Ending Maker Chapter 115
Ending Maker Chapter 115
Chapter 42 — Distortion #2
Great Warrior Garammaru.
Originally a powerful spirit warrior, he had completely changed after receiving Infernal Lord Belial through Haragen.
With his own hands, he had annihilated the spirits who were as close as blood relatives, taken ancient evil spirits into himself, and through them mastered several ancient secret arts.
'He was pretty extraordinary in the original, too.'
It was not the chieftains of each tribe who had led the barbarians that brought down the northern part of the Saelun Kingdom, but the Great Warriors.
Because of that, they had reigned as the rulers of the north, and during the early stages of the Northern Barbarian event they were enemies the player could not even think of confronting.
If you faced them, it was simply instant death.
'The level difference is just too big.'
Because the Northern Barbarian event occurred early in the game, the playable characters were inevitably low-level.
Even Cordelia, who had comparatively more time, remained low-level because the story used a 'several months later' time skip midway through. Yuder, whose route began immediately before the Northern Barbarian event, was even more obvious.
'At best, around 20 to 30.'
But the Great Warriors' levels were at least 65.
With a gap that large, how could anyone even think of competing?
In RPGs, level was king.
'Level 65.'
The Great Warriors were confident in their own strength.
Haragen also trusted them.
That was only natural, since they were stronger than the Black Knight Bilvain, the strongest mid-ranking Demonic Human of the Devil's Eye.
'Great Warrior Garammaru.'
In the original, he was an enemy you had to avoid at all costs.
A man like a grim reaper—meeting him meant death.
But now.......
"Sorry, we got too strong."
Cordelia spoke with her fangs gleaming, while Yuder copied her words into his notebook.
"We got too strong...... memo."
"What the hell, why are you writing that down? What is that? Huh?"
"No, just blackmail for later...... no, negotiation material."
"Blackmaaaail?!"
Cordelia's eyes sharpened, and she read the words written on the notebook cover.
'Collection of Cordelia's Embarrassing Lines'
"Hey!"
"Ah! Flames incoming!"
Yuder quickly snapped the notebook shut and shouted. Cordelia hissed through her teeth and looked forward. Just as Yuder had said, Great Warrior Garammaru was raising flames once again.
"You little bastards!"
A massive blaze erupted from Garammaru's entire body.
Having inherited the power of Kiloman the Flame Sorcerer, one of the ancient evil spirits, he could raise mighty flames even in the Wild Lands ruled by bitter cold, and he could also turn the surrounding area into a scorching land in an instant.
Such a man glared at Yuder and Cordelia.
He intended to burn everything once more with the flames of hell.
"ROAAAR!"
He roared. And Cordelia chanted a spell.
And this was the result.
"You bastards!"
Splash!
An immense torrent of water poured down from directly above Garammaru's head.
But as expected of the flames of hell.
Their force weakened a little, but they remained strong.
Garammaru shouted once again.
"Every last one!"
Splash!
Once again.
Because Double Casting and Spell Echo were not just for show.
"Burn you!"
Splash!
"I will......."
Splash!
Waterfall x4
The flames withered, and Garammaru ended up looking like a drenched rat. But he did not give up.
Because the evil spirits told him that the Waterfall had ended.
Because now was the time to raise the flames!
"RAAAH!"
The flames rose again. And Cordelia said,
"Waterfall."
She could just chant the spell again, no big deal.
ROOOOAR!
Water pouring down from the empty air like a waterfall mercilessly trampled Garammaru's flames that were barely trying to bloom again.
But Garammaru never gave up.
"I!"
Splash!
"Will never......."
Splash!
"Give......."
Splash!
"Hey! You f**king bitch! Hey!"
Garammaru lost his temper and spat out curses, and Yuder nodded and said,
"You're so mean."
He probably worked pretty hard to obtain that power.
He probably had a foxy wife, cute little children, and an elderly mother waiting at home.
Cordelia immediately objected to Yuder's look.
"Hey, what do you mean I'm being mean? And that guy's a real bastard, you know? He's a monster who killed his whole family with his own hands!"
She knew the mid-boss's backstory too.
It was just as Cordelia said.
After becoming an evil-spirit warrior, Garammaru had become an infamous monster who wiped out his own clan with his own hands.
"I'll pound you into mush!"
Roaring in fury, Garammaru charged forward, splashing across the muddy ground.
Even if he could not wield flames, he still had a robust body.
A tall frame of over two meters, broad shoulders, and forearms and upper arms thicker than a woman's waist.
Brute strength that could kill someone as frail as Cordelia in a single blow!
And Yuder stepped in front of him.
Planting himself firmly in front of Cordelia, he met Garammaru's charge head-on.
Thud!
Yuder and Garammaru faced off directly. With their hands locked against each other, they stood opposed in a perfect contest of strength.
"You scrawny bastard with nothing but a pretty face!"
Yuder had grown explosively lately, but he was still only in the mid-to-upper 170-centimeter range.
He was a full head shorter than Garammaru, who was nearly two meters tall, and the difference in bulk could be called more than double.
Added to that was the difference in muscle.
Just looking at thickness, the difference was several times over, so someone like Yuder should have been crushed in an instant.
But.
"Sorry."
Yuder did not budge in the slightest.
Garammaru still had the higher level, but Yuder and Cordelia were no ordinary playable characters.
The stat inflation from the titles they had accumulated so far.
The various support spells added on top of that.
And the gear advantage added on top of that.
At this point, Yuder's physical strength was practically a superpower.
"GRAAAH!"
Garammaru, who had been trying to twist Yuder's arms and press him down, instead screamed at his own twisted arms.
Then Yuder shoved Garammaru away with a kick. After shaking him off in one motion, he looked back at Cordelia.
'You know?'
'I know.'
Freeze.
Blue light originating from Moonlight instantly swallowed up Garammaru, who had been knocked flat on the ground.
The Wild Lands were already cold, and Garammaru had been completely soaked with water, so he had no way to resist freezing magic.
Crack-crack! Crack!
Yuder drove a single punch carrying the power of the black dragon into the chest of Garammaru, who had frozen solid and become an ice statue.
When Garammaru shattered into pieces, a single ring of pure white light appeared near Yuder and Cordelia's chests.
"Whew, we took him down more easily than I expected."
"This is a frozen land, so both water and ice magic are enhanced. And Moonlight got a major power-up too."
If Moonlight had not become significantly stronger after absorbing the Snow Queen, they would not have caught him this easily.
"Hehe, anyway, this is exciting."
It was only natural to be happy after so easily defeating Great Warrior Garammaru, an enemy who had been impossible to beat in the early part of the original.
Yuder quietly watched Cordelia rejoicing with her rabbit ears flapping, then soon turned his gaze elsewhere.
'The demon magic circles.'
The place where the two of them now stood was a massive altar located some distance away from the Dragon Vein.
As if a large-scale ritual had been in progress, a huge magic circle was carved into the floor, and around the altar stood nine pillars densely engraved with demonic script.
'As expected...... is it that?'
Preparation for summoning the Great Demon Kraimler.
It was a simple yet effective method: hold small rituals in several places to stockpile power, then pour that power into the great ritual.
"The ritual here is already finished...... right?"
Cordelia said while looking at the altar.
So many sacrifices had been offered that the entire stone altar was stained with blood.
'They even offered the demon worshippers as sacrifices.'
Despite there being an altar of this scale, there were effectively no enemies other than Garammaru.
Judging by how few people remained in the village, they appeared to have carried out human sacrifice on a massive scale.
'Too much.'
Too much blood had been offered.
Of course, the Great Demon Kraimler was not easy to summon, but even so, this felt excessive.
'Because this isn't the only place where rituals are being held.'
The demon worshippers' rituals took different forms depending on their purpose.
And the ritual spread out here was merely a preparatory ritual for a greater ritual, one that Yuder knew well.
'Too much.'
He thought it again.
Too much blood had been offered for a preparatory ritual.
What was the reason?
Did summoning Kraimler require more sacrifices than Yuder himself thought?
Or perhaps not all of the Great Warriors were carrying out preparatory rituals. If only a few, including Garammaru, were doing them, then compressing what should have been five ritual sites into only three would require more blood at each one.
'It makes sense.'
But it was strange.
Something kept feeling off.
"Yuder?"
At Cordelia's call, Yuder raised his head.
She was standing in front of the altar with her brow furrowed.
Cordelia's intuition, which Yuder had admired several times since they began working together.
Cordelia's intuition was telling her the same thing.
That something was different.
That the altar before them was not what Yuder and Cordelia had expected to find.
And her intuition was not wrong this time either.
Following Cordelia's gaze to the altar—more precisely, to the magic circle carved in the center of the altar—Yuder's eyes flew open wide.
'It's different.'
It was different from the original.
It was not the magic circle from the original that could be found in the ruined north.
Yuder hurriedly ran to the front of the altar and began his analysis.
He broke down the complex magic circle piece by piece in his mind.
He discerned the purpose encoded within the magic circle.
And at some point.
Yuder understood.
The ritual Garammaru had been conducting.
The reason more blood had been needed.
And the cause of all these events.
What had made Haragen choose differently from the original.
It was Yuder himself.
Everything Yuder had done so far had driven Haragen to make a different choice.
Red Gale had not died.
Because of that, the Great Storm tribe had remained intact.
Rough Avalanche, Gentle Snow Breeze, and Blue Beard had not been corrupted. The mid-ranking Demonic Humans dispatched to the east had been wiped out, and as a result, the east had not splintered.
They had not been able to interfere with Karaval.
As a result, the Eastern Army had been formed.
The things Yuder himself and Cordelia had done so far.
The positive changes that had occurred because of them.
Yuder's plan had worked.
Haragen had been cornered.
Therefore, Haragen had been forced to make an extreme choice that he had not made in the original.
"Yuder?"
Yuder raised his head and looked at Cordelia.
And he thought.
If his analysis was truly correct.
If what Haragen had prepared really was this.
Where would the bastard hold the great ritual?
Where would he summon "this"?
"The Eastern Army."
He spoke without realizing it.
There was only one thing he could think of.
And this time too, Yuder was not wrong.
At the same time.
On the Snowflower Wind Plain, located much further south from where Yuder and Cordelia were.
With the clash against the Eastern Army imminent, Haragen belatedly received word of the first explosion caused by Yuder and Cordelia.
But he was not greatly shaken.
The preparations were already complete.
"Begin."
Haragen gave the order, and the command spread throughout the entire Western Army.
With the roar of Seven Horns, who led the Angry Rhino Tribe, the battle began.