Polymath Redux

Chapter 28: PROJECT: Hellgate Part 5

"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.