Nero

"My name is Nero, a simple traveler passing through."

Nero is a recurring character in Monster Girl Quest: Paradox.

Biography
Nero is first met as Luka leaves Iliasville to begin his quest.

As Luka is preparing to leave Iliasville to go on his adventure, a stranger walks up to him and introduces himself as Nero, a simple traveller passing through. If you try to run away from him, he will stop time. Luka comments that Nero's clothes are rather odd for him to be just a simple traveller passing through. Nero tells him that he heard that Luka was going on an adventure and wanted to investigate. He is surprised that there are so many magical users in the town. Luka tells him about the Great Disaster. Nero says he's never heard of it. Luka asks if the people where he lives are faithful to Ilias, as magic is rarely used there. He replies with, "You could say that". He notices Sonya, and when she introduces herself as Luka's childhood friend, he says Luka doesn't have a childhood friend, much to the annoyance of Sonya. He then takes his leave, leaving the party bewildered about what just happened.

Where Nero appears next depends if you have recruited Alice or not.

If you recruited Alice, she will try to give Luka Angel Halo once you leave Iliasville, but Nero will stop time and take the sword, claiming it's too dangerous. He isn't wrong. Being given a sword made from 666 melted angels could be considered too powerful.

Nero will next appear, no matter who you recruited, in Harpy Village. Luka and the party have gone there to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the harpies. After venturing through the village, the group find Nero drinking tea (out of his own cup – he brought it with him) in the Queen Harpy's house. Vanilla likes the look of Nero's clothes and asks where he got them, to which he replies that he made them himself. He has the answer to why all of the harpies have mysteriously vanished; they’ve been infected with ALKQ5 Lust Fever, which drives members of the bird race mad with lust. But that virus should no longer exist, as it was last seen in the Great Monster Wars. It was used as a biological weapon against the monsters, which Nero helpfully points out. Nero suspects that a person from that time must have come to the current world and unintentionally spread the virus. Since the harpies couldn't control their lusts, the Queen quarantined them all within the Harpy Tower, north of Happiness Village. But it could take decades before the virus goes away naturally. Luckily, Nero just so happens to have the cure. A piece of Yggdrasil Fruit, from the World Tree. He wants Luka to deliver it to the harpies. Luka is still suspicious of him and Nero asks if he really is that suspicious, to which Gob replies she's never seen anyone more suspicious in her life. He mentions he has some other things to take care of, and leaves the harpy situation to Luka. Nero then goes back to reading through the Harpy Queen's journal while drinking from his personal teacup.

Nero is next seen briefly in Iliasport.

When Luka tries to get on a boat to Sentora, the captain of the ship mentions that no-one has been able to cross the sea ever since the storms started. Nero overhears the conversation rushes over to them from seemingly out of nowhere. "Fancy seeing you here.", he says. He explains they can get to Sentora if they acquire Poseidon's Bell, hidden in a cave to the west. The bell is capable of protecting the ship from capsizing, no matter the weather. Before he leaves, Sonya thanks him for the fruit used to save the harpies. He mentions it was nothing important compared to protecting co-existence between harpies and humans.

Nero next appears in the Cave of Treasures.

 Luka and his companions encounter Nanabi, who is protecting the treasure stash while Tamamo searches for Poseidon's Bell. She almost overpowers them, but Neris steps in and saves Luka and his companions from being defeated by  Nanabi  by using  Vaporizing Rebellion Sword. It deals over 20,000 damage. Tamamo  comes to seemingly investigate what's going on, but starts re-enacting the same events from the original trilogy. She thinks Nanabi has been sealed by Luka. Neris explains that it's not the real Tamamo. It's just been "copied and pasted" from another source. White Rabbit appears in Tamamo's place but is disappointed that she was found out. She explains to Neris that she's been altering this timeline too much from the correct history and therefore increasing the Chaos in this reality. White Rabbit stops time, and tries to "erase" Neris, but  Nero  materialises behind White Rabbit while time has been stopped and hits her with  Flash Kill. White Rabbit is surprised that she was hit as time should have stopped. Nero mocks her for thinking she was the only one who could control time and they both seemingly vanish, presumably to fight elsewhere. Luka or anyone else didn't see any of what just happened, so it looks as if White Rabbit just vanished. With the exception of Neris, who somehow saw the entire scenario.

 The final time Nero appears in part 1 is in the Forest of Spirits, along with Neris.

After a battle with the Armored Berserker, Luka and the party ultimately collapse, too weak to fight him. The Armored Berserker  is about to deliver the finishing blow to Luka while he's unconscious when  Nero  materialises in front of Luka and blocks the Berserker's attack with his scythe while time is stopped. Neris appears shortly after. Nero asks Neris to take the still unconscious Luka to a safe location, as Luka and the rest of the party received a lot of damage. Neris asks if Nero will be okay handling the Berserker alone, to which he responds "No problem, I'll take him on". Nero knows who the Berserker is, and explains to him his current predicament, before revealing his true angelic/monster/human form. He effortlessly destroys the Berserker, who then turns into light particles. Nero notes that he wasn't destroyed and that so long as his soul remains, he will go berserk again and again.

 No, Nero cannot be recruited in part 1, unfortunately.

Trivia

 * If you run away from Nero while still in Iliasville, he will never stop time so long as you don't try to cross the bridge. So if being chased around the village by Nero indefinitely sounds enjoyable to you, feel free.
 * Nero is 1-4 Human, 1-4 Angel and 2-4 Monster.