Chapter 92
[So. Three Demon Kings are targeting that girl. And we have to protect her from them while going to a place called the rocky mountains of Talaheim. Is that right?]
"That's about it."
As soon as he heard my explanation, Corn let out a hollow laugh.
[Hey. Amael. Stop time.]
"Why?"
[Just do it.]
I did as Corn told me. As time stopped, everything except me froze.
[Now it's over. Just carry that girl and go straight to the rocky mountains. Your ability is disgustingly overpowered. There's no need to even consider fighting in the first place.]
He wasn’t wrong.
Not fighting would be best.
[Of course. Fighting is a good way to show a male's wildness. I understand the feeling of wanting to show off your masculinity in front of a female. But you have to do that depending on the opponent. You said three Demon Kings? You could end up worse than dead.]
"You're right. Doing as you say would be the safest and surest."
[That's what I'm saying? What fight are you trying to have? You're not supposed to fight gods.]
"The problem is that the three Demon Kings know my ability."
There was no way the three Demon Kings wouldn't know my ability.
And that the easiest and safest way to take Kanya to the rocky mountains was to go with time stopped.
They must clearly know that.
It would be nice if there were no countermeasures against Time Stop, but with three Demon Kings joining forces, I couldn't guarantee there would be absolutely no way to break Time Stop.
"We need to prepare for when my ability is broken. If I can't cast Time Stop for some reason. Shouldn't I at least have the ability to fight followers?"
[It would be good if that doesn't happen... but you're not wrong either. Hmm. I don't like it. I've fought with most beings, but it's my first time fighting gods.]
"From what you've said so far, you went on adventures breaking through extermination teams and other male unicorns and all kinds of monsters just to mount one virgin mare. Just hearing about it, you sound like a real man, are you scared of this?"
[Scared! I'm not scared, it's just... they're gods. Amael. Gods are different. You can't look at them normally. Those bastards are monsters that deviate from the natural order. Fighting three gods just to protect one female is too much of a loss.]
At Corn's hesitant words, I let out a short sigh.
Logically speaking, Corn's words were right a hundred times over.
It was no ordinary thing to go against three divinities.
But I still had to do it.
I was doing it because it was a fight with no chance of winning.
Because that was how I could die.
"I'll fight the three divinities as much as possible. And die at the end. That's my goal. Corn. So please help me."
[Why on earth are you trying so hard to die? You crazy bastard. I just don't understand. At first I thought you were just talking nonsense, but this is too serious!! Amael. It's not just simply dying! Your very soul could be shattered! That's what it means to fight divinities!!]
I smiled at those words.
"That's exactly what I want."
[Your goal is to shatter your soul? You want perfect annihilation with no more reincarnation, rebirth, or past life?]
"Yeah. That's it."
Because that was how I could go to Korea.
At my words, Corn was silent for a long time.
[You're really the craziest bastard among all the crazy bastards I've seen. Why do I have to be stuck with this kind of master that I can't even run away from!?]
"So. Will you help me? Or not?"
At my words, Corn hesitates to answer but finally lets out a long sigh.
[I would have run away long ago if I had a body. I have no choice but to help you since I can't escape from you.]
"Good. Then let's think about how to use the abilities more diversely. Consider how you can assist with other abilities in case we can't use time stop at all."
[Wait. Did you have other abilities besides Time Stop?]
"Yeah, Body Modification, Absolute Hypnosis, and 3000x Sensitivity Skills."
At my words, Corn bursts into laughter as if dumbfounded.
[They're all mating abilities! To think I'd end up in a situation where I have to fight three Demon Kings with such vulgar mating abilities that seem designed...]
Although he grumbled, Corn very passionately helped think of ways to utilize my skills in combat, citing the reason that he had to stay with me anyway but didn’t want to die.
In stopped time.
We developed tactics for a very long time.
***
Morning.
[Amael. Kanya's awake. You get up too.]
At Corn's alarm, I opened my bleary eyes to see Kanya already up from bed, staring blankly ahead.
"Corn. How's your psychic state?"
[Do you think I'm you? That much is nothing.]
After practicing tactics for quite a long time with time stopped yesterday, I had to stop midway and sleep because my mental power hit rock bottom, but Corn still seemed fine even after keeping watch for me, with psychic power to spare.
He was really reliable.
I lightly tapped the open locket twice gratefully before approaching Kanya.
"Kanya. How's your body?"
"I feel refreshed."
She looked down at her withered thin hands.
"So it's strange. I've never felt this refreshed in my life..."
At her words, I felt a pang in my heart for some reason.
Maybe it was because I saw too vividly how miserable her life was from the perpetrator's perspective.
I gently patted Kanya's head.
"I'm sorry, but let's get up now. We need to move quickly. We're going straight to the rocky mountains."
At my words, Kanya stared at me blankly for a moment before nodding.
She slowly got up.
It was clothes I had hurriedly obtained by asking the innkeeper to prepare clothes for a young girl when getting the room.
Because they were obtained in a hurry, the size didn't fit and was too loose, so the hem of the pants dragged on the floor and her hands were completely hidden by the sleeves.
But it didn't matter.
I wasn't planning to make Kanya walk anyway.
"Come on. Get on my back."
I knelt down and offered my back to Kanya.
"What?"
"I'll carry you on my back. So get on."
"..."
"We need to go to the rocky mountains, right?"
At my words, Kanya hesitated for a moment before getting on my back.
Because of her hunched back and emaciated body, it felt like I was carrying a bizarrely twisted branch rather than a human.
I firmly supported her bottom with one hand and then took a deep breath.
Now it began.
Kanya towards salvation.
And I towards death.
"Kanya."
"Yes."
"From now on, there will be many things that are hard to understand. I want to explain in detail, but there's no time and it would be hard to understand even if I explained. But one thing is clear. I'm on your side. Understand? You have to trust me. Can you do that?"
I couldn't see what expression Kanya had on her face behind my back.
But judging by how she tightly gripped my collar, it didn't seem like she had decided to distrust me.
"Okay. I have no other choice anyway."
"Good. Shall we go then?"
"Yes."
"Corn."
[I'm ready. Start.]
I took out a gold bar from the money pouch at my waist and placed it on the bed.
The owner of this inn was a kind person.
Unlike his appearance, he was so kind that he said he would call a priest from the Order of Grace in addition to what I asked, so I had to slightly touch his mind with Absolute Hypnosis.
I had to compensate him properly since he went through trouble because of me in various ways.
After finishing payment like that, I used Time Stop.
The whole world became quiet, and only I, Corn, and Kanya on my back were moving.
"W-what is this? What did you just do? How did the world..."
"Kanya. I'm sorry. I can't explain that part. Can you just trust me for now?"
How could I say it was the power of the Demon King Asmodeus?
To a child who had suffered from Demon Kings her whole life.
At my words, Kanya gripped my collar tighter, perhaps feeling slightly anxious.
"Okay."
Fortunately, she understood and went along with it.
With Kanya on my back like that.
I began to run through the time-stopped world.
"J-just a little slower..."
"Three Demon Kings are targeting us. We don't know when they'll attack. It would be best if they don't attack at all, but that might not be the case. So we don't have the luxury of going slowly. Kanya. I'm sorry. Please bear with it a little."
At those words, Kanya wrapped her arms around my upper body, firmly pressing her body against mine.
After confirming Kanya was securely in place, I began to run even faster.
[I hope we can go to the rocky mountains safely like this.]
"I agree, Corn."
[Please let nothing happen... Ugh. Please.]
I laughed even in this situation at Corn's funny tone.
"Why is the manly unicorn who's mounted over 1000 virgin mares and annihilated extermination teams over 50 times so scared?"
[Do you think fighting three divinities is an ordinary thing? Of course I'm scared! It's three divinities, not some other beings!! Please. Please. Since time is stopped, no one should be able to notice, right? That has to be the case. Please.]
"Right. I hope that's the case."
We left the village.
I continued running while actively demonstrating qinggong.
Kanya.
And Corn.
Were both silent.
I was keeping my mouth shut too.
The time-stopped world was eerily quiet.
Normally I would have thought nothing of it, but now it felt like an ominous silence before a huge war.
After running frantically like that for about an hour.
The village scenery disappeared.
And when we were frantically crossing a vast plain where there was no sign of people living and only a calm and quiet landscape could be seen.
[Warning!!]
[Strong interference detected!]
[The power of the skill is... being restricted...]
As red notification windows rang loudly, the space where time stop was released suddenly expanded to an enormous size.
The space expanded in a huge dome shape and then stopped expanding.
And along with that, the space right in front of me split open to form a crack-like shape and began to spew out an enormous number of people.
I had no choice but to stop.
[This damn…! Amael!! How are your abilities?]
I hurriedly tried to use Time Stop.
I could use it.
But it was far from normal.
"Fortunately I can still use it. But the space where I can cast the stop is very limited. Moreover... I can't release the time stop cast outside the dome."
[It's telling us not to run away.]
"That's right."
[Damn it!! What about the other abilities?]
I slowly checked my other skills. As a result, I confirmed that the other 3 skills had no problems.
"The other 3 are fine."
[Hahaha. It's exactly according to the scenario we worried about yesterday? Our luck is disgustingly good. Disgustingly good!!]
Corn's voice was trembling.
It wasn't just Corn.
"J-Jericho."
Kanya on my back was trembling too.
And to be honest, I was scared too.
The people who popped out of the crack numbered close to 100.
6 people who looked like black mages.
Most of the followers were armed with bolt-action rifles, light machine guns, and pistols, and had grenades that looked like they were from World War I strapped to their chests.
And those people at the front.
Three men wearing distinctive blood-red armor and carrying only one longsword each.
Although their armament itself was much poorer than the people armed with firearms, the aura they emitted looked the most frightening.
There seemed to be no way to avoid fighting.
I slowly put Kanya down.
"Corn. Please."
[Got it.]
Something slowly began to envelop Kanya placed on the ground and my body.
"W-what are you doing now?"
"Armor. Kanya."
Corn used his overflowing psychic power to precisely control stopped time spaces and wrap them around our bodies with a level of precision incomparable to me.
With this, we've secured minimal defense.
"Move away. And lie flat on the ground and hide as much as possible. Understand?"
At my words, Kanya immediately moved away from me and lay flat on the ground.
After confirming Kanya like that, I slowly began to walk forward.
[Okay then. Are you ready?]
"Do it."
As I said that, I cast 3 skills simultaneously, and Corn immediately begins to manipulate those skills.
[Using Body Modification, 3000x Sensitivity, and Absolute Hypnosis simultaneously!!]
[Using function unlocked as level up reward!]
[3000x Reflexes enhancement complete.]
[Muscle and skeletal enhancement complete.]
[Thought speed boosting with hypnosis complete.]
Due to the excessively rapid Body Modification, heat generated in my body and steam slowly began to rise through my clothes.
[It's done. Amael. Now you have to fight. As I said, I can only support!]
"Thanks Corn."
As I lightly clenched and unclenched my fist, I felt power beyond common sense being exerted and disappearing.
This should be enough.
As I approached emitting steam from my body, the three knights standing at the front slowly drew the swords at their waists.
"I'll offer your skull to the Demon King of Wrath."
As I slowly watched black magic frost on the swords, I also held out my hand.
"Make it."
At my words, time stop was implemented very precisely in the form of wrapping a specific space.
A hammer.
The shape of a huge warhammer.
I slowly grasped the warhammer made of stopped time in my right hand.
[This is crazy, Amael.]
"I know."
Cold sweat formed.
But a smile formed on my lips.
"Let's try dying, Corn."
[Only you die! I don't want to die yet…!]
My leg stomped the ground.
And the next moment.
My time stop hammer was smashing the skull of one of the knights.