Raising Villains the Right Way

Yuman stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him.

He wasn’t the only one.

The holy knights who had lowered their gazes just moments ago, as if everything was over.

The priests who had been wielding their divine power until the very end to stop the Seraph of Jealousy.

Even those who had been wearing expressions of despair and helplessness.

All of them.

Were staring blankly at the sight before them.

A man, radiant in pure white light, with the sunset behind him.

A man who had created a galaxy streaked with the hues of dusk across the sky.

A man standing in the middle of a meteor shower.

Marquis Palatio.

From the sky painted with sunset, a shower of blue meteors rained down.

Splendidly, beautifully.

And—

KWAHHHH!!

Destructively.

Hundreds, thousands of meteors surged down from the sky, aimed at the nascent sin of Jealousy, and took everything from it.

The wings that were supposed to serve as nutrients.

The great cocoon that was supposed to birth a body.

Just like how the goddess Sironia erased all that was imperfect from this world, as written in the scriptures.

“What the hell is that......!”

At that moment, someone blurted out.

But no one replied.

Even the person who spoke didn’t seem to expect an answer.

It was simply awe.

Pure reverence.

Everyone present shared the same feeling.

Among them, Yuman looked down at the Rosario.

A few meteors that had missed the Seraph were now falling toward the Rosario.

Tension briefly filled him.

But then—

“...”

Suddenly, a meteor burst midair.

To be precise—

It was blocked effortlessly by an invisible, pure white divine radiance.

Yuman quickly realized.

That this was a divine fortress defense mechanism powered by Rosario’s holy power.

However—

’The fortress defense should only activate with at least two cardinals present.’

Just as the doubt arose, a scene flashed in his mind.

Alon speaking to Yutia earlier.

“Ah.”

Yuman realized that Yutia and Sergius were not present at the moment and gave a hollow laugh.

That meant—

Alon had known all along.

From the moment they arrived here, he had known this would happen.

That’s why—

“This is... the Hidden Saint.”

Yuman looked at Alon with eyes that now went beyond reverence.

Huff—

No sooner had the meteor shower ended than Alon descended onto the temple roof using Thunderstep.

He immediately deactivated the Reverse Heaven and gasped for breath.

Haa—

His heart pounded out of his control, his eyes losing focus and then regaining clarity repeatedly.

‘Did I last 30 seconds...? 40 seconds...? I guess this is the limit without using divinity.’

Alon wiped the warm blood trickling from his nose and thought.

‘But even this was a sufficient result. I managed to endure even without divinity.’

Alon hadn’t used divinity during the ritual just now.

In other words, he had used the spell with all safety measures turned off.

Even though it could have caused his brain to melt or his mana core to rupture and kill him.

The reason Alon had taken such a risk was simple—he could no longer afford to recklessly burn through his divine power like before.

The amount of divinity gathered now was completely different from what he had back then.

Knowing that the fight against sin would not end with just one battle, he had conserved it.

‘Still, I’m glad I achieved what I wanted.’

Alon looked up at the sky.

There, emitting bizarre grinding noises, was the Seraph of Jealousy—or rather, the cocoon of sin, now tattered and torn like rags.

The cocoon had been battered by the meteor shower before the body could even properly form.

‘I’ve done all I can.’

He had literally done everything possible at this point.

He had struck before the Seraph of Jealousy could fully transform into a sin, delivering the maximum possible damage.

But more important than that—

He had taken away the reverence that was meant to become the power of the sin of Jealousy.

And he had protected the citizens who were now nothing but pure white beings.

Unlike other sins, the power of the sin of Jealousy strengthened according to the reverence and jealousy gathered by the Seraph.

That’s why Alon had chosen to appear before everyone and use his ritual openly, even employing Thunderstep.

To steal away as much reverence from the sin as possible.

‘If only I had been able to buy a bit more time...’

That thought briefly passed through his mind, but Alon pushed the regret aside.

Even if he had maintained the Reverse Heaven longer, he wouldn’t have been able to completely deal with the sin of Jealousy.

As far as he knew, once a sin began to awaken, no attack could completely eliminate it—only inflict near-catastrophic damage.

In other words, to kill an already awakened sin, one must first witness its birth.

In fact, Alon had confirmed it during the meteor shower.

At a certain point, the cocoon that had taken heavy damage stopped receiving any further damage.

Though this was reality, the sin felt like an invincible object from a game.

Alon found that absurd, but steeled his heart.

It was something that had to be done now, regardless.

Alon gazed at the sin, slowly beginning to stir in its tattered state.

***

At that moment.

“This is kind of unpleasant.”

The Apostle of Purity—or rather, the Apostle of Jealousy—looked up at the sky with a frown, displeased as he watched the cardinals, holy knights, and priests rushing down toward the Rosario like receding waves to help Alon.

Where his gaze landed, the sun had fully set behind the mountain and darkness had taken over.

There, the cocoon had become nothing more than rags.

“...Marquis Palatio.”

The Apostle of Jealousy spat out the name like he was chewing it, then struck the tree he had been leaning on with sharp taps.

If it hadn’t been for that man, everything would have gone as planned.

The Seraph of Jealousy would have successfully bloomed after devouring the priests, knights, and cardinals of Rosario as offerings.

At the same time, with the forces eliminated, it would have absorbed reverence and fear from the foolish humans and awakened as a sin.

By the time “He” manifested, His army would have completely engulfed Rosario.

But that perfect plan had gone up in smoke.

All because of a single man.

“No, calling him ‘just’ a man feels inaccurate. His abilities are truly extraordinary.”

The apostle looked up at Alon standing tall on the temple roof.

Indeed, his power was beyond what the apostle had assessed.

No—in that brief moment of overwhelming display, it seemed his entire assessment had been off.

It had been a spectacle that even left him speechless.

‘I have no choice but to acknowledge it.’

The apostle admitted it plainly.

That he had underestimated Marquis Palatio far more than he should have.

That the man was a far greater threat than anticipated.

At the same time, he felt relief.

Because he had already prepared for even this kind of situation.

Snap!

The apostle snapped his fingers gleefully.

And then—

KWA-DUDUDUDUDUNG!!!

From the barren ground, pure white beings—just like the ones the Seraph of Jealousy had created—began to burst forth.

Not only where he looked.

But from all across Rosario.

The pure white beings were crawling up from the ground.

“W-What the hell~!”

“Waaaah!”

The apostle hummed a tune as he heard the screams pouring in from Rosario’s capital.

These pure white beings were creations of the apostle’s divine authority.

They were nothing compared to the pure white beings made by the Seraph of Sin.

But even so, it didn’t matter.

Even if each one was weak on its own—

Their sheer overwhelming numbers made up for it.

He had spent hundreds of years preparing for this one moment.

And now, the fruits of that labor had ripened at last.

***

Desperate wails.

Screams rising and overlapping.

The more chaos filled the air, the more the apostle’s lips curled in satisfaction.

These beings he had created—

Would return the stolen reverence, disrupted by unexpected interference, back to “Him.”

Hearing the success of his backup plan take effect through the sounds around him, the apostle stretched out his hand, aiming it at Alon, still standing atop the temple.

He was a cautious man by nature.

Ordinarily, he wouldn’t act this recklessly, but the apostle had already grasped the situation.

That this very moment was his chance.

Anyone could see that Alon was exhausted.

So much so that he couldn’t even detect a simple spell properly.

‘If I take him down now, there will be no one left to interfere with His birth.’

With that thought, the apostle gathered mana at his fingertips.

Wooooong~!

Dark mana swirled at once, devouring the air with a chilling force.

At that moment—

Boom! KWOOM!!

A heavy explosion rang out in the apostle’s ears.

Far away.

From a place perhaps even outside his line of sight.

And then—

He saw it.

Two beams of light racing along Rosario’s eastern and western walls toward him.

Golden light so blinding it almost burned his eyes just to see.

And something pitch black that looked like it would swallow him into the abyss.

Realizing something unusual was happening, the apostle gave up gathering more power and immediately fired his spell at Alon.

But at that very moment—

He realized it.

The mana he had fired—

Didn’t even pass Rosario’s outer wall and was erased after brushing against the golden light.

CRACK!

And then—

Countless black hands, which had been reaching toward Alon, twisted the apostle’s own hand in a grotesque direction—

Creakkkkkk—

Turning it back toward himself.

And then—

“Guh!?”

In the next moment, the apostle’s eyes shot wide open from the unbearable pain, as if his limbs were being ripped apart.

And before his eyes—

Two figures had already arrived.

“You bastard, how dare you touch my brother—”

With endless black hands spiraling menacingly around him, the King of Curses glared coldly at the apostle.

“You—what are you?”

The God of Thunder, clad in flashing yellow lightning, said.