Ending Maker Chapter 70
Ending Maker Chapter 70
Chapter 22 - Gentle Snow Breeze
Around then, Rough Avalanche, who was descending the rocky mountain alone, took a wrong turn.
Yuder and Cordelia had found a suitable place to camp and were preparing to rest.
"Good ground makes for good sleep."
Nodding several times in agreement with herself, Cordelia combined Dig magic with her witch's telekinesis to prepare a sleeping place.
She dug a little over a meter below the surface and leveled the bottom. With a roof over the pit and magical heat inside, it would make for a fairly warm night.
'Should I bury a completely flat, large stone and then cover it with dirt?'
If she heated just the stone with magic, wouldn't it be exactly like an ondol?
"Stone bed, stone bed. A hard stone bed."
Cordelia, who had been humming whatever words came to mind while working on the sleeping spot, turned to look beside her.
Beside her, Yuder was cooking over the campfire, and it smelled quite good.
"Yuder, Yuder. What's for dinner tonight?"
"Jerky porridge, my lady."
He put finely chopped jerky into hot water, added a little of the grain he had saved, and seasoned it with salt.
It was nothing elaborate, but after exerting herself all day, Cordelia could not stop salivating.
"Looks delicious."
"Of course it'll be delicious. I made it."
"Yeah, I'll look forward to it."
Cordelia had now grown accustomed to Yuder's shamelessness.
Humming a little longer, she draped a tarp over the new sleeping place, checked it, and nodded.
"Mm, good. It's well made."
Because of the size of the waterproof cloth, she couldn't make it very wide, but it was enough for two people to lie down.
"Are you done?"
"Yeah, all done. What about the food?"
"Mine's done too."
"Yay."
Cordelia even did a little dance, wiggling her hips before trotting over to Yuder. He laughed despite himself.
"Why?"
"Nothing. The things you do are cute."
"Hmph, don't you know about small but certain happiness? Small but certain happiness. A person needs joy, big or small."
Small but certain happiness.
Yuder could only lament that the day's meal counted as the great joy of a beautiful young lady of House Chase, one of the Twelve Northern Houses, but he agreed with Cordelia's point.
"Right, small but certain happiness is important."
"Yeah, yeah, exactly."
Pleased that Yuder had agreed so readily, Cordelia took a spoonful of the jerky porridge he served her.
"How is it?"
"Ish yummy."
It was too hot for her to speak properly, but Cordelia grinned anyway, and Yuder began eating as well.
"By the way, Yuder."
"Yes, my lady."
"For now, we've saved Red Gale, right?"
"Well, for the moment. The curse won't get any worse."
"Then what happens to our plan now?"
Cordelia already knew the broad outline.
As Yuder had said while persuading Rough Avalanche, their immediate task was to stop the Angry Rhino Tribe from unifying the barbarian tribes.
But this much alone was insufficient.
They needed a concrete plan.
"First... we need to build an eastern alliance around Red Gale."
"To oppose the Angry Rhino and Seven Horns?"
"Yeah. Seeing that they've already extended their reach this far, they've probably already secured the west to some degree."
It made no sense to send an expedition far afield before putting one's own territory in order.
Cordelia nodded as if she understood as well.
"What next?"
"We need to rally the eastern wild gods too. The Devil's Eye has probably killed or corrupted the western wild gods. Come to think of it, I think Rough Avalanche showed up as an enemy in the game too."
"Rough Avalanche did?"
"Yeah, remember the undead bear that appeared in the middle of Act 2? The one with the crazy knockback attack."
"Uh...... Ah! I remember. Right. Now that I think about it, it does seem a bit similar."
As Yuder said, the bear had appeared literally half-rotted because it was undead, but the more Cordelia thought about it, the more it seemed like Rough Avalanche.
"To oppose the corrupted wild gods, we need wild gods on our side too. Even more so because we have to face the Devil's Eye."
"Mm... definitely. Mid-grade Demonic Humans are already a handful. If a high-grade one shows up, we're screwed."
With Yuder and Cordelia's current strength, repelling a high-grade Demonic Human was close to impossible.
So they needed to bring people capable of fighting them over to their side.
'Of course, the best thing would be for me and Cordelia to just get stronger.'
Yuder and Cordelia had already gained quite a few levels since first entering the Wild Lands.
Moreover, both Yuder and Cordelia still had plenty of room to grow.
'The Nine Heavens Nine Gates is still only at the second gate. And... if we meet Lena and get angel's blood, we can trigger Cordelia's Ancestral Regression.'
Then the long-awaited Cordelia fallen angel mode would become possible.
'I'm looking forward to it.'
Yuder briefly imagined Cordelia after awakening as a fallen angel, and Cordelia smacked him on the back.
"Ow! Why?"
"No reason. You just looked like you were having some dirty thought."
"You and your intuition, seriously."
"What? You really were having a dirty thought?"
Instead of answering, Yuder changed the subject.
"Red Gale is a powerful warrior and also a shaman. If we can do something about the curse, he'll be able to face Seven Horns."
"Nice subject change."
Cordelia shot Yuder a sharp glare, but it lasted only a moment. She soon went along with the new topic.
"There must be strong warriors and chieftains among the other tribes too, right?"
"There should be. Some of the wild gods must specialize in combat too."
"And Lena."
"Right, Lena."
One of the five protagonists of Hero Legend 1.
She was probably not quite on the level of Landius or Kamael, who had already transcended humanity, but her power should still have been immense.
"Ugh...... if only I knew where she was right now, I'd run straight there."
Cordelia's shoulders drooped as she spoke, and Yuder nodded in agreement.
"There were still many mysteries surrounding Lena's death in the game."
In Hero Legend 2, Lena's death was shown in a cinematic cutscene.
The problem was that it was not tied to the protagonist's story progression. The cutscene simply triggered once a certain point in time arrived.
'That's why we only know the place and time.'
Even the location itself was unclear, but countless veteran Hero Legend 2 players had estimated it from the scenery shown in the cutscene.
'Bladebeak Canyon.'
That was where Lena was supposed to die.
So they had to get there first and prevent Lena's death.
"Bladebeak Canyon is in the northeast of the Wild Lands, right?"
"Yeah, it's also close to the Argon Empire."
Kirara, one of the playable characters from the Wild Lands, fled to the Argon Empire under cover of night early in the game, and her route passed through Bladebeak Canyon.
"Hmm... it's not as if we're out of time, but the schedule feels surprisingly tight."
"We have no choice but to leave building the eastern alliance to Red Gale and Rough Avalanche. Of course, we can season the eastern tribes we meet on the way to our destination."
"Not medicine?"
"Same thing."
"Hmph, con artist."
She stuck out her tongue, but her eyes were smiling. It was only natural; by now she had become quite good at playing along with Yuder's scams.
'She's fallen, all right. She hasn't even become a fallen angel yet, and she's already corrupt.'
But for some reason, Yuder felt proud.
"Anyway, if you're done eating, let's wash up and get some sleep."
"I want a bath, a bath."
The idea of making their own hot spring just to take a bath was still a bit much.
So Cordelia cleaned at least her face and neck with water made from melted snow, then lay down.
"Haa, today was rough too."
"Rest well."
"Yeah, you too."
That was all. Cordelia fell into a deep sleep almost immediately, and after an admiring chuckle, Yuder pulled the tarp over the opening as a lid.
* * *
The next morning.
Yuder and Cordelia set out early and followed Rough Avalanche's map northeast toward the sanctuary of Gentle Snow Breeze.
With snowfields in every direction, Cordelia couldn't tell where was where, but there was no hesitation in her steps.
Because the all-purpose Yuder Wiki was beside her.
"Yuder Wiki, we're going the right way, right?"
"Yeah, we are."
Yuder had already packed a compass when they first left home.
While Rough Avalanche wandered the wilderness, Yuder and Cordelia kept steadily to the right course.
And so another day passed.
By around noon on the third day, the sanctuary of Gentle Snow Breeze came into view.
* * *
The sanctuary of Gentle Snow Breeze lay inside a large basin, though even without the basin it would have been easy to recognize.
Simply reaching the area had changed the surrounding environment.
"It's not a snowfield."
It had been a snowfield only moments earlier, yet beyond what looked like an invisible boundary, the snow vanished. The air was chilly, but no colder than autumn weather.
It was nothing like the other extreme regions, which had been harsh enough to evoke Frost Anvil.
'Is this the power of a wild god?'
The reason the barbarian tribes could survive even in the Wild Lands.
The wide field was full of green vegetation. Here, it seemed possible not only to raise livestock but also to farm.
Cordelia stared blankly at the sudden change in scenery for a moment, then abruptly raised her head.
"They're fighting."
It was as she said.
From the top of a low hill, they could see the entrance to the basin beyond the broad field.
Several hundred people, at a rough count, were fighting on opposite sides of a wall.
Without a word, Yuder and Cordelia both crouched low and assessed the battlefield.
Warriors in horned helmets were attacking the wall alongside monsters, and the attackers appeared to outnumber the defenders by at least three to one.
"They won't hold out long."
As Cordelia said, the defenders were holding out fairly well, but it was obvious they were struggling.
Had they arrived even an hour later, the wall would already have fallen.
But what could they do?
Were the two of them supposed to charge several hundred soldiers by themselves?
"I have an idea."
Yuder spoke, and a smile spread across Cordelia's face.
* * *
Madga, a mid-grade Demonic Human of the Devil's Eye, gazed at the battlefield with cold eyes.
The warriors of the Angry Rhino Tribe were launching a fierce assault alongside monsters summoned from hell.
Thanks to the Spear of Corruption, a secret treasure of Belial that Haragen had given her, Gentle Snow Breeze could not use her power properly.
The Spear of Corruption had been driven into the Dragon Vein, suppressing Gentle Snow Breeze's holy power.
Of course, Madga's side could not offer the warriors much direct support either, since they were pouring all their power into the Spear of Corruption. But they had never needed to.
The tribe serving Gentle Snow Breeze was small. Every one of its warriors was formidable, but the Angry Rhino Tribe gathered some of the strongest warriors in all the Wild Lands.
They had also been strengthened by Belial's power and outnumbered the Gentle Snow Breeze Tribe three to one. The defenders had no way to withstand them.
'It's only a matter of time.'
They had held out well so far, but now it was over.
They would smash the wall, annihilate Gentle Snow Breeze's tribe, and capture the wild god.
"Smash it! Kill them! Destroy everything!"
Wearing a beast skull over her head in place of a helmet, Madga shouted with power in her voice.
Her shaman's body was covered in patterns painted in many colors, and wicked power surged from the skull staff in her hand.
Madga closed her eyes and smiled.
She savored the situation itself as though tasting a delicacy.
'I'm nothing like that fool Zaracul.'
Apparently, Zaracul had failed to capture Rough Avalanche even though the wild god did not have a single tribe serving him.
What an idiot.
But she didn't dislike it.
Zaracul was already dead, and thanks to his catastrophic failure, Madga had been given another chance to earn merit for herself.
'The day I become a high-grade Demonic Human is not far off.'
All the Demonic Humans of the Devil's Eye shared the same goal.
They wanted to draw closer to Belial.
Once she became a high-grade Demonic Human, the path to becoming a Demon Prince, a high-grade demon, would open to her as well.
Madga smiled as she imagined a future that was still distant, but that she was determined to seize.
Then screams erupted from the Angry Rhino Tribe.
"What?!"
"Lady Madga!"
At the warriors' alarmed cries, Madga snapped her eyes open. Nothing appeared to have changed at the front.
The wall was still on the verge of collapse, and the warriors of the Gentle Snow Breeze Tribe were still drenched in blood.
And yet, something had changed.
Neither the attackers nor the defenders were fighting anymore. Everyone wore the same blank expression and stared in the same direction.
They were all looking in one direction.
Madga turned to follow their gaze. And there it was.
"This is insane."
A raging tide of flame was advancing as though it meant to burn the entire field.
A huge, roaring wildfire was bearing down on them from behind.