Daneel would always think back to this day, and every time he did, he would wonder whether he could have done things differently.
Each time he did, he would go through the events, one by one, starting with his "eureka" moment which allowed him to win the battle.
The idea had mainly stemmed from the words of the ent.i.ty, its past, and everything he had found out about it from its commander.
The trail to reach that solution had been laid out to him almost like bread crumbs in the forest, but still, if not for the moment of clarity which he had been graced with, he doubted that he could have spotted it.
To understand an individual"s weakness, it was most important to get a grip on just what their character was, and this was where Daneel had started.
He had found out about the ent.i.ty"s, or at least, Olivia"s past from the commander, who had spoken about it almost in a hushed tone.
Daneel had been quite fascinated by it, although he had wondered whether that information would help him.
Immortality was always a very important topic for all those who walked the Path to power. Hence, it had been quite interesting to find out about this spin on it.
Daneel had made a list of the people he knew who had survived for all these 17,000 years, and he had found out that more than half had gone crazy, in some form or another. Even those who didn"t had only been able to accomplish that by taking very careful precautions that had been implemented by either them or someone else who cared for them, as otherwise, even they would have been swept away by the tides of time.
When the commander had spoken about how the ent.i.ty was well-versed in creating another version of itself, Daneel had been puzzled, but even this had been explained by the story. Locking away one"s memories and turning into a force that was driven by a single emotion was basically changing oneself and making a version that would be immune to insanity, and with the added bonus of being able to go back to their memories whenever they wished, it seemed like quite an effective prospect.
However…this was where Daneel"s deduction had started from.
One who did such a thing was bound to have weaknesses, and he had uncovered the one he would use due to this information.
The consciousness was an incredible thing, and part of what it made possible was to have a complex life where one could juggle multiple emotions and motives to live according to one"s character.
And for this, many theories stated that if the consciousness was thought of as the body that made it possible, then memories were the flesh and blood that allowed it to exist.
If so…wouldn"t taking away the memories also take away the capabilities of the consciousness?
From this supposition, he had reached the conclusion that it would be a valid idea that the ent.i.ty was more vulnerable to things that would wound one"s psyche, than normal people who might be able to get over them after a period of time.
This brought him to the ent.i.ty"s life before they had had to flee from the Mainland and drift at sea, before getting lucky and finding Angaria.
According to the commander, they had been able to live while obtaining almost anything they wanted on the Mainland for thousands of years. For all those years, they had simply enjoyed themselves immensely, with each of them indulging in all of their desires. Of course, their leader had displayed "greed" to the fullest, recklessly expanding and gobbling up all sorts of resources and even followers, until it seemed as if there would be no end.
Apparently, the ent.i.ty had only stopped when it became clear that they might endanger themselves by angering the truly powerful ones on the Mainland, and this had led them to change their strategy into one where they bided their time and built power, while still enjoying everything they had.
Only, this entire life had been destroyed in a single night.
The commander had said it clearly: the ent.i.ty had been devastated, and it had taken many days at sea for its rage to die down. Even after that, it would snap and kill others mercilessly every time this bad memory was mentioned, and everyone had learned to forget what had happened.
This fact only served to reinforce the other deduction that Daneel had already made from what he had concluded about Olivia"s past and the speech given by the ent.i.ty as soon as it was exposed: that trauma might be a very real thing that it had not gotten past, and that if he found a way, he would be able to use this to achieve something.
That was how the plan had started to form in its nascent stages. Even the first thing that the ent.i.ty had said after revealing its ident.i.ty was that it had been cheated out of its victory, and that it still had anger that it needed to take out on someone, and during the latter part, Daneel had seen the emotions in its weird eyes, which had been very, very agitated.
Hence, the plan became clear: he would use the trauma caused by one thinking that they would finally be able to climb back on their feet, having victory within their grasp, but then having it taken away at the last instant, to find a moment of weakness that he could hopefully use to achieve victory.
From there, finding more stuff to support the fact that the plan would work had been simple: the shudder that had gone through the ent.i.ty"s body when it mentioned Fenoras, the terrified expression described by the commander at the moment when its body had been destroyed, the scream of extreme unwillingness that had sounded across the continent which no one could forget- all of them supported him, and hence, the decision was made.
But how? How would Daneel accomplish it?
Thankfully, things had already been set up in a way that he could exploit.
When he had broken through, itself, the system had said that his Champion Path was a dual-form one, which was exceedingly rare and only theorized about on Angaria. He had also been extremely careful to never expose this fact, whether it be during his actions in the Order or on the continent, so it was a reasonable thing to a.s.sume that except in the small group of people he knew, no one else was aware of this fact.
During this battle, though, it had been exposed, but of course, only the form that allowed those who supported him to have their power amplified was put on display. Anyone would conclude that this was his Path, and that he only had his Fighter prowess left, which was what the ent.i.ty must also have believed. Of course, this was confirmed by its words, when it had said "You can only fight as a Fighter, and that is not enough."
Finally, this brought Daneel to the thing that tied it all together: his Champion Path, and its similarities with the Grand Inheritance.
The Grand Inheritance granted one the ability to wield the Will of the World as they wished, but if they weren"t supported by the majority of the individual Wills, it would result in the backlash that had caused the apocalypse.
As for his Champion Path…wasn"t it essentially the same thing?
The Will of the World had bowed down to him and granted his every wish, so wasn"t this the same thing as the ability to wield the Will?
h.e.l.l, it could even be said that his Path was an even purer form of the Grand Inheritance, as it had come to be because of the resonance he had with the world, instead of having to use some object to forcefully obtain the ability!
The moment that he had realized this, was when excitement had surged through his body.
If he suddenly s.h.i.+fted his Champion Path and changed the conditions back to exactly what they were when the ent.i.ty had almost been destroyed, wouldn"t it certainly result in a moment of weakness?
With that, it had been decided. As for the conditions…they were simple to emulate.
The ent.i.ty had to be in a position where victory was just a moment away, and it had to feel the change in the Will, which would take away any notion that it was false.
Daneel had also decided to throw in a fake Grand Inheritance, whose form he knew even though he hadn"t obtained all the parts yet.
At that crucial moment…it had all come together, and the bluff had worked perfectly.
Hence, in truth, his victory really was dedicated to the Emperor, and he had felt more relief than anything he had felt in what felt like a long while as he said it out loud.
However…that was when that voice had spoken.
It had sounded strangely…familiar, but all thoughts like these raced out of Daneel"s head as he felt the explosion make the earth that he stood on shudder.
Hurriedly, he had begun to run, before hastily deactivating the anti-teleportation formation and teleporting west, from where the voice, and the sound of the explosion had echoed.
It took a few teleportations, but finally, Daneel found himself behind a mountain, on the opposite side of which the explosion had happened.
He had stopped here to take a few precautionary measures, and after ensuring that he had hidden himself in the best way possible, Daneel took a deep breath and flew to the top of the mountain.
The view that presented itself as he reached the top…was something he would remember for his entire life.
Previously, he had been on the eastern sh.o.r.e of Angaria, so flying west meant that he had reached the Kingdom…of Axelor.
But at the spot where the capital that he, himself had visited was supposed to be…there was a white, s.h.i.+ning citadel unlike any that had ever existed on Angaria.
In the air above the topmost spire of this citadel, there stood two individuals, and looking at them, Daneel finally understood why that voice had sounded familiar.
"Missed me? You might have forgotten about me, but you"ve always been in my thoughts, King…"
Arnold, the Empire Spirit said these words while relis.h.i.+ng each one, and beside him, the man who was wearing white robes spoke, making Daneel realize that even he was someone that he knew.
"Did you really think that we would waste an opportunity like this, where all the forces of the continent are lying senseless? Like my dear comrade just said, the War…has just begun, King."
He was the individual from the Church who had been scorched and beaten back by the Head in full view of the continent all those months ago, and as Daneel heard a message from the system at the same time, he finally realized what had happened, with horror and dread filling his mind.
[Variation of Blood Sacrifice Spell detected. Large-scale blood sacrifice has been carried out to facilitate large-scale ultra-long-range teleportation.]
Axelor…was no more.
And the Church…was here.