Chapter 917 Meeting 2
The Queen's statement was accompanied by the activation of multiple formations- those that stopped teleportation, and even the dispersal of the apparition that he was using to be present in front of her.
It looked like she had been prepared, and Daneel wasn't that surprised by this fact- the Queen had always had the habit of watching from her little abode and knowing everything that was going on in the continent, so it made sense that she must have seen him get injured, and gathered that he must be going around in this form now.
As for her itching for a fight…what else could one expect from someone who had had to be defeated by the Emperor before becoming willing to follow him?
Folding his hands, Daneel nodded and said, "Very well. How shall we do it? I assume that you must have already prepared some rules to make it fair…"
Standing up from the throne, the Queen spoke again, but this time, her words were accompanied by her dress changing from an elegant one to that of a warrior- complete with armor that covered her from head to toe, giving her the look of an Elite Mage Commander who had walked straight out of the Age of the Empire.
"One on one challenge fight- the way they do it in tournaments. We start a few hundred meters apart, and the first to deal a devastating blow wins. I've managed to grow this little girl's power level to the Eminent Champion level, but I'll cap it to the Amateur realm, to match it with yours. Fair, isn't it? So when you lose, you have no excuses to give!"
Raising his hands and shrugging, Daneel said, "I don't mean to be cocky, but it doesn't matter whether you cap your power or not. Shall we begin?"
The reply he got was a nod, and it was followed by a barrier springing up in the large palace hall.
Daneel had thought that they might go to the grounds, but it looked like they were going to fight right here.
Well, it was fine by him.
The throne and the podium it was on disappeared so that there was only an even floor between Daneel and the Queen, and she also moved back so that there was a distance of 500 meters between them. It wasn't much, at all, for Champions, but it was enough for a match, as even the way in which a Champion chose to cross that distance might decide the outcome.
In the realms of Champions and Heroes, every second mattered, and letting out a deep breath, Daneel considered what he should do.
It actually felt…awesome to have multiple options, instead of being backed into a corner and having to pull something incredible out in order to win. The latter was what he had had to do in most of his fights in Angaria, so the ones like these were a real pleasure to experience.
He could use his Mage Path and completely decimate the Queen, but he wasn't really willing to expose it once more. In the fight against the entity, he had won because it was a secret, and even now, because the only ones present to witness it had been his sovereigns, and the monstrosities who remembered nothing, no one knew that he had a dual Mage Path which was so rare that there was no one else on the continent who had one besides him.
No one knew the exact way in which he had defeated the entity- they were only told that he had cleverly bluffed that he was ready to begin another apocalypse, which made the entity flee in fear and be killed. The formations stopping people from the outside were the most powerful on Angaria, too, so there was no chance at all that someone he didn't know might have seen it.
They had only dissipated after the destruction of the entity, which was when Arnold had spoken to give him the biggest shock of his life, yet, so according to rest of Angaria, his Path was one which empowered others, and it was actually the most fitting for him, as he had always been someone who cared extensively for his people.
Another option was to use a Fighter transformation which could be mimicked- true, it was his original body which had the Bloodline, but because Bloodlines went much deeper than just being physical, he could use this piece of consciousness to bring out a weaker form of the Shapeshifter.
This wasn't a bad option, but it wouldn't be that awe-inspiring, which was what Daneel decided that he would go for.
The Basilisk's Breath had been activated, so only a second had passed, and the fight still hadn't started.
It was at this time that Daneel got the perfect idea which made him raise his eyebrows, and with an excited smile, he cracked his knuckles and waited for the counter that had appeared in the air to wind down to 0.
The way Mage fights worked was that spells would be cast only after the end of the counter, so until then, he could only go through what he was going to do in his mind.
On the other side, the Queen was looking at this counter, too, and her hands seemed to be itching, almost as if she was looking forward to clasping them around his neck.
Well…she was going to be disappointed.
The instant that a large '0' appeared in the air, Daneel disappeared from sight, making the Queen, who had shot forward leaving a trail like a comet behind her, perplexed.
His voice appeared from multiple directions at once, and as she heard what he said, she gritted her teeth.
"The Bloodline of the Divine Chamelion. A perfect tool in fights like these, I should say."
The Divine Chamelion was a Godbeast from the age before the Empire which was the most harmless of them all, as it was not a hunter, but rather a lazy being which just liked to eat what it could find and even hibernate if it was feeling lazy.
It was only good at hiding itself perfectly using light refractions to make itself invisible, and if its full ability was being used, the Queen would never be able to find him unless she decimated the place, or started setting up specific formations that she must know of which could ferret out anyone using this concept.
However, it looked like she had a different idea.
Raising her fist, the Queen made a globe that looked like it was filled with the stars of the sky appear, and as she tightly clenched her fist, the globe exploded to shower the entire area with those shiny objects.
Right away, Daneel's body stood out, and he cursed, as he couldn't use the full extent of the Chamelion's powers.
If he could, he would have been able to deploy its special ability to dissipate into elementary particles for brief moments of time to escape detection methods like these, but because this was an apparition, all he could do was turn invisible, which would still have been a game-changer as teleportation was blocked, if the Queen hadn't acted in such a quick-witted manner.
With a smile, the Queen simply pointed in the direction where Daneel had been exposed, and from her finger, an almost laser-like beam of light was shot out, ready to put so many holes in him that he might be able to deploy that other ability of the Chamelion in a different way.
However…she was already too late.
With a flick of Daneel's fingers, multiple objects came into being around the Queen, making her look at them with a frown while he dodged at the last second.
They were in the form of podiums made of multiple types of elementary particles, all bunched together in a ratio that made for an exceptionally solid base, and they were attached to some sort of a metal panel which was as tall as a normal man.
This metallic panel shone brightly, exposing the fact that it wasn't just made of normal metal. There were 20 of these objects, all arranged in a seemingly random fashion, and as soon as Daneel managed to dodge the Queen's attack, he launched his own.
'BANG!'
With a sound like a loud gunshot, a different construct which had been hidden by these panels launched a conical projectile with a soft tip which was the size of a fist.
"Party tricks."
Saying this, the Queen conjured a barrier while forming a more concentrated attack of her own, as she had identified that Daneel had used a different Bloodline to increase his speed. This meant that she had to hit him in a way in which he would only be able to stand and stare, so she going to do just that.
She didn't know the purpose of the panels, but she assumed that they were just to cover his movements, and help with his camouflage. As for the projectile, it seemed like a regular one which had been sped up by an explosion behind it, but from the reports of the King, she already knew that this was a Paragon Construct used previously by him.
She simply waited for the projectile to be stopped by her barrier…but an astonishing sight presented itself to her.
The projectile that was originally flying in her direction slightly veered off its path, missing her barrier by an inch, before a loud 'CLANG!' was heard from behind her.
It was the panel on which the projectile had impacted, and from the corner of her eyes, the Queen saw that the panel also moved suddenly at the moment of the impact.
The result…was that the projectile was shot away at an even faster speed.
With her eyes wide open, the Queen watched as the projectile struck against panel after panel, each of which moved at the perfect time, in the perfect way to make sure that it would only speed up.
Her attack would soon be ready, but by that time, the projectile had already sped up 30 times. It had turned into a blur which she couldn't spot clearly even if she focused, and she knew that she would get dizzy if she tried to anticipate from where it might come.
How could anyone calculate the perfect angles required, and do such minute adjustments to ensure that it would only keep getting accelerated? Even the complexity of a Champion's mind should not be enough for this task!
No sooner had this thought come in her mind, she saw a red-hot object flying towards her.
The projectile was smaller now, having had its mass shaved away with each acceleration, but it was so much faster, looking like a meteor prepared to destroy the first planet it came across.
'BOOOMMM!!!!'
When it struck her barrier, it was as if the impact made the whole Palace shake, and the Queen could only watch on with horror as it shattered barrier after reinforced barrier before arriving right in front of her.
She had used all of her time to put up as many defenses as possible, but it had not been enough.
Paragon constructs…were truly terrifying things.
She closed her eyes, preparing to endure the injury, but even after a moment passed, she felt nothing.
Hearing something behind her, the Queen turned around to see that the projectile had smoothly passed through the barrier she had made to mark out their fighting area before going through the Palace wall, almost like a knife through butter.
Knowing that it would have had no trouble at all in blowing up her head, she let out a breath, which was when she heard the King speak.
"I win. It's time to talk. But…I think there's someone else you might want to talk to."
As soon as he said so, a man appeared in front of her, and seeing him, she blinked before freezing on the spot.
It was the same face, the same kindness within his eyes, and the same commanding power within his brows that had made millions heed him without even a second thought.
However…they were all slightly dull, as if eroded away by the tides of time, but the Queen knew right away that what she saw was not false.
Many, many questions popped into her head, but right now, none of them mattered.
Stepping forward, she hugged him, and finally, after thousands of years…the coldness in her heart thawed to give way to warmth.