After gaping at the sight of all these Heroes looking around with glaring, red eyes, Daneel almost yelped with fright before saying, "The camouflage is on, right?"
[Affirmative. Hero-level camouflage spell was deployed when a Hero-level individual was detected, as instructed by host.]
’Thank god for subroutines!’
That was the thought that ran through Daneel’s head when he heard this.
He would have been foolish if he had the ability to instruct the system beforehand on certain things and didn’t use it to save his ass in situations where he could be slow on the uptake.
Hence, he had already placed a lot of subroutines which would trigger in specified situations, such as this one.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Daneel refocused his eyes on the Heroes, who were still waiting, as if the Head’s shout really would result in so opponent busting out of sowhere.
The people of Eldinor were also puzzled, wondering who these individuals were that had barged into their Kingdom like this. They started whispering among themselves, which seed to irritate the Head, who flicked his finger.
In an instant, the large, circular square beca devoid of Eldinorians, and, at the sa ti, a transparent globe ca into effect which kept everyone away, including the army of Eldinor which had just started to co forward to see what the ruckus was.
Except for the Heroes, the elves who were ’confessing’, and the tortured humans behind them, there was no one else inside.
Or so the Heroes thought.
Daneel was still there, feeling so thankful that the system had managed to copy the Hero-level camouflage spell from Drakos even though it couldn’t understand it.
Panic regarding what the hell he had done to bring down what almost looked like divine fury still filled him, but he was at least confident in the fact that they couldn’t find him, unless he drew attention to himself.
Besides, he wasn’t close to the Head like in that occasion before when he had been right below the man after the fight between Ashahell and the Mad Doctor. At that mont, Drakos had warned him that it might not be completely safe, so Daneel also felt thankful that he had been cautious and opted for a place that was quite far away from the clearing, but still in eyeshot of it.
Resolving to not even move an inch no matter what happened, Daneel settled into the shadows to observe.
anwhile, the Heroes were still nacingly looking around, as if expecting a fight from any direction, at any mont.
Finally, after a minute or so, they got odd looks on their faces.
The Head was the first to regain his composure.
"That’s odd. Typically, by this ti, they would have jumped out and would be expounding about how backward we are. Guess we have a sly one, this ti. If whoever had the gall to sneak in is still here, they would be hiding inside one of the people below. Spread out and begin searching. Use force to break through their minds and search through their mories. Look for residues of spells. Don’t leave even a single rock unturned."
There were hundreds of elves in the square, and thousands of humans.
So, the Heroes had their work cut out for them.
At this mont, Daneel realized how much of a close shave this was. If he hadn’t used that strategy of trusting fear, he would have been actively Mind Controlling these elves, which would make it so that he would have been spotted in an instant.
Against this many Heroes...he didn’t stand a chance. Hell, just one Hero, himself, would be quite a challenge, even if he did have Drakos. And now, Daneel didn’t even have the Ancient Dragon with him.
As he had taken care not to leave behind any clues, he was confident that they would find nothing, but the curiosity was still eating him up inside.
What the f*ck had he done that had elicited such a reaction?
He had already considered the risks.
The main risk was that this might look like another attempt by the Church to proliferate in Angaria, but the Big 4 had been willing to let that happen last ti, in his Kingdom, when they had almost taken over Lanthanor, itself. So, Daneel had presud that the Big 4 probably would only step in if things got very, very bad, which was a far cry from this, which was just a small test.
And that was the only damn main risk he could think about!
All the others, such as building sothing that he might not be able to control, or starting a chain effect which might lead to disaster, could all be solved by him with effort. He could just nip this thing in its bud with practically a flick of his finger: by killing all these elves, and Mind Controlling those who might be affected to forget about it.
He wasn’t the naive boy who had played with fire back in the academy and gotten his eyebrows singed off. No, he was soone who had learned constantly from his mistakes and had grown to beco a King renowned by many!
Yet, here, sohow, he had f*cked up.
F*cked up in a major way.
As the Heroes broke through the minds of the elves and left them as sloppy sses with their tongues outside, Daneel didn’t feel any remorse for them. But he did tense up when he saw the Heroes heading to the humans.
However, all of these humans had been imprisoned for long tis in underground caves, being fed on scraps while experiencing ntal and physical torture every day. Their minds were already ’broken’, so they offered no resistance and allowed the Heroes to rifle through their mories, just like how Ashahell had done when he had kidnapped Daneel.
While Daneel watched this, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he probably should have thought about it more.
The reason behind all this was mostly still related to that main risk about the Church. When the thing he was doing could look like sothing that was being done by the main enemy of the entire continent, maybe...he should have taken a step back and analyzed stuff instead of marching forward like a f*cktard.
In many ways, it was like a scenario where a country on Earth had just suffered a devastating terrorist attack and was still reeling from it, while expecting another. In that case, what reaction would there be if he marched into that country holding a water gun that looked exactly like the gun used by those terrorists, while yelling ’Death to the infidel!’?
He might present no threat in reality, but he would definitely be riddled with so many holes by the full force of that country that there would be no difference between him and Swiss Cheese!
As he thought about why he hadn’t been cautious and seen this before, he realized that it was because he had been anxious after that failure with the bandits to do sothing aweso and effective and get back his status of a ’genius who excelled at implenting ideas in unique ways.’
’Well, guess what. This might be unique, but it was dumb as f*ck!’
As he cursed himself in this way, he realized that this week was a double bonanza of failures: he had f*cked up the bandit thing and left it dangling at the will of that woman who might be crazy, and he had f*cked up big ti in this thing which might have resulted in him dying before he even said ’Hey, what’s up?’.
Shaking his head inwardly, Daneel decided that it really was imperative that he not let his head swell with each success, or not let desperation overtake his head in the face of failure. True, he had co a long way since that ti, but he was still nowhere as mature and smart as he should be.
If he didn’t imbibe that into his mind this ti, then there might not be a next ti.
At the sa ti as this dawned upon him, the Heroes got done with their search.
As each of them reported that they found nothing to the Head who had a pensive expression on his face, the man stroked his beard and said, "Guess they were smart enough to leave. They might have thought that this would be like last ti, when we were all preoccupied driving away the landing forces of the Church and the Tri-Cobra Sect. This is certainly worrying, though, as what I’ve seen bears no resemblance with anyone we’ve encountered from the mainland. Could soone else have found Angaria’s location, or could it have been by fluke?"
As the Head said this, expressions of...worry ca on the faces of these Heroes who were supposed to be fearless in the face of anyone and anything.
After a few monts, the Head shrugged and said, "Leave it. It might actually be a good thing. Regardless, I’ll be ready if whoever is responsible for this turns up again. And if they’re serious about this, they will turn up again. Get back to your posts. Rayen, let’s take a trip to that vineyard outside the Black Raven Kingdom..."
As the Hero that had sworn to Daneel grumbled when he heard the Head say this, the rest of the Heroes started teleporting away, one-by-one, until only the Head and Rayen were left.
This was a barrier that was supposed to keep out everyone, so it seed that the Head had no inhibitions against speaking out loud.
"Rayen, sothing about this feels...off. Do you get what I an? You’re supposed to have the best instincts, apart from those who are still healing from that dastardly poison. What do you think?"
As the Head said this, Rayen sighed and closed his eyes.
As he did so, the billowing darkness around him ford a perfect sphere, which revolved calmly for a few monts before it condensed on the man again and covered him like a cloak.
"Yes, sothing tells that there is more...or maybe, less to this, than we are thinking."
With a frown, the Head asked, "Less?"
"I don’t know, I just felt that way. Maybe I was wrong. Religions aren’t things to play with, so I don’t know..."
As Rayen drifted off, Daneel could almost swear that he shot a glance in his direction, which made him freeze with fear and shock while his heart started to beat at a breakneck pace.
Thankfully, it looked like it had been his imagination, as the Head nodded and said, "I’ll certainly pay more attention here, then, " before they both teleported away.
At the sa mont, all the elves who had beco mindless wrecks disintegrated into a pile of ash, causing the humans to finally to watch that and finally react in a normal way, with joy.
Daneel stayed at the spot for 3 hours after that, just to be sure. He was still afraid, but everything he had heard, and the confirmation behind the reason due to which this had happened kept running through his mind, causing him to curse himself even more and brand even more strongly the lesson he had learned here.
After that, he finally braced himself and teleported away, before feeling relieved when he heard the system say that there was no one following him.
Imdiately, Daneel headed to Drakos.
He needed more concrete answers, and he wished the Ancient Dragon had ’em.
As soon as he reached the pedestal, Daneel grasped it and blurted, "I f*cked up," before reciting everything that had happened while panting.
Gone was the regal King who had everything in his control.
After he was done, he waited for an answer, but started to sweat when the Ancient Dragon paused and didn’t say anything.
When he finally did answer, the blood drained from Daneel’s face.
"Young King...your foolhardy actions, which almost killed you, have exposed you to sothing you normally would have learned much, much later. You...have touched upon the secrets that lie behind the veil which hold the crucial knowledge regarding how one can ascend to beco a Hero, and reach the levels beyond. If you would like to live long enough to obtain that knowledge in the normal way, I suggest...that you refrain from such activities."
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