Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
Chapter 151: Specter of the Past (1)
“Lord Pariah, why on earth──”
Paaat!
Suddenly, Pariah, who was in my line of sight, vanished.
In the spot where he had been, only a Jjeojeok! sound of the stone floor splitting and the dust kicked up by it remained.
“──!”
And just like that, he subdued Toric, who hadn't been able to react, by taking him down with a single hand.
“Stay still, Toric.”
As if removing the obstacle he judged to be the most threatening beforehand.
“Ugh…!”
“Lord Toric!”
When Miki, startled by this, rushed forward desperately.
“──Ugh!?”
Pariah blocked Miki's shield with a hand again, and then with a Pweong! sound, he shoved and sent Miki flying, shield and all.
And then, he instantly rushed toward Rine.
『Stop!』
But at my hastily shouted 「Word Command」, Pariah, who flinched and froze in place, turned his head and glared at me.
His two eyes were not at all tainted by the light of charm.
He also had the same ‘Charm Immunity’ as Rine.
Fortunately, by utilizing the effect that the next Charisma-based skill is unconditionally successful when I remove the 「Witch's Eye」, I was barely able to land the 「Word Command」 with certainty this one time…
“…!”
Nevertheless, Pariah quickly resisted.
The arm that should not move according to the absolute command slowly began to rise towards Rine’s neck.
And Rine, who was staring at Pariah with wide, startled eyes.
“…….”
Was still greatly agitated, simply trembling in place.
“…sorry.”
She kept muttering something in a voice that was hard to understand.
“…sorry.”
Kadeuk!
Simultaneously, a sound of something breaking rang out, and.
“Hey.”
Ssaeek!
Kicking up a wind, Ibi stepped on Pariah’s shadow.
With a shimmering purple light in her eyes.
Vaporized Gloom was leaking from Ibi’s mouth as she asked.
“What the hell are you doing to my friends without warning?”
Just like her anger, which she couldn't completely hide.
Sheeek!
Two black and white daggers were swung.
They cleanly slashed Pariah’s neck repeatedly, which wasn't moving properly due to the 「Word Command」.
Chwaak!
Red blood splattered onto Rine’s white face, who was standing in front.
She was still frozen stiff in place, trembling slightly.
“I’m sorry…”
She kept muttering the word sorry.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
It was then.
“Whaat──”
Pariah, whose neck had clearly been almost severed by Ibi’s continuous attack.
“How──”
──Pweok!
He lifted his foot and outright kicked Ibi.
“Keoheok…!”
Ibi’s body, which was lifted into the air by that heavy strike, flew straight back with the shockwave that burst out with a subsequent Pweong!
Warr-reu!
The wall Ibi crashed into cracked and instantly collapsed, and the debris covered Ibi, who had fallen with it.
Then.
“──!?”
Ibi, Miki, and Toric, who were trying to raise their bodies again, were all shocked together.
Even Lily, who had been trying to cast a blessing on the frightened Rine, and.
Th-That guy, what the…
Even the ‘Primordial’ who was watching the same scene through me.
They couldn't help but be shocked, having just seen Pariah instantly restoring his neck, which was almost dangling and still profusely bleeding from Ibi’s slash, as if fitting back a mismatched block piece.
Fast healing of wounds?
Self-regeneration?
Neither was true.
It was as if…
…He turned back time?
It was closer to having made the fact that his neck was severed ‘an event that never happened’.
Sure enough, the blood that had flowed still remained on his neck, but the trace of the wound that had caused the blood to flow was nowhere to be seen.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment…”
Pariah, who was fine again, continued to walk step by step, completely ignoring our shocked reactions.
“This time, I will kill you for sure…!”
He began walking toward Rine.
“Shurine!”
“…!”
At that shout, Rine, who had been trembling slightly and muttering only apologies since confronting Pariah, flinched, lifted her head, and looked up at Pariah.
Paaang!
Lily, who belatedly raised a hand, tried to stop Pariah by firing 「Gale」, but he only stopped for a brief moment.
Then, calling her an interference, he instantly rushed over and struck and sent Lily flying far away too.
『Sto──』
And I, who tried to stop him by casting 「Word Command」.
“──Eub!?”
This time, I was seized by the hand he stretched out after approaching me before I knew it, and my mouth was clamped shut.
It wasn't even the blink of an eye.
In fact, it happened simultaneously.
Running to Lily and striking her far away.
Reaching out to me and clamping my mouth shut.
This wasn't just a matter of moving so fast that it looked like that; it was as if…
…Time distortion!?
It was on the level of twisting the timeline.
If not, it must be some kind of afterimage.
“Eub…!”
But the strength in this hand, which began to squeeze and crush my face with an increasingly tight grip, told me that the opponent in front of me was definitely not a mere illusion.
Damn it!
Hand over the body, vessel!
The startled ‘Primordial’ urgently shouted.
Quickly!
This might be necessary.
I hadn't intended to confront Pariah yet.
Especially, not before even leaving Tiaria?
This was a situation I had never seen before.
I shouldn't meet Pariah yet.
Therefore, the only one among us who could face this person was the ‘Primordial’.
To face the ‘God Killer’, one had to be god-level.
What are you doing!
But that only meant he could face him.
In this state, even the ‘Primordial’ wouldn't be able to kill Pariah.
As we just saw, the concept of death was non-existent for the current Pariah.
Even if killed, he would just return immediately.
As if he had turned back time.
In that case, there was no point in using the last remaining opportunity to summon the ‘Primordial’.
Aargh! If that's the case, I'll force it…!
‘Wait, stop…!’
So I desperately dissuaded the ‘Primordial’.
Are you insane, you fool!? If you keep this up, your head will be the first to explode!
That was true.
But that never happened in the end.
“Let go of me, you son of a bitch…!”
Because Ibi ran in front of me, drawing two purple lines like afterimages.
Chwaak!
And once more, red blood splattered onto me.
Ibi’s swung dagger cleanly severed Pariah’s hand that was gripping my head, cutting off the whole arm.
But.
“Again…!”
As a result, that event did ‘not happen’.
Because the arm of Pariah, which had clearly been cleanly severed and was floating in the air before our eyes, was reattached in the blink of an eye.
Not only that, but Pariah immediately swung that arm.
“Cough!”
And strongly struck Ibi’s head.
Hwoook!
Simultaneously, the massive blade of an axe that split the air swung down.
Pariah, who had been standing on the broken stone floor, was already extending a fist from beside Toric, who held the axe.
“I told you not to interfere!”
Kwaang!
With that single punch, Toric’s thick body was slammed into the broken floor and collapsed, as if impaled.
Miki, who rushed in afterward, was also instantly kicked and sent flying the moment he realized Pariah had gotten behind him.
And every time he moved like that, Pariah repeatedly vanished and reappeared with flashes.
Not just moving too fast for the movement to be followed, but literally vanishing and reappearing in this timeline.
In short, he was single-handedly ignoring the concept of a ‘turn’.
Eventually, Pariah, who had knocked us all down in an instant, slowly reached out his hand toward Rine—toward her neck—without any interference.
“Sister Rine…!”
And Rine could not avoid Pariah's hand.
“Get away, Sister…!”
In the first place, she didn't even seem to have the will to do so.
“I’m sorry…”
She just stood still, trembling slightly, and kept apologizing.
Finally, Pariah’s hand began to squeeze Rine’s slender neck.
Even while being choked like that.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Rine barely squeezed out a trembling voice, only endlessly muttering words of apology.
“Rine!”
So, I shouted her name and cast a skill.
「Change」.
A skill like a type of magic I learned as a ‘Trickster’.
As a result, my and Rine’s positions were instantly swapped, and Rine fell to the floor where I had been lying.
“Kuk──”
And I began to be choked in Rine's stead.
It was normally a skill to quickly secure a safe distance when a ‘Trickster’, who is inevitably physically weak, was exposed to enemies, by swapping places with an ally who had been placed far away—a front-liner—but now I had no choice but to use it this way.
“Tch…!”
Pariah, who clicked his tongue upon seeing me being choked in Rine's stead, immediately threw me onto the ground.
He then tried to rush toward Rine again, but.
『The die ─』
I had no intention of letting him go.
『is cast』
So, even while lying on the ground, I hastily grabbed his ankle.
To be precise, I should say I clung to him.
So he couldn't lift his foot.
“…!?”
As a result, I was able to hold Pariah, who was about to flash away as if leaving the timeline again, back in this timeline.
I had dragged him, who was not bound by ‘turns’, into my ‘turn’, even if only for one turn.
Pariah, who looked down at me, seemed greatly flustered.
He seemed to not understand at all why he couldn't shake off this weak grasp.
Perhaps that was why.
He seemed to think of me, who had used a power he couldn't understand, as a ‘variable’.
“If you wish for it so much, I will kill you too…!”
So he abandoned the attitude he'd held until now, which was merely that of shaking off an interfering insect, and this time, he raised his hand clearly intending to ‘kill’ me.
Therefore, the moment that raised hand was struck down, I would surely die.
“…Lord Yubin!”
If not for Rine’s shout, who suddenly came to her senses upon seeing me facing that clear murderous intent and death once again.
The moment I heard that shout from Rine, who had only been trembling and muttering apologies, Pariah flinched and turned his head toward Rine.
Simultaneously, we saw it.
A small ‘circle’ began to spread out at Rine’s feet.
That ‘circle’ slowly covered the surroundings like a barrier.
And everything covered by that barrier stopped in place.
Even the particles of dust scattering, the floating pebbles, and even the companions who were hurrying toward me from Rine’s side.
However, that scene was a little different from the Eternal One Second—the ‘Moment of Fate’—that I had encountered several times before.
Back then, everything around would typically move sluggishly, as if in ‘slow motion’.
But now, it had completely stopped.
Clearly, by the ‘circle’ that was slowly spreading around Rine.
Even though the areas not yet covered by that ‘circle’ were still moving at their normal speed.
In short, it was magic.
「Time Stop」.
A powerful magic that twists spacetime, permitted only to the god who governs time.
“This is impossible──”
Pariah, who was instantly covered by the ‘circle’ of 「Time Stop」, eventually stopped in place along with everything else around him.
And naturally, my time also stopped.
My movement.
My thoughts.
When I came to my senses again, I was no longer lying on the ground in that spot.
And Pariah, who had been about to strike down at me, was no longer visible either.
It was a completely different place.
In short, within the ‘time’ of a blink of an eye, we had arrived in a completely different ‘space’.
As if we had performed a 「Teleport」.
And the same was true for the other companions.
They were looking around, still unable to properly grasp the situation.
I could barely accept this situation because I already knew that the magic Rine had just cast was 「Time Stop」, and that she must have 「Teleported」 us while time was stopped, but they did not.
But soon.
“Rine!”
“Sister!”
Seeing Rine quietly collapsed in the middle of us, they all rushed toward Rine at once, deciding that the situation was no longer important.