Ending Maker Chapter 135
Ending Maker Chapter 135
Chapter 50 - Temple of Life #2
About 30 minutes earlier.
That is, right after entering the temple.
Just as the seal site where Leisegang had been sealed had been, the entrance to the forgotten Temple of Life was connected to a cave hidden in a remote, uninhabited place.
"Light."
Yuder advanced slowly, using the small light Cordelia had created to lead the way, and traced his memories.
'Temple of Life.'
An open dungeon that could be cleared with any character.
But because of its location, the only ones who could actually clear it were Playable Characters from the Saelun Kingdom, like Cordelia, Yuder, and Lucas.
'And even then, exploration became impossible after a certain point.'
The best time to clear it was usually about eight months to a year after the start of Cordelia's route.
By then, the barbarians' great northern invasion and the annihilation of the royal family had already occurred, so it was no exaggeration to say the entire Saelun Kingdom was a battlefield.
'But now is different.'
Only about four months had passed since Cordelia's route, and the barbarians' great northern invasion had become something that would never happen in the first place.
'What you can get from the Temple of Life is the Orb of Life.'
A holy artifact containing the power of Aeris, the goddess of life, and a divine relic that granted its owner powerful regeneration.
'It's on the third basement floor...... and on the way there are minor trash mobs and the temple guardians.'
Since Yuder and Cordelia had passed level 70, there was no particularly difficult opponent there except for the lower angel guarding the Orb of Life.
No, there should not have been.
But.
"ROOOAR!"
With violent shrieks, monsters shaped like enormous bats charged at them without end.
"Fuck! So goddamn disgusting!"
And no wonder—they were not the size of a palm, but giant bats easily over a meter long from head to toe.
In truth, "terrifying" was probably the more accurate word than "disgusting."
Cordelia, who had cursed without realizing it, hastily set off an explosion in front of her.
"What the hell! What's going on! There weren't any of these in the original!"
"SKREEE!"
Five or six bats were swept away by the explosion and vanished, but many still remained. More than ten swarmed in again, as if filling the gap the explosion had created.
"Black Dragon Emerges!"
Yuder thrust out a palm strike and released the black dragon's energy. Two or three bats were swept away by the black dragon and vanished, and the remaining bats split widely to the left and right.
"Just run for now!"
"Fireball!"
And then double casting, Echo of the Spell!
Four orbs of flame, each easily a meter in diameter, shot into the sky, and Yuder wrapped his arm around Cordelia's waist, lifted her up, and slung her over his shoulder. It was because he had noticed what Cordelia was about to do next.
"Split! Explode!"
As Cordelia swung Moonlight and shouted, the orbs of flame split into dozens of smaller orbs and covered the ceiling.
When they exploded, everything in sight became a sea of fire.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
"SKREEE!"
The bats fell to the floor in droves with shrieks, and Yuder cursed.
"Hey! Are you insane?! The cave's going to collapse at this rate!"
"Then run before it does!"
Cordelia, who had shouted back quickly, was panting because she had poured out her mana all at once, but she did not stop moving. She raised her left hand and activated the Count Chase ring.
"Shield!"
The golden whirlwind Yuder had raised pushed away the flames and smoke, and Cordelia's shield knocked away the bats falling from the sky.
Seen up close, they were even more terrifying and disgusting giant bats.
"What's going on? There was nothing like this originally!"
"Four months earlier!"
They had entered four months earlier than the period when exploration was possible in the original.
Yet the cave was swarming with monsters that had never appeared here in the original.
What could be inferred from this.
"What? So in the original, someone cleared the Temple of Life during those four months?"
"Probably?"
Yuder adjusted his grip on Cordelia, who was slung over his shoulder, and shouted. Since she was draped face-down, Cordelia could only see Yuder's back—more precisely, his back and butt—so she forced her upper body upright, kept watch on the rear, and shouted again.
It was because something had suddenly occurred to her.
"The empty room on the second floor!"
The completely empty space on the second floor of the Temple of Life, which by its atmosphere and structure clearly should have had something in it, but had nothing!
At Cordelia's shout, Yuder hesitated for just a moment, then immediately understood.
"As expected, you're rotten too!"
It was less obvious only because Yuder overshadowed her, but Cordelia was a rotten fossil too.
And not just any rotten fossil—she was ranked #2 on the server, a rotten fossil among rotten fossils!
"Hey! You want to brag about being rank 1?"
"Anyway! You're right, Cordelia! The empty space on the second floor!"
Why had it been empty?
"Because someone already took it!"
Cordelia shouted, and Yuder agreed.
And for the first time in a while, their gamer brains switched on.
"A strong person powerful enough to change the cave's ecosystem!"
"The item that such a strong person took!"
"They didn't even stop by the third floor!"
"Which means the second floor was their goal from the start, and they knew what was there!"
"Black Dragon Emerges!"
"Stop shouting technique names! Fire Wall!"
The black dragon released from Yuder's right-handed palm strike smashed the giant spider-shaped monster blocking the way, while Cordelia's wall of flame cut off the monsters trying to swarm them from behind.
"You shout too!"
"Mine's a spell! It's absolutely necessary!"
"Anyway!"
"Hey! Don't try to gloss over it!"
Bats swarmed in from the sky again.
The cave had seemed quite large even in the game, but seeing it in person, it really was a huge cave.
"We're jumping! Clench your teeth!"
"Ugh!"
As soon as Cordelia closed her mouth, Yuder kicked off the ground and leaped high. It was because of the black water right in front of them.
"RAAAH!"
From the cave's river, too dark to even gauge its depth, a snake-like monster surged upward.
"Magic Missile!"
"SKREE!"
Cordelia hurled a pure-white magic orb into the snake-like monster's mouth and shuddered, and Yuder gripped Cordelia's waist even tighter and kicked off the empty air. He raised a black gale and leaped over the river, which was nearly ten meters wide.
"There are too many monsters!"
"We're almost there! It's the second floor!"
At Yuder's shout, Cordelia forced her upper body upright and twisted herself to look ahead. Sure enough, white stairs leading downward came into view.
"Cordelia!"
"Fire Wall!"
They were perfectly in sync, and Cordelia raised a barrier of flame to block the path leading to the stairs, while Yuder quickly descended the stairs.
"Light!"
Once again, magical light.
The white flash drove away the darkness, and Yuder, breathing hard, set Cordelia down from his shoulder onto the floor.
"There really are a lot."
Yuder and Cordelia were now so high-level that they could barely earn experience from trash mobs, but with numbers like this, clearing out the cave seemed like it would raise their level by about one.
'I'll sweep it later.'
First, accomplish the objective.
But it was right then.
Cordelia, who had been catching her breath beside Yuder, suddenly tapped Yuder on the shoulder.
"Yuder, Yuder."
"Huh? What?"
"The ceiling here...... wasn't it originally white?"
"Huh?"
The ceiling of the Temple of Life.
Yuder reflexively looked up at the ceiling, and he could see a ceiling that was not white, but covered in green.
Why was that?
Why was the ceiling, which had been white in the original, green?
And moreover, why did it look like it was squirming?
"Fuck."
Yuder said it, and Cordelia agreed. So she said it once more.
"Fuck."
"Run!"
As if reacting to Yuder's shout, the ceiling heaved at that moment.
The green mass split into dozens, hundreds of pieces, and began raining down from the ceiling to the floor.
"Acid— ugh! Slimes!"
Cordelia bit her tongue once because she was slung over Yuder's shoulder again, but she still stubbornly finished her sentence.
Acid slimes.
As the name suggested, slimes that were acidic and melted everything they touched.
"Shield!"
SSSSS—!
Fist-sized green lumps fell onto the shield Cordelia hastily spread. They were things dripping from the slimes' bodies, and as soon as they touched the floor, they bored into the ground with a burning sound.
"Black Wind Arrival!"
Yuder kicked off the ground and rose, raising a black gale as he went, and Cordelia lifted Yuder's body into the air with Fly magic.
It was because more than half the floor was already covered in slimes.
"Let's just get past them!"
There were far too many to stop and fight one by one.
Yuder raised a wind to push himself through the air while Cordelia scanned the surroundings, because other monsters besides the slimes might appear.
"Someone cleared all this? Did an army come through or something?"
At Cordelia's question, Yuder narrowed his brow.
There were simply too many monsters for one person to clear out alone.
As Cordelia said, an army.
Or if not, someone who could command an army.
'A summoner?'
If it was a famous summoner from Hero Legend 2.......
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sharp metallic sounds cut off Yuder's thoughts.
It was because sharp blades had shot up from both walls like traps.
"Living Swords!"
Cordelia's eye was not wrong. The blades that had shot up flew at Yuder, and Yuder, having broken through the slime zone, began running across the ground at terrifying speed.
"What's the plan?"
"The empty room on the second floor for now!"
It was a dead end, but the entrance was not very wide, so it was a good place to fight multiple enemies. Moreover, if his thinking was right, there should be one more trick they could use.
"We're here!"
"Hurry! Living Armors have joined in too!"
The Living Armors that appeared with clanking sounds chased close behind, clutching the Living Swords as if combining with them.
At a rough estimate, there seemed to be at least thirty of them.
'What kind of temple is this!'
There were far too many monsters for a temple.
The Living Armors chasing them right now were not guardian types either, but demonic armors tainted by demonic energy.
A space that was no different from a demon's lair rather than a temple.
But precisely because of that, Yuder saw a possibility.
"As expected!"
The empty room on the second floor.
As soon as they entered, Yuder clenched his fist, and Cordelia could see it over Yuder's shoulder.
The pure-white golem, of which only wreckage could be seen in the original!
"ROOOAR!"
A pure-white golem that looked to be four meters tall rose to its feet. It seemed to have reacted to Yuder and Cordelia.
"It's a temple guardian!"
It was certain, since the emblem of the Church of Life was drawn on its chest.
And Cordelia also realized Yuder's scheme.
Using one enemy to destroy another.
Use the golem to fight the monsters!
'You know what to do, right?'
'I know!'
Right after they exchanged glances.
Cordelia turned around and looked behind, and Yuder looked ahead.
The two of them, each facing the surging Living Armors and the golem, shouted at some point.
"Now!" they shouted in unison.
Perfect timing.
Cordelia spun around and threw herself, and Yuder threw himself as well. They rolled through the gap between the large golem's legs and slipped past.
And the result that came of it.
The Living Armors and the guardian golem came face to face.
"ROOOAR!"
As expected, a battle between the golem and the Living Armors unfolded.
Yuder and Cordelia quickly retreated and caught their breath several times.
"Hah, hah......."
"Hoo, hoo......."
It had been a short time, but because they had run in such a tense state, both of them were drenched in cold sweat.
Cordelia wiped the sweat from her forehead and watched the Living Armors and the guardian golem, who were in the middle of battle.
"Who do you think will win?"
"The guardian golem?"
At Yuder's words, Cordelia nodded, then rummaged at her waist and pulled out Detonating Cord.
And about five minutes later.
When about ten Living Armors were smashed by the guardian golem's massive fists, the remaining ones began to slink backward and flee.
As Yuder had predicted, it was the guardian golem's victory.
"ROOOOAR!"
The guardian golem let out a roar of victory and turned around. It was because enemies still remained within the golem's domain—Yuder and Cordelia.
And because of that, Cordelia exerted her telekinesis.
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
The things that flew toward the guardian golem's chest the moment it turned around.
The guardian golem lowered its head and looked at its own chest, and saw several strands of Detonating Cord forming a star shape.
A pentagram.
And a large circle surrounding the star.
"Rrr?"
The guardian golem raised its head, and Cordelia snapped her fingers.
KABOOM!
A truly pretty star-shaped explosion.
Moreover, its power was extraordinary.
It was the result of not only adding Cordelia's explosion magic to the Detonating Cord's firepower, but also forming a kind of magic circle through the star shape to amplify the explosion magic's power once more.
"Groooan......."
The guardian golem, its chest core shattered, collapsed, and Cordelia turned toward Yuder and drew a V with her fingers.
"Ta-da."
It looked simple, but it was a combination attack of Detonating Cord, explosion magic, and a magic circle added on top!
Yuder, who had instantly grasped the technique's power and difficulty, responded with sincerity.
"Impressive, truly impressive—Star Explosion!"
"No it's not? That's not its name?"
But Cordelia seemed secretly pleased, because the smile did not leave her face.
"Anyway, let's get going again soon."
Now that the guardian was gone, the monsters would start swarming in again.
But Cordelia clicked her tongue and tossed the remaining Detonating Cord at her waist into the air.
SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!
The Detonating Cord, controlled by telekinesis, attached to the ceiling near the entrance, and Yuder understood what Cordelia was trying to do.
KABOOM!
Detonating Cord was originally used at construction sites to cut rock and other materials into desired shapes.
Cordelia skillfully collapsed the ceiling and blocked the entrance with falling rocks.
"How's that?"
"Magnificent."
Yuder even clapped, and realized anew that Cordelia was a combat genius.
'I never imagined it could be used like that.'
When it came to understanding and utilizing weapons alone, it was no exaggeration to say she was superior to Yuder himself.
'This is how she got rank 2 through combat alone.'
"What are you thinking about so hard?"
"That our princess is so pretty."
"What the hell is this crazy bastard talking about?"
Cordelia snorted, but the corners of her lips still crept up slightly.
"How adorable."
"Wanna die?"
"Anyway, thanks to you, we've bought some time to catch our breath."
They had expended quite a bit of mana and stamina from running so frantically. It seemed like they could rest sufficiently and then head out.
"More importantly, isn't there something we need to check?"
"There is something to check."
The thing located in the empty room on the second floor.
The item that the intruder who had entered the Temple of Life during the four blank months had been after.
Yuder and Cordelia turned around and walked toward the altar that the guardian golem had been protecting.
"I can feel holy power."
Cordelia naturally transformed into an angel and accepted the holy power as it was, and Yuder stopped in front of the altar.
"I'll leave it to you."
Cordelia nodded once at Yuder's words, then continued forward and placed her hand on the box sitting atop the altar.
It was a fairly large box, about the size of an adult's torso, so she had no idea what might be inside.
"Opening it."
As Cordelia declared and placed her hand on the box, holy power far greater than she had imagined was released, as if to swallow Cordelia whole.
If Cordelia had not been an angel, her entire body would have been burned by the holy flames.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay."
Cordelia, who had let out a dazed voice without realizing it, shook her head to focus.
Given the circumstances, this seemed more like the real trap for protecting the holy artifact than the guardian golem.
'Thank goodness I'm an angel.'
Thank you, Lena. Thank you, Yuder.
Cordelia, grateful anew to the two people who had helped her achieve Ancestral Regression, turned her gaze back into the box.
A tiara, a small crown worn on the head.
The exquisitely crafted golden crown was studded with several jewels.
"The Crown of Life."
An S-rank item that not only raised the owner's life-type magic rank by one rank, but also unconditionally doubled the number of lifeforms that could be summoned with life-related summoning magic.
Moreover, its effects did not end there. If one became the true owner of the Crown of Life, they could use "Life Granting," one of the highest-tier life-type magics.
"Wow......."
Cordelia, genuinely admiring it, swallowed dryly several times.
It was because for mages who had sold life-type magic, or priests who built on life-type magic as their base from the start, it was no exaggeration to call this a graduation item.
"So this is where it comes from."
It was an item that could only be seen in the late game in the original.
Cordelia, admiring it anew, briefly tried the tiara on her head.
"H-how is it? Does it suit me?"
She asked somewhat shyly, and instead of answering, Yuder blinked, then suddenly clenched his fist.
"I've got it."
"Huh?"
"I know."
Who had invaded the Temple of Life during the four blank months.
Who had taken the Crown of Life.
Of course, the evidence was lacking.
Only a few conditions had been met.
But he felt a strong conviction.
"Someone who wields summoning magic on the scale of an army."
And life-type summoning magic at that.
Someone who would crave the Crown of Life because they had researched the magic of Life Granting for many long years.
"They didn't even stop by the third floor."
They did not covet the Orb of Life.
They were satisfied with the Crown of Life.
The Crown of Life alone was their goal.
Someone who would do that.
Someone who did not reveal themselves even after obtaining the Crown of Life.
It was not simple concealment.
A few months after obtaining the Crown of Life, he lost his life.
That was why the Crown of Life could be found elsewhere in the late game.
And one more thing here.
The wreckage of the guardian golem scattered in the empty room on the second floor.
It had been destroyed by powerful life magic.
A smile spread across Yuder's face.
It was a natural smile that came from solving the puzzle.
"Yuder?"
"I think I know."
Because when he put together all the clues so far, there was only one person who came to mind.
"Necromancer Velkian."
One of the Five Heroes.
The hero of the first game who vanished without even showing his face in Hero Legend 2.
'Found it.'
A way to expose Velkian to the surface.
A way to make him come to Yuder and Cordelia of his own accord.
"He's, he's smiling like a con artist again."
Despite Cordelia's remark, Yuder wore an even deeper smile.
With the heart of an angler who had discovered the perfect bait, he gazed at the Crown of Life.