Daneel gazed into the eyes of each noble who was brought to the front of the stage and killed. Each expression, each thought, each emotion was clear to him.
Each time all the swirling emotions were replaced by the peacefulness of death, he felt drained. He was the one responsible for each of these deaths, and he made himself watch each one.
Even though each of these people had resulted in so many deaths that many would say they deserved such an end, Daneel knew that it was not all their fault either. True, they had made the choices that led them to this position. But as for the choices which led to the creation of the environment they grew up in? The people responsible for that could not be punished by him.
Alas, justice needed to be given out. The people needed to have the demons in their hearts vanquished.
As the process continued and more and more commoners collapsed to the ground, Daneel started wondering whether he was the demon in the eyes of the nobles. After all, he had come and destroyed their lives, now killing them like livestock while he watched standing in the air.
While his thoughts drifted, he suddenly felt his skin prickling, as if sensing a danger that was approaching.
CRACK
An abrupt cracking sound rang across the central passageway which held the stage and the crowds of people.
It happened in the blink of an eye, with Daneel not even having the time to respond.
A man holding a sharp, golden lance appeared on the stage.
As Daneel realized that the sound had actually had been that of the barrier-breaking, he was initially horrified. The barrier protecting the stage had actually been the best in the palace, capable of initiating a space lock and also defending against the full power of at least 100 Exalted Human Mages or Fighters. To crack it like the man had just done, a piercing attack of at least the strength of a Warrior was required!
Considering that there were no Warrior Mages or Fighters in all of Lanthanor right now, this was quite shocking. Yet, Daneel's eyes widened even further as he realized who the man on the stage was.
The same open shirt was visible to all, yet there were no bottles of wine to be seen. The eyes which were usually unfocused due to being inebriated now shone with a frenzy the likes of which Daneel had never seen before.
It was his Master, Jonah Castle.
This man, whose whereabouts had been unknown since Daneel took the throne, was now standing on the stage where the eyes of almost everyone in the Kingdom of Lanthanor were watching.
After looking into Daneel's eyes briefly, Jonah swiftly ran towards the end of the row. Time was short, as the commanders and the elite soldiers were already casting spells to stop him.
At the end was the Eldest Prince, who had committed the most crimes. The man Jonah was looking for stood 3 positions away.
Only the previous Grand Court Mage who was nearby moved to stop him, but before he could even cast a single spell, Jonah waved his hand, blowing him away in an instant.
With his elementary sight, Daneel could see that the strike was simply an air blade, which was a spell designed to knock out foes non-lethally. Yet, it had broken through the protection of the trinket the previous Grand Court Mage carried with ease.
Similar to before, his Master's spell somehow pulled the particles around the ones he controlled with his mageroot to multiply the power of the strike. Yet, what he noticed was that this time, the multiplication effect was even more magnified, almost as if some sort of threshold had been broken through by his Master.
Yet, as Daneel would later realize, Jonah was also wheezing uncontrollably, as if he was overexerting himself to the limit.
The previous Grand Court Mage crumpled to the ground, unmoving, while Jonah proceeded towards his goal.
Just as he caught the shoulder of the noble he had come for and was about to teleport away, a majestic dragon claw came into existence near him.
Yet, it was already too late. The space lock came into existence a second after the teleportation was successful, and Jonah even had the time to give one last look at Daneel before leaving.
No one noticed the expression of hesitation in the King's eyes while he saw his Master leaving in this way.
Because Jonah had been preoccupied with his own goal, he did not notice that one other figure had snuck onto the stage when the barrier broke, dispelling the space lock in the area.
Instead of Jonah who had had no choice but to break in and then move to his target, this man directly teleported beside his own target: the eldest prince.
But unlike with the King's Master, this man's surrounding area was space locked with the Dragon Claw before he could leave with his target.
He cursed as he wondered whether he had just been unlucky or whether the King had for some reason prioritized his own capture over the other's.
Realizing that the reason was moot, his expression morphed into one of pain as he thought about the loss his sect was about to bear.
Without hesitation, the man closed his fist around a trinket that looked like a glass crane.
As it shattered, the dragon claw distorted for an instant due to the awesome power of the strike it released.
BOOM
Daneel witnessed for the first time how powerful the strike of a Champion was. After the man shattered the trinket, the shining beak of a crane had come into existence in front of him.
It attacked the center of the closing Dragon Claw, making a visible shockwave spread across the plaza which pushed everyone back.
His heart thundering in his chest, Daneel had to cast a spell himself in order to not fall back. Many of the people in the plaza had already fallen down and were now trying to run back, afraid that more destruction would follow.
Thankfully, almost all of the force had been endured by the Claw, which had distorted before starting to solidify again. Yet, that instant of distortion had been enough for the duo of the man and the Eldest Prince to get away.
Along with them, the beak also vanished, almost as if it had never been there in the first place.
A pin-drop silence greeted the whole area, while everyone tried to regain their bearings.
Two men had successfully infiltrated the heart of the capital of Lanthanor and managed to steal away two of the most notorious nobles who had been responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of deaths.
Stunned, everyone could only gaze up into the air where Daneel was standing.
Same as them, Daneel was also momentarily dazed due to the events that had occurred.
While the other nobles on the stage looked on in envy at the location where their relatives had just escaped from, the King of Lanthanor was trying to get rid of the blankness which was present in his brain to address the masses below and do his duty in allaying their fears.
Yet, there was no one to allay his own.