The Paramere Subjugation Battle (12)
The Paramere Subjugation Battle (12)
"...How."
"I came to save you."
"But that's someone else's possession..."
"I borrowed it."
"Even a genius would need time to properly handle..."
"That's why I earned its approval. From Tarnhelm. A little late, though."
Words wouldn't come out. I just let out a hollow laugh.
What is this. What the hell is this!
People I thought would never come were pouring in. And into Paramer, of all places—the place widely known as certain death!
"Weren't you scared?"
"I was scared."
"Then why did you come?"
"Because you're here."
Irene wrapped herself around me. The red flames clinging to her white armor didn't hurt at all.
They were just warm.
Irene shot me a glare.
"I'd like to scold you as your senior, but... the situation doesn't look easy."
I got to my feet.
The Lord of the Rotten was rising. The surface of its enormous flesh was burning, but there didn't seem to be any damage.
Well, of course. That thing is like an iron-walled fortress. A Demonic Force construct that regenerates endlessly.
Unless you crush it with truly overwhelming power, there's only one way to beat it.
Separating Pierre and Aris.
The Lord of the Rotten let out a growl. Through the murky voice, it gripped its greatsword.
"Irene."
"Yes, Zahard."
"You see that jewel embedded in its chest?"
"...Yes. I see it."
The only blackly rippling orb on the Lord of the Rotten's body.
"We have to break that."
The key element to breaking one of the special patterns!
Irene didn't add any objections.
She didn't even ask. She just nodded as if it were obvious.
"Leave it to me."
Fire ignited on Irene's white greatsword.
"I'll manage somehow."
Irene is certainly a genius. But even a genius has limits. A person's growth rate is bound to be heavily restricted.
If she had climbed up here alone, I definitely would have stopped her.
But now it's different. What she's wearing is Tarnhelm. The Sacred Relic I coveted most among Ra's relics. But I'd given up on it early, thinking it would offend the Day Priestesses.
With that, I can trust her. I gripped my dagger tight. The Lord of the Rotten leveled its greatsword.
A monster that had carried out contract killings across countless years. And among those it killed were High Knights as well.
Its raw power is already strong, but it layers swordsmanship on top of that. Measured level: 90.
And on our side are two with stats roughly in the 70s, lower than that. Wearing Tarnhelm, you could say her physical level alone is similar to mine.
Still, compared to the enemy, it's an infinitely weaker force. But it's too much of a waste to give up.
Because 'she' is here too.
"Zahard."
Someone rose out of the shadows that had slithered in like a snake. The Serpent's Apostle, Estelle.
Nice! A level 80 joins the fight too!
But I can't use this woman as frontline strength. Estelle had a job to do. At the moment when the Lord of the Rotten was most weakened, she had to separate Aris and Pierre.
Estelle asked shortly.
"What do I do?"
"Stay here, and when you see an opening, separate the person inside that shell."
"Support?"
"Just a little rear support, please. It'd be best if you conserve your strength as much as possible. You'll need one decisive strike when it's time to separate them."
I stood shoulder to shoulder with Irene. I took my place beside her.
The Lord of the Rotten growled. The tip of its greatsword writhed, gouged out in jagged gaps like a saw blade.
It's going to be even stronger than before.
"Irene."
This should be a moment of tension. But before I knew it, I'd casually spoken up.
"This is the first time we've fought together like this."
"...It's fine. We'll be together from now on, after all."
"What?"
"Focus."
Fire ignited on Irene's white greatsword.
"Come on."
The Lord of the Rotten roared.
. . .
The Apostle Estelle glanced back. A sword embedded in the rotten giant's back.
It's a Sacred Relic of Naga. No doubt about it. Why is it here?
Did Zahard bring out something that had been hidden inside Paramer?
The more she looked, the stranger this man was. Estelle swept back her hair as it fluttered in the sound of rupturing air.
The Lord of the Rotten moved its greatsword. Space itself shattered under that unprecedented might.
Crunch.
The sound was short. The descending greatsword swallowed everything. At the same time, red bone spikes burst out as well.
A monster. Estelle had no confidence she could face that thing head-on and win one-on-one. She'd try to cut through the thick hide and drive damage into it, only to be taken down instead.
But astonishingly, two people weaker than herself were holding the balance. A driving dagger and a fiercely moving greatsword.
"...The Church of Ra."
Estelle let out a sigh.
"Was hiding its claws."
The heavy armor moved. Whenever flames burst from the helmet, the white greatsword blazed up violently.
Simple firepower mixed with technique.
The Lord of the Rotten.
They were locked in a contest of strength right now against a monster she herself couldn't handle.
BOOM!!!!
Every clash tore space apart. Even though the flames were being pushed back with a roar, they were clearly holding on.
And on top of that...
A dagger watching for openings.
Zahard moved. His strange movements left no presence. Like a serpent's fang approaching in silence, he aimed for exposed weaknesses.
He clashed and cut. As if targeting something, he drew the gaze of its many eyes. There were no effective hits, but the Lord of the Rotten spat out its fury as if annoyed.
An omnidirectional area attack.
The rotten muscles tensed and swelled with a grinding sound. The descending greatsword split the rotten giant's back open with a crack.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk!!!!!
Flesh surged. A rain of blood scattered in all directions. Estelle gripped her serpent-blade tight.
Who would believe it.
That this spectacle was a battle between churches—churches everyone thought were a setting sun.
"...Hup."
The serpent-blade, segmented at every joint, stretched out like a whip. With a simple flick of her hand, it flew forward as if springing.
An attack descending on Irene from an angle that couldn't be blocked. She struck the side of that greatsword and twisted its trajectory.
The greatsword that had been aiming for flesh slammed into the ground, and in that instant, the two's effective hits drove into the Lord of the Rotten.
CRASH!!
A combined assault of three.
The united focus of apostle-level fighters.
Estelle retrieved her serpent-blade. Like a snake eyeing its prey, she watched for an opening. Her job was rear support. Nothing more.
Zahard had said it. To conserve her strength. If so, he must have some kind of plan.
From the start, she hadn't thought they could drag this out long against that thing. That man definitely had something in mind.
...Show me, Zahard.
Whether you're worth these people staking their lives on.
. . .
"Grraaagh!!"
The ground split. My foot twisted. Mental fatigue. With my relatively lacking stats, I couldn't just brute-force my way through with my body. I couldn't fully evade the surging rotten bones and took a hit.
"Puhup?!"
Blood surged violently out of my mouth. An impact like my organs were being shredded.
I rolled across the ground. My body, hurled back hard, lost control for a moment.
"Zahard?!"
"Don't come over here...!"
I managed to answer with a scraped-out voice. I got to my feet. Naga was staggering too.
"Blocking the erosion rate... is at its limit now...!"
[Erosion Rate: 72%]
My mind was clouding. My vision was blurring. I was gasping.
I tried to catch my breath. Somehow, I looked ahead.
The Lord of the Rotten.
The white greatsword, an attachment of Tarnhelm, had cracked.
"Nnnggh!!"
One of Irene's knees was buckling. I hurled my dagger.
As I ran, I pulled Mistelten from the rotten giant's back.
"Zahard?! Th-that's direct contact—your erosion rate will rise even more...!"
[Erosion Rate: 81%]
I know.
If I lose consciousness here, everything is over.
But the deeper the black roots burrowed into my body, the greater the power that came to me. Mistelten is a double-edged blade.
By hurting myself, it lets me hurt the enemy too.
[The Seed of Evil (SSS) stirs.]
I stepped on the rotten flesh and let the blade hang low. The Lord of the Rotten flinched and turned its head.
A hand clenched with a grinding sound. The swollen rotten muscles flared violently for an instant.
Unprecedented might.
A colossal power unlike anything I'd ever been hit by was staring me down from the front.
I can't surpass that. It's a pattern that killed me time and time again.
If this were inside the game, I'd definitely have died here.
...But!
"Grind!"
The sound of Irene grinding her teeth came out. Her collapsing knee straightened again. Flames leaked once more from the tip of the white greatsword she held.
"AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
A cry like scraping past every limit to the very edge. The trajectory of the rotten lord's greatsword was knocked aside for an instant by the falling white greatsword.
The attack swung down with unprecedented might grazed past my side. My right arm was severed from the shoulder and flew backward. But I immediately twisted my body and seized the rebounding Mistelten with my left arm.
Amid surging pain, I reached out. The final move. The erosion rate climbing to its limit had barely let me pierce that thick outer hide.
"I'll run you through!"
The Black Jewel.
[Using Seeping Darkness - Sanajeh (S).]
Mistelten drove deep into the weak point the two of us had been aiming for all along.
"......"
"......"
"......"
Silence swallowed everyone. The cracks that began on the surface of the Black Jewel soon covered the object completely.
Fragments poured down. The Black Jewel fell away.
Aris laughed from inside the Lord of the Rotten's body. She whispered so that her giggling could be heard by all.
"Aris... won't die from that... it's pointless..."
The Mistelten in my grip trembled. I nodded.
"...Right. This won't kill you."
Blood poured from the severed cross-section of my lost right arm.
But along with it—
Flames ignited on my Sacred Power, which had been asleep all this time.
"If it were anything else, sure—but not this!"
[The devoured Sacred Power of Ra returns.]
[The Mixed Sacred Mark (A) stirs.]
[The Mixed Divinity (A) stirs.]
[The strengthened shadow Sacred Power and fire Sacred Power merge into one.]
[The Mixed Sacred Mark (A) and Mixed Divinity (A) fuse into one.]
[You have acquired Another Possibility (S).]
[Mistelten's erosion ends.]
[Erosion Rate: 100%]
[You lose your reason.]
[The Sun God's Prayer refuses this.]
[Mistelten howls violently.]
[The Seed of Evil reacts.]
[The Flower of Evil (SSS) fully blooms.]
The fire Sacred Power blazing from deep within my body. The shadow Sacred Power supporting it.
【Zahard!!!!】
A voice I had lost.
-You actually did it! You damn bastard!
A whisper I thought I might never hear again.
"...Huh?"
Amid Aris's trembling voice, my vanished right arm began to regenerate.
New flesh sprouted from where the flames covered it. I slowly exhaled the breath that had seemed about to stop.
"Aris."
The earring that had been silent all along swayed.
[Thirst and hunger.]
[Despair covered the world.]
[But even so, light remained.]
[People named that light 'Brionac.']
[Your whole body is filled with faith.]
[The lost light of Ra descends upon the world.]
[Sacred Power is restored to maximum.]
[Health is restored to maximum.]
[Sacred Power efficiency doubles.]
[Using Light-Devouring Fire - Luin (A).]
[Light-Devouring Fire - Luin (A) reacts to countless combat experiences.]
[Power surges into the extending spear.]
[Light-Devouring Fire - Luin (A) changes to Holy Destruction - Luin (S).]
Inside the outer hide, I released the shallowly embedded Mistelten. I spun my body around.
Brionac manifested. The spear of light shone at my fingertips. The spearhead stained red, and the light that burst out in an instant drove away the darkness.
The Lord of the Rotten's eyes all stiffened at once.
I grinned.
"Let's end this."
From beginning to end.
To put a period on the long, long journey of Paramer, I reached out my hand.
"Th-that's imposs..."
Swallowing the words, deeper still.
Past where the jewel had been, into the thick outer hide.
I drove the burning spearhead hard into Mistelten's hilt.
The 'Flower of Evil (SSS)' bloomed from the 'Seed of Evil (SSS).'
Mistelten's destructive power, blossomed at the erosion rate's limit, pierced through the Lord of the Rotten.