The operation, which Aqua had off-handedly labelled as 'Sunlight Rescue' had escalated beyond Ray's wildest expectations.
The number of slaves to be rescued at least tripled if not quadrupled. The amount of energy required for the operation was at least five times more. The numbers and forces needed for the operation to be executed doubled or tripled without counting how many more clones Katsuyu had to create.
And lastly, what had Ray most stressed and concerned was the terrible condition most of those slaves were in when they were sent into the Moonlight Mist.
It was beyond gruesome and despairing to see the level of cruelty that humans could muster when they went for it.
And even if the operation was currently focused mostly on the Sloane Theocracy, they had severely underestimated the territory's size. It was the biggest nation in the continent, closely followed by the Re-Estize Kingdom.
To fit the ever increasing crowd of people that was involved in the operation, more spatial rifts were necessary and the moonlight mist had to constantly increase in size. Ray cursed himself for allowing Tsunade to go back to her world at such a junction where her skills as a medical-nin and level of organisation were necessary. Not only that, but she was also the only one aside from him and Elysir who could control Sun Energy.
He had sent a rather meek message to her, asking how she was, if she missed him and if she was busy with the pretext of pulling her into the operation if she was available.
Tsunade answered by stating she was so busy after being appointed as the Hokage straight away after her return to Konoha, that she and Azrael had to postpone their booking for therapy.
That's when he knew she was truly busy and asking for her help would be preposterous and out of question. Ray and Katsuyu were at their maximum capacity, but thankfully, help came in many ways.
...
"Please one by one, there is no need to rush, everyone will be attended!"
A beautiful blonde screamed off her lungs, she wore a summer dress and kept stacks of paper notes of names in her hand as she addressed the crowd that was nothing short of depressing; Hundreds of people of all races, all in deplorable conditions.
Those suffering from deep hunger would be given Ray's mana in the form of condensed tablets. It wouldn't satisfy their hunger, but it would keep their bodies healthy.
Those under immense pain would be put to sleep by Ray into a slumber with his illusion domain. In most cases, they were missing limbs, their genitalia or experiencing deadly infections due to horrible sanitary conditions of the dungeons they were in.
Some slaves, despite the pain, were conscious of themselves, enjoyed their newfound freedom amidst chaos. They came into the moonlight mist world, which was nothing short of a beautiful land of gods with mirror-like ground and stars as far as the eye could see.
They knew they were saved.
However, opposite to them... despite being saved, some slaves saw no hope. In those raids, there weren't only living slaves but also dead slaves who were often family members of those who survived.
Mental trauma abounded.
Phase one of the operation was to raid the facilities where the slaves were being kept, that was the Five Priestesses' job and they executed it alongside the group of Starlight Angels. Tokisaki Kurumi was also doing her job at the opposite end of the Sloane Theocracy towards the south, by doing so, the forces of the Theocracy would have to spread between north and south to protect the aristocrats of both regions, black scripture had yet to make a move.
The second phase involved the recovery process in which the moonlight mist had become a hospital of sorts.
"Lady, please sit here..." The blonde girl said to an older woman with what looked like bunny ears, she was led to sit in a spot together with other people in the same condition as her. Her body was all ragged and she was wearing a bandana around her eyes... they had been gouged out long ago and her infections weren't even treated. Even then she smiled at freedom and the way she was being treated.
It was long ago the last time she was treated like a living being... rather than livestock.
That was what it meant to be a slave in this world. And it was a reality that Ray was starting to realise with unyielding disgust. The lengths of perversion of the aristocrats in the Sloane Theocracy and all over the world made him think that it was better to just destroy this world rather than try and save it.
But that was a cheap solution, if the world was destroyed, where would these people live?
'We can't delay...' He concluded, as a result, all the efforts put into rescuing all elves and other slaves from the aristocracy were tripled. He had no rest at all.
...
The blonde elf, Lucilla Strauss, had arrived two days after the beginning of the operation, she was a seventy-year-old noble forest elf who had been a slave to a count of the theocracy for more than ten years. Serving as a sexual slave, livestock and most times even a 'toy' to many generations of that dastardly family, now eradicated.
Five nights ago, she had been carried in by Zariel into the moonlight mist, missing both her legs, scars all over her body and a barely conscious mind, desiring nothing but to die, there was even a curse in her abdominal area, this curse had been connected to her uterus.
It had two purposes; one was a potent curse that wouldn't allow her to sleep, die or fall unconscious, experiencing a perpetual state of chronic insomnia, one of the worst possible tortures imaginable. The other was to erase her fertility.
Lucilla had to wait two hours before she could be attended by one of Katsuyu's clones after another two hundred had queued and been attended in order of arrival. To keep her alive, she had to be put under a strong illusion.
It was as if at the realisation of freedom, her soul could finally slip away... but she wouldn't be allowed to die in Ray's watch.
After she was attended by Katsuyu, it took half an hour before all her limbs were restored and her wounds healed to a point in which she looked as if she had been reborn, completely spotless. But even after undergoing that process, Lucilla wouldn't move.
'When the soul is dead, the body won't move... she may be too far gone' Elysir had said at that time, but as always, she would always present herself together with a solution.
'The soul is like a flame that keeps burning ceaselessly until the fire consumes itself and dies. Unlike a simple sparkle, the fire of the soul can't truly be extinguished, it would only dim until it becomes imperceptible in the face of despair. In order to save her, you need to kick-start her soul back into life, Ray'.
And so, the therapies gained total relevance as Lucilla was not the first or the last of such cases. Originally Ray thought that therapies would only recover ingrained mental traumas, he never thought he could also kick-start someone's soul back into life.
Her recovery was an exhaustive process that took hours, but when Lucilla woke up she saw Ray's countenance. She came face to face with the sun and felt alive for the first time in a long time.
Once her mind and livelihood were restored, Lucilla was placed in a 'waiting area' where all the ex-slaves who had been restored, would await their fate, but she wouldn't stay there long.
"I want to help!"
She witnessed the degradation and atrocities that she had been subjected to for years, and couldn't believe she managed to endure that long.
'We were saved...' She put her hand on her heart and looked at Ray, who looked at her in confusion as the majority of those who were restored chose just to lay down peacefully or just sleep to wear off the suffering and fatigue. Only Lucilla had requested to help.
"Please allow me to help, Lady Anna! Anything you need me to do, I will!"
Lucilla was extremely devoted to Anna, whom she considered the future Queen of Elves or maybe even beyond, the first Elf Empress in history, that would unify both Dark and Forest Elf Tribes.
And so, with her insistence Lucilla not only began helping and leading the people in the moonlight mist, but she lovingly played with the kids that had been treated and also helped convince more of the recovered people into helping, becoming a key leader and organising everything, giving Ray and his team more time to focus on what they had to do.
...
During an evening when the majority of those rescued slept, Lucilla crept up to the massive tent where all the therapies took place. More than a hundred people were lying down on blankets as Ray treated them one by one. Reina was sitting behind him, patting his back... although at the time, Lucilla couldn't distinguish between Elysir and Reina.
Ray's eyes were dim, his star eyes that once shone like the sun were now flickering and losing their splendour, growing progressively darker, his tattoos had lost a lot of strength and the once livid flame now looked feeble.
Nevertheless, Ray rested the head of a male werewolf on his lap, a man who had been a slave for decades, tortured and made to do harsh labour. He put his hands on the temples of that person, and worked his magic, creating miracles.
"Ray-chan, you have to rest…"
"…"
He wouldn't heed the words of anyone, not even his mother, their last resource. During the operation, the different divisions of attack and rescue would periodically rest before they assaulted yet another royal manor and moved along the region.
Even Haku, who had joined the process, had to rest periodically to be able to constantly open spatial rifts into the moonlight mist at the pace they were needed.
Only Ray and Katsuyu never rested. However, there was a difference... each one of Katsuyu's clones had independent mental capacity from each other. In Ray's case, though...
"The amount of energy that is flowing in and out of you at a constant rate is too much for your brain to take on top of energy records, you only have to sleep for an hour at least; why are you so stubborn!?" Elysir took control, angry but also feeling powerlessness.
"Just one hour of me missing is going to delay the whole operation", he said sternly, something that Elysir couldn't deny, and the reason of her helplessness. While she wanted to loudly utter that she cared a lot more about his wellbeing than that of the whole world, she found herself unable to considering the joint efforts.
'Why are you always like this...? I guess this is one of the other reasons why I love you... when you put your mind into something, you won't rest until it is done'
Elysir and Reina gave up, if it was them, they knew they wouldn't be able to convince him. Someone else stepped in. Anna and Alana, the elf sisters, weren't as considerate.
"Uh?"
Each took one of his hands and together they pulled him away from the room.
"What are you both–"
When Ray came out of the room, he found a crowd of thousands of people kneeling in front of the tent, everyone was kneeling: the starlight angels, the slaves, the elves, the werebeasts...
"Ray, please listen..." Anna and Alana implored him.
At the forefront was Haku, whose head was hitting the floor. Ray had never seen the proud Hasshaku-sama take that stance, even to him.
"Master, you know I'm never one to undermine your determination. I will always support you with my greatest strength and believe you can do everything. But you need to rest, please... There is no point in sacrificing your wellbeing to hasten an operation that is fated to succeed," Haku rose her gaze and said, not with tears in her eyes but instead, sternness. She never believed for a second that his life was in danger, but instead, there may be other unprecedented consequences.
'He wishes to lessen the suffering of those slaves for even one second if possible' Haku sighed, it was one of those times in which she wished her master was not a young innocent god but instead, an old selfish one.
"…" The words came like a shock to him, especially coming from Haku who never so much as said 'no' to anything he asked.
"One hour or two should be enough to get you back to your top condition. We would need to halt the operation for that time, but it is doable. During that period I can handle the moonlight mist–".
"What about Katsuyu…? If I go into a deep slumber, Elysir and I won't be available… if I can't give my energy to Katsuyu she will lose her connection to the copies, we will lose the locations of all the slaves across the continent that took so long to obtain!"
He struck where it hurt, the key point of the issue and why none of them dared to simply 'put him to sleep' against his will.
With the millions of copies of Katsuyu spreading across the continent, she couldn't bear to decrease her energy intake, otherwise those copies would have to scatter forcefully.
"Let alone delaying the operation; if I fall unconscious, it will give time to Black Scripture to re-compose and plan a counter-offensive. As of now, they must be aware of what our objective is, and taking hostages is within their options. If we allow them that time, it will overcomplicate the operation that has been going smoothly thus far"
His complex and eloquent words of a leader left all the ex-slaves and Starlight Angels silent, Haku bit her lips, "Y-You're right, Master–"
'Don't tell him he's right, you fool!' Elysir cursed inwardly and just as she expected, with Haku's confirmation, he began walking back into the room.
'You leave me no choice, Ray.Horus, I need your help to avoid 'her' from reading the messages. That fool will leave everything behind and come running if she comes to know this, the truth is he needs more than a few hours, right?'
[That is correct. At least three days...]
'Do what I am asking you'.
[I understand, Lady Elysir].