Rise Of The Godking - Chapter 135 Broken

The scream of the woman behind him let Daneel know that Alex was almost done chaining all of the guards, the leaders, and the servants, too, until it was proven that they didn’t deserve it. It had been the thief’s plan, all along, to let all these individuals who saw themselves as superiors be greeted with the same fate, and when Daneel had heard it, he had agreed that it was poetic justice, of a sort, which had definitely been coming for each and every one who had inflicted suffering in this town, thinking that there would never come a day when they would have to answer for their crimes.

Instead of using the adage of ‘innocent, until proven guilty’, they were using the opposite. Unless they heard from the slaves, themselves, that the people who weren’t chained like them were innocent, Daneel would continue to presume that they were all guilty of crimes worthy of being killed for.

Almost 2 hours had passed since the leaders, their followers and the guards had stepped headfirst into the trap waiting for them with eager faces and shining eyes. The elf had set it all up the day before, choosing an empty scrap of land and making sure that his spell would stay visually hidden in case someone passed by before they arrived.

Even with the elf’s level, which Daneel had not yet guessed, it was apparently hard to knock out so many people at once. The only reason he was able to do so was that he had been allowed to work on it beforehand, and of course, the drawback of this method was that it would work only in a set area.

Of course, because they had discussed all of this before, the entire scam had been leading up to that moment when all of the individuals in the town they needed to be worried about would step into that spot, and completely lose any means of resistance. While they had been knocked out, Daneel and Alex had carried, pulled, and for the most part, watched as the elf made them all float to each teleportation matrix so that they could all travel back to the island where they could be confident that no one would intrude on whatever they did.

Knowing that they would be traveling in this manner, the elf had also set up wards on the islands that they had passed through to get to where the trap had laid in wait. They had gone ahead only after knowing that no one would be present on the way to see the massive pile of floating bodies, and right now, they were in the large, open square outside the central mansion, with Daneel standing in front of all those being chained while a large group of people had been summoned to stand in front, in the empty streets of the town that almost looked desolate.

The slaves had then been brought up by the thief. Daneel heart had ached when he had seen them follow him. They had apparently been trained by being tortured repeatedly to keep their heads down and follow whoever was holding the end of the chain they were bound by, so even now, with the same dead eyes that he had seen during the auction, they emerged on the surface, not even looking up to enjoy the sun that they had been deprived of for all this time.

The people who did the torturing were the same guards that guarded the vault, and a few others whom Alex had locked up inside the pits to be dealt with later. Even without any of these individuals present, the slaves did not even try to look up when Alex took off all the chains and took them away to be used on the guards, the leaders, and the others who had come with them before.

Daneel continued to watch all 600 of them, standing perfectly with the same amount of distance between them, all with their heads inclined at the exact same angle to face the ground. He watched even after Alex finished and came to stand beside him, and it was only 10 minutes after that that he made his decision.

Folding his hands behind his back, he spoke in a voice that reverberated throughout the town.

“Slaves of Larefa. I know that you find this hard to believe… but your days of captivity are no more. Your captors are now the ones who are chained, and they stand ready, here, to face justice. Raise your heads, and feel what it is to be free for the first time. Your fates have forever been changed…and all that remains now is for you to look up, and grab what is waiting for you. Heed my words. Raise your heads! Look up!”

His words washed over all the slaves…and did nothing.

There wasn’t even the slightest movement in any of them to signal that they had heard him. None of them even glanced up to check whether it might be true. They stood there, unmoving, looking like they would stay so until they dropped to their feet, dead due to hunger and exertion unless their masters came and gave them a command regarding what they were supposed to do.

Daneel frowned, and found the answer behind what was happening when Alex bent and whispered near his ear.

“Those fucking bastards behind us were sick enough to try things like these, and punish those who showed signs of believing them in full view of all the others. It was all to convince them that they would never escape. Ever. That it was futile to even try, even if all signs might point to an avenue of freedom present in front of their eyes.”

He almost turned around and ran to the leaders to beat them black and blue to start with, at least, but he controlled himself. Narrowing his eyebrows, he looked all around, searching, probing for someone he could use to break the dam that had been built in all of their minds.

He found a likely target in the form of a slave who was hardly a teenager. When Daneel’s eyes had gone over him, he had trembled just a little, as if fighting the urge to listen to or react in some way.

Walking quickly, Daneel reached him. The trembling returned when Daneel caught his hand and pulled, leading him between all the others and to the leaders of the town who had just begun to wake up.

The woman had gone hoarse, but the way she looked at the slave and Daneel made it clear that she knew what was coming for her. All the sickening things she had done seemed to be flashing through her mind as she shuddered now and then, and after shooting her a look of disgust, Daneel stopped in front of the old man who was the most notorious of three.

He was still not fully awake, but Daneel did not care. Tugging him to his knees using the chains, he said to the young slave, “Go on. Hit him. He can do nothing.”

The slave didn’t move. Daneel grimaced, wondering whether he had been wrong, but then… he saw the boy’s fist tighten ever so slowly, before relaxing as if he had suddenly become afraid of what he had imagined.

Daneel took that hand in his, pursing his lips when he saw how callused, how scarred, how rough it was. He curled it into a fist, powering through the weak opposition of the boy one finger at a time, and after he was done… he pulled it back, and sent it flying straight into the old man’s face.

This finally woke him up. He looked around, startled, at first, then growled, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You lowly dog! Kneel, and—”

Daneel made the same fist fly again, this time straight into the old man’s mouth. His eyes bulged when he saw it happen, and whatever he had been about to say was stopped in its tracks.

He pulled back the hand, and the old man sputtered, looking between the slave and Daneel as if he could not understand what nightmare he had wandered into.

Ignoring him, he sent another punch. And another. And another.

Each time, he saw that he needed to use less and less force to push the young slave’s hand. The old man kept trying to say something, trying to edge in a word between the punishment, but soon, he shut up, his nose, lips, and skin starting to bleed due to the beating they were taking.

He had purposefully positioned himself to be in full view of the rest of the slaves. When he started to hear gasps as they finally looked up just a bit to see what was going on, he knew that his plan was working.

While in the process of letting the next punch fly, he suddenly left the young slave’s hand midway. The force that the boy had begun to add was more than enough to let his bloodied knuckles crunch into the old man’s cheeks, once again. But after that, he froze, eyes opened wide with shock as he looked between the hand, and Daneel.

All Daneel did was smile. In his eyes, he tried to show everything that he wanted the young boy to understand. He tried to show him that it was alright, that his dream had come true, that he could do what he wished, that this was not a trap, or a ploy to punish him even more…and in those large eyes without a hint of life until now, he finally saw something bloom deep, deep within.

Cracks had finally appeared, and they were spreading. “Again!” He shouted, his voice like a whip, but its effect was anything but what that heinous object could have produced.

The fist flew true, all on its own.

“Again!” he screamed, and behind him, he heard the first few hesitant footsteps, and the rustling of those drab clothes that meant that more people were moving.

Even before the young boy’s bloodied fist fully drew back, “Again!” he bellowed, addressing not the slave he had picked, but all those who had stumbled near the chained bodies all around him.

With all his strength, the young slave punched once more, and the old man fell back, thudding onto the bodies behind him, no longer able to stay on his knees.

At the same time, all around Daneel, hundreds flooded forth, completely absorbed in the rush of emotions and the thirst for revenge that had been given life in the wake of the death of their broken minds, of the destruction of all they had known so far. As all their fists flew…he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, the screams of the guards and all the residents of the town sounding like music to his ears.