After having the notification repeated to him multiple times, Daneel felt a sense of urgency rise within him.
This was his closest friend in the world - the one who had been with him each and every step of the way, no matter what they had had to go through.
Who the h.e.l.l was targeting him?
Could it be to get to him?
And to think that it was actually a Hero level individual! What could they be hoping to gain?
Multiple questions like these flashed through his mind, but Daneel decided that he should stop thinking too much until he went by himself to verify what was going on.
The thought that he should be afraid and consider staying away because a Hero-level individual might be waiting to smash him into oblivion didn"t even cross his mind.
No, he was going to be cautious, but there was no way that he would abandon his best friend.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team members were staring at him with irritated expressions on their faces, wondering why this kid looked like he had seen a ghost.
These were going to be two very grueling days, and their moods were already bad because they had had to choose this mission, unless they wanted to go without Ker gems for days.
The leader seemed the most annoyed - as an Exalted Warrior, usually, he would never undertake such monotonous and low-paying tasks. However, because of the state of high alert the sect was in, each and every team that was going out had to be escorted by a trusted Exalted or Eminent Warrior, so that they could keep an eye on the sect members when they were outside, while also ensuring that additional attacks could be thwarted.
"We don"t have all day! Come on!"
As he snapped at the blonde haired kid, he seemed to come back to his senses.
After looking around and getting an expression as if he had decided on something, the kid nodded and apologized, saying, "Sorry about that. Let"s go."
With a humph, the Exalted Warrior led the way, flying through the air for a little bit of time until reaching a certain spot from which they would teleport after making sure that they weren"t being followed.
These were all steps that had been implemented for the safety of the sect members, and they had to be followed rigorously.
The first stop was coincidentally the spot where Daneel had broken through to become a Warrior.
Apparently, areas like these which still had remnants of formations from the ancient ages that were very dangerous even to Warrior level individuals had formations laid down by the Big Four which would prevent regular humans from entering them and being killed.
If this hadn"t been the case, the number of deaths would have been a lot more, which was detrimental to the continent as a whole.
Hence, even though most of the Big Four didn"t care much about the regular humans except treating them as livestock from which they could pick out talented individuals, they had taken the duty together to maintain the formations in these dangerous areas.
As soon as they reached the valley, the blonde haired kid among them suddenly shouted out, drawing all of their attention.
Pointing behind them, he exclaimed, "What"s that?!"
His expression of extreme fear made the others panic too as they turned around with alarm.
However, seeing nothing there, they turned back, with the Exalted Warrior glaring at the blonde haired kid and saying, "What the h.e.l.l did you see?"
"Oh, nothing. I thought I spotted enemies. My bad. I"m feeling a little sick. Could you all please take over my workload, too? Of course, when we get back, please tell them that we all shared the work equally, and forget that I asked you this. You would do that for me, right?"
"Of course!"
Everyone replied together, as all four individuals" minds told them that this was what they were supposed to do.
"Wonderful. So even if you don"t see me, a.s.sume that I"m following you. Don"t wait for me when teleporting. I"ll find you on the last leg of the task."
"Very well! Have a good rest!"
The Exalted Warrior who had been grumpy all along now had a smile on his face as he said this, even waving at Daneel who immediately teleported away to "rest".
It seemed that he was getting better and better at mind control, as it had been very easy to even bring that Exalted Warrior and the others under his control simultaneously without letting them identify that anything was wrong.
They might have felt that p.r.i.c.k in their consciousness due to the invasion of a foreign one, but they must have discarded it right after the "suggestions" started, as the distraction was enough for the spell to completely engulf them.
After a few seconds, Daneel were standing in the air above the Black Raven Palace.
Getting into the kingdom had been quite easy, as he was now in possession of a Champion level system that could let him infiltrate without triggering any alarms.
This was why a Champion, or in most cases, even a Warrior could have free reign over the entire Central Continent if they were allowed to let loose their power.
It was only the core formation of the Palace that he needed to worry about, but right now, he was not in its sphere of influence.
Unlike the Palace of Lanthanor which reminded him or of the Victorian era structures from Earth, the Black Raven Palace emphasized openness over all else.
In the center of a large open s.p.a.ce with sprawling gardens, the central building was surrounded by many spires, all of which were supposed to contain areas where Black Ravens could rest and recuperate when not training.
The throne room was located right in the center of the Palace, which coincidentally happened to be right below him, but Daneel hesitated, wondering whether he should barge in.
He had considered whether to contact his friend and asked him to come out, but if it really were a trap for him, or if the influence of the mind control denied that request but also got suspicious that he was onto it, Daneel knew that he would cause more harm than good.
He had rushed over in a hurry, but right now, he was stumped regarding what he was supposed to do.
The system was only at Champion level, and he doubted whether it would have any effect on a d.a.m.n Hero level spell.
Just to confirm, he asked the system regarding it and got the answer that it needed to be upgraded, which was definitely his least likable sentence uttered by the system by now.
The biggest problem was that he didn"t know who the h.e.l.l was responsible for all of this, so he couldn"t act recklessly.
In fact, even him standing here might be a big risk, but Daneel had been a.s.sured that there was no one keeping an eye on him right now.
Of course, there was the possibility that someone at the Hero level might be watching him, but if that were the case, there was really nothing he could do.
Heck, if a hero level individuals wanted to, Daneel could bet that they would easily be able to kill him in a breath no matter where he was, as that was the maximum level on this continent.
Besides, for his friend, he was ready to take any risk.
"Argh!"
After standing in the air for five minutes without finding any method to best handle the situation, Daneel was just about to give in to his frustration and barge into the Palace.
However, suddenly, a notification from the system sounded in his mind again.
[Phenomena a.n.a.lysis Module has scanned target "Faxul". Because of host"s repeated usage of the Mind Control spell, system is capable of a.n.a.lyzing similar spells with greater ease. System has been able to identify that a source which is near to the target is handling the mind control spell. However, this source appears to be a formation which is receiving instructions from somewhere else and relaying them to the target. System has been unable to deduce the original location of the consciousness that is sending the commands and handling the mind control spell. System has only been able to find the general location of the formation. Would host like to know where it is?]
"Yes!"
[The source of the formation is the large Black Raven statue in the throne room. System suspects that this formation is also capable of surveillance. As system was not the Champion level when host was last at this location, this formation hadn"t been detected.]
As Daneel heard this, he did a double take.
His d.a.m.n gut had been right!
All those times when he had been in the Black Raven throne room, he had felt as if he were being watched by something.
In fact, it had even felt as if that Black Raven statue was real, and was watching him all the time.
It turned out that he was right, although in a roundabout way.
Along with this discovery, Daneel began to string together the other mysterious occurrences in the Black Raven Kingdom that he had had no option but to brush off before.
Faxul"s sudden increase in power, the subtle change in his consciousness, the gut feeling that he should place backups in the Kingdom just in case - all of them must be because there was someone targeting Faxul from the very beginning, listening in on everything happening in the throne room, and even possibly in the entire Kingdom.
This was… A little too much to take in.
At this point, Daneel couldn"t guess who could have the motivation and means to carry this out.
Whatever the case, swooping in to try and help his friend right now was definitely not the answer.
Understanding this, Daneel was just about to turn around and teleport away when a sudden chill made him freeze.
At the same moment, the system spoke in his mind with urgency.
[s.p.a.ce has been locked! A Peak Exalted Warrior has teleported to the location 100 meters behind host!]
A stench reached Daneel"s nostrils first, which made him wrinkle his nose before turning around to see just who had managed to find him here.
It was a man whose arms were pressed against his body as if he was wearing a straightjacket, with his face hidden behind a curtain of dirty hair matted with mud.
Only his eyes seemed to s.h.i.+ne, and the madness inside them made Daneel feel unsettled.
Staring into Daneel"s eyes, the man spoke in a very strange manner.
Each alternate sentence seemed to be spoken by an entirely different person, with even the mannerisms, expression and tone changing.
"Hehe...Finally broke free of that d.a.m.n bird-wait, why was I here again?
Please kill me!
Oh, who cares...I think I"ll kill you for fun...I miss the taste of blood...
Please, you must do it before I go under its control again!"