As Daneel waited to return to the Order atop the mountain along with all of his sovereigns, he recalled the last sentence that his master had told him before he had departed.
All of this had indeed been quite overwhelming, and his master had detected that, and said this in an attempt to let him have a clear direction and focus regarding what he should do.
This was what he had been about to tell to his sovereigns, too, before they had been rudely interrupted, so he repeated it in his mind, as it had contained a lot of the wisdom that he had always loved to see in this man whom he had first thought to be just a useless drunk.
"Daneel, at the end of the day, I don"t think that this changes too much for you. I wish that things would have been clearer, but it is really sad that that is not the case. Who could have expected that the emperor would have to go through such a thing? All the rest of the answers lie with that man underground, but until the one who is worthy of inducing the golden lighting appears… We can find nothing, so we can remove it from our minds. Hence, all you need to understand is that this is just an additional arrow in your quiver that I have added. Now, it is up to you regarding in which direction you will point your bow, and how much power you will use to draw the arrow and send it flying. I don"t know exactly what your power level is, and I do not want to find out, either, because I"m not supposed to know these things. I am in the Church, after all, which means that the less I know, the better. All I do know is that you were powerful enough to pa.s.s these tests, and that means that you are on the right track to reaching the kind of power that is needed to unite this continent. Let me tell you one last thing that I have surmised during my time in the Mainland: this golden lightning thing and the Order are somehow connected, because there have been mentions in the records from the previous force that attacked Angaria that they were continuously looking for another force which was apparently supposed to be related to the Order. They searched for traces of it in the Overseer"s mind, but they found nothing, so they a.s.sumed that it might have been a hoax. Look, I don"t know everything behind all that is happening, and I know how you must feel. In such moments, having a direction to go in is the most important, so I wanted to give that to you. Depending on what I"ve seen so far: you must investigate the truth regarding this d.a.m.n fake Overseer, because if his motives are bad… We"re pretty much screwed.
"For this, what you have to do is finish at least five 5-star missions, and wait for a certain reward to pop up. It will give you access to secret archives the detail the true history of the Order, and there, I"m pretty sure that you"ll find something. Be very wary, though - at the first sign of anyone catching on to what you"re doing, I suggest that you hide, and stop everything. It is imperative that we act like agents in the dark, for the light is too blinding for us to face at the moment. Apart from that, I would advise that you reflect on what you had just seen in this test. It has always been the view of this organization and even the Order that followers are extremely important, so you should continue to obtain things to strengthen both your elite Army and the normal armies in the continent. For that purpose, use the relations.h.i.+p that you now have with the Head, and all the stuff that has been collected in the Order but has been rusting away, unused by anyone, for all this time. In my opinion, this should be your plan of action, so forget about all of this golden lightning thing and just remember that you now have a safe place you can return to, and a place where you can train without worrying about using up resources. Even the connections should only be used sparingly, as otherwise, it might draw attention, so suffice with the Head for now. I have always had your best interests at heart, so I hope you trust me and be very careful. Lastly… You have made me so, so relieved, my dear disciple. I have been wracked by doubt all these years, wondering whether I made the right decisions, and whether you would live up to my expectations. You"ve smashed through them, and now… I finally see true hope for our continent. Thank you. Finally, I can get a good night sleep."
The raw emotions in his master"s voice towards the end had been so strong that Daneel had only managed to look on at the face of the man who had lost everything yet still not betrayed the continent, and after that, once the projection had disappeared, even the old man went into a slumber, which was apparently always induced whenever he went through a period of being in a non-vacant state that was forced. His master had forced it so that he would get this connection, and until the next time when the old man could reawaken by himself… He would sleep.
With that, the whole thing regarding the golden lightning came to an end, and just as Jonah had suggested, Daneel put it in the back of his mind.
Indeed, the most pressing thing was still this d.a.m.n Overseer, and he had to get to the bottom of whatever had happened so many years ago.
Whenever there were too many things to think about, it was always best to eliminate those that didn"t really matter at the moment, so doing this give a kind of clarity that made Daneel let out a deep breath.
He had been unsure about what he would do ever since he had experienced that revelation, and although he had made a temporary plan, it had all been based on a.s.sumptions. Now, having a specific path to follow, it felt so much better, and he couldn"t wait to get back to it.
Looking to the sides, he saw his sovereigns, and again, he felt fortunate that he had found such people to be by his side even through the toughest of times.
In the next moment, they were finally teleported away. The delay was due to the fact that the Order"s formations always checked to see whether everything was all right for whoever appeared on the mountain to be teleported discreetly to the headquarters of the Order, and it was always expected to have a few seconds of waiting time unless it was urgent.
The sight they were presented with right after they appeared in the Order, though… Was one that made them all suck in a sharp breath so quickly that a hissing sound emanated from each of them.
25 individuals were wincing on the ground, and a stunning lady with two antennae on her forehead was patting a little girl who was innocently eating a bowl of meat while nodding as she listened to the woman speak.
They were at the spot where all those who were entering the Order would teleport to, and it was right beside the area where one would enter to get to their lodging quarters.
Right as they appeared, the lady turned around, and she had such an expression of fury on her face that the Warriors among them felt as if someone had grabbed them by their necks and was threatening to squeeze their life out of them if they did not apologize, even though they did not know exactly what they should be sorry for.
Daneel understood right away, though. He had been asked not to leave the Divine c.o.c.kroach behind, but circ.u.mstances made it so that it had had to happen, and it seemed that some poor souls had been unlucky enough to target her in order to get to him in his absence.
The lady had warned him that she would not hold back if he did not care for the little Divine c.o.c.kroach, and Daneel braced himself, because he really was in the wrong right now.
Thankfully, little Skrr came to his rescue.
"No, Skrr was sleeping for a long time! Skrr is thankful for the yummy food, but Skrr does not want her friends to be harmed! Skrr can take care of herself!"
These words were said in such a firm tone that even the lady could not ignore them, and the sovereigns actually let out breaths of relief as they heard this. Even Faxul and Elanev had been affected by the aura of absolute power that had been around this lady, and they had also noticed that those on the ground all seemed to be quite powerful Champions who had still been beaten senseless almost as if they were but children in front of her.
With a sigh, obviously melting to Skrr"s cuteness, the lady turned around and patted her head one last time before nodding and teleporting away.
However, she did send a message discreetly to Daneel which made cold sweat appear on his forehead.
"That was the first and last injunction. Leave her alone or in harm"s way one more time, and I swear I"ll even prepare myself to be locked up for 100 years if it means that I can rip your limbs off your body and swallow your head whole."
Gulping, Daneel nodded even though she had disappeared, following which he went up to Skrr and was about to ask just what had happened.
Before he did that, though, he witnessed something strange and immediately pulled the Divine c.o.c.kroach away from the spot that she had been standing in.
The reason behind this was that the flat stone ground in front of both of them had begun to weirdly change its shape, almost as if it was being melted by something. Yet, soon, it became clear that that was not the case, as a man appeared at that spot who was ma.s.saging his forehead which had an angry red lump on it.
He was lying p.r.o.ne on the ground, and it looked like he had perfectly concealed himself at that place. Daneel was quite surprised, as even the system had found no traces of him, and when he spoke, it became clear why that was the case.
"Even Amateur Heroes weren"t supposed to find me! But that bi- ahem, I mean, that lady managed to do it! This is all your fault! If you think that I"m going to let you off the hook, you"re being delusional!"
Daneel didn"t even know what to say. This was the first time he was seeing this man, so he didn"t know who he was.
As the other twenty-five began to get up, the man spoke again.
"Oh, I forgot! Let me introduce myself! I…am Overlord! Yes, I already took that name, but you had the audacity to take it and then get famous! Everyone started teasing me because a newbie had become more popular who had the same name! So…I challenge you to a match! If I win, you change your name! Let"s get going!"
Oh, so that was the case.
Daneel had been looking forward to an interesting mission so that they could get back to the thick of things. Even though so much had happened, they didn"t have the luxury to relax as he needed to get that reward as soon as possible.
So, he simply yawned and said, "Screw off. I"m busy."
He knew that people couldn"t fight in the headquarters, so he decided to ignore this guy who had already been taught a lesson by that adult Divine c.o.c.kroach.
However, just as he was about to leave, one of that guy"s subordinates who had just gotten up whispered in his ear, ignoring the fact that he was fuming while looking for an apt answer.
"Yes, boss, let him go for now! We should finish that 5-star mission, first! It"s only there for a limited time, and it"ll disappear if we fight him now!"
Daneel immediately stopped and turned around with gleaming eyes as he heard this.
Acting as if he hadn"t spoken before, he declared something that made all those in front of him gawk and look at him as if he was crazy.
"All right, I"ll take your challenge, but if I win, all of you should take me as your leader and drop this guy whose power is obviously only that he can peek up girls" skirts! Any objections?"