บท 86: Fall

"Too bad, it seems that we are out of time. All they need is the final confirmation to use the trinkets and break down this formation. Although the space lock will break, allowing them to teleport here directly, I will be long gone after killing all of you present in this room. Traitor, come out now or live the final seconds of your life watching me kill each of your family members.", said the Vice Sect Master as he looked around the room waiting for that person who had spoiled all of their plans to show themselves.

The King had already collapsed to the ground, shocked at the sight of the attacks from his side laying waste to so many members of the Royal Family. As he saw the gruesome sight of the burnt bodies, he felt a mindless anger consuming him.

Alas, the image of this man easily deflecting such disastrous attacks had already impressed upon him the fact that his strength truly meant nothing. He really was an ant, unable to do anything but watch on as he became squashed.

All he wanted right now was revenge. He had already accepted the fact that his death was imminent, but this was the only regret that plagued him.

Just as the Vice Sect Master was about to eliminate the King first on seeing the anger that had just erupted in him, he stopped his actions and frowned while cocking his head as if listening to someone speak.

"You can have one last consolation, puny King. The sect master has ordered me to bring back your eldest son. Apparently, a seed with crimson potential is still useful. Well, your line will live on even though the last member of your family is a witless dreamer who loves to suck up."

Saying so, the Vice Sect Master started walking towards the Eldest Prince's crumpled body.

Meanwhile, Daneel was panicking due to the realization that the Vice Sect Master really would leave only after killing everyone in the room.

From the system, he knew that the formation and all of its functions, including the Dragon Claw, would be deactivated for some time as soon as the formation was broken through. Thus, his goal was to get to the dragon heart before the forces outside released their trinkets and broke through the formation.

As for the Church and The TriCobra Society, they already knew that they had a few more hours until the formation was mastered even taking into consideration the help of the ancient artifact. This could be easily deduced by matching the date of the Vice Sect Master's arrival at the Kingdom with today's date and knowing the effect of the ancient trinket on lessening the time to master the formation. Hence, they were waiting for final orders from their higher-ups who had asked them to activate the trinkets and wait for their call.

To get to the dragon heart, the most pressing issue was to cross the barrier. Daneel knew that he had to use this opportunity and act now while the Vice Sect Master had still not begun killing the people in the room. At least this way, he could try to direct the situation instead of being forced to be in a reactionary position.

From his position, the Vice Sect Master and the eldest prince were at the rightmost corner of the circular barrier around the dragon heart.

Walking forward silently, Daneel ignored the shocked looks on the rest of the living nobles as he quickly approached the edge of the barrier.

The Vice Sect Master, who stood perfectly diagonal to him, turned around hearing that someone had approached the barrier.

"It was me. I leaked the information about your artifact to the outside."

The whole room seemed to come to a standstill as these words echoed throughout the empty space.

The traitor was Varanel?! But why?!

Such questions sprung up in the other noble's minds, shocked that this weak, courageless kid was the reason that they were all going to die right now.

"Oh? Well, it seems you have some guts after all. In fact, I think I will take you to the sect. We have an excellent torture room there where I will enjoy your screams while your motives and the identity of whoever behind you is uncovered. Now, walk forward and don't make any other movement. I see you do anything else, you die.", said the Vice Sect Master as he picked the Eldest Price up by his shoulder and pointed at the dragon heart to make the barrier disappear.

Elation surged inside Daneel as he saw that his plan had succeeded. He had in fact made two plans:

One hinged on the fact that the yearning for vengeance in the Vice Sect Master's eyes would not be satisfied by just directly killing him. Thus, there was a possibility that he would be allowed to enter the barrier to leave with the Vice Sect Master.

The second was more of a backup plan in case events didn't occur according to his intuition. In case the Vice Sect Master directly attacked, the barrier would flicker for a bit to let out the attack like it had done when the 4 halves of the meteor had passed through. His plan was to use that interval to jump in and get to the dragon heart.

He would need to traverse a distance of at least five steps before coming close enough to master the formation. In that time, the Vice Sect Master would easily be able to shoot 3-5 attacks, depending on the speed and power he had shown in the previous fight which had been analyzed by the Phenomena Analysis Module.

This plan was based on the fact that he had an advanced barrier spell which could defend him from 3 such attacks. This spell was one of the things he had developed using the upgraded system. As the system had reached a complexity level comparable to that of Warrior Mages, it had been able to develop such an incredible spell which could directly protect him from so many attacks.

Thankfully, the first, safer plan had worked. The second was after all fraught with uncertainty as there was a probability that one more attack could be fired, foiling all his plans and potentially killing Daneel.

With him entering the barrier, there was no more reason to panic. With a scared expression on his face, he tried to slowly approach the dragon heart without alarming the Vice Sect Master who was looking at him.

Just as he was feeling relieved after taking a step towards the dragon heart successfully, a chilling laugh came from the Vice Sect Master as Daneel suddenly realized that he was locked to the ground, unable to move forward.

"You think I'm that dumb? I know that your objective is to get to the Dragon Heart. That was made quite obvious by the fact that you went to all that trouble to make them break the formation sooner while revealing yourself in order to enter the barrier. Although the Sect Head said that it is impossible for such methods to exist, you must be in possession of some way to master the formation. Hand it over now and I just might ask the torture chamber to go easy on you."

[Host is under the effect of "Gravity Lock". Counter-spell "Gravitational Dissonance" ready for development. Would you like the system to develop and use the spell? Development time: 0.5 seconds.]

The system's sweet voice sounded in his mind, breaking him out of his predicament. The decision to upgrade the system actually ended up saving his life at this point.

"Yes"

A screeching sound appeared in the air, breaking the Vice Sect Master's grasp of the elementary particles he was using to hold Daneel in place.

Breaking free from the spell, Daneel resorted to his backup plan with no other option: he made a run for the dragon heart. He was currently 4 steps away from his destination after taking the one step before.

Sure enough, the Vice Sect Master instantly shot out a red beam of light diagonally much like the one the TriCobra Society Member had used.

A transparent white barrier appeared around Daneel, deflecting the light while the Vice Sect Master shot out 3 more in quick succession. At their angle, they could easily throw Daneel away from the Dragon Heart in case they managed to impact his body.

Now three steps away, dread appeared on Daneel's face as he realized that the last beam might kill him. After all, his barrier could take only two more before the high energy consuming spell depleted all of his energy. It was only possible to cast this spell with his own energy, thus he had no means to protect himself from the last beam.

The second beam hit the barrier, slightly cracking it.

The third resulted in him becoming wide open to attacks, as the barrier was shattered with motes of light floating in the air.

Daneel felt desperation and hopelessness clouding his mind. Only one more step, and everything would be in his hands.

Yet, the red beam speeded through the air toward him, intent to destroy his hopes, dreams and his life.

Just before the beam impacted his torso, Daneel closed his eyes and smiled. He had done everything he could. Yet, he felt resigned that fate was simply not on his side.

Suddenly, he felt a hand push his back, making him stumble and fall forward. A cracking sound echoed in the air as a body took the beam that was going to hit him and was flung back across the room, hitting the barrier and falling to the ground without making a sound.

Daneel, on the other hand, was on the ground in front of the Dragon Heart, smiling wide like a fool as he heard the notification of the system that he had been waiting for for so long.

[Formation mastered. Host can now command the "Dragon Heart Formation".]