Disclaimer: I do not own 'Danny Phantom' or any of the characters, concepts etc. Those are owned by Butch Hartman/Nickelodeon, I believe. I make no claim to anything in this story, it is a perspective with hypothetical scenarios added in.
[AN: And here we are, the first of the 'Big Three'; Pariah Dark.
I apologise for the delay, but as some of you may have seen, I recently posted the first chapter of 'The Edge of Reason', the last currently planned story in this block of them. As such, there may be some delays to this story as a result, but I'll try to avoid it wherever possible.
Equally, I will aim to rewrite some of the earlier chapters and bring them up to date, as well as work out a proper universal format for the chapters. I will likely put out one more chapter before moving on to the re-write, so there will be a bit of a delay from that as well, but I'll see how it plays out.
I hope you enjoy the chapter./AN]
Until only a couple of years ago, Pariah Dark was something of a myth in the Ghost Zone and unknown in the Human realm.
Not any more though.
It had been centuries since Pariah's rule and many ghosts hadn't existed at the time. As such, many of the stories passed down about him seemed like gross exaggerations; tales of him defeating armies single-handedly, the never-ending Legions of skeletal warriors he commanded, his unfathomable cruelty and his burning, unquenchable rage.
As it turned out, they were all quite accurate.
Based on recorded power generation, Pariah Dark is without a doubt the most powerful ghost ever encountered; his capacity for power generation is equivalent to that Vortex and Fright Knight, at the same time.
And that's without the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage, both of which appear to be built around two exceptionally powerful ghost cores, which feed power directly to their wearer. We think they may be the remnants of two of Pariah's rivals, or possibly whoever he usurped to take the throne (if, indeed, there was a former monarch), but once again, Clockwork has been infuriatingly silent on the matter.
Irrespective of their origins, they are another massive increase to his own abilities and quite possibly push him over the edge of 'incredibly resilient' and into 'impervious'. Individuals such as Vortex have proven to be so resilient that they are nearly indestructible, to such an extent that the Observants lock them away rather than destroying them, but Pariah has far more power than Vortex and he may very well be utterly impervious to serious damage. Certainly he was deemed too powerful to even stay conscious and aware, resulting in the need for him to be permanently subdued in the Sarcophagus.
Strangely enough, Pariah does not seem to possess any particularly remarkable powers or specialisations like most other ghosts, he's something of a generalist, and this makes him all the more difficult to fight. Anecdotal evidence of his remarkable speed and precision in combat suggests that he is capable of generating a time-dilation field of some sort around himself, but this is speculation.
Despite his obvious capabilities, Pariah seems to prefer having his underlings perform tasks when possible. We have already detailed his relationship with Fright Knight in the previous chapter, but it is likely he had a far larger pool of individuals to choose from during his reign.
There are questions around his Skeleton Army and exactly where they come from.
One argument says that they are like Nocturne's Sleepwalkers, and are very simple ghosts, possibly vanquished foes, who are entirely dependent on pariah to sustain and direct them.
The other theory is that they are in fact an extension of Pariah himself, a manifestation of his own power, much like some of the flora around Amity Park during Undergrowth's takeover was entirely ectoplasmic in origin and disappeared when he was defeated. It would help explain the almost impossible numbers of warriors Pariah could summon, but he wasn't renowned for his cruelty for no reason…
So far as we know, Pariah Dark has only been defeated on two occasions, second of which almost doesn't count.
Danny's re-entombment of Pariah was largely up to luck and the substantial power boost of the ecto-suit; but that doesn't diminish the enormity of the task or his achievement, considering he was still quite young and hadn't even developed his most advanced powers yet.
Pariah's first defeat, however, is shrouded in more myth and legend than Pariah himself. It is said that a septet of extraordinarily powerful ghosts known only as 'the Ancients' came together in order to overthrow Pariah's devastating rule, possibly under the guidance of the Observants. By all accounts, the battle was brutal, but decisive; while he was certainly more powerful than any one Ancient, Pariah couldn't stand against seven of them. After the battle, he was locked in the Sarcophagus and the key was hidden away and the Ancients turned the rule of the Ghost Zone over to the Observant Council. The Ancients largely disappeared after that, and they have faded into myth just like Pariah had.
For one reason or another, Danny thinks Clockwork may be one of the Ancients, but, as usual, you will get nothing on the subject from him. It would, however, explain why the Ancients didn't act during Pariah's return; if one or more of them knew that Danny would succeed in defeating Pariah, they wouldn't need to intercede, and we already know Clockwork has an established, if slightly antagonistic, relationship with the Observants and I don't think anyone would doubt his power. It might even explain where he got that scar from…
Regardless, with Pariah sealed away once more, the risk of another return is unlikely, especially in the near future. But it pays to be vigilant on the matter. We regularly check up on the Sarcophagus and the castle it is stored in, just in case anyone is foolish enough to try and release him again.
If he were to be released again, it would be one of only handful of situations that would result in the full mobilisation of Team Phantom, and event that has only occurred once in the past five years. Put simply, if it were to happen, you would know about it.
[AN: And there you are, I hope you enjoyed it.
As usual, thank you very much to those of you who review these chapters so regularly, it's a massive encouragement.
Until next time. /AN]
