Polymath Redux – PROJECT: Hellgate (5/7)
Chapter XXVIII
“Come with me if you want to win.”
Irina spoke out uncharacteristically from atop the corpse of the ‘hot’ dog, Cerberus. It was not her own words but the words that her master had prepared for her to say in this exact situation. It was no mere coincidence that the Infernal Cerberus had landed so close to the Adventurer Guild’s master. Everything was staged perfectly for this scenario where he would bear witness to the birth of a new hero in the form of a mysterious red haired adventurer: Irina.
Everything was painstakingly planned out; that the guild master’s life would be in danger, that the Hywel Knights would try to come to the rescue, that they would fall short of doing so and that they would realize their weakness, that Irina would come and finish the job. They would all gaze with awe at Irina’s prowess, thus gaining massive amounts of reputation and fame. Beyond the highest rank of OMEGA, she would become a saint.
At her line everyone person’s eyes were now on her. With her naturally charismatic form and figure it would be very easy for her to rally the troops to come under her. They all stared at the dead beast and understood the powerhouse that was Irina, most of them were had made up their minds to follow her but there were some voices of objection.
“You’re going to fight the Elder Lich?!”
Some of the lower ranked adventurers had joined the fray but objected when she stated that she wanted them to follow her to fight an Elder Lich. They were not soldiers and had no real obligation to continue fighting these monsters other than for self defense or moral reasons. The adventurers were merely a glorified version of mercenaries and at the end they were all the same; hired swords. In this current situation the best option for them would be to turn tail and run so that they could live to fight another day.
“That’s right. I will fight.”
Irina replied with a look of cold steel; her gaze alone felt as though it could literally pierce through a person’s soul. That look of stern determination to carry out this plan even if it meant her death had resonated through the hearts of all nearby fighters. Everyone knew she was just an adventurer like them, they had seen her in the lobbies before. That gaze; they wanted to know how she could even continue fighting in this bleak situation.
Her power was one thing but as stated before, adventurers had no real obligation to fight for any country, yet they all pondered, ‘how could she be so determined?’ They fought for money but because of that they knew how to calculate risk and reward. Should they stay and win then it was possible that they would get massive compensation from the king or adventurer guild but in reality that chance was slim.
No doubt that most of the money would have to go to rebuilding this city.
Of course none of them knew it that it was not the country she so desperately wanted to save. This place could burn down to ashes for all she cared; in fact she took some amount of amusement from seeing the infernal that had set this human city ablaze. For Irina it was for her master; her everything was for her master and if it was for his plans she would gladly walk through hell and back.
“That’s impossible! Cerberus may have been one thing but an Elder Lich is no joke! It’s the product of several millennia’s worth of magical energy! They’re a walking bomb and we’ll all just die following you!”
Indeed, in this world Liches were the product of centuries’ worth of magical energy gather upon the corpse of a grand magician. The magic would form into an artificial soul and then the corpse would rise to become an immortal being known as a ‘Lich’. Elder Liches were the same thing but they had millennia’s worth magic and were even revered as undead gods on some parts of the world. However even against this fact Irina shook her head.
“I don’t know if I can, but at the very least I will die trying. I refuse to let these monsters continue to slaughter innocent people, so you guys can stay here and pick your noses while I go and fight.”
Again, these were not Irina’s own words, merely the script that her master had laid out for her. Without accepting any further argument or words she started dashing towards the Elder Lich at great speeds. All the people watched her majestic figure flying as she jumped straight into the jaws of death itself to uphold justice. It was at this moment that in the hearts of those present she had turned from a ‘strong adventurer’ into a ‘paragon of virtue’.
“What do we do?”
Joutr asked his party members.
Clenching her fists with renewed vigor and motivation from Irina’s speech, Leona answered with a bright flare of determination in her eyes.
“We follow her and protect the citizens!”
Leona rushed to follow behind Irina. The remaining members of the Hywel Knights simply shrugged towards each other and trusted her decision and followed through. They were a single unit and they would continue to do so until they all died; that was their motto.
…
“Don’t break formation! Reinforcements will surely come so just hold on a little longer!”
Katy Granate shouted towards the soldiers who were now in the midst of fighting against the Elder Lich. Everyone had already known what this mean; it was essentially a death sentence. It would be impossible to beat this thing even with the reinforcements that were supposedly coming. The only beings that could fight an Elder Lich were heroes of legend or at least someone like the Dragon King.
Humans and demons alike fought and died side by side trying to stall for time against the Elder Lich. Nearly 30% of their initial numbers had fallen and it was obvious that this was just a battle of attrition with the enemy having unlimited numbers.
The floating figure wrapped in a bloody robe merely flicked its wrists and large explosions were set off all around the area. As the Lich continued its onslaught it was met by a powerful, bright blue magical laser, knocking it back a few meters and creating a shockwave that had managed to temporarily contest it.
The ‘Arclight Magicannon’, the magnum opus of the Royal Alchemist Commission. They had spent the last few years developing a long ranged ‘magicannon’ capable of grand scale destructive magic bombardment. Its primary power source was an extremely pure magic stone that could only be found in the deepest parts of the center continent, Great Void. This was its first field test and it was proving to be an effective tactic against the Elder Lich who was temporarily stunned.
“Katy!”
A young female voice called out to her. When Katy turned to see who it was a young blonde ponytailed maiden with disheveled clothes came rushing to her; the head of the Royal Alchemist Commission, Del Granate, her older sister.
“Del?! Why are you here?!”
Katy called out as Del ran into her embrace.
“We’ve received orders from the king to intercept that silver light pillar. We believe it will cease this horrific rain of fire.”
An authoritative male voice came this time: the head of the Royal Knight Commission, Vladimir Zandora. Standing behind him were a small group of Royal Alchemists and Royal Knights who were ready to charge up to the silver light pillar but obviously there was another big threat here as well.
“As much as we would love to help, we’re currently preoccupied.”
Katy replied.
“Yes, we should deal with this problem first.”
Vladimir answered.
“You have a plan?”
“No, but your sister does.”
At his reply Katy turned to her older sister who was physically smaller than her.
“Is that true?”
“Probably, you saw it right? That blue magic beam? It’s called the Arclight Magicannon, our latest toy but it’s still a bit clunky and needs some time to re-calibrate.”
Del answered.
“So you want us to distract it while it charges?”
“Essentially but… I don’t know if the soldiers will be able to survive that long.”
Looking around, the soldiers were all worn out and they would just die from a direct confrontation with the Elder Lich.
“We just need to distract it right?”
Padan came up and asked with a grin, though it was merely his façade. Even he was starting to feel his strength wither away from him due to the extended battle. Ash, Caroline and Mordred also slugged their way to hear the conversation.
“That’s… right but can you?”
Del asked with a hesitant and unconvinced expression.
“Honestly, I don’t know. But we need to try right?”
Ash answered for Padan.
Before they could continue on with their conversation the Elder Lich was starting to regain its composure and shot of multiple high level destruction magic at random. Multiple buildings were collapsing just from the sheer power and shockwaves of the blasts.
“Everyone switch to ranged weaponry and keep it busy!”
Katy issued out orders and every soldier complied. They started attack them with arrows, spears and magic but apparently it was just a mere tickle to the Elder Lich as it didn’t even pretend to suffer any damage from it. It laughed off the barrage of attacks and continued to set off several more high level destruction magic, until it was met by another force that had stunned it.
A thin red great sword flew towards the Elder Lich, managing to stab it through the chest. Followed shortly by the appearance of a red haired adventurer who had just thrown her great sword to incapacitate the Elder Lich.
“Hey guys! What’d we miss?!”
The Hywel Knights had also come to the scene with Wolf asking for the situation status. Not only them, but several dozen more soldiers and adventurers also came tagging along to stop the monster.
“The Hywel Knights! Good timing! Help us keep this monster at bay until we charge up our ultimate weapon so we can take this thing down!”
Del Granate shouted out across the battle field.
Honestly Irina wasn’t a fan of going along with the plans of the humans but her master did instruct her in the case of a plan being concocted by the humans to follow it. It was necessary to stake out and see what kind of power these people had possessed after all.
“Keep it distracted? Okay, leave it to me.”
Irina answered as she dashed towards the Elder Lich weaponless. Her entire body started to glow red and immolate flames that supported her movements. She closed in and drew her sword out and punched and kicked the Elder Lich over and over with enough force to keep it distracted.
Not wanting to lose out their image to the new face, the Hywel Knights also joined in and attacked at it every moment they got a chance to. Seeing this unbelievably high level combat that displayed across the sky the other soldiers could help but become much more motivated. They all continued their barrage of attacks to support this mysterious red haired adventurer.
For a few minutes this back and forth exchanged happened and the Elder Lich was left unable to attack as it was focusing more on its defenses from Irina.
“That’s enough! We’ve readied the Arclight Magicannon! Everyone get out of range!”
Upon Del’s shouting the vicinity was instantly cleared to give way for the Magicannon.
“Fire the Arclight Magicannon!”
Del shouted its launch as a blue beam of magical light as bright as day had flown through the darkened red skies and struck directly at the Elder Lich. The beam continued to be pumped out but the Elder Lich was barely just able to hold out with its magical powers.
“Dammit! At this rate the attack will cease and we will have to stall it out again!”
Del commentated in a panic.
“Then this should even the odds in our favor.”
Irina answered her panic and got into position to throw her sword once more. This time her sword that had drawn the blood of hundreds of monsters so far stared to glow with a menacing red aura. Onlookers didn’t even know what kind of sword this was; merely that it gave off a disgusting feeling of bloodlust.
Irina threw her sword like a spear at breakneck speeds towards the Elder Lich. Upon impact there was a large explosion and shockwave that destroyed all of the nearby structures. An enormous dust cloud was kicked up and for a moment everyone anxiously awaited to see its results.
Slowly the dust clouds faded and all that remained was a pile of bones and a red cloth. They were victorious.
“We did it!”
Del announced the results and everyone cheered wildly but as the rain of fire continued they realized where they were and got back into battle mode. They all then stared back to see the person who made it all possible, Irina.
“That’s some impressive power, amazing really. With that kind of power it should be possible to break through and shut down that silver pillar. So will you come with us?”
Vladimir asked to which Irina nodded.
…
Though it was rather obscure from the get go, no one was told that the destroying the silver light pillar was the way to cease this destruction. The people of this nation had come up with that answer all on their own. Observing from far beyond with the help of his [surveillance spectres] another lay of anxiety had been peeled away from Mordred’s mind as all of the key players survived.
“Time to end phase 2 with a final boss battle.”
Rebirth Online World 