"Why is it that I keep updating my definition of h.e.l.l?"
This was the question that floated through Daneel"s mind as he lay asleep, surrounded by teams of Heroes who were all actively trying to one-up each other to heal him.
"Hey, I"m not a laboratory experiment! Just give me an unlimited source of Energy and leave me alone!"
He wished that he could scream this out loud…but the only problem was, that he had no mouth.
In fact, if anyone looked at him, they would wonder whether he was even human.
That was exactly the state that Daneel was in, and just as he was about to ask the system whether it really was possible to use his Mageroot just once, he saw a wizened woman enter the room and make everyone else shut up.
She had an aura that Daneel had never seen before, and her face had the authority that was capable of making a room of Heroes quiet.
"We are all Heroes, but he is the real hero. Without him, we would all be slaves, right now, moving against our will to do the bidding of the Church. Move. If ever I was going to break my oath, it should be now. Otherwise…my dear Ragnarov will never forgive me."
Her voice had the unique quality of one who was perfect to give care- it could calm down anyone, and make them feel as if they were in the best hands possible.
Daneel instantly felt a soothing sensation as he heard her.
In the room filled with silence, she walked forward, and the moment her gaze fell on him, she couldn"t help but suck in a sharp breath.
Indeed, that was the reaction that even Daneel had had when he had seen himself.
After his crack decision that had been taken with full knowledge that there was a 40% chance that he would die, the last thing he remembered was remarking how…beautiful, the crust of the continent was.
He had managed to catch a glimpse of it before the explosion, and what he had seen had awed him. Like stars in the night sky, the cave he was in had many twinkling spots far above, with various colors that all winked playfully as they welcomed their first guest in countless years.
The entire place was even made up of a dazzling material, as if the stone, itself, was inlaid with diamonds of all colors that shone brilliantly no matter where he looked.
In fact, it was so pretty that Daneel had felt pity that he had come here to destroy it, but in the next moment, the system had activated the process.
Even on Earth, everyone knew that an explosion was probably the best route when one wanted to destroy something. A punch, or any other attack would not carry enough power, and many objects had to be struck as hard as possible a single time if the intention was to break them apart.
An argument could be made that advanced magic spells could be used to simulate explosions, but the problem here was time. At present, the fastest method available was to spontaneously combust absorbed Energy to result in an explosive amplified release, and that was why Daneel had settled on the mosquito plan.
However…could the Energy absorbed by mosquitoes in a short span even compare with what was present in the body of a Peak Champion level Fighter?
The difference was momentous, and that was the only reason why he had decided on this plan: if the objective was to completely break apart the weakened crust using a chain reaction, then a large enough blast was needed.
Of course, to those who were looking on, it might seem as if it might be better to send a Hero, probably an evil one, to blow themselves up so that they could unleash even more Energy, and also not place Daneel at risk. After all, he was essential for the survival of the continent as there was only one of him and one of the system, but Heroes were numerous.
The problem with this was twofold: one, there was no time. There had literally been only seconds until the actual force of the Church would be unleashed, so there was definitely not enough time to find a Hero, set up everything necessary to blow them up, and send them down to do so.
Two, for this spontaneous combustion to happen, the set up was not simple. It was almost like an engine that took fuel and used it to run a car. This could be expected of something that was engineered to do so, but it was just absurd to take a pile of iron or other metals, which was exactly what the engine was made of, and expect it to do the same thing.
The mosquitoes had been created by the system to blow up. And because each and every inch of Daneel could be accessed by the system in the most minute of manners…it could carry out the same changes to make him blow up.
In conclusion, only he had to go, so he hadn"t hesitated.
It had happened without any countdown, and perhaps that was for the best. If there was one, he might even have gone crazy with panic.
Daneel had been debating until then whether he should tell the system to block off his sense of pain just this time. This was a feature he hadn"t used much in all these years, as he had always believed that going through pain was something that really built up one"s character, and there were even studies back during the Empire that it might have a beneficial effect on one"s consciousness.
This time, though…it was different.
He knew what was going to happen- all of the Energy that he had absorbed with so, so much effort back in that pool would be made to enter an "excited" state, where it was unstable, before it would wreck his body and be exposed to the air to result in a fantastic exhibit of power that would save Angaria.
His debate had carried on right until the moment when it happened, and right away, Daneel felt himself almost lose his sanity, which made him scream, "BLOCK IT OFF! BLOCK IT!"
[Acknowledged. Disconnecting host"s consciousness from physical body. Blocking off pain reception.]
That one instant, itself…would definitely haunt him for a long, long time.
He had felt it all- in almost each and every centimeter of his flesh and blood, the Energy that had been absorbed over all these years was made to lose its stable state.
Like a nuclear reaction, their instability was manipulated to exit the body before resulting in the explosion, but of course, Daneel would be affected by quite a lot of it.
At that instant…he had found the limit of pain that one could feel, and he never, ever wanted to go even close that limit, ever again.
When he was done, the system had sent him the images outside.
It had taken only a few seconds for Axelor to be cut off, and that part of the crust had strangely lost that glow which had dazzled Daneel before.
Did it represent something? Daneel didn"t know, and neither did the system.
The Head had safely teleported him away to a secure and hidden location after that, which was where he was right now, but the system was still able to tell him what was going on at that spot due to a communication eye he had deployed before his travel to h.e.l.l.
Presently, there was a few kilometers of distance between Angaria and the separated Axelor, and right after this separation, the terrifying things that one would have to battle if they were on a piece of land too small to form a Will of the World were exposed.
First, the untouchable, unfeelable yet always present veil which allowed Angaria to enjoy pleasant weather(among other things) instead of the thunder-filled skies over the Endless Sea could be seen parting to let out this part.
As soon as that had happened, the sky over that area had changed, and thunder had begun to strike down with the vehemence of one who could finally show their power on someone, or something.
Daneel was able to see it strike the settlements he hadn"t been able to teleport away, and each death that he saw due to it struck his heart.
Their fearful, hopeless and lost expressions were etched into his mind, and he had to work very, very hard to look away from them, and stop thinking about how he had failed them.
He had seen that change over the Priest and the words spoken, and they had sent a chill down his spine, or at least, what was left of it.
Indeed, this was only a battle, as the war was yet to come. And just like she(whoever she was) had declared, it was here much sooner than any of them had expected.
After this, a large group of Heroes had appeared around the Priest.
Seeing them, Daneel had felt instant relief due to the fact that he had made this sacrifice.
They were a thousand strong, and all of them…were Peak Heroes.
Such a force…would have no trouble whatsoever, if they had access to Angaria.
Thankfully, that was exactly what he had denied them. The defenses of the Order were in full effect: teleportation of such a large force was impossible, and they couldn"t exactly fly over, either, which was what they would have done if Axelor were still on Angaria"s map, as they would now have to contend with the beasts of the sea which had all already started to gather around, smelling extremely tasty prey.
Even the bigwigs of the Sea, the Hero-level creatures were present, so combined with the offense that the Order could now deploy as there were many formations that were set up against just such an a.s.sault and the attacks of the beasts, an attack would be disastrous. Success was almost out of the equation, and a majority of them would die even in the first minute.
It was clear that the one who had spoken was smart enough to realize this- she gave the order to use the power of these one thousand Heroes to take them back, but it was obvious that there were also other things which would be used in this process. Daneel had gotten a sickening doubt regarding whether another blood sacrifice would be carried out, but the declaration made it clear that they would be taken back.
And thus, the monsters, along with his sovereigns(who were awake) and the Heroes whom Daneel had "demonsterified" over all this time watched as the threat which had come so close- too close, even, to wiping out their home drifted away, beyond their sight, before erecting opaque barriers to stop them from observing what they were doing.
The last sight that Daneel would remember of them was the faces of the Axelorians, who had all been extremely frightened, not knowing how their lives had completely changed in such a short period of time. It was unbelievable that only a few minutes had pa.s.sed, in total, since the death of the ent.i.ty, so Daneel"s backup plans really had to be praised for this victory, as they had been able to be deployed so effectively in such a short span of time.
Elders, women, children- all of them had been seen scurrying around scared, and Daneel had even imagined them looking at him, blaming him for declaring that he was the savior of Angaria, but failing so spectacularly when it came to so many Angarians.
It was a crus.h.i.+ng feeling. There was no other way to describe it- he felt as if the weight of the world was actively crus.h.i.+ng him, and it was a ch.o.r.e to even think past it.
That finally brought him to the present- the wizened woman controlled her reaction, and after that, weirdly, she activated a communication eye and took a picture.
A display popped up to show the result, and if it was shown to anyone normal, they would scream with fear.
All that was left of the King…was the vestiges of a skeleton, a few pounds of the brain, and a few frazzled, almost wire-like things which was the nervous system.
"After I pull this off, I"ll be a legend. Boy…you saved us, so we won"t waste this chance to save you. Even if we have to make Angaria go dry, you will live. So just go to sleep, if you"re still awake in there, as this is going to take some time. Sweet dreams."
The soothing voice returned, and it was extremely suggestive.
Feeling himself being lulled into a state of sleep, the King gave in, and the woman got to work.
Long into the night, she worked, and come morning, she exited the tent, exhausted.
"I"ve done all I can. Let"s see what happens."
Saying so, she started to leave, but it was not before turning back one last time.
In the silence, she spoke, and it was as if she echoed the voice of all the Angarians who had the King in their thoughts.
"Boy…No, King…You must live. You must live and see that your sacrifice was worth it. You must live to see that it has not been wasted. And above all…you must live to feel our grat.i.tude. Please…live.