Ending Maker Chapter 88
Ending Maker Chapter 88
Chapter 30 - The Crazy Couple
The Day of Destruction.
The final day of Magic City Endymion, the capital of the Magic Kingdom of Magellan, which had not fallen even in a head-on battle against a mighty Demon Prince of Hell.
RUMBLE—!
At first, it was a tremor.
Soon an immense roar rang out, and the surrounding area—no, the entire underground—shook.
CRACK! CRACK!
This was no ordinary earthquake.
The ground tore apart into dozens, hundreds of fissures. Massive cracks spread, toppling the beautiful, elegant buildings erected long ago by the High Elves.
CRASH—! CRASH—!
Over a hundred buildings collapsed like dominoes.
The rumbling of the ground did not stop—it only grew louder, and countless pieces of debris began pouring down from the ceiling.
The Dragon Vein.
The great flow of power running beneath the Wild Lands.
The source of the Wild Gods' power, and a mighty force of the stars.
A portion of it had run wild.
The very Dragon Vein that the High Elves of old had used as the city's energy source had been stimulated by the Spear of Calamity and exploded.
BOOM!
Flames shot up through the torn ground.
And then there was light.
A terrifying force surged up to the ceiling, destroying everything in its path.
All of this took only a few seconds.
"AAAAAH!"
"ROOOAR!"
"SKREEE!"
The monsters of Hell screamed, each and every one.
Even Bandaisel could only flounder in the terrifying natural disaster, unable to look back at Yuder and Cordelia.
But Yuder was different.
His eyes flew open, and he grabbed Cordelia by both shoulders and shouted.
"Hey! You're insane!"
It was an emergency—a truly, incredibly perilous crisis—but he still couldn't help saying it.
And Cordelia shot back at Yuder.
"You said you trusted me!"
"Fuck! Trusting you is one thing!"
"Gasp! You cursed! How mean!"
"You do it all the time!"
That was as far as it went.
There was no more time to argue.
The floor shook beyond its limit and began to cave in, and the ceiling was collapsing too.
Debris that crashed into the floor shattered and scattered in every direction.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
"Fuck."
Yuder said it again.
It wasn't an exclamation—it came from the heart—but Cordelia paid it no mind. She suddenly threw her arms around Yuder and shouted.
"I trust you too!"
And what she activated was a barrier.
She mustered all the power left over from creating the Spear of Calamity and activated the Count Chase ring, and a translucent blue shield enveloped the two of them in their embrace.
"Fuuuck."
Yuder let out another curse, then scooped Cordelia up.
After carrying her in what was called a princess carry, he looked up at the ceiling.
"I'll trust you."
Cordelia's voice came softly through the roar. Instead of answering, Yuder immediately leaped.
He had no idea what kind of insane stunt this was, but if he didn't do it, they would die.
"RAAAAH!"
He kicked off the collapsing floor and leaped upward.
He spotted the falling debris and calculated a path in an instant.
Yuder held his breath.
He soared upward, whipping up a whirlwind and a gale!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The roar continued as if his ears would go deaf.
Amid it all, Yuder kept shouting. He kicked off the falling debris and climbed higher and higher.
THUD!
A piece of debris struck the shield.
Thanks to the shield, they weren't injured, but the impact sent the ascending Yuder plummeting.
But only for a moment.
Yuder spun his body in midair and stirred up a fierce wind, and his fall halted, if only briefly.
Cordelia, who had her arms around Yuder's neck, used Fly magic to give Yuder another burst of momentum.
"Let's gooo!"
Cordelia shouted, and Yuder spun his body again.
He became a whirlwind and broke through the debris.
CRASH—!
The whirlwind blew the debris away.
The smaller debris was pushed aside by the shield.
Just a little higher.
Dodging the debris,
avoiding the collapsing ceiling—
CRASH!
It was too much.
This time, the falling ceiling debris was too large.
It seemed to cover the entire sky.
But Yuder did not give up.
He tightened his arms around Cordelia and shouted.
"Cordelia!"
"Okay!"
Yuder released the shield.
Cordelia scraped together her last reserves and hurled the Spear of Calamity toward the sky.
"Spiral!"
The spinning Spear of Calamity pierced the ceiling. It didn't completely shatter it, but it succeeded in punching a hole through.
Yuder charged through that gap.
He passed through a hole that looked to be two meters in diameter, did a somersault, and used a large piece of ceiling debris as a foothold to leap once more.
"HAAAH!"
"It's the sky!"
Cordelia was right.
A piercingly blue sky welcomed Yuder and Cordelia.
The sunlight pouring down through the shattered ruins was so beautiful.
But that was the sight of the sky.
Yuder, who had soared high, looked down at the ground and found himself apologizing to countless people.
A massive crater hundreds of meters in diameter had formed.
On the sunken ground, debris shattered into hundreds, thousands of pieces lay piled in a chaotic mess.
"Crazy."
"Teehee."
The last one was Cordelia. She had an awkward expression, as if even she had some shame, but she still stuck her tongue out slightly.
And then they landed on the surface.
Yuder looked at Cordelia with a face full of mixed emotions, and Cordelia pursed her lips once before trying to make some excuse.
But it wasn't over yet.
RUMBLE—
At first, it was fairly quiet.
RRRUMBLE—!
But it gradually grew louder.
This was not a sound coming from the already-collapsed underground city.
The cracks were spreading even wider.
As if intent on collapsing not just the central underground city but all of Endymion, the cracks spread and finally began climbing up Bladebeak Canyon.
"Uh..."
The moment Cordelia spoke blankly.
RUMBLE!
The second great collapse began.
Part of Bladebeak Canyon crumbled, triggering an avalanche, and chain explosions and collapses followed one after another across an area spanning not just hundreds of meters but several kilometers.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Surprisingly, the roar itself lasted only a short time.
Because everything shattered all at once.
RRRUMBLE—
The last sound came from afar.
Then an unbelievable silence followed.
The canyon surrounding Endymion had half-collapsed, changing the direction of the wind, and the incoming wind slapped against Yuder and Cordelia.
And then a few more seconds.
Yuder set Cordelia down on the ground, and Cordelia, now standing on her own two feet, hesitated for a moment before smiling awkwardly and drawing a V with her fingers.
"P-problem solved!"
Anyway, they had closed the Hell Gate.
They had achieved their objective.
Yuder stared at Cordelia quietly, then took action.
He raised both hands and pinched Cordelia's cheeks.
"Problem solved? Problem solved? Problem sholved?"
He stretched her soft cheeks sideways, and Cordelia, who was even tearing up without realizing it, immediately launched a counterattack.
"It waz sholved!"
With a strange pronunciation, Cordelia pinched Yuder's cheeks the same way.
"Sholved? Thiz iz sholved?!"
"It hurtz! It hurtz! Shtop!"
When Yuder put more strength into his hands, Cordelia cried out as if she were about to cry, but this was a serious matter.
When Yuder didn't let go, Cordelia pinched Yuder even harder.
"Let go now!"
"You let go firsht!"
It was the moment when they were pinching each other's cheeks and continuing their mutually assured destruction.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Rings of white light appeared in succession around Yuder's and Cordelia's chests.
They came so fast that it was hard to count, but even a rough estimate suggested there were close to ten.
"Level up! Level up! Thanks to me!"
Because they had wiped out every last monster of Hell that had invaded Endymion.
Since it was an indirect defeat rather than a direct one, the experience was reduced, but the sheer number meant they had no choice but to level up a whole lot.
"Let go now! Now!"
"Tch."
At Cordelia's insistence, Yuder clicked his tongue and let go first.
Then Cordelia immediately took her hands off Yuder's cheeks too—not so much to keep her word as to cover her own cheeks.
"Ugh! It really hurts. You're so mean. You were bad."
The sight of a beautiful girl covering her reddened cheeks and on the verge of tears was enough to make Yuder look like the worst villain in the world, but the only people here were Yuder and Cordelia.
Yuder narrowed his eyes and said.
"Put your hand on your heart and think about it."
"Sob sob. You said you trusted me."
Cordelia was pretending to cry again when—
CRASH!
With a roar, Lena burst through the debris and revealed herself.
And she wasn't alone. Kaplan and the Bellagio Luke also poked their heads above ground, though they looked half-dead.
"Yuder? Cordelia?"
"Lena! I'm so glad you're safe!"
Cordelia immediately scurried over to Lena and shouted, and Yuder let out a sigh before stepping forward.
Lena was one thing, but he was also worried about Kaplan and the Bellagio Luke.
And then, a few steps later.
What Yuder expected happened.
"E-Endymion! The capital of the Magic Kingdom of Magellan, Endymion...!"
Kaplan was an archaeologist, and he knew the value of Endymion better than anyone else here.
"Urgh... ngh..."
Kaplan, who had been staggering while clutching the back of his neck, collapsed foaming at the mouth, and Yuder understood him.
An ancient ruin that had preserved its appearance for over a thousand years—a city of the High Elves that had survived even a battle against a mighty Demon Prince—had been destroyed in an instant to the point where its traces were hard to find. It was truly a tragedy—no, a catastrophe.
"Pant, pant. Woof, woof!"
The Bellagio Luke licked the unconscious Kaplan's cheek and barked.
Unlike Cordelia, Yuder couldn't understand beast speech, but it seemed to be saying that Kaplan was roughly all right.
And amid all this, Cordelia, who had thrown her arms around Lena, smiled brightly and asked.
"Lena! The Hell Gate is gone, right?"
"Huh? Uh... yes. It should be gone. Probably... no, definitely..."
Because it was no exaggeration to say that Endymion itself had vanished.
Lena's face as she stared blankly at the surrounding area after the great destruction was that of someone who had lost her wits, but Cordelia was satisfied with the answer itself.
She turned toward Yuder, drew a V again, and smiled brightly.
"As expected, problem solved! Abut?!"
The strange sound at the end was because Yuder had pinched Cordelia's cheek again.
"It hurtz!"
"I'm pinching you so it hurts."
Actually, this time there was a slightly different feeling mixed in.
'So soft.'
And the way she resisted when pinched was cute too.
Yuder was indulging in a bit of self-interest while punishing Cordelia when—
"AAAAAAH!"
A terrifying roar came from afar.
No, it was clearly a furious bellow.
BOOM!
A massive demon burst through the debris and soared into the air.
Bandaisel.
The one who ruled the Lactos shot up through the pile of debris and spread its enormous bat-like wings wide.
As expected of a demon with an epithet.
It had survived even as the other monsters of Hell were annihilated.
"Bandaisel..."
Tension spread across Lena's face.
But not for Yuder and Cordelia.
Cordelia rolled her eyes with her cheek still pinched, and Yuder obediently released Cordelia's cheek before turning around as well.
Bandaisel.
A demon raging madly and releasing power recklessly.
"It's covered in blood."
"It's badly hurt."
"It's bleeding from the head."
"If you look closely, one of its horns is a bit broken too."
Bandaisel, being so large, had not found it easy to dodge the debris.
From the looks of it, Bandaisel had even been buried under the debris and nearly entombed alive.
"Hey, Yuder. Haven't we seen this situation before?"
"We have."
"Right? It's exactly the same as back then, isn't it?"
A stage boss half-dead because the stage itself had been wiped out.
Smiles spread across Yuder's and Cordelia's faces.
And then, from afar, Bandaisel finally spotted Yuder and Cordelia and let out another bellow.
"AAAAH! What color is your blood?!"
To collapse the city itself.
If the ancient High Elves knew of this, they would weep tears of blood!
But Yuder and Cordelia were no longer thinking along those lines.
Cordelia's eyes sparkled as she said.
"That's the same too."
"Guess they teach dialogue in Hell."
"Right? They should add some new patterns."
Yuder and Cordelia, who had been spouting nonsense as always, rummaged at each other's waists as if on cue, then each pulled out a potion bottle.
And then gulped them down.
Bandaisel let out another bellow.
Lena looked back and forth between Yuder, Cordelia, and Bandaisel with a face full of tension and bewilderment, and Yuder and Cordelia, who had emptied their potion bottles in one go, turned around at the same time.
As if on cue, they tossed their potion bottles at the same moment, stepped forward, and said.
"Shall we start the boss fight?"
"This time it's not Phase 3... it's about Phase 2."
Because Bandaisel's condition was better than the mid-level Demonic Human they had faced before.
Even battered, it was still a demon with an epithet, as the saying went.
But Cordelia wasn't worried.
She flashed her fangs and said.
"It's fine. We have Lena."
"Should we get carried?"
"It's about time we did."
Lena, who was supposed to carry them, blinked in confusion at that moment.
Yuder and Cordelia turned to each other again. They exchanged glances, and without either being first, they kicked off the ground at the same time.