers and the Sin itself.
‘The control is still unstable, but this should be of some help to your formula.’
‘But don't maintain it for too long. Not unless you want your brain to fry and kill you before you even realize it. If you feel an overload coming, turn it off immediately.’
Kailas’s words echoed vividly in Alon’s mind.
‘And finally, whatever you do, do NOT "complete" it. Your current self won't be able to withstand it.’
The words were a bit cold, but every single one of them was filled with concern for Alon’s well-being. What he was about to use was dangerous enough for even Kailas to warn him multiple times.
But even so, Alon made his decision. If he didn't do this, he wouldn't be able to handle the Sin.
“Blackie.”
[Kyu—!]
At Alon’s call, Blackie climbed from his chest onto his shoulder. Finally, standing with his back to the elves, Alon formed a seal.
“Shadow—”
He began to recite the phrase without hesitation.
“—Awakening.”