Became the Patron of Villains Novel MTL - Chapter 173

Chapter 173

Scores of golden crowns erupted from Rine’s gaze, shooting outward in every direction resembling an intricate schematic.

Unlike her previous emotionally volatile assault, these golden crowns moved with far greater stability, instantly targeting Emil.

Crack!

Once again, the tree radiating dark energy intercepted Rine’s attack.

“Hmm~ It becomes boring if you only play defense.”

The Apostle of Greed smirked with a malicious grin.

Rumble—!

Dark boughs erupted from her back, swelling rapidly as though detonating.

Asserting dominance over the vast cavern, the trunk expanded at a terrifying speed, tangling behind Emil to forge a grotesque arboreal form—a leafless tree pulsing with an ominous energy.

Rine’s instincts screamed an alarm.

‘This is perilous.’

She hastily directed her golden crowns to pulverize the timber.

However—

“You must not do that, Rine. That simply won’t work.”

The aggressive branches intercepted every single crown.

And then—

Crunch!

Although barren mere seconds ago, the tree commenced bearing produce.

Pitch-black fruits.

Crack!

Dozens of fruits distended instantly before rupturing, expelling a variety of hideous abominations alongside viscous, dark fluids.

Even with the archives of her library, Rine could not recognize these monstrosities.

-!!!!

Letting out blood-curdling shrieks, the beasts lunged at her.

Rine swiftly maneuvered her golden crowns.

Crash!

With a sickening noise, the golden crowns skewered the creatures’ bodies.

Born only moments prior, they shuddered and died immediately.

Yet, despite slaughtering nearly ten at once, their ranks only swelled, as if her offense posed no threat whatsoever.

‘There has to be a vulnerability somewhere…’

For the first time, a foreign anxiety flooded Rine’s psyche.

The sensation of navigating a fog-covered path against a foe was alien to her.

Rine always designed her battles with triumph as the premise.

Her immense library enabled this.

It offered countermeasures even in chaotic scenarios.

Even when a perfect solution was absent, it guided her to an answer that was close enough.

Essentially, Rine had never engaged in combat without a solution in hand.

But now, the power displayed by the Apostle of Greed—

Not even her colossal mental library could fathom it.

This only intensified Rine’s unease.

….

No.

That wasn’t the sole cause.

Emil’s appearance was certainly disturbing, but the root of her distress lay deeper.

Something was eating away at her thoughts.

“Disorienting, isn’t it? Since it is something absent from your library.”

As if seeing right through her, Emil curled her lips into a sneer.

Rine attempted to steady her expression.

But as the smiling Emil drew near, her brow furrowed against her will.

Kwagagagak—!!

The golden crowns flew at the Apostle without delay.

However, they failed to pierce the shielding black branches.

Emil erased the gap between them effortlessly.

Now standing directly before her, she grinned, her face mere inches from Rine’s.

Eyes mirroring her own blue hue.

Yet, with whites stained an eerie black, exuding a sinister aura.

“So, shall I inform you?”

Her cold, piercing stare bent into a crescent-moon smile.

“No, actually, I don’t even need to tell you. You just have to make a choice. You’re smart enough to know, aren’t you? That your library holds far more hidden spaces than you admit.”

The mocking tone made the Apostle’s implication agonizingly obvious.

The Forbidden Domain (금역, 禁域).

A realm where, upon entry, one could ascertain all the secrets of the world—

But in return, the user’s mind would be driven to madness.

“Get lost.”

There was no room for hesitation.

Truthfully, Rine remained ignorant of Emil’s ultimate objective.

From the start, all she knew was Emil’s connection to the black energy.

And that was sufficient reason to disregard her words.

“Hmm~ Well, if that’s how it is, it can’t be helped.”

Emil shrugged, feigning disappointment.

She then casually looked Rine over from head to toe.

“Then, why don’t we start with an arm?”

She smiled.

In that flash, Rine saw it.

New black branches materializing behind Emil.

She swung her golden crowns to sever them before they could mature.

But it was insufficient.

Rine had already summoned so many crowns she was approaching her limit.

And as if fully aware of that, Emil leisurely continued generating the branches.

[No, actually, I don’t even need to tell you. You just have to make a choice. You’re smart enough to know, aren’t you? That your library holds far more hidden spaces than you admit?]

Amidst the crushing helplessness, Emil’s voice reverberated in Rine’s ears.

Dripping with temptation.

‘The Forbidden Domain…’

A split second of wavering.

Rine’s mind raced.

If she entered the Forbidden Domain now—

Could she eliminate this woman?

No.

Could she kill that woman before Godfather escapes?

That was the paramount question to her.

Above all else.

Solely.

The most important issue.

That was why—

Just as she was about to make her choice while staring at the black branches rocketing toward her—

Rine suddenly perceived an anomaly.

Within her erratic, tension-racked breathing, a cold chill settled over her.

Simultaneously—

“……!”

As Rine witnessed the branches freeze solid, a familiar figure entered her view.

A man in a coat, dispersing frost crystals in rhythm with his magic—

“……I’m a little late.”

The back of Marquis Palatio.

---

Simply put, Alon had departed without concluding his talk with Kylrus.

The reason was that Kylrus had alerted him to the exterior situation.

‘I don’t know how you managed to summon me here, but this place seems to be your mental world while also allowing you to sense some aspects of the external reality. And from what I can tell, it seems like an unpleasant guest has arrived outside.’

Hearing this, Alon abruptly ended the dialogue and returned to reality—

Where he discovered a woman wearing a peculiar smile.

And in that instant, he understood.

‘An Apostle.’

That the being before him was one of the Apostles of the Five Great Sins.

“You’re making quite the grand entrance, like a prince.”

Emil, encircled by grotesque monsters filling the massive cavern to the brim—so ghastly that language failed to describe them—

She swayed slightly, seemingly thrilled by the sight.

Alon calmly evaluated the scene and turned around.

“……!”

There, he saw Rine, visibly paralyzed by fear.

It was a spectacle he had never beheld.

For a brief moment, Alon was startled, but he quickly inferred the cause.

‘Is it like what happened with Seolrang?’

Of course, Alon had no way of knowing exactly what had transpired between the Apostle and Rine.

However, based on his previous encounter with an Apostle, he had a rough idea of the situation.

‘Handle this quickly.’

Resolving himself, Alon surveyed the area.

Conditions were unfavorable.

The vast subterranean cave teemed with monsters.

The ceiling, the floor, the walls, the pillars—

Everywhere within his field of vision.

Furthermore, even in her panic, Rine had attempted to use her golden crowns, only for them to be completely ensnared by the Apostle’s vines.

In other words, relying on Rine’s assistance was not an option at the moment.

“Our prince, let’s see what you’ve got.”

With that mocking remark as the signal, the ravenous horde lunged at Alon, desperate to consume him.

■-!!!

A headless abomination soared through the air.

A beast with a cavernous maw leaped from a pillar.

A creature, as if abandoned mid-creation, spilled its intestines as it charged toward him.

In an instant, they closed in on Alon.

But—

Just as the monsters were about to make contact—

“Expansion (膨脹).”

Snap!

Everything froze.

The monster that had been flying through the air.

The gaping maw that had been baring its teeth.

The abomination that had been rushing forward, trailing its entrails.

All motion ceased.

“!”

Even the Apostle furrowed her brows, confused by the sudden shift.

But only briefly.

“I had a rough idea that you were a mage from the information I gathered, but this is an interesting trick you’re using?”

Her expression quickly relaxed again.

Having realized that this ‘stopping’ effect was due to the expansion of mana, she nonchalantly reached out to retract her tree vines—

“……Huh?”

—But she couldn’t.

Confusion washed over the Apostle’s face.

“!?”

As it gradually twisted further into an expression of clear bewilderment—

“Hah.”

Letting out a deep sigh, Alon began deploying his magic.

In truth, the Apostle’s decision hadn’t been wrong.

Mana expansion generates a virtual volume that compresses and restricts the movements of the monsters, but that is all.

Anyone with adequate physical or magical power could break free from its influence without much difficulty.

That is—

If the mana Alon had dispersed was the ‘ordinary’ kind of mana.

“What is this—”

By nature, mana is inherently fragile and easily shattered unless it is given a specific form.

The reason Alon had only been able to restrain the previous Apostle for less than a second was precisely because of this characteristic.

Mana is easily destroyed by even the slightest physical force.

However—

If one were to apply an additional seal to its composition, restructuring the very molecular framework of the mana itself—

‘Then mana would no longer be something that could be broken by conventional physical or magical force.’

Particularly for those trapped within the range of a mage’s constructed field.

This was the very first linked incantation that Alon had successfully engineered—

A technique seamlessly merging two seals.

It was the peak of his research and training, an endeavor to surmount the typical limitations of mages, who require time to form seals and recite incantations.

And from here, Alon had ‘accidentally’ taken an even greater step forward.

Through a misunderstanding by Penia, who had aggressively chronicled his theories, he discovered that using six or more seals in conjunction produced a remarkable synergy.

Of course—

For a human, forming six seals simultaneously was virtually impossible.

After all, a human has only two hands. But Alon ultimately found a way to overcome that limitation.

If he lacked enough hands to form the seals—

Then he would simply ‘create’ them.

Crack—!

Behind Alon, ice began to take shape.

The crystallized ice split into six distinct branches in a flash.

Soon, they molded into the form of hands and fingers—

Click—!

And the seals were formed.

The first ice hand solidified the expanded mana structure.

The second ice hand fused the modified molecular framework.

The third ice hand stabilized the amalgamated mana.

Then—

The fourth ice hand twisted and warped the stabilized molecular structure, creating an amplification.

The fifth ice hand embedded a trigger within the deployed mana.

And with that, the spell was finalized—

A massive prison of magic, capable of transforming into any attribute upon activation.

“….”

As the Apostle’s eyes widened in absolute shock, the final ice hand moved—

And from its fingertips fell—

A single, tiny snowflake.

So delicate and frail, it would melt into a mere drop of water the moment it touched a fingertip.

That minute snowflake drifted down from the ice hand, descending gently.

And then—

Hand-Seal Magic (手印).

Sixfold Binding (六結).

The moment that small snowflake contacted the mana Alon had laid out—

A Blizzard Bloomed (雪花).

The monsters—

Became snowflakes, scattering into the air.

Gracefully.

…And beautifully.