Chapter 295: The Sin of Greed (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 295: The Sin of Greed (6)
Skitter-clatter—!
As Alon muttered, eyes began to manifest on Blackie’s previously featureless body.
From one to two.
From two to four.
In an instant, red pupils spread across Blackie’s entire form.
“Shadow Tree.”
At the signal of the Phrase Alon whispered, Blackie’s tail wound around Alon’s body like a snake and slithered down.
“Linked.”
Soon, black shadows and red eyes began to spread across Alon’s entire frame.
“Transmutation.”
Blackie’s physical form on his shoulder dissolved like melting snow, scattering and vanishing into Alon’s body.
And then.
“Holy Verse in the Darkness.”
The shadows enveloping Alon’s body formed a black circle behind him.
Like a halo, the black shadows gathered behind Alon’s head, instantly drawing a massive circle.
Immediately after.
“Defying Heaven.”
The moment Alon spoke the formula.
Shift—!
Red pupils appeared within the black halo etched behind him.
Alon’s black coat, which had been fluttering lightly, began to flicker like a shadow.
And then.
“……Wow.”
In the sky, filled with ash from everything that had burned, a galaxy began to form.
* * *
It’s comfortable.
That was the first thought Alon had as he looked at the galaxy created within the ashen world.
The Art of Defying Heaven required the constant creation of stars to draw a galaxy in order to discharge the infinitely multiplying mana.
Normally, he would have to endure pain that felt like his brain was melting, but now, he felt only peace.
I should have learned this sooner.
The reason Alon could open the formula so comfortably was thanks to the magic he had recently learned from Kailas.
The effect of the magic was simple.
It was to completely assimilate with the Shadow Spirit Dragon—Blackie—and delegate a portion of his magical calculations to him.
Thanks to that, Alon could calmly assess the current situation with a mind far clearer than before.
But it’s still unstable. The remaining time is…… two minutes at most.
Naturally, the magic Alon had received from Kailas was far from complete.
There was one reason.
Alon hadn't mastered Kailas’s magic perfectly; he had only learned the specific part necessary for this moment.
In other words, the Awakening Alon had learned from Kailas had no other effect besides calculation assistance, and its duration was pitifully short.
It was perhaps roughly the same amount of time Alon could forcibly maintain Defying Heaven.
However, that much was enough.
“Phew—”
Exhaling softly, Alon leaped from the outer edge of the castle wall and flicked his gauntleted hand.
Cr-crack—!
Frozen Ground spread across the ashen world.
A massive mountain of ash was created as the swarming particles were instantly frozen solid.
Landing on the peak of that mountain, Alon formed a hand seal without hesitation.
As if they had been waiting, the stars adorning the air like a galaxy began to fall toward the earth according to his will.
‘Hmm, it certainly looks decent for something implemented while unfinished…… but Marquis, you mustn't use this recklessly, okay?’
Penia’s warning came to mind.
Her words were true.
This was magic created together with Penia.
Alon had not only failed to complete it, but ridiculously enough, he hadn't even come close to completion.
Therefore, he shouldn't have used this magic.
Power that could not be controlled through calculation would fall not just on the ash, but on all of Greinif.
Yes, that would have been the case under normal circumstances.
However, that only applied when Alon lacked the calculation power to control the galaxy.
If Alon had the calculation power and the mental image to control it, the side effects could be sufficiently neutralized.
Alon looked up at the sky.
Mana orbs were floating in the ashen sky.
There were so many mana orbs that even with the help of the calculations, he shouldn't have been able to control them.
Yet, it was fine.
Because a method to sufficiently control them was already surfacing in Alon’s mind.
Vroooom—!
As Alon formed a seal, the mana orbs above his head turned into thin threads and spread in all directions.
The image he visualized was the blue rift Ladan had shown him as a treasure.
To others, it was just a crack, but Alon had seen within it the rules for handling countless weapons simultaneously.
Crack—! Cr-cr-crack—!
Red rifts began to appear in the sky.
They looked identical and functioned exactly like what Ladan had shown.
However, the rifts Alon created were infinitely crude.
He had merely imitated the structure by stitching it together as simply as possible.
The amount of mana the rifts consumed was so enormous that it would have been better to use a different method.
Despite that, Alon continued to multiply the rifts.
For the current Alon, the vast mana consumption caused by the magic’s crudeness was practically non-existent.
Just as when Ladan drew out his treasure, the red rifts appearing in the sky swallowed the heavens in an instant.
And then.
“What is that?”
“This is impossible—”
“Is this the power of the Primordial Elf—?”
Awe erupted from the eyes of the soldiers as they looked up at the galaxy, now tinged with red light as it was consumed by the rifts filling the sky.
“……!”
“Whoa—”
“That’s—”
Historia, Seolrang, and Ladan, who had been slaughtering the ash until a moment ago, also stared blankly at the sky.
Finally, having brought all the mana orbs under his control, Alon extended his hand with only his index and middle fingers straightened.
He aimed at the place where the Mother of Greed was—where the Sin of Greed stood.
“Ejection.”
He spoke lowly.
Countless flashes of light shot down from the sky, converging on a single point.
And then.
The light blinded everyone.
* * *
“This can’t be……”
After the light swallowed everything and his vision returned, Ramu muttered with a dazed expression.
He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
The Ash Scatterers, who had been advancing as if to swallow everything on the ground, had vanished entirely.
Was that all?
The ash being fired toward Phildegrin was also scattering, having literally turned into cinders.
Hope began to swell in Ramu’s startled eyes, but—
“…….”
Alon, the one who had created this entire situation, did not look pleased.
Certainly, the Mothers of Greed were no longer visible.
However—
It was still there.
With its white skin.
Staring at Alon with emerald eyes.
The Sin of Greed—still stood in that spot.
The Sin’s condition couldn't be called good by any stretch of the imagination.
Her body was in such a wretched state that it was a miracle she was even standing.
Her lower half was gone.
Her right arm dangled uselessly.
More than half of her face had vanished.
She was practically on the verge of death.
Yet, the reason Alon’s face was frozen was—
……Regeneration.
It was because those severe wounds were being regenerated as if they were nothing.
At an impossibly fast speed.
After a brief moment of disappointment, Alon quickly regained his composure.
Even so, he couldn't give up on stopping the Sin. Just as he was about to move his mana—
“!”
Alon came to a realization.
My mana…… isn't moving?
And as soon as he realized that fact.
[Interesting.]
The Sin’s voice reached him.
One of the many papers behind her back fluttered and fell to the ground.
In that instant.
“!”
As if instinctively realizing that something had begun, three figures rushed forward to stop the Sin.
Seolrang appeared above the Sin like a flash of light, dropping down to aim for her head.
Swaying Spear—
Historia reached the Sin in an instant and drew her sword.
Fourth Form—
Ladan appeared behind her, brandishing his trident.
And then.
The next thing that could be seen—no, heard—was.
BOOOOOOM—!!
The sound of something exploding.
“Aaaaaagh—!!”
“He-help me!”
And the screams of the elves.
“!”
The moment Alon looked back, he saw the shattered castle wall and the desolate land within, where everything had been annihilated.
And at the end of it.
Tremble, tremble—
There was Historia, bleeding from her entire body, clutching her sword with trembling arms.
“Go- God—”
Before she could finish her sentence.
“Run—”
Historia collapsed right there.
Only then did Alon realize.
That they had been defeated by the Sin.
When he turned his gaze, just as he expected, massive clouds of dust were rising from other places besides the wall, as if they had been bombarded.
And then.
[Why does a remnant, which should have been destroyed, still remain?]
The Sin of Greed appeared before Alon before he knew it.
Alon immediately tried to move his mana.
But the mana still wouldn't budge.
No, rather—
“Cough—!?”
Alon spat out blood.
At the same time, the Defying Heaven he had been maintaining deactivated, and he realized why he couldn't move his mana.
“The magic—”
[It was a simple structure.]
When using Defying Heaven, Alon’s magic was fundamentally deployed based on the mana orbs floating in the sky.
The Sin of Greed had taken control of his mana in reverse.
Just as Alon had created rifts to control the mana orbs earlier.
It was an utterly nonsensical feat.
……But it was a feat possible because she was a Sin.
“…….”
Alon looked at the Sin.
He saw her standing against the world that had turned ashen again after the galaxy vanished.
The sight of the Sin looking down at him with an utterly indifferent expression was enough to make him feel overwhelmed.
““…….””
The faces of everyone else, which had been filled with awe and hope, were also stained with despair.
Eventually.
When the galaxy Alon had created completely vanished and the world was dyed in ash once more.
[So, what will you do now?]
The Sin, who had been staring intently at Alon, suddenly asked.
[There should be nothing left that you can do.]
“……You know well.”
[And yet, you haven't abandoned hope.]
The reason the Sin of Greed said such a thing was because she noticed that the emotion in Alon’s eyes was not resignation.
[What are you pinning your hopes on? There should be nothing you can do.]
The Sin’s words were true.
No matter how optimistically one looked at the current situation, it was absolutely not good.
The three who had fought alongside Alon were incapacitated by the Sin, and Alon was in no better shape.
Even if he could temporarily fight using the power of a God right now, if his mana was controlled, Alon had no weapons left.
Despite such a worst-case scenario.
Alon spoke calmly.
“I don't need to do anything.”
From the beginning, Alon never thought he could deal with the Sin with a single blow.
A disaster that was incomprehensible just by existing, capable of destroying even the continent.
He had known for a long time that such a being couldn't be handled with just this much.
Yet, there were two reasons why Alon had dared to attack the Sin.
One was to confirm if the Sin of Greed, manifested in another’s body, was the same Sin he had faced several times in the game.
And the other reason was.
“Because the alarm clock has already rung.”
[……What?]
The Sin asked back, but Alon turned his gaze to one spot.
Far away.
He saw smoke drifting beneath the World Tree that enveloped Phildegrin.
The place where the mana orbs he had ejected elsewhere had landed when he attacked the Sin earlier.
And then.
[……Was it merely a delusion?]
The Sin of Greed, who had shown interest, soon erased her curiosity and looked forward.
There were the elves.
Countless elves, every single one of them looking at the Sin in terror and despair.
And then.
[I’ve lost interest.]
Mana began to erupt from the Sin’s body.
“Gasp—”
A simple act of merely releasing mana.
But with just that, the Sin of Greed, who scattered mana across all of Phildegrin, looked at the elves who were all terrified.
“A-ah.”
“It’s—it’s over……”
And as she saw the eyes of the remnant, which had been expressionless until a moment ago, fly open as if realizing reality.
[I’ll clean this up all at once.]
As if certain of her victory, she—
[……?]
—could not prepare her magic.
It was because of a strange sense of dissonance.
The Sin turned her gaze again to check the elves.
The elves were still trembling in fear, consumed by terror.
Similarly, when she looked down, the remnant still had a shocked expression.
Nothing had changed.
Then why—
Ah.
The Sin, who had been blankly watching the scene, soon realized the source of the dissonance.
It was a simple thing.
……They aren't looking at me?
The elves were not looking at the Sin.
Even the remnant was not looking at the Sin.
And by the time she grasped that fact, the Sin realized another new truth.
It was that the gloomy sky had grown dark.
[…….]
The Sin raised her head.
In the sky of Greinif, which had clearly been filled with ash, a wall had appeared before she knew it.
As if a ground had been created in the sky, a wall—
[?]
No.
It wasn't.
It was not.
It was not a wall.
It was—
[……A hand?]
It was a hand.
A hand so massive it covered the entire sky above Phildegrin.
Cold sweat trickled down the back of the Sin, who had supposedly transcended by casting off desires and emotions.
And only then did she—
[!]
—realize.
[This is, the same as me—]
That behind her, there was a being just like herself.
“No. Please don't think like that.”
A voice spoke.
“I don't want to be treated the same as you—by my Godfather.”
When the Sin looked around, the first thing she saw was hair like vegetation.
[You are—]
“……Yes. That would be good.”
The next thing she saw were emerald eyes that shone brilliantly, never losing their light even in this darkness.
And the last thing she could see was—
“Craving.”
A woman nodding with a smile.
“I think ‘Craving’ would be good.”
[!]
And a massive hand falling toward her, sucking in the ashen clouds like a whirlpool.