Chapter 801 Contac
Even though it looked to the outside world as if the King of Lanthanor was unconscious, the truth was that he was in a half-waking state in which the system was constantly showing him what was happening in the place that he had been bound.
It had notified him the moment he had been shifted to someplace else, following which it had given him information about a strange and almost puppet-like army that had been teleported from some location.
After this, peculiarly, he had been told that the one who had abducted him had taken on a very strange shape for some reason and looked like they were waiting for someone to show up.
Of course, Daneel knew who that was, and even though he was a bit worried, there really was none of the panic or slight fear that he had felt in all the times that his life had been threatened so far.
Perhaps it was because of the fact that it was in the hands of his sovereigns now, whom he had seen grow in front of his eyes.
Or perhaps it was because everything that was going on right now did not really make sense, and so far, in all situations where this was the case, it had turned out that things might not be as they seemed.
Still, Daneel did not get complacent in any manner, even though his gut told him that there was something just off about all this that even the system had not been able to detect, for once.
This was the place indicated by his master, and that man had always been very thorough in everything he had done. Be it the way he had saved Daneel from having his motives exposed to the then King by covering his induction of the Domination Corps in a barrier, or how he had crafted a very careful plan to notify him about the truth that he was not supposed to know about, Master Jonah had always exhibited a tremendous intellect that had been buried for the many years when he had pretended to be a hopeless drunk who was just mooning about those he had lost day in and day out.
Still… The only reason that Daneel was not convinced of this was that there was a remote possibility that his plans might have been hijacked, and a trap might have been lain for him at this place. This possibility could not be ignored, but even if it was true, and even if his real powers had somehow been exposed as had been claimed by the one who had abducted him, there was one thing that no one knew about or could account for.
The system.
Even with that, though, in the worst case, things would be pretty dangerous, so Daneel was on complete high alert all while faking that he was just a helpless prisoner who could only stay asleep, unaware of his subordinates fighting for him and the bizarre figure of the individual who was about to break through the layers of barriers he had on him so that he could end his life.
The only thing he wished was that he could somehow notify this to his sovereigns, but it was too risky.
He could see Luther clearly - the man who had mostly been silently managing the Hidden Kill Sect all these years had more emotions on his face than any time that Daneel had seen him yet, and this showed just how much he meant to him.
It wasn't just Luther. After he announced those words, hope appeared in all the other Sovereigns who were beside him, and they all leaned forward, ready to move whenever they got a chance.
In all these years, Luther had built a very astute sense of intuition which told him that there was something he was missing about this entire scenario, but currently, there was no time to dwell on the matter, because the hellish army which was still screaming as if they were all tortured animals instead of the distinguished soldiers they looked like were holding their weapons aloft and were almost upon them.
"Steady!"
Back before Aran and Cassandra had even entered the Army, he had been the chief commander who had loyally carried out all of the war campaigns of the King of Lanthanor, no matter how baseless or useless they were. He had only stepped down after the two young soldiers in whom he had seen potential had risen out of the ranks, and he had trained them in everything that he knew.
Yet, in this situation, he still took the reins, as it was just too sensitive.
It all came back to him right away, and Luther had no trouble at all in acting like the veteran commander who had once terrorized the armies of those who dared to go up against him on the battlefield.
His voice was filled with iron resolve which echoed with all those who had formed the thorny turtle shell, and with each second, the fireballs that were being conjured by the mages kept growing bigger and bigger, all while they were controlled carefully between their hands.
As for the Fighters, they had already enlarged trinkets which turned into bows, and a quiver of arrows was ready at their waists to be drawn and shot forward into the enemies bodies as soon as they entered a range where the arrows would be lethal.
When Luther and the rest had appeared at the lip of the cave, there had been half a kilometer of distance between them and the Army. The cave was just that humongous, and that had partially been the reason behind him choosing to make their stand here, instead of entering the cave and getting themselves surrounded on all sides.
Strategically, this was the best move, and there were also different reasons for it, which soon became clear.
The distance started to decrease bit by bit, and exactly as the front ranks of the 2000 strong army reached within 300 m of them, he shouted, "Deploy the Cheerful Welcome!"
In an instant which occurred so suddenly that their opponents had no chance to spot it and prepare, the formation winked out of existence, and as one, all 200 members of the Domination Corps took out hidden trinkets from a pocket in the small of the back and launched them accurately right into the midst of their opponents.
"Detonate!"
With a roar that was quickly silenced by another one that radiated throughout the entire cave and made the entire place tremble as if it was being struck by an earthquake, multiple explosions appeared within the ranks of the Army.
The shockwaves started to radiate outward, but the turtle shell which had immediately come back into existence even as those trinkets had been in the air protected the Domination Corps. Hence, they only wrought havoc on those nearby in the army who hadn't been in the vicinity of the blasts.
Add to this the fact that those trinkets had also been covered in shrapnel which shot out at incredible speeds after the explosions, it was not a pretty sight to see at all.
Luther had no qualms at all, though, and all he needed was the dust storm to settle so that he could see how much of an effect they had had.
This was war. Any force would do anything for victory, and this wasn't even one of the most nefarious methods he had seen armies deploy.
The hellish Army looked like it had stopped due to this attack, and for the moment, the dust cloud covered most of them. Even the ones who were visible had their backs turned to them, but a barrier had come into place protecting them, as otherwise, they would have been completely exposed when they were unprepared.
It would be dumb for the Domination Corps to attack now as their opponents had already deployed all sorts of safety methods. Any subsequent attacks would be blocked for this reason, preventing them from using the moment of surprise they had created. Hence, Luther didn't give any additional orders.
"I think at least 300 of them should be dead. I saw that many in the area of impact!"
Eloise said this in a hopeful tone, and Luther nodded. The mages had the extra responsibility of allowing the trinkets to accelerate and make sure that they reached their target before any additional defensive measures popped up, so their effectiveness was supposed to be quite high.
Yet… As the dust settled, they were presented with a horrifying sight.
Eloise was right - 300 of them had been affected, as they had not been quick enough to deploy additional barriers. Their normal defensive barriers had apparently been destroyed right away due to the explosion, and many grave injuries could be seen. More than 200 had their faces mauled even though most of them were covered by masks, and all 300 had various bleeding injuries on their bodies, with a few dozen even having lost some of their limbs.
Only… Instead of panicking, each affected individual was carefully bandaging their wounds as if they felt no pain, after which they carefully picked up their limbs and put them back where they belonged with a simple spell that was only designed to stick them to the body, instead of applying any healing methods.
"RRRAAAWWRRRR!!!"
But after this activity was over, it was as if a switch had been thrown again, as all 2000 once again began running in their direction.
The Sovereigns and the Domination Corps were struck completely speechless.
What… The hell were they facing here?
Were these things even human?
Thankfully, Elanev's mocking words brought them back to their senses.
"Hmph. A bunch of undead, probably. Don't panic, people. They're just a type of Army that were used during the Empire. They're made up of dead people, and all you have to do is mince them into bits until they can't tell whose bits are whose. Simple, isn't it? Let's just do that."
He said it in such a nonchalant manner that it almost took them out of this bizarre situation that they found themselves in, and it allowed the soldiers to once again focus on what was in front of them.
Luther smiled appreciatively at Elanev, after which he shouted, "He's right. After we're done with them, they'll just be a puddle of flesh and bones! Draw!"
All of them knew that they were only saying these things to not succumb to the fear that would spring up in anyone whenever they saw inhuman monstrosities like these out for their blood, but they still ignored all of their instincts and just followed orders.
This was their king. Even if they had to handle even more grotesque things, they would do so with a smile.
The sound of bows being drawn back was heard, and 150 arrows were ready to be launched in the matter of a few seconds.
At the 200 m mark, Luther shouted, "Fire!"
BANG!
If anyone had been thinking that these were normal bows and arrows, the sound that was given off by each one as their arrows were sent shooting forward made it clear that the Domination Corps were decked out in the best equipment possible.
Each bow was like a cannon, and it put such a stress on the one using it that all of them had to be tucked away. Yet… the effects were tremendous.
The arrows actually had the ability to revolve in a corkscrew motion, thus satisfying the main principles that were required to break through a barrier which were revolutionary motion and piercing power.
Although the Army was prepared, again, the arrows caught them off guard, and before new barriers could come into being, all of the arrows find the remarks.
Yet… Once again, the soldiers fell down, and then continued their inexorable march forward as if they had no sense of pain.
At the hundred meters mark, Luther shook his head and shouted, "Prepare for close-quarters combat!"
Pikes were drawn by those at the bottom, and those at the top carefully uncovered various materials that they had brought with them in the form of trinkets that were stored in many places around the body. They were caskets of burning oil, more explosive trinkets, shrapnel spreading projectiles and all sorts of nasty stuff that no one would want to see coming down upon them from above.
There was another surprise waiting for them, though, because at the hundred meters mark, all of the 2000 members unitedly cast a spell.
It was a simple ice prick, and they were hurled at their defensive barrier.
If it were a few hundred, it might not have been so bad.
But 2000 revolving ice pricks shot together… Made the barrier almost break.
"Replace! Replace!"
Luther screamed this frantically, and due to the fact that this had been rehearsed many, many times, even though they had barely a second, the Domination Corps managed to replace the trinkets with fresh ones that had much more Energy stored within them. This was quicker than shifting out the Energy resources powering the trinkets, so thankfully, by the time the 2000 screaming and bloody soldiers reached them, they were all once again completely in defense mode.
"Thorny Turtle Bites Back!"
With this shout, the pikes started to fiercely assault all those who had started to use all of their weapons to bang on the formation with the intent of breaking through with sheer brute force, and at the same time, all of the attacks started to rain down from above.
Complete mayhem had broken out, with the Domination Corps desperately trying to hold back so many more than themselves, and the Sovereigns quickly realized that this was definitely not going the way they had intended.
They could now estimate the power of the army because they had begun to fight, and what they had seen…was that each of the 200 individuals all had strength at the Eminent Warrior Realm.
As for the Domination Corps…they were mostly comprised of just Amateur Warriors.
The rest of the sovereigns saw this and had started to think about what the f*ck they could do, but as was her duty, Eloise noticed something else.
"See that guy? He keeps turning around and doing something with a trinket that is causing a very minute elementary particle disturbance in this group. I'm almost sure that… He's controlling them in some manner! If you kill him, perhaps something will happen to these things, too?"
Luther whirled around as he heard this, and even Elanev looked at Eloise with surprise.
Cassandra confirmed it, and Aran also muttered that they should have seen this before.
Seeing the way the skirmish was unfolding, Luther made a crack decision.
"Alright, then. Eloise, Robert, Kellor and I will stay here and reinforce this regiment while making sure that they don't breakthrough. The rest of you… Go show them what we're made of. No time to talk. I know our place, and you should know that yours is in front of that thing. If we could compete in terms of our power with you, we would have come, too, but we would just hold you back. Go!"
Faxul and the rest got slightly difficult expressions as the heard this, but his last statement wiped those away and made them activate all sorts of defensive trinkets before flying forward.
Strangely… The Army didn't care for them one bit. Even though they appeared out of the formations from the top, they made no note them, and realizing that this was also probably the doing of the one who was behind all this, Cassandra, Aran, Faxul and Elanev all got angry expressions on their faces and shot forward.
The moment they were about to reach their destination, though… The monstrosity said something which made their anger rise to the next level.
"It's about time. I have no rush in killing this guy, and I'm pretty sure that he's still seeing everything from the inside. I want him to despair while I massacre his subordinates and also humiliate them by defiling their bodies even after they're dead! Come. Our enmity is deep, and this is only one of the ways in which I will be taking my revenge. Come and meet your death, you fools who have chosen the wrong side!"