The Paramere Search Operation (18)
The Paramere Search Operation (18)
"N-no...!"
I struck the back of her neck. It would have been impossible against a normal Rosemary, but with her strength completely drained, it was doable now.
Rosemary collapsed to the floor from the clean blow. I glanced back at the brothers Lucas and Marcus.
"You heard me, right? Get out without looking back. Right now."
They nodded, as if they too had sensed the strange atmosphere.
"That thing... is not human. Good luck, brother."
"...I hope we meet again."
The mercenaries tried to say something. But no one could speak. With pale, stricken faces, they hurried out of the underground.
The girl tilted her head. Nothing reflected in her empty pupils.
Literally dead eyes.
Her fingers moved.
"No."
Black tentacles shot out from the darkness. Dozens of splitting black spears aimed at the backs of the escaping group.
I moved too.
"No? What do you mean, no?"
[Using Darkness-Slamming Weight - Stomp (S).]
CRUNCH!!!
Flames blazed. I crushed the tentacles with my greatsword. Black blood splattered, and the girl flinched slightly.
Her gaze met mine for the first time. Black hair. Empty eyes. A face covered in wounds.
...Right.
This is definitely the 'Clock Tower Slave Aris.'
"You really are different."
"Yeah. I'm different, ghost."
"...Aris is a ghost?"
"You're a ghost because you're the same as the things around you."
The Clock Tower Slave Aris.
The true mastermind boss, and a monster that had to be killed before the Clock Tower Monster if you wanted an easy route.
I withdrew my greatsword. I couldn't tell whether that girl had made contact with the Clock Tower Monster. But judging by her use of power, it seemed safe to assume she was already half-linked.
She was still in a ghost state. But if she fully made contact with the monster, that thing would gain a physical body. The difficulty would become absurd, and everything would go to hell.
Killing her before complete assimilation was the best option. But as I was now, even that was beyond me.
Stall for time. And focus only on somehow escaping Paramer myself.
In the first place, if the 'Clock Tower Slave Aris' and the 'Clock Tower Monster Pierre' made contact, it was as good as a failed scenario.
You'd need at least one of the Continent's Twelve Stars to suppress it.
Don't think about winning.
Just think about stalling for time!
"......"
The girl glanced around. She looked at the refugees trembling against the walls.
Her head tilted once more.
"Aris is a ghost?"
"Yeah. A ghost. Idiots who delude themselves into thinking they're alive. Quietly fuck off to hell."
"...No."
The girl muttered.
"Aris is not a ghost."
"You died, so you're a ghost. Your freedom isn't here. You already fucked off to hell."
"Aris will be free."
"You can't. So stay buried for a while."
"Aris will leave. Outside Paramer. She'll be free."
"Bullshit."
I let my greatsword hang.
"You were bound to the Clock Tower with that monster. Even if you leave this place, you won't find what you want. Paramer has changed, and the freedom you wanted so badly all died while you were bound here."
"......"
"Did some Imperial knight whisper to you? It's all bullshit. You think a mere human can grant you real freedom? It's the nonsense of a deluded human."
"He's not a mere human."
"Then what? Some half-baked wizard who broke off from the Blue Magic Tower?"
-Get away!!!!
A voice rang out. I flinched. A voice I hadn't heard in a long time.
Ra shouted urgently.
"What do you mean, suddenly popping out like that?"
-My judgment was wrong! This world's system has already been fundamentally corrupted!
"Huh?"
-The twisted Sacred Mark adapting to an apostle was already absurd from the start! The very structure of the world has been eroded, so everything is already in chaos!
Ra's voice trembled.
-The 'Fallen' I told you about knew in advance that I would intervene! They were already moving before you even started!
"...What?"
The Fallen.
The reason Ra had called me here, and the targets I was supposed to redeem.
The girl whispered.
"Apostle of the Sun God, Zahard."
She said my name, which she had no way of knowing.
"That person said it. That you would definitely come here."
"...Who?"
"Aris is not a ghost."
[Error]
[Error]
[Error]
[Error]
[Error]
A red status window I had never seen before flickered.
She spoke.
"Aris is—a person."
['Clock Tower Slave Aris' regains her true form.]
['Aris' is registered on the Main NPC list.]
[You have encountered the One Who Devours 'Aris'.]
[List of the Fallen: ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? 'One Who Devours, Aris']
The air chilled. A feeling as if every light had gone pitch-black in an instant.
My vision wavered. Life flickered into Aris's pale skin for a moment.
Real flesh and blood mingled into the body I had thought was a ghost.
"...What?"
A boss monster... becomes an NPC?
The Clock Tower Slave Aris grinned at me. Her wounded face twisted grotesquely.
The last iron collar around her neck broke with a clatter.
"How does it feel?"
I tried to stay calm. Even while maintaining my composure with a skill, my hands were trembling for some reason.
What kind of fucked-up turn is this?
"So... it wasn't the Imperial knight and wizard who freed you. There was already a guest here before we arrived. The Fallen got their hands on you, didn't they?"
"I was freed a long time ago. The restraints were a trick. The skin color is fake too. Aris is complete. Has been all along. Pierre and Aris are together. Always together."
"...Then why did you stay here?"
"That person said it. If we ran wild on our own, you would hide away and build up your strength."
"It was a trap from the beginning?"
"Aris is the stake. Pierre is the hammer. What gets driven in is your heart. That's the promise."
Aris's shadow stretched strangely. My eyes went wide.
"...Oh, fuck."
Countless eyes were mixed into the shadow. The Clock Tower Monster. The original form that should have been sealed.
So the eerie crying from atop the Clock Tower was fake. It was nothing but a shell.
Was everything just a trick to lure me here from the very start?
"So you... had already made contact with that monster. Everything I did was completely pointless. You pulled all kinds of shit to drag me in."
"I kept the promise, so Aris can leave Paramer."
"Is the promise to kill me here?"
"No. Devouring is enough."
"...What?"
The shadow split open with a rip. Countless teeth lined the opening.
"The stake only needs to burst the heart."
The shadow teeth bit into my entire body.
-Run...!
I hastily raised my greatsword. But Aris's shadow passed right through the greatsword and swept through my body.
A chilling sensation, as if a ghost had passed through me. And immediately, Ra's voice cut off.
[The One Who Devours 'Aris' devours your power.]
[The Sun God's Sacred Power disappears.]
[The connection to the Sun God is severed.]
[The Sacred Mark loses its light.]
Ra's voice cut off.
"That's it."
I fell to my knees. Overwhelming exhaustion swept over my body.
I couldn't feel the Sacred Power that had surged throughout my body at all. The light of the Sacred Power went out, as if it had broken down.
It felt like half my soul had been devoured.
Aris passed by me.
"Paramer can't imprison Aris anymore. Aris is free."
"...F...fuck..."
"You called Aris a ghost, didn't you?"
Aris stood at the door and looked back at me. After taking in the 'refugees' scattered around, she curled her lips into a grotesque smile.
"Why don't you become the ghost, Zahard? Goodbye."
The basement door began to close. I stared blankly at the vanishing light.
It had gone wrong.
More definitively than at any point I had ever pushed through before.
"...Fuck."
I laughed.
"I'm fucked."
The door to the underground chamber closed.
Darkness swallowed me.
. . .
The black fog was lifting. The Lucas Marcus brothers ran frantically.
A chill ran down their spines. Even as the black fog lifted, something was going wrong.
Something more grotesque and twisted was approaching. All of Paramer shook, and the stench of rot began to grow more intense.
It was daytime. Still clearly daytime. A quiet daytime with no sound at all.
But suddenly, the outer walls of buildings began to burst. The horde of the Rotten crawled out from underground.
"What the fuck?!"
"What is this all of a sudden...!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
They poured out simultaneously, as if a blocked sewer had been unclogged all at once. Lucas and Marcus swung their axes. The mercenaries struggled desperately to carve a path somehow.
Even as they approached the barricade, things were not normal. They could see the Rotten clinging to the outer wall and eating away at it. The monsters that had been quiet until now were rampaging like mad as the black fog lifted.
"...Oh, God."
Daniel muttered without realizing it.
The apocalypse.
It felt like the end of the world was coming.
The entrance came into view. The brothers Lucas and Marcus squeezed their bodies between the parked stagecoaches and shoved the barricade with all their strength.
"Go first!"
"We'll hold them off!"
"Cut the bullshit and run with us!"
"It's already too late to hold them off!"
The bursting rotten flesh was swallowing all of Paramer. The guards spotted the group that had no choice but to flee and shouted urgently.
"Wh-what is happening in there?!"
"We don't know either!"
"Just get us on a carriage! Now!"
"G-get on, quickly!"
The carriage moved. The terrified horses bolted like mad. Daniel, who had barely caught his breath, cracked open the carriage's canvas cover.
"...Good Lord."
The city of Paramer.
Something was clinging to the outer wall surrounding it. A colossal beast. A monster scattering the stench of rot was clearly rising up beyond Paramer's outer wall.
It was enormous. A body composed of countless Rotten Ones moved slowly. It was not enough to crane one's neck from afar; the grotesque beast towered so high that one had to stare upward for ages. It opened its mouth.
The monster, bloated with rot, let out a long cry.
-----------------------------------------GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....
"...In...sane..."
Daniel muttered.
"What... the hell... is that...?"
No one else spoke, but everyone in the carriage already knew.
The disaster of Paramer from ten years ago.
And this time, it would not end with just one city.
. . .
I opened my eyes. The surroundings were quiet. Nothing could be heard except the sobbing of the refugees who were no different from ghosts.
"...Hungry... hungry..."
"I want to live... please... at least the child..."
"I don't want to die like this..."
Their souls were alive, but their bodies were dead. They maintained their forms only through sheer obsession.
The Clock Tower Slave Aris had been the same kind of case. But now she was different. She had merged with the Clock Tower Monster and gained a proper body.
Now, well, she could be called the lord of the Rotten.
I stretched. I was alive, so that was enough. As long as I was alive, I could find an opportunity. But something felt strange.
The back of my head was soft. Something like a little fairy was also moving around nearby.
Our eyes met. Glittering golden eyes. At the gaze looking at me uneasily, I frowned.
Harsh words were inevitable.
"...Why didn't you leave?"
Elves.
I had clearly told them to get out, but the ones who hadn't left were right in front of me.
Flora flinched. She averted her gaze.
"Th-that's..."
"Don't tell me you got scared and missed your timing? Then you really are idiots."
"Y-your words are too harsh!"
"Apologize to Flora!"
So they really were idiots.
I sat up. Thanks to the soft knee pillow, the back of my head didn't hurt.
My body just felt hollow. The link had been severed, I supposed. With the power I had always held gone, all the strength had drained from my body.
"Ra."
-.......
She did not answer my call. The Sacred Mark's light was completely extinguished too. Oh, boy. So all the Sun God's power I had painstakingly built up had vanished.
I was screwed. Screwed.
The situation was the worst. Flora hesitantly asked.
"Um... Zahard."
"What."
"Have you lost all of the Sun God's Sacred Power? Are you no longer able to display the same martial prowess as before?"
Frightened eyes looked at me.
"Are we... no longer able to escape from this place?"
"Hey."
"Y-yes?"
"Stop trying to lean on other people and do it yourself. A little. Am I a mother bird stuffing food into your mouths?"
I looked up at the ceiling. All of Paramer was shaking. I tried to open the basement door, but it wouldn't open.
Something was holding it from outside. Aris had probably done some kind of work on it.
I was trapped.
Completely trapped in a sealed room. Was she trying to make me into a real ghost? As expected of someone who was just a brat with a bigger body, Aris had heard something unpleasant and was trying to give it right back to me.
But that actually saved me. Whoever had made a contract with Aris, they probably hadn't accounted for that childlike temperament.
No.
Before that, they clearly hadn't known that the power I possessed wasn't only that of the 'Apostle of the Sun God.' So the enemy was not, at least, an omniscient god.
"Naga."
-...Yes!
A voice I hadn't heard in a long time. Now that I had fallen into the abyss, it sounded like a heavenly maiden's voice.
"Can you contact Ra?"
-No... Ra and I were only able to converse through your Sacred Mark... In the first place, there are very few ways for gods to speak directly to one another...
"Well, it can't be helped. Even if there were a way, there's no method to recover the Sacred Power right now."
The elves stared at me with suspicious eyes. They whispered among themselves.
"Talking to himself at the empty air..."
"Has he gone mad?"
"Maybe we should keep some distance..."
"Y-you can't do that to our Savior!"
I checked my Pocket. Fortunately, the backpack-type Pocket I had set down before the battle was intact. The enormous amount of food I had stuffed into it was still there, and there was plenty of water too.
There's a saying: "If you have no teeth, use your gums." Now that even the Sun God's Sacred Power had been taken from me, all I had left was Naga's much weaker Sacred Power.
But that was enough. Because this place was overflowing with ghosts!
"Hah. Aris... you stupid bitch..."
I grinned. There's a saying that crisis is opportunity. The Church of Naga's Sacred Power was related to shadow and darkness in the first place.
And the twisted ghosts in this living hell could be seen as darkness itself. Originally, I had thought of them as rewards to revive and take with me, but now it was different.
With my feet to the fire, I gave up on saving them. They weren't worth saving anyway. I had intended to revive them and gain treasure, but since I was more likely to die than get a reward, this was the best option.
Devour them all, and get out of here. And thinking about it differently, this was actually a good situation.
Overflowing time.
Plenty of food.
The number of ghosts was beyond counting.
"You dug your own grave."
This was the optimal place to build up Naga's power!