The only one who heard him was Galahad. While the void in the sky grew larger and larger, he could feel tiny reverberations in his feet. The center was floating in the air, but even it was affected by what the man-made of golden lightning was doing to the core of the continent.
The four beside him also snapped out of it when the shaking became more perceptible. They all turned to Daneel, and with a resolute nod, they disappeared, beginning the journey to their stations.
"In the end, I stand alone, but I don"t feel lonely. I feel them all behind me, even if they aren"t present… and somehow, it feels fitting."
With this thought, he looked to the sky again, where the mouth had already grown larger than the size of Angaria. At its corners, he could see elementary particles running away as if being pursued by a monster. The phenomenon was interesting, but he didn"t have the luxury to be able to study it.
"Is everything ready?" He asked, and the answer came after a second.
"Yes."
Now that the time to carry out their plan was among them, he could hear a slight shake in even Galahad"s voice. Recognizing this made him feel the nervousness that had snuck up on him, too, but like a war-tested general, he was able to shove it aside.
A fit of madness suddenly overtook him. He walked to the throne and sat down. Resting one hand on his leg, he raised the other to the sky and shouted, "Today, I lose… but one day, you will pay!"
He then turned to the land, where no one was listening. Yet, he spoke to the Will of the World, and he didn"t care whether it understood him and not.
"I thanked everyone, but I almost forgot you… thank you for being a rock I could always rely on. Your trust will not go to waste. Mother… it is time to rest."
Finally, he turned to the ground directly beneath him. With a spell, he looked through the layers of the earth. Galahad was the one who had given to him, so he peered right into the core of the continent… where millions of people had been stacked into neat piles, waiting to be used. Around them, the Energy of the core glowed dimly. Where before it had been luminescent enough to drown out even the sun in intensity, it was waning, now, but slowly, as the seconds pa.s.sed, the glow seemed to be growing brighter, as if to go out with one last burst of energy.
Here and there, Daneel could see golden lightning flying through the air. As always, the core was in the form of stalagmites and stalact.i.tes that grew in a series of caves that traveled throughout the entire bedrock of the continent, and right now, Galahad was traveling between them all, touching each in turn and bidding them to rise to the occasion. It was something only he knew how to do, and as Daneel watched the man"s actions, he was spellbound by how intricate they were. What he was doing would require an understanding of the Will of the World that was beyond him, at the moment, and once again, he was thankful that he had the system. It would record everything, so he could leisurely study everything later.
All of his thoughts ground to a halt when a pinp.r.i.c.k of light appeared in the middle of that large void in the sky. All of a sudden, vibrations of the sort that had never been felt by anyone on Angaria before the war surrounded the entire continent, and at once, Daneel recognized them to be the tell-tale signs of large-scale dimensional magic being used.
The pinp.r.i.c.k began to grow larger, eating away at the void in the same way that the void had devoured the sky of Angaria. Daneel didn"t know the principles of the spell that was being cast, but he saw that a counterbalance, of sorts, was being pursued. The more the orb grew brighter, the more intense the darkness tried to swallow away the light, causing a sort of struggle that could blind anyone looking on from the surface of Angaria.
The vibrations were also growing stronger and stronger. They seemed to be betraying the amount of power being used to cast the spell, and at one point, it almost seemed as if Daneel glimpsed through a veil that was present in the air to a world of blinking lights that he couldn"t make sense of.
The vision was gone in barely a moment. He began to wonder what it was, but then, the system sent an urgent message.
[Peak approaching. According to system"s calculations, attack will commence in 10, 9…]
The countdown actually gave him peace. After waiting for so long, it was finally time, and with a clear brow and straight shoulders, he remained on the throne and even leaned back so that the entire void could enter his vision. Like a monarch reveling in the last moment of his rule while the enemy arrived to throw him off the throne, he grinned and waved his hand, goading them onwards.
Already having overshadowed the sun completely, the brightness of the new star in the middle of the void in the sky was such that its glow suffused the air of all of Angaria. Everything took on a white sheen, like a photo that had been overexposed, and as the countdown reached within four seconds of the impact… Daneel shot to his feet and shouted, "Do it!"
He disappeared in the next instant, while at the same time, the crystal-like outgrowths all over the core of Angaria… crumbled to dust.
The dust swam in the air for a moment, with each particle s.h.i.+ning with a light that came from itself. And when the system reached the number "2"… they all exploded.
Two things happened at the same time.
One, the sun in the middle of the void created by the Saints disappeared. In its place, there came a nothingness that was somehow even deeper than the darkness around it, and a second later, a flood of radiant yellow light engulfed the nothingness before pouring downward, to Angaria. Now, the objective of the ring of darkness became clear. It directed the flood, making it target only the land below.
Two, Daneel appeared in the middle of the millions of unconscious Angarians who had been unaffected by the explosion of the last of the Energy of the core. They had been placed beforehand so that the wave of destruction that had been caused would only travel upwards and not toward them, and as he took his place in the middle of his four sovereigns who were each pointing in a different direction, he felt gravity suddenly disappear.
For an instant, they hung in the air peacefully.
Then… the world collapsed.
Angaria sank into the sea. Looking up, Daneel saw the ripples of destruction travel in the pathways they had created so that it would bolt through the land of the continent, breaking apart its ma.s.s so that it would have no way to stay afloat. It wasn"t as straightforward as that, but at its essence, both the disappearance of the Energy that the world relied on to exist and the weakening of its foundations gave it no other choice but to embrace the Sea that it had staved off for so many eons.
It was timed perfectly. The flood of light from the void above was almost like a dazzling waterfall that could be admired if it did not possess the ability to destroy anything and everything that came in its path. It was pure destruction, distilled to perfection, and against it… no Hero stood a chance.
"But I am no normal Hero."