Chapter 117: Holy Angel (1) (1/2)
Hell Gate.
It wasn’t something unfamiliar to them.
The chances of seeing the Hell Gate in the Legend of Heroes series were surprisingly numerous.
But the timing was wrong.
Only one gate appeared in the first episode of Legend of Heroes.
Demon Prince Baikazel, the final boss who caused the tragedy of the Paragon Kingdom.
The last battle in the first episode involved defeating him and closing the Hell Gate he opened.
‘The next one was in the middle of the second episode.’
Opening the Hell Gate on this world was by no means ordinary.
In addition to numerous offerings, a catalyst was needed in order to open the Hell Gate.
‘Catalyst.’
Things that came together with the overlords of hell when they descended on this world in the past.
The catalysts varied in form and were different from each other, but they were not common.
Even in large organizations like the Devil’s Hand or Devil’s Eye, there were only one to two catalysts that could open the Hell Gate.
‘Lena’s situation was different.’
The Hell Gate that opened in Endymion was not summoned in the usual way.
A link had formed when Lena escaped from hell and returned to this world.
Therefore, it differed from the usual Hell Gate in several ways.
The Hell Gate was opened in the opposite way – from hell to this world and not from this world to hell, so the Hell Gate remained open because it could replenish its power from hell without any additional support (sacrifices).
‘But that’s not it. He didn’t do that.’
Jude stared at the altar once again.
He interpreted the disassembled magic circle in his head.
It was the usual Hell Gate. It was like the one he saw several times in Legend of Heroes 2.
‘It can’t be kept open for a long time.’
It needed power to maintain the Hell Gate.
If the Hell Gate was opened on Snow Breeze Plain as Jude had thought, there would be no other means to maintain it other than through sacrificial offerings.
‘About a week at most.’
There would naturally be some miscalculation because he inferred it from the various events in the game, but the difference wouldn’t be that great.
‘Did I go too far? No, did he turn the board upside down?’
T/N: The ‘board’ here refers to a game board, like a chessboard. Basically, Jude and Haraken are playing a game of ‘chess’ and Haraken’s plans are losing to Jude’s strategy, so he flipped/turned the board upside down. I explained it here because the word ‘board’ gets mentioned several times later in this chapter.
There were few opportunities to summon the Hell Gate.
In the game, instead of summoning the Hell Gate, Haraken corrupted the wild gods and took control of the barbarians before attacking the northern part of the kingdom because it was much more efficient.
‘He opened the Hell Gate after destroying the northern part and attacking the royal capital.’
Which would be more effective – opening the Hell Gate in the wild lands or opening it in the royal capital of the Sälen Kingdom?
He didn’t even have to think about the answer.
It was definitely the latter.
To begin with, he had no information if Haraken had a catalyst.
But it made sense.
Even Jude himself wouldn’t waste the catalyst in that way.
The best way was to summon the Hell Gate in a key place after subduing the wild lands, the barbarians, and the northern part of the Sälen Kingdom.
‘But he didn’t do that.’
Because Jude himself had obviously interfered with Haraken’s plans every time.
Compared to the game, Haraken was currently in a very bad situation.
But summoning the Hell Gate was excessive.
This was almost a desperate move on Haraken’s side.
It meant that he gave up most of the power in the wild lands that he had secured.
‘Why?’
Wasn’t it better to have the western and eastern forces fight?
Why did Haraken give up the fight?
There was a reason.
An incident that changed Haraken’s mind that Jude didn’t know about yet.
Gaël and Adelia.
Count Chase.
The three annihilated the infiltrators who were trying to infiltrate the east via the south.
It made Haraken think that there was no other way to do anything except for a head-on battle, so Haraken made a decision.
If he failed in whatever he planned, then he would do something that he wouldn’t fail in.
He would do something that his enemies couldn’t stop.
Because that was better than a complete failure.
That was the time he turned the board upside down.
The power of the wild lands had already been cut in half. In his situation, even if the eastern forces were defeated in the head-on battle, the damage would be too great. He wouldn’t be able to properly carry out his original plan with just half of the power.
So he flipped the board.
He created a new board.
But Jude didn’t know about that even if he was a rotten water.
Therefore, Jude stopped worrying about it.
He needed information first.
Their present location was not a good place to keep thinking about it.
“Cordelia.”
Cordelia immediately responded to Jude’s call.
She also had a stiff face as she was worried about it in her own way.
“Let’s move for now.”
“Yes!”
She had to brighten up at times like this.
Cordelia energetically responded on purpose and took the lead.
He didn’t tell her where their destination was, but there was only one place to go in this situation.
‘The underground passage left by the high elves of Magellan.’
Melissa gave them information that was not available in the game.
Magellan, the magic kingdom.
The elves in Pleiades were commonly thought of as mostly living in forests and mountains.
Even the dark elves refused to live underground unless they had no choice.
However, the high elves of Magellan built a city underground.
Most of the facilities were built under the mountains or under the ground as if they were dwarves.
‘It’s because of the dragon vein.’
Magellan’s high elves discovered an unknown power under the ground.
They researched and studied on how to somehow use that great stream, and as a result, they set up a livable base underground that was close to the dragon vein.
‘An infrastructure across the wild lands.’
The high elves built the infrastructure along the dragon vein stream.
In addition, several facilities were installed to use the power of the dragon vein.
The facility in the Sky Roof mountain range was one of those.
‘The dragon vein was different from what it was.’
It was much thinner and was blocked everywhere.
But Magellan’s high elves resolved that.
They smoothened the flow of the dragon vein, and relay facilities were built throughout the wild lands to strengthen its flow.
‘And that’s how the current dragon vein was made.’
And as Jude had expected…
“Jude.”
Jude came to his senses at Cordelia’s call again.
The two had gone back to the underground passage.
Jude took a deep breath.
And he thought again.
‘The gate is open.’
That was clear, apart from the others he thought of.
Cordelia’s intuition and the ritual altar guarded by Garammaru also informed him of this fact.
What should we do now?
Should we break the western dragon veins as planned?
‘We don’t have enough time.’
The reasons for opening the Hell Gate in the game all led to one answer.
To call out a mighty being to this world who couldn’t be summoned in the usual way.
Haraken went overboard.
He opened the Hell Gate using several catalysts from the Devil’s Eye.
If so, he wouldn’t be satisfied with someone on the level of Kriemler.
He would try to call someone higher than Kriemler to this world.
How many days would that take?
If he calculated the time required compared to the other events in the game…
‘Five days at most.’
If it was short, three to four days.
Then, it was impossible for them.
Even if they used the high elves’ tunnels that they had opened, they wouldn’t be able to make it.
The wild lands was too wide for them.
‘Town Portal.’
A space-leaping door that was used by the high elves.
According to Melissa’s investigation, there were still a few functional space-leaping doors in the west.
They would be able to immediately return to the east once they got to that door.
But there was no way to directly go to that door from here.
Going there would consume time anyway.
Jude’s thoughts deepened.
He thought and thought again.
And Cordelia saw such Jude.
She groaned and began to worry about it like him.
Is there any other way?
Maybe there’s a solution.
“Eueu.”
This kind of thinking didn’t suit her nor was it something she liked to do.
So Cordelia groaned and repeatedly stomped her feet.
But she didn’t stop thinking.
And at some point.
“Ah!”
Cordelia raised her head.
She grabbed Jude’s shoulder in a hurry.
After forcibly pulling out the struggling Jude from the pit of thoughts that he had sunk into, she talked about the idea that came to her mind.
“What do you think?”
It wasn’t a specific idea.
Just one idea.
Jude stared at Cordelia. He didn’t blink once, and in response, Cordelia’s shoulders drooped, and she made a glum expression.
Was that not it?