Even as Daneel walked towards the objects which dazzled him just as much as they unsettled his heart due to the grave tone of the mouth whose words were still echoing in the hall, the fight above the Endless Sea between the sovereigns and the Eskilon family was coming to an end.
It did not look like this was an end that they had foreseen, though, as the faces of most of the sovereigns were filled with nervousness and unease.
Eloise was the calmest of them all, but in the depths of her eyes, too, one could see the doubt that wracked them all.
Would they have to end up relying on their Godking, after all? At the end of the day, after all this effort, would they have to give up their pride in the pursuit of a good outcome?
Their opponents had been 60 strong when they had been dropped in the middle of the sea. Of them, 20 were the weaker elders who had all taken their positions inside the bulbous head of the squid. The rest of the 40 were Heroes, though, and even though all of them weren't Peak Heroes who had been recognized by the Order and had the honor of calling themselves the elites of the entire continent, they presented a formidable force.
Even in the frantic fight underneath which had resulted in the incapacitation of four Heroes, they had not lost a single member, and after resting for a bit, even these four had rejoined the fight with renewed vigor.
A Seaking Squid had always been known for its slippery ability to escape the attacks of even multiple enemies while also being skilled enough to make them strike each other, even as deadly attacks were shot out each second with its many tentacles. The formation was something that had been passed down since the age of the Empire, so it was complex enough that even the strategies that had been employed by the original Godbeast were stored inside it, thus allowing the family to take advantage of them to keep away the five Great Sharks that had been the closest to the attractive scent emanating from them.
These five had arrived from tens of kilometers all around them, as Great Sharks always dominated one area where they stood king. The spell could not be made any stronger, so for the time being, these were all the forces that the family had to face.
In front of these five terrifying beings, the smaller creatures had all judged wisely that this fight was not for them, lest they be willing to die as collateral damage. Eyeing the creatures that had all been killed before which were floating on the surface, they tried to target these for a quick meal, but as the sovereigns had already prepared for this, all of this meat that would greatly help the people of the continent was teleported away while the Heroes closest to this teleportation gritted their teeth with anger, as they were blocked from doing the same.
Working together, Eloise and the rest had targeted and teleported away 15 of the 40 Heroes. They had not been able to choose the strongest repeatedly, as it would have been too overwhelming even for them. After all, back-to-back fights with such strong individuals were no joke, so the decision had been taken to take on a strong Hero, and then a weaker one so that they had a chance of respite.
Hence, the forces of the family could only be said to have been decreased by 30 to 40%. Even this was only the case because a higher number of Heroes were required to maintain such a complex formation, so with their numbers whittled away, the elders had had no choice but to decrease the size of the squid.
However, instead of increasing the chance of them being swallowed whole, this decision actually turned out to increase their chances of survival, as the smaller squid could move faster while thwarting all the attacks of the sharks.
During all these fights, the elder who seemed to be well versed in the minute study of elementary particles had given up on figuring out the spell that had called the sharks to them. This was to be expected, as Eloise had anticipated such an attempt beforehand and had hence used multiple concealing formations that would take too much time to unravel.
Only, instead of accepting defeat, he had still proved his skill by figuring out a way to copy over its effect to their opponents.
Hence, just a minute ago, Eloise and the rest had been forced to stop what they were doing and stare with disbelief as the family took the smart decision to do so with only a few of the sharks, thus enticing the others to attack their brethren while also targeting this ancient enemy that had repeatedly been frustrating them by running around incessantly and still managing to injure them whenever possible.
The family had had to pay a price for maintaining the highest speed throughout the encounter, though - of the 25 remaining Heroes, 10 lay unconscious in that head, but it soon became evident that the gamble had paid off.
Their fury getting the better of them, the sharks began to attack each other more and more, thus giving the time for the family to build an attack strong enough to break through the barriers that were separating the sovereigns from this enemy who wanted nothing more than to kill them all in the most painful way possible.
As soon as that happened, they might really have to resort to calling on their Godking, or on the Godnet which must surely have been set up in a way to help them if they were in need.
None of the sovereigns liked this, but the tiredness that they felt in their very bones reminded him of the fact that carrying so much Energy was so long had been tremendously taxing on their bodies.