In a discrete location north-east of the Kingdom of Lanthanor, a spot which seed completely empty except for the vegetation and animals that were idly spending the day suddenly had its sanctity invaded when two individuals teleported to a spot above it.
"She’s right below here."
This was said by an elderly man who seed dignified, and the other responded by saying:
"All right. Just stick to what I said, and leave the rest to ."
This man’s body seed to be shaking, either with excitent or wrath, and either way, it seed as if he was waiting for the thing which would allow him to finally lay his emotions to rest.
A mont later, intense vibrations could be felt from the entire area as formations ca into being.
Anti-teleportation, anti-communication, anti-breach- all sorts of restrictive ans instantly ca into effect, making their presence known right away as they were too complex and powerful to be able to hide themselves, especially when they were all placed and activated in a very, very short period of ti.
BOOOM!
With a loud sound, the ground broke apart to reveal a group of people who flew out with bewildered and enraged expressions on their faces.
In fact, that was what it might seem like at first glance, but if one looked closely, they would find that a single individual among this group had another emotion that she was trying to hide, but had failed to do so due to the abruptness of what had just happened.
It was...dread.
As soon as this group’s gazes beca transfixed on the two individuals above them, a sonorous voice was heard over the entire area.
"Mrs. Quenry. Evidence has been found which shows that you have acted against the interests of the continent by allying with the Church of St. Rectitude. As of this mont, all rights attained by you as a mber of the top echelon of the Order are hereby stripped. You are branded as a traitor, subject to imprisonnt and interrogation. It is recomnded that you co quietly."
The announcent that ca out of nowhere actually did not cause shock to appear in the group.
Instead, looks were shared between them, as if they had been expecting sothing like this to happen.
13 individuals were present, and from the looks of it, all of them were Peak Heroes, and belonged to the group who had been commanded by the Entity before forcefully as they had signed themselves over completely to the Order.
From these 13, a man wearing luxurious grey robes stepped out and spoke.
"Quenry already told us this might happen. Overseer- bleurgh! It feels dirty to even say that na, again...Head, we all know who your source is- that kid beside you. Quenry said that he might try to target her, as he has a grudge with her- she tortured the woman he was close to to make her admit sothing that might or might not have been true. She was only acting on the orders of that despicable thing, so she isn’t to be blad. All of us are here to ensure that everything happens in a fair manner. Yes, that kid needs to be thanked for his sacrifice, but that doesn’t an that all of us will be ready to bow down to everything he says- that kind of life would be the sa as being commanded by that thing. Quenry is one of us, and she has already shown her dedication to the continent many tis, despite what she says. So-"
BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!
The calm words of the man were suddenly interrupted by a loud sound that erupted from right behind him.
At so point of ti, a 70-foot tall figure had co into being, without even alerting any of these Peak Heroes who were supposed to be able to detect even a fly a hundred kiloters away.
With startled expressions, all of the Heroes turned back to see that the fist of this figure, which was humanoid in shape but was covered by a mass of dense fog except for a pair of eyes on its head which glowed crimson, had collided and broken through the defensive barrier of the one who had been standing farthest to the back- Mrs. Quenry.
They had agreed beforehand that she would stand behind them all, to show that whoever ca would have to go through them all to get to her, but now, it seed that that had backfired- their enemy had decided to strike from the back, anyway, and it looked like the battle was already over.
Mrs. Quenry was caught securely in that gigantic fist which curled around her, and her face, which had had such a cocky expression back when she had co to apprehend Daneel was now filled with rage and disbelief.
It was the face of a commander who had arranged an army to protect himself, but had found that the enemy had simply dug underground to send an assassin to kill him right in his tent.
Daneel had just had enough of the pretentious sh*t going on in front of him. It was most obvious that it was the backup plan she had put in place in case her role was discovered, and for once, he wanted to just smash through everything and get on with it.
If the Head hadn’t made that deduction, he might have moved a bit more slowly, but now, it was just too many things pointing in the right direction. And besides, that dread of being caught that one couldn’t hide even if they tried their hardest had confird it even further.
"Preposterous! Head-"
The man who had been speaking before started to scream with anger while starting to cast a powerful spell that would help Mrs. Quenry, but he was cut off midsentence for the second ti when he, along with all the other Heroes were sent a ssage.
"Mrs. Quenry actively stopped the seer’s premonition of the Church’s arrival from being notified to the High Council, and subsequently the Order. If she hadn’t done so, Axelor would have been investigated and the blood formations could have been found. Here is video proof, recovered from the victim. If you still choose to stand with her after seeing this, you will be branded as traitors, too."
Along with the ssage ca the sa mory that Daneel had seen in Xuan’s mind, but instead of the hooded figure being concealed, it was obvious that it was Mrs. Quenry. There was also one other modification, which was where Xuan was shown saying that she should get the news of the premonition out.
Daneel had made this possible by finding a simple loophole in the laws of the Order- the Overseer could act on proof that he deed trustworthy. Hence, he had created this and made sure that it seed as real as possible, and in doing so, he had also gotten the suspicion whether this was how Mrs. Quenry had ’succeeded’, too, when the torture hadn’t worked.
It had only been possible because the system had once again used its capability of doing things that might take a lot of ti in an instant(by editing each and every individual elentary particle in the record that was made of the mory which were a few hundred thousand in number), and Daneel was sure that the end result was so authentic that no one would be able to identify that it was fake.
One by one, the Heroes went through the video and realized that it was completely damning. If they stood with Mrs. Quenry, they really would be dood, too.
One by one, they started to teleport away, and it was the man who had been speaking before who left last.
He took one long look at the woman whose face had started to get an uglier and uglier look as her allies started to vanish, and the mont before leaving, he said, "I knew it in my heart of hearts, but I refused to believe it. Sister, farewell. If you find my brother-in-law in the afterlife, apologize."
Daneel was now mildly interested in the story of this woman, but that could co later. First...it was finally ti for sweet, sweet revenge.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The 70-foot misty figure moved like the wind, smashing its fist into the ground repeatedly until it felt as if its blows were causing an earthquake.
Dust rose up, covering the base of the forest, and cracks even started to appear on the ground. Still, the figure did not relent.
Finally, after 20 consecutive ’BANG!’s which would have woken up the entire Kingdom of Lanthanor if they weren’t being stopped from being heard by a formation, the figure paused to reveal a thoroughly bloodied woman.
Gone was her mature, but still pretty face. It was now mostly covered in blood, with multiple cuts all over where tiny stones had gotten lodged, and even her teeth were knocked out, while her eyes looked around dizzily as her head must surely be ringing from being slamd into the ground for so long.
A hundred Heroes against one: if such a battle also turned out to be one with twists and turns, then the asurent of the power level of Heroes would seriously need to be changed. Rather than a battle, it was more apt for it to be called a beatdown, and to Daneel, it felt infinitely relaxing.
Calmly, his emotions more in control, he strode forward.
The hundred Heroes he had obtained in Elysium had even been arranged in a formation which he had had beforehand, but not deployed as it wasn’t great when used against a force which contained multiple Mages. Against a single foe, though, it was perfect, as it managed to unify the power of all of them in a singular entity.
And also...it was ironic how they were the perfect counter against Mrs. Quenry’s Path.
After approaching her, Daneel saw that she was repeatedly staring at the gigantic figure of mist, as if trying to influence it with her mind.
With a chuckle, he spoke, drawing his attention to her.
"Try all you want- nothing will change. They’re all mindless, so they’re being controlled by , like a tool. So even if you change what a tool sees, it will still strike true, because the one controlling it only sees the truth! And as its master, I am so far away that you cannot influence in any manner. It’s futile, Mrs. Quenry. Settle in, because you’re going to experience everything you did to Xuan a thousandfold, for all of eternity."
Mrs. Quenry stared into Daneel’s eyes for a few seconds, as if trying again, but nothing changed- his consciousness was not present here, as he had taken precautions beforehand to control this apparition from far away. It was like a remote control robot that was doing his bidding, and hence, there was no consciousness to manipulate.
Her Path was suprely powerful when there were consciousnesses to influence, but this was its biggest weakness, and Daneel was using it perfectly.
He had already prepared the perfect punishnt for her, so he decided that he would let her know what was in store.
"First, your physical body will be placed in the sky for all to see, and understand what awaits them if they choose the Church. A little more motivation never hurts. And as for your consciousness...I’ve prepared a special place for it. As a student of the Empress of Torture, you might find it familiar as she theorized about it quite a lot- she called it the ’House of Horrors’. Yes, that’s right- it’s a house filled with rooms, all of which will put you through a different kind of torture when opened. And to push you into choosing a room, there will be an ever-present entity that will always keep chasing you in the hallways. You will always be running in fear, as that entity will have the most painful torture of all if it catches up. So, you either spend an eternity running in fear, or one continuously choosing types of torture to go through, by yourself, while regretting your actions which killed hundreds of thousands of Angarians. I can say with certainty that you deserve it more than anyone who the Empress experinted on when she was designing it."
Daneel’s speech was filled with such loathing that even the Head began to sweat slightly.
However, Mrs. Quenry’s response surprised them both.
"Is that the punishnt you would give to anyone who allied with the Church?"
Taken aback, Daneel replied after a mont.
"Of course. Why, do you have any comrades you wish to rat out?"
Daneel asked this in a jesting manner, but what he didn’t know...was that he had shot an arrow at the right target, even though he had done so in the dark.
Only...what he had struck was sothing he had never, ever expected he would find, and as the two heard her speak, they could only look between each other, completely baffled.
"I knew it was always a gamble. But those bastards f*cked over, and left here, to rot. They could have saved , but that b*tch of a Bishop must have decided that I’m not worth it. So I guess I will f*ck them over, too, and who knows- if I’m lucky, this will do the sa to you. I asked that question...because I know soone who has also worked for the Church, and even signed himself over to it, but the poor sod did so without knowing it. By the ti he realized it, it was too late. I wonder how the Order will react when it finds out that Cain, the one who is idolized by most, has been a pawn of the Church and that prick from the Mainland for years? What will you do about him, King? Will you be fair and grant him the sa fate, thereby alienating those who adored him, and who will stop supporting you if you do so? Or will you show weakness and give the Heroes who don’t see much in you more reasons to oppose you? Choose wisely, kid, but either way, you lose! Haha!"
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