Chapter 168 : Chapter 168
Chapter 168: Phantom Liberty (6)
Pariah was special even among those who received blood from Shurine.
While the ‘nobles’ or Kurt only obtained immortality (where they could be killed by beings with Shurine’s blood), Pariah obtained one more ability on top of that.
「Time Distortion」.
Another time magic created by Shurine, just like 「Time Stop」.
He distorts time.
Simply put, he can ignore ‘turns’.
It means he can break away from the basic rule that makes up this world: ‘once per turn’.
That’s why when he first encountered us, his afterimages dealing with all of us at once appeared as if they existed ‘simultaneously’ in this timeline.
Actually, others who received the blood could also do something similar to some extent.
Kurt, who eventually died at my hands, also showed a glimpse of ignoring turns similarly for a moment.
But since they couldn’t handle that power as well as Pariah, it was only for a ‘moment’, as I said.
Well, they didn’t hear and learn about that ability directly from Rine.
But Pariah learned it.
Because he was the existence Rine trusted the most and thought would protect her no matter what.
So, for us, defeating him was practically impossible.
Because Pariah using 「Time Distortion」 was a formidable opponent that even the Demon King couldn’t guarantee victory against.
In fact, Pariah was also the main culprit who suddenly caused game overs for players overflowing with confidence after equipping specs enough to catch even the Demon King in the game.
If you don’t know about that ‘gimmick’ called 「Time Distortion」, no matter how strong your specs are, since you don’t know the countermeasure, you have no choice but to be done in just like that once.
However, I knew.
That countermeasure, that is.
So, I lured him.
So that the place where we encounter him again and fight the ‘second battle’ would be right here.
Originally, I should have gone through a process of first tracking down clues that could lift Rine’s curse after arriving here, but knowing that the existences who cast that curse were locked in the basement of the Divine Palace, let alone needing clues, I just met Kurt right away and advanced the ‘story’.
It’s the so-called forced story progression.
From the moment I met Kurt directly, the game judges that we have passed the ‘point of no return’, closing all potential sub-quests in this area and starting the main quest in a straight line.
Because Rine wakes up, and a ‘cataclysm’ occurs in Shurina.
If I hadn’t woken Rine up this quickly, there was clearly a high possibility that we would have encountered Pariah again at least once before that.
Actually, we encountered him much faster than initially expected too.
If that happened, the risk of ‘Game Over’ would have really increased, but as you can see, we succeeded in the end.
Then, why did it have to be here?
As I said earlier, this was a space where the concept of ‘time’ did not exist.
It is her mental world ruled by the God of Time, Shurine, instead of the rule of time.
──In other words, there is no time itself to distort here.
It means the gimmick called 「Time Distortion」 is thoroughly blocked.
Therefore, it was only here.
If we wanted to defeat that man, it was practically possible only here.
“…Kuh!”
“Sister Evie!”
……Well, of course, even if such a gimmick was blocked, Pariah was Pariah.
A veteran among veterans who had gone through all sorts of hardships for nearly a thousand years, a legend of the Kapers.
The strongest Elf in this world at the current point, who reached the level 20 stage known as the limit of ‘people’.
So, the difficult ‘Boss’ in this game next to the Demon King and the Demon God, who can sufficiently crush us purely with his weight class even without 「Time Distortion」.
Even Evie, strengthened by Gloom, couldn’t catch up to his speed and allowed an effective hit, and with the shockwave bursting out with a bam!, she eventually ended up flying far away.
Kwaang!
The wall of the ‘Audience Chamber’ that Evie crashed into after flying away like that was strictly speaking not real but a kind of illusion realized by Rine’s memory.
But it cracked and collapsed as if it were real, and in the end, the debris even crushed Evie who fell below.
Just like the floor breaking as if being ground down, unable to withstand the force as Miki was pushed back while hastily crossing his two arms to block Pariah’s subsequent strike.
To anyone looking, this Audience Chamber looked like it actually existed, not an illusion.
Just like the pain of Rine, who was just crying endlessly while kneeling and collapsing in place, completely unaware of the fact that we exist here, let alone the fact that a battle is taking place while we are exchanging blows like that, is real.
“Ugh!”
Meanwhile, the armor Miki was wearing was definitely real.
And that, Pariah hit with his bare fist without caring at all.
Clang!
And.
“──!?”
Just like that, he broke it.
The sight of the steel armor shattering into pieces like glass actually looked more like an illusion.
As Miki faltered, having lost his armor in an instant, Pariah didn’t stop and swung his fist again.
Thud!
A dull sound rang out.
If he hadn’t been wearing the 「Vest of Devotion」 received from Nero, this time Miki’s bones, not the armor, would have shattered into pieces.
“Argh!”
However, since it couldn’t block even the wind pressure of the shockwave generated by that strong impact, Miki also ended up flying far away and crashing into a pillar just like Evie a moment ago.
Rumble, the debris of the stone pillar that collapsed just like that covered Miki.
“Stop it, Mr. Pariah!”
Whoosh!
A heavy axe struck down.
Pariah simply dodged this by slightly twisting his body, and at the same time, kicked the head of Toric who was pulling out the axe embedded in the floor.
“Ugh...!”
Toric was in pain, but it was for a moment.
Soon, Toric glared with eyes burning red due to 「Rage」 and swung the axe again with a whoosh!
Clang!
Pariah lightly blocked that large blade by raising one arm.
Small sparks flew as the sharp axe blade clashed with Pariah’s arm, which was strengthened like steel due to 「Iron Skin」.
Grind!
Toric, who ground his teeth, pushed the blocked axe blade further and shouted in a somewhat ‘calm’ voice for a person in the middle of 「Rage」.
“Is killing her really the only way!”
Of course, it meant he was relatively calm, not that his anger was any different.
Perhaps it’s thanks to the 「Fighting Spirit of the Snowy Field」 that removes debuffs.
Usually, when entering 「Rage」, it’s common to become a state where ‘words don’t get through’, but anyway, he was speaking.
“Right.”
Rather, the one with whom words didn’t get through at all was Pariah.
“Why is that!”
Because he, too, is in a similarly encroached state.
Of course, that wasn’t 「Rage」.
“Isn’t there a way to stop this without killing her...!”
Responsibility.
“No.”
Pariah was encroached by a sense of responsibility.
“You should know well too, Toric. What happens if you don’t cut the threat’s neck at the right time.”
“......!”
So, he wandered the whole continent for 30 years.
Pariah’s real plan── unlike those who tried to lock her up and use her as a doll which is the ‘source of power’, finding Shurine who went missing because the ‘nobles’, who realized the real purpose was to kill her from the beginning, smuggled her out to not lose their immortality, with the sole single-mindedness to kill her.
Effectively, he lived a ghost-like life, no different from having died long ago.
For those 30 years, the existence called Pariah did not exist.
What is visible in front of us now is just the shell of the one who was once Pariah.
Of a man who had been praised as the ‘Liberator’ for 30 years, but in reality, was not liberated from anything.
Since leaving Shurine’s side at this moment in this ‘memory’ here, he was no different from being already dead.
This was just a living corpse that only continued to move receiving immortality.
Killing Shurine, and as a result, intending to die together himself.
“But she... Isn’t she different! She is not something like a threat! She just took the wrong path for a moment!”
“Did she try to taxidermy all the people just because she took the wrong path for a moment like that?”
Thwack!
Pariah, who eventually struck away Toric’s axe, immediately punched his face.
“Stupid talk.”
Thud!
Thud-thud!
Pariah launched attacks consecutively.
“She fundamentally cannot understand people. She didn’t take the wrong path. She is a wrong existence from the beginning!”
So just her existence itself is a huge threat to us.
“I have the responsibility to stop her.”
And that he himself, who once cherished and protected that threat more than anyone, is the person to take that responsibility.
Pariah, who poured a flurry of strikes and finally knocked Toric down to the floor.
“I heard your story, Toric.”
Even knocked down Lily who tried to heal such Toric, then slowly walked towards Toric again and said.
“Is it because of a sense of responsibility? Did these people── did she, become a substitute for the family you couldn’t protect?”
“...!”
“So because you think you must protect them no matter what, are you turning your eyes away even from a very simple fact?”
God cannot understand people.
This calm single sentence.
“Do not... speak of them recklessly...!”
Toric ground his teeth while being lifted by his collar.
But the axe was still rolling on the floor beneath his feet.
So unable to even counterattack properly, he was eventually slammed onto the ground again with a thud!
“Do not interfere.”
Even after that, it looked like he was trying to get up again with difficulty, but Toric eventually couldn’t raise his body and flopped down again.
“Because next time, I will really kill you.”
Like that, at this point, all the companions ended up collapsing on the floor.
I, too, was actually already collapsed from the beginning.
As soon as the battle started, he hit and sent me flying right away, and my ‘strength’ couldn’t withstand that ‘force’.
And as you can see, the companions also looked unable to withstand it.
...If it were here, now that the gimmick called 「Time Distortion」 is blocked, theoretically, we could fight him.
But it just means it is literally possible; being able to do it and ‘doing’ it were different issues after all.
‘...Not even an opponent.’
As expected, it was overwhelming strength.
It was impossible for us.
Spitting out the blood pooling in my mouth, that fact hit home painfully once again.
Let alone now that even Rine, who completes our party, is not here.
No matter how strong we became and no matter that we blocked the gimmick, Pariah was still a boss too early for our level as expected.
It couldn’t be helped.
Because he is a kind of ‘Hidden Boss’.
As mentioned when I first went to pick up Rine, she was a ‘Hidden Companion’ that couldn’t be recruited forever if specific conditions that were very tight to begin with weren’t met.
Well, because she is a god.
Even if it’s an avatar, making a god a companion, surely there must have been many restrictions.
And that Pariah over there was the boss decorating the finale of the ‘Companion Quest’ of the hidden companion Rine recruited by meeting those conditions.
He had no choice but to be incredibly strong.
To the extent that he was called stronger than the Demon King who was the final boss, limited to cases where one doesn’t know the countermeasure to the 「Time Distortion」 gimmick.
So...... the current us couldn’t handle him.
Right, as ‘us’.
‘...It’s your turn.’
But, I had a trump card.
If I didn’t have the conviction that I could win in the first place, I wouldn’t have even started this fight.
‘Go wild to your heart’s content.’
──Finally.
‘Primordial Demon King’.
It was time to borrow that power.