Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 333 : The one named Sloth (6)
Previously on Became the Patron of Villains...
With a steady voice, Sloth whispered as he clutched Radan's trident, leaving everyone stunned in place.
Something felt off about it.
Sloth's state was nowhere near okay—understating it would be too kind.
His form had been shredded by endless strikes.
His words held no trace of magic.
They lacked any overwhelming force.
He uttered them plainly, like declaring a simple truth.
The feeling they expressed was singular.
Remorse.
Nothing else.
Alon sensed a wave of bewilderment.
What feeling was Sloth displaying?
From where did it originate?
Why did his face show that look?
Yet that pondering didn't linger.
“Too bad.”
Sloth's statement dragged on leisurely.
And then—
KWAHHHHH!!!
A thunderous blast that threatened to shatter every eardrum present.
“Uweeegh~!”
Radan shuddered violently and coughed up dark blood.
In front of him, Sloth already stood tall and defiant.
Radan crumpled down, heaving blood repeatedly.
The moment the truth sank in for the group, Seolrang reacted first.
KWAANG—!!!
Just like earlier, she dashed at impossible speeds and lashed out her leg like a striking whip toward Sloth.
KWAHHHHH—!!!!
Yet again, Sloth's frame was hurled aside, ripping up the earth with a booming crash.
However—
“!”
Sloth remained utterly unchanged.
He just dropped his right hand, which had stopped Seolrang’s strike, wearing a disinterested look.
Seolrang's eyes flashed wide for a second before her brows knit tightly, and she surged ahead once more.
Surging golden sparks lifted nearby objects into the air briefly.
As though in empty space, they hovered before detonating with a massive bang.
Seolrang's punch slammed into Sloth right away.
Another wild bellow overturned the nearby terrain.
Still, Sloth merely slid backward, easing his arm down without a scratch in sight.
Seolrang gnawed her lip fiercely and rushed forward again.
CRACKLE—CRACKLE!!
Golden bolts of lightning streaked everywhere, aiming at Sloth's whole form.
Head, right flank, ribs, limbs, spine.
Flashes of electricity pierced in and out over and over.
The foe's body jerked around for an instant.
Next, Seolrang hoisted her leg to crush down on Sloth's skull.
“!”
In that split second—just an instant.
Her position altered.
Hardly in time.
She scarcely halted Sloth’s retaliation.
KWA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KANG—!!!
It hit a whole new intensity.
Seolrang flew back so far that a massive gouge scarred the darkened ground.
She gripped her shaking arm tightly and ground her teeth.
But every onlooker could already sense the victor.
Sloth looked like total ruin.
That fact only deepened the hush over the crowd.
All who watched grasped it.
Even in this condition, Sloth couldn't be beaten.
Gradually, each person remembered Sloth's earlier words.
That dying at his hands was inevitable for them.
That soft whisper burned into their thoughts.
“Ha—”
One person gave a empty chuckle.
Another gazed in dazed horror.
Someone else just stood rigid, unable to process the scene.
But one reality bound them all.
They all—
Had to accept Sloth's claim.
That he was a foe beyond their reach.
That he was a foe they couldn't overcome.
That he was a foe they dared not even challenge.
The troops.
The warriors.
The elites.
The spellcasters.
—Got it.
They were forced to get it.
The spark in their stares faded.
Their honor and will crumbled away like scattered ash.
The bravery that stood against grotesque masses now twisted into profound dread.
But—
Alon stayed impassive, composed.
He evaluated the scene with icy clarity.
Sloth's demeanor differed from Alon's expectations.
His strategy had fallen apart the instant Sloth showed up.
To be blunt, Alon had lost.
Still, despair didn't grip him.
It was alright.
He still held his ultimate move hidden.
“....”
Alon scanned the area.
At the assembly here, compelled again and again to yield to Sloth's dominance.
Noticing that, he raised his eyes.
Up in the heavens, right on schedule, the tear kept widening, and his Reverse Heaven method remained active.
Defeat wasn't total yet.
……
Alon had mapped out the scheme in his head freely already.
Now, he just had to merge the key elements into a fresh strategy.
Sure, this approach wasn't as robust as one plotted over days.
But it would work.
Thinking back on it, Alon silently glanced skyward.
There— an element from the prior scheme—the “rift.”
So, the only thing left was duration.
The duration to withstand that illogical, outrageous being.
The duration to maintain the rift until the scheme took shape.
Yet none among the group could secure that duration against the “Sin of Sloth.”
Not Seolrang.
Not Radan.
Not Eliban, Psychedelia's lead figure.
They couldn't halt the sin standing there.
Even if all countermeasures were set—
The real sin that emerged proved far more illogical than Alon recalled.
Even so, surrender wasn't possible.
For the second they quit, it would all end.
Alon toyed with a figurine in his pocket.
It was “The Beast of Possibility,” a relic he'd claimed from Rosario's Labyrinth of Whispers, after handling the partially awakened Sin of Purity.
A single-activation item that could call forth the “user” in their peak form for a short while.
Naturally, even using this, blocking the sin ahead wouldn't be simple.
But that suited him fine.
All Alon required was time—precisely that.
Thus.
“Radan.”
Alon flung the Beast of Possibility toward Radan, the nearest one.
Radan snatched the figurine, his expression flashing brief confusion.
“Pour magic into it.”
Obeying Alon's order, Radan channeled mana into it without pause.
Then—
The figurine started shining brightly and swallowed Radan completely.
—WUUUUUUUUUUNG
A surge of immense magical force burst out.
All eyes snapped to it instantly.
Even Sloth's weary stare turned to Radan, now glowing with a blue sheen.
The glow unleashed ever more intense mana.
But Sloth simply lingered there, unmoved.
Though the tide appeared to shift, Sloth didn't stir.
Actually, his formerly bland eyes now sparked with an odd eagerness.
And at last, as the raging mana subsided and the glow faded—
There appeared—
“What the…?”
A baffled Radan.
Still dressed in his standard blue armor.
A lone feeling crossed Sloth’s features.
It was—
Clear letdown.
Every gaze fixed on Radan.
Seolrang, Eliban, the spellcasters and troops, even the warriors.
And their looks all shared the same—bewilderment and letdown.
It made sense.
Radan had taken an item from Alon and unleashed magic potent enough to quake the whole area.
A slim hope had begun stirring in their chests.
Perhaps—merely perhaps—a path out of this hopelessness existed?
But the figure stepping from that vast mana flare was merely…
A somewhat tidier Radan.
Changed?
To the warriors, troops, and spellcasters, at least, nothing looked altered.
Seolrang merely noted, “Ah, he’s a touch taller. Perhaps a bit more powerful.”
And Alon—who fully understood the Beast of Possibility—
Sensed something similar.
The relic was meant to bring the “user” at their utmost strength from any era.
In essence, Alon anticipated a Radan from ten or twenty years ahead stepping forth.
Considering Radan’s habit of gathering and perfecting relics, growth was inevitable.
But this Radan didn't appear notably aged or seasoned beyond the present.
“…Looks like there’s no point in waiting any longer.”
Sloth whispered, showing a peculiar letdown under his indifference.
WHOOOOSH—!
And with that, he released his magic.
BLEGH~!
The troops beyond the scorched zone promptly retched and collapsed.
Vast purple mana swiftly expanded outward.
CRICK—CRACKLE—!!
The motionless flesh piles started jerking and standing, like marionettes pulled by threads.
Just as hopelessness and shadow reclaimed the atmosphere—
“Ah—”
Radan, taking in the scene, murmured softly in enlightenment.
“This is the past, isn’t it? Brother’s still here.”
Then he spun around, spotted Alon, and nodded like it all clicked.
“Then what I need to do is stop this guy, right?”
He jabbed a finger at Sloth to wrap it up.
As though it were trivial.
Serenely.
With a chilling air of distance.
“You think you can stop me?”
Sloth replied in a drawling tone.
As if mocking it wasn't worth the effort, totally bored.
And hearing that, Radan abruptly gazed at him vacantly—
[Ah—]
Then grinned, like comprehension dawned at last.
[Arise, my apostles.]
With those words, he declared.
CRACK—!!!
The swelling flesh heaps abruptly burst apart.
Or rather, fragmented.
It resembled a transformation more.
Like a chrysalis splitting as a butterfly breaks free.
And at last, from inside—
■—!!!]
A pale colossus rose.
Vast beyond human scale, yet roughly humanoid.
Its frame eerily gaunt, akin to a famished creature.
A spotless white entity.
The instant Alon laid eyes on it, one truth hit him.
No—he hadn't considered it before.
He'd figured Radan gained power via relics.
Since the Radan he remembered had followed that path.
But that was this timeline's Radan—one Alon had rescued.
The true Radan—the sin's original host—was fated to tangle with sins regardless.
Meaning, across endless alternate realms, Radan's peak form—
Wasn't the relic-mastering extreme.
Nor the wielder of rare abilities.
Nor the one seized by Jealousy.
The ultimate Radan through every timeline—
Was this.
The immaculate white figures started covering the ground.
Meanwhile, Radan's look began shifting.
He absorbed the summoned sin—
His azure armor shifted to a deep crimson shade.
“You asked if I could stop you?”
His azure locks darkened to jet black.
His azure gaze ignited with an eerie scarlet shine.
“Of course I can~”
And for the first time, Sloth's eyes bulged in shock.
Radan fixed him with a stare and declared—
“I’ve already devoured one.”
He curled his mouth into a horrific smile.
“Monsters like you.”
—Radan had turned into a sin as well.