The Paramere Subjugation Battle (11)
The Paramere Subjugation Battle (11)
BOOM...
The sound did not end in a single burst but went on echoing. The giant's hand had merely touched the ground, yet one side of the city collapsed, and thick clouds of dust rose into the air.
The wind gusted. I set foot on the giant's back, far above the ground.
It was vast.
So absurdly vast that if it did not shift slightly now and then, I might have mistaken it for stinking ground.
"Hup."
I drove Mistelten in deep. The weapon burrowed deep into the flesh and corroded the rotten giant's interior. It put down roots and dyed its surroundings black.
[Restraining the Palace of the Rotten...]
[The Palace of the Rotten resists.]
The giant resisted, but its strength had clearly diminished. With the Magic Siege Cannon firing at regular intervals, it was safe to say it had nearly been suppressed.
Of course, this was not the end.
At the end of Mistelten's hilt, rooted in place for the restraint, a flower bloomed. A seed that gnawed away at whatever it manifested through, using the black-blooming Sacred Power.
[Using Seed of Evil (SSS).]
[The Seed of Evil writhes.]
[A sanctuary spreads over the area.]
Like a bursting wave, black energy swept across the rotten giant's back once.
The spreading wide-area buff covered my body. A skill befitting a relic of Naga, it placed a powerful blessing on those possessing shadow Sacred Power.
[Health regeneration increases.]
[Sacred Power recharge speed increases.]
[Strength is enhanced.]
[Senses sharpen.]
[Entering temporary berserk state.]
[Erosion Rate: 32%]
I released my grip on Mistelten. I drew a deep, long breath. I forced my wavering vision straight.
Pain surged in. The sensation of something crawling into my veins.
I steadied my breathing. With trembling hands, I took out the expensive dagger I had stored in my Pocket.
Not quite S-rank, but an A-rank dagger from the treasure vault that had looked serviceable enough.
"Z-Zahard... your erosion rate is rising too fast...! Like I said before, if it reaches 100%, you might not come back...!"
The white snake burrowed into my right arm whispered. I let out a short laugh.
I knew. The side effects of a body growing stronger in real time.
But didn't I have Naga? The avatar of Naga, manifested while bearing all manner of backlash.
"Naga, please help me."
"B-but..."
"I'll trust you."
I stroked the snake's head as if whispering.
"If it's Naga, I'm sure she'll manage something."
The white snake trembled.
As if to block the black corrosion pressing in from my fingertips, it seeped over my skin. The snake's eyes turned red.
"...I'll try to manage something...!"
The white snake began to struggle against the black roots climbing up my body. The erosion rate's rise slowed somewhat, but that did not mean it stopped rising entirely.
Naga really is easy to handle.
That's why I like her. Someday, I'll repay it all.
I'm the kind of person who always repays what I've received!
[The serpent whispered.]
[I cut my wrist to offer blood.]
[Using Black Swamp - Favela (S).]
Shape Transformation settled over the two daggers in my hands. Naga's scripture. The form of a divine technique passed down by word of mouth over countless years settled at my fingertips.
I asked.
"Should I come to you, or will you come out?"
She answered.
"WHY!!!! WHYYYYYYYY!!!!!!"
The giant's hide tore. Amid the spurting rotten blood and flesh, a girl with eyes flashing with fury revealed herself.
Within the wretched screams, countless rotten soldiers began to rise with a grinding sound. Rotten knights qualitatively different from the ones below.
Amid the clattering, proper skeletal frames held together. The rotten faces collapsed, and the bone swords they raised gleamed sharply.
At the far end of their ranks stood a throne of bone. Aris, half-risen, was gasping.
The black-haired, wounded girl whispered.
"All Aris wants... is just... to be free... You... you're sickening... I hate you..."
Phase 2. The real fight began now.
"Shut your mouth."
I raised the dagger at an angle.
"The sickening one here is me!"
. . .
「He is a human chosen by Ra. But to put it another way, if you strip away that power, he will have nothing left. Just like 'that person.'」
So I did as those words said. I devoured his power, then shoved him into a corner.
Originally, I meant to kill him. But I did not like what he said. So I wanted him to die slowly, through pain.
...But.
But I definitely took his power...!
"How?!"
Within Aris's scream, the rotten knights rose. They raised their swords to protect their lord.
But they shattered. This was different from what that man had said—that he would have no abilities apart from being an Apostle of Ra.
The dagger flashed. Whenever the shadows wavered, the rotten knights' heads flew.
Fast.
His speed was so great that his feet moved faster than the speed at which a sword could be brought down!
"DON'T COME NEAR MEEEEE!!!!"
Aris slammed her hand down. Rotten arms sprouted from the giant's back and tore through the air.
Zahard opened his mouth.
"Pattern 1-1. Forward sweep with the rotten arms."
"......?!"
A hair's breadth.
The attack missed by exactly that much.
As if he had predicted it, he slipped inside. The massive rotten arm missed.
The blade's tip burrowed into Aris's body.
How?!
I'm definitely faster...?!
Pierre howled. The Clock Tower Monster wrapped around Aris's body like a shadow. Aris tumbled from the bursting impact, but it did not touch her body.
"P-protect Aris!"
The knights rose. Aris did not stay still either. In her outstretched hand, the flesh of the Rotten gathered.
Coincidence only happens once. There is no second time. So...!
"Pattern 3-4!"
It missed.
"HOWWWWWWW?!!"
"I predicted everything! Next, you're going to say, 'This is impossible'!"
"Th-this is impossi...!"
Aris flinched. The dagger slipped through the flurry of rotten arms and flashed.
The distance closed in an instant. Knights' heads flew.
Pierre's thick hide split in a single moment!
"I... I don't want this... I hate this...!"
Pierre's scream drove deep into my ears. Aris thrashed. She scraped together a massive amount of the Rotten's flesh and brought down a huge thorned tentacle.
"DON'T COME CLOSE!!!!"
"I don't want to either!"
The thorned tentacle grazed Zahard's body. But Zahard's body, once lifted from the ground, twisted strangely.
The thorns sprouting from the tentacle's surface barely grazed past. Blood sprayed, but it was only a scratch.
Rather, Pierre's body was cut even deeper. Every attack it extended missed entirely.
As if foreseeing the future, he slipped through the gaps by a hair's breadth.
"No... no..."
Aris brought her hands together. As if seizing and tearing space itself, she wrenched them apart with all her strength.
"LEAVE ARIS ALOOOONE!!!!"
A self-destructive technique that swept even herself up in it.
The condensed flesh exploded with a roar.
. . .
I hadn't predicted that.
I slid backward. I righted my body.
The Clock Tower Slave, Aris.
I had already learned her patterns with my body. They were patterns I had seen hundreds of times in the game. Actually resolving them with my body was a different matter, but my honed skill and instincts helped with that.
But separate from that, the question of whether I could win was clearly different.
Rotten flesh pattered down from the explosion. Aris, gasping, turned her head. Her burning face began to return to normal.
"Aris... Aris... wants freedom."
A tearing voice. Her ruined vocal cords produced a strange sound.
She reached out. The sucked-in flesh wrapped around Aris's body.
Here it comes.
Phase 3.
The rotten knights knelt. As if this was what they had desired, they cooperated with her willingly.
The knights collapsed. Their bones split and condensed, wrapping around Aris's body. Buried in the twisted flesh, Aris rose.
Countless eyes surfaced on the surface of the rotten flesh. As if the wounded Pierre was seizing control, the eyes all moved in unison.
Pierre's shell wrapped around Aris's body. The form of a monster that had devoured countless blood and souls, that had loved humans so much it abandoned even itself, manifested upon the earth.
Countless gazes fixed on me.
"...Ha."
The Lord of the Rotten.
As always, he whispered.
"...Command me."
The sound blurred as if heard underwater. It was not Aris's voice.
The voice of the Clock Tower Monster, Pierre, who had ultimately seized control.
The Rotten Lord reached out.
Condensing flesh. A strange, twisted sword was gripped in Aris's hand.
Beyond large, it was heavy. The eyes attached to the sword surveyed every direction.
Aris's voice burst out from within the Lord of the Rotten's body.
"...Kill."
A hidden boss I had only managed to take down a few times even in the game opened its eyes.
"KILL THE APOSTLE OF RAAAAAA!!! FREEDOM!!! GIVE ME FREEDOM!!! PIERRRRE!!!!"
Within the twisted voice, the Lord of the Rotten raised its head.
Pierre.
The shell of a monster that had lived a puppet-like life and ultimately given up on thinking gave its assent.
"As Aris wills."
Immediately after.
The air burst.
"Ugh?!"
I knew. I knew the pattern. But the speed was greater than I had expected.
My skin tore from the mere sword pressure of the swing. A power on a different dimension from before. I immediately twisted my body and corrected my stance.
We clashed. I swung my sword. Black Swamp - Favela howled ferociously.
CRASH!!!
Countless movements. But it was not enough. I accelerated my speed further.
Planting my feet and extending. Compressing the ground and launching forward.
Bouncing off, breaking, then rising again.
"Zahard?!"
"Shh! I can't focus!"
Sparks flew. What remained of my clothes fluttered in every direction. The divided shadows that could not keep up with my movements were torn apart all at once.
An irrational difference in power.
Black Swamp - Favela screamed as if about to shatter.
"Ugh?!"
The Lord of the Rotten's eyes moved. The eyeballs stuck to the surface of the flesh split apart individually, all tracking my movements.
The final problem of Phase 3, which could not be overcome by most specs.
Superhuman senses approaching precognition.
An unyielding fortress whose thick outer hide let no attack through.
Overwhelming power that shattered every attack.
Specs that were practically a trinity—no matter when I looked at them, they were broken!
"Damn it!"
Every attack bounced off. I cut through the gaps and thrashed, but the greatsword knocked me back and slammed my body into the ground.
"Zahard! Left!"
At Naga's urgent cry, I immediately turned my head. I flipped my body, rose, and scraped the ground with my feet. Amid the leaping flesh, I scattered black shadows.
The dagger grew sharper from the heated shadow Sacred Power. But even that did not get through. The absurdly massive greatsword followed my movements.
Collapse came in an instant.
The descending slash tore the ground to shreds.
"Ugh?!"
I was cut. Blood sprayed from my upper body. I tried to heal immediately, but the rotten flesh burrowed into my body.
The greatsword flashed. As if refusing to give me any opening, the Lord of the Rotten moved its hand on the greatsword.
"Aris... Aris..."
The rapidly moving eyes fixed in place.
"Command me... command me..."
"KILL HIIIIM!!! KILL HIM NOWWWW!!!!"
Amid the overlapping voices, the greatsword came down.
Should I use it now?! But if I use it now, everything will be for nothing...!
My reaction was delayed by the chain of worries. By the time I came to my senses, the greatsword was above my head.
Ah.
Shit.
Too lat...
"Zahard."
Light came crashing down.
BOOM!!!!!
A thunderous roar rang out. I was flung backward. The Lord of the Rotten was as well.
A white greatsword driven into the ground. Amid the scattering flames, someone revealed themselves.
Thick armor. A figure with a helm pulled down low overflowed with sanctity. Red flames clinging here and there blazed fiercely, as if proclaiming the end.
A form that seemed to recreate an angel's descent.
Ra's flames burned the world.
[Come, my child.]
[For I have fashioned it for you alone.]
[Spread word of my greatness far and wide.]
[Within the unbreaking fortress, burn your flame.]
[You have witnessed the divine authority of Tarnhelm (SSS).]
[Your wounds recover rapidly.]
Collapsing flesh and fire spreading ever wider.
I staggered to my feet. Why... why is this here...
"...Tarnhelm?"
Why is a Sacred Relic belonging to the Church of Ra here?
Why is an object that only the head of the Day Priestesses can use...?
Wings unfurled from the white armor. Ra's radiance. Amid the blazing flames, someone whispered.
"...I believed you were alive."
I raised my eyes. Someone I had never expected stood before me.
Amid the parting flames, a woman who had removed her helm smiled. Her white hair fluttered in the wind.
The church branch where I had first begun my second life.
The thread of connection tied there whispered before me.
"I came to keep the promise I made—that I would come for you, Zahard."
Someone who had once been my senior, and someone I had protected.
Someone I thought I would never see here stood before my eyes.
Apprentice Priest Irene.
No...
The 'Day Priestess' looked at me. With eyes as unwavering as always, she declared.
"Let's go back. Together."
As if she had come to announce the end of all of this.