novelTrue Intentions
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On the day that Daneel was set to leave the Sect of Hedon, Ashahell was standing on the real top floor of the Central Tower with his eyes closed.
However, unlike his usual countenance, his eyes were flickering, and there was a strange golden halo around his long brown hair.
In his mind's eye, he was currently in a place that looked like it was in the sky.
All he could see were clouds all around, along with 8 massive chairs on which hazy humanoid figures were seated.
He was his normal size, so all of these individuals looked like giants that were at least 20 feet tall.
"What is it now, Ashahell? Another plot to'save' Angaria?"
These words were said in a languid tone by the figure to his right, and the hazy figure in that chair seemed to be casually lounging on it, with one leg over the armrest.
Chuckles sounded across the area, with only 2 individuals not joining in on the laughter.
"Yes, I hope that is not the case. If I need to hear one more time about how the Energy on the continent is decreasing and how we need to stop mining Ker Gems from its core, I'll revoke your privileges to call for a meeting."
"Halfax, come on! Ashahell has a point. You know how hard he has tried over the decades to find a way to stop it. He only wants to save Angaria!"
The one who said this was clearly female, and she was to Ashahell's left.
More laughter erupted from the others as they heard this.
"All right, all right, enough. Don't take this to heart, Ashahell. You are prophesized to save Angaria from the Church, not from itself. You will be leading the charge against the Church when the time comes, so I hope you haven't been neglecting your training even though we can't give you all the resources you want. Anyway, what is this meeting for, again?"
Usually, if Ashahell heard such statements which belittled his sincere efforts and passion to save this place that he considered his home, he would have felt frustrated.
Since his parents had died, that had been the only motivation that had pushed him forward. 𝙛𝚛𝘦ewe𝗯𝘯oѵ𝚎𝗹 - 🅽🅽novel
It was a known fact that Energy resources were decreasing throughout the continent.
The average power level of people in this era was a far cry from those in the ages past, where Heroes had been as common as Champions now.
In his investigation, he had found that it was because the inhabitants of Angaria were ruthlessly mining away all the Energy resources, leading to such an overall decrease.
If this continued, the continent itself would surely die.
Since he had discovered this, he had made it his life's work to save his home, as he believed that that was his purpose.
No matter how lonely he felt on his path, or how much resistance he faced from these old geezers, he had strode forward with his head held high.
However, after that incident where he had absorbed the power of those 10, 000 people, he had started to realize that his method had been wrong.
Since then, he had devoted himself to finding a way to save his home, no matter what he needed to do in the process.
Finally, he was at the last step, and although what he was going to do made him sad, he told himself that it was necessary and looked up to meet the gazes of the 8 in front of him.
All of his efforts would come to fruition soon, and all he needed to do was go through with his plan.
Taking a deep breath, Ashahell began to speak.
"I called this meeting to submit my plan to unearth the lost inheritance and trinket from the Angarian Empire. I set off in 5 days to meet the King of Lanthanor, and obtain the first parts of the trinket and inheritance. After that, I will be bringing them back to the Sect of Hedon, where I humbly request the physical presence of all the members of the High Council, as per the ancient rules."
"Oh, it's that. Well, that didn't require this meeting. Sure thing, we will be there. If that's all, I need to get back to my maidens."
As more laughter was heard, Ashahell nodded, and when his consciousness returned to his body, no one saw the despondent smile that appeared on his face, accompanied by a sigh that was filled with regret that there was no other way.
....
Five days later.
Daneel was sitting all alone in the Royal Court, mulling over a data trinket in his hand.
It held the information about the power levels of the Domination Corps, more specifically, of all the individuals who had gone to the Hidden Kill Sect for training.
This was practically the most powerful and effective group of soldiers that he had, and he had no intention of leaving them alone and letting their power dwindle.
After coming back to the Kingdom, Daneel had made simplified copies of both the Art of the Withering Leaf and the Basilisk's Breath before passing it on to the Domination Corps.
These were individuals who had already sworn an oath to not disclose any information about the training techniques that they had, but there was still a risk that someone could notice them when they were fighting and identify the inheritances they were using.
However, Daneel didn't really care about this, because if the time came when they really had to go all out and use these techniques, it really wouldn't matter who was seeing them, as everyone would be too busy trying not to die.
Of course, he hadn't really been able to completely hide the news that he had exited the sect, and the Watcher had been repeatedly trying to get in touch with him using the communication trinket.
Daneel had been ignoring the man, but he knew that he couldn't do that much longer, as this was a Champion level individual and he might resort to doing something extreme if he saw that he had no other option to talk to him.
Thankfully, that hadn't happened yet, as it seemed that even the Watcher had gotten wind of the meeting that was going to take place soon in the Kingdom of Lanthanor.
Three days ago, the senior official of the sect had arrived at the Kingdom of Lanthanor and asked for an audience with the king.
When Daneel had talked to him, the man had been very polite, which had been quite surprising.
After telling him that he was from the legendary Big Four, he had simply notified him that the leader of the High Council and the sect leader of one of the Big Four wanted to have an audience with him, as he needed to discuss some very crucial matters.
Of course, Daneel had readily agreed, after showing the appropriate amount of shock by using the system.
The meeting was set for today, which coincided with the schedule that Ashahell had initially announced.
He was nervous, to say the least, as there was a lot riding on this meeting.
Even in these past five days, he had been very distracted, and he had even repeatedly gone over everything he had seen inside the central tower to no avail.
The meeting was supposed to happen at noon, and to make sure that he wouldn't arouse any suspicion, Daneel had even asked the system to relinquish control of the Court formation of the Palace of Lanthanor after putting back the items he had found reluctantly.
After all, a Champion was required to take control of it, and there was no such individual in Lanthanor.
If Ashahell discovered that there was nothing inside, suspicion might fall on him, and he was not ready yet to face up against a bunch of Heros and a Peak Champion, especially when he didn't even know what a Hero was capable of.
As soon as the clock struck 12, a man appeared in the center of the Royal Court.
He was wearing the same black robes with a golden trim that Daneel had seen him in during the audience in the Sect of Hedon, but that genial nature that had been present in him both when he interacted with Daneel and during the sect meeting was absent.
Instead, his long face was set with an expression of indifference, sadness, and... hope?
The last part confused Daneel, but he discarded it, thinking that he had seen wrong.
This was clearly a show of force, as the formation of the Palace which was supposed to stop teleportation had been broken through in merely a fraction of a second.
Of course, if Daneel were in control of the core formation of the sect, he could have redirected resources to stop this, but he would obviously not do so.
Instead, all Daneel did was appear as if he were seeing one of the most shocking things in the world, before controlling himself and bringing back the dignity of a King.
Even though he was much less powerful than the individual in front of him, he decided that a King like himself would definitely protest at least a little bit at having his Court intruded on in this way.
The proper method would have been to appear at the entrance, before being led the Royal Court.
However, as Daneel was about to open his mouth to speak, he realized that he had lost all control of his body.
Only his eyes could still be moved by him, and they widened with genuine shock when he saw Ashahell folding his hands and looking at him with an indescribable expression on his face.
Daneel felt his skin crawl when he looked into Ashahell's eyes, and he already realized that things were developing in ways that he could never have foreseen.
He had expected for this to be just a normal meeting, but that clearly wasn't so, as he had just been bound to the throne and rendered immobile.
With growing horror, Daneel wondered whether he had been foolish and naïve in even accepting this meeting.
This was because his gut was repeatedly screaming one thing at him, and it had been a long time since he had felt hopeless in changing what was going to happen using his power.
It was screaming that he was going to die.
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