Ending Maker Chapter 49
Ending Maker Chapter 49
Chapter 13 - Sunflower Herb #4
Paragot had thought the only entrance to Frost Anvil was the Great Gate, but that wasn't actually the case.
There were several hidden crawlways.
And one of them.
The moment they emerged outside through a ventilation shaft, Yuder and Cordelia's eyes sharpened.
After the heavy scent of blood came the stench of rot, striking their nostrils.
In front of the Great Gate—so many monster corpses that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they covered the snowfield.
It was fortunate they were near Frost Anvil, where the temperature was low; anywhere else, they wouldn't have been able to breathe from the stench of rotting corpses.
And a demon stood there.
Sisiot, standing before the Great Gate as if guarding it, with its two blade-like arms hanging down.
Over its gaunt body, pitch-black shells connected in succession, forming something like armor.
It stood motionless with its head slightly bowed, as if sleeping on its feet.
The binding spell placed on Sisiot by the leader of Devil's Hand had been released, but that did not mean the demon had fully regained its freedom.
Until the consciousness Devil's Hand had broken recovered, Sisiot would wander around the Great Gate and kill anyone it encountered.
And on the other side.
As Yuder had expected, there were people who would become allies.
"They're maintaining a seal... right?"
At Cordelia's question, Yuder nodded.
A little over ten meters from the motionless Sisiot, six mages in the robes of the Guardians of the Holy Cross maintained a sealing formation.
But it was merely buying time.
Moreover, even that time seemed to be nearly exhausted.
"That's the banner of the Count Hraesvelgr Household."
Yuder looked toward where Cordelia indicated and saw a small encampment in the distance.
Four knights of the Count Hraesvelgr Household and about thirty soldiers.
Instead of saying anything, Yuder closed his eyes once.
Considering the standard organization of the Count Hraesvelgr Household and the Guardians of the Holy Cross, they had indeed, as expected, already suffered considerable damage.
"Let's join them."
Yuder nodded at Cordelia's words.
Strictly speaking, Devil's Hand had come here because of Yuder and Cordelia.
Of course, Yuder and Cordelia were victims too and had done nothing wrong, but that did not leave them entirely free of a sense of responsibility.
Hunt the demon.
Bring it down.
It was a road they would have to take anyway if they wanted to reach a perfect happy ending.
And that was the very moment.
"It's breaking."
Cordelia said abruptly.
It was because she had instinctively sensed the subtle change in magical power.
And immediately after.
Yuder tackled Cordelia. He knocked her down sideways, and at the same time, the air howled.
Cordelia's description had been accurate.
As if glass were shattering, the space between Sisiot and the Guardians of the Holy Cross collapsed. The moment the invisible wall was destroyed, Sisiot swung its arm.
A single slash.
A massive slash split through space.
"Get down!"
Someone from the Guardians of the Holy Cross shouted. The knights also shouted something and moved, but not everyone reacted.
Two of the Guardians of the Holy Cross who were close to Sisiot lost their heads.
The soldiers, at least, were far enough away that none lost their lives, but most were frozen in terror, unable to move.
The Guardians of the Holy Cross's seal had broken.
Sisiot began moving again.
Of all moments, it had to happen now.
No, it was rather fortunate.
If it had been before Yuder and Cordelia appeared, the only thing left would have been total annihilation!
"I'm going!"
Yuder said to Cordelia, who lay beneath him. Cordelia responded, and Yuder became a gale.
Twenty-Four Gale Steps.
Following behind Yuder as he advanced with a whirlwind, Cordelia unleashed the witch's power!
"Aaaah!"
Cordelia sang.
She let her voice ring out.
Sisiot reacted to the demon-destroying power of the witch. The creature, about to unleash a second slash, turned to look at Cordelia, and the gale surged toward it.
The demon Sisiot.
Demonic Human Paragot could not begin to compare to Sisiot.
Its physical abilities were truly a marvel in themselves.
Sisiot looked at Yuder.
Slit pupils like a cat's locked onto Yuder from within Sisiot's yellow eyes.
"Haste!"
Cordelia shouted. Yuder dodged Sisiot's second slash at close range.
It was so fast that without Cordelia's Haste, even Yuder wouldn't have been able to dodge it.
"Haste!"
Cordelia cast Haste again, stacking it.
Stacking the spell was dangerous.
Not only did it place considerable strain on Yuder's body, but there was also the possibility that Yuder, like others, would fail to adapt to the greatly increased speed.
And that was exactly what happened.
Yuder was not Cordelia.
Instantly adapting to the increased speed was impossible for him.
So Yuder calculated.
His own body.
His movements.
His speed.
The trajectory he would draw!
Yuder narrowly dodged Sisiot's attack.
A smile spread across Sisiot's face, and Cordelia shouted again.
"Don't just stand there watching!"
The spell triggered with her shout.
Over a dozen magic missiles stormed toward Sisiot, and at Cordelia's shout, the Guardians of the Holy Cross snapped back to their senses. Soon after, they looked at each other and began chanting something.
And then the Heavenly Martial Body shone.
Thanks to Yuder's calculations, he gradually adapted to the increased speed.
The plan was simple.
Close the distance.
Cordelia or the Guardians of the Holy Cross would somehow slow Sisiot's movements.
And Yuder himself would slam a binding spell into the creature's body.
"Kahahahahaha!"
Sisiot let out a sharp laugh and began swinging both arms simultaneously.
Yuder deliberately put his back to the Great Gate, and more than ten slashes tore through the space where Yuder had been and collided with the Great Gate.
SKRAAAPE!
They were so sharp that several deep lines were carved into the thick, solid Great Gate.
Yuder held his breath. Even breathing was a luxury right now.
He focused and focused again.
The comprehension awakened when he opened the Second Gate of the Nine Heavens Nine Gates broadened and sharpened Yuder's perception.
What made Sisiot terrifying was the enormous range of its Spatial Severing Slash.
That made opening the distance a bad idea. If Sisiot unleashed Spatial Severing Slashes in succession, Yuder could end up with nowhere left to evade.
So fight at close range. Create a situation where he only had to dodge the creature's slashes one at a time.
The Guardians of the Holy Cross's spell was completed.
Dozens of golden chains shot out toward Sisiot.
Another Spatial Severing Slash.
Sisiot spun and tore through space several times, severing the golden chains as well.
But the effect was sufficient.
Because Sisiot had turned. Because it had unleashed its slash somewhere other than at Yuder.
A truly fleeting instant.
An incredibly short, short span of time.
But there was someone capable of exploiting it.
Cordelia's black blade cut across space.
Extending with perfect timing, it drove into Sisiot's blind spot.
And then it exploded.
It was not Cordelia's doing. Sisiot had detonated the mana shrouding its entire body.
The air shook. Cordelia's black blade was shattered, and the Guardians of the Holy Cross and soldiers standing in the distance couldn't withstand the aftershock and were knocked flat.
Cordelia gritted her teeth.
Enduring the magical backlash from the Black Blade shattering, Cordelia completed another spell.
A power she had obtained by absorbing the white serpent's magic stone.
The one that could only be used the moment she made eye contact with her opponent.
Their eyes met.
Because Sisiot had shattered the black blade.
With its demonic mana perception, Sisiot had identified who had launched the Black Blade.
It was exactly as she had intended.
The moment Cordelia's eyes met Sisiot's, her blue pupils became slit like a snake's.
She activated the power of the Evil Eye the white serpent had possessed long ago.
"Aagh!"
Cordelia screamed. Blood streamed from both eyes. But Cordelia did not close her eyes. She forced herself to endure.
And as a result.
Sisiot stopped.
A very brief moment.
But compared to the moment it had turned to unleash its slash, it was infinitely long.
A whirlwind.
A gale rose. Golden light flashed from the Power Fist wrapped in paper inscribed with the binding spell.
"Yungkatergo Sisiono Zirvanstone."
Yuder spoke the long true name as his fist reached Sisiot's chest.
Cordelia finally closed her eyes. Covering both eyes with her hands, she collapsed as if crumbling.
But Sisiot could not unleash its slash.
It looked at Yuder with a dazed expression.
How.
"Like this!"
Giving a nonsensical answer, Yuder opened his palm. He pressed it over the golden binding spell engraved on Sisiot's chest and shouted once more.
"Yungkatergo Sisiono Zirvanstone!"
"Aaaagh!"
Sisiot screamed. Golden light swallowed it, and the terrifying mana surrounding its body shrank away in an instant.
Yuder drew a sharp breath, pulled back his fist, and shouted.
"Cordelia!"
The Holy Cross Thrust struck. Sisiot could not react properly so soon after the binding spell had taken hold.
The creature's jaw twisted, and Yuder followed up with Thunderclap Strike. Pummeling the creature's entire body, he shouted once more.
"Cordelia!"
It was a call.
And Cordelia answered. Still with her eyes closed, she reached out a hand. Even now, while underdeveloped, her mana-sensing ability in Witchification rivaled that of a lower demon.
Detect the magical power.
Drive magic into that spot.
The Black Blade cut across space once more and drove into Sisiot's back as Yuder pummeled it.
"AAARGH!"
Sisiot screamed. And Yuder pulled back both fists.
A technique following the Holy Cross Thrust.
Form a holy cross in each hand.
Overlap the two holy crosses to produce more than double the power.
Twin Cross Thrust.
It was good. But it didn't stop there.
Like Cordelia, Yuder also utilized his newly obtained power.
Yin and yang.
The holy cross in his right hand emitted yin energy.
The holy cross in his left hand emitted yang energy.
"Raaah!"
Both of Yuder's fists slammed into Sisiot's chest. The two crosses drove into its flesh, interlocked inside it, and exploded.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
It was no match for Manuela's Grand Annihilation Spell, but as the two energies of yin and yang collided with each other, they produced destructive power exceeding the Twin Cross Thrust.
"Guhk!"
Yuder wasn't unscathed either. Both arms flared red as if burned, and a trickle of blood ran down his lips.
But it was enough.
Sisiot stopped moving. Rings of pure white light appeared around Yuder's and Cordelia's chests.
"Did we get it? Did I land the last hit?"
Cordelia, still sitting slumped with her eyes closed, groped at the air as she asked, and Yuder wiped the blood from his lips as he counted the rings of light.
Five for Yuder himself, four for Cordelia.
But Yuder was a man who knew how to tell a white lie.
"Yeah, you got it. You landed it."
"Nice! Last hit! Last hit!"
Well, as long as she was happy.
Yuder felt a strange sense of déjà vu as Cordelia collapsed with a happy smile, then turned his gaze away.
He would have liked to leisurely admire the newly obtained title, but there was a problem that needed to be dealt with first.
The Guardians of the Holy Cross and the knights of the Count Hraesvelgr Household.
When Yuder faced them, the Guardians and knights wore exactly the expressions he had expected. Then one of the dazed Hraesvelgr knights shouted.
"Yuder Bayel! Cordelia Chase!"
Yuder nodded.
The knight was right, after all. Yuder had planned to reveal their identities first and continue the conversation from there.
But the knight's words weren't finished yet.
"The insane... no, no! The fantastic couple!"
"Huh! Really?"
"They're the insane couple?!"
"Fantastic, fantastic. The young master told us to be careful."
"Ah, fantastic. Right, fantastic."
What kind of conversation was that supposed to be?
And by "young master," did they mean Lucas?
'Lucas?'
What on earth have you been going around saying?
And "the insane couple"—what was that supposed to mean?
The warning to be careful—was that because you keep mixing it up yourself?
"Ahem, I am Phil Reiner, a knight of the Count Hraesvelgr Household."
The one who appeared to be the leader among the knights stepped forward and spoke, and then, as if suddenly coming to their senses, a woman from the Guardians of the Holy Cross also stepped forward and spoke.
"I am Joan of the Guardians of the Holy Cross."
Phil Reiner was a large knight who looked to be in his early thirties, and Joan was a woman in her late twenties with magnificent golden hair, so lovely it was a shame it was cut short.
"...As you know, I am Yuder Bayel. I'd like to see to my fiancée first before we talk."
The Guardians of the Holy Cross also had casualties. Both sides needed time to tend to things first.
Yuder ran toward Cordelia, and one of the knights watching him spoke again.
"As expected, the couple of the century who can't live without each other...! Just as the young master said. Just as the young master said."
Lucas. What on earth have you been going around saying?
Yuder resisted the urge to look back and kept his eyes forward until he saw Cordelia hiding her face in both hands, visibly mortified from head to toe.