Became the Patron of Villains

“Everyone fall back inside! We hold them at the entrance!”

“First and Second Squads! Rotate immediately! If you get wounded, fall back and the Third Squad will support!”

“Mages!! We need support over here, hurry!”

“Shut up! Frontline support comes first! We’re about to be breached!!”

“Watch the right flank! The right flank! Deploy all reserve mages! If even one section collapses, it’s over! There’s nowhere left to retreat!”

Amid the commanders screaming themselves hoarse, Reber gritted his teeth while frantically cutting down the flesh masses surging toward him.

“Fuck—! There’s no end to them!!”

“Stop bitching and kill one more instead!”

“What’s the point when they never stop coming—”

“Killing them isn’t the issue, the problem is the numbers piling up! Once enough gather, we get overrun! So shut up and kill them!!”

The desperate voices ringing out all around him.

Some of them even sounded tinged with a strange madness.

Listening to them, Reber sliced apart a grotesque blade made of flesh masses and thought—

‘Is this really ever going to end?’

The current situation itself was not that bad.

Just as the sage had said, now that Al-Akulakka was nearing ascension, the flesh masses had noticeably weakened compared to usual.

And on top of that, the hole torn through the center of the wall had actually created terrain extremely advantageous for the final death squad.

That made the situation even more favorable.

However, the problem was still time.

“Kraagh—!”

“Fuck, Eiler!!! We need healing over here!”

Hearing the scream echo from far away, Reber gritted his teeth.

Even if the flesh masses had weakened, their numbers were still overwhelming.

Meanwhile, the death squad’s stamina was slowly being exhausted.

One by one, the mages’ lips were turning pale from mana depletion.

And the bodies of the soldiers fighting on the front lines to hold back the flesh masses were accumulating more and more wounds.

In other words, no matter how favorable the situation seemed, at this rate......

Thinking that, Reber looked upward.

What he saw was the uppermost layer where Al-Akulakka’s core was located.

A gigantic barrier had already formed there, while horrifying explosions continuously echoed from inside.

Staring at it, Reber slowly lifted his gaze even higher—

And soon, a gigantic cocoon entered his vision.

Its color had already darkened even further.

And along with it came an enormous pulse.

Thump-thump—!

As though it might awaken at any moment, the heartbeat pounded even more violently than before.

And just as Reber stared at it—

“Rotate! Rotate out!”

At the commander’s shout, Reber stepped back and saw the sage standing far away.

Without a single expression on the sage’s face, quietly staring at the sky—

No.

More precisely, staring at the sky garden whose upper section now appeared to have been completely blown away.

“───────”

As though the safety of the death squad no longer mattered in the slightest.

The sage merely kept eyes fixed on the sky while quietly murmuring something under the breath, as though reciting a chant.

####

The battle continued.

A fight where they did nothing but kill and be killed.

A fight where perhaps the two sides were merely drawing parallel lines against one another.

But even if the battle truly was running in parallel—

Victory was gradually tilting toward one side.

Toward—

[Kh—!]

Al-Akulakka.

Craaack—!

After splitting Evan in half once again as he charged in, Al-Akulakka immediately twisted its body and shot toward Alon.

Without realizing it, Alon frowned.

Even though Evan and Penia were now fully supporting him, dealing with Al-Akulakka was becoming harder and harder.

‘It’s getting stronger.’

Looking at Al-Akulakka as it approached, Alon thought—

No.

More accurately, it would be more correct to say it was becoming accustomed to the body of the Karma of War.

‘It still hasn’t been long since it took over the Karma of War’s body—’

Crush—

‘—has it.’

Even while his thoughts momentarily blinked out from having his head destroyed, Alon gathered another fragment of his hypothesis and looked ahead.

Al-Akulakka was smiling thickly, as though genuinely enjoying this moment.

A smile different from the dark grin the Karma of War had shown before.

This one was infinitely closer to madness.

[What a shame.]

Then it chuckled quietly—

[Five minutes remain now.]

—and spoke.

As though declaring victory to Alon, Al-Akulakka smiled even while taking his attacks head-on.

Leisure flowed from it.

Its gaze carried certainty.

As though everything had already been decided.

As though the conclusion had already been set in stone.

And at those words from Al-Akulakka—

“......”

Alon, who until moments ago had been throwing punches at it, stopped attacking and looked at Al-Akulakka instead.

[Have you accepted it? You are wiser than I expected.]

At that sight, the corner of Al-Akulakka’s mouth twisted once more.

He had stopped.

Alon soon turned his head toward Evan and Penia, who had also ceased attacking, glanced at them once—

Then looked back toward Al-Akulakka.

“......May I ask one thing?”

[So you’ve decided to stop wasting time meaninglessly.]

Mockery and the composure of a victor dripped from its sneering voice toward Alon.

But Alon paid it no attention.

“How did you seize the body of the Karma of War?”

Alon asked.

However, Al-Akulakka merely stared at him.

[Do you know this?]

“What are you talking about?”

[Mages are troublesome creatures. For knowledge created by mere tools, they possess the strange ability to reach us.]

“......”

[Isn’t it fascinating? They are nothing more than expendables created for our sake, and yet only mages manage to climb high enough to ‘reach’ us. And yet you—you are human, but you use Divine power and magic alike.]

Grin—

[And you think I would tell someone like you the method?]

Wearing a face full of ridicule, it answered.

[What a shame, hybrid. I don’t know what you are plotting, but you will not gain a single piece of information from me.]

After all, I climbed this far by trampling fools who let their guard down.

That was what Al-Akulakka added.

And seeing that attitude, as though it would never let down its guard even once until the very end—

“Ha—”

Alon let out a hollow laugh.

Certainly, Al-Akulakka’s choice was the correct one.

At the same time, Alon also glimpsed why it had managed to rise this far above the other gods.

‘......It probably stopped fighting so obediently because it judged the situation to already be overwhelmingly in its favor.’

To kill Al-Akulakka, they had to go through two processes.

First, they had to kill it over and over within this ability until the ability itself was released.

Second, they had to destroy the core inside the Karma of War’s heart.

However, if Alon stopped fighting—

Then even that tiny possibility would disappear.

‘No... at this point, it’s practically the same as defeat.’

Alon looked at Al-Akulakka.

Standing there arrogantly with a vile smile hanging from its lips, it looked every bit the victor convinced of its own triumph.

Naturally so.

There had already been almost no hope to begin with, and the moment they stopped fighting, even that remaining hope had essentially vanished completely.

That was why Al-Akulakka’s reaction was not strange at all.

There was not much time left.

Alon’s group had abandoned the battle.

Al-Akulakka remained overwhelmingly intact.

And ascension was now very close.

Every situation favored Al-Akulakka.

Yes.

Every single situation.

All the countless years it had accumulated in pursuit of becoming a god had ultimately led to this result.

“Hoo—”

Alon let out a breath.

The situation was now so hopeless that there was no room left to place faith in anything.

But precisely because of that—

Crackle—!

[There isn’t even one minute left no—!]

Alon—

Crack-crack-crack-crack—!

—saw hope.

Lightning roared within the violet clouds that had not yet completely disappeared.

And with that, Al-Akulakka’s body moved.

Only for a very brief instant.

However, even while watching that movement, Alon made no move at all.

Because while Al-Akulakka had been basking in certainty of victory and mocking Alon—

Alon had also been preparing.

‘Lord Alon.’

‘What is it?’

‘This is only hypothetical, but what if a situation comes where you cannot defeat the Karma of War?’

‘A situation where I can’t defeat it?’

‘Even if you kill Al-Akulakka, you still have to defeat the Karma of War, don’t you? And your power is gone now. So I was wondering what you planned to do.’

‘You do not need to worry about that.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. If it seems impossible to defeat the Karma of War in this world—’

The second spell Alon had prepared over the past two weeks was—

‘—then we simply return to our original world and deal with it there.’

A spell created solely to bind the Karma of War and return to the original world through Penia so they could reconstruct the entire situation—

Had already been activated.

CRAAAACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-!!!

Heavenly Thunder Chains.

Thousands of chains poured down from the violet clouds.

Every single one carried lightning as they shot toward Al-Akulakka, who was moving frantically.

And in an instant, the chains seized him mid-motion.

“!”

And from that alone, Penia seemed to realize something immediately and moved toward the edge of the distorted wall—

“Grrrgh—!”

—and began eroding it.

At the same time, the distortion field immediately began twisting violently.

However, what Penia was doing was not attempting to return to the future through the distortion field.

She was trying to collapse the distortion field itself.

And by doing so—

[!!!]

—nullify the Karma of War’s ability.

Realizing what Penia intended to do, the Karma of War widened its eyes in shock.

And Evan, who until moments ago had looked confused, immediately grasped the situation and charged toward Al-Akulakka, who was bound by thousands of chains.

But at that moment—

[Hmph—!]

Al-Akulakka, which until just moments ago had been crying out in shock, suddenly grinned mockingly.

As though every expression it had shown until now had merely been an act.

[Did you truly think I would not anticipate this!?]

And along with those words—

“!”

The space Penia had been eroding—

Vanished.

No.

That was not quite right.

More accurately—

Al-Akulakka had withdrawn the ability itself.

And then—

“Ah—”

The ability unfolded once again instantly.

Watching the erosion disappear and a completely restored distortion field reappear, a low gasp escaped Penia’s lips.

Blank.

Yet layered with deep despair.

[I read as much of the Karma of War’s memories as necessary—!]

And while looking at Penia’s despairing reaction with immense amusement, Al-Akulakka smiled broadly before turning its gaze to the side.

And for a brief instant, a puzzled expression crossed its face.

The mage who had been eroding space had fallen into despair.

The human charging toward its heart had also frowned, as though foreseeing what had just happened.

But that man—

Neither human.

Nor god.

The hybrid—

“—”

Was smiling.

As though he had been waiting for this exact moment.

And at that instant—

Al-Akulakka felt a strange sense of incongruity.

And before it could even realize the source of that discomfort—

[As expected—]

A voice emerged from Al-Akulakka’s mouth.

Not its own voice.

[I believed you would notice.]

The voice of the Karma of War.

[My friend.]