Chapter 20: The Ending
Black clouds spilled icy rain, carried across the land by a wind with a pungent, acrid scent. Lightning coiled within the shadows above, and bone-piercing cold spread through the wind and rain, making the entire Grandia World feel like the ice prison beyond the one hundred and seventieth layer of the Abyss.
Standing amidst the craters and scattered bones covering the ground, Joshua let out a long breath. The Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance in his hand transformed into light, splitting into a pair of youths, a boy and a girl. They initially wanted to congratulate their master on defeating a powerful foe, but ultimately fell silent due to the inexplicable atmosphere.
Alman Fernandez was dead, but the Northwestern Wasteland remained deathly still. Except for the bloodthirsty beasts hidden in deep forest caves and the survivors the warrior had rescued, this region still held no sign of life.
Killing a Grand Commander of the Undead had changed nothing.
"Master..."
Ying, who had followed Joshua the longest and knew his temperament, waited a moment before tentatively asking, "Why don't you seem very happy?"
"Yeah." Following the silver-haired girl, Lin quickly added, "Master, you killed this Undead Grand Commander. For a long time, no similar being will come to cause trouble, and those survivors are safe too."
"No. He wasn't killed by me."
Still seemingly recalling the sensation of piercing the core of the divine phantom with his spear, Joshua replied after a long pause, his tone somewhat helpless. "Alman committed suicide."
"Suicide?"
Both Ying and Lin were stunned for a moment. They couldn't quite understand if Joshua was mistaken, or if they were. Was the feeling of piercing their enemy a lie?
But the warrior didn't intend to explain the issue in detail. He merely glanced at the remaining energy fragments before him, the final remnants of the being named Alman.
How could killing a man who had already resolved to die be called killing? Even if Alman had indeed used his full strength in the end, battle was something that required staking one's life and passion, burning beyond one's limits.
Perhaps, for that general, dying in a fair fight at the hands of a powerful being he had always pursued but could never become in his lifetime was the best final destination he could hope for. He didn't want to leave regrets like the Gem Dragon King. Joshua had merely fulfilled his wish, nothing more.
As for how a former hero could have fallen to the point of wanting to destroy the world and return all things to the dead, the warrior didn't understand. He only knew that killing Alman was almost meaningless. The Northwestern Wasteland was still the Northwestern Wasteland; it couldn't return to its former fertility of twenty-seven years ago. And the Grandia World remained a dying world, unchanged by this small event.
The thirty-plus survivors were still left with nowhere to go. Could killing one Undead Commander dispel the Shadow Calamity that shrouded the entire continent? Of course not. So Joshua's heart was very heavy at this moment.
Perhaps killing all seven Undead Commanders could save this world, but he didn't have the extra time to do it. The safety of the Mycroft Continent was more important to him than this world.
But... if everything was finished, and there was extra time after the Fourth Sage's inheritance was reclaimed by the Church of the Seven Gods... then it might not be impossible to try.
In the end, however, he let out a heavy sigh.
"Let's go."
After sighing, Joshua said to his weapons, "Alman is dead, but during the fight, he revealed some interesting information. One piece was that the Second Commander is currently hunting a dragon-winged girl."
The inheritor girl in the resonance projection also seemed to have a pair of dragon wings.
Thinking this, the warrior turned and walked towards the cave where the survivors were hiding. "The Second Commander is now heading northwest into the Southwestern Wasteland. I think their information source is definitely more reliable than our random guesses."
"Yes!" Responding in unison, the Divine Mechanism siblings quickly followed their master.
A moment later, the cave, sealed with rock, was opened by a man.
Outside the cave, on the wasteland flattened into smooth sand by violent hurricanes, Joshua looked at the thirty-plus youths before him, all practicing the breathing technique he had created.
Most of them were very young, none over twenty. A few days ago, they were so weak that even the Undead Commanders couldn't detect them. But now, with ample Origin Crystals and the tempering of battle, most had entered the realm of Grandia's primary-level professionals, and the exceptionally talented, like Crete, had even reached the intermediate-level professional level.
Their potential was not weak. If they were on the Mycroft Continent, after entering an academy for a few years, they could become core members of an army or organization, and their chances of advancing to Gold-rank would be far from small. Especially since the Great Magic Tide was imminent on the Mycroft Continent; absorbing magic power from the atmosphere for cultivation would be no slower than directly absorbing Origin Crystals.
But they were born in Grandia, a dangerous world with no order left. Their talent and potential were buried. If they hadn't met Joshua, they would have been destined to become a pile of bones.
"I'm leaving."
Scanning the neatly standing youths, the warrior said calmly, "I am not a guardian. I came here to do one thing. The cultivation method I taught you was also an experiment of mine. So don't thank me; it was a fair trade."
Ignoring the slight commotion among the survivors, Joshua glanced at the cave entrance, pondered for a moment, then reached out his hand. Vast Life Energy gathered, manipulating the soil and rock in that area, reshaping it into a hidden entrance concealed within the dirt and gravel. After doing this, he spoke again, "The Southwestern Wasteland is still dangerous, but this place is very hidden. I've completely erased the soul imprints within a few kilometers, so no shadows will be born at night. It's very safe. Those without their own settlements can live here. And those with settlements, I hope you'll come here too. Thirty people watching each other's backs is much better than fighting alone or in small groups."
The warrior gave a few more instructions before preparing to leave. Just as he was about to take off and fly northwest, the leading youth, Crete, who had broken through to the Silver rank, suddenly spoke up, "Then, sir, what exactly is the matter you need to handle?"
As the golden-haired youth asked the question, his nervous voice even cracked. But driven by an urgent desire to repay, Crete forced himself to overcome his instinctive hesitation and say what he wanted to say.
Joshua turned back in slight surprise, looked at him, paused, and then a slight smile touched his lips. He replied, "I'm looking for someone."
"A girl with red hair and dragon wings on her back." Glancing at Larrel, the warrior added, "Probably not much older than you, looks very young. She was teleported to the Northwestern Wasteland a few days ago, but I haven't found any trace of her until now."
He looked at the youths before him, their brows furrowed in thought, and waited patiently.
One who bestows favors must also give the recipient a chance to repay. Although Joshua didn't think they could provide any reliable answers, trying couldn't hurt, and it would at least put the youths' minds at ease.
As it turned out, there was indeed an unexpected surprise.
"I remember, a while ago, there was indeed a flash of azure-blue light near the village."
The speaker was a somewhat thin girl with faint freckles on her face. She seemed to be recalling, slowly describing the situation at the time. "At that time, the merchants from the Holy City in the northwest had just left the village. The direction they were heading back seemed to be the direction of that flash of light."
"Holy City?"
Joshua felt he had heard a familiar term. Among the scattered valuable information Alman had revealed during the fight, the term 'Holy City' appeared quite frequently. For instance, after some time, the seven Undead Grand Commanders—now six—would gather their forces to attack the four Holy Cities guarding the Sage's Tomb.
"Yes, sir, the Holy City." This time, it wasn't the freckled girl speaking, but the cheerful Larrel, Crete's childhood friend. Upon hearing the warrior's question, she immediately added information on this matter. "The Northwestern Wasteland originally had nearly twenty shelters, one of the largest human gathering places besides the four Holy Cities. And there were many local specialties and Origin Crystals here. Occasionally, people from the Holy City would come to trade food and other things for the specialties and Origin Crystals."
The other youths also chimed in, pointing out the direction to the Holy City. A youth who had learned to draw even sketched a rough map in the sand beside him, showing it to Joshua.
"I see."
Looking at the rough sand map, Joshua had already roughly guessed where the dragon-winged girl might be. His eyes lit up, and he laughed heartily, his tone somewhat emotional. "I didn't expect to actually get a result. If I had asked earlier, I wouldn't have wasted these two days."
Although he said this, it wasn't really the case. If Joshua hadn't saved these survivors over the past few days and given them the cultivation method to gain the power to protect themselves, the girl who knew the information might have died before he even had a chance to ask.
Thinking this, Joshua couldn't help but scan the youths before him again. In their eyes was the joy of finally being able to help.
His heart stirred, and a thought crossed the warrior's mind.
Perhaps... when he found the Fourth Inheritor and the Church of the Seven Gods opened a space-time passage back to the Mycroft Continent, he could let these children leave this world as well. By then, the stabilized passage should be able to carry them.
But Joshua didn't make any promises. No one could know the future. Perhaps by the time he found the Fourth Inheritor, the situation would already be too dangerous to have time to escape. Or perhaps, before he completed his mission, these children would all die from various accidents.
Or perhaps, the Grandia World still had a chance to escape its current apocalyptic state and return to its former fertile and beautiful appearance.
Giving them one last deep look, Joshua bid farewell, then soared into the air, flying towards the direction of the Holy City.
As the light dot of the warrior disappeared into the sky, the disappointed youths gradually dispersed. They weren't going back to their respective settlements, but planned to follow Joshua's advice, move some valuable things from their homes, and live together with these fellow inheritors in the hidden cave.
In a certain ruined shelter village, inside a dilapidated study covered in dried bloodstains.
A thick volume of *History of the Central Empire* was blown by the wind, swaying before falling to the ground.
The pages fluttered, finally stopping near the middle-thick section, close to the last page.
On this page, the compiler, using the obscure yet beautiful strokes of ancient Grandia Common Tongue, narrated the glorious achievements of an invincible general. His unbreakable trust and loyalty with the emperor he served was a tale of ruler and minister praised for generations.
And at the end of this page was recorded the general's final, lightly sketched, almost cursorily mentioned ending.
[Dragon-Slaying General Alman Fernandez]
[In the five hundred and seventy-second year of the Central Empire, died in a despicable assassination organized by rebel forces.]