Raising Villains the Right Way

Kiriana, like Alon, anticipated that it would take three days to reach their destination.

In the game, it took only two days.

Naturally, moving with a larger expedition meant more time was needed.

However, Alon harbored a small doubt during the journey due to the actual distance.

Indeed, whether viewed on the Psychedelia map or the map spread out by Kiriana, the distance to the swamp was not particularly long.

Roughly, one could reach it with just a day of diligent travel.

Thus, it was incomprehensible why it took 2 to 3 days for such a distance, but by a day into the expedition…

“Crazy.”

Alon realized just how mistaken his thoughts were.

He looked down in shock.

Below lay a massive canyon.

It wasn’t just that.

Beyond the canyon stretched a chain of rocky mountains, and beyond those, another canyon seemed to start.

Even the canyon at the end of his sight was split into dozens of branches.

“It was because the path was rough.”

The moment was dizzying.

Perhaps Kiriana had set the travel time to three days not out of cruelty to the expedition but because it seemed tight enough.

While thinking this as they descended the canyon.

[This canyon, it’s man-made.]

Suddenly, the voice of Basiliora came.

“What?”

[Exactly as I say. This canyon is not a natural occurrence.]

Basiliora, whom he had summoned the previous day from the coat pocket over his chest out of boredom, looked around seriously for the first time since being subdued.

[It certainly seems so.]

“Why do you think that?”

[Look, isn’t the canyon itself split into an oval shape?]

“Hmm.”

Alon looked at the canyon.

He hadn’t noticed before, but as Basiliora said, the canyon was indeed split into an oval shape.

[Ordinary canyons don’t split like this.]

“…So it’s artificial just because of that?”

[That’s not it, there’s an echo here.]

“Echo?”

[Yes, it’s very old but definitely present. It seems like it was made by a battle, given the mixing of two echoes.]

“…I can’t imagine it.”

His head involuntarily shook.

Such a majestic canyon seemed too grand to be merely a trace of a battle.

As he moved on, feeling a strange suspicion inside, Alon arrived at a small, twisted canyon after some time.

“There are multiple paths.”

“In this case, the left path seems the best option.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, let’s take that path. It’s wider than the others, so even if it takes a bit longer, it seems like the better choice.”

“That makes sense… Everyone, move to the far left path!”

Yutia and Kiriana discussed the route.

Watching the two converse, Alon suddenly recalled what Basiliora had said earlier.

“Basiliora.”

[What is it?]

“This canyon, was it also created by a battle?”

[Um- yes, no….maybe.]

“…? If it’s yes, then it’s yes. If not, then it’s not, right?”

[Well, it is, but-]

Basiliora, perched on Alon’s shoulder, looked at the canyon with a strangely subdued demeanor.

Or rather.

‘Is he looking at Yutia?’

It seemed Basiliora was watching Yutia, who was talking with Kiriana from a distance.

‘Not sure why he’s being cautious, but.’

He had a rough idea of what might have started it.

It was because of what happened yesterday.

Yesterday evening.

Alon, seemingly bored of just looking around, summoned Basiliora as a playmate for the squeaking Blackie,

[Get me out more often because it’s suffocating! I can see outside, but I want to wander around!!]

As soon as Basiliora emerged, he flew into a rage, scolding Alon,

‘Oh, what a cute snake.’

[I am the great god Basiliora!]

‘Snake, can I listen to you for a moment?’

[I am not a cute snake. Noooooo!!!]

‘If you allow, I would like to keep you for a while.’

Yutia, with divine power in her hand, dragged the spirit form of Basiliora somewhere.

And the little snake that returned shortly after started to watch Yutia’s reactions.

Alon was curious about what Yutia had said, so he asked multiple times, but Basiliora did not answer.

Even when he asked Yutia,

‘Huh? We just had fun, My Lord.’

That’s all she said.

It became even more puzzling.

Even though Basiliora returned in such a state, saying they just played didn’t make sense.

But the recollection was brief.

“My Lord, let’s go.”

Following Yutia, who was smiling softly, Alon once again moved towards the canyon.

…Even afterwards, Basiliora’s eyes trembled anxiously whenever he looked at Yutia.

After another two days passed.

“…Is this the place?”

“We’ve arrived.”

The expedition arrived at the swampy area where Rikrakamur of the forest abyss was located.

As the expedition trekked through the forest, they encountered it.

In the middle of the forest, not a bald hill, but Rikrakamur.

In the middle of the swamp, its size was not fully obscured even by the water, and the soldiers looked pale as if their morale was broken just by its presence,

And the knights also had serious expressions.

Their faces weren’t as pale as the soldiers’, but their eyes clearly showed blatant fear.

It was understandable.

Rikrakamur, presumed to be sleeping in the swamp, was too vast for mere humans to kill.

“I knew about it from stories, but… it’s bigger than I thought, can we really kill it?”

Even Kiriana spoke with a voice full of doubt.

To which Yutia quietly smiled.

And Alon.

“…I will now explain the plan.”

He began to explain without hesitation.

***

A blue moon rose late at night.

Kiriana quietly looked at the moon then turned her gaze and spoke.

“Begin.”

“Yes, understood.”

At her command, a knight lightly nodded towards somewhere,

Recognizing the signal,

“Turn~!”

The soldiers started turning the massive pulley.

Creak-creaaaaaak! 

As dozens of soldiers moved in unison, the rusty noise started as the pulley slowly began to turn.

Simultaneously.

“The northern pulley has started to turn.”

“We’ve started the eastern pulley!”

“Signals are up from the west and south too!”

Reports from the knights were delivered.

Kiriana nodded lightly, recalling the explanation given by Marquis Palatio earlier.

“The coalition’s task is simple.”

“There are a total of four pulleys in this swamp, based on the cardinal directions. Once I give the signal, you just need to turn all four simultaneously.”

“After turning the pulleys, monsters will swarm in, and all the coalition needs to do is hold them off.”

A very simple and straightforward plan.

Watching the soldiers struggle with the pulleys, Kiriana revisited a lingering question in her mind.

‘How does Marquis Palatio know that there are pulleys here?’

As far as Kiriana knew, not many were aware of Rikrakamur’s existence.

Originally, no one except the coalition forces could enter beyond the borders, and the very existence of Rikrakamur would have been known only from ancient texts if one were not part of the coalition.

Yet, strangely enough, Marquis Palatio seemed very well-informed not only about Rikrakamur but also about this swamp.

As if he had been here before.

‘…What?’

Just as a strange doubt began to form in Kiriana’s mind.

Thump! Thuuuum!

A massive sound indicating that the pulleys had fully turned made her stop thinking and look around.

“The water in the swamp is draining!”

“…The water?”

It was true.

With a tremendous noise, the water in the swamp began disappearing into an unseen underground depth.

As Kiriana confirmed the rapidly decreasing water level.

“…Crazy.”

At a knight’s low curse, she involuntarily hardened her face and looked straight ahead.

There lay Rikrakamur, just as it had been sleeping when they first saw it this afternoon.

An exclamation of horror escaped her.

The creature’s bulk gradually revealed as the water level dropped.

“Is that, a living creature?”

At the knight’s whispered awe, Kiriana also closed her mouth.

She could only empathize deeply.

‘Can we really kill that?’

Doubts wildly scrambled through her mind.

It was as enormous as a great fortress, and as the depth decreased and it emerged from the water, just one breath from it was enough to scare the local birds into a noisy flight.

Even Kiriana, who prided herself on reaching a superhuman level, had to humbly acknowledge the limits of the human race.

Overwhelmed by its sheer size, she felt involuntary awe.

…

She then looked at Marquis Palatio.

He was moving forward.

Toward Rikrakamur, whose single tooth was so large that it would take five men combined to match it.

Eventually.

Sighing deeply, the Duke looked ahead.

Rikrakamur, still not awakened, its mere breathing vibrated the earth, giving even Alon an unimaginable sense of pressure.

Even for someone like Alon, there was no magic that could effectively damage a monster of this size.

Nor could he suddenly create new magic with higher firepower than before.

He was not that much of a genius.

However, the fact that they had to deal with this monstrous creature remained unchanged.

There was only one thing he could do.

That was, the application of magic.

Alon, deploying a severe cold from his armor, quickly muttered an incantation.

Slower than Duke Komalon, but certainly faster than the old Alon.

“Frost Barrier Extreme.”

The moment he uttered the last word, the magic that froze everything within the conjured space burst forth.

Crrrrrack!

Above Rikrakamur’s head, it unfolded.

The magic, constrained in space and time to save mana, lasted only 2 seconds.

In that brief moment, a massive crystal formed above its head.

Certainly capable of wiping out dozens of monsters in one strike, the crystal formed initially was too small to inflict meaningful damage on Rikrakamur’s massive body.

However,

Multiple Manifestation (多重 發現).

Alon’s magic, already having laid out a spiral structure of magical energy, deployed Frost Barrier Extreme once more,

Crrrack!

And on top of that, he deployed it again.

Crrrrack!

What ultimately formed was a giant crystal large enough to finally impact Rikrakamur’s massive body.

Observing the floating crystal, Alon sealed an incantation and twisted the laws of the crystal.

“Spiral (螺旋).”

Following the chant, the law embedded within the incantation infused into the crystal.

The arrangement of icy magic twisted into a spiral.

Its sharpest point spread across a wide surface like floating debris, releasing a sound akin to a tree breaking, scattering the remnants in all directions like spring snowflakes.

Only then, did Rikrakamur, awakened too late by the snowflakes assaulting its body, open its eyes.

“Rotation (回轉)”

But Alon, undeterred, twisted another permitted law.

The crystal, upon Alon’s chant, began to rotate clockwise, obeying the law of gravity as it plummeted to the ground, gaining the penetrating power to pierce through the monstrous creature’s tough skin along with the spiral incantation.

With a thunderous noise, it pierced through Rikrakamur’s body.

Simultaneously, the last thing Alon invoked was,

“Shatter (破)”

Violently breaking the arrangement of rotating magical energy.

With that, the crystal that had pierced through Rikrakamur exploded like a bomb and dispersed.

Under the blue moon, a bloom of ice flowers (氷花) blossomed.