Ending Maker Chapter 58
Ending Maker Chapter 58
Chapter 17 - Revelation
In the original version of Hero Legend 2—that is, the first release version—there were a total of eleven Playable Characters.
"Four from the Saelun Kingdom, five from the Argon Empire, and two from the Wild Lands."
As befitting the continent's two great powers, there were many characters from the Saelun Kingdom and the Argon Empire. In the case of the Saelun Kingdom, the Playable Characters' places of origin were concentrated in the north.
"The other three besides Kaisa—so Yuder, Cordelia, and Lucas—are all from the Twelve Northern Houses."
Then why was that?
Kaisa was from the south, so there was no one from the central region at all. Wouldn't it have been better to place one each in the north, central, and south?
"And once the main story was released, everyone understood."
It was because of the "Great Invasion of the Northern Barbarians" event, which had a major impact not only on the Saelun Kingdom but on all of Hero Legend 2.
Since a major event was in the north, it was only natural that there would be many characters from the north.
Added to this were the Playable Characters from the Wild Lands, Red Wind and Kirara.
Both were barbarians, so they were naturally connected to the Great Invasion of the Northern Barbarians event.
"In the end, five of the eleven Playable Characters—about half—are directly connected to the Great Invasion event."
The remaining six were also indirectly affected in many ways. After all, it was a great event that would shake the entire Saelun Kingdom, one of the two great powers.
"So if we can smash this event, we'll be able to get closer to the ending we want."
A true happy ending that had never existed in the original story—a world where neither the Great Summoning nor the great war between angels and demons would occur.
What was absolutely necessary for that.
The single most important person who could prevent the Great Invasion altogether.
"Red Gale."
Red Wind's father.
The chieftain of the Great Storm tribe.
They had to save him.
* * *
"Yee-haw!"
A few minutes after crossing the border.
Yuder, who had dashed like the wind and hidden himself in a gap between rocky mountains, raised both arms high and shouted.
How should he describe this feeling?
A sense of liberation?
The feeling of being alive?
"You seem a little crazy."
Cordelia, sitting on the ground, narrowed her eyes at him. Yuder laughed heartily as if he had turned into Landius, then looked back at her.
"Anyway, I kept my promise, right?"
"Promise?"
"I said I'd even get you over a wall."
A wall.
The Great Wall built at the border was, broadly speaking, a wall.
Except that it was excessively high and thick for a wall.
"Let me see. I carried you, got you over a wall, and stood on the front line for you... I still want to nurse you, so could you get sick for me?"
"No, you may not."
Cordelia threw a snowball at Yuder, who was counting on his fingers and speaking seriously, then laughed a few times and tilted her head to the side. She looked up at Yuder and said,
"You're like a beast."
The way he was panting and rampaging.
She was not wrong. Until now Yuder had simply seemed nimble, but in the fight just now he had truly looked like a beast—an excited feline predator on a rampage.
At Cordelia's words, Yuder seemed to nod quietly, then said with a serious face,
"Ma'am, this humble one tonight......."
"Don't run the joke into the ground."
"Yes, my lady."
Yuder, who had meekly given up on the bit, crouched down in front of Cordelia and continued.
"But I really am overflowing with power. It feels like strength keeps surging up endlessly?"
"Is the Sunflower Herb boost really kicking in?"
"Seems like it. As Kamael said, it feels like the Heavenly Martial Body has finally opened its eyes."
Come to think of it, he had eaten a flower of extreme yang that bloomed once every twenty years, and bloomed in an extreme region at that, so this much growth seemed only polite.
And the Heavenly Martial Body.
People born geniuses usually found their own extraordinary feats so natural that they had trouble recognizing their own genius. Yuder was different.
Part of it was that he had memories of his previous life and could view himself objectively, but as Kamael had pointed out, his previous Heavenly Martial Body was practically a fake compared to his current one.
"This might sound obnoxious, but I can feel it. Yuder is a real genius."
"That really is obnoxious."
But a beaming smile was spreading across Cordelia's face.
Broken, genius, or beast, he was still her Yuder.
"Was Yuder's awakening, which was scheduled for the final expansion of the third game, supposed to be the awakening of the Heavenly Martial Body?"
"It might have been. The original Yuder never ate the Sunflower Herb and never met Kamael."
But the current Yuder was different.
He had eaten the Sunflower Herb, met Landius, and learned the Nine Heavens Nine Gates. On top of that, he had met Kamael and even resolved the distortion.
'And on top of that, the Yin-Yang Body.'
What would happen if he handled the powers of extreme yin and extreme yang at the same time? What level could he reach?
'Kamael of extreme yin and Landius of extreme yang.'
He had already formed connections with both, so he had cleared all the basic flags.
"Heh heh heh...... heh heh heh heh......."
"You're like a pervert."
Even at Cordelia's remark, Yuder did not stop laughing.
A path to becoming the strongest—a path that had never existed before—was right in front of him. If that did not excite him, what kind of rotten fossil would he be?
"Anyway, this isn't a complete awakening, right?"
"Yeah, so it's even more exciting."
Because it meant he would awaken into an even greater genius in the future.
"The Heavenly Martial Body is completely broken."
"Heh heh heh. And you become completely broken once you undergo Ancestral Regression too. Same with Witchification."
You could call it a remarkably perfect balance.
Cordelia had not been born with a special talent like Yuder or Lucas.
Nor did she have a special constitution like Kaisa.
But Cordelia had Witchification and Ancestral Regression, both of which she acquired later.
'Lucas can undergo Ancestral Regression too, but his is different from Cordelia's.'
Cordelia had Witchification, a transformation rooted in demonic power.
If Yuder could wield both extreme yin and extreme yang through his Yin-Yang Body, Cordelia could transform into a being capable of wielding both angelic and demonic power.
"I want to see Fallen Angel mode soon. It's seriously monster-level strong."
"It's mine, so why do you want to see it?"
"Because ma'am is my household's monster?"
Cordelia huffed at Yuder's claim, but soon broke into a smile. She was looking forward to what she would be like after Ancestral Regression too.
"I want to do it soon."
"Let's work hard, gather the materials, and bring it forward as much as we can compared to the original timeline."
"Yes, Daddy. I'm counting on you."
Yuder and Cordelia looked at each other and laughed happily together. Only after quite a while did they remember there was a third person present.
"Hrk... urgh... bleeegh!"
Over in the corner.
Red Wind, who had been lying face down and panting ever since Yuder put her down, finally could not hold it in and vomited.
It was not because Yuder and Cordelia's display of affection(?) was disgusting; it was a side effect of the shoddily made doping agent.
"Red Wind! Are you okay?"
"Hah...... ugh...... it hurts. It stings. It's awful."
After emptying her stomach, Red Wind spoke through tears. With tears and snot running down her face, she looked truly miserable.
"Sorry, sorry. But we're here now, so it's okay. Let's rest here before we go."
Cordelia said as she held Red Wind, and Yuder quickly cleaned up Red Wind's vomit, then looked around to find a better place to rest.
And right after that.
Still in Cordelia's arms, Red Wind suddenly began to cry again. These were not tears from physical misery like before.
"Red Wind?"
"Different. Too different."
"Huh?"
"You two. Different. Too strong. Much more than me."
Red Wind had been fairly confident in her own strength.
At least among her peers, she had believed there was almost no one stronger than her.
But that was not the case.
Yuder and Cordelia were in a completely different league from Red Wind. They were only a year older, but the gap did not feel like something a single year could explain.
A frog in a well.
With skills like this, she had gone south alone to cure her father. Of course she had ended up captured by slave traders.
How pathetic must she have seemed for Great Storm to choose the outsiders Yuder and Cordelia?
Even though she was a tribe member and the chieftain's daughter.
"Hic...... sob......."
A sudden rush of sorrow, self-reproach, and disappointment in herself brought tears she could no longer hold back.
Red Wind began to wail outright, and Cordelia turned to Yuder with a troubled face.
'Do something!'
It was an unreasonable demand, but like most men ordered to come up with a solution, Yuder started thinking.
And, like most men in that situation, his thoughts were slightly off the mark.
'First of all, power-leveling is out.'
Because the reason Red Wind was crying was, to put it bluntly, that she was weak.
But there was no way to do anything about this.
Strictly speaking, Red Wind had not even started her own scenario yet.
In short, she was a low-level noob.
She was still in her untouched starting state, without a single notable fortuitous encounter or power-up event behind her.
But taking her along and leveling her up—doing so-called power-leveling—was problematic in many ways.
'Because party play only works between me and Cordelia.'
It was a fact he had learned from experimenting several times while traveling with Lucas.
First of all, the only ones who could see each other's level-up effects were Yuder himself and Cordelia.
And even when hunting together, the only ones who gained experience as a party were Yuder himself and Cordelia.
'It seems like this side also gains experience when defeating strong enemies...... but party play only works between me and Cordelia.'
Since this world had no party request menu at all, proper experience sharing was impossible except between Yuder himself and Cordelia, who had been in a party from the start.
'Then in the end, Red Wind has to fight directly.......'
That would sharply limit the enemies Red Wind could fight, and since Yuder and Cordelia could only support her, leveling her that way would take a long time.
'But we don't have time.'
They had not come here to play in the first place.
If it were just taking a short break, that would be one thing, but they had no time to devote to leveling up while taking Red Wind around.
'But why only us?'
Why were Yuder himself and Cordelia the only ones among the Playable Characters who were in a party from the beginning?
There had to be a reason.
Something like sharing memories of a previous life, or perhaps being connected by something like the red string of fate.
"Ahem."
Yuder, who had unconsciously cleared his throat, looked at Cordelia, and Cordelia spoke again with her eyes.
'I said do something!'
"Hm."
Yuder began agonizing again.
What should he do?
Since he could not use the clearest solution of rapid leveling, he had no choice but to take the second-best option.
"Red Wind, it is okay. You will start getting stronger very soon."
At Yuder's words, Red Wind raised her head even while crying.
She was crying because she was upset about being weak, so naturally she reacted to the promise that she would become stronger.
Yuder crouched down in front of Red Wind, stroked her head, and continued.
"Great Storm said so. He said Red Wind was born with the qualities of a great warrior—that you have what it takes to become the strongest spirit warrior of the Great Storm Tribe."
"......Really? Great Storm said that?"
When Red Wind asked through her sniffles, Yuder nodded.
"Really. I wasn't the only one who heard it. Cordelia heard it too, right?"
"Huh? Yeah! I heard it too. He definitely said that."
After all, if things went according to the original route, Red Wind would become a powerful spirit warrior.
Moreover, the Great Storm tribe was fated to be destroyed during the Great Invasion of the Northern Barbarians, so Red Wind had no choice but to become the tribe's greatest warrior whether she liked it or not.
"Great Storm......."
Red Wind's tears subsided. A slight smile appeared too.
"Great Storm is also looking forward to Red Wind's growth."
"Yeah, yeah, he's looking forward to it a lot. He cherishes Red Wind so much."
As Yuder and Cordelia took turns reassuring her, Red Wind's smile grew wider and wider.
Red Wind was a character who would later develop a pessimistic personality because of all the harsh things she went through, but this was still before the original story began.
Moreover, she had escaped before suffering through the slave market, so her innocence was still largely intact.
"Understood. I will work hard. I will become stronger. I will live up to Great Storm's expectations."
"Right, we'll look forward to it too."
When Cordelia hugged Red Wind tightly, Red Wind hesitated for a moment, then hugged Cordelia back.
'How heartwarming. Heartwarming.'
Yuder was watching the scene with satisfaction when—
'Hey, but is this really okay?'
Cordelia asked with her eyes, and Yuder asked back with his eyes in the same way.
'What is?'
'No, I mean, can we just impersonate him like this?'
'Probably.'
Would Great Storm really make an issue out of this?
Moreover, Great Storm—no, the very existence of the Wild Gods themselves was uncertain.
Even in the game, they were only mentioned by name as objects of the barbarians' faith, and not a single wild god actually appeared.
'And we have already done it.'
Yuder and Cordelia had been invoking Great Storm's name ever since they first met Red Wind.
'Hmm, that's true.'
Cordelia, now convinced, focused on Red Wind again, and Yuder stood up and looked back south once more.
'Kamael would have gotten away fine on his own.'
He was not one of the Four Great Swordsmen for nothing.
And honestly, Yuder considered Kamael the strongest among the Four Great Swordsmen.
Perhaps he could have defeated Soluzia with just a clone.
'We just have to do well ourselves.'
The Great Invasion of the Northern Barbarians was an important event across the Hero Legend series, but its full background had never been completely revealed.
What was directly shown in the game was the Great Invasion, not the Angry Rhino Tribe's barbarian unification war that preceded it.
Therefore, the information was limited.
Not much was known about the Wild Lands either.
'But we can do it.'
No, they had to do it.
Yuder, having steeled his resolve, looked north.
* * *
"I think I know where this is. If we go two more days, it's our tribe's land."
Right after the sun set.
Inside an igloo built from Yuder's design and handiwork together with Cordelia's magic, Red Wind spoke quietly.
They had discarded all their luggage while fleeing and did not even have sleeping bags, but Red Wind was a local with Winter Elf blood, while Yuder and Cordelia had the Blessing of Winter.
On top of that, they had each other's warmth and stones heated by magic, so there was virtually no risk of freezing to death.
"Right, right. We have had a hard day, so let's turn in early."
"Understood. Sleep well, Cordelia. Yuder too."
Red Wind, who again spoke quietly, lay down next to Cordelia and closed her eyes.
"She went right to sleep."
"She's like a baby."
Cordelia kissed Red Wind on the forehead after she fell asleep almost the instant she closed her eyes, then looked toward Yuder and said,
"Let's sleep too. We don't really need to set a watch, right?"
"We have the alarm magic circle."
Thanks to the alarm magic circle at Frost Anvil as well, the two had been able to avoid the hell of alternating night watches.
Yuder blocked almost the entire entrance, then lay down and said for the first time in a while,
"Sleep well. Dream of me."
"Sure, you dream of me too."
"I'll have a naughty dream."
"Bullshit."
Cordelia, who had laughed and raised her middle finger, kissed Red Wind's forehead once more, then closed her eyes.
And after a few seconds, a few minutes.
Yuder also fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
The surroundings were entirely white.
A white night.
A white snowfield.
Yuder, who had been walking blankly, realized at some point.
"It's a dream."
Since he had realized it, would it become a lucid dream now?
Yuder looked around again.
As if to prove it was a dream, once he came to his senses, it was a complete mess.
The sun and moon hung together in the sky, and above the snowfield, countless fish were swimming through the air as if it were underwater.
And then Cordelia appeared.
"Oh."
She was standing among the swimming fish, flustered, and her wide-open eyes were exactly the usual Cordelia.
"Ah! It's Yuder!"
The dream-Cordelia spotted him and scampered over with a delighted expression.
And Yuder seriously agonized.
"What to do, since it's come to this, should I really have a naughty dream?"
"Hey! I can hear everything, you know?!"
Cordelia's low kick slammed into him, and Yuder thought.
"As expected of Cordelia. Violent even in dreams."
"Looks like you haven't been hit enough."
Cordelia hit Yuder's back again, and Yuder realized.
"It hurts?"
"I hit you to hurt you, so of course it hurts! Hurt more! Hurt more!"
It really hurt. Because of that, Yuder realized.
"It's not a dream."
At least, it was not an ordinary dream. The Cordelia before his eyes was not a fake created by Yuder's own dream either.
"What's going on?"
Were their dreams connected?
Were their minds linked?
At Yuder's question, Cordelia also stopped hitting him and said seriously,
"I don't know either. I was just sleeping, and at some point I opened my eyes and I was here. I saw you and came running."
Yuder looked back and forth between himself and Cordelia for a moment.
Now that he looked, even their clothes were different. They were wearing the elegant uniform and dress they had worn while living at their family estates.
"A dream."
Not reality.
A mental space.
Yuder's own mind and Cordelia's mind were connected.
Why.
How.
And who.
It was exactly at that moment. Cordelia suddenly snapped her head up. Far beyond, in the air.
The wind blew.
A small, weak wind.
But one that could grow into a storm at any time.
A boy appeared.
A white-haired boy wreathed from head to toe in wind.
The boy's golden eyes shone like stars. He looked down at Yuder and Cordelia, narrowed his eyes, then gave them a mischievous grin.
"You certainly went around selling my name."
A child's voice.
But an intense presence that shook the entire surrounding area.
A majesty like that of a god.
"No way?"
Yuder spoke, and Cordelia nodded. Her instincts were screaming the answer.
A Wild God.
The Great Storm Tribe was still alive, and Belial, the Infernal Lord of Corruption, had not yet covered the Wild Lands with his power. Great Storm had therefore not yet lost his strength.
"Pleased to meet you, children of the south. I am Great Storm."
The Wild God beyond the northern border.
He landed on the ground.
He approached Yuder and Cordelia.