The words of the Empire Spirit of Angaria and the man from the Church echoed in the void between them, and although it felt as if the world had come to a standstill for Daneel, a lot of things were going on around him, about which the system continued to give him updates.
[Blood Sacrifice Spell used being a.n.a.lyzed. System has detected that the final result was sub-optimal, resulting in certain side-affects. Further a.n.a.lysis underway to identify side-affects.]
[Core defenses of continent have been concentrated on a different area. It is advised that the first course action should be to redirect defensive measures.]
[Task given by host to establish method of accessing authorities held by the ent.i.ty formerly known as "Olivia" is underway. Progress Update: The best solution that exists is still that a new Overseer must step into place. Former mentioned rules shall apply. Minimum Power level: Hero. Hence, host cannot use this solution.]
[If defensive measures are not immediately activated, a second Blood Sacrifice Spell can come into being, which will be able to utilise the lessons that were most probably learned in this first attempt.]
That last message jolted Daneel into action, and he shouted, "Arnold! You were a trusted confidant of the Emperor! I know what happened! He spared your life and even gave you such honor, but you repay the continent he loved in this way?"
Daneel knew, in his heart of hearts, that his response was deplorably generic.
However, keeping the situation in mind, and ignoring all of the startling aspects which he could figure out later, at leisure, after first stopping this real war that was supposed to come much later, Daneel had recognized that he needed to buy time, and on such short notice, this was what he came up with.
However, Arnold"s response made him understand that using ideas that were also prevalent in the entertainment industry from back on Earth…was never a good idea.
With a chuckle, he simply said, "Are you really that foolish? Well, then just die," before gesturing at the man from the Church, who sent out a Hero-level attack that was in the form of a cone-shaped metallic projectile which whizzed through the air.
As all kinds of warnings went off in Daneel"s head, he teleported away in the last moment…and stared with horror at the mountain he had been standing in front of it.
As soon as the metallic projectile"s tip met it, the top quarter of it disintegrated, and the end result was that the mountain looked as if some inestimably large giant had taken a bite from it, as if it were made from Swiss cheese instead of cold, hard earth.
His spine becoming drenched with sweat, Daneel used the Basilisk"s Breath and began to a.s.sess the situation.
It looked as if going through that whole episode with the ent.i.ty before had given him the ability to calm down at a moment"s notice and think with unprecedented clarity, as he was able to enter that "zone" again.
Right away, he saw the glaring things which had been revealed by the actions of these two, so far:
They hadn"t deployed an army, yet, which was the first thing that anyone would do in this situation.
They hadn"t flown out to attack him and had instead opted for a ranged attack even though he was their primary target…which meant that they must be protecting something.
This second conclusion was actually confirmed in the next second, when Daneel saw Arnold see him dodge with vexation, before glancing back, as if he blamed the thing behind him for not being able to come forth and hunt him down.
With this confirmed, Daneel decided to leave, without wasting any time on cheeky dialogue.
During that moment of clarity, he had gone through his options and already found the solution: there was only one, in truth, and he was very, very grateful for the things that had resulted in it being possible.
As he underwent hasty teleportations to get to the place where he knew the man he sought must be, he asked the system, "How do I initiate the process to make someone the Overseer?"
[The Order always has an individual completely bound to it, who is given a copy of the Stone Obelisk which is the official item to be utilized for appointments and transferal of powers.]
The image of a single man came into his mind, and breathing a sigh of relief due to the fact that he had at least found out the best thing he could do to handle this situation, Daneel increased his speed.
He tried not to think about the fact that the War he felt he had been preparing for for all his life was here in such an abrupt fas.h.i.+on, or that he had so, so many more plans that he had wanted to implement before they arrived.
He tried not to think about the hundreds of thousands of people who had been killed, whom he had seen personally when he had traveled to the Kingdom.
And finally, he tried not to think of the harrowing fact that they would almost certainly face defeat if the War really started now, as he now had a clear a.s.sessment of the Order"s strength, and it was not enough, especially as the whole idea had always been to fight a defensive battle where they would use their home advantage to the fullest.
Abruptly appearing in this manner…was a masterstroke, as it essentially threw all of their plans into disarray, and if one looked at the situation objectively, then they would conclude that the Church had already won.
But that…was only if Daneel didn"t have a say in the manner.
Reaching his destination, Daneel saw, with pleasure, that the man he had come for was already waiting for him.
"Well…f*ck."
Hearing the Head curse for the first time since he had met him, Daneel was quite surprised, but he realized right away that this was a situation that would want to make anyone use the foulest of language.
"Come on. You"re the new Overseer."
Saying so, he reached forward and caught the Head"s hand before teleporting them away.
There was no time for explanation: he still had no idea why Arnold and the one from the Church weren"t moving from where they had been standing, or for how long they would be bound by the reason behind their actions.
Each and every second was precious, and even though he was still injured and bleeding from all the damage he had sustained during the fight, he held on and pushed through, ignoring all of the sensations, but still allowing himself to feel them as they kept him firmly in a completely alert state.
Not even a couple of seconds later, Daneel was on the ground where the one hundred Heroes from the Order had collapsed, after the ent.i.ty had activated its plan.
The best thing to do was obviously reverse the mechanism it had used to accomplish this, but the system had not figured out a way to do so, yet.
He went directly to Cain, knowing that he must be the one who had bound himself to the Order.
Sure enough, lying beside him was a miniature stone obelisk, and it looked like it had rolled out of his hand, in which he had grasped it very tightly.
Daneel could guess why this was the case: after realizing the treachery, Cain"s first instinct must have been to use the obelisk in some manner to take back what had been given, but alas, he had been too late.
Daneel directly picked up the obelisk, which made it activate, and in the same way that he had been intimated about the rules in the missions he had undertaken in the Order, there was a prompt that appeared in the air in front of it.
"Extreme danger to the continent has been detected. Multiple threats have bypa.s.sed the core defensive mechanisms. Emergency defensive measures have been deployed. Active direction needed. Role of Leader- Empty. Role of Overseer- Empty. Roles are ready for appointment."
Below the prompt were two b.u.t.tons: one said "Leader", another said "Overseer".
Curious, Daneel was about to touch the one that said "Leader", but before he could, the Head"s hand was already on "Overseer".
Instantly, the man was raised into the air, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.
And not even a second later, he was back on the ground.
Daneel was about to ask whether it had failed, as it had taken such a short time, but he received the answer in a different way.
"NO!"
A scream echoed out from the same spot where he had been present a few seconds ago, and at the same time, a barrier exactly like the one that had blocked him when he had landed on the sh.o.r.e with his posse of a hundred Heroes.
It looked like it stretched to the Heavens, and it was the strongest defensive means that Daneel had ever seen in all of his life.
Blessing the injury that had made the Head stay back as his Mageroot was as good as disabled, Daneel turned to the man, but saw him stagger and take the support of the obelisk.
As Daneel hastily walked forward to support him, he raised a hand and said, "I"m fine. It just took a toll on me. King, the situation is not good. They killed almost a million people to get here, and although I can"t figure out how it happened, the fact is that more than half of the defensive means we have were all meant to keep them out. Now that they"re already bypa.s.sed them, it"s as if half the battle is over! I can"t figure out a way-"
Knowing that this situation had rattled even this man, the Head, who had been through countless hair-raising battles, Daneel raised his hand to stop him from babbling and said, "What defensive measures were used to stop them? And what others are available?"
As if the steadiness of his voice gave him strength, the Head gulped and was about to respond, but he abruptly stopped whatever he had been about to say.
Frowning, he thought for a moment and then said, "I can"t tell you because you"re not a part of the Order. You-"
"Oh, screw it!"
Daneel didn"t need any further explanation.
Without even thinking about it, he placed his hand on the obelisk, and right away, a voice appeared in his head, asking whether he was ready to swear himself over the Order.
His first reaction was hesitation, but he squashed.
This was not the time to question things, and even if this killed him, he would be fine with it if it meant that he could save the rest of the continent.
He rushed through the oaths, not even caring to go through them properly, and just like the Head, he was done in a second.
After that, he was given a complete list of everything that had been deployed, and everything that was still present, waiting to be used in the correct way.
After seeing them all, he spotted the solution right away.
It was radical, and maybe even slightly crazy, but right now…that was exactly what they needed.
Taking in a deep breath, he spoke, and at the end of his statement, the Head looked at him as if he were seeing a madman.
"Well…I had expected that someone might use this opportunity to their advantage, but I could never have expected that it would be the d.a.m.n Church, itself. Now…I"m even more glad that I didn"t cheap out when I placed my backup plans. Head, get ready to give the Church a surprise of the same level that they gave us. We…will be splitting Angaria in two, and today, the Church will learn a lesson they shall never forget: "When something seems too good to be true…maybe, it is.""