This thought was accompanied by another heart-lurching feeling that was indicative of another a.s.sault on the defenses of the King above, but after steeling herself and resisting the urge to look up, Joselyn continued.
With the help of the mage who had acted as her first officer in her travels, she flew across the vast field and noted the positions of the people.
The Lanthanorians had been the quickest to move after she had spoken. They were already in place, and because of who they were, they didn"t need a representative to declare their fealty.
The Arafellians were the group who were closest to finis.h.i.+ng, next. Because the majority were ready, they had already sent up a trinket that would activate when the time to unify was nigh. Their representative was, of course, their Queen, and already, many heads were frequently looking up, antic.i.p.ating the moment when they could see that woman whom they followed so ardently again.
The Black Ravens were close behind the Arafellians, but wait…where were the a.s.sa.s.sins?
Looking around, Joselyn tried to spot the mysterious men, women, lizard men and lizard women who moved so stealthily that they made no sound, and after a few moments, she realized that she had been wrong: these a.s.sa.s.sins had been the first, but because they stood so still that one tended to look over them, she had been tricked into thinking that these people who had followed the King since so long ago had dallied.
Last were the elves, and seeing this, Joselyn frowned.
Looking at the mages around her, she knew that she had the power to force them together if needed. h.e.l.l, that was practically what the King had asked her to do, too, in case there was a delay.
Her thoughts were interrupted by another feeling of dread due to the attacks overhead, but this time, she gave in, and looked up.
She managed to look straight into the eyes of the King, who seemed to be looking at her, in turn, and at that moment, she knew the answer.
This was not the time for old grievances to come to the fore.
"All of you, with me! If any elves cause trouble, try talking to them first, but if it doesn"t work, just disable them and fly them to their zone! Let"s speed it up! We"re only around a half-hour away from the deadline!"
…
Seeing Joselyn make the right decision by reading her lips with the help of the system, Daneel tried to distract himself from the stark reality of the situation in front of him.
He had been holding out quite well, but the cost was visible right in front of his eyes.
Multiple large, hooded men knelt in front of him, healing themselves as quickly as they could, while above, their brethren braced themselves for another attack from the hawk.
BANG!
They had started to get injured in pairs since a few minutes ago, and as two of them fell and stopped moving, two of the Heroes hastily rose to take their place.
Gritting his teeth on seeing this, Daneel spoke in his mind.
"Status update."
[Defenses are at 36%. Probability of next attack breaking through: 54%. Time to official unification: 23 minutes. Probability of host surviving until the appointed time: 9%.]
"Not enough time!"
As this thought echoed in Daneel"s mind, he barely controlled himself from looking up at Vohler with anger.
This was probably the plan he had spent the most time on, so far, so it was infuriating to know that it was which was going wrong the most. His defensive matrix had been built with a lot of painstaking effort with the goal of holding out until the end, but by now, it was obvious that it wouldn"t be enough.
There was no other way in which this could have gone. To the Church, unification meant that there was a chance that he could take control of the Grand Inheritance and drive them away, much as the Emperor had done to the force that had come before. Even if they judged that the probability of this happening was low, it was definitely not something they could leave up to chance.
Looking around at his Heroes, again, Daneel knew that it was now time to make a decision.
These mindless beings had been his most loyal army. Even though that loyalty was forced, he felt a kins.h.i.+p with them, and over time, Daneel realized that he had gotten to thinking that he was helping them do their duty to the man they had sworn themselves to so long ago.
This made it all the harder to reach the decision that he knew was necessary if he wanted to save all of the continent, but after looking up at the Hawk which was swooping low once again with an almost triumphant look in its eyes, he sighed and gave the order.
"Deploy backup plan-1."
…
Above Daneel, Vohler was holding his breath as he saw the Hawk reach closer and closer to its target.
He had made the calcultions, so he knew that the King"s defenses would fail very, very soon.
Something told him that it was going to happen on this attack, itself, so he leaned forward with an almost hungry look on his face.
His eyes darted between the beak of the hawk and the dome whose glow had dimmed by a large amount since its activation, and as the descent reached its final stage, he could almost see it going through and impaling the King to end him for good, once and for all.
CRACK!
With a loud sound that sounded a lot like thousands of pieces of gla.s.s breaking at once, the dome really did shatter, causing a rare expression of euphoria to appear on Vohler"s face.
This was it!
A bright flash of light erupted from the dome after it broke, and even though it obscured the vision of everyone looking on, Vohler was sure that it would only subside to reveal a dead, or dying King, as there was no way for a Champion, no matter how strong he was, to resist the strength of hundreds of Peak Heroes.