Polymath Redux – PROJECT: Hellgate (3/7)
Chapter XXVI
Through flames and smoke the soldiers were able to draw the fight to a stalemate with the inferno invasion. However, it was obvious that this stalemate wouldn’t last too long if they continued to test their weapons’ integrity to the max. The soldier’s commander, Katy Granate directed her soldiers well; moving them in the most efficient manner and prioritizing the safety of the citizens. It could be said that she was the incarnations of the virtues of being a true soldier for the city.
“Team A, move to the town square and clear out the monsters there! Team B, with me we’ll go through the ally and get to the church! Team C, stay here and defend the perimeters!”
All of her soldiers placed their trust in her judgment and followed her orders even at the cost of their lives. She was like a pillar of hope amongst them and if they just followed her they may be able to get through this disaster. The falling morale of the soldiers were instantly bolstered back up and multiplied by her mere presence, continuing to stay that way even when she left.
“How trusted.”
Mordred(doppelganger) who belonged to Team B whispered to himself as he smirked. At first he didn’t particularly like her, she was the crazy type after all but after such a display of charisma even he couldn’t help but admire her. ‘She would be useful’, he thought to himself. Indeed, even though crazy people were immune to manipulation, that didn’t meant that they couldn’t be used; it simply meant that their uses were limited but in the right place it could work out perfectly.
“Did ya say somethin’?”
Padan asked as they continued to run and follow their commander. Even through all of the loud noises of chaos in the background he was able to hear Mordred’s silent whispering.
“I said that she’s trusted. The commander that is.”
Mordred answered.
“Aye, she’s got a great talent for leadership. I can say that without a doubt from my experiences as a warrior that she’s a first rate leader.”
Padan answered with a satisfied grin.
“Hmph! Of course she is! Big sis is just amazing; she’s the epitome of what it means to be a soldier and a Granate.”
Though it was a new tradition, the Granate were a military oriented family thus most of their accomplishments were in such fields. Out of all of their family members Katy Granate was a name that they could say with pride, that she was the best soldier in all of Xagontetia.
As they entered the view of the Grand Cathedral, a massive number of people could be seen battling the monsters. They were the people who gathered to initiate the demon purging campaign but their plans had been interrupted by the sudden apocalypse. Their weapons were clumsy and they had run down leather armor, meaning that they wouldn’t stand much longer.
“Quick! Reinforce them!”
Katy commanded her team and they all rushed to help and the battle started turning in their favor. During this entire time, Mordred felt an odd presence nearby; the presence of monsters that were foreign to the [Hellgate] invasion. He focused his [intuition] a bit further to better detect the presence of odd ‘shadow’ creatures that were attached to some of the people.
It seems that no one else could see them but those shadows were tethered towards a certain man; a man who hid behind the shadows and controlled the people. Mordred focused in his vision to see what kind of person it was. His features were mostly covered in shadows but that didn’t bother Mordred as he had [night vision]. The man was a rather skinny but his shadow like cloak beefed up his appearance, his face was a little wrinkled and his hair grayed from age.
He was clearly no average person, thus Mordred decided to test the man. Mordred slipped out from everyone’s gaze and [blinked] behind the shadowed man. Since showing himself directly was a bad idea he used [Alter: Appearance] to shift into Morialia’s form before gracing the shadow man with his appearance.
“What are you doing here old man?”
Morialia spoke out in a playful manner, a devilish smile etched across her mouth.
“Huh, what?! Who are you… wait…”
The man’s eyes grew wide as he seemed to have somehow recognized her figure. ‘Odd’, Morialia thought. She didn’t remember meeting this man before but clearly he was acting like he knew her from somewhere. Perhaps it was the Hywel Knights? Or was this man connected to the Dragon King? No, neither of those answers seemed to be quite right.
“Is something wrong? You seem a little frightened of my appearance.”
“It… can’t be! You!”
The man fumbled backwards in but then stood his ground again. For some reason he seemed to be getting angrier and angrier by the second and without provocation the man attacked. A spear made from shadows was lunged at Morialia but was easily parried away by a single hand. Seeing this, the man’s jaw dropped wide open in disbelief and simply stood there, open for an attack.
“Hmm~ it seems Casec’s report was true after all, but to think Morialia was you all along.”
A second man came out from the shadows. Because this Morialia was currently just a doppelganger, all of her skills were gimped to 10% of their maximum power. Even [intuition] had been lowered to 25 meters of detection radius, so since the man was hiding outside that range she couldn’t detect him.
The man that came out was someone Morialia had seen once before; disheveled earthy hair, thick framed glasses, a distinct lack of muscles and unimpressive armor. The man had introduced himself as ‘Sven Serus’ before and just now he spoke the name of another adventurer, ‘Casec’. So they were indeed related, it felt awfully suspicious after all, Sven seemed stronger than the average OMEGA rank adventurer despite his appearance and Casec’s movements weren’t normal either.
“It, it, it… but it can’t be! There’s no way someone that strong could exist! I refuse to believe it!”
The man shouted frantically as he summoned monsters of his own. Monsters made of shadows in the form of beasts rushed towards Morialia, but each of them was easily repelled.
“Grand Cardinal, I think it’s fairly obvious that she’s a lot stronger than she looks. It’s time to admit it.”
‘Grand Cardinal’… the corner of Morialia’s mouth pointed upwards. ‘I finally found you’, various thoughts were going through her mind as she was trying to figure out the best way to deal with them.
“No! I refuse!”
The man rushed at Morialia to strike her but all of his movements were easily telegraphed and evaded. It was evident that he wasn’t used to frontal confrontation as much as he was to background mind control. Morialia kicked him back and forth for a while before Sven intervened and blocked one of her attacks.
“Unfortunately I can’t exactly stay idle by while you continue to pummel my comrade.”
She had half a mind to just punch him right there but stopped. She breathed a sigh to let out the pent up frustration and glanced at the Grand Cardinal who had a bloodied face. ‘Pathetic’, she thought. ‘This man was the one who touched Rena?’ Morialia’s face twisted in disgust; death would be too good for him. Even if he died here right now, it would simply be attributed to this invasion and he would just die as a martyr for defending this city till his last breath.
No, he can’t have that. Disgrace. That is what this man needed. Unfortunately this couldn’t be achieved at the current time, instead Morialia had an even better idea, but that would come after this invasion. ‘This man will regret crossing me’, with those thoughts Morialia disappeared with a [blink] skill and back into the crowd of soldiers as Mordred, leaving the two men confused but sternly warned of her existence. ‘Morialia’ will live on in their minds as an apparition; until the day she comes for them they will live with the constant fear of her presence looming in the background.
…
The fight was starting to get a lot more intense and the people weren’t going to hold out much longer. Reinforcements, they needed some kind of reinforcements to break through these limitless spawns of hell.
“Dammit! Just how many more of them are there?!”
One of the men cried out as he hacked away at the monsters. This man and many others around him were part of the anti-demon faction of the citizens. Luckily for them, just before this hell began they were going to start a revolution to wipe out the demons, thus they were better equipped than most citizens, however the monsters that attacked weren’t exactly weak either.
More than half of them were already killed with even more dying by the minute. Right now what they needed more than anything else was reinforcements.
“Dammit! Argh!”
One of them cried as they were hacked away by the infernal skeletons and mauled by the hellhounds. The man’s vision was starting to blur up from the blood, smoke and tears in his eyes. He didn’t want to die like this, not like this! As he stood on the side of the victims he finally realized how scary it was to be attacked.
However the monsters kept coming. He continued to fight till he couldn’t feel his arms anymore. Exhausted and scared, he was about to give up hope as hellhound was about to jump on him and end his life. He waited with his eyes close for the pain to start, however that never happened. When he opened his eyes he found himself being rescued… reinforcements had arrived. But it was from the most unexpected group, the neutral demons from around the city were the ones who came to their rescue.
“Ah…”
He thought as he stared up at the people who were slightly different than him. Even though he was about to go on a rampage to kill them, they had come to save him.
“Can you stand?”
One of the demons offered him a hand.
“Ah… Yes… thank you.”
The demon nodded and gave him a weapon and a shield.
“You can still fight?”
“Y, yes…”
“Good, let’s do this!”
Somehow, just the presence of these demon reinforcements had invigorated his spirit. He wanted to thank them but right now was the time to fight with them. He stood a stance with renewed beliefs, he would get through this and change his life; he would accept them and beg for forgiveness after but to do that he needed to live!
…
“Tsk, my weapon’s done for.”
Padan said as his mace was finally broken after being swung one too many times.
“Same here.”
Some other soldiers around them had the same problem. They were completely out of ways to fight back other than their fists; however that was paramount to a suicide attack. But what choice did they have?
“…”
Katy Granate also had the same problem. Her class was [Templar] and her shield and mace had just run out of durability also. Everyone in the vicinity had a wry smile as they were just about to accept their fate and run into the fray to take down at least one or two more before they died.
Morale was falling rapidly.
It was then… a loud voice resounded throughout the city like a beacon of hope. A feminine and commanding voice…
Morgana’s voice.
How was she talking to the entire city in such a manner? Magic? No, it wasn’t magic, no such magic existed. This was possible due to the power of a certain item. A cash shop item known as the [Megaphone]!
Using this item she spoke out.
“PEOPLE OF SOLARIS! DO NOT FALTER; I HAVE BROUGHT YOU YOUR WEAPONS HERE NOW!”
An extremely large magic circle encompassed the entirety of the skies above Solaris. From it descended the fresh batch of weapons that the military and everyone was missing. Swords, bows, maces, shields, arrows, spears and more fell slowly from the sky. They were all coated in a mysterious force; a magical enchantment that temporarily multiplied the weapon’s strength and effectiveness against those monsters.
Like snow and a bright light, the weapons lifted the darkness with their enchanting glow. Everyone stared up to the sky at this miraculous display, ‘a miracle’ they all thought as they grabbed the weapons and rushed to rejoin the fight more invigorated than before.
“What… is this?”
Katy asked with widened eyes. She had not seen such a miracle in her life. She grabbed one of the weapons and felt a mysterious power flow through her. She felt as though she could just jump at the monsters and destroy them all.
“I don’t know what it is but it looks like our luck has changed!”
Padan said with a large grin as he picked up dual maces and started swinging away.
“HAHAHAHA! This is amazing!”
He laughed as he became even more terrifying and effective than before.
“Raining weapons… I never would’ve thought to see such a thing in my life.”
Ash exclaimed as he grabbed a bow and some arrows.
“Yeah… it’s a miracle…”
Caroline was entranced by it and couldn’t take her eyes off it.
“We better thank that voice later on, huh?”
Mordred said with a smirk.
With the new weapons in everyone’s hands the tide of battle was starting to change in their favor. The monsters were much more easily destroyed using these and the morale of all the people in the city skyrocketed.
…
The king gazed out to see this miracle set upon his city in such a desperate time of need. ‘What is this?’ he thought but he was relieved nonetheless. With this it may actually be possible to turn this battle around.
Returning to his side were two people, the commanders of the Royal Knight Commission and the Royal Alchemist Commission. After the situation had turned around they came back to ensure the safety of the king.
“Your majesty!”
They rushed in.
“Vladimir Zandora and Del Granate? What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go and protect the citizens.”
The king was surprised at their sudden return.
“For- forgive us your majesty. We came as soon as the situation changed. We also believed that we may have found a way to end all of this.”
Del responded meekly.
“You did? How?!”
The king asked.
“That… that silver pillar of light. Most likely this rain of fire is being activated by that silver light. If we can successfully break through the monster’s army and reach that light we may be able to stop it.”
She answered.
“I see, but we barely have enough soldiers to keep the citizens protected. We don’t even know how to stop it even if we reached it.”
The king replied in a disheartened manner.
“Your majesty I will go, I will figure out a way to stop all of this. I stake my name and title in this mission.”
The king stared back a little worried. She was the head of the Royal Alchemist Commission but she still looked like a young girl.
“But will you be able to get there by yourself?”
“I have a younger sister, Katy Granate that is a talented solider. I will have her and her team go with me.”
“That won’t be enough, your majesty I will go too.”
Vladimir answered.
“We don’t have time to discuss this. I order you both to go and stop this catastrophe!”
The king made his decision.
Rebirth Online World 