The fields in which the Echer seeds had been planted and harvested was a spot just 30 minutes away from the border by walk. The Ker Gem mine just so happened to be in the center of this large area.
Since the moment when Sherry had run away from the guards and sent the message to the Black Raven King, only three minutes had pa.s.sed.
In the throne room of the Black Raven Kingdom, both the Black Raven King and the old man were watching the display on the trinket which was connected to the communication eye that was held by the leader of one of the groups sent on the mission.
These kinds of trinkets were actually very expensive and rare in the Central Continent, so it was a testament to the importance of the mission that the Black Raven Kingdom had taken out one of the few they had in their inventory to have the clearest information possible.
The plan was for this to be a quick grab and run.
"In position to teleport."
Hearing this message from the team leader indicating that they had reached the position from where they could directly teleport to near the mine, the old man took out a communication trinket and sent a message.
As soon as he did so, 2000 individuals teleported to a location a few hundred meters away from the western border gate of the Lanthanor Kingdom.
The soldiers who noticed this immediately sent the message with the superiors, making Lanthanor enter into a state of war preparation as it was suddenly under a.s.sault by 1000 mages.
What was puzzling was that none of the spies had been able to obtain any information that any Kingdom was planning to attack them.
Besides, no Kingdom was even known to have these many mages in the first place.
As soldiers and commanders started getting deployed to the western border gate in order to handle any situation that might occur, the strike teams of the Black Raven Kingdom immediately teleported to the field.
At the hole which Sherry had made, there was actually no one present.
Seeing this, both the Black Raven King and the old man smiled.
This was because the best case scenario had clearly occurred: the soldiers who had gone to chase the mine hunter were probably still sweeping the area to find her. As they were just normal soldiers who had never been exposed to Ker Gem mines, they must have no idea about what a hole in the ground which led to dark depths meant.
By the time the teleportation detection formation of the Lanthanor Kingdom went off and indicated the position of those who had breached, the Black Raven soldiers had already quickly entered the hole and plucked the 200 or so Ker Gems inside.
Expecting resistance, the number of soldiers who had teleported over was actually 2000, with 150 of them being Amateur Human Magees, 20 of them being Eminent Human Mages, 500 of them being Eminent Human Fighters and the rest Amateur Human Fighters.
These many Eminent and Amateur Human Mages were required because they had to teleport everyone over.
It took only 30 seconds for all the gems to be collected, but when the force immediately tried to teleport out, they shook their head seeing that s.p.a.ce lock trinkets had already been deployed.
Indeed, the forces of the Lanthanor Kingdom had arrived.
Yet, hearing the information about the number from the Ravens which were circling in the air as lookout, the Black Raven soldiers sighed with relief.
There were only 1000 soldiers here, with no commanders to be seen.
Thinking that they were all probably busy with the situation at the western border, the Black Raven King reiterated the order he had given before.
"Kill them all and return to the kingdom."
Of the 1000 soldiers, most were just Amateur Human Fighters. There seemed to be only a single Eminent Human Fighter who was shocked seeing so many people here.
Yet, just as the strike team was about to leap forward and begin the killing alongside the Ravens which they had called back to their shoulders, the King of Lanthanor appeared in front of them in a display trinket that was held by the Eminent Human Fighter who was the leader of the 1000 Lanthanorian soldiers.
"Stop! Don"t attack! These are just regular soldiers! We can talk about this, Tenebrol. I know you are watching. We can split the Ker Gems. Just don"t attack!"
To both the old man and the Black Raven King, this just sounded like a ploy to delay them so that reinforcements could arrive.
It never even crossed their minds that this was probably their last chance to step back from the disaster they were about to face.
Without any hesitation, the Black Raven King said to the team leader, "Did I ask you to stop? Kill as quickly as possible and return to the Kingdom."
…
In the air above the scene, Daneel sighed as he saw the Black Raven Soldiers launch a volley before beginning to move forward.
The fireb.a.l.l.s and arrows they had launched would reach the soldiers of the Lanthanor Kingdom in just a few seconds, following which a ma.s.sacre would surely begin.
Beside him stood Faxul, who was also looking at the scene with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Faxul, I gave them one last chance, but they still chose their doom. Unless that Kingdom is liberated from that person who"s controlling everything, only more deaths will occur."
Faxul, who knew what was going to happen next, looked on with silence as tears started to emerge in his eyes.
On one side were the people whom his father loved, and on the other were those who belonged to the Kingdom that had taken him in and raised him. Both were his people, and he had no idea whom he would choose if he were given the choice.
Nodding, he turned away as he did not wish to see what would happen next.
Seeing this, Daneel sighed and spoke into a communication trinket in his hand.
"Activate the trap."
BOOM
Numerous explosions rocked the earth under the Black Raven soldiers, blowing them into the air.
It was all over in just a few seconds. As the dust settled, the 2000 soldiers and beasts were lying lifelessly on the ground.
The only ones who survived were the Eminent Human Fighters and a few Amateur Human Fighters who were lucky. As for the Ravens, those in the air fell to the ground due to the shock that came from having the connection with their companion severed. The few who lived launched an attack on the soldiers, but were stopped by the barriers which had sprung up to block the attacks launched towards them.
As the smell of burning flesh reached them where they stood in the air, Faxul cried without abandon for the first time in his life.
These were all soldiers who had families waiting for them back home.
Wives who would henceforth have to live as widows.
Husbands whose lives would be shattered because their wives would not be returning home.
Children who would have to grow without a parent.
The images of the people they had seen during the expedition flashed through both of their minds, as even Daneel couldn"t help but look down at his hands which were now stained with so much blood.
Even though this was the second time he was carrying out a ma.s.sacre, it was different as he had at least been clouded by anger during the incident before when he had given the order to kill all the sect members of the Withering Leaf Sect.
With no such emotion to s.h.i.+eld him now, he felt a crippling guilt that he tried to put away as he knew very well that the other option would be seeing his people die just like before.
He even knew that this definitely wouldn"t be the last time that such a thing would happen. If he were back on Earth, he would be tried for ma.s.s genocide despite the fact that he was doing it to save his own people.
Yet, on Angaria, such things were common.
The knowledge that he was only doing this to save even more people did nothing to stop the pain he was feeling right now.
Knowing that this was something he would have to deal with himself, he turned around to grasp Faxul"s shoulder before teleporting them back to near Palace.
The first part of their plan was successful so far, and it was now time to go back to the Black Raven Kingdom.
After walking inside, Daneel spoke with a slightly cold tone.
"Faxul, we do not have the luxury of time. Put the pain away and prepare to follow the plan. If you cannot fulfill your end, the death count will rise much higher than necessary. Remember that."
"I"m ready. Let"s go kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
Hearing the reply, Daneel was startled but happy, as he had been expecting that Faxul would just walk away like before.
Nodding with determination, he went into his chambers.