Ending Maker Chapter 47
Ending Maker Chapter 47
Chapter 13 - Sunflower Herb #2
Yuder Bayel.
The second son of Count Bayel.
Born into a renowned martial family, yet unable to learn proper martial arts even by seventeen because of a chronic illness—Yuder was the Bayel family's great concern.
These were the facts the Devil's Hand knew about Yuder, and none of them were wrong.
Which was why Paragot found the current situation all the more incomprehensible.
'How?'
Just before his fist shot forward, a gale arose.
A single gust of wind whisked Cordelia away.
A movement art.
And a highly advanced one at that, by no means ordinary.
The one who used it was Yuder Bayel.
The Bayel family's great concern—the chronically ill fiancé of Cordelia who had supposedly never learned a single martial art—had become a gale and saved her.
'He hid his strength?'
Had he been concealing the fact that he could use martial arts?
Why.
What possible benefit could that bring?
Thinking about it normally, there was only one plausible possibility.
He had recently learned martial arts.
With his health improved enough to travel, he had begun martial arts training.
'That's absurd.'
Even at the longest estimate, that was only a couple of months.
Was it really possible for someone who had been a complete novice to reach that level in just a couple of months?
While Paragot stood dumbfounded, Yuder and Cordelia were looking at each other instead of at him.
It was impossible to see properly in the pitch-black darkness, but even so, the two of them could clearly picture each other's faces.
"Soon."
"Soon?"
"Close your eyes."
At Yuder's words, Cordelia blinked.
What did he mean?
Normally she would have caught on through his eyes, but it was so dark that even that was impossible now.
'W-wait, no way?'
If she closed her eyes while being held like this—
'No way, okay? We're in the middle of a fight, okay? That's nonsense, okay?'
Cordelia, her face flushed as she mentally scolded herself, closed her eyes while struggling to maintain her composure.
And that was the moment.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Sharp sounds rang out in succession, and the darkness in the room vanished all at once. The light pouring from the ceiling was so bright that it was momentarily blinding.
"Agh! My eyes!"
But the only one groaning was Paragot.
Cordelia had already closed her eyes, and Yuder, who had switched on the lights with the remote, was prepared too.
"Raaah!"
Paragot let out a roar and swung his fists wildly.
It was less an attack than desperate flailing meant to keep Yuder from approaching.
Rather than charging at Paragot, Yuder shifted Cordelia into what was commonly called a princess carry and calmly observed him.
Only then did Cordelia crack her eyes open and speak quietly.
"Put me down."
"Not yet."
Because Cordelia was exhausted.
Because he still hadn't fully grasped Paragot's remaining strength.
And—
"There you are!"
Shouting, Paragot kicked off the ground and charged like an enraged bull.
A straight line.
Yuder, pulling Cordelia—who had reflexively curled up—even tighter against him, likewise kicked off the ground.
Twenty-Four Gale Steps.
The wind blew.
Three whirlwinds rose at once, and Yuder became a single gust of wind.
Boom!
Paragot's massive fist struck the hapless floor.
Yuder, still holding Cordelia, stopped nearly ten meters away from Paragot and watched him.
He widened the distance.
Rather than efficiently evading with the minimum movement, he deliberately kept a fixed distance from Paragot even if it wasted motion.
There were two reasons.
One was to secure Cordelia's safety, and the other—
"You rat-like bastard!"
Paragot lunged again. And Yuder once more became a gale.
Several attacks.
Yuder avoided every attack. No—rather than 'dodged,' 'ran away from' was more accurate.
A game of tag played from a considerable distance.
And then, at some point.
"I'll put you down."
Yuder said to Cordelia. Cordelia, who had been curled up quietly in Yuder's arms to avoid falling, blinked, and Yuder added in a whisper.
"I think it'll work now."
Because he had observed enough.
Because he had input the pattern into his head.
Even Cordelia could not immediately understand what Yuder meant, but somehow she felt herself growing reassured.
Because the current Yuder was reliable.
Because if Yuder said it would work, it really seemed like it would.
Before Cordelia could even respond, Yuder carefully set her down on the floor.
Paragot watched the two of them.
He clenched his fist again and kicked off the ground.
Cordelia looked at Yuder.
Yuder smiled at Cordelia.
A reversal.
Yuder spun his body and stepped into the Twenty-Four Gale Steps again.
But this time it was not flight. He advanced straight toward Paragot.
And Paragot's attack went wide.
"Huh?"
Paragot's attack itself had been perfect.
A straight punch backed by overwhelming strength.
Simple, but precisely because of that, fast and powerful.
Yuder deflected it.
As if he had known exactly how it would come, he redirected the attack's trajectory with only the slightest intervention.
And it continued.
Yuder handled every one of Paragot's attacks.
Not only did he evade and deflect, but he even cut some attacks off before they could begin.
How.
It felt a little different from Cordelia.
Cordelia, who instinctively sensed what attack was coming and immediately responded accordingly.
That was how Paragot felt.
Yuder was different.
He wasn't relying on intuition like Cordelia.
'Prediction.'
There were clear limits to the movements a human with limbs could perform.
Added to that were individual habits.
Patterns that inevitably formed.
Moreover, Paragot was extremely exhausted. Due to injury and fatigue, he was only executing attacks far simpler than usual.
Which was why Yuder could predict.
As if he had run a simulation in advance, he caught and blocked Paragot's next move before it happened.
It was an absurd story.
It sounded plausible, but implementing it in reality was extremely difficult.
But Yuder could do it.
The Heavenly Martial Body and the comprehension awakened by the Second Gate of the Nine Heavens Nine Gates made it possible.
His already sharp mind had grown even sharper.
Because his computational ability itself had risen dramatically.
And Cordelia, watching Yuder, thought:
'The Heavenly Martial Body is totally broken.'
If Yuder heard that, he would have shouted that Cordelia's intuition—which reached the answer instantly without any calculation—was the truly broken ability, and protested that his own feat was the result of calculating himself half to death. But either way, that was what Cordelia thought.
And Paragot let out an even louder roar.
"Raaah!"
After Cordelia, now Yuder too.
What the hell kind of people were these?
As if being good-looking weren't enough, their talent for combat also reached the heavens?
Only Paragot, who was facing them directly, could know.
Yuder was also a monster.
Like Cordelia, he was terrifying to imagine once fully grown.
'I must kill him now.'
Fortunately, he was not yet a complete monster.
There were still gaps to exploit.
Paragot gradually regained his composure.
Yuder blocked the increasingly refined attacks head-on while persistently targeting vital points like the solar plexus and throat.
He focused Paragot's attention.
He made the bastard focus on defending vital points like the solar plexus.
He made him forget Cordelia and perceive only Yuder himself.
If he did that, if he created an opening like that—
'Cordelia!'
At the perfect moment, Yuder looked at Cordelia.
At the same time, Paragot also remembered Cordelia's existence.
Their gazes, though only for an instant, turned toward Cordelia simultaneously.
And Cordelia, before the two of them, blinked.
"Huh?"
Why me.
What about me.
At her slightly dazed, innocent face, Yuder's brow furrowed, and Paragot burst into wild laughter.
"How clumsy!"
Did you think that if you drew my attention, your fiancée would prepare a fatal blow?
Fine, I acknowledge your talents.
You are monsters.
You are geniuses.
But you are still young.
Your experience is shallow.
You are still—!
Paragot poured all his remaining mana into his fist. He drew it back, intending to overwhelm the flustered Yuder.
And at that moment.
When Paragot had truly erased Cordelia completely from his mind.
"It's a fake, you morons."
Whispering quickly, Cordelia thrust forward the hand she had hidden behind her back.
Because to deceive the enemy, you had to deceive your allies too.
Black Blade.
A witch's spell with a very simple name.
But it was powerful.
The trump card spell she had prepared throughout the deadlock between Yuder and Paragot flew like an arrow and burrowed into Paragot's back.
"Gah!"
Paragot screamed in terrible agony.
And Yuder moved as well.
He seemed to deflect Paragot's thrown punch, then unleashed a lightning-fast flurry of strikes.
BOOM!
With a thunderous roar, the lightning-like Seven Chain Strikes pummeled Paragot's entire body. Watching the bastard stagger from a blow to the jaw, Yuder pulled back his fist again. This time it was the Divine Strike Fist's turn.
Holy Cross Thrust.
It slammed into Paragot's solar plexus. At the same time, Cordelia released the sword seal she had formed to control the Black Blade and clenched her fist.
"GAAH!"
The Black Blade exploded inside Paragot. It tore through his innards and even damaged his magic stone.
"GACK! COUGH!"
Paragot, sent flying into the opposite wall by the Holy Cross Thrust, collapsed to the floor and repeatedly coughed up blood.
It was too much now. The cracks that had started from Paragot's solar plexus spread throughout his entire body, and from the tips of his limbs, he gradually crumbled into dust and vanished.
"That's...... impossible......."
To be defeated by two mere teenagers.
For a Demonic Human like himself, even if low-ranked, to suffer a complete defeat.
But it was only for a moment.
Paragot soon accepted his death, then burst into wild laughter once more.
"Heh... Hahahahaha!"
He was dying.
With his magic stone shattered, there was no way to survive now.
But he was not alone.
Soon, Cordelia and Yuder would follow after him.
"You will die in despair and terror."
Because Sisiot was standing guard before the Great Gate, the only exit.
Because the demon whose seal had been released was waiting for them.
"The Blade Demon... you two..."
That was as far as he got.
Yuder and Cordelia, who had been listening to Paragot's words, looked at each other and spoke almost simultaneously.
"Blade Demon, so Sisiot?"
"Seems like it, right? If he's at the level of hanging around with a low-ranked Demonic Human."
"Sisiot was wind-attribute, right?"
"Yeah, a close-combat specialist demon who transforms both arms into blades."
Even as he was dying, Paragot unconsciously wore a blank expression.
What?
Had he ever mentioned Sisiot's name?
"Seeing as he didn't come in with you, did he undo a seal or something?"
"Undo a seal? Oh, right. That guy's sealed, isn't he?"
"Because when the seal comes off, he goes berserk."
What was this? Why did they know that?
How did they know about the seal, and how did they know it had been undone?
"Judging by your face, I'm right."
"Ugh, Sisiot...... at our current level, we absolutely can't beat him, right?"
"Normally, yes, but...... if we can re-seal him, the odds won't be zero."
"To seal him, we need his true name."
"Right, we need his true name."
Paragot felt somehow drained, but he managed to smile awkwardly again.
Yes, either way, the fact that Yuder and Cordelia were as good as dead didn't change.
But it wasn't so.
Cordelia, who had been typing in midair, asked in a cheerful voice.
"Hey, Yuder Wiki, so what's Sisiot's true name?"
"Yungkatergo Sisiono Zirvanstone."
Because he was one of the few demons whose true names had been revealed in the story.
At Yuder's answer, Cordelia turned to look at Paragot as if to confirm, and Paragot answered Cordelia's question by making a face as if he had been possessed by a ghost.
"Looks like it's right."
"You betcha."
"I've thought this for a while, but you know that sounds kind of old-man-ish?"
Paragot could not comprehend the current situation.
What was going on.
How could they know even Sisiot's true name so precisely?
"You know the sealing ritual too?"
"I know it."
Why do you know that.
That was as far as he got.
Cracks spread across Paragot's exhausted body, and he died with a face full of unanswered questions and lingering resentment.
Sssssss-
As Paragot's corpse crumbled into powder and scattered, several rings of light appeared around Yuder and Cordelia's bodies.
Three for Yuder and four for Cordelia.
In an instant, a bright smile spread across Cordelia's face.
"I got the last hit! I got the last hit!"
"Happy?"
"Happy."
Cordelia answered with a giggle, then went limp and collapsed where she was.
Because now she truly had no strength left.
"Haa, I'm completely wiped."
"What, you collapsed? Should I give you mouth-to-mouth or something?"
"Why would you give mouth-to-mouth, you lunatic. I'm breathing, you know?"
At Cordelia's answer as she lay panting, Yuder smiled and approached her.
"Pick one."
"Pick what?"
"Should I give you a piggyback ride, or carry you?"
"Huh?"
"No, I mean, we have to head back, don't we? We need to come up with a plan for Sisiot too. And I'm saying this now, but I still haven't fully absorbed the Sunflower Herb."
It was true. Thanks to the Sunflower Herb's essence, he had succeeded in opening the Second Gate, but he had not yet absorbed all of the extreme yang energy.
"But is that okay?"
"Well...... the energy inside my body isn't going anywhere, so I can absorb it later. And I didn't have a choice, did I? Our princess was in danger."
"Waaah, Daddy's the best."
"So, what's your choice?"
Yuder asked again, and after a brief hesitation, Cordelia answered.