Became the Patron of Villains Novel MTL - Chapter 228

Chapter 228

Lately, Reinhardt had been in remarkably high spirits, even after coming back from the expedition to the north.

The cause of this joy was simply the ‘Divine Power of Kalannon’ that he had secured during his time in that northern region.

Although his faith wasn’t exactly unshakable, he had successfully gained the capacity to wield the strength of Kalannon, the Lightning receiver.

He had finally obtained the very power he had been yearning for.

Granted, having this ability wasn’t enough on its own to take down Deus Maccalian.

Regardless of how much divine energy he could currently command, Deus was still leagues ahead of him.

Yet, nothing seemed capable of ruining Reinhardt’s mood.

This was because, the instant he unlocked the ability to utilize divine power, he understood a fundamental truth.

As his faith deepened, the potency of this power would scale with it.

Essentially, there was still significant potential for growth, and that realization kept him in a state of euphoria.

That is, if it weren’t for a single individual who had intruded into his private quarters.

“Deus.”

“What is it?”

“Why are you inside my room?”

“I am preparing to go to sleep.”

Deus Maccalian.

The one person solely responsible for shattering his excellent mood was Deus.

And it wasn’t just his presence—he had somehow dragged his own bed into Reinhardt’s bedroom and was getting ready to turn in for the night.

“…Have you completely lost your senses?”

“My mind is perfectly clear.”

“Does a person with a clear mind drag their bed into another man’s mansion without asking and decide to sleep there?”

“I believe this still falls within the boundaries of acceptable behavior.”

“It’s not normal! It’s completely insane!!!”

Deus merely shrugged, acting as if he genuinely couldn’t grasp what the issue was.

Reinhardt, screaming out his frustration, squeezed his eyes shut, feeling as though his skull might burst from the pressure.

ever since they got back from the expedition, Deus had been mimicking his every action, and the resulting stress was becoming intolerable.

If it had been a minor amount of copying, Reinhardt might have let it slide.

But Deus—

He was shadowing Reinhardt and duplicating his entire daily schedule.

Getting up at dawn, offering prayers, having breakfast.

Training sessions, eating lunch, praying once more, and even taking a leisurely nap in the afternoon—he replicated every single thing!!

And what was even more unsettling—

Every time Reinhardt utilized the divine power—

“……”

Deus would fix a cold, blank stare upon him, as though that power rightfully belonged to him.

It was incessant.

For twenty-four hours a day, he hovered nearby, watching with a relentless gaze filled with betrayal, jealousy, and resentment.

The stress was severe enough to make Reinhardt feel like he was going bald.

“Just cut it out already!”

Reinhardt finally lost his temper and shrieked, but—

“Good night.”

Deus, entirely unbothered, simply lay down on the bed as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Arghhhh!!!”

Reinhardt let out a howl of rage and genuinely contemplated a desperate measure.

Should he go to Marquis Palatio and beg?

Should he plead with him to grant some kind of power to Deus as well?

####

The day following Rine’s arrival at the Palatio Marquisate—

Alon immediately made arrangements to depart the estate with her.

Coincidentally, he had already been planning to travel toward Colony.

The only variation this time was—

“Am I seriously going along as well…?”

“Do you not wish to?”

“N-no, no, it isn’t that—it’s just, I have a mountain of research to get through…”

On this occasion, Penia was accompanying them.

“I mean, regarding the Dance of Connection—I wanted to observe it a bit longer, and I also intended to analyze the Footsteps of the Past, so, yeah… that’s why…”

Penia darted her eyes around, clumsily attempting to make excuses.

Initially, Alon hadn’t planned on bringing Penia along.

He had already picked up on her reluctance to travel with him.

Nevertheless, he insisted on her coming.

The reason was that he required her to utilize the Footsteps of the Past.

Once every single day.

With Penia present, he could activate it without any issues.

This journey would enable him to dedicate himself entirely to his training with Kylrus.

“Penia.”

“Oh, naturally, it’s not that I dislike going! I’m an incredibly curious person, you know? I’m simply concerned that the travel might be too distracting…”

“Do you see this item?”

Alon extended a gauntlet toward Penia.

“Is that—”

“If you join this trip, I will loan it to you for study purposes once we are finished. What do you say?”

“…That object is—”

As Penia’s face brightened with intrigue, Alon immediately triggered the gauntlet.

Crackle—!

Dark fumes seeped from the artifact, instantly flash-freezing the immediate vicinity.

At that sight—

“…!”

Penia, looking practically lovestruck, stared intently at Alon—or rather, at the gauntlet he was holding.

“Wow, what is that? Judging by its appearance, isn’t this utilizing the same magic the Marquis demonstrated previously—”

“Wait, merely by injecting mana, the artifact automatically aligns the flow, translates the laws, and finalizes the spell instantaneously?”

“Oh! And furthermore! The quality of the mana appears superior to standard levels! The structural amplification of the mana itself—”

Penia rambled on without pausing for breath.

“Has your interest been piqued a little?”

“Yes!”

In a heartbeat, her demeanor flipped from “I really don’t want to go” to “I am completely thrilled!”

“Very well then. Let us depart, Godfather.”

At Rine’s command, the group began their journey toward Colony.

Inside the quiet carriage—

Alon remembered something Rine had mentioned the previous day and inquired,

“ come to think of it, didn’t you mention you were traveling to Colony to retrieve something?”

“Yes, that is correct, Godfather.”

“Is it a ruin, by chance?”

Rine nodded in confirmation.

“Yes, Godfather. I located something intriguing within a recently unearthed ruin.”

“A recently unearthed ruin, is it?”

Alon rapidly scanned through various ruins in his memory.

Back when he played Psychedelia, he had acquired numerous beneficial artifacts from the ruins in Colony.

That was the reason he had instructed Evan to consistently collect intelligence on any newly found sites.

Reviewing the data he had accumulated thus far—

‘It doesn’t appear to be a ruin that existed in Psychedelia.’

He realized that none of the lately discovered locations were familiar to him.

“I understand.”

Alon nodded slightly, effectively closing the topic.

Rine looked up at his chest—no, his face—and offered him a smile.

####

Approximately three weeks had elapsed since Alon had formally departed the Marquisate and begun his travels.

To be precise, it was the fourth day since they had entered the desert alongside the merchant caravans bound for Colony.

“A new divine authority has manifested?”

“Yes.”

For the first time in quite a while, Alon met with Kalannon.

“Hmm~”

Beneath a night sky where the Milky Way seemed to pour down, Kalannon furrowed her brows in contemplation.

“Did you do anything out of the ordinary?”

“Lately, it appears there are individuals who have started to worship Kalannon as the deity of knights.”

“That factor alone wouldn’t be sufficient to generate a new divine authority. You are still tethered to the name Kalannon, after all.”

“I cannot think of any other potential reasons.”

Kalannon hummed thoughtfully, tilting her neck to the side as she pondered.

She only spoke again once her head was tilted almost completely sideways.

“Hmm—honestly, even I am uncertain.”

“Is that right?”

“Indeed. For a novel divine authority to be birthed, one must be venerated as a completely distinct god, and faith directed at them must accumulate. The notion that faith could appear without any catalyst… it simply doesn’t add up.”

“I see.”

As Alon nodded in understanding, Kalannon continued,

“However, it is peculiar. If a divine authority has genuinely taken shape, it wouldn’t stem from just one or two people—it would necessitate at least dozens, if not hundreds, of followers.”

“…Is that the case?”

“Absolutely. For faith to coalesce and harden into an authority, that quantity is a prerequisite. Well, if an entity possessing more influence than even the gods of this world dedicated their faith, then perhaps a mere one or two individuals might suffice to forge an authority, but—”

That would represent an exceptionally irregular scenario.

And the probability of such a being offering their faith to anyone was practically nonexistent.

“I understand.”

Kalannon gazed at Alon with a strange expression and asked,

“In any case, if you truly did nothing, then someone must have harvested this divine authority and transferred it to ‘Alon Palatio.’ Do you have any suspicion as to who that might be?”

Someone capable of collecting divine power and passing it on…

Alon thought it over for a moment.

However, no matter how hard he tried, no specific person came to mind, so he simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Ah, time is up.”

“What do you mean, time is up?”

“It is time for me to depart.”

Right on schedule, Kalannon said her goodbyes.

“…Given the amount of divine power that has built up, this meeting felt far too brief.”

“Under normal circumstances, I could remain longer, but I have another matter to attend to as well…!”

“Another matter?”

“Yes, I will explain it to you next time.”

“See you later!” Kalannon waved her hand with a radiant smile.

With that, Alon found himself back in the sweltering heat of the carriage.

But then—

“Hmm?”

Despite traveling through the scorching desert, he felt a surprising chill against his skin.

Looking around to gauge the situation—

“Whoa—”

There, in the center of the carriage, was Penia, having completely abandoned any semblance of a magician’s dignity.

She had conjured a massive block of ice and was clinging to it with all four limbs.

“This is paradise.”

[Pure bliss—]

[Meow-!]

Nearby, Evan, Basiliora, and Blackie had also congregated around the ice, looking thoroughly satisfied.

‘Having Penia with us has significantly upgraded the quality of this journey.’

In fact, Blackie, who was practically Penia’s pet at this stage, was perched comfortably atop her head, soaking in the cold.

Observing its face, which was brimming with happiness, Alon was reminded of all the times he had suffered in the desert, drenched in sweat.

But now—

Thanks to Penia, everyone was experiencing a far more comfortable trip.

Naturally—

‘…Perhaps I should bring her along next time as well.’

The thought drifted through his mind.

And perhaps sensing a threat to her freedom, Penia, who had been blissfully hugging the ice, suddenly began looking around nervously.

Just then—

“…Every single time we traverse the desert, I swear it feels like I am going to die.”

“I couldn’t agree more, Caravan Leader.”

Damuda, the leader of the Janda caravan traveling alongside Alon to Colony, was already drained by the relentless desert sun.

Then—

“…Hmm? Caravan Leader, do you see that over there?”

“…That?”

At the sudden inquiry from his deputy, Damuda shifted his gaze to follow where the man was pointing.

And he saw it.

A mysterious gate, concealed between the cliffs in the midst of the desert.

“…Is that a strange gate?”

“It appears so.”

“Relay the order to the rear. We are changing our course.”

“But it doesn’t look like anything is emerging from it. Shouldn’t we just proceed on this path?”

“And what happens if something does come out?”

Realizing that they had already drawn closer to the gate than anticipated because the cliffs had blocked their view, Damuda immediately issued a command.

Just as the caravan was preparing to steer to the right—

“Hmm—”

A man suddenly appeared at the very forefront of the caravan.

He was dressed in black trousers and was shirtless, exposing a humanoid scar on his chest.

His dark gray eyes shined ominously.

“What the—?”

The deputy muttered in confusion at the sight of the man who seemed to have materialized out of thin air in the heart of the desert.

Simultaneously, the mercenaries instinctively unsheathed their swords.

The man smirked, the corners of his lips curling upward.

“Finally found you—”

He whispered under his breath, raising his hand forward.

Drip.

A single black droplet materialized at the tip of his index finger and fell to the earth.

Drip, drip—

More droplets followed, falling steadily.

Under normal circumstances, they would have been soaked up by the sand, but instead, they merged into rippling black waves.

“……!”

Everyone present, including Caravan Leader Damuda, watched in terror as their vision was swallowed by gray.

And they saw—

The man with cold, dark gray eyes.

And behind him—

Hundreds, no, thousands of ghastly creatures.

In that instant—

“Let the feast begin.”

The man’s voice resonated through the air.

Whoosh—!

At that very moment, the deputy’s upper body was simply erased from existence.

At the same time—

“A-Aaaaaaahhhh!!!”

Screams erupted from all directions.

####

“Stop! Stop!!”

“W-What in the hell is that?”

“This is madness—!”

“Run for your lives!!”

Hearing the sudden uproar outside, Alon immediately stepped out of the carriage.

And he saw it.

A massive, eerie gate near the caravan.

Merchants being slaughtered in a spectacle more horrific than anything he had ever witnessed.

“…!”

For a fleeting second, his face twisted at the sight of bodies being crushed and shredded by an unseen force in the empty air.

Then—

‘No way.’

He quickly attempted to deduce who was responsible for this.

No—there was no need for deduction.

Alon knew of only one being capable of recreating such an unnatural phenomenon.

At the same time—

He couldn’t comprehend it.

As far as he knew—that entity was not supposed to be here.

Then why—

As he scanned his surroundings, trying to piece the situation together—

“Ah.”

He let out a small sigh.

Because his worst fear had been confirmed without a shadow of a doubt.

A man was approaching from the distance, wearing a deep, sinister smile.

He was one of the Four Great Powers.

The ruler of the ghasts that lurked in the underworld.

He was Agu (餓鬼).