After being healed, by my silvery blood, Persephone was quick to thank me, and then right back on her feet. I did not have to say anything after that for her to start putting together and reviving my troops. Though I suppose, that was to be expected, since I healed her under the premise that she would revive my troops.
At least those troops, whose bodies were mostly intact. Anyone whose body could not be recovered was now dead. After questioning Persephone about why she is unable to revive troops, who were less fortunate and turned into bloody mist by the now petrified enemy, she answered that there was a requirement for the body to be mostly intact to be still functional. She then went on further explaining, that even if the body of the human was somehow remade, which in theory she could do, with the right equipment, it would result in the same disastrous death, as when the soul is not recycled properly. Then Persephone explained that there were exceptions, the most pronounced ones, being demigods.
"You mentioned those before, but what exactly are demigods?" I asked after she mentioned this topic again.
"Demigods in a sense are Olympians, but rather than having a core like true Olympians, they have human souls. It is their bodies that are the same as Olympians, the same technique is used in making their physical shell. Because of that, they can regenerate from non-lethal injuries and are more sturdier than average humans. But since they do not have a core, they cannot regenerate their whole body like true Olympians," she explained.
If her explanation was anything to go by, then the enemy I just faced and which was, almost miraculously, petrified by Medusa, was the same berserker I faced back on Lemnos, more than a year ago, who also showed signs of being more than able to face one of the god-pretenders. Which meant that he was quite fitting the description of a demigod, she just provided.
"Then, what of the enemy? I am certain that I destroyed his body completely on Lemnos a year ago," I asked, wanting to extract vital info, about the mechanical berserker.
"That is Heracles. He is kind of a special case, Zeus's personal project. Sadly Zeus's mishandling of the creation process led to Heracles being mentally unstable when intoxicated, which caused many human tragedies. But as for his body getting destroyed by you, Miss Arachne, that did happen. But as I said, he is Zeus's personal project, so he decided to revive Heracles, by using an artificial body. This is what you see here. Or at least, was supposed to be. I do not know of anything, that could make him act so strange, or even so powerful. Moreover, I do not think, that he should have been released so soon since his soul would need time to settle in. You can think about it as a childhood, I suppose, as in Heracles needing to grow up into his new body," she explained.
So in a sense a nepotism child, how great. But at least Heracles's return was explained. Moreover, something else was done to him, which Persephone did not know about, and I had no intention of finding out by staying here, even if it could provide an advantage in the future. The potential risk was not worth it. Meaning it was the highest time to leave this place, covering our tracks, because if the mechanical berserker was a god-pretende's personal project, there was a high chance that someone would come to recover him, should they realize that there was something amiss with him. And it would be better if I was not around when that happened.
Because of these circumstances, I gave a quick burial to my troops, who could not be revived, while singing Once I Had a Comrade, which became a sort of tradition among my troops. I suppose it was easier for them to cope, with their loss, this way.
But thinking of losses, made me consider the integrity of my leadership. The percentual amount of troops I lost, ever since they volunteered under my command, was exorbitant. If this was an army, of my second life, I would have been put before the firing squad a long time ago. And I was no commie to spend the lives of my troops more eagerly than ammunition.
It seemed that my troops did not mind several hours of forced march, when the potential enemy that killed many of their comrades, was still in one piece, even if defeated. Though from what Persephone explained, Heracles's body was somewhat sturdier than usual, even for someone like him, therefore I would not declare him dead, maybe just on a technicality.
So why not outright destroy him, to get rid of him permanently? Sadly destroying Heracles would lead only to the discovery of his destruction. Which would then attract unwanted attention from Zeus, resulting in more needless combat and a higher possibility of my troops dying in the crossfire. Moreover, since Persephone and Hades were acting behind Zeus's back, there would be consequences for both of them, resulting in my potential employment no longer being available, due to the company going under, due to the CEO's and his only employee's sudden deaths. What sort of black company were these Olympians? If I were to work for Hades, I would have to negotiate a better contract for myself and Medusa, since my acquaintance was in a vulnerable state of mind.
Nevertheless, with my troops taking care of themselves, and preparing for a rest, I, who barely required any sleep nowadays, as it seemed, whether it was a combination of paranoia and adrenaline formula, I applied several times nearly subconsciously, or if I was truly so much different from the average human, did not matter. What mattered though was a thing that had been on my mind for nearly a whole day, ever since Persephone once again revived my troops after the fight with mechanical berserker. More specifically the magic she used.
While it was doubtful, that I could use it right away, given that even magic I learned as a mage during my second life, required precise mathematical knowledge, if one wanted to understand the magic and not just use it as a black box, I was more then willing to learn. Especially the shield formulae, which Persephone used to defend against my optical formulae since it should be able to withstand a lot of force. On top of that, I also had some basis for how it should work, based on my previous knowledge. Moreover, it was a more practical choice than learning the rejuvenation and revival formulas, since those needed either proper equipment or someone with centuries of expertise, like Persephone.
And of course, after I asked, Persephone delivered quite a lengthy explanation of how her shield formula worked. Surprisingly this was not all that different from the formula that I already knew, it was overall more optimized, that much I could tell. It must have been because of the different levels of mathematical advancements the Olympians possessed, compared to the 1920s Empire's scientists. This of course proved that Persephone was telling the truth and I was once again moved towards being able to potentially trust her.
The conversation between myself and Persephone about the shield spell seemed to pique Medusa's interest as she and all of her head snakes listened to the explanation and followed the discussion with great attention. No wonder though, as she most likely was looking for a way to protect herself from the danger. It reminded me of how I was after the Rhine, unable to go anywhere without my trusty rifle while making sure it was in perfect condition calmed me down.
Several weeks passed, and the journey was surprisingly not interrupted by anything worth mentioning. There was one encounter with the monstrous horses, yet Orthrus dealt with them without any problem. Which left my battle maniac of troops slightly disappointed. More importantly, though, the mechanical berserker was not seen ever since, whatever Medusa's action contained him or whether he lost track of us, was unknown.
Asking Persephone about Medusa's seemingly miraculous ability revealed, that Heracles was, in fact, not dead, but rather frozen. Frozen stretching the meaning of freezing. Rather than changing the temperature, below zero, his whole makeup was changed into the form of stable material, while also preserving his internal structure. This was something the science of my modern-day life, still did not figure out, so it left me with nothing more but to trust Persephone's explanation. Surprisingly, this new revelation seems to somehow relax Medusa a bit.
Which was great, as it led to her being able to communicate on a verbal level, even if only with me and for a few short sentences a day. It was progress if nothing else. Moreover, my acquaintance seemed to enjoy my musings about the magic, as she was often listening to my and Persephone's conversations about the topic.
We were crossing near the Dardanelles, when I was certain that, I finally managed to get all the components of the shield formulae down and was preparing to test it.
Compared to shield formulae I knew as an Aerial mage, the Olympian shield formula appeared a whole lot more complicated, at least when I put finally all the components together. It was tricky in such a way, that each component was easier to compute, but as a result, there were many more of them. A lot more compared to imperial formulae, which fit nicely together, almost to the point it might be called elegant. On the other hand, the shield formula as taught by Persephone, was anything but. This, of course, was not something to dissuade me from trying to apply it. It would be highly illogical to look at mathematics and demand functioning formulae to look pretty, as long as they got their job done.
So this one morning, before I and my group would march once again, I tried to use Olympian shield formulae for the first time. But the result was just as expected, besides a slight shimmer of light of a failed spell, nothing happened. Even if I managed to calculate all the components of the formulae faster, than their more complex imperial counterparts, there were just many more of them, which resulted in approximately the same complexity of the formula.
It would be the definition of insanity to try and attempt the formulae for the second time since the expected result would be exactly the same. As it was, more complex formulae were just impossible for me without the help of computation orb. After all, I might have been Ace of Aces in the Empire, during my second life, but as a mage, I was just average, compared to what supposed mages of legends could do.
After my unsuccessful attempt, I went to consult Persephone, in order to discover where exactly I failed and how I could improve. Only for Medusa to perform the shield spell flawlessly, although she appeared slightly surprised that she managed to get the spell down on the first try. This earned her congratulations from Persephone, and bewilderment from me, since Medusa was barely a beginner when it came to magic or mathematics. But apparently, she seemed to have the talents I lacked. It would be highly irrational for me to be jealous of her, since thanks to her seeming genius, she was now able to protect herself from immediate danger.
But as Medusa was a genius, who applied the spell on her first try, there might have been some merit in talking with her, since her perspective on the matter must be very different. My only fear was that she would answer by saying, that she simply did the spell without as much of an explanation.
"Medusa, if I may ask. How did you manage to cast the spell? But take your time, I can wait," I asked with patience regarding Medusa's mental state.
I could not be impatient with her, as she was finally starting to recover. So even if the explanation took a long time, probably a few more weeks, I would have to wait. While also having to make sure, not to pressure her into the conversation.
"Girls did, together," she said pointing at her snakes.
This of course left me confused, because I was not aware that the snakes had enough intelligence to perform complicated mathematical formulas. Then again, Medusa's daughters were more intelligent than an average snake and probably more than human children. But even the intelligence itself would not explain, how they managed to complete the formulae.
There must have been something more to the whole process, something I was not seeing. Luckily there was an experienced individual, who understood the Olympian kind of magic quite well.
"Miss Persephone, there seems to be some kind of fundamental difference, between the way I use magic and you and Medusa use magic. I have no problem computing each of the components separately, but calculating them sequentially into single formulae seems impractical," I explained my situation the the enthusiastic woman while trying not to sound completely incompetent, blaming my failure on the possible difference between two kinds of magic.
If I did sound too incompetent, she might think twice about offering me employment, and my chances of peaceful retirement would grow in a downward trend. For a moment Persephone was looking at me confused, thoughts rolling behind her eyes, in an attempt to analyze what I just said and formulate an answer.
"Oh! OH! That makes sense! I'm so sorry Miss Arachne! I assumed, that since you were using magic, you already figured it out! But if you are using magic as a single complex formula, that means you must be a genius! This is something unimaginable! To even think that it would be possible. Ah, but it makes sense, Miss Arachne. This is how the human brain thinks. I think you just discovered the way for humans to use magic! This is brilliant! Such pioneering idea, you must come to work with me and Hades, Miss Arachne, we can revolutionize the world!" she was taking my hands in hers, eyes sparkling with utter excitement!
In this very moment, she dangerously reminded me of Schugel just moments before he went to unleash Type 95 on the world.
"Persephone?" I asked her trying to calm her down, preparing for potential danger and planning my escape.
"Yes, sorry! This was rude of me, I will not do it, without your permission Miss Arachne. But it truly is fascinating! You are using your brain to do the computations," the dread queen said.
"How else would I do it?" I said confused, because I know of no other way how to calculate mathematical formulas.
"With your core of course. In your case, your soul, but the principle is the same. You make your soul compute all the different components of the formulae, all at the same time in parallel, which then recombines into the final effect, once all computations are finished. This is how the magic works for the Olympians, even the uplifted ones. If I remember correctly, Nike had a very similar problem to yourself. It took her 30 to 50 years to learn how to think with her soul. Sorry again for not realizing this sooner, Miss Arachne," explained Persephone.
This was revolutionary, I would have said if commies did not steel this word for themselves. But since they did, I was forced to think about another word. Needless to say Medusa's observation and the method of computing magic were certainly groundbreaking. The only problem with this method was, that I had no snakes attached to my head, who were mathematical geniuses and could think for me.
Alas Persephone's explanation did make sense. It was impossible to calculate one complex formula with a brain. The problem was, that I even as a modern-day human, was not capable of thinking in such a way. And while I had an out-of-body experience, thanks to that bastard Being X, I could not say that I was able to "think" with my soul.
Ever since my troops did die once again, to the unreasonable monster sent by the god-pretenders, and were subsequently revived by Persephone, at least those whose bodies did survive mostly intact, I was contemplating whether to do with them. It was clear that their humanity was causing them to suffer because they were accompanying a monster. On top of that, they had no ability to use magic, which made them, quite frankly, as much as durable as my first incarnation, which in this unreasonable world was not much. If was not inclined to believe that Being X was not involved this time, I would have gladly cursed him for wasting so many human resources. Perhaps this was his multilayered plan the whole time, he might be an incompetent idiot, but certainly, he was not stupid. And as much as I wanted to dehumanize, my troops, my perfectly trained meatshields, my precious human resources, I was not able to. It was the same as with my battalion back during my second life, in the beginning, they were nothing more than a means to an end, resources to be used. Yet eventually, all of them became my comrades and the same could be said about my current batch of troops.
Wouldn't that mean, that Being X actually won? Since I did find it my being, with too many complexes to even name them all, to care about someone on a personal level, to have compassion for them. No, that was not Being X's doing, that was a completely natural human reaction to increased levels of stress, with several life-and-death situations on top. Resulting in strengthening the bonds with my battalion and my current troops. Moreover, one of the Being X's conditions was to acknowledge him as one true god and pray to him. Because of this reason, Being X never won, if anything it was me who did win since I did not stoop so low as to pray to him.
Nevertheless, letting my troops follow me, would be a waste of their potential and lives. And that was something I, as an ex-human resources manager, could not allow. Moreover, they were not soldiers in the military admits a war, so there was no reason for them to lay their lives for unreasonable cause. And worse, sending them to their deaths, when it can be clearly and easily avoided would make me an incompetent commander. On top of it all, I, unlike Being X, despised wasting human resources.
Even though, knowing them, they were total battle maniacs and would gladly follow me into the most ridiculous battles, just to sate their need for adrenaline, something I could never understand. Thinking about it, they might do well as monster hunters, mercenaries who made this unreasonable world, a lot more reasonable. Alas, in this case, I would have to make sure that they do not reverse into their desire for piracy
"A-rachne? What are you doing?" Medusa's tiny voice caught my attention.
Despite the shock, from the Heracles's attack, she seemed to be getting somewhat better, at least to the point she was able to form some sentences. Besides listening to the conversations between myself and Persephone, Medusa also spent a lot of time around the two-headed dog. Her recovery process might as well have been expedited thanks to the presence of Orthrus since Medusa's daughters seemed to take to liking him, which then helped Medusa. And the monstrous two-headed dog was certainly a calm individual, more than someone of his stature would suggest. Perhaps he had talent as a therapy dog.
"These for my troops, they are a form of medals or rather awards. And also a form of payment for their services, since I can't send them home, or wherever they wish to go without any reward," I explained the trinkets I was making.
Since I had no precious metals on my person, I had to make them from local materials. But crafting something out of wood, or perhaps ceramic pottery would not suffice. For that exact reason, I decided to use my spider silk as a container for my silver blood. The silk itself could easily fetch a high price on the market, while the blood did serve as a way to heal otherwise unhealable wounds.
"You are sending them away?" my close acquaintance asked.
"Yes, the journey so far was dangerous. Most of them, who left their home island with me, died. The attack of the mechanical berserker resulted in more deaths, some of which are permanent," I explained my reasoning.
"Oh..." Medusa nodded.
I did not have to hear her say it out loud, but I could clearly see it on her face. She realized, just as much as I did, that my troops wouldn't take it easily. I would have to make an unquestionable argument, to persuade them to leave.
Of course, my troops did not take the news about being relieved of their service, lying down. No, instead they decided to fight my direct orders. This was one problem with the utmost loyalty they showed. Despite me being indirectly responsible for the deaths of their comrades. While the fault completely lay on the shoulders of the god-pretenders for all the suffering my troops and I went through, ultimately my troops would not have encountered so many dangerous situations, should they not kept close to me.
That was how we arrived the the current situation. After I awarded them with the "medals" and thanked them for their services and subsequently told them to leave and find occupation, that would not lead to their certain deaths, they of course vehemently refused and had full intention to return the pseudo-medals. Which I did refuse, because I had no other means to pay them. And as I was not certain yet, if I was going to work for Hades, I thus could not demand the potential salary in advance.
Therefore, a counterattack was necessary. I let my stubborn troops know of my displeasure with their conduct, and how wasteful it was in the human resources department since they would inevitably lose their lives if they kept following me. After this, I explained to them, that I had a near zero-tolerance policy for the idiocy, they were just displaying. Only for them to defend their stance by saying, such unreasonable things, as that the souls of their dead comrades were still around and therefore not technically dead.
It was not unusual for soldiers to keep saying that their dead comrades saved their lives, when in need. I certainly heard more than enough of such stories during my second life. But those were nothing more than soldier superstitions, more likely it was a combination of trauma and adrenaline making a mess of one's brain during combat. It would not be surprising if someone also hallucinated after an especially nasty injury or blood loss.
Yet, my troops were illogically refusing my explanation! Moreover, they doubled down on their desillusion, telling me, that not only were these supposed souls somewhere around us, but they were also able to actively communicate with their comrades, helping them in battles by providing additional information. And to top it all, they also accused me, with a fervor I've only ever seen in religious fanatics, of being responsible for keeping the souls of their dead comrades around, by singing Once I Had a Comrade! How absurd!
"Your retainer is right, Miss Arachne. There are a lot of unprocessed souls around. Even the ones that we lost the last time, are here. And many more, that should have been long taken care of by the Charon system. However, I do not think that it is because of the song. As beautiful as it was, I did not detect any use of magic when you were singing it, Miss Arachne. So in order to learn more, about why the souls were not recovered by the Charon system, I could perhaps send some of the souls for analysis in the Underworld. Though, I thought you knew, Miss Arachne, since a lot of them seem to coalesce around you," Persephone quipped in the conversation.
I was about to answer, that I, in fact, did not know about the souls, along with the question of how exactly she was aware of them, when my troops reacted highly emotionally against the notion of sending some of their disembodied comrades to the Underworld for analysis. Which was unexpected, as my troops were usually calm, or at least mission-focused.
Although, it sort of made sense. As contradictory as it might sound, my troops must have never suffered a real loss. First, their death on the island of Lemnos, before they joined me, was prevented thanks to the god-pretender's Athena's blood, which revived them almost instantaneously. And then, in every following battle, when some of them died, their souls stayed around. And now they were finally faced with the consequences. I was watching as the realization started to dawn on the Penthelesia and the rest of my troops.
If this did not break their resolve to unreasonably follow me, then nothing probably would, despite the arguments I presented.
It took several days for my troops to sort their thoughts among themselves. But eventually, most of them came to the right conclusion, and that was to accept their release from service, take the "medals" and do something with their lives, while they still could. A few stubborn individuals of course still proclaimed their unreasonable loyalty to me and decided, that their best option would be to guard my abandoned abode on the island of Lesbos. At least there should be no monsters, since I never encountered any on the island and they should also be able to hide among the local population should any god-pretender go to the island of Lesbos, in order to find me.