Polymath Redux – PROJECT: Hellgate (1/7)
Chapter XXIV
A week after Morgana’s initial negotiations with Atem Aspidova, the War Minister for the Baliazoural Empire, the hired mercenaries were successfully able to intercept the Xagontetian weapon shipment. It took several teams of thousands of mercenaries to raid all of the shipment; since not only were the packages guarded they were guarded by veteran soldiers who worked in conjunction with the Royal Alchemy Commission. This was just a testament to how valuable these assets were in maintaining the strength of the country.
However, even then there were far too many mercenaries and all of the shipments were intercepted. Their next task was to bring over the weapons to a remote location to be handed over to another person, however only a few hours later the entire mission had been compromised and all of the stolen assets were in turn stolen by an unknown third party.
That third party? Mordred.
The reason for this was simple. It would be extremely easy for the minister to link Morgana and that white figure, if Morgana suddenly arrived just in time to return the stolen weapons to Xagontetia. For this reason it was much more favorable to fool the minister into thinking that the mission was compromised and that Morgana was in fact from a completely unrelated party than the white figure that was negotiating.
“Who’s there?!”
One of the mercenaries who were handling the delivery of the shipment shouted out as he drew his weapon. Their task would only be over after they confirmed that the assets were handed over to the appropriate personage. They had successfully brought all of the weapons over to the agreed place but the patron wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“What’s wrong?”
Another mercenary asked.
“I thought I heard something.”
Since the majority of the task was completed, there were only a few dozen mercenaries left at the meeting juncture to guard the stolen goods. There was also a low class Baliazoural magician amongst them. Since this mission was strictly kept top secret and Xagontetia wouldn’t receive the news until much later they didn’t factor in that anyone could be coming for them.
“I’ll go see who it is.”
The mercenary said as he walked out of the building where the weapons were being kept. However no matter how many times the other mercenaries waited for him he had never returned.
Feeling a little shaken up because of this the magician started to panic. In the first place he didn’t even know why he was here, only that his orders were to be stationed here until a certain person comes to meet him. This was absurd to him, why did he have to come all the way out to the middle of nowhere just to meet someone?
“Oi! You guys go have a look at what’s happening over there!”
The magician barked out orders. Though he wasn’t exactly their boss since he was technically part of the ‘package’ it was better if he didn’t get hurt in anyway. Or so the mercenaries thought as they begrudgingly obeyed his orders.
Several more of them stood up from resting and left to see what was going on, however before they could even open the door to exit, the entire roof of the building was torn off by a 20 meter siege golem. Made completely out of steel and magical obsidian, its torso was a little detached from its lower body but in between was a large, menacing red ball of mana that functioned as a kind of battery. With its unblinking single red glow that functioned as its eyes, it stared at them in very much the same way a person would stare at ants.
Compared to most siege golems it was a much larger and the kind of materials that made up its body looked extremely high quality. From that the mercenaries could tell that this wasn’t any ordinary golem. On the shoulder of the large golem was a small girl with blonde hair and a white dress, Morialia. It was most likely this little girl that was controlling the golem.
The mercenaries drew out their swords but in retrospect it kind of felt stupid. From where would they even begin to strike the golem? Would their weapons even work against this massive metal monster? The eyes of the golem glowed much more brightly and more intensely as the mercenaries could only stare at it in confusion. However soon they realized why it was glowing.
A concentrated beam of laser shot out from its face and destroyed parts of the building around them, trying its best to not hit any of them directly. All of the mercenaries dropped their weapons and took a step back.
“I don’t like killing people; at the very least I will try not to kill people who haven’t offended me in anyway, unless of course it was for business reason. So I will give you men a chance to run away. Ah, but the magician stays.”
At those words everyone breathed a sigh of relief, except for the magician who was panicking. He turned towards the mercenaries for help but they ignored him, in fact they had already left the premises upon hearing that they had a chance to run away.
Morialia couldn’t exactly kill off the mercenaries, she still needed them to report back to the minister and tell him that the mission was compromised. That way Morgana and the white figure would be identified as separate parties.
“Wha, wha, what do you plan on doing with me?!”
The magician asked, his thoughts discombobulated by fear and anguish that the mercenaries had abandoned him.
“Congratulations! You have been selected to partake in PROJECT: Hellgate.”
To this cowardly and angry magician, Morialia returned a devious smile, filled with malicious intents as she spoke those words. That was the last thing that the magician would ever think in his life; he had become a puppet to a great and unfathomable power.
…
Two figures stood silently in a room. The minister of warfare, Atem Aspidova could feel his heart rate jumping up and cold sweat running down his back. His inner ear constantly being pestered a high pitch stinging noise as the large white figure in front of him stared him down in discontent.
The figure did not talk the moment he arrived but the minister knew what he wanted to say. Yesterday he had received reports that the shipments were compromised by an unknown third party. ‘Those useless mercenaries!’ the minister thought to himself; he never liked the idea of mercenaries, men without a cause or country to fight for. They were simply men who sold their sword to the highest bidder; a being without a shred of honor.
“Minister… you have failed. I have yet to receive the shipment I have asked for.”
“Y, yes, I realize that. If, if you could just give me a few more days I could work something out. Track down those bastards who took the weapons and take it back.”
The large figure sighed and shook his head.
“Minister… it is far too late for that. The weapon shipments are already gone and you do not have enough personnel to track down and retake it.”
“I… I… “
The minister couldn’t talk back. Indeed, even if he hired more mercenaries, it was likely that all of the weapons were already gone and delivered back to Xagontetia or wherever.
“It seems it was a mistake for me to come to you.”
The large white figure said as he turned around to leave. The minister wanted to stop him but couldn’t exactly do so, he had no right. Even all of the gold he had left over from hiring those mercenaries was taken back due to an inability to fulfill their contract. As the door slammed shut and the figure left, the minister could only blame his incompetence as he punched his desk in anguish.
“Dammit!”
The minister wasn’t angry because the gold was taken back. Of course there was some of that but there were more reasons why he was so upset. The first was that this white figure would have been a powerful ally to the Baliazoural Empire, but he had let this opportunity leave the grasp of his hands. The second reason was that now there was an unchecked power with god knows how much resource and wealth that could now potentially turn into an enemy of the empire. He couldn’t even stop him, the being who bypassed their entire security without raising an alarm.
He could only lament his own failures.
Afterwards Morgana, Yda and Grimal would actually be going gather up the weapon shipment. In reality they had never been take away from the location, that’s what the minister was merely lead to believe.
…
At the Royal Castle of Xagontetia, four figures were in the midst of a heated discussion about what was happening to their country. Those four figures included, the King of Xagontetia himself, Lionel Chrom and his most trusted aides, the heads of the three duke houses, Pierre Granate, Lucian Zandora and Mikhail Anton.
The three duke houses each represented a sector of government.
The Granate family dealt with matters dealing with war and military.
The Zandora family dealt with the economy and trade.
The Anton family dealt with politics and diplomacy.
Those four figures had gathered around at the throne room, discussing certain matters that had taken place in the country. There were several matters, for instance, the treatment of the demon-kind, trade and economy and such, but the most alarming event that they were here to discuss was about their stolen weapons shipment.
“Your majesty, this is clearly the doing of the Baliazoural Empire! I mean who else would have enough resources to intercept ALL of our weapon shipments? If they really did such a thing then no doubt their forces will be weakened and spread out! We should strike them when we can!”
Pierre Granate suggested with fervor. He was a man known to be hungry for battle and glory, and in times of war it could be said that he was actually happier than if there were peace. Even though their weapons were compromised, Pierre instead used it to suggest a direct attack on the enemy capital.
“Don’t you think you’re being hasty, Lord Granate? What if you’re wrong? What if it wasn’t the doing of the Baliazoural Empire? Then we’d be charging into an enemy stronghold with clumsy weapons! We’d be annihilated in less than a day!”
Mikhail Anton interjected. As a man of policy he knew the importance of scrutiny and to him this suggestion of an attack without even examining what had actually happened was paramount to a suicide attack.
“Standing here and picking our nose will only give the enemy time to regroup and launch an attack on us when our military strength is down!”
Pierre countered. He too had a point, if the Baliazoural Empire was indeed responsible they would immediately attack once they have regrouped. Of course that wasn’t how the situation had really panned out, but he had no way of knowing what was true.
“And how do you plan on attacking the Empire without any useful weapons?! The best course of action would to seal up the capital and leave the defenses to our alchemists and knights! Both the Royal Alchemy Commission and the Royal Knight Commission still have access to their own, good weapons.”
King Lionel continued to listen to the banter between the two men until he had enough and ordered them to stop.
“What do you think, Lord Zandora? Do you think it was the doing of the Baliazoural Empire?”
The king asked the only man who stayed silent.
“Your majesty I believe they both have merit in their arguments but if you were to ask me I must take Lord Anton’s side. While I do agree that the only ones with enough resources to launch this kind of massive campaign may be none other than the empire, it is also true that with our worn out weapons we’ll barely have any advantage over their scattered army. Not only that, to move our entire army across the continent would tire them out and by the time we arrived at their doorsteps our advantage would also be diminished.”
The king thought about it for a moment as he nodded. That was true, in this continent only two countries existed and the only people with enough resources to pull of such a thing were either Xagontetia or Baliazoural.
“Mmm… you have a point. So you also propose the idea of sealing up the capital for a defensive maneuver?”
“Yes, your majesty.”
The king nodded and decided to go with the idea of fortifying the capital for an attack.
“Then Lord Zandora I’d like to task you with being in charge of our defenses.”
As the king spoke, Pierre Granate’s eyes widened in sheer surprise and stupor. ‘He was tasking a man in charge of the economy with the city’s defenses?!’ Pierre thought the idea was preposterous. It was he who needed to be consulted in matters regarding the capital’s defenses or offenses. So why did the king not choose him?!
“What?! But your majesty! With all due respect, should I not be the one in charge of the city’s defenses?”
Pierre spoke out.
“You’ve had your chance, yet it is because of you our kingdom is suffering this harsh dilemma. You were the one in charge of making sure that our weapons shipment would arrive without fail. So for this disgrace I cannot trust you to be put in charge of our defense. Lord Zandora is by no means clueless when it comes to warfare, thus I have decided to put my trust in him.”
“But, but your majesty!”
“Silence! Your task is to retrieve the stolen weapons. Do I make myself clear?!”
Pierre wanted to object but he was silenced.
“Yes, yes of course your majesty. I’ll get it done right away!”
Feeling mocked and humiliated Pierre averted his gaze from the king and decided to leave the throne room. He would need some way to regain his honor but right now his first order of business was to retrieve the weapons. He didn’t know who it was but they would soon feel his full wrath when he found them.
As he was about to exit through the large ornate iron doors it suddenly burst open, knocking back Pierre a few meters. Standing at the doorway was a single skeleton warrior, covered in a dark glow of the black mists, hunching over in an uncanny manner as though it was about to fall over but it did not, equipped with in a damaged black armor with a single steel tower shield.
Followed closely, the sounds of metallic boots clanging across the marble floor could be heard; they were the Royal Knight Commission that had rushed in to protect the king.
“Your majesty!”
The Royal Knights shouted out as they surrounded the sudden appearance of the skeleton warrior. After confirming that the king was safe they decided to destroy the monster and started attacking it.
“Kill it!”
One of the royal knights shouted. The men rushed towards it with swords and spears and stabbed it. However the skeleton appeared to not have suffered any damage as the swords and spears simply shifted through the gaps in the bone.
The skeleton warrior started to walk once more, dragging behind the knights that were still stabbing it. Its strength was far beyond any monster that they’ve ever seen, even its movements showed the signs of purpose. The royal knights had deemed that purpose was to get close to the king but of course they would not let it.
The tried to push it back and with the strength of at least 10 men they seemed to be at a stalemate.
“King… Nation… Hellfire… Burn…”
The skeleton started chanting ominous words, as though it was some kind of warning to them. That their nation would burn in hellfire.
“Who are you?!”
One of the knights asked the skeleton. The supreme commander of the Royal Knight Commission, Vladimir Zandora demanded an answer.
“Legion… Burn… Destroy… Annihilate…”
Those were the last words the skeleton spoke before disintegrating into a pile of bones and armor. It was apparent that its connection to its summoner had been cut off and simply ceased to be.
The remaining men could only stare back at the pile of bones in silence as the eerie warning had sunk into their minds. The air in the throne room grew tense as everyone had one question that lingered deep in their minds.
‘Just what was about to happen?’
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