After landing on the ground haphazardly, Daneel turned around with shock on hearing the words uttered by the man who was now smiling with glee on his face.
Over to the side, all the citizens of Lanthanor who had come for the meeting were watching on with indecipherable expressions.
The words said by the man had indeed hit home. So far, the King of Lanthanor had never even been seen once outside the palace. Everyone knew that he was very young and was hence one of the weakest rulers in all of Central Angaria.
Now, listening to the words from the man, Daneel could see that thoughts which hadn't been present before had started to appear in their minds.
Was the King really someone who could only sit in the formation and command others to die for him?
Was he truly worthy of the adoration that he was bestowed with due to his actions in taking the throne and his initiatives in bettering the people of Lanthanor?
All this didn't matter if he was just a weakling who hid behind his subordinates.
In Angaria, power was revered over all other things. True, the King was very idealistic and might even have a good head on shoulders, but what about his power?
Till now, this had at least escaped the purview of the citizens because there hadn't been a situation where the King had to step out by himself.
No one could say whether this situation might have appeared sooner or later. Yet, it was certain that this was something that would have been used to incite distrust in his leadership by his enemies.
If Daneel truly chose to step back right now, he knew that his image would take a disastrous dent that he didn't know how to recover from. This wasn't like the incident with the village, where he had been able to suppress all news. Too many people were watching, and there was no way to suppress them all.
He had taken the throne due to his image. He was loved and trusted by the people due to his image.
And if this image was destroyed, he did not even want to think about what far-reaching effects it would have.
Watching the green flames about to devour the barriers set up by the Grand Court Mage, Daneel knew that he did not have much time at all. The reinforcements would take too long to arrive, and it seemed that the green fire was so potent that Kellor couldn't even conjure any other powerful magic to fight against it.
Of course, this wasn't the first time he was going up against this green flame. The last time, a simple tornado had been enough to chase it away in the village when the strike team had attacked Lanthanor.
Kellor had already tried this. Yet, it seemed as though the two flames were completely different, almost as if the former had been ownerless, which made it disperse as soon as it was attacked by an outside force.
If this had occurred two days ago, Daneel would have chosen the safer option no matter what it meant. After all, what did his image matter if he wasn't alive in the first place? Even though the option still existed that he could try to send out his clone to fool the man, he knew that the ruse would be uncovered in no time, resulting in an even more disastrous outcome that the King couldn't even stand a single blow because the clone was, after all, powerless.
Thus without any more hesitation, Daneel took his decision.
Recently, even he had been missing that feeling when he awed the people with his personal power back during the first examination in the National Academy of Lanthanor.
That feeling of being able to crush an opponent with his own hands was really something else.
All this time, he hadn't been training aimlessly. His was the path of a paragon, and it was time to show the continent again that he was one of the most talented individuals to have ever been born on Angaria.
Although he was tempted to expose everything and possibly defeat the man, he still decided to exercise some prudence as he did not want to draw too much attention on himself.
Yet, when Daneel switched on his elemental vision to see the green fire, even this hesitation was wiped away from his mind.
Spell model!
In his elemental sight, he could clearly see that the green fire was in fact very small, but it was actually somehow affecting the particles around it to amplify itself to a degree that he hadn't seen before even in his Master's magic.
This clearly meant that this man was in possession of the full spell model with which one could amplify their spells, thereby resulting in an output of power uncharacteristic of one's own level.
This was his dream. and the reason he had taken the risk to plant the Echer seeds given by the Black Raven Kingdom.
After realizing this fact, his goal changed. Where before he had only wanted to show his power to chase the man away, he now wanted to capture him in order to try and obtain the spell model which would definitely result in him skyrocketing in power.
After all, he had the system which might even be able to develop lesser spell models with which he could equip his army to great effect.
So many things would become possible, and the only thing stopping him from achieving them was the freedom of the man in front of him.
It was time to take that freedom away.
Conjuring the clone in his place, Daneel gave it a Ker Gem before boldly walking forward out of the safe zone of the formation. Before, Kellor had been successful in sending him back into the area where he could still conjure Dragon Claws to keep himself safe.
Although the system started to notify him again in his head, he ignored it while activating his mageroot to take full control of all the elementary particles around him using the strength of an Exalted Human Mage.
Indeed, two days ago, Daneel had already successfully broken through into the realm that separated the truly strong in the continent from those who could still only be considered as being in the mid-levels.
He was definitely the youngest Exalted Human Mage in the entire continent, and if people found out that he was also an Exalted Human Fighter, it would be shocking enough to discourage all those who were walking on a similar path on seeing his blazing speed.
This was the only thing he decided to hold back. After all, it was never wise to expose all the cards available to you especially when everyone was watching.
"Kellor, go back. This isn't your fight. As he said, it is time for me to stop hiding behind the formation and sending others to their deaths. It is time for me to step into the battlefield myself, and if I die in the process, I'll at least not be remembered as a coward who let his subordinates die in front of him while still being in possession of power to stop it from happening."
Although Daneel was saying these words with the determination of one who was ready to face his death no matter what in order to stand with his ideals, he was chuckling inwardly as he knew that the chances were slim that he would actually die.
As someone who was in possession of both Exalted Human Mage strength and Warrior level spell techniques, his power level had definitely already crossed the realm of Humans. No matter how much of an advantage the green flame gave to the man, the system had already told him that he was not an individual at the Warrior level, which meant that he was only at the peak of the Human Mage level.
Thus, these words were only meant for those watching, so that his image could be solidified further in their minds.
As expected, the expressions of most of the businessmen and businesswoman who were watching the scene had already changed into one of surprise and approval.
Kellor was already sweating as it was all he could do to maintain the barrier while trying to conjure tornado spells in order to try and drive out the fire. Sadly, his attempts seemed to be futile, and just like the man had said it was becoming clear that he would soon lose his life.
Yet, hearing the words from the King who had just walked back towards his side, Kellor opened his eyes wide with shock as this was definitely the most illogical decision taken by the King since ascending the throne.
What use was all those things if he died in this battle? Kellor knew that Daneel was not someone who acted on his hot-bloodedness, so he was both puzzled and surprised at the same time.
Yet, as he looked back to see with his Elemental Vision the number of elemental particles that Daneel had under his control, his eyebrows went up as far as they could on his forehead because of the realization that he was actually watching the power of an Exalted Human Mage in all its glory.
A-a 17-year-old Exalted Human Mage? H-how was this even possible?
Even before he could say anything, he found himself being flung back similarly while the King took his place to maintain the barrier.