Chapter 75 - Continue
After killing a woman, it is always like this. No matter how much of a villain the opponent may be, it leaves me with an unbearable feeling.
To make matters worse, this time, I had taken the life of a former comrade.
Considering that the High Priestess likely stepped onto the front lines herself, factoring in this aftertaste, she is quite the strategist.
If things like this continue, I will eventually lose my mind.
"You're quite the tactician, aren't you?"
I pressed my hand to my forehead and muttered toward the silent corpse.
It was then.
A dizzying sensation.
My head swayed, and a sudden bout of lightheadedness struck me.
A moment later, an intense sense of wrongness and floating followed.
Everything in my surroundings distorted, and space began to twist. Time was stretched infinitely, then accelerated.
I know this feeling.
I have experienced it twice before.
Yes. Once when I was summoned to another world, and once when I was sent back from that world to Japan.
There is no longer any room for doubt.
What is happening to my body now is 'Movement to another space-time.'
—Am I about to be sent somewhere else again?
The sheer discomfort makes me feel faint. Even so, I grit my teeth and endure this absurd reality.
There is no mistake, this is the High Priestess's final spiteful act. That is why I must endure.
I must endure, and endure, and endure, so that I can protect Rio and Angelica. I am the elder, and for now, I am their guardian.
As I was bracing myself, Rio and the others had disappeared before I knew it.
Fearing they might have been sent far away, I looked behind me, but it was a needless worry.
"Father, did he find something over there?"
"Idiot, you shouldn't move!"
The two of them had retreated to the living room, just as they had before the High Priestess arrived.
They were perched on the table, peering around restlessly. They had no visible external injuries. It seemed they were safe.
I breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to face the front.
Then, standing right before my eyes, was the High Priestess whom I should have killed.
"Good day to you, Hero-dono. We meet again."
The beautiful priestess stood there with a cool, composed expression.
The head I had severed moments ago was reconnected to her neck, and the torso I had cut diagonally was also repaired.
The corpse... is gone.
The remains of the High Priestess that had been lying on the floor had vanished at some point.
In other words, it wasn't that a new High Priestess had appeared, but that the dead High Priestess had come back to life and started moving again.
A different logic from when it was Kana. Using a method other than division, this woman has succeeded in stockpiling lives.
But how?
I had used Dispel to remove all buffs before cutting off the High Priestess's head.
Automatic recovery or illusions should not have triggered, and magic that brings one back to life after death does not exist in the first place.
If so, by what principle did she regenerate?
Is she saying she has awakened to some unknown skill that I am unaware of?
I desperately moved my trembling lips and chanted, "Status Open."
【Name】 Philia【Level】 155【Class】 High Priest【HP】 23200【MP】 27990【Attack】 11300【Defense】 15700【Agility】 12200【Magic Attack】 45000【Magic Defense】 77000【Skills】 Language Comprehension, Sorcery, Summoning, Time Reversal【Remarks】 A priestess who blindly loves and simultaneously intensely hates Keisuke Nakamoto. She has modified her body through Alchemy and stopped her aging at the age of twenty-nine.
"Time Reversal...?"
As I stood bewildered, the High Priestess began to speak bit by bit.
"Ah, you performed a status appraisal. Finally? No matter how familiar we are, it has been over a year since we last met. I should have acted on the assumption that there would be changes in my combat strength."
"You... what happened to you...? You weren't supposed to have a skill like this."
"Oh my. That won't do, Hero-dono. I told you repeatedly, no matter what kind of enemy it is, if they seem to possess a certain level of ability, you must appraise them immediately."
The High Priestess quietly raised her hand.
It was a movement like raising a hand, but it was clearly the preparatory motion for releasing an attack spell.
"I did not think even someone of your caliber would become so complacent in peace. However, perhaps it is because I am older that I find even that aspect of you quite adorable."
As she spoke, the High Priestess fired a massive sphere of light. Her words and actions were completely inconsistent.
I generated a Light Sword in my left hand and caught it in a great panic.
A scorching sphere of light that looked like a small-scale sun.
My hair and skin were making a sizzling sound. Right now, I was being burned.
It is hot, it is painful, and it is agonizing.
But that is not a big problem. My body can be healed as much as needed with magic.
What is bad is that even the surrounding walls are charring.
"...You bastard...!"
This woman, despite using large-scale attack magic, has set it to 'No Area Specification.'
That is to say, rather than just destroying the target, she is firing it with the mindset of "I don't really care what else gets caught in it."
If I evade this, Rio and the others will be caught in the crossfire.
No, forget Rio and Angelica, she would likely kill many nearby residents.
Therefore, rather than parrying it, I needed to absorb the impact no matter what.
"...Guh!"
And yet, I cannot kill the momentum.
My body is being pushed back inch by inch, being pulled away from the High Priestess.
"What the hell are you?! Do you think you can kill as many ordinary people from this world as you want!?"
"No? There is no such thing as a life that is okay to die. Since it is you, Hero-dono, I'm sure you'll manage to endure that light sphere somehow, won't you? I am firing this with full knowledge of everything. I have high expectations."
"Is that so... dammit!"
I shouted toward the living room, "Don't come out!"
I had to prevent a situation where Rio and Angelica would come rushing out.
"No matter how much you are wounded, broken, betrayed, or used up, you protect the masses. I think that is a very fine attitude. You truly have grown into the Hero exactly as I taught you."
"Shut up...! Treating people like heroes...! Avoiding being a nuisance to the neighbors is an instinct for Japanese people! I don't give a damn about being a Hero or anything else!"
Because of people like this, these free-spirited people from another world... I thought to myself as I applied automatic recovery to my body.
Dammit.
I don't want to do this, but I can't think of any other way.
Question one:Neutralize a massive bomb instantly, assuming your body is the sturdiest in the universe.
My answer to this difficult problem is "to gulp it down."
It wasn't a metaphor; I literally sucked in the sphere of light and poured it into my stomach.
Naturally, my esophagus is charred to a crisp. I can feel my throat melting, and my internal organs are bloated to the point of bursting.
The sheer intensity of the pain makes me feel like I'm going insane.
But with my defense and regeneration, I can return to my original state immediately.
I recover in a matter of seconds, and my stamina is fully restored.
"...We're both immortals, aren't we? I think this will only turn into a futile war of attrition, but are you still in the mood?"
While exhaling smoke, I tapped the status window.
I expanded the High Priestess's skill section and began to decipher its detailed performance.
As far as I knew, this woman did not have a skill like "Time Reversal."
Therefore, if there is a reason she is moving around perfectly fine after death, I can't think of anything other than this.
I carefully followed the text while intimidating her with my sword so as not to create an opening.
What I discovered as a result was:
【Time Reversal】'Automatically activates upon being killed by another.
Rewinds time to a few minutes before death, achieving a pseudo-resurrection.
Only the skill holder and the person who killed the holder retain memories from before the rewind.
This is not healing or resurrection, but a type of time manipulation.'
The fact was that her skill possessed the worst possible performance.