Polymath Redux – Misfortune takes the form of a saintly merchant
Chapter XXXIX
“Ugh~ H- how…?”
With the sacred sword pierced through his upper torso as he gasped for breathe, the Grand Cardinal Lazzaro Zeder writhes on the floor in his final moments. His thoughts a jumbled mess with the only thing he could coherently make out of his own thoughts being confusion and rage. Through the blood and tears obscuring his vision he asks for answers rather than forgiveness.
The only reply he receives is a scoff accompanied by an unforgiving smile from luscious pink lips. Staring down at the dying man with her piercing cold blue eyes, as though looking down at an ant; Lazzaro finally understands his position against hers. A cold chill runs down his back, unsure if it was from the stab wound or from those cold eyes. A thought occurred to him: when they had met first at the Royal Palace he did not remember her giving off such a villainous aura; back then she showed only charisma and elegant manipulation of words.
She, Morgana Daltress, in age she was a mere child compared to himself, the Grand Cardinal. Yet she, conspicuous and pretentious in her manner of grandiose speech had earned his wrath and hatred; with words alone she had undone a large bulk of his life’s work. Yet it wasn’t those rightful emotions he was feeling, no, all he felt was a bone chilling dread as he stood at the precipice of his mortality from her snow white hands.
‘I need to get out of here!’, ‘I need to warn the others!’, ‘She’s too dangerous!’, such thoughts ran through Lazzaro’s mind but his body did not obey, stabled to the ground by the sacred sword he couldn’t. With the cold metallic sensation on his upper torso he could feel his life slowly draining away and the powers at his command, the power of the shadows refused to listen to him. ‘No one can oppose her… she’s far too strong!’.
“You’ve pretended to live your life as a man of great faith, slowly inching events to your convenience. I don’t know who you have watching your back but right now it doesn’t appear that anyone is coming to your rescue. Proof; they are merely fallible mortals as well and not the gods you worship.”
Her words rang sharply as a blade through the ever fading mind of the Grand Cardinal. She called his allies ‘fallible mortals’; the Luminary who he had looked up to and had depended upon for everything was in fact just another person with slightly more intelligence. Such a revelation hit him like a truck and at such thing he could not stop the tears from falling. It was not god that he believed in but a mere mortal, ‘how foolish’ he thought of himself.
“Then to answer your previous question, ‘how am I capable of wielding the sacred sword?’. The answer is simple if you think about it; this weapon lends the hero great power and has a will of its own, so it’s natural that everyone thinks that only a specific person can wield it; the chosen hero. However that is not the case, if it has a will then it too can be ‘manipulated’ and ’overpowered’, or in this case, ‘suppressed’.”
“A… absurd…”
Such was the answer to this mystery? ‘Don’t fuck with me!’, Lazzaro wanted to shout out but was incapable of doing so. She was overwhelming, that much he had accepted but was he to actually believe that standing before him was a woman who could overpower the power of a sacred relic through brute force? ‘Absurd’, as he had said.
A twisted smile etched on Morgana’s face as her aura changed, less menacing and cruder.
“You think so? In my opinion this sword has pretty shitty stats. It’s supposed to be one of those ‘living weapons’ like a spirit weapon that grows with the user or something, but even at max stats this sword probably won’t amount to much. At best I can only imagine it being at the [Exotic] level with the only useful thing being the goddess living inside.”
Her way of speech had changed and her words became unfathomable. He understood individually what the words meant but altogether it made no sense to him. However it was the last part of her words that piqued his interests the most, ‘the god living inside’, several thoughts came to him as to what that could possibly mean but he himself couldn’t come to terms to accept those answers.
“W- What…?”
“Hmm, interested? Unfortunately I’ve suppressed the sword so she won’t wake up right now. What was it again… the deity of this country. ‘Xagon’?”
The Grand Cardinal’s eyes tried its best to open as much as it could at this revelation. The god of the sun, Xagon was residing within that blade? Perhaps that should’ve been a foreseeable revelation and if one thought about it for a bit it made sense but that wasn’t the problem right now. The actually astonishing fact was that this woman had enough power to suppress the power of the country’s deity?!
“Ah, I know what you’re thinking but unfortunately you’re wrong there too. It’s not that I have enough power to suppress Xagon at full power, even I’m not sure if I could do that. It’s only possible for me to do so right now because she’s considerably weakened and most of her powers are sealed within the sword. But do you actually realize what this means?”
At her question the Grand Cardinal thought for a bit. Even through all of the pain it only took him a few seconds to realize what this meant.
“A… aw… awakening…”
Morgana gave a nod.
“Indeed, the true task of the hero isn’t to protect the country, nor is it to uphold the justice of the Church of Xagon. In the end it could mean that the hero is merely a tool for Xagon to reawaken herself from this sealed state. After all, if you take my words for truth then there must be some reason why Xagon was sealed inside this ancient relic in the first place right? Perhaps she wasn’t as saintly as your predecessors of the Church originally lead you to believe.”
“Kuh…”
Blood gushed out of Lazzaro’s mouth as his eyesight faded and a world of black engulfed him. Paralyzed and blind, he could only hear the words that Morgana spoke back to him.
“Perhaps I should do a little more research on the background of this country’s religion. Well in any case, it would be nice to drag you along for interrogation but right now I need you to die… for the hero’s sake.”
Those were the last words that the Grand Cardinal, Lazzaro Zeder had heard in his life. Not being able to accomplish everything he wanted to and now dying with more questions than answers; miserable. As Morgana had spoken, the Grand Cardinal needed to die, no, it didn’t particularly need to be the Grand Cardinal but it was the most effective candidate. Soon morning will rise and a new revelation will dawn on this city as the deceased body of Lazzaro Zeder is inevitably found.
For the oblivious masses there could only be one answer in their minds upon seeing this scene; ‘killed by the Sacred Sword’. Once this fact is spread around the city Morgana Daltress will obtain one of the most valuable pieces on the board of this country. Not the hero, but the goddess sealed inside, Xagon.
Morgana undid the transformation and reverted back to the form of an armored knight, Mordred and swiftly left the scene. As he was returning to his abode a small alarm went off in his head, not metaphorically but physically. It was a sensation that he was set to feel upon someone intruding on the Daltress estate.
An intruder at this time of day could only mean an assassin. An assassin within a state where Morgana has near 100% unanimous support from all of the citizens and governing bodies could also only mean one thing. An organization that wanted her out of the picture and with this it proved beyond a doubt that there was some organization that was trying to manipulate events.
“Hmm~ then I guess I’ll let him handle it as a test. Don’t kill the intruder.”
Mordred spoke to himself.
…
‘Hmm~ then I guess I’ll let him handle it as a test. Don’t kill the intruder.’ A thought was transmitted to Morgana’s mind.
Staring out the large window to the darkened skies above Morgana gave off a solemn look and distant gazes. The pen in her hand stopped moving as a moment of thought distracted her and upon realizing this Yda voiced her worries.
“Mistress, Is something the matter?”
She jogged towards the mistress with her maid uniform fluttering about. Morgana turned towards her and answered with a pleasant smile.
“I was just thinking that it would be unpleasant if such a wonderful night as this became ruined. Though if it became too messy that would also be a problem.”
Her words were not directed at Yda who was looking back towards her mistress in confusion but for the slender man standing further behind them in the background. Smooth black hair, ruby eyes and slender but muscular figure; Grimal, the Silver Devil king.
“Then I shall be right back.”
Understanding the intentions and meaning behind Morgana Daltress’s words Grimal gave a small bow and left the room. Yda was still unable to grasp the situation but Morgana took somewhat amusement at the clueless human girl in front of her. With all of the dubious and questionable actions that she was taking in the background it was nicely balanced out by an innocent acting Yda and thus managed to alleviate some stress.
…
Creeping slowly across the borders of the newly established Daltress estate was a certain skilled tracker, Casec. Tasked with the assassination of the intruding figure of their plans, Morgana Daltress he was thought to be the one most capable of silently taking her down. Right now she was on her high horse and she with near unanimous support from almost everyone in the country would never expect anyone to come to harm her.
Right, this was the perfect time to take her down when her guard was at its lowest. Casec had memorized each and every nook and cranny of this city like the back of his hand. Thus for the past several years he had been the Wayfarer Council’s chief assassin. If anyone went missing or was inexplicably removed from power it was no doubt the work of Casec.
OMEGA-ranked adventurers were highly prized by the country thus no one would ever think of questioning someone with such celebrity status. Casec was perfect, he would move without making a trace, even now his footsteps did not utter a sound through the blades of grass. [Absorb Sound] was a skill he used to make himself virtually invisible.
As he moved closer and closer to the manor he noticed a strange lack of security. For a person who provided the entire city with massive amounts of high class golems it was odd that the person herself had none as a security measure. That was until he got closer and noticed the decorative stone statues aligned in a manner that suggested that they would come to life. Noticing this he gave a smirk, ‘amateurs’ he thought as he saw through the easily detectable golem traps.
He could see the manor just a bit further up and only a few rooms had some sort of light source indicating the possible areas that Morgana was staying at. This made his job a lot easier as he could simply check those rooms and leave the scene right away. However for some reason the thought that it was ‘too easy’ had never cross his mind…
Until it was too late.
He was stopped dead in his tracks as several light sources were shining down on him. At least two dozen spherical drones were hovering around him with some of them flashing a light at him and some of them preparing some sort of magical attack.
“Sentries.”
He immediately realized what they were. How could he not? After having seen a bunch of them whizzing around the city in the name of ‘defense’ he was growing tired of their ever-presence. Of course they would be here too and of course the security would be a lot higher than the city. Why did he ever think it would be less than the city? It was almost as though his mind was being manipulated to think in such a way and he was lead to this exact spot.
After the sentries had locked onto him the golem statues also activated themselves and had surrounded him all with a lock on as well.
“You who have intruded upon ‘his’ domain, you have sealed away your fate.”
A deep, charismatic voice echoed through the darkness. Slowly revealing himself as he drew closer, the figure of a well dressed butler with devilish good looks appeared to contest the assassin Casec. Understanding the futility of confrontation he dropped his bow and arrow to the ground and lifted his hands to show that he was not thinking of resistance. Though this was merely a farce, he was currently gazing around for any openings he could exploit to escape. It was a little disheartening to think that this would be his first assassination failure but living would yield more results than dying.
“Sorry, I think I got lost. Do you mind showing me the way out?”
Casec replied in a cheerful manner.
“There is no way out for you who threatened my master’s happiness.”
“Figures.”
Casec replied as he scanned the nearby area to see if there was any way to escape. A small smile flashed across Casec’s face as he noticed several openings in their encirclement that could lead to his escape, ‘amateurs’, he thought to himself again. Despite the fact that he had just had the same experience a few moments before he was still underestimating the situation.
However on Grimal’s face too was a demonic smile. This entire situation was playing to his tune; this was the specialty of the Silver Devil King, the ability to emphasize a person’s hubris. In game this ability was represented as a distortion type ability that warped the damage that players were dealing. Of course the actual damage was not changed but the numbers that appeared was not indicative of the real damage that was being done thus some players thought they were doing well when in reality they were on the verge of defeat.
The only real counter to this ability was to understand your own character and how much damage that they were capable of even without relying on the numbers shown. As such the Silver Devil King was ranked as one of the highest ‘annoying bosses’ in the game due to this ability. With the changes undergone when coming to this world the Silver Devil King’s ability also took a small change but the effect was relatively the same.
“Well then, Mr. Butler I have some business to tend to.”
Casec replied in an overconfident manner as he jumped over the Golem and Sentries. A satisfied smile flashed across his face however as he landed he found himself still within the encirclement of the golems and sentries. Casec’s eyes widened with surprise as he found himself back to square one and he wondered what was going on. In truth he had been overestimating his abilities and overwhelmed by his own hubris.
“What…?!”
“Let us end this quickly; I prefer not to spend too much time with you as ‘he’ will no doubt arrive soon.”
Grimal answered as he summoned a standard [fireball] spell. A mid-rank magic spell that most advanced magicians could learn, that much Casec understood. If it was only magic of this level then even Casec could counter it, he thought to himself as he tried to contest the attack. He raised several magic defense skills in preparation.
As Grimal launched his fireball attack it caused a minor explosion and kicked up some dust clouds. Straight up, Grimal’s power was truthfully underwhelming and even some human magicians in this city could launch a [fireball] that was stronger than the one Grimal had just fired. However this was merely due to the fact that his master, Yda was weak and having inherited her levels he too was by association ‘weak’.
That being said, Grimal was still the Silver Devil King. After a few seconds a spiral tornado of fire kicked up from the location the [fireball] hit and it charred everything around, except for Casec himself. Morgana wanted him alive and he intended to comply with that wish but she never said anything about not harming him.
“AHHHH!! AHHH! AHHHHHH!”
Screams could be heard from within as the inferno raged. This was Grimal’s true power. He would straight up lose in terms of numeric power values but as compensation all of Grimal’s attacks had secondary effects. For example the [fireball] spell had three secondary effects. First was ‘flame entrapment’ which summoned a infernal tornado that trapped everyone inside, the second was ‘hellfire’ that dealt periodic burn damage to the victim and lastly was ‘magic defense shredding’ which was exactly what it sounded like.
In game this residual damage was represented as percentage damage and not flat values. It was for this reason that Mordred had assigned Grimal to Yda, because even with a weak master he could still deal considerable damage.
“As I have stated. Your fate was sealed the moment you stepped foot into his domain.”
Rebirth Online World 