Polymath Redux

Chapter 24: PROJECT: Hellgate Part 1

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.