Polymath Redux Annex
Chapter 17 – A forced consignment from the devil
“Umm… thank you very much for saving me, but I think it’s time for me to go,” sensing the dark aura emanating from Mordred, the girl that had been stripped down to her undergarments spoke hesitantly. She swiftly gathered up her tattered clothes off the ground and proceeded to evacuate the scene of the crime. With minor cuts and bruises throughout her body, she staggered to the exit of the secluded back alley.
Yet with the light of freedom glittering not mere inches away, she had been promptly intercepted. It wasn’t at any of Mordred’s commands, but Irina stood before her as she let out a fierce fiery aura. Even he could feel the anger just burning behind those displeased eyes of hers. No words were exchanged but the intentions behind those eyes were clearly understood. The young girl shrieked back as she fell and dropped her articles of her clothing about her. ‘Frozen solid by a fiery wrath, ironic,’ Mordred commented to himself with a light chuckle.
He crept closer and crouched down to her level. “You are, of course, free to go as you please, but I would like you to accompany us for a bit of your time,” he spoke without forgetting to maintain the mean smile. The poor girl appeared more frightened of the situation now than when she was on the verge of being raped. Her body trembled, perhaps due to the cold breeze without clothes or perhaps due to Mordred’s overbearing aura. It was the same for him which; she just needed to understand her position and everything could be sorted out in a convenient manner.
Eventually she thawed enough to reply with a quivered and hesitant nod, “O… okay, I’ll comply.”
“Thank you,” spoke Mordred as he summoned a large white overcoat and hung it upon her shoulders for warmth. At his puzzlingly kind gesture the girl’s trembling shuddering lessoned as she gazed up to him through those large oceanic blue eyes. Her light, sun-bleached orange hair swayed passed at the whims of the afternoon’s breeze. Yet as her guard was lowered a purple magic circle dyed in an ominous black light etched beneath her. A warm yet impending light entranced and enveloped around her.
“W- what are you doing?!” her fears returned and asked but Mordred made no replies. The phantasmal light beneath them raised in intensity until eventually the entire world was cast in a fantastic purple… followed shortly by a temporary darkness.
When the darkness lifted, their location had been mysterious changed. No longer were they secluded in that dirty back alley, but now a vast expanse of outer space surrounded them. They drifted upon a small asteroid-like platform through this odd space. Countless stars; a stream of stars glimmered in the distance. Before them was one exceptionally large and dimly burning red sun.
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“W… what?! What did you do?! Where are we even?!” the girl shouted as she darted her eyes all over the place. She grasped a handful of grey sand and examined it curiously to no avail. “I don’t… is this magic? If it is, I’ve never seen anything like this…” her words were no longer in that meek and hesitant tone.
Mordred placed his hands against his chin and nodded. As though a scientist running clinical trials on lab rats he let out an inquisitive hum as he mentally noted the results. “This is the ‘Ultimate’ skill of the Alchemists, known as the ‘Hyperdimensional Gate’. It is possible to temporarily store unlimited amounts of items in this space.” The functionality of the skill was identical to the one in his game. This skill could be used to temporarily store other players and transport them around the world. Most notably this tactic was adapted to launch covert attacks at an enemy’s guild castle or other critical areas during World or Guild PvP. The down side to skill was that it had a maximum cap of storing six players, rapidly drained the stamina bar and could only be used for three minutes with an hour cooldown time.
‘Ultimate skills are possible, and I can also accept inhabitants from this world into it as well.’ This was only one of the many experimental tests he wanted to run on this young girl and she was already showing signs of promise. “Hyper… gate? What is this, I’ve never heard of this! Just who are you?!” Yet Mordred ignored her question and paced around the space platform. ‘Gravity is normal. I can also breathe. Now to see if it can be maintained for longer than three minutes,’ he pondered. “Hey, are you listening to me?”
As the girl stood up- still only in her undergarments and Mordred’s overcoat- she was halted by a cold metallic gauntlet. “My master is thinking. Disturb him again and I will personally make it so you cannot speak for the rest of your life. Understood?” Irina threatened. Her eyes were serious. Without protest the young girl shook her head in tears.
“Three… Two… One…” Mordred suddenly started counting down. Yet, after that ‘one’ nothing happened. It was the very fact nothing happened that put a pleased smile upon his face. “It seems that it’s possible to go past the three minute maximum. No stamina drain or mental fatigue noted.” He walked back from the edge of the platform to where Irina and the girl obediently waited. “I apologize for the long wait. Before we do anything else, why don’t we start off with introductions? I’m known as ‘Mordred’ and this is my assistant, ‘Irina’,” he greeted with an elegant bow as if a nobleman.
“Ah… erm, I’m ‘Yda’…” she meekly replied as she stole glances at Irina for possible retaliation if she said something wrong. “Umm… did you need something from me? I’m thankful that you saved me but…”
“indeed, we did need something from you: ‘Obedience’.”
“Huh?” ‘Yda’ let out as she thought she heard wrongly.
“Your life, now that I’ve saved you from a fate worse than death, I believe you owe it to me.” Hearing such an unfair ultimatum, she naturally looked like she wanted to protest. However, with the looming threat of a fiery woman angrily gazing down behind her she didn’t speak out. “Do not be too alarmed, I won’t make you do something you can’t do.”
“But… but you’ll still make me do horrible things, aren’t you?!” she found the courage to object with teary eyes.
Mordred did not reply but smiled. “For now, I’m feeling rather fatigued so why don’t you lead me to a suitable inn? Preferably one located in a secluded area, if you don’t mind.”