Ending Maker Chapter 107
Ending Maker Chapter 107
Chapter 39 - Encounter
The sight of the Eastern Army's thirty thousand soldiers advancing toward the west was truly spectacular.
With the wild gods joining their ranks, the march had become unlike any ordinary military advance in many ways.
The most breathtaking of all was the transformation of nature itself.
"Grant us the blessing of the spring breeze."
The spring breeze that began to blow in time with Gentle Snow Breeze's song melted the snow and drove away the cold.
Now that they had left the sanctuary, it was something Gentle Snow Breeze could not have done alone—but she was not alone.
Great Storm added the power of wind, and Blade Song wove in harmonies to strengthen the song's power.
An army that advanced while driving out winter.
An army that left spring in its wake.
Each time another wild god joined, the power of the miracle grew stronger, and the Eastern Army's morale soared as if it would pierce the sky.
"Victory seems to be right before our eyes."
As Sun Song spoke with a pleased expression while riding alongside, Red Wind smiled as well.
The utterly premature marriage proposal had already been rejected, but that did not mean Red Wind and Sun Song had become estranged.
'Honestly, I don't know about marriage. But couldn't we at least be friends?'
At Red Wind's words when rejecting the proposal, Sun Song had decided to take a step back.
Even by his own reckoning, the proposal had been far too hasty.
Moreover, the core of this Eastern Army was the Great Storm tribe and the Blade Song tribe, so as leaders of their tribes, the two of them had to work together to fight properly.
"The Western Army has begun its march as well...... so we will likely face them in a pitched battle on the Snowflower Wind Plain."
Red Wind nodded at Sun Song's words.
This single battle would not decide the fate of the east and west, but it was their first direct confrontation, so they could not afford to lose. They absolutely had to win.
'Cordelia.'
After nodding once more to Sun Song, Red Wind turned to look north.
The Skyroof Mountains, which divided the Wild Lands into east and west.
A land of death so harsh that not only people but even wild gods turned away from it.
Yuder and Cordelia were there right now.
For the insane plan of crossing the Skyroof Mountains to strike at the west's rear.
'They're really crazy.'
Even if they somehow managed to cross the Skyroof, they were just two people.
It meant the two of them alone had to ravage the west's rear.
'But I feel like they can do it.'
If it was those two.
If it was Yuder and Cordelia.
'And if they really pull it off.......'
The west would stagger from a punch they never saw coming.
Because even the east, their own allies, thought it was an insane plan.
'Cordelia... and Yuder.'
Let's meet again for sure. Safe and sound.
Red Wind clasped her hands in prayer and gently closed her eyes.
She pictured the faces of the two people smiling at her.
And at that same moment.
Cordelia, who in Red Wind's imagination was wearing a heartwarming smile, was spewing profanity.
"Fuck! I feel like I'm gonna die!"
Midway up the Skyroof Mountains.
Yuder and Cordelia were making their way through a place where freezing blade-like winds raged with enough force to slice through flesh.
"Fuck! Fuck!"
It wasn't Cordelia—it was Yuder.
The Skyroof Mountains contained a level of sheer shitfulness that made even Yuder, who normally never cursed, spew profanity.
"Hah...... mana, I'm running out of mana."
Cordelia, who was on Yuder's back pouring everything into maintaining a shield spell, spoke while gasping, and Yuder quickly began scanning their surroundings. It was to find a place to rest.
"How long can you hold out?"
"Five minutes?"
Yuder and Cordelia's climbing method was simple.
Cordelia rode on the back of Yuder, who had gained an even sturdier body after consuming the ancient elixir.
While riding on his back, she deployed a shield to block the wind, and at the same time warmed the air inside the shield to somehow maintain warmth.
In that state, Yuder diligently climbed the mountain.
It was a method of pure brute simplicity, but it was effective enough.
"Found one! Just hold out for five minutes! Got it?"
"Got...... ngh! It's cold!"
As Cordelia gritted her teeth, Yuder quickened his pace.
He approached a spot where the rock face was at least exposed, then found a suitable crack. He drew back his fist and shouted to Cordelia.
"Drop the shield!"
"Ack!"
Cordelia let out something close to a scream instead of answering, clung tightly to Yuder, and dispelled the shield. In that instant, a ferocious blade-like gale crashed into them.
"Yuder!"
Cordelia's scream erupted right behind him, but he couldn't hear it properly. Yuder planted strength in his lower body to hold his stance, then drove his fist into the gap between the rocks.
Black Dragon Emerges!
Instead of a cross-shaped strike, he released pure force to shatter the rock face and widen the crack even further.
"Good!"
This much would work.
Yuder quickly pulled the One-Pyeong Coziness from his waist and tossed it into the gap, and with a single exhale, a round tent took shape.
"Get in, get in."
Cordelia groaned as if she were dying, teeth chattering, and Yuder immediately opened the tent flap and dove inside.
"Haa."
The moment he sealed the entrance, a sigh of relief escaped naturally.
Since the One-Pyeong Coziness was a divine artifact, even though it had been clumsily deployed in a rock crevice, it felt cozy just as its name promised.
"Haa...... ha......."
It had only been a few seconds since she dispelled the shield, but Cordelia's entire body felt frozen solid.
Yuder hurriedly undid the wrapping cloth, set her down on the floor, and covered her with a wolf pelt.
"Alright, fur coat complete."
Before Yuder even finished speaking, Cordelia reached out.
She pulled Yuder, now sporting glossy black fur, into a tight embrace and curled up.
"Haa...... ha...... it's so cold."
It wasn't a joke—it was worse than Frost Anvil.
It was only thanks to Winter's Blessing that she merely felt cold; if she had been bare-skinned, she might have frozen to death the instant the shield dropped.
"Cold cold."
Repeating the same words, Cordelia hugged Yuder even tighter.
The embarrassment that had arisen because of Adelia had long since vanished.
Embarrassment or whatever—survival came first.
"Ah...... warm......."
It was thanks to Yuder circulating his ki throughout his body to radiate heat.
Cordelia buried her face in the fur of Yuder, who had become a human heater—no, a wolf heater incarnate—and spoke.
"Haa...... now I can live......."
Six days since they had headed for the Skyroof Mountains.
They had only actually begun climbing two days ago, but Yuder and Cordelia had already crossed halfway over the Skyroof Mountains.
"We only need about two more days now."
As Yuder spoke soothingly, Cordelia squeezed her eyes shut.
Crossing the entire Skyroof Mountains in just four days was a feat that would astonish even the wild gods, but all Cordelia could think was that she had to endure this bullshit for two more days.
But still, she was Cordelia. Once she regained some composure, a worried voice slipped out.
"Yuder, are you okay? Does your back hurt?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. A certain someone is as light as a feather, so it doesn't even feel like I'm carrying anyone."
"Bullshit."
"Why is our princess suddenly cursing?"
"Because Red Wind isn't here?"
"Wait, so that's why your cursing decreased recently?"
"No, well...... it's not only because of Red Wind."
Cordelia's cursing had decreased significantly recently.
As she herself said, Red Wind—or more precisely, the embarrassing incident at the border—had been the trigger, but in truth, another factor was bigger.
'Cordelia's true nature is emerging.'
It had already been over two months since the memories of her previous life had awakened.
During that time, the sudden flood of influence from her previous life had been so strong that her Yellow Storm side had stood out more than Cordelia, but not anymore. A certain harmony had begun to form.
'Because it's reincarnation, not possession.'
Because each of them had seventeen years of life lived as Yuder and Cordelia.
And at times like this, it truly hit home.
This really is the real world.
Not a world inside a game.
But because of that, it became even more frightening.
The promised future.
The destruction of the world that would ultimately come if things followed the original story.
'No, we can change it.'
They had already changed many things.
They had caused countless butterfly effects.
'In the end, it's people.'
What Yuder and Cordelia themselves could do.
What could influence the heavily rolling wheel of fate.
Save people, gather people.
Conversely, eliminate those who would become enemies.
'Lucas and Cordelia.'
Originally, they were people who could not coexist.
If Lucas lived, Cordelia became a Demonic Human, and if Cordelia lived, then Lucas became a Demonic Human.
But not anymore.
Moreover, their relationship had changed as well.
'In the original, Lucas and Cordelia's relationship was literally just knowing each other's face and name.'
But not anymore.
Lucas was close not only with Cordelia but with Yuder himself as well. Close enough that they could exchange help at any time.
'Red Wind has been added too.'
In the original, Lucas and Red Wind had never joined forces.
Lucas was a knight of the north who had been taught that the barbarian tribes were beasts, not people, and Red Wind had come to hate the northern humans after her life as a slave.
Even if they happened to meet, they only treated each other with hostility.
But what about now?
If the two of them met with Yuder himself and Cordelia between them.
"What are you thinking about?"
At Cordelia's question, Yuder told her everything that had come to mind without holding back, and Cordelia smiled.
"Right? We're all friends, aren't we?"
It was a line that sounded like it belonged in a children's show, but at that moment, Yuder felt as though he had gained some kind of realization.
It was something he had already known conceptually, but it suddenly felt real.
'If it's Cordelia.'
It might be possible.
It would have been impossible for Yuder himself, but with Cordelia's incredible affinity for people, it might be possible.
Not just saving all the Playable Characters, but making all of them join forces as comrades.
All the Playable Characters fighting together with Cordelia at the center.
"Wow."
The mere thought sent a thrill through him.
It was something absolutely impossible in the original, but in reality, it could be possible.
The current Cordelia could really pull it off.
"What, why are you like that again?"
"No, I was just thinking it would be incredible if all the Playable Characters fought together."
He deliberately left out the idea of rallying them around Cordelia, but that alone was enough.
"Wow, then that really would be wow."
Motivation suddenly surged.
Hope arose that they could truly stop Armageddon and lead everyone to a happy ending.
"You mean Maximilian and Leon fighting together? Trusting each other with their backs?"
Maximilian, the true protagonist of Hero Legend 2, and his rival Leon.
The two who remained at odds until the very end in the original, joining forces?
"Red Wind and Kirara could fight together too."
The two who were both from the Wild Lands but hated each other.
"Wow wow, I'm getting goosebumps."
It was a feeling only two rotten fossils of Hero Legend 2 could understand.
It meant that combinations that would only appear in fanfiction were now possible in abundance.
"Lucas and Red Wind might even get married?"
"Huh?"
"No, I just think giving her to Lucas would be better than giving her to Sun Song."
"Red Wind isn't an object, you know."
"Anyway."
Life returned to Cordelia's eyes.
It was because the Playable Characters who would be stationed in the royal capital of the Saelun Kingdom came to mind.
The ones they would meet if they finished this mission safely.
"We saved Lena too."
The biggest immediate gain.
They had saved the life of Lena, an already complete hero.
"Can we save the other two as well?"
Two of the five protagonists from Hero Legend 1.
The necromancer Velkian and the druid Fran.
"We'll have to. And above all...... we have to save Landius."
Landius the Iron Man.
Yuder's own master, and perhaps the strongest man among the five heroes of the first game.
"That seems harder than Lena."
The rotten fossils on Hero Legend Tales speculated that Landius had been killed by Duke, a top-ranking Demonic Human of the Devil’s Eye, but no matter how Yuder thought about it, that did not seem right.
"Landius is too strong."
He wasn't the Landius they knew from the first game.
The Landius of the second game was literally a superhuman.
Duke killed Landius? That was absurd.
"I even considered whether Landius might have fallen and become Duke...... but that doesn't work either."
"Why? Because there's no way Landius would fall?"
"No, because the sizes are different."
"Ah."
Landius stood at a whopping 230 cm, while Duke was a mere(?) 180 cm.
They couldn't even be considered the same person.
"Maybe uncovering the cause of Landius's death...... and saving Landius could be the key to victory."
Yuder, who had reached roughly the 3.8th gate after consuming the ancient elixir—though he hadn't opened a new gate—could tell.
The Nine Heavens Nine Gates was literally a divine art.
And Landius was a superhuman who had opened the Nine Heavens Nine Gates up to the seventh gate.
By current standards, among living 'humans,' Landius was probably the strongest.
"It's kind of funny. We have to figure out why a guy who seems too strong to kill even if you tried actually died."
"Maybe he just won't die even if we do nothing."
"If it's Landius, that might really be true."
After briefly picturing Landius’s face and his body—the very embodiment of power—Yuder and Cordelia laughed at the same time.
"May the muscles always be with you."
"Sob sob, Master. I'll work out hard."
"Now now, don't cry. You'll lose muscle."
At Cordelia's impression, Yuder flinched instead of laughing. It was because the trauma formed over just a few days came to mind.
"Those were truly horrible times."
"But thanks to that, your body got a lot better, didn't it?"
"Mmm."
In truth, looking back, it wasn't all bad memories.
It had been so hard back then that he hadn't been able to properly enjoy(?) it, but Cordelia had truly looked after him kindly.
"Thinking something weird again?"
"No, I was thinking that if we win this fight, we'll really be able to accomplish so many things."
It was something he said to change the subject, but once he said it, it became sincere.
"You mean your father and your brother?"
"Those two originally die during the northern barbarian invasion."
But if they crushed the west and made the northern barbarian invasion itself never happen, they could save the lives of those two.
Even if a war between the east and the north broke out as Gale had worried, they wouldn't be in a position to just sit back and watch, so they could twist history as much as they wanted.
The survival of Count Bayel and Gale.
This wasn't simply a matter of discussing military strength to stop Armageddon.
It was something he truly wanted to achieve as Yuder Bayel.
"Haa, now that I think about it, it's really amazing."
"What is?"
"No, I mean your sister and my brother."
"Right?"
Who would have thought those two would end up together?
"Fuuun."
Cordelia giggled and hugged Yuder tightly as if he were a doll. Rather than teasing her about their families becoming in-laws twice over, Yuder closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth.
And just as both of them were about to fall asleep.
"Is...... someone there?"
A voice came riding on the sound of the wind.