The lightning severed the head of the squid in one swift stroke, before diving into the sea and disappearing within its depths.
The sovereigns were all watching with expectant expressions, and as they saw how supremely effective this gambit had turned out to be, they had to stop themselves from turning to Eloise and praising her quick wit.
Complex formations always had one weakness: a sudden disturbance could result in the entire thing falling apart with disastrous consequences. This was exactly what had happened here - the more complex the formation, the deadlier these consequences would be, so as the backlash struck all the members of the family, agony shone on their faces as they were thrust into the sea that they had kept at bay for so long.
At this point, something unexpected happened - the lightning had also served the purpose of imbuing all of the surrounding water with its dangerous, yet majestic power, so the moment the Heroes were kissed by the water, they were forced to feel the taste of electrocution.
Content with the protective power of the formation, none of them had opted to waste Energy by conjuring their own barriers. Hence, it was too late now, and as the leftover lightning was strong enough to break through all of the defensive methods that activated from the trinkets they wore, it entered their bodies and started to burn them from within.
The elders were affected the hardest by this. Their frail bodies soon floated to the surface, still smoking from the charge of electricity that was continuously ravaging their bodies.
Even as their sons and daughters hastened to rid themselves of the attack and save these valuable members of their family, the sovereigns swooped down, as there would not be a better time for them to finish the task that they had started.
With a touch here and a touch there, Heroes were picked up one by one as if they were nothing but turnips thrown in the water to clean. They really had no choice but to watch with reddened eyes as they were handled without care, as all of their defenses were down while their bodies were severely injured to boot.
Thrilled by this development which had acted as an unforeseen boon, the sovereigns acted in the way they had discussed before - the primary targets were all the powerful Heroes whom they had decided not to fight before, and as the numbers of these individuals steadily decreased, they felt themselves filling up with confidence and the satisfaction of a job well done.
Only a few seconds were needed for them to finish the task, and by the time the first Hero left started to stir, only a couple of them and the elders were left.
The sovereigns did not fear such a paltry force, especially as all of them were in dire need of medical a.s.sistance.
"You know your situation as well as I do. The spell we cast before is still active on you lot - we have deactivated our own, so when the sharks break free of the paralysis that has been induced by the lightning, they will finally succeed in what they have been trying to do for all this time. If you wish, we will leave you to this fate, but there is another option - surrender, and your life is guaranteed. On my honor as one of the sovereigns of the glorious G.o.dking, I promise you this - none of your family has died, and none of you have to die. Surrender."
The Heroes who were left were all the weaker ones who had only been courageous before due to their strength in numbers. As they heard the speech, they turned left and right to look for those that they had relied on until now, but seeing that all of them were gone, they made the decision that would save their lives.
After all, this was the very reason behind the decision of the family to go over to the Church, so it came as no surprise to Eloise and the rest that these family members would choose the avenue given to them.
In this way, the last of the Heroes were scooped up and sent away, and all that was left were the elders.
Frail as they were, after all this time, they had just begun to recover, and among them, the fastest was elder Weimar.
Standing upon the surface of the sea while clutching a hole in his stomach that had been induced by an errant bolt that he had been unlucky enough to contest with, he spit blood into the water and said, "Well played. Well played, indeed. But how? Lightning is supposed to be untameable… Yet you… Yet you…"
His question faded away, as his eyes finally cleared enough to see what had been evident until now.
It wasn"t just them who had been burned - even the bodies of all five of those who stood in front of him were slowly smoking.
There were injuries all over their bodies, but their smiles were triumphant, so as soon as he saw this, the elder figured it out.
"You covered your bodies as best as you could… And let it flow through you?! Yes… The formation was enough to defend you, and the Black Raven"s black holes are also known to be able to conduct Energy well… Altogether, it was a perfect gamble! But if, if…it didn"t work, wouldn"t you have been injured as much as us? If it had gone wrong, wouldn"t we be the victors?"
In response, the sovereigns smile at each other, as Eloise flew forward.
They had disposed of the formation, but Faxul was on call to create black holes near whoever touched a member of the family.
They were not using typical teleportation formations as teleportation was, after all, unreliable in this place, so he was their means of transportation.
As she neared the elder to touch him on the shoulder and send him away, she smiled and gave the answer.
"Yes. If anything had gone wrong, we would be the ones lying in your place now. But even if that happened… I do not fear for my life, as he would have been here before we even hit the sea. And of course, he is the one who will judge you, and pa.s.s your sentence. Today, the tale of the Eskilon family shall end. Come."
…