Ending Maker Chapter 97
Ending Maker Chapter 97
Chapter 33 - Phoenix #4
Tap—
Thanks to the splendid golden whirlwind, Yuder landed almost as lightly as a feather and set Cordelia down. A moment later, Red Wind landed with a thud.
"Be careful. The moment we cross that line, the attacks will begin."
Cordelia spoke in a low voice and immediately lit a magical light, driving away the darkness.
"Indeed, this is High Elf architecture. So the nameless spirit warrior was a High Elf after all."
Yuder and Cordelia paid little attention to Rough Avalanche and looked farther inside.
At the end of the straight corridor inside the sealed area, they could see the stone egg containing the phoenix.
"Ready?"
"I'm ready."
"Red Wind?"
"I'm ready too."
"Good, then let's move out."
"Aren't you going to ask me?"
The rapid roll call ended with Rough Avalanche’s voice.
Yuder simply kept his eyes forward, but kindhearted Cordelia answered for Rough Avalanche’s sake.
"Rough Avalanche, you're ready too, right?"
"I am."
"Great, then let's move out."
When Cordelia tapped Yuder's back, Yuder nodded.
Yuder recalled the dungeon from the original game.
'A series of brutish traps.'
Perhaps because it was a phoenix seal, the dungeon was built around a relentless sequence of devastating flame attacks.
But as long as they knew where each attack would come from and how it worked, they could deal with it.
"Formation ready. Move out!"
Boom!
Yuder kicked off the ground and took the lead.
In an instant, a barrage of flames poured down from above his head, but Yuder did not hesitate and raised his right hand high.
He raised a shield with Count Chase’s ring, blocked the flames, and crossed the entire fire zone in less than a second.
"O cold frost!"
Cordelia ran right behind him. Fully equipped for the ice attribute, she could shrug off ordinary flames without taking damage.
Yuder had already blunted the flames’ momentum, and Cordelia pushed the rest aside with ice magic, passing through just as easily.
"Raaah!"
Rough Avalanche simply charged through, and Red Wind did the same. With a full fire-attribute setup, Red Wind was resistant to flames in an entirely different way from Cordelia.
"Keep going!"
"Coming!"
This time Cordelia took the lead.
She projected ice-imbued telekinesis to both sides and stopped the flame barrage before it could even form. Yuder moved up beside her and raised a shield against the surprise flames that slipped through.
"Raaah!"
Rough Avalanche again simply ran, and Red Wind was not much different.
They did that five times.
At last, Yuder and Cordelia cleared the entire trap zone. They exchanged a glance and moved immediately.
"O sword of Calamite!"
It was a sword-form version of the Spear of Calamite that she normally used.
Gripping the jet-black flame sword, Cordelia slashed wildly at the magic circle drawn on the floor, destroying the seal itself.
CRACKLE—!
Sparks burst from the ground and magical energy sprayed in every direction. Red Wind caught her breath, then swung the blessed club in her hands and smashed it into the stone egg.
BOOM!
Lightning struck.
The stone egg shattered with a thunderclap. At that instant, an enormous roar shook the entire sealed area.
"SKREEEE—!"
It was the phoenix’s roar, like a rooster’s crow heralding the dawn.
Flames filled their vision until everything before them glowed yellow.
The heat felt hot enough to melt their bodies.
"Raaah!"
At that exact moment, Rough Avalanche sprang into the air. Yuder caught him and shoved him into the position they had calculated in advance.
WHOOOM—!
The surging wave of fire—or more precisely, the flame barrage just beginning to erupt—slammed into Rough Avalanche.
Though weakened, he was still a Wild God.
And not just any Wild God, but Rough Avalanche, the Wild God of avalanches who had once ruled a rocky mountain.
Rough Avalanche stopped the flames with his powerful cold. The lethal fire released by the awakening phoenix was canceled out and died away.
"Gaaah!"
Yuder quickly pulled back Rough Avalanche, who let out a cry that was not quite a scream, then snapped his head up.
The awakened phoenix beat its wings hard and shot toward the exit.
"Hurry!"
"Combine!"
Cordelia came pattering over and latched onto him. Yuder scooped her up and sprinted after the phoenix, while Red Wind picked up the dazed Rough Avalanche and followed.
Immediately afterward,
"SKREE!"
The phoenix screamed just as it was about to escape the sealed area.
The ice magic circle prepared by the Great Storm Tribe’s shamans outside had caught it.
"Okay!"
In the original game, Red Wind had been forced to face the phoenix alone. This time, she was not alone.
And that made a different strategy possible.
A quick and easy strategy that could never have been attempted in the original game.
"Hah!"
Yuder kicked off the wall and shot upward through the opening. Still carrying Cordelia, he rolled once on landing and sprang back to his feet.
"ROOOAR!"
The phoenix roared in fury and charged straight at Frostwind, the Great Storm Tribe’s grand shaman.
Everything was proceeding exactly as expected—exactly as planned.
"Cordelia!"
"Okay!"
WHOOOM—!
The spell cast by Frostwind and the other shamans stopped the phoenix.
The phoenix had been about to dive at Frostwind like a hawk snatching prey, but the spell pinned it to the ground for a moment. Cordelia seized that opening.
"Freeze!"
A simple ice-binding spell.
But what mattered was that the caster was Cordelia.
'Double casting! And Echo of Spells on top of that!'
One spell instantly became four.
On top of that, Cordelia added the power she had gained upon reaching level 60.
"Freeze! Freeze! Freeze!"
Rapid Chanting.
A mage-exclusive skill that allowed spells to be cast repeatedly at high speed.
Because Freeze was a relatively simple spell, she could cast it four times in a row even though her mastery of Rapid Chanting was still low.
And since Double Casting and Echo of Spells applied to all of them—
"Guaaa!"
The phoenix screamed in pain, and then something remarkable happened: its entire body began to freeze.
"Freeze 16-hit combo!"
Yuder shouted, and Cordelia's nose began to bleed.
She had cast far too many spells in a single instant.
But Cordelia did not falter and swallowed a potion. Yuder ran forward and tore through the magic circles he had drawn all night, one after another.
"Magic Fixation! Magic Resistance Reduction!"
The magic extended the duration of spells already in effect while lowering the enemy’s magic resistance.
The phoenix was a fire spirit whose entire body was made of flame. Keeping it frozen required them to push themselves hard as well.
"Good! Here comes the barrage!"
Cordelia wiped her lips and the blood beneath her nose, then shouted confidently and unleashed another 16-hit barrage of Freeze.
The already-frozen phoenix was frozen even more solidly.
"Gaaah!"
Even amid all this, the phoenix kept screaming.
Rather, it was still able to scream.
Yuder and Cordelia had deliberately adjusted the magic so that the phoenix’s head would remain unfrozen.
Then why?
Why had they left the head alone?
"Red Wind!"
"Head! Head! Head! Head!"
Cordelia shouted to Red Wind, who had finally emerged from the opening with Rough Avalanche. Red Wind immediately responded.
Just as she had practiced the day before, Red Wind yelled “Head!” over and over and swung her blessed club.
"Ack! Ack! Ack!"
As an incorporeal flame spirit, the phoenix was immune to most physical attacks. Red Wind’s attacks were an exception.
The club had been blessed by three Wild Gods—Rough Avalanche, Gentle Snow Breeze, and Great Storm—and could strike the phoenix’s spirit body directly.
"Head! Head! Head! Head!"
Red Wind frantically hammered the head of the frozen, immobilized phoenix.
The phoenix screamed and tried to break the ice, but it was futile. Yuder and Cordelia would not allow it.
"Freeze 16-hit combo!"
"Magic Fixation! Magic Resistance Reduction!"
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Whenever the ice seemed about to crack, cold surged in again.
With its magic resistance reduced, Red Wind’s blows struck even harder.
"Gaaah! Agh!"
"Heaaad!"
Red Wind did not stop. Sweat poured off her as she unleashed blow after blow, while Yuder mentally calculated the phoenix’s HP, Red Wind’s attack power, and the total number of hits they would need.
"Just 50 more hits!"
"Eek?!"
The phoenix was the one that swallowed a scream at Yuder’s shout.
50 more hits.
A whole 50 more.
"SKREEEE!"
When the phoenix screamed loudly, Cordelia looked back at Rough Avalanche.
Cordelia shot Rough Avalanche a look asking for a translation. He understood immediately and said,
"It says it would rather you kill it in one clean blow."
"I see."
But that was impossible.
Red Wind did not yet have that capability.
All she could do was keep hitting it until she reached 50.
"Tsk, tsk. Of all the people to get caught by..."
Clicking his tongue, Rough Avalanche offered a silent prayer for the still-living phoenix.
And in the midst of that, Yuder turned to Cordelia and asked.
"Can you do it one more time?"
"I'll try!"
Cordelia’s vision was actually swimming, but she forced herself to sound energetic and began chanting Freeze again.
It might have looked like they had everything under control, but they absolutely did not.
They were only barely holding the phoenix in place with the magic circle the Great Storm Tribe’s shamans had created together. The slightest lapse would let it smash through the ice and escape.
"Red Wind! Hurry!"
As Cordelia had said, this was the last time she could chain-cast Freeze.
At Yuder's urging, Red Wind let out another battle cry and swung her club.
"Heaaad!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Red Wind climbed onto the phoenix’s back and unleashed a three-hit combo. Then she suddenly flinched and leaped away.
She had felt a distinctive impact through the club when the final blow landed.
"Good! The 50 hits are done!"
Yuder shouted while supporting the staggering Cordelia, and then Cordelia saw it.
FWOOSH—!
The ice sealing the phoenix melted away.
And the phoenix's flames also died down.
But only for a moment.
A tiny flame bloomed in midair. It began yellow, shifted through blue, then turned red again before swelling into a new bird of flame.
"Aaaah!"
It was a clear, pure voice.
Just as in the original story, the wicked phoenix had died and a new, pure baby phoenix had been born.
"Wow......."
Red Wind let her club hang and let out a gasp of admiration, and the Great Storm tribe shamans did the same.
Yuder and Cordelia, however, remained tense and swallowed nervously.
In a way, this moment mattered even more than defeating the phoenix.
'Make Red Wind its master!'
Just as Yuder shouted inwardly, the phoenix beat its wings in midair and looked over everyone on the ground.
"Oh, we made eye contact."
The moment Cordelia said that, the baby phoenix shuddered and flew straight toward Red Wind. It almost looked as though it were fleeing from Cordelia.
"Hmm, so it's saying she's the better option. An excellent choice."
Cordelia furrowed her brow at Rough Avalanche’s commentary, but soon broke into a bright smile at the sight of the phoenix perched on Red Wind’s shoulder.
"Looks like it worked."
The newly born phoenix had acknowledged Red Wind as its master.
Red Wind cautiously held out a hand. The newly born phoenix was still small—only a little larger than a pigeon—and stepped onto her hand in response.
What that meant.
"Will you be with me?"
Red Wind asked in the language of the Wild Lands. The phoenix nodded, then rubbed its head against her cheek as though sealing a contract.
"Hehehe. It's a phoenix! A phoenix!"
Red Wind beamed at Yuder and Cordelia. The two sighed in relief, then smiled as if on cue.
"We pulled it off."
"We did. And we got something out of it too."
"Huh? Something?"
What could he mean? The phoenix had become Red Wind's.
When Cordelia tilted her head, Yuder grinned and took out the thing he had grabbed while exiting the seal.
A golden feather tinged with red energy.
An artifact imbued not only with powerful flame energy but also with the power of regeneration.
"A phoenix feather."
And from a phoenix over a thousand years old, at that.
"Oooh."
When Cordelia marveled like a child, Yuder grinned and tucked the feather he had taken out into her hair.
He smiled brightly and said.
"You like it, right?"
"Yeah! I love it!"
Cordelia answered immediately, laughed "hehehe" just like Red Wind, then straightened her posture again and said.
"Good. Six days left. The moment we get back, we start special training."
Because getting the phoenix alone was not the end of it.
From now on, in the remaining time, Red Wind had to engrave into both her head and her body not only how to handle the phoenix but also how to fight Sun Song.
Yuder nodded and said.
"Right, and you practice in your spare time too."
"Ughhh......."
Practice.
Cordelia's face crumpled into a mess, and Yuder, smiling contentedly, gave thanks to Gale and Adelia.
