As Daneel saw the Empire Spirit repeat the question, he simply pointed a finger, along which both of them followed to see that was pointing at the giant, transparent ice ball in which a man was frozen.
Of course, Drakos had already known the answer, but Erin frowned and asked, "Him? What could you want with him? Isn't he just some sect disciple who had his eyes burned out? How do you even know him?"
Daneel took a moment to answer, as he felt that he should really have his guard up around this woman. She had managed to deduce so much from a simple thing, so he did not put it past her to read things between the lines of whatever he said. After all, he had no intention whatsoever of letting it slip that he had something else that he was hiding, so he carefully thought for a bit and said, "If my suspicions are correct, the Church might have already succeeded in infiltrating one of the Big Four. And as you can guess, they would definitely use that opportunity to try and break that sect from the inside. I want to use a Consciousness Link spell to find out what he knows. With Drakos's help, I sneaked into the Sect of Hedon before and made a bond with him, and I also cast a spell to keep a check so that he wouldn't betray me at the time. Now, the only reason he did this to himself is to notify me as the spell couldn't send information from inside the sect. There are other possibilities, too, so I just want to find the answer by asking him directly."
Daneel had tried to press everything as much as possible, and he expected the woman to ask questions.
However, after deeply pondering for a bit, she just waved her hand.
"Go on. I need to… er, speak with Drakos, anyway. I don't like unfounded conclusions, so be sure before saying something so grave."
Daneel didn't know what word she had been about to use in the place of 'speak', and he didn't want to guess.
Although there were still a few questions regarding the Empire Spirit that he had, his curiosity had been sated, so he moved to his original objective behind ing here.
He also told himself that this time, he had gotten off lucky. He had been thinking that with all the spells behind the third seal, he was pretty much invincible, but that was clearly not the case. If this was anyone else from the Big Four, and if they had managed to know all of these things, he would definitely have been doomed. He had to be more careful from now on, and he vowed that he would definitely take much more caution, at least before he was powerful enough.
With a nod, he started walking towards the ice ball, after which he used a simple spell to heat his finger before allowing it to bore through the ice that had been enchanted.
The moment his finger came in contact with the skin of Percy's hand, Daneel asked the system to activate the spell, and the next moment, darkness overtook his vision as he passed out.
…
When Daneel opened his eyes, there was only a blank space all around him, and although he could feel his body, he couldn't see it.
This was a pretty terrifying thing, but he remained calm and observed his surroundings.
After looking around for a bit and finding nothing, he was just about to ask the system where he was, before a small light bloomed into existence right in front of him.
Along with it, multiple lights also started to e into being, but Daneel was focusing on this first one.
He expressed his intention to view it more clearly, as he could see tiny figures moving inside that light. Whatever this world was, it seemed to obey his will, as he moved closer to the light and was able to peek in.
This startled him a bit, but he took it in stride.
It was like he was watching a movie, and it displayed the scene of a wooden house in which a woman lay in a bed, looking deathly pale.
He was seeing things from a first person view, so he could see a hand holding that woman's arm on which the skin clung to the bones. Tears dripped onto the mattress that was draped on her, and as Daneel pricked his ears, he heard a young voice that sounded familiar.
"No, mom, you can't leave me alone. You can't leave me with him. Please, mom. Take me with you. Don't leave me. Please stay."
Again and again, he kept saying things like these, but the woman's eyes were closed. She did not seem to be responding to his words, and Daneel felt pity for this kid who, judging from the size of his hand, was only around 7 to 8 years old.
Suddenly, with a loud sound, the door opened to allow in the Mad Doctor, who looked at the scene of the kid holding his mother and tightened his lips.
He walked forward and felt the pulse on her other hand, all while Percy watched on with trepidation, as if he was afraid of what he would say.
After taking the pulse and casting a few spells that looked like they were supposed to check her condition further, the Mad Doctor shrugged and said, "She's too far gone. Giving birth to you had already taken a toll on her, and she had always been weak all her life. She had only her beauty going for her, and even that has withered away. She's useless. Well, better to just end her suffering."
It looked like his worst fears had e true, as Percy immediately sprang to his feet and found the courage out of nowhere to say, "No! You can save her! I heard the others saying that you have the skills and the materials to prolong any normal human's life! Please use them! I'll do anything you want!"
At first, anger appeared on the Mad Doctor's face, but he controlled it as it looked like he had just gotten an idea.
"You're too soft. Yes, I can do it, but I see no value in it. Instead, this might help in making you grow. Watch."
The next second, in a blur, the Mad Doctor's hand moved like a knife toward the woman's neck, and as a loud scream that almost shattered Daneel's ears appeared, that light broke into a million pieces.
"System, what was that?
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