Husare and the three a.s.sa.s.sins watched with steady gazes as Daneel ruminated over their words.
He was reminded of what the being that managed the Treasury had said. Even if it hadn"t cautioned him to be wary, he was very apprehensive of everything he got from the TriCobra sect, as it felt as if he was buying it for a cost that he could not see, and might not be able to afford.
Now, presented with a choice of laying bare his plans if he wanted the full help of the a.s.sa.s.sins, he was hesitant.
His senses had always served him well in all the most important moments in his life, and ever since these three a.s.sa.s.sins had arrived, they had been blaring non-stop about how he should not trust them.
That part was obvious. After all, they had been acting disingenuously ever since they had gotten here, but even now, after finding out that they were ordered to follow his every command, he did not want to expose himself.
It almost seemed irrational, but shaking his head, Daneel decided to rely on them once again.
"Imagine if a large part of the Church"s forces are wiped off the moment they arrive… Taking this into the equation, tell me about the situation we are in. As we are on the topic anyway, give me an overview of the army of the church - the information is in the files you"ve given, but I want to hear it from you. From what you"ve said so far, I can tell that you"ve been trained in the art of warfare even though you don"t specialize in it, so I command you to speak."
Anger filled the faces of all three as soon as they heard the word "command", but after sharing a glance between each other, they shoved it away and sighed.
Clearly swallowing her pride, Husare stepped forward and began to control the image of the continent that he had created.
The spell was one that was commonly used in wartime - anyone could manipulate the image so that different commanders could give their inputs in the clearest way possible, and now, Husare started manipulating the elementary particles and began to take the entire spell to the next level.
As the level of detail required in their discussion was not too high, Daneel hadn"t used any of the complicated spells in the Order. Now, Husare deployed one that he had not seen even in its extensive records.
Details began to be added to the image of the continent. Houses, towns, cities, villages…all sorts of geographical details began to popup, and according to the system, their size had been replicated perfectly in relation to that of the continent.
Even people began to emerge from the ground, laughing and talking between themselves, before moving to the places that they were in now.
Large tents were erected under which the training was going on, while mages could be seen tending to the farms and multiple plantations that were being grown to feed the largest army ever known to Angaria.
Finally, when she stepped back, the place they were in also materialized. It was only the size of a pinp.r.i.c.k, but if one looked closely, even Daneel"s features could be seen.
There was a small smile playing on her lips, and the moment he studied himself in the image, the reason behind it was exposed - she had given him a c.o.c.ky look which would have been more at home on the face of a bratty child.
In Daneel"s view, it was the a.s.sa.s.sins who were acting like children, but he kept these words to himself and waited for her to speak.
Children either had to be cajoled, or spanked, and he had decided to do the latter soon. Only, now was the time for serious discussion, so as Husare stepped forward again, dissatisfied with his response, and resumed weaving her spell, he watched intently.
First came the squadrons of Heroes that he had seen on that fateful day. There were a thousand of them - all stronger than Peak Heroes, arranged in groups of 10 who could each work together perfectly. Tiny letters floated in the air above their heads, giving bite-sized pieces of information to let him know who they were.
Next came the weapons of war that he had read about. There were those like ballistae that shot arrows that could each destroy a city, cannons that could shoot deadly rays of pure Energy which could each bring down Heroes, battering rams that could strike down any fortification with the strength of 100 Heroes behind them… The list went on and on, but as it was an exhaustive one that cataloged all of the weapons that were available to the church, as it was not certain which would be deployed in this particular conquest.
It had to be noted that all of these weapons had different shapes than what anyone on earth might be accustomed to. Daneel was only giving them these names after looking at the function, and deciding that that was how they could be called.
Husare paused here. She frowned and thought for a bit, before flicking her fingers and making many of the weapons vanish.
Finally, a few cannons, ballistae, battering rams, and two objects that Daneel could not give a name to remained.
Of them, one was shaped like a huge ma.s.s of dark fog. From the information the TriCobra sect had collected, he knew that it was one of the most popular war weapons on the Mainland - Nightmare Mist.
It could pa.s.s through barriers easily, and whenever a living being found itself in a region where it was going through, it would be struck with horrifying nightmares that would leave it on the ground, helpless, fighting invisible battles with unseen demons.
The other one was even more sinister. It looked like a large, harmless vial of liquid, but the moment it touched the land of any small continent, it spread like poison to kill most, if not all sources of food. Designed to be used if a force needed to lay siege, it had the ability to target only those plants that bore food. If it targeted all plant life, it would take too long to take effect as there would be too many to kill, but in this way, it could foil any plans that the residents of a continent might have to defend over a long period of time.